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☕ DrinkCoffeeAndProfit
Smart money moves before breakfast
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Inspiration Quote for the Day
“You must gain control over your money or the lack of it will forever control you.”
— Dave Ramsey
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The Morning Ritual
My Neighbor Thought She Was Being Double-Charged. She Wasn’t.
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My neighbor Karen asked me to look at something on her phone last Tuesday. Her auto insurance payment hit and the number looked wrong. She thought the app was double-charging her. It wasn’t. The number was just that much higher. She hadn’t noticed the renewal increase because it was on autopay.
I told her to pull up her home insurance and her health plan premiums while she was at it. She did. Then she went quiet. Three bills. Three separate companies. One combined number she had never once calculated. That number changes everything about where her money actually goes.
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In One Sip
► The average full-coverage auto insurance premium in 2026 is `$2,496` per year. That is up `46%` since 2022 (ValuePenguin).
► Homeowners insurance is projected to hit `$3,057` per year by the end of 2026. The average homeowner now pays `$900` more per year than in 2021 (Insurify).
► One in four homeowners said they would drop coverage entirely if they could. Nearly half said home insurance should be optional (Insurify survey).
► Health insurance premiums for ACA marketplace plans jumped `21.7%` year-over-year. The average Silver plan for a 40-year-old costs `$752` a month.
► Add all three together. The average American household spends `$7,000` to `$8,000` a year on insurance alone. On an ACA plan? North of `$14,000`. Nobody is running that total.
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Why It Matters for Your Money
Each of those bills arrives on a different day of the month. Different companies. Different portals. Different autopay dates. So you never see the total.
I pulled up the math for a typical household. Auto insurance: `$208` a month. Home insurance: `$255` a month. Health insurance through an employer: about `$120` a month in employee share. That is `$583` a month. Almost `$7,000` a year. And you never build a single dollar of equity on any of it. Think about that for a second.
If you are buying health coverage on the ACA marketplace instead, your share jumps to `$752` a month for a Silver plan. Now that combined number crosses `$1,215` a month. That is more than a lot of people pay in rent.
Five years ago, that combined bill was closer to `$400` a month. The gap is not a rounding error. It is a second car payment that showed up without a loan document. The personal savings rate just fell to `3.0%`. I think these three bills are a big reason why.
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The Wealth Angle
Here is the part most people miss. Insurance is now the second-largest household expense after housing itself. It passed groceries. It passed utilities. It passed transportation. And unlike every other major expense, it protects what you have without adding to what you own.
Your mortgage builds equity. Your grocery bill keeps you alive. Your insurance bill keeps you from losing everything else. But it is growing three times faster than your paycheck. Homeowners insurance alone is up `46%` since 2021. Wages are up about `16%` over the same period. The math does not close.
Tomorrow morning the government releases the June CPI report. The headline number will probably look like inflation is cooling. Your insurance carrier already sent you a different answer. Karen’s phone told her the same thing mine told me: the bills that protect your life are now the bills that quietly drain it.
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☕ Key Insight:
Insurance is no longer a background expense. At `$7,000` to `$14,000` a year, it is a financial commitment that deserves the same scrutiny you give your mortgage. The households that re-shop all three policies every year save `$500` to `$1,200`. The ones on autopilot pay whatever the renewal says.
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Coffee Break Move
This week, open all three insurance apps on your phone. Add the monthly numbers together. Write that total on a sticky note and put it on your fridge. That is your real insurance bill.
If you are comfortable: call each carrier and ask for a re-quote. Raising your auto deductible from `$500` to `$1,000` saves `15%` to `20%`. Bundling home and auto saves another `10%` to `15%`. One afternoon of phone calls could put `$300` to `$600` back in your pocket every year.
If you are stretched: just do the addition. Knowing the real number is the first move. Karen did that last Tuesday. She has not stopped talking about it since. Neither will you.
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