Comments on: Out With The Old, In With The New: Develop a Robust Filing System

By: Cheryl

Cheryl — Mon, 20 Dec 2010 15:47:39 +0000

Re: the daunting task of scanning everything. It has taken me about 2 years to do this. We, too, had a 4 drawer filing cabinet full. I have whittled this down to 1 box of income tax returns (from before we used Turbo Tax) and 1 plastic file box. I try to get most bills online so they can just be saved as PDF’s. It’s so much easier to find the item you’re looking for since the computer sorts them as they are saved.

By: Riki

Riki — Mon, 20 Dec 2010 12:43:46 +0000

I do a lot of stuff electronically and it has made a huge difference. It was gradual for me . . . for example, when I switched to and electronic phone bill, I didn’t make any major changes until I eventually completed my yearly filing cabinet purge. By doing it in stages, I don’t have to face huge piles of paper to digitize and it makes the papers I do keep much, much more manageable. Eventually I will go digital as much as possible, but I’m content to let it evolve rather than making a huge switch all at once.

And if you go digital, don’t forget to backup your hard drive!

By: Kathy F

Kathy F — Sun, 19 Dec 2010 22:55:01 +0000

In addition to the stuff mentioned already. I have a ton of paper files, about four drawers worth. Every account I have has a file: banks accounts, retirement accounts, credit card accounts, subscription accounts, different kinds of insurance. I have a file for my car- I keep anything like maintenance receipts in there so I have a history of what was repaired when. I have a file for my medical insurance, my dental insurance, my Flexible Savings Account. I have mortgage file, refinance file, HELOC file, condo rules/budget files. Plus the docs on my old condo.

I sometimes think about scanning things and putting them online, but the task seems daunting. It’s a lot of paper but everything is there and easy to find. I sometimes have trouble organizing and finding things on my computer as it is. Maybe when I retire, I will plan on scaling everything down to electronic files.

I have just started to get all my credit card bills and utility bills electronically and pay them online. I also have starting to download billing statements instead of receiving paper copies. Same thing with the bank statements. Maybe I can slowly move towards getting rid of so much paper.

By: cathleen

cathleen — Sun, 19 Dec 2010 00:39:43 +0000

I have very few papers. Everything is saved online, backed up online, in email etc.
I have a passport in paper and mortgage docs but everything else from paystubs to statements, property tax, etc. is online. I’ve scanned all important papers, Easily searched, takes no space, I don’t have to worry about fire/water/earthquake etc. I have backups of backups, with no added work on my part.
I’ve gone through a major earthquake when getting to paper documents was impossible and some were destroyed, a nightmare.

By: valleycat1

valleycat1 — Sat, 18 Dec 2010 23:41:48 +0000

Each year we set up our current year financial filing system according to the line items on the IRS forms we file – labeled with the line item # and heading & filed in the same order as the forms list the items. For example, since we own a farm, we have a file folder for each line item on Schedule F, and as we have income & expenses, they are coded in our bookkeeping software according to the line items & the backup documentation goes in the correct folder. Since I also hold an office job for a company, we have a folder for my income documentation – once the year’s W-2 is validated, paycheck stubs can be either kept or discarded. Ditto for investments; if we itemize deductions, those go in the appropriate folder(s) too.