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Econ conditions & hard-landing inflation again in detail; was other stuff, insurance bundling ....
There are signs that the continued "strong consumer spending" phenomenon is starting to wilt, at least on the lower end of the economic spectrum. Walmart and a few other retailers have taken notice.
Early signs that inflation is catching up to people's spending habits.
I am keen to have this lived experience and see how it works out over the next few years. Cummulative inflation has been huge, money has been debased by 20% and we are talking about fed rate cuts. Lots to learn.
I'm thinking real hard about the opaque knock on effects going forward. Not only from an investment standpoint but also from a societal view. Example. Starting to see reports that in several states over 20% of drivers do not have car insurance. Virginia allows you to pay $500 to drive without insurance. I question what the demographics are in this example. Our food, shelter costs so high or just doing without in this degradation of law enforcement?
Do those who carry auto insurance just pay more then? In areas like Oakland and Chicago with high crime rates, lax law enforcement and consequences do insurance companies stop offering policies like in Florida hurricane flood prone areas?
I increased auto deductible to reduce premium at the last big increase.
I went from $1,000 to $2500 collision deductible to save when bought my last new car in 2018. The agent seemed to think that’s high.
@Devo said “Cumulative inflation”. That’s how I look at it too. Similar to how interest compounds year to year. Didn’t Einstein call compound interest the 8th wonder of the world?
I don’t want to pee rain on anybody’s parade. Views differ on this. @msf has documented very well the actual inflation rate based on the CPI index and has explained in past threads how that index is maintained / calculated. I wouldn’t argue with him.
I think we do tend to react more to increases on prices of items we buy more than we do to reduced prices on what we buy. From what I hear there’s a glut of chicken & pork right now. Prices are down from a year ago. On the other hand, what in #@*# has happened to the cost of a bag of coffee? As an occasional scotch drinker, I’ve noticed that prices have remained very stable in my state for the past 5+ years. A bottle of JWB can still be had here for under $40, where it’s been for most of the past decade. Maybe drink more scotch and less coffee?
Don't get me started on car insurance. I've been told that the majority of the cost is liability and that bumping up the collision deductible really doesn't save y'all that much monies. I then ask so okay, liability. I have four automobiles and only two drivers why can't the liability stay with the driver and not the car? This is another scam industry like visa and MasterCard loaning out monies at 20% plus and a realtor charging a percentage of the value of the home...or a financial advisor charging a percentage of assets. Is it really any different selling a $575k or $875k home.. no. Is it really that different investing $6million or $9million? No. I see these types of service industries getting clobbered going forward....
I buy coffee at Trader Joe's. Seems pretty reasonable to me so far. But they keep cutting back on products I used to go there for.
And now there's an Aldi's just down the street. I'll have to see what they have. I now buy all the dairy from them. Bagels and cream cheese are near 1/3 the price of what they cost at Albertsons.
@WABAC: we are organic coffee drinkers and my wife buys from Aldi who offers good Peruvian or Honduran beans. I prefer a much darker roast, so I order online. $10 per lb. for good organic coffee is a good price these days.
My daughter alerted me to huge increases in MI car insurance and I have to shop around. My current insurer came in dead last in recent Consumer Reports ratings, although I had no complaints. MI had the highest rates in the country, but passed legislation under Gov Whitmer to "fix" the problem of insurers paying forever for accident victims' claims. Now no one is happy and more corrective action is promised. Did rates go down? Of course not.
Yeah. It’s a state by state issue. I like my local insurance agent with 5-day a week walk in or call service. Took great care of me after a big truck rear ended my rented car in Florida 10 years ago. (“No-fault” state). I never add the optional rental insurance. Was glad they stepped in and covered the full cost of the car which was totaled. If you wreck a rental, the company really inflates that “cost” thru various gimmicks.
I was in the office with her as we walked through the various deductibles & savings. Struck a happy medium. Helped in my case. The ‘18 hybrid has higher rates due in large measure to: (1) being more expensive to repair and (2) higher incidence of pedestrian related deaths / injuries due to how quiet they are at low speeds. Goodness. Electric cars must have the same problem.
After several decades, I switched car insurance companies last year after GEICO jacked me up nearly 40%. (Went w/regional Erie for significant savings on more coverages). Even better, I went from a 2017 BMW 340 to a top-line 2024 Acura MDX and my premium went up an outrageous $36/yr .. the horror!
It's interesting how the companies advertising to the masses how 'cheap' they are (GEICO, Progressive, SF, etc) are paying thru the nose to message that, which they end up passing along to policyholders. (This is especially noticeable during NFL season.) And by trying to appeal to the masses, their risk profile goes up and *everyone* suffers by having to pay for those bad apples they underwrite. By contrast, Erie doesn't advertise, is regional, and more selective in whom they underwrite and thus are exposed to riskwise -- which to me sounds kind of Vanguard-y in its approach.
@WABAC, German Aldi has 2 parts - Aldi Nord (North) and Aldi Sud (South), run initially by 2 sons of the founder, but now both controlled by family foundations.
Aldi Nord runs Trader Joe's
Aldi Sud runs Hofer, Winn-Dixie, Harveys Supermarkets
@WABAC, German Aldi has 2 parts - Aldi Nord (North) and Aldi Sud (South), run initially by 2 sons of the founder, but now both controlled by family foundations.
Aldi Nord runs Trader Joe's
Aldi Sud runs Hofer, Winn-Dixie, Harveys Supermarkets
IIRC, they split over selling cigarettes; Aldi Nord would not.
Not really happy with Trader Joe's these days. Very few items left that entice me to go there. And the things I am looking for aren't always there. But, still a good place to buy a decent smallish turkey that isn't brined. I don't care for brined turkey at all.
@WABAC: we are organic coffee drinkers and my wife buys from Aldi who offers good Peruvian or Honduran beans. I prefer a much darker roast, so I order online. $10 per lb. for good organic coffee is a good price these days.
My daughter alerted me to huge increases in MI car insurance and I have to shop around. My current insurer came in dead last in recent Consumer Reports ratings, although I had no complaints. MI had the highest rates in the country, but passed legislation under Gov Whitmer to "fix" the problem of insurers paying forever for accident victims' claims. Now no one is happy and more corrective action is promised. Did rates go down? Of course not.
Owning old used cars solves our rate issues.
I buy Sumatra and Ethiopian beans at TJ's and grind them together.
I increased auto deductible to reduce premium at the last big increase.
What kills me is that when you (perhaps) choose to even double your deductible, the cost savings on the premium you pay to be insured is never commensurate. What a racket.
We took a Liberty Mutual policy after buying our new car here on the island in early 2020. Still just 36,000 miles on it. But every year, we've been paying a little MORE, to drive around an OLDER car. Legalized extortion.
".....(2) higher incidence of pedestrian related deaths / injuries due to how quiet they are at low speeds. Goodness. Electric cars must have the same problem."
The biggest buncha brazen baloney I've heard in a while. All the INSANELY loud "safety" noises on all sorts of vehicles and conveyances could wake the f*****g DEAD! TOTALLY no need for that. Sirens here on ambulances and cop cars? It must be that the intention is to make sure the damn things can be heard on planet Neptune. Is it that way where you all live?
@Crash - Who you gonna believe? Your own eyes … or a report by the NHSTA?
The 2011 study by the National Highway Safety Transportation Authority was follow up to an earlier 2009 study which reached similar conclusions.
From page 19 of study:
”Overall, the odds ratios indicate that the odds of an HE vehicle being in either a pedestrian or bicycle crash are greater than the odds of an ICE vehicle being in a similar crash. The odds ratio for an HE versus an ICE vehicle involved in a pedestrian crash was 1.35, and the odds ratio for an HE versus an ICE vehicle involved in a bicycle crash was 1.57.”
(HE - Hybrid & Electric motor vehicles / ICE - Internal combustion vehicles)
@Crash - Who you gonna believe? Your own eyes … or a report by the NHSTA?
Gotcha. Some federal agency had way too much money to burn. Next, they can compute the risk of me walking outside of the painted bars in the crosswalk. JAYZUZ.
The 2011 study by the National Highway Safety Transportation Authority was follow up to an earlier 2009 study which reached similar conclusions.
From page 19 of study:
”Overall, the odds ratios indicate that the odds of an HE vehicle being in either a pedestrian or bicycle crash are greater than the odds of an ICE vehicle being in a similar crash. The odds ratio for an HE versus an ICE vehicle involved in a pedestrian crash was 1.35, and the odds ratio for an HE versus an ICE vehicle involved in a bicycle crash was 1.57.”
(HE - Hybrid & Electric motor vehicles / ICE - Internal combustion vehicles)
@racqueteer - I was with AMICA for auto, umbrella, and renter insurance. Just gave our car to grandson and dropped the auto insurance. Rates for NYC were the most reasonable of all the others. Previously had Progressive, which pumped their fees each year till I said no mas. I found AMICA to be responsive when I called, but never had a claim so I can’t speak to that aspect.
Definitely need to look at the financial strength of the insurance company you go with....what is also whacked is that the insurance business is something like your cable company...the newer customers get the best deals (or so it seems?) You'd have to be naive that someone like me who has been with State Farm for over 46 years..you think they don't have algo's that know exactly how much they can raise me every year and I won't shop them/leave? They tell me I am grandfathered in with my type of coverage and wouldn't get the same policy if I started new with them today. Also as I own 3 homes in different states and 4 automobiles with a rather large umbrella policy, I do like that they have national representation/coverage. Always, always great service with State Farm.
What I don't like is all the monies being spent on the sport ballers/commercials.
What I do recommend, go to a high end body shop and ask the owner of what insurance company provides the best service, doesn't always push for offshore crap part replacement, pays right away etc, sometimes lowest price is not best value. The body shop in my major metro area that works on all the Ferrari's Porsche's etc..told me the best insurance companies were State Farm, Chubb and Amica. Chubb is for ballers/very high worth folks, not for the common folk...
BTW, even more off topic...the guys who work there get to drive all the high end cars...best all time next level I am told is a 2005 Ford GT...blows everything else out of the water...
My wife's ex boss who retired as a very high level executive for a Fortune 500 company always shopped for insurance every year and went with the top rated/lowest quotes every year...he prolly saved a bunch of money doing that...insurance companies must know that human nature has inertia built into it and take advantage.
I do think I'm going to get a quote from Erie just out of curiousity...
Amica has been rated by Consumer Report as the best insurance for decades now. I tried them several times. We have 3 insurance products auto, home, and umbrella and I need one company to handle all of them. We had State Farm for 10+ years but they wanted to triple our auto insurance when the kids started to drive. I changed to Liberty for "only" 50% increase. My kids had several accidents and 3 totals, and Liberty was great. Liberty raised my auto insurance only once for 6 months. Every 3-5 years my agent was able to keep it low by writing a new auto policy, but Liberty got rid of the local agents and I had to fight myself. Earlier this year, Liberty wanted to increase our auto insurance by 50%, after about 20 years I changed to Allstate at only a 20% increase. Every time I called Amica, they could match only the Umbrella(which is the simplest) but not the auto + home insurance (at least double +).
@Baseball_Fan : Would you let me know how your quote from Erie pans out ? I would consider you a non typical customer as for the number of homes & autos. Erie is more for families with the children out of the house from what I understand. Have a good day, Derf
We have excellent insurance and credit rating. 2 cars ,home and umbrella is what we have. Was with Metropolitan for 20 years with multiple discounts. For curiosity got multiple quotes 7 years ago. Erie came out on top and always cheaper than Amica, State Farm, Allstate , Liberty Mutual, when checking yearly since then. Have been satisfied with Erie but they have stricter underwriting than the big guys as noted above.
I've always felt that insurance is almost impossible to evaluate because cost is the easiest, but only one of the important variables. How does one evaluate an insurance company's track record of responsiveness to customer problems or of handling claims?
What's the point of paying less in premiums only to get screwed if you have a claim?
You may not always get what you paid for, but you never get what you didn't pay for.
OK, maybe that's a shade too cynical- I've surely had situations where someone was extremely generous in accommodating me well beyond what was actually called for. But sure as hell not insurance companies.
By that time the kids grew up, and left our house. My wife and I have had an excellent driving record. Liberty has been at the bottom rating of Consumer Reports but my experience has been excellent with them and I'm a tough costumer to please.
Comments
Early signs that inflation is catching up to people's spending habits.
Do those who carry auto insurance just pay more then? In areas like Oakland and Chicago with high crime rates, lax law enforcement and consequences do insurance companies stop offering policies like in Florida hurricane flood prone areas?
@Devo said “Cumulative inflation”. That’s how I look at it too. Similar to how interest compounds year to year. Didn’t Einstein call compound interest the 8th wonder of the world?
I don’t want to
peerain on anybody’s parade. Views differ on this. @msf has documented very well the actual inflation rate based on the CPI index and has explained in past threads how that index is maintained / calculated. I wouldn’t argue with him.I think we do tend to react more to increases on prices of items we buy more than we do to reduced prices on what we buy. From what I hear there’s a glut of chicken & pork right now. Prices are down from a year ago. On the other hand, what in #@*# has happened to the cost of a bag of coffee? As an occasional scotch drinker, I’ve noticed that prices have remained very stable in my state for the past 5+ years. A bottle of JWB can still be had here for under $40, where it’s been for most of the past decade. Maybe drink more scotch and less coffee?
And now there's an Aldi's just down the street. I'll have to see what they have. I now buy all the dairy from them. Bagels and cream cheese are near 1/3 the price of what they cost at Albertsons.
My daughter alerted me to huge increases in MI car insurance and I have to shop around. My current insurer came in dead last in recent Consumer Reports ratings, although I had no complaints. MI had the highest rates in the country, but passed legislation under Gov Whitmer to "fix" the problem of insurers paying forever for accident victims' claims. Now no one is happy and more corrective action is promised. Did rates go down? Of course not.
I was in the office with her as we walked through the various deductibles & savings. Struck a happy medium. Helped in my case. The ‘18 hybrid has higher rates due in large measure to: (1) being more expensive to repair and (2) higher incidence of pedestrian related deaths / injuries due to how quiet they are at low speeds. Goodness. Electric cars must have the same problem.
It's interesting how the companies advertising to the masses how 'cheap' they are (GEICO, Progressive, SF, etc) are paying thru the nose to message that, which they end up passing along to policyholders. (This is especially noticeable during NFL season.) And by trying to appeal to the masses, their risk profile goes up and *everyone* suffers by having to pay for those bad apples they underwrite. By contrast, Erie doesn't advertise, is regional, and more selective in whom they underwrite and thus are exposed to riskwise -- which to me sounds kind of Vanguard-y in its approach.
Aldi Nord runs Trader Joe's
Aldi Sud runs Hofer, Winn-Dixie, Harveys Supermarkets
Not really happy with Trader Joe's these days. Very few items left that entice me to go there. And the things I am looking for aren't always there. But, still a good place to buy a decent smallish turkey that isn't brined. I don't care for brined turkey at all.
I buy Sumatra and Ethiopian beans at TJ's and grind them together.
https://www.erieinsurance.com/states-of-operation
We took a Liberty Mutual policy after buying our new car here on the island in early 2020. Still just 36,000 miles on it. But every year, we've been paying a little MORE, to drive around an OLDER car. Legalized extortion.
The biggest buncha brazen baloney I've heard in a while. All the INSANELY loud "safety" noises on all sorts of vehicles and conveyances could wake the f*****g DEAD! TOTALLY no need for that. Sirens here on ambulances and cop cars? It must be that the intention is to make sure the damn things can be heard on planet Neptune. Is it that way where you all live?
The 2011 study by the National Highway Safety Transportation Authority was follow up to an earlier 2009 study which reached similar conclusions.
From page 19 of study:
”Overall, the odds ratios indicate that the odds of an HE vehicle being in either a pedestrian or bicycle crash are greater than the odds of an ICE vehicle being in a similar crash. The odds ratio for an HE versus an ICE vehicle involved in a pedestrian crash was 1.35, and the odds ratio for an HE versus an ICE vehicle involved in a bicycle crash was 1.57.”
(HE - Hybrid & Electric motor vehicles / ICE - Internal combustion vehicles)
The Study: https://crashstats.nhtsa.dot.gov/Api/Public/ViewPublication/811526
What I don't like is all the monies being spent on the sport ballers/commercials.
What I do recommend, go to a high end body shop and ask the owner of what insurance company provides the best service, doesn't always push for offshore crap part replacement, pays right away etc, sometimes lowest price is not best value. The body shop in my major metro area that works on all the Ferrari's Porsche's etc..told me the best insurance companies were State Farm, Chubb and Amica. Chubb is for ballers/very high worth folks, not for the common folk...
BTW, even more off topic...the guys who work there get to drive all the high end cars...best all time next level I am told is a 2005 Ford GT...blows everything else out of the water...
My wife's ex boss who retired as a very high level executive for a Fortune 500 company always shopped for insurance every year and went with the top rated/lowest quotes every year...he prolly saved a bunch of money doing that...insurance companies must know that human nature has inertia built into it and take advantage.
I do think I'm going to get a quote from Erie just out of curiousity...
Best Regards,
Baseball Fan
We had State Farm for 10+ years but they wanted to triple our auto insurance when the kids started to drive. I changed to Liberty for "only" 50% increase. My kids had several accidents and 3 totals, and Liberty was great. Liberty raised my auto insurance only once for 6 months. Every 3-5 years my agent was able to keep it low by writing a new auto policy, but Liberty got rid of the local agents and I had to fight myself.
Earlier this year, Liberty wanted to increase our auto insurance by 50%, after about 20 years I changed to Allstate at only a 20% increase.
Every time I called Amica, they could match only the Umbrella(which is the simplest) but not the auto + home insurance (at least double +).
jesus
good that allstate and amica still talk to you
Stinky poopy.Rhode Island-based, yes. But in this day and age?
Erie is more for families with the children out of the house from what I understand.
Have a good day, Derf
What's the point of paying less in premiums only to get screwed if you have a claim?
You may not always get what you paid for, but you never get what you didn't pay for.
OK, maybe that's a shade too cynical- I've surely had situations where someone was extremely generous in accommodating me well beyond what was actually called for. But sure as hell not insurance companies.
Liberty has been at the bottom rating of Consumer Reports but my experience has been excellent with them and I'm a tough costumer to please.