A month ago, a thief broke into our house in the wee hours of the morning. It was a frightening experience, and though we are eternally grateful that no one was hurt and that nothing of great value was taken from our house, the mere thought of it continues to haunt us each day.

The experience taught us the importance of ensuring the safety of our valuables and finances. The experience opened my eyes to how vulnerable my safety precautions have been, especially those that concerned our valuables. I realized that for all our efforts to ensure our financial well-being, we never really thought of the most basic of the basics – the physical safety of our valuables. I am quite sure several of us are equally guilty of this – putting good money on insurance but not investing a thousand in a safety vault.

A quick survey of my belongings revealed my slips. I have always told myself there is nothing for a thief to take from our house, yet the morning after, when I checked out my things, I realized there was so much I could have lost, had the thief managed to break into the master’s bedroom.

Is your master’s bedroom just like ours – full of little treasures that you might have forgotten?

Do a survey of your belongings. I had always thought I just had two pieces of jewelry, safely kept under lock and key, yet when I checked my drawer of old socks – yes, I actually stuffed my jewel box in my sock drawer. I was surprised to see a treasure trove of jewelry amassed over four decades of my life. Not the one-carat variety, but valuable nonetheless. I saw my high school ring and my college ring, both in gold. The college ring had a ruby, UP’s color, to boot. There were old watches, bracelets and necklaces I had received as gifts, some as a child, some as a teenager. There was a silver Tiffany bracelet I had completely forgotten about, a diamond studded bracelet that was given to settle an unpaid debt, a sapphire and garnet set I purchased on a lay-away plan when I first started working, and an emerald and pearl set from my current boss-gifts he gives his trusted executives. I was shocked I had them all in that drawer, kept alongside socks I have never used. I realized that all my life, I never really bothered to do an inventory of things I owned. I would just stuff them inside the drawer, regarding them more as keepsakes that would bring back memories, forgetting they are objects of value that could be pawned or sold by thieves who didn’t care about sheer sentimentality. Check out what you have in those drawers. I even discovered money in various currencies- loose change from various travels. Yet when I counted, they wouldn’t really pass for loose change.

I also saw my credit cards in my closet. I have taken to leaving these cards in my closet because I hardly use them, and I do not want all of them in my wallet. I leave them at home as a safety precaution, yet I never really bothered to secure them. More frighteningly, I realized those cards had a combined credit line amounting to more than a million pesos, and that if they were taken by a thief, my exposure would be great. Are your credit cards lying around in some closet inside your house? Do you have a list of your credit card account numbers just incase your cards are taken? Do not think of your house a safe haven because there is no telling when thieves will strike.

Also consider where you park your things at home. I have taken to leaving my laptop in our living room, in a nook where the kids and the hubby leave their school and gym bags. This is for our ease when running out of the door in the mornings. When the thief broke into our house, he headed straight for the bags, based on the footprints he left. He ransacked my husband’s bag, which was right next to my laptop bag. Fortunately, my husband uses a laptop bag for his documents, and when the thief found nothing but papers inside his laptop bag, he did not bother with my laptop bag- containing a brand new laptop – they lay next to the bag he checked out. A grade two math book nestled atop my bag probably signaled to him that there were just documents in the bag.

A thief, I realized, needs to move quickly and has little time on his hands. He will get what happens to be in his path. The thief managed to ransack an open and empty room. He tried to enter the children’s room but apparently decided not to go in because one of the boys had plopped a mattress across the door, impeding entry.

Fortunately, the door of the master’s bedroom had jammed because it was a humid night, and the thief probably thought the door was locked, when it was, in fact, open. If he had succeeded in opening the door, he would have been greeted by the night table where most of my and my husband’s valuables are – our cellphones, money, watches and credit cards, even a piggy bank full of coins. We have always thought that this was a convenient place to put our belongings. It was near the door, and so we could just pick up our stuff on the way out. Needless to say, these would be just as easy for anyone to pick up as well.

We have since done some adjustments to our day-to-day routines. Today, items that could be attractive to thieves (bags, laptops, cellphones) are kept as far away from the doors and windows. Wallets and bags are kept inside the closet. Rooms are locked at night.

More importantly, valuable items such as jewelry, dollars, passports and land titles, are now safely kept in a safety deposit box in a bank. I felt stupid when I found out it would cost just P450 a year to maintain one. I have even kept some credit cards thee, but not before making sure I had list of the account numbers. I have also enjoined many friends to consider getting a safety deposit box. It provides security for so little.

This may sound so simplistic, yet few of us really bother with the nitty-gritty of safety. Do take time out to check the safety of our valuables. After all, you have worked so hard to earn all these. Do not leave anything to chance. Needless to say, this is one of the most basic and most important steps you can do to ensure your financial well-being.

Antonette Reyes has worked as a finance journalist
 and holds a Master in Business Management from the    
Asian Institute of Management.