For 28 years, I have practiced as a Registered Investment Advisor, a fiduciary under securities law. When I started 44 years ago, it was not possible to serve the middle class by fees. We had no computers and Charles Schwab had not yet put together his concept of a supermarket of stocks, bonds, and mutual funds available primarily without percentage charges.

What I learned early on though is that for those of us in the middle class, a stoppage of our ability to work every week was and still is the greatest threat to our financial success. So I have been evangelistic about making sure that our clients have group protection through their work or have purchased individual disability income insurance for that potential disaster.

If it is difficult for you to make it through the month on your current take-home pay, think about the issues that arise if that spendable income drops by 30-40 percent if you have group coverage or to nothing if you do not have any insurance. This is why 48 percent of home mortgage foreclosures have consistently been caused by the disability of one of the earners in the family. If you have $1 to spend on insurance, put it toward this necessity!

On the other end of your working life, you face a different form of disability. This is one that may result in requiring home health care and ultimately long term care in a facility. We might all desire to die some day in our sleep of a heart attack, but most of us will not. With the demand for such care of Baby Boomers rising steadily, local costs per month range from about $6,000 to about $9-10,000 for memory care. Costs on both coasts exceed $10,000 a month for the typical non-dementia care.

A person who may sell only long term care insurance will often cite these figures and say you already need more than $6,000 of protection since future costs will undoubtedly rise. For 40 years however, I have recommended people consider the gap of their need instead. What do I mean?

Assume for the moment that you have $3,000 per month of Social Security income. Also assume you have $300,000 of IRA or other assets earning an average gain of at least 6 percent. Even if you spend the entire gain, $18,000 a year, you would have $4,500 a month to spend toward home health care or facility charges. Under these assumptions, for the majority of people, another $2,500 per month from insurance would meet the need.

Long term care insurance is not like your homeowner’s protection. You cannot choose to insure half of your home’s value although you can choose your deductibles. The companies will not provide that. But the cost of $2,500 or $3,000 of monthly benefit even with an inflation rider is much more affordable in the retiree’s budget than 2 to 3 times as much.

In addition, there are insurance policies that can offer a return of money to your family in the event you never need the long term care or need very little of it. My dear departed father had coverage of $1,650 per month using my philosophy, but only needed nursing home care for the 9 months he lived past age 100. Both my parents could have used the coverage long before that, but they could afford the home health care on their own and coverage for that was not commonly offered back in the late 1980’s when they purchased their policy.

One other great idea is to carry high-deductible health insurance while working and put the maximum allowable contributions into your Health Savings Account. If you do not spend much from the HSA as you go along in your working years, you should have thousands of tax free money for your retirement healthcare, dental, etc. and for the time periods Medicare or long term care insurance does not pick up.

The Golden Age may not seem too golden after all, but it helps to have some gold for the probabilities.

(Past performance is no guarantee of future results. The advice is general in nature and not intended for specific situations)