Should Your Estate Plan Adopt a Scarcity Mindset or an Abundance Mindset?
A scarcity mindset is when you assume that resources are finite, and your goal is to keep enough of them for yourself, regardless of whether other people get enough of the resources to meet their needs. By contrast, an abundance mindset is when you assume that there are enough resources for everyone, even if you have to get creative about how to share them. In a business context, people often talk about these two mindsets with regard to how people share intangible resources such as credit for success, but the abundance mindset and scarcity mindset are also relevant to people’s attitudes about money. In your estate planning journey, you should adopt both mindsets. The income you can earn after you retire is finite, and you have to make it last for as long as you are alive, or else become eligible for Medicaid to pay for your nursing home care. Meanwhile, even if you are not wealthy, being on good terms with your family when you leave this world is priceless. A Bronx estate planning lawyer can help you apply the scarcity mindset and the abundance mindset appropriately in your estate plan.
The Grinch’s Estate Plan
The Grinch has one goal for his estate plan, and that is for the government or private creditors not to get a penny out of his estate. If he has substantial assets, even if he is not among the wealthiest one percent, he moves his money into trusts so that it technically does not belong to his estate. This way, if creditors try to file claims against his estate for unpaid debts, they will come up empty. If he is already nearly broke, he makes sure to spend down his assets slowly so that he can qualify for Medicaid nursing home care, and so that Medicaid cannot recover money from his estate during probate.
Cindy Lou Who’s Estate Plan
Cindy Lou is still young, but she is old enough to understand mortality, so she knows she needs an estate plan. Her goal is to create as much joy as possible with her assets, both during her lifetime and after she is gone. Her goal for the foreseeable future is to maintain gainful employment and live below her means so that she can save money for retirement. She buys long-term care insurance so that, if she needs assisted living or nursing home care when she is older, it will not drain her savings, so there will be money left to provide for herself and others. She signs a springing power of attorney and healthcare proxy so that her family will know what to do and will not have to make desperate, no-win decisions if she becomes seriously ill in the future.
Schedule a Confidential Consultation With a Bronx Estate Planning Attorney
An estate planning lawyer can help you think about your estate plan from a cranky perspective and from a generous perspective. Contact Cavallo & Cavallo in the Bronx, New York to set up a consultation.
Source:
rightasrain.uwmedicine.org/life/relationships/scarcity-mindset
