Things I need for Adulting

[rebeccmeister]

Yesterday, ivy linked to this post about what's currently happening in the US especially in large cities with housing shortages, tech booms, and consequent impacts on individual lifestyles + stuff ownership. [note: I think reading the post was strongly anxiety-inducing for me, due to having moved all over the place over the last 5 years, plus having certain kinds of job instability in my life, plus seeing a lot of what's described happening in cities like Seattle and the Bay Area. Also, I was buffered from a lot of this when living in the Bay Area but it was clear I was fortunate.].

Anyway, that post led me to this post on how to set up a home filing system. Super helpful and a thing I need in my life.*

Related to all that: Do any of you carry renter's insurance? Have suggestions on how to go about that?

Pretty soon here I'm going to need to go through that whole process of getting set up with a healthcare provider and dental stuff/etc. Again. I mean, again again, really. It's a little horrifying to not be set up with those things yet, but let me tell you, again, that's a product of how my life has gone over the last 5 years or so. And I'm highly, highly aware that I have the incredible good fortune to being able to push this stuff to the back burner for a period; I suspect the vast majority of people are not so fortunate and I am deeply sympathetic to how much harder that makes life when moving to a new place. (yay, academia) Also I am sure I will suffer some consequences of having pushed this stuff off (see: teeth).


*Edited to add: I have a home filing system at present, but was realizing that it's deficient in certain key ways (year-over-year management, specific categories). So that's a lot of what I'm getting from this post.

Comments

[missroserose]

I feel you on the home instability thing. Brian and I originally had hoped to settle in Seattle, but with the rents skyrocketing over the past ten years we weren't at all sad to eventually end up in Chicago. (Rent is still more expensive than most places, but compared to Seattle or New York or San Francisco it's an absolute bargain. Hurrah for living in a city of merchants with relatively lax zoning laws and thus a steady supply of new housing.) Now that we own a place and have no moves planned in our immediate future, there's definitely a sense of being able to exhale that we didn't have before.

I highly recommend renter's insurance! We obtained ours during a particularly bad fire year in Arizona, and while (thankfully) we didn't need it then, we made back our investment and then some when we had more than two grand of bikes and gear/accessories stolen off of our back deck. (They were locked to the wooden slats of our deck; the thieves literally came up while we were sleeping—creepy AF, as the deck was right off our bedroom—pried the slats off with a crowbar, and made off with the bikes.) It's surprisingly affordable—I think we paid about $150 a year for it for six years, and we ended up getting reimbursed a good $1600 (replacement cost minus $500 deductible) for the bikes. Plus, because I was buying a new bike in April when all the stores were desperate to move old stock, I got a significantly nicer bike for about the same price as I paid for my first one. A pretty excellent investment, all told.

As to how to go about it, I literally just opened up the Progressive website (since that's who we had our car insurance through), clicked through to the "renter's" section, and filled out the form. You get a small discount if you bundle services, which is nice.

[bluepapercup]

I also had my renters insurance through Progressive and was happy with their service. You can purchase additional riders if you have specific high-value things you want separately insured, say a family heirloom (or in my case, my engagement ring).

[threemeninaboat]

Added: My bicycle is insured.

[threemeninaboat]

edit! I don't know if you own your racing things. My all of my insurances EXCLUDE race damage and bear damage.

[rebeccmeister]

LOL thankfully I wouldn't call my belongings racing items - just everyday commuting things.

I'll have to look for clauses about bear damage.

https://www.bicycling.com/news/a20041465/pro-cyclist-hits-bear/

[ivy]

I used to go through Progressive for my renter's insurance, and still go through them for my home insurance. I have never had to file a claim, but they were fine to work with for setting up the policy.

[rainswolf]

I used to have renters insurance. Can't remember for sure but I think same company as my car insurance. Nor sure what company that was. Geico or State Farm maybe. It wasn't expensive.

[annikusrex]

Yes, get renter's insurance. It's quite cheap since insurance companies assume (perhaps more accurately than ever) that renters don't have much stuff. :) It will cover your bikes, which I think would be the hardest stuff for you to replace (custom stuff), and one of the more popular targets for thieves. Bikes alone would be >$10k for the two of you, I'm guessing? But also computers, sewing machines, Kitchenaids, furniture in case of fire, etc. It should also include liability insurance. Here's an informative thread on the value of renter's insurance: https://www.bogleheads.org/forum/viewtopic.php?t=96374.

[twoeleven]

We have all our insurance covered through Nationwide. When we rented, and there was a little, tiny incident involving kids, fire, and a very old apartment building not up to code, they paid up promptly and without arguing. They've also been good about paying for car accidents (none our fault) and random other car claims, so we figure they're worth it.

I'd also recommend getting more renters' insurance than you think you need. Even with your careful habits about buying stuff, replacement costs for random household goods are surprisingly high, especially if you have to buy them in a great hurry. Which is generally the case if you've had an insurer pay.

[rebeccmeister]

Thank you for these tips! Good things to consider.

[rainswolf]

There are riders like special laptop insurance. I was surprised though that a small laptop claim raised our rates when we were shopping for regular home insurance 2 years later.

[rebeccmeister]

Huh! Good to know about. I guess that's the thing with insurance...insurance companies do have to balance their own books at the end of the day.