subject: Consequences Of Lacking Insurance [print this page] There's many types of insurance out there, everything from home insurance, to health, life and car insurance. If you have to pay monthly for all of these, it can end up being quite a bit of money. So it's natural that some people may wonder if they should stop payment one or more. After all, it's easy to see an insurance as lost money, since you don't gain anything from all of these monthly payments, at least not unless something bad happens. But what are the consequences for lacking insurance? Is it a risk you should take?
First, before deciding whether you're going to drop some insurance premiums, you need to figure out which ones you are legally forced to keep. To drive a car, for example, most states force you to have insurance. So even if you wanted, you couldn't drop that one, unless you decide to stop driving, which is actually a very good way to save money, assuming you live in a location where there's mass transit available. The same can be true for home insurance, where you may have to possess some type of insurance policy there. It makes sense too, since these kinds of insurances are vital. Having a home is the most basic need along with having food, so if your home burns down you need to have money to get another one. For driving, it's a different reason, where your driving can easily affect others. If you get into a collision with another car, the owner of that car needs to be reimbursed, and if you don't have insurance, and don't have money to pay, they could be left out of luck.
There's many insurance policies however that are optional. Life insurance is a good one. You need to ask yourself whether it's really something you need. By having a life insurance, you're basically trading monthly payments for a cash balance for your family once you die. If you are a parent, and have young children, and not much monetary means, it's a very important protection in case something happens. However, if you're an elderly person, and all your kids are in their 30s and working good jobs, maybe that life insurance is being wasted. The same is true for many other types of insurances, like burial or travel insurance. A lot of credit cards, for example, offer a travel insurance. If you never travel, then it's clearly something you don't need.
Where it becomes more tricky is with health insurance. It's often the most expensive of them all, yet it's the one you may need the most. The chance that your house burns down is remote, but the chance that you get a disease of some type during the course of your life is high. This is where you're stuck between a rock and a hard place. If you don't pay those hefty fees now, you may end up broke later on, or unable to take care of yourself. It's clearly something not to be taken lightly, and now you can take better informed decisions.
