Thursday, December 1, 2011

On Renter's Insurance

The other morning, I heard quite a few sirens when I was getting ready for work. And they were quite close, too! It's one of those things that made me start to wonder if something had gone wrong not far from my house.

That train of thought suddenly brought me back about 5 years when I was living in an apartment. On my way home, I noticed a pretty pronounced plume of smoke from my neighborhood. I then started to panic. I had been cooking in a crock pot that day! What if it shorted out, or boiled over, or did something else to cause a fire? Could my split-pea soup end up destroying the place I lived and all of my things?

Luckily enough, my long distance vision wasn't so great and it ended up coming from down the street. Still, it got me thinking! What if it had been my place? How would I even replace my wardrobe, which was now filled with suits, slacks, button-down shirts and other insurance-guy apparel? Or my pots, pans and other food-guy accessories?

The answer was simple: I wouldn't be able to.

Being a fledgling insurance guy at the time, my cash reserves were not so great. I would have been in a very tough spot! So the next day, I practiced what I preached and got myself a modest renter's insurance policy. Nothing outlandish, but something that would make sure that my most important items were covered. Thankfully, it was simple and inexpensive. If my memory serves me correctly, it ended up being about $20 per month.

So ask yourself the same question I did: how would you replace your belongings if something DID go wrong? If you don't have a good answer either, strongly consider protecting yourself. Consult your favorite insurance advisor and see if they can come up with a good plan for you.

And oddly enough, if you don't have an insurance advisor, I happen to know a pretty good one. Go figure, right?

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