Madison MoneySports - Personal Finance Thread

[D_Eclipse9916]

You're probably right about the 5% though, given jray got out of escrow to ensure he knows how much his home insurance is. No hate on you jray, just pointing out than most people probably aren't as obnoxiously obsessed with MAXIMIZZZZZED GAINZZZZZ as me.

No perception of hate received. I know I'll likely fall into that category of people that spend any savings I receive instead of investing it. I also just wanted to feel the 'pain' of paying property taxes and home insurance, realizing just how much it is compared to my mortgage.

I'm not sure why remembering to pay those bills is such a big deal since home insurance is once per year and property taxes are twice per year where I live. It's easy to budget in monthly and easy to pay when I place reminders on my Google Calendar. It's probably the same reason I don't have any auto-pay on bills unless there's an incentive or discount by doing so. I'm not squeezing every penny for growth and I'm ok with that; my approach may change as our cashflow increases, however.

I struggle with Homeowners insurance constantly with my mortgage companies.  Since I have rentals I am constantly calling around for home insurance.  These companies know that people will fall prey to ignoring it through their mortgage.  They try to click it up every renewal and I end up going with a new insurance company maybe not every renewal, but certainly far more than I should.  Those calls and quotes are worth it.  The mortgage company ends up with a $1,200-$1,800 insurance bill; I always end up between 750-900.  Between multiple properties; it saves me $1500-$2k a year.  However, the mortgage companies struggle to have their paperwork together and I typically have to call to remind them to pay the right people and get refunds.  It's annoying to track; but my bill rate is way less than the 2 hours it takes to reconcile, call, and check up.