Protection Map sample — The Smiths, age 35, after closing the gaps, from Financial Risk Partners. Sample Protection Map · After: Gaps Closed · Summary Guide · Full Report · ← Back to Protection Map

In this example, 1 result still shows a gap: Jill's Ability to Earn. Disability coverage is generally limited (about 70% of take-home pay), so the rest — $1,925 a month for Jill — would come from savings and cash or lower spending. Every other gap is closed. Extended Care is covered today, but a gap can open later: Joe's and Jill's $500,000 long-term care benefits are each a fixed amount, while care costs are expected to rise 4% a year. If care were needed at age 65, it would cost about $729,764 in that year's dollars, so the benefit covers $500,000 of it and $229,764 is left to fund for each. The later care is needed, the larger the cost grows against a benefit that stays the same.

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Income Interruption

No gap at your goal

$0 — no gap

No gap: what you have set aside already meets your 6-month goal.

A layoff, an illness or a gap between jobs can stop a paycheck with little warning, and the bills keep coming. The money you've set aside buys your household time.

What this measures

How long the household's cash, savings and investments outside retirement could pay for essential spending if income stopped.

An emergency fund also gets the household through a large medical bill. Every health plan has an out-of-pocket maximum: the most you would pay for covered care in a plan year. Keeping more than that in savings means a serious illness or injury doesn't have to become debt on top of lost income.

How families protect against this. An emergency fund protects your household's bills while income is paused. It buys time to find the right next job rather than the first one.

Your goal and where you are

How many months of essential spending would you want set aside?

3 months — no gap
6 months — no gap your goal; also what we suggest
12 months — gap $60,000

Where you are

Your goal: 6 months of essential spending set aside — $60,000 in today's dollars.

Where you are: $60,000 in cash and savings, enough for about 6 months — in today's dollars.

How it adds up

$60,000 cash and savings ÷ $10,000 a month of essential spending	6 months
6 months × $10,000 a month	$60,000 goal
$60,000 goal − $60,000 you have	no gap

All figures in today's dollars.

Coverage through work usually ends when the job does. If the income stopped because a job ended, Joe's life insurance and disability coverage through work and Jill's life insurance through work would usually end with it.

The gap

$0 — no gap

No gap: what you have set aside already meets your 6-month goal.

Ways to close the gap

There is no gap to close.

If it happened later

If it happened…	The gap then
Today	$0 — no gap
In 5 years	$0 — no gap
In 10 years	$0 — no gap
In 25 years (when Joe would be 60)	$0 — no gap

These figures include future price rises. We assume spending goes up 3% a year, your savings keep up with prices, and you don't add to them.

What if…?

Each one shows how your result would change if something were different. They are not advice about what you should do.

Try your own what-if

If your income stopped for 6 months

Your household would need about $60,000 for essentials over those months. Your cash and savings would cover about 6.0 months, so there's no gap.