Renters insurance is cheap—and very valuable.
Even if you don’t own your home, you can still own a lot of stuff. Your electronics, furniture, clothes, appliances, kitchenware, and everything else can easily add up to thousands of dollars. According to State Farm, the average person has more than $20,000 worth of stuff. If you rent an apartment, however, none of it would be covered by insurance unless you have a renters policy, and even though dam¬ages to the building will be insured by your landlord’s policy, you won’t have any liability coverage for yourself. If your child is away at college, your homeowners insurance policy may cover items in their dorm room, but might not provide any coverage if they live in an off-campus apartment.
Renters insurance is incredibly cheap, generally just $100 to $200 per year, and you may get a discount on both your renters and auto insurance if you buy both policies from the same company. Raising your deductible to $ 1,000 can cut your premiums even more.
To figure out how much you need, add up the value of all the items in your apartment. The Insurance Information Institute’s “Know Your Stuff home inventory software walks you through each room and makes it easy to add more information later. Then keep a copy of that inventory in a safe place away from your apart¬ment, which will make it a lot easier to collect your money if you ever have a claim. It’s also a good idea to get about $300,000 of lia¬bility coverage in the renters policy.
