When we are born in this world, we are born with many relations, such as parents, siblings, cousins, uncles, and aunts, etc. We grow up with these relatives, but we inherit all these relations from our parents. Friends and spouse are the two relations we make out of our choices. Friends may indeed be the best species in your life, but the spouse is the one who stands by with you through all thicks and thins of life. The spouse not only gives you courage to handle the pressure situations but also fills your life with the most beautiful moments.
The time you spend with your spouse is priceless and lasts in your memory until your last breath in this perishableworld. As the world is perishable so do the relations;your every relationship will depart to another world eventually.Life becomes extremely tough when the journey of your beloved life partner ends, and he or she leaves you in this world. We know, it’s sensitive to talk on this matter, but unfortunately, this is one of the cruel realities of life which no one can afford to forget.
Life Partner’s Death Brings Extreme Mental Stress
Our dreams get shattered, and we face the cruel reality of life that we can’t share our best moments of life anymore with our life partner, who was the reason for those pleasant moments. The death of spouse may give extreme mental stress to anybody, and its intensity can become life-threatening in some cases. According to a medical study, the people, whose spouse died recently, have shockingly 66% increased chances of dyingin first three months of the demise of their spouse. And these chances are equal in men and women.
Nonetheless, life moves on,and it does not stop for anyone. Wise people always accept reality sooner than others and plan their life accordingly. If you are, unfortunately, going through this tragic moment in your life, we advise you to act wisely and accept reality. Life is another name of challenges, and when you are alone, more problems make their way toward you. You have to brace yourself up for facing these challenges bravely and turn the tides into your favor. We are gathering here some of the things that you may do after the death of your spouse as these solutions would help you to deal with most of the tricky situations and make your life smooth.
- Meet Friends and Relatives
We understand the fate has come hard on you and you are under severe mental stress. However, you need to live with the reality and brave the situation. People usually go into isolation after the death of their spouse and do not want to see their friends and relatives. It may be the suicidal step and would act as a slow poison because loneliness will only increase your mental stress and damage your physical health that may prove fatal in the end.
You have to act otherwise and start meeting the maximum number of people after the death of your spouse. If you were an introvert, you have to turn yourself into an extrovert now and spend time with your friends and relatives more than you used tospend in the life of your spouse.Meeting people and exchanging words with them will help relieve mental stress and divert your attention. You may visit your friends and relatives after office hours or invite them to your home on weekends to spend good quality time. In this way, you may find some pleasant moments,at least, with your friends and family.
- Find a Leisure
You should keep yourself busy after the death of your spouse, so your mind does not often think of the tragic incident happened in your life. You can’t work round the clock,so you have to engage yourself in leisure activities. Professor Matthew Zawadski, a health psychologist, carried out a study and revealed that leisure activities reduce the stress level, improve heart rate, enhance the mood and protect from unhealthy behaviors. This plan will bode well for you because it will exclude the negative energy and put you on track to feel relaxed.
There are so many leisure activities available around you.If you’re able to identify the activities that align with your interest, you should get yourself engaged inthem. You may join a gym or a yoga center, go to walking with your pets, go to watch movies with friends, camping in some hilly area for a couple of days, do social work with an NGO, start writing a blog, and the list goes on. You have to remind yourself daily that life is beautiful and you have to spend it in a quality way.
- Do Financial Planning
One of the foremostchallenges people usually face after the death of a spouse is financial problems. It could be anything other than a shortage of money. Managing different aspects of financials is itself a big task. Financial planning for widows is a crucial step that demands extra caution, wise decisions, and expert opinions to map out the strategy for ably managing different aspects of the financials.
After the departure of your spouse, there comes a significant change in spending and sources of earning. You have to recalculate the monthly expenses carefully, including house rent (if you don’t own a house), utility bills, credit card bills, any bank loan, household expenses, grocery, car fuel, etc. and compare these expenses against the sources of earning you now have. You have to carefully manage all these expenses and keep the right balance between the costs and earnings. In the beginning, it would be difficult, but you have to, somehow, manage it and avoid borrowing that may pose serious difficulty in repayment in the absence of proper financial planning.
- Avail Government Benefits
Usually, the welfare states offer government benefits to the surviving partner in case of the death of a spouse. You have to see whether your state offers the same that may benefit you. There are some benefits in social security for the deceased’s spouse,and you may be eligible for that. Similarly, some states offer lumpsum death benefits, includingpension plans and children’s benefits that you should avail from the government. You need to contact the relevant government departments in your state and present the death certificate to avail all applicable benefits. In difficult times, when you are mentally stressed and unable to focus on your work, these monetary benefits helpin survival and manage urgent expenses.
- Insurance/Pension Benefits from Current and Past Employers
If your spouse was a working individual at the time of death, there must have been group life, individual or accident insurance in his or her name. You should contact the current and past employers your spouse may have worked with and check the available insurance benefits that you may be eligible to avail and claim. Accident benefits depend on the cause of death. The current employer may have some pension plans or lumpsum payment in the employee benefits for the deceased. The past employers may not have cleared all the dues in the name of your spouse,and you may also claim these pending payments in your favor by furnishing the documentary evidence.
- Transfer Assets in Your Name
It may be a long and tedious process, but quite a crucial one. You should transfer the assets of your deceased spouse in your name and change the ownership in the government papers. First, you will have to list down all the assets solely in the name of your spouse and jointly owned by both of you. These assets may include real estate, house, office space, shop, vehicles, business, bank accounts, etc. The conditions of transfers may vary depending upon the nature of the assets, ownership, will of the deceased and some other factors. Transfer on Deathis a lengthy subject that requires assistance of a lawyer and expert opinion to give you the desired benefits enforced by law after the death of your spouse.
By transferring assets in your name, you will become the rightful owner of these assets and will be able to utilize the same as per your will. You may not be able to manage all these assets and decide to sell off some of them,and it is only possible when you are the rightful owner.
Conclusion
Life usually does not go according to our plans and may land us in strange situations. Such sorts of situationonly demandone thing, which is to keep calm and compose and use your brain for planning. Losing spouse is atough situation,and you need to opt for the things you have not done in the past to get out of the shade of this disaster. You should plan and prepare yourself in a way that any challenge you come across may be dealt with tactfully and you have enough financial security to steer you out of the troubled times.
