Protect Against Collisions and More If you drive a car in the United States, liability insurance must cover it. This type of policy pays for medical and property damage resulting from a vehicular accident. You can also purchase comprehensive and collision insurance to cover other costs. These additional coverages help protect the value of your car should it be damaged. If you are calculating how much it will cost to buy a car, you need to take into consideration the cost of insurance as well. In this article, we’ll review the basics of car insurance and the best auto insurance companies in America, including costs, pros and cons. This is a brief introduction to automobile coverage. Liability Coverage When an accident occurs, liability insurance covers you, household members and authorized drivers for the costs associated with property damage and bodily injury. It covers the cost to repair or replace property damage that you caused. [youmaylike] You are also covered if you cause the bodily harm or death to someone else while you are driving the car. This includes medical expenses, loss of income and specified legal defense costs. Collision Insurance If you are involved in a collision, this type of insurance will help pay for repairing or replacing your vehicle. If the collision is your fault, the coverage may extend to other damaged vehicles involved in the accident. States do not mandate that you buy collision insurance, but your lender or car dealer will if you finance or lease the car. Policies offer a range of deductibles, which is how much you’ll have to pay for repairs before the insurance kicks in. Larger deductibles lower the policy premiums but expose you to more out-of-pocket expenses if a collision occurs. Comprehensive Insurance Comprehensive insurance covers damage to your car that occurs for reasons other than a collision, including theft, fire, vandalism, weather and natural disasters. This coverage is often required if you finance your automobile. You can add riders to this insurance to provide coverage of additional costs, including auto towing, glass repair, daily rental while your car is in the shop and emergency roadside service. As with collision insurance, you can set the deductible on your comprehensive insurance policy to cut your premium costs. Gap Insurance If your car is severely damaged in an accident or other incident, you might find that your comprehensive and collision damage won’t provide enough coverage to pay off the amount you owe on the vehicle. Many policies pay only the fair market value of a totaled car, which might be only 80% of the amount you owe. You can buy additional insurance to plug this gap and ensure you can pay off the car loan in full if the vehicle is destroyed or stolen. Normally, car leases require you to buy gap insurance. If you pay cash or pay off your loan, you can save money by avoiding or dropping gap insurance when no longer needed. Top Five Auto Insurers These five insurers all offer full coverage policies and many additional services. Amica Amica is a superstar among car insurers, winning accolades from Consumer Reports and J.D. Powers. It’s known for handling the claims process smoothly. The average annual cost for full coverage: is $1,360. Pros You can have your car repaired at any body shop, without restrictions. Offers a premium package which, for an additional cost, provides full glass coverage, rental coverage, good driving rewards and identity fraud monitoring. Superior financial stability rating from A.M. Best. Cons Missing some discounts, such as military, low-mileage and prepay discounts. Must speak on the phone to get a quote. Sparse website when it comes to customer education. State Farm State Farm is the country’s largest multi-line insurance company. It excels in customer service and regularly garners high marks from customers. The average annual cost for full coverage: is $1,337. Pros Superior financial stability rating from A.M. Best. Excellent online quote tool, getting customers a quote in as little as five minutes. Easy claim handling and top service from its more than 18,000 agents and its easy-to-use mobile app. Cons Doesn’t offer coverage for new car replacements or uninsured motorists. Missing prepayment and automatic payment discounts. The Hartford While only 11th in size, The Hartford is big when it comes to policy options. It offers rates based on your actual driving as well as full replacement of new cars when destroyed shortly after purchase. Average annual cost for full coverage: N/A. Pros Solid benefits, including superior roadside assistance and towing programs. High marks from customers for their purchase experiences. One of the few insurers with mechanical breakdown coverage for out-of-warranty repairs. Cons Mediocre service interaction according to J.D. Power surveys. Sparse online learning materials. Geico Geico is the second-largest U.S. car insurer. It is a favorite among tech-savvy geeks who appreciate the insurer’s mobile app and excellent online service. The average annual cost for full coverage: is $1,627. Pros Geico offers plenty of ways to save, such as multi-vehicle, driving history and vehicle safety equipment discounts. Special savings for active and retired military members and federal employees. Full-featured mobile app for getting quotes, buying insurance, managing your policy, submitting claims, summoning roadside assistance and making payments. Cons Human help may be in short supply, as just about everything is handled online. No gap insurance is offered. USAA No insurer matches USAA for service to military members. Unfortunately, it's only available to active service members, their families and retired veterans. Average annual cost for full coverage: $896. Pros Superior financial stability rating from A.M. Best. Top-ranked purchase experience score from J.D. Power. Cons Missing gap coverage. Doesn’t offer interior vehicle coverage or new car replacement coverage. Limited availability. The Right One for You Competition in the insurance industry helps drive down prices and prompts insurers to offer money-saving features. For example, your carrier might reward you for a safe driving record and for having a long-term relationship with the insurer. The right insurer for you is highly rated for service, offers the exact coverage you want and does so at an unbeatable price. You should always gather multiple quotes before selecting an insurer, and make sure you get credit for all applicable discounts.
Is This the Right Investment for You?
Apple is one of the world’s largest companies and a dominant player in the tech industry. There are 1.4 billion active Apple devices being used around the world, including 900 million iPhones, which is easily Apple’s most popular product. The company also makes iPads, Apple Watches, laptop and desktop computers, and Apple TVs. Finally, it makes billions each year from services, including taking a cut of every paid app downloaded from the app store.
With how important Apple products are in our day-to-day lives, it’s easy to see why somebody would be interested in buying Apple stock. Let’s take a closer look at how you can add one of the world’s best tech giants to your portfolio.
Before You Start
This is a good time to mention that individual stocks are risky investments that could easily go down in value. Although Apple stock has gone up an eye-popping 30.1% each year over the last decade, the stock does fall periodically. For instance, shares fell from $227.26 to $157.74 from Oct. 1 to Dec. 31, 2018. The stock has rebounded since, but still hasn’t surpassed the October high.
If the idea of investing in a stock and seeing it fall in value makes you uncomfortable, it’s a good idea to stick to safer investments. Although the stock market does tend to go up over time, it sometimes doesn’t. Apple, like most other technology investments, is generally regarded to be more risky than the overall market, too.
Some investors might be more comfortable investing in the entire stock market, or even the entire tech sector, rather than choosing Apple directly. Spreading the risk over hundreds of different companies can protect an investor if iPhones suddenly stop selling.
Setting up a Brokerage Account
To buy individual stocks you must first open an account with a brokerage that will serve as a middleman between you, the buyer of the stock, and the person who sells it to you. This is not a hard process, but it will likely take a little bit of time.
30 years ago, almost all stock trading was done on a face-to-face basis, or at least on the phone. You’d have to contact your broker and get them to purchase the stock on your behalf. Brokers charged high commissions for this service because there was no alternative. There are still some brokers who operate with this business model in 2019, but you’ll be hard-pressed to find them.
The much easier solution is to use one of the many online-only, self-service stock brokers. These companies do everything but give advice. They’ll track your account balances, show you your total returns, and even issue forms so you know what income to report to the IRS. You’ll be in charge of all buy or sell decisions, which will be executed either online or through a smartphone app.
Yes, you can buy Apple stock through an app on your Apple iPhone.
The first step is the application process. Be prepared to answer a lot of questions. The information requested will start out pretty basic before asking some personal questions about your total financial standing. The application form alone will likely take 30 to 45 minutes to fill out.
Many of the big banks offer their own online brokerage services, which makes the initial application process much easier. Remember, your bank already has a lot of your financial info on record already. They don’t need to confirm your address or Social Security Number.
Once your application is approved, the next step is funding the account. You don’t need a whole lot of money to get started. In fact, many online brokers will let you open an account before funding it. Transferring cash from your bank account over to your brokerage is as easy as paying a bill online. But be warned: it’ll take at least a couple of business days for the cash to end up in your account.
Buying Apple Stock
Once your brokerage account is all set up and you’ve transferred cash into it, you’re ready to start buying any stock listed on either the New York Stock Exchange or NASDAQ.
While every brokerage is a little different, they all essentially do the same thing. To buy stock you need to tell the brokerage exactly what you want to do and software will execute the transaction.
Say you put $10,000 into your account and want to invest approximately 10% of your portfolio into Apple shares. 10% of $10,000 is $1,000, which means you’ll be looking at buying five shares at today’s price, which is right around $205 per share.
You’ll need to locate the trading part of your broker’s website or app. This won’t be hard, since trading is one of the main ways your broker makes money. They want you to find this page.
Once in the trading page, you’ll have to input all the information needed to execute the trade. You’ll need to tell the site the stock’s ticker symbol (AAPL in this case), how many shares you want to buy, and your choice between a market and a limit order.
A market order will pay the going price for shares and snatch up the stock immediately, while a limit order will insist on getting a price equal to or better than a set number. If Apple stock is currently trading at $205.10, a market order would immediately buy at that price. A limit order for $205.00 would patiently wait until shares dipped to that level.
Once you have the information all filled out and you hit submit, your broker will confirm the transaction. Use this opportunity to ensure you haven’t made a typo somewhere. This is also where the commission for the transaction is disclosed. Once you confirm the transaction, it’s done. You’re the proud owner of a very small part of Apple.
The Bottom Line
This might seem like a daunting process, but it’s really not. Remember, millions of Americans are using online brokerages to buy and sell many stocks, not just Apple. The system is designed to be as easy as possible. You’ll be buying and selling like a fancy finance guy in no time.