 |
| The most important people in my life |
{This is a collaborative post}
It is funny how your outlook on life changes as you grow older and as your family dynamic alters. I am now the mother of three primary school-aged children and I have a very limited income as I no longer work out of the home. I do earn a little through my writing and this blog but the most important thing for me right now is being there for my family and nurturing my relationship with God.
Whilst it is fabulous to have more time for my closest relationships
and to be able to volunteer my services to charities that can utilise me, it
does sometimes worry me that I do not have an income and thus the security net
I used to have. Thankfully our family are in a bit of a unique situation as my
husband gets a house as part of his salary package and we now live in the one
of the most beautiful places in England, but of course, that means the actual
monetary part of the salary is far more limited than ever before in our adult
lives and monthly saving is but a dream currently.
What would happen if one of us were to fall critically ill, or even worse pass away?
Would we be able to maintain our wonderful life? Probably not, if it was me that
was ill my husband would have to take care of the children or arrange for them
to be looked after and give them lifts to
their school five miles away. We might be able to make it all work because of
the amazing community we live within but boy would it be a struggle and I can’t
imagine how stressed my husband would end up trying to maintain a senior level
job and care for three children and a sick wife.
Then if it was the other way round and he became critically
ill I dare not even think about that scenario. Once his sick pay ran out, what would
we do as I have no income to speak of? And what about our home, would we still
be able to live here? Thankfully through my faith I know we would always be
taken care of and out of bad things come good but of course, they do not feel
very good when you are in the middle of them and I know so many people do not
share my faith.
It is therefore sensible to have protection in place,
protection in the form of critical illness cover and of course also term life insurance cover. Then, should the worst-case scenario happen and my husband
or I am ever critically ill or die before time we can ensure that one thing we do not have to
worry about is money. We could pay for the care for the children or the sick
person and also ensure we can have a warm, safe home to live in and enough food
to eat. You can seek a term life insurance quote from Fabric easily online.
You do hear of families in the UK ending up homeless or
living below the poverty line because a parent became ill or passed away and they did not have
any contingency plan in place. Of course, there is a cost attached to taking out
a critical illness plan or a term life insurance plan but what price can you put on peace of mind? I’d advise
you to shop around, perhaps use one of the price comparison websites and find
yourself a good life insurance deal. Make sure you check out what illnesses are covered by the
policy as they do seem to differ from supplier to supplier and your age at the
time of taking the policy will have an impact on the pay-out too.
It is all too easy to put aside thoughts of something bad
happening within your own family but sadly statistics now show that critical
illness is affecting more and more people in the UK. Cancer Research UK announced in September 2014 that someone is diagnosed in the UK
with cancer every two minutes. Thankfully the statistics are also showing that
people tend to be surviving better but of course, that is often thanks to intensive
treatment and prolonged periods off work, which again highlight the need for
critical illness cover.
Probably the ones to think about most when considering this
kind of situation is the children. They need stability during their formative
years and it would be enough stress for them just dealing with a critically ill
parent or the loss of a parent, let alone having to move house and possibly school due to missed
mortgage payments leading to repossession of their family home.
Every family is different and we all require specific
protection to suit our own circumstances. All I’ll say is make sure you are
talking with your partner and taking out the protection you need, please don’t bury
your head in the sand and hope it won’t happen to you. As I said at the very
beginning, personally I do not think you can put a price on your own peace of mind and that for me means making sure I have term life insurance cover in place.