Have a Better Holiday Family Gathering

Holidays are times of gathering for families. As such it provides opportunities to help the extended family strengthen its economic foundation. These are the perfect times to discuss estate plans, elder care, custodial expectations and more. Now that sounds pretty heavy and it may be depending upon how your family views these subjects. But not talking about it isn’t wise. 

Normally estate matters are resolved as part of a process that takes time to complete. But they must be started. Start with the easy stuff. Are wills in place for all adults 18 years and older? What happens to the kids? Are there durable power of attorneys and health care directives in place for all adults 18 years and older?  It is better to have these discussions before a crisis requires them. Not having proper estate plans in place has put significant stress on family relationships regardless of assets forever. Yours will be no different. 

Take the next steps depending on what is learned. Help those that have no plan get one written and recorded. Encourage those that have a partial plan to upgrade. Lead by example.

Family gatherings can also provide opportunities to save money through the elimination of redundant streaming services expenses. Most streaming services allow for multiple profiles or device logins. Maximizing profiles used for each service and spreading the cost of the subscriptions can expand extended family access while lowering individual unit costs. This is also a time to review subscription services already shared to see if they are still used and eliminate those that aren’t.  

Some services can be eliminated seasonally depending upon demand. The family can adopt a “binge and go” strategy. This is where a service is subscribed to for a period of time to allow episodes to be binged. The effect is to make the service disposable, use it then lose it. This eliminates autopilot spending that subscriptions require.

Here is a list of some popular subscription streaming services and links to their multiple user policies:

• Hulu allows 6 profiles
• Prime Video not allowed
• Prime Music not allowed
• Netflix allows 5 profiles
• HBONow It's complicated
• HBOGo It's complicated
• Starz allows 4 devices
• Showtime & Showtime Anytime 5 devices
• Disney+ 7 profiles
• DirecTV Now 2 devices
• ​Xfinity Stream 3 devices via the internet ​

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