CHAPTER 2 YOUR PERSONAL DATA BASE: PREPARING IT AND USING IT Would you like to have key personal information well organized and at your fingertips for easy recovery and update? EZ-$-PLAN helps you create order out of chaos with 3 personal data base templates: * PERSDAT provides a convenient data format for storage and retrieval of key personal, family, employment, credit card, auto, bank, insurance and important goods and services information. * DATES helps you remember important birthdays, anniversaries and other important dates in a convenient calendar format. * DOCLOC lists names and location of important personal documents. PERSONAL DATA Did you ever lose your wallet just when you needed some important information from it? Perhaps you would feel more secure in the knowledge that your key information is well organized, readily accessible and easily updated? Your personal data base file PERSDAT to the rescue! PERSDAT helps you collect, arrange, store and update your personal data in an organized and effective manner. Table 2.1 shows a sample personal information data base prepared by Bill and Hope Planner. Table 2.1. Personal Information (PERSDAT) Family Data Last Update: Oct. 1987 ------------------------------------------------------------------- Name Bill Planner Hope Planner Address 37 Technology Dr. same Phila. PA 19104 Home phone 215 554 6789 Birthplace Los Angeles, Calif Phila., PA Date of birth Sept. 2, 1945 April 11, 1945 Date of Marriage June 29, 1974 June 29, 1974 Social Security No. 456-345-4767 243-36-0234 Drivers License No. A9023-17300-09454 23489-42774-54452 ------------------------------------------------------------------- Children's Names Jennifer Planner Joan Planner Birthplace Pennsylvania Hosp. Pennsylvania Hosp. Phila., PA Phila.,PA Social Security 157-72-2426 563-74-0452 ------------------------------------------------------------------- 9 Chapter Two (Table 2.1. continued) Parents Jim and Mary Planner John and Gloria Jones Birthplace-Dad Phila., PA Phila., PA Birthplace-Mom Phila., PA Phila., PA Birth date-Dad April 3, 1922 Sept. 4, 1916 Birth date-Mom Jan. 2, 1922 Oct. 3, 1916 Date of Marriage Nov. 7, 1944 Aug. 10, 1936 ------------------------------------------------------------------- Employer Data Employer Financial Planners Gp. Financial Planners Gp. PO Box 800 PO Box 800 Phila., PA Phila., PA Work phone 215-456-3564 215-456-3564 Employee No. 4375 4453 Date hired June 1969 July 1970 ---------------------------------------------------------------------- Miscellaneous Mastercard 3453-9310-0001-3452 same First Fidelity Card 4453 same Macy's 443-58-808 same Sears 5-66742-84277-3 same Financial Planners Gp. 7395866 Acme 6465-55 IGA 01224 Shop-n-bag 1516 Health ID No. 044-36-9193/031741 ------------------------------------------------------------------- Auto Information Year/make 79 Olds Cutlass 83 Olds Cutlass Wagon Plate No. ZSP-532 124-HZB Vehicle ID No. 3345889265139 3AH35A5DM435983 ------------------------------------------------------------------ Bank and Money Market Information Name First Trust Capital Liquid Funds Address 31 Main St 3205 Fremont Ave. Moorestown, NJ San Francisco, CA Telephone 234-4678 213-456-7898 Account No. 1023-4567 765-8765 Account type Checking account Money Market ------------------------------------------------------------------ Insurance Information Type Life Insurance Company IEEE-Sponsored Telephone 415-654-7654 Address 4567 Washington Ave. Washington, DC Policy No. 987-5432 10 Chapter Two (Table 2.1. continued) Date effective 6-15-87 co-paid Policy amount $300,000 $95,000 Annual cost $450 co-paid ------------------------------------------------------------------ Attorney-Real Estate Accountant Attorney-Family Jim Jones Tom Taxsaver Elise Trump 234-0558 234-7789 654-9788 1232 Main St 2345 Arch St 6547 Route 38 Moorestown, NJ 08054 Moorestown, NJ Cherry Hill, NJ ------------------------------------------------------------------ Doctor - Bill/Hope Pediatrician Will Wolfe Ed Tebman 100 Kings Hwy 2342 Route 70 Cherry Hill, NJ Cherry Hill, NJ 234-5678 567-4432 To prepare your own personal information data base, use the instructions from the Quick Start Appendix to load the EZ-$-PLAN file PERSDAT. Summary instructions are as follows. To access PERSDAT do the following: (1) Boot-up your PC. (2) Change directory: Enter C:CD\ASEASY Ret. (3) Load AS-EASY-AS: Enter ASEASY/P/CTR Ret. (4) Load PERSDAT file: Enter /FR Ret. Move cursor, with arrow keys, to select the PERSDAT file. (5) To enter data for this template, move the cursor to desired cell locations and enter the data. (6) When you wish to save your work on the hard disk, drive C, enter: /FS A:PERSDAT1.WKS Ret. We suggest that you save your personalized file under a different but related name such as PERSDAT1 in order to save EZ-$-PLAN's original PERSDAT file. KEEP TRACK OF IMPORTANT DATES Want to be sure you'll pay those important insurance bills on time without depending on your insurance company to remind you? Use EZ-$- PLAN's file DATES to keep you up to date! Do you need help to avoid the embarrassment of forgetting Aunt Millie's birthday? Use EZ-Plan's DATES file to help you remember! Table 2.2 shows a sample list of important dates to remember prepared by the Planners. Bill and Hope use DATES to help them to: remember birthdays, make timely payment of their annual insurance premiums, remind them that it's time to start tax, Christmas, and summer vacation planning and remind them of important anniversaries. 11 Chapter Two Hope posts the DATES file printout on the bulletin board right near her desk for convenient reference. The DATES printout keeps her mindful of important dates throughout the year. Table 2.2. Important Dates (DATES) Latest Update: October 4, 1987 Note: date, name and year January 5 Hope Planner born 1947 12 Aunt Edna born 1917 20 Start vacation planning February 8 Bill Planner born 1948 15 Auto insurance premium due March 15 Life insurance premium due April 16 Homeowner insurance premium due May 15 Jennifer Planner born 1982 5 lb. 9 oz. 25 Bill and Hope Smith Planner married 1975 June 13 Grandpa and Grandma Planner married 1942 22 Bill and hope married 1976 July 12 Business insurance premium due August September 7 Joan Planner born 1977 15 Grandma and Grandpa Smith married 1937 20 Start Xmas planning October 4 Uncle Bill's birthday 10 Start tax planning 12 Chapter Two (Table 2.2. continued) November 5 Grandma Smith's birthday December To enter data, follow instructions as above, except load the template file DATES. WHERE ARE YOUR IMPORTANT DOCUMENTS? Ever need to locate an important document quickly, such as an automobile title or a will, and not be able to find it? Are you storing your documents as safely as you should? Many people have lost documents they thought were safely stored at home. Hope Planner's Uncle Matt thought his documents were secure when he installed a large strong box in the study. Unfortunately, thieves came and took the whole strong box, and Matt had a hard time regenerating his important papers! Ever have one of the kids go rifling through your important papers when they need something to draw on? Are you taking suitable precautions against fire hazard to your important documents? Table 2.3 shows a list of important documents and the location of the document prepared by Bill and Hope Planner (template file: DOCLOC). Call up the file DOCLOC exactly in the same manner as explained above for PERSDAT. We suggest that you keep a hard copy of this list of important documents and their location in your important personal papers file in your file cabinet or in your desk and in your safe deposit box. A computer stored personal data base helps to keep you well organized. The names of most types of important papers are already present on DOCLOC. If you don't have several of these items, simply delete them. DOCLOC allows you to make quick updates to this data file. We suggest that you save your file under a related file name such as DOCLOC1 in order to keep the original DOCLOC file for future use. 13 Chapter Two Table 2.3. Important Documents and Locations (DOCLOC) Latest update May 4, 1988 --------------------------------------------------------------------- Item Location --------------------------------------------------------------------- Auto title Safety deposit box Bank books File cabinet Birth certificates Safety deposit box Diplomas File cabinet Divorce records File cabinet Employee information File cabinet Income tax records Attic Insurance policies File cabinet Letter of final instructions File cabinet Marriage certificate Safety deposit box Medical records Book case Photos of personal property Attorney Bill Begley Power of attorney Safety deposit box Mortgages and real estate info. Safety deposit box Safety deposit box First Fidelity Moorestown Safe deposit key Desk top drawer Social security records Safety deposit box Warranties File cabinet Will Attorney Bill Begley SAFE DEPOSIT BOX Certain types of records and other items should be stored in a safety deposit box to keep them safe from burglary, tampering and fire loss. Examples of items that often should be kept in a safe deposit box are: auto title, stock, bond and bank certificates, insurance policies (except your life insurance policy), mortgages, deeds, house titles, birth certificates, marriage license, adoption papers, important business and legal papers, an inventory of household items (giving model #, original purchase date and cost), photographs of household items, jewelry and copy of your will. In general it is recommended that spouses keep separate safe deposit boxes. A lawsuit brought against one spouse will be less likely to effect the property of the other spouse if separate safe deposit boxes are maintained.