When disaster strikes you always hear about what you should
do prior to any emergency or natural disaster. Such as make sure you have
plenty of fresh batteries or make sure your cell phone is charged in case of
loss of power, having an emergency kit and plan. But you very rarely hear or
even consider financial preparedness prior to any emergency. There are many agencies ready to render
assistance after a major disaster or emergency situation but they take time to
set up. So in the meantime it’s all up
to you to take the necessary steps to have some temporary finances in place until
you are able to get back on your feet.
The first thing you must do is secure your important
documents. I would highly recommend scanning your documents and keeping them on
USB drive if not then secure your documents in a safe that you can access. Some
documents you want to consider securing are your birth certificate, social security
cards, insurance policy, tax statements and photos of all family members. You
will need this in order to gain long term access to your finances. You must
have a copy of your emergency contact list which should have your bank, health
and home insurance providers’ information.
I would highly recommend setting up an emergency savings
account strictly for emergencies this way you do not have to use your primary
savings account to cover any expenses as a result of an emergency. However in
cases of a major natural disaster you want to have cash on hand. So consider
having cash secured in a safe at your residence in cases when ATM access or
credit card access may not be working. This safe is another area where you
could secure other important documents like homeowners/renters insurance,
health and life insurance policies as well.
I hope this information is helpful as always please leave a
comment
Mark Carbajal
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