Thursday, November 17, 2011

What to keep, what to destroy

First of all... here is a great site about 25 Documents you need before you die.  These need to be all in one place and whoever you have given the responsibility of handling your affairs when you die, needs to know where they are.

What about everything else?  Well here is a list (probably not a complete list as everyone has unique items) of papers and when its okay to toss them.

First, what do you keep forever?
-Birth Certificates, Marriage licenses, death certificates, divorce papers, Social security cards, power of attorney, and wills (all of these you should of photocopies of stored elsewhere, as well).
-insurance claims, insurance policies (the most current one only),
-tax returns (with w-2s stapled to them)
-cost basis for investments
-non-deductible IRA contributions
-year end financial statements (good for long-term tracking)
-final records for loan/mortgage repayments (see that 0 :-))

Items that go out with the old (toss, when you are no longer responsible for what they cover)
-house deeds
-car titles
-home improvement records (keep for 7 years after sale of house)
-escrow closing documents
-car purchase papers
-bills for major purchases
-manuals/receipts of purchase for major appliances and furniture
-loan bills (except for that final one that says 0 balance)
-savings bonds

Items to destroy after seven years
-tax write offs, pay check stubs with additional tax deductions (i.e. charity), canceled checks/receipts with tax implications (alimony, charitable contributions, mortgage interests, retirement plan contributions)
-credit card statements if they have tax related expenses

Items you can destroy at the end of the year
-quarterly statements of retirement plans
-bank statements and bills with no long term tax importance
-insurance policies (keep only until the new one arrives)
-receipts (toss after you reconcile your bank statement) (unless you are planning on returning the item or it was for a major appliance or furniture)

Have a piece of paper not on this list? Leave a comment and I will see if I can get your an answer of when to toss it. http://armyofvirtues.blogspot.com/2011/11/jesse-tree.html

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