Fortune Favors the Prepared
The Household Recovery Workbook
Your operational guide to the day after disaster strikes — and the year that follows.
When the wind stops, the water recedes, or the smoke clears, a second crisis begins. Insurance claims. FEMA Individual Assistance. Contractor scams. Document recovery. Tax decisions. Mental health for the household. Most families face it for the first time, alone, exhausted, and under deadline pressure they don’t know exists.
This is the operational playbook for that year.
The Second Crisis
“The disaster is the easy part. Recovery is what breaks families.”
If your house is uninhabitable tomorrow, do you know what your insurance policy actually covers?
Do you know the FEMA Individual Assistance application window before it closes?
Do you know how to spot a contractor scam before you sign?
Do you know what receipts to keep for the casualty loss tax deduction?
Do you know who hands out cash to displaced families — and who only reimburses?
Do you know the mental health timeline most families don’t see coming at month four?
If any of these gave you pause, you’re exactly who this workbook is for.
The Four Phases of Household Recovery
A structured way to think about the year ahead.
01
Stabilize
First 72 hours. Safety, shelter, prescriptions, communications, immediate needs. Don’t make any decisions you can defer.
02
Document
Days 3 through 30. Photograph everything before you touch it. Inventory losses room by room. Capture every receipt. Build the file your claims and tax returns will live in.
03
Claim
Months 1 through 6. Insurance, FEMA IA, SBA disaster loans, state aid, charitable assistance. Know the deadlines. Know what stacks and what doesn’t. Know when to push back.
04
Rebuild
Months 6 through 12 and beyond. Contractor vetting, mitigation upgrades, mental health, lessons learned, and the household plan revision that closes the loop.
What’s Inside
Operational worksheets, decision frameworks, and reference tables.
No theory. No filler. Every page is something you fill out, photograph against, file, or follow.
Section 1 · Pre-Fill Now
Household identity, insurance master, mortgage and loan register, photo index. Fill this section the day you receive the workbook.
Section 2 · First 72 Hours
Stabilization checklists, immediate-needs request scripts, prescription continuity, dependent care, what NOT to do in the first three days.
Section 3 · Damage Documentation
Room-by-room loss inventory worksheets, photo index logs, receipt capture, salvage versus loss decision matrix.
Section 4 · Insurance Claims
Claim filing tracker, adjuster meeting prep, loss-of-use logs, ALE worksheet, what to push back on, supplemental claim triggers.
Section 5 · Federal & State Aid
FEMA IA walkthrough, SBA disaster loan navigation, state assistance programs, what stacks, what doesn’t, appeal process.
Section 6 · Vital Records Recovery
Replacing IDs, titles, certificates, professional licenses. Federal, state, and county replacement paths, with cost and turnaround tables.
Section 7 · Contractor Vetting
License and bond verification, scope-of-work template, payment schedule guardrails, scam pattern field guide, complaint paths.
Section 8 · Tax Implications
Federal disaster declaration tax provisions, casualty loss deduction worksheet, IRA early-withdrawal rules, what records the IRS will want.
Section 9 · Mental Health Timeline
Honeymoon, disillusionment, reconstruction phases. What to watch for in adults, children, and aging parents. Resources by phase.
Section 10 · Rebuild Decisions
Repair versus replace versus relocate. Mitigation upgrades and code-plus opportunities. Insurance recategorization at completion.
Section 11 · Lessons Learned
After-action review template adapted from incident command, applied to your household. Closes the loop back to the Family Emergency Plan Workbook.
Annexes · Reference Material
Quick-reference phone number cards, acronym glossary, federal aid eligibility matrix, scam pattern field guide. Designed for high-stress, low-attention reading.
Order Now
Three ways to bring it home.
Just the recovery workbook, paired with the family plan, or all four FFTP workbooks. Patreon supporters at the $11.95 tier or above get the member rate on each.
Standard
The Workbook · $29.95
Patreon supporter rate: $23.95
The Household Recovery Workbook on its own. Loose-leaf format, ready to put in a three-ring binder.
Plan + Recover
FEP + HRW Bundle · $49.95
was $54.90 · save $4.95
Patreon supporter rate: $34.95
Pair the recovery workbook with the family plan that gets you to that day. Two workbooks, one bundle.
All Four Workbooks
The Workbook Bundle · $92.95
was $109.80 · save $16.85
Patreon supporter rate: $74.95
Plan, assess, recover, transfer. The full FFTP workbook set, all four together.
Already own the Family Emergency Plan Workbook? Your discount code is printed on the inside cover. Use it at checkout for a discount on the Household Recovery Workbook.
The FFTP Workbook Family
Recovery is the last step. The first steps are already published.
Want It Built For You?
FFTP analyst-prepared reports.
The workbooks are DIY. These reports are built for you, by an analyst, against your specific location and household.
Fortune Favors the Prepared · The Continuity Chronicles
Semper Paratus, Semper Gumby.