What’s included in Funeral Costs?

Funeral costs are one thing, that if left unchecked or decided upon with less than a calm, clear head, can sky-rocket into an unforeseen expense at a very untimely moment. The number one problem with funeral costs is the time at which the costs are decided. Most funerals are decided during a time of grief. In order to assuage this grief, many individuals decide to throw a lavish funeral. This escalates as things such as rental of funeral home, picking out burial plot, cost of a casket, and the cost of celebration or wake afterwards are all brought into perspective. Nowadays, thankfully, last will and testaments, and the common acknowledgement of death’s impartiality, funeral costs are being brought up with the individual prior to death leaving simply the arrangements to be taken care of instead of the checks to be signed.

One funeral costs that has been debated over the years is the cost of the funeral casket. A funeral casket in it’s most base terms is a box in which the individual is placed to be buried. These, as one may assume, can go from simple and plain to very elaborate. In some cases the family of the departed can get caught up in providing a very elaborate box for the departed. As, of course, this is a personal decision and some people may, of sound mind, choose this route, others can easily get caught up in overspending in order to keep status or save face at the funeral itself. The best solution to this funeral cost may be the renting of a nice casket for the ceremony, then the family may choose a less expensive but no less suitable coffin for the burial.

FUNERAL PLANNING GUIDE: What everyone needs to know about funeral arrangements. This complete guide to saving money on funeral expenses is available for instant PDF download with a bonus funeral planning checklist.

Another expense, depending on your religion can be the incurred costs of hiring priest. Many Hindus believe that a Brahmin, or a holy man of education, is the only one who is capable of seeing a dead person into the next life. Brahmins are part of the upper caste in India and therefore thought of as not only capable but also intelligent enough to understand the wishes of the Gods. To Indians, a Brahmin can be a costs they do not wish to do without. In other religions the church and the ceremony itself can be an expensive funeral cost.

Many decisions on funeral costs come to depend on ones faith as much as one’s ability to pay. A strong religious believe may many times cause the individual to forgo what might otherwise be considered common sense and spend an outrageous amount of money on securing the passage of the person into the next life or into what can be perceived as a final resting place.

Whatever may be the case, funeral cost can and will get out of hand on many occasion because the individual paying for the event is many times under severe emotional distress. This state is never conducive to properly dispensing with ones’ hard earned money. It is better, if possible, in the case of funeral costs to have an open discussion with the soon to be departed and come to terms on what might be spent in their name. If this is not possible then a prudent and wise family member may need to be in attendance so that payment does not become something in which the family members still on earth, spend the rest of their lives attempting to pay back.