Main Hoon Na!!

Yes! This is one of the famous movies in Bollywood but that is not what I am not referring to. I am referring to what we say, whenever our kids / friends /parents / siblings are in trouble. This is one of the things, I like about our culture and values. We go all out to help our friends and families even if its outside our reach. We provide them not only what they want but also what we feel they deserve. However, one thing that we often forget in the hustle and bustle all the hassles of life is, what will happen to our family when we are not around? We can and we do whatever possible to ensure that our family gets what ever they need and that no trouble comes to them. Many a times we so much love to live in the present that we forget about the future. Our family deserves not only our love, affection and trust but also financial freedom, especially when we are not around.

Apart from what ever we do for our family, our first and utmost responsibility should be to safeguard their future. Obviously, we can’t change the destiny but we can at least ensure that they don’t have to fight with destiny along with struggling for money and the simplest way to do this is to simplify your finances. A first step towards this financial freedom can be taking up a term plan. I am sure most of you have heard about term plans and I hope all of you have also bought it. For those who are not aware of term plans, this is an insurance product which is available at a very low cost and is the easiest way to ensure that your family has a contented future when you are not around. For example, term insurance is available at less than Rs 600 per month for a cover of Rs 1 Cr.

It provides not only financial stability to your family, but can also come in handy to repay any debt, home loans, etc. During your lifetime they can be helpful to cover disability or critical illnesses, too. Though I am not a big fan of recommending insurance for saving tax but ’yes’, it does give you tax benefit under section 80C.

It doesn’t matter even if you are covered under group insurance policy of your company; you should still ensure that you have taken an individual policy. Again, it doesn’t matter how many policies you have taken; what matters is the sum you are insured for. Once more, it doesn’t matter which company you choose; whether you buy an insurance policy or not matters.

We all know and understand that we need insurance cover but many of us postpone it for unknown reasons. Events like Corona only reiterate the fact that we all should be covered for any contingencies as life is uncertain.

When buying an insurance, there are few things that you should remember:

• Disclose everything about your lifestyle while applying for insurance (hiding facts to save few hundred rupees can be expensive for your family if your claim is rejected).
• Ensure that your life cover is minimum 10-12 times (ideally it should be 20 times) of your current annual income. This will ensure enough money for your family.
• Buy insurance from a company you trust.
• Your family should be aware about your insurance. This is “Very Important”. All the above actions and decisions will be of no use if they are not aware about it. (Do you know that the LIC of India alone has more than Rs. 11,000 Cr of unclaimed money ?)

Always remember It’s not about what you need. It’s about what your family needs if you aren’t there. You don’t buy life insurance because you are going to die, but because those you love are going to live