It's the law in nearly every state to have car insurance. |
Yes, it is definately a very risky way to live. A fire, water damage, storm damage, etc is often out of your control. And could lead to total destruction, besides the land/foundation. Also, the contents of the home can be a lot. Ours is well over $350K of belongings when you include artwork, and contents. We have homeowners for major disasters. Wouldnt' file a claim unless it was $30-50k+ of damages. But if we had that, I'd want insurance to payout |
That’s as stupid as self insuring medical. Multi-million dollar houses are no longer rare and I can’t imagine a financially savvy person not buying homeowner’s insurance. |
Ok....so the $6-8K you save per year will replace the $200K+ of damages if a tree lands thru your home during a rain storm, damaging most of the contents of your home? What about if it burns to the ground, along with everything in it? No matter how careful you are, that stuff can and does happen. Seems risky Instead a smart person takes a high deductible and doesn't file claims unless it's catastrophic |
You’re lucky you’ve never had an issue. We lost our insurance because our baby Yorkie nipped an elderly woman in the shin. She had thin skin and it was painful. Her kid called a lawyer and sued. He dealt with the insurance company and got $25,000. Our insurance company told us to get rid of our dog or they are canceling our policy. We obviously kept our dog and then had to get what they call insurance of last resort for uninsurable people run by the government. Cost a lot more. |
We know a ton of people in SWFL who don’t insure, but they are also stupid wealthy and could pay cash to rebuild their house 100x over. For the rest of us it’s too much of a risk. |
Only the structure is insurable. The land is not. My parents self-insured a small cottage yards from the ocean because almost all of the value was in the land, not the old shoebox house with sky high insurance costs due to environmental risks. |
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If you diligently save, you eventually will get to a point where it makes financial sense to self-insure. Sure, losing one’s house would be catastrophic but there’s money in the bank to rebuild it. Remember, the land/lot is where all the value is. The chances of a 100% loss are also extremely small, especially if you take lots of precautions and don’t have fire hazards all over your house. Same for storm-proofing windows, doors and the roof down south. My southwest FL family don’t carry home/fire/flood insurance as the premiums are exorbitant after the two most recent Gulf hurricanes. They’ve instead used the insurance premiums they would have paid to instead turn their home into an almost hurricane-proof fortress.
As for being (overly) cautious…my mother, who had two siblings lose their homes to fire, keeps absolutely nothing plugged into an electrical outlet except when she’s using it. The only things plugged in 24/7 are the refrigerator and deep freezer. And this is crazy, but she also turns off the main breaker in the electrical panel box every time she leaves and no one else will be home. |
+1. I have a relative that does the same. Insurance would cost thousands per year, if they could get it at all. So they self-insure and pay out of pocket for any repairs they can’t do themselves, which are actually very few. |
| Serious question - how much are you guys paying for homeowners' insurance? Not you guys in CA and FL, but in the DMV. Mine is a fraction of what I pay in real estate taxes in Arlington. It did go up by $600 last year, though. |
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With this admin denying that climate change exists, ya'll are fools. Or at least fill your vacation house with second-hand junk furniture.
I've paid in ~$60K over 22 years in a high deductible plan, and just got a payout larger than that due to a freak storm. |
You’re supposed have enough common sense to trim down or remove any trees that could reach your house if they happened to fall (which they do, quite often, healthy or not). I cringe any time I see a million dollar house closely surrounded by 50 foot trees. An ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure…Prepare for the worst, hope for the best…yadda, yadda You aren’t able to handle the basics of homeownership, so of course you need homeowners insurance to spread the risk. PP considers what could happen, takes steps to prevent it, and is then rewarded via the risk. |
Obviously you don't live in DC, loser. Look around. You can't take down trees willy nilly, or you'll rightfully pay a fine. |
I'm pp and just thinking about this. It's like those tacky farm houses out in the country that don't have any legacy trees around them. Cringe. |
Did you know it takes decades for a tree to reach full height? The tree(s) obviously existed when the home was purchased. Very similar to buying a home next to an airport, then immediately complaining about airplane noise. Even worse is when a homeowner plants a future problem tree themselves, and is proud to have done it! Silly mistakes like these are why insurance premiums are sky-high and continue to grow. And insurance companies will gleefully let homeowners do it, charge them accordingly, and still print money after paying claims since they manage the risk so well…but mostly profit because we all end up paying more since that’s how insurance works. |