Buying Insurance

Buying Insurance Insurance can be complicated, and its costs can add up if you aren’t careful. In this podcast, we talk about ways to save and what you should watch out for.

Insurance is a tricky business. Here are some important points to consider.

Transcript

Welcome to another edition of our CredAbility [now Clearpoint Credit Counseling Solutions] podcast. Along with your host, Mechel Glass, here’s Steve Moore to help us unravel the mysteries of buying insurance.
Steve: Mechel, this can often be a confusing topic, so let’s start right at the top. When it comes to insurance, what kind do I really need?
Mechel: Well, there are a lot of kinds that are important, so let’s talk about each of those. Everyone needs to have health insurance, and that means medical insurance, dental insurance, and vision, to make sure that your health is in tip-top condition. Then also you want to look at making sure that if you have an automobile you have auto insurance, if you have a home make sure that your home is covered, because you don’t want to experience an unexpected circumstance where you’re not covered, in case something should happen to your home or your car. Also, you want to have disability insurance. Disability insurance is very important, especially if you are a single parent, because you’re the only source of income for the family. So you want to make sure that if something should happen where you are injured for an extended period of time, your disability insurance will help make sure that your household keeps running functionally while you’re down.
Steve: Okay. What about the big one, or at least the one lots of people think about, life insurance?
Mechel: Life insurance is important as well, specifically if you have dependents. You wanna make sure that if anything should happen to you, that your family is able to continue to function if you’re not there to support them.
Steve: You know a lot of people can’t afford all these different kinds of insurance that you just mentioned. What if that’s the case?
Mechel: If that’s the case, then of course they’re gonna have to prioritize. They’re gonna have to look at the things that are most important that they can do, do those things, and then look at other ways that they can minimize the risk for those areas that they’re not able to buy insurance for.
Steve: Because you can spend all of your money on insurance so you’re prepared for a rainy day that may or may not happen, but in the meantime you’re not able to pay your bills.
Mechel: And that’s something that you definitely don’t want to have happen. You have to find that balance in your personal finances.
Steve: When it comes to life insurance, how much do you need?
Mechel: Well, it depends. It depends on what you have to cover. If you have a home, it’s going to be different. If you don’t have a home but you have children, then you need to make sure that your children are taken care of. It really depends on the situation. And everyone’s lifestyle is different, so they’ll have to really speak to a person one on one to figure out how much I need for my situation.
Steve: Okay. That begs the question, who is that person? I know we could spend another ten minutes on this, but how do I determine the best place to buy insurance? Who do I speak to?
Mechel: Well, there are several great websites out there that will give ratings of different insurance companies. For example, ambest.com, or standardandpoors.com, or moodys.com will allow people to rate different insurance companies, and then they can do a comparison shop as to who they want to go with.
Steve: And if they visit our website, they can find this information and much more I presume?
Mechel: Right. We actually have a class called Fully Covered, that walks them through all the different types of insurance that we recommend they get, and it will also list the different resources and websites that they can go to do their homework.
Steve: Mechel, thanks.
Mechel: Thank you.