Money Management

Car insurance rates jumped 19% over the past year. Here’s how to keep them under control in 2024. 

No, it’s not just you; everyone’s car insurance premiums are getting pricey. The latest Bureau of Labor Statistics data shows car insurance rates spiked 19.2% over the past year.

A few factors contribute to your monthly car insurance payment, including what state you live in, how much you drive, your age, what car you own, and your driving record. But the recent car insurance price increases are part of more significant insurance trends — and it’s unlikely they’ll reverse anytime soon.

Here’s why it’s getting harder to find cheap car insurance and why it’s likely to be expensive in 2024.

Why car insurance prices are through the sunroof

Just as there are a handful of factors that contribute to your individual insurance premium, there are several larger issues that are driving insurance prices up for everyone, including:

Rising collisions: According to LexisNexis, automotive property damage severity rose 35%, and the severity of collisions rose by 40% between 2019 and 2022. Many people drove more recklessly in the wake of the pandemic, and some of those habits have continued, causing accidents to increase and pushing up the need for repairs.Higher vehicle prices: The prices of used and new vehicles have risen sharply over the past few years, making it more expensive to repair and replace vehicles when they’re involved in an accident.Soaring vehicle repair costs: In addition to vehicle prices rising, the cost of repairs has also increased. Years of supply chain shortages and a lack of workers have increased the cost to repair a vehicle by 8.5% compared to last year.Some insurers have left states: Earlier this year, a handful of insurance companies left California because the cost of insuring people in the state was too high. Not only does that make it more expensive for people in the state who need to find a policy, but it can also drive prices up for customers in other states because there’s a smaller pool of people paying their premiums.Auto thefts are near record highs: The latest data from the National Insurance Crime Bureau shows nearly 500,000 vehicles were reported stolen in the U.S. in the first half of 2023, up 2% from the same period in 2022 and a near-record high. That weighs on insurance companies who are left covering the cost of the loss.

Car insurance prices won’t fall in 2024

Unfortunately, there isn’t any relief for auto insurance premiums on the horizon. Many trends that have driven premiums higher are expected to continue through 2024.

The good news is that there are a couple of things you can do to get a better deal and find the best car insurance company for you:

Shop around: One of the most effective ways to lower your premiums is to shop around for insurance. For example, if you’ve been in multiple accidents or are a younger driver, getting quotes from high-risk car insurance companies could help you find the best price for your specific situation.Choose low mileage coverage: Some insurance companies offer discounts to customers who don’t drive very far. If you work from home or are a stay-at-home parent, you may want to ask your insurer about this discount to see if it could save you money.Raise your deductible: This is a tried-and-true way to lower your monthly premiums; just know it comes at a price. If you’re in an accident or your vehicle is totaled, you likely will receive less money from your insurance company than you would have if your deductible were lower.Bundle your insurance: This may be one of the easiest ways to save a little money on your insurance. Chances are you’re paying for renters or homeowners insurance, and bundling it with your auto insurance could be a quick way to score a discount.

While car insurance prices aren’t coming down soon, making a few changes to your policy or switching your coverage to another insurer could go a long way in keeping your costs under control.

Our best car insurance companies for 2024

Ready to shop for car insurance? Whether you’re focused on price, claims handling, or customer service, we’ve researched insurers nationwide to provide our best-in-class picks for car insurance coverage. Read our free expert review today to get started.

We’re firm believers in the Golden Rule, which is why editorial opinions are ours alone and have not been previously reviewed, approved, or endorsed by included advertisers.
The Ascent does not cover all offers on the market. Editorial content from The Ascent is separate from The Motley Fool editorial content and is created by a different analyst team.The Motley Fool has a disclosure policy.

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Savings challenges can make saving money fun by gamifying it. Try these challenges in 2024 that can help you end the year richer without a lot of effort. 

Very few people find saving money fun. While it’s great to see your savings account balance grow, it’s less fun to make the sacrifices necessary for that to happen.

The good news is, you can make the process of socking away more cash into something enjoyable. You can do that by making a game out of it.

Many different games encourage you to keep more money in your bank account, so here are three of them to try in 2024 that could work for you.

1. The 52-week challenge

The 52-week challenge is a simple one that’s great to start when a new year begins. Here’s how it works:

Transfer $1 to savings in the first week of the yearTransfer $2 to savings in the second week of the yearTransfer $3 to savings in the third week of the year

Continue increasing the amount you’re contributing to savings by $1 each week so by the end of the year, you put $52 into your savings account in the last week. If you stick with this plan every week, you will have saved $1,378 by the last week of 2024.

The best part about this challenge is that you’re not forcing yourself to save too much at once. You start small and build up, and even on your last week, you’re only saving $52 which is less than the price of one meal out at a nice restaurant. So, the challenge feels doable.

To try this out, transfer the necessary amount into a savings account at the start of the week. Hopefully, your bank makes it pretty easy to do that — especially if you have a savings account linked to your checking account.

2. The no-spend challenge

The no-spend challenge is another great game, which works especially well if you have a partner to do it with you.

There are a few ways to play this savings game. One option is to see how long you can go without spending any money on non-necessities (if you’re playing by yourself) or to see who can go the longest without spending on any non-necessities (if you’re playing with a friend). Define what a necessity is (like food and gas to go to work) and then keep track of how long you can go without buying anything but those essentials.

Another option is to see how many no-spend days you can have during a month (if you’re playing by yourself) or who can rack up the most no-spend days during a month-long period. These are days when you spend no money on anything at all.

Each of these challenges helps you get out of the mindset of buying stuff, and means there are days when you aren’t spending anything so you should have extra money to save.

3. The $5 game

Finally, this last game is great for anyone who still pays regularly with cash. It’s a simple one. Whenever you pay, if you get a $5 bill back in change, you have to put it into savings. You can put it in a jar and then deposit all of your saved $5 bills once a month — or let them build up until the end of the year when you deposit the entire jar full.

Each of these games can make saving really fun, so give them a try in 2024 to see how much extra money you can end up keeping for your personal finance goals instead of spending it.

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We’re firm believers in the Golden Rule, which is why editorial opinions are ours alone and have not been previously reviewed, approved, or endorsed by included advertisers.
The Ascent does not cover all offers on the market. Editorial content from The Ascent is separate from The Motley Fool editorial content and is created by a different analyst team.The Motley Fool has a disclosure policy.

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If you get in a car crash, you might regret raising your deductible or canceling that rental car reimbursement. Here are a few important lessons to know. 

The most important thing, of course, is that no one was hurt in any of our crashes. We were lucky that our car crashes weren’t even worse! But getting in so many car crashes so often was a humbling experience. I learned important life lessons about car insurance deductibles, car insurance premium hikes, accident forgiveness, rental car prices, tow trucks, body shops, and salvage yards.

These are things you never want to think about when you’re just happily driving down the road in your fully intact car, listening to a podcast, not colliding with any other vehicles. But it’s best to be prepared! Let’s look at a few of my favorite lessons learned from dealing with car insurance companies after getting in a crash. (Again and again and again!)

Lesson 1: Don’t raise your car insurance deductible too high

One popular strategy for saving money on car insurance is to raise your deductible so your monthly premium will be lower. Raising your deductible can save you money in the short term, but it can be a problem if you get into lots of car crashes.

One year, we had to pay our $1,000 deductible twice, for two separate crashes in two separate vehicles. That was not fun! Fortunately, we had enough money in our emergency fund to pay it off. But there are thousands of things that I would’ve rather spent that money on instead of a deductible.

There’s no single right answer for “how much of a car insurance deductible” you should have. Some people feel comfortable with a $1,000 deductible or higher, while other people want a lower $500 deductible. Do whatever gives you peace of mind.

Lesson 2: Your car insurance company will raise your premium

Unless you have some kind of fancy accident forgiveness car insurance, you’re probably going to have to pay a higher price for car insurance after being in an accident. And for me, that feels totally fair! I actually love my car insurance company and I have no ill will toward it for raising my premiums — because I deserved it!

After my most recent car crash, I was on the phone with the insurance company’s customer service person to file a claim. And I said, “I’m so sorry that we keep getting in crashes. Just raise our premiums. You’ve paid out so many thousands of dollars for us over the years, you are never gonna get that money back. I’m the least-profitable car insurance customer ever.”

Lesson 3: Car insurance subrogation — sometimes the crash is still your fault

One of my car crashes happened while I wasn’t even driving. I was in a parking space, and I was opening my car door to get out. Suddenly I heard a hideous wrenching of metal and a shattering of glass; another car was there, right where my car door used to be! Another driver had pulled into my parking space right as I was opening my car door. And now both of our cars were badly damaged.

I called my insurance company and in my shakey, adrenaline-addled voice, tried to explain what happened. I didn’t think I was “at-fault” for the accident, because I wasn’t even driving. But I must not have explained my side of the story very well, because my claim went to subrogation.

Subrogation is a process where insurers try to figure out which driver is “at-fault” for an accident and battle behind the scenes to decide which insurance company has to pay. After a few days, it was determined that I was at-fault for the crash, because I had not “opened my car door with care” while getting out of the car. So let that be a lesson to the rest of you! You can still be at fault for a car crash even while you’re not driving, even while your car is parked and the engine is off!

Lesson 4: Don’t be too quick to cancel rental car reimbursement coverage

Another way to save money on car insurance is to cancel extra coverages, like roadside assistance (free towing) or reimbursement for a rental car. It’s tempting to save a few dollars a month.

But I once had a bad crash where our car was nearly totaled, but not quite — and the car ended up in the body shop for an entire month. During that month, we had to rent a car, and we had to pay for it ourselves (about $1,000 — in addition to our $1,000 deductible). We also paid out of pocket to get the car towed to the body shop.

Fortunately, we had enough money in our savings account to cover this unglamorous, unexpected expense. But many Americans don’t have $500 of emergency savings. Keeping some of your car insurance “extras” might help save you money when you need it most.

Bottom line: Car crashes are stressful, but they don’t have to be financially devastating. The best car insurance companies can help you find the right blend of affordable premiums and adequate coverage, without draining your savings.

Our best car insurance companies for 2024

Ready to shop for car insurance? Whether you’re focused on price, claims handling, or customer service, we’ve researched insurers nationwide to provide our best-in-class picks for car insurance coverage. Read our free expert review today to get started.

We’re firm believers in the Golden Rule, which is why editorial opinions are ours alone and have not been previously reviewed, approved, or endorsed by included advertisers.
The Ascent does not cover all offers on the market. Editorial content from The Ascent is separate from The Motley Fool editorial content and is created by a different analyst team.The Motley Fool has a disclosure policy.

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Automating your finances is one of the best things you can do. Read on to learn how it can help you in the new year. 

Making smart choices about what to do with your money can sometimes be difficult — especially since the easier and more fun option is often to spend today without worrying about tomorrow.

If you want to maximize the chances you’ll accomplish the personal finance goals you’re setting for yourself and end up with the security you deserve, there’s one particular money move you should be sure to make in 2024.

This is the one thing you absolutely need to do with your finances in 2024

If you only do one thing with your money in 2024, you should set your finances up so contributions to your retirement and savings accounts occur automatically without any effort on your part.

Specifically, you should arrange to have money taken out of your checking account as soon as your paycheck comes — before you have a chance to spend a single dollar. You should move some of this money into your brokerage account and some into a savings account depending on whether you’re saving for long-term or short-term goals.

Figuring out how much to move into these accounts will mean setting financial goals. For example, you can use the calculators at Investor.gov to figure out how much to save for retirement each month to end up with about 10 times your final income (a quick and simple way to estimate your savings needs).

And if you’re saving for a big purchase, like a house or a vacation, figure out how much money you’ll need and what your timeline is so you can determine the amount to save each month. So, if you wanted to save $10,000 for a home improvement project in two years, you’d do the math to find you must save about $416 a month to achieve your goal.

As soon as you know the amounts you need, you can go into your bank or brokerage account and arrange to have those amounts automatically transferred each and every month. Or, if you’re contributing to a workplace 401(k), you can work it out with human resources. Set it up so you don’t have to do anything, and so the money is withdrawn before you get a chance to spend it elsewhere.

Here’s why automating your contributions works so well

Automating your finances so contributions to savings happen automatically is one of the surest paths toward financial success. That’s because saving the money you need becomes the default action that requires the least effort. You don’t have to choose to save each month — you’d have to consciously choose not to and go to the trouble of turning off your automatic transfers in order to fail at your goals.

See, most people just stick with the status quo, especially if the current situation is one that’s beneficial to their long-term goals. In fact, one Vanguard study showed that when new hires were automatically enrolled in a workplace 401(k), 9 in 10 participating employees were still contributing to their retirement account three years later.

So, give it a try for yourself this year and see if it can work for you. Once you’ve set up your automatic contributions, you’ll likely be well on your way toward accomplishing all your financial goals this year. In fact, you will succeed, unless you make the conscious choice to undermine your efforts.

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We’re firm believers in the Golden Rule, which is why editorial opinions are ours alone and have not been previously reviewed, approved, or endorsed by included advertisers.
The Ascent does not cover all offers on the market. Editorial content from The Ascent is separate from The Motley Fool editorial content and is created by a different analyst team.The Motley Fool has a disclosure policy.

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When adopting a pet, it’s often worth buying pet insurance to avoid worrying about vet bills. Learn how to balance a pet’s health and your financial stability. 

Anyone who is adopting a pet in 2024 should seriously consider buying pet insurance as soon as they bring their animal companion home. A good pet insurance policy should provide coverage for accidents and illnesses and often the premiums are pretty affordable, with most people paying around $20 to $50 monthly.

This may seem like a big expense to come out of a checking account each month, but getting covered could be well worth it for a simple reason.

Here’s why pet insurance is often worth the price

Buying pet insurance can make good financial sense because paying for an animal’s veterinary care can be very expensive — and no pet owner ever wants to be faced with a choice between going into debt or depriving their animal of potentially life-saving care.

Say, for example, a beloved pet is diagnosed with a cancer that can be treated or even cured by chemotherapy. The cost of the chemo could range between around $150 and $600 per dose, and if the course of treatment is a long one, total costs could come in at around $10,000 or more.

Very few people just have thousands of dollars sitting around to pay for unexpected medical care when a pet becomes seriously ill or is hurt. And cancer is just one of many costly conditions a pet could develop. I’ve spent thousands on my own dog due to a heart condition, and pets could also get hit by a car or break a bone while doing an aggressive zoomie that gets out of control.

With insurance, a choice can be made about an animal’s care based on what is best, in consultation with a vet. There will be no question of whether a given treatment is out of an owner’s price range, as long as it is one that is covered by the pet insurance policy. The fact that no owner will ever have to deny their animal care just because of cost is reason enough to buy a policy ASAP.

How to buy pet insurance

Buying pet insurance can be pretty easy. Most insurers offer quotes online, and many will provide coverage to dogs and cats of all ages — although older pets will cost more to insure and any pre-existing conditions they have won’t be covered.

Pet owners should compare coverage options, looking at factors like:

The deductible (out of pocket costs that must be paid when a pet gets services)Waiting periods (the time before coverage kicks in and becomes effective)Policy limits (many insurers have lifetime, annual, or per-condition limits on how much they will pay out)Coverages and exclusions (does the policy pay for alternative treatments or wellness visits?)

By carefully considering the policy terms offered by different insurers and getting several quotes, pet owners can hopefully get the protection and peace of mind they need from a great insurance company at an affordable price. That way, they’ll never be sitting in a vet’s office having to make the decision whether they should save their animal companion at the expense of their financial security.

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We’re firm believers in the Golden Rule, which is why editorial opinions are ours alone and have not been previously reviewed, approved, or endorsed by included advertisers.
The Ascent does not cover all offers on the market. Editorial content from The Ascent is separate from The Motley Fool editorial content and is created by a different analyst team.The Motley Fool has a disclosure policy.

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Self-checkouts are annoying to many customers and present big issues for retailers. Learn whether they may soon be less common in the stores where you shop. 

Most people have used a self-checkout at least once or twice in their lifetimes, if not every time they go grocery shopping or hit up a big-box store. Self-checkouts are very common throughout the United States and, whether you like them or not, sometimes they are unavoidable if they are the only lanes that are open.

Soon, however, things may be changing. There are problems with self-checkouts that have led to some companies beginning to pull them out of stores, and others could jump on the trend of removing them from their aisles in favor of putting human checkout clerks to work again.

Here’s what you need to know about the fate of self-checkouts in the future — and how it might impact your personal finances.

There are serious problems with self-checkouts

Some stores both in the United States and across the globe have begun to reconsider whether self-checkouts deserve a place in their stores.

There are lots of reasons for this, including customers not liking the process of having to check out their own items or consumers being confused and ringing up the wrong products, such as choosing a different variety of apple than the one they are actually buying.

For many retailers, however, the biggest issue might be the fact that self-checkouts can lead to “shrink,” which is a fancy retail term for inventory that is lost due to mistakes or intentional shoplifting.

Studies have shown shrink is a far bigger problem in stores with self-checkouts, with those companies that use this technology experiencing a loss rate of around 4%. This is more than double the average rate of loss across the industry.

These stores have already begun eliminating self-checkouts as an option

Stores have started to get tired of losing a big portion of their inventory due to either mistakes or intentional theft, and are getting sick of fielding customer complaints due to problems with self-checkouts. As a result, a variety of big-name retailers have already begun making important changes. Specifically:

Walmart has removed self-checkouts from certain stores in specific regions, including stores within New Mexico.ShopRite responded to customer complaints and removed self-checkouts from some regional stores, including grocery shops in Delaware.Wegmans stopped allowing customers to use a scan-and-go mobile app that allowed them to pay for groceries as they were added to their carts while they moved throughout the store.Costco has increased the presence of staff members in self-checkout areas to crack down on shoppers coming to the warehouse club and shopping with membership cards that don’t belong to them.

With so many big-name companies making changes, it is possible that shoppers will begin seeing fewer self-checkout lanes and will have to start handing their credit cards to cashiers again rather than managing the process of checking out all on their own.

The end of self-checkouts, if it should happen, shouldn’t have any impact on your checking account as long as you’re being honest and legitimately checking out and paying for all the products you buy. But it could change your experience at the grocery store. If you’ve gotten used to just zipping through self-checkout, you may have to prepare yourself and leave a little extra time for your store trip so you can go through a regular lane if your self-checkout disappears for good.

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We’re firm believers in the Golden Rule, which is why editorial opinions are ours alone and have not been previously reviewed, approved, or endorsed by included advertisers.
The Ascent does not cover all offers on the market. Editorial content from The Ascent is separate from The Motley Fool editorial content and is created by a different analyst team.Christy Bieber has no position in any of the stocks mentioned. The Motley Fool has positions in and recommends Apple, Costco Wholesale, and Walmart. The Motley Fool has a disclosure policy.

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