A downside to the arts and entertainment industry remains that workers’ compensation benefits are few and far between. Let’s say you hurt yourself training or rehearsing on your own time. If you are lucky enough to have health insurance with a benefit for when you cannot work, you are covered. But, for most of us … getting hurt means a difficult couple of months ahead. Or 1) you go to work and spend twice as long in pain, as it will take twice as long to recover if you are constantly in your injury; or, 2) you spend your entire recovery stressed about how you are going to eat and pay your rent.
If you have money set aside to cover your expenses in case you get hurt, you won’t have to worry. You have a lot of time to think about your next step. Think about how smooth your recovery will be if you don’t have to worry about anything else except your injury.
Consider another scenario. What about the companies you work for now? I hear artists say, “Oh, they have insurance. I don’t need to worry.” Do you really know what kind of insurance they have? Regular event companies are only required to have a “liability policy” during their events. Liability policies only cover all other people at the event. Let’s say you walk on stilts and fall on someone. Guess who’s not covered? That is correct, you are not. The person you fell on is entitled to a portion of the $ 2 million liability policy, but not you!
In this situation, you will be forced to take time off to recover. What better idea than to set aside money to help you recover? It might even end up being like an extended vacation at that point!
So what if I don’t have any money saved? Usually a couple of things happen.
As mentioned above, artists go back to work and only make their injury worse OR take much longer to recover because they are too active in their injury.
If they do not have the option to return to work, the credit card is withdrawn to cover these unpaid vacations. Do you even want to imagine the debt that you would increase if you were out of work for 3 months? And … don’t even tell me about the interest you’ll pay on your credit card!
Here’s a positive one. You are very, very frugal and you should eat beans and rice and not turn on the lights during the time you are out of work. Sounds nice?
Do you really want to take the risk? Don’t make the mistake of saying “that will never happen to me.” Let me tell you what happens to everyone, including me. Don’t be injured without a financial backup plan!
Exception?
There is an exception to not having workers’ compensation in our industry. If you are lucky enough to be part of a union contract, such as Actors Equity or SAG-AFTRA, or a large company such as a theme park, you may have a chance of being covered by workers’ compensation. Even then, remember that workers’ compensation typically only provides up to 66% of your regular salary, and sometimes you may not see the money for a couple of weeks. Having a little more money saved will help reduce the time between not getting paid and receiving workers’ compensation. The last thing you need for a healthy recovery is out of the ordinary!
What do I do with the expenses of these 3-6 months?
I am not a financial planner, so I am not going to give any specific financial advice. But what I’ll say is a simple Google search for “What do I do with my emergency fund?” returns a lot of good advice. The general idea is to keep the money in a safe and easily accessible place in a couple of days.
Do you still need help?
I recommend @DaveRamsey at http://www.DaveRamsey.com! His Total Money Makeover book is a great way to do it and very easy to follow!
Note: Audition Inside is not a financial or workers compensation expert. Seek professional advice before making any decisions regarding bank or workers’ compensation claims.