As with the start of every New Year, hope abounds. Hope for a better life, hope to lose a few pounds, hope that this is the year to get my finances in order, and hope that “I won’t wait until April to start getting my tax information together.”
This year, when the hoping subsides, and the work of pulling together all of that tax information starts, do yourself a favor: create a place (a binder works well) where you keep a list of all accounts, legal documents, login information for websites, and trusted contact people. If you have already done this, it becomes a good thing to update around this time every year, and if something were to happen in the interim, you could keep your family out of a difficult spot.
This is the kind of thing that is best done in the first months of the New Year, as you will probably be up to your elbows in some of this already. For those of you that share the burden of managing the finances, this should be easy. Experience tells me that there are many folks who are not actively engaged in the family financial picture.
This can be a valuable experience in communicating with your spouse and family about your finances. In the event that you cannot get family attention long enough to engage them on this subject, you can create this as a “financial care package,” so that they will know where to look if they were suddenly without a guide.
I have always been partial to the saying “It’s hard to get where you’re going if you don’t know where you are.” Creating this place is a good first step to making sure those left behind aren’t left without a map. But, here’s to hoping your family never needs it.
