While AJ Sheff is helping you avoid Indexed Universal Life Insurance (IUL), I can help save you money by shopping for better home, auto, and umbrella insurance. It’s insurance week at Wealthy Idiots!
Gather quotes annually
It’s 2023, and car insurance rates have sky-rocketed. Heck, pretty much everything has sky-rocketed since the start of 2021. Luckily for me, I’ve made it an annual tradition to quote all of our insurance policies to guarantee we’re getting the most competitive rate available. Last year, we could have saved around $200 annually by switching, but it would have separated our policies to many different companies.
This year, I just finished getting quotes and came out ahead by saving nearly $1,000 annually by switching from one major insurance company to another. Full disclosure, this is two homeowners policies, one classic car, three other cars, a side-by-side, and umbrella insurance. But still, $1,000 a year is nothing to shake a stick at.
Don’t assume you have the best rate
It’s pretty well-known that insurance rates can creep up over time. By continually shopping, you’re guaranteeing yourself the best rate available on the open market. And let’s face it, companies always want to grab new business.
When doing this, you should try to quote an independent broker as well as a few national companies. I’m not a big fan of splitting my policies among various companies, however, I would make that concession if the savings prospect was large enough. Either way, you don’t know how much you could save until you try. Don’t forget, many insurers give extra discounts for “bundling” many products together with one company.
Not for the faint of heart
Full disclosure: this can take some time to complete. Between answering the agents questions, filling out pertinent paperwork, and taking defensive driving courses, I think my wife and I have invested about 4 hours in switching. Now, having a lot of policies makes this a little more challenging for us. Who knows, maybe switching your single car would only take 5 minutes.
This doesn’t only apply to insurance
Moral of the story, since inflation has clearly taken a chunk out of everyone’s paycheck, why not search for a little extra savings to make up for it? You can do this by trimming extra subscription services, selling old unused items, or renegotiating things like your cell phone, internet, and cable TV bills. Again, it doesn’t hurt to try!
