Life is constantly throwing the unexpected at us. While we generally can’t keep these things from happening, we can choose to arm ourselves with a bit of protection, such as meeting our insurance needs.
That protection can take many forms. From eating healthy to maintaining our homes and vehicles, it all adds up to keeping your family as safe and secure as possible.
Insurance is another way to do just that — at least financially speaking. There are quite a few different options available when it comes to insurance, and most financial experts would advise us to pay our insurance premiums on time and keep them all in place.
With so many options to choose from, however, it might be a bit difficult to know which ones you truly need. This should be determined by your specific situation.
Things like employment benefits, lifestyle, children, and your age are just some of the factors to consider.
Let’s take a look at a few of those insurance options.
Meeting Your Insurance Needs – 4 Types to Consider
Life Insurance
The best thing about paying a life insurance premium is that it offers financial protection for your loved ones that you leave behind. If you have a family that depends on your salary to make ends meet, this is critical.
A life insurance policy should ideally cover about 10 times what you make in a year.
This amount will provide those loved ones with enough to take care of any expenses related to your funeral as well as giving them a bit of a financial cushion. It can also help pay off any medical or credit card debt you may have, giving loved ones a chance to grieve instead of worrying about money.
Travel Insurance
This isn’t a type of insurance that you’ll need every day, but if you’ve scrimped and saved for that dream vacation, you’ll definitely want to protect it with travel insurance. Most travel insurance plans will cover things like damaged, lost, or stolen luggage, medical evacuation and emergencies, trip interruptions, and trip cancellations.
Depending on the type of plan you get, it can also cover things like pre-existing medical conditions and damage to your rental car.
Health Insurance
The cost of medical care these days means your family could possibly be just a single serious illness away from declaring bankruptcy. This means that you definitely need health insurance and might even need to increase the amount of coverage you currently have.
The thing about finding enough coverage is that you need to shop around. Even though your most financially feasible and best option might be to go with whatever your employer offers, a lot of smaller businesses still don’t offer health insurance as a part of their benefits packages.
If that’s your circumstance, look for an independent agent who specializes in health insurance policies and can offer plans from more than one provider.
Car Insurance
Each year in the US, there are millions of car accidents and thousands of people who die as a result of them. Millions of people get treated in the emergency room every year because of these accidents.
Most states, because of this, now require car insurance. When you are pulled over by a police officer, they’ll ask you for proof of insurance.
If you don’t have any, you can be fined, your license could be suspended, or you could get points on your driving record. However, if you have an accident without insurance, those things will be the least of your problems.
With any type of insurance, your specific circumstances will determine both the coverage you need and the price of the insurance policy. The best advice anyone can give you regarding this is to shop around.
Get rate quotes from multiple companies, and be sure to read over the plan details extremely carefully so you’ll know what’s covered and what isn’t. Insurance isn’t cheap, but not having any can mean a financial disaster.
Schedule an appointment with agents that offer coverage in a variety of areas because they might offer discounts for bundling one type of insurance with another. Above all, remember that the cost of meeting your insurance needs is nothing compared to the cost of needing it and not having it.
