Household Records
 

Preparing Your Household Records

Read on to learn how to prepare an emergency financial records kit and to make sure you have access to other important documents in case the unexpected happens to you.

* What Documents Should You Have Ready?
* Storing Your Other Records
*Filing, Digitizing documents, Safe deposit box, How long to keep
* How the New Bankruptcy Legislation Affects Your Household Records
* Helping Others Get Organized
* Other Resources
* E-mail this Information to A Friend
* Other Topics in the Consumer Focus Archive


What Documents Should You Have Ready?

Every family should have an emergency financial records kit they can grab and go in case they need to leave their home quickly. You might want to store the documents in an accordion file and keep it in your emergency supply kit so that everything you need is together. Items you should put in the kit include:

* Identification for all family members. This can include documents such as driver's licenses, insurance cards, Social Security cards, passports and birth certificates.
* Checkbook with blank checks and deposit slips. Even if you never write checks it is handy to have at least one check so you have a record of your checking account number and financial institutions routing number.
* ATM cards, debit cards, and credit cards. PIN numbers for all these cards will also be helpful, but remember it is always best to memorize you PIN numbers, don't store them near the cards in case of theft.
* Cash
* Contact information for your financial service providers and important account numbers. It may also be helpful to make photocopies of the front and back sides of your credit cards and keep them in the kit.
* Safe deposit box key

Remember that these documents contain personal information like social security numbers and bank account information that could be used against you if it fell into the wrong hands. Be sure your emergency financial records kit is stored in a secure location in your home so it is easy for you to carry away in a disaster not for a thief to carry away in a robbery.

Filing

A well-organized system for keeping your family records can pay big dividends when you need to find an important paper NOW. When saving records, first determine what to keep. With each piece of paper, ask yourself two questions: What could happen if I don't have this particular piece of paper? Will it cost me more to replace this piece of paper rather than keep it? When in doubt, DON'T throw it out.

Digitize your documents

It's best to save your important documents and files in a way that can easily be carried away and accessed later. Some options for doing this include scanning photos and important documents, investing in an external hard drive for your computer and regularly backing up important documents, you can then carry away the external hard drive at a moments notice. Burning important files to blank CDs and storing them in a safe place or copying important files to an online storage area are also options for preserving your data electronically. Note that there is usually a monthly charge for online document storage.

Safe deposit box

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It is appropriate to store some of your important originals in a safe deposit box. Safe deposit boxes are best for protecting certain papers that could be difficult to replace, but NOT anything you might need to access quickly. Consult your attorney before you put an original copy of your will in a safe deposit box, some states don't permit access after a person dies. Documents stored in a safe deposit box should always be sealed in air tight waterproof containers (like Ziploc bags) to ensure they are not damaged.

How long to keep your documents

In addition to keeping documents in a safe deposit box, you need a system to store other records conveniently at home. These include bank records, educational records, insurance policies, and creditor information just to name a few. There are different life cycles for each type of document you have in your household record system, you might want to organize them by short-term and long-term depending on how long you should keep them. Make sure you regularly review your files and shred documents you no longer to keep on hand.

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Topics covered in this article included; household records, home inventory software, filing cabinet, files, home safes, fireproof safes,
safety deposit boxes