Written by Melanie Pinola

f you were hit by a bus today or were otherwise incapacitated, would your loved ones be able to quickly locate your important information or know how to handle your affairs? Many of us have a great handle on our finances, but our record keeping systems might not be obvious to family members or friends who might need immediate access to them in times of emergency. Here’s a step-by-step guide to organizing your vital information so it can be conveniently and safely accessed when needed.

The Goal: A Master Document or Folder with All Your Important Information

Perhaps the easiest method for creating a centralized document or set of files would be creating a Google Spreadsheet that you could share with your family and friends and keep updated regularly. We’ve created a basic Master Information Kit template just for this purpose. The spreadsheet includes prompts for the information below, but you can customize it for your particular needs. To use the template for yourself, in Google Docs go to File > Make a copy… to save it to your Google account (make sure your version of the document’s sharing settings go back to the default “Private”).

Update: Due to high traffic to the template, Google Docs is only showing it in list view, making it impossible to copy. This zipped file has downloadable versions in PDF, XLS, and ODS formats. You can still import these into your Google Docs account.

There are really only a few steps to setting this organizer up: gathering your records, securely sharing them, and keeping them updated. Follow along and you’ll have your kit set up in no time—and a little extra peace of mind.

Step 1: Gather Your Vital Records to Keep in the Master Information Kit

The most important personal records: First, there are a few documents that you obviously should keep in a secured location (a fire safe or safe deposit box):

• Social Security card
• Birth certificate
• Passport
• Any other official, hard-to-replace documents
• Scan these items so you can have a digital record of them as well. If you encrypt the digital files, e.g., with one of our favorite encryption tools TrueCrypt, and you can even upload them to Google Docs and share the files with your loved ones (make a note of them in the spreadsheet).

  You’ll also want to add to your emergency records kit:

  • Contact information: Both your contact information and your emergency contacts’ info. This includes your nearest relatives, your will executor(s), and employers.
  • Will and medical directives: Add a copy of your will/living trust and medical letter of instructions (keep the originals with your legal representative). You can upload a PDF file to Google Docs for this purpose.
  • Insurance: Homeowners, auto, medical, life, disability, and other insurance agents/brokers contact info and policy numbers
  • Financial accounts: Bank, investment, and credit card/loan accounts information, including institution names, phone numbers, and account numbers
  • Health records: Immunization records, allergies, dietary restrictions, medications, medical/surgical treatments
  • Pet information: Description of each pet, vet contact information, and any important medical notes
  • Property: Car information, home purchase papers/deeds, and other home inventory items.

  Again, adjust for your relevant information. Our Master Information Kit spreadsheet includes individual sheets for most of these pieces of information, so just make a copy of the sheet (File > Make a Copy) and start filling it out, in section at a time.

  Step 2: Export Your Accounts Information

  Account Passwords: For login information to important accounts, it’s best not to store your logins in an online document like this. Instead you can export your logins from password managers like Keepass, LastPass, or 1Password to a CSV file and then encrypt it so it can be shared securely. Our spreadsheet template includes a sheet specifically for describing your method of storing these files—the location of your vital documents, and any passwords needed to locate them.

  Step 3: Share Your Master Information Kit and Vital Documents

   

  

  The Google Docs spreadsheet is easy to share. Once you’ve filled out your version of the spreadsheet, click on the Share button and you can email people who you want to be able to view or edit the document. (Think people who you’d also consider emergency contacts.)

  For your encrypted files, like the logins mentioned above, you could upload them in Google Docs, store on an encrypted USB thumb drive, or use something like Dropbox. Give the recipients your encryption password but for security reasons, only let them write down a hint to the password. E.g., vacation spot 2010 + pet bday + myfavoritesinger’smiddlename. Also, if you use Dropbox, make sure you encrypt sensitive information first. An encrypted zip file seems an ideal solution.

  Step 4. Regularly Update Your Everything Document

  You’ll need to update your files/master records book when you update your accounts.

  Like setting up an emergency plan or a 72-hour emergency kit, this master information kit will need to be reevaluated regularly—consider doing so at least yearly (e.g., at tax time, when you’re already looking at all your accounts) or, better yet, quarterly.

  Set up a reminder on your calendar so you won’t forget. When you get your reminder, don’t wait—just quickly look over the items in your document and if anything has changed, update it. If not, you’ve only lost a couple of minutes of your day toward a very good end.

  More Resources for Creating a Master Information Kit

  If you’re a Quicken user, for example, you may have access to Emergency Records Organizer built into the program, which can compile your emergency documents for you, based on the info you put in Quicken. It should be in the “Property & Debt” menu or you might find the program under your Quicken folder under Program Files.

  Erik Dewey’s free Big Book of Everything is a very thorough organizer for all your affairs, with placeholders for you to record your bank accounts, insurance policies, tax records, and more. The 44-page Big Book of Everything is available in PDF or Excel format.

  There are also a few personal documents organizers in dead-tree version, like For the Recordwith the same purpose, in case you want pre-printed book.

  Our emergency documents template (zip file) is a simplified version for the most essential information and with an eye towards sharing on Google Docs (or downloading and saving).

  Whichever method you choose, having all your vital information in one easily accessible place can be comforting, for both you and your loved ones.

  Do you have all your important information organized somewhere or tips for creating this “everything document”? Let us know in the comments.

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  You can follow or contact Melanie Pinola, the author of this post, on Twitter.

Bonus:I am terrified of this situation.

source

Written by vadakkus

You are older than you think! Making you think many things happened “recently” is a trick played by your sub-conscious to make you think you are young and kicking. Inspired by XKCD’s Epic diagram that makes people think they are old based on movie release dates, and then 40 things that make you feel old, I present my contribution – with more of Indian stuff thrown in. Enjoy, feel old and miserable!  So,(Note: Important information at the end.)

Do You Realize That:

1. Dilwale Dulhaniya Le Jayenge was released 16 years ago.

2. Windows XP was released TEN years ago, in 2001.

3. The “new” Millennium is more than a decade old.

4. Chetan Bhagat’s antics have been around for the past 7 years!

5. Pierce Brosnan last acted as James Bond 9 years ago.

7. It’s been 10 years since 9/11

8. The Matrix came out 12 years ago, Keanu Reeves is 46 today

9. Mother Theresa and Lady Diana have been dead for 14 years.

10. Remember Jungle Book on Doordarshan? That was more than 15 years ago.

11. This happened a whopping 17 years ago.

Yes, they are old, too!

12. Macaulay Culkin is 30 today. “Home Alone” came out over 20 years ago.

13. Terminator 2 is 20 years old. Edward Furlong who portrayed kid John Connor is 33 now.

14. Sean Connery is 80 years old and retired.

15. The youngest Spice Girl is 35, the oldest Backstreet Boy 39, Gwen Stefani is 41, Madonna 52

16. The first Harry Potter book came out when I was in High School. 14 years ago!

17. The first season of F.R.I.E.N.D.S was aired 17 years ago! Age of the cast:

18. Remember these Guys?

19. Akshay Kumar is older than the moon landing – He was born in 1967

20. Arnold Schwarzenegger is older than India. He was born in June 1947

21. ‘Kids’ born in 1993 can legally drive, drink and vote this year.

Where are my car keys, bob?

22. Jurassic Park is older than Justin Bieber.

23. Justin Bieber. Rebecca Black. Miley Cyrus.

24. Rajiv Gandhi has been dead for 20 years.

25. Bryan Adams’ cult song “Summer of 69? was released 26 years ago.

26. Kids whom you remember in their diapers posting their pics on Facebook

Not like this, though.

27. Facebook has been around for 7 years. Orkut for 9.

Fraandshipping since 2002

28. Remember the little girl from Kuch Kuch Hota Hai? She is 23 now (Sana Saeed)

29. The Maruti Zen was first introduced 18 years ago.

Image Courtesy: I Love India

30. And of course, the Rasna Girl. She is all grown up as well!

Hope you are feeling better now. Please let me know.

(P.S.: It is fine if you want to copy and send this as an email forward, but be kind enough to give me credit and include this as well:  From vadakkus.com, Source: http://bit.ly/feeloldindia Took a lot of work to create this, appreciation is appreciated! )

Written by telegraph

Hopes that 2011 would see the US recovery strengthen have so far been dashed as higher gasoline and food prices erode the spending power of millions of Americans. Here are the five biggest threats faced by the world’s largest economy:

Last month saw momentum in the US labour market stall, with just 54,000 jobs created. Few now expect a quick turnaround. Photo: GETTY

Inflation

The petrol station is as reliable a place as any to take America’s economic pulse. The sharp rise in gasoline prices in the first few months of the year knocked the confidence of consumers, who still account for about 70pc of the country’s gross domestic product.

That squeeze has been all the more painful because the majority of Americans have not enjoyed pay rises since the crisis. Indeed, inflation-adjusted average hourly earnings fell 1.6pc in the past 12 months. Like Sir Mervyn King at the Bank of England, Fed chief Ben Bernanke insists that inflation will prove short-lived.

The good news for the bulls is that gasoline prices have dropped by almost 10pc since reaching a three-year high at the start of May. While the news is improving, the Fed and The White House know their control over such a key variable is very limited.

House prices

Alongside their wages, house prices are the yardstick most Americans use to measure their financial well-being. Prices have already dropped a third from the peak they reached in 2006, according to the S&P/Shiller Index.

But the declines aren’t, for now at least, over. Almost three years on and the housing market is still grappling with the excess supply of homes left over by the boom. That’s meant more than a third of the homes currently being sold are classified as distressed sales.

The introduction in 2009 of a tax incentive to buy a home briefly spurred the market, but the volume of sales has retreated since it expired. While further declines in prices don’t pose the threat to America’s financial stability in the way they in 2008, the troubled state of the market remains a ball and chain around the economy.

Unemployment

It’s been the recovery’s Achilles heel. About 8m jobs were lost to the recession. Just over 1m have been created since.

After a disappointing 2010, the labour market gained momentum in the first four months of this year, helping push the unemployment below 9pc for the first time since the crisis. Importantly, signs of a turn in the market helped consumers battling higher gas prices.

Last month saw that momentum stall, with just 54,000 jobs created. Few now expect a quick turnaround. The Fed last week forecast that unemployment will stay above 8pc throughout 2012.

The more pressing question is whether May’s disappointment is the start of a worrying trend. The release this Friday’s release of June’s figure will begin to offer an answer.

The deficit

As with unemployment, there’s no quick fix to America’s deficit. A combination of costly, state-funded retirement programmes, high defence spending and the financial crisis have sent America’s share of debt to GDP ballooning to 62pc last year from 40pc before the recession.

Without an agreement to cut spending on programmes such as medicare, as well as tax increases, that ratio will worsen. Any accord before next year’s presidential election would be a major surprise.

But there’s a far more urgent deadline. If Congress fails to lift the country’s legal borrowing limit by August 2, the US could potentially default on its debt. Focused on Europe’s debt crisis, bond investors have so far paid little attention. But Republicans last week walked out of negotiations that have become increasingly fraught.

Though a failure to lift the limit remains remote, the prospect of negotiations going right to the wire and fraying investors’ nerves during a difficult summer is highly likely.

Europe’s debt crisis

Europe’s debt crisis has been lapping against US shores for more than a year now. And the failure of European leaders to find an answer is an increasing source of concern in Washington.

Mr Bernanke said last week that US banks have little direct exposure to Greek government debt. But there’s no doubt a disorderly default by Greece would cause convulsions across financial markets.

Perhaps the biggest impact of the current episode has been to drain some confidence from financial markets as well as businesses. The US economy can ill afford for more to seep away over the next few months.

Bonus:Obama is boring :|