Michael A. Healey Blog Everybody Wake Up Is Well Worth The Read

Everybody Wake Up (if you’re living with your eyes closed)

It is a beautiful sunny day in Vancouver today, cold and crisp, as nice as one can hope for in November. This morning I got a bit of early start as I didn’t have to take my kids to school. As I made my way downtown, listening to some of my favourite music at the customary “these go to 11” volume in my car, I was looking forward to my day – a 9 am client meeting, a planning meeting with my committee for our local chapter of Advocis, some business planning, lunch with a colleague, and one more client meeting mid-afternoon. At the end of my work day, a chance to see my 5 year old son on the ice playing hockey. Feeling great. A perfect Friday.

As I drove north down Burrard Street past 4^th Avenue, I saw something that looked out of place. A car in the southbound lanes facing the wrong way, perhaps a fender bender. As I slowly approached the scene, a single red shoe lay in the middle of the northbound center lane, probably 50 to 60 feet from the turned-around BMW. Then a few people on cell phones. No emergency vehicles around; this must have just happened. As I came up beside the turned-around BMW, I noticed the passenger door was open and a woman was sitting in the passenger seat. For a split second, I was relieved. It didn’t appear as though anyone was injured. For a split second. And then I saw what lay in front on the car – remnants of what once had been a motorcycle, and a person lying motionless on the ground. Several bystanders had gathered, and the individual was being attended to by a few of them. Help was obviously on its way.

So much for a perfect Friday. My heart immediately sunk, and down went the volume on the car stereo. What was the motorcyclist thinking just minutes ago? Very likely something along the lines of my earlier thoughts – nice day, sun is shining, etc. I am quite certain that the individual wasn’t planning on being involved in an accident. And from the looks of it, a very, VERY bad one at that.

This brought my thoughts around to what it is that I really do. I sell life insurance. I sell long term disability insurance. I sell critical illness insurance. No one plans on the premature death, or the accident, or the illness. But these things happen. Often when we least expect them to.

So here is what I hope. I hope that the motorcyclist was not seriously injured (although it certainly didn’t seem that way). I hope that the motorcyclist doesn’t have family, especially children that depend on him or her. I hope that the motorcyclist had taken proper steps to ensure that he or she and his or her family would survive financially, if something like this were to ever happen. I hope that my hopes are correct. My experience, however, leads me to think otherwise.

PLEASE, stop saying “It won’t happen to me”. I hope it doesn’t. But it may. Are you prepared? Are your plans up to date?

Click here to contact Michael A. Healey, B.A., CFP, CLU, CHS