What Noisy Cats Are We

If you live in the Boston area, there is a good chance that you are a renter.  If your building burns down, or if you are robbed (our place was many years ago before I moved in), your landlord’s homeowner’s insurance does not cover the cost of your belongings (or anything else for you, most likely – you will be on the street with possibly zero assistance from the landlord).

You might not have much ‘stuff’, or you might not THINK you have much stuff, but if you add up the replacement costs of all your clothes, electronics, and other household items, you’d be surprised how much it would cost to rebuild your life.  A good way to help get you going is to have a good renters insurance policy on your apartment.  A typical policy in Boston / Cambridge with ~$15,000 of coverage will cost you well under $400 a year (don’t quote me, but get a quote!), and most places let you pay monthly.  Remember to get a rider on top of that if you have any valuable items, such as jewelry or anything like that.  Ask your agent for info about this.

As for where to go for this, check out Yelp!.  I use a national company (Progressive) for my car insurance now due to my local place not being able to get close to their price after MA de-regulated their auto insurance market, but Progressive couldn’t touch the price I pay for my renters through my local agent.  My local agent is also wicked helpful and great in the customer service department.

Trust me when I say that this is one expense that is worth every penny in the long run.

I have never had to make a claim (knock on wood), so I don’t really know that procedure, or how you prove what you own &tc.  I need to do more research about that, and also how to properly document my belongings in case of the need to make a claim.

Your things aren’t the most important thing.  You have yourself, your loved ones, your pets, and everything else.  But at the end of the day, you need your clothes, and eventually, you will WANT to have all of your stuff.  Protect it.

FYI, also, use Mozy to do your data backups.  I’ve lost all my financial data before, and Mozy has saved my butt.  It’s free and worth it.  More on this subject later.