Being prepared for the worst - just in case

Are you a self-employed trader? A limited company with staff, or a one-man operation? Whatever you are, have you considered what would happen if 'the life-changing event which will never happen to me' happened to you? Today. Without warning, so that you weren't able to work. Maybe it stopped you working for weeks or months. Maybe it stopped you working for good. That's what happened to me on December 16 2013. My overstressed, massively-pressured self-employed lifestyle as a freelance journalist caused me to have a stroke; I always say my brain exploded under the pressure.

I collapsed while crossing a road and was nearly hit by a bus. I spent a month in hospital (I was paralysed for a fortnight of that), four months in a wheelchair and nearly two years on sticks, learning to walk again.

I haven't worked since that day and I was retired on medical grounds by my doctor at Christmas 2015. I'll be 53 this coming Saturday. Being unable to work at 53 wasn't in the gameplan when I set up my own business in 2010 after being made redundant from 'big' journalism. But I'm alive and glad that my wife and I had a plan in place. We had wills already made and critical-illness insurance cover, which paid out a decent five-figure sum and helped to pay our mortgage in the immediate aftermath of my stroke.

My wife was able to take paid leave from her job in the National Health Service, which helped. Of course, self-employed people don't have that option - you don't work, you don't earn.

But too many self-employed people don't prepare for this because 'it will never happen to me.' It can and it could. Shortly after my stroke, we had our bathroom ripped out (I couldn't get into or out of the bath after my stroke) and had a wet-room fitted. A few months later, we had a minor problem with a tile and asked the (self-employed) fitter to come and fix it. "I can't" he said. "I've fallen down some stairs and dislocated my knee. I'm off work indefinitely."

I don't know if he had some form of insurance policy, but what if he didn't? Who's paying the rent? Who's paying the mortgage? How are the weekly food bills getting paid? How is fuel being put in the family car?

Don't be foolish enough to think that the life-changing event will never happen to you. It can. It could happen today or tomorrow. I'm living and breathing proof of it. So is that self-employed bathroom fitter. If you haven't got some form of financial security in place in case your income suddenly stops, you are, frankly, sticking your head in the sand. Do it now. Do it today. Before that life-changing event changes your life very much for the worst.

Author, Martin Warrillow "I had a stroke in 2013 and was nearly hit by a bus. I'm the man who picked a fight with a bus and won"

"I do talks about stroke education and awareness, based on my experience"

Info@martinwarrillow.com is the email.

Website is www.askthewarrior.com,

phone number 07905115014

If you would require more information please don't hesitate to contact me.