Insurance is one of those fishy topics. If you have money, it makes sense to get insurance. If you don’t have money, then you can’t really afford the situations that might occur if you don’t have insurance. So you really do have to be smart about your policies, considering each of the potential categories carefully.
Five examples to show you the pros and cons would be things like pet insurance, renter’s insurance, life insurance, disaster insurance, and electronics insurance. Considering each one will be important to you in the long run, as insurance costs overall can use up a pretty good chunk of your budget.
Pet Insurance
Pets are expensive. Food, medical care, stuff to keep them entertained – that all ends up costing you some cash. Plus, they’re part of your family! So, if you want to make sure that you’ve covered in the case of things like medication or injury, be sure to buy pet insurance of some sort. If that sounds a little unusual, you’ll be extremely appreciative of it when it ends up saving you money on everything from small expenses to large ones in the event of accident or injury.
Renter’s Insurance
Generally speaking, when you rent a home or apartment, it’s because you want to save money. You, at least for the time being, want access rather than ownership of your space. However, there’s a kink in that equation if some type of natural disaster happens or perhaps you get robbed, for instance. Without purchasing renter’s insurance beforehand, that can be a total loss for you, as there’s not necessarily any protection in place naturally in a renting arrangement.
Life Insurance
The biggest reason you want to invest in life insurance is if you have kids that aren’t totally out from under your wing yet. That same is true to a degree for your spouse if he or she doesn’t have a job, but it’s the children that are probably the most at risk. And you can hope that it’ll never get used, but in that off chance, you’ll know that they’re protected.
Disaster Insurance
If you live in a few specific areas around the country where there’s a fair likelihood of disasters at some point, then buying earthquake insurance, or flood insurance, or hurricane insurance, is probably not the worst idea ever. Just make sure that you use a reputable company that will actually process your claim if the event happens.
Electronics Insurance
Many of your most expensive items these days are going to be electronics. Phones, computers, and even video game systems are going to be your big ticket items. And if you’re going to spend thousands of dollars on them, it makes sense to insure them if you can afford it, that way you don’t have to duplicate those purchases later.