No joke y’all, plan shit like this now, not tomorrow, not next year. And I don’t care your age or health. If you die tonight, the funeral industry vultures will swoop on your grieving people and fuck them over.
Working on end-of-life stuff with my new wife (both of us 52), and she doesn’t like it, but it’s getting done. If I eat it tomorrow, she’ll be buying a casket, plot, headstone, whatever the hell she’s told to buy.
Get a will drawn up, get a Living Will signed and notarized. Hell, just look up “end of life documents” and get to work if you love the people you might be leaving.
And if you’re married, FFS get life insurance, preferably whole life. It’s hilariously cheap if you’re young, and I mean stupid cheap, like $10-20/mo. cheap for fat stacks. Study on it a bit, don’t get jerked around! Had a good friend over the other night who sells and explained much.
Tried to get us on a plan that immediately pays out funeral expenses. Sounds great! Nah, we’ll self-insure that small bit. Instead we’ll setup a joint account and auto-pay $100-$200 a month until we’re feeling good about it. $10-20K? Can’t afford that? Who cares?! Pay $25/mo., whatever, it’ll stack if you’re young.
tl;dr: The funeral business gets away with this shit because we don’t plan, and that’s on us. And if you want a casket? Sure, take a plan as pictured.
Plan WAY ahead and donate your body to science. Family isn’t stuck with a bill to the vultures. Cremation even costs way too much to pay people that prey on grieving family for something that is inevitable. And science benefits from your donation. Ultimate win.
Also, tell the guy that digs the hole how big the coffin is including handles.
Because I went to a funeral last year where it didn’t fit.
We all went back inside for the food and mingling part, while they adjusted the metal bit at the top.
Eventually they came back and said it’d take longer than that as the sides of the hole would have to be altered so most of us left.
I swear we were there for about four hours in total. I don’t know if they’re all like that over there, but most UK funerals are like “welcome, hymn, eulogy, hymn, funny story, oven, drinks, home”. I find open caskets weird as well.
