# Case: Sam's family protection checklist > Nine protection options and 1,500 UAH a month: choose what to insure, what to save for, and add fraud rules and a money map. - Course: [Personal Finance: Budget, Safety Cushion, Debt and Investing](https://productovi.com/courses/personal-finance.md) - Module: How to protect what you have? - Lesson 28/32, ~28 min - Source: https://productovi.com/courses/personal-finance/protection-checklist-case ## 1,500 a month for protection **Alex Tutor:** You're still helping Sam's family, and now they want to protect what they have. **Sam:** It's August. We agreed to spend up to 1,500 UAH a month on protection, and I've collected every quote we were offered. Help us not to waste it. **Dataset (CSV):** [Sam's family: protection options, August 2027](https://productovi.com/datasets/personal-finance/protection-checklist-case/sam-protection-options.csv) Example quotes invented for the course, not market prices. Incomes 31,000 + 25,000 UAH a month; savings about 10,000; budget up to 1,500 a month (18,000 a year). - `option`: The protection option - `protects_against`: The loss it covers - `loss_uah`: Rough size of one such loss, UAH - `chance_pct_year`: Chance in a year, %, for frequent small losses only; blank = rare, not estimated - `premium_uah_year`: Example premium a year, UAH; blank = no policy offered - `deductible_uah`: Part of each loss the family pays itself, UAH - `war_risks`: excluded, covered or n/a (not applicable) **Alex Tutor:** Every premium here is an example quote, so the method matters more than the prices. Two rules from this module: big losses first, and read what a policy excludes before you pay. **Sofia:** The biggest losses are the two incomes: 1,860,000 and 1,500,000. Then the home policy, with flooding the neighbours in it. **Sam:** Our building was hit by debris last year. The war add-on matters to us. **Alex Tutor:** Then take both life covers, the basic home policy and the war add-on. What do those four cost in a year? > **Exercise:** From the dataset: what do **life_sam, life_partner, home_basic and home_war_option** cost together in a year? In UAH. ## What the policies leave out **Sam:** 16,200 a year, 1,350 a month. Under budget, with 1,800 a year to spare. **Alex Tutor:** Before you sign anything, look at the war_risks column. What does a policy marked excluded mean for you? **Sofia:** That it won't pay if the loss comes from shelling or a drone. Both life covers are marked that way. **Sam:** Then is life cover worth anything here? **Alex Tutor:** It still pays in the cases it covers, such as illness, and the income loss is too big to leave open. But know exactly what's excluded, and ask insurers whether a war-risk option exists and what it costs. > **Exercise:** Which of these options in the dataset **exclude war risks**? Select all that apply. ## The row with no premium **Sofia:** The last row has no premium at all: the seasonal contract ending. And it's the only big loss with a chance in the table, 30% a year. **Alex Tutor:** Multiply it out: the expected yearly loss is bigger than all the premiums together. And nobody in the table sells cover for it. **Sam:** So our 10,000 of savings is the only thing standing between us and three months without my pay. **Alex Tutor:** Yes. That's why the spare 1,800 a year, and more if you can, goes to the cushion rather than to one more policy. > **Exercise:** The job_loss row: a 93,000 UAH loss with a 30% chance in a year. What is the **expected loss per year**? In UAH. ## The gadget covers **Sam:** My wife still likes the phone warranty and the laptop cover. Together they're 2,525 a year. **Sofia:** Their expected repairs are 400 + 480 = 880 a year. So you'd pay about three times what you'd get back on average. **Alex Tutor:** And both repairs, 4,000 and 6,000, fit in the cushion. That's the small-and-rare box. **Sam:** Fair. Though if both broke in the same month, the cushion would be gone. > **Exercise:** The gadget covers cost 2,525 a year for 880 of expected repairs. Sam worries that both devices could break in the same month. What is the **best** answer? ## Protection that costs nothing **Alex Tutor:** Insurance is only one part of the checklist. Two more cost nothing but an evening: rules against fraud, and access to money if one of you can't act. **Sam:** Right now everything goes through my phone: the rent, the kindergarten, the card. And the savings sit in the same app as my everyday card. **Sofia:** Then one stolen code reaches everything, and one hospital stay stops everything. **Alex Tutor:** Exactly. Write the non-insurance part first: three or four concrete lines. > **Exercise:** Write the non-insurance part of Sam's checklist in 3–5 concrete lines: rules against fraud and access to money if one of them can't act. Fix the two problems Sam named: everything runs through his phone, and the savings sit next to his everyday card. ## The checklist **Sam:** Now the whole thing, please. One page my wife and I can follow and check once a year. **Alex Tutor:** Numbers first: what you buy, what it costs a month, what you skip and why. Then exclusions, the cushion, fraud rules, the money map and access. **Sofia:** And a date to look at it again. **Alex Tutor:** Yes. And the usual rule: these are example quotes; check real terms and your own situation before buying. It's education, not personal advice. > **Exercise:** Write Sam's family protection checklist. > **Key ideas** > > - Big losses first: both life covers, the basic home policy and the war add-on cost **16,200 a year (1,350 a month)**, under the 18,000 budget. > - Read the exclusions: 5 of the 7 policies offered exclude war risks; ask whether a war-risk option exists. > - The seasonal contract ending (93,000, 30% a year, expected 27,900 a year) can't be insured: the spare budget goes to the cushion, which is 83,000 short of three months of Sam's pay. > - The gadget covers cost 2,525 a year for 880 of expected repairs: pay those from the cushion. > - Free protection: a family rule for calls and codes, the cushion away from the everyday card, the money map, each adult's own card and buffer. > - Review the checklist once a year and after any big change. **Alex Tutor:** That's the module: insure what you can't afford to lose, save for what you can, lock the doors fraudsters use, and leave a map. Next module: what you're saving for. - Previous lesson: [Documents and access: if something happens](https://productovi.com/courses/personal-finance/documents-and-access.md) - Next lesson: [Goals with a price and a date](https://productovi.com/courses/personal-finance/goals-with-a-price-and-a-date.md) --- Productovi Learning. Free, no sign-up needed to read.