How many times have you asked yourself "Should I write a will now or wait until I've [bought a house / got married / had a baby / had another baby / put some cash in the bank / built up my super]?"
You get the picture. There's always a reason to wait. Especially when you're knee deep in the business of living and bringing new humans into the world. Or your powerful crystal ball is showing change on the horizon.
Major life events have an uncanny habit of making us realise that we have people and things we really want to protect. At the same time they seem to have an uncanny nack of derailing us from actually getting the looking after sorted out.
Life can be predictable - but also not
For a time, when I was in my 20's a wedding happened every weekend, like clockwork. The invitations turned up in the mail at such a predictable rate I bought several salad bowls during the David Jones Boxing Day sales to save myself the bother of finding gifts each time one rolled around.
Life can feel like that sometimes. Predictable.
You know no sooner have you got through this phase you'll be on to the next - which makes it really easy to justify putting off writing a will until the dust has settled.
One less thing to think about. One less thing to pay for. One less thing to find time for.
Except equally predictable is the fact that life has a habit of throwing curve balls when you're least expecting it. Not predictable at all.
A will protects your life RIGHT NOW not the life you might have in a year, or two, or five
Contrary to popular belief, writing a will is not an activity reserved for the elderly or the morbidly inclined.
A will is for anyone who has anything or anyone they want to protect, especially if you have;
✔️ Children or dependants
✔️ A partner or spouse
✔️ Property and/or investments
✔️ Superannuation
✔️ A business
Most importantly your will is designed to protect your life right now - to help cause as few ripples and rifts as possible. It's not something you write once and put it in a drawer and forget about.
Writing a will now, instead of waiting until later means you can stop worrying about how big the impact will be if you die and get on with focusing on important things - like trawling real estate ads and debating baby names - instead of dodging curve balls and hoping things will be ok.
Sure, there are legal mechanisms that can be added to your will that help circumvent any issues that might arise from a marriage or new baby - if your crystal ball has those written into your future. And if that's the case I strongly recommend you seek professional legal assistance to ensure those clauses are included in your documents.
But a will is also a living, breathing document that should be updated regularly to ensure your "right now" is being reflected - not life last year, or ten years ago or (gasp) fifty years ago.
You can read more about when to update your will HERE and how Your Estate Lawyer looks after repeat will makers.
If you're wondering if you should bother to write a will now, or wait until the next life event that's on the horizon has passed - the answer is NOW.