This week, I’m talking about financial document organization. Only the most type A among us have everything all in order, so I’m sharing with you some tips, and quick and easy ways to get your financial life organized. 

Today, I’m focusing on the single best thing you can do that will give you a quick win on getting your financial life organized. 

And that is...creating a financial inventory list. It doesn't have to be fancy. It can be handwritten or typed up on a spreadsheet. Your personal financial inventory should list all of your financial assets. You’ll want to include: 

• Investment accounts
• 401k or other retirement plan accounts
• Insurance policies & annuities
• Bank accounts 
• College savings accounts
• Physical or special assets (like gold, coins, valuable collectibles, or real estate)
• And if applicable, pension information too

This simple list should include the account type, account owners, the name of the financial institution where the assets are held, & the last few digits of the account numbers. 

Put a copy in a safe place, make sure your spouse knows where this inventory list is stored, and give a copy to one or more of your trusted advisors, like your financial advisor, your CPA, or attorney. Then just set a reminder on your calendar to review it and update it as needed - usually once a year is often enough, or when you make big changes like moving your accounts to a new institution or when you retire and rollover your old 401k to an IRA.

When you're the one handling the finances in your household, and don’t do this, it can create real hardships for your spouse or your kids. I’ve talked to a spouse who didn’t know about an insurance policy death benefit and then found some paperwork in a box several years after the spouse died.

Trust me, the insurance company is not going to come knocking on your door to write you a check for the death benefit, so you’ll want to make sure your spouse and at least one other trusted contact knows where to find all of your assets and accounts and where they are all located. 

This is such a quick win, because it doesn’t even require you to compile all of your statements and all the details of the accounts. We’re just creating something like a table of contents and a list of your accounts, which is easy to do. 

That’s it for today. Thanks for listening. My name is Ashley Micciche and this is the One Minute Retirement Tip.

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