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Anne McD
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| Posted: May 15 2009 at 8:20am | IP Logged
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Oh, how I love nesting!!
Does anyone know of a good source that tells you what you "really" need to hang onto, paper wise? I have stacks to file, and I shred a huge stack yesterday that I didnt' look at for a year. We don't own a business, or anything like that, but it seems like every time I open the mail it implores me to hang onto for tax purpouses! I don't need guilt from paper!
Can anyone give direction? Thanks!!
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Anne
Wife to Jon
Mommy to Alex 9
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Katie 6
William 3 1/2
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and baby on the way! 10/14
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Tami
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| Posted: May 15 2009 at 8:43am | IP Logged
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Anne, I can recommend Homefile created by friends of ours, for organizing home files. Duh 
It has some guidelines in it, at other times, it will tell you to check with a local financial planner or attorney.
It is really helpful categorizing - and the major categories are identified for you, there's a 'quick find' index, the file dividers are sturdy. You'll find pictures on the site of the dividers.
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God bless,
Tami
When we are crushed like grapes, we cannot think of the wine we will become. (Nouwen)
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Anne McD
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| Posted: May 15 2009 at 8:57am | IP Logged
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That looks interesting, Tami- thank you! I'll have to go through it more thoroughly this afternoon!
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Anne
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William 3 1/2
Benedict Joseph 1
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Tami
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| Posted: May 15 2009 at 9:07am | IP Logged
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Sure, Anne. I hope you find it helpful!
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God bless,
Tami
When we are crushed like grapes, we cannot think of the wine we will become. (Nouwen)
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stellamaris
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| Posted: May 15 2009 at 10:29am | IP Logged
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Anne, this link lists what tax documents to keep and for how long. We have tons of old tax records, and I am considering taking the returns over ten years old and scanning them onto a disk. I talked to my sister (who is a CPA) and she said that would probably be fine, except documents pertaining to house purchases/major renovations should be kept in paper format. For more recent returns, I keep the entire package with all the back-up documents in a large three-ring notebook. The Homefile system above looks nice, too, but the real problem is what to keep and what to toss. If you use a tax preparer, he should also be able to help you out with what to keep and what to toss.HTH!
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In Christ,
Caroline
Wife to  dh 30+ yrs,ds's 83,85,89,dd's 91,95,ds's 01,01,02,grammy to 4
Flowing Streams
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sewcrazy
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| Posted: May 15 2009 at 12:14pm | IP Logged
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stellamaris wrote:
| Anne, this link lists what tax documents to keep and for how long. We have tons of old tax records, and I am considering taking the returns over ten years old and scanning them onto a disk. |
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We were auditted last year  The tax lawyer we hired told us not to save returns and pertinent documents for more than three years! The IRS can ASK for documents going back 10 years, but can only REQUIRE documents going back 3 years. They told us for 99% of Americans it is much safer to dispose of documents that are older than three years. So each April 16th we have a form burning party for everything that was filed 3 years ago.
Obviously this doesn't refer to deeds, insurance paper work or that type of files.
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LeeAnn
Wife of David, mom to Ben, Dennis, Alex, Laura, Philip and our little souls in heaven we have yet to meet
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Anne McD
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| Posted: May 15 2009 at 2:40pm | IP Logged
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Well, here's my question. Every time I sneeze, I get a piece of paper from my medical insurance company saying that I went to the dr and they covered it, and that I'll probably have to pay $5 for sneezing in front of an in network dr. I also have all the paid water bills, cc bills, electric bills, etc. One idea I heard for said bills, which I really like, is to take an expandable 12 file, and for all bills paid in May, put in the May spot. Next May, take out the papers, shred, and start anew. There are the obvious things I need to keep, but then there's the "if the house burns down tomorrow, how much of this stuff will I actually miss?" question.
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Anne
Wife to Jon
Mommy to Alex 9
James 8
Katie 6
William 3 1/2
Benedict Joseph 1
and baby on the way! 10/14
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stellamaris
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| Posted: May 15 2009 at 3:11pm | IP Logged
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I used Dawn's file crate idea for these papers. I got a pretty good-sized portable file box and used hanging file folders to separate it into two-month sections (jan/feb, mar/apr, etc.). I did get out a little more than 12 months. In each hanging folder, I put three interior file folders: health, bills paid, and accounts. Under the health label, I am filing all those papers from the insurance co. and the original statements from the dr. office that detail the service. Bills paid is obvious! Accounts holds all the bank statements, investment account statements, etc. I also added two hanging folders at the back: one for labeled "Taxes 2009" and one labeled "Warranties". In the taxes folder, I have three file folders labeled deductions, payments, income. Warranties is for the 12-month limited warranties that come with everything. I figure when I get 12 months out, I can shred one folder's worth of paper at a time.
Also, I set up a three-ring binder to hold more permanent papers-insurance policies, our time-share information, and other types of papers we want to keep for 12-24 months that don't a category in the file box. Hope that makes sense! Btw, I have my previous years' taxes in other notebooks.
A wonderful aspect to this whole system is that between the financial file box and my "yearly" file box (a la Dawn), moving my paper trail will actually be super-easy!
Just two boxes and a notebook.
This system is working well for me...THANK YOU, DAWN!!
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In Christ,
Caroline
Wife to dh 30+ yrs,ds's 83,85,89,dd's 91,95,ds's 01,01,02,grammy to 4
Flowing Streams
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4Real Forums : Our Lady's Loom, Larder, and Laundry
Topic: Purging Papers
