Take Action To Safeguard Your Biggest Asset – Your Income

Think for a moment about what is important to you in life – for the majority of us the answer is of course our loved ones and our health with financial status trailing in importance – “our health is our wealth” after all and material things are trivial in the grand scheme of life. However, most people fail to think about the consequences should we lose our biggest asset – our income. We subconsciously disregard how secure our current financial status would be if we were unable to work due to an accident, illness, or disability. The company that employs you might provide a short-term payment scheme if you are on sick leave for a month or two and the government assists with social welfare benefits after that. What’s there to worry about then? We are here to tell you the reality might not be what you expected.

Employment Rights

As a full-time, permanent employee, your employer must provide you with statutory sick pay, the pay your employer must provide, which will cover you for a period of three days, up to a maximum rate of €110 per day. While this is set to increase to 10 days by 2025, it won’t provide long-term income. While the State’s Disability Allowance provides financial assistance to those who are unable to work due to long-term illness or injury, it amounts to just €203 a week, significantly lower than an average weekly wage and very difficult to live on, particularly if you have a mortgage, young children, and other financial outgoings to pay for each month.

Prepare For A Rainy Day

In general, we tend to be over-optimistic when it comes to ensuring the things that matter – the “it will never happen to me” perspective seems to be the opinion of many when it comes to insuring your income. Your income pays for just about everything – the mortgage, car loan, bills, children’s education, and other insurances – here at SYS Group, we believe that it is time to take insuring your salary seriously.

Ask yourself the following questions: In the event of you not being able to work due to accident, illness or disability….

  1. Would you and your family survive on €203 per week?
  2. Would you be able to afford your mortgage, household and childcare bills?

If the answer to either question is “No” then it is a no-brainer that you must consider insuring your salary.

Income Protection

Income or Salary Protection is a very straightforward insurance product that pays you an income if you are out of work due to illness or injury longer than an agreed-upon deferred period.

Salary protection is a solution. It is designed to provide you with a replacement income (up to 75% of your salary) each month, while you are out of work, no matter how long that takes. Your policy covers you up until the day you retire should it need to. The amount of coverage that you receive is determined by your current salary and is underwritten based on your occupation which defines the monthly premium payable. To incentivise people to act and to protect their biggest asset, Income Protection premiums are deductible from Income Tax. This means that depending on your earnings, your net premium could be slashed by 40%.  As there are no restrictions on the type of injury, illness or disability that can be covered, you have the peace of mind that whatever the eventuality, you will be covered. What’s more, with income protection, you can choose a plan that suits your individual circumstances with a range of flexible cover types available, and as your needs and circumstances change you can adapt your policy to match them.

Low-Cost Protection Solution

Let’s look at a fictional person, call him Joe Bloggs. Joe is 40 years old and works as an Office Manager on a salary of €50,000. If we assume Joe is a non-smoker with a deferred period of 26 weeks, he could insure his income for as little as €10 per week (net after tax).

If this article has struck a chord and you want to take action to ensure your biggest asset is protected, feel free to reach out to me at padraic@sysgroup.ie or call me on 087 166 9498 to discuss your protection needs. You can also connect with me on LinkedIn

Related Posts

"Home is the nicest word there is" Laura Ingalls Wilder