Do You Need Cat Insurance? Look at My Numbers

When my family got Tiger and Snowy to me, they purchased cat insurance for each of them immediately. Being a Bengal cat and an Egyptian Mau respectively, we thought they might need some special care and knowledge regarding medical needs. We also assumed that cat insurance might help in expenses because of all the checkups, vaccinations, and neuter/spay during their first year. 

Our Bengal Cat at Six Weeks Old

We did some research about cat insurance before we purchased one. But there was not much information out there. Eventually we purchased one through our employer. The provider is one of the well-established insurance companies.

In this article, I will use Tiger’s expenses as an example to show you if it worth the money to get a cat insurance. Tiger did not have any pre-existing condition as he was only five weeks old when the plan started. Since then we have done all kinds of vaccines, blood work, and neuter operation. This would give us a good sense of the cost and benefits.

The Cost and Coverage of the Plan

          The insurance company offered three types of cat insurance coverages depending on how much copay we want to have and the maximum benefit amounts. We chose the one in the middle the Plus Plan (see table below).  

	Basic Plan	Plus Plan	Max Plan
Physical Exam: two exams per policy term	$50 $25 maximum per exam	$60 $30 maximum per exam	$80 $40 maximum per exam
Behavioral Exam and/or treatment	$30	$30	$30
Vaccination or Titer	$50	$75	$75
Heartworm or FeLV/FIV test	$30	$35	$35
Fecal test	$15	$25	$30
Deworming	$25	$25	$25
Nail trim	$20	$20	$20
Microchip	$40	$40	$40
Health certificate	$40	$40	$40
Flea control or Heartworm prevention	$50	$75	$75
One additional test: (1) Health screen (blood test); (2) Radiograph (x-ray); or (3)Electrocardiogram (EKG)	$50	$75	$100
Spray/Neuter	Not Covered	Not Covered	$200
Dental	Not Covered	Not Covered	$250

                        

For Plus Plan that we chose for our Bengal cat, here is the plan cost:

Annual Premium: $382.90 ($31.91/month)

Annual Deductible: $250 (No deductible for wellness care)

Actual Expenses and Reimbursement 

Our Bengal cat’s insurance plan started in December 2015, and was for one year. Since then he has been neutered and done all the needed shots and checkups. We do not expect any additional visit to the vet before the plan expires in December 2016. Below is our actual expenses and the reimbursed amounts so far.

Treatment Date	Submitted Amount	Reimbursed
2015 December	$149.57	$119.92
2016 January	$180.35	$65.85
2016 February	$138.26	$24.23
2016 March	$56.70	$56.70
2016 March	$343.34	$39.99

Our Bengal Cat at Six Weeks Old

Each visit included different items, and I separated them into three categories based on how much was reimbursed:

Reimbursed fully:

Home Again Microchip

Health Screen (Blood test)

Flea and Heartworm prevention (revolution)

Reimbursed Partially:

Flea and Heartworm prevention (prescribed generic)

Vaccination-Rabies

Physical exam

Feline Vaccination-FVRCP (had two shots, only covered one)

Feline Vaccination-FELV (had two shots, only covered one)

Not Reimbursed at all:

Neuter

So our total medical expenses so far was:

$149.57+$180.35+$138.26+$56.70+$343.34=$868.22

The total reimbursed amount was:

$119.92+$65.85+$24.23+$56.70+$39.99=$306.69

And, remember, we also paid $382.90 for the annual premium.

That means for this covered year, we have spent a total of $868.22+$382.90=$1251.12

But we only got back $306.69 from the insurance company.

Comparison: Is It Worth To Have a Cat Insurance ?

To make it simple: 

 (1) With the cat insurance, for all our Bengal cat’s medical needs, we actually spent: $1251.12-$306.69=$944.43

 (2) If we did not have a cat insurance, our total expenses would be $868.22

The conclusion:

Having the cat insurance plan cost $76.21 more than without one

Based on the above numbers, is it worth the money to get cat insurance? If your cat is fairly young and healthy, it may save you money not to have one. If your cat has some medical condition that requires more visits to the vet, it may be useful to have one.  

If you are interested at having a cat (or dog) insurance, besides getting quotes from regular insurance companies (those sell auto insurance, health insurance, and etc.) who carry pet insurance, there are also some companies that specialize in pet insurance such as Pets Best, a company that many people are using. 

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Graduate School and Early Retirement

Several months ago I came across several articles and websites on early retirement when I was googling about retirement. It seems there is a trend to retire early. At first, there was the goal of having enough (or more than enough) assets by the time when one reaches retirement age (around 60). Then, some boasted that they saved enough money by 50 so they could retire before reaching the retirement age. Recently, though, some claim that they have enough asset that they can retire in their early 30s.

I have to confess, I was perplexed to see it. Early 30s? Then I quickly recalled what I was doing and still doing in my early 30s. Despite finishing a doctoral degree at a comparatively young age (28), my early 30s is still occupied by mostly career building. My financial situation has definitely improved since graduation, but there is no way I can retire in my early 30s. I barely started my career!

Photo by Sean Stratton

I know plenty of people who are still toiling in graduate school in their early 30s. For people in medical school and some humanity programs, it is rare for them to complete their degrees before age of 30. I am talking about the education system in US mostly. In Europe, one can get a PhD degree in 3 years, as compared to a minimum of 4 years in US. So this goal of extremely early retirement is not practical at all to many who are in or plan to attend graduate school.

Personally, I think the strategy to retire by early 30s is a smart idea. That means one would focus on career in his/her 20s. Then he/she could slow down and focus on raising a family in his/her 30s and later.

Nonetheless, the life of those who went to graduate school especially earned a doctoral degree seemed rather different. In their 20s they were in schools (many had limited financial resources to enjoy life fully). In their early 30s they just started their careers, and to some a family as well. To those people, their 30s was a rather demanding time period in their lives. As to save money, there was no guarantee that they could save more and faster after earning a graduate degree. Plenty of people cannot find a matching job after getting a higher degree.

Comparing these two pictures of lifestyles, one can’t help but pondering is it worth going to graduate school if they plan to retire early. If one simply wants to learn more knowledge, there is no doubt he/she should go for it. Our society needs scientists, philosophers, sociologist, and etc. But if one thinks of going to graduate school from pragmatic perspectives such as potential earnings, job availability, going to graduate school may cost you more than just money. It may even lower the quality of your life in a long term. 

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Why I am Avoiding Packaged Vegetables

Recently we purchased a bag of mandarin oranges from one of the major grocery stores here. There were a total of about 10 oranges. Unfortunately, the next day when I opened the bag, about half of them already went bad and I had to throw them away. It was pretty disappointing. They cost $5.99 pre-tax, which meant I threw away about $3.00 right there.

This was not the first time when I was disappointed with packaged produce. Two weeks ago, I had to throw away an entire bag of packaged baby-cut carrots that cost $1.69.

These were recent bad experiences with packaged vegetables so I still remember their prices. They got bad not because we kept them too long in the refrigerator, but rather because they already went bad before we bought them in the store. But we could not detect the new development because they were in sealed bags.

Photo by  Lukas Budimaier

Because of these experiences, I have decided to avoid packaged produce as much as I can. There are mainly three reasons. Firstly, I do not want to throw away my money like that. Each package does not cost that much, but imagine you have to throw away two packages a month, that would be about $6. How much money you need to put in your savings account in order to earn that much of interest? The second reason is time. We do grocery shopping about once a week. Every time we would try to get the next week’s supply. That means if we had to throw away one package, we might need to run to the grocery store again.

The third reason is health concerns. Packaged produce seem to be more vulnerable to bacteria. They tend to go bad more quickly than unpackaged ones. We do not want to risk getting salmonella. In the past, certain packaged vegetables and frozen vegetables have been recalled by the manufactures because of similar concerns. As consumers, the best thing we can do is examining what we purchase. Do not eat them if they do not seem “healthy”. It can reduce the chances of eating rotten produce if we avoid buying the packaged ones, instead choose from the unpackaged ones. 

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Nordstrom Anniversary Sale---Not My Personal Favorite

Parking Lot of Mall Of America, MN

I have shopped in several Nordstrom Rack stores, but have never visited a Nordstrom until today. In fact, only not long ago did I figure out the differences between Nordstrom and Nordstrom Rack. Put it simply, Nordstrom prices are higher and they have a lot of trendy clothing, and their left overs and extras are sent to Nordstrom Rack (so I was told). Therefore, in Nordstrom Rack prices are much lower than that of Nordstrom. So Nordstrom Rack is on the same tier of T. J. Maxx and Ross, while Nordstrom is on the same tier of Macy’s.

I visited Nordstrom today in order to take a peek at their anniversary sale, the biggest annual sale of Nordstrom. This year their anniversary sale started on July 22 and lasts until August 8. So today was the second day of their anniversary sale. The store I visited was the one at the Mall of America in Minnesota.

I was expecting some heavy discounts before entering the store, since it is supposed to be the biggest annual sale. Hopefully to grab something really nice for less than $200. The store was large and definitely had a more than usual customer flow when we arrived on a Saturday early afternoon. All the items on sale were tagged. These tags even show prices once the sale is over. This is really a nice sales strategy. It gave people the urge to buy immediately because clearly the price woulddouble in two weeks.

I did not really have anything in mind to buy. On shopping, I am a woman after all. I enjoy looking around in stores. I made impulse purchases quite often, not because the item was necessary, but because it looked nice on me and I liked it. Or simply because it was a good deal. Oh, women. Fortunately, most of the time I was rational regarding buying clothing. Therefore, the above sales strategy was not very effective on me. I have to admit it was tempting though.

We toured most parts of the three levels of the store and had close look at certain departments. I even tried certain items on. But I was surprised by the prices. For example, on one of the racks there were some coats that were labeled as “the last few”, I assumed that meant the prices were further reduced and might be good deals, only to find out that the item I tried on had a price of over $1,200. In fact, all the other items that I was interested at also had very high prices. For brands like Chanel and Gucci, the prices were expected to be high. But there were also many tops and coats that were priced at around $200 even though they had nothing special either in style or material.

After spending about one hour there, I left without buying anything. Nordstrom definitely has many nice items, and it is totally on a different level compared with Nordstrom Rack. To those who want to buy something fancy, the anniversary sale is a good time to shop in Nordstrom. For example, it may allow you to get something that is normally sold for $2,000 with $1,000. But for people like me, who rarely buys clothing and accessories priced above $500, the anniversary sale may not be a big appeal.

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Auto Loan---Don't be Fooled by Low Rates

Beetle. Photo credit: My Stock Photos

A friend of mine currently has an auto loan with an interest rate of 8%. To me, that is insanely high. It is a cruel reality that many of us have similarly crazy auto loan interest rate. Seeing that the loan interest rates are pretty low recently, I advised my friend to refinance his auto loan. I offered to help to find the best refinance deal for him due to his busy work schedule.

I have never done an auto loan, so I did the hard way. I compiled a list of prospective lenders including some well-known banks and online lenders. That included places like Wells Fargo, US Bank, Bank of America, Capital One, Santander, and Carfinance. Most of them have detailed information regarding auto loan on their website, so all I needed to do was visiting their sites. Before doing this, I did visit Bankrate to see rates and prospective lenders, but there were only two to three institutions listed. I needed more than that in order to compare well. That was why I made a list by myself. 

My first step of rate comparing was to find out the lowest rate they could offer. That meant the rate they could offer to someone who had a perfect credit score and a clean loan application. At this step, it was easy to get rid of some of the prospective lenders. For example, if most lenders’ best rate was 3.00%, but one could only offer 4.00% at best, my instinct was simply walking away from the higher one.

The irony of auto loan rate shopping is that, many prospective lenders are not willing to tell shoppers a rouge rate range they can offer until they pull their credit scores. I found that annoying. Not many people are willing to let others pull their credit scores unless they liked what they saw or heard from their preliminary contact. I always tried to explain to these institutions that I needed to have some idea of their rates before going to the next step. Unfortunately, some were too stiff and they lost our business right there.

The second step was to work closely with institutions on my short list. I only had two left. Their lowest rates were around 2.50%. Both were reputable institutions and had local branches (real people to talk to if needed). At this step, I looked into their requirement of credit score in order to get their best rates. It turned out one of them required a much higher credit score in order to get a good rate. Eventually, my friend went with the remaining one, and he got a rate of 4.00% or so.

What I have learned in this process was that, do not be fooled by the low interest rates you see on advertisements. They are often put there to lure people to finance with them. They want you to borrow money from them, and with a much higher interest rate than what you had in mind!

No matter what kind of loan you are looking for, you need to shop around carefully. Ask about their requirement of credit scores and other related information. Do not be intimidated by them. If they refuse to provide information you need, walk away. If their customer service makes you uncomfortable even before you become their customer, think how they might treat you after they already sold you stuff. It is better to end with one that has a higher interest rate but good customer service, as compared to someone with a low rate but bad customer service. Bad customer service might add a lot of trouble to you in a long run.

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Your Barbie Dolls May Worth More Than You Think

           
A recent visit to an antique store made me realize that Barbie dolls are actually collectible. The store I visited was called an antique mall, and it had two stories of inventory. My surprise findings were a bunch of Barbie dolls produced several decades ago. As shown in the pictures, the 1960’s Blonde Bubblecut Barbie is now sold for $190. The 1960s Brunette Bubblecut Barbie is now sold for $210.

According to the official Barbie website, in 1959 the most expensive Barbie doll was $5. The website does not detail doll prices in the 1960s, let’s assume the price doubled from 1959, which means the highest price in the 1960s was $10. So about 50 years later, this $10 Barbie doll worth around $200.

If you have vintage Barbie dolls or Barbie outfits, find out how much they worth now. Do not just throw them away. Also, if you buy Barbie dolls now, you may be able to get some profit after decades later, adding some side money to your retirement income.

How wonderful it is to turn hobby into profit! 

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Don’t Trust Your Realtor Blindly

When it is time to purchase a house, many people would you to find a good realtor. I agree that a realtor is indeed very important. They know a lot that others do not know. Especially when it is time to look houses around. Realtors can get passcodes to open properties and bring their clients to view conveniently. Still, I want to remind you that you should not trust your realtor blindly.

If one is lucky, the realtor he/she finds may be really professional and responsible. The realtor will warn you about every potential pitfall of a property you are interested, and sometimes will even find related information to present to you. In such case, one does not need to worry about anything. The realtor definitely deserves the trust. Unfortunately, not all realtors are that way.

Photo by  Daryn Bartlett

When I purchased my condominium, I used a realtor recommended by a friend. I trusted my friend, so I extended my trust to the realtor he recommended. The realtor’s name was Nick. Nick was easy to talk to and seemed a nice person. But it was not easy to find a house that met my requirements due to the tight housing market at the time. We made offers to two or three houses and all rejected. By this time we have viewed about eight houses.  I began to think I might need to wait longer.

Then suddenly Nick told me that there was a house available, and it had not been listed on the market yet. That meant I could complete the transaction without competing with others if I wanted it. Coincidently my realtor was also the sellers’ realtor. From a realtor’s perspective, this much be a perfect thing. He wanted to sell someone’s house, and he had a buyer right there. To me, the house looked very close to what I was looking for. So I decided to get it.

The only problem was, my realtor never investigated the HOA account strength of the property. He never mentioned it. Since I was a total newbie, and I trusted Nick so much, this issue never come to my mind either. Then, six months after I moved into my house, I received a bill about the special assessment (see my post Buying a Condominium? Think Again!).

I will definitely not hire Nick as my realtor anymore. Maybe he did really well with my friend and even many others, I just do not think he gave me the advice I needed.

Should you still hire a realtor to buy or sell houses? Mostly you should. Mainly because they are (supposed to be) experts in that. My advice is, hire one but do not trust them blindly. Even if the realtor you hire is recommended by your family or friends. It is still up to you to find as much information as possible. To ask your friends and family before making the final decision.

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Buying a Condominium? Think Again!

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In a previous post, I talked about how I purchased my first house with money saved from graduate school. That was one of the achievements I made after graduation. Buying a house is a big thing after all. The downside is, it was a condominium. That means there was HOA dues every month. What was more, the HOA association had the right to issue special assessment any time. These were the two things that I really disliked.

Because of these issues, I strongly urge people who want to have control of their personal finances to stay away from condominiums. This article is solely based on my personal experiences and preferences.

HOA dues is a monthly charge by the Homeowners Association of the property community you live in. The money is deposited into a bank account that belongs to the HOA and is managed by a separate property management company. The HOA then use money from this account to hire people to remove snow, to maintain the landscape, to trim trees and bushes, and etc. This is overall fine to me because I do not need to mow the lawn or remove snow by myself. The amount of HOA dues depends on what services are included. Some communities may have a swimming pool or a gym, in such cases it means they need more money to maintain the communal facility. The monthly HOA dues can easily range from $100 to $600.

My biggest frustration is about special assessment. It basically means if anywhere in the community (the communal part, not within the walls of your unit) needs any type of repair, the HOA can ask each home owner to pay extra money (besides the regular monthly HOA dues) if they think what they have in their account is not enough to cover the cost. They can ask for $1,000, or $10,000. They decide on the amount. Scary, isn’t it? Imagine, you are doing your normal business and taking care of your house, and suddenly a bill arrives at your mailbox asking $5,000 as a special assessment payment. Once you get the bill, you have to pay.

You may wonder how they decide to issue special assessment. Well, when any member of the HOA board notices any urgent (or not urgent) problem of the community, they will discuss in their board meetings about the necessity to issue special assessment. If the board votes to issue special assessment, they will then announce it to the home owners, and an HOA meeting will be held soon, giving home owners the chance to vote. Remember, at this point, the HOA board already reached their decision, and they will try everything to persuade home owners that it is necessary and urgent. If they do not repair now, it will cost more later. Many home owners will eventually be persuaded. A bill will be sent out soon after the successful vote.

In my case, I never ignored the problem they reported in such meetings. And I tend to agree that if they did not fix it sooner, it would only be more difficult and costly to fix later. What I disliked was how little financial control one has when living in a condominium community. You never know when the next repair project will come up and how much it will need.

Honestly, if I knew about special assessment, I would have not purchased a condominium. Unfortunately, my realtor did not warn me about this. Talking about realtor, that deserves another article.

I still own the unit because of two reasons. Firstly, the house value is increasing rapidly. Deducting the special assessment, it still brings good profit. Secondly, after the first special assessment, it seems things have been normal and healthy. If they do not issue special assessment within the next five years it will give me more confidence to keep it. But if they do, I may put this unit on the market immediately.

So you are interested at buying a condominium? Think again!

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Graduation and Health Insurance

     

       Before you graduate from college or graduate school, you probably never need to care about your health insurance. Some may stay within their parents’ plans until they are 26. According to the Affordable Care Act, after reaching age 26, one needs to have their own health insurance plan. For those who are not covered by their parents’ plans, they were mostly required to enroll in the plan offered by their school. In such cases, there is not much you need to do. If you really care, the only thing you can do is reading the health insurance brochure, finding out what is the copay for different types of visit. Of course some people do have the option to take the plan offered by their school or opt out.

Each academic year the insurance premium is included in the tuition and fees. You just pay it and forget about it. Most student health insurance plan provided by the university are pretty good. The copay is low. Besides, most of the time, whenever you have a medical issue, you go to your university physicians and they can resolve most issues right there, and in such cases the copay is lower or even zero. When I was in graduate school, my university health center designated a small team of physicians to each student. So each student would keep seeing the same physicians throughout the years. Rarely when one needed special care, the university physician will refer the student to see a physician outside.

The situation would be very different once you graduate and start a job. You need to choose your health plan from various options. It is important to figure out how healthy you are, how much health care you may need in the coming year. This would require some calculation done at home. In general, higher monthly premium means lower copay and less total cost, and vice versa. If you are in good health, and will not need to see doctors that often, you may want to get a lower monthly premium so to save money.

But I do not recommend to be too stingy on health care. We all know how expensive health care is in this country. An ER visit can easily cost around $10,000. Without a proper coverage, one can in deep financial trouble. That is why one should pay attention to another factor in choosing health insurance plans, the annual limit. That is, in the worst case, you much you are required to pay out-of-pocket before insurance kicks in. For example, plan A’s annual limit may be $5000 for one person, plan B’s annual limit is $7000 for one person. Let’s say, one developed a health problem that cost $8000 to fix. With plan A, one only needs to pay $5000 out-of-pocket, the rest $3000 will be paid by insurance. With plan B, one needs to pay $7000, insurance will pay $1000.

Many of us will be overwhelmed by the benefit package we are offered by our new employers and the work need to be done in order to make the right choices. Some may never heard of some of the benefit items. For example, my European colleagues have said that they never knew they need retirement plan. They felt strange and angry that they have to put part of their monthly salaries to a retirement plan. The point is, these are new things one needs to figure out. It does not matter if you know it or not, it is your task to make decisions for you. If you screw up, it is your money.

If you read this article or similar ones, I am sure you will be better prepared once you graduate and start your new life.   

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