On the latest episode of The Get Ready Money Podcast, I spoke with Rachel Donnelly, Founder of AfterLight and co-founder of Professionals of After Loss Services about changing the way we think about money and navigating loss.
In this episode we discussed:
Rachel Donnelly is the founder of AfterLight and the co-founder of Professionals of After Loss Services (PALS). AfterLight assists clients in managing the intricate administrative tasks of legacy planning and estate administration, offering solace and support in times of grief. As the CEO of AfterLight, Rachel has been pivotal in developing unique services, such as the Legacy Building Formula™, a 6-step coaching program aiding clients in preserving their stories and safeguarding their families' futures. Her expertise extends to managing complex cases involving digital assets and cross-border estates, testament to her comprehensive approach in estate administration.
Rachel's entrepreneurial spirit is further exemplified in her co-founding of Professionals of After Loss Services (PALS), the first organization setting industry standards for after loss professionals. Here, she has played a critical role in creating the PALS Training Program™ , an innovative online course shaping skilled professionals worldwide.
Connect with Rachel Donnelly:
AfterLight Website: https://myafterlight.com/
Professionals of After Loss Services (PALS) Website: http://afterlosspros.com/
On the latest episode of The Get Ready Money Podcast, I spoke with Rachel Donnelly, Founder of AfterLight and co-founder of Professionals of After Loss Services about changing the way we think about money and navigating loss.
In this episode we discussed:
Rachel Donnelly is the founder of AfterLight and the co-founder of Professionals of After Loss Services (PALS). AfterLight assists clients in managing the intricate administrative tasks of legacy planning and estate administration, offering solace and support in times of grief. As the CEO of AfterLight, Rachel has been pivotal in developing unique services, such as the Legacy Building Formula™, a 6-step coaching program aiding clients in preserving their stories and safeguarding their families' futures. Her expertise extends to managing complex cases involving digital assets and cross-border estates, testament to her comprehensive approach in estate administration.
Rachel's entrepreneurial spirit is further exemplified in her co-founding of Professionals of After Loss Services (PALS), the first organization setting industry standards for after loss professionals. Here, she has played a critical role in creating the PALS Training Program™ , an innovative online course shaping skilled professionals worldwide.
Connect with Rachel Donnelly:
AfterLight Website: https://myafterlight.com/
Professionals of After Loss Services (PALS) Website: http://afterlosspros.com/
Are you looking to get ready, be prepared and transform your financial future? Then you've come to the right place. This is the Get Ready Money Podcast with Tony Stewart, where Tony has insightful conversations with financial experts who are changing the way we think about money. Catch up on the latest financial trends and hear practical advice from Tony and his expert guests so you can build healthy habits that work, Be empowered with tips for implementing small changes that can have a big impact on your financial future. So sit back and get ready to hear from today's guest.
Speaker 2:Welcome to the Get Ready Money podcast changing the way we think about money. I'm pleased to be joined today by Rachel Donnelly. Rachel is the founder of Afterlight and co-founder of Professionals of After Loss Services. In this episode, we'll be discussing how we can change the way we think about money and navigating loss. Rachel, welcome to the Get Ready Money podcast. Thanks for joining us today.
Speaker 3:Hi Tony, Thanks so much for having me. I'm so glad to be here.
Speaker 2:Yeah, well, excited to learn more about you and what you're up to, so you know. To get started, please tell us about yourself. What is your origin story?
Speaker 3:Yeah, so thanks for asking. Always, always happy to share my story, even though it can be, you know, a little hard for people to hear it. It is can be hard to share, but you know, I grew up in a small town just south of Atlanta and my dad was the only doctor in town. So he grew up a very sort of Mayberry lifestyle growing up, which was great. But unfortunately my dad became sick when I was 13 and he passed away when I was 16.
Speaker 3:And being a doctor, you know my mom was now faced with selling his business you know, and becoming a widow at a young age, and then I was sort of thrown into this world of having to figure out okay, now I've got a, my mom has to file for social security benefits and things like that.
Speaker 3:So, learning about some of those very those monetary financial decisions, you know, at a young age. And then, you know, fast forward several years later, after I had gone to college and gotten married, my mom unfortunately got sick and passed away within a couple of weeks after being diagnosed with cancer and I had just started a brand new job within which I had no time off in the first 90 days. And my mom died within the first 60 days of this new job. And I had two small children at the time, had just moved into a new house, like I said, was, you know, recently married and was very much in sort of the prime of my life and was now facing having to settle my mom's estate, since my father had already passed away and also my mom was in charge of taking care of her brother, my uncle, who was in latter stages of Parkinson's disease and lived in a different state and was a solo ager.
Speaker 3:Uh, so now I had not only to settle my mom's estate but to be in charge of taking care of an aging loved one and become his healthcare proxy, his financial power of attorney in charge of paying his bills, his, you know, and everything that came with that. And to say I was overwhelmed was just completely. It's just the understatement of the century. And with, you know, starting that new job, I had no time off to manage all of those affairs, to manage the affairs and what I call the business of death and I talk about that a lot in my business. But you know, what I refer to as the business of death are those unavoidable logistics that exist when you lose a loved one and we all have to take care of when we lose someone. And, having no time off, I was trying to do that during the day when I was at work. You need to call banks and do a lot of these things during normal business hours and I just could no longer carry that load.
Speaker 3:So I left this job within eight months after starting to settle my mom's estate, focus on getting my uncle's affairs in order and then to maybe take a breather after now losing both of my parents, you know, at a young age and living with that reality. This really inspired me, compelled me to create a business that with a mission of helping individuals, helping executors, with these unavoidable logistics. I wondered, when I was going through this, why wasn't there a project manager? Why wasn't there a wedding coordinator? But for death, somebody who could help me streamline all of these logistics and these tasks and help me sort of get on my feet and quarterback everything. So I created it and I said why doesn't this exist? You know, necessity is the mother of invention. So I created Afterlight Afterloss Professionals to help overwhelmed executors manage the unavoidable logistics of after loss.
Speaker 2:Yeah well, I think you know that is a big question. You know that I don't know. You know I started in the life insurance business.
Speaker 3:I, you know, maybe part of it is just people don't want to talk about death because, you know, with a wedding planner it's fun, it's the future, um, you know, but death is, you know, it's scary and it's scary and I understand why we avoid, uh, why there wasn't somebody to help me with this, because, you're right, nobody wants to get into this business where you're helping someone at sometimes the worst time of their life and it helps or it compels you to think about your own mortality.
Speaker 3:And we, nobody wants to think about that Nobody. We all face discomfort at the prospect of our own mortality. So being comfortable in that space is sort of your first obstacle, and I was very comfortable in that space and was just blown away at this life transition that we're all going to experience, that there wasn't more logistical support in something we're all going to experience. Like I said, not all of us are going to get married, have a child, buy a house where there seems to be a lot of this project management style support but we are all pretty much going to experience the death of someone close by in our life. And why don't we have a better network of professionals and a continuum of care to help people at one of the hardest moments of their life?
Speaker 2:Yeah, no, I think it's wonderful what you're doing and I think it's so necessary. As you point out, it is something you know, I've gone through it with my mother, you know my father-in-law. I mean we could all. We could probably take the rest of the podcast and name all the people.
Speaker 3:We could, we could.
Speaker 2:So but but I think you hit on it, it's, it's facing it. So how do you help people, or what have you seen been successful for people to maybe not be comfortable with their mortality but just be comfortable with even thinking about talking about it?
Speaker 3:Yeah, yeah, and I think it's the first goal that I have in speaking to people saying let's go ahead and address the elephant in the room. This is hard stuff to think about. I want to think about dying myself Like that's going to be a real bummer. So let's go ahead and address that, that. This is uncomfortable and this is not something, and not something fun, that people want to prepare for.
Speaker 3:Having said that, this is your mess, this is your life, this is your legacy. That this is your mess, this is your life, this is your legacy, and you need to take care of all of that. Help prepare, help plan, help take care of your own mess, to not leave your family with what I like to call a flaming dumpster fire. So, and now you know, helping executors manage these logistics and the things that we see over and over again have sort of come up with this curriculum, if you will, or or planning mechanisms to help people address a lot of the knowledge gaps that I see, and once you expose some of those pain points and people understand the gravity of that, it can help inspire them and incentivize them to say you're right, I need, I need to take care of this, I need to kick this into action and and plan for my own mortality.
Speaker 2:Definitely. Well, that was, you know, I mean, really at the core of why I started the whole Get Ready thing with my first Get Ready planner, which is about getting everything together is, you know, from my experience in financial services, you know people as corny as it is from the life insurance industry, but a lot of this planning is a gift for those who leave behind.
Speaker 3:Yeah, absolutely it is. It is the greatest gift you can give your, your loved one. What I say to people over and over again is that your estate is not just what you own, it's also what you owe. So that leaving family not knowing about what you owe and what you own and what's out there, leaving with that mess to navigate and do sort of that inventory that you talked about it gives them such a leg up in settling your affairs and getting back to the things that matter and not spending time, like I said, searching for accounts, searching for debt, having creditors call. That just helps propel people to be in such a better place in a time when they are grieving you, when they are missing you and they're going through one of the hardest times you know of your, of your, of their lives. And if they're sit sitting there guessing, scratching their heads, not knowing anything about your life, about you, about your story, about what was important to you, about what you wanted, um, it can really compound your grief process.
Speaker 2:Well, a hundred percent, and then you don't have access to some of the assets that can help, cause I've seen it, you know, over and over with life insurance policies and I can't remember how many billions of dollars there are in unclaimed life insurance policies. And, yeah, some of it is. The insurance companies could work a little bit harder at actually paying them out, but the majority of times it's just and, yeah, some of it is the insurance companies could work a little bit harder at actually paying them out, but the majority of times it's just people didn't even know the policies existed. Yeah, how are you supposed to make a claim?
Speaker 3:yeah, I forgot how many billions of dollars go unclaimed in in life insurance policies and other assets that are out there bank accounts and reimbursements. You know accounts with exchange value exchange value but it's, it's overwhelming and it's real, actual money with. You know that has value, you know to your family. But, yeah, you bring up a great point. You know it's not only about doing the, the, the typical and traditional estate planning. You know putting those, those plans into place, your will, possibly a trust if that makes sense for you, your financial power of attorney, your advanced care. You know healthcare directives, but making sure your family has access to funds to be able to pay immediate expenses is.
Speaker 3:You won't believe the number of people who call me and say my loved one just died. I had someone call me last week. This poor woman, her adult son, had died unexpectedly and tragically. I don't know what happened and they paid over $30,000 for his funeral and burial and they she was now so worried about how she was going to pay those bills and she had had to pay those out of her pocket. I don't know the circumstances, I don't know what led them to those decisions and making those those you know plans. But that's now on your plate to have to navigate, as well as everything else that may be lurking behind the surface of your loved one's estate. So not giving them the access to those funds to say, okay, here's this to pay immediate expenses any bills that are need to be paid right then leaves your family shouldering that burden, which, which can be huge for them.
Speaker 2:Yeah, no, a hundred percent. And you know and a big part of it comes back to communication Also just telling you know. Also just telling you know your heirs or whoever your executor is, you know, whatever role somebody has is that the documents exist, that the accounts exist. You know, so many people are like, well, I don't want to have that conversation, I don't want to communicate, but if you don't tell someone about it, it doesn't do any good. Even if you have all this stuff set up, if they don't know that there's a trust.
Speaker 3:Yeah, and I've seen it on both sides. I've seen adult you know. I've seen parents who don't want to have these conversations with their adult children. I've seen adult children who don't want to hear this from their aging parents. They want to not have those conversations. They think that it will somehow cause that to happen sooner rather than later, which you know, who knows when that's going to happen for all of us? But but yes, I, you know.
Speaker 3:The first thing I tell people is it's not just about those traditional documents that you need to have in place, but having an inventory of what you owe, what you own, your accounts and how to access things is so paramount. That organization is one of the greatest gifts you can give your loved ones. The same side of you find yourself as the executor, whether there's been a communication or not, you know. Taking that time to get organized, pencils down, let's take a moment to do an inventory of everything. Let's create a spreadsheet, let's get everything organized before you start acting. Take a moment to get organized so you really have sort of a broad brush perspective of what you're working with.
Speaker 2:Now I I'm with you a hundred percent and I think you know I want to highlight something, especially what you said earlier that a lot of this is about the emotional and dealing with a human element, that it's not just the mechanical money stuff that it's thinking about. Well, you know, having this conversation with my parents is going to be uncomfortable yeah, but if you don't do it.
Speaker 2:You know it's like any other thing you put off it tends to get worse the longer you put it off, because maybe your parents start losing some of their memory or their competency and you hadn't had that conversation while they were able to. So you know you can't put these things off. Or you know you do have a sudden death or disability or whatever. So you know. I want to ask you about something. You've introduced a new service. I know it's only localized to Atlanta, but what are the legacy scans?
Speaker 3:Yeah, oh, yeah and yeah, so that's something that we're doing. So about you know, 30, about 65%, I'm sorry of our services are in that, after loss, consulting, helping overwhelmed executors from wherever they are, whether they're in Atlanta or beyond, and the same with our legacy planning and organization that can be for anyone regardless of where they live.
Speaker 3:Yeah, yeah, but our legacy scans. It's something that's that's new, that just came out of a need that I felt that was really there in mind. Personally, you know when I'm working with overwhelmed executors, one of their tasks is a lot of times liquidating the tangible personal property within a house and getting rid of those items, finding out their value who's going to be a good buyer for things? But then also saying goodbye to a childhood home, their grandmother's home, their aunt's home, what have you. And that can be extremely painful and extremely hard and that was one of the most painful moments for me was getting rid of my beloved grandmother's home in Eastern Tennessee that had been in our family since 1890, liquidating all that property and going through just the countless memories and the countless items and knickknacks that were in the house.
Speaker 3:Um, but we've we've offer a service now through afterlife and it's using matterport technology, which a lot of real estate agents utilize to do virtual tours of a property.
Speaker 3:Um, and a lot of them used agents utilize to do virtual tours of property and a lot of them used it during COVID, which it was a great tool. But the word that Matterport uses is digital twin, which you know we don't use that a lot because that doesn't necessarily translate. But what this, what we're calling a legacy scan, is a digital scan of the inside of a home. It's interactive. You can and it can be utilized and captured in perpetuity to do that internal scan of a home and everything, all of its belongings as it is in that stamp in time when you do the actual photography and the scan. But I utilize it with clients to allow them to not only then capture that home but the items within it. So, for instance, I have a client right now whose uncle made him the executor and part of his job is to do an inventory of all of the items within the house and there are a lot of beneficiaries.
Speaker 3:So the attorney said you need to be very diligent and thorough in your inventory of all the items. Well, we thought this is perfect. By doing this scan, this Matterport scan, we will be able to capture everything in the house Now not drawers, but everything out there in the house, throughout the entire home, so we can be able to go back, look at things, you can add notes and you can also share this link with beneficiaries and heirs for them to view and then say, oh my goodness, I forgot about that painting that was in my grandmother's room. I would love to have that. So if you live out of state or the beneficiaries lived out of state weren't able to come back home to sort of tag the things that they wanted to keep within the house, this technology, this service, allows you to do that.
Speaker 2:That is really cool and it's so exciting that this is a great use of technology to further it. I mean, the simple advice is to go around and take pictures of everything in every room, which also helps you if your house ever burns down or you have some other catastrophic event. You know, and that's where I could see a legacy scheme not only being for a legacy purpose, but you know, if you do have a property and casualty claim a wildfire, a flood- an earthquake, whatever it is, you have that proof to file an insurance claim.
Speaker 2:So you know, that's where I think people often miss out too. Is that you can think about this stuff on a continuum, is that you may be doing it for the purpose of legacy planning, but it oftentimes checks more than one box on your financial journey. So when you think about the stuff, it's, you know and I'll put in my shameless plug here that's what the get ready method does. It takes you through all areas of your financial life and continue to go through it. So you can think about it like, okay, well, have I done my home inventory and it helps in this area and it helps in multiple other areas. And there's so many other things in our financial life that can do double duty or actually don't have any purpose whatsoever.
Speaker 3:Yeah, I mean, there are countless, you know opportunities for this and ways that you could utilize this for a business.
Speaker 3:Like you said, if someone owned a business and they need to do an inventory of all the contents you know within the business say it's a, you know an antique store or something like that but you could do it the same thing for loss or property.
Speaker 3:You know property loss, a fire or other damage. You could do it for pre-planning, to say, hey, we're going to do this beforehand and send it to all the grandkids for them to decide what it is they want to keep while they're at college or what have you. There are so many countless uses for this technology, but most of all, I think of it as such a great way to preserve that feeling that you would get when you would go into your grandmother's home. And, my goodness, how wonderful that would be to be able to go back into my grandmother's home and the way that it was, and feel those feelings and experience that the inside of that home. So, like I said, it's just a great tool that we're hoping that many of our Atlanta area clients will utilize and hopefully it'll inspire others who already use this technology to offer this as a service within their geographic regions.
Speaker 2:Yeah, no, it would be great. And I think that leads into the next question. You know is the PALS network. What is the PALS network?
Speaker 3:Yeah.
Speaker 3:So when I started Afterlight, you know I really struggled what to call myself People still don't know, what to call me They'll say, oh, she's a death concierge, she's an people call me afterlife consultant, which I'm like, I'm not a medium, but okay. People call me a death project manager, an executor's assistant. But that was one thing I really wanted to standardize. You know what I was calling myself and I found, miraculously, other women who had very similar businesses to mine in different cities, and we found each other, started networking informally and we said we think we really have something here. We'd love to create the industry organization for what we're doing and really to elevate us, to create industry awareness and to establish this as a profession.
Speaker 3:So PALS Professionals of After-Loss Services was born in 2021 with our first goal to create what we were calling ourselves our profession.
Speaker 3:And we came up with After-Loss Professional and within that, you know, we wanted to create, like I said, the industry standards, the best practices, the code of ethics for us to follow and to provide education, training, membership and business partnerships. We have now created a proprietary training program. We've taught people from all over the world how to do what we do, and not only for those who want to go out and start their own after-loss service such as mine but want to add this as an additional service within their existing business. So we've had, you know, senior move managers, professional organizers, patient advocates, social workers all types of people take our program or take our training program in order to add this as an ancillary service, and we now do a training program twice a year teaching people how to do what we do. And we'll also be having our first annual conference this year in Atlanta. So we're so excited to finally have our first gathering in real life of our members, our trainees, those who are after lost, curious members, to have a gathering to really kick off this, this passion-driven industry.
Speaker 2:That is awesome. Well, first of all, congratulations on building such a movement. That's I mean, that's amazing. And I think for other people who are passionate about something is you know that, you know you can do. This is when you have a vision and you've spotted the challenge I mean, which is you know this is coming from your heart, this is. You're not looking at this and go, ah, this is coming from your heart. You're not looking at this and going, ah, this is a great industry and I'm going to make tons of money. That may happen and I wish you much success, but it's exciting because you're doing this for a passion and to satisfy a mission and to help people. And I think you know, for so many of us, when we're struggling in our jobs or our careers, is you know that you can pursue your passions and make a career out of it, and I think that is so cool. And you know, for everybody watching and listening, you know, as always, there'll be links to the professional after oh boy.
Speaker 3:Afterlossproscom is how you can Afterloss pros.
Speaker 2:Yes no worries. So you know, rachel says it. I will struggle with it, but there will definitely be a link. That is correct.
Speaker 3:Hey, that is bomb.
Speaker 2:So you'll definitely be able to. So you know, rachel, yeah, oh, I think I we had a little blip, so if you're watching or listening, I apologize for the blip, but I think you know the PALS network is this. Training would be really helpful for those in the audience who are life insurance professionals, financial planners that this you know trust officers, you know, anybody who is dealing with this process is. This is a value added service that you can provide to your clients that, unfortunately, as Rachel pointed out earlier, everybody's going to need it. Yeah, at one point. So, yeah, this is so interesting, interesting, you know. So I want to make sure we get into the get ready questions, but I do have what? One other quick question for you before we go in there is what is the first thing people should think about when it comes to loss and the ensuing overwhelm?
Speaker 3:Yeah, I think I touched up this a little bit earlier, but I think it's trying to get organized.
Speaker 3:You know, as best you can is. You know whether your loved one had a will or didn't have a will, didn't have estate plans in place, sort of putting your pencil or you want to take your pencil up, you want to get a pencil in a hand, maybe with a spreadsheet, but trying to get organized, sit down and make a list as best you can of their, what assets they had what, what liabilities they had. You know debts, what accounts they had, what email addresses, what email addresses they may have used to access. You know those accounts and so trying to, and once you start writing those things down, this is going to help you come up with a methodical plan Okay, how are we going to deal with these? And you know how are we going to close, transfer and archive according to their wishes, alongside an attorney. And you know, sort of having all of that work done is going to help propel your work as an executor and just make it a lot better if you go ahead and get organized as best you can.
Speaker 2:Yeah, and it's just like packing for well. It's not really like packing for a vacation, but you know when you pack for a vacation, if you're going somewhere where the weather is warm, you're going to pack shorts. If you're going somewhere weather is cold, you're going to pack appropriate gear. But it's you know. But the first thing you do is you organize what you're going to pack and you make that list and you know whatever you have, you have, and whatever you don't have, you figure out how to supplement along the way, and so I think that's powerful advice, you know. So let's get into the get ready questions. The first one is what's one simple thing you can do each year to set yourself up for financial success?
Speaker 3:Well, I think that a lot of people do their estate planning. They, you know, execute their will, their financial power of attorney, maybe their healthcare directives, and then they don't revisit it. They think it's a one and done. I think reviewing your estate and your legacy plan annually has anything in your life changed. Are your beneficiaries up to date? Have you moved? Have you sold property? Does your will reflect your wishes and who you want to receive? You know your part of your estate, so doing that annual check in every year is, I think, so crucial in making sure that your estate is executed in the way that you want it to be, to be carried out.
Speaker 2:Yeah, 100% I agree with you and I, you know I did the majority of my career was doing life insurance consulting work and I don't know how many times. You know I saw ex spouses as a beneficiary or you know people didn't have like their child who arrived, you know, five years after the rest of the kids that are part of the escape plan, and so you know this stuff it's so important because life changes, life changes yeah.
Speaker 3:And you know, so much of our lives are in a cloud, on a device, online, and so don't forget to include all of your digital assets, everything that you're accessing digitally, not only your bank accounts, your IRAs, your 401ks, but also things with sentimental value.
Speaker 3:How are you keeping your photos, maybe that book that you, that manuscript you've been working on? How are you keeping track of all those videos of your grandkids? Where are those stored and organized? And then things with exchange value. You may have a lot of airline points. You know what's going to happen to those. So, thinking through, not only you know, getting yourself organized, revisiting your plan, but then how are those, your digital assets, being reflected in your plan? Making sure that that's updated annually? It's the new player at the estate planning table.
Speaker 2:Definitely, and maybe we should do a follow up episode just about digital assets.
Speaker 3:Oh, I would love to. I will nerd out about that all day long. So I'd love to.
Speaker 2:Well, so for our viewers today and listeners is watch for an upcoming episode on digital assets. So the next question is what is one habit that people can change when it comes to their money that people can change when it comes to their money?
Speaker 3:Oh, my gracious. You know I think we get in a habit of sometimes not seeing value in investing in things that are really worth investing in, and in this case, I think it would be solid estate planning advice. Working with an experienced and trusted estate planning attorney, you know I will see people spend so much money to go to you know, the Superbowl tickets or buying, you know, a new Stanley cup. You know the least and greatest but then not taking the time to invest in a comprehensive, holistic estate plan according to your wishes, your goals, your makeup, your family circumstances is so key and trying to get a form off the internet or, you know, trying to DIY it. Invest in yourself, invest in your legacy, invest in your you know your family's future and do it right and get some good advice. I can't recommend it enough.
Speaker 2:Well, that's actually a mic drop, although I have a few more questions for you is to do it right, and I think that's something we forget about with our money. Is there's so much advice out there that we're overwhelmed? Tiktoks, blog articles, podcasts? Is you know you have to do these things right, because if you don't do it right and you know we've been talking about this this whole episode you know, if you don't name the right beneficiaries or you don't do this the right way, you know there's going to be challenges, but it's not too hard to do it the right way. It's about doing your research, making a checklist, getting back to the word, organized and following through.
Speaker 3:And you know there can be the amount of information that can be overwhelming. Ask questions, ask so many questions. Don't be afraid to ask questions, and I think that's going to help you get to the place you need to be. It's by asking questions of the professionals that you're leveraging to ask questions, and I think that's going to help you get to the place you need to be, is by asking questions of the professionals that you're leveraging. Interview at least three estate planning attorneys. Find out who works for you, for your budget, for your personality, for what the plan that they have in store for you, and I think that that will just help carry you where you need to go.
Speaker 2:Yeah, no, and I'm with you, and that's what I encourage people to do is remember advisors work for you. You are paying for their time. You have the right to ask some questions, and the only way you're going to get good information is by continuing to ask questions until you are satisfied with the answer. So I love that advice. So the next question is what money myth are you trying to break?
Speaker 3:Oh gracious. Well, you know I'm always thinking about death. It's a little weird, but you know I'm always framing this and the death. But you know, one of the biggest myths that I hear so much is when I ask people if they've done their own estate planning is they'll say I'll be dead. Why do I care? And that makes me so mad and so furious. And I said because it will matter to your family, it will be expensive to your family, your families, your time is valuable, their time is valuable. And to expect someone to, not to to clean up the mess that you couldn't be bothered to make plans for while you were here on this earth and you knew better, that makes me really mad. So it's going to make an awful, it's going to mean an awful lot to those you say you love. So you know that money myth of I'll be dead, who cares? It'll be expensive and it'll be really hard to those who are left behind holding holding the bag.
Speaker 2:And unfortunately that will be your legacy, part of your legacy.
Speaker 3:You don't want your family cussing you under your breath, as you're, you know you're gone. You want them to look back with love and respect that you took the time and you cared enough to to make plans ahead. With that said, there are times it's not possible. Things happen. I know that things go sideways fast, but if you're listening to this, I compel you to go get your your affairs in order today.
Speaker 2:Yeah, Take the time. It's something that you can do, and I think that's the other thing you know. That I'd love to stress is that anybody can do this. This is for everybody. This is not for wealthy people. You don't have to be wealthy to do estate planning.
Speaker 3:No, you don't. And if you owe or you own, guess what, you have an estate. And another myth when people say my affairs are simple. Simple for whom is my follow up question? So sometimes people think, oh well, my affairs are simple, it'll be fine for them. Sometimes even closing the Xfinity account can be the most complicated, hard thing and leaves people pulling their hair out. So simple, for whom is my question?
Speaker 2:Yeah, calling the cable company not the easiest thing.
Speaker 3:It is not. It is not.
Speaker 2:So you know, let's get out the time machine for a minute. What advice would you give your younger self if you could go back in time, knowing what you know now about money?
Speaker 3:oh gracious, I mean, you know, not having my parents for as long as I wanted. I wish I'd had more conversations with them about you know what, what their legacy meant to them and, like I said, it's more than just your money, but what, what they had built, what they had spent their life culminating, and what that meant to them in terms of the next generation and sort of you know, creating generational wealth or creating that legacy. And I wish I had had more in-depth, intentional conversations around that with with both of my my family members, and really knowing and understanding the makeup of them and what was important to them.
Speaker 2:Yeah, and it's so important because the one thing you didn't say was I wish I'd known what their investment application was.
Speaker 3:Yes, yeah, yeah.
Speaker 2:That it is all these other things. It's about what their wishes are, what their dreams are. You talked about the family photos earlier. You know what you know because those are the memories. Like you talked about going back to see your grandmother's house, yeah, even if you just take photos, you know, you know that that's so important. So you know, rachel. To wrap up, what is your number one tip on changing the way we think about money?
Speaker 3:Well, life is expensive, and so is death. So, please think about that, that it yes, it's expensive to live. It's also expensive to die, and it's even more expensive if you don't plan ahead and make your wishes known, share that with those you love, get organized, have those crucial conversations, or else it's going to be a lot more expensive for your family after you're gone and that hard-earned money that you've spent a lifetime, culminating even more of it's going to be chipped away because you didn't plan ahead.
Speaker 2:That is so awesome. Well, thanks for sharing that. So you know. To wrap up, where can people learn more about you? Follow what you're up to learn about Afterlight and Pals.
Speaker 3:Yeah, you follow what you're up to learn about afterlight and the damn pals, yeah. So if you want to reach out to me, I'm at afterlight. My email or my website is myafterlightcom. You can also find me on linkedin rachel donnelly, we're on instagram at my afterlight. We're on facebook. Um, we're on Facebook, we're on all the things.
Speaker 3:So but you can reach out to hello at myafterlightcom if you want to schedule a free discovery. Call for us to talk through your unique situation. We always try to have a 30 minute conversation with people and come up with a customized roadmap for your unique affairs. And if you want to learn more about PALS, we'd love for you to come join us in this industry, and that is at afterlossproscom. Afterlosspros on Instagram, facebook and LinkedIn.
Speaker 2:That is awesome. So, and for everybody watching and listening, as always, you'll be able to find all these links in the show notes, so you can definitely get in touch with Rachel and find out what she's up to. So, rachel, thanks very much for your time and for sharing your insights today.
Speaker 3:Thanks so much for having me, Tony. It was such a pleasure.
Speaker 2:Yeah, this was an awesome conversation and thank you everyone, as always, for tuning in to this episode of the Get Ready Money podcast. If you learned something today, please be sure to share this episode and to subscribe Until next time. Let's change the way we think about money. Thank you.