About a year ago, the unthinkable happened. Our employee (we will call her Jane) has a brother (we will call him Joe) and Joe’s apartment burned down to the ground. Joe’s next door neighbor fell asleep with a cigarette in his hand. Joe, his wife, and their one year old baby lost EVERYTHING.

My heart broke for them.

The worst part? They never bought that renter’s insurance policy that Jane quoted. He just never got around to signing the application.

With no family living nearby, and no friends that had enough room in their house to accommodate two adults and a baby, Joe was paying out of pocket for a hotel room, until they could find a new apartment.

And then there’s clothes, toys, books, furniture, a crib, dishes, forks, pans, shoes… Joe and his wife were struggling to get all of their “stuff” back. A caring cousin set up a GoFundMe campaign for them, but the $5,000 collected wasn’t going to do all that much.

Several years ago, I helped one of my sorority sisters move from her parent’s house to her first apartment. There were a lot of us, in and out of the place with boxes and bags and furniture and stuff. One piece of the carpet was bumpy, like it wasn’t properly tacked down, and several of us tripped. No one was injured, thank goodness, because she hadn’t yet purchased the renters insurance that her landlord required. This requirement written into the lease was solely to cover accidents just like that- ensuring that the tenant would pick up the liability for any slip and fall, instead of the landlord.

Moral of the Story

Please, please, please buy even just a super basic renters insurance policy. They can be as low as $200 per year. That’s what, $16, $17 per month for a really cheap one? Cut out one Starbucks coffee a week and you’re there.