Listen, kid, we're all in it together.

[tzikeh]

How long do you guys keep all your various bill records, paperwork, and so on?

I know we are supposed to keep tax records for seven years, but how long do you keep old bank statements? Gas bills? IRA income reports? Credit card bills? What about health care information?

Comments

[amireal.livejournal.com]

I tend to keep bank statements for the 7 years also, mostly so that IF the IRS comes a knocking, you have more paperwork to back stuff up. Credit Card bills I keep till I've paid and its cleared then I shred. Health care 'reciepts' I keep b/c right now it's really complex so there's manilla folders with color coded indices to keep track of what's been paid and what hasn't and when everything happened.

In general I'd say keep anything beyond a general doctor appt/scrip fill till you've filed your taxes. (i.e. something that was beyond your normal copay)

[tzikeh.livejournal.com]

Well, I don't itemize on my taxes, so that last bit isn't a concern. I'm thinking about stuff like when the gas bill comes each month, and you send back the part with your check, how long do you keep the actual bill?

[amireal.livejournal.com]

Because you send an actual check, I'd say until the check cleared, b/c then if there's any problem, you have the cleared check or evidence thereof to smack them with. I had to do that once.

[grace-om.livejournal.com]

Ha! I just shredded a bunch of old bank statements the other day. Damn near broke my little home shredder too. I had stuff going back to 1996, which was ridiculous because I need the file space. I kept them going back to 2001.

Stuff like credit card bills, I tend to keep for about a year. Medical records...depends on what it's about. Standard procedures, whenever I get around to clearing out (which as you may have guessed, isn't as often as it should be). Other stuff, like hospitalization records (childbirth, and a concussion a couple of years ago)...those I hang on to indefinitely.

[raine-wynd.livejournal.com]

http://www.signonsandiego.com/uniontrib/20050410/news_lz1b10records.html has a good list.

I tend to keep explanation of benefit statements for a year or as long as it takes to work through the payment system. I also tend to pack rat health care information, like the results of lab tests, but that's because I've not lived in the same city for longer than seven years until recently, and it's hard to remember when I was first diagnosed with a chronic condition I have.

[morgandawn.livejournal.com]

Retention
http://www.gofso.com/Premium/LE/21_le_ot/fg/fg-Record_Keeping.html

Disaster
http://hffo.cuna.org/12433/article/1172/html

[darthfox.livejournal.com]

Heh. I keep tax records forever (so far), and used to keep pay stubs for about three years, but anymore I don't keep bank statements and old bills and that sort of thing beyond a couple of months, assuming I ever get them at all (I'm doing so much electronically now). But if the bill does come, I pay it and discard it the month after the payment goes through. Probably not the wisest thing, but seriously, it's all available online.

Medical information, as someone said upthread, I do hang onto. Here in the bedroom closet at my parents' house I have MRI films taken on my knee seven or eight years ago.

[meri-oddities.livejournal.com]

I shred all bills and bank statements. Actually, I'm amount to tell the bank not to send them anymore. I can view it on-line.

That said, I have all of our taxes for the 25 years we've been married. What me paranoid?

I also have kept all of the mortgage, car and other major purchase paperwork.

[ellen-fremedon.livejournal.com]

I tend to keep everything in one big box until I move, and then fish the tax records out of the box and throw everything else in it away.

This is probably not the best way to do it, but since I've never yet needed to itemize my taxes, it has worked well enough. (I've given enough to various causes this year that I'm actually considering itemizing, but I'm not yet convinced that any break I'd get would be worth the hassle of printing out and keeping records of my donations.)