did the morbid math last weekend and i’m loving learning this stuff even if it rattled me. i’m a devops engineer and total beancount beginner with a tiny side saas, solo income, no employer safety net. if i couldn’t work tomorrow or worse, what’s actually covered?
the stats freaked me out. social security says 1 in 4 of today’s 20-year-olds faces disability before 67, and the average ssdi check is only about $1,636 a month. that wouldn’t touch my mortgage plus real life.
i’m leaning disability-first now, like an own-occupation long-term policy covering roughly 60% of income, then term life second for family. business overhead stuff and all the riders sound like upsell to me.
for a solo operator, what insurance is actually essential and what’s oversold?