Cash Under the Mattress: The Ultimate Estate and Crisis Handbook

By Philip Giroux and Sally Lamb

Yes, you can be prepared to handle potential disasters for yourself, your kids, and your aging parents.

Your vital records in one Grab and Run book. Easy fill-in checklists including: Who to Call Care for Your Pets Wheres Your Stuff? Funeral Checklist Medical / Long Term Care Gifts and Heirlooms Save time in an emergency when minutes count. Learn ways to dispense of family heirlooms. Learn ways to avoid inheritance conflicts. Write down the wishes of your aging parents while you still can. Gain the positive feelings that come from knowing you have handled unavoidable issues in a straightforward manner.

• Language: English
• Publisher: AuthorHouse
• Release date: Jul 11, 2011
• ISBN: 9781456701116

Philip Giroux

Philip Giroux is the president of Toddco Landscape Co., Inc., a design-build landscape firm, located in Venice, California, which he founded in 1978. The firm has received numerous awards for outstanding designs. Philip has a Bachelor of Science in Agriculture from the University of Arizona. He is the author of “Landscape for Dummies” by IDG. He writes, lectures, and does radio and T.V. interviews on the subject of landscape. He served as past President for the L.A. Chapter of the California Contractors Association, and is a member of the Southern California Horticultural Society. Sally Lamb is a professional artist. She has a Bachelor of Fine Arts from the University of Southern California. She has exhibited her award winning oil and watercolor paintings throughout the U.S. and is extensively represented in both private and corporate collections. Currently her paintings are shown at Bergamot Station in her hometown of Santa Monica, California. Her work includes large wall murals, book illustrations, demonstrations, lectures, and educational film. The authors both faced the loss of their parents during the same time period. These two childhood friends then got together to write this book to answer and eliminate the second guessing, confusion and anxiety that they had experienced.

Book preview

Contents

Introduction:

Chapter One

Chapter Two

Chapter Three

Chapter Four

Chapter Five

Chapter Six

Chapter Seven

Chapter Eight

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Dedicated to Our Parents

With Special Appreciation to Barbara, Sue and Patty

For all their love and endless hours of help

Introduction:

Beginning at the Beginning

An Ounce of Prevention…

Cash Under The Mattress is a short, simple, and user-friendly handbook to help you plan your own legacy. Pared down to the essentials, this simple, yet effective tool makes planning effortless. Designed to minimize and, in most cases, eliminate unanswered questions, unknown wishes, and possible conflicts between potential beneficiaries. Your loved ones will thank you for your honesty and willingness to take on a serious and challenging subject.

When completed, it is the one book you will want stored with your most important papers, or in your emergency file, or in your safe deposit box. Take it with you on a trip as a reference, should something happen to you while you are away from home.

In Cash Under the Mattress, each chapter forms a building block for the pyramid of a life — a beginning, a middle, and an end. This is the beginning of your story — a story only you can tell. The base covers birth and childhood, the middle deals with adult life, and the end confronts old age (may you live so long) and … deep breath … death.

The greatest benefits this book offers is peace of mind that comes from knowing you have done everything you can to make this process as pain free as possible. That is the gift you give. That is the legacy you leave.

Notes from the Authors

PHILIP

Imagine you are a pebble tossed into a vast pond. You create ripples throughout your life, affecting not only those close to you, but the world in which you live.