We are almost ten days into the new year and I haven’t been here in over a month. No, I didn’t take a ceremonial end of the year social media break or anything like that. I just haven’t had anything to say. One thing I’ve come to understand about myself is that I value silence. There is so much to learn in the quiet. I also understand that the world has an absurdly short attention span. The less you have to say the more likely you are to be forgotten. Luckily for me, I’m not worried about being forgotten. I’m sure hardly anyone knows this space exists. And that is completely fine with me. Now that that is out of the way….
I ended 2018 having serious discussions about money. Spending money. Managing money. Saving money. Setting ones self up for an inevitable future. Money. A question was posed to me about life insurance and renters insurance. I have neither. The question got me to thinking about the unthinkable. The new year always encourages you to focus on the things you want to change so I started looking into getting myself some insurance. I started with renters insurance, it being relatively cheap and considering I have a budding art collection, I figured it would be wise to get some.
I went to the googles and started my search. Buying renters insurance is like buying car insurance. You can go to one site and they will find you the best rate. Awesome. Filling out the info, I had to figure out how much insurance I actually need. I mentally appraised the contents of my apartment and settled on an amount above what was recommended (I like nice things and art). I am then matched with a company and quoted a rate. Reasonable. Ready to pull the trigger, I scan the site for any fine print I may have missed and I notice a link for the breakdown of the policy coverage. It didn’t occur to me before that I didn’t know exactly what was going to be covered. I was not thinking about it like car insurance. This link was very eye opening. The insurance policy I was ready to buy only covers my items up to the individual coverage limits and doesn’t cover damage that is the result of a natural disaster. Awesome. $2,000 for furniture, $5,000 for electronics, $1,000 for art and collectibles. When I saw that last figure my jaw dropped. Only $1,000 for fine art. How is it possible that the insurance limit for original artwork was only one thousand dollars? If you are fortunate enough to own works above that price point what are you to do? Everyone talks about buying art and supporting artists but no one talks about maintaining your investment.
It can be quite overwhelming when you think about it, maintaining your investment. I saw a post on twitter once that said something like “no one tells you it cost more to frame the print than what you actually paid for the print.” I felt that. The only works I have that are professionally framed I purchased that way. Framing is expensive! This search for the best way to insure my assets has given me a headache and anxiety. Doing the work of compiling all the bills of sale and any certificates of authenticity, photographing each piece, getting an actual appraisal on the pieces; it’s a lot. But it’s also necessary. We can’t invest in things we can’t afford to protect. We also can’t claim ignorance once we learn what we didn’t previously know (and google is free). I did find a site that will catalog your archive and keep all of your paperwork in order. I’m also eager to highlight the artists and works in my collection. Soon come.
I find myself having more and more of these conversations about things that feel very adult. Like insurance. The closer you get to 40 the more illuminated these things become. Which opens the door for another conversation about access to information, class and cultural norms. A conversation I don’t feel like having today.
The important thing is that in 2019 it is on my radar and something I won’t continue to ignore. It’s information I am sharing and I’ll finally know what the work I’ve collected is worth. Win win.