MoneyWalk 41: Trusting God to cover loss

This program will help you undo financial bondage.

Only God can truly help your family recover from incidents, emergencies, and catastrophes. Yet, it’s prudent to consider insurance a portion of your plan to cover future risk in various areas of your life. Determine your need for insurance based on the costs you or your family will truly need to cover when incidents occur. For example, consider whether or not you have enough income or assets to cover the costs that you will incur if a family member is injured or needed property is damaged. You should also consider whether or not you could self-insure a portion of the risk by saving enough within a short period of time to cover the costs.

For example, if you drive a car that's worth $1,000 and the physical damage coverage would cost $500 per year, it may be best to purchase only liability coverage because you have a much higher probability of amassing within a reasonable amount of time the amount of money than your car is worth or that is likely to be needed to make repairs than you have of being involved in an accident that requires you to pay $1,000 for damage to your vehicle.

However, if the cost for the physical damage insurance is low, say $50 per year with a low deductible and you do not currently have enough assets amassed to purchase another vehicle or make needed repairs when damage occurs, you may want to purchase the coverage and work out a budget for saving so that in the future you could self-insure the physical damage risk.

You would not want to treat liability coverage, health, or disability coverage in this same manner because you cannot know finitely what your exposure may be until an incident or diagnosis is received. Yet, you can work with financial professionals, insurers, and their representatives to identify the lowest cost options that will fit your financial situation and help protect your family and finances.

If you have saved enough money to provide your dependents an annual income that equals or exceeds your current income, you may not need to purchase life insurance unless your family will have extenuating circumstances such as estate tax payments or liquidity problems that will not allow inherited assets to provide the level of income necessary to continue the family’s current lifestyle. Again, you should seek the guidance of financial, insurance, and legal counsel to make sure you have covered all the bases to make the right decision for your family and finances.

Just remember, insurance purchases are always based on an uncertain future and estimates and thus benefits you choose may not cover all that you truly need when incidents, emergencies, or catastrophes occur. Therefore, after having done all that you can to reasonably prepare for the future by seeking His guidance through godly counselors and taking the actions you need to take, put your total trust in God that He will cause all things to work together for good in every situation that you will face.

Please pray for this ministry and email any questions. May God bless you richly as you follow His plan!!!
Psalms 124, 127:1-2, Matthew 6:30-32, Philippians 4:6-7
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