What a fabulous Indian Summer we have been having. I had a lovely ride on my fortunately very sensible horse this week across some newly cut stubble fields. As I was eyeing up some of the straw bales and wondering if I should regress to my teenage years and jump them or not, I did have in the back of my mind that I ought to be sensible. Now I’m (cough) years old and self employed I really couldn’t chance falling off.
It was a really odd feeling and put a bit of a damper on my youthful exuberance and set me thinking. How would we cope financially at home if one of us wasn’t earning? Both myself and Husband are self employed and an injury or more permanent accident or illness would have quite a devastating impact on us and our family. Luckily our children are adults now, but they do live at home and the Bank of Mum and Dad still does a roaring trade.
Ironically it is often the accident or serious illness that has the most impact on our lives. We are all quite good at having life insurance to cover the mortgage or we get provided with Life Cover through work, but Illness Cover is overlooked.
Our future plans rely on our ability to keep earning at the same or hopefully a better level for the next 10/20/30 years. It means we can pay off the mortgage, save for holidays, even pay into the pension and ISAs. If that changes, life suddenly gets really tough.
If there was cash point in your house that gave you £100 every morning you would insure it against breaking down and that money stream stopping. It’s the same principle.
I know I keep banging on about it, but good solid planning of any sort, financial and otherwise is truly key. There is Plan A where everything goes along swimmingly well. That’s the one we all want, but we all know reality has a nasty habit of pulling the rug out from under us, so Plan B is probably the more important one.
If you would like to chat about protection planning or any other financial topics please feel free to contact me, Jessamy Walker at Brown Dog Financial Planning Ltd on 01488 682890.
