A good friend needed a copy of her authenticated birth certificate. Years back, she was able to get an authenticated copy in Davao City where her birth was registered. Though based in Manila now, she’s willing to go to Davao City for this. Good news. You don’t have to go that far or wait long […]

Whether you use digital storage or hard copy storage, you have to organize your documents so these can be easy to find. Remember that your purpose is to make your documents easy to locate, so do not get lost in the maze of those beautiful organizers. There are simply too many choices in the market, […]

Having identified the 15 kinds of family files that you must keep, you might want to know where to keep them. What are your storage solutions? There are a variety of choices depending on the items to be stored, your purpose and your budget. There is no one-size-fits all solution, so you must decide which […]

We now come to the  last five kinds of family files that you must organize and keep.These are academic records, professional and employment records, identification cards, lists and inventories, and valuables. Academic records You need to keep academic records because these are needed in pursuing higher studies, applying for certain professional positions, for immigration purposes, among […]

So far we have talked about 6 kinds of family files that you must keep and organize. These are civil registry documents, passports and travel documents, real estate papers, financial documents, vehicle papers, and licenses. Today, we will deal with four very important files: insurance, power of attorney, Last Will and Testament, and medical records. […]

So far we have talked about three kinds of family files that you must organize. First are civil registry documents like birth and marriage certificates. Second are passports and travel documents. And third are real estate papers. Now we come to three more categories, and these are documents about your money, vehicles, and licenses. FINANCIAL […]

Your passport is your international ID document issued by your government. It is a record of your name, birthday, birthplace,  and nationality. By law, you do not own your passport. Your government does.  If you are an American, US law states that a US passport  “at all times remains the property of the United States […]

THE TEN-MINUTE TEST If you had to leave your home in an emergency, and could only take three things with you, what would these be? Could you easily grab your important family files before swinging out the door? Let us say that there is no emergency, but you need a document urgently. For instance, your […]

Wrong entries in your birth certificate can give rise to problems. These can be errors in the spelling of your first name, birthday or birthplace. How can you correct these? Some people have tried to correct their birth certificate by hand, believing that it’s the right thing to do. However, that is certainly not the […]