Assuming you still have a job and you’re not slammed with an emergency bill, that is:
The month of May was Disability Insurance Awareness Month. Among other things, it highlighted the importance of every working person having a financial plan that made allowances for things like long-term disability. One out of every four 20-year-olds in the workplace today will experience a sickness or health condition that keeps them from working. But at least 51 million adults in the United States do not have any plan other than receiving Social Security Disability Insurance (SSDI). And that could be a problem for them later.
Not having money set aside for a medical emergency can leave people in a financial crunch. And the odds that is going to happen is better than most people think. In the first four months of 2018 alone, 1.5 million Americans experienced a disabling injury or illness that kept them from work. And nearly half of adults in the country do not have the financial means to pay the bills if something happened to them and they could not work for even a few months. Unfortunately, most long-term disabilities keep a person from working for a year or more.
“Only one-third of employees have long-term disability insurance through their employer,” says Alexandria personal injury attorney David Laborde of Laborde Earles Law Firm. “While SSDI can help, it likely will not be enough to cover someone’s full expenses when they are no longer able to work.”
While it may seem hopeless and discouraging to those that do not have long-term disability insurance through their employer, there is a solution. That is to simply create a financial plan that can step in when unfortunate circumstances arise. That can be a simple plan that sets aside some money every month, or it can include making a small investment in supplemental long-term disability insurance.
Disability Insurance Month may already be over, but that does not mean that people should stop thinking about their financial future. The time to create a plan is now, before an extenuating circumstance arises. That way if the time does come, people can focus more on their own health and wellness instead of worrying about how they are going to pay the bills.
