Self-Insurance

Many Insurance Companies started life as Mutual Associations. In South Africa, one of the oldest is still called the Old Mutual. It was where I started my working life. The origin story of the profession I joined started with Scottish Widows. During the Napoleonic Wars, some prominent Scotsmen got together in the coffee shops of Edinburgh to make provision for their widows if something should happen to them. John Fairbairn, who started the Old Mutual, was born in Scotland, and attended the University of Edinburgh at around the time Scottish Widows was born.

I am writing this piece in the Isle of Skye in Scotland. I drove up through Pitlochry, Braemar, Blairgowrie and Blair Athol. These are all names I am very familiar with. I grew up in Westville (Kwa-Zulu Natal, South Africa) and one of the primary schools is called Pitlochry. The main road through the heart of Westville is Blair Athol. My house at Westville Senior Primary School was Braemar.

Pitlochry

Many of us live hand to mouth. This makes it a real problem if the hand gets damaged (or buried). Rather than simply a person to be loved, people become a source of income. A Provider. Traditionally, we were reduced to roles we had to play. Relationships as jobs and responsibilities. Men became the money, the muscles (or bodies in wars), and the sperm. Women the cooks, cleaners and mothers.

I am a believer in building Engines and Buffers that remove these expectations. Where you can still fulfil any roles you choose, but there is some agency in it. It isn't a transaction.

Community is our most natural provider of Buffers. That is what Mutual Societies were. Before people started expecting the Government to look after them, they just did it themselves. They got together and made a plan.

When I started working at Old Mutual, I took out life cover, disability insurance, and severe illness cover. At that stage, I didn't have dependents or a mortgage. The thing that scared me the most was the inability to work. For most of us, that is our biggest asset when we start out. Work isn't primarily about fulfilling the yearnings of our souls. It is about food on the table, and a roof over our head. When you can't work. That is a problem.

Figuring out the amount of cover I needed was the seed of my future early retirement. I gave some thought to how much I would need if I couldn't expect myself to be the breadwinner. I then got that cover, and at the same time started building that Engine myself. If you build up Capital, it gets to the point where you are free from that underlying fear of what if something goes wrong. You can Self-Insure. You can handle bumps and dips without needing to look to the community for help. You can't Self-Insure if you live hand to mouth.

I now believe in building Community Wealth Funds. This is the same thing as I did for myself, but closer to the coffee shops of Edinburgh. Where people come together and build together. The Westville I grew up in was part of Apartheid South Africa. The Pitlochry some of my friends went to, and the Westville Senior Primary they joined me at, were for white children only. That ended in 1994, and gradually children from other areas started joining us. Gradually a new community started being built.

At the moment, most people in South Africa don't have Engines or Buffers. Most people in South Africa are defined by their roles as Breadwinners and Homemakers. We are more than what is expected of us. With time and building, we can release ourselves.