Getting things in order.
Probably the thing that bothered me most was not being as prepared as I thought I should be. There are several aspects of life that I paid close attention to, not all of them prioritised correctly, but I paid attention to them anyway. I knew everyone faces the end of life, I just hadn’t thought it would face me quite this soon.
There is always the knowledge that preparations should be made for the family-”just in case”-that is the advice I gave to lots of people. I worked in the funeral industry for a time, it was thaen that I saw others that were not prepared, I saw many that were, but I did not think I needed to get prepared for my families future yet. I was too young and there was plenty of time. So I thought!
My advice is to get prepared financially as soon as possible. Things happen with certain diagnoses. No more life insurance, no living will, no medical directives, all things that I want to decide-not leave in the hands of total strangers. I didn’t want to burden my family any time, especially in this time of stress and pressure. There is enough stress in daily living without the added weight of having them wonder if they will be able to maintain their current lifestyle-or if all will be lost.
Some of the things I wish I would have done differently are to get more life insurance. I would have maximized my insurance through work at a minimum. After the fact, the chances of increasing the amount of coverage are slim to none. I would have done without a lunch in a restaurant once a week to pay for the short term and long term disability coverage. Another thing I would have done is to sit down with my spouse on a regular basis and look at our financial picture.
We do work together on the finances, and always have. Admittedly we have times when we are less disciplined about that than others. We also have learned that we needed to look at finances in a different way than we have in the past.The things like an emergency fund, net worth, cash flow, debt to income ratio, and retirement funds are a few of the things that come to mind. I was fortunate, I am able to work full time. It could have been different.
Hind sight is always 20/20. I have been told for years to learn from others, it is much less stressful-that being said I hope my rear view mirror is helpful to you.