Do you have more insurance because you ride?

Casper250

Motosapien
Dec 12, 2000
579
1
I finally got a "real" job after 6 years of school and 5 months of searching and i'm fortunate now to have benifits like heath insurance and the such. I was reading over my papers and there is a standered plan and an upgraded plan for more coverage. My first reaction was just get the normal plan but after thinking about it, i participate in activities that might justify the extra coverage. On top of riding and ocasonal racing motocross, i just got a streetbike this summer, I drive a sports car(if that really matters) and I like to ski and wakeboard.

I am just curious what some other people have done.
 

mx547

Ortho doc's wet dream
LIFETIME SPONSOR
Nov 24, 2000
4,787
102
i recently started riding street almost daily so i added an additional 250k of life insurance.
 

Jeff Gilbert

N. Texas SP
LIFETIME SPONSOR
Oct 20, 2000
2,969
2
I have a lot of life insurance but health is a different matter right now. It seems as though the insurance company has cancelled my companies health insurance policy for "non payment." Funny thing is I actually saw the premium get paid (was in the accountants office the day she made out the check and commented how expensive it has gotten) yet they said they never recieved payment untill 2 months after the "grace period" so they were returning our check. I did find it amusing that the rep said the post office delivered the mail with our check on Columbus day (a postal holiday).

We did file a complaint with the state insurance board but who knows what that'll bring. The aggrivating part for me was I spent a week at Cooperland riding without insurance, had I known I would have been a nervous wreck! I'm glad I didn't get hurt!!!
 

Tennessee Thumper

Sponsoring Member
Jan 23, 2000
446
0
I would get some short term & long term disability.It pays if you're sick,or injured outside of the work place.

I have myself insured for $2500 a month,and it starts paying within 7 days of the accident, or sickness.With disability insurance you can atleast have a little "piece of mind" while riding.
 
Last edited:

Timr

LIFETIME SPONSOR
Jul 26, 1999
1,972
6
When I got my life insurance policies, I did tell them that I rode and raced dirt bikes.  They had to think about it a little, but they came back with two offers.  One was if I got killed while riding, it would cover but not if it was a race, and another was if I got killed while racing.  I went with the latter, and it was a few bucks more.  No big deal.

Health insurance, I have the top policy that my company offers.  It's only a few bucks more per month.

 

 
 

jaction125

~SPONSOR~
Jan 30, 2003
605
0
I had both long and short term disability with the last company I worked for and I would feel a whole lot better if I had it again. What does that stuff cost if you get it on your own?
 

Patman

Pantless Wonder
LIFETIME SPONSOR
Dec 26, 1999
19,774
0
I recently changed some of my coverages up and was amazed at how under protected I really was! :eek: The previous policies were pretty standard but they left big holes in the disability such as a very minimal monthly pay out and I had to be diabled to the point of basically being a vegtible! My new disability policy states if I can't do MY job I get paid and I get pretty much what I am currently making :thumb: My life insurance was enough to cover paying off the house but I now bumped i up to... well A LOT. I feel better that if I do something stupid and get disabled my family is covered and if I get really stupid they can live as well of better than if I was around. My company has pretty good medical insurance because we think it's the right thing to do for everybody. Having doctor bills distracting people only hurts productivity and it is a good employee retention feature when we pick up 100% of a great policy for the employee.
 

Hondaxrguy

Member
May 17, 2001
573
0
I highly recommend AFLAC. It's very cheap (about $28 a month for the wife and I) and pays you cash to cover expenses of an accidental injury. For example, if you go to the emergency room, or a walk in clinic, they pay you $120. If you stay the night in a hospital, they give you somewhere between $800-$1000 a night! They also cover some of your lost wages if you are out of work due to the injury.

They also encourage preventative care, and will pay you $60 if you get a physical, eye exam, etc..... (once yearly)

Jeremy
 

Smit-Dog

Mi. Trail Riders
LIFETIME SPONSOR
Oct 28, 2001
4,704
0
Like Patman did, you have to work up the real-world scenario of what expenses would need to be covered if you got hurt. Could you go 3 months without income? 6 months? 3 weeks? :eek: Also keep in mind that even with insurance coverage, you can still get dinged with copays (mine was $1300 w/ simple collarbone break) and lost vacation time.

A disabling injury will have a different financial impact on different people. Are you a full-time student living at home with few expenses and even less income? Or are you the sole income provider for a wife, 3 kids, with a mortgage, auto loans, property taxes etc?

Add up all your fixed and variable expenses for a month. How long could your savings carry you? If you were totally disabled, would a fair amount of your expenses go away? Would the typical 60% income of long-term disability insurance cover it for you?

Basically, I carry long-term coverage and life insurance only. Short-term (< 90 days) is covered by savings. If it really came down to it, my wife could go back to work semi full-time and make a decent amount to cover the gap.

As for life insurance, if you don't have any dependents, I wouldn't worry about it. Maybe get just enough to cover funeral expenses and to throw a blow-out wake for your friends and family.

If you have a wife but not any kids, it would depend on your wife's situation. Does she have a decent career to fall back on? Would she get re-married? If yes and/or yes, then I'd just get enough life insurance to cover her for a couple years to remain financially stable during the transition.

If you do have young kids with a stay-at-home mom supporting the family, then you really have to add up all your monthly expenses (don't skimp here), multiple by 12 for total yearly expenses, and then figure out how many years you need to support the family. You also need to factor in cost-of-living increases. For me, as primary bread-winner with 3 kids (9,7,3), I have enough life insurance to cover all expenses for 13 years. This does not account for investment interest or appreciation, so it would very likely cover them longer. Although I didn't factor it in income-wise, I would bet that my wife would get re-married at some point, and she has a decent career to fall back on.

And as far as paying off the house, I wouldn't recommend it. Have your wife keep all low-interest and/or tax-deductible interest loans intact. Use the proceeds from a large life insurance policy to cover monthly expenses, while generating the maximum investment interest.
 
Last edited:

High Lord Gomer

Poked with Sticks
Sep 26, 1999
11,790
34
If you have disability premiums taken out before taxes, you have to pay taxes on any money they pay you. So if you get 60% of your normal pay then have to pay taxes on it, you're down to around 40% of your normal pay. If you have the disability premiums taken out after taxes, the benefits are not taxable and you get the full 60%...not much less than you make after taxes, anyway.

Most employers prefer that you have all premiums taken out before taxes so they have less matching tax to pay, but you have the right to have disability (and health, but it is rare to benefit from doing so) premiums taken out after taxes.
 

Smit-Dog

Mi. Trail Riders
LIFETIME SPONSOR
Oct 28, 2001
4,704
0
My disability insurance premiums are paid with after-tax money, AND the employer-paid portion of my LT disability premium is *added* on to my gross wages for tax and 401k deferral purposes. The employer then takes the LT premium back out as a deduction, so I don't actually get the money (other than the 401k portion).

All life insurance (my, wife's, kids) premiums are taken out after-tax.
 

JasonJ

Member
Jun 15, 2001
1,150
1
Whats the differance between the two ins plans? If its less than $20 a week, its money well spent. I was luckey a few years back in your same boat more or less, just out on my own, first appartment, first job out of High School, ect, I took the more expeniseve ins as it was only like $5 more a week and never thought about it again. 2 years later I was in a street bike accidnet and out of action for 6 weeks, I was glad I had the better ins and had disability. It took a while for the disability check to come, but I would have lost my apartment without it. Thinking back, that might have been a blessing :) LOL
These days, I carry good disability and like 100K life ins.
Check your disability fine print, alot of these wiesels have clauses against paying for what they call extream sports. Basicley they are snaking out of paying for everyting from skateboarding, mountain bikeing! and of corse, dirt bike riding. So look into that and ask your HR and if they dont know, get it right from the Ins reps mouth. They want you to stay in shape, but they dont want you to be outside doing what you enjoy to keep in shape....... go figure.
 

Casper250

Motosapien
Dec 12, 2000
579
1
Well, i haven't been able to look at the two plans in detail yet because i'm still in the process of a gettting a computer and password. Thanks for all the information!
 

CaptainObvious

Formally known as RV6Junkie
Damn Yankees
LIFETIME SPONSOR
Jan 8, 2000
3,331
1
Casper,

Smit-Dog gave some good advice. If you are single, or married with out kids and the wife has a good job, don't worry too much about life coverage. A basic rule of thumb for the amount of coverage to buy is 5x your annual salary. If you have a large mortgage or kids that need to go to college consider as much as 10x. Agents who sell this coverage as a stand-alone product usually have very good computer models for the amount of coverage to buy. In any event, it is a coverage that you should reevaluate with the many life changes you will go through (marriage, kids, college...).

Disability is a different story. Personally, I buy as much disability as my company offers. I also buy Accident, Death & Disability coverage. Think of AD&D as life insurance that pays YOU if you don't die. Loose a limb, get paid.
 

nikki

Moto Junkie
Apr 21, 2000
5,802
1
Yep... I have increased medical, life, disability, and AD&D because I ride.

The medical was a no brainer. We can choose a basic PPO or an enhanced PPO. They have different deductibles and percentages that you are responsible for. The "break even" point for getting the enhanced PPO was around $3,000 which means if you think you will have $3,000 of medical bills in the year, you will pay less total out of pocket with the enhanced. Needless to say, I crashed pretty good in March and racked up over $12,000 in bills between an ambulance ride, visit to the ER, 2 MRIs ($2,500 each!), numerous x-rays, numerous doctors visits, and 30+ physical therapy sessions. And I'm scheduled to go back for more fun in November. Good thing I elected for the enhanced medical plan!

Life... like RV6junkie said - get enough to cover your debts. Luckily my company offers very inexpensive life insurance so I'm around 5 times my salary which would easily cover all my bills and bury me if need be. If I had children, I would definately bump up my coverage even more.

Disability and AD&D... I always think of it as better safe than sorry. I would have to be severely disabled to not be able to do my office job, but at my previous job (required lifting and the like), I took full advantage of disability pay when missing 6-8 weeks of work due to a broken collarbone.
 

Nevada Sixx

Member
Jan 14, 2000
1,033
0
its cool to have disability insurance, the government will only pay less than half of what a young man makes each month if you get hurt. If you have a personal liability policy, being a rider may make that premium go up a little. on your regular health insurance, make sure your policy will pay well even if you dont get to spend the night at the hospital (out patient).
 
Top Bottom