30 KIPLINGER’S PERSONAL FINANCE^ 05/2017MONEY
ISTOCKPHOTO.COM (2)To simplify life for you
and your loved ones in the
event of a health emergency,
make sure you have a dura-
ble power of attorney and
a power of attorney for
health care (sometimes
called a health care proxy)
that name the person who
should make financial and
medical decisions on your
behalf if you are unable to
do so. You should also have
a living will (or advance
health care directive) out-lining your wishes for treat-
ments and interventions.
You can order a form for
a durable power of attorney
from a site such as Legal-
Zoom for about $35, and you
can find free state-specific
living wills at http://www.caring
info.org. Or an estate-plan-
ning attorney can help you
draw up documents. Note
that some banks and bro-
kerages also have specific
requirements for financial
powers of attorney. K.P.LINE UP YOUR
HEALTH DOCUMENTS
CLEAN UP YOUR DIGITAL TRAIL SIMPLIFY
BUDGETING
For a budget that won’t bog you down, for-
get about creating categories and keeping
track of limits on each one. Cristina Gugliel-
metti, a certified financial planner in New
York City, has an easier way: Add up all your
fixed expenses—rent or mortgage pay-
ments, utilities, debt payments, and sav-
ings for your emergency fund, retirement
accounts and future goals—and subtract
that from your monthly income. The result
is your budget for variable monthly ex-
penses, including food, entertainment and
other bills you could find a way to cut if you
had to, such as your cell-phone plan. Use a
single rewards credit card for the variable
charges so that your transactions are
recorded in one place. That way you can
easily track spending, set up alerts when
you’re nearing your cap and earn some cash
back in the process.
As you age and income changes, your
fixed versus variable expenses will change.
“This method becomes more important in
your forties and fifties, when you still have
time to make adjustments before retire-
ment,” says Guglielmetti. MIRIAM CROSSYou’ve probably accumulated a
lengthy list of online accounts for
everything from e-mail and social
media sites to travel sites and blog-
ging platforms. Even if you stopped
using the accounts ages ago, your
digital footprints—including any
personal information you provided
to the company—are still sitting
there, a potential treasure trove of
information for identity thieves.
Sign in to accounts you no longer
use (check your e-mail for old mes-
sages to jog your memory), then look
for information about how to deletethem. The websites may not make it
easy, but ACCOUNTKILLER.COM and BACK
GROUNDCHECKS.ORG/JUSTDELETEME collect
links and instructions on how to re-
move accounts from popular sites,
including AOL, Hotmail, MySpace
and YouTube. In some cases, you’ll
be able to simply log on to your ac-
count and follow the instructions
to delete it. In others, you’ll need to
send an e-mail to the site’s support
or customer-service team. Once you
hear back, or after a few days have
passed, try logging on again and
send a follow-up e-mail if necessary.
Continue tidying up your digital
trail by curbing the number of ads
and promotional messages that land
in your in-box. Many of the e-mails
include an option to unsubscribe or
manage your subscription at the bot-
tom of the message, but for a quicker
fix, try UNROLL.ME. After you give the
site permission to access your e-mail
account, you can choose which sub-
scription e-mails you no longer want
to receive and combine those you do
want into a daily e-mail. K.P.