Some of us do not like to deal with a budget.  We prefer to randomly spend.  It gives us a feeling of accomplishment when we can afford to purchase a host of things, and still manage to pay the bills on time, or at least before a late fee is charged.  A budget limits our creativity too much, we may think, why plan how to spend the money, when there is a new sale every week that we are trying to catch.  We wish we knew of the sale at least a month prior, then we could work on a budget.  How can we even purchase the latest gadget if we are confined to a budget?

Regardless of how we feel, having a budget is more important than we care to even admit.  There are various advantages of having a budget.  Those of us who adhere to it are probably fully aware of all of the advantages of having one.  We perhaps have suffered losses, simply because we did not have a workable budget.  I hope to deal with the details of a budget soon, but for now, I choose to deal with the aspect of a budget which is least popular, but extremely important, that is insurance.   Insurance has been neglected by some of us, because we think there are other things that should take priority over it.  We therefore deem it as being unnecessary. So it is deleted from our budget.  It is one of those things that we may see as necessary, but it remains on our to do list.  However, it never gets further than just being on a list.

One Sunday, the leader of our ministry, a very jovial and very friendly man, was conducting business as usual, but he seemed to be very distant. Some of us tried desperately to even cause him to smile, but it was all in vain. I asked him if everything was okay, and he said yes, so I thought maybe he is just tired. However, he would not return phone calls, text messages or e mail from anyone. Two of his close friends decided to visit him, to find out what was going on. They found him sitting on his sofa, and it was soon discovered that he had died from a massive heart attack. This happened near the end of March 2009. While still trying to recover from that shock and heartbreak. There has been a series of celebrity deaths since then.

As we all know, Farrah Faucett and Michael Jackson passed on the same day. Even though Farah Faucett was terminally ill and her death was expected, Michael Jackson's death was very sudden. He had no known illness, and in fact he was preparing for his This is It concert when he passed. Then more recently, there were the deaths of the Kennedy clan, one was Ted Kennedy, the last brother of the family known so well in American politics. Again, Ted Kennedy was terminally ill, so everyone expected his death.

However, what about Michael Jackson? No one expected him to die at that time. He had great plans, and the world was looking forward to him performing like he did when he was younger. the suddenness of his death was one thing, but then as popular as he was, it was a shock to discover that a will was not readily available. This posed many immediate questions. Who will have custody of his children? Who has the legal right to ownership of his property? These questions led to his mother's trips to court seeking custody of her grandchildren. It also involved a battle over his estate. Perhaps he thought he had a few more years to live. In other words, he made the common mistake that we all make. We delay the preparation for our death, because we believe we will have time to attend to it one day. The problem is, most times the day to prepare for our death never comes.

When I was very young, I was preparing to be a girl guide, which I think is now known as a girl scout. The motto for girl guides always intrigued me... it was simply, be prepared. We were taught many useful skills that we could use in an emergency. It was important to be prepared because a disaster could take place at any time. If we are not prepared serious injury or death could be the result. In the same way we were being prepared for emergencies as children, we need to be prepared as adults.

There are various things we can do to prepare for our last day. Regardless of who we are, we all need to have a savings account. I know there are many people who think savings accounts are unnecessary, because that money being saved could be used for investments and other things. I am from the old school. I can testify how savings accounts have helped me in the past. These accounts have saved me (pun intended) from disaster. I avoided the need for a bank loan, or a loan from a friend or relative by merely using the available funds I had in my own account. I did not have to worry about being turned down because of my credit or unavailability of funds. In addition, I did not have to be concerned about paying it back. I did so when I could afford to.

Therefore, I recommend that everyone who is able, should open a savings account for emergencies only, and have a child, spouse or some other adult loved one as a beneficiary. In the event of our passing these funds can become available immediately for our beneficiary who can take care of urgent financial needs that arise as a result of our passing. One of the reasons this is important is that the funds from a life insurance policy is not readily available. It can take days, weeks, months and in extreme cases even years for the claim to be processed. The savings account can provide immediate funds which can be used while the insurance claim is being processed.

We also need life insurance. There are over one hundred and fifty types of insurance, but life insurance is one that we all should have:

According to the wikipedia:

Insurance is defined as the equitable transfer of the risk of a loss, from one entity to another, in exchange for a premium, and can be thought of as a guaranteed and known small loss to prevent a large, possibly devastating loss. An insurer is a company selling the insurance; an insured or policyholder is the person or entity buying the insurance. The insurance rate is a factor used to determine the amount to be charged for a certain amount of insurance coverage, called the premium. Risk management, the practice of appraising and controlling risk, has evolved as a discrete field of study and practice.


As the definition above explains, insurance is designed to protect us from losses. We are all aware of the fact that life is unpredictable. Disaster occurs when we do not expect it. There will be gains in this life, but unfortunately, there will also be losses. Insurance can provide us with some measure of guarantee that our losses will either be reduced or compensated. What insurance is really necessary? I believe all insurance companies will declare that most, if not all policies, are vital to our survival. However, most of us can hardly afford one policy, much less more than one.

The most common types of insurance are health, automobile, life, home and disability. Some kinds of insurance are compulsory, for example if we own an automobile we are required by law to insure it, otherwise we will incur a fine which will be accumulative. In addition, if we own a home, we are compelled to pay premiums on it's insurance as well. We may even budget for health insurance to ensure that our good health and also our family's health is adequately maintained. Most times we see the necessity of insurance when it is too late.

Life insurance is very important even though it is not required by law. Getting adequate life insurance is one of the best ways we can say to our loved ones that we really do care. If we have life insurance, our funeral expenses can be paid in full. Our dependents may even have the benefit of having sufficient money available to help them with personal expenses for many years after the death. Homeowners insurance is a requirement of all homeowners, but there is also mortgage insurance, which takes care of the mortgage of a homeowner after their death. In some cases the listed beneficiary can become the legal owner and the company pays the total balance of the mortgage. It is important however, that whoever you list as beneficiary on your policies are individuals you trust to implement whatever you desire to take place. Your children, for example, should have the full benefit of the house and funds as outlined on the insurance policy.

The will and testament is extremely important. As mentioned previously, it should be relevant and updated. All your children should be mentioned in the will, to hopefully avoid bitterness. It is a common practice of some parents to change the will according to their mood. If the child angers the parent, for example, the name is deleted from the will, but if the child is in good grace, the name remains. If you are married and in good standing with your spouse, he may be regarded as the executor of the will. However, if you are divorced, it is necessary to update the will. A will should not be used as a means to handle petty grievances, but rather to ensure that the financial needs of your dependents are guaranteed in your absence.

Some people ensure that the financial loss is taken care of, but some people go even further to choose the church, grave site, funeral program and eulogy. My mother was one such person. She insisted that I write and read her eulogy. A few months before she passed, she handed me a wealth of information about her life, so that I could choose what to say about her. I felt like I was writing a biography of her, but I gained much insight into the life she lived. My only regret was that I could not discuss with her how much I appreciated her even more while I was learning so much about her.

A more modern approach to death is to have an executor send a previously typed letter or e mail to selective relatives and friends. While some people may find this distasteful, I believe it is actually a fantastic way of saying goodbye for the last time. It can also be a great way of providing instructions on where to find vital information such as bank account numbers, mortgage account numbers, the availability of a will and other vital facts for beneficiaries and other relevant parties. However, the potential problems with this is that people do change their e mail address as well as their street address. Some persons may therefore not get the timely farewell. In addition, the executor has to be disciplined enough to send it out on time. He or she has to of course outlive the individual who made the request.

Finally, there are many ways someone can prepare themselves for death. It is extremely important that we all prepare our loved ones for our passing emotionally and, of course, financially. I have briefly listed some of the ways this can be done. However, we all can use some creativity to make it easier for our loved ones to deal with the losses that may be incurred. Some people, especially women, try to create a movie, a photo album or a CD which has fond memories for the family that is left behind. If we were not a burden to our loved ones in life, it is our responsibility to ensure that we do not become one when we die.