Galvin and Associates

A few weeks ago I was on the road and having dinner at a restaurant. When I got up to leave, I thought I heard something hit the floor. I looked around, but it was dark. I assumed it was the pen I used to sign the bill. Twenty-four hours later, at the airport, I noticed a credit card was missing from my wallet. Putting two and two together, I realized I probably left the card on the restaurant floor.

Immediately, I called Kathe. She looked up the emergency number and cancelled the card. She logged in to our account and verified that nobody had used the card. Then she called the restaurant and they confirmed that they were holding the card. She told them I would not be back to the restaurant and they should destroy the card. Easy.

Instead of one card, what if I had misplaced my entire wallet? What if somebody stole it? How would I remember which cards I had in there? How would Kathe be able to find the numbers to call?

How long would it take you to recover from a setback like this?

Here is a simple life hack. Create an emergency file and write down the credit card name, number, and emergency phone number.

Kathe and I take a couple minutes around the New Year weekend to document the cards in her purse, my wallet, and the frequent flyer cards in my backpack. If anything happens to our credit cards, we can go the red emergency file and have all the information we need at our fingertips. Yes, it’s tedious. Yes, it takes a half hour. And yes, we hope we never have to use it.

Wouldn’t it bring peace of mind to know you had all of your information documented in an emergency file? Schedule a time to work on it. Decide whether you want to store this information on your computer or in a file. Refresh your list once a year. Then pray you won’t have to use it.

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