Life – Page 4 – Gangstead

I was told there would be not math – automotive edition

The highest insurance deductible is not the way to go.

tacoma scale — My Tacoma on the left, not as much back seat as some trucks

I recently had to get a car that can accept car seats and had the accompanying excitement of getting new insurance.

There are all sorts of options in there and some are mandatory. The place where I feel I have the most control over my destiny is the comprehensive and collision. With all of the liability options you are required to get a certain level and your assets you don’t want to lose in a law suit help you determine how much liability protection you want to purchase. Collision and comprehensive are entirely up to you. You don’t even need to buy them if you don’t have a loan. The question is how much do you want to pay now vs how much do you want to pay later if you make a claim. Like most decisions in life I made a spread sheet for it.

Conventional wisdom is that the higher you put your deductible the lower your premium and the more you save. If you factor in the deductible cost when you make a claim the lower premium might not be worth it depending on how long you go between accidents. It all sounds reasonable but it’s not useful until you put some numbers down.

For the new dad-mobile I went online to get insurance. It would be great if they would just tell you the cost for each deductible at once, but life isn’t so easy and I had to click through the menu a bunch of times to get the following prices for the available deductible ranges for “comprehensive” coverage. This covers non-collision things like hail, deer, burglary etc.

Comprehensive:

Deductible	6-month premium
0	65.33
50	57.52
100	52.79
200	46.20
250	43.54
500	34.06
1000	27.17

Your total cost for a time frame is going to be the deductible plus the premiums paid for that time. So if you go 5 years then pay a $500 deductible you will have paid 2*$34.06 for 5 years plus $500. To make the graph easier to read I then divide by the number of years (otherwise you get a bunch of straight lines with slightly different slopes). In pretty chart form it looks like this:

Some interesting notes:

Your cheapest option for a time frame is the lowest line for that year. You may be better off paying a higher premium for the lower deductible.
This is only useful if you admit that you will make a claim sometime.
My insurance company offers some guidance: 65% of their members choose $500 comprehensive deductible.
The $500 deductible isn’t the cheapest option unless you go at least 13 years without making a claim, few people keep their cars that long.
The $1000 deductible isn’t the cheapest option until 40 years out. That long of a time frame is hardly even relevant because your vehicle is either a $0 junker or $$$$$ collector’s item by that time.
This is only good till the first accident. Your premium will probably change after a claim. So don’t make an assumption that if you make a claim every year that $0 deductible is the way to go.
Your premium also changes when you don’t make a claim, but more gradually.
The value of your car changes over time, so if you are in the large time between claims camp it may change whether you decide to cover it at all.

I’ve been driving for 11 years now so I think I have a big enough sample to make a good decision. I have made 2 non-collision claims in that time. I had hail damage in 2003 and was burgled in 2010. Both were freak occurrences and not predictable. I had raised my deductible to the maximum $1000 to save money. Unfortunately this was just before the 2010 burglary.

For the new car I chose $200 deductible which means I place my self at the 7-10 year range for another claim. The numbers for collision were much different and I chose $500. Changing the numbers relative to each other by just a few dollars drastically shift which option is the cheapest for a given time frame.

The numbers were surprising, I went in thinking that the longer you go without accidents the highest deductible would always be the cheapest overall. This is sort of true, but not on the scale of car ownership.

Do you think that most people choose the $500 deductible because

They over estimate how long they will go without making a claim or
They didn’t take the time to get a bunch of quotes and crunch the numbers?

Steven Gangstead

That Could be ANYTHING

The way I wrap things, you never can tell what you might be getting. Observe:

What's heavy and round and Russian all over?

Steven Gangstead

Update:

I guess the only thing that was obvious was that I’m not an adroit wrapper. It’s a Kettle Bell

How to Tell if Your Wife is Pregnant

I came home from a business trip and Alex had a wrapped present for me. This was unusual. It was October so it wasn’t Christmas or Birthday. She was also really eager to take pictures of me opening it which seemed strange at the time.

When I opened the box it took me a second to process what the t-shirt said. Then I thought “why would she give me a shirt about pregnancy?” Then I really understood and then that second photo was taken. It was a good way to tell me.

Steven Gangstead

funny things to say about death

I recently went through the loss of my father. I observed that the condolences I got fit into three broad categories. I’m not editorializing about any specific person and no one ever said something out of line, but somethings people said were a lot more appreciated than others. Since death is an uncomfortable topic there’s less info on the net. Here are some of my comments in case any one needs help with what to say to a bereaved person at a funeral or what to write in a card.

There are not a lot of Gangsteads. Most of them are at this plot in Iowa.

Good – Sympathy story

Example “I know how you feel, when my grandmother passed away it was terrible”

I know you mean well and are just trying to relate, but there are better things to say. Yes other people die all the time, but right now the person you are talking to is going through a lot of grief and this has the effect of reminding him/her that their pain isn’t unique or special. It’s also kind of a downer, talking about one death is hard enough.

Better – Generic condolences

Example: “I’m sorry for your loss”

This is perfectly acceptable, especially if the deceased is a relative of someone you know, but did not know personally (i.e. a coworker of yours who never met your father). Try to phrase it so that the person doesn’t have to say “thank you”. If you aren’t the best story teller or feel the need that you have to say something then go this route.

Best – Story about the departed

Example: “One time your dad noticed my drive way was flooded and he fixed my water heater. What a great guy!”

When my dad passed away these were the kinds of things I liked to hear. This usually comes from people who knew the deceased, but not necessarily you (i.e. a coworker of your parent that you haven’t met before). Not all stories are good to share, but light-hearted ones can really help in a dark time. They really help to keep the focus on the good long life and not just the ending and death. I appreciated these types of stories the most, both at the funeral and I even got some email stories from some of my dad’s friends that were really great.

The examples were all paraphrases of stuff I heard from my dad’s funeral and not direct quotes from anyone.

Steven Gangstead