Disability & Retirement Questions

[Starry436]

My company is offering a short term disability plan, for what I can tell it is 60% of salary for up to 26 weeks. Right now I am young and pretty healthy but no one can predict future health issues. It's $21 per bi weekly check if I opt in. My husband has this but it is all company paid for. Should I opt in?

We've always had the rule of thumb to only take on as much as one income could pay for. So while that might mean eating ramen and soup we could still pay for our current bills on one income should things get tough.

The company retirement plan contributes 10% of what I put in ..so on $10 they'll give me $1. What else can I do to save money for retirement? I've seen where my bank offers IRAs and I know nothing about investments yet so when people start talking stocks I'm totally lost. Any advice?
Thanks

[snafu]

I hope you are contributing to retirement plan to capture at least the entire sum your employer offers. What was offered for investment? What did you choose? What are the management costs for your plan?

The devil are in the details for Disability Ins. What standard must be meet to qualify as 'disability' for the plan being offered for $ 1,092. in annual premiums?

Would you be willing to read a bit about the basics for investments? An easy read [available free at your library or used] is The Automatic Millionaire [Bach] or The Millionaire Next Door [Danko]. There are huge discussions here at SA, at the 'Search' [top right]

[FLA]

I would read the details for what qualifies for STD, sometimes mental health things like depression are not covered. Does it cover postpartum time? Then look at what 60% of your income is minus the disability insurance cost and see it is within your realm of expectations. Some states provide STD through the employer, I would double check that first. After checking everything, I would encourage it, having just gone through all that myself. My employer and NYS gave me the 60% and for the first year ever (I am 45), I happened to buy extra voluntary STD. Am I ever glad I did. But I probably would not be so happy if I'd paid $1000 a year and never used it. FTR, I was healthy, young-ish and never expected I'd use the insurance.

[Starry436]

Thanks for the advice. Now that I have a job where these benefits being offered I'm definitely going to start trying to learn as much as I can about them. I'm going to sign up for the company 401K, still unsure of the disability.