Moolala: Money Made Simple with Bruce Sellery
Sep 23, 2026 · 12 min · 8 segments
Buying a home costs far more than the number on the listing. Personal finance expert Rubina Ahmed-Haq joins Bruce Sellery to explain the hidden costs of homeownership, including closing fees, land…
Rubina Ahmed HaqGuest
Bruce SelleryHost
Is that something that one can do in advance or do you kind of like show up in the house? I guess you have to have it in place before you get the mortgage.
I think there's a sequence of events there, but there can be some variability in terms of those insurance quotes, the value of the home and also the value of the contents.
And you can ask the current homeowner, you know, what kind of home insurance do you have and how much do you pay? Because those are those are fair questions.
You can call any insurance company and give them the specs of the home that you're thinking of buying and get a sort of just at least a range of what the cost would be to to insure that home.
Um, my theory is my, my thinking is, is that, um, if I have a $10,000 emergency fund, then my deductible is going to be $10,000.
Cause I know that up to that point, I can afford any, uh, thing that breaks in my home or anything that, you know, I need to, to, to remedy immediately.
Cause as you know, once you use insurance, premiums often go up and I don't want to continue to do that.
You and I have both been talking about emergency funds for a very, very long time.
And people hear that and they feel quite often completely disempowered and overwhelmed because they're just not gonna be able to save that amount of money.
How do you think about maintenance in the cost of an emergency fund? And I say that because it's not a surprise that you live in a house and you live in a house with a furnace.
That to me is different from like a true blue emergency that pops out of nowhere that you couldn't anticipate.
Is that something that one can do in advance or do you kind of like show up in the house? I guess you have to have it in place before you get the mortgage.
I think there's a sequence of events there, but there can be some variability in terms of those insurance quotes, the value of the home and also the value of the contents.
And you can ask the current homeowner, you know, what kind of home insurance do you have and how much do you pay? Because those are those are fair questions.
You can call any insurance company and give them the specs of the home that you're thinking of buying and get a sort of just at least a range of what the cost would be to to insure that home.
Um, my theory is my, my thinking is, is that, um, if I have a $10,000 emergency fund, then my deductible is going to be $10,000.
Cause I know that up to that point, I can afford any, uh, thing that breaks in my home or anything that, you know, I need to, to, to remedy immediately.
Cause as you know, once you use insurance, premiums often go up and I don't want to continue to do that.
You and I have both been talking about emergency funds for a very, very long time.
And people hear that and they feel quite often completely disempowered and overwhelmed because they're just not gonna be able to save that amount of money.
How do you think about maintenance in the cost of an emergency fund? And I say that because it's not a surprise that you live in a house and you live in a house with a furnace.
That to me is different from like a true blue emergency that pops out of nowhere that you couldn't anticipate.
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