I sat with a widow last year. Her husband passed unexpectedly.
She didn't know any of their passwords. Didn't know which accounts existed. Didn't know where the will was.
She wasn't unprepared because they didn't have money.
She was unprepared because they never had the conversation.
Here's the "in case of death" checklist every couple should build together this weekend:
Do this now - before anything happens:
- update beneficiaries on every account - 401k, IRA, life insurance, brokerage
- add Apple/Google legacy contacts so your spouse can access your phone
- name accounts jointly wherever possible
- set autopay on every credit card and bill
- use a password manager - share access with your spouse today
- keep your will and trust updated - review every 3-5 years or after any major life event
- keep a running list of every account, utility, insurance, landscaping, subscription - anything with a payment or login
If your spouse passes:
- call your financial advisor first - they coordinate most of what comes next
- call your estate planning attorney second
- get at least 10 certified copies of the death certificate - you'll need more than you think
- submit the death certificate to every financial institution, insurer, and government agency
- contact Social Security to report the death and claim any survivor benefit
- for short term cash needs - start with taxable brokerage accounts first, then IRAs, leave 401ks and Roth accounts for last
Keep one document - updated annually - that includes:
- every account and institution with contact info
- every autopayment and what card it's on
- every insurance policy and policy number
- your advisor, attorney, and CPA contact info
- where the will, trust, and important documents are physically located
Print it and/or save it to Google Drive.
The greatest gift you can give your family isn't just building wealth.
It's making sure they can access it when they need it most.
I kept hearing that Pope Leo XIV was “far left,” and for a while I assumed there must be some truth to it.
Then I started actually listening to him.
Not clips. Not political commentary. Not somebody telling me what I was supposed to think about him. His speeches. His words. His teaching.
And I have completely changed my opinion of him.
On immigration, he has acknowledged that a country has the right to control its borders. But he does not stop there. He has also told immigrants that entering another country comes with responsibilities. Learn the language. Respect the laws. Learn the customs. Participate in the life of the community.
That struck me because it is neither “open borders” nor a rejection of the immigrant. It is order and responsibility alongside human dignity.
Then there is abortion.
Pope Leo has been absolutely clear that the right to life begins at conception and continues until natural death. In his encyclical, he specifically named induced abortion and euthanasia among choices the Church considers gravely wrong.
And now, as he prepares to go to France, where abortion has been placed in the constitution and assisted dying has advanced into law, the central theme of his visit is essentially a defense of human life: “That the world may have life.” (AP News)
Then listen to what he tells young people.
Stop being afraid of commitment.
Stop being afraid of your vocation.
Stop being afraid of marriage.
When speaking to hundreds of thousands of young people in Spain, he congratulated couples preparing for marriage and told them plainly: “You don’t have to be afraid to get married and start a family.”
In a culture constantly telling young adults to delay marriage, delay children, chase themselves first and keep every option open forever, hearing the Pope tell young people that marriage and family are something beautiful enough to embrace instead of fear hit me hard. (National Catholic Register)
The more I listen to Pope Leo, the more ridiculous our political labels start to look.
Borders matter.
Laws matter.
The unborn matter.
Migrants matter.
Marriage matters.
Families matter.
Human dignity matters.
None of those things cancel the others out.
That is Catholicism.
I thought I had Pope Leo figured out before I really listened to him.
I was wrong.
And honestly, the more I hear from him, the more I love this Pope.
@jimcramer With respect, you have a great opportunity to influence others. today you said "I swear to God" 🤦♂️
First line of the Lord's prayer is "Hallowed be thy name".....please take a look at Matthew 5:37. thanks!
I would like the Church to be the family of all those left by the roadside. Like the Samaritan who made himself a neighbour to the fallen man, let us not pass by. Let us build a Church that stops, draws near, is moved with compassion, anoints wounds, provides nourishment, and becomes a home.
Today, we witness the suffering of so many broken families, whether because of drug use, violence, the criminal recruitment of a child, poverty, or a lack of opportunities that pushes people to the margins.
This sends a chill up my spine. Smiles and applause while the Democratic Massachusetts governor signs a bill to allow abortions up to birth in her state. This is murder. It’s evil. She calls abortion healthcare for women. The Bible says, “Woe to those who call evil good and good evil” (Isaiah 5:20). This governor and those cheering will one day stand before a Holy God—I don’t think they will be cheering then. https://t.co/7yEC5deoi5
This is what a 34 week old baby looks like outside the womb.
Massachusetts Governor Maura Healey just legalized killing an unborn child at this age. For no reason, just because someone wants to
They call it “reproductive rights” because they refuse to call it what it is: murder
In 1998, Serena and Venus Williams said they could beat any man ranked outside the top 200 in the men's division.
So, little known and 203rd ranked men's player Karsten Braasch took them up on the challenge.
Braasch after a night of drinking and smoking with zero practice, destroyed Serena 6-1 and Venus 6-2 in straight sets.
The Williams sisters are the greatest female athletes of all time. And they barely made Braasch break a sweat.
It wasn't because Braasch was very good. He wasn't.
But, as a male, he possesses biological advantages even the best female athletes can't compete against.
That's the very reason we established women's sports to begin with.
To even the playing field.
That shouldn't be controversial. And you shouldn't need a biology degree to understand it.
Elon Musk just said the one thing about America they made sure you’d never learn.
The one thing that should’ve made you proud, not ashamed.
Musk: “After World War 2, the US could have basically taken over the world and any country. Like we got nukes, nobody else got nukes. We don’t even have to lose soldiers. Which country do you want?”
One nation held a weapon no civilization had ever possessed.
Total monopoly on destruction. No rival. No consequence. No limit.
Every empire in history that held that kind of power did the only thing empires know how to do.
They took until there was nothing left to take.
America had a greater advantage than all of them combined.
And rebuilt the nations it just defeated.
Musk: “The United States actually helped rebuild countries. So it helped rebuild Europe, it helped rebuild Japan. This is very unusual behavior, almost unprecedented.”
Not almost unprecedented.
It had never happened. Not once in 5,000 years of recorded civilization.
The nation with the power to take everything chose to rebuild instead.
Enemies became allies. Rubble became economies. Surrender became partnership.
Germany went from ashes to the economic engine of Europe in a single generation.
Japan went from unconditional surrender to the third largest economy on earth.
Three years after the war, America was flying food into Berlin.
Into the capital of the country that just tried to end the free world.
That decision reshaped every economy, every alliance, and every trade route on the planet.
Billions of people lifted out of poverty over the next half century trace back to one moment. One nation choosing restraint over domination.
No other country in history can make that claim. Not one.
Musk: “There’s always like, well America’s done bad things. Well of course America’s done bad things, but one needs to look at the whole track record.”
Every nation on earth has blood in its history.
But the measure of a nation was never its worst chapter.
It’s what it does when nobody can stop it.
When nobody could stop America, it fed its enemies and rebuilt their cities.
You’re being told every day that this country is something to be ashamed of.
By people who have no idea what the world looks like without it.
Every free market. Every open border for trade. Every democracy that took root outside Europe stands in the shadow of that single decision.
The values that built this country didn’t just shape America.
They shaped the modern world.
AI is about to hand a small number of people a power advantage that makes nuclear monopoly look primitive.
1945 was the first test.
AI is the last.
That power is going to exist. The only question left is who holds it.
The most powerful thing America ever did wasn’t building the bomb.
It was having the power to take everything and choosing not to.
The people trying hardest to tear that story down have never built a single thing worth defending.
According to the #GospelOfToday (Mt 10:37–42), those who hold on to their lives merely for themselves actually lose them, for they do not open themselves to the joy of love and thus become barren. This is why Jesus invites us to embrace the cross. He offered himself, lost himself, and in this very way we were enabled to receive his life in abundance.
If there’s only one thing I want you to remember as someone who actually grew up in Iran, it’s this:
A bully only backs down when he faces a bigger bully.
Trump’s approach is messy, unconventional, and disruptive, but that’s exactly why it has a real chance of working. Because the regime itself is messy, unconventional, and disruptive.
This is not a normal government. It doesn’t play by any rules, and it doesn’t care about looking good or ethical.
Anyone who tries to act diplomatic or “proper” with them has already lost. For the mullahs, diplomacy has always just been a fancy word for lying, deceiving, and hiding their true intentions.
Now they’ve run into someone their old tricks don’t work on. Someone who flips the table whenever he feels like it, who doesn’t care about diplomatic etiquette, and who is completely unpredictable to them.
They can’t outsmart him like they used to. Messing with the lion’s tail this time could cost them dearly, because unlike Obama, Trump actually has his finger on the trigger, and unlike @netanyahu , nothing is holding him back.
Another reason his style seems so chaotic is that the global system and other powers have long benefited from keeping the status quo, a corrupt system that quietly protected the regime. Trump is breaking that old order apart.
For Trump, this whole negotiation and deal-making process is basically a soft war. It’s a deliberate strategy to gradually disarm and weaken the regime piece by piece, at minimum cost.
Even if a deal is reached, he won’t stop, He’ll continue until the regime is so eroded and weak that the Iranian people finally have a fair chance to confront and defeat it themselves.
It won’t happen overnight, but if you look at the direction things are going, the trend is clear.
President Trump knows exactly what he’s doing. He’s not performing for us. He’s taking massive risks with his political capital.
It’s a big gamble, yes, but it doesn’t mean it won’t work. And if one person can actually pull Iran out of this cancer, it’s him. No one else. Trust the man, trust the process.
Every human being is worthy by the mere fact of having been willed, created, and loved by God. There is no situation that causes the Lord to turn His gaze away from us. It is a consoling truth that accompanies us at all times and reminds us that His merciful love always outweighs whatever good or evil we may have done. #ApostolicJourney
https://t.co/W0PUAtuB92
The human heart is not filled by accumulating experiences, possibilities, or temporary guarantees; it is filled when it discovers a call, when it understands that life reaches fullness only if it is given. Following Christ does not impoverish existence, but expands it. #ApostolicJourney