Telling yourself you’re covered isn’t enough. You must buy the correct amount insurance to protect yourself in case of an accident.

Even though it’s the law to have auto insurance, some people choose to ignore the law and not carry any insurance. Even if they do have insurance, that does not mean they have enough insurance to cover all your medical bills if you are severely injured in an accident. When purchasing insurance it’s important to protect your assets and yourself.

When trying to protect your assets, you want to make sure to carry enough liability insurance. This is the money your insurance company pays if you are at fault for the accident. Most states set the minimum at $25,000. Even if you have less than $25,000 in assets, its always wise to purchase more than the state minimum in liability coverage. A good rule of thumb is carry at least $100,000 per individual, $300,000 per accident in liability insurance (often referred as a 100/300 policy). This should be enough to cover 99% of all accidents you may be involved in.

When trying to protect yourself, make sure to purchase enough Under Insured Motorist (UIM) and Uninsured Motorist (UM). UIM protects you from someone that didn’t carry enough insurance. UM protects you from someone that didn’t have any insurance at all. Carry enough in both of these coverages to ensure you are not stuck paying medical bills because someone didn’t have enough insurance or didn’t have any insurance at all. The great thing about UIM/UM is that both are super cheap to add to your policy. I recommend at least $100,000/$300,000 in both UIM and UM coverage.

Tip: When shopping for insurance, some agents will try to cut out or minimize UIM/UM to “save” you a few dollars in an attempt to gain your business. Do not fall into this trap. This is the cheapest and most important insurance to carry on your own policy.