MW The scariest part of buying my fiancée's engagement ring (hint: it wasn't the price)
By Weston Blasi
How I found peace of mind after making one of the most important purchases of my life - and what I learned can help you, too
If your jewelry is worth more than $2,000, you should consider getting insurance for it.
Need a win this Super Bowl week? Here's some championship-level money advice no matter which team you're rooting for on Sunday!
- Weston Blasi
BIG MONEY IDEA OF THE WEEK: Is your jewelry worth more than $2,000? Better get insurance for it.
The scariest thing about buying my fiancée's engagement ring wasn't the months of saving up money, nor the anxiety of wondering if she'd love every little detail of the ring I'd picked out for her. It actually came a week after I proposed, when I went out to dinner with a good friend who had proposed to his girlfriend a few months before.
"You didn't buy insurance for your ring?!" he shouted at me over chips and salsa.
Nope. It's not something I had even considered while I was worrying about the cut, carat, clarity and color. I didn't even know you could buy insurance for jewelry.
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After doing some research, I decided to get insurance. And if you're in the market for an engagement ring - it's proposal season, after all - or a sparkly Valentine's Day gift, then you should, too. Already purchased your piece? Now is still a great time to consider getting it appraised and insured - before something happens to it.
"As with any insurance, there's a risk-benefit analysis," Michael Page of Boston's Hingham Jewelers? told me. "For most customers, anything above the value of $2,000 is what people try to insure. That's the sweet spot."
Considering the average cost of an engagement ring was $5,200 last year, according to the Knot, and one-third of engaged couples spent less than $3,000, it's a safe bet that most engagement rings should be insured.
So what should you consider before buying insurance?
Insurance can be purchased from companies that concentrate on specialty coverage, like Jewelers Mutual, or it can be added to a homeowners or renters policy. While policies will vary, insurance for jewelry typically costs between 1% and 2% of a piece's value per year, so insuring a $10,000 piece would cost roughly $100 to $200 per year, protecting it against both theft and damage.
Another reason to consider insurance right now: There might be some "sneaky" pieces in your jewelry collection, Page said, like gold chains and bracelets that may be more valuable than you think considering the recent swings in gold and silver prices. After all, gold rose above $5,000 per ounce for the first time ever in January, and silver exceeded $100 an ounce (before tanking). So the insane volatility of the price of precious metals recently is another reason to look at insuring any precious-metal pieces.
Appraisals can be done at jewelry stores or online, and usually take only a few minutes. Pricing varies, but Jewelers Mutual notes that appraisals typically cost $50 to $150 per hour, or a flat fee per piece. Some places like Geico will give you a free jewelry-insurance quote.
That peace of mind is priceless.
"The average consumer would feel pinched replacing a piece for $5,000 [or] $10,000," Page said. "That would not be a fun thing to replace."
No, it would not. A week after I purchased the insurance, my fiancée misplaced her engagement ring. It took a few minutes to find it, but I wasn't worried. We were covered.
DEFINITION OF THE WEEK: 'Buy the dip'
"Buying the dip" is a common investing term used to describe purchasing stocks, or other assets, after they have fallen in price. While the idea of buying stock at a cheaper price sounds good in theory, buying the dip in practice - and trying to time the market - is complicated.
That's because you never know how long a stock-market dip will last, assuming it is temporary, or what the markets will do any given day. In recent months alone, the S&P 500 SPX, the U.S.'s benchmark stock index, has made big daily moves based on tariff threats, international tensions, inflation worries and other factors. So instead of trying to time things correctly, simply investing on a regular schedule with a long-term strategy is widely recommended.
"If you have cash to invest - now is always a great time to get in," said Edward Hadad, a certified financial planner at Financial Asset Management Corp. "Stocks can go on sale, but you need a plan. We don't believe in market timing or waiting for the dip."
FIVE STORIES FOR YOU
-- Is the half-pounder the new Quarter Pounder? As fast-food chains beef up their burgers, McDonald's 1,057-calorie Big Arch may be coming to America.
-- Colorado football coach Deion Sanders's proposed fines for team infractions - up to $5,000 in some cases - are further blurring the line between college and pro sports these days.
-- Some teens have given up on the American dream. Here's what they're investing in instead.
-- Here's how to protect your refund as the understaffed IRS faces a challenging tax season - with the second government shutdown of this congressional term threatening to complicate things further.
-- Think you can't afford to buy a home? More than half of down-payment assistance programs are now open to buyers earning over $100K.
BETTING ON THE SUPER BOWL: Prediction Markets vs. DraftKings and FanDuel
Super Bowl LX is this Sunday with the New England Patriots and the Seattle Seahawks set for a rematch of Super Bowl XLIX in 2015 - when the Patriots secured victory with an end-zone interception in the closing seconds.
Super Bowl Sunday is the biggest sports-betting day of the year, and some bettors may be looking beyond DraftKings $(DKNG)$ and FanDuel $(FLUT)$ this year, and opting to try out a different method: prediction markets.
Prediction markets are platforms for event contracts with "yes" or "no" options that allow participants to forecast whether a future event will happen. Each contract is built on a "yes" or "no" outcome, and the price range of between $0.01 and $0.99 reflects what the collective market thinks of that outcome's likelihood.
If the "yes" contract for New England to win the Super Bowl is trading at $0.32, as was the case Monday, that means the market believes the Patriots have a 32% chance of an upset. A winning "yes" bet on the Patriots turns your $0.32 contract into $1, and a Patriots loss would turn it to zero. There are several private companies that offer prediction-market trading, such as Kalshi, and some publicly traded companies like Robinhood (HOOD) offer it, too.
These event contracts are allowed nationwide (with some exceptions), unlike traditional sports betting, which is legislated on a state-by-state basis. You can take positions on predication markets on all sorts of things besides sports outcomes, such as who will win the next presidential election, or whether it will rain tomorrow, or who the next pope will be.
Taking a position on prediction markets is still risky. While it could be used as a hedge in your portfolio if you're taking positions on something like whether the Federal Reserve will adjust interest rates, it may be difficult to make money over the long term from these kinds of wagers. "There is some degree of risk," Kalshi's website concedes.
So if you do want to try the prediction markets, perhaps start with low dollar amounts, with money you can afford to lose.
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-Weston Blasi
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February 03, 2026 09:52 ET (14:52 GMT)
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