Monday, June 26, 2006

What to Keep in a Safe Deposit Box

Check out this post at All Financial Matters for a great summary of what important financial documents should be kept in a safe deposit box, or at least a fire-proof safe in your home. I've been meaning to buy one of those fire-proof boxes for years-- I wonder if they are tax-deductible, as the rent of a safe-deposit box is?
Of course, even safe deposit boxes aren't 100% protected, as this article cautions... but still, the chances of your bank being blown up are probably far less than of your house burning down, so it's better than nothing!

Here are some fireproof safes available at Amazon. Small ones sized for documents start at under $40.

4 comments:

Anonymous said...

I purchased two of those portable fire-proof safe boxes when I moved into my new home. I keep one box in my home and the other locked box is kept with a trusted family member. The second box has copies of everything in the original box. The cost of buying two boxes and making copies of the important documents was less than a one year lease of a safety deposit box.

Anonymous said...

... even safe deposit boxes aren't 100% protected...

Indeed. This brings to mind the DBS incident in Hong Kong a couple of years ago when the bank accidentally trashed 83 active safe deposit boxes during a renovation.

Tiredbuthappy said...

My problem with safe deposit boxes is that if you're sharing it with someone, there's a freeze put on the box for some time if they kick the bucket. So it's a really bad place to keep the only copy of the will, for example.

Anonymous said...

i have heard that fireproof safes should be certified for at least 2 hour burn time. might want to keep that in mind if shopping for one.

a more frugal idea is to simply use the freezer. under the same circumstances, your freezer's contents will be spared (maybe even more so than a safe's). of course, consider using a freezer ziplock bag to hold copied documents, & etc, etc.

~ib