“Why did you buy a plot so young?”

“Doesn’t it freak you out knowing where you’re going to be buried??”

“Will you send me a quote I can use in a upcoming article? I recently bought a plot too, but it upset me too much to know exactly where I’ll be so I had my yard worker pick it out for me!”

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These were questions (an older) journalist friend recently asked me, after finding out I bought a lot last year at the ripe age of 41 :)

As hard as I tried to fulfill her wish of condensing all my reasons into a tidy paragraph though, I just couldn’t do it… Within seconds I had over 5 reasons, and then a few more later I had over 10! So instead I shot her the below set of bullet points which I’m turning into a blog post here in case it inspires some of you to take action too.

When you’re done reading this, be sure to check out her article on it! –> Why did I have my yard work helper pick out my grave? We both think wildly different about this, but at the end of the day we accomplished the mission just the same.

Here are all the reasons I bought a lot at such a young age… Let’s make it a trend!! ;)

Emotional reasons:

• I love cemeteries!
• I 100% want to be buried in one so people can always come and say hi to me whenever they miss me (and they better miss me!!)
• I 100% know *where* I want to be buried, and it’s incredibly difficult to get a plot there (people are just dying to get in!!! (sorry, had to))
• I like knowing others in my family will also probably be buried there (I’ve decided to make it a “family” plot so anyone in my immediate family can be buried there if they so choose – the only caveat is that you have to be cremated (unlimited space that route!))
• It’s an interesting *experience* to go through. Nothing makes you face death more than picking out your own cemetery plot – it really put things in perspective!
• It reminds me to be GRATEFUL for the time I have left. Everyone around my plot has been long gone, and reminds me that I’m still very much alive and should CHERISH EVERY DAMN MINUTE OF IT as best as I can. Which sometimes I fail at, but is quickly fixed the next time I take a stroll to my final resting spot…
• It brings me so much peace knowing where I’ll be resting for the rest of my life… A sort of “closure”, if you will, but getting it ahead of time.

Financial/estate planning reasons:

• It’ll be MUCH cheaper to buy a plot now than in 80 years when I’ll actually need one! 😂
• Because I’ve turned it into a family plot, it’ll be less expensive for *everyone else* too who chooses to live with me (the plan is to get some sort of monument on it where everyone’s names are etched as time goes on vs multiple headstones)
• It’ll be a lot less hassle/work/guessing for loved ones to have to deal with later. They not only don’t have to decide what to do with me now (cremate me), or figure out where I want to be buried (already have the lot!), but they also don’t have to deal with the paperwork and money and all other annoying things that come with the process. They’ll still have to do some stuff that comes with burying someone, but those should be 10x easier/faster in comparison. And the odds are I won’t be the first to go anyways as my father has expressed an interest in being buried there as well, so in theory we’ll have already gone through the process and can easily relay it over to the next person in line who will have to deal with it…
• And finally, it’s technically an asset! It’s only a few feet by a few feet, but it’s still very much “real estate”, lol… And again, in a prime location too as mentioned above so if you ever did want to re-sell it you probably could at a nice profit (but no – I don’t include it in my net worth as someone once asked me 😂 😂)

[Me answering the cemetery/net worth question,
as well as other random ones passed over to me last year]

The cost of all these wonderful benefits? Roughly $2,500. Which doesn’t include any burial fees or cremation fees or headstones/monuments/everything else that goes into it (though I did recently hear I can prepay for a lot of it now which I’ll have to look into), but still – it’s one less major thing that will need to be handled later.

And I gotta say, it feels real good having this done! It’s been about a year and a half now and I’m completely at peace with it all. I’m not ready yet to literally BE at peace, but I love knowing where I’ll be and I’m constantly telling everyone who will listen where to come find me later ;)

And don’t worry, I’ve left it in my wishes to tell everyone HERE where I’ll be too so you can come visit and drop some coins out on your homie!!

Highly recommend getting the process started if you haven’t already. Even if you don’t know exactly where you want to be or any of the other details, it’s a great exercise to start thinking about and eventually you’ll have your answers. Then be sure to *write down* these wishes at the very least so your family members can find them later – that’s half the decision process right there!

And if you’d like, feel free to pass ME your final resting address too… If I’m around still by then, I’ll be happy to come pay my respects and will even sign your headstone for you ;) We can be death-pals, fun!!

☠️☠️☠️,