Should we save paper copies of outdated financial statements or keep electronically?

I print out every year end statement including checking accounts and keep in a file in my desk. In case of my death - there is one folder with everything I own. I also save every month electronically.
 
Others posted more about their tax form retention so I'll add more about mine. I do my tax returns by hand, aided by my homemade spreadsheets and free fillable forms offered by the IRS and my state's tax department. (New York's free fillable forms are like little spreadsheets, too, as they calculate lines which can be calculated.)

I keep 5 years of complete tax folders. Those include all supporting documents and instruction booklets. As a new tax folder gets built, I move the 5th oldest to a large, less accessible box and clear out everything except for the forms and bare supporting documents, about 2/3 of the total folder's contents. Some of my 1980s and early 1990s folders have very little in there, especially before I bought and sold mutual funds and bought my (small) apartment.

While this has reduced my clutter, having to prepare the tax returns for 3 other people has added to my storage the last few years. I use the same 5-year rule for them, too.
 
I have 7-8 years of tax documents and all paperwork related.
I have paper receipts of all house/home improvements since 1989 when we bought this house.
I have checkbook registers going back to the 1990's, but not the checks (why, I don't know).
I have a printout of the brokerage statement from my Dad after he passed.
I have a monthly printout of totals from investment and IRAs for the current year only.
 
My name is Grasshopper I am a packrat, but now reformed. Between Quicken and TurboTax I have 20+ years of useful financial information. Everything else is kept in my gun safe.
 
7 years. Tax returns backed up on a separate storage device. Very limited amount of paper kept. Mainly hard copy dental, prescription receipts. Plus a hard copy one page summary sheet from our tax program of each our respective tax returns. About a 1/2 of a bankers storage size box.

We made a major change in 2012 when we purposely become homeless for a year. One step was to move everthing to edelivery that was not already there. The other was to consolidate our respective financial accounts as much as possible. We still end up shredding, mostly at tax time.
 
Last edited:
I'm reminded of a thing as I'm getting a car oil change today: I redoubled efforts to organize paper copies of auto maintenance repairs because, especially after I've ditched the dealerships for maintenance and repairs, I really need to track what maintenance and repairs have been done over time, so that I know if it's really time to do a certain thing when some places pitch it (which they often do prematurely). I think I'll be building a spreadsheet for this, too. (I'll take Stupid Things I Have Time To Do in FIRE Life for $500, Alex.)

Oh yeah, I keep some prescription hard copies, too, for HSA documentation purposes, out of paranoia after I nearly lost a set of electronic copies -- though I've improved my electronic saving, too.
 
I'm reminded of a thing as I'm getting a car oil change today: I redoubled efforts to organize paper copies of auto maintenance repairs because, especially after I've ditched the dealerships for maintenance and repairs, I really need to track what maintenance and repairs have been done over time, so that I know if it's really time to do a certain thing when some places pitch it (which they often do prematurely). I think I'll be building a spreadsheet for this, too. (I'll take Stupid Things I Have Time To Do in FIRE Life for $500, Alex.)

Oh yeah, I keep some prescription hard copies, too, for HSA documentation purposes, out of paranoia after I nearly lost a set of electronic copies -- though I've improved my electronic saving, too.
Similar to what you did with your car, I had one folder for my car which had become morbidly obese over the years. What I did was to split it into 3 folders - one for repair and maintenance records, one for insurance material, and a third for everything else (i.e. registration and license, tickets, accident prevention course, purchase material including the car's title). I was able to get rid of some stuff overall. I now have 3 lean folders and I can actually find stuff more easily in each one, as rare as that happens.

Splitting one morbidly obese folder into 3 smaller ones is something I did with other records in the last few years. I did this for my co-op's papers (35 years of stuff needed to get pared some some more) and my medical records.
 
FWIW, one of the best purchases I ever made is my ScanSnap. You simply put the documents you want in the hopper and push the button. It feeds them through automatically and scans both sides at the same time, very quickly (about two seconds per page). Then it saves the pdf files to your computer, where you can move them where you like. Super fast, super convenient, one-button operation.
Here's a current version:
ScanSnap® iX1400
 
I'm reminded of a thing as I'm getting a car oil change today: I redoubled efforts to organize paper copies of auto maintenance repairs because, especially after I've ditched the dealerships for maintenance and repairs, I really need to track what maintenance and repairs have been done over time, so that I know if it's really time to do a certain thing when some places pitch it (which they often do prematurely). I think I'll be building a spreadsheet for this, too. (I'll take Stupid Things I Have Time To Do in FIRE Life for $500, Alex.)
I have a spreadsheet with tabs that I use to keep track of car maintenance. I put the date, mileage, cost, and a description of what was done. It's useful to know how much I actually spent on the car in its lifetime.
FWIW, one of the best purchases I ever made is my ScanSnap. You simply put the documents you want in the hopper and push the button. It feeds them through automatically and scans both sides at the same time, very quickly (about two seconds per page). Then it saves the pdf files to your computer, where you can move them where you like. Super fast, super convenient, one-button operation.
Here's a current version:
ScanSnap® iX1400
Agreed. I bought the iX500 ten years ago next month for $449. Seems that the price has gone slightly down over the years. I find myself not scanning much anymore. Mainly real estate tax bills, auto repair invoices, and the yearly statements for my in-laws trust. It's all saved in our shared OneDrive folder that we both have access to.
 
Just think of all the paper copies of stuff that residents and businesses lost in the recent Los Angeles fires. Many probably lost computers and flash drives with backup electronic copies.
 
Similar to what you did with your car, I had one folder for my car which had become morbidly obese over the years. What I did was to split it into 3 folders - one for repair and maintenance records, one for insurance material, and a third for everything else (i.e. registration and license, tickets, accident prevention course, purchase material including the car's title). I was able to get rid of some stuff overall. I now have 3 lean folders and I can actually find stuff more easily in each one, as rare as that happens.

Splitting one morbidly obese folder into 3 smaller ones is something I did with other records in the last few years. I did this for my co-op's papers (35 years of stuff needed to get pared some some more) and my medical records.
Well, I just finished my car-maintenance spreadsheet, during which I learned the records were neither all on my computer nor printed out. And I'm lacking on DW's car's history. But I think I have what I need to know (when was the last transmission fluid change?), and now I don't care where the records are as long as I keep updating the spreadsheet.
 
I have a spreadsheet with tabs that I use to keep track of car maintenance. I put the date, mileage, cost, and a description of what was done. It's useful to know how much I actually spent on the car in its lifetime.

Agreed. I bought the iX500 ten years ago next month for $449. Seems that the price has gone slightly down over the years. I find myself not scanning much anymore. Mainly real estate tax bills, auto repair invoices, and the yearly statements for my in-laws trust. It's all saved in our shared OneDrive folder that we both have access to.
When we had an ICE car we used the booklet that came with the car to track maintenance. DH also had a spreadsheet. I might have filed receipts. Don’t have that car anymore and kept very little.

All my Tesla records are in my online service account except for one tire change. I filed that.
 
Since the IRS is fine with PDF receipts, I scan everything. I use the Epson FastFoto ff-680w. Same as the ix500 in that it scans both sides simultaneously and also does pictures.
 
Scans of the important documents (all tax year docs, home records, receipt for expensive items, copies of IDs, passports, deeds, titles, etc) are stored locally and encrypted online.

I also have seven accordion style organizer boxes that keep 7 years of printed documents. Early January I take the oldest box, shred the contents, print a new label with the current year and start over. I rarely need the printed docs, but have the space and enjoy the peace of mind they are available if needed.
I have an almost identical approach.
 
I am in the process of cleaning up and getting rid of old financial paper statements which go back ~30 years.
I am realizing that I have been saving way too much old financial documents and am starting the shredding process. I have a few thoughts and wonder if there are better options.

What is everyone doing to manage your personal office?
How long do save these quarterly/yearly statements?
Do you save them on your computer or an external drive?
Do you save only year end financial statements to minimize clutter?
I probably still save too much.
I used a Fujitsu ScanSnap in the home office when working and I’m on the second one now. I scan everything name by date and what. (20250125 EOB)
Easy to sort and search.

The Scansnap scans both sides of a document at over 20 ppm.

I still keep hard copy of medical stuff for a year and tax stuff for 7-10. Others vary.

The digital stuff is easy to sort and search

I quit trying to shred things at home and use a bulk Shredding company.
 
Funny this came up Shredded about everything last week from the early 80's to around 2020.
Took hours and hours. HA HA Feel so much better now. Never needed it over the past 40 years.
Probably will not need for the next.
 
I no longer receive paper statements— all electronic. I file taxes electronically. Our paper docs that need filing are mostly property tax, healthcare and health insurance bills and docs, house and car maintenance paperwork. We have a Scansnap scanner for those. I scan, rename with a consistent format and save to a One Note notebook page as “Insert Printout” which puts a .pdf file link and displays the file. One Note does OCR and indexing so searching for and finding a doc is easy.
Our challenge is what to do with the files from before we instituted this system. Still have a lot of paper, most of which we should just shred. Even with both of us retired, there usually seems to be something better to do than reducing the paper mountain.
 
We retired early. Sold our home. First decision was to travel for 6-12 months.

Besides having a wonderful time, the added benefit was that it forced us to move everything possible to the web. Everything. Our address changed to our son's with instructions to deep six anything that even had the appearance of junk mail.

Fourteen years later we are so thankful that we did this. Much less shredding!

Since that time we have had four income tax desk audits, ie send us the proof bucko! Each one was satisfied with edocs submitted vs a load of old paper!
 
I started to keep all tax returns after previously getting rid of them after 3 years. Paper and on my computer from downloading.

But after 7 years I throw out all supporting paper documents except certain ones like Form 5498, and certain 1099’s.

I don’t scan. That’s just more work I don’t need. Easier to throw in a folder.

My mutual fund/brokerage company keeps copies of statements and so forth for 7 years on line. When they delete them I don’t care.

That’s it. I don’t worry about anything else in terms of for tax records..
 
I had started downloading statements directly years ago but about a year ago went through and scanned and shredded almost everything paper in the office, including decades of old statements and tax returns. If I already had downloaded the statements I didn’t scan the paper copied. Otherwise for the most part I just scanned everything to minimize the amount of decision making. Then shredded it.

Documents reside on PC, which is backed up by carbonite and also has one drive. I periodically back up documents also to an external drive, but sometimes I forget and don’t do so until a year or so later.
 
I don’t keep any hard copy financial docs anymore. I did have every tax return back to the 80’s, but I scanned them all into pdf format and shredded them years ago. I keep them on my desktop computer, an external backup HD and a flash drive in a fireproof safe. I’m not worried at all. All our records are digital now.
I have done exactly the same thing as Midpack. I lived next door to a recycle center. A six month rainy winter had every monthly statement scanned to pdf. annual folders. account folders. All the taxes same way. House transactions too.
I did go one step further though. I entered the actual numbers into quicken as I went. So I have a lifetime database of my entire financial activity back to 1972 and passbook savings account.
I possess no paper records of any kind.
Midpack is ahead there, backup strategy to cloud and drive is better than my double local drives.
 
It's all in Quicken in any event.

I also have a filing cabinet in my basement where I file any receipt connected to a purchase with a warranty and it has come in very handy over the years saving me a lot of money. Biggest issue is remembering to throw a file out once the warranty expires.
I use Quicken and for returnable / warranty reasons, scan and attach the receipt in Quicken. I sometimes still keep the hard copy but normally I look for it first in Quicken. Online purchases usually come.with an electronic receipt that is saved electronically, never had a problem with the virtual receipts and stuff is backed up in a couple of places online.
 
We retired early. Sold our home. First decision was to travel for 6-12 months.

Besides having a wonderful time, the added benefit was that it forced us to move everything possible to the web. Everything. Our address changed to our son's with instructions to deep six anything that even had the appearance of junk mail.

Fourteen years later we are so thankful that we did this. Much less shredding!
Same here as we went full time RVing 5 years after retiring. Got rid of just about everything including the house. Went electronic as much as possible, no more newspapers and magazines, all e-statements, online bill paying, tax paying online. Mail dropped to a trickle. Got set up with a mail service for what little was left. Very little paper to carry in the motorhome. Shredded tons. Even though we bought another house 15 years ago we are still reaping the benefits of minimal mail and minimal paper. Minimum maintenance too as yard work is included in the development. No pets. So still can leave home for long periods.
 
Last edited:
Back
Top Bottom