Insurance & Protection
Cover what would ruin you. Self-insure the rest.
Insurance is the only financial product you buy hoping never to use it. That makes it easy to over-buy on emotion and under-buy on the risks that would genuinely be catastrophic.
The organizing principle is simple: insure losses you could not absorb, and pay out of pocket for losses you could. Most people have that backwards — over-insured on small appliances and under-insured on income and liability.
Tools
Insurance calculators
Related goals
See how insurance fits into the bigger picture.
Save More Money
Build the cushion, automate the habit, and raise the yield.
Plan Retirement
Find the number, then find the date it becomes reachable.
Not sure where to start?
Describe your insurance situation and the AI coach will point you to the right tool and walk through the trade-offs.
Insurance questions
How much life insurance do I need?
A common approach is 10–12 times annual income, but a needs-based calculation is more accurate: sum outstanding debts, remaining mortgage balance, projected education costs, and the income your dependents would need for the years until they are self-supporting, then subtract existing assets and coverage. Someone with no dependents and no shared debt frequently needs none at all.
Term or whole life insurance?
Term for the large majority of people. It covers the period when dependents rely on your income and costs a fraction of permanent coverage for the same death benefit. Whole life bundles insurance with a low-return investment; buying term and investing the difference generally produces a better outcome. Permanent coverage has genuine uses in estate planning and for lifelong dependents, but those are specific situations rather than the default.
What deductible should I choose?
The highest one you could comfortably pay tomorrow without borrowing. Raising a deductible from $500 to $1,000 often cuts the premium 10–20%, and over several claim-free years the savings exceed the extra exposure. This only works if the deductible amount is genuinely sitting in your emergency fund.
Is disability insurance worth it?
For most working people it is more important than life insurance, and far more often skipped. You are considerably more likely to be unable to work for an extended period than to die during your working years, and the financial damage is comparable — the income stops, but the expenses continue and often increase. Check what your employer provides; group coverage is frequently capped well below what a higher earner would need.