WEBVTT - Preparing for the Unthinkable w/ Chanel Reynolds #740 0:00:00.120 --> 0:00:03.559 Welcome to Had of Money. I'm Joel and I am Matt, 0:00:03.600 --> 0:00:27.080 and today we're talking preparing for the Unthinkable with Chanelle Reynolds. Yeah, 0:00:27.120 --> 0:00:29.280 so this is a topic that's been on our minds, 0:00:29.440 --> 0:00:32.159 like literally for months, because this past summer we recorded 0:00:32.200 --> 0:00:35.360 an episode with our Wives that was episode seven oh four, 0:00:35.400 --> 0:00:36.920 by the way, if you want to go back and listen, 0:00:37.280 --> 0:00:39.919 and a listener had asked about our communication with our 0:00:39.920 --> 0:00:43.040 wives and how involved they were with our finances, because 0:00:43.040 --> 0:00:45.360 it's you know, it's really fun to dream work towards 0:00:45.360 --> 0:00:48.559 the different big financial goals that we have, and then 0:00:48.600 --> 0:00:51.159 of course the day to day discussions, right like what 0:00:51.320 --> 0:00:53.600 was the water bill that month? How much money's left 0:00:53.600 --> 0:00:55.040 in the entertainment category. 0:00:55.160 --> 0:00:58.000 Those are the kind of convos that happened pretty automatically 0:00:58.040 --> 0:01:00.560 as well. But given the fact that Joel and I 0:01:00.600 --> 0:01:03.400 were both money nerds, it's no surprise that both of 0:01:03.480 --> 0:01:07.080 us handle the bulk of our families finances. The logistics, 0:01:07.560 --> 0:01:11.200 and that question did spotlight the fact that if something 0:01:11.280 --> 0:01:14.000 terrible happened to one of us, that it might be 0:01:14.080 --> 0:01:16.880 difficult for our wives to figure out how to take 0:01:16.920 --> 0:01:19.800 the reins unless we made a plan for it and 0:01:19.880 --> 0:01:22.479 so that's why we are honored to be talking with 0:01:22.680 --> 0:01:26.200 Chanelle Reynolds, who has quite literally been on a mission 0:01:26.360 --> 0:01:29.240 for the past decade to help folks do what she 0:01:29.360 --> 0:01:32.480 wished that she had done before life takes a detour, 0:01:33.400 --> 0:01:35.400 so we keep it clean here on the podcast. I'll 0:01:35.440 --> 0:01:39.800 say that Chanelle founded get Your Shizz Together dot com, 0:01:39.880 --> 0:01:43.680 she authored the book What Matters Most, and both are 0:01:43.680 --> 0:01:48.320 dedicated to help folks face the inevitable reality of death. Chanelle, 0:01:48.520 --> 0:01:50.320 thank you so much for taking the time to talk 0:01:50.360 --> 0:01:50.880 with us today. 0:01:51.040 --> 0:01:52.800 Thanks for having me here, of course. 0:01:52.880 --> 0:01:54.840 Yeah, all right, So Chanel, the first question we ask 0:01:54.920 --> 0:01:56.920 anybody who comes on the show, Matt and I. We 0:01:57.040 --> 0:02:00.000 like to splurge. We spend more money than some people 0:02:00.000 --> 0:02:02.920 think is reasonable on craft beer. But hey, we're doing 0:02:02.920 --> 0:02:04.520 the right thing on the flip side of the equation. 0:02:04.600 --> 0:02:09.359 We're saving and investing wisely and on purpose. We're fundling 0:02:09.360 --> 0:02:11.760 a lot of money in that direction for our future selves. 0:02:12.080 --> 0:02:14.320 What is it that you maybe spore John in the 0:02:14.360 --> 0:02:16.040 here and now that some people might think is a 0:02:16.080 --> 0:02:16.880 little outrageous. 0:02:17.440 --> 0:02:23.520 I love it. I'm I'm torn between saying fancy cheese, 0:02:23.960 --> 0:02:27.280 which you know, growing up in the Midwest, we didn't 0:02:27.360 --> 0:02:29.639 always have fancy cheese, and so now if I'm at 0:02:29.639 --> 0:02:32.680 the store and there's like something perfectly adequate, but then 0:02:32.720 --> 0:02:36.400 there's something that's smaller than four times as much, I'm like, 0:02:36.440 --> 0:02:39.960 I want that one. It probably smells, yeah, like the 0:02:40.000 --> 0:02:43.400 dirty feet of angels, but I love it. 0:02:43.880 --> 0:02:47.120 The more the more cavities and crystallized salts that there 0:02:47.120 --> 0:02:49.160 are in any hard cheese, the more I'm drawn to it. 0:02:49.240 --> 0:02:53.800 Yeah, exactly exactly that. Or or a pair of boots 0:02:54.160 --> 0:02:57.919 like my winter leather boots, if there's a nice well 0:02:58.080 --> 0:03:00.720 sale even it's hard to say now. 0:03:01.040 --> 0:03:04.880 Interesting both of those are somehow related to feet stinky. 0:03:06.800 --> 0:03:09.080 I had never put that together before. 0:03:10.160 --> 0:03:12.239 Give me a thing to that well. Thank you, Thank 0:03:12.240 --> 0:03:14.840 you for sharing that. And we do want to spend 0:03:14.880 --> 0:03:18.919 some time talking about your story in your book. It's 0:03:19.000 --> 0:03:22.800 less of like a workbook where you're being super practical, 0:03:23.240 --> 0:03:26.280 and it's just an incredible narrative where you're sharing your 0:03:26.280 --> 0:03:29.320 story with the reader, but also walking folks who might 0:03:29.320 --> 0:03:32.760 be entering into a situation like that through just the 0:03:32.800 --> 0:03:36.680 headspace of kind of what to expect. Honestly, we hate 0:03:36.680 --> 0:03:38.120 to bring up what must be the worst day of 0:03:38.120 --> 0:03:39.480 your life but can you tell us a little bit 0:03:39.560 --> 0:03:41.880 about the accident that changed everything for you? 0:03:42.520 --> 0:03:46.480 Yeah, yeah, definitely. Well it was, you know, about a 0:03:46.560 --> 0:03:51.000 dozen years ago when my late husband Jose and I 0:03:51.080 --> 0:03:55.560 had a growing family and younger kids, and our son 0:03:55.760 --> 0:03:58.440 was just about to get he was just about to 0:03:58.480 --> 0:04:03.080 go into kindergarten actual and we'd done the thing that many, 0:04:03.560 --> 0:04:08.040 you know, younger growing families do is, you know, childcare 0:04:08.080 --> 0:04:12.680 costs were super expensive. We bought up bought a home that, 0:04:12.800 --> 0:04:14.640 you know, a bit of a stretch home that we 0:04:14.720 --> 0:04:17.200 were going to be in for a while. And so 0:04:17.520 --> 0:04:21.479 for those handful of years where we were stretching and 0:04:22.160 --> 0:04:26.120 you know, many costs were high, we we hadn't done 0:04:26.160 --> 0:04:28.520 some of the basic things that we knew of these 0:04:28.560 --> 0:04:32.400 like small incremental decisions of like buying the stinky cheese, 0:04:32.480 --> 0:04:37.760 let's say. And what happened was I was over at 0:04:37.760 --> 0:04:40.360 a friend's house with my son and went to get 0:04:40.360 --> 0:04:42.720 my phone out of my purse to take a picture, 0:04:43.240 --> 0:04:45.680 and notice there are all these calls from numbers I 0:04:45.680 --> 0:04:49.280 didn't recognize, and my husband had been in an accident, 0:04:49.800 --> 0:04:54.839 he had been taken to the hospital, and the tone 0:04:54.880 --> 0:04:58.840 of voice on the voicemail and the lack of information 0:04:58.960 --> 0:05:03.080 I was getting told me that something was very, very wrong. 0:05:03.240 --> 0:05:07.360 So I made it to the hospital. He was in 0:05:07.480 --> 0:05:10.000 the er. He had already been there for a couple 0:05:10.000 --> 0:05:11.960 of hours, and people are trying to find me. He 0:05:12.000 --> 0:05:16.600 had one hundred machines hooked up to him and tubes everywhere, 0:05:16.680 --> 0:05:19.360 and the er doc said that he had a fifty 0:05:19.360 --> 0:05:23.240 to fifty chance, and so that seemed better to me 0:05:23.839 --> 0:05:27.360 than what I had feared most. And then he said, actually, 0:05:27.400 --> 0:05:32.120 should I need you to listen? If he doesn't die 0:05:32.120 --> 0:05:34.960 at any second, The paramedics thought he was going to 0:05:34.960 --> 0:05:37.960 be a doa. If he's stable enough to get into surgery, 0:05:38.400 --> 0:05:40.880 there's maybe a fifty to fifty chance he can make 0:05:40.920 --> 0:05:43.839 it off the table alive. And that's when I realized 0:05:43.880 --> 0:05:48.520 that no matter what happened, whether he lived or died, 0:05:48.680 --> 0:05:50.880 and there was a fifty to fifty chance apparently of 0:05:50.920 --> 0:05:56.400 either that his life, my life, our lives were changed forever. 0:05:56.880 --> 0:06:01.120 And after a week he did. My late husband was 0:06:01.160 --> 0:06:05.920 a stubborn man, so he defied the odds as long 0:06:05.960 --> 0:06:10.560 as any body could. And after a week in the 0:06:10.880 --> 0:06:13.599 er and the ICU, all of the tests came back 0:06:13.640 --> 0:06:20.440 that his injuries were unrecoverable, and I made the decision 0:06:20.520 --> 0:06:22.839 that I knew he would want because we'd had some 0:06:23.040 --> 0:06:26.080 but not all, of these conversations and plans in place 0:06:26.800 --> 0:06:32.400 to remove what was then medical intervention rather than life support. 0:06:32.839 --> 0:06:36.760 And during that week in the hospital trying to just 0:06:36.800 --> 0:06:40.080 figure out what was going on and trying to take 0:06:40.120 --> 0:06:45.359 care of our son and stepdaughter, became clear to me 0:06:45.440 --> 0:06:48.000 that there were these hundreds of questions that came up, 0:06:48.600 --> 0:06:51.200 simple things like do you have your health insurance card? 0:06:51.320 --> 0:06:53.680 To what are the phone numbers to some of his 0:06:53.800 --> 0:06:57.200 family members, to do you have your affairs in order? 0:06:57.760 --> 0:06:59.880 And when the social worker asked me if we had 0:06:59.880 --> 0:07:03.680 affairs in order, it's just a phrase. Seems silly still 0:07:03.720 --> 0:07:05.840 to me. I kind of giggled, but then was very 0:07:05.880 --> 0:07:08.680 happy to say, yes, we did our wills and all 0:07:08.720 --> 0:07:11.760 of our stuff. And then a few moments later, as 0:07:11.760 --> 0:07:14.920 I was walking back into his room, I realized that 0:07:14.960 --> 0:07:18.360 we did get all of our wills done and they 0:07:18.400 --> 0:07:21.680 were sitting in my inbox and had been for a 0:07:21.720 --> 0:07:27.080 few months waiting to be finalized and signed. So some 0:07:27.160 --> 0:07:30.280 of the things that we had done, like having some 0:07:30.640 --> 0:07:35.920 but not enough life insurance, really did kind of offer 0:07:36.000 --> 0:07:39.160 that life boat for you know, as a bridge from 0:07:39.480 --> 0:07:42.400 the life we had to whatever the heck my life 0:07:42.440 --> 0:07:45.320 was going to be now. And some of the things 0:07:45.400 --> 0:07:49.400 we didn't do, like knowing passwords to phones. It took 0:07:49.480 --> 0:07:52.720 me dozens of hours to try to access something or 0:07:52.760 --> 0:07:55.800 get a phone turned back on. And you know, to 0:07:55.880 --> 0:07:59.280 this day, I still don't know if he bought bitcoin 0:07:59.400 --> 0:08:03.480 in two thousand and nine because I can't find the information. 0:08:04.920 --> 0:08:09.120 So you talked about having some of those conversations already 0:08:09.320 --> 0:08:13.120 with your late husband about kind of what to do 0:08:13.360 --> 0:08:17.040 if you're severely injured. You talked about life insurance, talked 0:08:17.040 --> 0:08:19.120 about getting most of the way done on your wills. 0:08:19.160 --> 0:08:22.520 Where would you rate yourself on like a financial preparedness spectrum? 0:08:22.520 --> 0:08:25.080 Because you thought when she asked a question, oh yeah, 0:08:25.120 --> 0:08:27.840 I'm good, we've done the stuff. But you realize after 0:08:27.840 --> 0:08:29.840 the fact, what you think, There's a lot of stuff 0:08:29.880 --> 0:08:31.520 I didn't realize needed to be done. 0:08:31.840 --> 0:08:36.640 Yeah, exactly. So you know, there's milestones that happen in 0:08:36.679 --> 0:08:41.880 our lives where somebody responsible or reliable or pediatrician or 0:08:42.160 --> 0:08:44.240 parents tell us Okay, now it's time to get your 0:08:44.240 --> 0:08:47.000 wills done, or now it's time to get life insurance, 0:08:47.040 --> 0:08:52.000 and so we've done some of those long term i'd say, 0:08:52.160 --> 0:08:55.560 kind of generic things. So the fifty percent of the 0:08:55.600 --> 0:09:01.160 stuff i'd say was was primarily more like for that long, 0:09:01.440 --> 0:09:06.800 faraway future inevitable, you know, surrounded by our grandchildren on 0:09:06.840 --> 0:09:10.840 a lake in our you know, deathbed, laughing at jokes 0:09:10.920 --> 0:09:14.880 or something. But we hadn't really and that's even that's 0:09:14.880 --> 0:09:17.640 a challenging thing to do. You know, fifty percent of 0:09:18.760 --> 0:09:23.679 us adults don't have wills done, don't have advanced care 0:09:23.720 --> 0:09:28.720 directives or living wills done, and without some urgency or 0:09:29.120 --> 0:09:33.319 a trigger in some case, or an accident, we don't 0:09:33.400 --> 0:09:36.440 know how much it hurts until we see it or 0:09:36.520 --> 0:09:40.040 we live through it in some ways. So the parts 0:09:40.080 --> 0:09:43.480 that surprised me, i'd say, and I would not give 0:09:43.520 --> 0:09:47.240 us one hundred percent marks on having everything done in advance, 0:09:47.320 --> 0:09:51.280 but what we had done made such a difference. Some 0:09:51.360 --> 0:09:54.640 of the things like, you know, an emergency fund. We 0:09:54.800 --> 0:09:58.200 know that it can be hard just to get through 0:09:58.240 --> 0:10:01.000 the month paying the bills that we have, much less 0:10:01.120 --> 0:10:05.880 saving for an emergency, but having an emergency fund really 0:10:05.960 --> 0:10:11.040 does and did offer some kind of cushioned just to 0:10:11.120 --> 0:10:14.200 be able to figure out what's going on, or you know, 0:10:14.280 --> 0:10:16.720 let's say in somebody's situation, by a plane ticket to 0:10:16.720 --> 0:10:20.200 go visit a family member, that kind of thing. But 0:10:20.400 --> 0:10:23.199 you know, like the what if stuff, What if something happens, 0:10:23.240 --> 0:10:26.440 what would I want or need for the next twenty 0:10:26.480 --> 0:10:28.320 four to forty eight hours, What would I want or 0:10:28.320 --> 0:10:30.800 need for a few weeks? Or what if that what 0:10:30.840 --> 0:10:34.760 if thing is? What's happening now? How prepared am I 0:10:35.480 --> 0:10:41.760 and passwords, phone numbers, emergency contact plans, Having like an 0:10:41.800 --> 0:10:45.160 extra key outside of the house so someone could go 0:10:46.320 --> 0:10:48.560 feed the dog, so the dog wouldn't eat the couch. 0:10:48.640 --> 0:10:52.040 You know, just some of these things keep life moving 0:10:52.880 --> 0:10:57.120 somewhat forward. When a big bomb gets dropped in your life, 0:10:57.160 --> 0:11:02.040 whether it's a disastrous accident like in my case, or 0:11:03.520 --> 0:11:06.360 you know, a diagnosis or illness in the family, some 0:11:06.400 --> 0:11:11.000 of these things we know we'll find us one day 0:11:11.200 --> 0:11:12.280 or another totally. 0:11:12.520 --> 0:11:14.920 I mean, you mentioned the emergency fund, and what that 0:11:15.080 --> 0:11:17.400 is is it's margin. It's financial margin in your life. 0:11:17.400 --> 0:11:19.199 But I like a lot of the things that you're 0:11:19.200 --> 0:11:23.600 talking about are about creating wiggle room and margin just 0:11:23.640 --> 0:11:26.600 within your actual life, like not even when it comes 0:11:26.640 --> 0:11:29.480 to the finances, like you talking about the key thing. 0:11:29.720 --> 0:11:32.600 I'm just like, oh, yeah, that's just smart. It seems wise, 0:11:32.640 --> 0:11:35.360 it seems prudent. But oftentimes, like you said, we're always 0:11:35.360 --> 0:11:39.440 thinking of the best potential outcomes for our lives. I 0:11:39.520 --> 0:11:43.280 noticed in your Twitter profile, I think I saw optimist 0:11:43.720 --> 0:11:47.959 in there, which is we Oftentimes when we are more optimistic, 0:11:47.960 --> 0:11:51.559 we don't necessarily think that, oh, these are necessary precautions 0:11:51.559 --> 0:11:54.800 that we should take. It's almost a matter of waking 0:11:54.880 --> 0:11:57.360 up to the reality that this might definitely happen. 0:11:57.520 --> 0:12:00.960 Absolutely, I am a serial optimist. Even even during like 0:12:01.000 --> 0:12:05.360 the lowest lowest lows, I'm still grateful that I have 0:12:05.440 --> 0:12:10.160 today and making these small incremental choices, you know, And 0:12:10.800 --> 0:12:15.960 I definitely understand like the buy the coffee type of philosophy, 0:12:16.120 --> 0:12:18.840 like we want we should be able to enjoy what 0:12:18.840 --> 0:12:22.400 we're doing and have some joy in our lives and 0:12:22.440 --> 0:12:26.760 balancing those with our financial priorities. And so we've done 0:12:26.840 --> 0:12:30.960 okay in the past with our financial priorities. Not perfect. 0:12:31.480 --> 0:12:36.320 And what I learned from that experience is when you 0:12:36.400 --> 0:12:40.320 don't have those things that you wish you could turn to, 0:12:40.559 --> 0:12:45.520 like you can't buy life insurance after you're dead, it's 0:12:45.559 --> 0:12:48.360 hard to build up an emergency fund while you're in 0:12:48.400 --> 0:12:50.640 the middle of an emergency and you need a little 0:12:50.640 --> 0:12:53.120 bit of flexibility and breathing room. 0:12:53.400 --> 0:12:56.120 Talk to me about how you guys divvied up kind 0:12:56.120 --> 0:12:59.400 of the financial responsibilities in the household. The reality is 0:12:59.640 --> 0:13:02.480 in relationships, it's like a ninety ten sort of split, right, 0:13:02.920 --> 0:13:07.040 And I guess would you recommend that people split those 0:13:07.120 --> 0:13:09.200 a little more evenly, or at least let their partner 0:13:09.320 --> 0:13:12.800 in more on kind of the realities of what the 0:13:13.040 --> 0:13:16.920 household financial management looks like, so that they're not completely 0:13:16.960 --> 0:13:19.760 out to lunch when or if, you know, the worst 0:13:19.800 --> 0:13:21.480 thing happens to their partner's spouse. 0:13:21.920 --> 0:13:25.720 Yeah. Absolutely. You know, my late husband and I had, 0:13:26.679 --> 0:13:29.839 you know, different strengths. He was kind of the tech 0:13:29.920 --> 0:13:32.280 guy and the password guy, and I was happy to 0:13:32.360 --> 0:13:35.720 let him do that. I was much better at other things. 0:13:36.240 --> 0:13:42.400 And so, you know, having transparency and communication I think 0:13:42.520 --> 0:13:48.160 is really huge shared responsibility, shared energy going into your finances. 0:13:48.320 --> 0:13:52.560 You know, someone might really enjoy the cooking of the meals, 0:13:52.559 --> 0:13:57.000 someone else might really enjoy getting free heyat in the spreadsheets, 0:13:57.240 --> 0:14:01.600 and you know, optimizing and moving things around. So I 0:14:01.600 --> 0:14:05.880 think that's great and I wouldn't necessarily suggest someone who 0:14:06.679 --> 0:14:09.880 can't stand to look at a spreadsheet or or a 0:14:09.880 --> 0:14:13.280 financial statement all of a sudden take on fifty percent, 0:14:13.320 --> 0:14:15.079 because it has to be fifty to fifty, but. 0:14:15.120 --> 0:14:16.160 With tooth picks in their eyes. 0:14:16.200 --> 0:14:22.160 And but communication and transparency, so you know, there's been 0:14:22.200 --> 0:14:24.720 a number of ways people have been able to share information, 0:14:24.840 --> 0:14:30.480 whether it's a checklist or a spreadsheet. There are much better, 0:14:30.960 --> 0:14:36.720 more usable, easier to share password managers or online fault 0:14:36.880 --> 0:14:41.520 So my partner and I now we have what we 0:14:41.560 --> 0:14:45.080 call our monthly CFO meeting, and we sit down for 0:14:45.120 --> 0:14:49.240 an hour and we talk about what you had mentioned earlier, 0:14:49.320 --> 0:14:52.360 how much was the water bill? But also what are 0:14:52.400 --> 0:14:56.600 our financial priorities do? I have all of the information, 0:14:57.240 --> 0:15:01.000 and we update our shared password manager. So if something 0:15:01.040 --> 0:15:04.880 were to happen, and let's say it's a four hour 0:15:05.040 --> 0:15:08.280 close call and I needed to be gone for a 0:15:08.360 --> 0:15:11.520 weekend and my partner would want to pay a bill 0:15:11.600 --> 0:15:14.560 or access something, they know where that is and I 0:15:14.560 --> 0:15:19.440 would know where their other information is. So now sexy 0:15:19.720 --> 0:15:25.040 future bonding intimate conversation is talking about like life insurance 0:15:25.040 --> 0:15:29.200 beneficiaries in my household. To be totally honest, and it 0:15:29.280 --> 0:15:33.920 really is an opportunity to talk about wanting your partner 0:15:33.960 --> 0:15:37.040 to be okay no matter what, want you wanting to 0:15:37.080 --> 0:15:43.200 be okay, no matter what, building a loving future for 0:15:43.360 --> 0:15:48.160 however long that future is for you together or your family, 0:15:49.000 --> 0:15:54.440 and then whoever whoever moves forward in that future. Because women, 0:15:55.480 --> 0:15:59.560 in particular, eight out of ten women and hetero relationships 0:15:59.560 --> 0:16:03.440 are going to live longer than their male partners or husbands. 0:16:03.560 --> 0:16:05.760 And so I think it's really important that we have 0:16:05.840 --> 0:16:13.120 these conversations, not just hey, babe, what's the Netflix password today? 0:16:13.160 --> 0:16:14.320 That's the most important thing. 0:16:15.080 --> 0:16:17.800 Well, sometimes it is. If there's a new show coming 0:16:17.800 --> 0:16:19.800 out and you got to see it, you're like, it's the. 0:16:19.640 --> 0:16:25.520 Finale, funny clamoring for the David Beckham. 0:16:28.440 --> 0:16:30.520 See whatever that is that could be that could actually 0:16:30.520 --> 0:16:35.080 be a financial life raft. Right there is sharing the password, 0:16:35.160 --> 0:16:38.160 but to the future as well. So you know some 0:16:38.240 --> 0:16:44.280 of those mundane admin you know, family household stuff. You know, 0:16:44.400 --> 0:16:47.960 my son knows he's the legacy contact for some of 0:16:48.000 --> 0:16:51.200 my digital files, and he also likes to crack jokes 0:16:51.200 --> 0:16:53.240 on Mother's Day that he knows how much my life 0:16:53.280 --> 0:16:57.640 insurance policy is and like you can't kill me and 0:16:57.720 --> 0:17:01.920 still be a beneficiary. But there's a level of transparency 0:17:02.680 --> 0:17:07.680 and communication which which for me takes a lot of 0:17:07.720 --> 0:17:11.639 that fear and a lot of that worry, and for 0:17:11.720 --> 0:17:14.959 a lot of people the wonder, like the wondering what 0:17:15.000 --> 0:17:18.280 would happen if something happened? I know or I know 0:17:19.119 --> 0:17:24.000 nineteen answers out of twenty and it's incredibly wildly reassuring 0:17:24.040 --> 0:17:24.280 to me. 0:17:24.560 --> 0:17:26.880 Sure, well, I like how you're kind of diving into 0:17:27.200 --> 0:17:30.000 simple practical matters and you know, we're talking a lot 0:17:30.000 --> 0:17:32.240 about passwords, but how do you go about doing that? 0:17:32.400 --> 0:17:35.200 Like where do you write down the login info for 0:17:35.440 --> 0:17:38.040 just all your different online accounts, whether you are talking 0:17:38.040 --> 0:17:41.720 about Netflix or Hulu or a retirement account, because that's 0:17:41.720 --> 0:17:45.360 a really important part not only identifying which accounts exist, 0:17:45.440 --> 0:17:47.800 but also how to go about logging in. How is 0:17:47.800 --> 0:17:50.240 it that you're able to keep that safe but also 0:17:50.320 --> 0:17:52.240 accessible to those that you want to have it? 0:17:52.520 --> 0:17:57.000 Yeah, definitely. I think there's two questions to ask yourself 0:17:57.040 --> 0:18:02.840 about what is going to make a successful digital hygiene 0:18:03.240 --> 0:18:05.520 kind of plan for you and what's going to have 0:18:06.480 --> 0:18:10.240 a successful way to manage and share or hand off 0:18:10.240 --> 0:18:14.720 your digital assets. One of them is what system do 0:18:14.800 --> 0:18:18.119 you already use that maybe works, and what's a system 0:18:18.160 --> 0:18:22.879 that you're actually going to maintain, and then who is 0:18:22.920 --> 0:18:26.600 it that you are wanting to share this information with. So, 0:18:28.000 --> 0:18:31.879 for example, with my parents, I had purchased one of 0:18:31.920 --> 0:18:38.639 the more expensive kind of concierge organized much easier to 0:18:38.880 --> 0:18:45.000 use online vaults and storage, and they wouldn't use it. 0:18:45.320 --> 0:18:48.080 They wouldn't use it. They wouldn't use it, like, can 0:18:48.119 --> 0:18:50.040 I send someone to your house to set it up 0:18:50.040 --> 0:18:54.800 for you? They can bring some pie it just the 0:18:54.880 --> 0:18:57.560 answer was yes, of course, honey, this sounds great, and 0:18:57.800 --> 0:19:00.560 they never used it. So if I'm trying to communicate 0:19:00.600 --> 0:19:04.520 information to my parents or a generation of people, or 0:19:04.560 --> 0:19:08.399 somebody who thinks password managers aren't safe no matter what, 0:19:09.359 --> 0:19:11.439 or they're just not going to use it, I have 0:19:11.760 --> 0:19:15.560 my own password manager and there's a number of them, 0:19:15.800 --> 0:19:18.240 you know. Some of the ones that have been highest 0:19:18.359 --> 0:19:22.160 on review lists are Bitwarden and one password. I had 0:19:22.240 --> 0:19:24.720 used last Pass for a number of years until there 0:19:24.760 --> 0:19:29.719 were security breaches recently and the communication around them I 0:19:29.720 --> 0:19:32.960 didn't like, so I decided to move. I'm not affiliated 0:19:33.000 --> 0:19:35.520 with any one of them. There are you know, there's 0:19:35.600 --> 0:19:39.840 your Google Drive or there's an Excel spreadsheet. People who 0:19:39.920 --> 0:19:44.119 are good at and want to take care of, you know, 0:19:44.160 --> 0:19:48.000 they have their own system. You can create a safe 0:19:48.080 --> 0:19:52.480 or safer way to track your most important, most important 0:19:52.600 --> 0:19:55.480 passwords and accounts, and if you are going to hand 0:19:55.520 --> 0:19:58.919 them off to somebody who is not computer savvy or 0:19:59.200 --> 0:20:03.760 won't log into the password manager to get the email 0:20:03.800 --> 0:20:06.600 that says you know, you're the legacy contact and then 0:20:06.640 --> 0:20:11.000 they accept it. In some cases, I just have a 0:20:11.080 --> 0:20:16.480 folder and it's in my little waterproof, fireproof case. And 0:20:16.680 --> 0:20:19.600 every year or so when I see family, I hand 0:20:19.640 --> 0:20:24.320 off to my you know mom, now the updated folder 0:20:24.440 --> 0:20:29.240 with the spreadsheet, and my brother and my partner are 0:20:29.359 --> 0:20:35.040 my digital powers of attorney. And so that makes me, 0:20:36.080 --> 0:20:38.720 it makes me feel reassured that if something were to 0:20:38.760 --> 0:20:43.920 happen and I didn't log into my password manager account 0:20:44.000 --> 0:20:46.840 after a certain amount of time, they would get an 0:20:46.840 --> 0:20:49.760 email and they would be able to access the files 0:20:49.800 --> 0:20:53.000 that I've given them access to, so nothing will get lost. 0:20:53.080 --> 0:20:57.320 Right like when it comes to your analog or your 0:20:57.359 --> 0:21:01.959 digital stuff in your house for when you need somebody 0:21:02.000 --> 0:21:06.080 to come in and help you or pay bills or 0:21:06.119 --> 0:21:10.680 find something. There's absolutely things you don't want to get lost. 0:21:10.720 --> 0:21:13.320 You don't want your four O one K drifting off 0:21:13.400 --> 0:21:17.280 into the ether somewhere and nobody ever knows where it 0:21:17.359 --> 0:21:20.040 is and nobody ever gets it. And they are more 0:21:20.760 --> 0:21:27.040 gazillions of dollars out there that are unclaimed. My impression 0:21:27.480 --> 0:21:31.240 of the many insurance companies that are out there is 0:21:31.280 --> 0:21:36.760 they're not probably prioritizing finding people who haven't filed claims 0:21:36.880 --> 0:21:40.159 to get the money back from them. So we want 0:21:40.440 --> 0:21:43.240 our friends and family to find the things we want 0:21:43.240 --> 0:21:45.920 them to find, and also maybe not find everything. Right. 0:21:45.960 --> 0:21:50.040 There might be a special box somewhere of who knows, 0:21:50.080 --> 0:21:53.280 like really embarrassing journals when you wrote poetry, or some 0:21:53.359 --> 0:21:56.440 more consenting adult type things that you might not want 0:21:56.480 --> 0:21:59.480 your mother or your children to find. So you might 0:21:59.520 --> 0:22:02.120 want to have a plan for who comes and takes 0:22:02.200 --> 0:22:04.680 care of what, not just your digital files, but also 0:22:04.800 --> 0:22:07.719 like who you want to have your you know, Elvis 0:22:07.800 --> 0:22:10.200 impersonator outfit collection too. 0:22:11.560 --> 0:22:13.119 How did you know Matt's Stark's secret? 0:22:13.359 --> 0:22:16.000 Yeah, you know, I wasn't going to out him, but 0:22:18.200 --> 0:22:19.440 it seems like you just did. 0:22:19.600 --> 0:22:23.160 Yeah, sorry, Matt. Well, yeah, it's one thing to have 0:22:23.440 --> 0:22:26.800 the insurance policy. It's another thing to communicate effectively to 0:22:26.880 --> 0:22:29.719 your loved ones. Then it exists, so they can you know, 0:22:29.840 --> 0:22:32.919 tap those funds when or if the need arises. And 0:22:33.000 --> 0:22:34.800 you know, we've got more questions were going to get 0:22:34.840 --> 0:22:37.360 to h with. You want to talk about wills, life insurance, 0:22:37.680 --> 0:22:41.560 powers of attorney, beneficiaries, A bunch of questions on those fronts. 0:22:41.560 --> 0:22:43.479 We'll get to that and more right after this. 0:22:52.160 --> 0:22:54.399 All right, we are back from the break talking with 0:22:54.520 --> 0:22:57.720 Chanelle Reynolds, and we've kind of talked about I guess 0:22:58.080 --> 0:23:00.760 thinking through I guess how it is you're going to 0:23:00.840 --> 0:23:02.639 kind of line up some of that information, who it 0:23:02.720 --> 0:23:06.280 is that you want to leave some of that information too. 0:23:06.640 --> 0:23:09.920 Let's talk more about the legal side of things. Let's 0:23:09.920 --> 0:23:13.879 talk about the state planning documents, specifically, how can folks 0:23:13.960 --> 0:23:17.280 go about planning in the first place? Yeah, can you 0:23:17.520 --> 0:23:20.160 maybe provide a good overview of some of the legal 0:23:20.200 --> 0:23:21.680 documents that need to be in place? 0:23:22.359 --> 0:23:26.280 Definitely so, in my opinion and the opinion of many 0:23:26.280 --> 0:23:29.800 other financial and attorneys who deal with the state planning, 0:23:29.840 --> 0:23:33.480 anybody who's eighteen or older should have some basic documents 0:23:33.480 --> 0:23:36.760 in place, and it doesn't have to be expensive, and 0:23:36.800 --> 0:23:40.119 it doesn't have to take more than you know, maybe 0:23:40.160 --> 0:23:42.640 a couple of hours. So it's just an important thing 0:23:42.680 --> 0:23:46.439 to start working into the speck of your life. The 0:23:46.480 --> 0:23:50.359 same way we go to the dentist and we you know, 0:23:50.400 --> 0:23:53.320 replace our furnace filters and we get mammograms. It's just 0:23:53.520 --> 0:23:57.000 part of the maintenance. So if we kind of take 0:23:57.040 --> 0:23:59.320 the scary way and just make it maybe like a 0:23:59.359 --> 0:24:02.560 boring tax I feel like it might be easier for 0:24:02.640 --> 0:24:05.280 us to do. In general, one of the things that 0:24:06.040 --> 0:24:10.640 any attorney who you would talk to about estate planning, 0:24:11.119 --> 0:24:15.040 any question you ask, generally, the first response back is 0:24:15.119 --> 0:24:17.960 it depends, and it does. It depends on a number 0:24:18.000 --> 0:24:20.880 of things, like which state you live in. You know, 0:24:21.080 --> 0:24:23.560 there are many as we you know here in the 0:24:23.600 --> 0:24:29.400 news and know from maybe personal experience, laws vary from 0:24:29.400 --> 0:24:32.120 state to state, and that's true also when it comes 0:24:32.160 --> 0:24:36.800