I have seen many articles and heard much advice about what financial information you should keep and what you should just throw away. It seems that everyone has an opinion on the subject.
This isn’t just paperwork. The receipts and statements show the story of your life, how you spend your day, how much you save vs. how much you spend. It is valuable and should be recorded and tracked. Then if your records are ever questioned you will have the answers.
Banks scrutinize your financial picture to decide if you are financially responsible. The government uses the paperwork as proof that you are honest. And you can use the information to protect yourself and plan for your future.
I recommend keeping all paperwork organized and stored for 7-10 years. You shouldn’t need the paperwork after this date unless it is old tax returns, loan docs for your house, stock information, or other documents that your CPA and the tax code have advised you to hold on to for the life of the investment.
If you use the filing system that I have described in my prior blog, your records will be condensed and organized. If you are in a hurry to throw it out or shred it, you will usually end up losing something that was later needed. Save the shredding for the 10 year mark and you can reduce a whole year to confetti in minutes! Then you can reuse the empty box for your new tax year and stay clutter free.
So many people want to be paperless and scan all information into the computer and forget about it. This would be great if that was the end of it. But what if you need an original receipt or document? It would be easy to just go to your file and pull the paper needed since we have discussed how to keep it organized. Or you could spend time sifting through the data on your computer looking for the item(s) that you need and spend time printing, printing, printing. The paperless method is great in theory but not so great on a day to day basis.
If you do decide to scan all paperwork onto a hard drive, just keep the paper copies organized in an archive box with the date clearly labeled. You will be glad you did.
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