Jennipod
It's ya girl Jennifer, ya know, from Fairfield.
Jennipod
Jennipod Episode 12: They Ain't Taking Yo Junk to Heaven: A Guide to Preparing for the End
End-of-life planning isn't just for the elderly—it's an essential task for anyone who wants to make things easier for their loved ones when they're gone. I share my personal system of keeping a USB stick and white binder with all important information, and explain why creating a plan now can save your family significant stress later.
• Replace smoke detector batteries during daylight savings time, even in hardwired units
• Ensure your will is valid in your current state—requirements vary between states
• Create a system to organize passwords, account numbers, and important documents
• Consider what will happen to your pets, digital photos, and financial accounts
• Practice minimalism now to avoid burdening family with belongings later
• Designate backup beneficiaries for all accounts and insurance policies
• Label items you specifically want family members to keep
Get your estate planning figured out in 2025—it's inevitable that we all pass away someday, and preparing properly is one of the kindest things you can do for those you leave behind.
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What's up everyone. Welcome to episode 12 of JennaPod. I am recording this on Friday, march 21st 2025. I had to record early because I am working at a fitness event all day Saturday and I just want to. Well, a, I'll be exhausted Saturday night and I could lose my voice from having to yell all day, and I like to have this thing out on Sundays anyway. So we'll be good to go on that. So we'll be good to go on that. From last week's Southwest Airlines discussion, my best friend Reby said the Delta Reserve credit card is the way to go. That's all the feedback I got, guys. So I guess everyone's keeping that Southwest card. This episode does come out.
Speaker 1:I'm probably finally sitting in my fireplace room watching the 76 minute finale of season two of Severance. Do not tell me what has happened. When season two is over, I'm gonna go back and re-watch it from the start. Who am I kidding? Who has time for that? I still haven't finished season 8 of Love is Blind.
Speaker 1:When it comes to Love is Blind, I know it is a heavily produced show, but imagine getting hammered at a bar and being filmed. Has anyone been completely sober on that show ever? Or do they purposely cast the party, party, party people. Do I want the gold wine glass to drink out of? Yes, when I drink I get sleepy. So my montage the producers would put together would be and Jennifer is asleep on the couch again, I would be rocking electrolytes and some Celsius. Not Alani, that shit is gross. A white monster. Perhaps I'm talking about energy drinks, if I lost any of my boomers in this convo. However, no Celsius ever after 2 pm. However, no Celsius ever after 2 pm. Nothing good happens after 2 pm. With 200 milligrams of caffeine. I have twice drank two Celsiuses in one day and I will say you will not sleep Again. You will not sleep if you drink two celsius's in one day. I say all the time thank God energy drinks weren't the craze back in college, because I'd be like let's mix caffeine with everything. God knew I didn't need that much power.
Speaker 1:I heard on the Buzzcast podcast this week that podcasts are entertainment for your ears while your eyes are busy. I like that Because literally that's what this is for Mindless driving, folding laundry, hot girl walks, love making, hey-o. What if someone made a baby listening to my voice? Name it JenaPod. If the back of your house caught on fire this week, this episode is dedicated to you. Shout out to my girlfriend, tara, who was out of town when her bonus room caught fire. Her husband, stepson and puppy are all okay, thank goodness. Now, one thing Tara mentioned that I've heard often but haven't done is to take pictures of your entire home for insurance and like your belongings, just in case you have house fire, tornado, what have you be? I've mentioned.
Speaker 1:I'm a minimalist, but I couldn't imagine the small number of things I have being taken away from me without my feedback, like poof, it's gone. Jesus, don't take my houseplants. Now. Here is a good timed subject. We just had daylight savings. It's the first day of spring.
Speaker 1:Have you all replaced the batteries in your smoke detectors? Even the hardwired ones have batteries. So if you have your hardwired smoke detector hanging from the wall right now, kim, then go ahead and get that shit sorted. I don't even have gas in my home. It's all electric, but I am still paranoid. And have a carbon monoxide detector in my home. They are digital now, which is nice. Go get one from Bezos now, which is nice. Go get one from Bezos. I really don't understand the hardwired ones. I had them in our old house. When the power goes out, they go crazy. They upset your dogs. I ripped one out of the wall once because my dog, brisbane, was freaking out. I'm sure in a couple years AI will be able to tell us our home is on fire, but until then, go burn something in your kitchen and see if your smoke detector goes off.
Speaker 1:Now, one fun topic I knew I would talk about on this podcast and my friends said I needed to talk about was end-of-life planning. Wow, what a fucking gripping, exciting subject matter, jennifer. So if you died today, is your estate planned out? This is even for the single peoples out there. Do you have a cat, a puppy, a kid, a house? Lots of money, money, lots of stuff, like lots of stuff. Do you have a will? Have I lost anyone? Yet If I disappear, my husband knows there is a USB stick with all of our information on it. I mean, the man won't have to think Every account number, login info, emails associated with accounts when stuff gets pulled from checking or the credit card. It has our lawyer's information, our life insurance information, retirement information, etc. I also have a giant white binder with all of our important documents, all the passports and birth certificates and basically anything important. Now, this took a while to put together. This isn't a one-day project, but I swear it's worth it.
Speaker 1:I have a friend who used to tell me I was crazy for all of my planning and then lost a parent and said you know what? You were right. In the past 10 years I've had two friends lose husbands at very young ages and I was like man, I need to get our shit together. Then we unfortunately had our own family experiences and just like anything you don't understand until it happens to you. Five years ago, my sister-in-law passed away and then seven weeks later my father-in-law passed away. My father-in-law was the beneficiary of everything for my sister-in-law and so both of them were all of a sudden gone. Enter probate my husband became the executor on his sister's account and I would say it took about 1.5 years to get her estate settled. Luckily, she did have a small little notebook with accounts and passwords, because if she hadn't, I do not know what we would have done.
Speaker 1:So also, ensure your will or any of your account with beneficiaries has backup beneficiaries. Are you out of family members? Add a friend to receive the goodies we have. Matt's best friend is like a third person. Shout out, ben, what's up If you have to move states with a will, ensure that will is valid.
Speaker 1:When my parents made their will in Ohio, it only needed one witness to sign. Guess what? In Tennessee you need two witnesses to sign your will. One signature in Tennessee equals invalid. Imagine someone passes and finding out their will is invalid Yuck.
Speaker 1:Some of you may say who cares, I'm dead. Nah, dog, you gotta set up stuff easy peasy for your family and if you've gone through this you know While you're grieving you don't want to be trying to figure out someone's Venmo sign-in because they have $2,000 sitting in their account. Get that iCloud password so you can access their photos, especially if they are leaving behind young children. I had to do that for my nephew. It's inevitable. We are all going to die. We are born to die. This was never more apparent to me than my first job out of college, working at an assisted living At 22,. It was so sad to see family members come in to collect their loved one's belongings.
Speaker 1:Now let's discuss stuff and belongings. I know recently a lot of people watched that documentary on consumerism I can't remember if it was on Netflix or Prime and just how we are buying shit out of control. One click and it's at your house. At one point we moved seven times in seven years and we have also moved across the country twice. The longest I have been somewhere as an adult is nine years.
Speaker 1:Back, four and a half years ago, I downsized 800 square feet. Moving sucks, moving sucks. Well, unless you are super wealthy and someone comes in and packs everything up for you. That is not my tax bracket. I've always had to wrap up every single item in my home. I've said before on here if I ever move again, I'm selling every single item. I'm only moving clothes, a couple sentimental items and my dogs. I even have a workshop under my house where I could store 50 bins no, not happening.
Speaker 1:Like I said, from the age of 22 on, I constantly was having to see people downsize. 22 on, I constantly was having to see people downsize as they moved into assisted livings. I worked at a really large retirement community out in Tulsa. At that giant retirement community we had a thrift store just for people to have a place to get rid of their stuff. I still have some awesome items from it, some nice, fine china.
Speaker 1:Now I am lucky my parents moved down to Nashville over 10 years ago and kind of did that first round of cleaning out. I remember my mom would send me picture after picture of stuff from my childhood. I'm like, nope, nope, nope. Now, once in a while, yes, but my point is do not burden your family with shit after you die. I am not renting a storage unit for you Now, obviously, sometimes we don't know when someone is going to pass away.
Speaker 1:It's sudden and unexpected. Let's all pull out vibes that everyone passes away at 102 in their bed For clean out. We're going to have three piles people. We're going to keep stuff, we're going to donate stuff, we're going to trash stuff. If you need help with this, I'll do it.
Speaker 1:My father-in-law had a great saying before he passed you can't take it with you, and I swear I say this about once a week, as in, they ain't taking yo junk in heaven. My mother-in-law will be listening to this, hey, girl, and she knows I challenge her to get rid of or donate one thing a day, even if it's a pencil or a paper clip. She has a beautiful, large house with a lot of items in it. She was a teacher. Lots of teachery things With minimalism. They teach you yes, get rid of stuff, but also don't get rid of things that bring you joy. Don't get rid of things that bring you joy. If you collect something sweet, keep it.
Speaker 1:One to two times a year, I go through my entire home and say, okay, what is just sitting around not paying rent and taking up space? My mom has told me there are certain things she wants me to keep if she passes away, like in her home. Like okay, lady, I'm like, well, you better go ahead and put some post-its on what you want me to keep and I'll wink, make sure I keep those. I plan on getting cremated and I am to be cremated in the gold Ralph Lauren dress hanging in my spare closet. I told my husband where I want my ashes scattered and he said I'm not running errands for you after you die. Whatever, dude, take me to Maui. Anyway, listeners, get your estate shit figured out in 2025.
Speaker 1:We are an Uber Eats family Not excessive but I feel panicky when I think about deleting it. It's an awful way to spend money, but it's super convenient at inconvenient times in your life. Wow, hire me for marketing Uber Eats. If you saw where my house is situated, near grocery stores and eateries, you would kick my ass for ever using Uber Eats. A couple months ago my husband was in Knoxville for work and I went to check the credit card and there was a pending payment that said Uber won ten dollars. And I was like what is that? I was like that's either some really cheap food or a really cheap ride.
Speaker 1:The next day I said hey guy, did you click and buy an Uber One membership? He said no, I'm like uh okay. And then I did the oh shit, have we been hacked? So I keep an eye on the credit card and I log into both my Uber accounts just the Ride Uber and Uber Eats and I don't see a thing. It even says at the top hey, sign up for Uber One. I'm still not even sure what this membership is. I even reached out to Uber customer service via the app, showed them a screenshot of the pending $10, and they said we don't have anything on our end. I'm like damn. So I asked my husband to check again. I even check his apps on his phone and I can't find anything. And at the top of his app it also says click here to sign up for Uber One. And I didn't want to call the credit card company and report fraud because it seemed isolated. Well, another month goes by and here comes ye old $10. Damn it, I knew there was no way my husband would even attempt to fix this. I'm not going to lie. I got lazy trying to figure it out, but finally, finally, last weekend I detected that shit out.
Speaker 1:So we go to order burgers from a local restaurant. I pull the menu open and I said no, we're not getting food from there. It's a $7.99 delivery fee. Well, guy across the coffee table from me pulls it up on his phone and it says zero delivery fee. I said hand me your phone and sure as shit, I put both up side by side and damn it to hell if the zero dollar delivery fee means he has an Uber One account. I was like, bro, you did that. He said no, I didn't, but look, I saved us $7 on this meal. Okay, moneybags, mcgee. Well, anyway, prosecuted, jailed, lawyered. So do I still need to fix this? Yes, but I'm just a girl, but I'm just a girl.
Speaker 1:Watching history shows and history documentaries has never been my strong suit. I've tried, but I'm bored. In January, Netflix came out with a show called American Primeval. It was six episodes. I was obsessed 1000%. The most violent show I've ever seen. The series is set in 1857, during the Utah War, so roughly 168 years ago. Now I'm like hell, give me all the Utah history I'm in.
Speaker 1:Where the casting director went right for pulling this 43-year-old woman to watch the show was choosing the lead male actor. My husband pulled up the trailer and within 10 seconds I yelled I'm in. That male actor was Taylor Kitsch, and I hope I'm saying that right, he's a babe. Mr Kitsch is my age. Hey, so not a baby babe, just a babe. I was like they got Tim Riggins on this show from Friday Night Lights. Hell yeah, brother, I'm in. So Hollywood, I just need baby babes, babes and daddies cast in all history shows. Going forward, thank you. Now this Utah war was about a hundred years before my parents were born and that seems insane. It focuses a lot on Brigham Young and the only thing I knew about him before this show was Real Housewives of Salt Lake City Jokes Just how freaking different things are now. So, yeah, I now feel like a dipshit when I order Uber Eats after watching the show on my leather couch in my jommies with a goblin cat and two dogs laying on my chest Like it's kind of cringe. So maybe, going forward, I'll switch to reading nonfiction, hmm, eh. Anyway, totally recommend watching this show. Not for the kiddos, though.
Speaker 1:How many of my Boomer listeners are taking phone calls on their iPad? My mother loves to do this. She picks up my call and then it's 10 seconds of chaos of her trying to figure out how to hold it and listen. I'm still not clear on what happens. And then she tells me she's on her iPad and then at some parts, randomly, I can't hear her because the speaker has gone under a blanket. Her hand is over it. It's in the crevice of the couch. Now the iPad is very, is a very important element for those who play Candy Crush. I have never played Candy Crush. My mom is on level 8608. Gotta be healthier than scrolling the ticky-tock. Love you, mama.
Speaker 1:As the elder millennial according to the generation charts, I was born in 1982, I keep my Apple AirPods in most of the day, probably giving me brain cancer, but I refuse to take a phone call without them in. I kind of feel like the generational charts are bullshit. At this point. I feel they should be restructured to the three grades that were above you in high school and the three grades that were under you in high school like little micro generations, and then, if you went to college again, this theory would also work. So in my today age, I have the most in common with everyone 40 to 46. So, going back to that millennial chart, the youngest millennial right now is 31. And I don't have anything in common with a 31-year-old. I have more in common with a Gen X, who goes all the way up to 62 years old right now. So anyway, I'm over how generations are created. Who is even in charge of it? Fix it Now.
Speaker 1:My dad doesn't get out of a conversation this time. He doesn't believe GPS does quickest routes. I've said before I keep GPS on 24-7. I picked him up for lunch and started out of the neighborhood and he said it's taking you this way. I said yes, it's the quickest route right now. He said it's not the quickest route. Ugh, come on, jerry, there are billions of satellites in the air right now giving live feedback on everyone utilizing Google Maps. So it may be only 30 seconds faster, but at this point in history, this is the quickest route. He said no, it isn't. And then I dropped him off on the side of the road to walk to the Mexican restaurant. I didn't, but dads are always going to know the correct route. Love you, jerry. It's been 22 days and I still don't have my real ID. That's it. That's the story. All right, everyone have a great week. Jennapod is directed, produced and edited by me, your girl, jennifer. Please rate, review and subscribe to this on Apple Podcasts, spotify or wherever you are listening to my lovely voice Laters.