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Seven years. No, actually, except for IRA statements (which should be kept forever), a year is long enough for bank statements. Most banks have them available as pdfs that you can save on a flash drive or something.
Pay stubs are useful for applying for a mortgage. Keep a year of them just in case.
Phone bills are trash/recycling. I don't get them on paper anymore.
You only need the latest policy for your insurance. If you have a jewelry rider or something similar, keep any appraisals you have on hand until they expire. For life insurance, keep your original application if you have it.
Federal tax returns and supporting documents should be kept for 7 years, I think, unless you have taken an IRA deduction that might be audited some time before you die. Then you might want to keep them forever. Scan them all into pdfs for easier storage.
Correct, Bunno. And utility bills are useful if you are selling your house -- so keep them for a year to show buyers the patterns.
OK, thanks!I was going on the seven year theory for everything. Then I got to thinking that I'm probably keeping way too much.
I have about 35 years of tax returns in boxes stuffed away somewhere. I know it's irrational.
OK, so when you see a house -in real life or on TV - that is all perfect and neat and seemingly has no boxes of tax returns or receipts or anything, do you picture some kind of Dorian Gray situation where the rest of the house gets to be perfect in exchange for one hideous hoarder mess of an attic/basement/office?I also laugh when I see an episode of CSI where they pick up one hair off a perfect pillow, or one shirt in an otherwise empty hamper, and manage to solve the crime. Most of the houses I know would give them weeks of work.
Sarah Pi wrote: "OK, so when you see a house -in real life or on TV - that is all perfect and neat and seemingly has no boxes of tax returns or receipts or anything, do you picture some kind of Dorian Gray situatio..."Sounds pretty accurate. My aunt's house is flawlessly (and fussily) clean and decorated, but she hoards every bit of official paperwork she gets. The file cabinets are frightening.
When and how did you all learn what to keep and what not to? Nobody told me what weight to give anything, so I gave it all important-keep-it status. There are a few things that I know are MORE important and go in a safe deposit box or a safe, like deeds and titles and contracts and diplomas, but the rest of it I just erred on the side of better to have it.Someone should teach that stuff when you're learning how to balance a checkbook or something.
Sarah Pi wrote: "When and how did you all learn what to keep and what not to? Nobody told me what weight to give anything, so I gave it all important-keep-it status. There are a few things that I know are MORE impo..."They really should. I have no idea what I'm supposed to be keeping. I generally keep everything for a year, but that was guesswork.
I remember years ago having several years of cancelled checks in boxes. I almost burned up a shredder getting rid of them all. They're all just electronic images now.
See I can't imagine taking the time to scan all this crap. Maybe I could scan future things as they come in, but the idea of scanning everything in my old files brings terror to my heart. I shredded six shredder-baskets worth yesterday - it took an hour and a half - and that was before y'all said I could dump the old phone bills. Lordy.
I have a storage unit with, among other things, cardboard boxes full of old bank statements, tax records, etc. I doubt I would ever be able to find anything if I went looking through those boxes, but I've never been organized enough to toss out the stuff I don't need, which probably describes most of what's there. I'm just glad to have it out of the apartment.
Yeah Sarah I wouldn't recommend scanning a whole bunch of stuff. But you can bypass paper statements for everything from now on and keep pdfs as provided by the bank etc.
I generally keep:All Online
Bank statements
Investment statements
Latest Statement/Invoice Only
Insurance records (overview & declarations)
Invoice from our bug spray guy
One-off services
Three Months
Mortgage statements (I keep all of the annual escrow reports)
Utilities (phone/gas/electric/water)
Credit card statements
Seven Years
Tax returns & supporting docs. A pain in the ass because they are nearly 2" thick each.
Our gas bill shows the usage of the prior 14 months. Our electric bill compares this year's usage to the period one year prior. Saving a bunch of these would be redundant.
I throw away most things, probably not smart.
It's amazing how much you don't need. I keep tax`returns, etc but nowadays a loan agency doesn't want to see yours but get them directly from the IRS. I don't shred anything (I recycle it) figuring if the information gets stolen, it will be by a white collar guy at a desk at the re-insurer or at the mortgage servicing company, not the trash man. That said, I keep too much because by the time I've put it order, I'm going to keep it a few years.
I was much more haphazard about tax info and investment statements until I got scary letters from the IRS for our tax returns from FOUR years prior. Also according to the IRS, my then-seventeen-year-old daughter made a killing on her investments. She actually lost money on her tiny investment portfolio that year. So now I'm sure I keep more than I need to.
I keep everything. When it gets to be too much downstairs, I box it up and put it in the attic. You never know what you might need in the future. For example, my dad kept all his employment records for over thirty years. When it came time for him to retire, the state said they had no records prior to a certain year - but he had them all and was reimbursed for an additional ten years of leave time because he could document it. It pays to keep records.
Scout, the same thing happened to my mom--in 2001 she needed her paystubs from 1962 to prove she was entitled to that year's worth of benefits. Way to go to your dad and my mom for being able to find those things!
I knew a woman who called her freezer "the pyramid' because it had stuff in it from years ago.
Mod
How do you determine what to destroy? I burned my journals several years ago because I certainly didn't want them read by my son after I died. I added a photo to the pile, too, a topless one on the beach when I was in my twenties. You don't think about this stuff until you're over fifty - what you're leaving behind for others to see.
Mod
I have friends now who have saggy boobs from breastfeeding, or weight loss/weight gain or whatever and they wish they had taken topless pictures in their 20s.
But would they want their children have to sort through them after the funeral? I say burn or shred everything you wouldn't want your descendants to see.I'd make an exception for your journals, however. If your nieces and nephews can decipher the code, they'll probably enjoy reading the good, very dirty stuff.
You won't care who sees it after you kick off . Someone might like the challenge of deciphering the code and write a book about it.
How long should I keep : Homemade hummus???
How long would you keep the most perishable ingredient?When I'm not sure I go by three days in the fridge.
Most perishable--chickpeas, sesame paste? I guess the hummus I've been buying has preservatives, this does not, so three days is probably right, J.--Thanks.
2) Old pay stubs?
3) Old phone bills?
4) Old insurance paperwork?
Etc.
Trying to clean house.