UPDATE: I wrote another with significantly more detail about our Important Information Binder — as well as tips and instructions to create your OWN binder!
I’m sure it comes as no surprise that I really LOVE keeping all our important information neat, organized, and in one place 🙂
Because of this, I’ve always been the one “in charge” of our finances — not because Dave couldn’t do it — just because I’m a sick woman and get so much pleasure from balancing the checkbook, finding (and fixing) discrepancies in our utility bills, and making sure everything that’s supposed to be paid is paid on time each month and each year.
I know, I’m weird!
Anyway, since I also detest paper clutter of any kind, I’ve opted for only paperless statements that come directly to my email, and I’ve automated almost every bill, payment, statement, etc.
For example…
- Dave’s paycheck is automatically deposited into our checking account every 2 weeks (my income all goes into our saving’s account)
- Throughout the month, we pay for everything with our credit card (groceries, gas, utilities, home expenses, travel, entertainment, everything!)
- At the end of the month, our credit card bill is automatically deducted from our checking account (we pay it in full each month)
- At the beginning of every month, our mortgage payment, IRA contributions, and a few other investments are automatically deducted from our checking account
- Once a year, our home owner’s insurance is automatically charged to our credit card.
- Twice a year, our auto insurance is automatically charged to our credit card.
- Etc. Etc. Etc.
All of this happens without me even lifting a finger — and honestly, over the last 6+ years of doing everything electronically, I’ve maybe had two issues — which were both immediately cleared up with a simple phone call.
So I’m sure you can imagine how much time this saves me, how much space it saves in our filing cabinet, and how much stress it alleviates because I never have to think about it.
The ONLY problem with not having paper statements and having everything so automated is that if anything ever happened to me, Dave would have no clue where all the money is coming from, where it’s going, how to access it if needed, who to contact, or what any of our account passwords are.
And, if anything ever happened to BOTH Dave and I, our parents or other relatives would have nothing… unless they knew how to log into my email address and find the statements and contact information in my Gmail folders (and I don’t think our parents would think to do this).
Not cool.
So, because I like to keep things as simple and as organized as possible, I created a single binder that contains EVERY piece of important information relevant to our family, our home, and our life.
Every account number, every password, every phone number, every contact person. It’s all there… and then some!
Meet my “Little Black Book”!
It’s actually not that little — it’s one of those Duo 2-in-1 Binder Files I gave away last month.
The Duo is one organizing tool that Dave and I each love and use on a daily basis (we have a few of them that we use for many different purposes.)
Anyway, I use my “Little Black Book” to store and organize our personal, financial, insurance, home, auto, and retirement information — all in one convenient location.
I use the 3-ring binder part (along with a few color-coded tabs and clear plastic sleeves) to organize the majority of our information. As you can see, I also taped a few important business cards to the front flap of the binder.
Then I use the accordion file (with matching color-coded tabs) to organize the bulkier items like insurance manuals, extra checkbooks, property deeds, etc.
Both the binder and the accordion files have the following tabs:
- Personal: (contact information, addresses, driver’s license #, social security #)
- Financial: (banking, investments, debt)
- Insurance: (life, health, dental, etc)
- Home / Auto: (mortgage, title, home insurance, auto insurance, auto information)
- Retirement : (IRA’s, Pensions, 401k’s, 403b’s)
I also have a section for my business information — but we’re not focusing on that today since that won’t apply to most of you.
Every document or piece of paperwork for each of those categories is inserted into individual plastic sleeves and put in the 3-ring binder section. Then if there are any documents that don’t fit in a plastic sleeve, they go into the accordion file section under the corresponding tab.
Make sense?
I also created a “Cover Sheet” for the very front of each of my main categories. These Cover Sheets serve as a “quick reference guide” to each category.
You can see an example of the Cover Sheet for our “personal info” category on the right side of the image below (click on the image to enlarge it)
The Cover Sheets contain all the most important information for each category at a glance — then other corresponding documentation and paperwork can be found inside the binder or inside the accordion folder.
For example, within the “personal info” tab, we have the following:
- Cover Sheet
- Copy of our Marriage License
- Copy of all our Birth Certificates and Social Security cards
- Copy of our Driver’s Licenses and Passports
- Copy of Dave’s teaching certificate
- Important medical records/information (not bills or anything like that)
- Copy of our Will (we’re in the process of making this so it’s not actually in there yet)
The actual documents listed above are all in our fireproof safe.
Not only does my Little Black Book give me (and Dave) peace of mind, it also actually comes in handy on a regular basis as I now have all my paperwork and contact information in one convenient location (I don’t have to look through different files in our filing cabinet anymore).
This binder was extremely simple to set up, it’s extremely simple to maintain, and (most importantly) it should be extremely simple for someone who doesn’t know anything about our family/home/finances/life to come in and pick up the pieces if the need ever arises.
Everything is neat, organized, updated, and ALL in one place!
Oh, and in case you’re wondering, we also have a digital copy of all the information in our Little Black Book on our portable hard drive (which is in our fireproof safe)… because you can’t be too careful 🙂
FREE Printables for You!
I figured that since I already did the work of creating these documents for myself, it wouldn’t be too much trouble to let you download a copy of our Cover Sheets… for free!
DOWNLOAD YOUR FREE PRINTABLES BELOW — they are just Word documents, and 100% editable (nothing fancy but they work!)
- Here’s the link to download the Word document
- Here’s the link to download the Word 97-2004 document
I know it will take a little bit of work to get all your documents together, but it will be SO worth it once you have everything organized.
I know I feel much better knowing that if something ever happened to me, Dave would be able to focus his attention on Nora and other more important things than worrying about finances, home insurance, or other seemingly trivial matters.
How do you store your important information?
UPDATE: I wrote another with significantly more detail about our Important Information Binder — as well as tips and instructions to create your OWN binder!
Krista says
What type of Fireproof safe do you have? I’m thinking of investing in one. There is a wide price range so I’d like to get something not too expensive, but still quality.
Heidi says
Cool. I am actually in the middle of organizing my documents right now and I’m sure this article will come in handy.
Robin says
After attending a retirement class with my husband’s work (state agency), they advised us to keep his paystub, all together, until he retires. Doing so allows us to verify his retirement pay is calculated accurately. They said, it’s in our best interest, as others have had their calculations incorrect. 🙁
I’ve thought about going paper with PG&E, but they only allow you access to the last two years of your history. I’m considering scanning them to get rid of the paper.
Stephanie says
Dave Ramsey has a new class called the Legacy Journey. The homework each week is to complete a portion of what he calls the Legacy Box, which sounds exactly like what you have created here. We printed off your worksheets and will have our legacy box completed soon. My husband also took your printables to the class to show others. Thank you!
Lisa says
Thank you for this info! I’m beginning the process of creating two binders for my family, but I’m confused as to what then still goes in files exactly. Can you share what, if anything, now gets filed in say, the cabinet? I don’t want to duplicate of I don’t have to!! Thank you again!
Kathy C says
Thank you, Andrea. I finally got around to completing this project. I ordered the same binder and used your free printables. Thanks for the idea, the inspiration and providing us the documents to get started.
Andrea says
Yay — doesn’t it feel great to know all your papers are organized!
Sallie @ A Quiet Simple Life says
Do you back up all of your information outside of your home? Unless your safe is bolted down, keeping your only backup in there really doesn’t cover your bases.
We had close relatives whose home was broken into while they were gone. The thieves took the safe with them and our relatives never saw it again. They lost some really precious things in that safe that can never be replaced.
Safes are also not foolproof when it comes to fires. Most people assume they all are, but they are not all created equal in that regard.
I think keeping a copy in a safety deposit box or on Mozy/Carbonite would be safer. We keep our photos and hard drives backed up on Mozy. We keep our home movies in three places. The originals are in the safety deposit box, a copy is in our home, and a copy is in someone else’s home a significant distance from our home. I’d be more upset to lose the home videos than anything we own so we’ve really tried to cover our bases with that one.
Chrissy says
Andrea thank you for this wonderful article . I thought I was fairly organized until our move, the birth of two boys and starting m own business – my office is a nightmare . I will be buying a few of these binders for recipes and other paperwork 🙂
Lynn says
Hi, I love your binder idea. What a wonderful thing to have ready if something was to happen toyou. I do wonder however about the security of having all those passwords all in one place. Do you worry about that? What if someone got a hold of you binder and used it for the wrong reasons?
Andrea says
Thanks Lynn,
That’s a good question, but honestly, I don’t think it would be very likely for our binder to fall into the wrong hands. On the flip side, the binder is SO helpful for us on a weekly basis and it means that our family will have all the information they need in the event of a death or other emergency.
If a burglar or other “hacker” really wanted to find our information, they could do that relatively easily even without the binder (looking through our filing cabinet and/or stealing our laptop, so I guess I just figure it’s more important that we have the information organized for us right now than worry about a “what if” situation that will hopefully never happen.
Does this help?
Patti Wood says
Free shipping right now on that website. I just ordered one.
Kimberly says
I’m wondering if there is a cheaper way to order them? I need 2 but the shipping is $8.99…..that’s pricey. Any suggestions??
Jennifer says
Love this. I started working on a similar binder a few years back but never finished it. You have inspired me to start again. Thank you. BTW where did you buy your binder?
Cyndi says
Hi, wanted you to know I sent you an email (notifying you here in case it goes into the junk box lol) this post is great!
julie spady says
Great idea! Will you please come help me!! haha
Donna G says
Thanks so much for this. I downloaded it for us, and I emailed the link to my mom and asked her if she would do this for me (I am her executor). She wants me to visit for a couple of days to do it with her!
Abbie says
I love reading your blog. I organized our files using your system. We also charge everything and then pay off the credit card. My question is how do you keep track of all the store receipts to check off against the credit card statement? I can’t seem to find a good system for keeping all the flimsy irregularly shaped receipts. Thanks!
Linda says
In my purse I have a special compartment for my receipts. At home I file them in file folders labeled: Discover, Gas, etc.
Andrea says
I honestly don’t keep my gas/grocery receipts anymore… and I rarely shop for other things this days. However, my advice would be to keep a little envelope or ziploc bag in your purse or in your car. Keep the receipts in there for the month and then purge them once you get your bill.
Scarlet says
I keep my receipts in the billfold compartment on my wallet until I get home. Then I dump them out into an in-tray that’s specifically for receipts next to my computer. About once a week, I update the credit card account by downloading the statement from the credit card company through Quicken. Then I reconcile the receipts, as well as split any categories (not everything bought from my local grocery store is groceries… we get soap and an occasional last-minute birthday card there too). Then the receipts go into the recycling or in rare cases, when they have too much information on them (e.g. a full card imprint), shredding.
Karen says
Thank you so much Andrea. This is a great incentive for me to get more familiar with the finances and I will love having all of this information at my fingertips! Thanks for the help in getting me started on this project. I also downloaded your planner today….what a great tool! Thanks for your wonderful blog and all your hard work here! You are an inspiration! <3
Ann Pellegrino says
One of my New Year’s goals is to get organized. Would love to win this to get started.
Andrea says
Ann, there is nothing to win — the printables are free so you can just download them on your computer 🙂
Elena says
Awesome! Thanks so much for sharing, Andrea.
Erin says
Thank you so much! This was exactly the inspiration I was looking for. Over the years I have been very good about filing stuff and keeping important documents in a fireproof safe, but like you I keep track of everything online. I always thought that it would be a great idea to put something together in case something happened to me, my husband (or family if both of us left this earth) could locate this info and sort through everything easily.
Two years ago my mom lost her brother suddenly leaving a huge amount of stuff, bills, and things to sort through. Unfortunately, my uncle was a very private person and not very good at organization, which made it very difficult to figure out his bills, accounts, finances, etc. It took many months of heartache and headache to track down accounts and bills. I learned from that experience to start a binder like this, but have been struggling how to make that flow. Most of my formats have become complicate or hard to manage. This format is so simple yet so effective! I am off to redo my little black binder! Thank you again…I love your blog & site!
Cathy says
Great Stuff ..
Rachel says
Great idea for organizing all of these very important but annoying things! I do have one question though, I’ve been told that you shouldn’t have a binder like this in your home because it would be the perfect thing for a thief to steal and then have all they need to steal your identity etc. It’s actually one of the top things they look for because it’s easy to steal and has great pay off. Anyone have suggestions about how to deal with that?
Ivy says
Racheal,
I too would worry about this but someone could get alot of info buy stealing my wallet, hacking my computer the list goes on and on… We shouldn’t spend time worrying about what ifs and plan for what we can control , like making sure our family has the information they need if god for bid somethings happens to us.
Karen says
I would label it something totally unrelated to what it is and store it with other things that were related to what the label says, such as “auto repair” – stored in the garage. (except I would not keep it in the garage because ours is accessible from outside) And if my house were to be broken into, the first thing I would check for would be the binder, regardless of how it was labelled or where it was stored.
Kathleen says
Thanks so much, Andrea! I also want to thank you for sharing the budget excel file! We were going to create our own; however, you saved us from trying to create it…and all of the headaches that would have ensued (since I am no longer proficient with Excel!).
I was wondering if you have gone digital with any of your paper files? I have SOOOO much paper! I home educate my children (so lots of theme files, subject files, worksheets, etc, etc.). I cook from scratch and have different categories …raw, gluten free, vegan, meat-based, etc. and I make new recipes at least once a week. My recipe files are taking up too much space in binders. I also have topical files (health articles, diy stuff…crafts, sewing, wood working, decor projects, handy man wish-list stuff, etc.). I have thought of scanning my papers. However, the highly recommended Fujitsu scanner is so pricey. Do you have a scanner that you would recommend? How would I then access and organize my scanned docs? I am also interested in searching them via key words (for ex: search for an ingredient, a holiday, a project…sewing, for example, a subject …calculus, etc.). I do not know anyone who has their files digitized. I have an iMac, so I would like to find a system that would be Mac friendly. I would also like to be able to load my scanned recipe files onto an iPad, for easy access in the kitchen. If you have any advice to offer, I would greatly appreciate it! You would be a hero to the many other women out there trying to downsize their paper files!
blessings to you and your family!
L.L. says
where can I get a fireproof security box from? Are they usually expensive? What should u do if u can’t afford it in ur budget to buy one?
Carrie says
This is an excellent tool to have also if there was ever a need to evacuate your home in a hurry. You’d have all the papers and information you need.
Chris says
I do some of the same things as you, but I put our car and homeowner’s insurance on our credit cards. Since they are both large amounts, we get extra rewards from our credit cards. We pay them off ever month and have made hundreds of dollars in rewards, over the years.
Kalyn Brooke | Creative Savings says
Great idea! I saw something simliar on Money Saving Mom’s site a while ago and have it on my mental checklist to do.
The only payment we have automated is our mortgage payment because we had to in order to get a lower interest rate. But sometimes, it comes out earlier than the first, especially if the 1st is on a weekend. I don’t like to keep any more in my checking account than I have to, so sometimes it incurs an overdraft fee when it comes out early. Not cool!
Amanda says
We have a binder similar to this, except I don’t keep important personal/financial info in it. I would be nervous that the information could “get out”. My husband knows the password to my laptop, and most of the passwords are saved, and I have a few passwords, but he knows them all (and vice versa). Our binder has a bunch of page sleeves, so it keeps the documents nice long term.
Our binder has these sections:
~Family Info – there’s a pg for each of us that has important medical info and other stuff, for our son it has a section that includes bedtime info, fav foods, etc. so if someone is babysitting, I can set out the page and they have a little instruction manual. There is also a sleeve with our sons immunization record and a few things from our pediatrician
~Meal Planning (includes a freezer list, some conversion charts, and a few other useful things for me)
~Calendar/Schedule – I keep a year worth of monthly pages, and I also have a weekly page (the weekly pg is more detailed – our monthly one only has special events and things, where the weekly gets items that are on an ongoing basis, as well as our weekly dinner meal plans)
~ Travel/Events – I keep info for any upcoming trips, parties I’m planning, upcoming wedding invites, etc. in this section
~Work – any information I need for end of year when doing my taxes goes in here (since I work from home). Otherwise almost all of my work is digital. I keep charity statements here too, just because again, when I do my taxes I know it’s all in one place.
We also have a small fireproof safe – each of us has a file folder which contains birth certificate, SS card, a full family medical history for my husband and I, our marriage certificate, and a few other important documents. (there is also a folder that has our mortgage documents and car titles)
My mom knows my bank password (mostly, because it’s been the same since I was young, and she helped me set it up), so in the event that something happened to both my husband and I, she would be able to easily gain access to take care of things. She also knows where we keep the keys to our safe which has all of the legal documents she would need.
One thing I will caution you about direct debit is that I had a friend who was in a dispute w/ a utility that had charged her about 9 times what her bill should have been – she rescinded their ability to direct withdraw and the next month they withdrew even more. It took her 6mo and a trip to the bank to ban them from withdrawing to get it fixed (and many many calls to the utility company) – they took over $1400 that was almost all in error! What I do instead is have all of our utilities and regular bills set up in the bill pay function in our online banking, and I manually insert the amount to pay every month, and then the bank sends the payment to the company. I like it because it’s still paperless, but the companies don’t have direct access to my money!
Stacie Kaltz says
Once again you have totally been very generous to share something so important and useful! Thank you! 🙂 I was wondering why you pay everything with your credit card? Is it one where you get back cash or is it just easier to have everything come from that instead of your checking acct? Thanks again!!!!
Jacqueline says
Andrea, I always appreciate all the helpful organizing info you share on your blog but I’m super excited about these free printables. I have the same concerns re: our important info, so I started my own binder this year, but yours is so much more detailed and cute! I will definitely be utilizing this system!!! Thanks so much for sharing!!
Christina says
Congrats! That’s amazing that you have literally all of these things DONE, yet alone easy to find for both Dave, and others, in case of an emergency! So many people don’t have some of these fundamental basics, yet alone at such a young age Andrea! We all like to think ‘it would never happen to us,” but real life happens every day. You are such an inspiration!
Christina @ Northern Cheapskate says
I created a similar “Just in Case” file last year for my family for the exact same reason as you – if something were to happen to me, the last thing I would want my family to have to worry about are the bills.
I printed all the critical information on 4×6 cards and then slid them into a 4×6 photo album that I picked up at the dollar store. This little “Just in Case” file is in a fireproof security box in our home (along with copies of our will, titles to vehicles, etc). My parents also know where it is in case something happens to both my husband and me.
I also included information about my blog business – including the names/emails of trusted blog friends who could help my technologically-challenged parents figure things out should something bad happen.
It feels really good to be prepared!
Jamie says
This has been on my to-do list since last January – great motivation to do it NOW! I’ve debated making a binder with copies of important financial documents or passwords to give to select family members (like our parents) in case something were to happen to my husband and me. Do you have any input or advice on if this is something that would be wise to do? Having them come to our house and search for our binder would of course be an option, but it might mean a lot of searching for them.
Andrea says
Jamie, I would just keep the binder in a specific spot in YOUR OWN home and then tell your parents where it is. If it’s always in the same spot, it should only take a minute for them to find it — and then you don’t have to worry about the information getting lost at their homes (or having so many copies of your private information floating around).
Melissa says
So..do you just file all the estatements in your gmail account folders? Do you back them up to your hard drive in the fire safe? I know there’s some general rule about keeping records for X years and I’m really really itching to ditch all of our paper so I’m wondering about your filing system. I’ve been considering things like the Neat scanner or even just scanning things myself to PDF and setting up a file structure to store all of it vs keeping the actual bills. I’m not quite as automated as you are yet, I still have a problem letting all those people have access to my accounts, but i’d like to slim it down. Thanks! I might have to get one or five of those binders…
Andrea says
Yes, all the statements come right to my email and I have a file for them. I don’t back up my email — it’s always there 🙂 And honestly, I delete these e-statements after a month or so as it’s not necessary to keep copies of old utility bills, bank statements, or even credit card statements. You can access all that information on line or by calling the company if necessary. You don’t need that information for taxes.
Jane says
Looks like great stuff…my goal…to be organized 2013. Thanks for posting, Jane
Catherine says
This is the answer, the solution to my obsession with information and clippings from every area of my life, hopes and dreams. I know they hold a lot of stuff, so I would limit my stash to what would fit in each binder.
My binders would be:
Bible Study, devotional reading
Cross-Stitch
Sewing
Recipes
Weight Watchers, Nutrition & Fitness
That’s 5 binders of joy!
I need this system so much; it’s got my name all over it and I can’t stop smiling and dreaming about owning them soon.
Make it a great day!
Catherine in San Diego
Tammy Skipper (@Tammy_Skipper) says
I’ve been using binders but I’m still missing some of the key things in enabling my husband or parents to be prepared should something happen to me/us. Thanks so much for the printables, I love how the cover page points to the tabs, my family might appreciate that 🙂
Erika says
Oh my goodness – thank you so much for doing this – my husband and I finally just wrapped up getting our life insurance and now we are moving on to our will and like you if anything were to happen to myself, my husband would have no clue, since everything is done automatically.
Maria says
I won one of these organizers and have been waiting (im)patiently for you to do this post. Thank you for the inspiration. I am already on track to be more organized this year. Let’s keep it going. 🙂