It's not just our retirement plans that are taking the hits...
I've got a huge mystery on my hands that I intend on solving. My gut tells me climate change is at the heart of it.
It's time for us to renew our house insurance for the year. I live in Kansas. In a small, military town. Heck... I live in Leavenworth. (gods help me if they put trump here after they convict him!).
I used the last of my retirement savings in order to buy a house for my old age. I figured if nothing else, I'd at least have four walls and a roof over my head that no one could take from me, as long as I paid the taxes. It was pretty danged cheap as houses go, 65K, but still, for the two of us, it was a heck of a lot of money to put out in cash. But we did it. We've been working on it ever since we bought it 3 years ago. Nothing major... expanding the catio. Fixing the roof in places. Painting the inside. Cutting overgrowth in trees ($650 worth!). We do all this on our social security checks, which as you know isn't a heck of a lot.
We called our insurance agent to make payment for the coming year, and was told they wouldn't insure the house for less than $500,000!!!! This is absolutely outrageous. A 65k house they demand to be insured for $500k? We haven't even had a tornado through here in decades! (LOL)
BUT... there are fires out west, and hurricanes down south. And my hunch is they are trying to recoup the money they've had to spend on claims for both (as well as other climate and other related claims), and they're "spreading them out" amongst all of us across the United States. That's my gut level hunch, anyway.
The assessment on the house hasn't changed; nothing has changed to drive the insurance level on the house up to these levels. I'm now searching for another insurance company.
If they thought they could drive this old woman out of her retirement house without a hassle, they have another thing coming. I told my hubby that although I know it probably won't do any good, I place to call Sharice Davids, although we're not her constituents (other than being Kansans), and I also plan to call the White House. President Biden may not have to worry about these types of things any longer, but his parents did. And he remembers. When you hit 70, you should have to fight people trying to take your house away from you!