5 Surprising Things You Didn't Know About Home Insurance - #6

Whether you own your home or you're a renter, you're at risk if you haven't read or looked at your home insurance (or renter's insurance) policy. And if it's been years since you got that policy, you could be even more at risk. In today's episode, Sa El from SimplyInsurance.com breaks down the top surprising things most people don't know about their home insurance, including things that are covered, things that aren't covered, and how to properly protect your home, belongings, and family. Even though we're talking about insurance, this is a fun and lively  conversation about a topic that many people find boring! :)

Find Sa El at https://www.simplyinsurance.com/.

65 Surprising Things Insurance Covers: https://www.simplyinsurance.com/

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Transcript

Serena: [00:00:00] =So today on the podcast we have Sa El, he is an insurance representative, owns his own business with Simply Insurance.  I'm so excited to have him today because, a lot of the times with Thrift Diving, Sa, we're always talking about how to decorate our home, how to make it look good, how to do it on a budget. And there's a lot of people that come to Thrift Diving, looking for decorating ideas because they're new homeowners or they may move into a new house, or sometimes, they're just not happy with the way their house looks, and they want to redo things. But we've always focused on the inside and maybe a little bit on the outside, but we've not, I don't think I've ever talked about insurance on my blog, like ever. So you had reached out to me to talk about insurance, and I said, this is going to be a good person to talk to but remind me of how we met. Because I know how we met, but we still can't find evidence that we--  

Sa: [00:00:52] Can't find the evidence? Yeah, I don't know her. No. So we met at FinCon, Personal Finance Conference. We were at the Ally booth. I think they were making like the cookies. 

Serena: [00:01:06] Yes! And we got in there pretty early. 

Sa: [00:01:07] We did. We were like the first, like we were walking side by side, and we were like, Hey, Hey. And I was like, Oh, you look great. And you're like, Oh, you look great. I was like, 

Serena: [00:01:16] I was complementing your teeth. Yes, I was complementing your teeth. And I was like, Oh, you're so handsome. Then we started talking. 

Sa: [00:01:21] We have to take a picture. Yeah. So we started talking. Um, and you were telling me more about it and we just kind of got into the flow of things at Fin Con and, um, really enjoy each other's company. And yeah, it was a good time. I was really glad to meet you. 

Serena: [00:01:36] Yes, I know. And you know, FinCon is a conference that I've been like, I've been going to this conference for three, four years, I think. And it was, it was kind of funny how I ended up there because a friend of mine, who had gone as a speaker, one year he said, Hey, I've got a free ticket. Do you want to come along? Just pay for your airfare, and I'm like, sure. FinCon financial bloggers. And you know, I'm not a financial blogger, but there's a lot of people at FinCon that talk about frugality, right? So they're talking about frugality from saving money and that's what we do at Thrift Diving, like that's how my blog had started because I just moved into this house, this 1973 house.  We had spent all of our money buying this house. There was no money left over to decorate, so that's how Thrift Diving came to be. So when I found out about FinCon, I was like, Okay. People that like to save money and talk about money. Okay, cool. I'm down. And it's, it's actually one of the best conferences that I go to every year. I'm really sad that we didn't have FinCon like the traditional FinCon this year. I know they had some online sessions. 

Sa: [00:02:39] FinCon Ex.

Serena: [00:02:39] Did you attend some of those?

Sa: [00:02:41] It was Friday. I didn't. But the Slack group was really, really well organized. Yeah. The Slack group was really good. I don't know if it's still up and running, but it definitely wasn't anything compared to the actual conference. Cause like I think I've been to three you know, I lay waste to FinCon and like there's no one that won't be like, Oh yeah, we South side. Yeah. Like I'm in the area. Like, you know, I'm everywhere. Like, Hey, let's talk. Like, it's funny because like I tell people all the time, like there is no industry. Like I get a lot of people are like, well, how do you make this work? And I tell him, I'm like, listen, there's no industry that I can't write about. Regardless, no industry, like you give me your name an industry. I can tell you about insurance for it. And that's kind of how I look at it. You know,  it's insurance is super important. Like nobody wants to talk about it because usually when you use an insurance, something bad has happened, right? Like, it's never, nobody's ever, like I'm using my happy insurance. Like nobody's, you know, it's always something bad. So, you know, we've got to our past that there and know that, Hey, if you have insurance, it's because you're protecting yourself and your family from something bad. No one [inaudible], but we definitely need it.

Serena: [00:03:48] But how did you get into insurance and did you just kind of fall into it or have you always felt like this passionate about helping people protect their home, their livelihood? How did you get into insurance and, Simply Insurance? And your site is Simply Insurance.com, right?

Sa: [00:04:05] Correct. 

Serena: [00:04:05] Okay. 

Sa: [00:04:06] Yes. 

Serena: [00:04:06] Tell me about that. 

Sa: [00:04:07] Absolutely. So what happened was, a few years ago when I was 20-something like that, my grandmother, she passed some ovarian cancer.  We thought she had life insurance but she didn't. She had no life insurance and it was really hard because everyone was sad. My dad and his sister, they were all going through it, but we also had to come together and financially kind of help and, you know, housework, like some retail jobs. So I gave whatever I could give, but you could still really see the financial strain and the financial toll it took on everyone. My dad ended up moving into her condo. Like a lot of things happen that people don't understand when a death happens, when a death occurs, as far as the finances that are going to be required taking off of work. You know? So now that you have to afford to pay for a funeral, but you got to worry about, Hey, I'm not going to be at work. Do I have time to take off work? Right. Like, it's a lot of stuff that comes. And I realized, I was like, wow, this really affected us. Right? Like this one person's death really affected us. Not just emotionally, but it affected us financially.  So for now I say, I started researching and I realized, I was like, okay, an African-American community, we don't talk about it. I never talked to my dad about insurance. I never talked to my mom buying insurance and it just was a hush hush thing isn't anybody talked about and I said I want to go out there and make it better for the African-American community to learn about insurance and teach them about insurance. And so I got licensed and I found out that nobody knows anything about insurance. It's like, it wasn't just like a set, you know, subset of people that didn't know, like no one knows, but there has been a subset of people that did know, and they took extreme advantage of it. You know, they created wealth from it. They allowed their family to be financially free. Not that it’s making them millionaires, but  if someone dies and they leave you nothing compared to they made a hundred grand a year, they leave you a million dollar policy, it's a whole different type of reality. So that's kind of what got me into it.  I actually started selling over the phone. I was selling life insurance over the phone. Before then I was doing like door to door, but I didn't like that. So I said, I wanted to do it over the phone. And everybody was like, Oh, you can't really sell life insurance over the phone. Don't want to buy it from you. People need to see you. But of course, I went for like 10 years selling over the phone, so they were completely wrong. This is nothing better. At that point I started seeing my customers were like, Hey, can we buy this without talking to you? Like, do I really have to speak to you about this? Like, can you call me back? Like, actually don't call me back. Can you just email this to me? And I realized more and more that I was getting involved with a lot of the, you know, my like myself, millennials who were like, you know, they want everything like Amazon, Netflix, and you know, they want it fast. They want it now. They want to do their own research. They want to be their own doctor, their own attorney, their own everything. Right? Like they want to do everything on their own and I saw that. That's where I came up with the idea for Simply Insurance, a place where I can give you insurance education, I like to say in plain English, because I think sometimes insurance agents use way too much lingo and they don't talk to each other, like they know each other, like I'm going to talk to you about insurance like I'm talking to my friend because that's the only way you're going to understand it. You know, it's trying to say contingent beneficiary versus just saying, Hey, who's your secondary beneficiary. Right? Like it's just those, those kinds of things. Making it easier to understand things like co-insurance, deductible, you know, making it easier. So that's what Simple Insurance does is it allows people to get the insurance education that they need. And also it gives an ability to purchase online without speaking to an agent if they prefer not to. And that's kind of how Simply Insurance was started. We started in 2017. About 3 years ago is when we started Simply Insurance. Before then it was called Zion Financial, which was the agency, which we did for 10 years. So about almost 12 years, total licensed. 

Serena: [00:07:49] Okay. So you've got a lot of experience and you definitely have that story that's meaningful. And I think with, with anything that people do, there's usually a good story. There's a good reason why like you, and a lot of times you don't see money as being the reason why people decide to jump into something you often, very few times you do. But a lot of times it's something that personally happened to you that made you realize, Hey, there's a problem here. And it's good that you had mentioned about the impact of someone passing away and all the things you have to do, because that's something that, that we did. I was telling you earlier about this, we called it the 30-day August Challenge, but really it was an estate planning challenge where it was myself, and I think there was about 200 people, Sa, that signed up for this challenge. Now, not everybody participated, you know, life gets it way, but every week we did Zoom calls for about, I think we did a total of eight calls and everybody got on every week and talked about their estate planning, like what they're doing with attorneys. I know they talked about long-term care insurance and there was just a whole bunch of conversations. So I wish that we had actually talked before, because I would have had you come on to talk about insurance during one of those calls. 

Let's talk about the house, because like I said, at Thrift Diving and we love to talk about our home and protecting in our home. And when we were setting this up, the first question that came into my mind is how do people know whether or not they have enough insurance? When people are looking for home policies, what should they be looking for? Because I know personally, when I moved into this house, we probably just got whatever the agent had recommended, but our lifestyle and our income and all of those things changed the longer we were here. Our income went up and we ended up having more children. So what do people need? Like, what are the bare minimums that people need, but then what is recommended to make sure that you're fully protected in your home? 

Sa: [00:09:41] Right. So the first thing, when it comes to homeowners, insurance is understanding that there are the policies exist for specific homes. So like your home would have a, probably a different policy than a condo or a townhome or a home that was built last year. Right? Like it's the same type of policy is just what it covers. So the most important thing when getting a home insurance policy and trying to figure out exactly how much you need, how much coverage you need is to understand one, how much personal property you have, like clothes, you know, jewelry, furniture, all those things, the value of those. Then you want to look at the, uh, what's on the actual dwelling. Meaning do you have other items like, let’s say, do you have a garage? Right? Cause if you have a detached garage it's still covered, but you need to make sure you have enough coverage for that, detached garage, right? So it's really about sitting down and writing it all out.

That's the easiest way to do it. So. How much personal property do I have. Right. Cause that's very, very important.

Serena: [00:10:46] It can get a little tedious though. I mean, if you're all your clothes, all your furniture-- 

Sa: [00:10:51] It's very tedious. It's very tedious. So it's better to just have an idea of a number.  You want to look at your policy and make sure it has what's called replacement cost coverage. That's important because let's say you have a policy one without replacement costs and one with replacement cost. The one without replacement cost, let's say you, your laptop, something happens a covered loss. Let's say someone breaks in and steals your laptop. Cover loss. Well, if you don't have replacement coverage, if you just have the traditional Homeowners Insurance, where they're not covering it, what'll happen is that they'll send you the payment for it. And they'll say, Hey, this is based on currently the value of the laptop. So if you bought the laptop five years ago, they'll replace the laptop, but based off five years ago, whereas replacement cost, we replaced that same laptop, but it would be based on today. 

So it was a very important the difference. Especially when you're also buying your coverage. You don't want to buy homeowners insurance, and you don't have enough to rebuild your home. You need to make sure you have enough money in the policy to rebuild your home. Some policies have it's called extended replacement coverage, where they extend it. They give you a little bit more coverage than your house is worth, because you want to make sure things like wood and bricks and you know, all, all that labor, all that changes, right? The cost of that changes over time. So if you built your house 30 years ago, you don't want to buy a policy that can only afford to pay for how much your house was 30 years ago. Right? You want to make sure that you can cover the cost of how much your house will cost, you know, rebuild it today. 

So it’s very important to pay attention to those two metrics. Like those are most important metrics is making sure you have replacement cost coverage. Making sure your home, if you're going to, sit down with the contractor, you bought a new home, sit down with somebody, even get an estimate, get an estimate from someone, have someone to come over and say, Hey, this is the value of your home.

Serena: [00:12:46] So let me ask you a question then. So if people want the replacement coverage and they also want to be able to rebuild their house, what happens with a market, sort of like what we have right now, things are going through the roof in terms of prices. So if you moved into your house five years ago and you had an insurance policy then, how often should people be revisiting that if the price of real estate keeps going up, like what should people do? How often should they revise their insurance policy? 

Sa: [00:13:14] Gotcha. So they’re kind of two different things. So like the insurance company will pay, you know, Hey, this is how much it's going to cost to actually rebuild this home. But not necessarily, this is the value, let's say $250,000 to rebuild your home, but your home could still be worth 400,000. Does that make sense? We're just more talking about materials and the build-out. 

But to answer your question, it was just, I just wanted to make sure that people understood kind of the difference, but to answer your question, most people do what you did. They get the policy the agent says. About seventy-five percent of people do not shop for Homeowners Insurance. It's so bad. And the reason it's bad is because when you don't shop, you're buying a policy that might not even cover what you have. For instance, right now, most traditional policies that people probably still have, they haven't upgraded to a new policy. The premiums are probably lower, if you go out there and do your research and they probably cover things more to your lifestyle now. Most policies don't cover laptops. They don't cover your TVs. They don't cover electronics. They don't cover the little-- what are those things? A little Swiffer thing that drives around on their own the area 

Serena: [00:14:27] You mean Roombas! 

Roombas didn't exist, you know, back then. Right. So you have to think about these. You have to say, Hey, how old is my policy and how much has my life changed? Let me go and make sure that the things that I currently have are actually covered. Like that's the most important thing, because a lot of times the biggest issue anyone ever has an insurance that they do not read the policy. Go read your policy. And if you don't read it, ask someone, give it to an attorney, give it to your friend, pawn it off on somebody. Just understand exactly what's covered because I wrote a blog post about the 65 things that a homeowners insurance policy could cover. And a lot of people don't realize it can cover stuff like kidnappings.  They'll pay ransom money. 

Really? 

Sa: [00:15:09] Yes. Like nobody would think of that, but yeah, they will help with that. I mean, it covered things that you would be like, Oh, I never thought it will cover that. You know, but it's so many things that your homeowner’s policy can cover, may cover, might not cover. You need to know what it covers. Like that's the biggest thing and if you've gone 10 years and you haven't looked at premiums and you're like, Oh, it's just, it's in my escrow or, it's coming out of escrow or, Hey, I'm just paying it. I didn't really look into it. My homes covered. You're doing yourself a big disservice, right? Because just like with the do it yourself market I would say it's a very weird thing because there are some policies that could possibly cover do- it- yourself work, right? Like, we'll cover you if you mess up your home while you are trying to create this new thing in your wall.

Serena: [00:15:55] Right. 

Sa: [00:15:56] But your old policies for sure won't have it in there, right? Like you have to think about the time period we live in now versus where the time period was when you bought the policy. And the reason for that is because the policy was only covering the normal things back then, I think we just talked about how, like almost no one has a house phone, right? We can cover everything, but we don't cover house phones. People would be like, what's the house phone? 

Serena: [00:16:17] But yeah, so you're right. So, this is actually very important. I'm glad that we're doing this because I'm sure there's going to be a lot of people listening to this, because I do have a lot of readers and viewers who are older, the older population, who may have been in their homes for years, who may not know that the things that are covered or things that they might think are covered are not covered because so much time has passed. It's good we're talking about this because I recently had updated my insurance because as I mentioned to you, we're doing this estate planning and so one of the questions, or one of the things that the estate planning attorney had mentioned to me is she said, well, do you have an umbrella policy? And I'm like, I've heard that term. I kind of know what it is, but I kind of don't. And after I spoke with her, I did my research and realized, oh shoot, I need an umbrella policy. I want you to tell me and tell other people, what is the importance of an umbrella policy and why would people want that for themselves?

Sa: [00:17:15] So an umbrella policy is kind of like the, think of it, like a catch all policy. Like, if something happens that your car insurance can't cover, your homeowner's insurance can’t cover, your renter's insurance can't cover, your Life Insurance can't cover, your conceal car insurance won't cover. Umbrella insurance would cover it. Now, the umbrella insurance policy usually requires you to have the maximum limits, though, on most of your policies. You need to have the maximum limit on your homeowners, need to have the maximum limit on your car insurance, you need to have the maximum on your renters. You know, they want the maximum and then they'll cover the rest. So that's kind of, that's how I like to look at an umbrella policy. Just think of it as a catch all policy.

Serena: [00:18:00] Who are those people that need that policy?

Sa: [00:18:02] Honestly, if I'm being honest, it's probably people who are financially in a position where if something major happened, it could really like ruin their life. I don't want to say like celebrities, but let's just give that as an example, right? Celebrities or someone who has something, a doctor or a lawyer, someone who has something of value that they could lose if a friend came over or one of their friend's friends came over and got hurt and wanted to sue them or wanted to bash their name or come through the mud. Like that's when you really need an umbrella policy. I think of it more as like really for liability because you really wouldn't want to go to it. That's why before you get to an umbrella policy, you would have already exhausted the other insurance, right? Like that's kind of the purpose of it. So it was really more of a high-net-worth people, but I don't see the average person, like, not even myself, like needing an umbrella policy, just because it is a nice concept. It is a nice idea. 

Serena: [00:19:04] So are you saying I wasted my money? 

Sa: [00:19:06] I'm not saying you wasted your money because it's your individual situation.

Serena: [00:19:10] Right.

Sa: [00:19:11] It's going to be different for everyone. So things that are important to you that matter that are covered might be different because here's the thing, let's say your homeowner's insurance policy, you lose your home. Let's say it doesn't cover you enough to rebuild your home. That's when the umbrella policy can kick in. Hey, how much of this can it cover? And what part of the policy would that be covered in. That's kind of the questions that you can ask. So it's still a good thing to have, but it's not necessary. How about that? If I'm being honest. 

Serena: [00:19:41] Yeah. When I had called whoever my insurance is for my home. Cause I know for my car, because I tend to just kind of stay within the same policy. I called them in the way they had explained it was if, let's say for example, there was a car accident and you're responsible for it. Let's say three people die from some mistake that you made, checking your text messages or Facebook or whatever.  Those could be three potential lawsuits and if your car insurance only covers you up to, I don't know, let's say $500,000, then that's when your personal assets, your home, your, I don't know about your retirement accounts, but those things could be in jeopardy. And I thought, Holy crap. So I think I may have paid for the year. I want to say it was maybe 500 and some dollars I think for policy. And I thought to me, I would much rather pay that than to take the risk of not having enough insurance from if something should happen. I'm just afraid that my assets could be at risk. 

Sa: [00:20:41] No, I, and that's why I was saying like someone who really, like, your assets being at risk. If you have something that is like, I can't lose this, I can't have, like, you know, like a malpractice lawsuit or like you say, Hey, I run it, 10 people get injured, I can't deal with 10 lawsuits, right? Like that's kind of the catch all, you need that. It's like a backup coverage.

And that's why I say this kind of for people who are like really on a different financial situation is probably not, 21-year-old, you don't need that policy, right? Like maybe someone who has a family, has a lot. I mean, you really are the perfect example. You're a small business owner. You have a family.  You're responsible and investment property. So it makes sense for you to have an umbrella policy because you have a lot of other things that could pull from you. You never know what's going to happen with an investment property. I guess you just don't know what can happen with it. So you definitely have to protect yourself overall. But maybe the new person has just started doing some DIY stuff and they were like you, when you first moved in was like, Hey, I spent all my money on this house and I'm about to go in here and I'm going to make a stand or a stool, and, Hey, I'm DIY, right? Like they don't need yeah. You know, I can see that.  No. So, that's why I said it really depends on your financial situation and where you are as far as the things that you have to lose. That's how I look at it and that's why I say it's a catch all. 

And that's why I say just like, it's kind of like whole life insurance, right? Like whole life insurance is life insurance. However, like 95% of people one they probably can't even afford it and two don't really need whole life insurance. Right? It's super expensive. Term life, same benefit over time, much more affordable. So that's kind of how I look at the umbrella insurance. 

If you are in a position, where you financially would need it, if something happened, definitely get it because $500 a year definitely is nothing compared to what, compared to what you have to pay. Yes, absolutely. But in general, like if you're sitting on here and you're watching this and you're like, oh my God, I guess I need umbrella insurance now. No, you don't have to rush out to get Umbrella Insurance. It is better to understand where you are financially and what's going on in your life where you plan to be in a future. You know, if something does happen, will it affect your image? Will it affect your ability to work? Will it affect your ability to make an income? And will you be able to pay people off? Will you lose your home? When you lose your business, will you lose your family? You know what those types of things are important to think about. But you know, if you're single and you have an apartment and you know, you're thinking about, Hey, what do I do? Well, your renter's insurance is pretty much going to cover anything that you're probably going to run into. 

Serena: [00:23:22] Let's talk about that: renters insurance, because there are people most, I'm going to assume most people that, that read Thrift Diving or watch Thrift Diving, most people are homeowners, but not everybody. So some people may not even know what renters insurance is. If it's something that they should get. So can you speak to why somebody would want or why they wouldn't need, but I think personally you would need renter's insurance.

Sa: [00:23:47] Definitely. Absolutely. So renter's insurance and homeowners, insurance are pretty much the exact same thing. The only difference is what they cover. Okay. So renter's insurance only covers the inside of the home. Okay. So it only covers the things inside of the wall, right? It covers your couch, your watch, your washer, your dryer. It covers those things for what's called covered losses. So if someone breaks in, destroys your property, damages it, if an airplane engine and falls out of the sky and lands to your house, yes, it's covered. If a volcano erupts, if it seeps inside, the lava goes into your rental unit, you're covered. 

What's not covered is the outside. So what this means is that a lot of people assume, and you have an investment property. A lot of people assume that if they have homeowners insurance, that the renter is covered, and it is not true. So the reason why I said it's important to note is because if you're renting out a home, that someone, you know, if you're renting out Serena's investment property and you're a renter, if it's that kind of property, I'm just using an example. If you're a renter, you need to have your own renter's insurance, because if the property burns down, serena's homeowners insurance, it's going to cover her. It's not going cover the renter. Right. It's going to give you what's called loss of use. So the homeowner's insurance will actually even pay you the monthly payment the renter was paying you because you lost rent. 

Serena: [00:25:10] Oh, wow. See, I didn't know that.

Sa: [00:25:12] Yes. It's called loss of use coverage. 

Serena: [00:25:14] Wow. Is that for a certain amount of time that they would provide those rental payments? 

Sa: [00:25:19] Usually it's based on the, the, where they're pulling it from, from your policy. So like for instances, okay, well, your loss of use coverage has a limit of $50,000. So it'll pay out up to that amount of percentage up to that amount. Yep. It's called it works in a few different ways, loss of use. 

So loss of use is if you get put out of your home, they will pay for you, for your car rental, your apartment, food, it'll pay for all of it.  And it would pay for if you had a renter in your property, it'll pay out on it as well. Hey, how much was your renter paying? It pays a percentage of it. So it's a lot of things. When you're looking at renters insurance as a renter, always get renter's insurance because the home itself, the physical home is not yours and is not covered. And no matter how much you want to help them, the amount of rented homeowners insurance you have is to fix, rebuild the home, so you can get another tenant in there. They would need their own renter's insurance because they need to cover their personal property. And that's what that renter's insurance policy is for. So that's kind of the differences between the two. People definitely need renter's insurance. Like, I can't tell you how many people in Georgia is like apartment complexes will not let you move in if you don't have renter's insurance. I don't know how it is in other States, but the reason is, because they know, I think the minimum is $50,000. They know that, Hey, if you don't have renter's insurance and this building burns down, one, the tenant is completely gone. And two, you're going to feel this kind of way, because they're going to say something, nothing we can do to help you. Sometimes it's just like, we had insurance on our building, but if your unit burns down, what are you going to do? Right. 

Serena: [00:26:49], And also too, I wonder about tenants who let's say, let's say there is a fire. Let's just say the cause of the fire was due to faulty wiring, right? And then the tenant tries to file a lawsuit against the owner of the property. That right there puts you, I mean, that kind of puts you into a situation too, but even if it's not faulty wiring, it could be another tenant in the building or next door or something. You would always worry about that person trying to come to you to collect, to get reimbursement in some kind of way. Does that happen to people? Did those tenants file lawsuits against the owners of those property? 

Sa: [00:27:26] They definitely can. 

Serena: [00:27:27] So I can see why they'd say, look, you need insurance renters. 

Sa: [00:27:30] Because they definitely can't file a lawsuit, but it probably wouldn't be successful with it because you know, of course, no one wants to go through the headache of it.

But if I want to be successful, because at the end of the day, the insurance company is going to say, we're not covering that, right? If you're not responsible for their personal property, they're responsible for it. So that's kind of what happens with a renters. You know, like even a lot of people don't know, like homeowner's insurance will even cover your kids when they go off to college. It'll cover them at their dorm, cover their personal property. 

Serena: [00:28:00] Really?

Sa: [00:28:02] Yes. You better read that policy I'm telling you you're missing out-- that's yeah. And so it's a lot of stuff happens, and people don't know what do I do? Who do I call? 

Let me ask you this. So that's a very, that's something that's very surprising. So is there, is there like, like tell me three more, like surprising things I know you had mentioned in that linked to 65 things, and I'm going to find that link so we can post it in the show notes. What are some of the other surprising things? Because I'm sure most people didn't know that their homeowners insurance policies covering kids at school. So like what are three other big important, but surprising things that insurance covers that most people don't know? 

Your homeowners will cover food like rotted food. So like, let's say your power goes out. Power goes out for a week. Food spoils, homeowners insurance. We'll pay to recover the cost of all your food.

Serena: [00:28:55] Really? 

Sa: [00:28:56] Yeah.

Serena: [00:28:59] Okay. So I know for myself, when I think about filing claims and other people probably feel this way too, I've always known or have, have thought to be very cautious about filing claims, because if you quote unquote file too many claims, then your insurance goes up. So even though the insurance company may cover all these things, and I didn't even let you finish with the other surprising things, but even though they may cover these things, at what point do you say, okay, they may cover my food, but you know, okay. So I lost $500 in beef that I had stored down in the freezer. I'm a vegetarian, but I'm reaching here. Oh, they cover $500 in beef. Is that really worth filing a claim for, even though, like, how will that negatively impact you if you're filing claims for small things? 

Sa: [00:29:48] Right. So I think it's important to file claims in like in abundance, because I agree with you. You don't want to constantly call your insurance company and say, Hey, I want to file for this. I want to file for this. I want to file her that. First and foremost, there's going to be a deductible anyway. Right. So pay the deductible. The deductible could be more than what it costs to even file the claim. I say knowing how the policy works is important, because if something does. Happen, what's called a covered loss happens, let's say a tree falls on your home.  Your power's going to be out probably. You're going to still lose that food. But if you don't file that food in the claim, you don't get it.  So it's really about understanding everything the policy covers so that if you do need to file an actual real claim, you know all the items that you should have filed for it, because once you filed that claim and it's approved, you, can't go back and say, you know what? I just found out that this thing was covered. Will you guys cover that too? They're going to be like, know we've paid your claim. So that's why it's very important to know the small things that it covers, cause it all really adds up. You lose your home, and you lose all your food, and you lose your rental. Like, no one's going to tell you, they could have paid for that. They could have covered that rental loss that you experienced. Oh, I didn't know, to file a claim for it. Right. Like that's how it works. Yeah. So it's very important to know. I wouldn't say Hey, my power went out. My groceries are gone. I'm going to get a file $200 claim for the groceries. No, don't do that, but understand that, hey, if something happens collectively, altogether, you should know to make sure that's on the list.

Serena: [00:31:24] Okay. So what are maybe a couple other surprising things that most people don't know is covered by your homeowner insurance? 

Sa: [00:31:31] So I would say there are some renters and homeowners insurance policies that now cover bed bugs, which is a big thing. 

Serena: [00:31:39] Yes. Wow. You know what that is? I'm so glad you mentioned that because here at Thrift Diving, we love thrift stores. Thank God, I've never had a bed bug problem, but for people that love to pick up on the roadside, people that love to get old furniture from the thrift store, this is a question that I get sometimes from people. How do you check it? How do you make sure?  You can try to be as thorough as possible, but it doesn't mean you're going to catch everything. And also let's not forget that just buying furniture from the regular store, or even just buying a new mattress. They do carry out old mattresses. Right. That could have bedbugs and now they're bringing your brand new mattress. There are ways to contaminate your house. So you're saying that an insurance company will cover that treatment? 

Sa: [00:32:21] They'll cover the treatment. That's why it's important to know what's in your policy, right? Because if you don't know, you won't know to, Hey, this will be covered. And then it comes down to the thing, like you said, do you file the claim for it? Is there enough or did multiple things happening? Hey, maybe it wasn't necessarily a part of it, but when I filed a claim, why not make it a part of it? Like that's, you know, that's a very, very big thing. When you look at the large things of it, if you're doing a lot of DIY stuff especially going to the thrift store, anything can come back to your home and you don't want that to happen. Stay focused on learning what's in the policy you don't have to file the bedbug claim, but Hey, if a lot of stuff happens and you know, you have the bed bugs service that you're going to do, throw it in there. Why not? It's part of the policy, but it's important to know that your policy covers it, that's a big one. 

Serena: [00:33:11] Okay. So tell me one more thing.  I have to look at your blog posts with those 65 things, but I'm so curious. I got to hear it now. Like what's another big one that people don't know that's covered by their insurance policy?

Sa: [00:33:24] Well, it's not shocking, but I'm going to say this one and then I guess I'll tell you another one that people might not know is covered, but, um, a big thing is what they call other structures, right? Like people don't know like your doghouse, your detached garage, a man cave, anything that's detached in your home, that's still a part of the property is covered in a homeowners insurance policy. It's called other structure coverage and it has its own limits and everything. So that's good to know. 

Something else that might shock you is it'll cover counterfeit money. There are policies. Yeah. But that counterfeit money, like is you'll be lit, like it's. And I think it's because like I said, it's the time period, right? Like there was a time where counterfeit money was a thing. People were doing a lot with counterfeit for money, but most people look at you and like, What's cash? Like you don't carry cash, you know, like everything's online, Bitcoin. 

Serena: [00:34:17] My kids call it virtual money. 

Sa: [00:34:19] Oh my goodness. There's a name for it now. 

Serena: [00:34:20] They were having a conversation the other day, and they were like, no, no, no, not real money, just like virtual money. I have virtual money in my account you mean like the virtual money that you're trading stocks, right? Cause they have like, you know, Roth IRA accounts. He called it virtual money. I was like, wow. Okay. 

Sa: [00:34:33] Oh my goodness. That's crazy.  I always tell people like when it comes to money, money is a representation of value, not the value itself. So anything can be money, but the way it is now, like virtual money, it's like a real thing. Like nobody would ever have said in the past the virtual money, like me and you, I don't think we, we don't look at our bank account and go, Oh, I got virtual money. We're like, that's our money. And you know, I know what a dollar looks like. Right? Like that's our money. Right. But like, like the key is, is so different for them growing up.

That's why I was laughing when you were like, oh yeah, we had a house phone. You know, kids don't have servers on their phone and I'm like, Hmm, wonder what their friends seeing. How do people survive in a world without cell phones? I mean, it's such a funny thing to think about it because I know for sure myself, I existed at the beginning of it. All this technology and social media, I existed at the beginning of it. So I can see it from the outside, but the kids who grew up with it, the way they think all of it is so different from what we experienced. Kids don't go outside and play no more. I used to go home, Mom. say, Uh, was like, Oh, go out, get outside. It's much different because even if you tell your kids go outside and play, now there nobody out there to play with them. 

You know what they say to me, they're like, what would I do out there? Although my nine and 10 year old they do like to ride their bikes and I just bought my nine year old, a new bike, which is sitting over there for his birthday. So that's something that they do during the day, I know this is kind of like an aside, but. You know, their concept of money is virtual. And I was telling you that my kids and I, we had been doing these Home Depot kids workshop videos, and I've paid them for being in my videos. And when it was time to pay them, it was just a matter of me transferring the money to their Roth IRA, letting them pick out stocks and all. But I kept thinking, is there a way that I can like go and pull a couple thousand dollars out of the bank and like, let them hold it and then take it back to the bank. I mean, I want them to have some concept of this is the money that I earned versus it's just virtual money because they play video games where they have virtual money. So they look at it as just virtual money. 

And maybe it eventually affects how they understand the value of it. And I think that's a thing. I mean, one thing you could do, which I think works with helping people understand is take-- I don't know if you own any gold coins. Okay. So take a gold coin, take a dollar bill and take a hundred dollars bill and just say, Hey, which one would you like? And let them pick, because we all know that if you have a gold coin, I think a half ounce gold coin is, you know, worth thousands of dollars versus a hundred dollar bill to help them understand the value versus representation of value. Maybe that'll help them get an idea of, oh, I get what you're saying like this is physically here and not only is the gold valuable, but it can actually do stuff. You can make stuff with this. Maybe to help them get it. Because like you said, it is a virtual thing.  Everything's transfers now there’s no real touching thing. Like people don't even use their credit cards. They pull your phone out and scan the phone. They tap the phone. 

Serena: [00:37:35] Think about it. I know for myself and I know we're going like completely off topic. It's so interesting to talk about because I know for myself, when I was paying with just cash. And I was doing this right before the pandemic hit, and I was staying kind of within my little quote unquote budget. But once we weren't interested in touching cash because of the pandemic and there was a coin shortage, I started using my card again. And I wouldn't pay any attention to what I was buying. Like I'd go into, Oh, let me get this many apples and I'll get this, thing of tofu and I'll just buy this. And then when you look at the credit card, you're like, dog, gone it up. Like I didn't expect to spend that much. So you're right. We all are affected by this, by this virtual, aspect of money. And I think financially it's hurting us. Yes. As we're spending a lot more, we're doing a lot more.

Sa: [00:38:21] We are spending way more than we should be spending. And on top of doing that, we're not insuring ourselves enough, right? Like, that's the biggest thing. If you don't have homeowners insurance, you need to get it. If you haven't looked at your homeowners insurance policy in over a year, you need to look at it.  There's just the truth because their policy might not even cover what you think. Like a lot of people think, Oh, my jewelry is covered, but homeowners insurance policies usually have separate deductibles and separate policies for jewelry. Especially for specific jewelry. So if you have like one off items that are expensive, like me, when I was younger, I used to collect action figures. If you have an expensive action figure collection, you need to have a separate policy for that, or a separate amendment to the policy for that because they won't cover it. 

Serena: [00:39:06] Okay. So separate high value items will need their home policy within--

Sa: [00:39:11] Current policy. Yes. Okay. Because what happens is that these things can be value-- I mean, just imagine if you owned one of those Rembrandts or crazy pictures, right? Like that, this picture, but because it's super expensive and I was like Restoration Hardware. Um, but, um, and I only know that cause my husband bought it. I don't really mind thinking about design, but um, like if you, if you kind of go back and you look at, Hey, what am I, as an individual, what am I paying for? What am I doing with my homeowner's insurance policy? Does it cover everything I need? That's very important because like I was saying, if you have an expensive painting that costs more than your home, your homeowners insurance isn't going to cover it, if you don't have their separate policy. Maybe some things do need their own policy. Like for instance, our wedding rings, we got it from Shane company. This is what the value of the ring, how good it is and the quality of the gold and all that stuff. Well, that needed to be on a separate policy because of the cost of the rings. They were outside of how much they would actually cover because they still cover your jewelry, like your necklace and these basic things. But if you have a $10,000 diamond ring, that's not covered because the amount of coverage you have for jewelry is low. That's the issue. So they'll say, maybe your jewelry coverage is two grand. You can have more than two grand and jewelry, what do you do if it gets stolen? There's nothing you can do about it. 

Serena: [00:40:40] What about like cameras and for me, I have a pretty expensive camera and when it comes to home decorating and all that, I'm very cheap. I love thrift store and building things myself. But when it comes to electronics, I always try to buy the best because I know I'm not going to buy them for many years to come if possible. So, are there limits on say cameras, laptops? I mean, laptops, probably, you know, most of us, we probably get inexpensive laptops. You can spend a lot of money, but so there are also limits on those things too, right? Like camera gear and-- 

Sa: [00:41:12] Definitely limit. That's why it's important read your policy to understand the limits for, for instance, there's a depending on how your policy is set up, your home-- some policies cover home offices, right? So your home office could be covered, which is separate from your TV, the computer for the kids, that's separate from your home office. So you can get more money as far as like, if you had to file a claim. Well, this part is, I'm going to use the money from my home office part and money from my regular house. Whereas if you don't know what's in your policy, you end up, I guess the biggest thing is that not knowing what's in your policy puts you in a position where you think you're covered for a lot of things, which you are covered, but the limits just don't match the time, right? 

Like, you know, five years ago, maybe a thousand dollars was more than enough. Who has cell phones now like they have them now? Like some cell phones are, could cover that budget, of one electronic item now. So you have to make sure that, if you're looking at your policy and you say, okay, well, how much is covering for electronics? Some policies don't cover electronics. 

Serena: [00:42:17] Really. See, I guess in my mind, I'm thinking everything in my house is covered and it's just going to be replaced. All I got to do is email them. Hey, no problem. Just, can you cover this? That's what I'm thinking is going to happen. 

Sa: [00:42:31] That's what everybody thinks. And it never happens like that. It never happens like that. Like what 

Serena: [00:42:36] You're blowing me right now. Like my eyes are open to this. So this is what I'm thinking in my mind. We have to have some sort of documentation of what we have, and I think this really goes well with the estate planning challenge because a lot of times when you are listing out the things that you have, you're going to want to leave, maybe that diamond ring to someone and you’re putting these things into your will and you're planning these things for your estate, but this could also be great for insurance purposes. So you can put a value to them and say, this is worth let's say $10,000 worth of like expensive camera gear. I've got a $10,000 ring. And so now, you know how much you really need coverage for. So the first step is to make a list. Right. 

Sa: [00:43:20] And they have some pre-made. I can, I'll send you the link. 

Serena: [00:43:23] I would say like a pre-made itemized list of everything that you own and the value. And then if you don't have a policy, go get a homeowners insurance policy, or if you're a renter, get a renter's policy. And if you already have a homeowner's insurance policy, get a copy of it. Most of the time, I know I can't even tell you where mine is. But I know I could log in and download it. So I'm going to do that. I'm going to give myself homework and to read what's actually in this policy, any the umbrella policy what those limits are for my policies. Yes.  And then if I need to make adjustments, then I will call them and let them know, hey, I've got, you know, a $5,000 bike, for example. You know, that's a high item, most bikes that people own are not going to be 5,000. So I need to make sure this is separately covered.

Sa: [00:44:12] Cause yeah, because you'll hit the limits fast and just like with like the DIY stuff, one thing I did want to mention is that homeowner's insurance does not cover anything you do. It covers only like what's called covered losses. Like, things, like hail and rain. But it's not going to cover warranty stuff like the wear and tear. That's like a home warranty. That's just completely different. But a lot of people get those confused. They think that their homeowner's policy will actually cover the warranty.  So home warranty is for maintenance stuff, right? Wear and tear. Homeowner's insurance is the physical item being destroyed. And I want to make that distinction because a lot of people get confused and they say, Oh, well, my dishwasher broke. Let me call my homeowners. Doesn't work that way. Only call your homeowner's company, if your dishwasher broke from what's considered a cover loss.

 Like I said, the things that can happen. So the homeowner's insurance policy, what losses you have that are going to be covered, you won't confuse yourself with, I guess, will a DIY thing work. The answer is you can do all the DIY you want. However, if you mess up, you don't want to-- do not call your. I don't home owner's insurance because then you're not going to cover it. And if you have contractors or anyone like that coming to your home, you want to make sure-- that's why it's important to make sure they're licensed because you want to make sure you can go to them now. There are situations where an insurance company will cover something that happened to your home that was outside of, like I said, that was a covered loss, but usually things like getting a contractor to come to your home and work on something, you want to make sure they're licensed, they're bonded, and that you can go after their insurance company for the claims. Cause some stuff that they could do might not even be covered by your homeowner's insurance policy. Very important. Another thing to know, call these insurance companies and get them on the phone, say, Hey, say it. You know, I tell people just be straightforward. Don't be afraid of these people. Like, hey, if I have a contractor come into my house, what's covered? Just ask them. All they can do is say, give me one second. What type of policy do you have? Blah, blah, blah. Okay. What's policy number. Okay. It looks like you have X, Y, Z amount of coverage, or we don't cover that. You need to know because you can't affectively live and it's allocated if you don't really know what you have, if you think I'm protected, but you don't really know. It's not a good thing. 

Serena: [00:46:34] You don't want to be caught after the fact. No, because I think there's probably a lot of people's lives that are ruined financially, mentally, emotionally. And this is another thing too. There was a woman, she had posted something about a contractor who was doing not a very good job. And this is one of those cases where I would be wanting to know whether my insurance policy covered this because he was not doing a good job. And I started conversing with her about all the stress she was having. She was trying to get him to fix it. He had one idea about what he was going to do. She wanted him to do something else. And so I'm wondering if a contractor comes in, starts a job, you're not happy with the job, but let's say part of the job isn't safe because what she had shown me in the picture, some of it didn't look safe. You can go after their insurance or I don't know all the legality of it, but you know, if somebody comes and they do a job for you and let's say it's somebody who you thought was, and you didn't check, you thought they were covered. They come in; they do a poor job. It's not safe. Would you be able to contact your insurance company to say, Hey, somebody came and started this job and I have no recourse because I don't know who this person is. they left, they abandoned, you can't contact them. What do I do?  Even calling them and asking them, could that be covered? It seems like something I'd want to know upfront. 

Sa: [00:47:57] You definitely should know up front because traditionally they wouldn't cover it. Like you would just be-- they might have resources to help you, but like they wouldn't cover. And then there's nothing for them to cover because one, this is something new that, Oh, and before you do projects, like that is definitely good to call the homeowner's insurance company and ask them, Hey, I'm adding this addition to my home. Can I add more coverage? That's important to do if you're doing additions to the home but they're not going to cover like an unfinished job. Like they'll like if he finished it, and, uh, a bolder or fell through it, you'd be covered. But if he doesn't finish it, you have to go after there, his insurance. So that's why it's important to make sure they're licensed. Make sure they're bonded. Make sure they're insured. If you're going to get someone coming into your home and working on it, because anything could happen. Absolutely anything can happen. So don't put yourself in that situation. It's easy to let people come in and work on your home and say, Oh, he's a contractor. He does this. He does that because naturally we just think, Hey, that's your job.  I'm always shocked about how bad, poorly people do their job when you expect them to cook, that's their job and they're supposed to do it, right. Like, and you get shocked or like friend of a friend of a friend comes over. Exactly. And you say, Hey, isn't your relationship on the line here? Wouldn't you think you would do a good job, right? Like, but that doesn't happen. So I would definitely say, if you're going to do any type of DIY project that has anything to do with adding or moving from your home, one, I would definitely call my homeowner's insurance company and say, Hey, if this happens, what happens, and let them tell you, you wouldn't be covered so you can make a knowledgeable decision versus saying, okay, well, I'm going to put a hole in here and I'm going to add a new refrigerator in the wall. That's what I'm doing today. And they're like, no, you're not covered for that. You did that. Right? Like it's not a cover loss. Right. You're responsible financially for it. So it just, I would just say like, if you're not sure if something is covered, usually if you're the cause of it, you're not covered. Like, that's just how I look at it. Right? 

Like if your dog, right. If your dog, but in that again, where your umbrella policy will come into play. But if like, let's say you had a dog that bites someone. Right. You have to, and this is very important for the DIY people. And this is important for your renters and it's important for your homeowners. There are some breeds that are not covered. You need to find out, Hey, is my breed cover. And if not, can I buy additional coverage for that? If you can't, you need to get a separate policy. Yeah, cause your pets aren't always covered. 

So pet bites aren't always covered from breeds that are considered aggressive or dangerous. Right. So you need to consider that Chihuahua might be covered if it, bites someone and the liability and the medical side of your homeowners would cover the cost with them if they tried to sue you or something like that. Yeah. You will be covered. But you know, maybe a pit bulls probably not covered almost policy. So you just need to, you know, and of course, we all love our fur babies, and I'm not saying everybody has these, you know, I'm not the person that's saying pit bulls or aggressive or Dobermans... I know. Don’t come after me. I'm just telling you what the insurance companies do. Okay. So definitely call and find out if your breed of pet, cat, dog, exotic whatever, call to find out. If they bite someone or cause damage to someone else's property, is it covered based on the type of pitch you have. That's an important thing to do. 

Serena: [00:51:23] Let me ask you a question. If you had a tree in your backyard, it's technically on your property and a tree falls over during a storm and damages the neighbor's fence. Your homeowner's insurance would be responsible, right? Would you be responsible for that tree or is the neighbor responsible for just getting their fence? I've always kind of wondered what happens if that tree is on either property. 

Sa: [00:51:48] So while the tree would be on your property, you will be responsible for like cleanup. However, the only way you will be held responsible, your insurance company will be held responsible, like your homeowners insurance company will be held responsible, is if the tree destroyed their property based on something you did.

Serena: [00:52:05] Okay. If you cut it down. 

Sa: [00:52:07] If you tried to cut it down and destroys theirs then yeah, they're going to be looking at you saying, Hey, you owe me. But if a lightning bolt hits it, and it crashes through their thing, then their homeowners insurance kicks in because it's considered a covered loss. But the lightning bolt hit the tree, had nothing to do with you. The tree was just on your property. Now that doesn't mean that they can't try to see the owners of the fence, can't say, Oh, well, I'm going to take you to court. You know? Cause people can sue you for anything nowadays.  It does mean that you wouldn't necessarily be liable where you need to say, Hey, let me call my homeowner's insurance and fix your fence. But you can call your homeowners insurance and fix your fence, if it broke both of you as your fences, then you could file a claim for your fence. They could file a claim for theirs. Okay, but it's like a cover, it's a covered loss thing. And that's, that's how I would say the look at it, because it's not necessarily-- it's your tree per se, but it's not something you actually went and did to make the tree fall.

Serena: [00:53:05] Got it. So, one last question, actually, I have two questions for you, but with the way that the climate change has been happening, and we've been, I mean, we've seen so many fires, especially in California. I know Washington state, there's a lot of flooding. I mean, some of these areas are flood zones. How are policies changing now to accommodate all of these natural disasters that are happening that seem to be happening more frequently? How are policies changing? And I know people should go back and look at their policy, but is there something that we can do to make sure that we're covered and what are insurance companies doing about this rise in these natural disasters?

Sa: [00:53:45] I mean, truthfully, unfortunately they can't, they're not moving, they don't move as fast.  People still can't get life insurance that are HIV positive. Like it's like two companies that offer it, right? Like there are people who are HIV positive that live long lives. It's just these insurance companies, they don't move fast. So still earthquakes aren't covered. You need a separate earthquake policy. Floods are not covered. You need a separate flood policy, right. 

Serena: [00:54:12] Sorry to interrupt, but do you think that you mentioned flood policy? Do you think that flood policies are something that like, are we at the point where we all should be getting flood policies?

Sa: [00:54:21] I don't think, yeah, it definitely depends on your region. I don't think we're at a point where everyone needs a flood policy, but I do think we're at a point where flood should be covered. Right. Like, why not cover it? They come up with all these tabulations. You know, the areas that the floods are very unlikely. Right. And you know, the areas that floods are likely. So, hey, if you have flood, if you live in a flood prone zone, you get charged more and that's pretty much how they do it with everything. But they're still separate flood policies. They're separate earthquake policies that you can buy. I think that's important to know where you live and to know, Hey, am I, you know, forest fires, right? Like, am I going to get attacked by a fire? If I live in California, like, what do I need? You know, let me call my insurance company and find out. It's so important to call them.  I know it's boring. I know nobody wants to do it. I'll be honest here. It's all boring. Insurance is just a boring topic and that's okay.

Serena: [00:55:18] You're smiling and passionate about it so we can be, too. 

Sa: [00:55:22] It's okay though. Right? Insurance usually isn't for us, it's usually for our family, the people we leave behind. Right. We're trying to protect. Very few products, maybe like disability insurance and stuff like that is, is for us. But most of the policies, most insurance is to protect something: the people that we love. So, yeah, it's boring. But if you put energy into it, give it an hour. Find out, Hey, what does my homeowner's insurance policy actually cover? Am I covered enough? Or am I under insured? You know, what does my renter's insurance policy cover? Does it cover enough? Or am I under insured? I tell people this all the time. Make sure you're not under insured. A lot of people don't like for instance, there's something called concealed carry insurance. I don't know if you carry around a concealed weapon, but I do. So there's insurance for that because people don't know, crazy things happen. If you're in a position where you have to use lethal force to protect yourself and your family, you will, right. Like ain't nobody messing with as Mariah Carey says it's dem babies. We're going to protect our family.  So you're still going to go to jail. Like if you have to protect your kids with lethal force, you're still going to jail. And what do you do? Right? Like, you're are, going to need an attorney. There've been people who protected their house and lost a lawsuit to the family members that broke into their home. 

Serena: [00:56:44] I mean, I know that those things happen. I think there was even a lawsuit. I think it was in the, I think it was the Brianna Taylor case. But I think he was trying to file a suit against her boyfriend because he fired at them. And so he was going to, you know, sue this guy. I don't know if that's been cleared up. This was maybe in the last month that I heard that, but so I shouldn't be surprised. I know these things happen, but that's truly insane to think. It's really a saying your house and then you're, you're liable. That that just makes no sense. 

Sa: [00:57:17] And, you know, it goes down to again, knowing what your policy covers, right? Knowing if you have this coverage, what is it going to cover? Right. And this is for all types of insurance. And I know we’re really talking about homeowners and renters and the DIY, and it's very important to know the small things about insurance, because there's so many policies, like you probably don't know, you have an insurance policy on your cell phone. Most cell phones come with them, but most of us just know we pay that little $3, but we don't really know what's covered. Right. Like what happens if I actually lose my phone? Right? Like, it's the small thing.

Serena: [00:57:52] Yeah, I mean, I know we're talking about cell phones, but having that company be able to handle and expedite your claim quickly because thank God. I've never had to, like, I use Geico for my car insurance. I've had them for 20 years. No affiliation. But I feel comfortable that if I call them, I'll be able to get that taken care of quick versus maybe another company I may have to go back and forth, back and forth. So, yeah. Even just researching who that company is. I don't even know if you can research their history of paying out claims. Like, I don't know, does that information even exists? Like, can you do it, you can do an Amazon review for a nail Polish that you want to buy, but can't you do overview for the company who's providing insurance? 

Sa: [00:58:34] There are a ton of, one, personal reviews of people saying like, Hey, this claim was never paid, right? Like that's one thing. There was also another company specifically like life insurance companies. There's a company called A.M. Best. You have Standard and Poor's. You have Moody's. You have all these different rating companies that rate these insurance companies based on their financial strength, as well as their claims.

Yes. A M Best. AM Best is for life insurance companies, primarily life and health. And then you have other ones like a Moody's, Standard and Poor’s, just to name a few, but it's a lot of companies that rate these companies they'll say, Oh, we rated A for AM Best or S or an A minus or B plus. Look at those ratings because those ratings tell you what's the financial strength of this company. And it also helps you understand their claims paying ability. And then you also want to look at reviews from people who've filed claims and look and see, Oh, they filed a claim. This product was great. However, it took them three months to get their claim paid out. Right? So you question it, and you research, and you look at online reviews. It's very important. Online reviews are everything. You want to review the product and you think you want to review the people. Right. Cause there's two different reviews. Like a lot of times people don't get it, but like when you go online and you search for homeowners insurance review, you're going to have different homeowners insurance products that are being reviewed. And then you're going to have reviews from people who have had the product. And they're like, I hate it. It kind of works, but make sure that it's still giving good customer service. So I would say go to their financial pages. Usually they have a page that says like financial ratings and look at the ratings. Some companies they are B rating, right? Like, and that's okay. It doesn't mean that they're bad. It just means that their financial strength is considered a B by this company. And then you can determine if that's something you're comfortable with. Right. 

Serena: [01:00:25] I actually had face that because we had gotten a term life insurance. I want to say probably about 13 years ago. So we had just had our first baby. We knew that we needed to get some life insurance. So we got two term life insurance policies. And during that time we started getting notifications that the company had been downgraded, I guess, to maybe like, so when you say a B, that kind of rings a bell because we kept getting notifications. Hey, just want to let you know, they've been downgraded. Uh, if you want to change, maybe now would be the time. And my husband and I, we were like, okay, well now we're older and we've been paying into this. And I mean, it's term life. So we're not paying it, but we didn't feel like we wanted to kind of start over because we were older. We probably had more health issues at that point. Yes. So we didn't. So we have stayed put with that term-life company and I think we need to actually go back and just reevaluate that just to make sure, because who knows, they may have improved over time, but there was a rough period where we were getting those notifications. I'm like, okay, I'm kind of scared. If something happens, we may not get a payout. 

Sa: [01:01:31] That's a definitely an important factor. But to like kind of take a little bit of wear off your shoulders is that most of these insurance companies have what's called a reinsurance company and that's the insurance company for the insurance company. So if the insurance company goes, goes down, you have what's called the reinsurance company. And that's usually the company that backs all the policies. When they do underwriting. So like the life insurance company, they'll say, um, we're going to underwrite you and you can't, if you're five, eight, and you weigh 200 pounds, you have to get rated this right. Well, the reinsurance company, tell the insurance company said, Hey, these are the criteria we need in order for us to protect the stuff you underwrite. So the insurance companies, they can't be out here just only insurance, you know, super red, you know, poor health people. They have criteria they have to match. And these re insurance companies insured them in case they go default, you still can get an insurance payout. 

However, even with that being said, you are right to worry if you start seeing that the insurance company you with is being downgraded on their financial strength. I would definitely look into, one, who the reinsurance company is. Two, what is actually going on with this company and three, do you need to switch policies and go, you know, go somewhere else. Even if it’s, you don't need as much coverage now as you need it, then maybe most of the time your house is paid off. This has been 30 years or 10 years or 15 years, all the debts and stuff you have is lower, or you maybe be, do need more coverage. And if you need more coverage and that would be the best time to switch, right? Because my life has changed. I need more coverage. I'm going to switch. And if the policies aren't as expensive, that's fine. You can still keep them and still switch. Right. You're like, still get, say, Hey, you know, what, if all else fails and you know, I'm paying 20 bucks a month for this policy that I got like 13 years ago, I can keep it. But yeah, I don't really like them financially. Let me go over here to this bigger company. I need more insurance, anyway. Let me just add the difference. You know, you could do that as well. 

Serena: [01:03:28] I had no idea that I was going to enjoy talking about insurance as much as I have today. You made it fun. And you told me a lot of things, and I know the people that are going to be listening to this, you are inspiring them to go in and either get a policy or thoroughly review that policy. So one last question for you. And I, I like to kind of gauge where people are with their reading and what inspires them. Is there one book, and it doesn't have to be about insurance, it can be any book. Is there any book that has had the most influence in your life that you just always recommend people read this book and why? 

Sa: [01:04:08] Well, they're actually a few I wish people will read. The first one is Don't Sweat the Small Stuff, and It's All Small Stuff. The reason why that's important, because the premise of this book is that in a hundred years, will it matter? And I think that's important for us to think about like, it doesn't mean live life willy-nilly, but it does mean that, you know, if somebody doesn't open the door for you, it's okay. You know, if, if somebody snubs your foot, it's okay. It's no big deal. In a hundred years y'all both have toe tags on. Right. Exactly. Is that going to matter? Right. Like, so it's just about, Hey, reevaluate your mindset and don't stand in negative space, maintain a positive attitude. That's very important. So it's called Don't Sweat the Small Stuff and It's All Small Stuff. That book, I would say The Four Hour Workweek by Tim Ferris. 

I love that book. 

Changed my life. 

Serena: [01:05:01] Yes, it's so game changer. 

Sa: [01:05:03] It changes how you think, how you perceive, how you understand what actually can exist for your own reality. And because of that book, I was able to create the reality that we have now. Right. Like it just completely changed my life. Rich Dad Poor Dad by Robert Kiyosaki. Of course.  Another one of the books that changes your mindset. It, it tells you, and it teaches you that you do not have to be the version of you and, um, that you are today, right? Like me and my husband, we talk a lot about the bubbles, right? Like we're in our own bubble. And how do we create the reality that we want for our own bubble and a lot of the concepts and ideologies behind that come from, you know, Rich Dad, Poor Dad or Robert Kiyosaki. 

Those three books, and I would say the last book for me, recently I've been reading a lot of books about emotional intelligence and one that I'm reading now is called Permission to Feel. And it's about understanding emotional intelligence and also how to talk to children about emotional intelligence. So those things, that book, the reason why it's so good, and so life-changing is because it helps you understand one thing that we miss as a society is emotional intelligence. And that's why that book is kind of called Permission to Feel because a lot of us don't feel like we had that permission. Right. We don't feel like it's okay to cry. We don't feel like it's okay to be upset. We don't feel like it's okay. We all these emotions that we consider bad that aren't actually bad emotions, are just part of emotions. There are no different than, than being happy. They're no different than being excited. But we don't get the permission to feel those things in a normal basis. So what happens is that we get older, we internalize it, and we entrap ourselves mentally and we're unable to do the normal things and be successful.  Everything dealing with emotional intelligence shows that if you have a high IQ, and you have a high EQ, whoever has the high EQ is going to be more successful, because they internally one, they know who they are and two, they know how to treat people the right way to make people feel good about themselves. 

Serena: [01:07:05] Yeah. You're going to be more successful if you feel that way, because they're going to want to help you out if you make them feel good. They're going to know exactly where you're trying to go. That is true. 

Sa: [01:07:16] If you're a smart person and you have all this high IQ and you can figure out, you know, what's 1000 times, 2000 and you go, Oh, you know, X, Y, Z, if you can do that, that's fine. That's high IQ. Most people to think about IQ is that people are born with IQ and you can't change your IQ, right? You're born with it. You're stuck with the one you have, but with EQ emotional intelligence, you can actually train it and become better than it because your emotions come first and then your logic happens.

 And that's the reason why you need emotional intelligence, because if you don't have it, you don't react to situations correctly. Meaning if you're at home and you're doing a DIY project, right. And you're hanging up a painting and then you hit a water pipe and the water burst out, what do you do? Right. Like. Do you panic now? Right. Did you do, is that your response or is it-- 

Serena: [01:08:03] Get the duct tape!!  

Sa: [01:08:05] Like, what is it? There are all those things, all those small things from there all the way up to dealing with. Yeah. Yep. That's all emotional intelligence and the biggest problem. And the reason why this book has been important for me is that the biggest problem is that children are missing out on it. And what's happening is that they're becoming emotional, or unemotional intelligent adults, because they can't be, be emotional, intelligent children. 

So things, like for instance, you might not realize it, but you're creating a ton of emotional intelligence, with your children, by making sure that the only phone they have is like a phone downstairs. They can go pick up and call you. Right? Like you're creating that because you're putting them in a position to understand feelings, to understand, Hey, I don't get to have everything that everyone else has, like dealing with that emotion, having those conversations and talking out, it helps both in your personal life and your business life. 

If anyone gets a chance and they want to one change your professional life, make your personal life better, you know, definitely get the book is called Permission to Feel. It is a really, really good book, I think. Yeah. I think, I think those, I would say are the, the biggest changes and, you know, I give 100% of the credit to my husband because he's the one who said, Hey, you should learn about emotional intelligence. It's going to help you become a better person, because he has a very, very high emotional intelligence score. He scores at like the top of everything. But me, like I came in, I was like, oh man, our scores are low, right? 

Serena: [01:09:25] Do they have a test in the book? Is there like a little test in the book? 

Sa: [01:09:29] There's a test in the book and it's a-- once you get the book, it comes with like a little, uh, password. You can go on to the website and you could take the test and you take it when you read the book, before you take it before you read the book and you take it again, after you read it to see like, Hey, what's happening, how is it going?

Serena: [01:09:44] Did you learn and grow when you read the book?

Sa: [01:09:47] I did. And I have, and it's changed my life, my personal life, my professional life. And there's a lot. I mean, there are a lot of books out there on emotional intelligence. That's just the one that I read, but I definitely think if this is your first time ever hearing about emotional intelligence, go get a book about it. It's definitely, definitely an important part of society that's not really talked about. It's almost like finances in school. They don't exist.  Don't got a whole other conversation would not teach this leveraging that teach them like, like I leave high school to college, I'm getting credit cards. What are credit cards, right?  

Serena: [01:10:19] I remember on the college campuses and I specifically remember signing up for a card just so I could get a pack of Twizzlers. And at one point I remember showing off to my mom. Cause I, you know, I come from a family where, nobody had money, nobody had credit cards cause nobody right. Just nobody had money. They didn't know how to even manage credit. 

So at one point I had 18 credit cards. I've got 18 credit cards. I felt so like superior to everybody. Didn't run them all up, thankfully, you know, but I thought it was like a cool thing, but I remember getting Twizzlers candy just for signing up just to get something. Cause I was in between classes. It's crazy. That's so that's a whole other like, you know, kids, kids definitely need to learn about money and gosh, we can talk about all that we've been talking for so long now we're going to be like, okay, can they shut up now? Hopefully people aren't saying that. 

So where can people find you? Where are you? What's your website? Are you very active on social media? I know some, I mean, 

Sa: [01:11:21] I am on, on Facebook. Sa El. That's pretty much it. I have, Twitter is the same username, Twitter, LinkedIn, Facebook, but I'm active on Facebook and if you want to reach me, you can sael@simplyinsurance.com. Simply insurance.com is my website. We offer all types of insurance, homeowners, renters, pet insurance, concealed carry insurance, life insurance, car insurance, you name it pretty much, it's on there.  Most of the processes allow you to sign up online. We have a homeowners insurance policy you can get covered in like, 60 seconds, like it's fast. So, um, it's the last stuff online on the site that you can find a lot of good information and, you know, just shoot me an email, if you have a specific question. 

Serena: [01:12:05] And for the, the blog posts that you've done, can you access that on simply insurance.com or do they have to go to like simply insurance.com/blog? Where can they easily find all your articles for that education? Yeah. 

Sa: [01:12:18] So if they, if they do four slash blog, it will take them to the blog row and have all the articles. And if they just go to Simply Insurance.com, if they scroll down to the bottom, you'll see a link to the blog as well. 

Serena: [01:12:28] All right. Well, thank you so much for talking with me today and I'm sure there'll be more questions that come up over time, so maybe I'll have to have you come back.

Sa: [01:12:38] Oh, I will, I would love to come back. Thanks so much for having me. I really appreciate it. And I hope everybody learned something today.