Leaving A Gift In Your Will - Future Hope: Fill & Download for Free

Let’s play a game.Image source: Timelessmossanite/comWhich one’s the diamond?Can you pick it?Mmmmm hmmm. Very few people can.Several of the stones in that line up aren’t even precious. The sad state of affairs around diamonds is: Diamonds Are Bullshit and a waste of money: The Big Lie About Diamond Engagement Rings. Hell, even if he does spend $5200 on a ring… it's worth less than $2600 as soon as it leaves the shop!Some people like diamond engagement rings for various reasons:It’s ‘proof’ he loves you. Ugh. No, it’s not… it’s proof he bought a diamond ring… and how come only one person has to prove it with a diamond? What does he get? If a diamond ring is requested with an expectation of a certain value, it’s not a gift → It’s a demand. It turns any potential giving and receiving into a transaction… If he decides he wants to spend his money on a ring, let him make that call as to how much. Besides, you don’t actually need a diamond to get engaged.“It’s an investment” → Nah. Investments MAKE money whereas diamond engagement rings are an expense given their immediate loss of value and intrinsic worthlessness.“I can look at the ring and remember he loves me” → ask all the women who have partner-gifted shiny sh!t whether it’s the sparklies that make you remember or what your partner does to make you feel loved. Even having a safe full of shiny baubles didn’t change anything.Keeping up with Joneses… You’d be surprised at how many people wear fake jewels.[1][2]Seriously - it’s a fricking rock made to appear like it’s worth money by even more spectacular marketing.Personally I think asking a potential future partner to spend $.XX on your engagement ring seems to be kinda dipping your hand in his pocket. It’s not a gift anymore… it’s become a price tag. What happens if he says he doesn’t want to spend $5200 on a ring?If you do get married, you’ve also got some major expenses coming up, like the wedding and some sort of marital abode (unless you’re moving in with his parents?). That $5200 could go a decent way when it comes to reducing the amount you’d need to borrow to purchase a house or investing in your shared life together. Heck, if you just repeatedly placed $5200 in a term deposit with decent interest… you’ll double your money(ish) and can afford a larger shiny bauble when you’re a debt-free self-sufficient and financially secure couple.Or, if you really really really want a diamond → you could buy it yourself.I think, if you love someone, you’d accept a stainless steel ring if he offered it to you honestly, along with his heart. Let him decide how much he wants to spend or offer to go half on the ring, in which case, you get to have some input on the value when you decide how much to spend as a couple.Whatever happens, I hope it goes well for you both. All the best for your future happiness.Footnotes[1] Why society ladies are spending thousands on fake jewels[2] Why Rich Women Wear Fake Diamonds

In Romania, the guests pay for the wedding.Here, wedding gifts (objects) are usually symbolic and the substantial part of the gift is actually a sum of money. Therefore, weddings are not events on which the wedded couple spend money on, but earn money from. This is when being popular is a great asset because the more people you invite, the more money you make.I know this sounds rather strange for foreigners and I have had this conversation with people who were outraged that they would be expected to pay for someone’s event. Here are the questions I was asked:Why should a guest pay to attend someone’s event?The philosophy behind this tradition is that the guests contribute to the future the couple is going to build together as opposed to the mentality in other countries where the couple treat their guests as a way of celebrating their event.Still, it’s their event. Why should I pay? Shouldn’t they be the ones treating me?Because you love them. Therefore you would be happy to help some people you love start their new lives together. Or at least, Romanians are. We (and Balkan people in general) are generous and most are happy to contribute to the well-being of their loved ones, this practice isn’t seen as a burden. As for being treated, a wedding is not a charity meal. You don’t go there to eat for free.But I don’t love them. I’m just fulfilling the social obligation of attending my colleague’s wedding.Then you don’t attend. Declining an invitation is perfectly acceptable and nobody gets upset if you do, and actually saying you can’t afford it at the moment because you have other financial obligations is a perfectly good reason that everyone will understand.So how much do people pay?It depends on how close you are to the couple. Usually you asses how much a menu would cost per person in the venue they’ve chosen. If it’s let’s say, 100 euros, a regular guest (like a work colleague) would pay 200 euros. A family member would pay more (500–1k), with parents and godparents* paying the most (usually 5–10k).*we have godparents for weddings too, not just christenings. They’re supposed to be a couple that have been married for decades and could guide the newlyweds through their new life and the challenges they may encounter. Nowadays (unfortunately) most pick their best friends though, who are of the same age as them so the godparents practice has lost a bit of its meaning. People are very happy to be chosen, even though they have to pay a lot.What if I’ve got 5 friends getting married in the same month?You’ll find out that being popular in Romania is costly.What if I want to attend but really can’t afford it?You do. People are considerate of special cases, don’t think many expect their 92 year-old grandma to come up with 1000 euros. However, most likely that grandma has been raising the money for her beloved grandson’s wedding since he was born and is very happy to contribute.Is there a ticketing booth? You pay at the entrance?Haha, no. There’s a gift box that looks like this. You leave the sum in an envelope with a card.What if someone “forgets” to put money in the gift box and they just enjoy the party for free?Well, no one will ever know. Hope you enjoyed your free food, you cad!But since the money is raised AT the reception, they do need to have money to pay for the reception in the first place, right?No, they pay for it after the wedding. Everything is provided free of charge and they get billed after. It’s the custom here.How much money do they make?As I said before, it depends on how many guests they have and on their spending potential as well, of course. From what I’ve seen, any mid-level family can afford to buy a new car or pay an advance on a mortgage from that sum. The most I’ve ever seen raised was 100k euros (this is not mid-level, before you jump at me in the comments). Some with limited means would just make enough to cover the cost of the wedding and maybe the honeymoon. I have heard of horror stories where they didn’t raise enough to cover the cost and the bride was left crying with the restaurant staff not knowing what to do - don’t know if I actually believe these urban legends.How does it get taxed?It doesn’t. The MPs have long been trying to come up with a law to try and tax wedding gifts but with no success so far.I think this tradition is the reason why there hasn’t been a decline in the number of couples getting married in Romania as it has in many other countries.So now you know, if you can’t afford to pay for your wedding, marry a Romanian! That, and because we make great sarmale.

Because what would you do if you say , won the lottery and got $200 mil? Buy a mansion,get a few butlers… travel the world and get drunk in every pub ever? Then buy a yacht and an island somewhere and live out your days sipping cocktails?Well Elon had this choice after selling paypal. But decided something else… he asked what can I do to better humankind with my fortune instead of just spending it all on me.He then invested in Tesla and pretty much almost lost everything to restart the idea of the electric car and through that choice saved millions of tonnes of CO2 being ejected into our atmosphere. Very few people can say they had such a positive effect on the world.His other companies like SpaceX and Solar City and ideas such as the Hyperloop makes the world exciting again and makes me look at the future and think at least someone is doing something to help stop global warming. Even if he is just one man, he is like Luke Skywalker to the people who love him so much… he brings hope to a Generation who feels that their elders have sold the planet for profit.We might not feel the change that Elon has brought us now… but the gift he gave in betting his fortune, is that one day we will all look back and say that one man stood up and put his balls and his wallet on the line. One day all will say that Elon started the energy revolution and he will be remembered in the same light as legends such as Newton…If you can’t see that, then you must look at your own role models and ask, “Is this man doing what he is doing just to enrich himself, get power, leave a legacy? Or is he truly trying to make the world better for everyone?”