Must have insurance plans - # 1

There was an article in a leading personal finance magazine, think about a year ago, about insurance policies you must have. While I buy (and of course read) this magazine, I could not help but think about the article not answering a fundamental question – what should be my first insurance policy?
 I guess life insurance will win by a mile if I take a poll. I beg to differ. Before you take the sword out and get ready to fight, may I ask for your patience? Think about it!!. You and your ability to earn comes before everything else – because that is your means to take care of and protect people you love - family, friends, parents. Pure life insurance does not protect you and your ability to earn. So the question is what do you do to protect yourself before you protect any one else.


Protecting yourself could mean a lot of things – but good health is your most important wealth and protecting that should be your priority. And from that perspective, the first policy that you should have is a health insurance plan. For those of you who think that you are covered by a company policy, you could be wrong!!. Read my post “Company health policies - Are they good enough?”. Here are more reasons as to why a health insurance cover should be your first insurance policy.


Your ability to be healthy and by extension to earn regularly is the key to your survival (taking care of your family included). How ever, even if you work out 2 hours a day, eat only greens and corn flakes through the day, there is no guarantee that you would not have a health problem. And the cure, to certain extent, for that unpredictability problem is a health insurance. Your first priority is to ensure that you can get the best treatment and has a reasonable chance of recovering from a health issue. You don’t want to drain your savings, swipe your credit card (and pay interest on interest) or worst case - borrows money for your treatment. In my view, the most important consideration is your ability to tide through a health problem without serious financial after effects.


Now am I saying that Life Insurance is not required? Absolutely not. You do need that in most cases to make sure that your dependants are secure. They key word is "dependents", though. Is it second on my list?? Read my next post to know what comes second and why? And that should be enough time for you to read your decision meter - and hopefully to buy a health insurance cover and protect yourself.