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Shopping for Insurance Sucks

Oh man. This past weekend I spent about 4 hours shopping around for auto and renter’s insurance. Did it pay out to spend that much time in front of the computer? Yes, yes it did! How much? Well, if I take my savings divided by time spent looking for those savings, then It was worth about $70+/hr. Oh yeah! You’re probably thinking, “What kicked this off? I thought you did this when you moved and Allstate had the best prices around?” Well, they did. Until I moved. Then for some reason, just moving addresses, my insurance jumped almost $150 per 6 months or $300/year! Whoa!! I didn’t think too much about it, until 3 weeks later when I got an email to sign an uninsured motorist form. My reply, “Uninsured?! Dude, I’m over insured. I still have 2 policies on my truck that haven’t been cancelled OR refunded. How about looking into that?” Their reply was that, “It was cancelled, AND refunded, you’re just mistaken.” Hahahaha Riiiight… Guess who got their policy refunded after COB that day? I did. Guess whose olicies immediately disappeared off their app AFTER that email? My second policy did. Funny how that works…

Guess who’s petty, doesn’t like being told he’s lying, and will pay more money just to spite someone or a company? This guy!! Yes, I make decisions based on feelings first, and then followed up with, “is this a wise fiscal move?” lol Fortunately for me, this one played out well and I saved myself almost $300/yr by switching car insurance AND renter’s insurance. The bonus of this is my renter’s insurance is now better and has “extended coverages” added to it and it was STILL $170 cheaper per year than Allstate, and my auto is same coverages, a lower collision deductible, a better glass deductible, and I now save $50/6 month cycle, that will go toward my deductible, if I’m not involved in an accident, or get a ticket. Wins all around, and thanks Traveler’s for the awesome new coverage!

Over-Shopping? Not Me!

Did I “over-shop”? Well, as the Liberty Mutual agent replied, “I’m concerned you didn’t shop around enough to adequately compare coverages, LOL”. I also sent him the pricing breakdown to avoid any follow-ups. 😊 I spent about 3-4 hrs shopping for insurance while also planning 3 separate trips, researching flights, hotels, airbnb’s, rental cars, new credit cards to take advantage of all this gratuitous spending, and more. In short, I don’t think I over-shopped, but I did compare rates to a lot of outlier type companies that I normally wouldn’t entertain. Which ones are those, you ask? Well, just a couple of companies like The General, and Root for instance. Here’s how it all broke down.

Coverages

I kept the coverages, limits and deductibles the same for all companies I got quotes from, and where possible I tried also getting renters insurance quotes to see if bundling would help. Mostly, it didn’t help. Even if I remained at Allstate for my renters insurance, I’d lose a 20% discount for bundling, and that would put me around $400+/yr for $40k of coverage, with all the basic limits in place like a $2k cap music instruments. which MIGHT replace 1 banjo, if I find a good deal on it but not the other 3 (yes, I have a problem) or my 1947-’49 era Gibson guitar, or the resonator guitar… There is also a $2k cap for firearms that probably needed to be upped as well. So, I looked for renter’s insurance that would cover my belongings, but also included the “additional/premium/extended” coverages for those sorts of things.

Don’t want my truck or house to end up like this…

Companies Investigated

In general, almost all of the companies I got quotes from were easy to do online. I ran into at least 1 company that said, “call us, your state doesn’t allow online quotes” to which I closed that browser and kept looking. No online, no thank-you. Sheesh, get with it. If true, then how was I able to get a quote for my state from EVERY other company? These are the companies I researched and got a quote from.

Geico

Liberty Mutual

Progressive

Esurance (still Allstate but maybe they’re better)

The General

Root

Travelers

Again, I tried a couple more, but the one said not online, and another had a horrid website, so I just left halfway thru the quote process. Their loss.

Price Comparison

How did their quotes break down comparatively though?

Geico: $14/year MORE This is competitive with the same coverages, limits and deductibles in place. Renter’s insurance came out a little higher as well ~$40/year, so for me, it’s a pass.

Liberty Mutual: $260/year MORE Yep, not as high as Geico, but still pretty high, so I skipped renter’s insurance for the time being

Progressive: $142/year LESS Yep, the first lower payment, but when I added renter’s insurance, it was ~$100/year MORE than my current policy. Boo, because that’s a net $42/year savings which isn’t worth it to me to make the switch.

Esurance: $355/year MORE Again, I didn’t research renters insurance due to the higher cost of the car insurance.

The General: $800/year MORE Bwahahaha, $800/year MORE… this was the surprise of the bunch. If you need insurance because other people won’t insure you, this is the place to go, I’m guessing. You can get cheap, bare minimum coverage for lower rates, but if you want to actually have insurance, holy sh!t, look ANYWHERE else for cheaper rates, lol.

Root: $102/year MORE This is a newer company that works like this. They have you install the Root app on your phone. Your driving score is THE #1 factor that goes into your rate. Spelled out in bold on their website. You drive for 3-4 weeks, or until enough mileage is accumulated and then they will offer you a policy, or NOT. Yep, you may not get a policy offer because they think your driving is too risky to insure. As they also say on their website, “since Root only insures good drivers, we can keep our rates low.” Amazingly, I got a quote without their test drive and paying in full every 6 months still came out higher.

Traveler’s: $120/year LESS for car insurance. This was intriguing enough to see what bundling discounts could help so I looked up renters insurance as well. Renters insurance was $171/year LESS WITH the extended coverages, so now music instruments, firearms, woodworking equipment, fridge contents, and many more perks are included and it’s STILL $171/year LESS. It was literally, the last company I checked. Their online process got wonky when I was listed as married but only insuring myself, and when I changed to single and removed Mrs. SSC, it still remembered her, and anyway, I had to call to get those policies finalized and linked. Well, just the auto really, the renters insurance was easy peasy to setup and pay in full.

Summary and Learnings

Always shop insurance when you move. Always! Especially, especially, if it is across state lines. All 3 times that we have moved our current provider is super expensive in the state we were moving to. For instance, insurance on my 2001 Ford Explorer 4×4 Sport was $500/ 6 months while living in Denver. When we moved to LA, a small town in LA, they must have gotten wiped out with claims from Katrina, Rita, and more because my same insurance doubled. The same with Mrs. SSC coming from Chicago with Geico. Leaving Chicago to rural LA and the insurance doubles?! WTF?! So, we cancelled them and went with Progressive, who had better rates than our previous Geico rates. Yay!

When we moved from LA to Texas, it flip-flopped and Progressive was going to double. Facepalm! Geico was back at a “normal” rate, so we switched back to them, lol. When we moved to OK, I researched insurances and everyone was mostly competitive. However, Allstate schooled them all by a few hundred dollars when we bundled home and auto. So, we switched. When I moved across town, well, Allstate sucked and Traveler’s came out on top.

Always compare insurance when you move. Seriously, just 4 hrs of online browsing, minimal cursing, and very little frustration I was able to save almost $300/year. That’s just over $70/hr if you want to argue it’s not worth it. I’ll do the research for you for $40/hr and give you the results. Seriously, just contact me and let me know, and once I get payment and your info needed, I’ll go research the hell out of insurances for you. 😊 Also, I’m dead serious, I will research insurances for you at a rate of $40/hr if you hate it that much.

Let me know if you want to contract me to shop for you, I’m ready and willing. Have you run into similar insurance woes, or do you not move every 5 years like we seem to? Facepalm…

By Mr SSC
Posted on January 29, 2020
2 Comments on Shopping for Insurance Sucks

Starting Over, Again…

If you read my last post, you’ll know that things are changing pretty significantly around here. One of the biggest changes is also the one I’m worried about the most. That is the fact that I’m handling my own finances again… Yes, yes, for the last 11 yrs or so, I’ve deferred to Mrs. SSC as the CFO (Chief Financial Officer) of our household. Okay, she actually took control and I more than happily threw it to her, once she saw what a mess my finances were in.

Back then, I had about $16k in credit card debt, $64k in student loans, and no assets minus a Ford explorer with over 100k miles on it and some random guns. I was crushing it at life! I was more than happy to let someone else deal with finances. Back then I didn’t care about finances. Clearly… Here’s what has changed since then and why going forward I’m hoping to do a LOT better.

Energy Efficiency: It’s a Money Problem

When we bought our current money pit, erm, house, we expected to get pretty good energy efficiency due to it being a concrete and Styrofoam construction method, think adobe style with 1’ thick walls. Yes, 1 foot thick (0.3 m) walls that provide extra wind resistance to over 300 mph (allegedly), better fire ratings, and definitely better insulation properties than a traditional built home. When we replaced our furnace and AC unit last year, we opted for a more efficient system because it costs less to operate, uses less resources to run, and we thought it would go well with the rest of the energy efficiency aspects of the house. What we didn’t realize is that the home was built with the concrete walls because the previous owner was terrified of tornadoes… Um, maybe move out of tornado alley? IDK… Just a thought.

If this was my worst fear, I wouldn’t have moved to “NO-klahoma” image credit: Mike Hollingshead

Beyond that fear, they didn’t care at all about energy efficiency. We’ve been making some efficiency improvements around here and even during these past 2 cold spells, our downstairs has stayed above 62 F WITHOUT the heat coming on all day! This was during a 3 day cold snap with temps around the 30’s F and the latest cold spell with temps of 26 F and 30 mph constant winds with 50 mph gusts. The inside temp finally got down to 62 F by 5pm, but again, this is without the heat coming on ALL DAY! How did we pull this off? By throwing money at it of course!

We Bought A Money Pit!

One year ago we bought a money pit, I mean a house in Oklahoma. We were so excited because we were starting our Fully Funded Lifestyle Change, I was quitting my job, and we were moving to the country! Well, we got the country alright. I sit outside and watch the birds at the bird feeder and in the trees around the backyard. I watch a pair of does come wandering thru the yard in the morning and evenings. They’re around so much the dogs have stopped barking and the doe wanders to the fence to check the dogs out. It’s hilarious! They’ve both figured out that even though their base instincts say “enemy!” they both know the fence keeps them safe. I caught a pygmy rattlesnake, and scared up a 5’ ratsnake that lives in a woodpile on the back corner of the property that I haven’t cleared yet. We have a hawk that likes to fly thru our yard in the afternoons and I saw it actually grab a mouse/vole idk, off the ground one day! It was awesome!

But none of that has cost us any money except for birdfood. It’s the “aaahhhhh” benefit of living out here. So what were we expecting with this house? It’s 16 years old, it had a 2 and 4 yr old AC and furnace respectively, 3 yr old roof that seemed to be in good enough shape. The home inspection report (what a scam industry) was pretty clean and didn’t note anything of significance. We had a home warranty for a year to cover anything major. How did we still manage to spend over $50,000 in the past year? With all of the following fixes and updates.

Chainsaw Replacement: Should I Upgrade?

Man, with school out, there has been so much going on around here. The kids are home full time, so that hinders me doing a lot out in the yard, but we’ve been having a lot of fun hanging out, playing, and hitting up the pool, museums, and zoo so far! However, I have still been able to do yard work, just not as much. Today, I have someone outside cutting down trees for me! First time since we’ve moved I paid someone to cut down some of the 100+ trees I’ve cut down so far. Granted, most are under 6” diameter, but there have been a fair amount of 6”+ trees for sure. When I found out the guy that hauls stuff off charges the same whether they cut the trees or I do, I scheduled him and went and bought flagging tape to mark trees. That leads to today’s topic. When equipment breaks should you replace it with same quality, better quality or lesser quality equipment? I’m talking about my chainsaw, but it applies to anything. My BIL used to tell me he was raised to be “frugal” and even though he knows if he buys the “cheap” version, he’ll have to buy 2-3 of them when they break each time, he still buys the cheap version instead of a pricier quality version. I was struggling with this yesterday when my 25 yr+ old chainsaw died. RIP chainsaw.

Goodbye old friend. Thanks for the work!

Is Bigger Better?

I currently have a 16” chainsaw meaning it can cut 16” deep into a tree. My first question was, do I need 18” or 20” chainsaw? They could be nice having the extra bar/chain to slice thru trees, but is it overkill? I’m 80% of the way done cutting down trees, and haven’t had a problem with the chainsaw I have now. The bonus of the 18” and 20” is a bigger engine and better cutting power. So while mine may have been fine the newer bigger saw wouldn’t get bogged down when dealing with the few big trees I’ve felled and still need to cut down.

Hopefully, they come down better than this one…

With Bigger comes more weight. Do I really want to lug around 12-14 lbs of chainsaw all day? I know my arms get tired after 6-8 hrs of cutting trees, limbs, and hauling and stacking stuff, so how would it be with and extra 2-4 lbs added to it? Maybe just replace with same size is the better option.

I Could Buy Cheaper

I also was bummed when it died (the fuel tank cracked at the corner and isn’t replaceable) because I knew it would be $200-$400 to replace. UNLESS!! I went with a “lesser” brand like Blue Max or Remington or Ryobi, then I could replace it with a bigger bar, engine, and similar weight for $150! So what if I end up buying another one in a year or 2, I should be done with cutting trees by then and would just need it for maintenance, storm cleanup, etc… The big key is how cranky do those things get after a while? I hate finicky yard equipment and it sucks starting the day with a tired arm because it took 60+ pulls to get something started. Ugh, no thanks, I’d pay double for something to start quickly and run well.

The big kicker is that those “lesser” brands have 4 star reviews with over 700 reviews! That swayed me a bit to getting one of those and going the cheap route. Again, I didn’t trust that they wouldn’t be finicky by mid-summer or fall when I get back into the yard more. The biggest complaints were them breaking due to using lesser quality materials, but man, the people that love them, really love them! It’s a lot to think about especially for me who could stand in an aisle for 20 minutes not moving staring at chainsaws debating chainsaw length of life, finicky-ness, reliability, replacement cost, usage, replacement costs for chain, bar, etc… (all more the bigger it is) and more just to make sure I get the best thing for me.

What About Replace with Same

I could also just replace it with the same thing I had been using. It worked well, the engine is big enough, and everything else has been big enough, so why debate it, just get another one. They’re $260 and I already have a replacement blade, sharpener, etc… with files for a 16” and this blade. I wouldn’t have to mess with that. I’m familiar with it, and except for some finicky-ness starting, #asexpected, it worked fine. Actually, it was a bitch to work with. I’m debating why I’d want to replace it with the same thing and not a different brand? Mainly because I think a 20+ yr old Honda doesn’t compare to a 2019 Honda, and am expecting if I got a 2019 chainsaw, it would perform like that, for better or worse. I think replace with same is my best bet financially and for peace of mind.

Should I Upgrade?

What if I upgraded to a better brand, like Stihl where you know you’re getting a reliable workhorse. Those start at $350 and then go up from there… Yipes! I don’t know if that’s overkill for my situation or not. I love my Stihl brushcutter, starts by the 2^nd pull each time, and I’ve used it a LOT. Is it worth it for $400? Normally, I’d say hell yeah!! Go big or go home!! Wait, I don’t say that. Anymore… I would like something that reliable and strong, but do I need a Lexus, if a Jetta would do the trick? JMoney, you don’t get to answer. Yeah a Lexus is nice, but is it overkill for my situation? Probably not, but after getting hit with $13k of door and window replacements, $2500 for more brush hauloff and a $5k IRS bill from some stocks not loading into TurboTax correctly 2 years ago… Seriously, it loaded every other stock sold on that same day from that same account, but not that one?! WTF, Turbotax, WTF?! Rant over…

It’s nice to think about and I’d probably not have to buy another one, ever, but I just can’t get myself to pay for that chainsaw right now.

Applicability to Life?

I find myself in this same situation with all sorts of things. I ask myself should I upgrade, stay the same, or cheap out and just get something to work right now? It’s a tough question because it depends on what is getting replaced. Like with our windows, the guy said, ~10% of your home worth is what you should use as a rule of thumb for replacing windows in your house. Spend more and you’re overbuying, spend way less and you know it’ll be cheap and may not be what you want, but in that range of 10% is close to where you want to be.

If only everything had a good rule of thumb for buying. I look at what I’m replacing and go from there. If it’s my phone for instance, I cap it at $300. That limits my decision, and if it’s over $300, I’ll pay out of pocket from my allowance, so I ask myself, is it worth $100, $200, $400? An extra $100 sure if it’s a significant upgrade, but $400, no way… Haven’t found that phone yet.

You have to do the same and ask what is good for you. Is it worth it to upgrade, what about just replacing with the same? Do you need to upgrade? Did you overbuy last time? I try not to overbuy but can get stuck in the trap sometimes.

I find that asking these questions helps when debating replacing something that has died.

Summary

I ended up just replacing with the same for $281 out the door. Although the chain snapped 3 branches in and sliced my leather glove, seriously, it was razor sharp, I’m so bummed… I’m so far happy with it. It made sense for me as I already have an extra chain or 2 that I just swapped out and kept going, I have a file for the blade, and a sharpener, so I don’t have to get anything new for it. That reminds me. I need to finish up the 3 trees I was working on last night.

What about you? Do you have difficulty with these debates when replacing things that break on your end? Am I just overanalyzing things when I buy stuff?

By Mr SSC
Posted on June 26, 2019
9 Comments on Chainsaw Replacement: Should I Upgrade?

AC Replacement: Shopping Around Saves Money

This past week I have had 3 different Heating and Air Conditioning companies at the house explaining to me what is wrong with our AC system and what it would take to correct it or replace it. That’s right, only 6 weeks in and the whole AC/Furnace unit needs major servicing and/or replacement. Thank goodness for the home warranty! Oh wait, it isn’t broken. It was just installed improperly and is undersized for our house. This explains why it can’t keep the house cooler than 83 F when the temperature gets above 94 F outside and why the unit keeps running and running and running. However, since our system isn’t broken (it’s just undersized) according to the home warranty, we’re good!

What a pisser…

Our 2017 Spending: What a Dumpster Fire!

Man, what a year 2017 was, what a year indeed. We thought it had gone fairly well. Our new Lifestyle Change schedule was amazing, we bought the land to build our house on when we pull the plug in 2019, or 2020, and I got to go to my first ever FinCon! Plus, I got to the end of the year and had extra vacation and thought, “Man, it felt like I’ve already taken a lot of vacation!” There were lots of good feelings all around.

Then we tallied up our total spending for the year, and womp, womp, the rain clouds moved in and shut down our parade. While we had been having a great year from a lifestyle perspective, our spending had been going on a tear, kind of like the stock market.

We both sensed it in January when we replaced our dishwasher and it cost an additional $300 in plumbing fixes that were discovered during installation. Mrs. SSC prophetically said, “I hope this isn’t “the year of spending…”” Well, it was. Where did our spending get derailed, how close were we to our FFLC (Fully Funded Lifestyle Change) budget, and how bad was it? Well, it wasn’t pretty that’s for sure.

“Tanks” for the Memories: Justifying Large Expenditures

My Father-in-Law (Bob) celebrated his 70^th birthday earlier this year and since we see it as a milestone birthday, so we wanted to do something special for him. We thought about a lot of different things we could get him, but he has pretty much anything that he needs or wants. So then we thought about some experiences we could look into for him. He has had some back and neck issues the last few years, so even those adventures would be limited for what we could do. Then, Mrs. SSC came across a website that we thought would not only offer a great present but also an excellent place to make memories. (not an affiliate link by the way, I wish, lol)

It’s Tank time! German Leopard we drove and I rode on in the turret.

Bob has been a pretty big WWII history buff and has read a lot about that time period so we thought this could incorporate that passion of his as well. What did we stumble across that would fulfill this passion, while providing a great gift and awesome memories? Ox Ranch, a place where you can literally drive a tank on one of their designed tank courses. They have over 18,000 acres, most dedicated to exotic animal hunting, but a large part is also dedicated to tanks and machine guns, because, Texas. They also offer you the chance to shoot the tank if you want to spend that kind of coin, we didn’t. Plus, there are options to shoot almost any type of WWII machine gun if you choose. We offered if he was interested, but Bob didn’t take us up on any of those options, whew… We had an excellent time and even got an upgrade on the tank we got to experience due to a delay caused by the History Channel shooting on location that day. Woohoo for little wins!! Even though we try to be frugal in a lot of areas in our life, this was one thing that we could justify paying for a memory making experience.

May 2017: Our Money Went Where?!

May. The end of spring and kickoff of summer and what a month it has been. We had some bumps in the road with our spending, and there is room for improvement, but in general it wasn’t bad. We were able to close on our lot in Canyon Lake, so we now have an official place to kick off Phase 1 of our Lifestyle Change. We reviewed our budget situation and decided that we can make the house work if we build it sooner than later, so we met with a custom home builder and designer this month and are on track to start designing our house probably by the end of the week. We found a couple of plans that we like ~90% of the layout, and we have a powerpoint presentation (because who doesn’t use powerpoint for everything?) with notes and details for the other things relating to homebuilding beyond the layout. I think it will come together pretty easily as we seem to be on the same page for almost every design aspect we’ve come across so far. Getting back to our spending, here’s where our money went this past month.

By Mr SSC
Posted on June 5, 2017
26 Comments on May 2017: Our Money Went Where?!

Estimated Lifestyle Change Spending: Canyon Lake Edition

We’re closing on our lot out in Canyon Lake this Friday and we’ve been doing a lot of reviewing of the numbers and seeing if we can make them work to start our Lifestyle Change. It’s difficult to know what will come of all of this, and how accurate they will be, because they are all estimates based off of our current house/utility usage, current lifestyle, and some moving forward assumptions. We have tracked our spending for over 2 years now, so we have that to go off of, but again, they’re all just estimates. Since that’s the best we have to work with, it’s what we’ll move forward with in our planning scenarios. The short answer is that we’ll be right around break-even or living paycheck to paycheck. We’ll only need to draw off of investments for travel and unplanned items that pop up, assuming I make zero money.