Homeowners, auto (times five), boat, umbrella, health... I think my biggest annual expense might be my various insurance premiums. If it were not for the fact that many of the coverages are mandatory, I'd consider going bare. If I banked all my premiums and just paid out on the actual losses I cared about, by now I'd probably have a $1 Million dollar reserve fund set up.

 

 

Insurance is by far the highest cost for most of us.

 

...life insurance, disability income protection, etc. Insurance premiums are a killer over the long haul. I know it varies by state, but in Texas you don't have to carry auto insurance if you have a million in some kind of account (I am fuzzy on the details, but someone explained it to me years ago).

 

It would probably work better for you, Bill, than for most. I suspect that you could get yourself defended against a lawsuit better/cheaper on your own than most of the rest of us.

For me, property taxes are a much greater burden than insurance, but then I only pay a fraction of the cost of my health insurance and my employer pays the rest.

 

We have dropped all but a tiny bit of whole life insurance, which is "paid" by its annual dividend . We have HO x 2 houses, auto for 3 vehicles and personal umbrella insurance....total a little over $4k. Our RE/ School taxes are >$12k....that's the killer for OUR budget.

Oops...forgot about my current health insurance, which costs about $8k out of Kathy's minuscule paycheck. In a few months, I'll be ENTITLED to Medicare....thus reducing cost by more than 50%. So, with all items, it does equal the cost of RE/School taxes

Funny that you mention self-insuring, Bill....as that's what I'm thinking about doing for Long Term Care "protection".

 

There are two halves to insurance, liability and loss.

I am surprised that there are not more re-insurance options.
basically you are on the hook for anything less than 25K then the secondary insurance kicks in to cover the "really bad things", i.e. running someone over etc or cancer treatment.
you probably would have to post fund reserve of bond to cover to your reserve number to legally qualify as having coverage for some things like auto/health insurance.

 

I could stand all the other insurance costs, but I wish I could do something about my health insurance expense.

Unfortunately, I suspect that's the last one any of us can afford to be without.

 

Very true, Rob.

 

Rob, I was just notified yesterday that my health insurance premiums are going from $1,211 to $1,476 per month, a 21% increase. Just for me and the +1. I wish I could tell them where to shove it, but can't afford the risk. Bastards.
I wonder how much of this increase is due to the new health insurance legislation, now having to cover kids to 26, ignore preexisting conditions etc etc. Thanks Mr. President. I thought I was supposed to SAVE money.