Living a Prepared Life

This podcast explores the concept of living with your bags packed, which means being prepared for any situation life throws at you. It shares the stories of a deceased woman who lived her life ready for anything and Captain Sully, who successfully landed a plane in an emergency. The podcast emphasizes the importance of being prepared for unexpected events and highlights the story of Anthony Bourdain, who had a well-structured estate plan. It discusses the importance of estate planning for everyone, not just the wealthy, to avoid legal disputes and ensure assets go where intended. The podcast concludes with three actions to start living with your bags packed: review legal affairs, build a financial safety net, and adopt a flexible mindset. I'm your host, Attorney Robert Newman, and this is a podcast where we're going to explore what it truly means to be here, for life, for change, and for the unexpected, whether it's legal, emotional, financial, or just everyday transitions we all face, our messages are intended to help you always be ready to take that next step. You know, recently someone asked me, what does living with your bags packed mean? Well, I told her that first I had to explain where it came from. I first heard it at a funeral where a truly great person, Monsignor Raymond East, was given a homily. He described the deceased woman as a person who seemed to live with her bags packed. He said that she always appeared to him to be ready for whatever the Lord put in front of her, good or bad. He felt that she lived her life according to the scripture readings from Matthew and Luke, which essentially says that if the homeowner knew when the thief would break into their house, of course they would have stayed awake and prevented the break-in from happening. Well, she just seemed to really take that to heart, being prepared because the reality is we don't know neither the place or time when we'll be called for our final judgment. So the phrase living with your bags packed, it's not about travel or being on the move. It's about a mindset. It's a way of life. It's also an expression of love and consideration. It means being prepared for opportunities and challenges. It's not just about being caught off guard when life throws a curveball your way. Well, I want to think about something. On January 15, 2009, life threw a serious curveball to Chesley Sullenberger. He's also known as Captain Sully. Well, he was piloting flight 1549 when just minutes after takeoff, a flock of geese struck his aircraft, causing both engines to fail. With no power, only seconds to act, Sully made the critical decision. He chose to land the plane on the Hudson River. He chose to land the plane on the river in the middle of January. He saved all 155 passengers on board that day. While the event itself is so unpredictable, Sully's ability to handle it was no accident. He had spent his entire career preparing for moments just like that. His years of training, attention to detail, and mental readiness allowed him to act decisively under pressure. He had practiced emergency landings, studied aviation safety, and conditioned his mind to stay in crisis situations. Sully's story isn't just about being a pilot. It's about all of us. We never know when life will throw us an emergency landing, whether it's a sudden job loss, a legal battle, a personal crisis. The key to surviving and thriving is being prepared for the crisis when it hits. If I mentioned it tomorrow, would you and your loved ones know what to do? Well, these are the kind of questions we're going to tackle in this podcast. So, what does living with your bags packed mean regarding estate planning? Well, I want to share with you a quick story about someone who truly embraced the bags packed lifestyle. His name is Anthony Bourdain. He was a renowned Shaft author and TV host. If you watched his shows, you absolutely had to love him and love all the things that he did and sometimes wonder how he could put some things in his mouth and actually eat and swallow them. But I digress. When he tragically passed away in 2018, many assumed his finances would be a mess, which surprisingly is often the case with many public figures. Bourdain, however, had a well-structured estate plan ensuring that his loved ones were protected. Despite his success, his estate was only valued at around $1.2 million. Now, there are some reports that there's some additional holdings, but the only that we really know is about $1.2 million. What mattered most was the clarity of his will and trust documents. He specifically designated that his daughter would inherit most of his assets, including cash, royalties, and personal items. He even left instructions about his frequent flyer miles, allowing a close friend to use them. Of course, frequent flyer miles, that's a small detail that most people don't think about, but it was telling you just how detailed his planning was, how much he tried to plan ahead. Bourdain's story is a perfect example of why estate planning is essential for everyone, not just for the wealthy. Because he had a will and named beneficiaries, his estate avoided major legal disputes and costly probate issues. This highlights the importance of having a will or a trust, because it ensures that your assets go where they should or where you want them to. Having beneficiary designations, protecting loved ones from unnecessary legal troubles, and having clear instructions for your personal assets. This avoids conflicts over sentimental items, which quite candidly, sometimes are the most important things that people leave behind. As an estate litigation attorney, I can assure you that without a plan, legal battles can leave families emotionally and financially drained. By taking a few simple steps now, anyone can ensure that their loved ones are taken care of no matter what happens. The current political climate has left so many of us in situations we never planned for. Others, well, they're just walking around on eggshells, wondering if they're going to lose their jobs and livelihood. Some are concerned about their benefits, are they going to be reduced or eliminated? Immigrant families are scared about what will happen to their loved ones and friends. All of this is on top of the regular worries in life. There's no question we're truly living in uncertain times. What steps can you take today to start living with your bags packed? Here are three simple actions. The first is review your legal affairs. Make sure your will, your power of attorney, and other legal documents and other essential documents are in place. If you already have them and you did them a while ago, review them, look them over, make sure they're still accurate, they're still current, they still express the wishes you have today. If you haven't done it, please contact an attorney, an estate planning attorney, and get them done. Number two, build a financial safety net. Now more than ever, it's important to have these emergency saving funds and to be able to plan for sudden changes. Number three, adopt a flexible mindset. Do your best to practice embracing change rather than fearing it. As a mentor of mine would often tell me, make a plan and become rigidly flexible. By making small moves now, you can set yourself up for a smoother path ahead. Before we wrap up today, I want to leave you with this thought. Life is unpredictable, but you don't have to be unprepared. The more we embrace readiness as a way of living, the more opportunities we can seize with confidence. Oh, by the way, after the funeral, I told my senior aides how much his words meant to me and I will be definitely using them again in the future. His consent, strangely enough, was conditioned on me applying those words to my life as well. Every time I see him, I tell him, I'm trying my best, but I continue to be a work in progress. Thank you for tuning in with this session of Living With a Backpack. If you found this episode helpful, please make sure to like, subscribe, leave a review, and share it with someone who could use a little preparation inspiration. Until next time, get ready and stay ready. I'm attorney Robert Newman. See you in the next episode.