Next Level Adulting: Introduction to the 3-part series
Are you ready to feel really super adult? Well, we’re here now. The adultiest part of adulting is acknowledging that you will not live forever, and preparing for that eventuality. So for the next few weeks we’ll take a deeper dive into three areas of next-level adulting: life insurance, estate planning, and advance directives. If you don’t know what any of those phrases mean, it’s totally fine! Over the next few weeks, I’ll give you a solid introduction to each of these, so that you know where to start with your own planning, even if you don’t do it for a few more years. (Don’t wait too long though!)
Before we get to the next three weeks though, let’s start with some basics for this topic. In general terms, all of the things here fall under end-of-life planning, because (for the most part) they deal with making plans for when you die. [Advance directives also cover what happens if you are incapacitated too - think coma, life support, etc.] There are a few things you can do now, if you’re not ready to tackle the logistical or emotional load of the aforementioned big three.
Beneficiaries
Any financial account that you have will likely allow you to set up beneficiaries, including bank accounts, retirement accounts, and life insurance policies. Beneficiaries are the people who will receive the assets in that account when you pass away. These designations will override any other document that you create (like a will), so make sure that they are up to date. In some cases, you can set up contingent beneficiaries, which is like a tier two of inheritance: contingent beneficiaries will only receive money if the primary beneficiary has passed away.
If you didn’t do this when you opened the account, log in now, and figure out how to set it up — depending on the institution you might have to call them about it, but chances are you can do it online without having to talk to a real person.
Personal inventory
Create a list (physical and digital) of all of your assets and liabilities. For the physical list, create a folder with relevant info, for the digital list, you can have links, attachments, etc.
Some examples might be: a list of financial institutions where you have accounts, account type, and a recent statement.
If you have a secure place to store things, also include logins for these accounts. You could also include things like the title for your car or deed for your home, copies of important documents (birth certificate, marriage license, insurance info, etc).
This can be helpful for two reasons: (i) if you die, there’s one place where your loved ones can find everything they need; (ii) if your house is on fire, there’s one thing that you need to grab.
Last Letter
This isn’t a must, but it’s a beautiful thing to do for your loved ones. Write them a last letter. This can be both logistical: here’s where to find all of the things, here’s the passcode for my phone, etc., and also sentimental: here are some words to encourage you, here are some of my final thoughts, here is a reminder of how much I love you.
This might be especially lovely if you have children who may only have these words and their memories of you as they enter adulthood or grow older.
Here’s what we’ll cover over the next three weeks:
Life Insurance - What is it, exactly? When do you get it? What is it for? What kind to get? How much does it cost?
Estate Planning - What does this even mean? Do I need this if I’m not rich? What’s included? This sounds expensive, is it expensive?
Advance Directives - Girl, what is this? Why does it sound so scary? What documents do I need?
