Records Retention

[bigmacbear]

Lately I find myself spending more and more time digging through boxes upon boxes of mundane papers I've collected over the years. Cancelled checks (just to be cute, I labeled most of my envelopes full of these "Cancelled Czechs"), bank statements, credit card statements, paycheck stubs, etc.

The objective of digging through all these papers now is so I don't have to pack and move them later. I'm surprised, though, that the experts in analrecords retention recommend destroying most of these -- bank statements after three months, pay stubs at year end (or once you receive your W-2), etc. I have papers that date back 20 years in little envelopes, filed for posteriorposterity.

The shredder will be busy this weekend, let me tell you.

Comments

[robearal.livejournal.com]

You might want to invest in a bottle of shredder lubricant to keep your shredder happy through its munchfest. We went through a frenzy of shredding old docs a couple years ago and after several hours, the poor shredder started getting a bit winded and sluggish.

[detailbear.livejournal.com]

Recommend that you save the first pay stub of every raise and put it with your job-search papers (or at least summarize the dates and amounts).

Bank statements/cheques I'm a little more afraid to part with. After 30 or 45 days, you can't argue with the bank, but you may need them to clear up a 10-year old loan that was paid off, but they suddenly try to get you for (indirect experience). There may be a 7-year limit on such things, but you may have to go to court to get them off your back.

Maybe scanner before shredder if that sounds possible?

[ciddyguy.livejournal.com]

I've gone through lots of old stuff like that. Earlier this year I went through my files and emptied something like 24 file folders of stuff, old receipts, articles I no longer needed to keep etc.

I even went through and found receipts and stuff that were over a month old, and in many cases, were several years old.

I'd done a purge a while back and got rid of stuff from prior to 97 that I had held onto.

I do save my check stubs and bank statements for the duration of 5-7 years but dump the rest as that's what's now recommended if I'm not mistaken.

Shredders are da bomb aren't they? :-)