What Goes Up... Must Come Down

I know! Let's talk about insurance!! Yeah!!!

(You know you want to.)

I've been talking to my brother-in-law, who is also my insurance agent, about what to do about my insurance post divorce. The first thing is house insurance. The house and the the cabin are in my name. My rates will be dropping by about $100 since my ex's camera gear and electronics won't be on the homeowners policy. Yeah!

The down side is my car insurance rates are going up now that I no longer have that multi-car discount going on. (I tried but he would not accept my bicycle as a second vehicle.) The rates are going up about $14 a month, but naturally I found a way to get around that and drop it down to a smaller increase of $6. How you ask? Simple. I am not paying monthly.

Each week I have a small amount auto transfered out of my checking account into my "insurance holding tank." Basically, my bank lets me divide out little accounts for various things - so, I added up my car and life insurance bills, divided them by 52, and set it up so that when the bills hit, I have the funds. It is nice - I hate unexpected bills. Somehow my life insurance bill always snuck up on me.

So anyway... the ex and I were still sharing car insurance and he liked to pay monthly. However, I'm not going to do that. I am going to pay 6 months all in one lump sum. It is going to have to come out of savings of course, because I wasn't prepared to do this. But I have a plan! I am just going to continue my insurance payments... except rather them going to the insurance company - they will be going back to me! Basically, I am loaning myself the money and paying myself back. (At the same time I am going to move things around a little so I am better prepared 6 months from now.)

I am also working on the life insurance policy. I have a universal life policy.* I have a bit of cash value in it, but am still in the penalty period if I surrender it. I don't want to do that right now unless I have to. Instead I am going to drop my payments down for a year, but keep the policy in force. In a year when I have a better handle on things I can reevaluate what I want to do - kick it back up or what have you. I think this will work well for me - I will remain insured, but I continue to have flexibility.

I'll write more about the final details once my brother in law and I get together to hash them out.

(There now, wasn't that fun?)




*Insurance people - yes, I know all about Term Life. I was licensed in Life, Health and P&C once upon a time. This is the best fit for me right now for a bunch of reasons - but we'll leave that for another post.