☕ DrinkCoffeeAndProfit
Smart money moves before breakfast
Inspiration Quote for the Day
“Trust, but verify.”
Ronald Reagan
The Morning Ritual
Most Roof Claims Are Paid in Two Cheques. Only the First One Arrives on Its Own.
Storm season ends and the repair quotes go quiet. This is the weekend for the page that stays unread. The wording on it decides what a roof claim actually pays.
Two words on that page do most of the work. Replacement cost, or actual cash value. They look like jargon. They are the difference between a new roof and a deposit on one.
· · · Partner Message · · ·
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Our share price is changing after September 30th.
Private investments are speculative and illiquid. Returns are not guaranteed. Review the offering circular before investing.
Under Regulation A, a company may change its share price by up to 20% without requalifying the offering with the Securities and Exchange Commission.
In One Sip
► Replacement cost pays what a new one costs today. Actual cash value pays what the old one was worth after depreciation. Source: National Association of Insurance Commissioners.
► A state regulator’s own example: a `$10,000` roof with a `$4,000` deductible. Replacement cost pays `$6,000`. Source: Texas Department of Insurance.
► On the same roof, actual cash value pays `$4,500` at five years, `$3,000` at ten, and `$0` at twenty. Source: Texas Department of Insurance.
► Several large carriers have moved older roofs onto depreciation schedules for wind and hail instead of full replacement cost. Source: United Policyholders, citing the Insurance Information Institute.
► The quiet part: even on a replacement cost policy the first cheque is the depreciated amount. The rest is released after the work is done and the receipts are sent in.
Why It Matters for Your Money
Take the regulator’s twenty year roof. Replacement cost pays `$6,000` toward the new one. Actual cash value pays nothing at all, because the depreciation has already eaten the whole claim.
Same storm, same roof, same deductible. One line of wording, and a `$6,000` swing.
Now the part that surprises people who did buy the better cover. The insurer sends the depreciated amount first. The held back portion has a name, recoverable depreciation, and it is released when the repair is finished and the invoice arrives.
Take the settlement, patch the roof cheaply, never send the receipt, and the second cheque quietly stays where it is. That is not a dispute. It is the contract working as written.
There is one more line worth finding. Many policies cut the payout proportionally if the house is insured for less than `80%` of the current rebuild cost.
· · · Partner Message · · ·
Every now and again, a financial system becomes so corrupted, and so broken, that it has to go through a reset.
More than 300 years ago, Britain experienced just such a reset.
The Royal Mint had a serious problem, a huge proportion of the currency in circulation was fake. Counterfeiters were wreaking havoc. As many as one in every 10 coins was believed to be counterfeit.
The government turned to the brightest mind in Britain, Sir Isaac Newton.
Newton oversaw the recall of Britain’s silver coins in what became known as the Great Recoinage. He introduced new standards of accuracy and purity… His reforms made Britain’s money work again.
I’m writing to you today because, more than three centuries later, my latest research suggests it’s happening again.
This time, the reset is taking place at the heart of the world’s most powerful currency, the U.S. Dollar.
President Trump is quietly rebuilding the monetary order beneath the U.S. dollar for the first time in 52 years.
It wasn’t put to a vote. It has barely been discussed in Congress. And most Americans have no idea what it could mean for their savings, investments, or cost of living.
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The Wealth Angle
Two things can be true. Depreciation schedules on old roofs answer a real problem for insurers. The household carrying that schedule is usually the last to learn it exists.
Renewals are where this hides. The premium moves and you notice. The settlement wording moves and nothing on the bill tells you.
My own habit takes one minute a year. I photograph the declarations page at renewal and keep the file. Two pages, same phone, and last year’s version is there to compare against.
The question I would ask my own agent this week is narrow. Is my roof still on replacement cost, and at what age does that stop.
☕ Key Insight:
A policy does not pay for damage. It pays according to a settlement method, and that method is one phrase on one page. Finding it costs a Sunday morning. Not finding it costs whatever the roof costs.
Coffee Break Move
If you are comfortable: Open the declarations page and find the settlement wording on the dwelling and on the roof. If either says actual cash value, ask what replacement cost would add to the premium. Then compare that number with the `$6,000` swing above.
If you are stretched: Call the agent and ask two questions. Is my roof settled at replacement cost or on a depreciation schedule. Is my dwelling limit still at least `80%` of the current rebuild cost. Both answers are free and both take one call.
If you have an open claim right now, send the contractor’s invoice in. The second cheque exists. It just does not arrive until someone asks for it.

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