Being Prepared!!!

Have only just come into this thread, and as Biker has said gulp. Am now getting my rather muddled life in order. I need to give passwords and the like to the children. The only thing is my children are a bit head in the sand and hate to talk about my demise.I think they hope I'm immortal.

Like Kittylester I have three passwords, but more by accident than design. I also have a spread sheet hidden in an unexpected folder with an unexceptional name. The three passwords are labelled 'usual1', 'usual2' etc and I indicate which one is used for each password protected website.

I plan to send my children an email with the key to this file for them to keep on the basis that any one trying to find the key is going to have to be very determined to first hack my children's computers to get the key and then hack mine to find the spread sheet and then raid my Amazon account!!

oh dear..gulp!! think i best get my paperwork sorted lol...passwords..lol..yes they can be quite complex.as we have to give "clues" favourite films etc..but then that would be too easy.I must make a list tomorrow.

My brother in law suggested that you only ever use 3 passwords because most sites give you three chances to get it right. I now do this and I think it's a great idea. My husband knows the three and I know his three so, unless we are killed together in a dreadful accident, we should be able to function enough to get by for a bit.

I still get invitations from facebook to make friends with someone who died 2 years ago this month... Poor lad.

I have a list – growing ever longer – of clues to my passwords, just so that I get the right ones for whichever site. For example, against gransnet, it might say "middle brother date", so that I know it's my brother's middle name and birthdate. (It doesn't – I haven't got a brother.) Whether Mr absent would ever be able to work out what these mean is another matter all together. I guess he might be able to do it with the help of absentdaughter. A puzzle to keep them happily occupied and out of mischief for hours. I shall have to give him the Sainsbury password and, possibly, another one or two, when I go off to New Zealand for the birth of my grandson in March as I plan to be away for 4–6 weeks and we can't have the cats going hungry.

I have not given internet passwords on my list for DDs, just account numbers. I have Lasting Power of Attorney in place, they have a backlog so it took 9 months from first visit to solicitor until completion. This would have made life very difficult had an emergency situation already occurred, so I am pleased that I did it, although the solicitor's fees were not cheap!!!

No it's not, Grannylin On FaceBook it is, apparently, very difficult to delete the account of a dead person; I still see the name of a friend, who died over a year or two, there.

Geraldine?????

I suppose we ought to leave the password for Gransnet too!I've already pondered how we would know if someone had died...or is that too macabre

We found Mum's bank very helpful and efficient when we first started to deal with her estate. I think it just took a confirming letter from the solicitor to get things going. However I agree that it might be very different dealing with an acute, short-term problem. I really must get that Power of Attorney sorted out!

bagitha I have thought that too . The bank can have no idea who is operating a bank account on line. I am interested in having access in the event of my husband being out of action in the short term or an emergency! The other stuff is so I know who to contact if the very worst happens.

I wrote my funeral arrangements out when I was in the depths of chemotherapy, and have just been back and rewritten them into something shorter and simpler!

In the days before passwords, what happened to bank accounts and so forth? Won't the same checks will apply now? I might decide at some point to appoint someone with power of attorney over my affairs but I won't be leaving records of my passwords to anything or for anyone because I think that's rather a risky thing to do. If someone would like to convince me that it really would be a good idea, I'm listening, but we are told not to tell others our secure passwords, nor to write them down in a recognisable form.

So many useful tips on this thread.Must act on them and get things sorted and organised.
Live alone but in a terraced house with good neighbours. One has a spare key.
No underarm hair-wouldn't care anyway.
NY resolution to list my passwords and document locations,pack my hospital bag and look into leaving my body for research.

Going back to car keys: we leave ours in the car when it's at home. Living up a very steep, pitch dark hill and "off road" up a bumpy track does have its advantages in that respect.

Mind you, I used to do the same with my old Fiesta in a suburban area of Oxfordshire. It was so old and scruffy – dent in the back bumper (not by me), moss growing on it, 'mobile shed' look about it with allotment tools in the back, string tying up a rattly bit of the front grill, etc – nobody but me wanted it. I loved that car. DDs 1 & 2 still talk about good old Diggory.

When my children were small my husband's work took him away from home a lot and I was worried what would happen if anything happened to me in his absence so I arranged with my parents that whenever he was away I would ring them every morning and if I didnt they would ring me. I was also fortunate that DS was born calm and responsible so by the time he was three he knew his name and address by heart and knew that if mummy ever went to sleep and wouldnt wake up he should dial 999 and tell the policeman.

More usefully to us now Age UK has a form that you can fill in with all the information anyone may need if you die or become incapacitated, which you leave somewhere accessible. It can be found at the end of the following document on their site:
www.ageuk.org.uk/Documents/EN-GB/Factsheets/FS27%20Planning%20for%20a%20funeral%20November%202010_fcs.pdf?dtrk=true

kittylester

My husband, after much nagging, made a list of internet banking passwords, insurance policies, pensions, investments etc. He then bought a very small safe (not telling you where it is but it's QUITE inaccessible!) and put the list inside with passports etc.

Then, he remembered something else he needed to put on the list, got it out of the safe and now keeps it in his sock drawer so he can jot things down on it without getting at the safe! At least a burglar wouldn't want to go in his sock drawer!

I agree, Annobel - no young tearaway would be seen dead in my little Fiat Panda!

Doesn't it stand to reason that they would use the car to transport smaller valuables? i don't think they would have any better reason for taking my incomparably scruffy Yaris!

I have heard of others recommending that you should leave your car keys in an obvious place because if you get broken into at night they are most likely to take the biggest, most portable thing - your car and leave the rest of your stuff and you alone.

I read a novel recently - can't even remember the title - and one of the characters was a security expert. What I thought interesting were tips like:

If there's a fire, have you got a key upstairs to throw down to the emergency services? You have? Good. How will they see it in the dark? Keep it in a white sock in your bedroom. (Needless to say, I have not done this!)

Always leave your keys in the same place near the front door? Great - the thief can then load up your car and drive off.

Etc etc

But I do have a "going to hospital bag" packed for me - the premis being that I could pack for DH, but he most certainly couldn't for me!

gracesmum what a week that was!

One of my worst weeks was nearly 2 years ago while I was still working. It was half term and I as Head of German was taking a group to near Hamburg on the Friday for a week with one younger male teacher.
Monday middle D was knocked off her bike at Elephant and Castle - but not injured
Tuesday dog diagnosed with an eye disease which might have led to her going blind
Wed DH admitted to Royal Free with one of his fevers (cholangitis) and Thursday eldest DD (6 months pregnant) at Selly Oak Hospital with suspected DVT. Because it was half term all other possible staff were away .
OK
middle D was fine and promised to take care of herself
Kennels were happy to administer eye drops to dog
DH "safe" in hospital and it occurred to me that I could fly back from Hamburg just about as quickly as driving or train from here if needed in London
eldest D was fine, just "normal" pregnancy swelling.
So I went to Germany and all was well, but it was at that point that I decided to retire.
There are only so many "plan B's" available!

I don't know if the French are more honest or more trusting, but on my long walks I often pass isolated houses, obviously holiday homes, with some expensive goods just left outside - large toys, gardening equipment, planters, and stacks of very expensive firewood. It crosses my mind that they wouldn't last long in England.