As with side dishes in a well-prepared meal, side letters can add a solution to loose ends not addressed in a well-crafted will.

Side Letters (Beyond the Will Part 2)

Karen CaccavoDaily Money Managers, Estate Planning, Possessions, Working with Seniors

Way back when (July 2022 to be exact), I wrote a blog / newsletter “Beyond the Will”.  I called it “Part 1”, knowing that there was a lot more to say than I could include there.  I planned to write a “Part II” including even more estate planning tasks that Personal Money Manager™ does with older adult clients.   For …

"Moose" refers to Robert Bly's description of himself

Our Memories are Not in Our Things — They are Inside of Us

Karen Caccavodecluttering, Financial Organizing, Life Lessons, Memorabilia, Possessions, Preserving Memories, Working with Seniors

It’s not an easy lesson. And I learned it the hard way…. One spring evening in London, I went to hear Robert Bly recite his poetry.  He had won the National Book Award for Poetry in the US a few years earlier in 1967, yet the audience was small.  Afterwards, we all went to the local pub for a pint. …

Saving vs Shredding -- Finding Memories on the Back of an Envelope

Finding Memories on the Back of an Envelope

Karen Caccavodecluttering, Life Lessons, Preserving Memories, Working with Clients

Clients expect me, as a financial organizer / daily money manager, to be all business, forging ahead with one goal in mind: to work with them and conquer their paperwork clutter.  But my work as a financial organizer is more nuanced.  After all, I am working with people, not just paper!  The key to success in my close-to-10-years in business …

Family Treasures — or Just Trash?

Karen Caccavodecluttering, Preserving Memories

What to do with All That “Stuff” In my last blog, “Trash or Treasure?”, I told the story of a coin bank we found in my parents’ storage unit.  Its true identity remains frustratingly elusive. But it didn’t have to be that way — if we had only known it had existed and had asked my dad about it before …

Trash or Treasure? Downsizing a Lifetime of Stuff

Karen Caccavodecluttering, Memorabilia

My parents moved across the country several times over the years, with second homes along the way.  Each time they moved, they hauled not only the necessities, but also lots of “stuff,” which was … trash or treasure? One item left to us was a rusty and broken child’s bank in the shape of a bank building (see photo of …