The Things We Wish We Knew: Money and Bills

Thanks for reading along yesterday as I shared some ideas of the lists of contacts we've found it would be helpful to have on hand in the event of a medical emergency, death, or natural disaster. Some of you left some great tips too, so check the comments! (Feel free to share your ideas along the way, too. I'm sharing what we've learned, but I am by no means a full expert!)

Today's topic? Not necessarily so much fun, but definitely necessary. Money and bills. The sad but true fact about life is that when you face a crisis, your world stops, but everything else marches on. So while you or your loved ones are grappling with death, illness, or loss from a disaster, creditors still expect payments to show up on time. Please, oh please, oh please, make things as easy as you can and make copious records of the information they're going to need!

Here are some of the things we have (or would have) found helpful.

* A full list of bills due regularly...and all the necessary information regarding them. You know what you pay when you pay it every month, but if you're the only bill-payer in your household, someone else needs to know how to take over if necessary. So make sure to leave a list of all the bills: mortgage/rent, car payments, student loans, credit cards (general, and store-specific), phone, medical bills, internet, utilities, memberships, etc. It's also important to leave a list of automatic recurring deductions to watch for. 

When you make the list, it's good to write everything anyone would ever need to know about paying the bill without you: logins, passwords, account numbers, websites, etc. And if you have multiple checking/savings accounts that you use to pay your bills, you might need to list which bills get paid from which account. 

* Where to find the money. People leave money in many creative places, don't they? Leave a list of all the banks/credit unions where you have checking and/or savings accounts. Again...websites, logins, passwords, and account numbers are helpful for this, too. If you have investments, leave that information, as well as your contacts for those investments. If you have cash saved somewhere in your home or in a lock box at a bank, leave all the information for accessing it. If you have a safe, make sure someone knows how to get into it. 

* Your financial planner's information. This kind of goes along with the contact lists from yesterday, but if you work with a financial planner, make sure his or her name and contact information is readily available to someone. Financial planners sometimes know information that could be really helpful in an emergency, and they usually have resources that could be helpful in moving forward. 

* All the insurance information. ALL the insurance. Home/auto/life. All the insurance information is important - but especially the life insurance. First of all, can I just beg you to have life insurance? While it's nice to have enough to leave an inheritance, it's definitely important to have enough to cover the bills - and to keep it paid up. Please make sure you tend to this for your loved ones! And then make sure they have all the information to access it if necessary. Another tip that is super important is to make sure the beneficiary is kept up to date. If your beneficiary dies before you, please make sure you change the name to someone else! 

* Tax Information. Do you have a regular tax preparer? Make sure you make a note of who prepares your taxes and how to reach him or her. Also make sure you leave information on where you keep your documents to turn in when tax preparation time rolls around. 

* Information for all other financial-related pieces of your life. Do you have a 401K? Pension? Social security? Leave all those account numbers/logins/passwords as well. I'm sure there are other categories of life that I'm not thinking of right now, because they aren't something we've encountered. But if it's a financial part of your life, make sure it's well-documented. 

* Donations. If you make occasional donations to certain charities or businesses, you might want to leave information about that too. If nothing else, it could help your loved ones know where to make donations in your memory if something happens to you. That is one of the questions asked at the funeral home when the staff helps plan the funeral. If people want to donate money in memory...where should it go? It's amazing how the brain freezes in that moment and suddenly you can't think of what your loved one would have chosen. 

I won't lie...finances give me a headache. I can appreciate how a list like this can make you want to just take a nap. But I can tell you that if someone else ever has to tend to your finances, all this will make life so, so, so much easier. It's worth the hassle of preparing it.