When my wife and I first got married, we didn't have much. As a result, when our neighborhood insurance agent gave us the chance to protect our personal property with low-cost renter's insurance, we laughed, thanked him for the opportunity, and declined his offer. When he made an attempt to ask why we wouldn't want to protect our belongings for such a minuscule premium, I assumed he was just trying to earn some extra money with a quick sale, so I grabbed my wife's hand and we left as quickly as we could.

Little did we know we would live to regret our short-sighted decision - much sooner than we expected.

Because we were young, in love, and had only one vehicle, my wife would drop me off for work every day at the small daily newspaper where I worked. She would then return every evening to pick me up.

About six weeks after we declined our insurance agent's offer to sell us renter's insurance, my wife picked me up from work as usual. On the way home, I was dying to tell her about a promotion I had just received. Sensing my excitement, she asked why I was so happy. When I gave her the news, we splurged on a fast food dinner, which was a luxury we couldn't often afford.

We then headed for home.

My first clue that something was wrong was when I saw that someone had broken the glass out of the back door which led to our kitchen. After verifying that nobody was in our apartment, my wife phoned the police while I took stock of our losses. It could have been worse, but at that moment, I couldn't imagine how.

All of our electronics were missing, including our TV, VCR, and my pride and joy the stereo system that I had scrimped and saved for a year and a half to purchase. Expecting a full-fledged police response, my wife and I were disappointed when a single uniformed police officer took a statement from us, showed us where to sign, and told us that they would be in touch if they located our belongings.

Our disappointment grew to quiet desperation when they still hadn't been recovered two weeks later. Finally, we realized that the police were not going to be successful in their efforts to recover our electronics, and that the vast majority of residential burglaries remain unsolved.

It was at that point that the full impact of our loss began to sink in. We were never going to see our TV, VCR, or my stereo, again. And we didn't have $2,500 to replace these items.

Instead of making a quick call to our friendly insurance agent, filling out a simple claim form, and receiving a check we could use to replace our stolen electronics, we spent the next year saving every spare dollar we could towards the purchase of a second-hand television and VCR. We couldn't afford to replace the stereo system. That took another year.

We learned a valuable lesson from our experience. Not only is renter's insurance inexpensive, it could have saved us from having to settle for somebody else's cast-offs a year after our loss. I wish I had had renter's insurance and my wife does, too.

Learn more about this author, Kenneth Speegle.
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