One of the most important things you can possibly do for your family’s protection, and yet is often the one thing many young families ignore the longest.

• If you don't have anything yet, you're not alone (01:38)
• Will (02:32), power of attorney (03:42), living will with a medical directive (04:10)
• Take a step of action today (04:27)

Quote for the episode: "And so getting in motion to any degree right now is what will give you the greatest opportunity for removing this anxiety in the back of your head."

Securities offered through TFS Securities, Inc., Advisory Services through TFS Advisory Services, a SEC Registered Investment Advisor Member FINRA / SIPC. TFS Securities, Inc. located at 437 Newman Springs Road, Lincroft, NJ 07738 (732) 758-9300.

Welcome to the Enjoy More 30s: Family Finance

podcast, the only podcast dedicated to making life more

enjoyable for young families by hitting on the financial topics

that tend to weigh on us, stress us out and distract our focus

from simply enjoying life.

Hello, and welcome to Enjoy More 30s: Family

Finance, we have the sixth episode for you today entitled

"The 7 Year Task- Legal Documents". This is our "Your

Money Multiplier" series. This is a topic that a lot of people

need to address. And it's one that's really not that much fun

to go through, which is why so many people put it off. So

today, what we're going to cover is what you need to know when it

comes to obtaining the legal documents to protect your

family, and what you can do to quickly and easily get it

accomplished.

For me for some reason, I have a huge mental aversion when it

comes to cleaning out the air filter for my h vac system, so

what my furnace air conditioner system runs through. I have one

of those, you know, reusable ones that needs to be manually

cleaned out, and while it's not the worst thing ever, I really

don't enjoy doing it. It's dirty, gets all over my slop

sink, the plastic frame always catches my finger, I have to

wait for it to dry out, and I have to fight with it to get it

back into the furnace. So I do what you may expect- put it off.

When I eventually do get around to doing it, you know, a few

months later, I'm kicking myself because it's the same amount of

time now or later, but I basically had air that wasn't as

clean as it should have been in the meantime.

What you need to know is that if you don't have all your legal

documents in order, you are not alone, not by a longshot. Most

people put this off for as long as possible. The reason that

this episode is entitled "The 7 Year Task" is because as you may

have guessed, it takes our clients roughly seven years on

average to obtain or update their legal documents from when

we first meet with them. Now, I'm certainly not advocating for

that at all. But it is just to say, if you don't have what you

need right now, just start off right now and forgive yourself

100%. You have a clean slate, past is the past, and let's now

take steps forward to actually getting them. The documents

we're referring to when we say legal documents include a few

different items.

The first is what everyone is most familiar with: a will. And

for families, that means dictating who you want to watch

over your children if you were to pass- obviously super, super

important. This can be actually broken up into two parts as

well. One- who you would want to care for them. And two- who

would you want to handle their finances. This doesn't

necessarily have to be the same person. What we always tell

parents is- right now, without your will done, which family

member do you think would be able to argue and convince the

courts to give them your children? Is that also the same

person you would want to pick to raise your children? And when we

go through this, parents usually look at each other at this point

and give a nervous, you know, probably not laugh back out to

us. And that's exactly what I heard, what happened to me, when

I heard that said to me. So that's something that I think is

really powerful if you just think about who you would want.

And if that would be necessarily the person that'd be able to

convince the courts- they don't always line up.

The second item is a power of attorney. So basically who has

legal authority to make decisions on your accounts or

otherwise if you are unable to. So any accounts that aren't

joint, which includes all retirement accounts, would not

be accessible without going through a court proceeding in

that scenario. Now court proceedings, not exactly what

you're wanting to be focusing on if your spouse is in a coma or

seriously injured or something like that.

The last item is having a living will with a medical directive.

So one- who do you want making your medical decisions on your

behalf? And two- any end of life choices if you were to have

them. Again, all this stuff necessary, not always the most

fun to go through though, I definitely recognize that. What

you can do though, is make a point to make one appointment or

reach out to someone within the next 24 hours. You are most

likely to be as inspired as you possibly can to action right at

this exact moment. And so getting in motion to any degree

right now is what will give you the greatest opportunity for

removing this anxiety in the back of your head, which as

always is the goal, and putting more focus therefore on enjoying

life. You can send an email out to a lawyer you may know right

this minute. You can even go online. There are things such as

Legal Zoom, or other online platforms that advertise doing

the same thing. Any signed, fully executed copy is 100 times

better than what you have today, which is nothing maybe.

So a recap for today is pretty simple. First, if you don't have

anything yet, just forgive yourself to this point, you're

not alone. The past is the past, let's move on. Second, there are

three documents which are all provided together as part of the

process normally; will, power of attorney, and living will with a

medical directive. Third, take one small step of action to put

yourself in motion towards this today. Remember the family

member that will win an argument perhaps to raising your

children, very likely is not the one you would ever choose.

Thanks for tuning in today. As always, if you are able to

implement what we cover then that is just fantastic, we're so

happy that we're able to help you. You have less to worry

about than before and can focus more on just enjoying life. If

you are wanting help though with these things, or have any

questions that you need help in clarifying, check out the 'Ask

Joe' section on the shows website- www . enjoy more 30s

.com, that's enjoy more three zero s .com. If you enjoyed this

episode, please make sure to follow and review us on Apple

podcasts or wherever you listen. There are literally millions of

young American families out there I'm trying to reach and

help just like you. The next episode is the second to last

episode. It's a bonus episode that I decided to work into this

"Your Money Multiplier" series, because it's an item I thought

about and it's just so important and really got me excited to be

able to share. So the title is "Make Irregular income? Have

Regular Pay", where we're going to cover how if a large part of

your income is variable, commission or bonus derive, so a

lot of entrepreneurs out there, a lot of self employed people

out there- you can actually turn this into a much more manageable

monthly systematic paycheck for yourself. Great connecting with

you as always today, and look forward to connecting with you

again soon.

The conversations on this show are

Joe's opinions and provided for general information purposes

only. They do not constitute accounting, legal tax or other

professional advice for your specific situation. You should

always seek appropriate advice from a financial advisor,

accountant, lawyer or other professional before acting upon

any content or information found here first, Joseph deleted with

New Horizons Wealth Management LLC, a branch office of TFS

securities Inc and TFS advisory services an SEC registered

investment advisor member FINRA/SIPC.