[smallhagrid]

I'm so poor I...never mind !!!

The idea of self-insuring is brilliant so long as a person has finances to match.

Good advice that I got from the book "Personal Finance for Dummies": Insure for disasters. Anything else, self-insure.

Also, I see a difference between insurance and a product warranty in that IF the event in question is one of excessive expense like a long-term illness or the cost of replacing a device due to early failure.

Yes:

Of course, there are some exceptions, depending on device and/or person and usage. E.g., Mark's experiences. Or cellphones owned by people who use them very heavily, or who are clumsy with them. Certain devices that are, or appear to be, more prone to failure (e.g., jetBook?, certain DVD recorders, maybe large-screen glass eInk readers], etc.).

Or newly-invented devices which are almost ALL made by Asian makers and simply re-labeled for sellers in other countries en-masse...

Good advice too:

And if you're handy, the web now has disassembly and repair instructions for most electronic devices.

And speaking as a person who is VERY handy, taking the dead JB as an example - it is physically unbroken and may be fixable if I had an entire circuit board for it - much less practical than just having it replaced as a result of the extra $19.99 I chose to spend when I bought it...it even has a sealed in battery; which alone would be more costly than replacement according to the warranty folks !

A GREAT EXAMPLE !:

I got talked into buying a $30 extended warranty for a $100 Sony PDA in 2003. The salesperson said it's a no-brainer because the battery fails within two years, so it more than pays for itself. Still waiting for that battery to fail, or the PDA to fail.

7 years ago in terms of tech gear is an ETERNITY - and back then Sony was making practically ALL their own stuff and was simply KING of QUALITY !!!
Not anymore though, sadly. They've fallen upon terribly hard times.

Things have changed drastically world-wide as a result of finances going nutty and quality as well as conditions have gotten cored-out in ALOT of ways and places.
Small tech devices are now like peanuts.
Use em up and toss em. (Then buy more...)

Have you had a USB stick fail yet ? A hard disk drive made less than 3 years ago ? Perhaps a PC PSU ? Those are all good examples of things suffering from drastically lowered quality in just the last 3 years.

I have PC PSUs still in use that are 12 years old and of a totally outdated standard; vs. others which were made/bought around a year ago which have already failed - another pertinent example of different qualities<->differing vintages.

If I, like a friend of mine, had enough $ to walk in and simply buy 2 new cars with CASH, I would agree with the financial advice you've cited - completely.
By comparison I am NOT in good shape financially and have ZERO disposable funds, so the idea of gambling on adding $20 to a $100 or $200 purchase is a VERY good idea and pays off in a very desirable fashion WHEN it is needed and works as advertised...more often in the current world than ever before in my middle-aged life.

Best Wishes.

mark