Organizing Your Household Financial Records

Well organized financial records can make the difference between financial gain or loss. Some people have perfectly efficient filing systems using shoe boxes or accordian files. However, most people need three storage places.

Types of Storage Places

Safe Deposit Box. For a small fee, you can rent a safe deposit box at a financial institution. It's the best place to store valuable or hard-to-replace documents, such as

• Birth certificates;
  
• Citizenship papers;
  
• Passports;
  
• Marriage/divorce papers;
  
• Military discharge papers;
  
• Personal Property Inventory;
  
• Property deeds/pur-chase papers;
  
• Legal agreements;
  
• A copy of wills and codicils;
  
• Financial documents: (bonds, CDs, stock certificates, IRA documents);
  
• Purchase/sale receipts for all investments; or
  
• Tax records.

• Canceled checks;
  
• Recent income tax returns;
  
• Insurance policies;
  
• Living will;
  
• Power of attorney;
  
• Testamentary letter;
  
• Original copy of wills and codicils;
  
• Burial instructions; or
  
• Warranties.

• Power of attorney;
  
• Living will;
  
• Burial instructions;
  
• Copy of will and codicils; or
  
• Name and addresses of people named in trusts, will, and power of attorney.

When in doubt, don't throw it out! In general, the following records should be retained permanently:

• Income tax return, worksheets, and documentation for deductions; (The Internal Revenue Service recommends keeping records for three years; however, tax records are often useful in divorce proceedings and other situations in which your financial history is relevant.)
  
• All records that might be used as proof of ownership, such as deeds, mortgages, purchase agreements, and canceled checks (file these checks with the papers relating to the transaction); (Records of ownership may be needed for settling an estate or settling property disputes.)
  
• Proof of debt repayment (including canceled checks);
  
• Insurance accident reports and claims;
  
• Retirement and pension records;
  
• Proof of date and price of purchase for all investments or other property that might be sold someday or transferred to heirs; and
  
• Correspondence relating to legal and important matters.
  

Your personal finances are like a mini-business. They deserve to be organized and operated efficiently.

Source: A Money Management Workbook, AARP, 1992, p. 13-14.

Your Health

Build from the Base

The old way to plan menus was to start with the meat dish and then plan other foods around it. This system began because meat was often the most expensive part of the meal. Unfortunately, it often led to a pattern of "meat and potatoes" eating. Not enough vegetables, fruits or grain products were included in the meal and the meal was often high fat. Today the recommended way to plan menus is to build from the base.

The base of the Food Guide Pyramid is the bread, cereal, rice and pasta group. You need more servings from this group than from any other food group. Getting 6 to 11 servings from this group builds the base of a healthy diet that is high in carbohydrates and low in fat. Foods from the bread group are also good sources of fiber and B vitamins.

One serving is equal to one slice of bread, ½ cup of hot cereal like grits or oatmeal, or 1/2 cup of noodles or rice. With these small serving sizes, it's easy to include 2 to 3 servings of grain products in one meal.

Building on the base, add vegetables and fruits next. You need a total of 5 to 9 servings from these two groups every day. Then top off the meal with smaller amounts of foods from the meat and milk groups. You only need 2 servings from each of these groups.

Try the following recipe for a meal that starts from the base of the pyramid. Add a glass of skim milk for a complete meal. "Rice and Easy" may be eaten cold or hot.

RICE AND EASY

2 cups cooked rice (cook in chicken broth for more flavor)
1/2 carrot, cleaned and grated
1/2 cup cooked English or black-eyed peas
1 apple, peeled, cored and grated
1 (6 oz) can water-packed tuna, drained
1 tablespoon oil (olive oil for more flavor)
1/2 teaspoon curry powder
1 teaspoon lemon juice
1/8 teaspoon salt

Mix rice, carrot, peas, apple and tuna. In a separate bowl, combine oil, curry powder, lemon juice and salt. Sprinkle oil mixture over rice mixture and toss. To serve cold, chill in refrigerator for 2 to 3 hours. To serve hot, place in pan that has been sprayed with a non-stick spray. Cover and bake 30 minutes at 350 degrees.
Yield: 3 (1 cup) servings

Nutrition Analysis per serving:
Calories 295
Fat 6 g
Cholesterol 117 mg
Sodium 282 mg

Your Relationships

Senior Men and Their Friends

Since his retirement, you can usually find George at the local fast-food restaurant every morning, drinking coffee and telling tall tales with three or four of his friends. Or in your community, maybe these guys hang out on the bench in front of the hardware store, keeping track of local happenings. More than likely, these friends are other men and are also retired. It seems that they are a standard feature of many small towns.

This group of men friends provides important social support for each other -- they watch out for each other, keep track of each other's ailments, commiserate when losses occur, and generally fill an important friendship need for each other. Since such friendships among older men are so common, what specifically does research tell us about these groups? Surprisingly, very little!

Many studies of friendships among seniors have focused on women and their women friends, or looked at mixed groups of men and women. Even in these studies, defining "friendship" in measurable and meaningful ways has been difficult. With these research gaps in mind, here is what we think we know about senior men's friendships:

• generally, men report having fewer than or about the same number of friends as women do, at all stages of adulthood. Obviously, the number of friends you have can depend on many factors, such as how active you are, your personality, and how many people are close by.
  
• who has more close friends -- senior men or women? Generally, women more often than men report being emotionally closer to their friends. For senior men, more of their close relationships were with family members.
  
• senior men are more likely to consider women and other men among their close friends; senior women are more likely to have just women as friends. Maybe this is because as people age, the number of women increasingly outgrows the number of men in the same age groups. It may also be socially easier for senior men to initiate friendships with women than the other way around.
  
• what roles do senior friendships play? Men usually look for "someone to pass time with," while women typically look for "someone to count on." Given the traditional gender roles of many seniors, this is probably not surprising.
  
• senior men are less likely than women to share personal information and concerns with their friends. In many cases, older men turn first to their spouses for companionship, and then to friends. For senior women, the reverse is often true -- they look first to friends for companionship and second to their husbands. This may explain why the transition through widowhood often goes more smoothly for women than for men.
  
• how long do senior men keep friendships? Compared to younger men, senior men maintain friendships longer. Younger men are more likely to come and go in friendships, but seniors seem to settle in with a group and stay with them. This may explain why, when seniors are close to a group of other seniors, losing one of the group through death or relocation can be more traumatic than for younger friends.

The University of Georgia and Ft. Valley State College, the U.S. Department of Agriculture and counties of the state cooperating. The Cooperative Extension Service offers educational programs, assistance and materials to all people without regard to race, color, national origin, age, sex, or disability. For large print, taped or braille editions of this publication, contact the author.

An Equal Opportunity/Affirmative Action Organization Committed to a Diverse Work Force

DP-RMHD-095 December, 1995

Issued in furtherance of Cooperative Extension work, Acts of May 8 and June 30, 1914, The University of Georgia College of Agricultural and Environmental Sciences and the U.S. Department of Agriculture cooperating.

Gale A. Buchanan, Dean and Director