Insurance You Need and Don't Need (Free Money Finance)

The Wall Street Journal lists insurance you don't need, some you might consider, and policies you must have. The list begins with the types of insurance you can skip and includes the following:

• Pet insurance
• Home warranty
• Extended warranties
• Mobile-phone insurance
• Identity-theft insurance
• Flight insurance
• Wedding insurance

Personally, I don't have any of these (and never had.) I didn't even know some of them existed! I guess you can insure almost anything, huh?

Then they list one you may or may not want/need: travelers insurance.

This is one we struggled with when we went on our cruise. We had a friend whose mother got very sick just before a cruise and they had to cancel the entire trip. Because they had travelers insurance, they got all their money back (they had to send in a doctor's note to prove she was really sick.) We went back and forth trying to decide whether or not we wanted to buy it. There seemed to be a 50-50 split among those we asked -- half advocated getting it and half didn't. In the end we decided against it and everything worked out fine.

Finally they list the types of insurance most people need as follows:

• Medical insurance
• Auto insurance
• Umbrella insurance
• Renters insurance

Ok, I agree with these, but:

• What about disability insurance? You have to protect your #1 financial asset -- your ability to earn money -- right?


• What about life insurance? Same as point #1 except covering for death instead of disability.


• What about homeowner's insurance? Your house is a HUGE asset. You need to cover it.


• What about long-term-care insurance? Maybe this should be listed in the middle section of "maybe/maybe not"?

I have medical, auto, homeowner's, disability, life (on both me and my wife), and umbrella insurances. How about you? Do you have more, less, or the same?

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