Accidents and Insurance and Deductibles, Oh My! (Bestie) #856

Episode Transcript
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Speaker 1 (00:00):
What's going on, buddy? How do you partner? That's right, listeners,
Juel and I along with our families, we are still
on a little break at the beach.

Speaker 2 (00:07):
Don't worry, we're coming back next episode.

Speaker 1 (00:09):
We are. We'll be back here on Wednesday with a
fresh episode. And you and I we were kind of
coming through the How to Money catalog and we're trying
we were thinking through what would be a good topic
for us to revisit.

Speaker 2 (00:18):
We're like, every single one of these episodes is pure gold,
so fantastic, like other than by gold Well. I was like, Matt,
you can do no wrong. I screw up occasionally, but
oh please Okay.

Speaker 1 (00:26):
So we decided to choose one on insurance, how to
Handle an accident, and that got me thinking, though, you know,
the things that loomed the largest dinner minds are the
things that we do the least often. Yeah, the things
that seem to be a massive hassle. They're not the
things that we have developed workflow or they're things that
were rehearsed or practiced at and oftentimes what that means

(00:48):
is that we're the least prepared for these crucial moments
when something oftentimes terrible will happen.

Speaker 2 (00:54):
And so I'm if you are well practiced, you probably
don't have insurance coverage anymore.

Speaker 1 (00:58):
You got kick to the curve in this particular case
if you do this thing a lot.

Speaker 2 (01:01):
So this is your eighth claim this year, ma'am sir, sorry,
we're gonna need you to mosey on down the road.

Speaker 1 (01:05):
That's right.

Speaker 2 (01:06):
I just had man trees loom large on my head
these days. I had the tree fall through the roof
last year, and then Matt just had a branch come
down in the backyard, a massive branch smacked some of
the fencing in the backyard and landed in the neighbor's property.
And so, yeah, making sure you have insurance. These trees
the way that they're u these ninety one hundred foot

(01:27):
tall trees, they make me want to have my insurance
game buttoned up.

Speaker 1 (01:30):
That's right, you better watch out. It's worth mentioning too.
This is a format of episode that we don't do anymore.
This is when we choose a singular topic and we
do a deep dive and we really pick it apart.
And so, without further ado, let's talk about insurance. Welcome
to How to Money. I'm Joel, I'm not.

Speaker 2 (01:45):
And today we're talking about accidents, insurance and deductibles.

Speaker 1 (01:48):
Oh my, that's right, man. We are talking about insurance

(02:10):
and accidents for a couple of reasons. Actually, we're gonna
talk about that today. First of all, accidents and these
are things that cost you money, right and anytime there
is an opportunity to earn more money, invest your money
or save money, and Joel are gonna be on the case,
We're gonna want to talk about that. So that's one reason.
Another reason is because you, sir, my co host here

(02:32):
at How to Money, you have experienced a string of
bad luck. Yes, is maybe the best way or the
lightest way to put it.

Speaker 2 (02:40):
I should say I wasn't carrying my lucky rabbits foot
this week, and that did you ever have a lucky
rabbits foot as a kid. I think when I was
in like fifth grade.

Speaker 1 (02:47):
I feel like that's like the age third fourth grade.
I'm pretty sure I've got one at a national park
maybe when we're visiting Yellowstone sounds about right.

Speaker 2 (02:55):
But no, you're right, keep going, You're right. I'm definitely
like bitten the bullet. Recently, a couple of accidents which
kind of caused us to say, well, we should talk
about this on the show, and we can. Yeah, I
can just kind of lament about like the things I've
been going through over the past couple of weeks, basically
had a tree follow my house, So I'm making the
homeowners insurance tame. We'll talk about that in this episode.

Speaker 1 (03:13):
I got rear ended by someone else just letting there
at a red light less than a week later, less
than a later, right out a week, I guess. Yeah,
So there's a lot I think to talk about based
on my own personal experience, but based on just kind
of things that everyone needs to know when it comes
to the kind of insurance they carry, what they keep
their deductible at, and just kind of a lot of
stuff to know pre and post accident in order to

(03:35):
be most efficient with your money and make sure you're
covered in the right places. Yeah. And by the way,
it wasn't just any old tree that It's not like
a tree just happened to kind of fall over, like
your house got skewered. Yeah, essentially, like lightning struck this
giant How tall do you think that tree was? Like
eighty feet probably it was massive, and just the way
it came through your roof.

Speaker 2 (03:53):
To We'll have to put a picture in the fil
and on Instagram because it literally looks like crazy someone
stuck a tree for it.

Speaker 1 (03:58):
What's crazy in my house? That's exactly what looks like
someone's trying to eat my head. It was like a
giant tuning fork. Yeah, essentially. Yeah, So, like you weren't
even there and you gave me a call, You're like, uh,
can you head over to my house. I couldn't believe
it when I saw it. I mean, yeah, so we will, Yeah,
we'll definitely post some pictures.

Speaker 2 (04:15):
Yeah, you got to see it because, like I will
say this, it went through the roof, through the couch,
through the rug, through the hardwood floors. I mean that's
how force and broke floor joists. Oh as well, that's
the I mean roof choice and floor joys.

Speaker 1 (04:28):
So I thought when I was over there, and it's
like it's been raining as well, so it's dripping into
the house a little bit. I'm talking to you on
the phone, and I was trying to be optimistic. I
was like, I mean, it's pretty bad, but I don't
think it damaged your floor. Yeah, because I couldn't see
because like the couch. Yeah, I thought it had stopped it,
but no, it had gone through your couch. Yeah, through

(04:49):
the floor. Crazy. I guess the tree guy sent you
a picture later and there's literally a hole on the
floor the size of a dinner plate.

Speaker 2 (04:57):
Yeah, or even a little bit bigger than that we
had we have. That's they were getting in there. So
it's kind of Yeah, they like to explore.

Speaker 1 (05:04):
But I will say, too, how do you be able
to have somewhat of a sense of humor about it? Yeah?

Speaker 2 (05:08):
I mean you got to. I will say, we were
so glad that we were out of town when this happened.
I hate to have made you the person to go
over there and document everything. Happy to get over there,
I appreciate that. But it's one of those that I was.

Speaker 1 (05:18):
In there because that's normally where I sit. I love
sitting on that couch, and it fell right where Matt
normally sits. That's right.

Speaker 2 (05:25):
And if we had been awake at the time, or
you know, a lot of debris and limbs got into
Ezra's room, my little dude and so man, think about
how freaked out he would have been and how freaked
out we all would have been if we were in
the house at the time. So that's one of those
things where it's like you gotta look on the bright
side and think about how fortunate you are even when
accidents occur. But we've got, yeah, a lot to get
to on this episode when it comes to thinking about
accidents kind of on the front end and then kind

(05:47):
of like in the aftermath, how do you deal with
it effectively in order to in order to make sure
that you you don't get left hold.

Speaker 1 (05:53):
In the bag. Totally. Yeah, and naturally there will be
plenty of personal anecdotes during this episode. But first, let's
quickly introduce our beer. Joel, You and I. We were
enjoying an Aoka Marsin style logger. This is a Groooner
Brothers Brewing beer and this was sent to us by Katie. So, Katie,
thank you so much for donating this one to the show.
We look forward to sharing our thoughts at the end

(06:16):
of the episode.

Speaker 2 (06:17):
This was her She lives in Wyoming. This is her
favorite brewery from Wyoming. So I don't know if I've
ever had any beer from Wyoming Wyoming beer. I've never
been to Wyoming, sadly, so it's a great place. One
of these days make it happen, all right, But let's
move on now, let's get to the subject at hand.
We are talking about accidents, insurance and deductibles and yeah,
of course my personal experience. You know what it made
me think of. It made me think of fire drills

(06:37):
in elementary school. You remember those, right, Well, we all
had to do them. It felt like kind of a
waste of time. We're like, come on, really, we were
going to get a fire in this building. But yet
you had to go through the motion. The same thing
with tornado drills, very similar. You had to get under
your desk. You had to wait for what like five
minutes until the postage you've got a tornado passed.

Speaker 1 (06:53):
Our drills Like you'd have to go out in the hallway,
get up against the wall and tuck your head under
your hand. That was the tornado drill. Yes, So why
do we crawl under our desk? Is that an earthquake drill?
Maybe that was that? I don't know, okay, I mean,
as kids, they all seem ridiculous, right, Like you think
about tornado drills or tornadoes in general, and you think
about twister, but that you know that doesn't happen at
least here down in Georgia, although that being said, through

(07:14):
the Midwest tornadoes kind of recently, so more and more. Yeah, yeah,
maybe all these drills make sense after all, Maybe they do.

Speaker 2 (07:20):
They always felt like this waste of time. Sure, but
I guess the bright tie with they got you had
a class for a little while, and so you were like, whatever.

Speaker 1 (07:26):
It's fine.

Speaker 2 (07:26):
But the thing was, it was obviously a good thing
if your school ever did experience a fire, right, if
you ever needed to put that drill into practice. Yeah,
And it was, you know, probably practice that was more
necessary for the teachers rather than for us as kids.
They had to know how to shepherd heard all the
cast exactly. But even though it felt kind of silly, right,
you would be glad that you went through the motions

(07:47):
if your school ever experienced one. And insurance it kind
of makes me think it's kind of like a fire
drill in a lot of ways. Most of the times
it feels unnecessary. It almost feels like wasted dollars. What
if I could claw that money back that I was
spending on insurance that I never used. But in the
rare instances where you actually need to put it to use,
you're more than happy to know that you have that
policy in place totally. I know a lot of people
are like, well, and we're not going to really talk

(08:08):
about like life insurances, mostly car and homeowners insurance focused.
But a lot of people are like, man, if I
don't die, that insurance is worthless. It's like, yeah, but
that's kind of what you want, right You're insuring against
the thing that you wouldn't be able to pay for
in the event that the worst thing happens.

Speaker 1 (08:21):
And at least with insurance or life insurance, you know
that at some point you actually will die. Yeah, maybe
not during get term policy the term that you have,
maybe not in the thirty years that you have your
policy for, but yeah, dude, I mean I even remember
as an adult, like working at one of my first
jobs after college, like we had a twelve story office
building and they would have fire drills as well, but
at least in those instances, like they would always have

(08:42):
a food truck out on the parking dick or like
ice cream to give out like freezenas for all of
the hassle. But the fact is, like, even as adults,
that quote unquote inconvenience, like that was a prudent move
that I would have been thankful for, and anyone out
there who has made an insurance claim, they would be
in a similar but they would feel so lilarly. And
while virtually everyone out there is required to have car insurance,

(09:05):
I think like New Hampshire might be the only state
that he doesn't require it. They are the live for
or die state. So it's like, don't treat on me,
I don't need my car insurance. That makes said not
everyone has had the misfortune of actually being in an accident,
So knock on some wood if that's you. And so
one of the problems that we're addressing today is what
you should do once you've been involved in a car accident.

(09:28):
You know, it's a it can be a surreal experience
that can catch you off guard if you're not prepared,
and so we think it's wise to talk through some
of the practical steps that you should take after you've
been involved in a.

Speaker 2 (09:39):
Carreg Yeah, we're gonna talk about homeowners insurance claims too,
and kind of what happens how you navigate post accident,
post supernatural act of God sort of experience. But let's
talk about car rex stuff first. Matt and I did.
I mentioned yes, I had the tree fall through the roof,
but I also last this past Sunday, had someone run
into the back of our car when we're stopped to

(10:00):
stop light, and so I had to know how to
do some of these things firsthand in the heat of
the moment, which I will say, you're very disoriented when
that happens, even if it's not something terrible. This guy
slammed into the back of our car. We should post
that video, by the way, too.

Speaker 1 (10:13):
Gosh, we're gonna have so much, so much great media
from all of Joel's misfortune.

Speaker 2 (10:17):
The Instagram content is rich this week.

Speaker 1 (10:19):
So the reason you said post the video, the car
in front of you had dashcam, a backwards facing gashcam,
which is kind of crazy that that exists. I know
it exists. I guess not many people have them. Yeah,
in some countries that's required. You actually do have footage
of y'all getting slammed.

Speaker 2 (10:37):
Kind of crazy, but it really can be disorienting when
when you get in some sort of car wreck, and
it's hard to know until we want to kind of cover. Hey,
here's the things you should do immediately upon that happening,
and running through this ahead of time, because essentially it's
a drill just like when you were back in school,
just like one of those tornado drills or fire drills,
because knowing the right steps on the front end can
save you that time, the hassle, and of course money.

(10:59):
And by the way, later this episode, we're going to
cover some different ways to optimize your insurance, how you
can make sure that you're properly insured, but also how
you can make sure that you're not paying more than
you need to in order to be properly insured, which
is important. But let's talk about how to react right
after an accident occurs, Matt. And of course the number
one thing that everyone is concerned about and should be
first and foremost concerned about, is whether or not everyone's safe,
whether or not they're okay. And that was our first

(11:21):
reaction after getting an accident. Fortunately it wasn't too bad.
That guy was going, I don't have twenty or twenty
five miles an hour when he ran to the back
of us. We were a little shocked, but it was like,
especially with the kids being in.

Speaker 1 (11:30):
The car, are you okay? Are you okay?

Speaker 2 (11:32):
And if anybody had been seriously injured, we would have
taken advantage of the an ambulance and gone.

Speaker 1 (11:38):
To the god to the hospital.

Speaker 2 (11:39):
Where would we could have even gone just because the
car was driveable, we could have taken everyone to urging
Care to.

Speaker 1 (11:45):
Get checked out.

Speaker 2 (11:46):
Just depends on what people are complaining of after the fact.
But that is the first thing you need to be,
of course, concerned about, is everyone's physical condition. I would say,
winned out, go get checked out, of course, to make
sure that there's nothing terribly wrong, but also it's going
to help you in the you do make an insurance claim.

Speaker 1 (12:01):
Yeah, this isn't a time to be frugal, right, because
I think a lot of times folks are thinking, oh, man,
if we're to call the ambulance, that's gonna cost a
lot of money. But there are a lot of times
that I think folks will come down on us and
they're like, man, you guys are being that's not frugal,
Like that is being cheap. And I will say this
is an instance where we're I think we would lean
certainly more on the air on the side of caution
as opposed to thinking about the dollars and cents and

(12:23):
how it is that you can save money and I'll
say too. You know, I think right after making sure
everyone's safe, we're talking about those dash cam but I've
seen footage of cars basically like hitting patches of ice
on interstates. This is the kind of thing that the
algorithms feed me because they know I guess that's what
I'm into. But it's crazy. I mean, it's unfortunate, honestly,

(12:44):
because I've seen some of these videos where there's just
evidently just a massive amount of ice in these cars
just keep continuing to pile onto each other because the
cars can't stop because they're hitting ice. And so it's
important to make sure that you're not in imminent danger
as well. So aside from making sure that you're immediately safe,
like right after something like that occurring, finding a way
to ensure that you're out of harm's way essentially so

(13:07):
that additional harm doesn't occur, not only to your property,
but to you physically as well. Even though you want
to document kind of what's going on, and we'll talk
about that. If you're where you ended up after that wreck,
if you're an imminent danger of further damage being done
by other vehicles or whatever, you're gonna want to make
sure that you're you're not in a position to do
further harm to yourself or to your property. Yeah, So

(13:29):
once you know that everyone is okay, you're not in
harms way, the next thing you want to do is
call the police. You know, even if it's just a
minor fender bender. Again, you don't need an actual amblance
to show up there on the scene. Having police there
at the scene of the accident to ride up an
official accident report is going to be crucial. It can
be incredibly difficult to actually file a claim with an

(13:50):
insurance company if there isn't an official report. So you know,
sometimes the evidence is going to be clear, Joel, Like
when you were rear ended, it's pretty obvious that you
were at no fault.

Speaker 2 (14:00):
But I've been in other accidents where the driver claimed
that he wasn't at fault, but it was clear to
me that he was. And so having that incident report
so that it's not a he said, she said sort
of situation, you definitely don't want that. And so having
that officer come out document what happened in that report
saved my bacon when it came to insurance, because that
guy was going to claim till the end of his

(14:20):
dying days that he didn't cause the accident when he
was clearly trying to get across three lanes of traffic
and ran into me.

Speaker 1 (14:26):
You know.

Speaker 2 (14:26):
So those are the kind of things where you definitely
want to make sure no matter what, because you never
know what that person's gonna say to their insurance company
or what they're going to try to argue, and.

Speaker 1 (14:34):
If you have kind of medical claim, they might want
to try to claim. Yeah.

Speaker 2 (14:38):
So if you have that unbiased third party, which is
typically a police officer writing an incident report, that's really
important and that's going to help you ultimately not be
left on the hook for something it wasn't your fault. Sure,
And the next thing to do is to document everything, right,
to take a lot of pictures, and so even though
it's the job of the officer who shows up to
document what happened, hopefully they're going to write a thorough report.

Speaker 1 (14:57):
Like having your own.

Speaker 2 (14:58):
Documentation is key to making sure that you're made hole
and that the responsible parties are identified. Yeah, And so
this is the case whether we're talking about a home
or an auto insurance claim, Like, take thorough picks before
you move anything, document any further damage as it occurs.
So for instance, on my home right now, there were
some places in the roof that weren't tarped appropriately, and

(15:18):
there's another hole that we didn't even know about until later,
until we saw water damage coming through the dining room.
And so it's just it's important to for insurance purposes,
to document that as that damage is happening, and to
relay that information to your adjuster, to the person you're
working with at the insurance company too. And so items
that are destroyed or damaged completely, they need to be
recorded for insurance purposes. The couch, for instance, Matt, that

(15:41):
you referenced that was impaled by that tree, Like, I
took pictures before putting it on the curb so that
now I can show the adjuster, Hey, this was the
couch I had. I know it's hard for you to
tell what kind of make and model it was, but
and then I can link and show them exactly what
kind of couch I had, just through a quick Google search.
But it's I would say too, this is one thing
it's important to have friends and have neighbors. Who I

(16:03):
was talking to when a case for community, Yeah, well,
when I first called my insurance company. The person I
talked to was not my actual agent. It was just
somebody who worked on the one eight hundred line, and
they told me, Wow, it's amazing, like three or four
neighbors reaching out. We had neighbors in there cleaning up
some of the water damage, which was just so incredibly
nice but just so helpful too. And he said, I

(16:25):
don't really know my neighbors.

Speaker 1 (16:27):
I feel like.

Speaker 2 (16:27):
After this, I really should get to know my neighbors.
And I thought this was just a real It's a
really good thing to mention too. If you want to
be prepared for an accident, knowing your neighbors is one
of those things. Having some sort of relationships so you
can call them and say, can you go check on
my house I'm not sure what happened, or having enough
of a relationship to where they're going to call you
and notify you if something happened. We were at a
time if we had come back four days later and
no one had reached out to us, imagine how awful

(16:49):
that feels like to come home and realize that to
know ahead of time is so massively helpful. So I
think knowing your neighbors and knowing that they can help
you out a pinch and vice versa is just massively important.

Speaker 1 (17:00):
True. Yeah, so that's specific to home insurance, but when
it comes to where you'd be involved in a car wreck,
you want to make sure that you exchange information with
the other party. You don't want to walk away from
that accident without having insurance information from those folks, and
so you can either write it down, you can take
a picture of their information if it seems like something

(17:20):
where it might be unclear as to what it is
that happened. Having somebody there who witnessed it, who's saying, hey, man,
I saw what happened. I'm willing to hang out here
for a little bit and provide a secondhand report, you know,
to the police officer of what happened. That can be
incredibly helpful. And like you said, I mean you literally
literally have digital evidence. What's crazy you know of when

(17:42):
y'all got hit, Like you have video of that actually happening.
I guess you could have video too if somebody had
a ring like one of the ring doorbells across this,
you know, if you had a neighbor that had that,
you that would be that might be even I don't
want to see it. Even crazier to see is actually
seeing a tree get struck by lightning. Sure, but you
know when it came to the car accident, you were
able to get that footage from that guy and you

(18:03):
have that on hand. I'm sure the guy that hits
you wasn't going to try to make a case that
it wasn't his fault, but if he did, you had
that evidence on hand that showed clearly that y'all were
just sitting there. You're like looking for your sunglasses. I know,
which is I guess that's actually how or one of
the reasons. Yeah, that Sean was binding him's why he
ran it into the back of you. You were looking for
your sunglasses and maybe he was looking for his two. Yeah.

Speaker 2 (18:24):
Well, I will say having that that third party, not
just the police officer come out and document things, but
having a witness on hand, having their information, having them
speak to the police officer about what happened to is
just is really important too.

Speaker 1 (18:37):
So the covering all your bases. Yeah, and I'll say too,
like as you are exchanging that information, like, certainly be
kind regardless of whose fault it is, but don't don't
be overly kind. Because I think in an effort to
be accommodating to somebody else, you might even say the words, oh,
I'm so sorry, it's all my fault. Yeah, And that's
something you don't necessarily want to admit because it may

(19:00):
not be your fault.

Speaker 2 (19:01):
It might say it's not your fault to that person
when it is their fault exactly, but you might say
it's okay, like we're gonna get exactly. Those kind of
things are better than trying to You don't want to
sign any sort of blame to yourself or to that
person exactly.

Speaker 1 (19:14):
Yeah, because they might have their phone out as well,
taking pictures, taking video, and if they have a video
and it's you know, they got their phone out and
that thing is going, and on that video they have
you saying it's not your fault or oh, it's all
my fault. That could be something that could come back
and matech in the butt. But after that, you want
to make sure that you notify your insurance company, even
if you aren't at fault here, because they can help

(19:35):
to negotiate with the opposing party's insurance or they might
even file the claim for you. Right Like, aside from
the headache of having a busted up ride or a
home that needs to be fixed, that needs to be repaired.
It can feel like a part time job trying to
get a company on the phone as you're trying to
coordinate and schedule adjusters to show up, or in your case,

(19:55):
like I think you said, like you need to get
like an engineer out there because some of the structural
damage that that took place.

Speaker 2 (20:00):
They at least want to kind of look a little
bit further, make sure that it document that stuff so
that they know that everything is fixed.

Speaker 1 (20:06):
But they're doing it properly, which you know, even though
it's kind of a headache, you can, I guess you
can appreciate their how thorough of a job that they're
doing and not like we'll just throw some drywall over
that it'll be fine. It's like, well, no, I don't
want you to do that either.

Speaker 2 (20:19):
It's going to make the whole process take a little
bit longer, but it's one of those things where it's
worth it in the end because just in case they
uncover something that maybe to the naked eye is hard
to see, you want to make sure a structural engineer
takes especially when you're talking about a tree coming through
your roof. That's one of those things where yeah, it
impacted for Joys roof beams, So yeah, I want to
make sure that it's getting a lot.

Speaker 1 (20:39):
Of different systems it can repair properly. Yeah, but again,
even if you aren't at fault, let your insurance company know,
because a great insurance company that you know is going
to be able to shoulder some of this burden. And
if that were to be the case, I think that
would be some welcomed relief as you're trying to get
back to normal living without having to worry about the
constant flood of emails and phone calls that you're having
to tend to. Yeah. Really, I said it was.

Speaker 2 (21:00):
One of the most annoying parts of the whole thing
is that it becomes kind of like a part time
job for you, which I wasn't necessarily looking for another
part time job, and now I kind of have to
working with both of these situations. But it kind of
comes with the territory. And I will say one other
thing to mention is a lot of insurance companies are
going to steer you towards what are known as preferred contractors,
whether that is fixing up your car, or fixing up

(21:22):
your house. They have relationships with a lot of different companies,
whether they're independent or whether they actually work specifically, whether
it's like a progressive branded auto repair center or whatever
it is. They might have people they work with regularly,
and so they might try to tell you, hey, you
should go here to get it fixed and it might
save them money. But the truth is you have the
right to be able to hire your own folks to

(21:43):
fix your vehicle or your house, so you're not subject
to using people that the insurance company might try to
push on you. I think it's just important to note,
Matt because you might not feel comfortable with that, or
you might want to hire your people that you've worked
with before or who you trust the quality of their work,
whether it's repairing your car or repairing your home. And
so that's what I'm going to do. Like, I'm not
going to go with the people that the insurance company recommends,

(22:05):
not that they might not be great, but I'd rather
use people I've worked with before or take recommendations from neighbors. Ye,
and it's got a relationship established already with some of
these different mechanics. Yeah, so I would say ask around
if you don't have anybody that you've worked with before,
whether it's a contractor, Like I reached out to a
contractor we've used before. He's busy, he can't handle the work.
So I'm reaching out to other people now that my
neighbors have used that they recommend. And so, yeah, just

(22:28):
make sure that the company you're hiring is licensed and insured,
and it's helpful to get multiple opinions and quotes before
kind of starting the work, whether it's to your car
or to your home. But I think a lot of
people feel compelled to use somebody that the insurance company recommends,
and it's just important to note that you don't have
to that's right.

Speaker 1 (22:43):
Yeah, you're not beholden to those vendors that they that
they have a relationship with. You can reach out to
the folks that you have that relationship with. And by
the way, during the claims process, in particular with a
car ensure, most folks don't know about diminished value, and
many insurance companies they convenient forget to tell you about it.
But basically, because your car has now been in an accident,

(23:05):
it's going to be worth less if you were to
sell it on the open market. So if you were
in a wreck and you are not at fault, you're
entitled not only to your car being fixed, but also
to reimbursement because your car is now worthless money. And
so it might take jumping through some additional hoops and
providing additional documentation and diminished value. You know, the rules

(23:25):
depend on what state it is that you live in,
but it could be well worth the additional effort in
order to get maybe an additional ten fifteen percent out
of it.

Speaker 2 (23:33):
Yes, yeah, yeah, I got hundreds of dollars based on
just kind of Hey when when I was sidewiped by
that car then went across the three lanes of traffic,
and I said, hey, like this, I know my car
is not like super nice or anything. I was back
when I had that like green Ultima that wasn't remember
that it wasn't terribly excellent, but it was worth a
few hundred dollars to me in diminished value that the
insurance company never would have said a word about or

(23:53):
And then when they did make their initial offer, it
was low. And I came back and I said, hey,
based on these calculations I've made, it sure looks like
I'm entitled to a couple hundred dollars more than what
you initially stated, and they go back and they say, oh.

Speaker 1 (24:05):
Okay, fine.

Speaker 2 (24:06):
But that's one of those things most people don't even know.
They've never even heard that term. But if you're in
a car accident, it's important to know that diminished value
exists and that you are owed money not just to
fix your car, but to fix the fact that your
car is now worth less.

Speaker 1 (24:20):
Yea, your car now has a reputation that's going to
always follow it.

Speaker 2 (24:23):
Yeah, exactly, it's it's gonna be on the car facts
right moving forward, which means so what he pulls out
when they're trying to buy it, they're like, wait a second,
I don't think I'm wanna pay you as much as
the one that hasn't been in an accident. But Matt,
we've got more to get to on insurance and deductibles.
We have a lot to talk about on the deductible front,
because that is one way that you can save a
lot of money or lose a lot of money. We'll
talk about that and more right after this.

Speaker 1 (24:53):
All right, man, we are back from the break, and
we just talked about what to do in the immediate
aftermath after an accident. There, But let's now talk about
preparing for accidents in advance, because you know you can't
predict like when or if an accident's going to occur,
but you don't want to leave yourself financially vulnerable if
something terrible comes along. So we're gonna talk about preparing

(25:15):
for those accidents. But first things first, we want to
make sure that you know when to not use certain
types of insurance that is going to end up costing
you more in the long run. So specifically I'm thinking
about like roadside assistance, which you know it's not technically insurance,
but oftentimes can be offered through your insure. We would
prefer for you to self ensure and pay for your

(25:36):
own toes if you are stranded on the side of
the road, or go with triple A, but using the
roadside assistance that is offered by car insurance can act
like a claim, potentially increasing your actual insurance premium. And
so even though it's not technically a part of insurance,
it is something that they're offering, and most people don't think, hey,

(25:58):
if I make this roadside insure like because it's set
up almost like a like a little perk like a concierge.
Like it's like at a hotel where they're like, would
you like this cookie? Right, and it's just like, oh wait,
you just charged me for that cookie. That's exactly what
I feel. That's sort of like what this is.

Speaker 2 (26:11):
And most people assume that the bottle of water in
the hotel is going to be free, but no, it
costs you five ninety nine. And it's very similar to
roadside insurance through the one specifically through your insurance company,
because they might.

Speaker 1 (26:21):
Wait, they track it and then it goes on your
clue report and it's stuck with you for like five
seven years.

Speaker 2 (26:26):
It's going to impact you potentially on the rates you
pay with your currniture, but definitely if you start shopping
around for rates to move elsewhere. And so yeah, I
forget exactly how long those things stick on that clue report,
which again is something most people don't know about. It's
like an insurance database and so all insurance companies can
kind of see your claim's history. It lives kind of
in the back end on this clue report that most

(26:47):
of us don't really know what's on there. But so yeah,
I think not using certain things like that like not
having roadside assistants and if you do, just definitely not
using it. But if a cost you extra money, ditch
it and get your own. But also it's important to
make sure you have enough in insurance. And this might
sound crazy, but you people are likely a lot of
our listeners are probably under insured right now, Matt, we
would suggest to check the face value of your insurance policy.

(27:10):
If your home were to be completely destroyed in a fire,
God forbid, would your insurance actually cover the full replacement
cost of the home? Right And when you think about inflation,
inflation has impacted everything. It's in fact, it's impacted the
cost of materials to rebuild your home. It's impacted the
cost of labor, it's impacted the timeline for renovations. Everything

(27:32):
has just gotten more expensive. It's taking longer and time
is money on this front. So chances are you might
not have quite enough insurance and that could negatively impact
you in a worst case scenario. And so you know,
updating the policy and getting more coverage on your home
is going to cost you more in premiums in all likelihood,
but it's also going to ensure that you're not left

(27:53):
holding the bag for potentially thousands, tens of thousands or
hundreds of thousands of dollars in repair costs and replacement
costs because your coverage is going to be robust enough.
So read your policy to check current limits and if necessary,
increase them to cover the full replacement cost of your home.
It's worth kind of say, okay, what would it cost
to build a four bedroom, three bath or a two bedroom,

(28:14):
one bath home like I'm in where I live, and
then kind of checking to see if your insurance policy,
what the overall amount of coverage you have is, and
if it's not quite up to snuff, you want to
raise those that amount.

Speaker 1 (28:26):
That's right, Yeah, And some insurers actually provide what's called
inflation guard coverage, where there's sort of like this automatic
stair step built into the amount of coverage that they
provide every single year. Which I'm not totally sure how
I feel about it, because on one hand, I like
it because you cannot think about it, and what that
means is that over time, your coverage is probably going
to match the value of your actual home. But in

(28:47):
a perfect world, like on the other hand, I don't
like it because in an ideal world that would be
something that you regularly check, like maybe once a year,
and be like, Okay, does the value of my home
does it adequately match the coverage that I have? But
the fact is do most people do that? No, probably
is the answer.

Speaker 2 (29:05):
So a product like that's going to put on autopilot
for most people who aren't going to recheck exactly. But
this is hopefully a good chance for people to go
in right now, log into the back end of their
insurance and say click the view my policy website right now.

Speaker 1 (29:17):
Because of the prompt that we are providing you.

Speaker 2 (29:19):
Literally right now, you can see basically like the coverage
that you have, not just like the headline amount, which
is important, That's what I'm telling you look at now,
but then even below that you can dig in and
see what other kind of coverages does this entail as well?
That's right, like some additional ad on policies, because those
might be necessary as well. So for instance, if you
have like say you're a collector, maybe you've got some

(29:41):
nice art, maybe you've got some very expensive fine jewelry.

Speaker 1 (29:44):
I don't know if my folk art qualifies. I think
it would, okay, I mean, if you can attach a dude,
you can share anything you attach a dollar amount to anything,
somebody out there will look at those fancy tables and
they'll write a policy for it. But what if that
fancy folk art of yours were.

Speaker 2 (30:00):
What if it were destroyed? Fortunately not, most of it
was less?

Speaker 1 (30:03):
Did you didn't have any art? There's like one little
gash in one really? Yeah, I'm sorry. I bet there'll
be additional things too, where you're kind of like, oh,
here's something else that happened. Oh here's something else. Oh yeah,
But these additional items may mean most likely won't be
covered under your regular policy, and you might need an
additional writer in addition to that. Maybe you have other
structures on the property as well, and so make sure

(30:25):
that those have enough coverage under the policy as well.
Oh and check to see whether some items are covered
with replacement cost coverage. That way, you are, you know,
just paid a fraction of what you would have to
spend in order to rebuy those now wrecked items. The
counter to that would be the actual cash value, which
takes into account depreciation, and so in that case you
would get paid less. But what you actually want is

(30:48):
the replace full replacement value what it would cost you
right now today. Joel to go out and buy a
new sofa, like what is that going to cost you?
Not what the with the cash Valuease.

Speaker 2 (30:57):
Just because I bought the sofa five years ago doesn't
mean I'm not paying today's costs or replace it so
far exactly, And so you want to make sure and
my policy fortunately does have replacement cost coverage. So I'm
going to get the full amount for what that soaf
will cost me today even though I bought it. Well,
actually not that long ago, like a year and a
half ago or something. But these are, yeah, these are
important things to look at because these are the kind

(31:19):
of things that could cost you hundreds or thousands of
dollars if you're not insured properly. You want to make
sure you have enough insurance, even though it's going to
cost you a little bit more from a premium perspective,
being under insured could cost you a whole lot more
in the long run. It's also important to Matt when
we're talking about preparing in advance for an accident that
can happen and making sure that you're not going to
be in a financial emergency, like if some sort of

(31:40):
other emergency car or home occurs to you, is having
enough money on hand. We talk about emergency funds all
the time, but man, like when this is this is
one of those places, yeah, right, Like, there's a bunch
of instances where you might use an emergency fund, but
I can't think of many more important than if you're
in a car accident or if you have some sort
of home homeowner's insurance claim as well. And so it's

(32:03):
not there just in the event that you lose your
job or if your transmission ghost bust. It's also there
to help you if an accident occurs. And so this
is part of the reason why having three to six
months of savings is so helpful, and this is why
that's money you're number four, right. We don't want it
to be so far down the list that you're investing
so much that you don't have access to funds to
help you get through some sort of emergency or accident.

(32:25):
And so the reality is that having that additional savings
on hand is going to help you in the case
you got to meet that deductible, and it's going to
help you pay for some of the contractors that you
might need to deal with while you're having the home
fix before you get reimbursed by insurance, which is the
position I'm in. You can have your insurance company pay
a lot of these bills directly, or you can kind

(32:46):
of be the hub. I just feel more comfortable. Maybe
it's like a control issue being kind of the hub
for those and then submitting those retreats to the insurance.

Speaker 1 (32:53):
Company, or just a desire to move things along because
if you know that, well I can call them right
now and get that scheduled. You know that that's going
to happen. Yeah, a good bit sooner. Really.

Speaker 2 (33:01):
Yeah, it's taken some of the gum out of the
gears and it allows you to kind of feed things
up and then I'll pay people and then I'll submit
that receipt to the insurance company, and it just makes
things move a little bit faster. Although it does mean
you've got to have the cash in the bank to
kind of facilitate those transaction.

Speaker 1 (33:13):
Lists, right, so to be able to float some of
those expenses. But another you mentioned, you know, using some
of your emergency fund to cover that deductible, but another
plus of having like an even larger emergency fund on hand,
right so maybe even you know towards a six or
even the six plus month's worth of expenses on hand there,
and that fund is the ability to set your deductible
even higher. And of course, the higher you're deductible, the

(33:36):
more you're gonna be able to save on your insurance premiums.
That's just how it works. But let's just say that
you've got a bear two thousand dollars in your savings account, right.
If that's the case, well you're not gonna want to
raise your deductible to double that, right, Like you know,
you don't want to take that to four or five
thousand dollars because that would be putting your finances in
harm's way. But if you have been a great saver,

(33:57):
increasing your deductibles is one of the best ways to
reduce those monthly or annual premiums. And that's both that's
the case on both auto and homeowners insurance. You can
raise deductibles on both of those things in an effort
to save money every single month or every single year
when it comes to the premiums you pass, that's right. Yeah, So,
for instance, with your homeowners insurance, going from a pretty
low five hundred dollars deductible to a two thousand dollars deductible, well,

(34:21):
I can see you more than five hundred dollars a
year depending on the insured. But again, you want to
make sure that you have way more than that within
your actual emergency fund. But when if you were to
do that, in just over three years of not having
a claim, you're going to have made all of that
money back, and then beyond that is just icing on top.
And the other perk is that you're less likely to
actually file a claim. And so you've kind of got

(34:43):
the psychological element behind it as well, where you're trying
to disincentivize yourself from actually making a claim because in
the long run that's going to end up costing you more.
Having that cash on hand to be able to address
some of those minor emergencies is what you want to
be able to do. Yeah, no, I agree, And I'll
say case we're not talking about a minor emergency, like, yeah,
this is me, Like, I don't know if you've if

(35:05):
you're cresting one hundred k yet, but like you're definitely
in the tens of thousands.

Speaker 2 (35:09):
Tens of thousands, yeah for sure, But I don't know
that's a good question. Like we're still in the initial
stages of kind of figuring out all happen and how
extensive the damages. Don't have that engineer out, and it
depends on whoa if it's if the whole roof needs
to be replaced down to like I don't know, the
the things that hold up the roof down to the roof, yeah, yeah,
like all that. Who knows, who knows right now, But

(35:31):
I mean it is going to be an expensive endeavor,
and so I do think it's important to That's a
really important part of it, though, Matt, is that if
people have a higher deductible on their policy, they're less
likely to tap the policy. And I think that's a
good thing because I've seen some people who have a
they've got a thousand dollars deductible, there's a six hundred

(35:51):
dollars repair. They go to insurance and they tap into
that insurance and they make a claim. And that is
the worst possible thing you could do. Even though you're
gonna come out four hundred dollars ahead, let's say in
the short term, over the long term you're going to lose.
And that's a bad idea. And so setting your deductible
higher means you're less likely to tap it for a
small thing. And research shows that rates can climb something
like forty to fifty percent, and that that rate, that

(36:14):
premium that goes that goes sky high when you make
that claim, it can stay elevated for somewhere between three
and five years. So I would say run the numbers
and don't file a claim unless it makes sense. I
think some people think just because you've been involved in
an accident, boom, it's time to turn to insurance. But
if it's something relatively minor, if that tree had crashed
and it had just damaged for some reason, like my

(36:36):
son's little electric cheap that he rides around the yard, like,
I wouldn't make a claim on.

Speaker 1 (36:40):
That, Or if it just if it only knocked off
your gutters, right, for instance, you knock off the gutter,
it's not something you're going to file a claim. O.

Speaker 2 (36:45):
Yes, I am going to replace those gutters myself. Some
people think, well, it hit the home, I've got to
involve insurance. That's not necessarily the case. And so yeah,
if your deductible is set higher, it's going to cause
you to lean on your own finances more in the
case of like minor incident and not going directly to
the insurance company, which which you want to avoid really
when you can.

Speaker 1 (37:05):
Well, the same is true when it comes to car
insurance as well, especially when it comes to comprehensive coverage.
And I'll speak to this from personal experience as well.
You don't want to make a claim. You don't want
to file a claim when your winchel cracks because oh my.

Speaker 2 (37:18):
Gosh, that's when I see people do and yeah, and
I did that. So in college, I filed two claims
because I had to crackminshield and another claim when I
hit had hit a deer. And I didn't know that
these you know, all these claims were counting against me
until it knocked our entire families car insurance into like
this high risk profile. And not just I mean literally

(37:39):
our entire family. So it wasn't just me, it was
my parents as well.

Speaker 1 (37:41):
So they were paying like a factor of two x
and I got the boot and that was just like, hey,
I'm sorry, You're gonna have to find your own insurance.
And I wish I would have been taught that, like, hey,
maybe every time your windshield cracks, you don't call up
the insurance company and have them send safe light or
whoever out to you know, actually to make a repair
or to replace.

Speaker 2 (38:02):
Especially something as basic as a Winshield replacement. You're barely
gonna get paid out more than the deductible in most cases.

Speaker 1 (38:08):
Yeah. In that case, I think the deductible was crazy low.
And I was just like, well, that's what insurance is for. Yeah,
I want to keep my ride looking good.

Speaker 2 (38:14):
But I think you're right, and it's so important for
us just to just to say that. Again, a lot
of people think that's what insurance is for, but that
is not what insurance is for. That's what self insurance
is for. Insurance is really your emergency funds. Yeah, it's
for only when the numbers make sense. And I will
say my deductible, you could raise your deductible really high,
And so I'm a proponent of people self insuring and
raising their deductible higher then they maybe even feel comfortable with,

(38:38):
which I did.

Speaker 1 (38:38):
In my case.

Speaker 2 (38:39):
Some insurance companies will allow you to actually raise your
deductible to a percentage of the overall insured amount as
opposed to just a flat number. And so I did that.
I up the stakes even more in order to lower
my premiums. And so right now I'm feeling the financial pain,
but because it's going to be quite a bit of
money having to fork over out of my pocket. I
am co insured basically with the insurance compan were basically

(39:01):
co insuring this home, and so it's going to be expensive.
But I was prepared for that, and I was willing
to take the savings over the years that I got them,
and I think I will continue to go this route,
like I'm not changing my tune.

Speaker 1 (39:11):
Because the lightning strikes the tree once and it skewers
your house, doesn't It doesn't change the fact that this
is a rare occurrence. And even though it happened once,
you know, I think there's a lot of folks who
might react to that negatively and they'll be like, oh, shoot,
like I'm never going to do that again. Well, that
is true if you weren't financially prepared to have handled
that deductive body, you were.

Speaker 2 (39:30):
Just because I go to Vegas and I win five
hundred bucks at blackjack doesn't mean blackchack is a smart
way to make money exactly. And the same is true
in the opposite way in this Just because I did
get some sort of act of god lightning struck a
tree occurrence doesn't mean that a higher deductible isn't still
the best way to save money. For people who can
self insurre and have saved money, it was.

Speaker 1 (39:47):
An act of God. What did you What did you do?
I know, right, I'm sorry. So it's you know, it's
a short sighted move to file a claim when it's
something that you can afford. I get, you know, saves
you money for a minute, but not over the long haul.
But I also just wanted to mention that it is
possible to over ensure as well. There is basically an
insurance product out there for like everything anything that you

(40:10):
can buy everything under the sun, and they're not all necessary,
like and so I'm talking about like pet insurance, right,
Like you can get like cancer insurance for your pet,
quote unquote insurance for your new laptop. Maybe you're gonna
get a policy on your main water line that goes
out to the street, flight insurance, all of these things.
And so we want to make sure that you are
well covered. You know, again, log in to the back

(40:31):
end of your policy, take a look at your coverage
and make sure that it will cover the full replacement
value to rebuild your home, for instance. But you can't
ensure against everything that's out there, and you shouldn't. That's
where savings are such an essential part of the preparedness equation.
And as we're talking about insurance here, we don't want
the opposite thing that we want to do is scare
everybody out there into over insurance and all of their

(40:53):
monthly cash flow is flowing into these insurance products that
they're not likely to actually need.

Speaker 2 (40:58):
Yeah, I think you can be so that you sign
up for the extended warranty policy at Best Buy every
time you buy an electronic sign them, which would be
a complete waste of your money. And you should self insure.
You shouldn't spend eighty dollars to ensure three hundred dollars laptop.
That is really that's not smart. Same thing with you
when you're insuring like a TV or whatever, and there's
all sorts of products like that. You can ensure anything
in everything these days that you want to, and you

(41:19):
really shouldn't, but you should make sure on those most
important things that you have enough insurance and that you
also have enough money in the bank to cover the
general wear and tear or the things that are going
to break in everyday life. As well, including those electronics,
right or including some sort of yeah, flight change that
you have to make. Just no need to buy the
insurance every single time, Dope.

Speaker 1 (41:38):
You can build some of that margin into your own
life by keeping that keeping that cash in the bank. Yes,
for sure. All right, so let's hear savings account.

Speaker 2 (41:44):
But there are ways, Matt, even as you're making sure
you're properly adequately ensured that you can reduce the costs
of insurance in your life. You can have your cake
and eat it too. We'll talk about that right after this.

Speaker 1 (42:04):
All right, now, let's talk about how to spend less
money on insurance. Let's talk about some of the different
ways you can reduce insurance costs in your life. And
you know, the main thrust of this episode is that
we want you to be prepared in case of an accident,
whether it is with your home or auto, and we
want you to be frugal, not cheap, and so that
means having the proper coverage in the necessary amounts. But

(42:26):
we also want you to save money wherever possible. And
the truth is a lot of how money listeners out
there could save a lot of money pretty easily on
what they pay for insurance.

Speaker 2 (42:36):
In five minutes, could they save fifteen percent or more
map easily.

Speaker 1 (42:40):
We already talked about raising your deductible. That can be
a great way to reduce your premiums, assuming you have
that money set aside in your emergency fund. The more
you're able to self insure, the more you're going to
be able to save. But there are other ways that
you can also reduce the cost of what you're going
to pay for insurance without cutting corners, yes, without without
going cheap.

Speaker 2 (42:59):
It's important to mention a lot of things that people
can do to save because I think people might assume, oh, okay,
I need to beef up my insurance. It's just going
to cost me a ton of money. And like we said,
like if you are to raise the limits on your
current homeowner's policy, it is going to cost you more money,
but it's going to be well worth it. But that
being said, there are still other ways that you can
kind of tame the price of insurance in your life.

(43:20):
And one of those things is to increase your credit score.
Because in most states, not all states, I think California
is one of those states where they don't allow insurance
companies to take credit score into consideration. But in most states,
it's legal for those insurance companies to base your rates
at least partially based on your credit score. And so
making sure that your score is solid not only saves

(43:41):
you by getting a lower interest rate when you're buying
that home, but also it impacts what you're going to
pay every single year to ensure it. And it's amazing, man.
I think on a recent Friday flight we mentioned that,
I think for folks who have poor credits versus great credit,
the average difference in annual premiums on homeowners insurance something
like seventy two.

Speaker 1 (44:01):
Percent, so a significant amount. It's not minor from having
crap your credit, Yeah, it's not minor. And so your
credit score has a massive impact on what you're going
to be able to save and how much you're going
to pay overall fourk over for the same exact insurance policy.
It's not like you're being cheap here. You're literally changing
one factor in your life and you're able to like
pull a bunch of money back into it. It's a

(44:21):
factor that's going to affect you positively when it comes
to your finances in multiple areas. Yes, and so that
seventy two percent. That's just the average, you know, the
average increase some states is even more than that, right,
And so that means in some states I think I
saw in like New York and Arizona, it's like Arizona's
one hundred and seventy something around on hundred and seventy
percent more. And so it makes a massive difference if

(44:42):
you're listening to this and you happen to live in Phoenix, if.

Speaker 2 (44:44):
You live in Tempe or Tusigon, it's like you want
to pay even more attention to the credit score. We
actually have an article that will link to in the
show notes about how to improve your credit score. But
there's so there's so much you need to know. There's
some low hanging fruit there where if you're like, yeah,
my credit score is pretty bad. We've got prior episodes,
we've got articles up on the site where you can
kind of improve that. But just know at improving that
one thing could have a massive impact on what you're
paying for insurance every month and every year. When it

(45:05):
comes to homeowners insurance.

Speaker 1 (45:07):
Yeah, you know, I feel that most folks know that
bundling is going to be one of the easiest ways
to save on insurance costs. If for some reason you've
got your car and you've got your homeowners insurance with
two different companies, it's likely costing you too much money.
So this is some additional some more of that low
hanging fruit that's right for the picking. But bundling is
going to knock typically around fifteen to twenty percent off

(45:27):
of the price of each policy, right, So not you know,
we're talking about over your car insurance and your homeowners
and so finding the policies that you need with the
lowest overall combined price. That is a smart way to
think about how it is that you can save the
most on insurance costs in your life. Don't worry if
your auto insurance goes up five percent. If that means

(45:48):
your homeowners is able to drop by twenty percent, well
you know, obviously that's a net win of fifteen percent.
So make sure you are looking at the premiums for
both policies and not just getting distracted by a singular increases.

Speaker 2 (46:00):
Yeah, and if you're shopping around with other providers, if
you're trying to figure out where you go for insurance,
don't think about just the price of one policy. And
speaking of which, that is another massive way to reduce
insurance costs in your life is to shop around in
order to lower the overall amount that you pay loyalty.
We've always said this, it does not pay in the
realm of insurance. The longer you stay put, the more

(46:21):
likely you are to be paying too much. And so
here's the thing. Don't just consider the price and go
with the absolute lowest quote or provider you come across.
I think about some of those companies that advertise during
daytime television, like I don't know if Judge Judy is
still on in daytime, but like they're often these kind
of fly by net companies barely.

Speaker 1 (46:38):
To who Judge Judy is. Oh dude, she's a star.

Speaker 2 (46:41):
But there's all all sorts of companies that advertise during
that time of day that there may maybe not the
most upstaining insurance companies, I'll put it that way, but
you're going to want to make sure that you're doing
business with a company who isn't going to leave you
in the lurch when an accident occurs. Right, Just because
you got the lowest rate does mean that you came
out ahead. So consumer reports their rankings are helpful here.

(47:04):
They consistently rank USAA in AMIKA at the top of
the heat in terms of insurance companies to do that
are worth doing business with. And so if you're eligible
for coverage with USAA, if you're in the military or
the family member of someone who served in the military,
I believe you have to be a direct descendant.

Speaker 1 (47:21):
Is that correct, Matt, Yeah, basically you have to have
a parent who was in the military. And well, not
necessarily I guess, because like if your grandfather was in
the military, and then that would have made your dad eligible.
So your dad wouldn't have necessarily needed to have been
in the military for you to then be eligible. So
as long as you have, for instance, like a parent
who is eligible, whether or not they serve themselves, that

(47:41):
specifically is what makes you eligible or.

Speaker 2 (47:43):
Yeah, so USA they're consistently ranked one of the best
insurance companies out there. And if you are eligible, if
you like one of your parents or something like that
has USA, you should find a way to get your
foot in the door because they're one of the best
companies to do business with, and if they offer you
a great rate then and it's worth going in that direction.

Speaker 1 (48:01):
IKA is even more but again not necessarily because they're
the cheapest, but because they rank so highly when it
comes to customer.

Speaker 2 (48:08):
Satisfaction yep, and so like let's say rates though through
one of the insurance companies that is ranked the most
highly by consumer reports. Let's say they offer you something
that's sky high. You're saying, well, I can way better
rates other places. Well, at least look at solid, solidly
rated companies, right, because you just don't want to be
subject to working with an insurance company who rates really low,

(48:29):
extremely poor on claims and service in the event that
you need to use your insurance. Because the goal, like
we said, is kind of hopefully you never have to
use your insurance. Hopefully a lot of the things we're
talking about in this episode you never have to deal
with because lightning doesn't strike your treaty right, or somebody
doesn't rear end you or whatever, and you remain accident
free for the rest of your life life congratulations. But

(48:49):
if you do, you want to make sure you're doing
business with a company that is gonna treat you right,
that they're gonna be responsive, and they're gonna pay out accordingly.

Speaker 1 (48:56):
That's right. Yeah, So, as you're shopping around, like this
is obviously something you can do yourself in order to
save money. That's totally a fine way to do it. It
just might take a little more time than you would
actually like it to. And so some other options out
there are just to turn to some brokers who specialize
in shopping with multiple companies all at once on your behalf.
And so some companies online do this, like Policy Genius

(49:18):
were huge fans of what it is that they offer.
That's like a more automated digital online version of doing that.
But then heading over to Trusted Choice, that's a great
site to turn to that will help you to find
an individual, typically a local independent agent, who is going
to be able to do the same thing. They're going
to be able to talk you through some of the
different coverage limits, they're going to help you to find
the best insurance products for your specific situation.

Speaker 2 (49:41):
And they're going to shop with multiple insurance companies at once,
and they're going to be able to kind of say, yeah,
give you the rundown. Hey, here's here's I write a
lot of policies with this company.

Speaker 1 (49:49):
Here's how they respond.

Speaker 2 (49:50):
I think you're gonna get a lot of insight if
you can independent broker at least talk to one.

Speaker 1 (49:54):
And they're going to give you state specific information as well,
because that also has an impact on some of the
different products that are avail to you, the types of
coverage that are required. And then plus it's it can
be really nice to have somebody, like an actual contact,
somebody who you know that you can call, Like I
have an independent broker and when it comes tign for
renewal and my rates have gone up, well, I know
exactly who it is I'm gonna call. I have our

(50:15):
numbers saved in my phone. I know exactly who it is.
I'm going to email and where I'm asking the questions, Hey,
why do you know what happened? What happened with auto
insurance rates last year? Yeah? What can I do to
get those premiums down? But having a real life independent
agent who you can count on can be can certainly
be a great move. But we're talking about shopping your
insurance coverage, you know, with a bunch of different providers.
While we're talking about shopping, I wanted to mention too

(50:37):
specific to car insurance, the type of car that you
drive will have a big impact on the rates that
you pay as well, So as you are shopping for
a new ride, whether fer Mari I just bought. The
insurance is so expensive, it's going to be so expensive.
And so I mean, you and I were two frugal
dads and we drive our old mini vans. It's kind
of like a badge of honor. It's in large part

(50:58):
to save money. It's not because we love old minivans.
Is because we don't necessarily want to pay more than
we need to in order to get from point A
to point B. And it's not just on the price
of the vehicle. It's on the recurring cost of the
intro every single month or every six months, depending on
how it is that you pay. And so if your
craft beer is having a nice ride, that's totally fine.
But like you said, no that it's more than just

(51:18):
the sticker price. It's also the cost of ensuring that vehicle.
There's a reason that Chevy Camaros and Ford Mustangs they
cost more than a five year old Toyota Camri to
ensures because those cars are designed to go fast, and
when cars go faster, they are at higher risk of
getting an auto accidents, in which case insurers are going
to have to pay out on claims made by individuals

(51:40):
who are negatively impacted by those vehicles, and so these
are all things that you want to keep it in mind.

Speaker 2 (51:45):
If I was in the market for a new car,
I would be calling my insurance company and I would say,
how much does this car cost to ensure, because that
is going to factor into my decision as to whether
that is a good decision to buy that car or not.
I think oftentimes we avoid that question, and especially yeah, Matt,
if you're looking to some of those models that are
more accident prone that are going to cost more in insurance,
it's just worth getting a quote on what that insurance

(52:07):
is going to cost every single year before you make
the purchase, right.

Speaker 1 (52:09):
They look at those actuary tables. Yeah, And oftentimes we
think about, for instance, something as somewhat basic as gas mileage,
and we're like, oh, you know, it's a gas guzzler.
I'm not sure if I want to go that route,
But then we don't consider something as significant as car
insurance and the impact that I can have on the
total cost of ownership as well.

Speaker 2 (52:25):
Yeah, and I just want to say too, like most
things in life, like we talked about early frugal versus
cheap value is more important than getting the absolute lowest price.
And so when you're talking about insurance coverage, you want
to make sure that you're fully covered by a reputable
insurance company. But it's also possible to overdo it, right.
You can over insure, or you can over index. Maybe
for I got to be with the company that's number

(52:46):
one rated by consumer reports, when maybe the number five
or six company on the list gets stellar rating still,
but they offer you a much better rate. That's probably
the best place for you to turn. And this is
the kind of thing that people should be doing, if
not every year, at least every three years, right shopping
there insurance around it is. It's I would say every
three if you don't want to overdo it. If you're
particularly frugal and can't stand the thought of wasting a dollar,

(53:09):
then you want to do it every year. But every
three years is probably a good idea. Revisit what you
know your insurance coverage, and then also revisit and test
the open market to see if you can get a
better rate elsewhere. And every accident, by the way, is different, Right,
It's impossible to be one hundred percent prepared for every
possible accident under the sun. It's it's also impossible to
avoid accidents completely. Sometimes they just happen to you. I've

(53:31):
had two happen to me in the past month that
I could just I couldn't really have been prepared for.
I wasn't expecting, you know, someone, Sometimes somebody just runs
into the back of you, or sometimes lightning strikes you're
the tree in your front yard. Sey Lovy, it is
what is, and it's it's always an inconvenience, but hopefully
you can at least be prepared for a potential mishap

(53:51):
from a financial perspective, and so it's important to do
your best to have proper coverage and to self insure
as much as possible in order to be as ready
as you can, even though we can't predict or plan
for these things that come along. So hopefully this episode
helps you do just that, helps you be more ready
than you currently are, helps you make some tweaks here
or there, or maybe even some major changes to your

(54:12):
insurance to your deductibles to ensure that you are ready
to take on whatever comes your way and that when
that next accident happens, that it doesn't derail your financial
plan completely.

Speaker 1 (54:21):
Yeah, that's right man. All right, let's go ahead and
get back to our beer. This was an AOK mar
Zen style Lagger sent to us by Katie. I thank
you again Katie for this beer, and this one is
brewed by Gruner Brothers Brewing Company. Joel, what were your
thoughts on this beer out of Casper, Wyoming?

Speaker 2 (54:39):
Oh, Casper, Wyoming, It's a place I'd like to visit someday.

Speaker 1 (54:41):
But this beer was great, man.

Speaker 2 (54:43):
It was very much like october Fest vibes going on, yeah,
which is typically drunk in.

Speaker 1 (54:48):
The fall, almost literally definition of a yeah of a marzen.

Speaker 2 (54:52):
Yeah.

Speaker 1 (54:52):
And so it's like a nice taste of fall in
a cup, which.

Speaker 2 (54:55):
I appreciate because fall now feels like a long time away,
but really not that not so Long's the.

Speaker 1 (54:59):
Nice taste of bread, but in a carbonated alcoholic version.

Speaker 2 (55:03):
Yea of very much tastes like brown bread, you know,
in a cup, which is great.

Speaker 1 (55:07):
So yeah, smooth and malty. Yeah.

Speaker 2 (55:08):
I liked it a lot. Biscuity, all those kind of bodies.

Speaker 1 (55:11):
Yeah, dark biscuits though, yeah, maybe that whole week flower
with flax seed in it, I don't know. Yeah, this
is a really good one and would definitely recommend for
folks to check out this brewery if you happen to
be there in the area. What I can only assume
is the beautiful country of Casper, Wyoming. But Joel, that's
gonna be it for this episode. We'll make sure to
link to some of the different resources that we have

(55:33):
mentioned during this episode, like where it is that you
can find an independent insurance broker in your area. You
can find those in our show notes up on the
website at howtomoney dot com. Right.

Speaker 2 (55:43):
You can also sign up for our newsletter by the way, Yes,
you can have money dot com slash newsletter. It's awesome
and it's free, so check that out.

Speaker 1 (55:50):
From time to time. We'll have insurance saving tips in
there as well. Sure, but Buddy, that's going to be
it for this episode. Until next time, Best Friends Out,
Best Friends Out. The

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Joel Larsgaard

Matthew Altmix

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.css-14f5ked{margin:0;word-break:break-word;display:-webkit-box;-webkit-box-orient:vertical;box-orient:vertical;-webkit-line-clamp:2;overflow:hidden;}Accidents and Insurance and Deductibles, Oh My! (Bestie) #856