Let’s face it, times are tough and no matter where you are financially, you’re probably trying to watch your expenses. When that happens, many of us eat out less, we cut our cable or phone bills, we may (if truly desperate) cut out the daily $4 lattes and we will almost always look closely at our insurance costs. Sadly, the insurance often gets cut before the lattes.
What if you made the wrong choice when cutting your insurance coverage? What if that decision saved you $20 a month but ended up costing you half of your nest egg or your home? That’s a whole lot of lattes.
Billions of dollars are spent each year on insurance advertising. Yes, the commercials are very entertaining but what do they focus on? Price, price, price and did I mention price? We are so bombarded with the “price” message that it’s easy to lose sight of the fact that insurance is intended to protect you and your assets. Insurance is intended to save YOUR money, not necessarily save YOU money.
Yes, we all need to live within a budget and your insurance doesn’t need to be a budget buster to do its job effectively. However, with most things in life, there are two sides to every story and in this story, we are talking about price AND protection. It’s one thing to cut your towing coverage and get stuck with an inconvenient $100 towing bill. But what if you cut your bodily injury coverage and got stuck with a $100,000 medical bill because of an auto accident that you caused? It happens and unfortunately, it happens more often than it should.
No doubt, it’s very convenient to buy your insurance online or through an 800 number. Did you know that you may be speaking to someone who just got their insurance license, is reading from a script and is just learning their job? I wouldn’t go to that person for advice and neither should you.
A good insurance agent should help you make decisions when times are good AND when times are tough. They will recognize your need to work within a budget but will help you make a smart decision, not a costly one. Your insurance agent is a critical member of your financial team. If your agent doesn’t listen to you or “get” you, then change agents.
Be smarter about your insurance and get some solid advice before jumping on the “cheap” insurance bandwagon. Protect what matters most.