This picture was taken by my wife. After a storm one day, she found a leaf floating in our pool. Sitting on top of the leaf was a big ole spider. Poor little guy didn't have a paddle! Sooner or later he was going to get sucked into our pool filter.
This summer I learned that spiders can't swim. How so? Because I sucked 30 to 50 of them out of the bottom of the pool with our handy, dandy pool vacuum. This little guy somehow got onto a leaf. He was one of the lucky ones.
All of this led me to think about how important backup plans our in life.
Too many people live without backup plans. They somehow think everything will work out as planned. Nothing could be further from the truth.
I recently wrote an article in the Income for Life newsletter about disability insurance. An alarming number of adults go day-to-day without this protection. The statistics are very scary on the number of people who are disabled and unable to work. No backup plan. Instant financial turmoil.
Or how about the current foreclosure crises? Why is this happening? Because many home owners didn't create backup income streams to protect them financially.
How do you avoid being up the creek without a paddle like the spider on this leaf?
By asking yourself one simple question:
What would happen if ________________?
You can fill in the blank from any area of your life.
What would happen if I fall off the roof of my home cleaning out the gutters and I'm unable to work for two months? (A family friend fell off a ladder working on his home and became paralyzed from the chest down.)
What would happen if I lose my job and my main source of income? (A good friend of mine was fired from his company and didn't have any money saved. He lost his house to foreclosure and his marriage crumbled. He is now divorced)
What would happen if my retirement savings plan drops 50% in value? (This happened to me back when I was a CPA for Deloitte & Touche)
What would happen if my government retirement plan benefits disappear? (See my recent post where I analyzed my actual future retirement income as proposed by the government.)
This is a very scary question to ask yourself. I know because I ask myself questions like these questions all of the time. What questions are you afraid to ask yourself?
- What would happen if I get cancer?
- What would happen if my spouse leaves me?
- What would happen if I die tomorrow?
These questions are critically important because things do go wrong in life. You need to ask yourself challenging questions and then create backup plans to protect yourself and your family.
Rob Minton
P.S. Income for Life Members should listen to the audio CD included in September's newsletter where I interviewed Alexis Martin Neely. You will find it extremely helpful!
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