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Protection!

Recently, while spending time with my friend Al in his office I asked him of the significance of a beautifully drawn charcoal sketch of a male lion with penetrating eyes and clearly the king of the jungle. He explained to me that the dominant male’s role in the pride was to watch over the females and the babies, and to see to it that all are taken care of. The dominant male doesn’t hunt nor task himself with the everyday chores of the pride, only but to look after them, protect them, and lead them. He will defend the pride with his life, and they will depend on him to make the decisions necessary for the health and well-being of the pride. Al has over 100 employees in his business, and he prides himself (no pun intended) on being the dominant male in his pride, making sure his employees have a roof over their heads, food to eat, and someone to watch over them. I admire him greatly for his outlook on life as well as being a good friend- he is a person to look up to.

While I am the “dominant lion of my company” I began to think about how this would apply to all of us, regardless of gender. Protection means so many things to all of us that I thought I would narrow it down to a few key points that should apply for most of us and bears attention:

Physical protection: We do our best to watch over our family to guard them from harm. We teach our children right from wrong, and try to raise them with a sense of well-being to grow up to be fine human beings. We teach them morals and manners, the dangers of jaywalking, and to be polite and giving. At home we are sure to put a fence around our pools to avert disaster, and install alarms on our homes to keep out the unwanted. Our job as parents are to teach our children to be fine adults, protecting them the best we can with all that we have to work with.

Life Insurance: since we are not born with an expiration date stamped on our bum, we utilize life insurance to protect our family members in the case of our untimely death. The purpose of life insurance is not to make others wealthy, but to allow the remaining members of our family to continue to live in the manner they have been accustomed to without an upheaval of lifestyle. Losing a loved family member is tragic enough: the goal is to keep on living for those still here. Paying for college, mortgage payments and all that we do on a daily basis cost money: life insurance bridges that gap. The goal is not to live on the payment: it is to invest and live on the interest. You never want to kill the goose who lays the golden eggs: you never want to spend down the principal, just the interest.

Disability Insurance: is an insurance that pays you a fixed amount to help you pay your monthly bills if you are unable to work and have an interruption in your salary. Benefits vary depending on the plan, as well as taxation. This is very serious insurance that may keep you in your home when you can’t work due to illness or injury.

Long Term Care Insurance: Most of us know of or went through the caregiving exercise of taking care of an aging loved one. This type of insurance helps pay for the expenses involved in allowing the aged to live gracefully and respectfully in the last years of our life by providing the money to pay for it.

On the subject, there are so many types of protection we are involved in everyday- health insurance, car insurance, car and home alarms, regular doctor visits, good diet- protection has a different connotation for all of us. I talk much about insurance in general as it is a way to protect ourselves and our loved ones for a relatively low cost in comparison to the potential benefits. I am not advocating you just go out and buy insurance: be sure to consult with your professional advisors. Protection varies for all of us- my goal is to just make you aware that there are many ways to protect ourselves. The most important thing is to evaluate your safety and take the necessary step to protect you, your family and all those you care about.

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