The short answer to the title’s question is: probably not. If you’re an average Jane or Joe American, then you only have about $3,800 in your savings account. That’s about enough to last you about a month, maybe–if you’re just sticking with basics, you know, things like shelter, food, water, electricity and a car.
But what happens when you suddenly become disabled and aren’t able to work for six months or a year? What will you do when the money in your savings account does run dry? Ask good old Uncle Sam? Sure, you can try. But he can only help to an extent, and these days that extent is quite small. If you’ve got a partner who is bringing in an income, that’s great, but how much of their income goes to your household’s regular spending? Again, for the average person, most of it is "spoken for" the moment the direct deposit enters hits the bank account.
One of the best investments that you can make–even today–is to buy a disability insurance policy. If you become disabled, it will give you a percentage of your previous salary so that you can continue to live as you are today. Some companies provide these policies for employees, but most don’t, so if you’re not hurt on the job–thereby being covered by workers comp–you’re out of luck when it comes finding a way to put food on the table. Disability policies aren’t cost prohibitive , and are worth the sacrifice of cutting a few cable channels in order to buy a policy for yourself and, if you have one, your partner.
