Do you have more money than you know what to do with? I know a few people like that. I knew a guy who bought and traded twin-engine planes like most kids trade baseball cards.
The thing is that people will buy what they want to buy not necessarily what they need to buy.
Recently, I became a card-carrying member of Costco. Consequently, each week I get an email message from my friendly neighborhood Costco telling me about all the lovely thing I could buy - not things I value or want but someone apparently does.
This week, I got a notice about one such item that caught my attention called La Prairie Skill Caviar Liquid Lift. Sounds French - which, to be fair, isn't a bad thing - it's just a thing....an expensive thing.
Anyway, most times when I get these emails, it says how much the thing costs. What caught my attention was that there was no price attached to La Prairie Skill Caviar Liquid Lift which piqued my interest and got me to doing some investigating.
According to the official La Prairie website:
The new Skin Caviar Liquid Lift is augmented with Caviar Micro-Nutrients to help support skin's metabolism for augmented lifting efficacy. Day after day, wrinkles and lines appear faded, skin is firmed and youthful contours are revealed.
Sounds like fancy make-up. Turns out, La Prairie Skill Caviar Liquid Lift costs an astounding $785 (USD) for a 50 ml/1.7 oz bottle.
For $785, I'd want someone to come apply the stuff personally! That's the thing, though. While I can't see spending that much cash for something I can't even eat, other people clearly will and do.
The reason I'm bringing this all up is because I was talking to someone I met on the street. Person was standing next to his spanking brand new Chevrolet Stingray Corvette 3LT Convertible.
It was beautiful.
In the course of our conversation, Person noted that they were looking to provide for their family in case of their demise and was wondering to me whether they should get a will or a living trust.
According to Google, a living will outlines your medical preferences if you become incapacitated - essentially a durable power of attorney. It addresses end-of-life medical care, such as the use of life support, pain management, and organ donation
A living trust, on the other hand, manages and distributes your assets during your lifetime and after your death allowing you to bypass probate (a costly legal process of distributing assets after death) and ensures your assets are distributed according to your instructions.
Believe it or don't, there are a whole lot of people in legal land who will say they can help you at low cost. Popular legal website Rocket Lawyer says they'll help you create a trust. Popular publisher Nolo Press has resources that can help you create a generic trust. However (and I say this from experience working for an estate planning attorney), nothing beats the confidence knowing that you had a lawyer create your trust/will.
I can't count the number of people we had to bail out in probate court either because their deceased didn't leave a will or the documents they did have were defective and were tossed by the probate judge. Sometimes there was a trust but, for whatever reason, the trust was never properly funded and their heirs wound up in probate.
Anyway, I suggested Person take a look at Martindale.com to help locate a reputable estate planning attorney. Aaaaaand that's about where the conversation fell apart.
Seems Person was really into his money and wasn't really interested in spending money FOR a trust or a will. Person was just looking for a way to protect his cash for his loved ones without spending any money or the least amount of money possible.
Yeah, it didn't make sense to me but who am I to argue with someone who was wearing a down payment on a house and driving an $185,000 vehicle?
Thing is, we all decide what we value and what we're willing to spend our money on. Person liked expensive things but clearly didn't value legal assistance as much as he (or his heirs) probably should (or will).
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