Preparing for the Future: What to Include in a Will

It never hurts to complete your will. You don’t have to wait to get ill or reach your golden years to make a will. Consider making a will to outline your wishes.

Data shows that 45% of Americans have a living will. You might think that completing a will is a daunting task. With an easy-to-follow framework, you can know what to include in a will.

You’re in luck. This is your ultimate guide. Read on to learn about the most important things to include in a will.

Who Will Be Your Beneficiaries

When the time comes to do your will, you must think about who among your loved ones will be your beneficiaries. These can be persons, charities, or organizations.

Your beneficiaries will receive your possessions after you pass on. They might receive gifts or a share of your residuary estate, or both.

You might think that listing your beneficiaries might not be necessary. Keep in mind that if you don’t list them, your loved ones might fight to get in your will.

This tends to happen among siblings who fight over their parent’s assets. It’s important to prevent a financial and emotional battle.

Guardianship of Children

If you have children, you should consider making a will. If anything were to happen to you, you want to make sure to leave your child in good hands.

You can secure your wishes for the future of your children in your will. Think about naming a guardian. The guardian you name will care for your children if you or your partner die.

Name an Executor

You must name an executor in your will. You can’t create a will without one. This will be the person or organization responsible for carrying out your final wishes.

Make sure your executor is up to the responsibility. Consider having a discussion with the person you plan to name as the executor. Think about naming an alternative executor in case your first choice can’t serve.

Include Your Assets

Much like you have to outline your beneficiaries, you should also list your assets. Start with the major assets. These include your houses and any businesses you own.

Then, you can move on to the smaller items. These can include your jewelry and family heirlooms.

You can only distribute property you own solely. If you and your spouse are married and share title on a property, you’ll not be able to leave it to someone in your will.

If you need help dividing your real estate property in your will, you should hire a real estate attorney. This type of attorney can help you establish a trust.

Now You Know What to Include In a Will

Creating a will and trust doesn’t have to be a hard task. If you know what to include in a will, you can outline your wishes. Make sure to include these elements in your will.

Continue to explore the rest of our blog to read more great articles.

Conclusion

We hope you enjoyed this article…Preparing for the Future: What to Include in a Will

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Fact Check

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Can Money Buy Happiness

You know the phrase: Can money buy happiness? Or money can’t buy happiness. It turns out that’s not entirely true. Money can buy a certain level of life satisfaction, depending on how much wealth you have and how you spend it.

Research shows that emotional well-being increases along with income up to a certain level. A 2010 study looked at surveys of 450,000 Americans and found that higher-income participants reported higher emotional well-being up to an annual income of $75,000. After that, it drops off.

Happiness is far beyond just simply having money; it is also important to meet your basic needs, enjoy life experiences, and have social connections to have satisfaction and happiness in life.

Basic Human Needs

Lindsay Bryan-Podvin, LMSW, financial therapist and author of “The Financial Anxiety Solution,” says an annual income of $75,000 may not be the threshold for everyone. Meeting basic needs such as food, housing, and health care is a top priority. The level of satisfaction that comes from income depends on factors such as the cost of living in your area and your fundamental personal interests.

“The data is pretty clear that our mental health is better when we can support ourselves financially,” Bryan-Podvin says. “It’s stressful to be on top of things all the time.”

According to the CDC, adults living below the poverty line were three to four times more likely to have depression than adults living at or above the poverty line.

Being able to meet basic needs without working multiple jobs also means you’re more likely to have time for your family & friends, which is very important for happiness.

A Harvard study that began in 1938 and followed hundreds of men for nearly 80 years collected data on physical and mental well-being. The researchers found that close relationships, more than money or fame, make people happy throughout their lives.

Experience vs. materials

Once you have basic needs met, it may depend on what you spend money on, Bryan-Podvin says.

There’s a standard theory that spending money on experiences makes you happier than material objects. Some studies back this up. 

In a 2014 review found that experiences make people happier because they improve social relationships, are a more significant part of one’s identity, and are less likely to be compared to other people’s experiences.

A 2014 survey of more than 2,000 Millennials found that 78% prefer to spend money on events and experiences compared to a material object. It’s not just Millennials. The same survey found that consumer spending on experiences and events has increased 70% since 1987.

However, for some people, it may be the purchase of a material object that brings the most happiness. “Research has shown that if we have a powerful affinity for something, we get a lot of pleasure from buying that thing,” says Bryan-Podvin, who gives the example of someone who is passionate about cars.

When money doesn’t buy you happiness

One reason more money doesn’t always mean more happiness is the tendency toward what Bryan-Podvin calls “lifestyle creep.” That is, when you make more money, your spending often goes up.

For example, you may end up spending money on things like a country club membership or dinners at more expensive restaurants. In this case, you may not feel like you don’t have enough money, even though you earn a very good salary.

Happiness also depends on how much you really need to work to earn that money. “You may be pulling in $300,000, which sounds great in theory, but if you’re working 80 hours a week and not enjoying the money you’re making, what’s the point?” says Bryan-Podvin.

It seems that money does buy happiness.

A study disproves the theory that above a certain income level, dollars don’t improve your well-being;  By Justin Fox – Bloomberg

That money can’t buy happiness is an age-old proposition. Since the advent of modern polling, scientists have tried to test it – with varying results.

One problem is that happiness can have different aspects. In a widely cited 2010 article, psychologist Daniel Kahneman and economist Angus Deaton (both winners of the Nobel Prize in Economics) examined Gallup polls. 

They found that Americans’ assessment of life satisfaction rose in lockstep with income, their emotional well-being plateauing after a household income of about $75,000 a year, about $90,000 in today’s dollars. 

Emotional well-being was measured by asking about the feelings experienced the previous day and classifying responses according to whether they showed a positive or blue effect (worry and sadness) and stress.

See also: Money quotes funny – Top 50 funny money quotes – Forbes

Around the time Kahneman and Deaton were doing this research, Harvard psychology student and a former software product manager Matthew Killingsworth was developing a measurement tool, an iPhone app called Track Your Happiness, that pings users at random intervals and asks about the activities and feelings they frequently use a sliding scale for responses. 

An early finding, published in 2010, was that wandering thoughts bring unhappiness.

Killingsworth, now a senior fellow at the Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania, has since used his app to measure the relationship between happiness and income. 

The conclusion, just published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, is that while the link is more robust for life satisfaction than for experienced well-being, it doesn’t disappear for the latter after $75,000 or $90,000. Money always buys happiness, even for the wealthy.

Killingsworth based his app on 1,725,994 testimonials from 33,391 employed adults in the United States.

Above Average

The median household income in the U.S. in 2019 was $68,703. Among participants in Killingsworth’s survey, it was $85,000.

It may not work for other countries.

Economist Richard Easterlin found in 1974 that higher per capita national income did not produce higher reported happiness, a conclusion that has been debated ever since.

Money and Happiness

If you want to know how to manage money, you have to be happier; you need to understand what makes you happy in the first place. And that’s where the latest happiness research comes in.

Our Friends & Family Are Powerful Factors and a secret to happiness?

Countless studies suggest that having friends is very important. For example, large-scale surveys conducted by the University of Chicago’s National Opinion Research Center (NORC) found that people with five or more close friends were 50% more likely to describe themselves as “very happy” than those with smaller social circles.

Compared to the happiness-enhancing powers of human connection, the power of money looks weak indeed. So have a party, make regular lunch dates – whatever it takes to invest in your friendships.

Friendships are even more critical to your happiness is your relationship with your aptly named “life partner.” People in happy, stable, committed relationships tend to be much happier than those who are not.

Among those surveyed by NORC from the 1970s through the 1990s, about 40% of married couples reported being “very happy.” Among the unmarried, only about a quarter was so exuberant. But there are good reasons to choose wisely.

Divorce brings misery to all involved, although those who endure a terrible marriage are the unhappiest of all.

While a healthy marriage is a clear bringer of happiness, the children who tend to follow are more of a mixed blessing. Studies on children and happiness have revealed little more than a jumble of conflicting data. 

“If you look up moment-to-moment how people feel about taking care of kids, they’re actually not very happy,” notes Cornell University psychologist Tom Gilovich. “But if you ask them, they say that having kids is one of the most enjoyable things they do with their lives.”

Doing things can give us more pleasure than having things. 

Our preoccupation with things obscures an important truth: The things that do not last create the most lasting happiness. That’s what Gilovich and Leaf Van Boven of the University of Colorado found when they asked students to compare the pleasure they got from recent things they bought with the experiences (night out, vacation) they spent money on.

One critical reason may be that experiences tend to flourish when you remember them, not diminish. “In your memory, you are free to embellish and elaborate,” Gilovich says. Your trip to Mexico may have been an endless parade of problems punctuated by a few exquisite moments. 

But when you look back, your brain can work out the grumpy cab drivers and remember only the glorious sunsets. So the next time you think organizing a vacation is more trouble than it’s worth – or a cost you’d instead not shoulder – consider the delayed impact. 

Of course, much of what you spend money on can also be considered as just a thing, an experience, or a bit of both. 

A frictional book that sits unread on a bookshelf is considered a thing; a book that you dive into with gusto and enjoy every action is an experience. Gilovich says that people define what is and is not an experience.

A researcher also suspected that; the happiest people are those who are best at getting experiences out of anything they spend money on, whether it’s dance lessons or hiking boots.

Engaging in something hard makes you happy. We’re addicted to challenges, and we’re often much happier working toward a goal than we are when we’ve achieved it.

Challenges also help you achieve what psychologist Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi calls a state of “flow”: complete absorption in something that pushes you to the limits of your mental or physical abilities. Buy the $1,000 golf clubs. Pay for the $50-per-hour music lessons.

Flow takes work

After all, you have must have learned to play scales on a guitar before you can lose yourself in a Van Halen-like solo – but the satisfaction you get in the end is more significant than what you can get from more passive activities. 

Whenever people are asked what makes them happy from moment to moment, television ranks high. But people who watch a lot of TVs are less happy than those who don’t. 

Settling down on the couch with the remote will help you recharge. However, to be truly happy, you need more in your life than passive pleasures.

You need to find activities that help you get into a state of flow. You can find flow at work if you have a job that interests and challenges you and gives you enough control over your daily tasks.

A study by two University of British Columbia researchers suggests that workers would gladly give up a raise of up to 20% if it meant a more varied job.

Most researchers thought you had a happiness set point that you largely stuck to for life not long ago. One famous newspaper said that “trying to be happier” can be “as futile as trying to be taller.” The author of those words has since recanted, and experts increasingly view happiness as a talent, not an innate trait. 

Exceptionally happy people seem to have a set of skills – ones you can learn, too.

Sonja Lyubomirsky, a psychology professor at the University of California at Riverside, has found that happy people don’t waste time dwelling on unpleasant things. 

They tend to interpret ambiguous events positively. And perhaps most telling, they are not bothered by the successes of others. Lyubomirsky says that when she asked less fortunate people to whom they compared themselves, “they went on and on.” She adds, “The happy people didn’t know what we were talking about.” They dare not compare, short-circuiting insidious social comparisons.

This is not the only way to spend less money and appreciate what you have more of. Try counting your blessings. 

Literally, in a series of research and studies carried out by, psychologists Robert Emmons of the University of California, Davis, and Michael McCullough of the University of Miami found that those who did exercises to cultivate feelings of gratitude, such as keeping weekly journals, felt happier and healthier. 

More energetic and optimistic than those who didn’t. And if you can’t change your mindset, you can at least learn to resist.

The act of shopping unleashes the primal urge of hunter-gatherers. When you’re in that hot state, you’re usually extremely poor at judging what you think of a product when you cool down later.

Give yourself a break before you give in to your lust. Over the next month, try your best to keep track of how often you say to yourself, I wish I had a camera! If you rarely desire a camera during your life, forget about it and continue happily.

Final Conclusion

The amount of money a person needs before they can be happy varies. Happiness can depend on how much money is needed to meet your own basic needs and what you personally enjoy.

For one individual, that might be season tickets to the Yankees. It might be just a massage once a month or a new pair of running shoes for someone else.

Finally, money can increase the potential for life satisfaction depending on how you spend it. Spending money on experiences or things that align with your values will increase your happiness, Bryan-Podvin says.

Reference:  Time.com and insider.com

Bob Proctor Money Affirmations

Income and Finances can be tricky, demoralizing, and overall frustrating. That’s why we’ve rounded up some of our favorite Money Affirmations for you.

Consider this a cheat sheet for those days when you really need an affirmation to repeat to yourself. Saying these money affirmations out loud, or even in your head, can help bring a sense of calm and purpose to your financial situation.

Bob Proctor Money Affirmations

See also: Can Money Buy Happiness? 5 Secrets to happiness Money Can Buy

We hope the following statements will help you reset a negative attitude about money. In addition, we hope these money affirmations will help you take the necessary steps to finally open that savings account, plan for retirement, pay off your student loans, or make investments.

What do affirmations mean?

If you are wondering what affirmations mean, here are a few affirmation definitions:

Affirmation is a simple short sentence that motivates, encourages, and inspires and you to take action and achieve your goals.

It is a sentence that you often repeat in order to imprint it in your subconscious mind. This repetition has the potential to change your habits, behavior, and outlook.

Words & thoughts have power. When you frequently repeat them, they can, in various ways, influence and make changes in your surroundings.

It is a positive thinking behavior and belief that can change your thinking patterns and overcome negative self-talk.

What are affirmations

As mentioned earlier, the word affirmations come from the verb “to affirm” – to state that something is true.

Affirmations are statements that are intended to influence and program the conscious and subconscious mind so that they, in turn, change our behavior, thought patterns, habits, and environment.

The words that make up affirmation often bring to mind relevant mental images that inspire, energize and motivate.

The repeated words and associated mental images are engraved in the subconscious mind, which changes habits, behavior, actions, and reactions in accordance with the following repeated words.

Here are Top 20 positive money affirmations to help you get started:

1. You are a money magnet.
   
2. Money flows freely to me.
   
3. I release all resistance to attracting money. I am worthy of a positive cashflow.
   
4. There is always more than enough money in my life.
   
5. I naturally attract good fortune.
   
6. I am financially free.
   
7. My income exceeds my expenses.
   
8. I deserve to be paid for my skills, time and knowledge.
   
9. I have a positive relationship to money and know how to spend it wisely.
   
10. My income increases constantly.
    
11. I am wealthy in more ways than one.
    
12. My job/business allows me to live the life I desire.
    
13. I am connected to the universal supply of money.
    
14. I am grateful for the abundance that I have and the abundance on its way.
    
15. Every dollar I spend and donate comes back to me multiplied.
    
16. I can look at my finances without fear.
    
17. I choose to live a rich and full life.
    
18. I give myself permission to prosper and grow.
    
19. I am worthy of all the richness I desire.
    
20. I have the power to create the success and build the wealth I desire.

My love for daily affirmation began with this simple but powerful mantra:

I am good enough.

Since then, I’ve become a big fan of affirmations.

From my experience, I can promise you one thing about affirmations or mantras if you are new to them.

If you say affirmations to yourself often enough, it will become your belief.

Affirmations for Attracting Money

Case in point: I no longer repeat the above mantra because I truly believe I am good enough.

This may sound trivial, but not to someone who has suffered from an inferiority complex all their life.

But I haven’t always been successful with affirmations, and I’ve talked about my past experiences: 4 Reasons Why Affirmations Didn’t Work Before.

See also: 52 week money savings challenge to save lots of money

If you’re having trouble gaining things you want for your life, or if you’re new to affirmations, my experience can shed some light and help you approach affirmations the right way.

You’ll find out how to avoid making the same mistakes I made, and how to make the money affirmations below work for you.

As you read the following affirmations, choose one or two that you like best and repeat them as often as you can.

The best time for affirmations is before going to bed and after waking up.

But nothing can stop you from repeating the affirmations throughout the day.

And remember, if any of the following statements cause internal conflict, this may not be the right affirmation for you.

For example (as I shared in the post above), when you say “I am rich,” you may simultaneously hear a quiet voice inside you refuting “No, you are not!”

My Favourite Bob Proctor Money Affirmations

When I first developed an interest in money Affirmations, Bob Proctor Money Affirmations were one of the first I learned.

To this day, my favourite money Affirmations are from Bob Proctor’s.

The whole phrase just rolls off the tongue and, most importantly, makes me feel good.

Probably because my conscious and subconscious minds are in harmony.

I am happy and grateful for every penny that goes into my bank account.

I am so happy and grateful now that money is continuously coming to me from multiple sources in increasing amounts.

– Bob Proctor

This is the best affirmation that works for me and I repeat it all day long.

Here is another one of my favourites

Wealth and abundance flow through my entire being and life in every single moment.

These are more than just words to me. They direct energy flow, abundance, focus and attitude.

You may find some other affirmations that resonate with you.

Below are some suggestions for you:

• First, believe that affirmations work.
• Repeat them regularly with firm belief.
• Feel and act as if it has already happened. You will soon gain them for your life.
• You may have to force yourself to do this consciously, at least twice a day at first.
• Until you feel that you no longer need to repeat yourself with your conscious mind.

It will become a part of you.

Incorporate it into a 30-day challenge.

• It really sticks.
• If you’re still not convinced if affirmations are a good idea, here’s what you need to know.
• I shared it in my 6 Simple Steps to Success, but it’s worth mentioning again.

Here’s the key to success and the key to failure.
We become what we think about.

Throughout history, the greatest teachers and philosophers and prophets have disagreed on many different things. Only on this one point do they all agree.

– Earl Nightingale

The rich against the poor

The rich strive for success and see a bright future.

Their vision includes a big fat bank account, growing investments, traveling to exotic places, a debt-free home, and so on.

As they think about positive things throughout the day, they continue to attract them into their lives.

They attract what they think about.

Compare them to the poor who struggle with poverty.

All they think about are obstacles, worries, and debts.

All they see is a bleak future, being poor, struggling, and feeling hopeless.

When they focus on negativity and unhappiness, that’s what they feel and attract.

Remember what you say and what you think about will becomes your reality.

The following affirmations will put you on the right path to a rich and abundant life!

Here are the Top 15 Bob Proctor Money Affirmations

1. Money is wonderful. Money is energy

2. I love money.

3. I like earning money.

4. I love having money.

5. There is plenty of money to go around.

6. My life is full of prosperity and abundance.

7. Being wealthy feels amazing.

8. Financial freedom is my birthright.

9. I am a powerful money magnet.

10. money just falls into my lap.

11. I always have enough money.

12. Attracting money is easy.

13. Money flows easily into my life.

14. Wealth and abundance flow through my entire being and life every single moment.

15. I am now so happy and grateful that money is continually coming to me from multiple sources in increasing amounts. (Bob Proctor)

Final Reflection.

I worked hard to change a pessimistic internal dialogue that was hurting my personal development.

If you are plagued by a bad attitude about money, pay attention to the language you use.

Understand that your wealth starts with what you tell yourself and everything you think they need.

See also: Top 10 amazing facts about how money is made today

Fact Check

We strive to provide the latest valuable information for our readers with accuracy and fairness. If you would like to add to this post or advertise with us, don’t hesitate contact us.  If you see something that doesn’t look right, contact us!

Reference: Girlboss.com and Moneyhabitmuse.com