Condolences - I know you and your family will continue to have the fond memories of your mom and feel blessed to have had such a highly talented/gifted/educated and terrific mom. She was also ‘lucky’ to have had good health for her age (and I know she took care of herself too) - you are right, it is so merciful to have the end go quickly.
It doesn’t hurt to get multiple ‘originals’ of death certificate. Some will require ‘original’ and then you have them (we had to get more on my dad’s, so we knew to get more with mom’s death). Your sister and you have ‘bases covered’ and glad things are set up for your brother too.
It probably won’t hurt to write down the steps you take on tying up all the loose ends, so you are prepared to leave the information for your wife and children when the time comes - and also if you need to assist any other family members through this process. All your planning and executing with wills/trusts/etc. now is such a relief. I know our family was greatly helped with parents’ trust and having things ‘done’.
So sorry for your loss. It sounds like you and your family did an excellent job supporting your mom’s quality of life these past few years, and are capable of managing these next steps.
Why yes I do get “nervous” when the stock market goes way down now that I’m one year into retirement and husband is retiring this year.
Honestly, I have cash-like savings to get me through years, which is silly, I know, but I still watch and stress.
Do you have a withdrawal plan? Like taking X out per month? If so, just use that and check your accounts weekly to make sure nothing is losing money. You can’t avoid the dips. Do you also get ecstatic when the market goes up? I have a range. As long as my account is in that range, I’m good. I also asked the financial planner to limit loses on any one stock to x% ( an amount we are comfortable with).
The money grows over time but in fits and spurts. The range is a large number. I certainly don’t think of it as oh I made xxx,xxx this month or I lost xxx,xxx. I just think are we heading in the right direction. Of course, I’m a long term holder. I have tech stocks from the early 90s that we never sold. So sitting tight is something that I do normally.
I’m very concerned about inflation lately. Going to do some research on how to protect our assets as I think it’s going to get really bad. Might switch into some real estate. We’re not retired so the tax implications of selling anything would be awful.
