Free Advice to New Graduates

[Old Timer]

Now that you are out of school and earning a living, especially if your married and have a family to support, you need to have a good disability insurance policy. You are more likely to become disabled than die. Keep in mind if you purchase a policy on your own and become disabled the income will NOT be taxable. If the policy is paid for by your employer, the income will be taxable. Make sure you get several quotes and evaluate the time you want to wait before the policy begins.

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[tussionex]

cheerful post, old timer.

 

[Epic]

Good advice

 

[All4MyDaughter]

I believe it's also easier to get that type of coverage when you are young and healthy vs. waiting until you are older. The other thing you need to make sure you have is plenty of term life insurance. Especially if you have a dependent spouse and children. Life insurance is also cheaper to buy when you are young.

 

[sdn1977]

These are things we don't think about when young. Old Timer & I disagree on malpractice insurance & personally, I don't rely on employer's disability or life insurance either. Why? Because its tied to your job. If you don't have that job, you can't get the equivalent insurance if something bad befalls you.

An example....drsdn had a brain tumor at the age of 34. He recovered & is fine, but that one medical incident makes him completely uninsurable. Yep - no life, no disability, no health. He can't buy any of them at all thru anybody - independents, catastrophic, the dental associations.. We know - we've tried for 20 years. What disability & life insurance he had at the time is all he has now & we were young, so it wasn't much. I would have been in a bad way if he had become disabled or god-forbid had died. I would never have been able to educate my kids & live the way I do today. But, I was able to buy disability & life insurance & put him on as a spouse, but only up to a certain coverage limit. Beyond that, it required a physical, which he can't pass because of his brain surgery hx.

Now that we have mandated health portability (for about 15 years), I can go to any job & get him health insurance. Before that, even if I had employer purchased health insurance, anything to do with his head or cns was excluded. Fortunately, that is no longer allowed by law.

So - I'm not the sole or even the major breadwinner in the house. But, all of our insurance (other than the very little amounts we had purchased for him when we were young) are through me. So, I'd agree with all - buy your own disability, life & health. You just never know what's ahead.

When he starts to get out of line, I remind him to be grateful.

 

[pinkyrx]

This is great advice! Thanks for bringing it up... I know it's not something that we want to think about, but it's a good reminder.

 

[tussionex]

Good advice

i didn't say it wasn't good advice...just depressing. most reality is!

 

[Old Timer]

i didn't say it wasn't good advice...just depressing. most reality is!

Not depressing at all Tuss.... It's just being prepared. I just celebrated my 25th anniversary as a Pharmacist so there are a few thousand miles on my spatula. These are things young folks don't think about so I thought I'd share some wisdom on a subject I won't get yelled at for bringing up.

 

[Epic]

i didn't say it wasn't good advice...just depressing. most reality is!

Nah...it's not depressing. It's being responsible.

I have a disability insurance, term life insurance and a full life - annuity insurance and if anything ever happens to me, my family will be very well taken care of.

Don't look at it as depressing.

 

[jewess]

Not depressing at all Tuss.... It's just being prepared. I just celebrated my 25th anniversary as a Pharmacist so there are a few thousand miles on my spatula. These are things young folks don't think about so I thought I'd share some wisdom on a subject I won't get yelled at for bringing up.

Thank you for your wisdom Old Timer! It is much appreciated. Sometimes us youngins need a friendly reminder that we are not invincible.

 

[off2skl]

Nah...it's not depressing. It's being responsible.

I have a disability insurance, term life insurance and a full life - annuity insurance and if anything ever happens to me, my family will be very well taken care of.

Don't look at it as depressing.

Yeah at some point I'm going to be worth more dead than alive

Funny thing is I just put my brother as the contingent beneficiary (if something were to happen to my husband; I don't have children yet) and needed his social. When I asked him for it, he said something about being the contingent on everyone's insurance (my parents, and other brother). If he were to kill us all off he'd be pretty wealthy Ahem, so if I turn up missing.... J/K

 

[BiOGoly]

Now that you are out of school and earning a living, especially if your married and have a family to support, you need to have a good disability insurance policy. You are more likely to become disabled than die. Keep in mind if you purchase a policy on your own and become disabled the income will NOT be taxable. If the policy is paid for by your employer, the income will be taxable. Make sure you get several quotes and evaluate the time you want to wait before the policy begins.

Very important for everyone to think about, you never know what the future holds. This isn't Sweden we're living in folks, if you think someone has your back if you become disabled...think again. US government disability is a pitance, and even then you usually have to hire a lawyer to fight for it (and if you win he'll be getting a 50% cut!). Always have insurance!

 

[bigdogc]

insurance huh? i'll have to thnk about that in 4 years!

 

[lord999]

Might as well add my own two cents to this post:

GET A FINANCIAL ADVISOR!!: It pains me to see the new grads make $200K and waste it paying Uncle Sam when they could have paid themselves if they set up their retirement, investment, student loan and housing accounts correctly. And god, the tax nightmare of that first year in practice.

Take Malpractice Insurance: I fall on the side of keeping my own professional insurance, including fidelity insurance if you are a business owner. I've witnessed chains, hospitals, and long-term health facilities dump their practitioner's from their defense if they believe it will help (only time I've seen that work was with a CVS manager who was clearly acting by himself selling pallets of pseudoephedrine). Time to invest in yourself, buy malpractice insurance.

Purchase Ergonomic items: Keyboard and supportive mouse pads, comfortable pens, and the like help prevent repetitive strain injuries from happening. This is quickly becoming a problem in our profession. One of my pharmacist colleagues when working with me will even put on earplugs and just verify while I play intern (counsel, transfers in/out, insurance, customer service).

Find something else to do: Professional burnout happens when you feel trapped in your position, feel that your job creates negative pressures on other important factors in life, or are in a hostile work environment. One way demonstrated with medical doctors is to teach them a hobby. (Strangely, antisocial hobbies seem to work best).