Promotional Consultant Today

Return to Archive List

Better Safe Than Sorry
Hurricanes, floods, fires, terrorist attacks -- the list of possible disasters is endless. Should something catastrophic and unforeseen happen to your home, are your financial records and personal information safe? For most people, the answer is "no."
Think about all the things you can lose in something as common as a house fire: your tax returns, passport, birth certificate, computer, check book, bank statements, credit cards, insurance paperwork, and even cash. Without all these things, how would you pay your bills, buy food and clothing, or even rebuild your finances and your life?

Article continued below

sponsored by:
SUNJOY GROUP INC

TOP SHELF TIP NO. 51
"To accomplish great things we must first dream, then visualize, then plan, believe and act."
Alfred A. Montapert, American author

     While no one wants to believe that disaster will happen to them, your odds are actually higher than you think. According to the National Safety Council, the average person has a 1 in 1,167 chance of being involved in a fire, and a 1 in 3,421 chance of being involved in some sort of natural disaster, such as an earthquake, flood, hurricane, etc. Therefore, if you've always believed that something bad will never happen to you, it's time to think again.
     So how do you protect your personal and financial information? You need to disaster-proof your personal finances before tragedy strikes. Today and Friday, Promotional Consultant Today will look at 10 ways to keep your financial and personal information safe.

Purchase A Home Safe
     Every household needs a home safe that can withstand temperatures up to 1700 degrees. Keep the safe bolted to the floor in your basement or on the ground floor level so it doesn't fall through the floor during a fire or get carried off by burglars.

Open A Safety Deposit Box At An Out-Of-Town Bank
     Many people who have a safety deposit box simply use one at their local neighborhood bank. A better approach is to use a bank that's out-of-town. This way if a disaster strikes that affects your entire town or city, such as a flood, your safety deposit box has a lower chance of being affected. Since many banks offer free or reduced fees on safety deposit boxes for their current customers, you can use the same bank that holds your accounts, just a different out-of-town branch.

Create A Financial Disaster Kit
     Gather all the documents you keep in your home safe, wallet, and safety deposit box and make two photocopies of everything. Include all the account numbers of your credit cards, bank accounts, retirement accounts, insurance policies, and brokerage accounts. Also include any work-related items, such as pay stubs and employee benefit information. Keep one copy of these papers in your home safe, and keep the other copy in your safety deposit box. By having this information in multiple safe places, you can have quick access to it no matter what happens.

Have An Emergency Cash Fund
     Save at least three months' worth of income for emergencies. Realize that you don't have to save this amount of money overnight. It will take some time for you to accumulate three months' worth of income.
     Start small, with perhaps $50 a week, and build the account slowly. Should a disaster happen before you have a full three months' worth of income saved, remember that some money is better than no money.
     Make sure you have quick access to these funds via an ATM or debit card, or with checks that are separate from your regular checking account. Keep this ATM card or check book in your financial disaster kit.

Keep Cash Or Traveler's Checks On Hand
      Many people no longer keep cash in their wallet or in their home because of debit and credit cards, which they view as safer. However, should a disaster strike that wipes out electricity and closes the banks, how will you purchase basic necessities? At the very least, have $100 per person in your household available as cash or in the form of traveler's checks. Keep this money in your home safe. This way you have some immediate funds to hold you over until the power is back on or the banks re-open.

     Source: Douglas Charney, senior vice president-Investments of Wachovia Securities in Harrisburg, PA. Wachovia Securities, LLC, Member NYSE & SIPC, is a separate nonblank affiliate of Wachovia Corporation.

Forward email

Return to Archive List