Death is not an easy concept to talk about, especially among your loved ones. After all, why would you even want to talk about death, especially yours, when you are still perfectly healthy and alive? However, as intimidating as it may seem, discussing your plans for your funeral is normal and is a conversation that may be hard but must be encouraged more often.
What is Pre-planning?
Pre-planning is the process of preparing your funeral arrangements ahead of time. It may be quite a long and complex process as you must consider all the relevant major and minor decisions that come with it.
Funeral pre-planning includes the following: your preference for either burial or cremation, the type of funeral service and the location where it will be held, your preference for either public or private viewing, your clothing selection, the music to be played, the person you prefer to say their eulogy, and others.
The benefits of pre-planning
Pre-planning your funeral opens a lot of different advantages for you and your loved ones alike. Thus, below are some of the reasons why you should consider pre-planning your funeral:
Time is in your hands.
Planning your funeral ahead of time gives you a wide range of options, especially since your time to choose isn't as constrained as when planning the funeral of a loved one who recently passed away. You are not obliged to plan all the needed funeral arrangements in just a day or two. Instead, you get to avoid the mistake of making hasty decisions by preparing for these things ahead of time.
You can explore options according to your preferences.
In line with the first advantage, funeral pre-planning also allows you the opportunity to seek and inquire from different companies regarding the services they offer. Thus, you get the freedom to choose and plan for yourself by exploring all the options available and accessible to you.
You can limit your budget.
Not only does pre-planning grant you the privilege to make your funeral as close to what you wanted, but it is also a wise financial decision to invest in, considering that you can choose the services in advance, according to your allotted budget. By pre-planning, you also become aware of just how much money you are willing and can spend for your funeral, therefore, avoiding overspending.
You shoulder the responsibilty of decision-making.
While we are all well aware that our lives will ultimately end one day, we must also admit that none of us is prepared to make the hard decisions for the death and funeral of our loved ones, especially if their passing is unfortunate and sudden. Hence, one advantage of pre-planning is that your loved ones won't have to go through the necessary funeral plans (and heartbreaks) for you if you already had it planned. They would not go through the ordeal of overthinking what you would have wanted because you already have everything prepared.
Although pre-planning may not be a common practice among Filipinos, it is definitely one you would want to consider for yourself and your loved ones.
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