Advanced Personal Finance

I was getting some concert tickets out of our safe when I saw all of the stuff we keep there. It got me thinking about whether that’s the right place for some of that stuff.

How we do it

We keep ‘valuable’ documents in a small fireproof safe in our office closet. What’s ‘valuable’ you ask? It’s kind of like pornography to Justice Potter Stewart of the U.S. Supreme Court - I know it when I see it. Briefly, we keep the following there:

• Vital records - birth certificates, passports, social security cards
• Insurance records - primarily life insurance
• Deeds & titles
• Temporary, but expensive stuff I don’t want to lose track of (like concert tickets)
• Home inventory from 1995 saved on floppy disk (memo to me, memo to me - update home inventory when new digital camera arrives)

Jim at Blueprint for Financial Prosperity published a nice comprehensive list of resources for how to replace lost or destroyed personal documents. I don’t really ever want to use any of these resources, though. That’s the point of the safe. Incidentally, we just keep the key to the safe tied to it. It’s purpose is fire protection and to be in a central location, not keep away thieves (it wouldn’t do a very good job of that since you can pick it up and carry it like a suitcase). So if anybody reading this intends to rob us, don’t hurt yourself looking for the key.

Other options for storing important documents

1. Safe deposit box. My main objection to using this method is inconvenience. I’m not likely to put stuff into a box I need to drive to during business hours and get someone else to help me open. Contrary to what some people think(myself included until I researched this), in the event of your death, your spouse and/or executor can get to your box provided they have a key (you get two when you rent a box). In a few states, they can only remove a will, but in many states the restrictions are looser.
2. Digital storage. I’ve heard of services where your documents are scanned and stored electronically. The problems I have with this, though, are online security and the legality of a reproduced document. Ultimately, you’d still be storing the originals somewhere anyway, so this isn’t really a substitute but more of a backup.
3. Buried in the yard, under the mattress, etc. Ok, maybe not.

Share This