Why Not Having Homeowners Insurance Might Be the Biggest Mistake of Your Life

We all make mistakes in our lifetime. We date the wrong people, pick the wrong jobs and in time may even end up making a clean break to enjoy a "do-over". Unfortunately, there are some mistakes we make that will have lasting consequences for years after the actual event, and one of those is choosing to live without homeowners insurance.

The whole concept of homeowners insurance can seem nebulous at best, especially if you live away from the coast in a low crime area where homes have been standing for centuries. After all, the whole point of homeowners insurance is to prepare you for that nebulous "someday" when disaster is going to strike and deal out more damage than your bank account can handle. If that day's never going to come, why waste the money getting ready for it?

There are two things wrong with that argument. First and foremost, there's no way to tell whether Mother Nature is going to deal out devastation or happily sit back and let the storms roll by. Since no one's bothered to give her a Google Calendar to distribute to the weatherman there's no way to know, and things like tornadoes, thunderstorms and airplanes crashing into your living room tend to keep a fairly unpredictable schedule. Homes that have been standing for centuries can tumble in an instant, and if you don't have homeowners insurance you're going to be left holding the bill for their replacement.

When you consider the fact that there's more than one single family home out there worth over a million dollars you'll see that that's a blow most of our bank accounts won't be able to take. Left without the resources to build a new home because there's no homeowners insurance check on the way many people have been forced to either "make due" with substandard housing while they gather their financial resources back up, sink further into debt by picking up a second mortgage (since you're going to be paying on the first whether you've got a house to live in or not) or sell their land and move somewhere else to make a fresh start.

Chances are, none those options are particularly appealing, and having to dip into a budget that's probably already stretched thin paying your first mortgage to either rent or rebuild can leave you dining on bread and Ramen for years until you manage to pay off your first loan. Since most mortgages are for fifteen to thirty years...well, you get the picture.

The second thing to remember is that homeowners insurance isn't only for major catastrophes. Do you really want to live in a house with a hole in the ceiling and drips when it rains because the snow put a hole in your roof you can't afford to fix? Or try to cook with limited resources because a pan full of grease spattered on your curtains and sent a kitchen fire raging out of control? Probably not, but that's exactly what you're going to have to do if you choose to take responsibility for these events out of pocket rather than spending $2,000 (or less) on a homeowners insurance policy each year.

The bottom line is that one way or another life is going to get pretty uncomfortable if you don't have a good insurance policy to pick up your losses, and it's a mistake you're going to be paying for years afterward. Don't let this be one of the worst mistakes of your life. Contact a qualified homeowners insurance agent today.