In this episode of Motley Fool Answers, Alison Southwick and Robert Brokamp want to help you get rich quick. Well, richer, and with a reasonably small investment of your time, even if you'll have to wait to see results.
For tip five, he focuses on the bills you pay for services you never want to need: property insurance. And he has some advice that might let you trim them without excessively cutting corners or adding too much risk.
A full transcript follows the video.
This video was recorded on Jan. 9, 2018.
Alison Southwick: Are we on day five, now, or on the fifth thing?
Robert Brokamp: We're on day five.
Southwick: What's the fifth thing?
Brokamp: Oh, and it's so exciting. I mean that sarcastically. It is review your property insurance, and by that I mean homeowners and auto insurance. I know it's so boring...
Southwick: Can you really do it in under 15 minutes?
Brokamp: I think so. You want to call who you are with, now, and ask how to get a discount. There are all kinds of ways to get discounts. It might be if you have a smoke alarm system. If you have kids at home and they have a good grade point average. If you bundle your insurance. There are all kinds of ways to get some sort of discount.
Another way is to raise your deductible. By raising your deductible from $500 to $1,000, you could cut your premiums by as much as 25%. Of course, that means if you have an accident you'll have to pay more out of pocket, but in my opinion, insurance is really to cover big-ticket expenses [not for small things]. Plus, every time you make a claim, they're going to raise your premiums later, so it's better to have the high deductible, now, and then pay lower premiums and bank the cash. Once you get that from your current provider, call around and see if they can match that.
But because this stuff is so boring, people don't really review it every year, so whatever you're paying is probably based on old information. For example, you might be paying insurance on something you no longer own, or insurance on a house or a car that doesn't have the same value it used to have. It's always good to review it once a year and see if you can save some money.
Southwick: I like the idea that I can just call someone up and say, "Help me save some money."
Brokamp: Right. A lot of times you'll find out you have riders that you didn't need. You've been paying for towing coverage even though you belong to AAA. There's all kinds of things like that you should review and maybe get rid of.
