Won the lottery ? Sorry About That !

  By TheOneFIle | January 9, 2013 - 12:22 pm | Estate Planning, Financial, Legal, Privacy and Security, You Are In Control
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Pleasant surprise

Pleasant surprise

We all dream of a financial windfall at some time and pleasantly enough, this to creates a need to review your personal arrangements, priorities, and plans.
But if not approached with prudence, such  windfalls can create significant legal and financial issues for you or your loved ones.

Take your insurance coverage for example.  The insurance coverages that were in place may no longer be necessary if the financial windfall is sufficient to accomplish one’s financial goals. Things like disability insurance may be less important since one can now financially handle the loss of income by way of the windfall assets.

Life insurance may need to be decreased, and possibly terminated altogether, but long-term care usually remains a worthwhile coverage to hold onto. With increased assets comes increased exposure and liabilities and as such, the property and casualty coverages should be reviewed. Basic policies may not cover extensive assets or special assets, so find a qualified property and casualty insurance broker who can help you reevaluate your situation.

Last, but certainly not least, make sure you update your will, your preferences in case you become incapacitated, your insurance carrier and contact information as well as the information about how want your affairs handled that you want to leave with others/share with others.  And wouldn’t it make sense that this information existed  in one place, and was available to people important to you if you were not available to handle your affairs yourself?

Such arrangements eliminate a lot of pain and suffering later, and who doesn’t want that?

Planning now avoids pain and discomfort later

  By TheOneFIle | January 7, 2013 - 11:53 am | Death, Personal stories, Planning your funeral, Reasons for getting organized, Recordkeeping, You Are In Control
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First, let us remember that none of us will live forever.  And at some time in the future, someone will have to deal  with the “loose ends” of laying us to rest.  It’s an unpleasant reality, but one that many of us have had to deal with, and sometimes with significant discomfort and angst.  When the deceased has preplanned this event, it tends to go smoother than when the pre-planning has not been done, or done with little foresight.

Final details

Final details

Today, unlike years ago, families are frequently scattered across a large geographical area.  Family members may be many states away, or even in other countries.  And unfortunately, in the increasingly busy world we live in, remote children may lose touch with the reality that as elder family members continue to age, that arrangements that need to be made for that day when our loved one is no longer with us.

One of the first decisions to be made in funeral rearrangements and pre-planning at a funeral home is between cremation or burial at a cemetery.

The decision is often done based on religious beliefs, but many people nowadays also have added their own personal preferences. These preferences may run the gamut of what is to be done with their remains, the type of service, who should participate, and even what type of memorial gathering arrangements they have made.

This decision leads to having to choose from among urns and caskets. Sometimes, even if cremation is chosen, the decision includes burial of the urn in a cemetery. If the cemetery is the final resting place, a cemetery plot or mausoleum crypt has to be purchased while making the prearrangement.

Other choices for the final resting place of the deceased after a cremation are a columbarium niche, the home of the next of kin or scattering of the ashes in a location of deep significance to the departed.  If the columbarium niche is chosen, this also has to be purchased beforehand.

For some people with next of kin located in another country, the choice may be to have the body shipped out to the family. This should be taken into consideration during the funeral prearrangements and pre planning. A funeral home in Tampa, for example, specializes in ship outs to Cuba.

Another decision to be made during funeral prearrangements and pre planning at a funeral home is whether to have a funeral service or a memorial service. Having both could also be an option.

Would your survivors be aware that you have made per-arrangements?  Would they know the details of them? Or even where to find them?

The key thing for family members to remember is that people (of any age) will make these arrangements with or without your involvement.  It is critical to understand if arrangements have been made, and if so where the details are recorded.  Doing so, in a repository like TheOneFile could eliminate much of the frustration, confusion and angst that often accompanies the passing of a loved one.

 

Helping avoid some of the the pain associated with Divorce

  By TheOneFIle | January 5, 2013 - 8:03 pm | Reasons for getting organized
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Separation and Divorce are never simple nor uncomplicated.

However for those for whom this is an unavoidable reality, there is a website that has published information that may be helpful.  The website Divorce360.com has compiled the divorce information you need, no matter which state you live in. From an easy-to-understand question and answer divorce law cheat sheet written by divorce360.com to a list of child support enforcement agencies in your area, this page offers you a number of resources, including abuse help, mediation information and low-cost divorce options to consider.

Never PleasantRecordkeeping  is key and documenting your situation should not be left till the last minute.

  • The attorney and the courts will likely need information about you, both general information, as well as marriage information, information about children of this marriage, children from your previous marriage, any pets of this marriage, your education background, your employment, your pensions, your sources of income.
  • Then you’ll need information about your spouse including general information including details of your spouse’s prior marriage, children from previous marriage, spouse’s educational background, spouse’s employment, your spouse’s pension, and any sources of income for your spouse.
  • An accounting of the community assets will take into consideration the couple’s liabilities so you may want to have records of loans, credit cards, utilities, house hold expenses, taxes, back due taxes, property/real estate taxes, and any professional debts.
  • Inventory of any liquid assets such as any cash accounts, stocks and bonds, safe deposit boxes.
  • Business Related Assets you may need to have at your disposal might include descriptions of professional associations, business licenses and agreements, including buy-sell arrangements.
  • Tangible property records including details on any real estate, vehicles, recreational vehicles, or other personal property.
  • Insurance documents to include details on any insurance coverage you currently have including homeowners/renters, umbrella, other property insurance, automobile, other insurance, medical insurance, dental insurance, eye insurance, etc.

Fortunately, TheOneFile provides a highly secure, and totally private place to record all of this information, including copies of documents needed.

How do you preserve your family history?

  By TheOneFIle | January 3, 2013 - 10:52 am | Convenient, Personal stories, Privacy and Security, Recording history, Saving memories
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telling a storyDo you remember when you were a child, and you heard about all of the family members and their interesting stories and antics? Do you remember how much fun it was to listen to these?  In many families it has become the “oral tradition” that carries on from generation to generation.

It’s more of a challenge today with family members scattered far and wide.

Yet we seem to spend a great deal of time these days communicating, but have you noticed, it tends to be in unrelated “fragments” (phone calls, emails, Facebook posts, tweets etc)?

I’ve heard many complain that few people capture their family history in one place.  It seems to be scattered across many people, and in many unorganized forms.

Being separated also makes it hard to tell the story to others because of physical distance or other separations.

Wouldn’t it be nice to have one place where one could capture the stories, images, sights and sounds of our story, and of those closest to us? Isn’t a “personal legacy” all about leaving more than a will to those we leave behind?

Are you able to tell the story of your life based upon the “artifacts” that you’ve cataloged so far?   If so, where have you stored it?  Is it “preserved” for your loved ones, safe from theft, fire, or flood?

What’s that, you say?  You haven’t gotten around to doing it yet?  What’s holding you back?

Do you have a “dark side?”

  By TheOneFIle | January 1, 2013 - 10:04 pm | Privacy and Security, Reasons for getting organized, Recording history, Recordkeeping, You Are In Control
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What do these people have in common?

  •     The school board executive who has a gambling problem
  •     The socialite who is arrested for shoplifting
  •     The seemingly happily married man who cruises LGBT clubs

Leading a Secret Life?They are all—despite differences in degree, gender, and age—living a double life, one of our most deeply ingrained, but poorly understood psychological drives. Now, Dr. Gail Saltz, author of a book that explores the topic of “secret lives” steps into the breach to explore —in detail and based on the latest research—our impulse to create and nurture alter egos.

Saltz reveals how assuming a different identity can be healthy and tremendously liberating. For proof, we need look no further than the innumerable people who reinvent themselves by moving to the big city, or the countless pseudonymous bloggers. But, as she also makes clear, leading a secret life comes with potentially serious psychological risks. She shows that, in more extreme cases, leading a secret life can have devastating emotional, social and familial consequences—both for the person leading the secret life, and for those close to him or her.

While we’re talking about living a double life, do you remember Arnold Schwarzenager’s performance in the movie “True Lies”?   While wearing the “daytime” personna of a salesman, was in fact leading a secret life as a government operative.  And you may have thought “that’s cool!” as his role was portrayed.

Yet, to a lesser extent, many of us may also keep secrets from those we care for.

You may have information or documents you want to share with your attorney, but not your wife, or that you want your doctor to know about, but not your children.  While you  are alive and well, there may be some things you want to keep private, and only share with a select few, if any.

It’s challenging to keep the “compartments” of our lives separate, yet intact, isn’t it?

Were there a simple, cost-effective way to keep your secrets safe and sound, and always under your complete control, would you be inclined to use it?

 

A fortune misplaced, for the lack of a “treasure map”

  By TheOneFIle | December 29, 2012 - 9:36 pm | Recording history, Recordkeeping, Saving memories
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I had an uncle who, when told by the government in 1933 to turn in all his gold, decided instead to put it in milk cans and bury it on his farm.

Which was a shrewd move, with one little glitch….

milk cansWhen he went back several years later to recover it, he couldn’t remember exactly where he had buried the milk cans.  (Remember this was waaaay before anybody owned a metal detector).

How good it would have been to have had a “treasure map! ”

Strangely, we still do things like that today.

The Simple Dollar site, lists “Twenty Places To Hide Money At Home Besides Under Your Mattress”, citing that burglars know to look in your mattress first.

Like my uncle, however, you should record somewhere safe, where you have put your valuables “in safe keeping” in the event you weren’t able to get back to it.  Personally, I leep all things like this, securely locked away and backed up in TheOneFile.

 

It only took a minute, but changed my outlook on life…

  By TheOneFIle | December 28, 2012 - 9:29 pm | Accident, Announcements, Life Events, Reasons for getting organized
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It Happened in an Instant

It Happened in an Instant

Several years ago, I was doing the most innocent of annual tasks, pulling down the Christmas decorations from the attic and passing  them on to my wife who was at the bottom of the attic stairs.  I was commenting that it was a bit dangerous going from rafter to rafter, and that it’s be a good idea to get the attic floored, because one missed step and  …..

You guessed it, at that very moment, I missed a rafter and went sailing through the drywall to the concrete floor of my garage, 12 feet below.

It only took a split second, and the next thing I knew, I was strapped to  a backboard, headed to a trauma center, where I was diagnosed with a serious back injury.  It was three operations later, and a lengthy recovery rehab and recovery period, before I was able to get back to work.

During my time in the hospital, I was thinking “what if I had landed differently, and was lying here in a coma?”  Who would take care of things?  The bills, the routine stuff that every household needs to attend to (repairs, maintenance, upkeep etc), commitments I’d made, stuff that I was actively involved in?  At the time, little of it was written down, and much of my “to do list” was scattered between my office, and several locations around the house, and stored in various places on several computers.  Hardly in one place.

I learned my lesson, and committed to get better organized, and thankful that because of that incident, I remained conscious, and was able to tell people what needed attended to.

Not everyone is so fortunate I realize today.  Does this resonate with the “real life” experiences any of you, dear readers, have had?

When Things No Longer Work Out, Things Can Get Complicated

  By TheOneFIle | December 27, 2012 - 7:30 pm | Estate Planning, Legal, Marriage, Privacy and Security, Recording history, Recording medical information, Recordkeeping, Seperation / Divorce, You Are In Control
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More Common Today

More Common Today

The divorce rate for people 50 and over has doubled in the past two decades. Why baby boomers are breaking up late in life like no generation before.
That’s the observation of Susan Gregory Thomas, who wrote a insightful piece in the “Saturday Essay” section of the Wall Street Journal in March of 2012, entitled “The Gray Divorcés”

But there is another dimension to this phenomenon.  As the nature of relationships has changed, so also does the complexity of the related matter of what aspects of your life you share with whom.  For example, what information do you want to share with your children from your last marriage / relationship, but not your current partner/spouse?

There may be assets, family stories, secrets or other information (like generation skipping medical conditions) that you may want some people in your life (current or past) to know about, but not others.  You might have information you wish to share with your lawyer, but not your rabbi, or a document you want your business partner to be aware of, but not the daughter from your second marriage.  You get the idea.

And you can imagine how having a way of keeping all of this information can become complicated, not to mention the estate planning issues involved.  That’s where applications such as TheOneFile can help out.  And you can see after reading Susan’s story, why it is increasingly necessary to keep this area of  your life well organized and up to date.

 

Christmas Ornaments Tell a Story

  By TheOneFIle | November 28, 2012 - 3:19 am | Life Events, Personal stories, Reasons for getting organized, Saving memories, Simplicity
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Every year as I’m decorating the Christmas tree, I am reminded as I hang the ornaments about a particular time, location, person or event associated with a particular ornament.

So this year, I went into TheOneFile, and created a record called 2012Christmas.  I attached a picture of each ornament, along with a verbal description about what makes that ornament special.  Now, it’s saved for future generations to appreciate.  Captured years of Christmas memories and it only took a few minutes of my time.

In the aftermath, the realization sets in

  By TheOneFIle | November 2, 2012 - 5:12 pm | Personal stories, Saving memories
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I have two sisters who live in coastal NJ who were hit by the storm surge of this week’s Hurricane Sandy.  Thankfully they were safe, but the house sustained serious damage.  Among their concerns, were the collection of family photographs, dating back several generations.

Family memories such as photograph albums are priceless treasures.  Often these items are irreplaceable.

Consider how much of your family tradition has been passed on in photo albums, handwritten cards, letters, documents and audio and video recordings.

At family gatherings and special events, using today’s mobile devices (cellphones, cameras, and tablets) it is easier than ever to record a conversation, take a picture, or capture a video that becomes part of the family archive.

But where do you put these “treasures”so that they can’t be lost to fire, flood, earthquake, or theft?