Peter Griffin Planwise Financial Services

For many New Zealand households, nearly 100 per cent of the income coming into the home is being consumed in living expenses, rent or mortgage repayments.

For a large number of those households, the income comes through personal effort. A recent Auckland University poll highlights that 53 per cent of employed 18-64-year-old respondents could not continue to pay all current household expenses after four weeks if off work due to sickness.

Most people think their home is their most valuable asset when it usually is their lifetime income. So we insure our homes and cars but not our incomes.

And 45 per cent of employed 18-64-year-olds think their home is their most valuable asset and only 24 per cent their lifetime income. But when told that $50,000 a year during 40 years equals $2 million before tax, then 46 per cent then said their lifetime income is their most valuable asset and 29 per cent said their home.

You are 2.2 times more likely to have someone unable to work for six months or more as a result of an illness than an accident. But yet one in five people thinks wrongly that ACC covers sickness.

Many people don't understand that Social Welfare or ACC may not be able to help them. Many are not aware that their partner's income – if $30,000 or more – will stop them from receiving a Job Seeker allowance.

This is where we come in. Don't leave things to chance, take the next step and contact Planwise so we can take the uncertainty away.