Being Prepared – Financial Documents

Linda

I coach women on various homemaking skills through speaking engagements and social media

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2 Responses

  1. Gilbert says:

    I’m a huge fan and user of spreadsheets and get teased a lot from my wife Kathy as I make lists for nearly everything and use spreadsheets. haha!

    The idea of using a spreadsheet for financial information is a very good one and yes, password protecting that file (or those files) is a very good idea. We spent some time together a long time ago. Using the spreadsheet I created for our financial information, we populated all the fields we could, then saved it on USB devices – yes, with a password.

    My spreadsheet is a little more elaborate than what Linda showed – it contains columns for:
    – Company Name
    – Active?
    – Phone Number
    – Account Number
    – Expiration Date
    – CVV
    – Security Code
    – PIN
    – Personal Message
    – Security Question(s)
    – Security Answer(s)
    – Website
    – UserID
    – Password
    – Security Word
    – Money Owed (this is updated monthly)
    – As of Date
    – Monthly Payment
    – Annual Payment
    – Due Date
    – Form of Payment
    – Payment Method
    – Comments

    Pretty extensive, right? Everything is there should one of us need it.

    That spreadsheet is updated as needed and we again have the most current copy on those USB devices (which are stored in hidden locations in our house that only we know).

    Why?

    Kathy does all the financial transactions for us (unlike in my first marriage where I did all that). Should something happen to her, I need to know how she set things up. Where is the money coming in from and going to. We pay the bills together monthly. I won’t be strapped trying to figure out what is what if something should happen to her.

    I help seniors out with their tech problems/issues/questions at two senior centers. I can’t tell you how many times I’ve heard a person tell me that they are struggling to do the financials because their spouse, who had passed, did all that. These seniors then become confused, overwhelmed and in a couple of cases – got into some legal issues because of bills not getting paid.

    • Linda says:

      Hi Gil. Your spreadsheet is great! It’s very comprehensive. The purpose of my spreadsheet was just for those items that are on auto pay so if someone had to step in they would know what bills are coming up and make sure there money is in the bank and the contact information to stop the transaction(s) just in case they need to be stopped.

      In the future I’ll do a post for a more comprehensive financial record.

      Thanks for sharing!

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