If you have valuables and essential documents on hand, then it is crucial to safeguard them at all times. If you think that your home is safe enough to keep your valuables and important items, then you are wrong. Did you know that a burglary happens every 30 seconds and the average loss of burglary is $2,661? Well, that is one alarming statistic.
The use of a safe deposit box
To put yourself at ease and give your most prized items the protection it deserves, consider securing your valuable items and important documents in a safe deposit box. It is a metal box that you can use to securely store your important items and keepsakes with different sizes that will match your needs. The safe deposit box is then placed in a storage facility with round-the-clock maximum security. Unlike the storage you used in your home to secure your valuable items, safe deposit box facilities use state-of-the-art security and technology to keep your items and ensure that no one can access the box except you.
Things to store in a safe deposit box
While the purpose of safe deposit boxes is to store your valuables and important documents, unfortunately, you cannot store EVERYTHING. Here are the ten items that you should store in a safe deposit box.
- Valuables
These valuables include your jewelry, vintage coins and collectibles, rare stamps, heirlooms, and antiques.
- Property records
If you have a property or recently purchased a property, then you may consider storing its deeds, lease, agreements, title survey, property survey, and other settlement documents in a safe deposit box.
- Car title
Your car is another property of high value. While it is no doubt that your car title is a very important document, you will rarely use it, so storing it in a safe deposit box is a great step.
- Legal personal documents
Other documents that are very important yet won’t be needed for your everyday use are birth certificates, adoption papers, marriage certificates, divorce documents, and death certificates.
- Social security card
You have your own unique social security number. The government uses this nine-digit number to keep track of your work history and your lifetime earnings. Your social security number’s last four digits are your serial number and the most important set in your SS card. It should not fall into anyone as it can be used to steal your identity and commit fraud. If you believe you won’t be using your social security card anytime soon, why not keep it secure in a safe deposit box.
- Stock and bond documents
Due to the advent of technology, bookkeeping for your stock and bond transactions can now be done electronically. However, if you still have documents regarding your stocks and bonds certificates and documents, you might as well keep them safe in a safe deposit box.
- Home inventory
Your home inventory is a very important document, especially in times of calamities and disaster. So instead of keeping it at home where the risk of flooding and fire is higher, why not put it in a secure place, right?
- Hard drives or flash drives with important data
In this digital time, there are many important soft copies that you will save in a hard or flash drive for backup. You can up its protection by storing it in a safe deposit box along with your other valuables.
- Treasured items
Sometimes you have treasured items that are worth more than several digits on the dollar sign — portrait with your whole family, old diaries, a compilation of love letters with your deceased loved one, and others. A safe deposit box can be a great place to keep these memorabilia alive for as long as you want.
- List of all your online accounts and passwords
A smart businessman knows not to use the same password in all his accounts. But you can’t also afford to forget which password to use on which account, so you will typically record it somewhere. You can’t keep this record secured and protected in a safe deposit box.
