The Onion

I've been thinking this for a long time ...... the amount of money I spend on my house or vehicle in order to keep them insured is starting to outweigh the benefits of having insurance. I spend money on these things to remove as much risk as possible and always make me cautious about doing anything unusual or dangerous because I might not get paid by my insurance. I'm starting to think that it might just be better to pay for everything as if I'm being insured by the most strict policy and then not bother paying insurance. Minimize risk on everything which is what having insurance does to me.

I'll never do it but it really makes you think.

A few years ago I helped my wife file taxes for her mother who died that year. End of life taxes and we had to calculate a whole bunch of stuff. One thing I noticed was her house insurance. She had owned her small house for over 60 years, paid house insurance to the same company year after year and never filed a claim. I calculated how much it all was and adjusted for inflation with quick and dirty calculations it amounted to about $90,000 which was basically what the small house was sold for. (This is all in a small northern town away from the city in a small two bedroom house from the 1920s)

It really made me think that instead of paying money like that with the risk that the company might refuse to help you in a major event .... why not just keep paying but just deposit it into a savings account for just such as emergency. After ten years, you'd have quite the savings and you would have still done everything as risk free as possible anyway.