What Matters Most: The Get Your Sh*t Together Guide to Wills, Money, Insurance, and Life's "What-ifs"

by Chanel Reynolds

Overview

Founder of popular website Get Your Shit Together blends personal story and must-have advice in the ultimate guide to getting your affairs in order—from wills and advance directives to insurance, finances, and relationships—before the unthinkable happens.

On July 17, 2009, Chanel Reynolds’ husband, José, was struck by a car while cycling near their home in Seattle. In the wake of her husband’s untimely death, Reynolds quickly realized that she was completely unprepared for what came next. What was the password to his phone? Did they sign their wills? How much insurance did they have? Could she afford the house? And what the hell was probate anyway? Simply put, when life went sideways she didn’t have her shit together.

As it turns out, most of us don’t either. We’re too busy, in denial, overwhelmed by too much information, uncertain where to start, or just uncomfortable having those difficult conversations.

Reynolds learned the hard way that hoping for the best is not a plan, but you don’t have to. Drawing on her first-hand experience, expert advice, and the unparalleled resources she’s compiled for her celebrated website, Reynolds lends a human voice to a warren of checklists and forms and emotional confusion, showing readers how to:

Create a will and living willUpdate (or finally get) the right life insurance policyStart or grow an emergency fundMake a watertight emergency planKeep secure, up-to-date records of personal information

Authoritative yet personal, grounded but irreverent, Reynolds’ voice carries readers through a tough subject with candor and compassion. Weaving personal story with hard-won wisdom, What Matters Most is the approachable, no-nonsense handbook we all need to living a life free of worry and "what ifs."

Supplemental enhancement PDF accompanies the audiobook.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781982610708
Publisher:	HarperCollins Publishers
Publication date:	03/19/2019
Edition description:	Unabridged
Product dimensions:	5.30(w) x 7.50(h) x (d)

About the Author

Erin Bennett is an Earphones Award-winning narrator and a stage actress who played Carlie Roberts in the BBC radio drama Torchwood: Submission. She can be heard on several video games. Regional theater appearances include the Intiman, Pasadena Playhouse, Arizona Theatre Company, A Noise Within, Laguna Playhouse, and the Getty Villa. She trained at Boston University and the London Academy of Music and Dramatic Art.

Chanel Reynolds is the founder of the internationally praised website GetYourShitTogether.org, inspiring and motivating millions of people worldwide with the jumpstart they need to prepare for life’s curveballs. She is also the founding Managing Director of WorldChanging.com and has used her digital expertise consulting for clients such as Nike, Samsung, Microsoft, and Starbucks. Reynolds uses her uncanny ability to talk about the hard things at speaking events and conferences all of the world. She lives in Seattle and spends her free time exploring all the city has to offer with her son and stepdaughter.

Table of Contents

A Note to the Reader xi

Introduction 1

Part I Before

Life Goes Sideways 15

Guide: When Life Goes Sideways 31

Waiting for the Dice to Roll 37

Guide: When the Shit Hits the Fan 59

Family Meeting 67

The Last Day 81

Reentry Protocols 85

Guide: Quality of Life, Death, and Dying 91

Tell the Truth; Not Too Much 99

Found and Lost 105

Part II After

Aftershocks 109

Meridians 115

The Celebration-of-Life Memorial-Funeral-Ceremony-Service 125

Guide: After Death 133

Strangers in a Strange Land 141

Border Crossing 151

Death by a Thousand Paper Cuts 153

Guide: The Tangled Web We Leave 161

1 Essentials 165

2 Insurance 177

3 Money 196

4 Legal 208

Practice Makes Progress 225

The New Normal(ish) 233

Drink, Fuck, Run 243

Missed Connections 251

Part III Always

The Overview Effect 255

What Would Cher Do? 261

Guide: What Makes a Difference 267

Message in a Bottle 275

Where's the Bear? 281

Guide: What Matters Most 287

A Small Series of Losses 297

Departure 301

Jump 303

Afterword: Finding Shore 305

The Guidebook 309

Acknowledgments 315

Notes 317

Index 323

Editorial Reviews

Reynolds’ story, told from the trenches of life, is powerful and wise. Her message—sort out your finances and get your end-of-life wishes in order before it’s too late—offers readers a generous opportunity to learn from her experiences and be more fully prepared.

Shelf Awareness

If anything will make you finally write a will, get life insurance, make a folder with all your passwords, or write letters to your loved ones, this remarkable book is it.

CrossCut (Seattle)

Grief is a monster better confronted without a legal, financial and logistical mess left behind; Chanel’s wisdom is a gift to all future dead people wanting to lift some of the burden of loss off their surviving loved ones. What Matters Most offers you the chance to consider, and find, those critical answers.

Rebecca Soffer

Chanel Reynolds took her own unthinkable tragedy and turned it into a rallying cry for us all to get our sh*t together before it’s too late. In What Matters Most, she is your funny, irreverent friend, who’s here to show you tough love. The time for death denial and keeping your head in the sand is over.

Caitlin Doughty

How strange to have been so conscious about money in life but lax about where it all goes when I die. I’ve bought my green burial plot, picked who will bury me, but had I written my will? Well yes, many times, but never completed any of them. That stopped the day I read Chanel’s book. How free I feel to have these tasks done.

Vicki Robin

There’s little point in worrying about a future death, but simple acts of planning can relieve your worries, protect and prepare you for what lies ahead, and give you a calmer and more peaceful today. These preparations are not only pragmatic acts, but sacred gifts to our future selves and to those we love who will survive us. What Matters Most is a reassuring, step-by-step guide to a better future in the midst of grief and loss.

Katy Butler