Insurances. Life, disability, health, auto, home…you want the policies on file, and you want policy information on hand for the life of the policy plus three years.
Medical Records and Health Insurance. The consensus says you should keep these documents around for five years after the surgery or the end of treatment. If you think you can claim medical expenses on your federal return, keep them for seven years.
Warranties. You only need them until they expire. When they expire, toss them.
Utility Bills. Do you need to keep these around for more than a month? No, you really don’t. Check last month’s statement against this month’s, then get rid of last month’s bill.
If this seems like too much paper to file, buy a sheet-fed scanner. If you want to get really sophisticated, you can buy one of these and use it to put financial records on your computer. You might want to have the hard copies on file just in case your hard drive and/or your flash drive go awry.
These are the views of Peter Montoya Inc., not Tarpley & Underwood Financial Advisors, LLC, and should not be construed as investment advice. Tarpley & Underwood Financial Advisors, LLC does not provide tax or legal advice. All information is believed to be from reliable sources; however, we make no representation as to its completeness or accuracy. The publisher is not engaged in rendering legal, accounting or other professional services. If other expert assistance is needed, the reader is advised to engage the services of a competent professional. Please consult your financial advisor for further information.
Citations.
1 - kiplinger.com/columns/ask/archive/2004/q0206.htm [2/6/04]
2 - ssa.gov/mystatement/currentstatement.pdf [1/10]
3 - irs.gov/businesses/small/article/0,,id=98513,00.html
[4/8/08]
[4/8/08]
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