Caring to take good backups and the knowledge/skill of doing so is well worth more than $9K in the long run. Losing months of work is a mental killer.
(What's worse is losing 100+ BTC to Gox. :p)
I have not lost anything really important but I cannot live without at least 3 geographically separated backups of generations of backups for something I don't want to lose.
I lost 18 BTC to MtGox... Bought most of them when the exchange rate was about $500.
I knew there was danger in keeping it on the exchange. I wanted to show my girlfriend who bought one of those BTC how easy it was to transfer them to a local machine, to demonstrate the power of Bitcoin because I was passionate about it and thought it had a chance of changing our corrupt banking system.
She kept putting me off, she thought it was some big procedure and just wanted me to do it. I forgot about it after that for a couple of months... Then MtGox exploded.
:-(
If you're out there, MtGox thief, I worked for that BTC. Karma will get you in the end.
(What's worse is losing 100+ BTC to Gox. :p)
I have not lost anything really important but I cannot live without at least 3 geographically separated backups of generations of backups for something I don't want to lose.