subject: Do You Need Disability Insurance? [print this page] Do You Need Disability Insurance?
Insurance is a part of life that a lot of people don't like to think about. It is something we have to have but we don't have to be happy about it. Let's face it, nobody likes paying insurance premiums!
The government makes us buy car insurance if we want to drive a car, and the bank makes us buy homeowners insurance if we want to get a loan. Besides that, everybody needs health insurance but none of these things seem like a real benefit....we may go our entire life without actually using these things.
There is one type of insurance though that can be incredibly important and most people don't know anything about it whatsoever. I'm talking about disability insurance.
Disability insurance is simply insurance that pays if you are hurt and can no longer perform your job function. Lots of people have life insurance that handles the same function if you die so that your family continues to maintain their lifestyle; but most people don't think about buying it for less fatal things such as getting hurt on the job even though your family will still need to replace the income that you will lose by not being able to perform your job.
Some companies offer disability insurance as a matter of course, but the majority of them don't - which means that you're going to have to track down and purchase this type of insurance all by yourself.
It's especially important if you have any type of manual labor type of job where you rely on your body to a large degree.
In my opinion it's more important than liability insurance simply because most people don't think about it before hand.
So how much do you need?
You should make your calculations the same way that you would when purchasing life insurance. The goal is to completely replace your income. Be sure to factor in for inflation because it may be a decade or two before you actually need to use the insurance and you'll probably be making more money by then. Some policies have a built-in inflation calculation while others don't. Be sure to talk to your insurance agent to be sure.
You'll also want to take into consideration major events in the future such as a college education for your children. Make sure your policy pays out enough to cover these extraordinary expenses. This is going to take a little bit of planning on your part so start out by making a list of all of your expenses and try to extrapolate those expenses into the future as far as possible, then sit down with your agent and go through the list. They'll probably be able to think of things you might have missed.
Nobody likes to pay for insurance but this is one that is incredibly important so don't let your family down by not thinking ahead.
welcome to Insurances.net (https://www.insurances.net)
