AARP Bulletin - September 2010

; Your Money Save a Buck
TREE, CORBIS; SIGN, THOMAS COLLINS/GETTY IMAGES; GRASS, AGE FOTOSTOCK
Here’s one way to trim burial costs. Instead of buying a plot directly from a cemetery, consider the resale market, where brokers buy and sell unused plots or bring to- gether sellers and buyers who then make their own deals. You can save half what a cemetery would charge, according to Ken Brant of the broker website Gravesolutions .com. Find similar sites by typing “Burial
Plot Brokers” into your search engine—
but be sure to research any company you
see to be certain it’s legit. Robert Fells of
the International Cemetery, Cremation
and Funeral Association cautions poten-
tial buyers to make sure that a cemetery
allows resales and that the seller is the
plot’s legal owner. Buyers need to confirm
whether the price includes such things as
burial, headstone and future care of the
grave. —Joan Heilman

; Shop for a Plot

September is a good time to buy trees,
shrubs and other plants because many
nurseries offer discounts to clear out stock
before winter. Plus, with strategic planting,
In cold weather, a row of ev-
ergreens or low-crown shrubs
planted as a windbreak can cut heating costs as much as 30
percent. Distance from the house should be two to five times the
plants’ mature height. Bushes and shrubs placed one to three feet
from your house will act as insulation.

A six-foot sapling begins shading windows right away, lowering cooling costs in summer. Trees tall enough to shade the roof are big cost savers—the U.S. Forest Service estimates that three 25-foot- ers shading an energy-efficient house in the Southwest can reduce summer cooling costs by about 25 percent. You also can save by planting shrubs to shade your air-conditioning unit.