From debt free to bill free

If you are serious about saving insurance $$, drop the comprehensive & collision on your vehicles. If you are a careful driver, and watch out for the other bad drivers as much as you can, you will avoid wrecks and accidents.

Seriously, if you scrape the side of your truck against a fencepost, just leave it be. Or go to a U-pull place and replace it yourself.

Driving older vehicles with liability only [& maybe uninsured motorists], is so much cheaper.

I don't have house insurance. had the house over 20 years, I am just very careful about what I do.

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We will meet in the golden city, called the New Jerusalem,
All our pain and all our tears will be no more.....

Living large provides one with large bills to pay. From the sound of things you and hubby have been a wee bit over blessed with "stuff" to insure, maintain, pay taxes and insurance on. As a fer example you are carrying a higher insurance deductible on your vehicles than any of mine would be worth! My grandpa worked a lot of "government jobs" back in the day so had to take his equipment to a job site... sometimes hundreds of miles and live on the job site for a period of months until whatever project he had bid on was finished. He loaded up his gear in the wagon, hitched it to one of his teams, some times leading as many as twenty head of horses. Later in life when he and granny were retired, soaking up the good life, he bought a nice factory made camping outfit they lived in all winter long in Old Mexico most every winter. It was every bit of 12 feet long, and he pulled it easily with his car.
I have found over the years that quite often less can be more.

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"Nothing so needs reforming as other peoples habits." Mark Twain

Isn't it amazing how much the insurance racket costs us? Seems we can't do or own anything without being told we HAVE to have insurance...

I've rented most my life, and never had renters insurance... never needed it.. Money ahead there...

If you don't have a mortgage, you can drop your home owners insurance and put the risk on yourself instead.. You figure the insurance company takes the gamble on you because the odds are in their favor..... If they figured they would lose money and not make money off you, they wouldn't insure you... Then look at what they will cover. They try to get out of any claims if they can...

I used to not have auto insurance when it was legal to not have it... even after an accident I had to pay for, I was still money ahead not having it...

Do you REALLY need cable, internet and TV?.... There is free TV over the local airwaves... Myself, I could be happy with just Internet...

As far as solar, the cost to return is very low..

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Never let your fear decide your fate!
Kein Mitleid für die Mehrheit

We view our house and car insurance as a savings plan. If you ever have a fire you'll be glad you did. I think we will always have bills or some sort unless you have a self sufficient life style, your own well, solar heat and water and solar for any electric needs if you have any appliances at all. It's a choice really. I am spoiled and like some a few appliances like a fridge and freezer, a stove, an iron. You get the picture.

Problem is, depending on how the fire started, with all the fine print any more, you may not be covered if they can prove it was your fault through negelct or similar..

Like I said, any more in insurance companies will do all they can to get out of paying..

I was recently hit by another driver texting on his phone while at a dead stop I had been at for a while... It was a nightmare trying to get payment and made right even though it was someone else's fault.. and even then, I was still money out of pocket... Needless to say, I've got a real bad taste in my mouth when it come to insurance companies.

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Never let your fear decide your fate!
Kein Mitleid für die Mehrheit

I couldnt agree more with you. I have been verbally attacked on another thread for saying the same thing. I have had a lot of experiance with insurance companies and it is all bad. One told me one time, that they turn down ALL claims with out even reviewing them, and then just deal with the ones that fight back. He said 15% of people will just go on and never contest it and it makes him and his company a lot of money.

Debt is easy to avoid completely or at least to limit. No independent person can escape bills. However a lot of our bills are self inflicted. Our choice. We each get to decide what is important and what we want to spend our money on.

We could have stayed in an apartment paying one set fee for rent and utilities plus tenant insurance (which is very inexpensive) but we wanted to own land and our own house. We started with a city house and along with this CHOICE came certain bills including the mortgage, property tax, utilities, insurance, repair&maintenance and sewer, water & garbage pick up. When we bought land and built a house we had pretty much the same bills except for water but we had to dig the well and buy the pump and maintain it and even later on our wilderness adventure in self sufficiency brought bills along with the start up.

The same applies to our vehicle. We chose to buy one and along with that choice came certain expenses – and certain responsiblilities such as insurance, car seats and good tires.

You also have to protect your investment. If my house and out buildings costs $350,000 to rebuild and insurance costs $1000 a year and I live in this house for 25 years I will pay about $25,000 for replacement coverage. Considering I could not even replace the windows in my house for $25,000 I think it is a good safety net. If I never have to use my insurance I am lucky. But I know for a fact that even though we are savers we don’t have another $350,000 lying around in the bank to rebuild our house if it is destroyed. And every day some one loses their house. Insurance is just the cost of doing business. And we will make up(not replace) the expense of the insurance in the appreciation of our property.

We can choose what we need and want and what we are willing to pay for these things. We can also make cuts. I have found that doing extensions is always very helpful. If it costs me $80 a month for a cell phone it will add up to $960 a year or $4800 in five years. Is it worth it? Can I get rid of my land line if I have a cell phone? If I have a land line do I need a cell phone?

We can each figure out how much life is going to cost us and then we can decide if we are getting our value or not out of an expense but you still have to pay to play.

You all must be dealing with some really scuzzy insurance companies. We have had some misfortune and yet our insurance claims for fire damage to property, theft of vehicle, disability etc have been paid in full and promptly according to our contracts. No hassles and no delays. No rate increase either.

I am in a business were I deal with many insurance companies. Some of the very worst are the big name ones you would know very well if I said there name. I am glad they have come through for you. It isnt the same for many.

In my business I have had to deal with insurance companies as well. I personally don't know any one who has had trouble collecting on their personal insurance claim but there are those who do and I do know that lots of business claims are fought.

Of course a lot of people have false expectations of what their contract provides - mostly because they never bother to read their contract. If your vehicle policy does not cover your windshield you should not be trying to collect when you get dinged by a flying rock.

Paying bills means that you are able to get a loan in the case of a finiancial emergency. We all hope that we never get there but without a history of credit and paying bills on time loans are never possible. That includes loans for property, stock and other shirt term, necessary expenses. I believe that one of the best ways to self suffiency is not to eliminate debt but to keep enough to ensure that any credit needed is at the lowest cost. An example is that I bought a car from my father when he went to extended care. We then sold our other car and 1 week later I rolled my truck. I have had to maintan two car loans after not having one for 6 years. It was doable but it helped that my credit rating was high enough to get loans @ great rates.

Insurance co's vs self insurance. If my million dollar home burnt down (it would not be my home at a mill) but I would not need to have another million dollar home. I would only need shelter.

But for the OP---check into the laws about burials where your home will be in the end. I get to limit cost to One dr call out declaring me dead. and a hole in the ground aleast 6 feet down one hundred feet from the well and prop lines. I even found a dr. that if he out lives me will charge 100 dollars. Don't even need a box. If everything is paid for and my boy on his own two feet why pay for life insurance.

I only have auto insurance, health care insurance is costing me health care thus knowledge of how to get into the ground fast is the best way for me to go.

Get USAA if you can.

I haven't taken the time to read all the replies to your post, but I do have one suggestion. Since you plan to heat your retirement home, you plan to build, with wood, choose a floor plan where the wood heat will reach the whole house. We weren't thinking about wood heat being our main source whenever we built our house, but as it turned out we have the perfect floor plan. All our bedrooms open off the main part of the house, with no winding hallways which would make it hard for heat to make it's way around. We had a fireplace built in the house and whenever we had so many trees on the ground after Hurricane Katrina, we bought a fireplace insert and have heated with wood for the past seven years. This has been a tremendous savings for us.
Now that we're retired and our income is below the poverty level, before spending, we try to stop and think about whether we really need this item or if we can make do withoug it or with something else less expensive.
The things we enjoy doing in life now are different from what they were when we were younger. Spending the day cleaning up outside or working on a little project when the weather is beautiful in our old ragged clothes is a very enjoyable day for us.

Insurance is ridiculous but most of the rest of the bills are optional I would still be alive tomorrow if I had no cell phone or any phone, the same with power, cable/satellite, transportation, garbage even my home if I had to..... but they do make life nice and much easier so it's off to work I go... My husband does have a deal with his Doctor (they have a long history and are friends) he pays him with game meat as long as he can shoot an elk or deer he has no Dr bills, it's the only kind of red meat his Dr. will eat.....

Thanks for all the great tips! Yes, hubby and I have been blessed the last 10 years with great income enabling us to start over from scratch mid life, we've purchased everything for cash. We do plan to build our home/farm to be as self sufficent as possible, but I've about decided going solar isn't the best option, even though it wouldn't cost any more to install than running grid power over a 1/4 mile in is going to cost us. Both hubby and I have hobbies that we hope to use to bring in some income when we retire, and they both use a lot of electric. For me, that's quilting, I have a computerized longarm that uses about the same power as a high output microwave, and hubby is restoring a number of vintage machinist equipment that also need a fair amount of electric to run. I don't think either would be feasible to run off solar.

We don't currently have a landline, cable or satellite TV. Up on the land, likely the only option we'll have if we want internet access will be satellite.

We intend to build the house as efficiently as possible. We will have radient heat installed in the floors as we wish to to heat with an outdoor wood boiler, so the shop and greenhouse can be heated as well. We will install a woodstove in the center of the house for when the power is out.

For cooling, we plan to build with 12 foot ceilings and will plan the windows for cross breezes, and intend to have wrap around porches. Arkansas can see 115 plus in the summer, only cooling into the 90's at night, so we also intend to install a split system (ductless) heating and air system, which is zone controlled to be more economical.

We have 70 acres, 20 in pasture, so pleny of firewood, and plenty to garden on. We'd like to dig a larger pond to stock with fish, but will need to have someone out to survey the site and see if it will hold water.

Over the last 10 years, we've purchased a tractor and have been buying implements as we can, and I believe we now have everything we need to make gardening as easy as possible, along with road repairs, construction, etc. Basically we've been gearing up for this life and are finally to the point we feel we can make it happen, but retirement is a concern as rather than investing in stocks, etc, we've chosen to invest what we have in surplus into becoming as self sufficient in our old age as possible. Since we've about got that covered, my next goal is begin reducing our cost of living as much as possible, which is what this thread is about.

Only then will I feel comfortable diverting funds into something else. I admit to be above and beyond leery of investing in much other than land. We do have an additional 60 acres we purchased back in Missouri we can sell at some point as well, although we'd prefer to keep it for the kids if possible.

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http://tinksquared.com

So you are willing to accept a total loss of your million dollar home? Kiss a million dollars goodbye? Not me. The figures I gave were a house valued (cost to rebuild not including land) at $350,000 with insurance costs of $1000 per year so that is an additional investment to protect $350,000 of just 0.29% per year. The cost of doing smart business.

Yes, I would. FYI the home insurance price for my 16k cabin was ----in 2004----Sit down please 3700 Yes 25 percent of the the price of the cabin. ---Many - most people within 5 miles DO NOT have insurance---Most homes are built by the owner.

Instead-- I fire wised my place and built with concrete for the house. the cabin is there thus I have a spare building.

It was a better investment to get a genny, hoses, clear the land, build a drive way large enough and sturdy enough an with many options for a fire truck to drive thur and exit around the buildings and contact the nearest fire dept to check it out. My home is build in the center of an area that is projected as a major site for a major wild fire which is why the home insurance is so high. I would not be able to afford home insurance. Also where I live the fire dept. is to prevent a forest fire first NOT the homes. Homes are addressed by the fire dept only if it will stop or prevent a forest fire. Prevention of the Major wild fire is the primary mission. We know 5 people who have lost their home to fire and the dept was there but letting a home safety burn to the ground while protecting the near by trees is what happens. Now, if the homeowners have cleared the area to the point where they will not have to worry much of a forest fire THEN the fire dept will address the home. My home is saveable due to firewising (infact over kill) only 2 of the homes that did burn down did the fire dept work to try to save the home because the forest was cleared around the home 200 feet.

In not have insurance and in doing the work I have been putting the money saved into building the home. Each siduation is different. I grew up and till I lived here I too would have thought the home insurance was needed and the normal thing to do. My eyes are open now and though in most cases it is for some it is not.

Your comment referred to a million dollar home not to a $16,000 home. That is replaceable very easily. Not so easy when the house costs hundreds of thousands to rebuild and that is why it is important to protect your investment. But to each his own.

We lived in the middle of an extreme forest fire hazzard area, outside of fire protection zone (volunteer fire dept only) with a $200,000 home, and our insurance was under $1000. A couple of years after we left over 200 homes were burned to the ground and the insurance for our old place (not burned) went up $250. $3700 a year for a $16,000 building is unbelievable.

We call our fire protection program Fire Smart and although you can landscape and build to be as fire resistant as possible there is no such thing as fire proof. You may limit damage. And of course the extra cost of following these measures raises the replacement cost of your house.

And of course a forest fire is only one of the possible disasters. Our friend's house was damaged and barn destroyed by a forest fire. Not the fire but the Mars bomber dropped its load too close to them. Water damage lol!

Would any of your insurance co's give you a discount if you were to pay the premiums in a lump sum at the beginning of the term instead of paying monthly?