You don’t need every kind of insurance that’s out there. That’s right – you don’t need it all. And why waste your money on insurance that you don’t need?
A good example is trip insurance, a decent (and relatively inexpensive) buy on a plane ticket so that if your travel plans change or you don’t end up going on your trip, you don’t totally lose out on the cost of the tickets.
Flight life insurance, on the other hand, is for people with those “better safe than sorry” mentalities when it comes to everything in their lives. Flight life insurance covers you if you’re ever injured in a plane crash. A little over the top? I think so.
Or how about credit protection insurance? That’s something that you can opt to pay an additional charge for on each of your credit cards to ensure that if you ever die or your credit card gets lost, you’ll be entitled to your money. The fact is – you already are entitled to that money. The insurance is just unnecessary.
But when it comes to other forms of insurance, you don’t want to wait on jumping in. Don’t waste your money on the silly forms of insurance – instead, invest wisely in the following four to ensure the most important things in your life are covered:
1 – Auto Insurance
According to the National Traffic Highway Safety Administration, the average person has about a 30% chance of being involved in a car accident at some point in their lives. Think about that – that’s about a 1 in 3 chance. Those odds are ever not in your favor.
So auto insurance is a given. Do some shopping around to find a policy that works for you based on how much driving you do and your previous driving record. Unfortunately, as the current American economy stands, the prices on auto insurance are constantly on the rise. But it’s one of those costs that you just sort of need to grin and bear, because it’s an absolute necessity.
Your car insurance will cover you if you ever get into an accident, but be careful – the more offenses you have on your license or your driving record, the more your insurance rates will go up. So even though you have insurance, it’s still important to remember to drive as safely as possible.
2 – Homeowner’s/Renter’s Insurance
If you’ve just signed your life away on a mortgage for a new house, or signed a rental contract agreement on a gorgeous new apartment, it’s a good idea to invest right this minute in a homeowner’s or renter’s insurance policy. In fact, most mortgage agreements require you to have a homeowner’s insurance policy.
Why, you may ask? Look at it this way: what would you do if a tornado ripped through your neighborhood and tore down your entire house with all of your years and years of acquired furniture, belongings and memories that were all nestled inside? Wouldn’t you want to get back up on your feet and start over again as quickly as possible?
Homeowner’s insurance allows you to do just that. Your policy will cover your belongings in the event of any emergency – natural disaster, fire, smoke damage, even robbery. The same goes for renter’s insurance. And should anything ever happen to your home where you can no longer live safely inside, most insurance policies will temporarily set you up someplace safe, like a hotel room or extended stay suite.
So while it may be difficult for you to grasp why you need to be shelling out money month after month for something you may never see or even use, it’s worth the investment no matter what.
3 – Life Insurance
A good life insurance policy is something that you should be looking at getting while you’re still in your 20’s. The reason is that the earlier you start with it, the more valuable your policy becomes.
And the reasons that you need it, well, there are quite a few. Life insurance is there for the sole purpose of protecting your family should anything terrible ever happen to you. For example, life insurance usually covers funeral costs after a person passes away, and it can also cover ongoing expenses for the family’s monthly bills after a financially contributing member with life insurance has passed.
Although you won’t ever directly see any of the benefits of a life insurance policy, it’s still important to have because it will protect your family after you pass away. You can choose where the money will be designated to – you can pay for a child or grandchild’s education, you can pay off the remaining mortgage or car loan so your family doesn’t have to worry about it any longer – where the money from the policy goes after you pass away is entirely up to you.
4 – Medical Insurance
Perhaps the one form of insurance that most frequently gets overlooked (as many people deem it “unnecessary”), health insurance is of the utmost important in anyone’s life, no matter their age.
How many times in a year do you get sick? How many times do you need to see a doctor or get hurt and need to have X-Rays or an MRI done? Without health insurance, these little trips to the doctors and the hospitals here and there would cost you thousands and thousands of dollars.
Your health insurance will cover the majority of the costs of special treatments, surgeries and even just regular check up doctor appointments. You’ll also reduce your out-of-pocket price on prescription medications and other prescription treatment options. Sometimes you’ll even get discounts on health and wellness services, depending on your coverage, like gym memberships, and alternative medicine therapies, like massage therapy or acupuncture.
Health insurance plans can get costly, but they’re worth the investment every single month of your life. You pay a monthly amount for the policy alone, and then most policies have a certain deductible amount (as with many other insurance policies) that you do pay out of pocket until you reach a certain limit, set by your insurance carrier.
Oftentimes the deductible is higher than anything you would actually spend at the doctor’s office or hospital, but for that one time when you hurt yourself and need an ambulance to the hospital for X-Rays, a setting and a cast, you’ll be thankful that you have the medical insurance.
About the author: Regina Clark is a freelance writer who doesn’t like to waste her money on unnecessary things in life. That’s why she has the best insurance policies around, including car insurance from FullCoverageAutoInsurances.com, but doesn’t waste her money on the ones she doesn’t need.
Credits: Photo courtesy of Mike Licht.