The importance of protecting yourself

HAVE YOU THOUGHT ABOUT PROTECTING YOURSELF?

By Kunle Olafare

It’s a legal requirement to insure your car. It’s a legal requirement to insure your home. It is not a legal requirement though to insure yourself. How strange is that?

Have you ever considered what your value to your family is? Or how your family will cope nancially if you are unable to work if you were:

• to lose your job – do you have an emergency fund to meet your short term nancial needs?

• to have an accident and are unable to work for a prolonged period – what income would you receive from work? If you run your own business, how will you be able to earn? Or what would happen if you were to die prematurely. Will your loved ones be looked after nancially? Will they incur any debts?

When you feel that you and your family would be nancially secure in any given scenario, it gives you and them the nancial freedom to deal with the emotional and practical side of the situation.

You should discuss this with your partner and agree a course of action. You can also use us as a sounding board just to make sure you have addressed all areas.

No one plans to become ill. To be fair not many of us want to think about it as it can be too depressing and upsetting. But it doesn’t mean that we shouldn’t make a plan.

Here are four questions to ask yourself.

1 Do I need to insure myself?

2 Do I have an emergency fund that can cover my xed expenditure for six months?

3 What protection polices do I have in place? If so...

4 Are my protection policies suitable for my needs?