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Here are 12 ways to slash the cost of your home insurance. A wide variety of discounts are available, ranging from the type of building material used to build your home to how close you live to a fire station. These discounts will vary by state and insurance company.

Shop around

Check with several different home insurance companies to get rate quotes (an independent insurance agent can provide rate quotes from a variety of companies). Do your friends or family members like their home insurance company?

Raise your deductible

The deductible is the amount of money you have to pay toward a loss before your insurance kicks in. Typically, home insurance deductibles start at $250.

Increase your deductible to:

$500 and save up to 12 percent on your premiums.

$1,000 and save up to 24 percent.

$2,500 and save up to 30 percent.

$5,000 and save up to 37 percent.

Make sure you can afford to pay the higher deductible out of pocket if something should happen.

Buy your home and auto policies from the same company

Many companies will give a multiline discount if you buy both home insurance and auto coverage from them.

Consider insurance when buying a home

If you're looking at buying a home, think about the cost of insuring the home. A newer home's electrical, heating, and plumbing systems and overall structure are likely to be in better condition than those of an older home. This can lead to a discount on your premiums.

You'll also want to consider the construction of the home and where you live. If you live on the Atlantic Coast, you'll want the house to be able to stand up to wind damage, while on the Pacific Coast, you need to keep earthquakes in mind.

Insure your home, not the land

While your home and its contents are at risk from fire, theft, windstorms, and other perils, the land your home sits on is not. Don't include the value of the land in deciding how much home insurance you need to buy. Your agent can help you assess the coverage you need.

Improve security and safety

Items such as dead bolt locks, burglar alarms, and smoke detectors can usually bring discounts of 5 percent each, depending on the company. Your insurance company may also offer a significant discount of 15 or 20 percent if you install a sophisticated home-security system. If you're thinking about buying such a system, check with your insurer to see which systems you'll get a discount for.

Many of us buy life insurance because we want to make sure that our loved ones, especially dependents, remain financially secure after we die.  Income replacement is the #1 reason why people buy life insurance.  Non-working caregivers also have an important, and oft overlooked, economic value that should be covered by life insurance.  Those interested in achieving specific business or estate transfer goals also purchase life insurance.

There are several choices when it comes to buying life insurance and there are huge pricing differences in the market among different companies offering identical coverage.  Policies are now available from more than 1,500 life insurance companies in the United States.  Most financial planners recommend that each family income provider carry no less than ten times their annual income in life insurance.

Here’s an orderly way to go about shopping for life insurance:  1) assess your life insurance needs, 2) decide on the most appropriate policy type, 3) set high standards for the financial stability ratings of your insurance company and, then 4) shop until you drop to find the best price.

Life insurance is a long-term proposition, which means that you should pay particular attention, at time of purchase and throughout the life of the policy, to the financial stability ratings of your life insurance company.  While the average U. S. adult shops for life insurance once every seven years, it’s not uncommon for people to keep life policies in force for decades.

Assessing your life insurance needs

The first step in life insurance planning is to analyze your life insurance needs or, rather, the economic needs of the dependents left behind:

Before purchasing a life insurance policy, you should consider your financial situation and the standard of living you want to maintain for your dependents or survivors.  For example, who will be responsible for your final medical bills and funeral costs?  Would your family have to relocate or otherwise change their standard of living?  The assumption of immediate death is necessary to determine the current life insurance needs for the family or individual.

Beyond the initial readjustment period, consideration has to be given to the longer term financial needs of the remaining family members.  Items of consideration should include dependency period income for children, income for the surviving spouse, mortgage and other debt payoffs, college education funds and an additional emergency fund.

Because life insurance needs change over time, your life insurance program should be reevaluated periodically.  We recommend a review at least once every five years or whenever you experience a major life event such as change income or assets, marriage, divorce, the birth or adoption of a child, or purchase of a major item such as a house or business.

The Illinois Department of Insurance points out the reasons you might buy life insurance will vary, depending on your age, financial situation and other factors.  Listed below are some examples:

Single person with no dependents:  Funeral expenses; medical bills; debts, such as credit cards or student loans; elderly parents who may be dependent upon you for support.  Note: Buying life insurance at a young age is cheaper. As you get older or possibly incur a serious health condition, it will be more expensive or difficult to buy a policy.

Single person with dependents: Funeral expenses; medical bills; outstanding debts; caretaker expenses for your surviving dependents; education costs for surviving children.

Couple with no children: Funeral expenses; medical bills; outstanding debts, especially mortgage or car payments.

Couple with children: Funeral expenses; medical bills; outstanding debts, especially mortgage payments; child-rearing expenses; education costs. Note: Even if one partner does not work outside the home, you may want to consider life insurance to help pay for childcare or other services performed by that partner.

Older couple: Funeral expenses; medical bills; impact on spendable income; outstanding debts, such as a new home, second vacation home, or recreational vehicle; impact on assets you may want to leave for children or grandchildren

In theory, you should have a declining need for life insurance as you age because fewer people remain dependent upon you for income support.  Exception to this rule would be for circumstances in which you want to protect a business entity or pay estate taxes for heirs.  If the purpose of buying life insurance is to pay estate taxes, then you’ll only want coverage that is guaranteed for the remainder of your life and that of your spouse as well.

It's a fact of life — you need health insurance — and the time to get it is before you have an accident, suffer a serious illness, or discover you're pregnant. Insurance doesn't cover health care for medical problems or conditions that start before the moment you have your policy. Finding adequate coverage might seem overwhelming, but knowing the basics can help make your search less stressful.

Your boss doesn't have to provide health insurance

The first reality of health insurance is you do not have a right to it. There are no state or federal laws requiring private employers to offer health benefits to their workers.

“For a number of valid reasons employers are not mandated to offer or provide health insurance for their employees,” explains Peter Bigelow, CLU, employee benefits specialist with The Foresight Group. “It is common knowledge; however, that most employers though not mandated to do so offer insurance to their employees for a variety of reasons related to competition and smart business practice.” If you have benefits through your employer, and you quit or lose your job, don't assume you will be able to pick up the identical coverage for the same price.

Similarly, don't expect your former employer to extend your benefits beyond your last day at work. There is no "grace period" during which you're still covered. If you do lose your employer-sponsored benefits, there is a federal plan called COBRA (Consolidated Omnibus Reconciliation Act) that could provide you with a short-term safety net. Another federal law that offers some protection to workers experiencing a short-term lapse in their coverage is HIPAA (Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act).

Individual health insurance can be costly

If you need to purchase individual health insurance, it can be expensive. Unlike group plans, in which the costs and risks associated with health care are spread among many people; individual health policies are "medically underwritten" to take into account your personal health history. Any "pre-existing" condition such as heart disease, diabetes, and even pregnancy, can nix your chances of acceptance or boost your premiums. Some states require individual health insurers to offer everyone a plan, a mandate known as "guaranteed issue."

Cheap Automobile Insurance Plans