Be ready with more than duct tape, food,
batteries and a full tank of gas. See related items below. KwC
How to Prepare for One Really Quick Getaway
By Damon Darlin, NYT, Business, Oct. 01,
2005
What
is the first thing you will grab from your home if your house floods, catches
on fire or comes tumbling down in an earthquake? Family photos? The pets? The
Hummel figurines? It probably will not be your financial and medical records,
the very things you will need to rebuild your life after a disaster. If you
are like most people, you have documents stashed in various places throughout
your home, perhaps some under lock and key. And with your mind racing as
danger hits, you are not going to have the time or wherewithal to figure out
which ones you need.
In
any case, your financial and medical records would be such a large and
unwieldy pile that you would just say forget about it, grab Fluffy and
scramble out of there. Indeed, that is probably your reaction any time someone
suggests you get your records organized. But wait. Do not run away yet. New
technology is making this tedious task less odious, and surprisingly, it is
not that expensive.
All
told, you can secure your records in a weekend afternoon. Even better, doing
all this has a wonderful side effect: it can put you in better financial shape
to survive a disaster because you will end up a lot smarter about how you
spend and save money. For instance, one of the first things to do is compile a
list of where everything is - account numbers and the locations of important
documents. The list will help you or anyone in your family locate things you
need for the insurance adjuster or relief worker. (Download a
template
for
this information that you can place right on your computer.)
This
is really the "if hit by a bus"
list that financial planners have been recommending you compile for
your heirs. If you think of the list that way, you will be reminded of your
mortality and you will not want to write it. But think of the families
displaced by Hurricanes Katrina and Rita or by California wildfires, and the
psychological barrier collapses. The list becomes a much easier sell now, said
Brent Neiser, a director for the National Endowment for Financial Education.
"It forces you to think," he said.
Here
is what else you have to do to protect your records and
yourself:
RECORD:
Once you have made your basic list, save it on a U.S.B. flash drive. A
256-megabyte drive, which you can buy for $20 or even less if you catch a
store promotion, gives you enough space for that file and all the other
suggestions mentioned below.
Several
of the big flash drive makers, like SanDisk
and
Lexar
Media,
are now selling more advanced drives that allow you to encrypt the data so
others cannot read it without knowing the alphanumeric key that unlocks the
code. Some are even shock proofed with heavier rubber and plastic coatings.
Those will cost about $10 to $20 more, but are certainly worth it when you
consider the sensitivity of the data on them.
It
is also a good idea to copy the contents onto additional drives for backup and
for other members of the family.
BONUS:
When you are listing the credit cards, also note the credit limits so you will
know how much you could spend in an emergency. If your credit cards are at
their limits now, you are not going to have any cushion to fall back on. So
start paying off balances, beginning with the card carrying the highest
interest rate.
SCAN:
Some important documents are on paper and you will want copies of them with
you: tax returns for the last three years (Form 1040 is all you will need in
an emergency), a recent pay stub, birth certificates, marriage license, the
deed to your home and insurance policy pages that list your coverage. If you
do not have a scanner or a printer with a flat scanner, take the pile of
documents down to a copy center like Kinko's to scan. Record the image files
on the U.S.B. drive.
BONUS:
Take the opportunity to check your insurance coverage for potential disasters
like flooding. With homes appreciating in value, you may also find you need to
increase coverage.
SHOOT:
Some personal finance advisers suggest that you make a spreadsheet listing
everything you own and enter the date and price paid and then file all the
receipts and ... yeah, yeah. You will never do it. But creating a detailed
inventory of everything you own need not be a major chore when technology
comes to the rescue. Many households now have a camcorder or digital camera.
Walk around each room and take a picture of each item. Then, either store all
the photos on a memory card (unless you live in the Biltmore mansion, you can
load all the photos on a 256- or 512-megabyte card). Or you can transfer them
to the same U.S.B. drive with your other documents.
Describe
each object on the camcorder soundtrack or in the file name of the digital
photo. Make an extra copy on another card or drive. "If you give one to your
insurance adjuster, you go to the front of the line," Mr. Neiser
said.
For
additional protection, you could upload the photos - as well as all your
beloved family photos - to one of the free online photo services like
Flickr.com, Picasa.com, Snapfish.com,
or
Kodakgallery.com.
Anybody you choose can then have access to them from any computer anywhere.
(Make sure to set the privacy options, though.)
BONUS:
You are going to discover a lot of stuff you no longer want or need. Sell it
or donate it and take a tax deduction. Intuit, maker of Quicken and TurboTax,
sells a $20 program called ItsDeductible that estimates the value of donated
items, but Bankrate.com
and Salvationarmyusa.org
have free valuation guides.
SECURE:
Now it is time for your medical records. You can place your health history as
well as digitized copies of X-rays, scans and electrocardiograms on the same
encrypted flash drive.
Those
with serious medical conditions may want to consider a product sold by the
nonprofit organization that developed the MedicAlert bracelet 50 years ago. It
sells a special USB
flash drive on its Web site, www.medicalert.org,
called the E-HealthKey for $85. SanDisk originally developed the product for
the Army. Pop the flash drive into any computer and a screen flashes with your
medical condition to alert emergency room personnel, for instance, to an
allergy or your use of a pacemaker. But beyond that screen, medical
information you enter with the help of a user-friendly program right on the
drive is encrypted.
For
an additional $20-a-year fee, MedicAlert uploads your data to its server so
you have a backup. The E-HealthKey is only available for PC's running Windows
XP or Windows 2000. You may want to wait until November when the organization
issues an improved version.
BONUS:
The E-HealthKey software, created by a division of Bio-Imaging
Technologies,
also plots your weight, cholesterol or anything you regularly record, onto a
graph. "It's a great wellness tool," said Ramesh Srinivasan, MedicAlert's vice
president for marketing. If you are going to run for your life, clutching your
flash drive and the Hummels, you had better be healthy.
Related
Fill out this
list with your account numbers
and locations of important documents.
MedicAlert sells the
E-HealthKEY, which carries your complete personal health record.
Bankrate
and The
Salvation Army run sites that evaluate the
value of donated goods.
Lexar and Sandisk sell
flash drives that can encrypt data.
National Endowment for
Financial Education - Protect Your Important
Documents From Disaster
EzineArticles.com - Easy
Ways to Protect Your Family Before a Disaster Strikes
Red
Cross - A Guide for Disaster
Preparedness
Red
Cross - Disaster Recovery: A
Guide to Financial Issues
http://www.nytimes.com/2005/10/01/business/01docs.ready.html
You can purchase an already compiled Estate
Handbook, formatted for an easy to use binder, from
Sustainable Business Network of
Portland (SBNP) member and professional
organizer, Marian Rhys at http://www.marianrhys.com/ and
http://www.simply-better.net
