Let’s assume you’re somewhere in the green zone (see the calendar/table above). It’s likely you have kids still studying. There may even be adults who’ve already retired, in your household. In many families, people in all three zones live together. Let’s now assume, with the utmost of respect, that you die. Those in the grey and red zones – they still have to live. I submit that as proof of life after death.
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It is your responsibility to make sure that life goes on for those you love. But when you stop going on, there’s no more salary – there’s no more monthly money. Happily, there are three essential things you can do. They are a will, funeral insurance, and life insurance.
The first is to make sure that you have a will. WILL is an abbreviation for WHEN I LEAVE LIFE. It’s a written document that details what you want done with all your possessions when you die. (Your possessions include your debt.) This is a legal document, and it could be very complex – especially if you have fixed property, investments in banks, and an ex- and a current spouse (if you’ve been divorced).
You could go to a stationery store and get a generic will. When it’s done, make sure it’s legally valid, and would be easily executed with minimum distress to those you love.
This brings up the executor of your will – the person whose job it is to see that all you have is distributed according to your will, and according to legal procedure.
It’s probably best that the executor be a professional. (Most banks offer help with a will, as do specialist lawyers.)
Make sure that your will is revised every time there is a change in your circumstances. This could be your marital status, the birth of a child, the death or marriage of a beneficiary, the purchase of a major asset like a house or a car. Clearly, someone must know where your will is kept. And not just your will – other important documents are your identity document, marriage certificate, house title deeds, car papers, insurance policy documents, and so on. Those you love should not have to dig through piles of paper to find these documents, while they mourn a dearly loved person.
Funerals are expensive. If you don’t have ready cash for the funeral you want, then a funeral policy is the best way to go. (I’m over 60, and I’m paying R150 per month for funeral insurance.) And yes, it’s quite selfish to have the attitude, “My funeral? Not my problem.”
You’re dead, again with the utmost respect. Those you love have laid you to rest, and the process of executing you will has begun (it could take over a year). But those you love need to go on living, without your monthly salary. What about them? We’ll cover that in part B of this blog.
(In a critical way, our series title My money, my business, my life is misleading. It may be my money, but it’s far more than my business, and it’s far more than my life. But I’m confident that you’ll realise that, as these blogs progress.)
ere for the first time. It would be invaluable for salary managers in the early years of their lives – who realize that salary management is a lifetime business. Finally, it’s not just about reading stuff on salary management – it’s about careful thought (that means time, well invested), and then taking appropriate action.
Jay Pillay’s first two critical decades were spent where his first decade began – in Pietermaritzburg. After studying at ML Sultan Technikon in Durban (anyone remember that place?), he then joined the sugar industry, working in Tongaat, Durban, and Xinavane – a sugar mill village 120km north of Maputo. Oh yes – there was a brief period of unfaithfulness, when he flirted with aluminium in Richard’s Bay. Upon retirement, he and his wife Dorothy – settled in Southport.
Jay began writing about salary management (for ordinary people living on a salary) in the early 2000s. Many of his articles were published by The Ripple Effect, a Durban-based corporate newsletter. In all his writing, Jay says he attempts to emphasise the big picture in salary management: it’s not just about making it to your next payday – it’s about making it to the end of your working life. It’s not just about your working life – it’s about your retirement too. It’s not just about the cost of living – it’s about the cost of dying too. It’s not just about you as a salary manager – it’s about your dependants too.
This 16-part series is being published h
There’s a second finally. To daughter Nikki, thank you for the picture.
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