How many of you have no house or shop insurance?

blunosr · Nov 29, 2015

Hi, I was reading the shop heat thread and it got me to wondering how many of us forgo insurance altogether?

I have insurance now because I have a mortgage. But I think when I retire I'll self-insure... no house or shop insurance. It just really bothers me how much money I give to insurance companies, and they never give it back. I feel like I'm paying them for nothing, kinda like taxes... I realize we do get something for our taxes, but there's a lot of things I wish they wouldn't waste my hard-earned tax dollars on.

Insurance companies make astounding profits, why shouldn't I self-insure?

Do any of you guys do that?

Bye for now,

Troy

David G · Nov 29, 2015

I do not think I would ever do that, you can get a really high deductible and it does not cost much at all.

Chuck (CA) · Nov 29, 2015

I can't imagine not having house insurance. I would be nervous all the time.

JD Seller · Nov 29, 2015

I would not drop the house insurance as it would be a devastating lose to have burn down in your retirement years which also is when your income is lower. To save money I would just take out a high deductible policy. I raised my house deductible to $10K. It cut the premium in half.

JayinNY · Nov 29, 2015

For the $550 a year I pay for homeowners
insurance I wouldn't be without it I understand what
you're saying, and how many houses do you really
see have problems I Burnwood and it's just a safety
for me, if something did happen. My neighbor likes
to burn greenwood, his house caught fire a few
years ago but the insurance company covered
everything for him. Even auto insurance is a rip off
but I'd be afraid if I had an accident and hurt
someone with no insurance, I could be sued for
everything. I maxed out my deductible and got my
premium down for my house insurance, I also got
rid of the flood insurance as we don't live in a flood
area. We got 9 inches of rain during hurricane Irene
and not a drop came into the basement!

ObsoElitist · Nov 29, 2015

The last wildfire in my area destroyed over 500 homes. 5 friends lost everything 2 had no insurance. A former employer lost his place, garage, gun room and tractor, but the machine shop survived. He had insurance on everything but his "secret gun collection" worth about 250000. I hate paying for it, but you have to have it in case someone crashes an airplane into your trees and the family blames you.

Pair-a-dice farm · Nov 29, 2015

I could see doing that but I would keep accident liability insurance. One clumsy visitor and a good lawyer can find out how much you have and take it all.

macec3(TX) · Nov 29, 2015

No insurance on house or shop.
IMO it is too much of a rip-off.

Spook · Nov 29, 2015

I can't see ever doing that. At least in the states, you risk losing everything.

LME · Nov 29, 2015

We have always carried insurance on every thing, we have no mortgage, in 2012 we were hit with a tornado. Took two big barns and two grain bins, about $20,000 damage on the house. The barns, one 60 x 70 and one 60 x 72 have been replaced with the insurance pay off, about $60,000 plus. All of this gone in about 2 minutes.

Andy Martin · Nov 29, 2015

Fast moving brush fire when I wasn't home burned my shop in 1989. Lost 1937 Plymouth, D2 CAT, Farmalls M, SM, H, SH, C, B, A, Cub, complete wood shop. Insurance paid $80,000, not the cost but it was insured as an outbuilding at 50% of house value. I won't ever pay them back in premiums.

730virgil · Nov 29, 2015

a friend of ours let his home owners ins. lapse of course his house burned they pretty much lost everything not a good thing to have happen in your mid to late 50s.
he got sued by the city to pay for clean up of his lot for title to property.

Leroy · Nov 29, 2015

For that much deductable I might as well not have any at all.

37chief · Nov 30, 2015

I have only liability on my barn (shop) acre. I do have insurance on my house which is a separate property. Considering dropping collision ins on my 05 Ford. Like other I have given insurance companies so much money. They have only had to pay out money 20 years ago for a small accident. Stan

D beatty · Nov 30, 2015

I couldn't see not having insurance. Mine covers house and out buildings and liability. I have been with same insurance company since 1970. They have paid for food lost in power outages several times and TVs that were damaged by lighting. They paid for the lose from a break in. They paid for 14 Holstein heifers that where on pasture and got struck by lighting. They also replaced an over hang on a 120 foot pole barn that was taken down by a snow - ice storm.

coshoo · Nov 30, 2015

I've always grumbled about the cost, but always kept insurance. Then last year, the washer overflowed in the rental house, wrecked floors, cabinets, sheetrock, just like a flood- insurance paid $34,000. Same year, part of the barn roof blew off- they paid $3,500. Kinda glad I had it. Premium went up some this year, but still do-able.

Bruce from Can. · Nov 30, 2015

When you buy insurance , you simply sell the risk that you can not afford to take yourself. So if you have
enough money to rebuild your house or barn , and replace whatever you have that can be lost or destroyed .
Then go ahead and drop your insurance , you don't need it .So if you have the money in the bank , go for it .
If you don't , sell the risk.

KenL · Nov 30, 2015

Having ins is like gambling. You are betting that you will need to use it and the ins co. is betting that you won't. Most of the time the ins co wins. I know the way my luck runs so, I will keep ins.

JOCCO · Nov 30, 2015

The problem is today most houses are very costly. Gone are the days of having a sawmill/woodlot and 12 kids to help build it back, at little cost!!!!! Rumor has it that some areas are starting to require insurance to some degree much like car insurance. Now if you live in a tar paper shack it may not be worth it. I look at insurance in many ways one of them is like a lottery. Few win but when they do its big. Like a 3/4 million dollar house burning flat. I HAVE SEEN THAT IN PERSON!!!

WGM · Nov 30, 2015

Insurance is a waste of money until you need it.

cuby · Nov 30, 2015

The wife had a small fender bender{but big dollars} with the p.up. Ins.co raised the preimuim for 3 years,but they did pay all but 150.00 of the bill. Our deductable was higher than that.

1948CaseVAI · Nov 30, 2015

I think, to put it as kindly as I can, to not have insurance on your home is "short-sighted" at best...

Steamboat · Nov 30, 2015

There is no "emergency room free care" for burned out homes, shops and barns. If you are stupid enough to go without insurance, I, thankfully, will not be required to bail you out.

Blackhole49 · Nov 30, 2015

My house and 2 barns currently cost me $900 a year and have been paid off since 1999. In the 31 years I've lived here, I haven't paid enough
in insurance to cover replacement of just 1 barn. Subtract the cost of 3 hail damaged roofs and a kitchen fire many years ago, and I've just
about broken even. Short-sighted is putting it way to politically correct.

Blackhole49 · Nov 30, 2015

Would hate to see your house.

L.Fure · Nov 30, 2015

(quoted from post at 02:41:13 11/30/15) Hi, I was reading the shop heat thread and it got me to wondering how many of us forgo insurance altogether?

I have insurance now because I have a mortgage. But I think when I retire I'll self-insure... no house or shop insurance. It just really bothers me how much money I give to insurance companies, and they never give it back. I feel like I'm paying them for nothing, kinda like taxes... I realize we do get something for our taxes, but there's a lot of things I wish they wouldn't waste my hard-earned tax dollars on.

Insurance companies make astounding profits, why shouldn't I self-insure?

Do any of you guys do that?

Bye for now,

Troy

To be self insured you'd need enough liquid assets to cover any loses you may incur. If your house burns down, do you have enough cash in the bank, or investments you can cash in, to cover the cost for a new one? What about any liability? Those cost could run into the millions.

Harold Melius · Nov 30, 2015

As someone who has had their home burn to the ground, I would strongly suggest that you think that over very carefully. All it takes is once to make a big change in your life. I don't like paying those insurance premiums, but I don't complain about it any more.

W_B · Nov 30, 2015

(quoted from post at 02:41:13 11/30/15)
I have insurance now because I have a mortgage. But I think when I retire I'll self-insure... no house or shop insurance. It just really bothers me how much money I give to insurance companies, and they never give it back. I feel like I'm paying them for nothing, kinda like taxes... I realize we do get something for our taxes, but there's a lot of things I wish they wouldn't waste my hard-earned tax dollars on.

Insurance companies make astounding profits, why shouldn't I self-insure? Troy

I'd think long and hard about that "strategy", sounds like a recipe for a future disaster for you and your family. It sounds like you need a better agent that can recommend some cheaper options if you want to do more coverage from your wallet, like high deductibles for one.

Burn your house down (not on purpose!) and you'll get your money back, in spades. When it blows over in a high wind or a tree blows down on it, you'll get your money back. Don't think that the wind will never get you, we had a hurricane in Ohio a few years ago, so anything can happen! If you self insure, make sure you have enough to cover the worst thing that can happen, which for a home is the total loss of the building and all the contents in a fire. I've seen too many that thought like you do and were never able to rebuild and had to start completely over in life or go out of business, if a commercial risk. With homeowners ins. you get liability too. Do something stupid, on purpose or accidentally, someone else might own your property after the lawyers get done with you.

Contrary to popular belief insurance companies do not make astounding profits, sure the numbers are big because the big ones operate in a lot of states and cover a lot of people and business. Profit after expenses and loss payments is actually rather small, on the order of just a few percentage points. Sometimes there is a few points to be made on investments, many times not, because investments have to be very conservative.

Insurance is one of the most regulated businesses in the country, so they aren't out here free wheeling it and charging premium willy-nilly. The coverage you buy, the premium you pay and how your claim is handled and how fast it's handled is all regulated.

dr sportster · Nov 30, 2015

Instead of giving all risk to the insurance co. you would cover any disaster costs yourself. That will wok out great in savings until you have a major failure of some sort where you now pay all out of pocket. Sure it is a bad feeling paying insurance until you need a pay-out. If you read the posts from those who have had a fire you see why you need insurance.

W_B · Nov 30, 2015

(quoted from post at 14:14:33 11/30/15) Having ins is like gambling. You are betting that you will need to use it and the ins co. is betting that you won't. Most of the time the ins co wins. I know the way my luck runs so, I will keep ins.

Sorry, Ken, no gamble about it. From a pool of similar insureds there will be a certain amount of loss. Determining how much loss is why they pay actuaries good money and rates are based on that. What you pay goes to someone in that group that had a loss, it might just be you.

kyhayman · Nov 30, 2015

I wouldn't dream of being without property and casualty insurance. Self insurance is
great if you don't have a catastrophe. I used to partially self insure, insurance was
'too high' until I had a rental house burn with 50,000 coverage (what I owed) when it
would cost 135,000 to replace.

I'm pleased with Kentucky Farm Bureau, its a mutual insurance company. There are no
stockholders needing a dividend. Our goal is to pay back 83 to 87 percent of premiums in
claims with the 13 to 17 percent going to operations. Honestly, that's a tighter margin
than I can run my business on.

My rule of thumb is, with a 1000 deductible I can self insure things worth less than
3000 dollars. Otherwise, its covered, from hay in the barn to my house to barns,
tractors, and equipment. At least to the level I paid for it. A bit over 500,000 in
property coverage with 300,000 liability runs a shade over 3500 per year. That's not
counting vehicles, umbrella liability, or workers comp but I sleep at night.

chuck from neb · Dec 1, 2015

150000 to 200000 to replace a house not including contents ...your a fool if you
don't insure

How many of you have no house or shop insurance?

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