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Changing DirectionBoy isn’t it difficult for us as human beings to change directions? I mean it’s hard enough on us to follow directions never the less change them. On the football field or basketball court, we marvel at athletes who effortlessly change directions during the course of a play. Yet when we have to change directions in our lives, we gripe and grown. During the course of our childhood, we change directions frequently. We go from kindergarten to elementary school to middle school to high school. For the most part, every time we change directions in our early years, it seams to be positive. However, as we get older and our lives get more complicated changing direction becomes more and more difficult. The natural progression of meaningful changes starts usually after high school. We need to decide weather or not we are going to work or go to college. If we go to college, we then need to decide what our major will be. The average college student changes majors (directions) three times. Finally, there is a decision about what we want to do with our lives. We become set in it and for the most part of our lives, that occupation is what we do. Many of us also change directions going from single life to married life, constantly having to adjust to the changes that are occurring in our lives. Finally, we think that we have reached our prime destination. We have achieved for the most part a lifetime dream that we talked about all of our lives. We are independent adults who are married and seemingly content to happy when another huge change occurs. Children! That’s right, we become parents. Probably the biggest change that will ever occur in our lives so we think. For the first time, you now have little helpless people that are dependent on you. Through trial and error, somehow, you adjust. By now you’re sitting on the couch smoking a cigar or reading a good book thinking this is pretty good. I’ve got this down. I can coast the rest of my life. From here on in I just need to maintain things and barring sickness, it is smooth sailing. How many times have we all said it? As long as we have our health, nothing else matters. Never do we realize how true that is until a catastrophic event occurs and a permanent bodily impairment renders us disabled. You see up until this point, the changes that you made in your life affected only you and maybe your spouse. This change in direction was totally unwanted. I mean, did you ever think that you were going to be disabled? I believe that if we poled 100 people in there 20’s and ask the question "do you believe that at any given time in your life that you will be disabled either temporarily or permanently?" That more than 90% would say no. I’m being very conservative with that figure. My point is that no one can be ready for this change in direction. Let’s take a ride on a fictional scenario. I’m sure that a lot of you reading this will identify with different parts of this story depending on your socioeconomic status. This scenario will deal with issues other than you’re physical disability. I will talk about that later. Here is Dr. Smith, neurosurgeon who has reached his goal in life. Dr. Smith’s practice was very successful. Of course, the practice is incorporated. Dr. Smith wasn’t financially smart. He did not seek the advice of a financial expert. He was stupid, he did all of his finances himself and he is now paying for it dearly. Financially nothing was set up right in the event of a disability and Dr. Smith is paying taxes on his disability income insurance. Because of this, his income is not enough to maintain the lifestyle that he and his family have become accustomed to. You see, you can only buy insurance for approximately 66% of you’re income. The reason being is that about a third of our income goes to taxes anyway so about 66% is what you would live on. You see, if you let your business pay for the premiums instead of paying for them personally, then the disability income becomes taxable. Now, Dr. Smith and his family will end up with only about 48% of the income that they are accustomed to. A major change in direction. They need to change they’re lifestyle. This was his first mistake. It takes about three years after becoming disabled for you to separate from corporate life. Many decisions have to be made. Are you physically or mentally capable of making these decisions? If you are not then who will make them for you. Remember the world will not wait for you. More than likely your spouse will be put in the position of making most of these decisions. Does your spouse have enough knowledge to handle this change in direction? If not, educate him/her as to ever aspect of your business. You may think that you are passed this period. It could be you if your condition worsens so pay attention. There is leased equipment, leased space, leased cars and a whole lot of other things that you need to take care of. Now that you’re disabled or your disability has gotten worse, you neither have the need nor the finances for all of these leases. What do you do? Because Dr. Smith didn’t seek professional help, his financial world was falling apart. He had personally guaranteed his car lease and all of his business leases so he was responsible for them all. The mistake that he made was not reading the lease contracts so he could negotiate the personal guarantee out. Creditors came a calling. You see, they didn’t care that the good doctor was disabled. They simply wanted their money. Any leases that you sign from now on for your business or corporation: do not sign a personal guarantee. If your corporation goes under because of your disability, often you can walk away from these leases as long as you don’t sign for them personally. If you do, then you are liable. If the car leasing company or the landlord or the equipment leasing company will not give you the lease unless you sign a personal guarantee, make sure that you then buy a waiver of premium for disability. This is an insurance policy that will pay for your leases should you loose you business because of your disability. Another thing that you can do is to purchase Business Overhead insurance. This policy needs to be reviewed and updated annually. Dr. Smith also did not buy a waiver of premium of disability for any of his life insurance policies because no one told him about it. Dr. Smith thought that he was so sophisticated while in fact he was the insurance industry’s dream consumer. You see Dr. Smith had purchased a term life insurance policy and three whole life policies. Because of his financial mistakes, he had to cancel all four policies when he became disabled because he couldn’t afford them. He was counting on the term policy to stabilize his family in the event of his death. One of the whole life policies was going to be used as a savings vehicle for his retirement and the other two were going to be use to save money for his children’s college education. Because he let his business pay for the disability income policy and he didn’t purchase the waiver of premium for disability, he lost all four of his policies leaving his family very vulnerable in the event of his death. Dr. Smith was a successful professional. He is an independent person. Counting on no one but him. Suddenly, his disability renders him dependent on others. He is not in control of every situation any longer. This is a major change of direction. Dr. Smith did not cope well with this situation therefore, he is going to have a difficult time trying to deal with his disability. By not accepting this change in direction graciously and not being thankful to his caregivers, he made his life worse. This kind of behavior can destroy relationships. He needed to submit to professional psychological help so that he can work through his issues about his disability. By not getting it he suffered a great hardship as the people that he loved and needed the most were distancing themselves from him. This was his second big mistake. Prior to Dr. Smith becoming disabled, he was an active individual who enjoyed physical activities. His impairment left him unable to play sports, unable to exercise and in constant pain. His whole physical life came to a screeching halt. I would call this a major change in direction. He had to learn to deal with his impairment daily and permanently. Emotionally, this was very hard for Dr. Smith. He didn’t handle it well initially. For the couple month or so, he stayed in bed and moped. He was simply feeling sorry for himself and became depressed. I know, a lot of you are saying to yourselves that he is in titled to feel sorry for a little while at least. Well how long is to long? The answer to that question is it is up to the individual. For Dr. Smith to reach the level of success that he did, he had to be a very confident person with tremendous ambition. A couple of months in bed was to long. Because it gave him too much time to dwell on his physical condition. It would have been better for him and his family if he would have sought professional help immediately to discuss how he was going to cope with his physical impairment. His feelings would have been dealt with and nothing would have festered inside of him. This course of action could only have helped. Instead, his depression made it difficult for both him and his family to coexist together. His physician had set up therapy for him and he refused to go at first. The point of the therapy was to give him back as much of his physical life as possible. Sure it was hard and painful work but what he was going to gain from it was priceless. Finally, Dr. Smith’s family had an intervention with him. They told him how much they loved him and as unfortunate as his physical impairment was that they still loved him. They also told him that they felt he needed to see a therapist so that he could learn to cope with his problem. After putting up an arrogant fight he agreed to go for help. The good news is that today Dr. Smith has learned to deal with his permanent physical impairment. Even though he had to change directions many times in the last few years, he is finally back on course. Although fictions, you can see the real life hardships that Dr. Smith and his family are going through as a result of poor planning. Changing directions in the midst of becoming disabled is hard enough, you don’t need the added stress of poor planning. A final thought! Plan for the future and get the proper help.
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