Because it’s the newest topic, we’ve spent a lot of time talking about health insurance around here. However, not only is there other insurance, but some of it it pretty important for you to start thinking about, if not necessarily critical.
We won’t spend any time talking about car insurance because that’s mandatory, at least in almost every state in the nation. We won’t talk about compensation insurance because not every business needs it and not every state has it.
Instead, we will concentrate on insurance for individuals and families, those that we feel are the most crucial to have, even if you don’t think you need it. Part of this also takes into account what you’ll get the most benefit from. That discounts dental insurance where, though you’ll get some coverage, if you need anything serious most of the insurances only cover $2,000 a year, which would barely make a dent in any serious dental work you’d need.
1. Homeowners/rental insurance. If you’re a new homeowner insurance is a mandatory thing, but if you’ve owned a home previously, at least in some states, it’s an option. There’s absolutely no reason not to pay for insurance coverage for your home. All it takes is one bad winter of damage for you to realize how crucial having insurance is to take care of something you never saw coming. Not that you’ll have damage every year but when something happens to your home, minor or major, insurance can help you get those bills paid, if not take care of the entire thing.
The same goes for rental insurance. The fire could come from another apartment and you could lose just 25% of your assets, which usually means furniture or clothing, and the cost of replacing it would be totally on you. The costs are negligible when compared to what you’d have to pay out of pocket to replace things.
2. Life insurance. We hear from people all the time about not needing life insurance because they’re either too young or they’re single. We even know of families where parents don’t buy insurance to protect their kids or spouses.
One of the realities of life insurance is that if you get in early not only will your costs remain low, even if you have health issues later on in life, but if you buy the right type of insurance at a certain point it’ll start paying for itself while still continuing to grow, although you’d probably want to continue putting more into it for your own lifetime protection.
Life insurance could help you make sure your home is paid for if you’re not around anymore. Life insurance can help pay for your burial. Life insurance can give your family a boost to get used to losing your income and allow them time to get on their feet. Do this for those you love, and do it early.
3. Long Term Care insurance. You need to know this now; at some point in your life, you or your spouse might need to either go into a nursing home or need some home care help when you get old. Costs are not only astronomical, but for the majority of people what happens is their assets have to be sold off before Medicaid kicks in.
If you start long term care insurance early, when it doesn’t cost much and you get locked into a rate, there’s the possibility that you could put away enough money to pay for home care and never have to go into a nursing home, while protecting your assets for your family. You certainly help them out greatly.