Home The First 100 Tier Six

The First 100 · Tier Six of Ten · Items 51–60

Papers, Money, and Contact

Your household can prove who it is, reach each other without cell service, and leave in ten minutes with what matters.

Why this tier, in this order

Halfway through the list, the subject changes. Everything so far has been about the body: light, warmth, water, food, sanitation. This tier is about identity, money, and connection, which turn out to matter just as much and fail just as completely. A family standing at a shelter intake table, a claims desk, or an out-of-state pharmacy counter discovers quickly that the modern household runs on records it has never printed and phone numbers it has never memorized.

The financial entries in this tier will strike some readers as out of place on a preparedness list, and we want to defend them directly rather than slip them past. The most likely emergency to reach any given household this year is not a hurricane. It is a job loss, a medical bill, or a transmission. Money in an accessible account is the only item on this list that adapts to whichever emergency actually arrives, and a preparedness culture that finds room for a hundred objects but not for a savings cushion has its priorities exactly backwards. We would rather absorb the criticism that item 55 is hard to link to a product than publish a list that pretends financial shock is not a disaster.

The communication entries carry one update from older guidance that is worth knowing. The standing advice is now text, don't talk: in a regional emergency, texts often get through congested networks when voice calls do not, and they leave circuits open for emergency traffic. The out-of-area contact remains standard for the same underlying reason, that the path out of a stressed region is often more reliable than the paths within it. Item 56 reflects both.

The threshold

Your household can prove who it is, reach each other without cell service, and leave in ten minutes with what matters.

Rough tier cost: $250 to $450, plus whatever the savings cushion builds toward.

Items 51–55

Printed copies of essential documents

Identification, insurance policies, deed or lease, medical summaries and prescription lists, vaccination records, account numbers.

Why here. Placed before the safe that will hold them, which is a change from an earlier draft. Copies you have made are useful immediately. A safe with nothing in it is furniture.

“Everything is digital now.”

Digital records need a charged device, a working network, and a login you can complete without the phone that receives your verification code. Paper is the version that works at a shelter table, at a claims desk, and at a pharmacy counter in another state.

Waterproof document pouch

Why here. The portable half of the document system. This is what leaves with you.

“A zip bag is the same thing.”

Nearly, and a zip bag is a legitimate answer. The difference is a closure that survives handling and a bag you will recognize instantly in a dark closet.

Fire and water resistant document safe

$$$

Why here. The originals stay home in something that survives what the house does not.

“A safe is theater. It burns through at a real house temperature.”

Consumer document safes have a rating, usually a time and a temperature, and it is worth reading before buying. A one-hour rating is a real hour. It is also true that a bank box or a trusted relative in another city is a better solution for irreplaceable originals, and combining both is better still.

Off-site encrypted backup

An encrypted drive stored somewhere other than beside the computer, or an encrypted cloud backup, with a restore you have actually tested.

Why here. Photographs and records are the thing people grieve after a fire, and this is the only item on the list that protects them.

“A backup drive is not a prep.”

A house fire is the disaster most likely to happen to any given household, and this is the item that determines what survives it. It changed after review: an earlier draft said only "encrypted backup drive," and a drive sitting next to the computer burns with the computer. Off-site is the whole point, and an untested backup is a hope rather than a backup.

Starter emergency savings

$$$

Whatever you can build toward, in an account you can reach quickly.

Why here. Most household emergencies are financial before they are anything else. Job loss, a medical bill, and a transmission are all more likely than a hurricane, and money is the only item on this list that adapts to whichever one arrives.

“This is a preparedness list, not personal finance.”

The distinction is artificial and it is one of the reasons preparedness content underserves ordinary households. A family with two thousand dollars and no stored water handles more real-world disruptions than a family with fifty-six gallons and no cushion. This item is difficult for us to link to a product and we are keeping it anyway.

“Cash at item 10 covers this.”

Item 10 is a few hundred dollars for a week with no card networks. This is the reserve that absorbs an unemployment gap or an insurance deductible. Different clocks, different amounts.

Items 56–60

Printed emergency contact cards

One per person, in a wallet or a backpack, with the numbers nobody memorizes anymore and one out-of-area contact.

Why here. In a regional emergency, networks congest. Current Ready.gov guidance is text, don't talk, because texts often get through when voice calls do not and leave lines open for emergency responders. The out-of-area contact remains the standard relay point, because reaching out of the affected region is often easier than reaching across it. None of that works if nobody has the numbers.

“Kids have phones.”

Phones die, break, and get left behind, and a child who cannot recall a parent's number is a real problem at a reunification point. A card costs nothing and works when nothing else does.

The checklist

FRS two-way radios

License-free handheld radios, matched pair or more.

Why here. Coordination across a neighborhood, a shelter, or two vehicles when towers are saturated or down.

“Get GMRS, it has real range.”

GMRS does have more power and better range, and it requires an FCC license, which covers your household and lasts ten years. This entry says FRS specifically because an earlier draft presented FRS and GMRS as interchangeable and they are not. If you are willing to license, GMRS is the better tool. If you are not, FRS works without one.

“Ham radio is the real answer.”

For some households it is, and it needs a license, an exam, and practice to be worth anything. Amateur radio belongs in a communications guide, not in the first hundred purchases. A radio you have never transmitted on is not a capability.

Our review The checklist

Paper street map and regional road atlas

Why here. Routing apps fail exactly when everyone is trying to leave at once, and a paper map does not care about tower load.

“Offline maps on a phone do this.”

They do, until the phone does not. Download offline maps as well. The paper version costs a few dollars, needs no charge, and can be marked up and handed to someone else.

The checklist

Water-resistant bag per person

$$per person

Why here. This is what makes everything above it portable. Not a specialized product, just a bag per person that lives where you can reach it.

“So this is a bug-out bag.”

It is a bag, and the framing matters. This list does not assume you are leaving for the woods. It assumes you may need to be at a relative's house or a hotel in another county for four days, which is what evacuation actually looks like for almost everyone.

Our review The kit

Rain poncho and whistle per person

$per person

Why here. Wet clothing is how a cool day becomes hypothermia, and a whistle carries much further than a voice with far less effort.

“Two items again.”

Two very small items that live in the same pocket of the same bag and cost less together than one of most things on this list.

Keep the sequence

One tier at a time, in order.

Tier Five Tier Seven

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