My fiancé is a carpenter, and as a result, we put heavy importance on income protection experience. You never know what could happen that could prevent him from earning money. There are many short-term and long-term disability plans through the government and through many employers, however, they don’t cover your entire income and while it’s true that some expenses go down if you aren’t able to work, many don’t. If you work in a job that requires physical labour, or if you are the primary breadwinner in your home, getting insurance is a financial task that you should do right now.

We don’t have income protection insurance for my income, because the chances of myself getting injured at my desk job are nill, but it’s very important for my fiancé. Every time we hear of another incident happening to one of his coworkers (or a friend of a friend), it reinforces our decision:

The Eye Incident

I won’t gross you out with all of the details, but my friend’s uncle is a plumber and, when holding a hand tool and working on project, ended up hitting himself in the eye with the tool.

His eye was (and still is) no longer functioning and he had to go through several rounds of surgery to determine whether he would regain his vision.

Needless to say, as a plumber, he couldn’t very well work with one eye not functioning. He didn’t have income protection insurance so he and his family had to downsize and move away from the home that they raised their children in.

The Carpenter With the Broken Arm

My fiancé’s coworker went on a snowboarding trip and came back with a broken arm.

Believe it or not, he showed up at work the following week with a cast on. He tried to work for about an hour before he realized that he was being more of a hinderance than a help, and his supervisor sent him home.

He didn’t hurt himself at work, so he didn’t have worker’s compensation, but luckily the company that they worked for highly recommended income protection insurance. He was off for a few months with the injury, and then had to do a graduated return to work program for another couple of months as his shoulder was part of the break. 

My Father in Law

My poor father in law has always had a terrible hip. He’s also a carpenter (like father, like son) and has been working away in pain for the last 30 years.

He needs hip surgery, but has never paid into income protection insurance so he and my mother in law will lose their entire income when/if he goes off on leave for his hip surgery.

It’s unlikely that he will be able to work as a carpenter for a few years after the surgery, so it will have quite an impact.

Hopefully these situations have stoked a fire under you to get income protection insurance, if you don’t have it yet.