Workbook — Insurance · Created October 5, 2026 · 2 min read
Insurance Deductible Calculator
A higher deductible is only a saving if you can pay it.
Raising a deductible lowers the premium every year and raises what you owe in the year you file a claim. Whether that trade is worth it depends on how often you claim and how much cash you could produce tomorrow — two numbers this workbook makes you write down.
What This Workbook Does
- Up to five deductible levels for the same policy, measured against the lowest one as a baseline.
- Premium saved per year and the extra cost if you claim, for each option.
- Break-even years between claims, and the expected annual cost of each option at the claim frequency you enter.
- A cash check: the highest deductible your available cash actually supports.
Break-even years is the extra exposure divided by the annual premium saving; expected annual cost is the premium plus the claim frequency times the deductible.
How to Use It
- Ask your carrier to quote the same policy at three to five deductible levels.
- Put the lowest deductible in the Baseline row; every comparison is measured against it.
- Enter each deductible and its annual premium. Everything else is calculated.
- Read the break-even column: the number of claim-free years each option needs to pay for itself.
- Set the claims-per-year figure honestly.
- Check the cash line at the bottom before choosing. A deductible larger than the cash you can produce this week is not a saving.
What It Will Not Do
This models one variable. It assumes coverage, limits and claim settlement are identical across the options, which is only true when the quotes come from the same carrier on the same policy. Comparing different carriers is a separate exercise.