home filing

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zootski

Guest
I have been following the recent 'on the brink' thread and certainly sympathize with the original post - getting to grips with some of this stuff can be a bear. I personally have way more trouble with the home-based stuff (bills, credit card offers, bills, school mail, more bills, etc.) than with the paperwork 'at work'.

So here is the pragmatic question: Can anyone point me to a clear set of guidelines for 'what to keep' and 'what to ditch' after X amount of time. I am in the USA, so I am looking for the most basic advice as to how long to keep things, given our tax system and rules in this country. I seem to have WAY too much stuff in files that has virtually no use whatsoever.

Z
 
C

CosmoGTD

Guest
I keep all old personal records for 7 years.
I have each year in a large envelope(s).
Each year when i do my taxes, i chuck out one year.
BUT, i scan whatever stuff i want to keep forever into a JPEG image, and put it into a folder marked 1996 etc, on my computer. Some of it is just sentimental, or for my own info.

Ask your accountant what the law is for you.

But i keep personal journal stuff forever. This i SCAN into the computer as well, and Archive and compress it.

[BACKUPS!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!]

Coz
 
A

Anonymous

Guest
some things to keep you might not think of

Keep basic items that prove who you ar , where you have lived and what you have accomplished. For example, anything related to your birth and the birth of your parents. Sometimes it takes two to three documents to prove something essential. Items related to your education and professional training--believe it or not I once needed the syllabi of courses I had taken 15 years earlier and the CVs of the professors (some dead), so I had to contact department heads who had the CVs on file of profs they never even knew! I also needed the table of contents of some textbooks that were long out of printI don't remember how I did that. Finally, when one is young, you think you will remember any illness and medicine that you took, but after a while you won't. I am finding that notes I have jotted on the the info that comes with prescriptions now very useful. Anything pertaining to legal and credit matters and how resolved would be useful. And on the postiive sign, any accolades and recognitions are nice to keep.
 
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