I think I'm getting old. Old enough to fret about insurance and retirement and whether or not I will physically be able to continue doing nails until I'm ready to retire ... or at least until I can retire.

You know you've hit that age when you find yourself allotting more of your monthly budget to insurance than to shoes.

I have business insurance — including professional liability coverage — health insurance, and accident insurance. What I don't have is disability insurance.

In the beginning, I simply couldn't afford it. I was lucky if I could afford my booth rent back then! And anything left over at the end of the week went for products and shoes.

When I started making enough money to feel secure enough to take on some financial responsibilities, I chose silly things like my own apartment (no roommates — can we say "ahhhhhhhh”?) and a car that got me from point A to point B reliably.

Of course, I was in my 20s. The notion that I would ever need insurance was hard to grasp, even though, intellectually, I still understood that I should get it.

And even though the trade magazines have run more than one "why you need disability insurance" article over the last 19 years, the thing that none of those articles have mentioned is what it costs.

First off, what they don't mention is that you will be required to prove your income in order to get disability insurance, and then it's going to cost you dearly. I believe my last quote was darn near 10% of my income! And I also discovered that many insurance companies require a minimum income to qualify ... so if your adjusted gross personal income is less than $22K, it can be hard to find disability insurance at all.

It gets complicated and has by far been the most difficult insurance to purchase that I've ever looked in to.

At this point I have come to the obvious conclusion that losing a hand or an eye is simply not an option. Besides, as long as I can still work, not only will I not need disability insurance, but I'll be able to buy more shoes.