How much will a funeral cost in 30 years?
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Have you ever thought about how much your funeral or cremation might be? Unless you’re facing end-of-life circumstances, the answer is probably “no”.
But regardless of where you are in life, finding out how much your funeral or cremation might cost is something you should do. Average funeral costs are very important and often prove to be a major expense to families. While cremation costs are often lower than burial costs, they’re still expensive.
Let’s say you die in 30 years. What will the estimated cremation or funeral expenses be in 2050? How would the combined funeral and burial costs compare to the cost of cremation?
The answers might surprise you.
HOW INFLATION RATES WILL AFFECT FINAL EXPENSES IN THE FUTURE
Right now, the average cost of a funeral is $8,000-$12,000. According to Inflation Data, the annual inflation rate has been an average of 3.43% annually since 1913. Based on data from EE Broker, this means that the average cost of a funeral in 2050 will be $30,900-$38,400, depending on inflation.
Let’s compare that cost estimation for a funeral to the projected cost of cremation in 2050. Data from AARP indicates that the current average cost of cremation services in the United States is approximately $3,300. Using this same inflation rate of 3.43%, the projected cremation costs in 2050 will be around $8,770.
When you take budget into consideration when deciding on burial or cremation, it’s easier to see that cremation is the more cost-effective choice. When you include all the added extras that come with funeral arrangements, such as the grave marker, burial plot, and general funeral services, the price difference between a burial and a cremation are even more drastic.
READ ABOUT THE COST FOR CREMATION DIAMONDS HERE >>
CREMATION PROVIDES MANY OPTIONS FOR REMEMBERING A LOVED ONE
The combined price of a funeral and burial costs more than double the price of a cremation. This is true today and will continue to be true for the foreseeable future.
Not only is it easier to cover the cost of a cremation in comparison to a burial, it also provides grieving family members many more ways to remember and honor their loved one.
Cultural practices often influence the way the cremains, or ashes of the deceased, are handled. But this isn’t always true. Sometimes family members choose to celebrate the life of the one they lost in a unique way that’s significant to their loved one.
Here are just some of the things people do with cremated remains:
- Keep the ashes in an urn to display in their home or office. A typical urn looks like a wooden box or a vase. But personalized urns can be made as a physical representation of the deceased, made using 3D technology and facial-recognition software.
- Scatter the cremated ashes in a place that the dearly departed frequently visited or cherished. This could be in a certain garden, mountains, river, ocean, or a specific destination indicated by their loved one before they died.
- Turn ashes to diamonds. It can cost as little as $700 to turn someone’s ashes into diamonds. When you consider the amount of money you save by choosing a cremation instead of a burial, budgeting for a unique keepsake should be fairly easy.
- Bury the ashes and have a graver marker, just like you would in a traditional gravesite. Instead of in a cemetery, you can bury the ashes in the garden or yard of a family member.
- Store the ashes in a columbarium. This is essentially a building with niches in the walls to hold the urns.
- Plant the ashes together with a tree. This is a great way to have your deceased family member live on in another form.
- Turn a loved one into a genuine work of art by mixing their ashes with paint that is then used to paint a portrait of the deceased.
- Transform the ashes into music by having them turned into a vinyl record. Family members can choose the music to be put onto the record and the photos or images to be used on the album cover.
- Have the ashes turned into an hourglass. While these hourglasses cannot be used to keep exact time due to the consistency of cremated remains, they can be passed on from generation to generation and serve as a symbol of the passage of time.
LOWER COST OF CREMATION PROVIDES MORE OPTIONS FOR FAMILIES
When you analyze the cost of cremation and the cost of a funeral with burial, you can see that a cremation is a much more affordable means of after-life care than choosing a burial in the funeral industry.
Families can find they don’t have to suffer through a financial burden by choosing a cremation over a burial. Instead, some often discover there is some extra money leftover by forgoing the services of a funeral home.
The amount of money left over is usually enough to pay for memorial diamonds or another type of keepsake that will last for years, long after the funeral service is over. Read more about cheap diamonds here.
PLANNING AHEAD FOR YOUR FINAL ARRANGEMENTS
Final expenses following your death, or the death of one of your loved ones, will only get more expensive in the years to come. In fact, the Cremation of North America recently Tweeted:
“Did you know that in the past 15 years, the US cremation rate has nearly doubled?” - via @CANA
Keeping this cost increase in mind, it only makes sense to start making a plan or arrangements now.