Episode 96: What Financial Paperwork is Worth Keeping?

Today’s question is about paperwork in particular, what financial paperwork is worth keeping?

It can be overwhelming to have a lot of paperwork such as tax forms, statements, trade confirmations, and distribution confirmations. To reduce paper usage and save trees, I suggest going paperless. Although, keeping physical copies of certain documents is important.

Physical Copies to Keep

Physical copies of forms such as tax forms, 1099s, distribution forms, and any other forms that need to be filed with the IRS during tax season are helpful to have on-hand. To avoid the risk of losing important documents in emails or having them sent to the wrong inbox, it is recommended to have these forms mailed to your home address. You’ll want make sure that you receive physical copies of these forms.

Important Forms to Have On-Hand

It’s convenient to have easy access to other forms such as trade confirmations and statements. Getting an email with a link to view your statement is very easy. I don’t think it’s necessary to check them on a daily or weekly basis. Instead, it’s best to review them at the end of each month or the beginning of each quarter. If you have electronic access set up, you can view all the archived content on the website instead of having to save it.

As far as what you should be keeping, I suggest keeping important documents related to your account when it initially was set up, and tax forms. Other than that, it is not necessary to keep every statement as they can accumulate over time and are often electronically archived.

I’m Nicholas Colantuono, CFP® here with Johnson Brunetti and this has been Money Wisdom Question Series. Thanks for joining me.