It was July 2015, and my wife and I were completing our first international adoption.
My wife clutched onto our son’s passport as we approached the airport. She refused to put the passport in our bags because it was too important. Nothing could’ve ripped the passport from her kung fu death grip.
When we arrived at the airport, she joyfully unbuckled our son and carried him.
We unpacked our bags, and our taxi drove off into the distance … with our son’s passport.
My wife put it down when she picked up our son.
Luckily, I could chase down the taxi about a mile down the road.
Divine intervention.
A Paradigm Shift
That day made me think how easy it is to lose critically important documentation.
We all have paperwork that is critically important to our family.
I can’t tell you how many calls I received over the years asking if I had a copy of a document.
After our airport incident, I decided I wanted to get our family’s essential documents in the cloud.
You have plenty of options.
Potential Important Documents for Storage
- Estate Planning Documents for your household
- Estate Planning Documents for your parents or children
- Marriage Certificate
- Birth Certificate
- Death Certificate
- Passport
- Driver’s License
- Social Security Card
- Tax Returns
- Tax Return Supporting Documentation (W2’s, 1099’s, etc…)
- Titles
- Insurance Policies
- List of Family Members/ Allergies
When you get the emergency phone call at 3 a.m. that mom or dad is in the emergency room, the last thing you are thinking about is driving by your parents’ home to get their “important folder.”
Keep the vital folder “in the cloud,” where it can be at your disposal on your phone in seconds.
As a financial planner, I do more than help invest our client’s money.
A large portion of my responsibility is having conversations just like these to ensure that you have your t’s crossed and i’s dotted.
If you or someone you’re close to could use help aligning their finances and establishing a financial plan, please reach out to us, we’re accepting new clients and eager to help.
Cheers,
Nic
P.S. One of my favorite documents I created is a list of each family member and their allergies. On a trip to the emergency room several years ago, my wife was in extreme agony, and the intake nurse asked me if my wife had any allergies. I remembered one but couldn’t remember the other. Thank goodness for the list in the cloud because they were moments from giving her medicine, she was indeed allergic to.
