Lessons

Lesson Info

2:45 pm - Digital Assets & Details Worksheet

This is something I first put together when I kind of like that list I showed you earlier in the day which was you know, one of the list items was life insurance right like this on a list that's like a giant pile of stuff I need to dio but I didn't really have an idea of where everything wass it was enough years ago that we had fewer things online but there were a number of things that I knew the information to I handled most of our banking frankly in the family but there I was pretty surprised by the number of other things other accounts and other things that warrant in my name or weren't getting sent to me or we're getting e mailed into his account and I just wasn't aware of it you know for example are cell phones have been under one plan and it was him in his name and the bills kept coming to his email but a different email that I didn't have access to and so at some point my phone just got turned off because after a number of months that wasn't getting paid and it took me a week to...

get it out of his name into my name and hours and hours and hours on the phone with a cell phone company because I had to talk to this department and then I had to talk to this department and I had to call the phone and I had to call all of the banks and there were dozens and dozens of phone calls which was pretty excruciating because you have to talk to at least a couple of different departments first before you get to the right department, so eventually I realized that and I got so tired of it frankly, I would just pick up the phone be like hi, this is so and so can you just please connect me to that? I'm sorry for your loss department and that and because I was like that over it literally literally so we want you to not call the I'm sorry for your loss department and there's a way that we can minimize all of those phone calls by just knowing where stuff is right? So why don't we take a minute? We're going to crack open the workbook we're going to start with just a quick rundown of the main things that you touch every week and we're not going to capture everything but the things that you touch every week you know, like your email your atm card, you don't have to you don't have to write down your atm card and give it to me you can later if you want, I totally buy that there are some things on hold somewhere um but what we're trying to do is just get our arms a little bit around the main things that are most important, and then we'll talk about ways that we can log them and keep track of them either electronically or what I like to call the ferris bueller way of doing it, remember, from back in the day the movie, he must have you don't anyone that's okay? Ferris bueller, it was a movie that was very popular a long time ago. You, buehler and the funny part that I'm referring to is he would get sent to the principal's office each week. Maybe it was war games. Maybe I'm getting it wrong either one of those cute young guys, but it's one of these symbols, maybe. Well, that's, right? Maybe that's not getting confused that he would he would be sent to the principal's office each week, wait in the lobby, open up the administrators desk because she would write the password down on the thing and slide it back in so he could, like hack into the system later and say that he wasn't missing school so his parents wouldn't know anyway. Good cash war games. I love it when I self correct like that. Good, good, but they're both matthew broderick rights and, well, that was the eighties I've had many things to remember, something okay, so workbooks people, um banking is a big one and they're one of the things that I will tell you is that when it comes to details and accounts if your name's on it you can get at it it essentially you can call the bank you can call the utility company call the credit card you can call and if your name's there then you can have a lot of the information and if for some reason they want youto get the other person to sign, you can say, well, there is this thing but you don't have to argue about and you don't have to prove in most situations was my experience you don't have to have like I'm the executor of the state papers which take a while and it's frankly a pain you're like really like this is my says my gas card and now I have to talk to you and like seven of your bosses and send you this document that cost me twenty bucks to get notarized because but because of a thing like really but you have to because that's just the process so let's just get a around the process one of the ways to do that is to have your name on it and if your name's not on it knowing the information about it um social security numbers like how many of you know yours by heart you d'oh what? I don't mind it what aboutyour partners? Yeah, if anyone has kids, I don't know myself my sons by heart, you know, we don't even know people's phone numbers anymore. We don't know people, so I don't know why, but I mean, I could probably do my boyfriend's phone number, but I'm like it starts with, uh I don't know my phone number quick question you from yeah, please. Okay. This is from cooper blue has been with us all day since, you know, as far as keeping our digital stuff in on ly one place, should we should we keep multiple versions of backups and maybe something on the cloud potentially or in a safe somewhere? What do you recommend? And I'm going to add an addendum to that. How about scanning a lot of stuff and then get on one digital archive? Yeah, so that's a great question. And there are a number of ways you khun do that. So the the main ways is you can pay somebody toe, hold it for you, there's. Lots of products and services now many of them online. Um, where you can have them be in charge of your documents that khun scan them. You have one password. You have a couple names on it's almost kind of a break open in case something happens, digital safes and some people will charge one hundred or a couple hundred dollars a month for that peace of mind of knowing that they're somewhere and you just don't have to deal with it but it's a business and somebody else that you're trusting to do that there are also a lot of free online aps and kind of web based programs and you know, last pass is one of them there's like all of these other things that you can either do the free version or the paid version many of them are good like last passes one, for example and there's a number of other ones that do essentially the same thing where they keep track of your essentially you're online while you're online user names and passwords and store them for you you have a master password that can access the archive of stuff, and so the nice thing about that is that it will stay updated as you go because the average person has at least a dozen accounts and we all have a few pass words we use but you were not sure which one we use for this and then there's that old kozmo dot com account from forever ago that's still around or something right like there's just way just have this like dog kind watching first bueller when you're you know, like back in the day examples like that there's just old stuff adrift in a float like out that we've forgotten about that may or may not be from an email that we use anymore I five this is a good example I was writing down my e mails and then I remembered that my flicker which has ten thousand photographs in it is connected to a weird old yahoo account and I even I can barely remember it's just happens to be like saved in my browser right? No one would ever figure that out nobody would ever find it and then there would be my clicker a pelican lost right right and then there's papal some people used that's a good one paypal or other online banking or there's exclusive online banking services now where you don't ever go to an actual bank um but jim I want to get back to your question because it's it's a great one and we get this a lot how and where you should store it and who should get it there's a lot of questions about security some often the question about how and where I should store it not and who I should give it to is really about um making sure that once you take the time and effort to write it down that you you distribute it so people can know because that's all point of backing up in a lot of ways but then also how is it going to stay safe right and I just have to say that that does get back to another one of those it depends things so if you're on I would also say it depends on what is going to be easiest for you to update right? Like what kind of system do you use now if you're a pen and paper and you keep track of what you need to do on in a journal or like a to do list or a note book then writing this stuff down is not a bad way to do it and putting it in a safe place putting it in a safe a fireproof safe there's ways that you can do it in you know, in the real world that that's just fine but you don't want you know you want to write your social security number and your password on the on the windows right? Just in case online versions are also, you know, safe and protected as well, although there's no guarantees and every now and then I've gotten letters a few over the years, which is this bank account kind of got hacked by someone and so now we've had to redo this so well it's protected it's not guaranteed the same way having a notebook and us fireproof safes or a notebook in a hidden spot spot in your house is protected but it's not necessarily guaranteed either right I think that it's a um it's a risk management question like where? What are you most comfortable with and what is the what is the outcome of not doing it at all? And and the outcome of not doing it at all is, I think, much more painful then having your information stored somewhere, and I think the other thing to think about is we're already dealing with privacy and identity things anyway, right? Um, we need to take steps to make sure that our passwords and our accounts and our identities are protected online, but writing down the passwords and account and storing it somewhere safely in a password protected place in the cloud or through a service in my mind is not dramatically different than having all of your banking online already anyway. Yeah, but the deal is you want to make sure that it's protected you want to take steps to ensure that it's safe. If you're ok with the online space, then go for it. If you're not ok with the online space and old fashioned notebook works just fine and many, many situations, you just want to make sure that one or two people have it s o if if somebody needs to get at it, somebody who's important, you know, somebody who's close to you and or somebody who is the executor of your will would be able to find it so they could say, oh my god this person's got twelve retirement accounts or there's all this money sitting someplace else so so you can find it yeah, I think I'd be inclined to do bells yeah have have to back up so I will have a digital bank and squirrel doorway notebook I don't know because you know the apocalypse and no case of zombie a well, I guess that social security number really matters world made by hand depending on his picking up the information, some people might be more comfortable with one way exactly there that's a good point very good thinking of the people yeah it's others that we're doing this for yes, it doesn't matter to you yeah, yeah under accounts and passwords I don't know about you guys, but more and more of my software comes from online now where I never bottom package as my adobe suffer was hacked the other day so when you have your accounts and passwords I mean that's another thing because that's going to be quite an investment and especially because a lot of them are otto charge on olympus basis he might want to squint and stop it yeah that's it that is an interesting thing we do have a lot of us have a many kind of just auto pay things and so when we talk about money tomorrow, doing a quick look at your accounts will be like I haven't been to that gym in two years or you know if you're not if you're if you're not the type to like, balance your checkbook each month and there's often things on there that services that you're just not using anymore and you know you're like three dollars in your this dollars in your twelve dollars add up whether you need them or not so you can keep him online but I think that one of the things that's interesting is uh doing a little bit of the round up first right? So there's the accounts and the information that you use every day your banking stuff your retirement stuff just your utilities basic basic things where all of your online assets are on all of the different ways that those those khun live ten thousand flicker photos if not financially and asset is at the at the very least emotionally and in many cases both um there's also document it's and certificates that and policies and all of that that you want to have access to and so that is like your wedding certificate your marriage certificate there's the cute little one that you get that you signed but that's the cute little and that you put on the wall the actual document that that this standing right is a legally binding one and proof so having oh birth certificates and having death certificates and having marriage certificates and your home and your auto and insurance policies and having an area where your main documents you're kind of back up stuff to prove you know who you are and what you've got is important along with just, you know, paypal and the other things um but how many of you guys like where would you say you are on on the zero level which was that piece of paper that piles before or a ten which is like everything's already filed in this area called with a file name my important documents? So where are your about a seven? So what do you have yet to dio and where? Why are those the last things? So the insurance, all the insurance stuff and back to the umbrella thing we have an umbrella policy? I just couldn't tell you exactly what it is. I mean, all of the insurance documents and everything is auto pay, and so I also get those coming into my email as far as the policies themselves those aren't locked away and so that would be harder for her to find round but like birth death, social security, passports, all that stuff is locked away on dh so that's all in one spot do you have it in a fireproof safe fireproof safe in your house because, um we used to go store things at banks you know, you know, like you have the key and the other person has looking around their neck and we have to turn it like how many people have safety deposit boxes I know I'd actually like to get our documents offsite offside, right? I mean and that's actually after we're done with this that's what's going to be happening just because I mean I don't want them in the house right well and having having them in more than one place both both safely is a good idea to so if for some reason something happens to the house and the fireproof safe isn't as fire purpose you might have hoped that there are also some place else or while you're dealing with that somebody can go get it well there you know you're picking up right well while you're fireproof safe is too hot to touch still you know, like I got in a pizza I can't open it yet yeah yeah exactly interesting um so I mean there's a few things that are electronic that are on this list that aren't bundled with all that that same stuff but um yeah and then a lot of stuff his mood like all of our retirement and investment stuff that's with the retirement investment company way we have the account numbers but we don't have any of those documents in house right who has that do you? Well sometimes people that I included in the back of this um a sample spreadsheet and this is one that somebody had um I had shared with me and if it's essentially this list but put into excel spreadsheet and this is just an example of how to do it differently and so you can create a spreadsheet of this you can put it all on the list you don't half you may not necessarily have tohave every single thing, but if you have it listed of where all of those accounts are what they are and maybe the account number and who did who to call what you want is said know where everything is and it's the big pile so there's lots of needles in a haystack and you just need to know what the haystack ism and where it isthe yeah keeping his stock tidy haystack like this yeah, yeah because it's hard it does feel like you're searching for a needle in a haystack when there's a twenty seven thousand dollars keep pointing them it's not there for the twenty seven thousand dollars check in there and almost everything else um should get shredded. Yeah, ready for questions? Yeah touring it so this is from ruby sparks and how would you best deal or how would you advise dealing with either unfinished draft of your novel or unfinished creative property uh creative property that's great so I I'll share a couple of ideas that I've heard from other people and I would love to ask you guys especially our creative people here um I have started to use you know, there's different online documents and document share things you know I personally have been using google drive lately where you could take that unfinished novel and you convey dump it into one long doc and its online and it's stored in it saved if it's about keeping a version of its safe somewhere to there's uh kind of backup hard drives that you can take and put somewhere even those little teeny teeny stick kind of flash drives are like what hard drives were not that long ago and so you can put it so much stuff on a little thing and have it you know, one at home in one off site to the nice thing about having it online are on dropbox or one of you even base camp for a number of these different online kind of web based versions as you can get to it from anywhere and you have a password to it so it's protected it's not necessarily like encrypted and behind you know like fort knox but if you put it in a drop box of which there's a bazillion you know no room for everything then then she can get to it wherever she wants and there's a version kind of saved saved forever there's also lots of online publishing tools and self publishing tools where you khun create even early draft versions of a book, get those printed out and have a hard copy of them and I don't know I haven't finished a book, but I think even like having something in draft form that you're working on and tangible would be beautiful thing to do as well. Yeah, I guess it would be tricky just to make sure that you communicate with your exact get tricks air executive rex you're communicate what with your executive ricks to make sure that what your intentions are, I know with me is a photographer I have a ton of unprocessed photographic work that had been sitting around that I just haven't had a chance to get to yet but would not want my un process work really, I feel like that I mean there's things you know, the beatles had unfinished songs and like stuff, do they want that stuff going out? But I guess you have to kind of look at your creative work and be able to communicate to that person as to what your intentions are. I would imagine right and then ownership of those two rights rights to your creative property and what you're comfortable with being sold or continued to being sold, what you're willing to be shown and then there's, you know the half the half done stuff too, and you're right like the beatles I don't know I never met them but I'm not sure they really would have wanted all that to go you're right twenty five or fifty years later you're creative property um what your wishes are now and then where everyone else is that then like there's a little bit of it there's a space in time but and you're in your left behind essentially but things will grow in value and so could it be then that these unfinished photographs or these not retouched or not perfect ones are perhaps ways that we then get to feel closer to you because we can see them and part of your creative process and have it be not supposed to be a final work of art that's perfect but more about who you are and how you worked and and to feel closer to your artistic process like that's something that I love that you know, like the, uh, half finished sculptures from the master's yes, from the masters where it looks like they're almost kind of crawling out of the rock and they're beautiful and then they go down into not being finished, but yet the artistic like looking at those now there there perhaps more beautiful tow us, seeing that history and that richness than they might have been finished right okay, I would add to that just that intellectual property is an important thing to remember yeah, I made sure that I noted that down in my assets I maybe I don't have a lot of physical stuff, but my creative work is my my asset in a way and I also have, you know, three out of four grand parents are published authors so that that's something I'm familiar with the rights to the works did the family retained the rates, the works and laws are interesting there and I don't want to open that can of worms either, but just remember that you know, an unfinished novel is an asset just like a car. Um so just I like the idea actually a printing like having a hard copy even if it's you feel like it's not in that state yet um digital backups keep it in the cloud, maybe keep it with a close friend or family member first reader and then account for that and help you know account for that when you're evaluating what you have to pass on and I put some very specific instructions as to where the rights to my creative of work would be assigned on dit was different then my now sort of invisible financial assets but right but that's easy to forget that those air, those air also part of your legacy to use the great words that we have today yeah, I think one thing that's really interesting is a lot of people don't realize and you may have come across this too. I have photographer friends who specifically go out to garage sales toe look at what photos and negatives and rolls of film are being sold, and so even though you might not think of it in an artistic sense, people are buying those and repurpose singing I'm a t shirt out of it and doing it urban outfitters and getting rich, yeah, all kinds of things. So even if you think they're just family photos, which I never understand, my people put those in garage sales in a healthy state sales, but you know, you may not think of it as having value, but it mean there may be value there and it's also an interesting time where, um, you know, I've heard stories from different people who have written that something happens in on somebody died or there's a state sales on dh somebody flies in, and they have two weeks to deal with the house of stuff that is being filled and filled and filled for sixty years, and you have these treasures, but you also have two weeks to sort it out, you have your tired and your sad and at some point like you just you're I've heard of throwing boxes and boxes of stuff you get a sony toe drive up with a big dumpster and people throw and throw and throw things away that a year from now five years from now you might really wish you hadn't abut what you're capable of at that moment is not sorting through every family photograph its and hoping yours doesn't show up on one of those buzzfeed most awkward family photo things you feel like that's me in the bell bottom so you know like you don't you don't want that to happen necessarily and it's a great point about intellectual property and assets that may or may not be worth gazillions now but but could be or repurposed and when we're first going through will's one of the first things they said about people doing them incorrectly is not making them complete or thinking about all the angles and so the example is it family business or something that's a a tangible you know it's a view it's a family business restaurant um but it's business and your assets a cz well and I've been you know, a freelancer or working for myself for five or ten years so all of this stuff I have to do on my own as well and so um how does that work? And who do I want tohave what and making sure that you're thinking about that as it moves forward and if you have special wishes about some things never being seen writing those down is important and then once you're gone, then it's up to those the task force after you I mean ownership is one thing but then quickly releasing them to be seen as it is another yeah it's interesting well and now that we're all developing our personal brand, I find no I hereby dispense of my brand to teo you could very riebel cho pak right cat going to do with my website nothing. Your cat is a many celebrity. Yes, what will I do with those intellectual property rights? Right? My cat pictures there's a comment online from deb jeffrey who said that so happened us my mother in law had a journal from the time of lincoln and it accidentally got thrown out due to the time constraints no it's just like yeah, yeah, it does happen because you're you're maxed out and you don't know where things are we need to go um it's sad and we all you know that that's a sad story on dh um we all have something that you missed or lost or something got so it's just another remedy is to move to get more organized, more organized right now or the things that you care about most have a lot of them or have them safely stored someplace else