I'm Thinking of My Future Now I'm Older

Birthdays past were orientated around an amazing day out somewhere followed up with a night out that hardly anyone of us remembers.

[caption id="attachment_16444" align="aligncenter" width="850"] Decking In[/caption] My birthday this year was exactly what I wanted to do, we started the day with some fried food in a bap then we went to one of our favourite garden centres to pick up some interesting and unique plants for our garden renovation. If you’ve not heard about this you need to check out what happens when we agree!

 Following on from this we spent the day as a family in the garden digging space for new plants, drilling our fence posts ready to attach the chicken wire for our hutch and we all had a go at hammering in posts ready for the gate.  Mrs made an amazing cake which was to die for and then we headed out to a local restaurant for some food with friends.

I think it was halfway through asking Dorothy to sit still the 10th time and reading The Gruffalo to her and her little friends that it hit me. This is it, I’m officially a grown up.

It’s made me think about myself and what the future holds for us all especially as I’m the only earner in the house at the moment. What would happen if I couldn’t work any longer, there was an accident or god forbid I was no longer around for them to depend on me.

But this is all irrelevant right because when you’re gone you’re gone. Right? Well no. It’s not right and if anything, it’s the complete opposite.

We’re building a future together, a legacy for our children and creating memories daily. They have a house that they’re digging trees that will last a lifetime isn’t it prudent to protect that as well as their future?

I’ve been working hard to put money away into a pension scheme but that’s all well and good but I haven’t worked hard for it to just pay off debts. Not ones from me living but from me passing on.

A number of years ago now I had the unfortunate experience of losing my grandad who I loved like a father and for years he had been saying that he’s paid up for his funeral. I couldn’t really understand the impact of losing someone, who was also the only breadwinner in the family, and what that would do for our finances as well as our hearts.

We were so fortunate at the time that we could give him the send off he deserved with his friends and family there in the way that he had planned without the financial strain left behind and be remembered the way he wanted to be.

Thinking about how you’d like to be remembered, researchers from Avalon Funeral Plans asked 2,000 Britons how they would like to be remembered with 60% hoping to be remembered as trustworthy. That’s definitely how Tom was remembered. Respectful and trustworthy. He was also cremated which is what he planned and that was the most common choice with 52% against burial at 21%.

“In 2005 the average price of a funeral was £1,965* where as in 2017 they more than doubled to reach £4,078*. With funeral costs increasing at a greater rate than inflation, prices are expected to be £8,067* by 2027.”

Looking at the average cost of a UK funeral being around £4,500 thanks to FuneralZone and the average life expectancy in the UK to be just over 80 that gives me 45 years at around £100 a year or just under £10 a month. That obviously doesn’t take into account rising inflation and increased costs when the time comes.

That’s nothing to protect your family from huge costs, if I was ever to pass I’d want them to feel comforted and be able to grieve without another burden.

Costs aside, the responsibilities of planning or making decisions need to be done too. Is that really something that should be left up to your family? This will be the final day on earth before you go on to your next life, nothingness or heaven/hell depending on if you’ve subscribed to my YouTube channel 🙂

I’m seriously thinking about discussing a funeral plan, there’s too much to leave behind and I want to make sure I’m just leaving behind memories, not debt. I’m enjoying an active, fufilled lifestyle at the moment and thinking about dying isn’t easy as it seems so far off. But then again, fixing the prices now seems a good idea and having that backed by the Funeral Planning Authority like Avalon have, is the only way that I’d even consider putting my hard earned money into it.