Tuesday, October 23, 2007

Weird decisions

We were at the bank yesterday. Again. I know it's exciting to buy a home, but I'm not kidding when I say going to the bank isn't one of my favourite things to do. Especially if it takes you half an hour to drive to the bank office and half an hour back home again. This was our third visit in three weeks...

But, now we have the loans approved, we've signed all the paper work for now, we've made agreements on the interest rates for our loans, we've decided how long we want them to be "bound" to those interests, and we've started to look into our different insurance options.

Yesterday we also saw a lawyer to talk about our individual wills. If buying a house makes you feel lika a grown up, making decisions for your will makes you feel old... I'm not afraid of discussing my own death and the arrangements I want for my body once I'm gone. I think I have that figured out. But discussing your own death in the same sentence as using words like money, inherit and benefit, puts a different light on your death. It felt a bit weird. Even weirder was discussing boyfriend's death and the consequences it would have on me financially with his son inheriting his share of boyfriend's "wealth". How different words in the will could change both my life and his son's life. Weird. And I'm glad I'm not in boyfirend's shoes having to decide on the proportions and priorities.

My part is easier. Having no children of my own makes it simple. I can do whatever I want with my money and things. I can give them to whomever. And the choice isn't hard.

We'll have all the details for our wills worked out in a couple of days. And then we have to get those life insurances. I might be a very ignorant person but up until two months ago I honestly didn't know we had something called life insurance in Sweden. I've only ever heard of it in American movies and detective stories before... And now I'm trying to figure out how much money I'm willing to spend on giving my boyfriend some financial security when I die. Weird. Very weird.


How about you? Do you have a will written? Why/Why not? If not - have you given your will any thought? What pops up in your head reading this post?

4 comments:

essjay said...

Being grown up can lead to having to make decisions that seem weird and that can be difficult to make. However, it is better to be prepared. Hopefully all the trips to the bank are done with now!

Geek Knitter said...

I remember a few years ago when I was opening an investment account. My broker asked, "And, in the event of your death, who will be the beneficiary?" It stopped me in my tracks; I'd never considered having money to leave behind, let alone deciding who it would go to. It felt like a HUGE step to take. While we were in the process of buying our house out financial adviser insisted that we draw up our wills at the same time... Being a grown-up feels very odd sometimes, doesn't it?

Anonymous said...

Wills: Ok, I can see the point of them...the main concept is respectful: you explain the future of your material goods so that others don't have to. Not a bad idea.

Life Insurance: rewarding someone with cash and prizes upon my death? FORGET IT!

Love,

Shell

Jen said...

LOL--isn't all that stuff insane? None of it ever occurred to us, I guess, until we had the boys. Then we started making all those decisions. :roll: We still haven't notarized our wills, but we had to figure out who would get the kids if we both died, who would be executor of the trust, how much life insurance money to have on each of us...(heck, if Justin goes, I want a million dollars! If only we could afford it! Just kidding.) It all seems so morbid, and yet so necessary. We're so responsible!