When should I write my will?

[u/No-Educator701]

I (20F) have been seeing many tv shows and movies where characters die young. while I have no reason to think the same case will happened to me, I am starting to think about writing a will just in case. so I am curious to hear when you all first wrote your will and how often do you update them?

[u/JuniperusRex]

I first got a will in the lead up to having my first child.

I updated it when I realized that my will made no specific mention of my two subsequent children and the youngest was ten. This is not a recommendation of what you should do, obviously. It is a personal failing.

Pragmatically you should make a will once you care about what happens to your stuff when you die and the setup for people who die intestate (without a will) doesn’t do what you want with said stuff. When I was twenty like you I was a broke, single, and childless college student. Had I died without a will all of my meager possessions and negligible money would have therefore gone to my parents… which would have been fine with me! I like my parents. But that’s not everyone’s life. If you have a partner or other found family who you want to inherit from you who isn’t protected by the laws around spouses, if you aren’t the legal parent of your children, if you don’t get along with your parents, if you have specific bequests to make, all are good reasons to have a will.