I would like to hear from other parents in regards to what they have prepared in terms of the different types of insurance, will, etc. for themselves to help their family in case of an accident.
So, three years ago, my father passed away and left me with very little to help pay the expenses he had left behind. It was just him and myself and I was clueless about these things. I was working full time and he had already retired when he moved to the UK (he was born in England but left the country at 21). He got his pension after moving back to England but he spent most of that money paying for furniture, rent, bills for the 6 years he had left. Thankfully, someone had told him to arrange for the funeral cost but unfortunately, the cost only covered less than half of the expenses when he died because he had started paying into it so late. One expense led to another and another and I am still having to pay back loans that I had to take in order to pay for my dad's expenses. Sadly, my DS was born only a month before my father passed away so I was so stressed and tramautised by the whole ideal. This had led me to arrange a life insurance with critical illness cover on top for my husband and I because I do not want my DS or my DH to go through what I had to go through.
At the moment, if anything happens to me, 75% of my life insurance goes to my husband and the rest goes to my son. Also, with our critical illness cover, our insurance provider pays out a cash lump sum if me or my child meets the definition of one of the serious illnesses covered during the policy term and survives for 10 days. If I understand correctly, if I am diagnosed with a life threatening illness which will not allow me to work for a long period of time, I have myself covered but only until the lump sum runs out. I've heard that something called an Income Protection Insurance is better in the long run but it really depends on your situation. I'm thinking that once my son starts reception, I might increase my monthly direct debit for my life insurance another £10.00.
At the moment, I haven't written a will as I don't really know what I want in the will. We also have some travel plans in the future and we defo will be taking out travel insurance no matter how short or long the vacation will be. Call me paranoid but I don't like the idea of forking out thousands of pounds to pay hospital bills abroad even though there is only like...a 10% possibility or less of getting into an accident with a toddler abroad? Whether that be big or small, I don't like the idea of taking that risk.
Mums and dads, I would like to hear if you have made any form of life insurance arrangements? I would really like to hear what you think and if you have anything you would like to add on for me take into consideration, that would be super helpful. I want to ensure that we as a family are covered and we won't be leaving anyone in a sh*tty situation when we kick the bucket. Many thanks.