Your best option is to shred any documents that contain sensitive information before tossing them. Either invest in a shredder for your home or utilize a professional shredding service.
Many cities also hold free paper shredding days for residents. A financial life necessarily involves a significant amount of documentation—from monthly bank statements to insurance documents to the various materials required to file your taxes.
Kevin Payne is a personal finance and travel writer who writes about credit cards, student loans, debt, credit, and family finances. Kevin lives in Cleveland, Ohio with his wife and four kids. Select Region. United States. United Kingdom. Kevin Payne. Editorial Note: Forbes Advisor may earn a commission on sales made from partner links on this page, but that doesn't affect our editors' opinions or evaluations.
One Year Documents that fall into this category include non-tax-related bank and credit card statements, investment statements, pay stubs and receipts for large purchases. How to Store Financial Documents You can cut down on clutter by creating a reliable system for storing your financial documents.
Paper Storage Many people choose to keep documents stored in a filing cabinet. The past several years have seen an explosion of cloud-based solutions, including: Dropbox Google Drive Microsoft OneDrive iCloud Amazon Cloud Drive Box NextCloud iDrive Carbonite Using cloud-based storage not only saves on space, but also can be great for organizing and keeping your documents secure, since most services guarantee protection through encrypted networks.
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Past performance is not indicative of future results. Forbes Advisor adheres to strict editorial integrity standards. You'll also want to safely keep other documents for the right amount of time.
Tax season is the perfect time to start culling your paper and computer files and getting everything in order. McBride suggests that you put all your W-2 forms, for example, together in one place. Do the same for your forms and brokerage account statements. It will also make life easier when you have to do taxes again next year. If your home is hit by a fire or flood, or a thief pays a visit, you may need quick access to your insurance papers.
If you become ill, your loved ones may need to find papers that prove they can look after you, such as your healthcare proxy. Keep for less than a year. In this file, Weltman says to store your ATM, bank-deposit, and credit card receipts until you reconcile them with your monthly statements.
Keep insurance policies and investment statements until new ones arrive. Keep for a year or longer. Hold on to loan documents until the loan is paid off. That will often be for more than a year. You can also dispose of bank withdrawal and deposit slips after verifying them with your monthly statement. For physical documents, designate a safe, out-of-the-way place in your home to store all paper records that protects them from damage or theft. For digital records, be sure to archive and back up all electronic records.
Use complex passwords to keep your account information safe. Make sure your username and password combination is different from the ones you use for personal email, online merchants and social media accounts. Protecting your computer with antivirus software is also a good idea. Invest in a cross-cut shredder that will eliminate all traces of your personal information, or search for free shredding events in your community.
Having paperless statements and documents can help reduce the risk of identity theft posed by lost or stolen mail. The material provided on this website is for informational use only and is not intended for financial, tax or investment advice.
Please also note that such material is not updated regularly and that some of the information may not therefore be current. Consult with your own financial professional and tax advisor when making decisions regarding your financial situation.
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