{"id":435,"date":"2015-03-03T21:25:18","date_gmt":"2015-03-03T21:25:18","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/smartinsure.co.nz\/?p=435"},"modified":"2017-02-23T03:44:18","modified_gmt":"2017-02-23T03:44:18","slug":"importance-protecting-family","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/smartinsure.co.nz\/general-insurance\/importance-protecting-family\/","title":{"rendered":"The Importance of Protecting Your Family"},"content":{"rendered":"
People are always first to think about insuring their cars or houses when they purchase a new one but they often fail to think about protecting more important assets \u2013 themselves and also their ability to earn income or the ability to look after children and run a household.<\/p>\n
Whilst protecting houses and cars is certainly important and certainly important to do it is also important to also think about insuring the driver of that car. If you had a money machine sitting in the corner of your house, would you insure it? A silly question to ask as you most certainly would. So why would you not insure yourself or your partner?<\/p>\n
The levels of life insurance<\/a> in New Zealand are extremely low compared to the Western World and income protection and the like are even lower. After houses and cars, health insurance<\/a> is generally the most popular risk insurance to have, however there are risks to be thinking about.<\/p>\n What would happen if the main income earner died, or became ill or injured and could not work? Who would pay the bills and help out?<\/p>\n Life insurance is useful in clearing debt and also providing for income lost if an income earner died leaving someone behind with potentially young children, debt and less of an opportunity to earn income. However the loss of a partner who is not working but is looking after young children and running a household should not be ignored and the cost of this needs to be looked when looking at an over insurance package for a family.<\/p>\n Let\u2019s face it if you won a $1 million in Lotto this weekend you would probably feel a bit ripped off as you won in the wrong week and a million dollars does not go far these days \u2013 just ask anyone who has bought a house in Auckland in the last 10 years. If a 30 year old income earner died today and they brought in $100,000 p.a. salary then ignoring inflation and wage increases there is $3.5 million which is lot to a family unit.<\/p>\n Other factors you need to be taking into account is the risk of someone not dying but being seriously ill or injured and either not being able to work or needing to be looked after.<\/p>\n