A Will? Good idea, but for what?

It is quite funny how sometime you can overlook such blatantly obvious things whilst getting caught up in an idea.

After joining new work Union with my new job and one of the benefits was to give a free Will service for members with a firm of solicitors that they work with. Great, was the thought that went through my head, I had been meaning to do this for years but never been in a position to have disposable income to throw at the idea. Also, because I had a serious cycle accident, this provoked the thought of getting it done before I get killed!

So, it was with an eager pen I wrote to the solicitors to get the process started. The letter of application was send a few weeks ago and to be quite honest I had forgotten about it until a letter arrive yesterday. (This one wasn't stolen form the communal letterbox this time!)

I was tired from work but forced myself to get the application completed and sent off; one less job to later on was the thought.

As the first part was completed with formal stuff like name address, union membership number etc., it came to the section as to what I was to leave. Now it may seem strange to think that this was something that had been completely overlooked. I suddenly looked at my assets and felt quite shocked from the fact that I had nothing! No property, no savings, no car, no jewelery, not even any furniture I own. I used to have a bicycle a few weeks ago, but that was written off with my accident and worth nothing now. All I could leave to anyone was my clothing and that wouldn't even cover my funeral bill! After further thought I discovered that the most valuable thing I owned was my prescription glasses.

It was a very long time of thinking and coning to terms with what was state of fact that I realised that there was no point in a Will if there was nothing to leave anyone. And that wasn't about to change either. At 57 years old I wondered and tried to work out how could this be at my age? 

At least I get a state pension at 66 years old, but unfortunately that can't be put in a Will! 

How could I have ever overlooked such an obvious element to the point of making a Will?

Poverty Trap in Bulgaria

Having been living in Bulgaria for quite a few years now it has become more and more apparent that lack of money and high inflation are big problems for most people in Bulgaria. My family here are no exception. Even with our increasing poverty, the bandwagon of western influence hits hard on the weakness of materialism and greed. Everyday Bulgaria is being bombarded with adverts for new cars, fast food and numerous credit options to take to pay for these. It is a vicious spiral of temptation and a constant fight for many Bulgarians to feel that they have to have many things that aren’t commensurate to their income. It is a sick feeling I get when watching and experiencing this as my family here are glued to all the influence of advertising with a wish list of most things that are thrown at them.

Just to put this in perspective, our income as a family here is just enough to put our heads above water. Galia earns £140 a month and Baba’s pension comes to just over £60 a month. That’s £50 a week to live on,before I became part of the family and Galia didn’t have any work. They just lived on just that measly pension. Without my contribution from my small savings brought here (and that won’t last long as things are) the family would suffer intolerable poverty and stress. How many other families are in this poverty trap with inflation running as around 25% in real terms? Wages and pensions never keep up with inflation here so it just gets worse month after month.

A quick word about inflation here: We all know how much things have gone up in price here. We see the 30% increase in gas and electric over the last six months, we see the cost of homes rising at over 20% + per annum and we see the cost of food shoot up, even in the height of the growing season! No matter what Bulgarian politicians and manipulative economists conjure up as the rate of inflation, the people of Bulgaria living on a day-to-day basis here, know the what the real inflation rate is

Now it’s not just being lured into paying for luxury goods by credit as it now becomes a ‘normal’ way of funding, but having to pay for essentials by credit is becoming more common. Credit is now here to stay in Bulgaria, this wasn’t the case a few years ago.

It really is so difficult to forecast where this will end. There is no sign of a pot of gold at the end of the rainbow here but just a case of trying to avoid the hell of running up credit. I can see many in the future here, many mortgaging their homes to fund day-to-day living. Looking even further ahead, many more will lose their properties to the banks and the next generation will not inherit their rightful homes causing more credit and mortgage runs.

The only advantage Bulgarians have over this wave of western materialistic virus is their in-built system of surviving through poverty using effective practicalities to combat this. This time however Bulgarians are not just against simple poverty of basic needs, but a danger of succumbing American culture and ways. In case you didn’t know, this is where it all the advertising comes from. There just isn’t the infrastructure in Bulgaria to live this way and they are taking advantage of a country whose population are easily led through the media looking glass.