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Get Your Shit Together

getyourshittogether.org

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Re: Get Your Shit Together

#131

Post by the_watcher »

aaron695 wrote: post #128

There is nothing more stupid than doing a will or getting life insurance. The other advice is worth thinking about. There is no imaginary place in the sky where you can look down after your death and see people happy because you left them money or less stress. Live life for the present and future. Not for the nothing. Sure, game theory might throw a spanner in the works for the now and future- - Your partner having a…

>> There is nothing more stupid than doing a will or getting life insurance.

This is extraordinarily variable based on where you are in your life. If you have a lot of assets or a family that depends on your income, a will and life insurance can make sense. If you are like me, a single, 26 year old who has a decent job, some assets, but that's it, it's a waste of time and money.

Re: Get Your Shit Together

#132

Post by the_watcher »

pzxc wrote: post #21
courtewing wrote: post #13

This is great advice all around, but get a local lawyer involved to prepare your will. Even in US, there is not a single set of laws that apply to wills and power of attorney. It varies state by state. With a generic template pulled from the internet, you could just be doing a whole lot of work and ultimately be ending up with a document that has little legal basis. Do your loved ones a favor - hire a lawyer to do it…

There are a few grammatical errors in these documents as well that do not inspire confidence. Also, you better be damn sure that you can trust the person you give power of attorney to -- the document provided here assigns power of attorney immediately, not on incapacitation/death, and allows the person you designate to gift themselves up to $13,000 a year of your own property without your consent. Considering the law…

HN voting rings are fairly tough to actually get working. I doubt this site used one. Also, a small number of upvotes from varying accounts (in terms of age, location, reputation, etc) can cause a post to hit the front page.

Re: Get Your Shit Together

#133

Post by thesteamboat »

breischl wrote: post #98
jalons wrote: post #82

Earlier quoted context omitted.

A safety deposit box with the password to the master database? Sometimes low tech works.

I thought of that, but I don't like it for a few reasons: 1) It's cumbersome to update. I don't want to run to the bank, get the thumbdrive, update it, and take it back every time I change a password. 2) Everyone has to know that I have the box, know where it is, and know where to get the key. 3) The key could get lost or destroyed. For example, if someone slings an especially effective curse at me and I literally di…

You only need to keep the master password at bank; you can freely update/distribute the encrypted file.

Some sort of secret sharing scheme [1] seems like it would work well here. You can distribute parts of a key so that any 3 of 5 people (or whatever) can work together to recover the key. Unfortunately I don't know of any practical way to do this without kludging together your own system.

1: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Secret_sharing

Re: Get Your Shit Together

#134

Post by aaron695 »

vivekian2 wrote: post #129
aaron695 wrote: post #128

There is nothing more stupid than doing a will or getting life insurance. The other advice is worth thinking about. There is no imaginary place in the sky where you can look down after your death and see people happy because you left them money or less stress. Live life for the present and future. Not for the nothing. Sure, game theory might throw a spanner in the works for the now and future- - Your partner having a…

Really? Making sure that the financial needs of your loved ones are met if you do depart in a sudden manner, is the most selfless thing you can do. It has nothing to do about making you feel happy, it has everything to do with being pragmatic so that they have one less thing to worry about.

Not dying and living life is both selfish and (one hopes) better for your loved ones.

But that's hard. It means you have to be healthy. Reduce stress. Spend quality time with people.

Filling out a will is an easy escape.

Doing the best for yourself and loved ones is hard. The second half of the article touches on this.

Re: Get Your Shit Together

#135

Post by cortesoft »

napoleond wrote: post #43
jobu wrote: post #30

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> Frankly I don't see why the HN crowd would upvote a site like this -- I'd bet it was ring votes that got it to the front page. Or maybe it was just the snarky domain, who knows. My guess is it struck a chord with people similar to myself - young family and minimal EOL planning. (although the snarky domain definitely helps) For us, the biggest problem has been deciding who should take care of the kids if something h…

In the Roman Catholic tradition, this problem is solved with godparents. I'm not Catholic (and I don't have kids yet), but the model seems to make sense. Forgive me for stepping way beyond the bounds of "internet stranger's business" but if your close friends' lives are so full that they would not care for your children if you became incapacitated, you need better friends.

I don't think it would solve the problem you are responding to, which is that the person doesn't know anyone they feel are capable of taking care of their children. Having a formal title for the role isn't going to help them find someone for the role.

Re: Get Your Shit Together

#136

Post by cortesoft »

rcarrigan87 wrote: post #6

It's a morbid subject, but working in home health care I'm shocked by how many people are totally unprepared when it comes to end of life planning. And it's not just relatively young people or unexpected deaths. Many senior citizens with decent sized estates are totally unprepared or just assume their family will figure it out. You pass on a lot of additional stress and hardship to your loved ones by not being prepar…

There was a great Planet Money episode on this topic: http://www.npr.org/sections/money/2014/03/05/286126451/livin...

Re: Get Your Shit Together

#138

Post by brc »

jobu wrote: post #30
pzxc wrote: post #21

Earlier quoted context omitted.

There are a few grammatical errors in these documents as well that do not inspire confidence. Also, you better be damn sure that you can trust the person you give power of attorney to -- the document provided here assigns power of attorney immediately, not on incapacitation/death, and allows the person you designate to gift themselves up to $13,000 a year of your own property without your consent. Considering the law…

> Frankly I don't see why the HN crowd would upvote a site like this -- I'd bet it was ring votes that got it to the front page. Or maybe it was just the snarky domain, who knows. My guess is it struck a chord with people similar to myself - young family and minimal EOL planning. (although the snarky domain definitely helps) For us, the biggest problem has been deciding who should take care of the kids if something h…

The key to cutting through this incredibly difficult question is to remember : at that point, you're out of the picture and whatever hopes and dreams you had for the kids now come a distant second place to finding the best way forward for them in a horrific situation. Your kids are going to be messed up if your gone, no question. At that point the focus should be on 'loving family' first and everything else distant second. If that means another city, state or country,so be it. If that means them living in a family with less money, so be it. If you vote for the purple party and they vote for the yellow part, so be it. Your kids will end up voting yellow but at least they will be loved and supported.

Find a loving family, they are the answer. And make sure the life insurance is sorted out.

Re: Get Your Shit Together

#139

Post by brc »

rcarrigan87 wrote: post #6

It's a morbid subject, but working in home health care I'm shocked by how many people are totally unprepared when it comes to end of life planning. And it's not just relatively young people or unexpected deaths. Many senior citizens with decent sized estates are totally unprepared or just assume their family will figure it out. You pass on a lot of additional stress and hardship to your loved ones by not being prepar…

True. I had a relative pass a few years back from cancer. It wasn't sudden at all.

The relative worked in the financial services industry and had provided me advice about estate planning.

When it came to the estate things were not prepared at all. If fact it was a bit of a mess.

I guess it's the case of builders living in unfinished houses and that.

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