COSTS OF LIVING AND DYING
A new mindset to saving money, benefiting earth
A new mindset to saving money, benefiting earth
“Dyin’ ain’t much of a livin’ ” —Bon Jovi Stop sinking money into things you don’t use or need.
Hang on, because the costs of living and dying are soaring. Research shows that if you’re average, you’ll earn about $1.8 million in your lifetime. Which sounds great, but factoring in longer life and rising costs, that’s likely not close to the $3 million or so we spend over a lifetime on housing, gas, cars, food and fun. The average person is actually operating in deficit.
And dying isn’t worth the trouble, considering your survivors can expect a $ 15,000 tab for a funeral and sundries. What do we do to protect ourselves? There are tools to consider, both during your life and beyond.
TOP WAYS FOR SAVING CASH
Pay as little interest as possible. Even a personal line of credit consolidates debt. Also rethink auto insurance and create a budget. Cash back saves credit card interest and ATM fees. Sell your stuff using resale websites, yard sales, etc., and stop sinking money into things you don’t use or need. Shop with coupons, and use rewards programs to the max. Downsize your home—4,000 square feet, really? Keep healthy. Medical costs can cripple. Losing weight also trims the grocery list. Cell phones and home entertainment are budget-busters. Forget your cell-phone contract and try a prepaid phone, which can run $30 per month. Many people have ditched cable, opting for a service such as Netflix instead. At the very least, trim or consolidate monthly packages. A lone cable/phone line is about $50 per month, and PBS and the major networks work via a TV antenna. WGCU, for example, is rich in programming, and podcasts are awesome (see theatlantic.com for the top 50 podcasts of 2016).
Practice time delays on impulse purchases—three days before you buy, for example. Learn to cook, invite friends, grow your circle. Set savings goals, using timelines to motivate. Pay yourself first— 10 percent per check, for example. Reduce utility costs. Seal your living spaces, use LED lights, tankless water heaters and nearly waterless appliances and toilets.
Keep your car healthy. Listen to its complaints. It will reward you. Public libraries and used bookstores are wonderful. Explore them. Make gifts, beer, wine and detergent, steam veggies, press olives and much more. Pinterest is amazing. Staycations are a blast. Learn to browse, enjoy small pleasures. Check Miami’s Wynwood Art District, for example. Buy used stuff. Cars, appliances, furniture, strollers, kid seats and clothing are great second-hand purchases. Check Fleamasters in Fort Myers. Learn to fix things. YouTube is great. Stop being soft. Start a garden.
DYING TO SAVE CASH?
Aside from having yourself pressed into burial beads, there are alternatives to traditional funerals. And some of them aren’t about saving cash, but rather the environment.
Get started by exploring so-called preneed life insurance. Once we’re gone, three-quarters of us in Florida have chosen cremation over burial. $1,500 to $4,000. Compress your remains into a concrete ball that is attached to an ocean reef. Check eternalreefs.com. Resomation dissolves us using heated water and potassium hydroxide, leaving only bones, which are returned to family.
Environmentally friendly or natural
burials skip embalming and place us in woven-willow caskets, which decompose. Embalming, by the way, is not a state requirement. There are 50 natural-burial cemeteries in the U.S. Cryonics freezes a body for later medical advances, personality and memory intact. This is not a way to save cash. It’s just fun to imagine. Space burials shoot your remains to the stars. But, again, it’s expensive and mostly symbolic, as a fraction of you is strapped aboard for the ride. Check celestis.com. Mummification dates back centuries. Visit
summum.us. Plastination involves preserving us in a semi-recognizable form. Promession, or freeze-drying, immerses us in liquid nitrogen. Vibrations shake the body apart, and the powdered remains are laid to rest.
Also check into home, pine-box, backyard and natural cemetery funerals. And always consider organ donations, in any case. Craig Garrett is Group Editor-in-Chief for TOTI Media.