Well, we’ve almost reached the end of January. How are those New Year’s resolutions going? 🙊
Even if you did set yourself up with some New Year’s resolutions this year, chances are you haven’t been taking them too seriously. In recent years, our culture has become pretty pessimistic about setting goals on New Year’s, probably because there’s so much research out there arguing that they never really work. By now, we’ve all had at least a few failed resolutions under our belts.
But what if we told you that New Year’s resolutions actually can be a huge boost for financial planning and Aging & End of Life Planning, if you play your cards right?
Introducing the Fresh Start Effect
New Year’s resolutions get a bad rap, but some psychologists argue that there may be something to them after all. In a famous study from 2014, researchers found that attachment temporal landmarks (like the start of a new year, for example) can boost people’s aspirational behaviours (i.e. motivate them to work toward their goals). They dubbed this the Fresh Start Effect.
Why does this happen? According to the papers’ authors, the Fresh Start Effect happens in part because it helps us put our past failures behind us. When we cross an important temporal boundary, like ringing in the new year, it helps us feel like we’re moving on from previous imperfections and disappointments. In this way, the Fresh Start Effect helps us take a bigger-picture look at our lives, letting go of the past and turning our attention toward the future instead.
This makes January the perfect time for a little bit of Aging & End of Life Planning. For a lot of people, the biggest barriers to any kind of financial planning are anxiety and shame. We fret about how we’re getting started too late, about all the uncertainties, about our lack of financial literacy. All of this holds us back from planning for the futures we want.
The start of a new year is the universe giving you a reason to let go of all those unhelpful feelings. All of that is in the past. All that matters now is answering these questions: what kind of life do you want to live when you get older? What’s important to you in this world? And what do you need to do to secure those things?
Harnessing Your Fresh Start Energy
The start of a new year is a great motivator to work on your financial goals. But of course, we all know that when it comes to Aging & End of Life Planning, optimism is not enough. We also need to take concrete steps to put that aspiration into action.
This is the point where New Year’s resolutions tend to fail. People enter the new year full of energy and motivation, but they don’t actually know what steps they need to take to proceed. That’s when they hit a wall and let their Fresh Start Energy evaporate.
Don’t let that happen to you! This present moment is an opportunity to build the life you really want. All you need to keep that momentum is just to get the ball rolling.
The easiest way to ensure you keep moving forward is to work with a qualified Legacy Coordinator. This takes a lot of the work of Aging & End of Life Planning off your plate, and connects you with a team of professionals who can build the perfect Plan for you and your family. Whenever you feel unsure, or hesitant, or overwhelmed, your Legacy Coordinator will be there to hold your hand—and keep you accountable to your own goals.
But if you’re not ready to take the big step of hiring a Legacy Coordinator just yet, there are plenty of other things you can do to get started on your own. Here are a few basics to get you going.
1. Write (or Revisit) Your Last Will & Testament
Your Will is one of the single most important documents you’ll ever write. No matter whether you’re young or old, rich or poor, in good health or not, you need have a Will in place—and you need to make sure it’s not just valid, but also effective in executing your wishes. Thankfully, writing a Will has never been easier: services like Epilogue let you create legally binding Wills online, quickly and inexpensively.
2. Set Up Your Powers of Attorney
Powers of Attorney are documents that come into play when somebody is still alive, but incapable of making autonomous decisions for themselves. For example, if you were left in a coma after a serious accident, or if you suffered a mental illness that compromised your cognitive abilities, the person or people named as your Powers of Attorney would be legally able to make decisions on your behalf.
In Ontario, there are two types of Powers of Attorneys: one for property and one for personal care. A named Attorney (who is typically not a lawyer) may make medical, personal care, and financial decisions in your best interest, on your behalf, and do anything you could do for yourself if you were able to (except make a Will for you).
Again, Powers of Attorney are for everybody, no matter your age, income, or health status. Life can change in an instant, and you never know what could happen. The second somebody turns 18, their parents lose the legal right to make decisions on their behalf, unless they are named in that person’s Powers of Attorney.
3. Start Planning Your Legacy
Aging & End of Life Planning isn’t just about money, or even just about end-of-life medical decisions. It’s also about building a Legacy for you and your family.
How do you want to be remembered after you’re gone? What memories do you want to leave behind for your loved ones? These are questions you should be thinking about now, while you’re able to take steps toward documenting your and your family’s stories.
Think about what kinds of mementos, keepsakes, and histories are important to you, and what format(s) you might want them documented in. Do you want to make sure your descendents have photographs to remember you by? Do you want to write a book about chapters of your life? Do you want to create a custom documentary for them to watch after you’re gone?
Legacy preservation doesn’t have to be a huge, time-consuming project. It can happen in small increments, capturing little moments of somebody’s life and storing them in one place so that you’ll easily be able to find them later.
4. Start Talking to Your Loved Ones
Aging & End of Life Planning never happens in a vacuum. The decisions you make here will impact your loved ones—and they should be looped into the process.
Having an open dialogue with family members and other loved ones is crucial for preventing conflict, minimizing unnecessary stress, and preparing the people close to you for the future. When you’re working with a trained Legacy Coordinator, Planning also helps bring families closer together, creating a judgment-free space where people can be honest and vulnerable with one another.
We know all of this can be daunting‚but if you’re reading this blog post, then you’ve already got everything you need to take the next step. If you’re feeling unsure or overwhelmed, reach out to us and let’s chat about what Aging & End of Life Planning might look like for you and your family.
