This Yellow Scrap of Paper Came Through 9/11

And it can protect you from the next disaster...

This time of year always puts me in a reflective mood.

Today, I'm thinking of a simple, crumpled sheet of yellow paper...

On it - scrawled in blue ink - is a hastily written note from wife to husband.

This simple note is one of the more interesting "artifacts" from 9/11.

And despite that simplicity, the note conveys a powerful lesson.

During the anniversary season of the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks on New York, Pennsylvania, and Washington - and in the continuing aftermath of the Harvey and Irma disasters - this lesson is one folks must take to heart.

To help make that happen, let me share the tale of this simple yellow note - and the message it has for investors everywhere...

When the Sky Falls, It Pays to Have a Plan

Sixteen years ago this week, Franklin and Daria "Chip" Gaillard were U.S. Air Force personnel assigned to the Pentagon.

9/11They were also quite prescient folks, as it turns out.

Frank and Chip worked in different parts of that sprawling center of U.S. national defense. So the Gaillards worked out a plan in advance: Should there ever be an emergency, they agreed to meet at their car in the Pentagon parking lot.

When terrorists struck on that September morning in 2001, Daria was the first to reach the couple's car. Wanting to keep her husband from worrying, she took out that piece of yellow paper and penned the note you see at left...

"Frank - Sweetie I am okay. I'm w/ my office over by the Lyndon B. Johnson Memorial Sign. I'll stay there till you come. Love lots & lots, Chip"

Frank found the note, then found his wife.

With that worry addressed, the couple turned their attention to others who needed help. The Pentagon's daycare center was evacuating nearby, so the Gaillards helped move all the kids to safer places.

This story jumped out at me when I read it for three very good reasons.

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First and foremost, the Gaillards had the foresight to have in place an emergency plan - something so many investors and households can't say for themselves.

Second, that plan was tailored to their specific situation.

Finally, the events taking place all around us - the 9/11 anniversary observance and the two horrific hurricanes - remind us how important it is to think ahead.

Granted, leaving a car note on a windshield is the simplest of "plans." But, in one fell swoop, it addressed perhaps the single biggest, toughest challenge the Gaillards knew they might face - overcoming the Pentagon's immense heft and complexity to find one another.

9/11 paperAnd that plan also accounted for the "wild cards" that we often don't foresee. In this case, that "wild card" was the possibility that digital outages would make e-mail or cell phones unworkable, says Matt Wong, a writer at the Smithsonian National Museum of American History.

"What makes this story so interesting is the handwritten note," Wong wrote. "Today in our digital culture we have a variety of ways to let people know that we are safe. Text messages, voicemail, and different forms of social media can be used to get the information out to loved ones. Facebook's Safety Check feature, for example, is a quick way for people who are located in a disaster area to tell their friends and family that they are safe. [However], these all require a working cell phone network in order to be successful."

So the Gaillard's simple plan did its big job.

But the emergency/disaster plan we're thinking of is a bit more complex.

Protect Your "Life's Story"... and a Lot More

I'm lucky enough to be married to the single most organized woman on planet Earth. And we have a standing emergency plan - which we've actually had occasion to use once during the 17-plus years we've lived in our house.

I won't go over the whole plan here. But because finance and investing are the reason we get together on Fridays, I think the elements of the plan that are related to money are worth addressing.

For emergencies, we obviously have food, water, batteries, blankets, and shortwave/weather radios at the house.

In addition to those supplies, we also have all our financial statements, important documents, most important mementos and valuables (such as they are) in a safe. In situations where the family is forced to "exit stage left" for a safer location, it's supremely easy to transfer all that stuff to the portable (fireproof) strongbox we keep on hand for just such occasions.

When Sandy hit in October 2012, we did exactly that: We loaded up "The Box" (as we jokingly refer to it) and put it in my truck. We also transferred our pet rabbits into carriers we keep on hand (along with "bug-out" food containers) and loaded them and our Border Collie, Sterling, into my truck.

My wife, Robin; my son, Joey; and our pets (and our paperwork) then headed for my folks' house - which sits on higher ground.

The "stuff" that our plan calls for us to bring includes...

  • The deed to our house
  • Titles to our cars
  • Wills and powers of attorney
  • Birth certificates
  • Passports
  • Title insurance
  • Homeowners and umbrella policies
  • Auto-insurance policies
  • Joey's adoption and baptism papers
  • Marriage certificate
  • Most recent bank statements
  • Passbooks
  • Checkbooks
  • Most recent retirement and brokerage statements (printouts)
  • Robin's engagement ring
  • Our special watches
  • The tie clasp my folks gave me when I earned my MBA
  • A small group of family photos
  • And a compendium of your passwords or access codes

Plus, if you're a veteran, I'd include a copy of your military records.

In this day and age, these documents are akin to your "life story." And that makes them worth protecting.

Some of you may be surprised to see "printouts" of the most recent brokerage, bank, and retirement statements on the list. In fact, I can almost hear some of you saying, "Why do that when these things are available online?"

Let me tell you... we actually replace those printouts every month with the newest versions. I worry about the Internet being down for an extended period. Or data being destroyed in a really big catastrophe (in that kind of a situation, having printouts might help you get access to your money faster than someone who has no records at all).

Some of the newest weapons being developed around the world are known as "electromagnetic pulse" (EMP) devices. They can emit a "pulse" that can wipe out electronic devices - including the data stored on PCs, solid state storage, and phones - permanently.

Boxing Up Your Future

Some of you may prefer to keep all of these documents and valuables in a safe-deposit box at a bank (we also keep photocopies of our important documents in the box we rent where we bank). That's okay, too, if that's your preference - so long as you understand that, in a big emergency, a bank branch might not be open when you need to "bug out." You also need to keep in mind that some of these items - a will, for instance - probably shouldn't be left in a safe-deposit box.

Whichever way you decide to go, the important lesson to remember here is this:

Get all your important papers together and keep them together. Do the same for your valuables. Know where they are, and have a plan for what you'll do if you have to leave in a hurry.

9/11 artifactAs someone who treasures his family above everything else in life, I can't overstate how good it felt to pull the door shut and head for a safer place - knowing we had all our bases covered (or, at least as much as is ever possible during an emergency).

You don't want to find yourself in a situation where emergency crews are banging on your door and ordering you to evacuate - and you're scrambling around the house trying to pull all this stuff together. Or realizing, only too late, that you left something crucial behind... and that you can't go back to retrieve it.

If you haven't done this already, do yourself a favor and take some time to put together a plan of your own.

It won't take as long as you think. And once you create it, make sure it stays up to date.

One day, you may thank yourself for having done so.

As the images of Hurricanes Harvey and Irma remind us, bad things do happen. And while we can't always stop them, at least we can mitigate their impact on ourselves and our families.

About the author: Money Morning Executive Editor William Patalon, III - “Bill” to his friends - is a seasoned business and investing journalist with more than two decades of market experience under his belt. He has unrestricted, “24/7” access to the pros who run our investing research services – and he uses that access, too, for the benefit of his readers. Bill brings our very best investing ideas – $45,000 worth as a whole - to his Private Briefing subscribers every single day. Click here to learn more about Bill’s Private Briefing research service…

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About the Author

Before he moved into the investment-research business in 2005, William (Bill) Patalon III spent 22 years as an award-winning financial reporter, columnist, and editor. Today he is the Executive Editor and Senior Research Analyst for Money Morning at Money Map Press.

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