Your home, the things inside it, and the vehicles in your driveway. These pages hold the facts you need once in a while and always seem to scramble for, plus the records that pay off when something breaks, gets sold, or gets damaged.
Why it matters
Day to day, your home page is the dashboard of information people ask about most: how the property is titled, where the deed lives, which account the mortgage draws from, and when the furnace was last serviced. It also helps you plan for big expenses, like a roof that’s getting old.
Your inventory is a warranty and receipt page. When the dishwasher dies fourteen months in, the question is whether it’s still covered, and the answer lives in two places: the warranty expiration and where the receipt is.
Vehicle records pay for themselves. A complete service history raises resale value and settles warranty arguments. The page also holds the things that are annoying to look up, like tire size, tire pressure, oil type, and the VIN.
In a disaster, these pages matter most. An inventory made before a fire or flood is the difference between a smooth insurance claim and months of reconstructing what you owned from memory.
What to gather
- How your home is titled, and where the deed and mortgage paperwork are
- Your home’s major systems and their ages: roof, furnace, water heater, and appliances
- A household inventory, room by room, with photos or a video walkthrough
- Warranty expiration dates and where each receipt is kept
- For each vehicle: the VIN, where the title is, the loan payoff, and the insurance policy
- Service records, and the tire size, pressure, and oil type
Where to find it
Your closing documents and property tax statements have the title and deed details. Manuals and stickers on the appliances themselves usually show model numbers and install dates.
For the inventory, the fastest start is a slow video walkthrough of every room, opening closets and drawers as you go, saved somewhere off-site. Fill in the details for valuable items over time.
For vehicles, your registration and insurance card have the VIN, your lender’s portal has the payoff, and your repair shop can usually print the service history.
A free resource
United Policyholders: a nonprofit that helps people get what they’re owed on insurance claims, with free home inventory tools and disaster recovery guides.
What the course adds
The Managing Physical Assets module has three workbook pages: Home, Inventory, and Vehicle. Each lesson walks through the page, where to find every field, and what “done enough” looks like.
Like every page in the book, these follow one rule: record where a code or key is kept, never the code itself.
Facts of Life Book Course · $29 · Self-paced · Included in Off The Clock, On Purpose
Keep reading
- The Facts of Life Book: what it is and how the course works
- Financial Information
- Create an Emergency Plan
Disclaimer: For educational and informational purposes only. This is not medical, financial, tax, or legal advice. Consult appropriate professionals in each area.