<p>Someone won a Nobel prize for pointing out that people are often irrationally risk averse. I get that a college musician may have a very valuable instrument at school. I understand that a graphic designer may have more expensive camera and computer equipment than the average bear. But why are the rest of us sending kids to college with stuff that’s so valuable that you’d risk getting your homeowner’s cancelled if the stuff gets stolen?</p>
<p>I am mystified. Read the college newspaper of any large university and look at the police blotter. Kids leave the doors to their dorms propped open. Kids go to the bathroom at the library and leave their backpacks with wallets unattended (with $300 in cash inside the wallet). Kids don’t chain their bikes outside Starbucks.</p>
<p>If your kid is careless, something will get destroyed or stolen over the four years. Don’t send your kid to college with anything you cannot afford to replace, and leave your homeowner’s intact for what you need it for- a catastrophic loss of your largest asset. Your kid doesn’t need a thousand dollar camera to take pictures of her drunken sorority sisters.</p>
<p>A neighbor of mine just had their homeowner’s cancelled and her new policy is not pretty. You’re going to make your kid pay the upcharge on your premiums? of course not. But do you want to be living with an increase in your homeowners rates for the next ten years over a stolen cell phone???</p>