Organize Your Information

You now organize your information after you’re done performing a complete inventory and analysis of your personal information. This is the third step of the identity KAOS™ principles.

Categorize the information you’ve gathered. Be very specific in your categorization, although you may consolidate a few categories when you organize your information. For example, you may keep all home utility statements together or all credit card statements together. I suggest categorizing and organizing for a few reasons. First, you find the information fairly quickly when needed. For example, we all know how daunting it can be to find and file all required documents when applying for a mortgage. Second, we categorize, because we must apply various levels of protection measures when dealing with our personal information. I personally keep my credit cards completely separate from my other documents for security reasons. This is a category I frequently visit to assess whether I need to make any changes. Some time ago, I came across a credit card that provided rewards for a child’s higher education which interested me very much. More importantly, the credit card was offered by a bank I was already doing businesses with, so there was no additional risk of sharing my information with another third party. So, I jumped on the opportunity and called the credit card company to switch one of my existing cards from the same bank to this new card without filling another application. So, go ahead and organize your information, and don’t forget to revisit once in a while to re-analyze your personal information and monitor your information. Some of the categories may include:

a) home utilities (water, power, gas, phone, home association)

b) credit cards

c) credit card statements

d) bank statements (checking, savings, mortgage)

e) mortgage statements

f) brokerage statements

g) Insurance (car, home, etc.)

h) Social security card or SSA annual retirement statements

i) Passport

j) Birth and death certificates

k) Identity cards (ID, driver’s license, green card, other)

l) School documents (school documents of all levels may include personal information)

m) W2 statements or any other work related documents

n) Tax filing documents

After you learn how to organize your information, learn about step 4 of the identity KAOS principles, "secure your information".