Smart Couples: Security Basket

My wife and I recently resumed reading Smart Couples Finish Rich. The book helped us discuss our different values, and sync on our current retirement savings plan. The next section in the book was focused on security including emergencies, insurance, and our ability to handle the unexpected.

My wife and I talked about the idea of building up an emergency fund, but it's not really on the radar screen since we are currently focusing on saving up for a home. However, there were a couple of takeaways here.

I told my wife about my current insurance policies:
1)Group Life Insurance of 4x my salary. My employer provides Group Life Insurance of 2x my salary and I pay for an additional 2x salary life insurance policy through payroll deductions.
2) Disability Insurance at 66 2/3% my salary. My employer provides 50% coverage and I pay for the remaining coverage through payroll deductions.

Given my current medical condition I told her I didn't think it made much sense to purchase more insurance outside my employer's package at least in the near term. For now I think we should self-insure as much as possible by keeping expenses low. We will need to look at this again in closer detail in 3-4 years.

Since my wife stopped working and moved to this country, she currently doesn't have life insurance or disability insurance. We discussed that once we returned to the US there are a couple things in this area that we should do: 1) review the life insurnance and disability insurance policies offerred if/when she starts working, 2) consider adding coverage for her to the GLI policy that I have at work, 3) look into a term life insurance policy for her.

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Comments (2)

If I recall correctly that you are an engineer, you should check out the life and disability insurance offered through IEEE. We found the rates to be a much better deal than buying extra coverage through an employer.

Posted by zetta | January 17, 2008 7:03 PM

Hmm.... interesting -- I haven't checked out the IEEE life & disability insurance. I assume they made you fill out medical questionaires? The great thing about the insurance through employer was I didn't have to fill out any medical questionaires -- makes it much more affordable for me since I am a diabetic.

Posted by 2million | January 17, 2008 7:18 PM