How To Protect Your Income

There’s been a lot of press lately about disability and the need to prepare for it.  It’s shocking to see some of the statistics about how common disability is.  A young (mid-30s), healthy adult who has an office job has over 20 percent chance of becoming disabled for three months or longer during their working career; nearly 40 percent of those would last five years or longer.  If the person smokes, is overweight or has chronic conditions, the percentage goes up even higher. 

However, the majority of wage-earners (64 percent) believe there’s a two percent chance or less of being disabled for more than three months.  As a result, many people don’t consider the options of protecting themselves.  Instead, they procrastinate, they don’t research it, they minimize it; they leave themselves and their families unprotected.  The hardest part about disability is that it hits families in two ways.  It eradicates or minimizes the ability to earn an income, while at the same time, contributes to the rising expenses as medical treatments, procedures, equipment, and prescriptions have to be purchased.

Many Americans live paycheck to paycheck.  We spend more than we earn, have little to no savings and would have a difficult time covering expenses if the next paycheck was delayed a week.  The majority (67 percent) of private sector workers have no long-term disability insurance, yet it is one of the most affordable benefits an employer can offer.  If your employees have no coverage, consider helping them create a more substantial safety net.  If you decide to offer it as a voluntary coverage, be sure to provide the education necessary for them to make an informed choice.  After all, empowering your employee to get what they need to return to work, works for everyone.