Yes! It’s finally here! Well, nearly. Graduation is right around the corner, and with it the promise of freedom, opportunity and the chance to get out from underneath the thumb of your well-meaning but often overbearing parents, teachers, coaches, professors and the annoying boy that sits behind you in history and can’t…quit…kicking…the…back…of…your…chair. You’ve got a lot to do, and not a lot of time to do it in. But wait! Pull back the reins and slow those horses down, because before you go too much further it’s time to start thinking about buying your own car insurance.

Okay, granted, car insurance isn’t nearly as fascinating as job hunting and apartment hunting and making fantastic plans with friends to spend a weekend at a cute small hidey-hole in the Florida Keys. It is, but, equally as vital. As soon as you’re an “adult” and free of the confines of the student scene you’re not going to be covered by your parents’ insurance policy anymore. That means it’s going to be up to you to make sure you’re protected if you’re involved in an accident.

With fantastic power (or in this case, fantastic freedom) comes fantastic responsibility-and, for most people, limited financial resources. The average entry level salary starts between $25,000 and $30,000, which, by the time you’ve figured in rent, food, electricity, telephone, cable, Internet and water bills, along with the cost of your car payment, gasoline and, occasionally, doing something besides watching “Dollhouse” on a Friday night, that doesn’t go as far as you’d reckon it would. You’re going to be pinching pennies for the first couple of years following graduation. Those years aren’t the time to be involved in an accident without car insurance coverage.

The average car costs $20,000. The average emergency room trip is$1,049 (BEFORE the doctor starts writing prescriptions). Add those up, multiply by the number of vehicles and people involved in an accident and solve for X, where X equals the amount of money you’re going to be held legally responsible for after an accident. The cost of an accident involving two cars, where each car holds a driver and a passenger and in which both cars are totaled, can exceed $44,000 dollars.

That’s probably not a bill you want hanging over your head just as you’re getting a feel for being an adult. On the other hand, a excellent car insurance policy that offers comprehensive and collision coverage, as well as personal liability and, if you haven’t already obtained your own health insurance, medical expense protection for you after an accident, can whittle that cost down to $500 or less. Can you reckon of something better to do with $43,500?

Probably.

Along with protection from bills resulting from accidents you cause, a excellent car insurance policy can also protect you from accidents caused by other people who aren’t as well informed about the need for car insurance as you are. Recent studies estimate that by 2010, over 16% of drivers on the road are going to be driving without insurance. If you’re involved in an accident with one of them you’re going to be pulling teeth trying to get back the amount of money you’ve pumped into your car-and the expense of getting that car back on the road so you can get to work.

Car insurance is one of the most vital choices you’re going to make after your huge day, when the strains of “Pomp and Circumstance” have finally died in the air and it’s time to go on with your life. It’s better for everyone to just take a deep breath, close your eyes and sign on the dotted line for your own car insurance policy as soon as possible.