While it is very important to keep track of your day to day expenses as well as your longer term financial goals, you also need to ensure that your financial administration is up to date. If you need to urgently get hold of vital paperwork do you have any idea where you have filed it or even where you can find it?

I have to confess that after my move nearly two years ago I still have not got round to sorting out my financial admin and right now only have some vague idea of which boxes I can find my will and property papers. I also realised that if something happens to me it is going to be difficult for my husband or even my children’s guardian to find all my investment and insurance information which is why I recently downloaded My Lifetime Tracker.

My Lifetime Tracker is a great way to start organising your admin through a series of personal and business record-keeping templates which will guide you to collect, copy and store your vital information.

It contains five modules that you can download, fill in and save. It provides an essential summary of everything that you have and will require in terms of your (and your family’s) personal administration, your finances, your health (and wealth), lifestyle history, employment, property and estate planning procedures.

The various sections help you to keep track of your personal and family details, vital numbers, who to contact and where to find essential details.  It will take you through steps not only to locate and place your affairs in to a logical and efficient sequence; it will also guide you in carrying out tasks you may have put off doing – Living Will, organ donation, insurances, health checks,  planning a move and many other important steps. Once you have completed the task initially, the updates are easy.

There are five modules so you start with those that are most relevant to you and the cost if very affordable at R280 in total for all five modules:

Living Today – the main file which should be completed as a priority

Creating Lifetime Value – further details relating to your assets

Caring for Your Health – you and your family’s health details, in more detail, all in one place

Homemaking – full records and documents for your property and belongings

Leaving a Footprint – vital, comprehensive sections to do with estate planning and all that that entails

How does it work?

My Lifetime Tracker allows you to download the five templates in to your computer/tablet.  You can complete them in your own time and store them in a safe place either on your computer or on a disk.  This means that you can work independently of the Internet and only you or your nominees will have access to your records. All the details you fill in remain confidential to you and whomsoever you choose – you dictate how and where to save your My Lifetime Tracker information.

This system of record-keeping and personal organising files can all be filled in, or you can just use sections according to your needs and time of your life.  You can go back and fill in the other sections as and when they become relevant in your life.  It will even help you to write your life story for future generations.

Go to: www.mylifetimetracker.co.za  

This article first appeared in City Press