Mum’s Worth Insuring Too
Protecting your family’s lifestyle is something you shouldn’t scrimp on, so it makes sense to include insurance as a vital component of your long-term financial plan. Is everyone in your family adequately protected?
A bout of ill-health or the untimely death of the ‘breadwinner’ can lead to extreme financial hardship if you don’t have the means to replace lost income. It’s especially important if you have a young family, a mortgage and other debts.
The focus for insurance is usually on the breadwinner, with both income protection and life insurance cover in place to replace income lost if they were to become ill, or die. But what about the ‘homemaker’ – mum?
Coping with loss
There’s much more than the emotional cost when a mum with dependent children dies. Consider how the loss might affect a family’s lifestyle.
If you have young children, you may be able to depend on relatives to care for them while you carry on working. But if you can’t, then you’re probably left with one of two options:
- You take over the role of looking after your children on a full-time basis. Under this option your regular income suddenly disappears. If you don’t have the means to replace it, the financial burden could mean an additional strain on top of your loss at a time when you’re least able to cope.
- You arrange for your children to be placed in childcare or you employ someone to look after them while you carry on working. But how many hours of childcare would you need? Depending on the age of your children, it could be in the range of 50-60 hours per week. You need to consider the high costs associated with childcare – would you have enough to meet them?
Given the cost of these options, what kind of insurance should you consider? Again, that would depend on the age of your children – the younger they are the more care they would need, so a higher amount of life insurance cover would be appropriate. You’d also be wise to consider trauma and total and permanent disablement cover.
It’s a small price to pay
Weigh up the likely cost to you per day – it would probably be less than $3 for a reasonable amount of life insurance that would help you and your family get through a very difficult and traumatic time. That isn’t much to sacrifice for peace of mind.
Talk to the advisers at Smith Wealth Partners about insurance options for your family. They can help you assess your future needs and recommend suitable insurance to help you protect your lifestyle.