In this inaugural post to the Financial Contingency Plan series, I want to discuss one of the most common financial disasters – losing your wallet. Whether you carry a money clip, an actual wallet, or an entire purse, losing it is one of the most demoralizing financial events that can happen to a person. Your wallet is a compartmentalization of your financial identity and contains your driver’s license, your cash, any credit and debit cards, your photos, insurance information, and other financial tidbits.

This is what you need to do to prepare for and recover from a lost wallet.

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I’m sure you’ll agree – the best time to plan for a disaster is before it strikes. That’s why, during the Cold War, people built bomb shelters before the bombs actually struck. It’s why people save up emergency funds and keep a home inventory, you want to be prepared so that you won’t be left scrambling in the event of an actual emergency.

How many of your put as much thought into your financial contingency plans as you do for other contingency plans? With a house fire plan, you know that your job is to get out of the building and rally at an external location. What are you supposed to do when you lose your wallet? Call up the credit cards and cancel. Replace your driver’s license. Then what? Have you mapped it out? Chances are you haven’t and that’s why you need to write a step by step plan for what you’ll do if you lose your wallet. Or if there’s a house fire. Or if your car is stolen. Or if your bank account is broken into. Or if one or both of your parents die. Or if your spouse dies.

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