risk
Health Cover First
The rule
Health insurance is the first wall around your savings. One big hospital bill can wipe out years of careful investing, so build this wall first.
Where it flips
Fear of medical bills can tip into buying too much. People stack many overlapping policies whose premiums quietly bleed the very savings they protect. So keep one solid floater plus a super top-up, then stop and invest the rest.
Medical costs in India rise faster than almost anything else. One serious illness can drain savings built over ten years. So before you chase returns, buy a good family floater. It covers everyone under one shared sum. Then add a super top-up. It starts paying above a set limit and lifts your total cover cheaply. Do not lean only on your office policy. It ends the day you leave or lose the job. Cover bought young and kept renewed is cheaper and skips the waiting periods.
A worked example
Rohan invests ₹6 lakh over five years. Then a surgery costs ₹8 lakh. He has a ₹5 lakh floater plus a ₹20 lakh super top-up, costing about ₹25,000 a year. The bill is paid, and his investments stay untouched. [illustrative]
How to spot it
- ·leaning only on the office group cover
- ·no health policy, but a full SIP running
- ·sum insured unchanged for years while costs rise
Monika Halan · Let's Talk Money