Financial Fitness with Alan Akina - Disaster Preparedness

As we found out last month, it is always wise to be prepared for a natural disaster.

That includes being financially prepared. Alan Akina has more in this week's Financial Fitness Tip.

Good morning, everyone. In the wake of the devastation in Japan and the near misses we've had in Hawaii, I wanted to do a couple special segments on financial planning for natural disasters. Today I will share with you 3 things that you can do to prepare your finances. First, identification. In some severe cases, we might have to prove who we are just to get access to our own resources and to seek recovery assistance. So the solution is, store a photo ID for each member of your family in a safe and secure place that can be easily reached. Keep extra photos of family members just in case you lose someone. Second, cash. Now I suggest that you carry at least $20 to $30 in cash per member of your family on hand, or more if you possibly can. Now this will allow you to pay for temporary expenses or evacuations if there's no credit card processing or ATMs available. And third, list of accounts. Keep a list of all of your financial accounts, account numbers, and passwords. Be sure that it's encrypted or use abbreviations so that if someone got a hold of it, they would not be able to use it. You might even be able to store all of this on a jump drive. Now join me next week as I share with you 3 more tips to protect your finances from disaster. This information is on the Wake Up Today page at khontu.com. I'm Alan Akina. See you next week.