"Insurance: The Necessary Evil" is something you normally only hear if you work in the insurance industry. However, no description could be more appropriate. Insurance is both absolutely necessary and potentially very detrimental to our financial well-being. In the next three chapters, we will learn the reasons we need – and don't need – insurance and why we must always keep our backs to the wall when we deal with the insurance industry. This first presentation discusses homeowners and renters insurance.