Although I bored after a few seasons of The Sopranos, the initial plot was awesome, wasn’t it? Here was a guy who was the head of one of the biggest crime operations in the United States, and he’s worried enough about the ducks that he sees a shrink.
A gangster show? That’s nothing new.
A gangster who can’t figure out why he can’t sleep?
Brilliant.
It’s always when I hear about people that are too young to die (51 years old!), that I start thinking again about my own mortality. Not only do I have thoughts about “What have I done to help others?” but I also think financially. Do I have enough life insurance? Have I finished my estate plan? What would be a pain for Cheryl to handle if I weren’t around?
On that note, I’ve made a list:
– I have $1M term insurance that’ll last until I’m 73. I scored a great deal on the insurance and I’m glad I’m covered sufficiently. Cheryl won’t have to worry about paying off the house or retirement.
– My estate plan is finished, but my kids turned 18 yesterday (not sure how the hell they’re so old while I’m still young and beautiful). That means that I need to review all of the provisions that dole out money to my kids at ages later than 18. Also, guardianship issues now don’t matter, so I can eliminate those. It’s been over 10 years since I completed my estate, so it’s time to redo it.
– I handle the money in our house, so I’ve built a spreadsheet for Cheryl of all of the accounts, passwords and who to contact. Our weekly finance meeting keeps her on top of this, but it’s always good to cover my bases.
I think that’s it….let’s move on past the morbid stuff!
The Stack
This week it’s another short-ish stack. While I read many more blogs this week, I forgot to note the ones I loved! I know! It’s time to shake the rust off, Joe! Now that I’m actively writing again I need to use my systems….
Speaking of “writing again,” man it’s great to be back actively writing. It’s so satisfying to put words on the screen.
At the top of the stack is our new podcast contributor, Paula Pant from Afford Anything. In Party Like Your a 72 Year Old Retiree she details the funny and compelling story of her parent’s retirement.
Speaking of retirement, another podcast contributor, Barbara Friedberg details ways to earn a few extra bucks during retirement in Four Part Time Jobs For Retirees.
Keeping the multi-media focus, I’m glad to see Buckinspire move into video. He has a great knack for editing and eye for the camera. Check it out in his review of a local trade and consumer expo called PLUSH.
Jason Hull is a guy I’ve had the pleasure of meeting twice now, and to say he’s outspoken is an understatement. That’s what I always wanted in a financial advisor: someone who was going to call it as they saw it and not pull punches. Should You Work During Vacation covers the same ground my new issue of Fast Company covers…but Jason’s piece was about 5 days earlier. Way to scoop the big boys, Jason!
Congratulations are in order for One Cent at a Time, a blog that reached 1 million page views this week! That’s an incredible achievement, and one that many bloggers would love to reach. It only took him 27 months. Check out Why Your Neighbor is Richer Than You to see why OCAAT completed that milestone so quickly.
New-to-me site Debt Free Diaries tackles comfort zones in Moving Beyond What’s Comfortable. I love the chart at the top. Great work, Kyle.
Miranda at Beyond Work Life Balance reviews a hot new book called Ditch, Dare, Do in her post Personal Branding and the Real You. Do you think about your brand? Who are you to the rest of the world?
Let’s round out this stack with Tonya at Budget and the Beach. This former Detroiter details some funny thoughts about returning to Michigan in Random Thoughts About “Coming Home.”
A Stack of Thank You Notes
Several people were nice enough to mention my blog on their sites:
Kim at Eyes on the Dollar included me in Eyes on the Dollar 20/20: Roundup #40.
Thanks to Glen at Monster Piggy Bank for mentioning me in his Top Personal Finance Articles #18 post.
Laurie at The Frugal Farmer included me in her Some Great Reads post.
Money For College Project mentioned me in his Weekly Roundup: Crazy Weather Edition post.
Those are a few of the great reads I had this week that I wanted to pass along. Have a wonderful weekend. New Stacking Benjamins podcast out Monday with Amanda Grossman! If you’ve subscribed to The Stacker (see link just below this line) you knew that already!
I actually never saw the show, did they say why he died yet? Having an 18 yr old scares me poop out of me–yet if you’ve trained them well then trusting them to make wise decisions would hopefully be easier.
They said that it was probably a heart attack.
Having an 18 year old doesn’t scare me as much as having a young teenager scared me. Now I know that no matter how I did, it’s time for them to make decisions on their own. For me it’s more of a sad thing…I’ve loved being a dad and the heavy duty parenting part of my life is now coming to a close. They’ll both be off to school in the fall and it’ll be time for me to focus on other things while they’re gone. That’s the hard part.
Was never a big Sopranos guy either. I liked the episodes I’ve seen, just never had HBO. It is scary to think about dying so young though. Great reminder to revisit all that fun estate planning stuff you mentioned.
I don’t have any of those channels, so we just borrowed a season disc from my sister in law. I’m lucky there: we have family members that buy the discs for their favorite shows and them loan them to us!
I need to do a will and up my life insurance. When I hear about people dying so young I also think about my life. Planning to try and retire at 65 when a lot of people are dying at an earlier age from natural causes. Nice short list…need to check out the one from Paula Pant. Never watched the Sopranos though.
The Sopranos had a great hook. The fact that he was seeing a shrink made the show for me.
LOL, the kid part about you being young and beautiful reminded me of my 40th birthday. I said to my dad “It feels weird, being 40.” He said “How do you think I feel?? I’ve got a kid who’s 40!” Yeah, that would definitely be worse. 🙂 Have a great weekend, Joe.
It’s so sad that he passed away so young!!!
Hope you have a great weekend!
Good reminder to make sure the family will be in good shape if something does take me out of the equation. Morbid, but mature and responsible. On a lighter note, thanks for your kind words and including me. Glad to see you’re writing again and the second to none Average Joe wit!
I don’t know about the wit, Buck, but thank you.
It’s good for kids to see a dad who’s forward-thinking enough to have an estate plan, life insurance and all those important other matters taken care of. Dude, their dad even podcasts!! How many other dads-of-college-age-kids do that?
Is that your way of saying “How many other old men podcast?”
I’ve got my will and other documents all written out and sitting in my desk… waiting to get signed. That is something that I really need to get done.
Thanks so much for the mention!! Man I still think 51 is way too young to go from a heart attack! And yes that does make me think about my own mortality as well. I don’t have life insurance because it’s just me, but I do need to finish my will (I mean who will get my cat??) and get that stuff organized.
I know! …and I just read about Jen’s heart attack. What a scare. You just never know what’s going to happen next.
Oh man stuff like this reminds me that I need to get life insurance ASAP. We have stuff though work but no term policy…scary stuff,…especially since we have a kid!
I was surprised by how inexpensive mine was, Catherine. I was over 40 when I got mine and it was about $60 every six months for $1M of coverage.
It’s never fun to revisit your plans for if you kick the bucket. We’ve been trying to get my parents to update their stuff. I think they did it once when my sister and I were in middle school. We aren’t sitting around waiting for an inheritance, but my Dad will likely go first, so we want to make sure Mom knows where the money even is. It used to seem pretty morbid, but now it’s more like, “How as your day? How’s the weather? Did you get your will updated?”
HBD to the twins! Poor Gandolfini. I never was crazy about the Sopranos but he was my favorite in the lot.
Holy smokes. I just saw this callout. Thanks, Joe!
Thanks so much for including my retirement jobs read!