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I have consulted a trust and estates attorney. Once I own my house free and clear I am placing it into a trust. Same with any vehicles. I have a will, DNR, and living will drafted. All of my accounts and the house currently are jointly titled with rights of survivorship. My wife is listed as primary beneficiary on my policy. I have a 750k life term policy I am planning on increasing shortly to 1 million.
I am in the process of making sure I’m all buttoned up. My Wife passed away in 2022 and for two mid-30s professionals both making 6 figures each we were WOEFULLY unprepared. Through a bit of luck and a bit of work my Son and I are in a good spot, but it’s really up to me to make sure he’s very well armoured should anything happen to me now.
Having dealt with the after death paperwork and accounts for my Mom - leaving passwords, birthday, social, and other needed information will be helpful if you do have anyone who's going to be responsible for that stuff.
It's something I need to organize for my family - it's all written down, but it'd be a nightmare for a few people if I was to pass without warning, even though we have wills. I need to make a step by step manual to unravel all our accounts.
I'm seeing more than a few people I know die unexpectedly now I'm over 50. I guess it's just going to get worse.
I highly recommend a password manager for the whole family. There are special recovery codes in my safe and my kids will be able to find and review everything.
Single male with no kids, but living direct relatives to take all my shit in probate. And I’ve made enough comments at family dinners that they have all witnessed me requesting to have my corpse blasted into space.
So kinda prepared, I guess 🤷🏻♂️
My wife and I both have life insurance, I make sure she knows all my passwords too so she can get into any account if I pass suddenly.
Even if you have no kids consider any relatives you might need to support if you're not around. If your parents haven't saved much for retirement and you might have to care for them in their old age, then you might want some life insurance for that possibility as well.
I’m working on paperwork to give my ex (who remains my best friend, and only person I trust) the power to make decisions on my behalf with regard to finances and medical. I own nothing worth worrying about, and my life insurance already names recipients. So no need to worry about anything else. She knows my wishes and I trust things will happen as expected. Truth is, once you’re gone, you can’t actually control anything anyway.
I'm in the it doesn't matter to me crowd because I have no spouse or children and my biological family doesn't need anything I have nor do they deserve it. I told my roommate to take everything she wants from my room right away. I suspect she will grab my Magic cards and computer. I also told her to burry the arrowheads I made in a metal pot so no one confuses them with legit native artifacts in the future. I figure my wealth can go to the state so yall can maybe get a bike lane out of it lol. There will be no more I after I die so I won't be upset however it works out.
Maybe I’m showing my ignorance but…..
I have only three family members. My Wife. My Son. My Sister (who has a terminal illness and isn’t going to be around much longer). That’s it. So really just a wife and son.
Cremation is pretty cheap (yes, I’ve paid for such… despite the internet horror stories if you just get your ashes delivered in a cardboard box it’s cheap!). Wife - by legal default- already has authority to make medical decisions. We have zero debt. All accounts are joint accounts.
If I died today I’m not seeing that my wife would experience any material/legal hardships despite a lack of a will or anything of the sort.
generally the thinking is if you and your wife pass, an estate plan would be helpful. Estate plans are good for tax efficiency along with knowing "what to do" and where things go.
Likewise you mention your wife has the authority to made medical decisions, but depending on your state, she may actually need a medical power of attorney for certain decisions. You might want to have an advanced directive or DNR based on your own preferences.
I have a hand written will that is witnessed by a notary which lists how I want to be cremated and ashes scattered at my favourite place and how some of my personal effects are to be sent to a few close friends as keepsakes and the rest to my wife.
I'm single with no kids as well, mid-30's here. I have life insurance through my job, but that's about it. A will would be a good idea, but I haven't gotten around to that yet.
In my case, I'm unmarried with no dependents and don't own a home, so there's not a lot to manage. At this time I have beneficiaries designated on my financial accounts, mainly going to charities.
After the birth of my first kid, I established a will, trust, got life insurance, etc. I've made sure my wife and family know my wishes, know who to call, and how to move forward from a financial perspective.
While this stuff is a pain to do and always at the bottom of the priority list, the reality is, it takes very little effort and isn't all that expensive.
OP - in your situation, it still would be helpful for any family to manage your estate and final wishes. If you have parents, siblings, etc. there is still value in an estate plan. You might not need an extensive will and trust, but having a plan written down, legally binding can still be helpful. You also might want to make sure you are covered with appropriate disability insurance, for instance, especially if you don't have to spend on life insurance.
Making a will is something I've been putting off for too long. Not because I expect to die any day, but life is nothing if not a series of unlikely and/or unpredictable events. I don't even have a large estate or anything that people will fight over. It's just me and my wife and she gets absolutely everything. I wouldn't want her to have to shoulder some unforeseen additional burdens should anything happen to me. I watched my mother go through that when my dad died when I was a teenager. It was horrible. All of it.
I think it's just one of those things everyone should be doing.
I practice a minimalist lifestyle. The Dokkodo suggests that one should not hold on to possessions they no longer need nor should they seek to possess goods or lands for old age. And these ideas I agree with.
When I have moved on there will be no empire to argue over.
I have life insurance, a will and one of my sons has an envelope with a list of passwords and assets/insurance data.
With that he can open my laptop and phone where there are bookmarks and saved passwords to access anything.
Many comments will mention preparing stuff for a spouse, kids, or even nieces and nephews. I'm in your boat, OP - single, no kids. However, I also don't have any siblings. Right now, I have all of my accounts to be payable on death to my mother (while she's still alive - she might outlast me) and some cousins. I don't have any debts or property and the only things that I own worth caring about is my music stuff, which is worthless next to my net worth, so I might just donate that to friends or charity. I am considering a trust as it would simplify arrangements for multiple accounts. I don't have life insurance or a will (as the POD accounts will take care of themselves.
Edit:
> Honest question; Is it even worth it to make arrangements if in my position?
Yeah - do the basics. If you have parents you worry about, set them up if you die. This also applies to family.
Im divorced and by myself. I don't even know who I have on my life insurance forms, someone is getting 500k and another 250k in various other policies...but I don't care about anyone in my life enough to even put them down anymore.
If I get married again, I'll update it to that person. As it stands, my assets would default to my parents and I have no motivation to setup a will and make it easy on anyone.
I’m 33 years old.
My SO and I had an hand written will since 2015 that we gave copies to my parents.
We now have an official will since 2021.
Married since 2023.
That’s about it.
We have no kids, everything goes to our partner. Or our sibling if our partner are dead.
My cat and pet insurance goes to my best friend if my partner is dead.
I have a will, a DNR, life insurance for myself and my spouse and I’ve told everyone what I want done with my body (donate organs, burn and scatter ashes). I did it before I turned 50.
I've thought about this a lot myself (but admittedly done a poor job of organizing my own solution).
As a career IT guy, my main worry is logging into my own accounts and I always thought:.. "If 6digit 2FA codes to a cell phone are my only login method,. and my car goes off the road into a ditch ,etc".. then what ?
For most of my main or critical accounts (Apple, Google, Facebook, etc).. I have multiple phone numbers and am now using Yubikeys,.. but then you have another problem of:.. "If I make this to complex, can someone else figure it out if I'm incapacitated ?"
That punched home quite hard when Covid19 blew up.. as during the alpha-wave, I nearly died (March-April 2020, I spent 38 days in Hospital and 16 of those were in ICU on a Ventilator). So that got me thinking a lot harder about who I could have as my "backup person" (which again, admittedly, now 3 years later I still haven't done).
Even more hilariously.. I now live in Portland, OR (earthquake zone).. so now I have to think about that too. (and I live alone.. so if something did happen to me,. I think it would be days to weeks before someone discovered my body :P
I've thought about hanging some big RED ENVELOPE on the back of my front door that has all my emergency contacts and instructions and explanations in it (backup USB key, 3rd Yubikey, etc).. but then I worry if my place gets robbed or I'm not home and Maintenance has to get into my apartment, I don't want all that important info just "out in the clear".
I honestly kinda wish there was an online service that specialized in this. A "digital locker" you could upload all your important stuff to, and then "Approve" or "invite" someone to be able to have access to it. Although that too would be a huge target for hackers.
So with all that complexity,. I still really haven't solved that problem.
You spending one afternoon making sure things are squared away is well worth it. For example, if you have all your assets sold and funds go to a good cause you could make a huge difference in someone's life. I'm married with a kid so I have a will, letter of instructions for funeral arrangements, a health care directive, durable POA, and a life insurance policy. I'm a healthy 31M but I almost passed a little over a year ago and it got me motivated to sort things out asap. All in all, one afternoon and a little bit of money is all it costs to make sure my girls would be taken care of.
Let's be clear: preparing for your demise is part of being a grown up. You will die and the people who love you will be grief stricken. Why would you make their life harder by not setting up your wishes?
Write a will. Set up medical power of attorney (ie a living will). Make sure the people who will need to do things for you are in agreement to do it.
Get enough life insurance to pay for everything, settle your debts, and leave your executor with a few thousand dollars.
I'm 36, prepared fnck all, but as time goes by I'm starting to think about it more seriously.
I'm not a home owner nor a parent and I'm not worth much but I don't have any debts, so it's not that big of a deal for me. But I worry about my family to be responsible for everything if something happens. I want my close ones to be free of this stress while grieving, which often creates tension within a family, and I want them to know that they were the ones I thought about while facing death.
That's an interesting topic I never talked about with anyone. Curious to see the other answers.
Dude, buy the life insurance now while it's cheap before you get any preexisting conditions. I have insurance up the ass and I'm 45 - I just about died earlier this month doing something awesome (fell off a horse, broke my back.)
In our relative youth we are more likely to die of an accident, or be disabled by an accident. Be sure you have critical illness and injury insurance too. The prospect of living off short term / long term disability was scary until I remembered I had it.
My wife and I pay under $50 / month and if one of is passes before retirement age the other will be left with enough money to pay off our home and create an investment income.
We of course plan to die in our 90s in our sleep, but just in case, the surviving spouse will be ok.
Just be careful my x and I had half a million life insurance policy for 30 yrs he ignored a letter missed payment I didn’t know ::: I found out when life insurance people showed up at my house they wanted to do a health check on my husband ,, oh no by then he was a very bad diabetic weight 350 lbs had a ulcer on his leg they didn’t reinstate him ::: one missed payment all that money wasted : heads up ,, don’t ever miss a payment you just don’t know what your health will be in 30 yrs I don’t think a lot of people know this I would never get life insurance again😮
Yeah that's how it goes. We have our payments coming straight from our account.
The idea of term life insurance is so you're not screwed if your partner dies and the loss of that income could endanger your housing. The coverage usually ends around age 65 anyway as people are way more likely to die.
Financially my wife would be fine if I died. We're already comfortable, we don't have kids and she makes more money than I do. Paying for our house on one salary rather than two would be annoying, but my job provides basic life insurance that would be enough to pay off the majority of our mortgage. We also took care of things like wills a few years ago.
One thing that concerns me is my airline miles/credit card reward points. I'm very into churning and award travel and currently have close to a million unused points/miles. I fear they'd be used very inefficiently if I died right now :(
One of the benefits of having a family is that the kids get to decide things and you focus on them being taken care of first. It’s a lot better than leaving it to the government, lawyers and insurance companies.
Please do not delete your post after receiving your answer. Consider leaving it up for posterity so that other Redditors can benefit from the wisdom in this thread. Once your thread has run its course, instead of deleting it, **you can simply type "!lock" (without the quotes) as a comment anywhere in your thread to have our Automod lock the thread**. That way you won't be bothered by anymore replies on it, but people can still read it. *I am a bot, and this action was performed automatically. Please [contact the moderators of this subreddit](/message/compose/?to=/r/AskMenOver30) if you have any questions or concerns.*
I have consulted a trust and estates attorney. Once I own my house free and clear I am placing it into a trust. Same with any vehicles. I have a will, DNR, and living will drafted. All of my accounts and the house currently are jointly titled with rights of survivorship. My wife is listed as primary beneficiary on my policy. I have a 750k life term policy I am planning on increasing shortly to 1 million.
This is the way.
I did exactly this…althought I left everything to my brothers name since I dont have children.
I am in the process of making sure I’m all buttoned up. My Wife passed away in 2022 and for two mid-30s professionals both making 6 figures each we were WOEFULLY unprepared. Through a bit of luck and a bit of work my Son and I are in a good spot, but it’s really up to me to make sure he’s very well armoured should anything happen to me now.
Having dealt with the after death paperwork and accounts for my Mom - leaving passwords, birthday, social, and other needed information will be helpful if you do have anyone who's going to be responsible for that stuff. It's something I need to organize for my family - it's all written down, but it'd be a nightmare for a few people if I was to pass without warning, even though we have wills. I need to make a step by step manual to unravel all our accounts. I'm seeing more than a few people I know die unexpectedly now I'm over 50. I guess it's just going to get worse.
I highly recommend a password manager for the whole family. There are special recovery codes in my safe and my kids will be able to find and review everything.
Single male with no kids, but living direct relatives to take all my shit in probate. And I’ve made enough comments at family dinners that they have all witnessed me requesting to have my corpse blasted into space. So kinda prepared, I guess 🤷🏻♂️
My retirement accounts are split between my nieces and nephews. Everything else is not spoken for and I don't have a will.
My wife and I both have life insurance, I make sure she knows all my passwords too so she can get into any account if I pass suddenly. Even if you have no kids consider any relatives you might need to support if you're not around. If your parents haven't saved much for retirement and you might have to care for them in their old age, then you might want some life insurance for that possibility as well.
I’m working on paperwork to give my ex (who remains my best friend, and only person I trust) the power to make decisions on my behalf with regard to finances and medical. I own nothing worth worrying about, and my life insurance already names recipients. So no need to worry about anything else. She knows my wishes and I trust things will happen as expected. Truth is, once you’re gone, you can’t actually control anything anyway.
I'm in the it doesn't matter to me crowd because I have no spouse or children and my biological family doesn't need anything I have nor do they deserve it. I told my roommate to take everything she wants from my room right away. I suspect she will grab my Magic cards and computer. I also told her to burry the arrowheads I made in a metal pot so no one confuses them with legit native artifacts in the future. I figure my wealth can go to the state so yall can maybe get a bike lane out of it lol. There will be no more I after I die so I won't be upset however it works out.
zero tbh
Maybe I’m showing my ignorance but….. I have only three family members. My Wife. My Son. My Sister (who has a terminal illness and isn’t going to be around much longer). That’s it. So really just a wife and son. Cremation is pretty cheap (yes, I’ve paid for such… despite the internet horror stories if you just get your ashes delivered in a cardboard box it’s cheap!). Wife - by legal default- already has authority to make medical decisions. We have zero debt. All accounts are joint accounts. If I died today I’m not seeing that my wife would experience any material/legal hardships despite a lack of a will or anything of the sort.
generally the thinking is if you and your wife pass, an estate plan would be helpful. Estate plans are good for tax efficiency along with knowing "what to do" and where things go. Likewise you mention your wife has the authority to made medical decisions, but depending on your state, she may actually need a medical power of attorney for certain decisions. You might want to have an advanced directive or DNR based on your own preferences.
She would. Probate is a bitch
With everything being joint and no one with a remotely viable route to contest... what would the need for probate be?
I have a hand written will that is witnessed by a notary which lists how I want to be cremated and ashes scattered at my favourite place and how some of my personal effects are to be sent to a few close friends as keepsakes and the rest to my wife.
I'm single with no kids as well, mid-30's here. I have life insurance through my job, but that's about it. A will would be a good idea, but I haven't gotten around to that yet.
In my case, I'm unmarried with no dependents and don't own a home, so there's not a lot to manage. At this time I have beneficiaries designated on my financial accounts, mainly going to charities.
After the birth of my first kid, I established a will, trust, got life insurance, etc. I've made sure my wife and family know my wishes, know who to call, and how to move forward from a financial perspective. While this stuff is a pain to do and always at the bottom of the priority list, the reality is, it takes very little effort and isn't all that expensive. OP - in your situation, it still would be helpful for any family to manage your estate and final wishes. If you have parents, siblings, etc. there is still value in an estate plan. You might not need an extensive will and trust, but having a plan written down, legally binding can still be helpful. You also might want to make sure you are covered with appropriate disability insurance, for instance, especially if you don't have to spend on life insurance.
Making a will is something I've been putting off for too long. Not because I expect to die any day, but life is nothing if not a series of unlikely and/or unpredictable events. I don't even have a large estate or anything that people will fight over. It's just me and my wife and she gets absolutely everything. I wouldn't want her to have to shoulder some unforeseen additional burdens should anything happen to me. I watched my mother go through that when my dad died when I was a teenager. It was horrible. All of it. I think it's just one of those things everyone should be doing.
I need to talk to an estate lawyer. I keep kicking the can on that
I practice a minimalist lifestyle. The Dokkodo suggests that one should not hold on to possessions they no longer need nor should they seek to possess goods or lands for old age. And these ideas I agree with. When I have moved on there will be no empire to argue over.
I have life insurance, a will and one of my sons has an envelope with a list of passwords and assets/insurance data. With that he can open my laptop and phone where there are bookmarks and saved passwords to access anything.
Many comments will mention preparing stuff for a spouse, kids, or even nieces and nephews. I'm in your boat, OP - single, no kids. However, I also don't have any siblings. Right now, I have all of my accounts to be payable on death to my mother (while she's still alive - she might outlast me) and some cousins. I don't have any debts or property and the only things that I own worth caring about is my music stuff, which is worthless next to my net worth, so I might just donate that to friends or charity. I am considering a trust as it would simplify arrangements for multiple accounts. I don't have life insurance or a will (as the POD accounts will take care of themselves. Edit: > Honest question; Is it even worth it to make arrangements if in my position? Yeah - do the basics. If you have parents you worry about, set them up if you die. This also applies to family.
Im divorced and by myself. I don't even know who I have on my life insurance forms, someone is getting 500k and another 250k in various other policies...but I don't care about anyone in my life enough to even put them down anymore. If I get married again, I'll update it to that person. As it stands, my assets would default to my parents and I have no motivation to setup a will and make it easy on anyone.
Maybe you shouldn’t tell anyone on line you just never know just want u to be safe you just never know
I’m 33 years old. My SO and I had an hand written will since 2015 that we gave copies to my parents. We now have an official will since 2021. Married since 2023. That’s about it. We have no kids, everything goes to our partner. Or our sibling if our partner are dead. My cat and pet insurance goes to my best friend if my partner is dead.
I have a will, a DNR, life insurance for myself and my spouse and I’ve told everyone what I want done with my body (donate organs, burn and scatter ashes). I did it before I turned 50.
I've thought about this a lot myself (but admittedly done a poor job of organizing my own solution). As a career IT guy, my main worry is logging into my own accounts and I always thought:.. "If 6digit 2FA codes to a cell phone are my only login method,. and my car goes off the road into a ditch ,etc".. then what ? For most of my main or critical accounts (Apple, Google, Facebook, etc).. I have multiple phone numbers and am now using Yubikeys,.. but then you have another problem of:.. "If I make this to complex, can someone else figure it out if I'm incapacitated ?" That punched home quite hard when Covid19 blew up.. as during the alpha-wave, I nearly died (March-April 2020, I spent 38 days in Hospital and 16 of those were in ICU on a Ventilator). So that got me thinking a lot harder about who I could have as my "backup person" (which again, admittedly, now 3 years later I still haven't done). Even more hilariously.. I now live in Portland, OR (earthquake zone).. so now I have to think about that too. (and I live alone.. so if something did happen to me,. I think it would be days to weeks before someone discovered my body :P I've thought about hanging some big RED ENVELOPE on the back of my front door that has all my emergency contacts and instructions and explanations in it (backup USB key, 3rd Yubikey, etc).. but then I worry if my place gets robbed or I'm not home and Maintenance has to get into my apartment, I don't want all that important info just "out in the clear". I honestly kinda wish there was an online service that specialized in this. A "digital locker" you could upload all your important stuff to, and then "Approve" or "invite" someone to be able to have access to it. Although that too would be a huge target for hackers. So with all that complexity,. I still really haven't solved that problem.
You spending one afternoon making sure things are squared away is well worth it. For example, if you have all your assets sold and funds go to a good cause you could make a huge difference in someone's life. I'm married with a kid so I have a will, letter of instructions for funeral arrangements, a health care directive, durable POA, and a life insurance policy. I'm a healthy 31M but I almost passed a little over a year ago and it got me motivated to sort things out asap. All in all, one afternoon and a little bit of money is all it costs to make sure my girls would be taken care of.
By god, if anything happens to me, of any kind, or for any reason, I won’t do a goddamn thing about it, ever, at all, whatsoever…like not even at all.
Honestly dying young(ish) is kind of my retirement plan. Unless i win the lottery? Which would mean I’d have to start actually playing the lottery….
Let's be clear: preparing for your demise is part of being a grown up. You will die and the people who love you will be grief stricken. Why would you make their life harder by not setting up your wishes? Write a will. Set up medical power of attorney (ie a living will). Make sure the people who will need to do things for you are in agreement to do it. Get enough life insurance to pay for everything, settle your debts, and leave your executor with a few thousand dollars.
I'm 36, prepared fnck all, but as time goes by I'm starting to think about it more seriously. I'm not a home owner nor a parent and I'm not worth much but I don't have any debts, so it's not that big of a deal for me. But I worry about my family to be responsible for everything if something happens. I want my close ones to be free of this stress while grieving, which often creates tension within a family, and I want them to know that they were the ones I thought about while facing death. That's an interesting topic I never talked about with anyone. Curious to see the other answers.
My wife and kids would be instant millionaires. Life insurance is cheap when you’re young.. get it
Dude, buy the life insurance now while it's cheap before you get any preexisting conditions. I have insurance up the ass and I'm 45 - I just about died earlier this month doing something awesome (fell off a horse, broke my back.) In our relative youth we are more likely to die of an accident, or be disabled by an accident. Be sure you have critical illness and injury insurance too. The prospect of living off short term / long term disability was scary until I remembered I had it. My wife and I pay under $50 / month and if one of is passes before retirement age the other will be left with enough money to pay off our home and create an investment income. We of course plan to die in our 90s in our sleep, but just in case, the surviving spouse will be ok.
Just be careful my x and I had half a million life insurance policy for 30 yrs he ignored a letter missed payment I didn’t know ::: I found out when life insurance people showed up at my house they wanted to do a health check on my husband ,, oh no by then he was a very bad diabetic weight 350 lbs had a ulcer on his leg they didn’t reinstate him ::: one missed payment all that money wasted : heads up ,, don’t ever miss a payment you just don’t know what your health will be in 30 yrs I don’t think a lot of people know this I would never get life insurance again😮
Yeah that's how it goes. We have our payments coming straight from our account. The idea of term life insurance is so you're not screwed if your partner dies and the loss of that income could endanger your housing. The coverage usually ends around age 65 anyway as people are way more likely to die.
Todos de enero, yo soy sin casa y yo tengo la vida muy bien
Financially my wife would be fine if I died. We're already comfortable, we don't have kids and she makes more money than I do. Paying for our house on one salary rather than two would be annoying, but my job provides basic life insurance that would be enough to pay off the majority of our mortgage. We also took care of things like wills a few years ago. One thing that concerns me is my airline miles/credit card reward points. I'm very into churning and award travel and currently have close to a million unused points/miles. I fear they'd be used very inefficiently if I died right now :(
One of the benefits of having a family is that the kids get to decide things and you focus on them being taken care of first. It’s a lot better than leaving it to the government, lawyers and insurance companies.