How long do you keep old bills?
 

I'm in the middle (ok, early stages, ok, I just started) of cleaning out my home office and I'm inundated with paper, old bills, receipts, etc etc.

How long do you generally keep this crap?

:popcorn:

Depends on what they are.

Car repair bills, Appliance purchases/repair stuff I keep almost indefinitely. Utilities I'd keep for a year or 18 months. Credit Card and Bank statements I keep 6 to 12 months, but they're not of heavy importance to me so you might want to take that into consideration.

I toss mine, everything is online and its not like I have expenses that are terribly big ticket.
I keep receipts for major purchases for the warranty period.
Car receipts goes into a sheet protector in a binder.

Now I'm gonna go clean all the receipts out of my door panels in my car :D

I keep automobile service receipts as long as I own the vehicle.

Bills that are tax deductible are stored in my yearly tax file for a few years.

Major purchase receipts are kept long term (typically until I don't have the item anymore).

Everything else is purged about every year or so.

The answer is it depends.

Taxes --
Seven years. The IRS has three years from your filing date to audit your return if it suspects good faith errors, and six years if it thinks you underreported your gross income by 25 percent or more.

IRA contributions -- Permanently.

Retirement/Savings plan statements --
From one year to permanently. Keep the quarterly statements until you receive your annual summary; keep the annual summaries until you retire or close the account.

Bank records --
From one year to permanently. Throw away checks that have no long-term importance, but keep checks related to your taxes, business expenses, and housing and mortgage payments.

Brokerage statements --
Until you sell your securities.
Bills -- From one year to permanently. In most cases, when you receive the canceled check, the bill can be tossed. However, you should keep bills for big purchases (e.g., jewelry, appliances, cars, collectibles, etc.) for proof of their value in the event of loss or damage.

Credit card receipts and statements --
From 45 days to seven years. Keep the statements seven years if they document tax-related expenses.

Paycheck stubs --
One year. If your W-2 form matches your stubs, you can toss your stubs.

House/Condominium records and receipts --
From six years to permanently.

How long should you keep personal financial records like bank statements, receipts, tax statements, etc.?

This only a partial list.......

same here , how hard is it to keep a box ?

OMG...I keep everything. It's sick. I know I should/could ditch alot of paper but I just can't bring myself to get rid of stuff.

It did come in handy when I got divorced and they wanted bills, expenses etc going back years..

I'm afraid it's like my desk. The day after I ditch something I thought I didn't need, I need it.

Good list, QwkAg...as for "bills", I look at them, pay them and toss them.
CC bills I look at hard, but unless I have a rare beef with a purchase or
billing item, I shred and toss those too.

And, while not fully high tech/cloud storage here, we do pay many of our
bills on line, both in receipt and payment mode, so there is a record "somewhere";
thus, no need to keep old electric bills, unless I was selling our 2 Joints and wanted
to show prospective buyers the running costs.

Different strokes, but I really suspect we keep way too much paper in terms
of bills, docs, stuff, etc., and for far too long. I found a box of cancelled checks
and monthly bank statements from 1984, lol!

Shred the stuff and toss it, imo.
GL,mD

:iagree:

I agree regarding bills. We do the same thing
using the shredder like a knife an fork at dinner.

Yeah. I shred anything with address, account or card numbers.......anything that can be linked to me. If it's just a grocery store receipt then I toss it (actually, I recycle it) but even junk mail with my name and address, I shred those.