Join Early Retirement Today
Reply
 
Thread Tools Display Modes
Printing Statements
Old 01-05-2019, 08:08 AM   #1
Moderator
Jerry1's Avatar
 
Join Date: Nov 2014
Posts: 9,102
Printing Statements

Everything is electronic these days, but I’m thinking I should still print off and file my statements from brokerage and bank accounts at year end. I’m I just being old fashion or does it make sense to have a hard copy once a year. What do you do?
__________________
Every day when I open my eyes now it feels like a Saturday - David Gray
Jerry1 is online now   Reply With Quote
Join the #1 Early Retirement and Financial Independence Forum Today - It's Totally Free!

Are you planning to be financially independent as early as possible so you can live life on your own terms? Discuss successful investing strategies, asset allocation models, tax strategies and other related topics in our online forum community. Our members range from young folks just starting their journey to financial independence, military retirees and even multimillionaires. No matter where you fit in you'll find that Early-Retirement.org is a great community to join. Best of all it's totally FREE!

You are currently viewing our boards as a guest so you have limited access to our community. Please take the time to register and you will gain a lot of great new features including; the ability to participate in discussions, network with our members, see fewer ads, upload photographs, create a retirement blog, send private messages and so much, much more!

Old 01-05-2019, 08:25 AM   #2
Thinks s/he gets paid by the post
USGrant1962's Avatar
 
Join Date: Dec 2016
Location: DC area
Posts: 2,479
I still get paper monthly statements from Vanguard and my 401(k). Every month or so when I long in they try to get me to switch to 100% e-delivery, but I refuse. I do electronic for transactions, annual reports, etc.
__________________
FI and Semi-ER March 24, 2017
Consulting to stay engaged

"All models are wrong, some are useful." - George Box
There is always a well-known solution to every human problem: neat, plausible, and wrong.” - H.L. Mencken
USGrant1962 is offline   Reply With Quote
Old 01-05-2019, 08:35 AM   #3
Give me a museum and I'll fill it. (Picasso)
Give me a forum ...
RunningBum's Avatar
 
Join Date: Jun 2007
Posts: 13,202
I still have Vanguard send me a hardcopy of the year end statement. If they stopped doing that, I would probably just save a copy to pdf. I don't do this for any other institutions. I might still have old checkbook registers, but for the last few years I've been using a spreadsheet for my checking account instead.

I have any institution that will do it send me a printed copy of end of year tax statements. If they don't I print it. It's just easier for me to organize, to have the pile I've already entered in TurboTax, with a check mark at the top, and the pile yet to enter. After a few years I thin out what I save for taxes...I think I just save a copy of the major forms I send to the IRS, and maybe the big 1099s. I'd have to dig out the tax box and look at what's still in each folder.

I also have a shoe box I start dumping receipts and anything utilities, etc mail to me these days. I used to save a box for each year but that got to be too much so last year I went through and got rid of much of the stuff and now a box holds 3-4 years. I also made a note in my estate document that these can just be tossed. Once I'm dead and the estate is settled I don't think ID theft is a concern.

I'm probably old fashioned with saving this much too, but it's what I do.
RunningBum is offline   Reply With Quote
Old 01-05-2019, 08:41 AM   #4
Give me a museum and I'll fill it. (Picasso)
Give me a forum ...
 
Join Date: Jun 2005
Posts: 10,252
I print out year-end statement that affect my tax return. I save them to external hard drive as well, but I don't trust the hard drive forever. I print out my tax return as well. So if I need to look something up, I know exactly where to find everything even if I only have sunlight or a flashlight to light things up.

Otherwise, I shred all incoming paper quickly. I'm old enough to know that I have shredded months of useless saved statements, so I'm way past trying to save all but the bare minimum.
LOL! is offline   Reply With Quote
Old 01-05-2019, 08:50 AM   #5
Thinks s/he gets paid by the post
frayne's Avatar
 
Join Date: Oct 2002
Location: Chattanooga
Posts: 3,878
I print out my statements and file a hard copy monthly. At the end of the year I shred as needed. Still have hard copies of year end statements, ten years back.
__________________
Earning money is an action, saving money is a behavior, growing money takes a well diversified portfolio and the discipline to ignore market swings.
frayne is offline   Reply With Quote
Old 01-05-2019, 08:51 AM   #6
Thinks s/he gets paid by the post
 
Join Date: Jun 2016
Posts: 4,661
I file everything electronically. I print what I need, which typically is only year end tax statements for my CPA.
Scuba is offline   Reply With Quote
Old 01-05-2019, 08:55 AM   #7
Thinks s/he gets paid by the post
 
Join Date: Nov 2015
Posts: 2,691
After nearly 40 years in adulthood, I've reflected on the fact that I've never needed a statement except once when buying a house many years ago. Short story is I had a large deposit for sale of asset that the underwriter got their panties in a bunch over, unknown why. But all I did was request the copy from bank. Never needed any other historic and archived statement, and def nothing that was more than last year, which today is easily accessible online. But that's just me.
bobandsherry is offline   Reply With Quote
Old 01-05-2019, 08:56 AM   #8
Give me a museum and I'll fill it. (Picasso)
Give me a forum ...
 
Join Date: Nov 2009
Posts: 6,682
Fidelity sends me paper statements every month and year-ended. They include a 3-hole punch which is handy because I put them into a 3-ring binder. When I get the year-ended, I shred the 12 monthly statements. I get similar statements from Dreyfus.


At the end of the year, I create my own, handwritten summary of the Fidelity and Dreyfus statements so I can combine data across companies and investment types for my tax return.


As for storing other documents, my general rule is to keep one full calendar year plus the current year. This means I have to begin my transition, throwing out the 2017 receipts, putting the 2018 ones in their place, and making way for the 2019 receipts to build up. Exceptions to this include medical bills and receipts because they are tax-deductible and I want to keep a record of things which are done to me.


As for tax returns, I keep full folders for 5 years; stuff before that I pare down to the essentials such as copies of filed forms, supporting documents, and worksheets. I end up tossing about 2/3 of the contents, mostly instruction booklets and user guides.
__________________
Retired in late 2008 at age 45. Cashed in company stock, bought a lot of shares in a big bond fund and am living nicely off its dividends. IRA, SS, and a pension await me at age 60 and later. No kids, no debts.

"I want my money working for me instead of me working for my money!"
scrabbler1 is offline   Reply With Quote
Old 01-05-2019, 09:15 AM   #9
Thinks s/he gets paid by the post
mpeirce's Avatar
 
Join Date: Feb 2012
Location: Northern Ohio
Posts: 3,182
Quote:
Originally Posted by Scuba View Post
I file everything electronically. I print what I need, which typically is only year end tax statements for my CPA.
We do this too. We download PDFs and store them in cloud based storage.

Even the occasional printed statements or bills or whatever we get, we scan them in and file them electronically. We're close to getting rid of all our paper files.
mpeirce is offline   Reply With Quote
Old 01-05-2019, 09:20 AM   #10
Give me a museum and I'll fill it. (Picasso)
Give me a forum ...
easysurfer's Avatar
 
Join Date: Jun 2008
Posts: 13,132
For my Vanguard statements, I prefer paper copies.

Bank checking I download a pdf file each month and store on computer.

The rest like credit card, utility statements, I don't keep but just go online to access.

I also have a portable document scanner as am trying to go digital more than in the past.

Only thing I want now is a color printer. I know, seems like backwards logic .
__________________
Have you ever seen a headstone with these words
"If only I had spent more time at work" ... from "Busy Man" sung by Billy Ray Cyrus
easysurfer is offline   Reply With Quote
Old 01-05-2019, 09:25 AM   #11
Give me a museum and I'll fill it. (Picasso)
Give me a forum ...
MRG's Avatar
 
Join Date: Apr 2013
Posts: 11,078
I spent my career getting rid of paper. No.
MRG is offline   Reply With Quote
Old 01-05-2019, 09:51 AM   #12
Give me a museum and I'll fill it. (Picasso)
Give me a forum ...
 
Join Date: Sep 2005
Location: Northern IL
Posts: 26,821
I think printing EOY and filing it away with a paper copy of tax returns is easy and prudent.

I like having things on the computer, backed up and searchable, but sometimes just laying out the paper on a physical desktop is easier. And if someone else needs them if you were incapacitated, it's probably easier to find paper than some directory tucked away somewhere on a computer.

-ERD50
ERD50 is offline   Reply With Quote
Old 01-05-2019, 09:56 AM   #13
Thinks s/he gets paid by the post
mpeirce's Avatar
 
Join Date: Feb 2012
Location: Northern Ohio
Posts: 3,182
Quote:
Originally Posted by easysurfer View Post
I also have a portable document scanner as am trying to go digital more than in the past.
We have a scanner too, but have mostly switched to using the iPhone. There are a couple of good scan apps (like scanner pro) and other apps, like the Drop Box app, has nice scanner functionality. Even Apple's notes app does a great job of scanning in documents.

And by "scanner functionality" I mean it takes a picture of the document and processes it to de-skew and make it into a nice rectangular page. They typically also combine multiple pages into a single doc. Usually OCR too so you can do text searches.

The phone is much faster than firing up the scanner!
mpeirce is offline   Reply With Quote
Old 01-05-2019, 10:14 AM   #14
Thinks s/he gets paid by the post
 
Join Date: Nov 2006
Posts: 1,639
I print out the year end statements and keep them. Mainly as proof that I actually have an account and also as something my heirs can see to give them some idea of what we have and where. All of these are included in my "When I'm Dead" book to make things easier for my DW and Kids.
PatrickA5 is offline   Reply With Quote
Old 01-05-2019, 10:19 AM   #15
Give me a museum and I'll fill it. (Picasso)
Give me a forum ...
 
Join Date: Aug 2016
Location: Northern Virginia
Posts: 7,546
For current investment accounts I get paper statements. And I file them in a 3 ring binder with all the transaction statements so I have all the basis records at hand. I consolidated my accounts at a single brokerage a few years ago, making this pretty simple. Still multiple accounts though.

I also download the electronic copies of all investment statements. I electronically archive those locally and on an external hard drive. I tend to do this once per year after taxes are done.

I compiled a spreadsheet of all my investment accounts and history back to my first savings account a couple of years ago and maintain that. I like knowing the pedigree of my current consolidated investment accounts. Doing that allowed me to get rid of a lot of older paper records of old accounts.

I have all my tax returns and work papers that I have ever filed, stored on paper. It is overkill but there is little to be gained by going through and throwing them out as they take up little room.

I do my taxes using Turbotax, filed on paper. I also keep an electronic copy. I do not e-file for security reasons.

I am reducing the paper I get in, but it seem unproductive to get only electronic copies of something and then spend your own time, ink, and paper printing them out.
Montecfo is offline   Reply With Quote
Old 01-05-2019, 10:19 AM   #16
gone traveling
 
Join Date: Dec 2016
Posts: 733
Consider keeping paper for your executor, should they need to find the assets. Electronic files are easily lost and difficult to access. This is especially important should you become incompetent at some point prior to death.
Luck_Club is offline   Reply With Quote
Old 01-05-2019, 10:26 AM   #17
Give me a museum and I'll fill it. (Picasso)
Give me a forum ...
audreyh1's Avatar
 
Join Date: Jan 2006
Location: Rio Grande Valley
Posts: 38,011
I just keep electronic copies of statements now. Have for the past decade.
__________________
Retired since summer 1999.
audreyh1 is online now   Reply With Quote
Old 01-05-2019, 10:34 AM   #18
Give me a museum and I'll fill it. (Picasso)
Give me a forum ...
steelyman's Avatar
 
Join Date: Feb 2011
Location: NC Triangle
Posts: 5,807
Quote:
Originally Posted by PatrickA5 View Post
I print out the year end statements and keep them. Mainly as proof that I actually have an account and also as something my heirs can see to give them some idea of what we have and where. All of these are included in my "When I'm Dead" book to make things easier for my DW and Kids.

While my equivalent book has a different title, it’s a good thing to have and write/update while still on your game.

My current version includes where/how to find passwords for websites, especially those financial-related.
__________________

steelyman is offline   Reply With Quote
Old 01-05-2019, 10:43 AM   #19
Give me a museum and I'll fill it. (Picasso)
Give me a forum ...
Sunset's Avatar
 
Join Date: Jul 2014
Location: Spending the Kids Inheritance and living in Chicago
Posts: 17,012
Quote:
Originally Posted by audreyh1 View Post
I just keep electronic copies of statements now. Have for the past decade.
+1
And I back up my computer files to a few external hard drives and thumb drives every month or after making big changes to important files (like at tax time).

I find it easier to find documents on computer than in paper files, as I can search on the computer and I name each file as I get it with a meaningful name.
__________________
Fortune favors the prepared mind. ... Louis Pasteur
Sunset is offline   Reply With Quote
Old 01-05-2019, 10:44 AM   #20
Thinks s/he gets paid by the post
 
Join Date: Nov 2011
Posts: 3,877
I save transaction papers to facilitate cost basis calculations. I've found brokerages to be unreliable about sending copies of old statements, and at least one has flat out refused.
GrayHare is offline   Reply With Quote
Reply


Currently Active Users Viewing This Thread: 1 (0 members and 1 guests)
 
Thread Tools
Display Modes

Posting Rules
You may not post new threads
You may not post replies
You may not post attachments
You may not edit your posts

BB code is On
Smilies are On
[IMG] code is On
HTML code is Off
Trackbacks are Off
Pingbacks are Off
Refbacks are Off


Similar Threads
Thread Thread Starter Forum Replies Last Post
All The Money The Government Is Printing This Year, In One Graphic mickeyd FIRE and Money 23 10-18-2012 09:25 AM
printing money? ducky911 FIRE and Money 26 09-05-2012 11:42 PM
Printing body parts RonBoyd Health and Early Retirement 2 02-19-2010 09:53 AM
printing through another computer ScooterGuy Other topics 3 05-18-2009 03:40 PM
USPS Rate Page for Printing TromboneAl Other topics 3 07-10-2008 07:22 PM

» Quick Links

 
All times are GMT -6. The time now is 06:04 AM.
 
Powered by vBulletin® Version 3.8.8 Beta 1
Copyright ©2000 - 2024, vBulletin Solutions, Inc.