Protect Your Paycheck
Why Disability Insurance is Essential for You and Your Family
It happened when I was eight years old. I was sick, so I stayed home from school and spent the day with my grandparents. My mother brought my five-year-old brother and came over to pick me up at 4:00. She decided we should remain for dinner because it began raining. I was pleased that I could keep watching one of my favorite television programs.
While I was watching TV from the recliner, my five-year-old brother was peering out the window to observe the storm. Mom entered to turn off the TV, Grandpa entered to speak with me, and Grandma walked by me to pull him away from the window. It suddenly struck at that point.
A motion picture could not capture the tornado's tremendous and terrifying sound. I sat up, perplexed as it passed. I didn't know why it kept raining on me. I only noticed Grandpa; I missed everyone else. Mom screamed for my brother and me, breaking the awful silence. She emerged from the debris and got up in a bloodied mess. We moved toward the center of the house after locating my brother and our grandmother.
Everything for our family changed at that precise moment.
Mom cherished teaching. She taught special education in elementary school. She received a Master of Education degree from Wright State University shortly after graduating from The Ohio State University in less than four years. She had to have worked much harder as a teacher than as a student. Even at home, she was busy drafting IEPs or evaluating papers. Her career eventually came to an end after the tornado.
Mom suffered permanent damage. Her arm has a constant shooting pain that physicians believe may have been the initial cause of her developing multiple sclerosis. She couldn't keep working, no matter how hard she tried. Before the pain of her wounds finally overcame her, she battled through it for several years. Eventually, the fatigue of the disease was too much to handle.
Long term disability insurance provided our family with the replacement income needed to continue to live our lives, yet only 1 in 3 of the private sector workforce has long-term disability insurance. And our story might sound like one in a million, but of today's 20 year-olds, about 1 in 4 will become disabled before reaching age 67.
By protecting your paycheck with disability insurance, you are protecting your family.
I wrote this post to enlighten folks on the dangers we face when we are not insured for the worst.
I don't sell insurance. But my goal is that my post will prepare you to understand the basics of disability insurance types, and the compelling reasons to have it.
What follows are plain language explanations of the most commonly asked questions about disability insurance.