Remember, insurance is a game of “What if?” So ask yourself these questions:
What happens if you suffer a serious illness or injury that results in major medical bills and significant lost work time?
How do you and your family pay expenses if you are unable to work for an extended period of time?
These are obviously not pleasant thoughts, but remember that “What if?” is a game about worst-case scenarios.
It seems like something that doesn’t happen very often. You suffer an illness or injury that prevents you from working for an extended period of time — six months, a year, even five years. Sounds rare doesn’t it? It’s not.
* Fact. On average, you have a one in five chance of becoming disabled between the ages of 35 and 65. You have a one in seven chance of becoming disabled for at least five years before you turn 65. If you are 30, you have a one in three chance of incurring a long-term (at least 90 days) disability before you turn 60. At age 40, the odds are three in 10. At 50, it’s less than one in five.
You actually have a far greater chance of becoming disabled during your working career than you do of dying. The chances of disability vs. death are more than six times greater for younger workers. Yet far more Americans buy life insurance than they do a policy that can replace income lost because of a disability.