Using Time Wisely

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Vehicles: Car #1 – Insurance Documents

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Last week, I shared the checklist of items housed in the vehicles category of our important documents. Since our family owns 2 vehicles, 0 recreational vehicles, and 0 boats, I have our documents housed in 3 file slots.

                  1. Car #1
                  2. Car #2
                  3. Miscellaneous vehicle documents

If you have numerous cars, recreational vehicles, and boats, then you might consider a slot per item or per type of item. Depending on your preference, you might need another file or larger file to hold these documents.

Whatever system you choose, be sure to label. You will then be using time wisely as you quickly retrieve your documents. 🙂

Having filled the first nine slots in our accordion filing system, I will now concentrate on the tenth file opening which houses documents for our newest vehicle. The first set of documents includes:

1. Current Insurance Receipt

In case there is a discrepancy, I keep a copy of our receipt showing payment for the current policy.

2. Current Insurance Policy

This document shows our dates of coverage and lists our limits and the premiums.

3. Current Declarations Page

My page actually consists of 4 pages. This record itemizes the coverage limits and explains what is covered under each premium section. This document will be needed if a claim needs to be made against this policy.

4. Previous Insurance Receipt

Since I pay semiannually, I choose to keep one year’s worth of documentation in my file for proof of continuous coverage.  I can also compare the renewal notice with the last two receipts to identify any changes.

5. Previous Insurance Policy

To verify that our coverage remains the same, I keep the previous 6-month notice for comparison.

6. Previous Declarations Page

Sometimes the details change at the time of renewal, so I like to have a reference of the current policy vs. the change.

7. Guaranteed Renewable Policy letter

Having been with the same insurance company for over 10 years (actually around 17 years), I have earned the following discounts:

    • A 10-year accident-free discount. This discount amounts to a 20% discount on at least one of our vehicles.
    • Guaranteed Renewable Policy. Our car insurance policy will be renewed regardless of our future accident record, and includes all vehicles insured with our insurance company (State Farm).

In case you are wondering if I have shopped around for car insurance rates. Yes, I have. Since we are insured with State Farm Mutual, we get the lowest prices on our premium. I have not found an insurance company that can offer the same coverage for the price we pay. State Farm continues to serve us well.

8. Privacy Policy Information

Each year State Farm sends a copy of their privacy policy. I keep this policy with my insurance paperwork.

All these items are paper clipped together and housed in this tenth file slot of my accordion filing system. Keeping the insurance documentation together for this vehicle allows me to quickly find the information I need.  For example, I quickly found my vehicle’s VIN (Vehicle Identification Number) when filling out the claim paperwork from hitting the pot hole.

With all my important documents together, I just need to find the correct category and slot to get the items needed. Keep using time wisely by getting these documents organized.

Question: What type of filing system is working for you? Please add your answer to the comments.

Vehicles: Category Overview

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Having completed the Credit Reports and Credit Cards, Personal, and Home Ownership categories, we have reached the last category in Box 1 of our important documents.

This last category holds all the documents related to our vehicles. I use the 3 remaining file openings in Box 1 for our vehicle paperwork.

Per Suze Orman’s Protection Portfolio (the program from which I have organized my documents), these are the documents included in this category:

Vehicle Checklist

  • Automobile titles and/or leases
  • Automobile insurance policies
  • Automobile loan documents*
  • Recreational vehicles titles*
  • Recreational vehicles insurance policies*
  • Recreational vehicles loan documents*
  • Boat titles*
  • Boat insurance policies*
  • Boat loan documents*

Items with an (*) indicate items not included in my filing system.

Beginning next week, I will explain the documents I keep in my filing system. As you organize your important documents, please adjust this system to fit your needs. The goal is to have a place for each of your documents to save you money, energy, and time when retrieving your paperwork. Happy organizing!

Question: What kind of filing system are you using? If using an accordion system, do you have enough room for all your documents? To add your answer, please leave a comment.

Home Ownership: Article Appraisals

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Today, we will complete the ninth file slot in our accordion filing system as well as the home ownership category. (Insert excitable utterance here. 🙂 )

I began the ninth file opening last week with the personal articles insurance policy documents. The last item in this file slot is the set of appraisals for my bridal and engagement rings.

With our personal articles policy, the receipts for our point-and-shoot camera and our video camera suffices our insurance company’s requirements for replacement should I need to file a claim for one of these two items. The receipt for my rings, purchased 13 years ago, would not cover the replacement cost should I lose the entire set. Therefore, I have my ring set appraised approximately every 5 years.

Looking at the date of my last appraisal, I am now overdue for another appraisal. (Guess I have another item to add to my To Do List.)

When I get the new appraisal, I will request a second official document to submit to my insurance company. With the new appraisal, the replacement cost will be updated, the premium adjusted (if needed), and the insurance company will have pictures and measurements in their file.

My appraisal will be filed in this ninth file slot. I currently have 2 other appraisals from years 2000 and 2005. The new 2011 appraisal will be added to these paper clipped appraisals and housed behind the personal articles insurance policy documents which concludes the items in my ninth file slot.

If I had other valuable items covered through my personal articles policy, I would put additional appraisals here (i.e., collection: stamps, coins, baseball cards; other jewelry items; electronic equipment; etc.).

Project complete! All my credit reports/cards, personal, and home ownership documents have a home. Keeping these documents together in an organized system helps me in using time wisely. Retrieving these documents is direct, quick, and easy. Keep working on your filing system to save you money (replacing lost documents), energy (sorting through piles of paper), and time (searching for needed items).

Question: How is your document organizing going? I would love to hear about your progress, even if you are just beginning. You need to start somewhere. 🙂 Please leave a comment with your answer.

Home Ownership: Personal Articles Insurance Policy

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We are making progress getting those important documents gathered, organized, and filed! Thus far, we have created a home for our credit report/credit card documents, personal documents, and now our home ownership documents.

Having filled 8 file slots, we are ready to address the ninth file opening from the front of the accordion file. My ninth file slot houses two additional sets of home ownership documents. The first set of paperwork is our personal articles insurance policy documents.

Description

If you are unfamiliar with this type of insurance and you have some valuable possessions, then consider this inexpensive type of policy. Per State Farm’s web site:

You may have more valuable possessions than you realize. Your Homeowners Policy [or Renter’s Insurance Policy] can provide some coverage, but with deductibles and limitations. A Personal Articles Policy can provide the additional coverage that you may need.

Some items the Personal Articles Policy may cover are:

  • Jewelry
  • Furs
  • Cameras
  • Musical Instruments
  • Silverware/Goldware
  • Golf Equipment
  • Fine Art (such as oriental rugs and paintings)
  • Collectibles
  • Sports Equipment
  • Computer Equipment

Coverage

Our personal articles policy was written back in 2004. We began our coverage by insuring my wedding and engagement ring set. Later, we added our cellular phones and our point-and-shoot camera. Then in 2008, State Farm cancelled all cellular phone coverage since too many individuals were losing their phones and upgrading to another model. We lost our coverage on our cellular phones, but then we purchased a video camera which we added to our policy.

Having the added insurance on these items assures a replacement if the item is lost or repairing charges if the item is damaged. Though we have not lost of any of the items, we did need to replace our first point-and-shoot camera. We took a trip by air. When we arrived at our destination, our camera case was cracked resulting in very dark pictures. When we returned home, we contacted our agent for instructions. We then did the following:

    1. Purchased a comparable model to our current broken camera. We ended up getting a better camera for less than we purchased the original because our exact model was no longer available for purchase.
    2. Took the old camera and new camera with receipt to our State Farm agent.
    3. Traded our old camera for a check in the amount of the new camera price, verified with the receipt.
    4. Removed the old camera from our personal articles policy and added the new camera.

The process was very easy, inexpensive, and worth our time and energy!

Cost

Your annual premium will depend on your insurance company’s rates and the value of the items you add to this policy. Our policy to cover my ring and our 2 cameras is $43 per year. Yeah! It’s only $43, and these items are fully insured. If we had not had this insurance when our camera broke, we would have spent much more than $43 to replace it.

In addition to saving us replacement costs for broken insured items, this policy also gives us an additional policy with State Farm. We receive premium discounts for having multiple insurance policies. For us, this policy pays for itself because our policies on our vehicles and home receive more of a discount than this policy cost.

With a very reasonable insurance policy, you can cover your valuable possessions. I highly recommend a personal articles policy for your peace of mind. Our policy continues to be worth our money, energy, and time!

Filing System

My personal articles paperwork consists of:

    • Original binder document
    • Documents indicating a change, addition, or deletion
    • Current policy
    • Receipt for the current annual premium

All of these documents are paper clipped together and housed in the ninth file slot of my accordion file under the category of home ownership documents.

If you have never heard of a personal articles policy, then I hope you have been informed from the description, coverage, cost, and filing system. Next week, I will share the second and last set of documents in this file slot which will complete the home ownership category. Keep up the document organization as you continue in using time wisely. Happy organizing! 🙂

Home Ownership: Appraisal

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The time has come to complete another file slot in our important documents filing system. Are you doing a happy dance? Come on . . . getting organized is exciting stuff.

I love to be organized. When I cannot find something, I get in panic mode, and I really don’t like it. I must find the searched-for item until it is found. Thankfully, I don’t lose too many items, but staying organized helps me to use my time wisely.

In this series on home ownership (the third category of our filing system), we have placed in this eighth file opening our deed(s), insurance (homeowner’s or renter’s), property tax documents, property survey(s), and title insurance. The next and final item is our appraisal.

Now getting a copy of our appraisal was more difficult than I thought it would be. For some reason, our mortgage lender did not want to supply us with a copy. At the closing, we stopped signing the paperwork until the appraisal was given to us.

I still do not understand why the lender did not want us to have a copy of our appraisal. The payment for the appraisal was included in our closing costs, so we were paying for an appraisal that the lender did not want us to see. Since we paid for it, we were not about to leave the room without getting a copy of that report.

Having prepared this filing system with a section for our home ownership documents prior to purchasing our home helped me know exactly what items to request and obtain at our closing.

Since this request was granted with some tension, I am assuming that the appraisal is not usually included with the closing documents. However, I left our closing with a copy of all the documents I requested.

If you don’t have a copy of your appraisal, you can either pay to have an appraisal done or just wait until you need one. Our appraisal (7 years ago) was $250 from our mortgage company’s in-house appraiser. Personally, I would not pay for an appraisal without needing it. Just know that when you get an appraisal, your copy goes in this file opening.

There you have it! These are all the documents housed in my eighth slot of my filing system under home ownership documents. Next week, I will continue with the home ownership documents housed in the ninth file slot. Keep up the great work, and happy organizing!

Question: I’m curious, did you receive a copy of your appraisal at closing?