Getting sick is not only unpleasant physically, it can have a lot of unpleasant financial repercussions as well. If you are sick enough to be off work for several months, the loss of income may be almost impossible to recover from as you can lose your home, car and job if you can’t keep up the repayments or do the work required of you. To avoid this disastrous scenario, it is essential to have a financial advisor do some financial planning on your behalf, that includes risk and health insurance and helps you to plan for emergencies small and large.
Don’t wait until sickness happens to get assistance from a financial planner; it will be too late then. Planning your finances so they are in a healthy state takes time. Putting the plan into place is essential, but you still have to wait for growth to happen. Leaving it all until you are sick and out of money is not going to help you. What is needed is for consultation and a plan immediately, while you have an income and are not ill.
No one knows when they may be struck down with a serious illness such as cancer and need months of chemotherapy or other treatment. You don’t know from one day to the next whether you might be badly injured in a car accident and need weeks or months of recovery and rehabilitation time. Wise people plan ahead for these possibilities. This is not expecting the worst; it is just preparing for it in case it happens. Knowing you are prepared will give you peace of mind that you have the ability to cope financially if it does happen.
There would be very little worse than lying in a hospital bed unable to move and worrying about how your family will cope with no income. The stress will certainly impact your ability to recover quickly. But when you know that your finances are in order and you can cope with loss of income, you can simply relax and devote all your energy to recovering.
A professional financial expert will be able to give advice on: –
- Insurance
- Superannuation
- Investments
- Social security
- Debt management
- SMSF
- Estate and retirement planning
They will show you ways to save money that you may not have thought of, so there is an emergency fund ready to use should you get seriously ill at any time. This can be used to repay the house mortgage, for car repayments, to provide food and pay school fees and pay utility bills; all those things that would not get paid if you didn’t have an income for some months due to illness.