Cooking the Books podcast: The common insurance mistake NZers are making

The valuables you need to insure may not be what you think. Photo / file

Each week the NZ Herald and Newstalk ZB's Cooking the Books podcast tackles a different money problem. Today, it's how to figure out what insurance is worth getting, and what's not. Hosted by Frances Cook.

Insurance is one of those areas that gets murky even for the experts.

There are lots of different things you can insure, from your stuff, to your house, even pets or your health.

There's also insurance for your income, and one rather worrying statistic shows about 55,000 NZ households lose their main source of income each year, whether that's because of accident, illness, or unemployment.

Most of us need that income to get by, yet only about 15 per cent of us have income protection insurance.

But what's hard about insurance more generally is knowing when it's worth it. Insurance can cost a lot, and while it gives you peace of mind, you also want to be sure you get the benefits that make it worthwhile.

There is a school of thought that says you should "self-insure" – otherwise known as making sure you have enough savings to replace something yourself, if disaster strikes.

That can work well for the small stuff.

Happily the Herald has rolled out a series on insurance, putting all aspects under a microscope, so now we're going to see what top tips have come through.

For the latest Cooking the Books I talked to Herald money editor Tamsyn Parker.

We discussed what most people are missing, how to figure out what you need for your life, and common areas of overinsurance.

For the interview, watch the video podcast above, or play the audio here.

You can read more about the insurance series here:

Insurance - are you covered?:
Monday: What you need and what you don't
Tuesday: House, contents and car insurance
Wednesday: Health insurance
Thursday: Life and income protection insurance
Friday: Travel insurance
Saturday: All your insurance questions answered plus the best tips and advice from the experts

If you have a question about this podcast, or question you'd like answered in the next one, come and talk to me about it. I'm on Facebook here, Instagram here and Twitter here.

You can subscribe to this podcast on iHeartRadio, Apple podcasts app, or Spotify, to make sure you never miss an episode.