$15,000 a Year is a Little High For Car Insurance

You can't do much in Jacksonville without a car. Public transportation is a joke, though not a funny one. The city is spread out, and the metro area is impossible without personal transportation. Bikes might work to get a few places near you (at your own risk), but a majority of life in Duval requires a licensed and (hopefully) insured car. However, when I recently plugged my new teen driver and a potential new-to-us family car into the insurance website, my yearly insurance costs would jump to $15,000. If the average family in Jacksonville makes $75,000 a year, then the average family with teen drivers is spending 20% of their income on auto insurance, and that's a little high.

Think about it. The bank can take away your home if you don't pay your mortgage or insurance. It'll take your car if you don't make the payments. The average Duval family with a mortgage, taxes, insurance, and car payments is probably already paying about $30,000 a year just to borrow the house and cars needed to live. Adding another $15,000 to that, and we're at $45,000 out of $75,000. No wonder so many Floridians are crooks: you almost have to be dishonest in order to get by. 

When we first moved here, my wife's job offered "unaffordable" health insurance to the family. Being self-employed, Obamacare wouldn't cover my purchase of that insurance, meaning another $15,000 a year to cover three family physicals. Now we'd be at $60,000. Food is about $1,200 a month for a family of four, so another $15,000 a year. $75,000. 

So, yeah, when the Jags need a new stadium or schools need new roofs, it's hard for the average Jax family to give to the needy. 

But one place you could potentially save is by cancelling your auto insurance. Then it's up to the rest of Florida to pay for you to drive around uninsured. "As of March 2024, the Insurance Research Council (IRC) estimates that 15–26% of Florida drivers, or more than 3 million people, are uninsured. This is higher than the national average of 14%."

Yep, in the Free State of Florida, when costs get too high, you kind of have to choose which ones to drop. And since those of us who DO pay auto insurance end up paying for the 15-26% who don't, then we owe $15,000 to insure four drivers (five cars) for a year. I guess if I had to choose between auto insurance and feeding my family (and I was allowed to make that choice because of lax DMV standards), I'd probably choose feeding my family. 

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