With Wildfires On My Mind…
I decided to send out a list of items to consider taking with you in the event of an emergency evacuation related to your financial life. I’m sure this is not complete, and would welcome other thoughts. Note this is the financial list, not the personal/survival list, which is available online and virtually on every local station in Colorado Springs during this time.
- Cash: and this is a perfect time to understand the need for emergency cash on hand.
- Account Numbers and passwords to all credit card, mortgage, savings, banks, all retirement plans, all debt obligations, and autopaid bills paid each month. Since you may have to use a computer other than your own, I recommend these passwords and log ins be safely packed separately from your computer. I recommend grabbing all incoming bills to pay and keeping them in a place you can locate quickly to keep up on your financial obligations, thus preserving your credit score.
- Passports, Birth Certificates, Marriage Certificate, Death Certificates, Divorce decrees, and any legal information regarding family trusts or inheritance or personal property ownership
- Safety Deposit Box Keys for any boxes in banks.
- Home security system contact information
- Company ID entrance cards and all security ID
- Home Owner Insurance policy preferable over recent statement
- Medical contact info for all Dr’s
- Children’s social security numbers (and your own)
- Photo ID for everyone who has it in your family and obviously Driver Licenses for all
drivers - Credit Cards
- Calendar: if you don’t upload your calendar to retrieve from your phone, computer, or
IPad, carry the hand written one. - Contact information for any beneficiaries and for those of whom you are a beneficiary.
- Deed to your home if it isn’t in an offsite safety deposit box, and to all other real property you may own
- Last few years’ tax returns or ability to access them online.
- If you are recently divorced or under a divorce decree for child support, etc. to pay or
receive, pack a copy of the agreement. - College Scholarship information and ID information, School Contact Information
- Flash Drive or other method of consolidated financial information is great as long as the
drive works and you are able to access a computer. If your information is stored via CLOUD, make sure you have the correct access information. - Proof of Auto Insurance and of course, most recent auto registration.
- Contact information for ALL insurances you carry: medical, auto, disability, catastrophic, life insurance, long term care, business, jewelry, errors and ommissions, liability, etc. and if possible, the policies.
- WILL/TRUST if you are unsure your attorney has a copy or if he is not out of the
emergency area. And: Attorney contact information - For Insurance purposes, if you have pictures of items in each room of your house pack
those. I keep my camera chips w/ my camera and would grab all of that, as well as storage of personal photos. - Extra set of car keys and all personal house, PO BOX, Keys, along with the above Safety
Deposit Box Key - Chargers for Phone, Computer, Ipad, Netbook, camera, and all other electrical devices
and cords, wrapped safely in a place for easy access. - All Relevant Flash Drives, Chips, backup.
- Addresses and Contact info of friends and relatives, employment, church, counselors,
colleagues at work, clients
I spoke with Michelle, my assistant, who fled her home. She was as thorough as possible during the pre-evacuation and put thought and plans to action. They were able to make several trips.
Afterwards, as they worked through their house in their mind, it dawned on them that their
precious Christmas ornaments, some back to when they were first married and for all the years their kids were growing were left behind. She suggested that those kind of things you need only once a year and not in the summer could be stored elsewhere if you live in a high fire danger area. For instance, if you had a friend or family nearby who has extra storage and seems in less danger of fire (i.e. they are not in a dry forest near mountains) than you, you may want to consider asking them to keep a partial or full box of those type of sentimental items.
She also said it is wise to pack more than 72 hours worth of personal and hygiene items and include things like makeup, shampoo and the creature comfort things that matter when you are stranded. My husband mentioned that personal hygiene/beauty items should be seen as if you were traveling for a month, not to mention medical needs and necessities.
Something I’ve determined to do is to scan ALL (a huge project) family photos including those going back a few generations into cloud storage. I use Carbonite and Sharefile and plan to upgrade my Carbonite.
We do have an evacuation plan, for both the business and personal, and pray we do not need to put it into action.
“Financial Planning for Life” is a broad topic – and we will continue to do this together with relevant information and communication.
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