home owners insurance

[clemsonfor]

I CAN AFFORD MY H.O! I just wanna be free of bills.The house is not really not worth the money! its ok but no mansion so if I lose it to fire no big deal I can live in my pole barn that's paid for!.

But would you want to live out your retirement years out of a pole barn with none of your worldly posessions that took a lifetime to aquire that were housed inside the house?

 

[GPintheMitten]

I think you should move out to the pole barn now. Try it for six months or a year. Then decide if it's a good backup plan or not.

Also, what happens after the pole barn burns down? Live in a tent?

 

[ovrszd]

I think you should move out to the pole barn now. Try it for six months or a year. Then decide if it's a good backup plan or not.

Also, what happens after the pole barn burns down? Live in a tent?

After having lost all my shop goods and vehicles and having insurance, I thank God every day for giving me the power of logic to determine I needed insurance and for continuing to pay the premium even when money was short. I have that conversation with him while sitting in my nice warm shop.

 

[daugen]

all of us who have made it to retirement in one piece, or at least with parts of the piece we thought we would have, sure don't want fixed costs.
and insurance is a constant cost that never seems to go away.
Obviously there is a good reason for that. The risks don't go away. Big trees having been falling on folk's homes since they were log cabins.
Kitchen fires, brush fires, controlled burns that got out of hand, electrical fires, barbecue fires, chimney fires, propane/LNG explosions due to old street piping, boy there are so many ways to have a really bad day. Being careful will prevent most, but not all.

Now if you built your home with steel firewall doors, fire resistive construction, and full sprinklers, you likely could afford most insurance but for once you might take a reasonable chance by self insuring. I wouldn't...as many have said before, get quotes on increasing deductibles. You should be able to quantify the number of years it would take without a loss to break even. Anything saving money within a 20 year time frame ought to be considered. For example, if you increased your deductible from 1000 to 2500, you expose yourself to 1500 dollars more risk, but if you save 100 dollars per year, you will have broken even in 15 years, or less if you invested the 100 dollar premium savings. It's all a matter of cash flow and savings adequacy; don't take a deductible that would put you in a serious bind.

Most homeowners provide coverage for contents for a limit that represents half of the building coverage. If you request, and they approve, full replacement cost coverage on personal contents, then the limit usually goes from 50 to 70% of the building limit. For normal items of living, this is usually enough. For special gun collections, jewelry, breakable things, stamps and money, the basic policy is pretty limited. In many ways, like buying a new car. If you need a sunroof, they are going to make you pay for it. So when comparing homeowner premiums, often it's not apples to apples due to riders and varying deductibles.

One of the biggest grey areas in homeowners has to do with things we all could do with our tractors. Help out neighbors, for a fee...
If money changes hands, or even barter if a lawyer is eyeballing this, business use of residential lawn mowing equipment and tractors is
highly likely to get declined due to business exclusions. You have to have a Farmowners policy for that, but owning lots of excavating equipment, things that can
dig in the ground and hit utility pipes may even go outside the Farmowners. Need to be clear with your insurance agent what you are doing with your equipment and make sure you are covered. Tractors have been subsoiling fields forever. It's when you help your neighbor, for a fee, lay pipe with that subsoiler and you hit the big Texas Eastern pipe line (probably have to be quite talented to do that) that all kinds of questions are going to get asked before any claim gets paid.

 

[clemsonfor]

Yep. Had a lot of tools that belonged to my Grandfather and Father. Also had items that my deceased Son had used. You can't insure that. Only thing worse would have been if I was uninsured and couldn't even replace the building.

The tools that were family tools, did you recover anything? I know the heat may make them no longer good for actual use other than light use but did they still sit in your toolbox or did it get so hot they melted togeather? Just curious.

So Sorry this all happened to you. The loss of things that you kept that your son had must of been the worst loss. I am tearing up thinging about this and my son is only 2 right now. I am a sentimental person and if my baby were to be called back by god i dont think i would ever let go of a single thing he ever touched. Again sorry for your emense loss.

 

[GPintheMitten]

If a retired man forgoes insurance and has a catastrophic loss, he will likely become a burden to his kids or extended family. I wouldn't take that kind of chance and do that to them.

 

[ovrszd]

The tools that were family tools, did you recover anything? I know the heat may make them no longer good for actual use other than light use but did they still sit in your toolbox or did it get so hot they melted togeather? Just curious.

So Sorry this all happened to you. The loss of things that you kept that your son had must of been the worst loss. I am tearing up thinging about this and my son is only 2 right now. I am a sentimental person and if my baby were to be called back by god i dont think i would ever let go of a single thing he ever touched. Again sorry for your emense loss.

I retrieved several pieces. As you say, they are unuseable, but I still have them hanging on the wall.

Thank you for your sentiments. My life is split in half. Things happened before Eric died or after. Thanks again. Big hug.

 

[GPintheMitten]

I retrieved several pieces. As you say, they are unuseable, but I still have them hanging on the wall.

Thank you for your sentiments. My life is split in half. Things happened before Eric died or after. Thanks again. Big hug.

Sorry for the.loss of your son, Richard.

 

[ovrszd]

Sorry for the.loss of your son, Richard.

Thank you. It was 21 years ago or yesterday, sometimes I can't remember which.

So this doesn't come off as a Hijack, let me add this. When Eric was 4 years old my insurance agent talked to me about life insurance on my boys. It was a paid in full policy, $10K per Son, had 3, $450 paid it all. I didn't have $450. My agent said I'll pay this for you. You pay me back when you can. Took me 6 months to pay him off. When Eric died he was among the first to come and visit us. When he handed me the check he apologized saying he never intended for this to happen. I thanked him for being a good man, friend and insurance agent. That money buried Eric.

 

[fordmantpw]

new homes do have less claims, though not less due to "stupid people" incidents. That appears to occur regardless of home age...
Fordman, I love it, they give you earthquake coverage because there is almost zero chance of it occurring. I wonder if they offered that to Ultrarunner for free?....

We specifically asked for the earthquake coverage, they don't normally include it. We are a little ways from the New Madrid Fault (we are in the center of the state), but there could still be some major damage if 'the big one' hits again. For the $30-40/year it adds to our premium, it's cheap piece of mind. It's about the cost of a dinner out.