Greetings all;

Here is a good idea.

I just took all of my identity papers;
Birth certificate
Honorable Discarge
fingerprints (I am in law enforcement)
DD forn 214 ( separatetion from US Army under Honorable conditions)
current Driver's licence
Government ID
Insurance
and my will

And I have burned them onto a CD-R .

I did this for my children concerning their docs as well.

Needless to say they are all now in storage in a safe deposit box but a Sears Safe would work too. In case any of these items are lost you have a record and a virtual copy. I think I'll market this idea. The good thing is that they can't be used for Identification but will help you recoup numbers and dates in case of theft or lose. ( I also did a walk through of my house with a friend's digital camera and burned it to a disk.)

I hate insurance companies. They lie!

That is a pretty good idea!!!!

That is an interesting idea Stephen.
I already keep all my papers and such at the bank and don’t worry to much about them but the next time I need any of them for something I may do that myself.

My father in law did the fire safe thing for his records...he just never kept up on it...he passed away last year but before that he told my wife she was supposed to get his 67' newport convertible but because he didn't make a will{sepparate subject I know} things didn't go the way he wanted...her brother got it. It's never too late to make a will out for your wishes as well as for your accounts and legal docs...ya never know when it'll come! Just my two cents....

One issue with the CD-R is that I was told by a former co-worker, who knew more about such things, that CDs that you record, as opposed to professionally recorded CDs, is that the degrade over time. It might be something you'd have to re-record every couple of years or so.

It's a very good idea though.

I save a lot of valuable info to a portable external hard drive and keep it locked up in the fire safe.

Rodger's right, depending on the type of CD (blue or gold), you use to write to, they aren't "permanent' and will breakdown over time and become unreadable. Good for about 10 years tops (sounds like a long time but not really if you're talking about valuable information). Robin's method using an external HD in a fire-proof safe is more reliable provided it doesn't come into contact with any magnetic fields while in storage.