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Ask HN: I'm quitting my job and I need advice on life & disability insurance

5 points by avgarrison ↗ HN
I plan on quitting my job in few months to pursue full time iPhone / Android game development. I'm curious what other, self-employed people are doing for all of those nice benefits you get form the corporate life. Luckily, my wife is a teacher, so I can get health insurance for our family through her job, but do you have any recommendations on where to get disability insurance and life insurance? What else should I know before getting disability or life insurance? Thanks!

8 comments

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callmeed
I have a close friend who is an independent life insurance agent. She got me a good policy and got it done real fast. I have a $2M policy and pay under $100/mo (I'm 36). Email me and I can get you her contact info.

I don't know much about disability insurance.

brudgers
In General, Long Term Disability insurance is relatively less expensive compared with short term (since the likelihood of a long term disability is lower than a short term one).
sokoloff
Your "life insurance" from your company is, in all likelihood, much closer to a token benefit than something that's appropriately sized for your needs. (Especially if you have dependents!) It's also not especially cost-effective if you're "buying more of it" from your employer's vendor anyway.

Buy term life insurance on your own for you and your wife, assuming you have dependents.

(Google it; start with a link from Suze Orman's site, or anything. It's largely commoditized for most people from what I can tell. I had to buy from one of two specific vendors because many policies exclude dying when serving as part of an airplane crew; I'm a private pilot; my family needs financial support without regard to my manner of passing, so...)

izend
That's why I don't understand why Canada doesn't attract more start-ups. Being self-employed in Canada is much less risky than in the US as health insurance is covered by the state.
avgarrison
I agree with this. The #1 reason why I have been reluctant to leave my current job is because it will cost an extra $700 / month to get health insurance through my wife's employer. Not to mention the risk of what would happen if she somehow lost her job.
thejteam
Wow. I have never heard of an employer plan that costs that much per month. At those rates why even bother offering it as a benefit? Not sure your age or where you live but have you looked at buying it yourself on the open market? You can get a high deductible plan cheaper than that. I spec'd a plan for me, wife, and 3 kids at the insurance company I am currently with through my employer and it would only cost me 300 per month(pretty high but manageable deductible, state of Maryland, adults in low-30's.)
coryl
You have to go to where the money and the markets are, and that is the US. Sure we have better social safety nets, but those aren't my primary concerns when I'm trying to build a business.
thejteam
Just buy enough life insurance to cover a burial and a year's salary. Your wife is a teacher. She has a professional job and presumably a college degree. She has summer's off so she can get part time work if she needs to. Life insurance is a relic of when the wife would stay home and take care of the kids while the husband worked. The fact that you are considering pursuing android/iphone game development tells me you are pretty comfortable on her salary anyway.