Become My Heir

Giving You My Estate

2005-08-18T06:18:00.000-07:00

Wednesday, April 27, 2005 - Original posting date

It came to me one day. Who will run my business when I am gone? I have nobody. I have developed a nice business, and it is growing every month. Each month it earns a nice income, and the business has no debt. I have spent many long hours building the business, and have only one friend. That friend, with her genes, will likely not outlive me. Even if she does, she has an excellent life, and figuring out how to close mine, would only be a burden to her.

I have envisioned that when I am gone, the site will stay live for about a year, then my credit card will have expired, and my hosting company will shut the site down. The income I receive, goes into an account, with a debit card attached to it, and that card is used to pay my hosting fees. So, it will run itself, more or less for a while. It seemed like such a pity just to throw the business away, after I had done so much work. I have ten years of work tied up in learning what I needed to know to run and launch this business.

So, I though about leaving it to a university, or a non-profit org. I discussed many possibilities, but none really seemed to reach out to me. I couldn't make up my mind. What has crossed my mind more recently is the fact, that if I have nobody to leave my business to, then I also have nobody to come to my furneral. That seems sad, and I had never really given it any thought, until the last few months. Then, I came up with this plan.

Not today, but sometime in the near future, I am going to offer, for sale, tickets to my funeral. Each person who buys one, becomes an heir to my estate. In order to become an heir, they must show up at my funeral, sign in, and wait until the reading of my will. For each heir I have, they will get an equal share of my estate, such as it is. Not much now, but I figure five to ten years down the road, if I make it that far, it is going to be huge.

Once the reading of the will is complete, the heirs will choose a seven member board. The board members will all become co-executors and will come up with a plan to either sell my business, or to select a committee to run it, and share in monthly profit sharing checks, equally.

Now, here are the details. Each person who is not in an excluded group (see: Who Is Disqualified) will have the opportunity to buy a ticket. They can buy as many tickets as they want, and each one will give them one share of my estate. I haven't decided on a ticket price yet, but right now I am thinking $10.00 each. You see, I want ALOT of people at my funeral. Each ticket, requires a person to attend the funeral. So, if you have a family of 6 people, then you can have six tickets, all must attend the funeral. You can buy tickets for children, grandchildren, friends, whoever you know. But, if they don't show up at the funeral, they don't get a portion of my estate. You can not buy 100 tickets, bring 4 people, and expect to get 100 shares. The will is going to be very specific about how the estate is divided, and the rules must be followed. I am hoping that thousands of people will buy tickets, and it will be the funeral of the century. The details of the funeral itself will be in the will, and the attorney in charge will make sure that the funeral is exactly as I want.

Over time, the ticket prices may rise, or I may quit selling them altogether. I don't want funeral expenses to eat up my estate. So, it would be prudent to buy as many tickets as you want early on. Later, I anticipate tickets going for several hundred dollars to a thousand dollars or more, as the business gets larger, I get older and enter into my final days of failing health. However, at any time I may halt the sale of the tickets, and end the search for more heirs. It is all a big gamble. If the process begins to overwhelm me, that is it. Those who have funeral tickets will be the final field heirs. It will leave only those who purchased a funeral ticket prior to that point, at the helm of what was once my life.

What are the stats now? High blood pressure, diabetes, 50 years old. That is not all. I have a spouse.

The spouse is in much worst shape. 42, diabetes, high blood pressure, family history of cancer, and has two heart stints at this time. It is most likely, I will be the last to go, as I have better genes, overall. But, at this time, I see me being around for another 5 to 10 years, and having plenty of time to grow my estate into something very much worth having.

If I go before the spouse, the rules are the same. The spouse keeps everything, continues to run the business and when the final day is done, then you get your inheritance.

There are going to be life insurance policys involved, as well as a home which is paid for now, vehicles which are paid for now, and other assets. The business is earning over $2000 per month now, and this is our slowest season of the year. I anticipate 2005 earnings at $50K, 2006 earnings and beyond to grow by 25-50% per year. But, who knows. I have an interest in seeing the business grow, because I have entered the hedonistic stage of the life, and want it to be fun and interesting to the final days. So, I'm not working here all day and all night just to make you rich in the end. I am spending my money. But, when the business is earning $10k, $50k a month, or more, that is really just too much to let it go. What you get is that monthly income, annual income, or share of the business when sold, if that is what you all decide, after I am gone. That and everything I own, which you will likely sell. If I were you, and I am not, or I would not be writing this, I would keep the business running, and get my share of those nice checks each month.

The business takes very little effort. This means I can pretty much run it to the end. Once I am gone, it will continue to run itself long enough to elect a board to make decisions on the estate. In the event I am not able to run the business to the end, I will chose 7 of the heir apparents, those who have bought tickets, to form a board and run the business until I am gone. Then, the established rules go into effect.

There are going to be conditions, and they are stiff. If you have ever committed a crime of violence, or any felony, you can not buy a ticket. If you have ever been treated for substance addiction, you can not buy a ticket. You can't ever have won a lottery winning over $10k. Gambling is prohibited. You may not go to casinos, or off track betting, nor buy lottery tickets. If you have known me, you can not buy a ticket. If you are related to me by blood or marriage, even remotely, you can not buy a ticket. You must attend the funeral to get your inheritance. You can 'will' your inheritance, but your heirs must attend the funeral, and you must make that fact known in your will, or your ticket becomes void. You can sell your ticket, but it has no face value. The only value it has, is upon my death. Before that, it entitles you to nothing, unless I had select you, in writing, to manage the estate, during my final days. If you lose your ticket, the person who finds it, is entitled to a share of my estate, if they follow the rules. If the ticket is destroyed, you have no claim.

Any person found violating the rules, by another heir, can be disqualified, if through a court challenge, the rules are found to have been violated.

There is much more. I will add to this as time goes on, and post the date that tickets will go on sale.

When the time comes, I will have the attorney numbers on the page. All will be verified through that large law firm. Once the legal documents are all in order, and the first ticket is sold, I will post updates on the web, every few days. It is how you will know I am still alive. Your name will be in the documents the attorney has, and he will notify you when I am gone, so you can attend the funeral. You must have a valid email address, and it will be up to you to maintain that address, and be sure that mail from him is not blocked. The responsibility in the end to attend the funeral, rests fully on your shoulders. I expect he will notify the media, so every person who is an heir, knows I am gone, and they need to head to the town where my funeral will be. That town, will be preselected, based on the number of heirs I will have, and the town's ability to host a funeral of that size if it is very large. Transportation costs to the funeral, are your responsibility, as well as any other expenses you incur as a result of owning the ticket, or receiving the inheritance, including any taxes.

Bookmark this blog, to watch for updates.

I have deleted this entry, and reposted it. As I add new postings, this one get pushed off the main page. I think it is important to keep it on the main page. So, after creating new posts, I will place this one back on the main page, and that will give it a new date. Orginal date for this posting is at the top of the post.

UPDATE: September 13, 2005 - Hurricane Katrina Offer
Any 10 refugees Hurricane Katrina from New Orleans, who can meet the guidelines for my heirs, and prove they were residents of New Orleans for 10 consequetive years, immediately prior to and up to the day before Hurricane Katrina arrived, will get a free ticket to the funeral, and will automatically become my heir. Heirs will be selected from essays written, describing why they think should be selected to inherit my estate, and what they will do with the estate finances once they are in control. There are no strings. Just show up to say good-bye at my funeral. I know this isn't much right now when you need it most. But, I hope it gives you hope for the future. Things do and can change in time. I want to give you that hope.

See the terms, who is excluded, and other posts, by clicking on the links to the right. Deadline for submissions is midnight December 31, 2006. Email address for submissions will be posted on this blog soon. Begin preparing your essay now. Spread the word to other Hurricane Katrina victims that we are offering our version of a grant for them.

Life Insurance Policies

2005-08-09T06:14:00.000-07:00

I have set up the first life insurance policy, effective Aug 9, 2005. Value of the policy is $50,000

Become My Heir - Compose An Essay

2005-07-13T09:57:00.000-07:00

Before the funeral ticket sale process begins, I'm going to be offering free tickets, to persons of certain profiles. This means I will request personal submissions from those who would like to be my heir, and instead of randomly selecting all those who buy a ticket, I will hand pick some, who will get to be my heir just by attending the funeral, free of charge. Those people will get front row seats at the funeral.

Guaranteed one requirement will be they have to post their profile on their own website, so I can see their level of experience in web design, and on that site tell me enough about them, to help me decide if they should be one of my heirs. I'm posting this now, so those interested can begin working on that project, and have it ready for me to view it right before the funeral tickets go on sale. My new heirs names will be posted here in the blog, as they are selected.

Website should show me what you look like, tell me about your personal history, education, hobbies, experiences in life. I want to know about the times you fell on your face, failed miserably, and those successes you had, personally, and at work. More information is better, and I will look through the entire site, if you organize it on more than one page.

There will be 10 heirs selected based on their website essay and that will be done, before the tickets go on sale.

Get busy. Stats from this blog show only a couple people a day come to read the site, and none have come twice so far. That means, basically, nobody is intereted in getting something for nothing. There is a fact that seems odd. Anyway, your field of competition seems very low at that time, and that increases the odds you will be selected.

I want to mention at this time, the best thing you can do for any friend or relative, is tell them about this blog, and have them become an heir as well. It will give you a small block within the heirs that are of like mind, and can form a voting block, to achieve common goals.

Thinking about that, you should act quickly. I am trying to get my ducks in a row right now to begin the ticket sale process. The earliest date for that is January 1, 2006, if everything is in order by then. You need to be ready to move on this. If you are planning to write and essay for the free ticket, and launch your essay on a full blown website, telling me all about you, you need to rock and roll.

Who Will Manage My Afterlife?

2005-07-05T06:06:00.000-07:00

Become My Heir - Will It Be You? : Planning Ahead

I was out and about the other day, for no particular reason. I just wanted to get away from the machine, and clear my head. On the way home I happened upon the city cemetary. I had never given it any thought before, never really thought about it. But, there was an unusal headstone that caught my eye. So, I decided to venture in. What I saw, shocked me beyond words.

The cemetary other than getting the grass mowed, had been left to decay. While nearly every other cemetary in the area had flowers placed on every grave, this one had none. That in itself seemed odd, because it was not the long ago we celebrated Memorial Day, and Mother's Day, and Father's Day, and surely SOMEBODY in this area had relatives there. That a side, it was almost in ruins.

Many of the headstones had broken pieces, or pieces that had fallen off. Some had fallen off or broke off so long before the ground had come up around them and only about the top half of long pillars could be seen. Fence around family plots were broken, fallen down, and nearly destroyed. There were trees that had grown up almost completely around a headstone, and others that hid historial plaques totally. Never in my life have I seen a mess.

Here was a city maintained cemetary, and they couldn't be bother to spend much more than a cent to maintain the heritage of the area. One headstone read, "He rebuilt the city". That seems pretty important to me. Yet, he was left in what is now nothing more than human garbage dump, lacking all dignity, in disgrace.

It looked like a hurricane had come in and ripped the place apart. But, from the grass and dirt accumlated around much of the mess, it was obvious that these things had been happening over time through many events. So, here is this cemetary sitting in the middle of town, and nobody seems to care about anyone within the gates. Frankly, I find it immoral. But, it shouldn't surprise me.

This is a penny pinching, selfishish, ME area, where nobody wants to spend a dime if their neighbor might get benefit from it. It is a far right mentality, that is summarized by the statement, " let me keep my money in my pocket, and I will decide how to spend it, on me." This is what you get with that type of thinking. They spend the money on themselves, to hell with the neighbor. I can hear these people talking about it at the city council meeting. "Hell, they ain't my kin folk, why should I have to pay to fix up thay grave. Thay is dead and ain't going know no difference no how. Leave it be." Then, the obligatory council vote, and all hands raised to let the cemetary stay as is.

And... it made me think.

We had decided that we wanted a cript. We don't want to be in the ground. And we would like to have a very unsual top on the cript, one that depicts two people sleeping. I with my eyeglasses on my nose, and the Rolling Stone magazine laying open, on my chest. He wants to be on his back, with his pillow over his head, the way he sleeps. Me with my left foot slightly out of the covers...and we are holding hands, atop the covers. We are going to have this made after we relocate and choose our final resting place, so it is ready for us when we need it. That way we can supervise the construction and make sure it is just right.

But, from my walk in the cemetary it was obvious to me that things don't last forever, even made out of granite or marble. We need a foundation that will look after us in the hereafter, and will maintain our cript. This is something to think about. Something for me to think about. Something for you to think about.

As my heir, you have a responsibilty, to maintain, and provide for the maintenance of my cript after you are gone. I sense I will need language that provides for that, and that changes everything. If I give you all my money, all my worldly goods, my business, everything, and you squander it, and go broke, who will look after me? Nobody. My grave site will go into ruins, just like these here, because I will have nobody to maintain it. That defeats my purpose, in part. I need to make a provision for that. More on that later.

Who Is Disqualified

2005-06-30T18:41:00.000-07:00

The following will be updated along the way. Check here for the last update. Tickets areavailable to people who have never known me. Tickets may never be owned by the following people, whether received directly from me, or after my death. Any ticket owner who violates any of the rules below, forfeits any and all rights afforded to ticket owners, whether violations occurs before my death, or after, all inheritance rights are voided, where the inheritance is still being managed through the elected board of directors.

1. Anyone related to me by blood or marriage to a blood relative
2. Any person I have worked with in the past
3. Any person who has been a neighbor within 4 blocks of where I have lived
4. Any person who has business dealings with me or my family
5. Any person who has personal dealings with me
6. Any person convicted of a crime in their lifetime
7. Any person charged with a crime prior to Jan 1, 2006
8. Any person who ever been an substance abuse rehabilitation program
9. Any person who can not pass a drug screen on the day of the funeral
10. Any person who has won a lottery winning of more than $10,000
11. Any person who has gambled at a gaming institution on or after Jan 1, 2000
12. Any person who has owned a business and file bankruptcy for that business
13. Any person who has been in management or on the board of public company and resigned
14. Any person who has not completed high school or received a GED.
15. Any person who does not attend the funeral, or buys the ticket from somebody who didn't attend the funeral.

This means...

If you purchase a ticket from somebody who violated one of the rules above, their ticket is forever void, and of no value to you.

If you attend the funeral, later you violate one of the rules above, your ticket and rights are void, and your ticket has no further rights, or value. You have effectively blown your inheritance.

NOTE: There is some incentive to make sure those fellow heirs adhere to the rules, as any violation by them, increases your share of the the inheritance.

Income Reports

2005-06-27T16:34:00.000-07:00

Income Reports

Income is reported as those accounts I have that are billed on a monthly basis, and advertising revenues.

Monthly billables vary only slightly each month, as new clients sign up, and some old clients leave. They sign up for custom advertising accounts on my website. I have to actually manually add their advertising to my site. These people pay a flat rate to be seen. If they get enough traffic from me, they stay. If they feel they aren't, or they shut down their business, they cancel.
My monthly billables are done through a merchant account, that has a debit card attached to it. My hosting fees are taken off that card, automatically, each month.

Advertising revenues, are that income that comes through automated adservers and automatic affiliate programs, and are directly related to traffic levels. Because traffic is increasing monthly, as I work to promote and grow the business, advertising earnings also increase. The large jumps in income seen below are primarily related to advertising revenues. Those revenues exist without any action on my part. Visitors come to the site, they view ads, they click on ads, they buy. The money is then automatically deposited into my bank account, each month. All I have to really do to earn that money, is keep the website live. That is also done automatically without any action on my part. As you can see, running this business is very easy. You can do it without having to learn much.

Overhead
A brief note about what it is costing to run the business. As of September 9, 2005 it is costing $353 a month to run the business. That does not include merchant account fees. These costs are deducted from the income levels posted below. Part of the cost of operating is a $200 a month fee paid to a contractor who performs some tasks related to site maintenance.

April 30, 2005
Things have gone very well. The business has grown, and that is really something in the middle of the slow season. The income is at the $1956 a month level and growing daily. Long hours have paid off.

May 31, 2005
Income is at the $2210 a month level. Still the slowest season of the year. Site traffic is up 51% compared to April 30.

June 27, 2005
Income is at the $2450 a month level. Still the slowest season of the year. Site traffic is up 53% compared to same day in May.

July 25, 2005
Income is at the $2900 a month level. Still the slowest season of the year. Site traffic is up 56% compared to same day in June.

August 4, 2005
Income is at the $3200 a month level. Still the slowest season of the year. Site traffic is up 74% compared to same day in July. (it was a holiday and traffic was low)

August 7, 2005
Income is at the $3400 a month level. Beginning the transition from the slowest season to peak season. Site traffic is up 25% compared to same day in July. It is up 262% compared to 90 days ago.

August 16, 2005
Income is at the $4520 a month level. Still the slowest season of the year. I'm expecting things to pick up considerably after the U.S. Labor Day. At this rate, I am predicting an income level at peak season of $8000 a month. It will surely come back down in Jan 2006.

September 9, 2005
Income is at the $4930 a month level. Labor Day has come and gone and all the kids are back in school. We had a nice little rally for Back To School. Things are slow and earnings have leveled off. We wait now for cold weather. I don't expect to see any increase until mid November now.

September 15, 2005
Income is at the $5200 a month level. Things are picking up coming into the beginning of peak season, as tempertures begin to cool and the kids are back into school.