Helpers and Activities Are Important Information

Are you prepared for “Someday?” Most don’t, so if you do you are in a unique group of people who know life (God) will throw unexpected difficulties in your path. Yesterday’s sermon by our pastor Jeremy Scott (When God Complicates Your Life) helps make that very clear. Some of my readers may not believe in God. If you don’t, I would strongly encourage you to read the book of Romans or John’s Gospel before you discard the idea of God.

If you do believe in God, then your know preparation for someday includes preparing for both today, tomorrow and eternity. I trust that this series on the “information” piece of preparing for tomorrow has been instructive, helpful and motivating.

In this last part of the “information” piece I will cover Financial Relationships, Recurring Financial Activity, and Your Wishes. God will complicate your life. Therefore, it is wise to prepare and to help those you love be prepared. For that to happen you must share information about your financial relationships and recurring financial activities.

Financial Relationships

Everyone is different. Some people need a lot of other people to help them with various aspects of their financial lives. So this is a separate section because your family may not know who you know. They also may not know what these advisors and service providers do for you. The list could include a financial advisor, a CPA, your estate attorney, your insurance agent, a banker, your mortgage company, business partners, trustees, executors and anyone who manages your properties or investments.

This could be a simple list of names, phone numbers, email addresses along with a brief description of what each person handles. In our case the list is very short. We don’t have a business or multiple properties. We also don’t have a mortgage. There is no financial advisor, CPA or banker. We do work with two insurance providers. One is for home, auto and umbrella coverage, and the other takes care of our Medicare supplemental insurance plans with Physician’s Mutual.

Recurring Financial Activity

This list will probably be much longer. This piece will help prevent accounts from being overlooked or payments from continuing unnecessarily. What happens automatically in your financial life? What is deposited and paid directly from existing accounts?

Create a list of things that happen automatically: Direct deposits, Automatic bill payments, Mortgage payments, Insurance premiums, Investment contributions, IRA distributions, RMDs and QCDs, Charitable contributions, Subscriptions, and Memberships.

So, for example, our Social Security income is deposited automatically to our Fidelity Investments checking account. Several bills are also paid directly from our checking. These include water and sewer, gas and electricity, and our Medicare supplement insurance premium payments.

Some automatic payments (including subscriptions) are made using our Fidelity Rewards Visa card. Some of these are monthly, some semi-annual and others are annual or every x-number of years. Included in this category are our PureTalk Cell Service, Cindie’s Spotify, our auto/home/umbrella insurance, Apple iTunes, Amazon photo storage, Amazon Prime, Amazon Prime video, Zoom, Google storage, COZI Gold, and our SimpliSafe home security subscription. Some things, like my Seeking Alpha subscription, happen less frequently because I pay for multiple years at a time. We also both have subscriptions for our individual WordPress blogs.

We don’t do automatic IRA distributions or RMDs. I prefer to make decisions about those. Furthermore, at my age it makes more sense to do the QCD giving to cover my RMD, and I write checks against my rollover traditional IRA for that purpose. For example, we give gifts to our church and gifts to ministries we support like Light of Life International, Care Net Pregnancy Center, Camp Fairwood, and the work of some missionaries and pastors in India.

I do have one interesting subscription that I started a couple of months ago: LEV HAOLAM. We get a monthly “surprise box” of interesting products from Israel. I like the idea of supporting individual businesses in Israel using this service. Some of the things are less useful than others, but it is still a nice surprise that we can often share with others.

One way to create a recurring financial activity list is to examine your checking account statements and credit card statements. Sometimes you forget what is automatically being paid or deposited to your various accounts.

Your Wishes

Finally, you need to tell your loved ones some of the things that legal documents don’t fully communicate. These certainly should include your spiritual and eternal perspective. This might include hymns and scriptures you found especially helpful and encouraging during your life.

You should also talk about funeral or memorial preferences and charitable intentions. Don’t send flowers to my funeral. I would prefer that you give a donation in my memory to Camp Fairwood and/or Memorial Baptist Church.

You should also give thought to who should receive sentimental items, people you want contacted, special instructions for pets, family history and stories, and messages you want your children or grandchildren to have. I need to work on some of these!

And importantly, don’t put all of this information in one unsecured document. The inventory can tell your family what exists and where to find it, while sensitive credentials and account-access information should be protected separately.

Previous Posts

This is also why my earlier “SOMEDAY” whiteboard topics—beneficiary designations, income taxes, Social Security, power of attorney, wills, trusts, life insurance, financial predators, simplicity, financial relationships, and eternity—make a very good framework for an estate-preparation discussion. Don’t delay. There is no day more important than today.

Final Food for Thought

Sermons at Memorial Baptist Church: “We believe that the Bible, as God’s special revelation to us, is powerful, good, and points to Jesus. The teaching at MBC aims to impact and transform both the mind and heart of those who hear it.” If you are curious about what I believe, you will find helpful sermons that unpack the truths of God’s Word in these sermons. LINK to Sermons Page

MBC YouTube Page: This is the sermon referenced above. LINK

MBC Facebook Page: The sermon above is posted on the church Facebook page: LINK

List of Action Items

The most important principle: Don’t make your family hunt for the information. A good master document might be organized around these questions:

1.            What do I own?

2.            What do I owe?

3.            What am I insured for?

4.            Who are my beneficiaries?

5.            Where are my legal documents?

6.            Who are my financial & professional contacts?

7.            How do I access my digital life?

8.            What do I want my family to know?

My Sermon Notes For August 30, 2026

I take notes when I listen to any preacher or teacher. Notes help me remember and then help me to act on the important things of life.