- - Insurance is a sticky subject and really depends upon your age and your future. Young cruisers with no significant assets at home can run naked and chances are they will be fine. But for the long-time cruisers with significant assets they do not want to lose, maintaining a "link" to your home country and insurance system can save significant
money later. As your age increases the rates on insurance increase dramatically and finally become unattainable except by having to join the "pool". Like
retirement accounts and life insurance, car insurance can lock in a low rate for most of your life - and - more importantly lock-in your eligibility to get other than "pool" insurance.
- - Long term cruisers have only two futures - die on your boat/foreign country or die in your home country having returned for
medical or other reasons. That means maintaining links to insurance in your home country unless you want to totally close out that option. See the threads on
medical insurance for some good information.
- - I
solved the household/personal property and personal liability problem by switching from house to "renters insurance" on my
Storage Unit for all the junk I cannot bear to part with even though I have not seen or used any for the last 10 years. That keeps active my links to my insurance company which handles everything except my vessel insurance. When I visit my "home country" for
family or medical reasons I now have full coverage as if I never left (sort of). It is the famous principle of "not burning bridges you may need to retreat over."