“The key is not to prioritize what’s on your schedule, but to schedule your priorities.” ― Stephen Covey
Growing wealth is a journey; like any expedition, it’s essential to be prepared for the unexpected. While we often discuss strategies to expand your financial horizons, in this video we’re shifting our focus to a cornerstone of wealth preservation: insurance. It’s the metaphorical shield in your financial armor, ensuring that the wealth you’ve tirelessly built is protected against catastrophic events. Join us as we delve into the often-overlooked world of insurance and discover how it plays a pivotal role in safeguarding your legacy and the future of your loved ones.
Should you require specialized referrals tailored to your distinct insurance needs, please feel free to reach out. It would be my pleasure to connect you with professionals best suited to address your unique circumstances and ensure you receive the most beneficial guidance.
Transcript
Hi there. Mike Brady with Generosity Wealth Management, a comprehensive, full-service financial services firm headquartered in Boulder, Colorado.
Today I want to do something a little bit different. I’ve been talking about investments so much and so much has happened in the world. I wanted to take a slight detour and talk about keeping our money, and part of that might be insurance. Now, you’ve heard me say before that 80% of reaching your goals is clearly defining them and having a plan for how to get there and having a plan to overcome those speedbumps that might derail you from reaching those goals. That could be the loss of your spouse, the loss of the ability to work, a long-term health issue, loss of your house. There’s a lot of issues that could derail you from reaching your financial goals.
The first thing someone might say is well, I have enough money to self-insure which is absolutely a possibility. You can self-insure your car as long as it’s paid off that if I crash it and it’s only worth $20,000, $30,000, $40,000 I have enough money I can go and buy a new one. That is a legitimate choice that you can make. You’re taking the risk upon yourself instead of transferring that risk to a pool of people for a particular premium. Everybody is paying that premium goes into a pool and if you have a triggering event then that pool pays out to you. That’s essentially what insurance is. The reason why I bring this up is one thing that the Marshall fires have shown us which of course for those who are not here in Colorado or the Boulder area was a devastating fire in the first couple of days of 2022 and it went through subdivisions. Not up in the mountains but it went through subdivisions and was just devastating. There were about 1,000 homes that were destroyed. A lot of people found that they were underinsured and that’s going to be a huge catastrophic event for them in their lives. It’s important and that’s what we call property and casualty insurance. I don’t do that. I don’t have that license. That is a specialty, but if you need somebody let me know. If you want to really ensure that you’ve got enough coverage, let me know and I can refer someone to you. I have a whole book of professional referrals that I feel comfortable with.
Another type of insurance is life insurance. What if you die? Is your family going to be taken care of? The income that they expected, especially if you have little kids, but even if you’re not. If you’re older, the income that you thought you were going to bring in because of your employment has now gone away. What other expenses does the other surviving family members have because of your passing. So, life insurance is absolutely essential, and there’s a whole video that I could do on the different types of life insurance. Just know that it’s absolutely essential in many situations. Talk to me if you feel that’s something that causes you to stay up at night.
Disability insurance. What if you lost your job? Would you be able to make your monthly expenses? You might have some with your current employer. Do you fully understand it? Most of the time employers provided disability insurance is taxable so you’ve got to look at it not of oh, I’m going to get $5,000 a month. It’s $5,000 before taxes. You’ve got to pay taxes so would that be enough to cover your expenses. You can actually buy personal policies to complement what you have at your company.
Long-term care. We’re all getting older every day and so many of us may need long-term care help in the future. Now is the time to plan for it. That’s something else I can advise on.
There’s a ton of different risks out there. I mean there’s a risk of getting out of bed in the morning and go to the grocery store. We assume that risk but we can mitigate it, of course, by being smart about how we drive, about how quickly we drive, by putting our seatbelt on or airbags, get a good car but the risk doesn’t go away. All of the things that I’ve talked about doesn’t mean that the risk goes away. It just means that we mitigate it by transferring that risk to a pool and at least being financially more secure, have a backdrop if a particular event does happen.
Insurance is important. I think we need to think about it. It’s not very sexy. If you’re at the neighborhood barbecue it’s not the topic that people like to talk about. They would rather talk about some stock buy or sell that they made. Of course they’re a genius. Or they like to talk about the big TV that they just bought. But, what’s going to impact your life, a catastrophic event, is something that maybe you could have transferred that risk to somebody else.
Mike Brady, Generosity Wealth Management, 303-747-6455. Have a wonderful day. Thanks. Bye-bye.