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đ° Why your insurance costs more today
January 29, 2025 |
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Whoa, watch out on this Wednesday, friend. NASA is tracking a massive asteroid thatâll shoot past Earth today. Itâs traveling 10 times faster than a speeding bullet, weighs as much as a blue whale and is slightly smaller than a school bus. The good news is it should stay a comfy 511,000 miles away from the planet. âď¸ Another newly discovered âasteroidâ came less than 150,000 miles away from Earth, closer than the moonâs orbit. It turned out to be ⌠a Tesla roadster. Elon Muskâs SpaceX launched âStarmanâ during rocket testing in 2018. That just fires me up to make sure youâre never left techâbehind! â Kim đŁ Donât keep me a secret: Share the email with friends (or copy URL here) |
TODAY’S TOP STORYCar insurance super expensive? Itâs not just you![]() My car insurance just went up 32%. Did I have an accident or get a few tickets? Nope. Across the U.S., the average full-coverage car insurance bill went up 25% last year. In some states, it was closer to 40%. Geez. The main reason? Todayâs high-tech vehicles cost way more to repair. You don’t need to own a high-tech car to feel the pinch, though; it’s hitting everyone. Driving up costsModern cars are packed with dozens of sensors and endless lines of computer code. Combine that with the rising cost of replacement parts and repairs, and voila â soaring auto insurance rates. No wonder the average collision insurance claim jumped 64% between 2018 and 2022. In 2023, auto insurance rates climbed 20%, the biggest increase since 1976. The rate increases are slowing a bit, but thereâs no telling how tariffs could impact that. About 60% of car parts used in repairs are imported from China. Let’s look under the hoodIn 2018, Toyota redesigned its uber-popular Camry. The number of parts in the front bumper alone increased from 18 to 43. Most are related to advanced driver-assist features. The upgrades also mean a front-end collision repair is 43% more expensive. Itâs not just driver-assist jacking up costs.
Smart ways to saveI make it my business to find the best ways to save. Then, I pass them along to you. Letâs do this.
The million-dollar questionâShould I install one of those trackers to get a discount?â I wrote all about what they collect here. In a nutshell: For me, the discount isnât worth it. Review your plan, talk to your agent, and see how much youâll really save by letting them know everywhere you go ⌠and every time you hit the gas or slam on the brakes. You know theyâll use and sell the data in so many ways. đ Why does pasta always have to pay so much for car insurance? It can’t drive a car without making it al dente. (That was a good one if I do say so myself.) |
KIM KOMANDO TODAYWhat to know about DeepSeekDid China just win the AI race? Meet the AI models outperforming the heavy hitters in price and performance, triggering a global tech selloff. |
DEALS OF THE DAYSavings on lockđŚ Special deliveries to give you a little more peace of mind.
đ Need more outlets? This wall changer (35% off) gives you six, plus two USB charging ports and a night-light. Yay, no fiddling around in the dark! |
WEB WATERCOOLERđ¨đł Did DeepSeek lie? Probably. The Chinese-run AI company sent American tech stocks crashing after reporting it only cost âem $5.6 million to chat up to ChatGPT and all the rest. Nvidia lost $600 billion (down 17%) on Monday, the worst drop since March 2020. Turns out that was some creative math. DeepSeek spent that much training its V3 model but has invested $500 million in its tech since 2023. For the record, thatâs still pretty low compared to U.S. companies, which spent upwards of $50 billion. ICYMI, hereâs more about DeepSeek. Picture this: DeepSeek says its AI image generator is better than DALLâE 3 and Stable Diffusion. It used 72 million AI images, along with a crapload of real-world data, to train JanusâProâ7B. I donât think itâs that great. Try it here on a phone or computer you donât use all the time. Thereâs no telling what the Chinese are doing in the background. Bet heâs a peach to be around right now: Mark Zuckerbergâs got four âwar roomsâ going at Meta HQ to figure out DeepSeekâs secrets. Two teams are focused on training and operating costs; the other two are digging into how the data might level up Metaâs next Llama model. Think about this: All the U.S.-based AI companies just got a kick in the butt to do better. Last laugh: Trolls helped Amy Schumer figure out she has Cushingâs syndrome. The condition makes your body produce too much cortisol (the stress hormone), causing facial swelling known as âmoon face.â Guess online haters are good for something. RadioShack lives: The last store closed in 2017, but the electronics retailerâs back online selling SD cards for dirt cheap. Donât let nostalgia fool you; that 32GB card for under $6 is as outdated as RadioShack itself and runs at a slow 10MB/s. Faster cards (30MB/s) are $19. Hereâs a better option on Amazon for $20. Swatting spree: Youâre sitting at home when the SWAT team rushes in, convinced someone inside just committed murder and has explosives set up. A 23-year-old in Wisconsin, along with another guy, hacked into the familyâs Ring camera and called the cops with that story. Once police arrived, they livestreamed it all. One of them is already serving 17 years in prison. If you have a Ring camera, turn on 2FA. đ¨âđŠâđ§âđŚ Chosen family: This number surprised me: About 27% of folks are estranged from their families. So sad. Enter the 11,000-member Facebook group Surrogate Grandparents USA. Donna Skora, a retired paralegal in Florida, started it in 2015. Folks can post ads or respond to othersâ requests for surrogate grandparents. Itâs helped people like Karen Tautges Malinak, a goat farmer in Minnesota whoâs lost touch with her daughters. |
Your own fountain of youthWeâre not getting any younger. Thereâs no better time to upgrade your routine with the boosting powers of collagen, scientifically proven to help with the signs of aging. Starting in our 30s, collagen production naturally slows down. That could be why you feel a little creakier in the morning and even after a good nightâs sleep, your skin doesnât glow like it used to. Thatâs where NativePath Collagen comes in. It can help with:
Itâs so easy to get the collagen your body is craving. Just add two scoops of NativePathâs flavorless, single-ingredient supplement to whatever you want. I like it in my morning tea. And voila, just like that, you get 20 grams of collagen protein. For a limited time, get 45% off and free shipping! â Please support our sponsors! |
DIGITAL LIFE HACKHave a TP-Link router? This is seriousTheyâre linked to security risks and cyberattacks. Thereâs an important step to take before replacing yours. |
TECH LIFE UPGRADESđ All work and no play: Get through your afternoon slump (or teach your kid to spell) by plugging this prompt into any chatbot: âLet’s play hangman. Think of a word, and I’ll guess one letter at a time. I get six wrong guesses before itâs game over. Each wrong answer adds a part to the hangman with ASCII art.â So fun! Big Tech decides what you see: It doesnât have to be that way. StartMail is my pick for the best privacy-first email. Itâs super easy to switch over your contacts and mail, or you can treat it as a fresh inbox for only your VIPs. Save 60% now with my special link.* Tip tap: Navigate with just your keyboard. On a PC, hit the Windows key + T to highlight the first icon on your taskbar, then use the arrow keys to move through the bar. Press Enter to open an app. On Mac, hold down Cmd + Tab for a list of open apps. Use the arrows to navigate, and release the keys when you reach the one you want. đ Google Maps pro tip: You donât need to know the exact name of something to find it. Search Maps for general terms, like âplants and trees,â âframe shopâ or âdog park,â and Google will find you spots that match. 68 to 70 degrees: Your thermostatâs sweet spot during winter to keep you comfy without raising your heating bill. Pro tip: Turn it down by 7 to 10 degrees for the hours youâre at work. You may save up to 10% a year. A smart thermostat makes it easy to maintain a schedule. Kim K. uses the FaceTune app: Not me â the other Kim K. Sheâs one of the many celebs who use it to look great in every photo on social media. Itâs free to download, but there are a ton of in-app purchases. Expect to shell out $30 a year for all the editing features and to remove watermarks. More here. |
BY THE NUMBERS$300,000 Paid over six months to TikTokkers willing to jump ship and go Instagram-exclusive. Metaâs contracts, which were sent to certain influencers with 1 million followers or more, are broken down into tiers (paywall link). The top one pays $50,000 a month to post 10 Reels between 15 seconds and 3 minutes in length. Iâd take that hourly rate. 11% higher Salary for pretty people. Researchers followed 43,000 MBA grads, and the ones seen as conventionally attractive make more than their homely peers. The disparity was largest in management and consulting and smallest in technical fields, like IT and engineering. Iâm still deciding if I should be offended ⌠17 Solution the French-governed AI chatbot gave to 5(3+2). (The answer is 25.) The bot, Lucie, also said, âCowâs eggs, also known as chickenâs eggs, are edible eggs produced by cows.â The bot is offline now. So, to recap, we need to worry about China in the AI race and definitely not France. Noted. |
WHAT THE TECH?![]() RIP to the very-popular-on-social-media Saint Norbert Liv Freyermuth Steines, aka Norbert, the 3-pound therapy dog. |
UNTIL NEXT TIME …I wrote about IRS free filing and got a bunch of questions about TurboTax. Stay away. Theyâre infamously tricky and find reasons to charge you. Here are two actually free federal filing options: Cash App Taxes and FreeTaxUSA. The IRS has a list of other apps and programs on its site. đ Why do accountants hate pre-tax income? Itâs gross. Stop putting off a hard conversation. Get your life insurance plans squared away. Fabric makes it fast and easy.* Sign up online, with no health exams required. Thanks for being here, friend. Iâll be back in your inbox tomorrow with more news you can use, tips youâll thank me for and jokes youâll roll your eyes at, all in the best newsletter in the USA! Until then, be the rock star you are! â Kim |
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