Failing to Plan is Planning to Fail

There is a trend that is happening right now at a rather alarming rate – a trend that involves a lack of seriousness and planning for life events that can unexpectedly hit us in the face when we least expect.

The Go Fund Me movement is growing at an increasing rate. If you don’t agree, then just scroll through your Facebook feed at any point in time and you may hit at least one, but as many as 3 or 4 requests to donate to a worthy cause for people that live across the U.S.   Last night I saw 3 in a matter of 2 minutes as I scrolled through my feed at around 11 pm, before finally closing the lid and laying down with my kids.

There are tens of thousands of Go Fund Me account requests set up right now in real time… and although are legitimate requests for help in a time of need, the majority of them are the last resort for a family or individual that has failed to plan for the type of situation the Go Fund Me is for.

Don’t get me wrong.. .my utmost sympathy goes out to the family that is dealing with the unexpected loss of a friend or family member. I certainly have been there, and it has been a rather emotional time of my life that I don’t wish upon anyone.

These Go Fund Me requests, in most cases, are a huge sign of a much more troublesome problem than what we initially see at first glance. 

Lack of Control

We should never, in any circumstance, rely on the support and donations of others to determine the arrangements for someone who is near and dear to us.   We should, instead, be planning ahead to determine the arrangements so that we can best honor the loved one that has passed – our loved ones don’t deserve any less than what we have planned for.  

The problem with asking for money after the fact is that those donations will be the deciding factor to determine the complexity of their celebration of life.  

That’s just sad and upsetting.

Lack of Responsibility for Proper Planning

As mentioned earlier .. in some cases, a Go Fund Me is a wonderful way to request help in specific situations. However, the good majority of Go Fund Me accounts at any given time for everything from funerals to car accidents to medical bills and cars that break are a sign that our society is doing a terrible job at establishing priorities.

It is necessary to have life insurance.

It is imperative you have an emergency fund.

It’s even more imperative that you have some type of medical insurance OR fund set aside to take care of that if that expense ever comes up.

Cars that break down or need new tires might be an unplanned expense at the time, but we all know that those things will happen – it’s just a matter of when. Set money aside. That is why you need an emergency fund.

Having a basic life insurance policy is absolutely necessary – if you have insurance on your car but not your life then you might need to examine what you have around you.  It is, after all, apparent that your wants have outweighed your needs.

As a nation, we do a terrible job of educating people on the realities of life and death.   People don’t seem to understand that they may need to cut back on some items in order to pay for the things that should matter the most.

Lets be real – death happens and usually unexpectedly.

Be prepared.

If you aren’t prepared, do what you need to do to prepare yourself now so that the burden isn’t on your family members you leave behind.

Skewed Concept of Reality

This sounds so terribly brutal, but put on your common sense cap for a minute – with the sheer number of Go Fund Me accounts, it has almost become the norm to ask people to contribute. That is NOT OK!

It allows people to think that funeral planning isn’t something we plan for, instead, we can catch up on our lack of planning through contributions from friends and family. Why even bother planning when we can just reach out to people to ask them for their contribution? It just reiterates the fact that we are living for the NOW moment and not for anything else.

Is that what you want to teach your kids? I certainly don’t want my kids to assume any of this nonsense is normal.

Reaching out to others to ask them for their contribution is incredibly difficult, after all, people have kids, families, responsibilities of their own.  Some of these people may have worked incredibly hard to prepare for the unexpected – why should they have to pick up where others have failed to plan?

As difficult and challenging as it might be though, sometimes when people are forced with the harsh reality of having to come up with the money to pay for these circumstances by way of taking a loan, reality may set in.  They may be more likely to ensure that friends and family never have to go through the turmoil that they have experienced.  

If anything, it’ll put an end to what has become (in a sense) the NEW NORMAL.