Being Prepared!!!

Jeni Thats what everyone as saying!!

What can we say, Butternut? Just imagine how much harder things would be for your family if you were to have an accident and perhaps be in a coma. Would it not make things easier if your affairs were in good order? It is an act of love and the more you hate having to do it, the more love you will be showing.

swansong so that's how you get out of the Christmas chores!

Sometimes accidents happen when you least expect it and not always at night
Christmas Morning 2010 I took my sons dog out for walk in the snow ..
scruffy old trousers and a thick old woollen jumper - just before I left home I put out my nice outfit for when I returned home only I didn't slipped on ice and broke my ankle very badly thank goodness passerbys called DH and an ambulance.
I had clean undies and had showered but old tramps clothing on (nails ok just had manicure and pedicure for Christmas) was in hospital for 10 days!!

Thats it I am sorting my life out, put it off for too long. You never know what tomorrow brings.

Think I've hit the nail on the head then, fluffy

*butter

jeni - I don't think you're 'fluffy' in the slightest, but rather suspect you cultivate it - which I like, by the way. Your mind and steel-trap comes to mind .
Anyway, I am hopeless at getting my affairs in order. Would much rather not think about it at all.
I am normally very well organised, but in this instance, not at all!

The right thing to do jeni. Put affairs in order. A young man I knew died 2 years ago leaving a wife and young child. And a business with tax liabilities. Despite the fact that he had been told there was no more treatment to be had for his colon cancer several months before he did not make a will. Sadly they were both in denial right up to the end. But there was a panic the week after the funeral as you can imagine.
When visiting NZ I am always aware of the risk of earthquakes. What do I worry about most? Losing my glasses if there was a quake in the night. Have not yet worked out a way to alleviate this concern.

@Greatnan... Yes, I live in Sellicks Beach, the furthest southern suburb of Adelaide, South Australia. It was originally a village of holiday shacks but now has a few hundred houses with a population of about 1200 people, mainly young families and retirees. It's surrounded on one side by fairly flat farmland, on two sides by hills with lots of gullies, and the sea on the other side, so it's a beautiful location but we do have to be mindful of the bushfire danger. If a fire were to get into the gullies and the wind pushed it along there's potential for houses to burn, and as most of the houses are of timber construction the fires would be hard to contain. One of the great things about living in the area is that there's a strong sense of community so we're all supportive of the local Country Fire Service (volunteer fire brigade) and the Surf Lifesaving Club (once again a volunteer organisation with a strong focus on surf safety for kids).

Not OCD, just sensible. We bought a house at the top of a hill and our second home is a second floor flat. I feel happy knowing that neither is going to be flooded when I return from visiting the other.

Are you another Gransnetter from Down Under, PoppaRob? My daughter lives on the same fault line as Christchurch and they have earthquake provisions, tents, sleeping bags, etc. all stored in a light building. They made sure they bought a house sufficiently far from the coast to be unaffected by a tidal wave. It is not OCD to think of as many worse scenarios as you can, it is just common sense.
I think the last loving thing you can do for your family is to make your affairs as clear as you can.

I live in a high bushfire danger area and look after my GD on weekdays, so as well as the usual I have a bushfire action plan just in case. On high fire danger days I'm ready to grab the GD, a bag that's ready with clothes and other bits and pieces for her and I, my spare mobile phone charger, a few items from the fridge, the external hard drive and my favourite guitar and two dogs and we're off via one of the three roads that lead out of here.

My daughter has a ziplock envelope that contains my and my mother's wills, our various powers of attorney, details of our bank accounts, logon credentials to my online banking, website domains, email accounts, car rego papers and the most recent paid utility bills and bank statements which I update each month along with any changed passwords etc. Reading this I think I may just be a bit OCD!

Many years ago when working on a surgical ward a woman phoned not to ask after her husband (who had just come out of the operating theatre and was still very drowsy) but to beg me to wake him and ask where he kept the cheque book and credit cards as she had no money to buy food!!

jeni my husband doesn't get that concept either - he calls it the Mrs Gambol (or is it Gamble) principle

My lovely millionaire employer could be quite dense He had a set of very heavy and expensive suitcases, totally unsuitable for air travel, so he had a loft boarded over so he could store them. It cost him £1,000. When I asked why he didn't just get rid of them he told me they had cost £2,000. I pointed out that they had now cost him £3,000.
His wife had a real leopard skin coat, which she used to wear to go to Sainsburys. He said it was O.K. because people assumed it was fake. I asked why she didn't just buy a fake!

I'm afraid that when dh was dying I made him get all his affairs in order and accounts sent to the accountant. It was very helpful and accountant made a suggestion that saved me a lot of money. I knew all my own affairs but not dh's.
He died knowing all was under control and I did not have that extra stress to deal with on top of my grief.
We were always practical people. Even me in spite of my apparent "fluffiness" as my husband called it. Eg when I told him I had just saved us £300 by not buying a nice pie crust table I saw. This then meant we had £300 extra to spend.
Men can be very slow to grasp logical concepts at times!

Guilty Greatnan of letting DH see to all things financial except I have my own savings and I am quite a shrewd invester. When he is doing something dangerous or travelling I ask for the insurance papers but he just laughs.

That's fine, kittylester, you obviously make a great partnership!
When I was giving seminars to 'trailing wives' in Brussels (women who follow their husbands to posts around the world) I was told by one idiot that she thought it was morbid to ask her husband what provision he had made for her and her three children in the event of his death.
Sometimes I think it is women like her, rather than men, who are holding back the struggle for equality in the West.

Greatnan I think there are two different issues here. I do know all about our financial affairs as we talk about what we are going to do with regard to investments etc BUT my husband actually DOES it. It's a bit like talking about what to have for dinner and then I cook it! We play to our strengths! Plus he has the time, and enjoys, investigating investments etc. This being the case, I need to know how to access things on the internet.

On a lighter note - we believe in fair division of labour in our house - he makes the money and I spend it!

greatnan it would be the other way in our house, OG leaves it all to me. You have never seen how a bloke can be so hopeless and when in his professional life he is very very clever (I think it is easier to play dumb)

A continuing thread on my French ex-pat forum is what people would do if their partner died. It is quite common for one of a couple to speak some French and deal with everything, whilst the other never gets beyond a few words. Most of the women members say they would sell up and go back to the UK, but some have been in France so long their children have gone to school and college here, and all their friends are here.
I find it amazing that there are still couples where the wife (usually) does not know all about their financial affairs, bank accounts, pensions, insurances, mortgages, etc. I think some women enjoy being treated like children, but some men are obviously stuck in the dark ages when 'the little woman' didn't worry her pretty little head about such things.
I trust none of this applies to any Gransnetters, but if it does, do something about it now, please!

When I pop my cloggs I would like to think of all you lovely lot having one of our famous virtual parties.

So as I am totally unprepared in this area, have not even got my will done (been thinking about it since Dc were small but thats as far as I has gone)

I need to get my act together as a good pal was just telling me the other day.

You have all shaken me into action, I need a to do list

That crossed my mind too biker I was reading about the lady who was found murdered in her lonely cottage and I thought "she could be one of us" I think I will write a note and put it with my will asking my family to announce a knees-up in memory.

one thing that did strike me!! a while ago is!! if one of our gransnetters were (sad) to not be around.in via .unexpected circumstances (sad) sorry 2 sads lol. ,,,,then like O/P we would prob never know {shock).. I mean eventualy we would say " ohh! we havn't heard from such n such! ...it would then be quite sad,,but I suppose unless we left instructions then.??