I recommend setting up a filing system with a 1” or 1 ½" 3-ring binder to keep your documents, correspondence, and notes in an organized format.  

Now, you might scream, “I can’t even think straight let alone get organized!” 

I’m just saying, for the sake of your sanity, buy a binder.

You just need to follow some simple directions on how to keep track of the most arduous, soul-sucking, ridiculous paperwork you will encounter over the next few months.

It’s a shit-ton of paperwork. 

Which is why I implore you to just get a binder with some tabbed dividers and pocket folders. You will thank me.

Label your tabbed dividers with the information applicable to you:

• Social Security Info

• Mortgage

• Income/Expenses

• Budget

• Other Death Benefits

• Account Management

• Taxes

• Insurance

• Social Media

• Miscellaneous

If the thought of organizing in a binder with color-coded tabs makes you want to scratch your eyeballs out of their sockets, and/or you don’t want to kill a bunch of trees, you can keep electronic copies of your documents instead. 

Just scan the documents into your computer as PDFs and save in a similarly organized folder structure on your computer.

Go ahead. Be a binder rebel!

Whether you keep a binder full of paper copies or choose to save scanned PDF copies on your computer, you can use the same labeling/file format to stay organized.

And, of course, you can rename your file system however it suits you. 

You’re a grown-ass adult, you can do whatever you want 😜!

Office Supplies List

Here’s a handy-dandy list of office supplies you’ll need to get started.

• Printer

• Printer paper

• Ink cartridges

• 3-Ring binder

• Tabbed dividers

• Pocket folders

• Sheet protectors

• 3-hole punch

• Stapler

• Erasable Pens

• Shredder

Make Copies of Everything

As an added precaution, make copies of ALL your applications and correspondence.

It’s especially important that you file duplicate copies of all your applications and communications to keep track of what you sent, when you sent it and to whom. Keeping copies of everything in your binder will go a long way toward keeping your sanity in check.

I completed tasks, forgot I completed them and redid some of the processes all over again. Save yourself the time and aggravation of forgetting what you did and when you did it because you WILL forget.

Trust me on this. I didn’t have a binder.

I should have.

End of story.