You don’t have to be rich to need a trust. If you own your home in San Diego where the cost of the average home is high, you need a trust to avoid probate. Even without a home, if you have total assets over $100,000 you need a trust to avoid probate.
You don’t have to be rich to afford a trust. Even with this economy, a trust is so important that it may warrant cutting back on other things to afford it.
1. Painless Savings Techniques: One technique for savings is to put every $5 bill you receive into a jar or tucked away in a drawer. You would be surprised how many $5 bills you receive in a month. You can easily save several hundred dollars a month if you faithfully make this a habit. Some people deposit the change they find in their pocket or wallet into a jar. Taking those jars to the bank and converting them into money to set aside for a trust is a way to save painlessly. The Keep the Change Program at Bank of America rounds up every purchase to the nearest dollar amount and transfers the difference into your savings account. The bank will even match your savings for the first 3 months.
2. Cut back on your mocha frappachino or carmel machiato you have been drinking everyday. It has been estimated that a person consuming a designer coffee drink once a day spends over $100 a month. If you can’t give up your coffee, how about bringing your lunch to work for a while. You can easily spend $10 or more on lunch eating out. These amounts may seem insignificant but they add up!
3. How much do you spend annually on Christmas presents for your family? Some families spend $50 to $100 per person. What if you bought something a little less expensive and spent the money on a trust. After all, the creation of a living trust is really a gift for your heirs. Such a gift will later be appreciated more than a video game or sweater they probably won’t like anyway.
4. Cut back on dining out or other monthly outing. A trip to your favorite sushi bar or nice restaurant can easily cost $100 – $200 per couple. A trip to the ball game for the whole family can cost more than that. What if you cut back on some of these outings for 6 months?
5. Have a garage sale and put aside the proceeds to help fund a trust. Many people have a garage full of garage sale items and once you have a sale, what do you do with the money? Earmark the proceeds for something that will last a lifetime (literally)!
A revocable living trust can be affordable for most people even if you have to get creative. At Law Office of Scott C. Soady, A Professional Corporation, we can’t assist you with the garage sale but we can help you create an estate plan. Call us or e mail us for a complimentary consultation.