I have a giant pile of important looking documents sitting in front of me, and I have no idea what to do with them. Some of them look pointless, but could be important. Which ones should I hold on to, and which ones should I shred?
Sincerely,
What's this Garbage
Dear WG,
We all get a ton of junk in the mail?whether it's credit card applications, insurance packets, or a 60-page retirement fund report from a job you had 10 years ago. Thankfully, deciding what to keep is simple, and once you do you can shred pretty much everything else.
The Important Documents You Need to Keep
- Birth and death certificates
- Social security cards
- Pension plan documents
- ID cards and passports
- Marriage license
- Business license
- Any insurance policy (good to keep even if they have a digital copy in case problems come up)
- Wills, living wills, and powers of attorney
- Vehicle titles and loan documents
- House deeds and mortgage documents
In general, you want to keep physical copies of anything related to state or federal matters, including certifications, licenses, or deeds. The reason is twofold: you want to have easy access to these in case you need them, and they're also a pain to replace because you typically need to make a direct request to the government agency, which takes a lot of time.
If you're unsure what to do with these important documents, we recommend keeping an "in case of emergency kit" so you always know where they are. You can also use a webapp like Get Your Sh*t Together to gather everything you need to keep for the long term.
The second subset of documents to hold onto relates to documents you need to keep for a little while. With these, you can follow our guide to going paperless and scan them in if you like, or just store these documents in a safe place:
- Tax records and receipts (keep for seven years)
- Pay stubs and bank statements (keep for a year)
- Home purchase, sale, or improvement documents (keep for at least six years after you sell)
- Medical records and bills (keep at least a year after payment in case of disputes)
- Warranty documents and receipts (keep as long as you own them)
Finally, the last subset is the documents you need to keep the most recent version of:
- Social security statements
- Annual insurance policy statements
- Retirement plan statements (401(k), 529, IRA, etc)
That's pretty much it. Once you know what to keep, organize them in a filing cabinet and you're all set. A good rule of thumb to think about when you're deciding what to keep is to think about how hard that document is to replace. If you need to venture down to a government office, wait in line at a hospital, or sit on the phone for an hour, then it's likely best to hold onto it. If you can easily pop online and see a document, then you likely don't need to keep a physical copy. Photo by Vegansoldier.
Shred Everything Else
This might include a few documents you don't initially think about, including ATM receipts, credit card receipts, bills, and even used airline tickets. You should also immediately shred expired credit cards, visas, passports, and IDs. The best way to shred documents is with a good cross cut shredder like this one. Photo by Clive Darra.
Happy shredding,
Lifehacker
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Title image remixed from Pryzmat (Shutterstock) and design56 (Shutterstock).
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