For those of us that are not homeowners, allow me to make the case for renters insurance. There is a common misconception that just because your landlord has homeowners insurance or your roommate has renters insurance, that your belongings are covered in the case of a fire or theft. This is not the case. For your landlord, homeowners insurance covers the home itself and any damages to the property. As for your roomie, their renters insurance only covers their belongings, not yours. Now you might be thinking, well that’s fine, I don’t own anything valuable. But think about it, what about that new flat screen television you bought last summer, all that IKEA furniture you have accumulated, and that bike you use to get around?

At this point, I have at least caused you to pause and take a mental note of all the valuables you do own. Let me explain why I get so excited about renters insurance. First off it is dirt cheap. Renters insurance is a fraction of the price of a typical homeowners insurance policy.  An average policy is less than $15 per month and covers about $30,000 of property coverage and $100,000 of liability coverage. That’s the cost of lunch once a month. How expensive this  monthly charge is will vary between insurance providers and location. For the average millennial $30,000 of property coverage is much more than all your IKEA furniture, electronics, and sporting goods combined. And on the rare chance it’s not, don’t worry you can always adjust this value. Not only will renters insurance cover all of your belongings in your home, it will also cover your belongings wherever you go, even if that’s backpacking halfway across the world.

What this means is that if anything happens to your luggage along the way, you’re covered. 

If your bike gets stolen, you’re covered. 

If someone steals your phone, you’re covered. 

You can finally stop worrying about pulling out of your savings to replace your hard earned valuables because you have renters insurance. 

Now that you know about this invisible shield that protects you and your hard earned belongings, how do you get the most out of it? To start I highly recommend building an inventory of your belongings. To help get you started feel free to use this template. In this inventory you’ll want to go room by room and start documenting what valuables you own. Where possible, especially for the more expensive items, include a receipt or screenshot of the price. I recommend having photos of the items in this list that can be stored using your favorite cloud photos provider. Personally, I am a big fan of Google Photos, mainly for their free unlimited storage. In order to keep this inventory up to date, make a calendar reminder to update it once a week. This way updates only take a few minutes and you will have a document to refer to if you ever need to file a claim.

So don’t just read this and forget about. Go on, pick up the phone and get insured today. While your at it, start building that inventory of your hard earned valuables. Believe me the peace of mind you’ll get is well worth the effort.