Security

[LDAHL]

I think an insurance strategy can be useful in managing risk. I have used it to get some protection against dying too soon, living too long, bad health, big capital losses and (most importantly) my own negligence.

[jp1]

I think an insurance strategy can be useful in managing risk. I have used it to get some protection against dying too soon, living too long, bad health, big capital losses and (most importantly) my own negligence.

As the resident ‘insurance guy’ here I agree. Transferring risk is often a good strategy. Especially potentially catastrophic risk like major illness or negligence that causes serious harm. For other things, like not earning income for a year, risk retention is likely going to have to be a sizable part of the plan since there’s simply not insurance out there to cover that. And the maximum loss is just not that great.

Personally, even though I’m unlikely to lose my job any time soon(my department is well ahead of budget for the year and shouldn’t be seriously impact by covid) I find great comfort in being overly in cash right now. Once things calm down a bit I will figure out where to invest that money for some hopefully decent returns. For now it helps me sleep at night which is a good return in itself.

[LDAHL]

As the resident ‘insurance guy’ here I agree. Transferring risk is often a good strategy. Especially potentially catastrophic risk like major illness or negligence that causes serious harm. For other things, like not earning income for a year, risk retention is likely going to have to be a sizable part of the plan since there’s simply not insurance out there to cover that. And the maximum loss is just not that great.

Personally, even though I’m unlikely to lose my job any time soon(my department is well ahead of budget for the year and shouldn’t be seriously impact by covid) I find great comfort in being overly in cash right now. Once things calm down a bit I will figure out where to invest that money for some hopefully decent returns. For now it helps me sleep at night which is a good return in itself.

That’s a good point. Retaining some risk by maintaining a reserve to cover higher deductibles and self-insuring for some risks can be very effective. It also seems to me that in general the simpler products like SPIAs or term life policies are better than some of the more complicated bell-and-whistle laden contracts.