Insurance Advice - Take an Inventory

In your end of year financial planning, one of the things Clark Howard and Mike Kavanagh advise is to take a walk through your home with a video camera. Put on video everything you have in each room and then take the video and put it somewhere outside your house - something like a bank safety deposit box or in a lock box inside a drawer at work. This way, if your house burns down, you can show the insurance company all the items you need to have replaced.

Check your homeowner's policy by the way to make sure you have replacement coverage on both the home and the contents inside. If there are expensive items, such as a diamond ring, an antique clock, a baseball card or stamp collection, purchase additional insurance on those items.

If you are renting, make sure you have renters insurance, which you can buy affordably from the same agent who supplies your auto insurance. If your apartment building burns down, the landlord is not responsible for your losses.

Also at this time of year, look at your life insurance. If you were to be killed in an auto wreck, will your family have money to survive? Term life insurance rates are very affordable. Instead of a Christmas gift you'll forget about by February, buy some extra life insurance coverage to give your loved ones peace of mind.

If you have begun to accumulate some assets in your life, consider umbrella liability insurance as extra protection for those assets. Again, buy through the agent that provides your homeowner's, renter's and auto insurance.