This article was originally published in The Simplifier #4.2.

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Getting Started With Your V.I.Papers

by Shawn Tuttle

The start of another summer fire season in California reminds us that there are times when we want to be able to grab essential documents at a moment’s notice. But the threat of fire isn’t the only reason you want to have your key paperwork handy. Whenever times are tough, your focus should be on caring for people, not hunting for critical documents.

So why don’t we all have those important papers organized? Resources are readily available online, yet the project can still feel overwhelming.

My goal with this article is to help you get solidly underway to completing your very important papers (VIP) collection by breaking down the process into easily doable steps.

(Obvious disclaimer: I’m neither attorney nor accountant, I’m a simplifier. For comprehensive info on what legal and financial documents you may need, consult the links at the end of this article, or your attorney or accountant.)

Let’s start with the quick-grab documents. If you had 15 minutes to clear out of your home you’d want to be sure to have these with you. A good format for these VIPs would be a binder that you keep in a safe. (If you have no intention of getting a safe, then make sure the binder’s in a safe place that you’ll remember and could access in a stressful moment.)

Step 1: Gather your supplies

Preparing for a project pays back big time. Besides, overcoming “loose paper syndrome” is the whole reason for this important project. So get ready to do it right!

Be sure to have:

• 3-ring binder
• dividers – at least 10
• plastic sleeves – for documents you don’t want to punch holes in
• 3-hole punch
• Blank paper (or a blank doc on your computer)
• pen
• file folders (See Simplification Tip)

Step 2: Create a Table of Contents

Sample sections: Wills/Trusts, Insurance Policies, Living Wills, Birth/Death Certificates, Passports, Power of Attorney Documents, Medical, Financial, Auto, Family.

Leave room under the above sections to list family members’ VIPs and/or each of the documents contained in that section for easy reference. Don’t worry about missing anything; you can think of this as a draft. (And remember there are links at the end of the article for more detailed guidance in this area.)

Resist the urge to skip this step and go straight to the “fun stuff”. A good Table of Contents keeps you on track, provides a parking place for related thoughts, and helps you establish your goal.

Step 3: Set up your binder

Label dividers based on Table of Contents sections above and insert in binder. Piece of cake!

Step 4: Let the hunt begin

Start with the top item on your TOC, (for ex.: birth certificate) and stick with that item until it’s in your hot little hands. Turn every rock, open every door and every drawer, scan every pile. This is your mantra: one item at a time, take it all the way. Obeying that mantra is how you effectively break down a potentially thorny project into doable chunks; it’s how you keep your brain from spinning out; it’s the difference between the freshmen and the seniors in Simplifier School.

This will likely be the only time I recommend breaking the Simplifier School rule of “no browsing through your piles” (a blatant Zapping offender) as long as your focus is fixed on finding your VIP docs. ( But “no reminiscing” still applies!)

Step 5: Distribute Copies of VIPs to VIPs

Let’s look at wills, for example.

1. Make sure key people have a copy of it: attorney, trusted parent, sibling, child, or friend.
2. Put your original in a safe place.*
3. Include copies of other family members’ wills that have been entrusted to you in this section.

* Where’s the best place to keep your original? A safety deposit box seems to be the popular opinion. Make sure that you have a copy in your binder (with a note saying where the original is) and a copy with another person, since a safety box can be sealed upon death (or could itself be burned to smithereens).

Step 6: Check off what’s completed, determine what remains

Once you’ve done everything you need to do with a VIP and have inserted it into its section in the binder, check it off on the Table of Contents (Yay!).

The unchecked sections become upcoming projects to do. Then once those are done… But hey, don’t worry about that stuff now. Besides, maybe I’ll write about the next phase once I get my own VIP binder all together.

Being organized is a huge help for getting through a difficult transition time. Squandering precious time on hunting down documents is downright (expletive). Fire, cancer, death, divorce, a new loan, finding yourself mistakenly listed on the terrorist watch list…they all point to the same need: knowing right where to go to find what you need.

After looking around online, these are some of the best follow-up resources I found:

• The Lance Armstrong Foundation “How to Organize Important Records”
• The WAHM Connection “Family Records: “Keeping Organized and Safe”
• LegalZoom.com

Good Luck!

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Shawn Tuttle is founder of Project Simplify.