If for no other reason, there's a good motivator for organizing our paper work.
"The obvious answer is one of space. In addition to having your records all over the place, may be a situation where you may be keeping too many records such as credit card receipts for small things or check card receipts. There may be so many things that you keep that it takes a long time to find a record for your attorney," said Bob Yee, Central Pacific Bank Vice President.
Here's another good reason to keep careful track of paper work - being sure what you have and where it is in case of flood or fire.
"It would be very important when you file that insurance claim. In addition, making sure that your family members know where they are so that if something were to happen to you they can have access to it in a quick manner," Yee said.
How long you need to keep paperwork depends on what kind it is. For example, with regard to the Internal Revenue Service:
"The period of limitation is the time span from the time that you can amend your tax return to file a credit or a refund or that the IRS can assess additional taxes," said Yee.
How long is that?
"Generally speaking, that's seven years. This includes the tax return itself, as well as anything that pertains to income such as your W-2 statements, alimony, your 1099 interest statements, those types of statements and records," Yee said.
Now to the question of where you should store those important records.
"You should store your personal and family records such as birth certificates, death certificates, marriage license, divorce decrees, social security cards and military discharge papers in a safe deposit box preferably in a location other than your home," Yee said.
