When I was 22 I bought my first house. An unexceptional end terrace in Stockport.
With a salary of £10,350 a year, plus double time overtime payments for working Saturday mornings, I chose to insure my income. I rather thought I had a job for life working for the world’s biggest building society so rather than opting for expensive redundancy cover I looked further afield.
Permanent Health Insurance through Sun Life of Canada. £6.93 a month with a £550 pay out if I found myself unable to perform my usual duties for longer than six months.
On more than one occasion over the years I’ve pondered cancelling the plan. Persuaded not to by a little clause that says they’ll refund half the premiums if I get to age 62 without claiming. Well I’ve blown getting that £1,800 in 2034.
My big mistake at the time of taking out the policy was a decision not to index link it. While my career path didn’t quite hit the heights I had in mind in 1992 I’ve done alright for myself and the salary I finished my working life on was significantly higher than £10k!
But never mind. I now have a tax free income from the insurer combined with a small state benefit that effectively means I can pay rent, put petrol in my car and buy an Oldham Athletic season ticket without having to dip into my redundancy money. That can be reserved for things like trips to USA, Chile, Australia etc in nice posh airline seats. Not sure about £2,000 a night hotel suites though …
In other words, my fears that I’d run out of money before I’m 55 have now pretty much gone. If I do live longer than most with this disease I won’t be in poverty. We’ll certainly not my definition of poverty anyway!
Better still, I get a guaranteed annual pay rise of 5% on this money. I doubt many workers will see a rise as big as that! Loadsamoney!
Seeing the World 
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