Rockin' the Suburbs with Sarah
Welcome to Saving Money with Andrew!
Sarah is a longtime “friend of SMwA” with two young children. She and her husband work high-powered and demanding jobs in tech. Like many young parents, she and her husband moved to the suburbs during the pandemic and it has been a big adjustment and learning experience. I caught up with her just before the holidays:
Tell us about a recent money saving win
We recently got a notice from our homeowner’s insurance policy that they were raising our premium by 25%. We were surprised by the large increase and decided to shop around. First, we checked our company’s benefits website to see if there were any insurance discounts, and decided to reach out to Farmers’ Insurance. For a comparable policy, they quoted us over $600/year less than our current premium with GEICO, even before the price hike!
It had felt like a no-brainer to choose GEICO when we purchased our house. They’d always given us very competitive prices on auto and jewelry policies, and we didn’t want to deal with the paperwork and negotiation required to change insurance policies. But it turned out Farmers' was a huge savings, and I wouldn’t have thought to look into it if we hadn’t gotten that notice from our current insurer.
There has been one downside. We’ve had to make a lot of follow up calls to our new insurer and our existing mortgage loan servicer. Most recently our loan servicer sent the payment to the wrong insurance company, almost resulting in our policy being terminated. So you really need to make sure all your policy information is updated with your lender and stay on top of things after the switch.
Wow, what a savings! Do you have any large purchases coming up?
We recently traded in our gas SUV for an electric sedan. It was an additional $15,000 with incentives, but we’re confident we’ll get our money’s worth from the better features (including remote defrosting/warming up the car in the cold mornings!), improved safety, and lower gas and maintenance costs.
Have you successfully implemented any other Saving Money with Andrew tips? Do you have a favorite post?
While I’ve been a fan of index funds for a long time, your post on why you shouldn’t trade stocks logically and calmly reminded me - for the last time - that it was time to stop trading individual stocks. I’ve kicked the habit now, and am grateful!
Coming off this big win, are there any words of wisdom you'd like to share with the Saving Money with Andrew readership?
Make sure you count the value of your time. We love the satisfaction of spending less on homeowner’s insurance, but if it weren’t such a large annual savings ($600 every year!) we’d weigh any savings we’ve captured against having to make half a dozen phone calls when our servicer messed up and almost got our policy cancelled.
And now, Andrew’s pick(s) of the week:
Parents of young children, does it feel like your little kids are sick all the time? An interesting tweet that answers “how often does a family with small children get a respiratory infection?”
Researcher Deepfakes His Voice, Uses AI to Demand Refund From Wells Fargo
And WSJ with a deeply-researched, well-written, and provocative take on the current state of public transit. The numbers are very challenging. I think mass transit is a public good and deserves to be subsidized, but the questions of how and how much are very difficult to answer! An interesting chart of recent NYC subway ridership trends.
Finally, a reader request. Have you moved to a lower cost of living area in the past couple of years? If so, I’d love to hear your story, how you researched your options, and how it’s gone!
I hope this has been helpful. If you liked it, please share it on social media! Also, please send me your feedback, requests, and success stories.