Look at the advertising splurge on television and you will know it is the season that insurance companies pull out all stops to get you to spend your Rs.1.5 lakh in yet more insurance policies. Before you succumb to the hard sell this year as well and add a 10th policy to the already useless bag of policies, consider this year’s decision as a financial one. What does that mean? It means that you weigh costs and benefits, and take a rational decision, and not one that you take either because of a soppy advertisement or because you want to get rid of the insurance agent who is calling every 10 minutes. Don’t underestimate the leech-like attributes of agents—a friend called once in a panic because the agent was refusing to leave her home without the cheque; not knowing how to make him go away, she was considering writing a cheque just so he would go.