So How Much Auto Insurance Do I Actually Need?
Calculating exactly how much auto insurance you should buy can sometimes seem to be a quiz fit for a mathematician. Every state has some guidelines and 'must-haves' in their requirement for auto insurance. One can use this as a sort of starting point, but there is a lot more that needs to be seen and evaluated.
Broadly speaking, there are 6 basic parts of an auto insurance policy. These are: Bodily Injury Liability, Property Damage Liability, Personal Injury Protection, Collision Coverage, Comprehensive Coverage and Uninsured Motorist Coverage. In most states, it is important to include the first two parts in the policy while the others may or may not be mandatory.
Bodily Injury Liability - Insurance companies generally recommend a minimum of $100,000 per person and $300,000 per accident for bodily injury liability coverage. Being underinsured for this coverage may be harmful for the insured as he can lose his assets in a lawsuit resulting from an auto accident in which he is found to be at fault.
Property Damage Liability – The recommended coverage is a minimum of $50,000. Like in the previous case, the insurer stands to lose his assets if not adequately insured.
Personal Injury Protection (PIP) – PIP coverage ensures that the insurance company pays for the medical expenses and/or any lost wages and other costs that may arise when the insured is injured in an accident. Minimum PIP coverage of $10,000 is usually recommended. The insurer generally pays around 80 percent of the losses and also pays a death benefit. It may also cover the medical expenditure of the passengers of the insured as well. The expanded version of this coverage is called 'no-fault' coverage wherein the insured gets the insurance amount irrespective of whose fault it was. In some states this too may be mandatory in order to provide for child care and lost wages.
Collision Coverage – Collision coverage pays for the repairs of the car after accident and is normally the most expensive component of the auto insurance. One can lower this amount by having a higher deductible. This means that the insured is taking the risk of accident free driving upon him. If he is involved in an accident, he will have to pay up a higher amount before the insurance company chips in. It might be a good idea to get the vehicle's value assessed before deciding upon how much cover one would like to take.
Comprehensive Coverage - Comprehensive coverage pays for damage to the car of the insured resulting from fire, theft, vandalism, windstorm, glass breakage, and the like. Like in the above case, assess the vehicle's value to make sure it's worth the amount that this coverage costs. This coverage too comes with a deductible and the insurer will not pay more than what the car was worth when it got wrecked.
Uninsured Motorist Coverage – This coverage pays for the injuries of the insured even if he is hit-and-run by a driver or someone who doesn't have auto insurance. As the number of uninsured and underinsured drivers is high, it is recommended that a minimum amount of $100,000 per person and $300,000 per accident be allocated under this coverage. This coverage is not important if the 'no-fault' coverage is in action.
Take the above points into consideration and then gauge your actual insurance requirement. If required, take quotes from several insurers before deciding upon the insurance value that you need.
Jon Atkinson recommends that you visit http://www.cheap-autoinsurance.com/ for more information on auto insurance.
First of All, Know Thyself
One of the most important elements of success in trading (and life in general) is knowing yourself. If you do not understand how you tick, you will never be truly prepared for the demands of trading, and likely your performance will suffer as a result.
Let me use myself as an example.
I am what might be considered project oriented. By that I mean I like to move from one thing to the next – always have something upon which to focus my attention. As my friends and colleagues can attest, once I complete a project - and sometimes even before I do - my thoughts shift to the next one. I actually get antsy if I have nothing lined-up. Predictably, this is reflected in my trading.
We can actually think of trading as a series of projects. Each position one takes on is a new project which incorporates analysis of some sort (automated or otherwise) and trade decision-making. When a position is closed out, it is like wrapping up a project. It's over and done - time to move on to the next thing.
There's a little problem with that, though. This kind of "project" approach, in the case of someone like me, can lead to overtrading. This isn't the kind of overtrading which is referred to when one speaks of taking on positions which are too large, though. Rather, I am speaking of trading too frequently. In my case, when I close a trade I find myself immediately eager to open a new one. It doesn't matter whether I made or lost money on that first trade. Because of my "need" to have a project going, my psychological pull is toward finding a new trade to make. (Note: I do not consider this in my case to be like the "fix" trading provides as an intermittent feedback mechanism, like gambling.)
This little personality trait of mine is something I figured out a while back when I realized that I am most comfortable when I have an active position in the market.. It doesn't matter how large or small that trade is as long as I can check on it periodically and feel like I'm involved. Knowing this, I take two approaches to avoid the overtrading problem.
The first thing I do is trade longer-term. By doing so, I give myself the opportunity to take on long "projects". I often have trades with durations of weeks or even months. These aren't all my trades, mind you. I do trade short-term at times, but my schedule is such that longer-term position trading tends to fit best most of the year.
When trading shorter-term, I use a second approach to combat the "project" itch. Specifically, I try to step away from the market for a while following the completion of a trade. It lets me clear out the emotional residue of finishing a project and come back at it fresh. That can quite often make the difference between taking impulsive trades and being properly selective based on my analytic methods.
Of course, this is just one example of the sort of psychological hurdles which come up in trading. We all have patterns of behavior which are based in our personal lives that can quite easily carry in to trading, positively or negatively. Brett Steenbarger's outstanding book The Psychology of Trading provides an excellent discussion of how this can happen, and ways we can overcome the problematic ones. The primary point is that we need to be able to look at ourselves like an outside observer. In that way we can get to know ourselves, and that's at least half the battle.
John Forman is author of The Essentials of Trading, and a near 20 year veteran of trading and analyzing the markets. John is Managing Analyst & Chief Trader for Anduril Analytics, which offers free trading reports here.
Investing vs. Trading - What's the Difference?
There is a question which is sometimes asked by those new to the financial markets, and even occasionally debated by experienced participants. That question is how one differentiates between trading and investing. Because both trading and investing - when one considers them from the perspective of the financial markets - are performed in very similar fashions, they are often thought of as interchangeable actions.
In my book, The Essentials of Trading, I followed along with this basic theme by introducing the idea that what differentiates the two is scope definition. Both trading and investing, after all, are at the most simple of levels application of capital in the pursuit of profits. If I buy XYZ stock I expect to either see the price appreciate or earn dividends – perhaps both. What separates trading from investing, however, is that generally in trading one has an exit expectation. This might be in the form of a price target or in terms of how long the position will be held. Either way, the trade is seen to have a finite life. Investing, on the other hand, is more open-ended. An investor will buy a company's stock with no predefined notion of when he or she will sell, if ever.
We can use examples to help demonstrate the difference. Warren Buffet is an investor. He buys companies which he sees as somehow undervalued and holds on to his positions for as long as he continues to like their prospects. He does not think in terms of a price at which he will exit the stock. George Soros is (or at least was while he was still actively running his hedge fund) a trader. His most famous trade was shorting the British Pound when he thought the currency was overvalued and ready to be withdrawn from the European Exchange Rate Mechanism. The position he took was based on a specific circumstance. Once the Pound was allowed to float freely, and quickly devalued in the market, Soros exited with a handsome profit. That meets the criteria of having a predefined exit, making it a trade, not an investment.
There is another way one can define trading as set against investing, though. It has to do with the manner in which the applied capital is expected to produce a return. In trading the appreciation of capital is the objective. You buy XZY stock at 10 expecting it to go to 15 and thereby produce a capital gain. If dividends or interest are paid out along the way, that is fine, but likely only a minor contribution to the expected profits.
In contrast, investing looks more toward income over time. That makes income production, such as dividends and bond interest payments, the major focal point. Do investors experience capital appreciation? Sure, but unlike in trading, that is not the prime motivation.
With these definitions in mind, consider what many people refer to as their single biggest investment – their home. Based our second definition of investing, however, a home is generally not an investment because in most cases is does not produce any income. In fact, it produces considerable expenses in the form of mortgage interest payments, utility bills, and upkeep. If anything, a home is a trade. We buy it and hope for its value to rise over time, increasing our equity. And the fact that many people expect to move in only a few years and sell at that point makes it even more of a trade rather than an investment. (Of course own rental property can certainly be viewed as investing, unless one is flipping it, which would definitely be more trading.)
As noted earlier, for many people trading and investing seem like the same thing. The mechanics of buying and selling are basically the same. Sometimes the analysis one does to make those decisions is identical as well. It's the intention and definition of objectives which separate trading and investing, though.
John Forman is author of The Essentials of Trading, and a near 20 year veteran of trading and analyzing the markets. For a free e-book on getting started in trading, click here.
