Quote:
Originally Posted by ratbastid
In the most general sense, a written statement of one's wishes, signed and possibly notarized, is sufficient to ensure that ones' medical instructions are carried out. If there are a lot of "ifs, ands and buts" to what you want to happen to you in the event of your incapacitation, you might need something more legalistic, but a DNR or "no extreme measures" or "no life support" order is an extremely simple thing to create.
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Ratbastid speaks the truth, blah blah blah. Yet again he's got the sage wisdom thing going and is absolutely correct. The boilerplate should give you a very good idea of how to structure the language, and you only need it notarized to have it be "official".
By the way, you're about 14 months ahead of my wife and I. As long as there's no need for it, you can put off a will indefinitely. However, if you need one, you can't go back and do it.
As far as storage, you can carry a copy of it with you if you're afraid of suddenly lapsing into a coma. That would tell the hospital how you want to be treated. However, simply having your next-of-kin there to tell them that will also do the trick, although he'd probably also have to produce the living will before they'll unplug you. I suggest either a fire-proof safe (about $20 at Wal-Mart) or a safety deposit box.
Life insurance? Well, that's not really my area of expertise (if you've got any high-hazard casualty questions, I'm definitely your guy), but it really depends on what you want to do and what you can afford. There are two options. Term insurance expires after an allotted time and costs less. Whole life never expires and can be used as a savings vehicle but is pretty expensive. If you want my opinion, I'd say buy the term insurance for a few years until you have more disposable income and then buy a whole life policy if you decide to go that route for savings purposes. Buy each of you a policy and name the other one as beneficiary.
Other advice for married couples? Have more sex. Oh, you're newlyweds - that's not a problem. Carry on.