Hurricane season 2023: has begun for the Atlantic basin. The season officially starts on June 1st and ends on November 30th — although these dates aren’t always 100% accurate. The natural disaster could technically happen before and after these dates, but it’s not as common.
You want to be ready for hurricane season. You have built yourself a hurricane disaster kit. You have trimmed tree branches in the yard so that they won’t blow onto your house. You’ve installed storm doors and flood protection devices. And you have an escape plan in case the storm warning is severe, and you need to flee before it reaches your area.
Follow These Tips for Hurricane Season
What other preparations could you possibly need to make before a Hurricane Season? You’ll want to make some financial preparations so that if the worst comes to worst, you can handle the damages to your home without too much strain.
1. Get Insured
As a homeowner, you will already have a homeowners insurance policy. While this is helpful in the case of most disasters, it’s not always helpful with hurricanes. This is because certain types of damage are exempt from standard homeowners insurance policies, including water damage from overland flooding.
Double-check to see what your own policy says it will and won’t cover. You might be surprised by what’s left out. Your policy might also have a hurricane deductible, which typically ranges between 1% to 10% of your house’s insured value. So, you could be responsible for paying a very large deductible if you end up submitting a claim.
How do you get more insurance coverage? You can sign up for supplemental insurance policies to fill this coverage gap and protect yourself in the case of a hurricane. For instance, you can sign up for flood insurance. If a hurricane ends up flooding your neighborhood and putting part of your home underwater, your flood insurance can help you recover from the damages.
You might also want to sign up for a windstorm and hail policy — this could be extremely useful for recovering from hurricane damages.
2. Make an Inventory
Once you’ve signed up for your insurance plans, you should take inventory of your house and belongings. This will come in handy if you need to make an insurance claim. It’s better to do this now, when everything is in order, than to do it when the house is damaged.
How can you take inventory?
- Take pictures of the house (both the interior and exterior)
- Make lists of belongings (for example, you have 20 shirts, 10 pairs of pants, 2 jackets, and 6 boxes of shoes in your closet)
- Collect any receipts that prove the value of your belongings
- Record serial numbers for major electronics
Don’t just keep a paper copy of this inventory. You will want a digital copy that’s properly backed up. You don’t want to lose all of your records when it comes time to make a claim.
3. Set Up an Emergency Fund
If you don’t already have an emergency fund, you should start building one now. An emergency fund is a collection of savings specifically reserved for urgent, unplanned expenses that are outside of the boundaries of your usual budget. So, this could be a household repair that isn’t covered by any of your insurance plans. It could also be a deductible that you are responsible for paying before receiving an approved insurance payout.
You don’t want to be without an emergency fund when something goes wrong. Without those savings set aside, you may not be able to afford to cover an urgent expense out of pocket. In that case, you may need to consider going to a website like CreditFresh and looking into a personal loan as a solution. As long as you meet all of the eligibility requirements, you could get approved for the personal loan, which you could then use to manage your expense in a short amount of time. After resolving that expense, you would have to follow a straightforward loan repayment plan through a monthly billing cycle.
Ideally, a personal loan should be seen as a last resort. Prioritize having an emergency fund so that you don’t have to apply for one of them.
Hurricane season could be a disaster for your finances. So, follow these tips to prepare for any storm coming your way!