MyMoneyMinute.com

Editor’s Note: This is a Guest Post by a fellow blogger, Joel Ohman.

It could be argued that the lack of a formal estate plan is one of the chief concerns for many Americans who may consider themselves “average” but quite uncertain as to whether the estate planning process is for them or just “rich people”. Well, the truth of the matter is that all of us “average people” need an estate plan. From those with multimillion dollar stock portfolios, primary and secondary residences, and BMW’s, to those with a couple hundred thousand dollars in a retirement plan, a house with a mortgage, and a Kia, the necessity of a proper estate plan remains. None of us can know how many more days that God has granted us on earth before it is our time to go and whether or not you are mortgaging your health for wealth, the truth remains that you just never can know what will happen.

While I am not an attorney and nothing is this brief article should be considered estate planning advice/legal advice/personal financial planning advice/tax advice/yada yada you know the deal I do think that it would be helpful if we went through some of the basic things to understand about the estate planning process and all that it entails.

Let’s get started and if you have any questions then please feel free to leave a comment ask an attorney! Just kidding! Please leave any questions you have as a comment and one of our attorney readers can be sure to jump in.

Common Estate Planning Terminology

Here are some of the most common terms used in estate planning and if you don’t get anything else from this article then at least look over this section and learn a few new fancy terms that you can bandy about with any estate planning attorney that you decide to hire!

Decedent: The deceased (once you die then you are referred to as “the Decedent”)

Will: A written legal declaration from the decedent that explains how the decedent wants their property to be distributed (who gets what, who is in charge of seeing that certain things get accomplished, etc.)

Power of Attorney: A written legal declaration that authorizes someone else to act on your behalf. There are three different kids of power of attorney: durable, general, and special. Durable power of attorney authorizes someone to act on ones behalf when they become unable to manage their own affairs (because of physical reasons, mental reasons, etc.), general power of attorney authorizes someone to conduct business on one’s behalf, and special power of attorney authorizes someone to conduct only specific business transactions on one’s behalf.

Living Will/Health Care Proxy/Medical Power of Attorney: All of these terms basically mean a written legal declaration that specifies how one wants situations involving life sustaining care to be handled (i.e. when the plug should be pulled).

Intestacy Laws: State laws that govern how property should be distributed when someone dies without a will. To die “intestate” is to die without a will.

Executor: The person named in the will who is in charge of making sure that certain things outlined in the will get accomplished

Administrator: The person who is appointed by the probate court when someone dies intestate (and “intestate” means… let’s see if you were reading the above definitions or just skimming… to die “intestate” is to die without a will).

Trust: A written legal declaration by someone setting up the trust (called the trustor) that gives certain rights to an individual caretaker (called a trustee) to manage the property of the trust (called the corpus) in a way that is in accordance with the terms of the trust and used for the benefit of a certain individual, company, or organization (called a beneficiary). Trusts can be formed during the trustor’s lifetime (called an inter-vivos trust) or upon the trustor’s death (called a testamentary trust).

Probate Estate: The property that is distributed from the decedent by way of the decedent’s will or the state’s intestacy laws.

Federal Gross Estate: The property that is included into the calculation for determining the decedent’s property that is subject to Federal estate taxation (generally speaking that is comprised of property owned by the decedent at death, property in which the decedent had any incidents of ownership, life insurance death benefit proceeds, and certain gifts). It is worth mentioning here that a common misconception about life insurance is that since life insurance death benefit proceeds are income tax free, they are 100% tax free. This is not necessarily the case as life insurance death benefit proceeds typically are counted as part of the Federal gross estate and potentially subject to estate taxes.

Why Everyone Should Have an Estate Plan

Why is it important to do some estate planning no matter what your financial situation is? The easiest answer is to just simply say that having a proper estate plan is pretty much the only way that you can be fairly certain that your wishes are carried out even after you are dead. No doubt you have heard people complain about there being many strange laws and legal loopholes for allowing all kinds of crazy things to happen and you might have even thought the same things yourself. That being the case – why would you want to not take the proper legal precautions ahead of time rather than dying intestate and leaving your property to be doled out however your state’s probate court sees fit? Avoiding the probate process is one of the primary goals of most estate plans as probate can be a long and drawn out process that may or may not end up with the results that the decedent would have wished.

Common Estate Planning Strategies

Here are some of the most common estate planning strategies:

• Creating a will
• Creating a power of attorney
• Creating a medical power of attorney/living will/health care proxy
• Creating a credit shelter trust
• Creating an irrevocable life insurance trust (ILIT)
• Creating a qualified terminable interest property trust (QTIP)

There are really a bazillion and one different types of trusts and complex estate planning strategies that a qualified estate planning attorney can discuss with you.

What is YOUR Estate Planning Strategy?

What are some of the concerns that YOU have about estate planning? What types of estate planning strategies are YOU utilizing? How well prepared do you think that you would be if you were to pass away unexpectedly (Scale of 1-10 with 1 being not prepared at all and 10 being ultra prepared)?

.

Follow MyMoneyMinute on Twitter

Follow Joel Ohman on Twitter

.

Guest Post, estate planning

Here’s a little Sunday reading for you from some fellow bloggers:

The Yakezie Challenge

The Yakezie Challenge is a group of personal finance bloggers who are working together to promote and improve their blogs through mutual promotion.  When we promote good content, we all win!

Each week, a “carnival” will be hosted by a Yakezie member.  The carnival links you to a selected article from each Yakezie member.  This week’s carnival was hosted by Jeff from Deliver Away Debt.  Jeff’s hardcore about paying off his bills, and has taken a weekend pizza delivery job to speed up the process, pulling down about $1,500/month doing so!

Here’s this week’s Yakezie Carnival hosted by Deliver Away Debt.

Outside of the Yakezie Challenge, here’s a few articles that caught my eye:

PT over at ptMONEY reveals how you can compare 401(k) performances with BrightScope.

‘Kita at Personal Finance Journey gives us the 5 Lessons from her encounter with a financial advisor.

Punch Debt In The Face wonders if he should keep his money in savings, or pay off a debt?

Jim at Bargaineering has a not-so-whacky idea to lower taxes on interest earned from savings — maybe then we’d save more?

Don from Money Reasons gave his thoughts on allowances for kids.  I disagreed to a point on his philosophy, but show his link some love — go read the article and tell him what YOU think!

MyMoneyMinute on the Web

My Happy Hour post, Wine On A Budget: Oak Creek, was featured in a weekly round-up by Paul over at Fiscal Geek.

.

Have a great weekend!

.

.

Follow MyMoneyMinute on Twitter.

.

.

Links O' The Week

200,000 Miles!!

On Wednesday night, our family hit a milestone.  My car, a 2000 Nissan Maxima, eclipsed the 200,000 mile mark!

A Paradigm Shift in Materialism

I’ve been looking forward to my car’s mileage anniversary for months now.  Obviously I’m pretty pumped about this, but many of you are probably thinking, “Why are you driving an old piece of junk?”

Well, since our family’s epiphany about the way we handle money, we’ve changed our attitudes about stuff.  We’ve tried to live within our means and eliminate the vicious cycle of consumer debt.  Instead of a brand new car with astronomical payments, I value no car payment, affordable car insurance and extra money each month to pay off student loans.  Each ding, dent, and extra mile on my Maxima is another badge of honor!  I don’t want to keep up with the Joneses, just for the sake of keeping up with them.  Besides, it’s still running in great condition, and has had no major issues since I replaced the clutch about 150,000 miles ago (it’s a 5-speed manual transmission).

It’s So Hard To Say Goodbye To Yesterday…

I don’t know when my Nissan will give up the ghost, but I have a feeling the actual car will fall apart before the engine ever will.  I’m not sure when we will get a new(er) car, or at what point we cross that threshold, but for now, I’ll enjoy cruising in my ride, knowing I got more miles out of it than I ever thought I would.

What About Your Ride?

Tell me about your car — how many miles are on it?  Are you in the 100k or 200k club?  When is the right time to get a newer one?  Do you “drive it ’till it dies”??

Follow MyMoneyMinute on Twitter

Cars driving, Gas, Maxima, mileage, mpg, Nissan

Happy Hour

It’s Happy Hour today at MyMoneyMinute! My wife, The Lovely Miss H, really enjoys her vino, as I’m sure many of you do too. In case you hadn’t noticed though, wine can expensive! Nothing breaks a budget like a taste for the finer things in life. Well fear not, because I’m starting a new feature for our little website called “Happy Hour”. The MyMoneyMinute Happy Hour will feature fine beverages and snacks that are frugal on price, but not on taste.

Today’s Selection: Oak Creek Merlot

Oak Creek Vineyards are based out of California’s vast Central Valley, with vineyards in the cities of Livermore & Ripon. We tried Oak Creek based on a friend’s suggestion, and it didn’t let us down. I’m not a vinophile, I pretty much distinguish wine between red & white, LOL. But what I can distinguish between is good & nasty, and this wine wasn’t nasty; in fact it was pretty decent!

Quality vs. Cost

The age-old question is do you go with quality or price? Name brand or generic? Nike or New Balance? Krispy Kreme or 7-Eleven? You get the point, but here’s my take: we all value products differently, and tend to over-value products we are particularly fond of. The trick to managing your budget is to find the best quality without sacrificing your budget. Believe it or not, this compromise is almost always possible.

Cost Is Exponential; Quality Is Subtle

I love basketball. If my budget permitted, I would have season tickets to the Spurs. But I don’t have thousands to spend each year on basketball. The compromise? I buy the NBA League Pass, and can watch every game for less than what it would cost to attend one game. Oh, and I put in a 114″ projector screen in my house on the cheap. So unless I’m sitting lower bowl, I’d rather stay home and watch it anyway!

What’s my point? At some point, the cost of an item will eventually out-pace it’s matching quality. Would the quality be better to have season tickets? You bet! Is that Quality of live basketball worth paying 50 times the Cost of watching every game at home? For me, it’s a no. Compare a brand new $60,000 Lexus to a pre-owned, three-year old $15,000 Toyota. Is the Quality of the ride four times greater? No, you are paying for luxury status, and a new car smell, but ultimately it’s the same engine and body with different labels and extra added features.

Back To Happy Hour!

Currently, Oak Creek wine is on sale at CVS, $10 for 3 bottles – $3.33 each! This wine may not be as good as a $50 bottle of wine, but the Quality is enough where I don’t care to justify paying 15 times more in Cost, because I won’t get 15 times the Quality in return. In fact, this taste survey gave it decent marks. From what I’ve been told, the Cabernet is even better, so try that first. I would have, but they were sold out. Obviously, somebody found out about Oak Creek’s Quality before I did!

Next Selection

Readers, help me and the MyMoneyMinute community at-large!

Have you tried Oak Creek wine? What budget wine would you recommend?  Give me some good options and I may feature your selection in a future “Happy Hour” segment.

Follow me on Twitter

.

Happy Hour cabernet, merlot, Oak Creek, red wine, wine

Rare Nintendo Game Nets $40,000 At Auction

Ever hear video games were a waste of time and money?  Or that it teaches bad habits?  Well, for a “Dave”, his procrastination turned into a $40,000 windfall.  According to a Yahoo article, the Kansas native read an article on how a rare Nintendo game called Stadium Events had sold at auction for $13,000.  He checked his basement, where he had stored 185 Nintendo games for the last 20+ years, and to his astonishment, he had a copy.

Rare = Valuable

What made Stadium Events, a track & field game, so rare?  To play the game you had to have a floor pad controller.  Nintendo bought the rights to the floor pad, and recalled all known issues of Stadium Events.  It is estimated that a mere 200 cartridges remain that were not recalled, one of which Dave from Kansas had in his basement!

Better Condition = Higher Value

Dave purchased his copy of Stadium Events for $29.99, but never opened up the game because they didn’t have the floor pad controller.  His delay in returning the game may have temporarily cost him $30, but netted him $40,000 in a recent eBay auction.  He received over three times the value of the previous auction for the same game because his was never opened – the shrink wrap had not even been removed!  Who says procrastination doesn’t pay?!?

Take a look at this video to see what top-of-the-line gaming USED to look like!

Collectibles and Video Games

As a kid, I would collect baseball and basketball cards.  Now I don’t have much of a collection of anything, although I am a sucker for any SPURS memorabilia!

I loved all sports video games.  I remember playing Bases Loaded on my friend David’s Nintendo, and Joe Montana Football on my Sega Genesis.  Good times!

What about you?  What do you collect and why?  Do you have a favorite video game from the past?

Follow me on Twitter

Hobbies auction, collectibles, Nintendo, video game

Here in Texas, the big political battle of the day is the Republican Gubernatorial Republican Primary between U.S. Senator Kay Bailey Hutchison and incumbent Governor Rick Perry.  The ads used by both parties insult my intelligence.  Just so you know where I’m coming from, here’s one from the Senator:

F.E.A.R.

Whether it’s a political attack ad that lacks substance, or the 24-hour news network constantly trying to hook you into a story, this trend of negativity isn’t going anywhere soon.  Why?  Because fear sells.  Fear gets ratings.

Motivational speaker Tony Robbins often said that FEAR is an acronym for “False Evidence Appearing Real.” Once consumed by F.E.A.R., it leads you to make irrational choices, including in your financial life.  Here’s an examples of F.E.A.R.

Instance of F.E.A.R. — “I’m driving a 3 year-0ld minivan and have two kids.  I need a new van — I mean, I just couldn’t imagine being stuck on the side of the road with a broken down old car!  Besides, this new minivan has more safety features.  You don’t want our children to be in danger, do you?”

Reality – You rarely drive outside the city limits in the kid-toter.  Your minivan has plenty of room and is reasonably reliable.  Breaking down and needing a tow truck is not the end of the world, nor is it scary, especially with cell phones available to call for help.  There is no way the new minivan is THAT much safer to justify the extra cost.  Getting a brand new minivan with brand new payments upwards of $500-$600/month, just to avoid an off-chance instance of breaking down?  Illogical.  Don’t let F.E.A.R. dupe you into a financial hole that will take 36-72 months to pay off.

Beating F.E.A.R. Into Submission

For God has not given us a spirit of fear and timidity, but of power, love, and self-discipline. ~ 2 Timothy 1:7 (NLT)

F.E.A.R. so easily creeps into our consciousness.  How to we counter it?  Well God and the Apostle Paul are pretty good authorities, and they say the opposite of fear is power, love, and self-discipline.  Work on identifying when someone is playing on your fears.  Identification of F.E.A.R. is empowering. It allows you to compare it to your judgment and self-discipline to see how this F.E.A.R. should apply to your financial life.  When you have a financial plan (self-discipline), you will be empowered to make the right decisions by those habits, rather than reacting to F.E.A.R.

Application

Can you identify any instances of F.E.A.R. in your life?  What self-disciplines have you used to overcome these F.E.A.R.s??  Meantime, early voting ends today — I’m off to go vote.




Follow me on Twitter.

Politics

As I was so graciously reminded by Lakita from Personal Finance Journey, this week is “Military Saves Week.”

What is Military Saves Week?

Military Saves Week is a week used to raise awareness to military families of the need to develop and practice responsible financial habits.  According to MilitarySpot.com, Military Saves is part of “America Saves,” a national campaign involving more than 1,000 non-profit, government, and corporate groups encouraging individuals and families to build personal wealth.

How Does It Work?

The premise behind the Military Saves initiative is simple:

Financial stability is about a lot more than knowledge — it takes consistent action over time. Most of us do better when we have a supportive environment.

Military servicemembers and their families are encouraged to head to the Military Saves website, and take “The Savers Pledge”.  After signing up, servicemembers will regularly receive newsletters and financial advice from an e-Wealth Coach via e-mail.  By joining an active community dedicated to the cause of financial responsibility, our military families will become a generation of savers.

The Savers Pledge:

I will help myself by saving money, reducing debt, and building wealth over time.

I will help my family and my country by encouraging other Americans to Build Wealth, Not Debt.

I’m Not Military, How Can I Help?

I’m sure there are numerous ways to help, but here are a few I can think of:

1. Think Locally — Look within your family or neighborhood.  Is there a military family you know that could benefit from taking part in the Military Saves initiative?
2. Volunteer — If you live near an active or reserve military base, offer to teach a Financial Peace University class for military members & their families.
3. Build Community — The Saver’s Pledge officially appears to be for military only, but that doesn’t mean you can’t support their cause through social networking.  Join the Military Saves Facebook page, then spread the awareness by adding a status update.  Here’s two suggestions you can copy & paste:

Facebook:  Support Military Savers Week!  ”I will help myself by saving money, reducing debt, and building wealth over time.  I will help my family and my country by encouraging other Americans to Build Wealth, Not Debt.”  http://bit.ly/ciqbFQ — Pass it on!

Twitter:  I stand with the U.S. Military during Military Savers Week.  http://bit.ly/ciqbFQ – Take the Saver’s Pledge & RT!

Final Thoughts

Many of our servicemembers are in their teens and early 20’s.  They are given huge signing bonuses which are often blown on the first motorcycle dealership near the base.  Spouses are left alone for months with children and without a financial plan while the other spouse is serving abroad in war.  Financial instability is one of the biggest security risks to our military. The outskirts of military bases are scattered with payday loan businesses that clearly target our young military.  They prey upon them to make horrible financial and personal decisions.  This is how we can fight back. Support your military and give them the financial tools to have success down the road.  It’s the least we can do.


Follow me on Twitter

Military

Taxes have been filed, and a refund has arrived in the MyMoneyMinute household to the tune of about $360.  Last year, we were hit with about a $2,000 tax bill, so I was pleasantly surprised to end up on the receiving side this time around… but should I be?

Money Experts: “You Don’t Want A Big Refund!”

Many financial experts, including Dave Ramsey, frown upon a big tax refund.  Why?  Because the money you’re getting back was yours in the first place — it’s just been held hostage by the government for a year, interest free! The solution for them is to adjust your income tax withholding on your paycheck so that you receive more money each pay period.  Additionally, if you receive a larger lump-sum return, you’re more likely to spend it on a big-ticket item (electronics, vacation, etc.) rather than use it in a more financially responsible way, like paying off a car loan or credit cards, building up an emergency fund, or even for extra giving to your local church ministries.

For more on this argument, read articles by these two great bloggers:

Craig Ford from Bible Money Matters – 3 Reasons Why A Big Income Tax Refund Is A Horrible Thing.

Jason Price from One Money Design — Income Tax Refund: Is It Good Or Bad?

Me: “It’s Not So Cut & Dry”

In an ideal world, I agree with the guys above.  Unfortunately we don’t live in an ideal world.  If I lived in an ideal world, I’d never owe taxes or get a refund.  Then again, I also would never have charged money on a credit card, financed my life (cars, furniture, a home, and an education that cost even more than the home!).  Oh, and I’d have a stable job, an ideal salary, with predictable raises and bonuses too.

The 2 Major Reasons To Tolerate A Big Tax Refund

While aspiring for the ideal scenario above, there are reasons a big tax refund isn’t such a horrible thing after all.  Here are a few of them:

1.  You Suck With Money

Let’s face it.  If, instead of getting a big chunk of money in a refund each year, you got monthly slices of it by altering your withholding, it is almost guaranteed that money would be spent, and you wouldn’t even know where it went.  A few extra bucks each paycheck would be swallowed up by a restaurant here and a Starbucks trip there.  When you get one big check after tax season each year, you only have to make one financial choice each year, not 12 monthly choices to do the financially smart thing.  And hey, even if you make the wrong choice and blow the entire refund, at least you’ll get a really cool big-ticket item out of the deal, rather than spending it all throughout the year and not knowing where it went. If you’re gonna be stupid with your money, at least get a TV or an all-inclusive vacation to show for it.

The majority of us are financially undisciplined.  Until you get disciplined, a big refund can protect you from… you.  For a great analogy of this argument, check out an article written by Sam at Financial Samurai — Tax Refunds Are Good For Most People, Because Most People Can’t Save.

2.  The Danger of “Normal”: Risk Is Diminished

What my blogging friends didn’t discuss in this tax debate was this: we face problems adjusting our income withholdings because life is rarely “normal” or “ideal”.  Most people I know with a “stable” salary and tax structure are government employees.  In this economic climate, even those jobs aren’t safe.  People are underemployed and laid off in record numbers to the point where it is difficult to determine what your expected yearly withholdings should be.  Additionally, life happens too — you get married, buy a house, have children, buy a different house, someone gets injured on the job or gets pregnant — all these life changes affect your taxes, which means your withholdings may be off again.

For me, a limited return is ideal, but does not factor in the reality of risk.  From a risk standpoint, I’d much rather risk (1) giving the government my money interest-free for a year and get a big refund, rather than (2) miscalculate my withholdings and having to scramble to come up with an unexpected tax bill.

Conclusion

Currently, my life is just not stable enough to justify the risk of accidentally under-withholding to the point where I owe a big tax bill, and I suspect most people are in the same boat.  Perhaps down the road, life is a bit more stable and less in flux, I can spend the extra energy to get my withholdings down to a science.  But until then, I’ll err on the side of caution.

What Say You?

Don’t forget to read the articles by Craig, Jason, and Sam – then drop a comment below and let me know how you deal with your income withholding & tax refunds.

Follow me on Twitter

taxes dave ramsey, refund, risk, taxes, withholding

Economics 101

After foreclosures, increased unemployment, and a recession, we all have at least some idea of the “Credit Crisis”, and how it continues to affect our lives.  But if you’re like me, then a little visual learning never hurts!

“The Crisis of Credit Visualized” is a video by Jonathan Jarvis, who has some great videos over at Vimeo.  Take a minute and look at this great compilation.  Thanks goes out to Kevin McGill, who originally posted this video for Koine Church, a church plant in Dallas, Texas.

The Crisis of Credit Visualized from Jonathan Jarvis on Vimeo.

Do You Agree?

Do you agree with Jonathan’s assessments? Would you explain the credit crunch any differently? Let me know in the comments below.

Follow me on Twitter

Politics

A Fisherman Has Passed, A Legend Is Born

Last week, confirmed reports began to surface that Phil Harris, Captain of the boat Cornelia Marie on the Discovery Channel’s reality show “The Deadliest Catch”, had passed away as a result of complications resulting from a stroke he suffered while crab fishing in the Bering Sea. Here’s a quick video on Capt. Phil and his love of fishing:

Health vs. Wealth

If you’ve seen The Deadliest Catch, you know the captains and their crews not only have a crazy-dangerous job, but also live a hard life. Capt. Phil was a notorious smoker. The only time he appeared to take his cigarette out of his mouth was to either light up another one, or down a Red Bull energy drink, which he purportedly consumed several cases each week!

Capt. Phil obviously loved fishing, and would probably have done it for free. But there’s no doubt that fishing earned him a decent living. Unfortunately, to earn that living required that he be gone from his family for months at a time, chain smoke, eat unhealthy, drink Red Bulls incessantly, be sedentary, and have horrible sleeping patterns.

Living, or Making a Living?

As a lawyer, I’ve seen countless times where work has come at great cost to a person’s health, both physically and mentally. The same, however, can be said for nearly every profession. Special care needs to be taken to ensure a proper balance is cast between work and health. But understandably, we will often mortgage short-term health for monetary gain. Maybe you take a second job to earn extra money to pay off some debt, like Jeff Kosola, who blogs at Deliver Away Debt.

4 Tips on Mortgaging Health for Wealth

1. Set A Goal — If you must sacrifice your physical or mental health for career or money reasons, make sure you have specific, defined reasons for doing so. You want a second job to pay off debt. You will work an extra shift because you’re saving for a car. You’re putting in extra hours now so you will be in a better career position once your children are born (a little more general, and perhaps not a great reason unless a definite career plan is defined).
2. Spouse Must Be On Board! — It’s hard enough as it is to get on the same page with your spouse financially. Don’t mess that up by making unilateral decisions that deprive you of family time. Both should be in agreement of the specific plan to sacrifice short-term health.
3. Be Reasonable; Reassess — Be reasonable with your lofty plans. You want to work 100 hrs/week and working 3 extra jobs? Great! Just don’t realistically expect to keep that up for 5 years. The more hours you plan on being away from quality time with your family each week, the shorter your “Health Mortgage Term” should be. You should also reassess every so often to make sure the plan is still on-track, and if you still have one (LOL) that your spouse is still in agreement with the “Health Mortgage Term”.
4. Refinance — If for any reason the above 3 reasons begin to crumble, it may be time to refinance that “Health Mortgage”. Perhaps shorten the term, or reduce the number of extra hours worked each week. Hopefully the closing costs aren’t too high!

What About You?

Have you, or are you considering, a “Health Mortgage”? What do you think about a “Health Mortgage”?? I’d love to hear your experience or theories in the comments below.


Follow me on Twitter!!

Health career, Cornelia Marie, Deadliest Catch, debt, Health