How To Keep Personal Financial Records?

Discard piles of paper documents and learn to retain financial data effectively.

I'm J.D, a downright hoarding.

I dare not throw anything away, especially financial records.

Over the past more than 20 years, I have stuffed Subway's receipts, paid checks and Amazon invoices in all kinds of shoeboxes.

Recently, I moved from a 1800 square foot (167 square meter) large house to a 700 square foot (65 square meter) apartment. As the housing area decreased, I had to deal with this pile of paper documents: I need to identify which financial records need to be retained and how long to keep them.

Here are some of my experiences.

There are two basic reasons for keeping financial records.

Keep history.

Take the purchase of a computer as an example, you need to prove to the IRS that you really spend the money as a business expense. When the maintenance personnel come to the door, you can check whether the computer is in warranty period through receipts. If the computer is unlucky, it is also a strong proof to claim compensation from the insurance company.

Keep personal information.

If you are a data collector, you may want to keep a record of how much money it costs to buy a gift for a neighbor's child, or when you bought a new vacuum cleaner.

Whether your file is an electronic bill or a paper bill, the IRS recommends that you keep the following four categories.

Income.

W-2 form (employer's personal income and income tax account for the previous year), 1099 form (including deposits, stocks, securities and other investment and collection), bank statements and stock trading bills.

Expenditure.

Purchase of receipts, delivery orders or cancelled orders, and evidence to the relevant charitable organizations.

Real estate.

Trading bills, invoices, insurance records, repairs or repairs, and other payment vouchers.

Investment.

Stock paction statements, mutual fund reports, and 1099 forms and other related records.

All the receipts are torn apart before leaving the store, or are they kept intact, even if the receipt for every sandwich is no exception? This is a trade-off.

The IRS seems to be somewhat complicated, but generally you need to grasp the following points.

One.

Receipt.

If you complete a paction through a bank or credit card without paying the receipt, paying taxes, insurance or warranty, you won't have to keep it in a month.

Until the bill is served this year.

Monthly payroll or quarterly 401K pension plan.

Seven years.

At least seven years after the sale of securities (stocks, bonds, etc.), you need to keep the initial confirmation of stock pactions.

Records related to taxation, including charitable donations and records of business expenses, need to be kept for at least seven years.

Until sale.

Related to property, including purchase, repair and other bills, must be held until sold.

Keep it forever.

Evidence for the payment of personal retirement accounts (IRA) needs to be retained for life.

Will all

Scanning and paperless will make everything in good order.

File scanning software can convert paper materials into PDF format, and upload them conveniently.

Dropbox et al.

If you insist on keeping the paper material, you can prepare a large envelope, write the corresponding year outside the envelope, and collect the relevant receipts and records according to the year.

I understand most of the years that have been retained.

In fact, I do not need to continue to store, which makes me feel very relaxed and happy.

For this reason, I piled up these dispensable documents and burned them.

After careful screening, only 1 of the 20 shoe boxes were packed.

Of course, I have kept my moving account.