The cost barrier

Cost is the first reason people give for not signing up, and it is usually the least examined one. The membership fee is only one part of the price. The preservation itself is a separate amount, normally funded through life insurance, so what you can afford depends on your age, health and the funding route you choose, not on a single headline number. This topic exists to make the real cost legible: what you pay now, what is paid later and by whom, and which funding paths hold up over decades. The goal is to let you judge affordability against your actual situation, including a low or irregular income, instead of ruling yourself out on an assumption.