How much insurance do you need

May 7, 2025

117 8 minutes read

how much insurance do you actually need we’re going to actually cover the two pieces i’m going to start with the auto and then we’ll move into the home insurance and then i may separate them so you guys have both options let’s start diving in by a couple quick disclosures i am not necessarily your agent and i don’t know your situation so financials are gonna play a factor i can’t necessarily recommend a coverage to you because i am not the agent for you if you have an agent hopefully they are well enough to actually recommend this if not it’s time to shop i’ll put a link in the description below if you do decide to shop eithemy agency or an agency that i work with can help you out so the first part is never do the state minimums that’s pretty clear on any article you ever read anywhere the reason minimums exist is financialnot everybody can afford the types of car insurance that you should technically have if you’re just starting off brand new you got a new clunker car you’re just trying to get back from a to b and you’re in a rural setting and there’s 500 people in your town get great that’s probably a state minimum situation but if you’re worried about losing your income if you’re worried about losing any assets that you have your car getting taller than you not getting a different car you’re not being able to drive to work back and forth for the next 45 days if any of those are concerns then you may want to pay attention to some of the higher level and additional options for car insurance that would help you out yes i get it we all want the cheapest car insurance there is a lot of car insurance that’s cheaper and you have those available there are some budget companies but that doesn’t mean that you’re a fit for those companies so let’s dive in and let’s talk about the options some states do offer lower than this for example florida i think you can do 10 and 20 and we’ll explain that in a moment but most of the time the state minimum in most states is 25 and 50. so florida you got to keep up you’re really low on your liability limits and honestly that’s not even your state minimums the 25 and 50 what that means is 25 000 per person if you were to hurt somebody it’ll pay that medical for their injury 50 000 per accident so if you hurt multiple people in that same accident in that car then you have up to 50 000 max somebody spends a night in the hospital odds are you’ve maxed out both of those that means that you’re gonna get sued or they’re going to have to go after you i’ve had a family member go through that situation where it was a million dollar claim there was nothing to go after unfortunately because the guy didn’t have enough assets but if they would have pursued it further then it would have been a major change for that person’s lifestyle with that 25 and 50 typically they’re going to say 25 for property damage it’s way too low but that’s really the starting point for most places 25 000 property damage that means if you damage someone’s car it’s going to pay up to 25 000 for that repair the next level which is kind of the middle level which most nobody does it’s 50 000 per person 100 000 per accident and then 50 000 for property damage why does most nobody do it because the next level really isn’t much of a price cost difference you might as well skip to the average medium level this is why when you go online and you do quotes at dot coms and do apps and do all like these we’ll help you out and show you through our system these tech companies not that they’re bad but their defaults are this coverage the middle line mainly because they still want you to kind of have good coverage but they also want to give you the cheapest deal they can give you so they’ll offer you the state minimums but they’ll also give you their recommended i’ve already vented about it i made a video about it if i find it i’ll link it here so you can check out what i’m talking about there that level of mediums is a hundred thousand per person three hundred thousand per accident and then fifty thousand for property damage that’s actually something i had somebody research and they said fifty thousand was common i don’t understand that because you should never do 100 350. that doesn’t make sense it should be 100 300 and 100. there are a ton of cars out there that are worth more than 50 000 if you hit a ferrari that’s a different story right that means you’re driving in miami or somewhere really nice but if you hit a nice bmw if you hit an suv if you hit a good minivan those things are 50 000 plus and you’re going to out pocket the difference let’s say for example you hit a porsche cayenne i’ve seen a ton of them out there you hit that you total it let’s say that’s a 65 000 vehicle i don’t know the real value but let’s just pretend the 65 000 and you have 50 000 coverage what are you going to pay do you have 15 000 on top of your deductible to pay for your car don’t forget you’re increasing your insurance by about 15 or more because you had that at fault accident i get it you don’t plan on it happening but what happens when you look down for a second and you thought or this or that and you swerved the scenarios happen good people get in accidents you just got to make sure you have the right insurance now i’m just talking the liability limits there’s a ton other coverages and we’re going to go into the ones that i recommend as well but don’t forget there’s also uninsured and underinsured motorists right now we’re only talking about part one of a three-piece coverage i always tell people there’s coverage for you coverage for others and coverage for your vehicle right now we’re actually talking about coverage for others so if you hurt them if you damage their car that’s that scenario you should still have some sort of medical coverage for yourself you also should have uninsured motorist which technically is medical insurance but it pays out a little bit differently at the end of this i’m going to link a video that goes a lot more in depth on those coverage options but let’s talk about the ones that i typically recommend now i get it if you’re in a higher risk state florida versus michigan are two completely different scenarios in michigan having those liability limits the bot those are called bodily injury are way way cheaper than in florida because michigan has something called pip they force you to have your own medical if you don’t have qualifying medical you have to buy at least 250 000 or unlimited medical which is what i personally carry but that means if you’re in an accident this is a fault state versus a not at fault state hopefully i’m not losing you that means they pay out whoever’s at fault where this one you go off and claim your own yes will the insurances fight in the background and blame each other absolutely but you’re not going to see that on your end as the customer the minimum that i typically do i allow the 100 300 that’s okay coverage it’s not necessarily everybody’s cup of tea i personally carry and recommend at least 500 and 100. you can do 250 or whatever the case is at the end as well it doesn’t really make as big of an impact most to every claim is under 250 000 for medical so if you’re in that three-ish percent or above that then that’s the risk that you may take 250 000 per person 500 000 per accident some people say you got to do 500 per person five go ahead that’s not going to make a giant price difference 100 000 for property damage or more if you’re in an area where cars are a lot more valuable or if you think you’re going to take a trip and you’re going to go to miami you’re going to go somewhere where there are lamborghinis and ferraris that are constantly there and there’s a chance that you could be in that area then do 250 000 for property damage honestly you’re only talking about a 10 or 15 difference in cost in most cases uninsured underinsured both the same 250 500 covers people in your car and then some sort of medical i’m unlimited michigan but if you can do 10 000 that at least helps somebody in your car if they get injured that way they’re not stuck having to go sue somebody if they only broke their arm or if it was something that was a little more minor that didn’t injure them to a major point so the ultra premium what is the top of the top of the top typically the most i ever see anyone do and i’ve written a few of them is a million a million and whatever you want on property damage 100 250 000 might as well do 250 if you’re going that high and then same thing across the board a million uninsured a million it and you could even do a combined single limit it’s where you just say i have a million and it doesn’t matter the car’s damaged someone’s hurt whatever that case is it just pays the million dollars up to if that is a covered accident if you need more than that this is where an umbrella starts to play a factor i’m not going to go super in depth but umbrellas come in in excess of a claim so a million to 5 million 10 million you can go extra millions if you have a lot more income to protect and more assets to protect you’ll still keep the million million on your car insurance and then you’ll add millions on top of that which is very inexpensive but it allows you to go beyond that because the chances of that happening are fairly slim almost none but that’s available so for the home i actually think that my insurance 101 on the home is going to go over that just as well let me know if you have questions or comments below because it’s not just about getting the cheapest car insurance it’s about getting the best insurance that fits you you personally should have insurance that has more than what you are worth more than what your assets are going to become and more that what your future income will be if you get an accident and somebody is injured or there’s a major claim and they sue you they can’t take future income from you they can take savings and in some states they can even take your retirement income at least parts of it so be careful on what coverage that you do go with maybe try a few different options with the agent that you’re working .