Preparation can be the biggest money saving thing you do this year. There are parts of your life that you do this for without thinking about it. You take a quick glimpse of the gas gauge when you start your car. You make a mental note that you need milk when you toss the carton away and you try to remember to buy cold medicine when it is on sale so that you have it on hand when you need it.
Do you have a copy of your driver’s license somewhere and do you know the numbers of your credit cards and debit cards as well as the 800 numbers for reporting stolen cards? Where are your social security card, passport, health insurance card and ID card for your office? Do you have photocopies of any of these things anywhere? Where is there an extra house and car key? All of these things could disappear in a flash if your purse or wallet is stolen. They could easily be gone in an instant if there was a fire or flood in your home. This is an interesting podcast about a man who lost everything in a fire and his frustrations in putting life back together.
Do you know what you have? Can you name every piece of electronics you own from TV, cell phone, computer, camera and MP3 player you own? When and where was it purchased and do you have the serial number. Think of the furniture in your home the appliances in your kitchen, yes including the iron and blender. What do you know about them? When was the last time you thought of the family jewelry you have or the antiques you inherited? They too could go up in smoke. I know you are thinking I have insurance to replace these things. But do you know what it is you need to replace and the value of what you have?
Getting back to paperwork, where are those insurance policies? Do you have copies of your marriage certificate, divorce papers, title to your car, deed to your home, your mortgage or lease papers? Are there copies of birth certificates, pet registrations and health records? I know that you could retrace your steps and get them all back again, what a huge task that is. If you have a place to start such as dates and numbers it makes getting originals again much easier.
Then there are the things that are not replaceable. There are some solutions for those too. The digital age has given us the opportunity to save photos, videos and audio recordings. There is no replacement for your video of your daughter’s recital or photos of your son graduating from college. Some have kept the message tape from the last voicemail kept from a departed loved one. These things can be duplicated and saved digitally. Costco has an easy to use service for this. You can get great copies of images at Archiver’s. There are some great guidelines online including one from The Image Permance Institute and one from the federal government.
For the replaceable items you really need a detailed inventory of your stuff. This includes your paperwork. You can photograph your possessions and even your credit cards. For the paperwork it is likely better to scan the items and keep them digitally. Small jump drives of 8GB are available at Office Max, Office Depot and Best Buy for less than $10. Get several so that you can store these important items in several places like you bank safety deposit box and maybe one at a trusted friend or family member’s home. Keep one to travel with incase your loss occurs on the road.
It is also a good idea to back up your computer. One TB of space in a portable hard drive is less than $100 and small enough to be kept in a bank safety deposit box. It may be where you chose to keep all of you digital photos and music. An alternative is Cloud space. This is secure digital space that can be accessed by you where you have internet access. Some of these sources are dropbox.com and box.net
Do these things for yourself as you clean up and clear out things for the holidays and New Year ahead. Remember that the savings that you make is in the time for retrieval of your documents and possessions. Make it a habit to do this annually. Strongly consider updates as life changes occur.
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