About 30 percent of us will die before age 65. Do you have a plan B for your investments, in case you're unlucky?

[euphilia]

@johnchristianforum Having a plan B for investments makes no fucking sense. You should be structuring your investments under the assumption that you will outlive the average life expectancy for your age. Longevity risk is a killer.

Separately, you should be structuring your estate so that your dependants are looked after if you die earlier than expected. Best way to do this is by having a good life insurance policy and by having your will set up properly.

 

[halifax24]

@euphilia In other words, hope for the best, prepare for the worst.

 

[xrrbx]

@euphilia Not to mention the best way to set up your financial investments in the event of an early death is to invest for the long term, so your heirs won't have to do much of anything to them.

A few years ago I read article about how Fidelity looked at their clients who had the best ROI overtime, and looked to see what they had in common. The biggest thing they had in common? Many of them were dead, and their heirs didn't touch the investments.

 

[jwlickliter]

@euphilia Life insurance simply to pass on the death benefit is a relatively expensive way to create a legacy.

IMO, a better way to think about life insurance is as a replacement for lost income and a way to give survivors a way to figure things out for a period of time without having to rush into anything.

Agree with the rest of what you posted.

 

[mikethebook]

@jwlickliter Agreed. I have about 5 years of income in LI to take care of my wife and kids. My income is decent (appx 200k), but my wife is also a professional with decent earning potential. I’d expect that they’d probably move out of our expensive city, pay for a house with cash, and lower income needs to keep a similar standard of living (obviously her choice at that point).

She has like 250k in life insurance. That would help even things out and allow me to take some time off to get my life together if she passes, but I wouldn’t need to replace her income otherwise so that’s plenty.

We’re young so LI is cheap, but as we get older there will be less of a need and we’ll probably drop to lower amounts.

 

[euphilia]

@jwlickliter Yeah, I agree with that.

 

[johnchristianforum]

@resjudicata This is brilliant. Or leaving it to some random half-friend from your ancient past, or a substitute teacher from your HS.

 

[caelesto]

@johnchristianforum Or to some random dude on reddit

 

[robsab]

@resjudicata I listened to npr about this dude who stated in his will that his money was to go to the woman with the most children. Turned into a shitshow because women who already had like 8-9 kids and were tied were desperately trying to have another kid by the time every woman/child was accounted for.

 

[guardianangelislove]

@robsab Do you have a link to this? lmao

 

[robsab]

@guardianangelislove https://www.thisamericanlife.org/668/the-long-fuse

Act 2

 

[guardianangelislove]

@robsab Thanks.

 

[robsab]

@guardianangelislove Np

 

[woodthrush42]

@johnchristianforum Yes done!

Just had a colleague die suddenly at 63. My dad died suddenly years ago at 64.

 

[paul808]

@johnchristianforum Given that people actually have money to put aside, I doubt that it’s anywhere close to 30% here. I also wonder if people here are generally more cautious, wearing seatbelt, not getting into fights, visiting their physician, not being a fat slob, etc, etc, than the average Joe. Can’t do anything about some things, but there are a plenty of risks one can significantly reduce at minimal cost.

https://www.cdc.gov/injury/wisqars/LeadingCauses.html

 

[3revan]

@johnchristianforum If I'm dead who cares who gets my leftovers?

 

[jordanmom23]

@3revan Just throw me in the trash

 

[miles44]

@3revan Because it is your legacy, if you dont have anyone to leave it to you could at the very least give it to some childhood cancer fund or red cross or something.

 

[jwlickliter]

@3revan This is mostly my attitude. We’ve set up our estate planning two to three levels deep (wife dies, wife and I both die at same time, wife and I and kids die at same time). However, no significant conditions on how money should be used.

The reason I keep saying “l’m dead, what do I care” during planning is so that no one feels beholden to a dead guy’s desire in future spending.

My wife is having guilt issues about college spending because she inherited assets from her mom and feels like she should spend them as her mom would’ve wanted, not what may be best for our family.

 

[hiltonmanonga]

@jwlickliter

should spend them as her mom would’ve wanted, not what may be best for our family.

Are those things... very different? I could see some variability in squaring the two but hopefully not actually mutually exclusive?