Last week, a colleague of mine lost her best friend to cancer. She was one of those people whose presence made you feel at peace. She also was great at planning for the future. Continue reading “When Planning Really Matters”
A co-worker recently had a scare when her husband was admitted to the hospital for a possible heart attack. His family has a history of heart problems so she was terrified at the thought of her life without her best friend, having to explain to her children they’d lost their dad, and not spending the rest of her life with him. She shared with me all sorts of thoughts that started creeping into her head…all of the “what ifs.” (Luckily for her, his health problem was not severe, just early symptoms of diabetes, and his problems are treatable with lifestyle changes.) Continue reading “Fire Drill For The What Ifs”
What is the risk to losing your most valuable resource – your ability to earn an income? That’s what the Personal Disability Quotient (PDQ) calculates based on your own chance of becoming sick or injured for an extended period of time and missing work (and your paycheck). The PDQ calculator, sponsored by the Council for Disability Awareness (CDA), only took me a minute to complete and mine came up with a PDQ of 18%. That means I have an 18% chance of becoming sick or injured and not being able to work for at least 3 months. What was really scary to me is if I did become disabled for more than 3 months, there is a 43% chance that I’d be out of work for over 5 years, with the estimated average of 86 months for a long-term disability for someone like me. Continue reading “What’s Your PDQ?”
My husband was ecstatic last weekend as the winning bidder of four Ravens tickets at a silent auction. The silent auction was part of a fundraiser for my friend’s niece, Melissa, who has been suffering from a rare illness that left her paralyzed from the waist down. Her story captured the attention of the local newspaper, then went viral when she was the featured recipient of Chive Charities for Hope for a Home. When I made the check out to pay for the Ravens tickets, I was told to make it payable for $350 to Melissa, but my check was miniscule compared to the over $388k raised altogether. I was so happy that Melissa’s fundraiser had been such an amazing success, but I was also concerned about the consequences these donations might have on her since I was writing the check directly to her. Continue reading “Charitable Intentions With Potentially Uncharitable Results”
I recently saw this clip of the Today Show that discussed one man’s goal of retiring before 40, a topic I’ve written about before. He’s 30 years old, earns $50k a year, and has accumulated $100k of savings over the last 3 years. His goal is to save 60-70% of his net income to retire at age 35 with a $400k nest egg to cover his $15k of annual expenses. To do that, he’s moved to Florida to avoid state income taxes and be able to live without a car (he points out that waiting for the bus is much easier in warmer weather) and has decided not to have children. Is his plan feasible? Continue reading “When to Retire? How About 40?”
Several weeks ago, my brother was working on some routine plumbing around the house when he bent over to pick something up. As he straightened up, he heard a “pop” and felt a sharp pain in his knee. Immediately, he knew something was wrong, and a quick trip to the emergency room confirmed what he had expected: he tore his meniscus. Within a few days, my brother had surgery performed to repair the damage and for the next six to eight weeks he will be unable to put any pressure on his leg. Continue reading “Why Disability Protection is So Important”
Everyone wants to be a hero – to have that impact where they “protect” someone from a danger – dashing into a house on fire to save a baby. And in life, we protect many things, some valuable – our house and life – and others that are not so valuable. The reason we protect things is that they are important to us. However, we often neglect protecting one of our most important assets and that is our earning power – the income we generate that pays for our basic expenses – housing, food, education, etc. Continue reading “Why Your Employer’s Disability Insurance May Not Be Enough”
