Plan for a Happy and Healthy Retired Life

At the end of last month, the Oscar awards were aired on television. Everybody tuned in to watch, many waking up at 3 and 4 to enjoy the award ceremony. Whether you watched the ceremony live, a repeat telecast later on in the day, or didn't watch at all, you're sure to have heard about what happened.

The award for best film was awarded incorrectly. And it took a while for the organisers to realise something was wrong. The cast of La La Land were almost done with their speeches when it was announced that Moonlight had actually won the award. While many find this situation quite hilarious, what we don't realise is that things like this happen on a daily basis. People have plans – they think their future is secure, but in one quick second, everything can change.

When Alok got a job at a well-known MNC after his MBA, he was doing quite well. He put his savings in Fixed Deposits and Postal Savings. Over time, he had enough for his retirement, and on his 60th birthday, he decided he didn't want to be in the working world anymore. A month after his birthday, there was a big party in the office. Alok, and his friend and colleague Aditya, were both retiring after serving the company for almost 40 years.

A few weeks later, Alok was feeling slightly uneasy at home, and his wife Sunidhi rushed him to the hospital. She sat patiently in the waiting room as doctors performed some tests on Alok to find out what was wrong. After a few hours, the doctor said that there might have been a slight issue with Alok's blood pressure, but they couldn't detect anything wrong. They wanted to keep him overnight for observation, but since Alok didn't have any kind of medical insurance, Sunidhi had to put down a deposit of Rs. 20,000 for Alok to stay the night in the hospital.

Not knowing what to do, Sunidhi called Aditya for help. He rushed to the hospital with the money that Alok required. Although Alok recovered quite quickly, his finances weren't able to do the same. The hospital bills they had to shell out money for severely affected their savings, and they were running short of money to meet their monthly expenses. Without a steady flow of income, they were struggling to make ends meet, and finally they reached out to their son who was settled in London, and asked him to send them some money to help them out.

Because of Aditya’s timely help Alok recovered. He promised to pay Aditya back. He knew how hard it was to manage without a regular income, so he asked Aditya how he could just hand Alok so much money without having to worry about it. Aditya smiled and told Alok that he had purchased a really good health plan just after they started working together. He made sure he renewed his health plan regularly. If Aditya or his wife were to find themselves in hospital, the insurance would take care of their medical bills, and relieve them of that particular financial burden.

When Alok heard this, he realised that he had made a terrible mistake; one that he no longer had the time or money to correct. He had always saved up for his retirement, but he never thought about emergency situations in which he might need some excess cash flow. If only he had thought about a health plan, he wouldn't be in the situation he was in today, indebted to his good friend.

It's important to protect ourselves from all kinds of eventualities. We don't know what life has in store for us, and there may be times when we need some extra money to pay off a medical bill, or help our children with some extra cash. If you'd like to protect yourself too, then you can browse through the numerous plans offered by HDFC Life, and find something that suits your needs.