Insurance... the silent killer of freedom

[moonshadow]

I am just sick to death of insurance.

My gripes with the medical insurance industry are well documented. Now it seems homeowners and auto also want their chunk of the pie.

I've filed one... count it... ONE claim in my life, back in 2010 when a tornado hit my house, and the claim was minor, for only about $4,000 in damages.

Never and accident, never anything else.

I receive a notification today:

My truck has increased by $157 per six months, and my car has increased by about $153.

Why? Yes, I was rear-ended on 405 about a month ago, but I wasn't cited for that and the insurance company says I wasn't liable... and it was in the company van anyway, not even my personal autos.

The real kicker is my house... $795 last year... $1517 this year! That's almost double!

Why? The home is in a low crime area, not really subject to wildfires, earthquakes, hurricanes, or other random acts of God.

I'm not even really upset about it. Here lately I've just gotten so numb to prices skyrocketing overnight, I'm like... "meh".

$126 per month to insure a $70,000 house. Sometimes I look at these people living in tent cities and I think, "you know, if a fella could stay off the drugs, living with nothing might be the way to go...".

I mean... at the end of it all, what's the point anyway? You fork everything you work for to these people and when it's all said and done, you're just left holding the bag. Anyway. I'm not ranting. I'm not even surprised. It's just life in the 2020's I guess... I look around and people seem to be doing just fine. They be buying those million dollar doublewides like hot cakes, they drive around in the finest cars, and eat at the finest restaurants every day.

Here I see two America's. Bellevue and the tent cities under the I5 underpasses. I'm still somewhere in the middle, but for how much longer?

The scriptures say to give everything you own to the poor and follow Christ. I think about that passage often and wonder if all this is even worth it. Take your "American Dream" and shove it up your ass. I imagine myself living out of an old beater van, sitting on the Pacific ocean, watching the sun go down, my hair long, my skirt flowing. I won't smoke pot, but I might throw a few cheap burger patties on a grill. Hustle a little money here and there for gas, food, and the auto insurance (unfortunately even hippies have to have car insurance). But that would be it.

I see it all the time up here. It makes me smile. The last 12 months I have been in a major state of change. Fundamentally something is happening deep down in my core. My values are shifting, things that once mattered to me don't anymore. I'm not afraid to die, and ironically, this sentiment has manifested a change in me where it seems I'm also no longer afraid to live.

You know what... the more I think about it, I recall in our nightly prayer about a week ago, we asked for guidance regarding which direction we were to go in life. Do we return to our familiar roots, our house, our utilities, or... do we continue ahead into the unknown. Shall I cut the safety net? Let the place be, and remove myself from the equation? I'm completely off the radar here. Very few people actually know where we are at. We have no lease, we have no utilities in our name, my cell phone is a straight talk. Perhaps it is time.

Freedom..

Freedom is just another word for nothing left to lose.

[Barleymower]

There are options.
A well known programme maker here in England - Louis Theroux did a programme on a New York taxi driver who worked two months in New York, the rest of the year he lived in Thailand in a village. That village was proper poor without him.

You just need to think outside of the box.

[denimini]

I know, I know, insurance costs are increasing here in Australia as well; floods, bushfires and climate change is what they say. I did call them and complain and they said that they would get back to me, which they did with a much reduced premium. Then there is compulsory car insurance for registration and professional indemnity insurance for my work.
It is not just the cost, they are causing some many organisations to be so risk averse that nobody wants to do anything and if you want to it is not allowed anyway. I don't insure my cars apart from the compulsory because if nothing happens to them for 5 years I have saved enough to buy the same again anyway.

[Myopic Bookworm]

My house contents insurance premium nearly doubled, so I shopped around and found a better quotation. When I called the original company to cancel the renewal, they offered me a reduced premium. I told them it was comparable to what I had found, but it was too late to play games, I'd already set up the new policy.

[Seb]

My premiums have been pretty stable for the last ten years. Only one I've used is the auto one, two times on the same car and the work done cost more than In likely to pay for car insurance in my life together. One was a log that fell off a lorry that I went over and the other a deer, antlers and all ran into the side of my car and dented/scraped up the entire side.

I pay em hoping that I never have to use em.

[moonshadow]

I called them and they said that they failed to put a discount on my account for having my autos with the same company. They said they'd take care of it.

Must be a hell of a discount. We'll see.

[FranTastic444]

Unfortunately, I have to play this game periodically where I threaten to take my business elsewhere upon a spike in fees - in my case it applies mainly to home and auto insurance and ISP (but there are other instances). The insurance broker business model in particular seems to be reliant upon long standing customers either not caring or not noticing that their fees are trending upwards.

Given the structure of the health industry in the US as well as current climate trends, I can only see insurance going in one direction over the coming years. I heard on NPR the other day that insurers are pulling out of markets like PNW / Cali and Florida due to elevated flood, fire and tornado risk and lots of residents now only have the "insurer of last resort" (i.e., the State) to turn to (presumably at high cost and with low coverage).

I have a friend who very successfully went into "hermit mode" in his early 50's when his work dried up. He moved to rural Scotland and very happily lives a minimalist lifestyle up there. He and his wife also spend a couple of months a year in Thailand. Part of me would love to do the same (the Scotland bit, not sure about Thailand), but we have retirement plans that mean I need to throw more money at the 401 and the savings account for a few more years yet.