Kalyani Narayanan, CEO and Principal Officer says

In South India, many communities celebrate the 60th and 80th birthday of a man by conducting wedding like event with his wife (no, he does not get a new bride) to celebrate the time the couple had spent together. Living till 60 must have been considered a blessing back when this tradition started. I had the pleasure of attending such one 60th birthday event last month. There were about 100 people seated in the audience. Believe it or not, 72 of them were actually older than the couple; about a dozen among them were 80+ with walking sticks. I was not sure if it really was a 'blessing' to live past 80… Physical problem is one thing, but if you also have to deal with financial problem, it would certainly not be a 'blessing'.

Think about it! If we retire by the time we are 60, in all probability, we and our spouses would all end up living another 25 years if not longer. This requires some serious consideration!!

Here is a fact: My doctor used to charge me Rs. 50 each time I visited her 20 years back. Today, she charges Rs. 200 for each visit. That is roughly about 7.2% inflation rate. If I apply the same rate, in another 20 years, she would charge me Rs. 800. So, let us say, my monthly expenses are about Rs. 25000 today, in 20 years, I would need nearly Rs. 100000 at 7.2%. We have an inflation calculator in our site.  You can access it to do your own calculations:  Visit http://www.easyinsuranceindia.com/inflationindex.do

I don't want to panic you. But, please make sure that you save up enough to have a peaceful life upon retirement. Save some money in real estate, some in safe insurance based plans, some in PF, etc. If you have a fairly decent knowledge on the stock market, then ULIP based pension plans are not a bad option. If you are below 40, invest a bit aggressively; if you are between 40 - 50 play somewhat conservative; and beyond that play very safe. No matter how old you are, you are never too early to start planning for retirement.

Money is not the most important thing in life if you have it, but it is the most important thing in life if you don't have it - I don't know who said that, but it is so true…

Wish you and your spouse a peaceful, happy journey into your retired life.

www.easyinsuranceindia.com

Kalyani Narayanan, CEO and Principal Officer says

In insurance parlance, 'Critical illness' is classified as those illnesses that, even after treatment (if at all), the disease alters the lifestyle of a person drastically. Take for example, cancer. Whatever the kind of cancer it is, even after getting cured, the person who is affected by that disease can never really be as 'normal' as he/she was before. 

To begin with, there is huge medical cost for treatment (depending on how advanced the disease is) and the expense of routine medical check-up. Plus, depending on how much the patient is affected, he/she may or may not be able to pursue the career in the same pace as before so there is potential loss of income. In essence, not only the savings could be wiped out, the earnings could come to a grinding halt. 'Critical Illness' policy came about to protect families with cash benefit under such situations. 

I am hoping that most of you, by now, have at least some Health insurance policy that protects you and your family against the financial burden that could arise due to hospitalization of any of the family members. 

For a normal healthy family of 4 with the oldest person, say about 50 years, we may think, a health insurance policy for Rs. 500,000 is sufficient. But, what if, one of the members is suddenly diagnosed of cancer, or some organ failure. The Rs. 500,000 is simply not sufficient to take care of the medical expenses arising out of such illness. At the same time, it is absurd to be paranoid about all the possible ailments a person could have and get a health insurance policy for, say, Rs 1 Crore. 

So, the ‘Critical illness’ policy is something one can purchase as an additional cover to take care of major illnesses. Each insurance company has a different list of what it considers as critical illnesses. When you purchase a 'critical illness' policy, what the company is promising is to pay a lump sum of amount if the insured person is diagnosed of any one of its listed critical illnesses, provided the insured lives at least 30 days after being diagnosed with that illness. The idea is that, hopefully, with the additional money, the insured is in a better position to handle the ailment.

The 'critical illness' policy generally comes as an optional cover with health insurance or life insurance. There are also companies that let you purchase this cover as a separate policy. 

Let us say an individual of 50 years is purchasing Health insurance for Rs. 500,000 at a cost of about Rs. 11,000. If he/she also chooses to add the optional 'critical illness' cover for another Rs. 500,000, then that option would cost another Rs. 3,900, thus the total policy premium would be about Rs. 14,900. 

If your employer already has health insurance for you and your family, you have the option of purchasing critical illness cover alone separately. This may cost about Rs. 6000 per year for the same age and cover. 

Under life insurance policy also, Rs. 5 lacs of critical illness would cost about Rs. 6000 for the same aged person. 

Points to consider when investing in critical illness cover: 
Understand your own family history to determine the risk of inheriting the same
Understand your own lifestyle (food habits, physical exercise, stress level, etc) to determine the diseases that you are prone to
Look for policies that cover the critical illnesses based on your self assessment from the two points above plus other most common and complete list of illnesses
See if it covers almost all the heart diseases that you can think of: bypass surgery, first heart attack, coronary heart disease, heart valve surgery, etc. since much more Indians are prone to heart diseases
Understand the type of claim settlement: Is it a lump sum payment on diagnosis (or) is it payment of medical expenses
The age at which the company stops renewing critical illness policy


Email me if you need any more information. or If you are interested in taking a health insurance policy please CLICKING HERE.

www.easyinsuranceindia.com

Kalyani Narayanan, CEO and Principal Officer says

Kalyani Narayanan, CEO and Principal Officer says

Kalyani Narayanan, CEO and Principal Officer says