Useful documents to bug out with

Bill Masen - March 6, 2021

Useful Documents to Bug Out with

If TSHTF and you need to leave home for whatever reason do not forget to take (copies at least) of your families ESSENTIAL DOCUMENTS with you, either as paper documents OR as a digital copy on a flash drive.

The sort of documentation to take depends on your own situation but as a generalisation

1 National or State Health cards or NHS number cards

2 Driving licences

3 Gun or CCW permits

4 Deeds for property

5 Rent payment records / Local or State TAX records

6 Birth Certificates / Marriage Certificates

7 Service / Discharge documents

8 Professional Qualifications

9 Inoculation Records

10 Passports

11 Personal / House / Car Insurance documents

12 Vehicle Log book / Pink slips

13 Bank and Savings details

Others as you see fit or need such as hunting / fishing permits, Medical Licences to practice docs etc

7  

List of all allergies if no medical alert bracelet, adverse reactions (bad side effects and unable to take again) to medications, any chemical or environmental, or seasonal allergies.

Don’t count on electronic medical records in a disaster. The reasons for taking any prescribed medications should be on the list with you. Some meds are prescribed for “off-label” reasons.

You don’t want to be unconcious and unable to tell medical persons why you are taking a drug for off-label uses.

Include any OTC medications and street drugs on your med list. It matters.

A copy of all the items in Bill’s list above should be in your bank safety deposit box (not precluding any original documents that should be placed in safety deposit box).

If your ID/Wallet is lost or stolen, it is easier to reconstruct your identification with the copies at home or at the bank.

 

Bill, real good and timely.

Re 4; Recommend carry proof of ownership for items that can be viewed as expensive/”sensitive” such as gyro-stablized binoculars w/ compass. If a serial number item, best to have this reflected on proof of ownership.

Re 6; Documents for any adopted minor children traveling with person during evac/BO.

Re post 13/Other; Not a document requirement but most advantageous for a volunteer professional responder to carry even an old ID card. Volunteer emergency responders get priorities not given to those sitting in traffic.  

 

I agree with you bob, it’s important to have serial numbers of your items to prove ownership. I also like having digital pictures, copies of receipts, warranty info, and things like model numbers of all those expensive purchases. I have a folder of all my purchases, and inside each is a folder for each item that contains all these documents. It makes warranty claims with insurance easier. 

To make tracking all of this easier as soon as I buy something and before I unbox it, I take all these pictures and document things before I start using it. 

 

Thank you Supersonic.

You’ve got the proper approach to records management.

Our national education system does not teach this.  

 

Thanks Bob. You are right, it’s not something that is taught in school today, but has to be learned somehow on our own afterwards. I think that’s why many don’t keep good records and such, because they might not think it is important or necessary and takes effort to learn and practice.

 

Good topic. 

I use a password manager, scary thought is to lose access to all those randomly generated ciphers to everything from my life savings to ThePrepared.com— not just in a bug out but anytime. Generally I expect 1Password to be available if anything that needs a password is but …

You could export them and print them out (kind of scary) and put them in a safety deposit,, or put them on a small thumb drive—password protected of course ;^)  email them to yourself (if you have persistent storage), keep them on your phone, again protected somehow;  or tattoo them in an inconspicuous location.

 

I export a copy of my password manager every month as an extra safeguard if something were to happen to it. 

Might stay away from tattooing it onto myself though 😉