What About Your Online Life? Things to Ponder Now

Plan to Protect Your Online Life
Just like many other people I have one of those toolbar add ons added to my internet browser. Nine times out of ten there is one similarity day after day- people love make money online stuff. Who can blame them, having a successful endeavor that can allow you freedom without leaving you destitute is a great thing to have or to aspire to have.

What I wonder when I see how popular these things are is whether or not people consider how connected to the internet so many of us are? We read the news, socialize, pay our bills, store our photos, research our schoolwork and try to further our career all right here in the same place together every day. Every day there is someone doing exactly what I am doing now, blogging and reaching out to people.


But What Does That Mean For Your Loved Ones Once Your Gone?

Many people may feel like death is far away from them and for many it may be, but it is the factor of the unknown for which we should plan. In planning we protect our work and our loved ones and without planning we leave them to navigate tricky if not heartbreaking waters.


You just never know. A month ago I was perfectly fine- young and healthy- and then recently I found I had a liver tumor. Granted at this point after a month of testing it looks to be benign- but I can tell you within this last month it occurred to me just how inadequate I had planned to protect my family in my absence. It was a huge stress to me while I was awaiting all the testing and results. It just isn't utilizing My Digital Afterlife for personal connection which is one small piece of the puzzle- it is life insurance and connecting the dots for people who have no idea about the myriad details in my life. Including my online life.

The most important people in my life are the ones I want to decide what to do with my accounts. Do I want my accounts memorialized, do I want someone to close out my blogs etc? These are areas I have to discuss with my partner and setup to be taken care of in My Digital Afterlife account and as soon as humanly possible I am setting up life insurance and seeing a lawyer. It may seem like bad ju ju or whatever but honestly after going through what I went through I would rather be safe than sorry.

If your still wondering what could possibly go wrong with seemingly unimportant aspects of your life, I urge you to read some of these articles that chronicle the varying experiences of online lives after death both positive and heart wrenching.

• Facebook After Death
  

• Haunted By Real Life on the Internet                                                                                                                                                                                           
• Yahoo will give family slain Marine's e-mail account

You can take one simple step today that can solve problems later.It really is never too early.

Sign up now and take a small step towards protecting your loved ones. 

Military Families-Thinking About A Digital Inheritance

Military Families- Securing Digital Details 

When we were testing out the idea of our site, one group of people we felt like it was really important to speak to were people who were at some point-either currently or in the past- serving as a deployed soldier. Everyone has a friend or relative who puts their lives on the line serving our country so the difficulty of having a loved far away from home is something near and dear for so many of us. At our company we have both friends and relatives who serve in different branches of our country's defense so this is an issue we are familiar with as well. We researched it even further by making it a point to speak to other military people who we didn't know as well.

My Digital Afterlife is designed to be versatile enough to use long term like a personal journal or short term to store details that someone close to you made need. Each account is designed to be utilized in whichever way the member chooses- so if you wish to leave a couple of details for a loved one about online accounts you can or if you wish to add more you can do that too.

Options Geared Toward Active Military

Easy Membership Plans for Long Term or Short Term Use

The reason why I even discuss this is that My Digital Afterlife chose it's pricing structure specifically to give flexibility to you if you are deployed or looking to use the account short term. You may choose to use the service temporarily while you are away at little or no cost and you can ensure that precious details about your online and personal lives can be found by family or friends.

Different Pricing for Different Needs

The membership plans are monthly and quarterly and if you cancel your acccount with the first 90 days it is free. After the 90 days you can cancel at anytime and we can delete your account for you. Your account is always private and no one in administration can see any of your private personal items within your account- those are for you and your recipients only. In the future we hope to add even more membership plans and offer even more flexibility to new and present members.

All membership fees go to maintaining the site and keeping security updated in order to protect our members and we continue to look at ways to evolve the site to be more user friendly and offer more helpful services.

Military Discount

Right now we are offering a special discount just for military families which reduces the cost of any plan by $3.00 - MILI03- good until 3/31/11 and it locks in the lower pricing on your membership indefinitely.

If you can think of any functions you might like to see added to the site in the future, please email me- Meghan Ryan,  Manager of Operations- meghanr@mydigitalafterlife.com.

New Year Resolution- Write Down Your Story

As with all New Years this one brings with it a renewed sense of passion to do all the things I have been meaning to do. I try throughout the year to relish in my completed goals and renew my zeal for those yet to be finished but there is something about the change of year that really brings home the value of having goals and reaching them.

I wouldn't usually make a suggestion as far as others resolution  but this year I decided to share one of mine and ask you to consider it too. This year I am going to write a story for my children about myself. I am hoping you might join me in this goal, and if you come across a story that really means something to you please email me for the blog if you are willing to share- meghanr@mydigitalafterlife.com.

We all have a story and all of our stories are valuable even if it may not seem so sometimes. I truly believe in this. As generations before us have come together by sharing their life stories so can we continue to come together in this life by sharing with each other the moving and invaluable experiences we have experienced. In the coming weeks as I consider my own life and my family I will decide on a story to share with you as well, after all it is only fair.

Best of luck on all of your endeavors and a Happy New Year!

Can You Plan for Death? Yes and No

Can you plan for death? You will never be able to know when the day will come but yes you can definitely plan for it. Over time you'll notice a lot of references to our site My Digital Afterlife , so in case you are wondering who exactly we are and what do we do, this post is for you.

First thing first.

What do we do?
Your My Digital Afterlife account can  upload pictures, video, and documents which can be attached to letters and assigned to anyone. They will receive it upon your death, if they choose, and they can keep their page with everything you give them for a long as they like. Leave letters that tells what you know of your past, your history, or anything you choose to write about. Choose the asset section that allows you to leave informational assets such as social media accounts, email, contact information, etc.  

Who are we?
Our site is a catalyst where your future and past meet and can be preserved they way you like for whomever you like. We can be used for specific situations or just because. My Digital Afterlife was developed to ensure that anything you have to say that can in any way aid in the comfort of those you love, can be said and delivered to your recipient when they need it most.

We are a company born from people just like you, with jobs, families, and a story. You can be a father, a mother, a soldier , a friend, someone's child, you can be anyone and you can leave something for everyone.

Our site is designed to be easy to use, secure, and private giving you unlimited storage and recipients, no matter what plan you choose. Know what your getting with four tutorial videos that show you a glimpse of each aspect of what your account does, starting with registration and ending with the recipients pages. 

Thinking about what will happen when I no longer with my children motivates me to find ways to make it easier on them.

For me,  I wanted to know that my children and husband will each a receive a letter when I die that will spell out for them just what they mean to me. If they are old enough I will assign it to them personally and if they aren't I will send them all to my husband for them to have. I hope that it will be something that they can keep so that when I am not with them they will have a piece of me to carry with them. I want them to know they are loved more than anything.

I will also tell my children what I know about my family- where they came from and what became of them. I will also leave letters for my few closest friends as well and all the account information I have for my spouse.

Naming your lawyer as a recipient and providing any information that is constantly changing that they will require in the account for them, will save you from billable hours everytime you reset your password. With My Digital Afterlife a recipient of your choosing can receive all of your social media and email accounts with instructions for what you like to happen to them.

Receiving letters or notes personal value will be no less important to your family and friend than having a will. No amount of words will cure the grief but I believe wholeheartedly it will help. Have the peace of mind in knowing that those you love know always know how much you love them.  

3 Reasons Why Ancestry is Important to the Future

Ancestry is defined as one's lineage or descent, it is your own unique and personal history defined by your family and their stories. Who, What, When, Where, and Why.

When I was younger and before I had children I rarely ever thought of who my grandparents were, who their parents were, or even how we came to be in the United States. The older I became the more I thought about it and the more important history became to me. I found myself thinking about how easy it is to become so hyper-focused on the day to day details that we forgot that life is our story and that story is intertwined with that of our ancestors.

Not that long ago my aunt at decided she wanted to research our family ancestry going so far as to travel to the country our family originally came from, Scotland.  The details she gleaned about my family, their story and their presence over the course of time really gave me more of a sense of myself. I found myself thinking more about the big picture and valuing time a little bit more than I had before.

Ancestry is a personal journey and so the reasons why people are interested in their ancestry or that of others can be varied, but if you allow me I would like to share with you why I think ancestry is so important to the future.

1. Learning-On a broader basis history continually shapes who we are, what we will and can become. The history of our family, our country, our world, our choices, and their outcomes all effect our ability to move forward into the future positively and productively. It is from history we get our research and understanding and from this innovation is born. By providing our story we deliver a greater understanding of our history and ancestry to our future generations.

2. Innovation- innovation is defined as making a change or doing something new, with our past we are able to discern new paths.

3. Personal Connection- personal connection is where our humanity lies and in humanity is our ability to positively effect our world, our selves, and our loved ones. Even with the expansion of our abilities as we innovate- especially in the digital arena- our true strength lies in our humanity.

As a company ancestry is one of the aspects we would like to contribute to for our users. We consistently strive to be able to benefit our users and their recipients in ways that foster our personal connection which we believe can contribute to innovation and learning in the future.

We would love to hear your thoughts on ancestry and the future.

Preserve Your History with a Digital Time Capsule

Over the last few years with advancement of the internet we have seen interest in ancestry and history take a new turn- think Ancestry.com for example. Availability of information through utilization of the internet has provided people with new outlets and sources to search for their family's heritage.

One of the newest aspects of this field has seen companies develop recently. These companies provide a way for us to preserve our ancestry, our history for our future generations more readily than our ancestors were able to in the past.

What does this mean for our families and loved ones in their future?

For more information on preserving you ancestry or just insuring your loved ones have everything they need in the future sign up for or service 30 days risk free. www.mydigitalafterlife.com