A question for the singles out there

[CheerUpSleepyJeanOhWhatCanItMean]

I’ve just moved into my new house, following the breakdown of a 23 year marriage. Both of our children are over 18 and at university (one commutes from home). My parents and siblings are RIP so I feel very alone at the moment.

Having been mortgage free for quite a few years, I’ve had to take a mortgage out for £90k, with a plan to pay it off at 60 using my pension lump sum (I’ll be 54 in March).

I lost my best friend to cancer last year so it’s making me worry. What happens if I get ill? What happens if I can’t bring in a salary? I am ok, financially, at the moment and still have a decent disposable income but I am conscious this may change (hopefully not).

What do other singles do to protect themselves? I have critical illness cover but that’s only for £25k cover. I took this out years ago so know I need to change it.

I feel very vulnerable right now and worried about it. Just looking for advice and a bit of guidance.

Do you have an income protection policy? If not it’s worth getting one, that’s exactly what this is for x

In my 30s with 3 dc under 10 at the time (single parent), I had a traumatic incident that meant I could no longer work.
The critical illness cover was useless as you need to have had a specific illness on the list.
I did have income protection that was defered for 6 months as first six months I got full pay. So I had 18 months to 'sort' a plan. This was what kept a roof over our heads.
So my plan was I applied for ESA, PIP, tax credits as they were at the time and my ill health pension (these all take a long time to sort). This meant I could carry on paying my mortgage the only issue is I've had to stay with the same lender just changing to their best deal each time and I cant change terms on my mortgage but it meant that I've kept everything stable for dc.
The next hurdle is that in 18 months my dc leave education then I will loose a lot of benefits at this point I'll need to downsize and pay off the mortgage but that will leave issues with housing the 2 dc left at home. We've overcome bigger hurdles in the last 11 years so I'm sure we'll cope.
So it will depend on what your employment contract is like for sickness etc to what policies are best.
I also had 3 months wages in savings which helped a lot with the extra costs of illness in the first year especially.

I live alone and I have income protection insurance. I also recommend building up a good emergency fund if you don't already, enough to see you through for several months without work.

No, I just have critical illness cover and life insurance.

I get the vulnerability as I’m almost your age and about to take on a (relatively small) mortgage alone and we all know you get practically no help from the government if you hit hard times.

I would:

Make having a big buffer my priority, at least six months equivalent of essential expenses. This may help you feel more secure.

Go through the critical illness policy for the reason @Bluegreenpinkred said, and maybe change to another provider.

Get a lodger to increase your household income and therefore your rainy day fund, if not now then within the next few years. Or a second job.

I couldn’t get a second job. The one I do in the NHS is a 3 person job. I’m always mentally drained at the end of the day. A second job would be out of the question.

I’ve chosen to work in the public sector and accepted that while my base salary will be lower, I will have good sick pay and the ability to medically retire if needed. It is scary at first but someone said to me years ago - yes, you have no one else to depend on, but you also have no one else that can screw things up!

Oh and I have a 6 month emergency fund and live probably further below my means than I would if and a second income

I don't have life insurance or critical illness cover or anything like that. I do have plenty of savings and good sick pay from work (public sector) if ever needed. I've only got myself to worry about though, no kids.

I’m a single income house hold and I have critical and life insurance and also income protection as well as an emergency fund.
Id advise speaking to a broker (mine is excellent) who will talk through the senarios with you and what you may have in place already eg sickness pay, death in service benefits and give you some calculations.

Yes, I have income protection but most policies will only cover up to 75% of your income. The type of policy I got also enables me to continue to receive statutory sick pay (I went through a financial advisor). It costs around £50 a month but I think it’s worth having.

Same situation as you - but I am freelance which is even less predictable! I had a chat with an insurance broker which was really helpful who recommended a critical illness policy that is around £40 a month. It just pays a lump sum if I get ill to keep us going for a year rather than monthly payments. I have a few months expenses put away too. Do you have good cover through the NHS? I would have thought public sector contract offers some protection

There are different scenarios which require different cover, sorry in advance for being morbid

1. you die before mortgage paid off while one kid still living at home you are still employed at the time,
2. in this case depending on your job they might well be a death in service payout roughly twice annual salary you need to check, your house is sold and any mortgage cleared the rest will be split between your two children, you need a will to state how long your adut child can stay in home before sold 6 months maybe.
3. you can also have a term life assurance policy that just is for the mortgage balance until end of mortgage term as this is a decreasing sum as you are paying off capital it is really relatively cheap this way the whole value of house would be your children's inheritance
4. your kids are not absolutely financially dependent on you so you do not need a whole life policy which is more expensive and not the best way of providing an inheritance half of the house value would be a good start for anyone

the next situation is you become too ill to work before retirement age first you need to know what your workplace covers is it just SSP or is it "X" weeks at full pay and "Y" weeks at half pay and when does it stop, you only need income protection from when it stops, the longer the period you are covered or can self insure the cheaper this is; so if it only pays out after 6 months it will be much much cheaper than after 4 weeks, if you have an emergency fund of 6 months living expenses you don't need an income protection to start until 6 months later regardless of work policy Income protection costs depend also on whether it is your job ( ie nurse) or any job Critical illness only covers certain illnesses so not necessarily what you get sick with

the next possibility is you losing your job before retirement age and struggling to get another one and hence struggling to pay the mortgage most income protection policies only pay out for a limited time after redundancy so this is the hardest one to prepare for

costs of all types of policy are more as you get older

The next question is how much surplus do you have each month to put towards building a 6 month emergency fund, I would do this first, extra savings for retirement etc and maybe paying off mortgage sooner then you can plan. Mathematically it is probably better to invest if it is higher than mortgage interest rate but for some people having the house paid off so no worrying about repayments if they get sick is worth more than any gain in savings

I see you are NHS (I am and was in a similar position after breakdown of 30 year marriage, all kids over 18, two still living with me). Firstly make sure your pension provider changes the recipients of death in service benefits to your children if not already done so and your will.
Secondly I wouldn't worry too much about the prospect of being sick and unable to work as sick pay is pretty good with the NHS if you've been in it a long time, and if unable to work permanently, they give you your pension early with increased benefits of years worked (I know this as a relative has had to be retired early due to ill health). You would then be able to pay the mortgage relatively easily.
Personally, and this is by no means financial advice but just my anecdotal opinion, I'm not a fan of insurances, they always seem to have get out clauses so I don't have any apart from car of course. I just made sure I saved as much as possible until I felt I had a comfortable amount saved and then relaxed a bit and reduced my hours at work. If your clinical there is no danger of you losing your job which is another benefit of the NHS although we have to put up with low pay for the stress levels🤣 all the best, i love just living with my boys, so much more relaxed at home🌻

Get critical illness cover. I’m a bit younger than you (nearly 50) but also had a financially ruinous divorce 3 years ago. My mortgage is now £450k on a 3 bed semi (I have 3 kids). Realistically in my current job I only have 10 years to pay that off. It is what it is. I’ve got critical illness and death insurance but if neither of those things happens, unless I win the lottery or have an inheritance, I’ll have to downsize on retirement/scaling back on the income front. No point fretting about it.

Yes, the NHS would pay out if I were to become ill and couldn’t work. I have 30 years service so far. I have lost 2 colleagues (both female and a similar age to me) to cancer. It scares me. I worry how I’d cope if I couldn’t work and have no-one around (well, apart from my kids). I certainly know that my colleagues both got their pensions made up and paid out so the NHS if good in that way - both passed within a year of diagnosis. I work for another trust now (band 7 so I see the management side too) and it worries me how the band 8 talks about staff on the sick. I know some people do take the P but it worries me he’d be like that with someone with a very bad illness etc.

I also worry I’ll be out of a job with restructure. We are going through a collaboration with other trusts and, although we have been assured that there won’t be any job losses, they have said they will be restructuring further down the line. I’m not clinical so it would be tricky to find something else. I’m thinking of looking out of the NHS but then know we have good benefits in cases such as the above.

I just worry I’ll end up penniless! I feel a lot more insecure now I’m on my own and my siblings/parents are no longer around 😞.

Oh my goodness! That’s a big mortgage. Mine is no-where near that.

@CheerUpSleepyJeanOhWhatCanItMeanyou do have a much benefits then most people but your happiness and wellbeing is important. I’d look into the insurances not linked to your employment.

I have critical illness cover, decreasing term life insurance, income protection cover and now savings. I'm single with no children, I'm conscious that I'm my only support.