Drop Dead List

I thought the term "Drop Dead List" was something already in common usage. I update my list each year around Christmas and this year I thought I would google around to see what others out in the wide world were doing with theirs. So far, all I can find is some band and a brand of clothes. The band is serious hardcore metal with a demo grade song for free and the clothes are a cross between Hello Kitty and The Monster Mash.

The concept of the "Drop Dead List" is easy to grab. If I were to DROP DEAD right at this second, what would my family need to know. This is not a replacement for a secret public journal or a list of children you fathered and never told your wife about. I am talking practical stuff here.

The Drop Dead List should answer questions like "where are the birth certificates?", "what is the password to get into the 401k website?", "where did we put those savings bonds we bought 8 years ago?". These are all good questions and they are easy for me to answer but my wife probably would not know the answers.

After my Mom died I helped to locat bills, contact creditors, and lookup other important info. I don't want anyone else to have to go through that for me and hence the Drop Dead list was born.

I have a problem with keeping detailed sensitive information in Word or Excel. I don't like keeping this sort of thing just laying around either. I have been using a program called eWallet by Ilium it is not ideal for a Drop Dead List. The print features are clearly not designed to be used. I don't have an answer for this.

I may do some sort of form or template that I can just write in my information. This keeps the format clean and the answers aren't recorded without encryption. I could put this form in the safe deposit box.

I don't know why I am thinking about this. This is not plesant to think about this close to the holidays.