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Given what each of those numbers represents, you must now make a decision. How much damage can you do in the average accident, and how able are you to cover anything that your insurance won't? The answers, for the majority of us, are "a lot" and "not at all" respectively.

Given what each of those numbers represents, you must now make a decision. How much damage can you do in the average accident, and how able are you to cover anything that your insurance won't? The answers, for the majority of us, are "a lot" and "not at all" respectively.

Insurance for death and disability is not the kind of thing the average person can even afford; the average judgement for wrongful death is $2.9 million according to another number I pulled off Google. To be fair, that figure probably has a lot of medical malpractice - translated: deep pockets - figured into it, but wrongful death judgments in general are some of the most expensive you'll ever see. Consider future earnings potential alone; if you make the median $55,000, and you're 30 and plan to retire at 65, you would expect to make $1.925 million in that time. If someone accidentally killed you tomorrow, that's the least your family could expect to get in a judgement.

Insurance for death and disability is not the kind of thing the average person can even afford; the average judgement for wrongful death is $2.9 million according to another number I pulled off Google. To be fair, that figure probably has a lot of medical malpractice - translated: deep pockets - figured into it, but wrongful death judgments in general are some of the most expensive you'll ever see. Consider future earnings potential alone; if you make the median $55,000, and you're 30 and plan to retire at 65, you would expect to bring home $1.925 million in that time. If someone accidentally killed you tomorrow, that's the least your family could expect to get in a judgement; it would be easy to argue for about another million more in retirement savings (which is your $2.9m right there). On top of that, there are less significant but still individually-insurmountable damages for loss of companionship, bereavement, medical expenses (they still send you a bill if you die), funeral expenses, your pain and suffering (if you weren't instantly killed) and punitive damages (if the death was considered a direct result of "willful disregard for human life"; basically if the circumstances were so preventable it took effort not to prevent them).

Another different example; same red light, same you running it, only one guy in the other car... which is now a brand-new $80,000 BMW 6-series. Just to spice things up, he had a $3000 laptop in his briefcase on what used to be the passenger seat, that's now a crumpled hunk of metal and silicon. He's fine, thank God, but seriously cheesed off that his laptop and his midlife crisis are total losses. Your 50/100/50 plan? Leaves you on the hook for $33k in property damages. A 100/300/100 plan would have covered it (albeit probably putting you on public transit or a van pool for the next 3 years; a driver who totals a car is automatically put in the highest-risk pool of covered drivers).

So, to answer the question, look around. See the other cars around you on the road on your next commute. What is the average blue book value of those cars? How many people, on average, are in each one? You pretty much need insurance sufficient to ensure you can walk away from an accident not owing a penny for any level of damages you may incur that don't result in permanent disability or death. Insurance for those events is not the kind of thing the average person can even afford; the average judgement for wrongful death is $2.9 million according to another number I pulled off Google.

Another different example; same red light, same you running it, only one guy in the other car... which is now a brand-new $80,000 BMW 6-series. Just to spice things up, he had a $3000 laptop in his briefcase on what used to be the passenger seat, that's now a crumpled hunk of metal and silicon. He's fine, thank God, but seriously cheesed off that his laptop and his midlife crisis are total losses. Your 50/100/50 plan? Leaves you on the hook for $33k in property damages. A 100/300/100 plan would have covered it in full (albeit probably putting you on public transit or a van pool for the next 3 years; a driver who totals a car worth more than 50 large is automatically put in the highest-risk pool of covered drivers).

So, to answer the question, look around. See the other cars around you on the road on your next commute. What is the average blue book value of those cars? How many people, on average, are in each one? You pretty much need insurance sufficient to ensure you can walk away from an accident not owing a penny for any level of damages you may incur that don't result in permanent disability or death. 

Insurance for death and disability is not the kind of thing the average person can even afford; the average judgement for wrongful death is $2.9 million according to another number I pulled off Google. To be fair, that figure probably has a lot of medical malpractice - translated: deep pockets - figured into it, but wrongful death judgments in general are some of the most expensive you'll ever see. Consider future earnings potential alone; if you make the median $55,000, and you're 30 and plan to retire at 65, you would expect to make $1.925 million in that time. If someone accidentally killed you tomorrow, that's the least your family could expect to get in a judgement.