The End of Our Lives

While it's not fun to think of the end of our lives, if we don't look to our personal affairs, we risk leaving the people we love dealing with chaos when they are already grieving. One need only look to Steig Larsson, (author if you don't know) who left his live in lover out in the financial cold upon his untimely demise, to realize that if we want any say in what happens to our stuff after we die, we need to arrange our affairs before that moment. Not all inheritance laws are equal, so make sure you take the time to protect the people and your legacy, before it's too late. 

Not Fun to Think About This

Not long ago, there was a post to several loops by a family member trying to let people know his mom had passed away. It was a sad post and difficult for the son, because he didn't know exactly who to inform. This got me thinking about what my family would be faced with if something happened to me. One thing I really need to do is update my contact list with basic info that my family can use. I'm still working on the exact wording, because "let this person know if I've died" seems kind of, I don't know. I certainly need to tag contacts by whether I have business dealings and/or if they are personal friends. Beyond the informing part of the situation, I also need to make it easy for my family to sort out my writing business and protect the rights to my intellectual property in the process. I have talked to my kids about what of my personal property they might be interested in. I love my books and other things I've collected, but the last thing I want is for them to become a burden to my family when they are already (at least I hope they will be) struggling with losing me. To be continued.