I was doing the math on how much I’ve spent on car insurance over my lifetime.

More than $120,000.
And how much have I actually gotten back from insurance claims?
Maybe $14,000, if that.
At first, it feels like a complete scam.
You spend decades paying premiums.
Month after month.
Year after year.
And if you’re lucky enough to avoid major accidents, you may never come close to getting back what you paid in.
But then I realized something:
That’s literally how insurance is supposed to work.
You’re not paying for a guaranteed return.
You’re paying to transfer the risk of a financially devastating event to someone else.
The problem is that it doesn’t feel worth it when nothing bad happens.
But the one time you total a car, cause a serious accident, or face a massive liability claim, suddenly those years of premiums can look very different.
Insurance isn’t an investment.
It’s protection against the one disaster you can’t afford to pay for yourself.