Alright, I have procrastinated long enough.
A few months ago, I went to a lawyer and had him draw up new wills, one for me and one for my wife. But, even though I have them sitting in a folder in a filing cabinet, we haven’t signed them. So, tomorrow, I’m going to call his office and my wife and I are going to make them official. Why have I waited so long? Shear laziness? How does that sound? Sadly, it’s the truth.
I also need to revamp my current insurance situation. Tomorrow, after meeting with the lawyer, I’m going to visit my insurance agent. I need to increase our term life coverage, rework my automobile insurance coverage, purchase long term disability, renew my renter’s policy, and talk to the agent about an umbrella policy.
I’ve put these changes and upgrades off for far too long. Right now, we have minimal coverage. By the end of the week, we should have substantially more coverage and I’ll feel much better. I should have taken care of this a long time ago. But, there’s no need in beating myself up about it.
Do you procrastinate? If so, why? If not, how do you avoid it? Like a kid putting off a term paper, I find that I procrastinate – mainly when I’m unsure of the next step to take. So, foolishly, I just do nothing, until, in a panic, I have to deal with the consequences of my procrastination. Silly me.
Actually, I’ve found myself procrastinating when I don’t know exactly what I’m going to do next. I’ve noticed this at work, since I started my job about a month ago, that I wait a lot longer to start a task than I did at my previous job. I suppose my procrastination stems from a lack of confidence in that respect.
Otherwise, yeah, laziness. Can’t say that I have a lack of confidence in folding clothes. 🙂
Speaking of lawyers, term life insurance, wills, and dependent children, I need to take care of some of those financial issues myself. My DH and I are in the process of upgrading our life insurance with new term life policies. We’ve passed the medical tests and are just waiting for the policies to become finalized. However, we need to see a lawyer about guardianship for our two small children just in case, God forbid, something would happen to us both at the same time.
The other thing I need to figure out is how to leave our life insurance proceeds to our dependent/minor children in the event that something would happen to us both. I’ve done some research on life insurance trusts, but I’m not sure that would suit our needs. I was curious as to how you and your wife plan to prepare for that aspect of things for your own family? I’m not comfortable naming a relative as secondary beneficiary because money has a way of doing strange things to people and I would want to be 100% certain the funds were being used for my children’s future and that they were well taken care of.
“Why do today what you could put off indefinitely”
Not sure where I heard that from but it is probably true for many.
Bravo for taking this step!
Nice reminder on those things that everyone should be doing! As far as procrastinating goes, and as a spinoff of Graham’s comment above, I’ve found my To Do list to be absolutely indispensable. It’s key that the items are prioritized.
People often procrastinate about signing wills or dealing with life insurance because it makes them think about their own mortality. It’s easier to stay busy. But we all die. You are wise to face up to it. Disability coverage is just one step removed.
I’m a procrastinator as well. My husband and I just went through the rigamarole of reviewing all our insurance policies; we spent a few hours with our insurance agent and asked tons of questions. Now we have our home/auto/umbrella policies in place and updated to reflect current circumstances.
Up for review now is health insurance. Since we are both self-employed, we pay a LOT for our health insurance. We’ve been meeting with companies to get the best deals, and think we’ve found the right one. It’s just a matter of filling out the form. Which we haven’t done yet. Why? Sometimes it’s “the devil you know” — even though we’re not happy with our current plan, it’s a known quantity, whereas changing involves the risk of the unknown.
However, it does all come down to decisions. Not making a decision is, in itself, a decision. I have a sign above my desk with a quote from Teddy Roosevelt: “In any moment of decision the best thing you can do is the right thing, the next best thing is the wrong thing, and the worst thing you can do is nothing.”
Procrastinators unite! (soonish..): http://www.structuredprocrastination.com/
I have found that doing nothing sometimes is the best option. But everyone should have a will and insurance as needed.
I keep saying I am going to do this but I haven’t gotten around to it. I just found out that at the first of the year, I will be able to get my Will done for free thanks to my Employer.