The Johnsons Consider Buying Disability Insurance

Although Belinda's employer offers a generous employee benefit program, it does not provide disability income protection other than 8 sick days per year, which may accumulate to 20 days if Belinda does not use them. Harry also has no disability income insurance. Although both have worked long enough to qualify for Social Security disability benefits, Belinda has estimated that Harry would receive about $580 and she would receive about $880 per month from Social Security. Harry and Belinda realize that they could not maintain their current living standards on only one salary. Thus, the need for disability income insurance has become evident even though they probably cannot afford such protection at this time. In fact, they chose not to purchase the disability waiver of premium option when they purchased their life insurance. Advise them on the following points:

Harry	$
Belinda	$

Use the Run the Numbers Worksheet to determine how much disability insurance Harry and Belinda each need. Use the December salary figures from Table 3-6. To determine the amount of taxes and Social Security paid by each, assume that Harry, whose salary represents approximately 40 percent of their total income, paid a comparable percentage of the taxes.