Jonathan here. Being woke up by my wife crying because the donations just aren't stopping is both heart-breaking and comforting. For those of you who haven't seen the 'Bucket List' post, here's what it says at the very top: As I try to deal with the reality that is my impending death I can't help but wonder how many things I might have been able to accomplish given just a little more time. When I was diagnosed, I had…
> I'll be paying cobra rates to keep the same coverage. I have no idea how expensive this will be but I don't expect it to be cheap.
It's really expensive even for young, healthy guys. I would imagine this would be more than your mortgage payment.
So the house you purchased and the van you upgraded to are not yours, disposing of your body costs more than a car, visiting family means you have to stay in a hotel, the basic survival needs of your wife and four children are not guaranteed and you want to visit Disneyland and meet celebrities before you die? Capitalism is beautiful.
Capitalism is beautiful. It's the reason someone built the home that his family lives in. It's the reason why the resources and technologies to build that home were used for that purpose instead of another. It's the reason why people loaned him money to buy that home. It's the reason people built his van instead of something else. It's the reason a stranger is willing to dispose of his body. It's the reason cremation…
s/Capitalism/Slavery/g and your argument still holds
This comment page makes me rage. About a third blame the guy, as if buying a house at the age of 32 is crazy. About a third just use his tragedy as a soapbox to knee-jerk blame the American health care system, as if people dying of cancer in other countries don't face a loss of income. The remaining third give me some hope for humanity.
That's true only in the specific case of HIV in the USA - the funding in the USA for cancer vs HIV is about right for the global number of deaths from those diseases. Especially if you consider that cancer is showing no sign of being a curable problem, while HIV is. For other diseases - malaria, dengue, hepatitis, typhoid etc., not to mention malnutrition - global spending is massively disporportionate in favour of c…
>Especially if you consider that cancer is showing no sign of being a curable problem, while HIV is. "We haven't found a solution to this problem" is possibly the worst reason I've ever heard to cut back on research.
>If you've just bought a house and a car and had a kid you're probably in a lot of recent debt, with the assumption that you'll have a lifetime to pay it down Out of self discipline I bought a life insurance at the same time my home loan was approved; the insurance amount being same as loan amount. I have always wondered why don't Government have regulations in place that forces a borrower to purchase a life insuranc…
From what I've heard from friends/family that have mortgages, here in the UK the mortgage company stipulates that you have to get life insurance in place to cover the remaining loan amount before they approve your mortgage.
That's not at all true. Banks will be very happy to sell you life insurance, for sure, and may make it sound important - but the only insurance requirement is on the building itself, and even then the cost of rebuilding it, not the value of it.
Jonathan here. Being woke up by my wife crying because the donations just aren't stopping is both heart-breaking and comforting. For those of you who haven't seen the 'Bucket List' post, here's what it says at the very top: As I try to deal with the reality that is my impending death I can't help but wonder how many things I might have been able to accomplish given just a little more time. When I was diagnosed, I had…
I was happy to make a donation. This hits close to home because my wife was diagnosed with Stage 0 Melanoma-in-situ when she was 35 years old. We have three kids of our own and imagining them growing up without their mother is terrifying. Fortunately, we caught it at Stage 0 though which has a 100% cure rate. So let me stand up on the soapbox for a minute: Everyone should go to a dermatologist every year for an all-o…
Best wishes to Jonathan. I've chipped in my little bit.
Agree about the importance of getting term life. One thing to add, the Internet (or the society) is a life insurance! Help some one in need. One day the karma will come back to you.
Jonathan here. Being woke up by my wife crying because the donations just aren't stopping is both heart-breaking and comforting. For those of you who haven't seen the 'Bucket List' post, here's what it says at the very top: As I try to deal with the reality that is my impending death I can't help but wonder how many things I might have been able to accomplish given just a little more time. When I was diagnosed, I had…
I was happy to make a donation. This hits close to home because my wife was diagnosed with Stage 0 Melanoma-in-situ when she was 35 years old. We have three kids of our own and imagining them growing up without their mother is terrifying. Fortunately, we caught it at Stage 0 though which has a 100% cure rate. So let me stand up on the soapbox for a minute: Everyone should go to a dermatologist every year for an all-o…
I think the better message is to think about what would happen if you or your spouse died or couldn't work. There isn't a one-size-fits-all plan. Someone with a $500,000 mortgage, $50,000 in other loans, and no real nest egg needs more than your recommendation. Someone with a spouse that makes a good income, has very little debt, and having a substantial nest egg may not need any life or disability insurance. The key is to be realistic with your situation.
It seems pretty common for employers to offer life cover in the UK (my wife has critical illness cover as well) - I have 4x annual salary from my employer, my wife has 3x from hers. We also both have additional personal life cover for at least 6x annual salary. This doesn't seem excessive cover to me - maybe because we are in our 40s with kids (and knowing people who have died and having close relatives who are termi…
A lot of US employers do same. But it is not a good idea to put all your eggs in one basket. Any case similar to OP will become problematic. When you get terminally ill you will eventually lose your job. Thanks to COBRA you can keep health insurance, but not the life, disability and long-term care insurance plans. And getting new term life policy at this stage is not really an option.
I was wonder about this. Does employer life insurance do anything to terminal illness? I pay extra to supplement my term life. But if I get too sick to work and lost my job, what good is the employer life insurance?
There are over 7 billion people on the planet. A day doesn't go by without a story like this. We just don't hear about most of them. Someday a person like this will simply go to his doctor, get a prescription, and go on to live a normal life. Rather than dwelling on sadness, maybe we should ask if there isn't something we can do, as a group, to make that day arrive sooner. What would it take to cure, or at least trea…
The highest source of personal bankruptcy in China is medical expenses. Something something about the largest risk of poverty for middle class people in China is medical expenses. Source: WHO speaker at a longevity conference I attended.
I believe (though I don't have a source handy) that the same is true in the US - medical expenses are the leading cause of personal bankruptcy.
> Prepare for / pay for my final arrangments : $20,000 I'm not here to bash, but with so much money problem why do people want to spend so much money on their death? If I die I just want people to get rid of my body in the cheapest way possible. Just burn me or give me to science.
OR a tibetan sky burial: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sky_burial It's considered to be a one last sign of generosity to nature when you no longer need your body. Also, it was probably started because the land is too hard and tough to dig up in the mountains of Tibet (a.k.a. cost effective and practical).