Organising your Passwords

Use folders in the password manager to help your heirs find the necessary logins.

My password manager currently contains 576 passwords. Normally I don’t think a lot about that, but working through the Ending Note, I have taken a new perspective.

My password manager is a backup of the important parts of the Ending Note.

Almost everything I do with my finances – from banking to paying taxes – is done online. I have subscriptions on autopay. My insurance, pension, and MyNumber are all accessible online.

So if my Ending Note disappeared completely, my password manager would be a practical way for heirs and contacts to discover much of the information they needed.

Except its not organised. It’s crufty AF. There are duplicate entries, inactive accounts, and client projects I will never need to log into again. How will my sister know what’s what?

Time to organise and to take care of the mess.

First, a Folder System

These folders aren’t for me; they are for my executor and my sister. I rarely look that deeply into my password manager. It autofills entries for me or I might search for a specific detail.

So I decided to organise with those people in mind, adding variations to fit my life and its many logins.

Your structure will vary, but I can recommend three important folders:

1. Essential Accounts. The “must haves” for your estate: banking, digital assets, insurance, MyNumber, primary e-mail, health portals, insurance, etc.
2. Active Subscriptions. Everything you are currently paying for monthly or annually: streaming services, software, cloud storage, hosting services, online learning, business tools, utilities, etc.
3. Inactive. This is a holding place for old & unused accounts; remember to delete the accounts before you remove the credentials

You can use those three folders and then leave everything else unsorted; that is a valid strategy.

Or go beyond and add more folders – do you want to put all of your shopping sites together in one folder, or separate them by country or by type?

Then, the Organising

I use the word “tedious” a lot in these posts, because many of the Ending Note activities require slogging through tasks, digging up paperwork, and organising things for the future. This is another tedious process.

Who wants to spend hours cleaning up a password manager? Nobody. But you can do it anyway. Here’s how I suggest doing it:

1. Write down the new folder names and put them in front of you. This will save you forgetting them as you go along over multiple sessions.
2. Pick a place to start. I opened a folder in Bitwarden and reorganised the contents into my new folders A quick win. Then I did the next folder. I am on my way!
3. Keep organising until you want to pause. Come back to it later – but do come back until you are finished.

Helpful Hints:

• If you don’t know what an entry is (auth.1234.xyz?), try to log into it. Sometimes it just needs a clearer name; sometimes it’s no longer necessary.
• Expect to spend some time in the “Forgot your Password?” world. There will be at least a few services that changed their system since the last time you logged in…in 2016.
• If you want to delete a credential, make sure the associated account is deleted first. Deleting your password doesn’t deactivate the account.
• It can be irritatingly difficult to delete an account (I am looking at you, 1-800-Flowers. URGH) and may involve actual phone calls or sternly worded emails. When you can’t get the account deleted, tuck it into the “Inactive” folder and make a note about it.
• When you take a break, note where you stopped so you can pick up where you left off.

You’ve got this. Take care!