Car Insurance

Depending on where you live, there are generally four parts to car insurance:

Coverage on the Car, Coverage for You, Coverage for Folks You Hit, and Coverage for Passengers.

Generally, the first thing you need to hit is the minimum required by law for your state. One quick comparison check is to see what the minimum costs are for a number of carriers, as they often pre-filter you by state and then pop this up.

Another consideration is the quality and type of car that you have. If your car is not so great, then you may want to skimp on the Vehicle aspect of the plan. On the other hand, if you're driving a nice sports car, you may not. Decent strategy here is to pick a number you feel comfortable with based on what you'd want after a wreck, how careful a driver you are (average it sounds), and how careful the people where you drive are (not very in SoCal). Then go compare rates using that target of coverage.

Note that in most states, after 3-5 years they begin to forgive your accidents and violations, so you may be ok there.

A tied consideration you play here is the level of out of pocket expense you want (deductible) after a wreck. IE: You pony up $500, they cover till the car's repaired, or your max Car Coverage is hit. Basically, its a risk / reward scenario at that point. Crappy car, high deductible = almost nothing to pay, but nothing back. Spend car, low deductible = horrible payments, but very little to lay out after a crash.

I tend to play this game by agreeing with myself that if I'm retarded and crash my own car, then I'm going to have to settle for a crappier one. Therefore, I don't buy full coverage, and put a reasonable, but not super high deductible. I then save my money, and try not to crash. Course, I'm also the type to pay off cars as fast as possible to avoid interest.

If you're feeling really gutsy, in a few states you're allowed to carry nothing and just keep a large reserve of cash. However, even then I'd probably carry liability at the least, as hospital bills are crazy expensive, and they'll take you for everything possible.

Jam it back in, in the dark.