Johnny was off work this weekend since tomorrow is a holiday. He had some stuff to get done in the afternoons but we were able to spend some quality time together in the mornings chatting over coffee and watching a little bit of Netflix. Then in the evenings he spent some time with his mom because she's moving to Seattle next week. She suffered a stroke in April and Johnny's brother wants her to be closer to him now.
I think his mom's stroke really made Johnny start thinking about future planning. His mom really didn't have much in place as far as durable power of attorney or anything. There was no person already assigned to make the decisions on her behalf. There was nothing in writing concerning her wishes about medical care. It really made an already stressful situation more tense among everyone.
My mom and I have talked a lot about our wishes if either of us were to become incapacitated or upon our death. My mom and grandma have met with an attorney concerning their properties and assigning beneficiaries, etc. And I'm a planner so...I like to know what to expect and what I'm supposed to do.
So in the last few months, Johnny and I have talked quite a bit about things. I don't remember what actually brought up the conversation this weekend, but he was wondering about his life insurance and everything through work. Right after we got married, we changed all his beneficiary paperwork for his retirement accounts, life insurance, etc. but we didn't really think about it much after that.
I consider myself to be incredibly lucky. I'm married to someone who wants to make sure that I'll be taken care of if he goes before me. So I went through all his paperwork and researched everything for him.
I'm a big spreadsheet person...so I figured up all the calculations for today and every five years from now. I also figured up his retirement...what his annuity payments would be based on age and years of service for deciding when he wants to retire. Of course, it's just based on estimations for what future COLA increases may be and stuff...but at least he'll have an idea. It's too bad the 5 years he worked for the USPS before becoming a career employee don't count toward years of service. :P But he hits 15 years as a career employee next year, so it's getting up there! He just tries to think of each year as one more year closer to retirement. ;)
Unfortunately, so far I'm worth nothing to Johnny when I'm dead...so far anyway. The next time open season comes up for Johnny's life insurance, we can add the family option to his policy. But that could be another 10 years or so from now (it was 12 years between the last two and they don't really announce it in advance).
But until then, I'm trying not to be totally useless upon my death. :P See, I take care of all the household issues. So I'm in charge of paying all the bills, managing all of our accounts, all of our paperwork, etc. I'm a pretty organized person...but since Johnny just trusts me to take care of anything, he doesn't actually know where to find anything.
So...my "contribution" in the event of my death or incapacitation is to have everything ready that Johnny could possibly need. I have created a "packet" of information for Johnny with spreadsheets that outline everything for him. All of our information, accounts, where to find everything, etc. Johnny is NOT a planner and definitely tends to be a worrier who doesn't deal with stress very well. So I want to make all of that as easy as possible for him.
Not everyone thinks about stuff like that. Lots of people think about the big things like wills and advanced directives, etc. But making sure that our loved ones know how to go on with daily life types of things without us can relieve a burden as well.
But in other less depressing news...I'm loving the cooler weather! I'd like fall to stick around as long as possible before winter shows up, though!