The other day I received our car insurance premium bills in the mail (along with our homeowners insurance policy bill, car tag registration on both cars, plus a driver’s license renewal notification!). We put aside money each month in an ING savings account nicknamed “car insurance” so that when the time comes, I transfer the money to our main account and pay the bill. It works out really well for us, and I am glad that we are able to pay six months worth of car insurance at a time. By paying in full for six months, we receive a discount and avoid paying a monthly installment fee.

photo credit: aresauburn™

Owning and operating a car is a huge expense. Every year, you’ve got depreciation, registration and tags, and car insurance to pay for. Seeing that Mr. Money and I keep getting older, our insurance premiums will hopefully stay the same or decrease a little as our cars age and we supposedly become more responsible. I’ll tell you though- when I opened my car insurance bill, I never expected that our 8 year old car would cost more to insure than our 5 year old vehicle!!

For six months worth of car insurance on our 2005 Ford Freestyle, we paid 255.15.

For six months worth of car insurance on our 2002 Ford Mustang, we paid 305.10!

I think it’s crazy that a vehicle that is three years older and worth less than the other costs more to insure. I guess that’s part of the expense of owning a sports car.

I’ll tell you- the next vehicle I own will either be a hybrid that is a few years old so that I can save money on gas, or it will be a compact car like the Ford Focus. I’m done with owning gas hogs and sports cars! I don’t put enough value into driving a sports car to make it worth the extra expense.

I should be glad that our car insurance is only 305.10 for six months on the Mustang. I know at one point we paid around $500 a month with Geico to insure the vehicle. Of course, I was also 20 years old, so that probably was a huge factor. All in all, I’m thankful that our car insurance is now something we can easily afford, and have the means to pay it in full for six months. I’m just still surprised that the older car costs more to insure.

Did the insurance rates affect which type of vehicle you purchased? How much is your car insurance?

I was thinking the other day about what would happen if I lost my job.  If I lost my job, both Mr. Money and I would lose our health insurance, matching 401k contributions, and about 1/3 of our total income.  We’d have to make some cuts to our lifestyle to be able to make it work.  It got me thinking: what truly are necessities?

Here’s what I’d consider necessities:

-A place to live

-Food/water

-Heat (in winter)

That’s about all that I think it critical to live.  However, if I did lose my job, I would probably not cut everything to include those bare essentials.  I would cut the cable (I know, haven’t cut it yet!), be very careful with our grocery budget, and drop our cell phones (or at least mine). I don’t think we could afford private health insurance, so we’d probably have to go without health insurance.

I would have to say- it would be extremely hard to cut the internet.  That would be pretty much my only source of entertainment.

Have you considered what would happen if you lost your job?  What would you keep and what would you cut?