Studies consistently find that most Americans do not have a will. Many of them say that they plan to write one later in life, but they simply haven’t gotten around to it yet.
There are many reasons for this procrastination, but one of the most common ones is that people just think that they’re too young. They imagine grandparents writing wills before they move into a nursing home, and they don’t feel like they need a will at 30 or 40 years old.
But this idea is a myth, and a dangerous one. You can’t be too young to write a will, as long as you are legally an adult, but you can certainly put it off for too long.
You can always update your will
First of all, a will could always be updated in the future. Maybe you’re 30 years old and you don’t think you have enough assets, but you plan to have far more when you’re 70. That’s fine. You can still make a will at 30 and simply add your assets into it as you accumulate them.
Don’t assume that your will has to be set in stone. It is much better to have an estate plan in place, even if you have to periodically update it, than simply to wait until you think that it’s necessary to design that plan. But why is putting this off so risky?
The unexpected may happen
The simple fact of the matter is that unexpected deaths happen all the time. Every year, roughly 40,000 people pass away in car accidents. Many more lose their lives to sudden diseases or injuries.
You don’t need to spend your time thinking about how this may happen to you, but it is important to acknowledge that it could. If something like this occurred, wouldn’t you rather have an estate plan in place already? You can’t guarantee that you’ll need to make that plan as a grandparent moving into a nursing home, so it is much better for your family to be protected by having an estate plan now.
Getting started
If you believe that it’s time to start creating your estate plan or even just writing a simple will, take the time to look into the legal steps that you need to address. Regardless of your age, this can be a useful tool to have at your disposal.
