.Cooper.
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Not a financial advisor. Personal experience only, not advice, do your own research.
START HERE
Insurance is boring, so nobody actually teaches it. People end up either paying for coverage they don't need, or skipping coverage that would've saved them from a genuinely bad situation.
The one people avoid thinking about most, and the one that can hurt the most financially if skipped. A single ER visit without insurance can run into the thousands.
A cheaper premium usually means a higher deductible.
Cheap, often ignored, and actually useful. If your place floods, gets broken into, or catches fire, your landlord's insurance covers the building, not your stuff inside it. Renters insurance covers your belongings and can also cover liability if someone gets hurt in your place.
Usually required by law, but the coverage levels matter more than people realize.
Only carrying the legal minimum is fine if your car is old and not worth much. If you're driving something valuable, having only liability means you're paying out of pocket for your own car if you're at fault in a crash.
Insurance Basics
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Why This Gets Skipped
Insurance is boring, so nobody actually teaches it. People end up either paying for coverage they don't need, or skipping coverage that would've saved them from a genuinely bad situation.
Health Insurance
The one people avoid thinking about most, and the one that can hurt the most financially if skipped. A single ER visit without insurance can run into the thousands.
- Premium is what you pay monthly just to have the plan
- Deductible is what you pay out of pocket before insurance starts covering costs
- Copay is a flat fee you pay per visit or prescription
- Out of pocket maximum is the most you'll pay in a year before insurance covers everything else
A cheaper premium usually means a higher deductible.
Renters Insurance
Cheap, often ignored, and actually useful. If your place floods, gets broken into, or catches fire, your landlord's insurance covers the building, not your stuff inside it. Renters insurance covers your belongings and can also cover liability if someone gets hurt in your place.
This is one of the few insurance types that's low cost for what it protects. Skipping it to save a few dollars a month isn't a smart tradeoff.
Car Insurance
Usually required by law, but the coverage levels matter more than people realize.
- Liability covers damage you cause to others, this is the legal minimum in most places
- Collision covers damage to your own car in an accident, regardless of fault
- Comprehensive covers non-accident stuff, theft, weather damage, hitting an animal
Only carrying the legal minimum is fine if your car is old and not worth much. If you're driving something valuable, having only liability means you're paying out of pocket for your own car if you're at fault in a crash.
What's Actually Worth Having Young
Health insurance is non-negotiable if you can get it at all. Renters insurance is cheap enough that there's rarely a good reason to skip it. Car insurance coverage should scale with how much your car is actually worth, not just the legal minimum.
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