February 10th, 2009 
NCN
The goal: Dedicate 1 hour a day, for 7 days, and improve the health of our finances.
Hour 7 (00:00 – 50:00)
Insurance Brainstorm -
Do I have enough life insurance?
Should I consider switching from whole life to term life?
Does my spouse have enough life insurance?
Should we consider an insurance rider for our child or children?
Do I have a long-term disability insurance policy?
Does my spouse have a long-term disability insurance policy?
We live in a rental property, do we have renter’s insurance?
Have we reviewed our home owner’s policy?
Should we look for new or additional health insurance?
Have we reviewed our automobile insurance policies?
Can we raise our automobile deductibles, now that we have a fully-funded emergency fund?
Can we use one company for multiple policies, thereby receiving discounts?
Do I know where all of my insurance-related documents are?
Hour 7 (50:00 – 60:00)
Begin the process of researching insurance companies which may be able to meet any needs identified during the brainstorming session. Consider online resources as well as local insurance companies and agents.
I hope you have enjoyed this series of articles about improving the health of our finances. Each article should take just a few minutes to read, and the steps outlined should take about an hour to do. Depending on the health of your finances, you might be able to breeze through the steps in just minutes – or it might take you much longer, if things are in need of repair. My goal, however, is to keep the steps to a minimum, and to make them as easy-to-follow as is possible.
Consider Hour 7. If you will take the time to do all of the steps outlined above, you’ll have a a better understanding of your life insurance needs, you’ll have a plan in place for purchasing additional insurance policies, and you will know where critical insurance-related documents are located. And, you will have accomplished all of these things, in about an hour!
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My tax professor likes to question people about their life insurance and make sure they understand what they’re betting on, what the insurance company is betting on, and who will benefit in the end. I don’t have any life insurance yet, but plan to get term when my wife gets pregnant for the first time. That way we’ll be covered during the years I’m needed as a provider, but we’ll get out of life insurance altogether when I’ve had a chance to develop our own savings and investments.
I think insurance is a great topic, and one that if often overlooked. My day job is as an attorney, and I deal with insurance companies everyday. It is not always fun, but it makes me realize how important good quality insurance is.
A suggestion I would make is to also create a household inventory for insurance purposes. Of course, this takes more than a hour, so it doesn’t really fit into a list about 7 hours for healthier finances, but it is a good way to get all the value out of the insurance you purchase if you ever need to use it.
I created a blog post recently on why you should create a household inventory (click on my name for the link). I know it can be a dull subject and also one people don’t want to think about very much — what if I lost everything? No fun.
But if you are going to bite the bullet and take this great advice from NCN and really think about your insurance, you should also think about how to make it really work for you with a household inventory. You can also contribute a story of when you needed a household inventory. I have lots of stories I could tell, but they involve my clients so I have not given any specific stories, but some of them are heartbreaking.
I also created a companion article on how to create a household inventory quickly and easily, and what information it should and does not have to include.
http://www.household-management-101.com/household_inventory.html
Check it out if you’re interested!