Finally, my Alien Abduction Binder. It is a thin (1-inch) red binder, and lives in the front of our top file cabinet drawer.
It contains copies of:
• Social Security Cards
• Birth Certificates
• Marriage License
• Vehicle Titles
• Deed to house, and home owner's insurance policy
• Powers of Attorney
• DH's Military Discharge papers
• DH's divorce decree & property settlement
I also use the binder to file:
• Annual Social Security Statements
• Current Credit Reports
• Fingerprint sheets for DS's
In the very front of the binder is a section called Instructions. It ...
• Describes the binder's contents
• Descirbes my household filing system
• Describes my HomeNotebook and Bills & Budget Binder
• Contains a list of where to locate original documents
• Contains a list of ALL financial accounts (savings, retirement, etc.)
• Contains a list & location for all insurance policies
Finally, the binder contains an Estate Planning Guide that I picked up from a funeral home. Ok, that's a bit morbid. Some of the information in it duplicates what I had already done, and I simply noted "see Red Binder," but it had forms to record things that weren't already in the binder.
As others have mentioned in other threads, this information is of little value if it is not updated periodically, so I try to do that once a year. Now's as good a time as any.
A note to newbies:
Don't feel as though this is a major project, or that you have to redo systems you already have in place. This binder can simply serve as a guide to important information that you already keep in your head - you don't have to reinvent the wheel, nor do you have to duplicate information that already has an effective home - just point to it.