Offsite Storage

"the Dawes, Tomes, Mousely, Grubbs, Fidelity Fiduciary Bank!"
- song from Mary Poppins

This post wraps up the theme of the past two days - laying the foundation for financial recovery should you lose all contents of your house. Yesterday I discussed storing important documents and information on a flash card with password protected files. Here are some additional ideas...

1. Keep important documents at home in a fire safe box. These are sold at Walmart, etc. The boxes also must be waterproof. Much of the damage during a fire comes from the water used to put it out.
2. For a fee you can store important items in a bank deposit vault. Where will you keep the key?
3. If you have a locked desk at your workplace, store photocopies of important items there. If permitted, store images of documents on your work PC.
4. There are Internet services that will back up your PC or provide memory storage for a fee. Use this to save vital records. Be sure you can recover the information to a different PC if yours is destroyed.
5. E-mail vital documents to yourself and leave this mail on the server - don't download it locally. You might have to repeat this if mail is automatically deleted after some months.
6. If you have trusted family or friends, send them a copy of information you want saved - either hardcopy (printed) or flash card or email. You might pick someone local so you have easy access and also someone in a different state far away. In large scale emergencies like hurricanes and mega-blackouts, your nearby friend won't be able to help.
7. If you have an estate lawyer who is holding your will, perhaps they will store the flash card or photocopies also.

Bottom Line
The ideas above for safekeeping and backing up financial information are easy and many of them are free. But you have to do it now. The day after a disaster is too late.