In talking to my husband this week about how we need to sit down and go over our own documents to make sure he knows what to do in my absence, I pulled everything out of the safe to take a look. It's so easy for time to go by and before you know it, your information is outdated.
I checked our wills, and while most of it looks good, we have sold a home, and a few things have changed. I have an appointment to have our attorney review them and see if it's worth revising. I also want to ask what it takes to put everything in a trust. I'll let you know what I find out.
I decided that rather than updating my digital copy of "All They'll Need to Know," I'd just start fresh. It was pretty simple to type the information from my head into the appropriate spaces. What really helped is that I already have a simple spreadsheet with all of my user names and passwords, so instead of typing each one into the document, I simply cut and pasted that whole spreadsheet in at the beginning of the workbook. Then, when it asked for bank account and passwords, I simply typed, "See sheet at front of this book." Easy peasy.
All of our important documents are already in a safe, and the next step for me is to just review them and see if anything's missing. I'm pretty sure it's in good shape, because I review them frequently. In fact, it hasn't been long since I scanned each and every one of those documents and saved them on an external hard drive. I like having it there, instead of in the cloud, just in case I can't access it there. I also like having it there instead of on my computer in case the computer crashes. I just want to make sure I have all my bases covered.
So what are you doing while you're restricted in going out? I've watched way too many movies, organized drawers and closets to the point that I think I know where everything is in this house. I've played more hours than I can count on Facebook, or looking at Pinterest, and even crocheting a couple of afghans for my daughter, but I'll have to say that last night I went to bed feeling very satisfied that I had tackled this job. It's one of those tasks that's never really done, but it's as good as it can be today.
I still need to transfer or sell two cemetery plots, and I still need to talk to the attorney. I also need to sit down with my family and make sure they've at least seen this information once before they try to figure it out from my notes. Don't get me wrong - I plan to live another 30 years, but if I don't, I sure don't want my family to be left trying to figure it all out.
What about you?
