{"id":3130,"date":"2015-03-19T07:00:15","date_gmt":"2015-03-19T12:00:15","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.senioradvisor.com\/blog\/?p=3130"},"modified":"2017-09-19T18:38:32","modified_gmt":"2017-09-19T23:38:32","slug":"how-to-plan-your-own-funeral","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/d30braiqprupoq.cloudfront.net\/blog\/2015\/03\/how-to-plan-your-own-funeral\/","title":{"rendered":"How To Plan Your Own Funeral"},"content":{"rendered":"<h1>How To Plan Your Own Funeral<\/h1>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/s3.us-west-2.amazonaws.com\/img.prod.aplaceformom.com\/main\/uploads\/sa-blog\/2015\/01\/How-to-Pre-Plan-Your-Funeral-350x350.png\" alt=\"How to Plan Your Own Funeral\" width=\"350\" height=\"350\" class=\"alignright size-medium wp-image-3138\" srcset=\"https:\/\/s3.us-west-2.amazonaws.com\/img.prod.aplaceformom.com\/main\/uploads\/sa-blog\/2015\/01\/How-to-Pre-Plan-Your-Funeral-350x350.png 350w, https:\/\/s3.us-west-2.amazonaws.com\/img.prod.aplaceformom.com\/main\/uploads\/sa-blog\/2015\/01\/How-to-Pre-Plan-Your-Funeral-150x150.png 150w, https:\/\/s3.us-west-2.amazonaws.com\/img.prod.aplaceformom.com\/main\/uploads\/sa-blog\/2015\/01\/How-to-Pre-Plan-Your-Funeral-768x768.png 768w, https:\/\/s3.us-west-2.amazonaws.com\/img.prod.aplaceformom.com\/main\/uploads\/sa-blog\/2015\/01\/How-to-Pre-Plan-Your-Funeral.png 800w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 350px) 100vw, 350px\" \/><\/p>\n<p>No matter how healthy and spry you feel today, there will come a day when you die. We all know it&#8217;s coming, it&#8217;s just not something we like to think about much. Why dwell on death when you&#8217;ve got life to worry about?<\/p>\n<p>Because thinking about what happens after you die now can actually have some serious benefits for your loved ones down the line. <\/p>\n<p>As of 2007, about <a href=\"http:\/\/money.usnews.com\/money\/retirement\/articles\/2008\/02\/15\/should-you-prepay-your-own-funeral-expenses\" target=\"_blank\"><span style=\"color: #9d7bae;\">23% of people<\/span><\/a> over the age of 50 had taken steps to plan their own funeral in advance. There are a number of good reasons to consider this option:<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>\n<p>You can make sure the funeral looks exactly as you&#8217;d like it to and control what happens to your remains.<\/p>\n<\/li>\n<li>\n<p>You can save your family the trouble of having to make arrangements during a time of stress and grief.<\/p>\n<\/li>\n<li>\n<p>You have the time and flexibility to shop around for the best deal without the time constraints your loved ones would be facing after your death.<\/p>\n<\/li>\n<li>\n<p>You can choose to pre-pay, to save your family the burden of the cost.<\/p>\n<\/li>\n<li>\n<p>You can guarantee the price at the time you pay, so neither you nor your family will have to worry about costs going up over time.<\/p>\n<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>Pre-planning your funeral does require thinking about your death, a daunting prospect for some, but the benefits for you and your family can be well worth it.<\/p>\n<h2>Research Your Options<\/h2>\n<p>There are a number of options to choose from in terms of what happens to your body. From environmentally friendly options like green burials and cremation, to the more traditional choice of embalming and burial, you can choose from a range of choices based on what&#8217;s best for you, your family, and your budget.  <\/p>\n<p>There are even more options available for how your funeral looks. The choices you have here are really only limited by your budget and your imagination. <a href=\"http:\/\/www.thedignityplanner.com\/inspired\" target=\"_blank\"><span style=\"color: #9d7bae;\">The Dignity Planner<\/span><\/a> includes a few examples for inspiration. You can plan a funeral that&#8217;s unique and set to a theme personal to you, or go with a more traditional and simple ceremony. Neither option is better than the other, and both will be meaningful and memorable for your loved ones.<\/p>\n<h2>Make Your Plans<\/h2>\n<p>Work with a local funeral home to map out the details.  Funeral homes are usually happy to help you pre-plan your funeral (as it means more business for them), and they&#8217;ll have good knowledge of the more logistical aspects of it that need to be figured out.<\/p>\n<p>Pre-planning does not require pre-paying, but that is also an option. If you want to save your family from concerns about the funeral&#8217;s cost, pre-paying may be an attractive option. It can also save money if something you pay for now rises in cost in the years between now and your death.<\/p>\n<p>You do have to be careful with this option though; it&#8217;s not free from scams or bad deals. You can take a <a href=\"https:\/\/www.senioradvisor.com\/blog\/2015\/01\/14-hidden-funeral-costs-and-how-to-avoid-them\/\" target=\"_blank\"><span style=\"color: #9d7bae;\">few precautions<\/span><\/a> to avoid spending money now that doesn&#8217;t end up aiding your family after all.<\/p>\n<h2>Provide Clear Instructions to Family<\/h2>\n<p>If you pre-plan your funeral but nobody knows about it, they&#8217;ll probably end up planning it all over again. Make sure the people closest to you know about the plans you made and have all the information they need to carry them out.<\/p>\n<p>They&#8217;ll appreciate having clear instructions to follow. Not having to make any difficult decisions during a time of grief is a blessing for many. It&#8217;s a simple gift you can give to those you love. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>How To Plan Your Own Funeral No matter how healthy and spry you feel today, there will come a day when you die. We all know it&#8217;s coming, it&#8217;s just not something we like to think about much. Why dwell on death when you&#8217;ve got life to worry about? Because thinking about what happens after you die now can actually [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2199,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[200,29,234],"tags":[315],"class_list":{"0":"post-3130","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","6":"category-families-caregivers","7":"category-caregiving","8":"category-senior-services","9":"tag-death"},"acf":[],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v23.2 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\n<title>How To Plan Your Own Funeral - SeniorAdvisor.com Blog<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"Pre-planning your funeral does require thinking about your death, a daunting prospect for some, but the benefits for you and your family can be well worth it.\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"How To Plan Your Own Funeral - SeniorAdvisor.com Blog\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Pre-planning your funeral does require thinking about your death, a daunting prospect for some, but the benefits for you and your family can be well worth it.\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"SeniorAdvisor.com Blog\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2015-03-19T12:00:15+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2017-09-19T23:38:32+00:00\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Kristen Hicks\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"Kristen Hicks\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"3 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.senioradvisor.com\/blog\/2015\/03\/how-to-plan-your-own-funeral\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.senioradvisor.com\/blog\/2015\/03\/how-to-plan-your-own-funeral\/\",\"name\":\"How To Plan Your Own Funeral - SeniorAdvisor.com Blog\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"http:\/\/10.40.44.169\/blog\/#website\"},\"datePublished\":\"2015-03-19T12:00:15+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2017-09-19T23:38:32+00:00\",\"author\":{\"@id\":\"http:\/\/10.40.44.169\/blog\/#\/schema\/person\/155f7689ce014c42c1db768ba81e1ce6\"},\"description\":\"Pre-planning your funeral does require thinking about your death, a daunting prospect for some, but the benefits for you and your family can be well worth it.\",\"breadcrumb\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.senioradvisor.com\/blog\/2015\/03\/how-to-plan-your-own-funeral\/#breadcrumb\"},\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"ReadAction\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/www.senioradvisor.com\/blog\/2015\/03\/how-to-plan-your-own-funeral\/\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"BreadcrumbList\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.senioradvisor.com\/blog\/2015\/03\/how-to-plan-your-own-funeral\/#breadcrumb\",\"itemListElement\":[{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":1,\"name\":\"Home\",\"item\":\"http:\/\/10.40.44.169\/blog\/\"},{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":2,\"name\":\"How To Plan Your Own Funeral\"}]},{\"@type\":\"WebSite\",\"@id\":\"http:\/\/10.40.44.169\/blog\/#website\",\"url\":\"http:\/\/10.40.44.169\/blog\/\",\"name\":\"SeniorAdvisor.com Blog\",\"description\":\"Empowering Families in their Search for Care\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"SearchAction\",\"target\":{\"@type\":\"EntryPoint\",\"urlTemplate\":\"http:\/\/10.40.44.169\/blog\/?s={search_term_string}\"},\"query-input\":\"required name=search_term_string\"}],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\"},{\"@type\":\"Person\",\"@id\":\"http:\/\/10.40.44.169\/blog\/#\/schema\/person\/155f7689ce014c42c1db768ba81e1ce6\",\"name\":\"Kristen Hicks\",\"image\":{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"http:\/\/10.40.44.169\/blog\/#\/schema\/person\/image\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/457ef8a7379a7f4f39d7810b58ef0a0f?s=96&d=mm&r=pg\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/457ef8a7379a7f4f39d7810b58ef0a0f?s=96&d=mm&r=pg\",\"caption\":\"Kristen Hicks\"},\"description\":\"Kristen Hicks is an Austin-based copywriter and lifelong student with an ongoing curiousity to learn and explore new things. 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