Some states allow you to prove "financial responsibility" instead of purchasing auto insurance. If you don't have a mortgage, nobody will force you to buy homeowner's insurance. Has anybody done it? How does it work? and would you recommend it? I think insurance — any insurance — should ONLY be purchased if it is a good deal financially, and if not, why should you if you are willing and financially able to take the risk yourself? Shouldn't it be a goal to become self-sufficient whereever possible?

I would like to hear your comments.

Hi again, your friendly insurance guy again.

Plenty of people drop their insurance to save money. Is it a good idea? That depends.

Each person's situation is different. Some people have the financial means to self-insure. Insurance is something a consumer purchases to push risk away from himself or herself. If you have the means to recover from any loss, no matter how severe, you probably don't need to insure against it except as a convenience.

The thing to keep in mind, however, is that the real risks consumers should use insurance to push away from themselves are the BIG risks, not the small ones. Health insurance, for example, is at its most powerful as a ward against the risk of having to pay for the expense of severe, long term, debilitating types of illness that cost incredible sums of money, like needing dialysis for the rest of your life, for example. Sure, it's nice to have the $25 co-pay instead of the full cost of the checkup, but that's not the real risk health insurance is protecting you from. Having to pay for a few checkups a year probably won't render you a financial wreck. Paying for three years of chemotherapy might.

In the end, what it boils down to is this:

Most people will never be in position to need the full benefits of the insurance they purchase, and that is a good thing. That's not nexessarily a reason to cancel it. People DO get cancer. People's houses DO burn down. People DO get into car accidents and get sued for millions of dollars. Ask yourself if you're prepared to look yourself in the mirror some day and say:

"Well, I guess I was wrong, it actually COULD happen to me."

Or worse, to your family:

"I'm sorry, I was wrong, I wish I had kept the insurance but I didn't."

As a person in the industry, let me tell you: Occasionally the phone rings at the agency and that second guy is on the other end of the line and the conversation goes like this:

"Can I get the insurance back so it will save my family?"

And then one of us has to try to figure out how to tell someone who's going to die that there's nothing we can do to help him any more. You have no idea just how awful it is to get that call.

So yes, you can cancel your insurance to save some money. Please decide if the risk you take by doing so is the right choice, and choose wisely. If you have the means to self-insure, by all means make whatever choice you wish. If not, be cautious and consider the wisdom of erring on the side of discretion.