Year-end Financial House Cleaning

Before the New Year comes, set aside two hours to file your papers. Grab four boxes ad label them as Trash, File for One Month, File for One Year and Permanent File. Then sort your papers accordingly.

Trash

• Bank statements over a year old
• ATM receipts over a month old
• Used plane, bus or boat tickets
• Expired warranties of appliances
• Receipts that you don’t need to tax filing, office reimbursement or loyalty cards
• Expired contracts (if the amount is substantial, keep copies of it up to five years)

File for One month

• Recent credit card and ATM receipts

File for One Year

• Recent bank statements, pay slips
• Recent statements of account from investments and insurance policies
• Phone, electric, water and other utility bills
• Encashed checks returned to you
• Contracts that are still on going or expired less than three years ago

Permanent file

• Birth, marriage certificate, tax returns
• Deeds of property that you own
• University diploma, passport and visas