Chapter 1 KEEP A CALENDAR OF DAILY EVENTS UPDATED Keeping things organized is a necessary first step toward protecting your family and your assets. Good organization starts with a daily calendar of events. There are several reasons why you should have a calendar of daily events. The first is to know what you''re doing and when. A detailed calendar saves you time and money, because you don''t forget to do important things. Listing daily activities tells you where everyone is at any time. For example, if it''s a Wednesday at 4:00 p.m.

your children might be at soccer practice or their music lesson. You''re at your office. Your spouse or partner has a meeting from 3:30 p.m. to 5:30 p.m. near your home. If you know where everyone is all the time, or at least have a general sense of what they''re doing, it''s easy to develop a routine that friends and members of your extended family recognize.

In case of an emergency, people will know where to find you. Clearly, cell phones and pagers help, too, but there are times when those useful pieces of technology are turned off, or they don''t work, so it''s helpful to know your family members'' or friends'' routines. You probably already have a paper or printed calendar posted in the kitchen or some other high-traffic area so everyone in the family can see it. That''s a fine start, but make sure everyone in the family consults it daily and at the beginning of each week. Often, one adult in the family is the "calendar keeper" and the other adult is clueless. Make sure the schedule is everyone''s business. Consider posting your daily events to electronic calendars as well. A Palm Pilot or another hand-held electronic calendar will allow every adult to keep track of the family daily doings, as well as all of your important phone numbers and notes about each person listed in the phone book.

(Don''t forget to include an address, phone number, and directions for each event.) You can block out for years to come annual events like birthdays, anniversaries, and holidays. You can also include a lot of information about each event, including the address, phone numbers, and other details. If your Palm is linked to your computer, you can print up a daily, weekly, or monthly calendar and distribute it. You can also keep a "To Do" list. Another option is to post your family calendar on a Web site like Yahoo!, which allows anyone with the password to log on from anywhere in the world and check on what''s happening with you or your family. If you use Yahoo!''s calendar or another Web-based calendar, you can update it from anywhere in the world as well. That makes it easy to change dates from, say, the office, or home, or the business center of a hotel halfway around the world.

A GOOD START At the beginning of each year, write all of your important dates into your calendar. Certainly, you''ll want to include birthdays, anniversaries, holidays, vacations, and dates with friends, but more important, write down dates of financial consequence. For example, if you''re self-employed, you might mark down the dates you owe the IRS your estimated taxes. If you''re employed by a company, you might want to check on your withholding on October 1, to give yourself enough time to make any necessary adjustments so you don''t overpay the government. Consider this checklist a place to start, especially if you''re self-employed. January 15: Estimated tax due (for self-employed individuals). February 1: Deadline to send your tax information to your accountant or tax preparer. March 15: Tax day for corporations (if your business is set up as a corporation and works on a calendar year); last day to make contributions to retirement plans for the previous year.

April 15: Tax day for individuals; last day to make contributions to IRA, Roth IRA, for the previous year. Estimated tax due (for self-employed individuals). June 15: Estimated tax due (for self-employed individuals). September 15: Estimated tax due (for self-employed individuals). October 1: Check withholdings and adjust if necessary. December 31: Last date to open an IRA, Roth IRA, Keogh, or SIMPLE plan for the current tax year. You might also want to plug in the dates for your mortgage payments (typically the first of each month), credit card payments (you should remind yourself a week before they''re due to allow time for the post office to deliver it, unless you pay electronically), school tuition bills, camp bills, and any other important financial dates. Keep in mind when you''re filling out your calendar that it''s easy to get caught up in the minutia of daily life.

I want you to know specifically where your children are-at school from 9 to 3, and at soccer practice until 4, and then at a friend''s house until 6 and then home again. You should also know fairly specifically where your spouse or partner is during the day (at the office, at the store, lunch meeting out, in court, or wherever). But you don''t need to account for every minute of someone''s day. That''s a little too controlling for most of us. It''s more important to have a general understanding of a family member''s daily routine. That way, if something does happen, you''ll know where to call to try and reach someone. KEEP YOUR PERSONAL ADDRESS BOOK UPDATED Most of our personal address books look like the one I recently threw out. A small, hard -- or soft -- cover book about the size of my hand, with so many cross-outs, white-outs, and new names taped or pasted or glued over old ones that it''s difficult to know who lives where and what their phone number is.

Indeed, with all of the new area codes (like 678, 954, 847), it''s difficult to know whether you''re even calling inside the United States! If someone had to find a number in your address book in an emergency, could they even read the entries? Would they even know where to look for it? (Mine was in my home office, in a hanging file folder in a cabinet underneath my desk. Most of the time, I couldn''t find it myself!) Keeping an updated list of family and friends'' numbers and addresses at home and at work is essential when a crisis erupts. When my father died in a small town in Michigan, I dialed telephone numbers I knew by heart. But in an emergency, memories fail, and important numbers may be out of reach. On September 11, 2001, my New York City editor realized that her address book, with the work numbers of all her siblings--including one who worked right next to the Pentagon--was at home. It took dozens of frantic relayed calls to track everyone down and reassure them she was safe. She now has a complete set of emergency numbers at home and at work. Keeping your telephone numbers in an electronic format is a good idea for all of the reasons discussed in Simple Step 1: It''s easily accessed.

You can keep much more information, including e-mail addresses, Web sites, mobile and pager numbers, addresses of several homes, faxes (in case you need to send important documents), and notes on what day your doctor has off. They''re easy to update and you can print copies. Electronic phone books allow you to organize and find the information in any number of ways. You can search by last name, first name, name of company, and date (if you choose something like a Palm Pilot, which has a calendar attached). You can also sort names and phone numbers into categories, such as family, friends, doctors, financial institutions, or whatever you like. When you leave your home, you should either carry a Palm Pilot or another hand-held organizer with you that has your electronic telephone book on it, or a printout of your current phone list. Keep another printout at home, in an accessible place, and another copy in your home safe (see Simple Step 7). Update regularly.

A GOOD START Declare "Address Amnesia/Amnesty Day," and send mass e-mails to family and friends asking them to verify and update all their important information. (While you''re at it, admit you''re a little fuzzy on your nephew''s birthday and snag all those dates too.) In addition to keeping you organized, your electronic phone list has several satisfying uses, including giving you a big head start when you send holiday cards or invitations to parties. On your computer, you can drag the addresses over and create mailing labels, which you can then run off on your printer. You can create return address labels and print them yourself, eliminating the need to rewrite your name over and over again. For those who remain steadfastly opposed to all things electronic, consider starting a new address book, and using the return labels on friends'' cards to keep it updated. Once your address book is updated, photocopy the pages so you can keep an extra copy at home and one with you at all times. Again, there are several electronic address books-including Yahoo!, MSN.

com, and at America Online-that will allow you to access your phone numbers from any computer. Ultimately, this may be your most flexible choice. I''m not concerned about someone hacking his or her way into your private information as long as you stick with the brand-name Web companies, such as these three. Privacy is crucial to keeping their clientele tuned in, and these companies have spent millions to ensure that your information is safe. CONSTRUCT AN EMERGENCY CONTACT LIST Once you have your phone book updated, it''s time to create a contact list of emergency names. Even if you have all of your phone numbers in one place, someone else looking at the list may not have.