The tried-and-true way to keep your finances safe

One thing that’s predictable about life: it’s not always predictable. Sometimes, accidents happen, like a broken arm or a fender bender. After the health and safety is all taken care of, there’s another impact of these everyday risks — the cost of the bill.

Even for relatively minor incidents, costs could be thousands and thousands of dollars. Future you can manage risks and protect your finances with products that provide coverage, such as medical insurance, auto insurance and more. Insurance helps protect your finances so that you aren’t overwhelmed with unaffordable bills. It also protects your credit and protects you from lawsuits.

Look out for risks

For now, you’re likely covered by your parent’s insurance. Some of that coverage may even last into your 20s. Insurance is made to be there when you need it, but you can always be on the watch for potential risks. Why not try to avoid needing it in the first place?

Risk management means evaluating the potential outcomes in a situation. You can minimize risks by choosing the safest option. Even today, you can think about dangers you could encounter in everyday life. For example, always wearing seatbelts and never texting while driving both significantly reduce the risk of injury or accident. 

Manage risks

Insurance lowers your financial risk. There are a variety of different types of insurance to cover different areas of your life that you want to protect.

Medical insurance helps you avoid large medical bills that are over your plan’s stated maximum out-of-pocket expenses. Auto insurance covers both car repair and medical costs for vehicle accidents, after a deductible that you’re responsible to pay. 

Renter’s insurance covers your personal property inside a rented apartment or house. Homeowner’s insurance covers your home structure and contents inside, in case of fire or other damage. There’s even insurance for pets, to cover their vet bills!

Choose insurance

As you make purchases in life, such as your first car, research the best options to protect your financial assets. 

For car insurance, you can research the minimum requirement for your state and evaluate levels of coverage. Get information and compare prices from several different insurance companies. If you have a family member or mentor with insurance expertise, talk to them too.

Protect and insure your financial assets so that you can achieve financial security along with your financial independence. Now, quiz yourself about Insurance on Kahoot!

What's next?

That's a wrap on our Future You content series! When the time comes, you’ll be glad present you started thinking about future you. Now, you can challenge your money knowledge by taking the National Financial Literacy Test along with others your age around the country. See how you score!