Insurance Benefits

If you're working, young, healthy, and without dependents, you probably don't pay an enormous amount of attention when the time comes every year to renew your benefits.

I mentioned to one of my coworkers and his girlfriend that during this process when I came to the long-term disability option, I thought "I'm never going to need that..." so opted for the minimal. To which the girlfriend responded, "Yeah, I remember thinking that too." Even if not never, what are the chances...? (And statistics is one of my favorite subjects.) Considering it only costs a few extra dollars a month, I must have thought the chances were really low. Probably thinking along the lines of, I run, dance, haven't been to a doctor since my pediatrician, feel like a fifteen year old at almost thirty, work hard easily, don't have dependents, etc.

Not only that, but it may actually be prudent to get your own individual insurance outside of employer-sponsored benefits, since what could happen if you changed jobs, or were not employed for some time? It's when you're young, healthy, and think you don't need it, that's when it's dirt-cheap and probably worth getting.

And health insurance too. While employer-sponsored health insurance might cover alot more than most individual insurance options, it's nice to lock-in low rates when you're healthy so in case you can't work for a long time, you still have affordable insurance. Because by the time you're too sick to work and COBRA runs out, you probably can't get affordable individual insurance. And it's no guarantee that you'll qualify for social security disability and get Medicare.

You're probably still thinking, what are the chances?

Prepare for the worst, hope for the best.