Voicemail is quick, easy, and convenient to use, until your cell or phone company decides that your saved message has been on their server long enough. And if you’re not careful, sometimes even if you are, that message will suddenly disappear. Not a big deal for people who don’t mind a little electronic cleaning.

But it’s a HUGE deal for people who want or need to keep a precious message. Like the news of the birth of a baby, a long-awaited job, or the final message from a beloved spouse, friend, or family member. In fact, a friend of Bear’s kept her husband’s cell phone account active, so her older children could hear her voice anytime they wanted, after he unexpectedly passed away. The problem is that trying to keep a message on your voicemail for posterity is next to impossible. So is finding a way to save it as an MP3 or voice file on most phones. So far, that is.

Technology has gone a long way to help all of us protect the things that are important to us, whether it’s our photos, our music, or our voicemail messages.

Whether you have an answering machine or voicemail, these are the best ways to save your precious messages.

• If the message is in a answering machine that uses a cassette tape, just save the tape. But be sure to back up the recording to another cassette or MP3 so you have another copy if it breaks.
• If the message is in a answering machine with digital chip, play the message and record it on a digital recorder, cassette or your computer, using Sound Recorder (Windows / PC) or SimpleSound (Mac), to convert it into an MP3 that you can save for posterity.
• If the message is on voicemail, here is a great new solution. Until now, recording a voicemail message was almost impossible. But with a device called the MiCorder, you can record any type of audio from any device, like a cell phone or a cassette player, and turn it into MP3.

The next time someone leaves you a message that you never want to lose, do yourself a favor, take a moment and make a backup.

More articles on putting your stuff together, like How to Keep Your Old Photos and How to Keep Your Address Book Up to Date, the Easy Way Coming Soon.