Page 83 - Smart Money

Smart Money

Key Point

Statistics say that a couple in their 30s have a greater than 50% chance
that a medical crisis will befall one of them before they turn 65. That
means that there is a greater than 50% chance that one party in any
couple will have a need for a trauma insurance claim prior to their
retirement, and that may be quite signifi cant.

Most people in their 30s don’t want to be thinking about big, nasty things
like that, but that is the reality that we live with. We are living longer;
we can survive cancer and we can survive heart attacks with greater
frequency now, but the financial implications are still there.

You should also insure your assets, including the car, your home, the
contents. It takes a lot of time and effort, and a lot of money, to save for
and accumulate these things and without insurance, if something does
go wrong, you’ve got to start again from scratch. Insurance is a small
proportion of the total cost that would apply if you had to buy everything
again, so if it is valuable enough for you to miss it, then you should look
to insure it if you can.

Private health cover

We don’t handle a lot of that, but private health cover can mean the
difference between getting key medical assistance and being in a queue
or having to compromise. It can also mean having to wait, or go into a
room with five other people rather than having your own room and your
own level of comfort.

Private health cover can assist with the financial impact of basic minor
health events so that you don’t have to think twice about giving yourself a
base level of comfort from a health perspective. I always tell my retirees,
“You can’t put a price on your health.” A lot of people don’t want to spend
money unnecessarily when they retire, so they’ll forgo health related
things. There is no point having lots of money but being sick all the time.

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