Did You Make Plans For Your Money When You Die?

We're all going to die.  No one's found a way around it, yet.  But what about your money, your finances? Your money will outlive you.  So it would be nice of you if you would help your survivors deal with this.  Per Kiplinger.com there are 3 reasons people have for not doing so:

Excuse #1:  You're not going to die.
Excuse #2:  You've been too busy.
Excuse #3:  You can't stand thinking about a future that doesn't include you.

Most people don't want to think about death. Most of us don't know when death will come knocking.   My father died suddenly and unexpectedly.  He never would talk about death.  Therefore, he did not believe in life insurance.  My poor mother.  His inaction while he was alive created an absolute nightmare and mess for his survivors, especially my mother.

So check out Kiplinger.com for estate-planning steps to "die the right way," including tips for planning your funeral party.

Think about writing your life story.  This will prove to be invaluable to all of your eventual survivors.  When you die a lot of family history can be lost forever unfortunately.  This will frustrate survivors.  And knowing that you wrote your story will be a big comfort to family after your death.

What about someone to manage your investments, if you have any?  I would not trust most stockbrokers and financial planners, even fee-for-service advisers,  with a 1000 foot pole.  I think they only enrich themselves, and that the returns they  trumpet are mediocre at best.  You can do better on your own, and save a lot in expenses by doing so.  It is really not that hard to do yourself.  But it takes time and energy.  But think about it.

Do you have a will?  What happens if you have young children and you die?  Do you have a trust(s)?  Will your estate avoid the tedium and public nature of probate?  Are your finances organized?  Where are all of your passwords and user names, for online accounts and otherwise?

  

Can Software-Based Humans Live Forever?

Recently I saw a show on public TV where 3 scientists stated that within the next 50 years humans will start routinely living for 150 years.  They did not address the quality of life that people will experience.  Will we be miserable from 100 to 150?  Will we be able to afford getting older?  And how will the children of aging parents hold up psychologically, financially, etc.?  Many doctors feel that we will be like cars now.  When we need new parts we'll go into the hospital repair shop, get fixed up and come out new and improved.  (No comments about the lack of quality and affordable auto repair shops.)  This is already happening to some mild extent now.  It's been estimated that there will be 8 million centenarians by 2050.  We're living longer and longer, for better or for worse.

Ray Kurzweil, the author of "The Singularity Is Near:  When Humans Transcend Biology," believes that we're close to unlocking the key to immortality.  Yes you heard right:  I M M O R T A L I T Y.  "Software-based humans"  will survive indefinitely on the web "projecting bodies whenever they need or want them, including virtual bodies in diverse realms of virtual reality."  Whoa!  I, or my children and their children, better start perfecting our interactive web games skills (World of Warcraft, etc.).

What we do now is bury or entomb or cremate bodies.  That's what humans have been doing for thousands of years.  So perhaps no more expensive grave plots for our grandchildren in the future.

Yikes It's the End of the World Jim (Again)!!

Apocalypse now!  Armageddon!!  It's the end of the world!!  Martians!  Run!!  Doomsday prophecies have repeatedly come and gone often since the Middle Ages in particular.  Earlier this year Christian radio broadcaster Harold Camping (born July 19, 1921) predicted that on May 21, 2011 Jesus would return to Earth for the Rapture, followed by months of fire, brimstone and plagues on Earth with millions of people dying each day.  When that did not happen he then decided that the Universe would be destroyed by God on October 21,  2011.  On October 21 at about 9 AM I was watching one of the national morning TV programs and I was still alive.  An awful lot of people had the end of the world in the back of their minds. One of the TV host pundits pointed out that it was already October 22 in Australia.  The Universe had survived.  So with relief I got on with the rest of my day.  Camping had twice before predicted the end of the world in 1988 and 1994.  There will surely be more end of times predictions ahead.

Dance a Jig On Your Grave

True or false:  Per the real artist Shea Hembrey, his created artists Micah Abernathy and Bud Holland "wanting to create a joyous practice linked with death they (Abernathy and Holland) are working to establish dig jigs in a few rural Tennessee communities.  A dig jig is set on a milestone birthday or wedding anniversary for the person or couple to dance on the actual grave where they'll eventually be buried.  Friends and family gather to watch them dance on this spot."  Is this true or false?  Do you like the idea?  Will it take?  Why not do it if you own the grave(s) and your body will be spending eternity there?

Who's to Blame for 2010 Upper Big Branch Mining Disaster?

29 miners died in the above disaster.  Massey Energy (now owned by Alpha Natural Resources) was the owner of the mine.  Alpha settled with the Justice Department, for $209 million in fines and restitution, to avoid prosecution for the disaster.  The criminal investigation of top officials of Massey Energy must continue as they systematically, intentionally and aggressively worked to avoid safety compliance and to thwart regulators.  If Massey had complied with mining regulations in the first place not one miner would have died!  Lies were told and records were destroyed.  More than a dozen of Massey's highest officers have all taken the 5th!  Why?  They should all be held accountable (and they should make themselves accountable).  Are these executives not embarrassed?  Are they not humbled?  How can they live with themselves?  They and their behavior are corrupt.  Corporate America at its finest once again.  These executives have paid fines with the corporate checkbook, with shareholder's money.

Formula 1 Driver Death Tragedies

Formula 1 car road racing in Europe from the 1940's into the late 1960s was fast, furious, competitive, violent and often calamitous.  F1 racing then was extremely popular in Europe, and winning races was very prestigious for racers.  For about 20 years almost 1 driver died per race on average.  Funerals were common.  On the straightaways speeds could hit 250 miles per hour.  The drivers lived on the edge.  They loved what they did.  They tried hard to be in "the zone", that space where they can see ahead and react well to all of the other drivers.  Racers looked for "the limit" also, the theoretical speed where the car is on the verge of spinning out of control.  It's a gut feeling.  Drivers were addicted to "a nodding acquaintance with death."  Many expected to die on the track.

Most courses then had no protective barriers for spectators.  In the 1955 Le Mans race a Mercedes car crashed and killed 80 spectators.  In the race for the Formula 1 championship in 1961 at the Italian Grand Prix a car crash killed 14 spectators and 2 drivers.

Specks in Time

In 1977 the unmanned probes Voyagers I and II were launched to explore Jupiter and Saturn.  The completed their missions.  And they are still alive and going, farther and farther from the Earth, and transmitting interstellar space data.  They are close to leaving our Milky Way.  Their data transmission batteries should last another 14 years roughly.  After that the Voyagers will keep moving away from the Earth.   Potentially they could travel for BILLIONS of years!  In about 5 Billion years our Sun will consume the Earth and life will end.   (We'll see.  Man can be very inventive.)   So the Voyagers could outlive us, and perhaps if there is intelligent life elsewhere and they find a Voyager there is information available on board about us and the Earth to be decoded.  The information includes music, images, and greetings in hundreds of dialects.  (Thanks to Peter Krauss for the above.  He writes:   "The universe will go on quite nicely with or without us." and "...perhaps giving the impression (from the information mentioned above) that we knew we were lucky to exist for a brief time on this cosmic speck, instead of suffering under the solipsistic notion that we somehow reigned supreme in a universe created for us."

Strange but Unfortunately True Life and Death Stories

A woman in England's partner grew bored with her.  So he and a friend tasered her.  They bound her hands, feet and mouth with tape.  Then they put her in a long cardboard box which they then buried in a shallow grave.  They left her there to die.  She started cutting away at the tape with her engagement ring.  She was successful in getting rid of the tape.  In all it took her an hour to undo the tape and to rip through the cardboard and dig her way out.  Covered in dirt she ran to a nearby road, flagged down a car, and then went to the authorities.  Ah love.

Funny/Odd Death Thoughts That Happen to be Real

The sign reads:  "Ray Cemetery, The End of the Road."

Another sign elsewhere reads:  "Turn Left Ahead for Cemetery/Dump."

In the Bronx, NY there is a motorcycle biker club, the Ching-a-Ling Nomads.  They honor their dead members in their signature tradition of of spitting beer on the graves of deceased Nomads.

Insurers Owe Hundreds of Millions of Dollars to the Beneficiaries of Deceased Customers' Life-Insurance Policies

Well I'll be!  Big corporate malfeasance once again.  I can't believe it but I should know better.  This is scary stuff.    Many of the largest life insurance companies in the country have not paid out death claims on deceased customers' life insurance policies to beneficiaries.  The way the system works now, per life insurance contracts, the beneficiary is supposed to notify the insurance company that the policy holder has died.  But many people/survivors/beneficiaries, mostly low-income, don't even know that the deceased had a life insurance policy.  So the  insurance company sits on the proceeds and gets to keep them if no one claims the money.  The companies use a Social Security death database when it's been beneficial to them, such as cutting off retirement-income checks.  Hmmmm.  They'll go out of their way to benefit themselves but not their customers.   What a surprise!  So state regulators have recently started forcing life insurance companies to use the death database to pay out to beneficiaries.  Will there be penalties, fines and settlement agreements?  Should there be?  So far most of the minimal number of cases settled have resulted in the insurance companies denying wrongdoing as part of the settlement.  Big companies never seem to have a sense of shame.  Why not get them to admit to wrongdoing and then have them pay out a whole lot more money in penalties and fines.  Big companies are slapped on the wrist and executives laugh all the way to the bank.