You’re out on your own and off to a great start. Getting your own apartment, a car that’s officially ‘yours,’ and gearing up to kick off a great career. Other than making sure you’ve got enough coverage to get that car off the lot, you’ve probably given little thought to teens insurance.

I know learning about insurance can be boring – but once you get insurance advice and figure out how much money it will save you, I guarantee you’ll be all about it.

The key to keeping as much money in your pocket as possible is understanding what insurance companies look at when figuring out how much to charge you – and whether to cover you at all!

Teens Insurance: Risky Business?

When it comes to any kind of teens insurance you’re shopping for now, or in the future – the rate you pay is all about risk. The insurance company is looking at you, your history, your property, and your life situation asking, “how likely is this person to cost me money in a claim?”

The riskier you are, the more you pay.

Protecting Your Pad

Getting renters insurance is cheap and shows big time responsibility. According to the Insurance Information Institute (III), renters insurance can help you establish a good insurance track record (if you keep your nose clean). This will make it easier to get a homeowner’s policy when you have enough money to buy your own place.

Renters insurance should be something you get the minute you step off campus. Even if you’re still in school, unless you’re at the dorms or living in a sorority/fraternity house, your parents’ policy won’t cover you. If anything happens to your apartment, the landlord has insurance to repair the structure, but all your stuff won’t be covered.

If you’re getting ready to buy a condo, you’re going to need two insurance polices.

Your own coverage and the insurance purchased by the condominium or co-op board for the common areas of the property.

Figuring out how much to get for your own coverage is just a matter of checking out what’s covered by the association. The details of coverage should be in he association’s bylaws and/or proprietary lease. Make sure to check it out and get coverage for whatever isn’t in there.

If you’re actually getting your own house – well, I’m impressed hot stuff!

How much homeowners insurance you need will depend on the size of your house and what it’s made of. Make sure you’re not insuring the land it sits on. You don’t want to go by the amount of money you paid for it – go by the amount of cash it’ll take to rebuild the structure.

Cover Your Car

If you haven’t hit the 25-year-old milestone, you’re probably still paying pretty high car insurance rates.

Make sure you shop around for new quotes every six months – rates can be totally different from one company to the next, even for similar coverage. So check out a one-stop-shop site like InsuranceRates.com and get quotes from at least three insurance companies.

You can always lower your insurance rate by raising the deductible, installing a car alarm or dropping collision coverage if you’re driving an older car that’s paid off.

Healthy is Hot

The one not so cool thing about getting out of school or hitting 23 years old is that you’ll no longer get covered under your parents’ health insurance plan. Time to get your own.

Love Your Life

There’s no better time than now when it comes to life insurance. The younger you are, the cheaper it is. If you have people depending on your paycheck, whether it’s a little sibling or older parents, getting life insurance to protect them is important.

If your folks are getting older, you might wind up taking care of them later on in life, in which case long-term care insurance will be a very good idea for you. Again, the sooner you get it, the cheaper it will be.

Even if you don’t have anyone depending on you, other than yourself, consider disability insurance.

According to III, you are four times more likely to be disabled at this stage of your life than you are to likely to die.

You can get coverage through work that will help make up with lost income if you get hurt outside of work.

Don’t Overpay for ANY Insurance Policy

Whether you’re looking at car, renters, health or life – rates can be very different from company to company. So the key to saving on all teens insurance is by comparing quotes. This doesn’t mean you have to stay on the phone for hours talking to different insurance companies or even go to a bunch of different sites. Just go to a one-stop-shop like InsuranceRates.com and get it all in one place.