A thread sprung up here about self-funding your cryonics arrangements. This has important enough practical implications for cryonicists that I am responding to it at the top level.

In addition to my original arguments that most individuals should not self-fund...

• No one is contractually obligated to pay for your suspension if your own "low risk" investments tank.

• Unless you have a proven track record investing, you are likely overconfident in your ability to invest compared to professionals.

• Creditors and heirs will find it easier to raid your investments than they will an insurance policy of which they are not beneficiaries.

...all of which are by themselves substantive reasons, I could slap myself for not having thought of the obvious fourth reason:

• If you truly are making low-risk investments, it may take a while for them to add up to a sufficient sum of money to cover cryosuspension. Whatever your age, there is some risk that you will die before your investments reach that point.

The best practice is not to self-fund unless you have close to enough money to pay for it up-front and the skills to isolate that money in a long-term trust that will be well-insulated from third-party meddling. And if both of those things are true, it's surprising to me that $80 US or so per month would be more than pocket change to you in the first place.

For more information, I recommend the article in this issue of Cryonics magazine, starting on page 7.

Full disclosure: my family and I set up our policies through this guy.