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Jen Glantz
- I've been putting off getting life and disability insurance, but I'm taking that step now.
- I've been married for two years, and life insurance will help us prepare for the worst.
- If I'd had disability insurance before getting pregnant, I could have used it for maternity leave.
When I got laid off from my full-time job six years ago, the instability of my personal finances rose to the surface. Without a steady paycheck and health insurance benefits to carry me through each month, I found myself struggling to pay my bills and afford my lifestyle, especially because I didn't have an emergency savings account, a retirement fund, or a lot of spare cash available for must-have purchases.
That's when I decided to slowly build up my financial portfolio so that I could maintain a new career path as an entrepreneur and freelancer, while also being able to grow my personal wealth. Over the past six years, I started sticking to a strict budget. I've been able to fund an emergency savings account that could cover six months worth of expenses, and for the first time ever, I've started regularly contributing to retirement and investment funds.
However, one area that I have been putting off that could affect the state of my finances is getting life insurance and disability insurance. Even though financial advisors have recommended this to me in the past, it wasn't until the start of 2023 that I realized how badly I needed these policies. Here's why.
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Life insurance is good for my growing family
After being married for two years and being strategic with my partner about how to save up for joint goals and future plans (from one day buying a house to going on a month-long European trip), I felt like it was the right time to also have conversations about how to be prepared for the worst-case scenarios too.
That's when we both decided that it would be a good idea to look into getting a life insurance policy, since my husband and I both work full time and use our joint income to pay for our lifestyle, bills, and retirement funds. If something were to happen to me, my policy coverage would provide him with payments of my projected future income, and vice versa if something were to happen to him.
In addition to having a life insurance policy that would provide income to the surviving spouse, I'm currently eight months pregnant and want to take out a policy that would also benefit my child. It's money that can be used to cover the costs of childcare, college funding, and other expenses that will come with raising a kid.
If something were to happen to my partner or to myself, this life insurance policy would take a bit of the burden off the surviving person to have to take on extra work to provide for the family.
Not having disability insurance could cost me thousands of dollars
After getting pregnant, I reached out to my accountant and asked if I was eligible for maternity leave as a full-time entrepreneur and freelancer. She said that I unfortunately did not, because I do not have disability insurance.
Some insurance companies offer short-term disability plans that can cover 12 to 16 weeks of maternity leave, but this does require some forward planning. In a lot of cases, you do have to pay into the plan at least a year before you're able to take the leave.
Not having maternity leave to support me during the first few months becoming a new mom could end up costing thousands of dollars each month, depending on how much work I'm able to do when the baby comes.
While I won't be able to benefit from a disability insurance policy that can cover maternity leave for this child, getting a plan now could benefit me in the event that I decide to have a second child in a few years.
I want to be protected in case of future emergencies
In the past, when someone told me that I should get disability insurance as an entrepreneur and freelancer, I simply looked at it as another unnecessary expense and didn't bother looking into it more.
But after being pregnant and realizing that this is a life-changing event that will take me away from being able to work for months, I decided that having a policy can help protect me from anything else that could happen in the future, whether that's an illness, accident, or injury.
Since our household is run on two incomes, being out of work for any amount of time and not being able to support our finances with my income could be damaging and could drive us into debt.
While getting life insurance and disability insurance are financial investments, the potential payoff and the support they provide not only the individual but the entire family not only seem worthwhile but feel absolutely necessary at this stage of my life.