Safe? Deposit Boxes

“Ah, this is obviously some strange usage of the word 'safe' that I wasn't previously aware of”- Douglas Adams (British Writer, 1952-2001)

We all have important papers that we want preserved; life insurance, house title, car title, birth certificates, and so on. Losing these in a house fire just makes your loss and burdens even worse. So for generations, the advice of planners and preparers has been to keep your important papers off-property in a bank’s safe deposit box. But not anymore…

Many states, like California, are desperate to find money to pay for bloated budgets and they have discovered that unclaimed public property is a great revenue source. According to an ABC investigation, How Safe Is Your Safe-Deposit Box?, the California courts have issued injunctions barring the state from seizing any more property (like safe deposit boxes) until it made reforms. In a conflict of interest, California has changed the “no contact” period that triggers seizure from 15 years to 7, then to 5 and currently 3. (They even tried to reduce the waiting period to a single year.) On top of this, the state had not bothered to inform anyone that your safe deposit box is about to be taken by the state and IMMEDIATELY auctioned off or destroyed. It stopped sending notices to rightful owners because, "It could well result in additional claims of monies that would otherwise flow into the general fund."

Read the full story of How Safe Is Your Safe-Deposit Box? for tales of lost stocks, land rights, and valuable heirlooms. Family fortunes sold for a pittance at auctions to feed the state general fund.

Bottom Line

How do you protect yourself?

1. Make contact with your bank, your brokerage firm, etc. at least once a year, in a way that creates a paper trail. Make sure they have your current address.
2. If you own stock, occasionally vote your proxies or take other steps to keep your stock ownership active. Stay in touch with your broker or brokerage company.
3. Write a list of all your accounts and keep it with your will, so your heirs will know where to look.
4. Consider insuring valuables even if you keep them in your safe-deposit box. That way, you're covered financially if the bank or state makes a mistake and empties your box. Plus, safe-deposit contents have been known to be destroyed by fire or flooding.

If you want to search for unclaimed property in your name, check out the following links for more information:

National Association of Unclaimed Property Administrators

http://www.missingmoney.com/

Fun with Dryer Lint

“She plucked from my lapel the invisible strand of lint (the universal act of woman to proclaim ownership).” - O. Henry

Dryer lint represents the life being worn from your clothes by the action and heat of the dryer. Don’t let this expensive commodity go to waste, turn lint into paper instead!

Homemade paper can be created from coffee filters, tissue, dryer lint, newspapers, junk mail, envelopes, and grocery lists. The color of ingredients will affect the color of the paper you make. Watch out for scrap paper with lots of black ink; this will turn your new paper grey. It takes 1/3 to 1/4 of a cup of paper scrap to make one sheet of paper.

Place torn scraps of paper, some dryer lint and some warm water (enough to cover) into a large pan to soak (at least one hour) until saturated and soft. This soaking breaks down long fibers and makes it easier to blend in the next step. You can try making paper with dryer lint alone but many crafters believe the resulting pulp slurry won’t have much “body”. You can add body to lint with glue as described below.

While the paper & lint are soaking prepare a screen frame. Window screens work great on a wood frame that you stable gun together. If you want sharp edges to your paper, use a screen “mold” plus a second removable frame called the “deckle” on top. Some sites suggest using just a mold with screen side down. But it’s not so easy getting the paper out of the mold safely this way.

Fill a very large pan or tub or sink with water; it must be large enough and deep enough so you can submerge your screen frame.

Scoop out one cup of slurry, put into a blender and add two cups of plain water to fill the blender. If you want to use your paper to write or paint on, add a tablespoon of white glue, cornstarch, or gelatin (dissolved in hot water), or 2 teaspoons of liquid starch. These additives, called "sizing," will make the paper less porous. At this time you can also “beautify” your paper with by color paper scraps or food dye.

Blend for a few seconds until the mixture is smooth and mushy like thin oatmeal. Pour blender contents into the tub of water. Repeat until you have several inches of pulp floating in the tub. One website recommends one blender for every two inches of water in a small tub.

Slowly lower the frame into the water at an angle with the screen on the top of the mold (and a deckle on top of that if you have one.) The goal is to get underneath the pulp and then scoop it up, enough to cover the screen. Remove the frame carefully from the tub and let the excess water drip off. If the pulp does not fully cover the screen from edge to edge or if the pulp is uneven in thickness, try gently shaking the frame to spread out the pulp. If that does not work, put the screen back into the tub and try again.

Place paper towels or cloth over the pulp on the screen. Gently turn the screen over then slowly remove the screen; leaving the pulp on the paper towels. For special effect you can cover the wet paper with sparkles, confetti, threads, seeds, small flowers or small leaves to become embedded in the paper.

Now cover the wet paper with more towels or cloth. If you’re making multiple sheets of paper you can stack them up – towel, wet paper, towel, wet paper, towel, etc. Next press the water out of your paper stack with either a rolling pin or some weight (like a stack of books on top for several hours).

When pressing is done, carefully remove the new paper from the towels and allow them to dry completely (pinned to a laundry line for example). If pages are allowed to dry flat, turn them over occasionally to avoid sticking.

Bottom Line

For more fun things to do with dryer lint (like fire starters and clay), check out www.thriftyfun.com/tf184073.tip.html.