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Are you embarking on a journey of paperwork organization?

Are you trying to figure out the best file set-up?

Here are some suggestions on categories to put in your filing system:

Financial:

1. Banking
2. Tax Records
3. Investments
4. Credit cards
5. Retirement
6. Documentation passport

Auto:

1. Car (owner’s manual or payments)
2. Warranties
3. Service Records

Education Records

1. per child
2. per adult

House:

1. Lease
2. Home improvement
3. Receipts
4. Warranties

Employee Information

1. Payroll stubs
2. Benefits
3. 401k

Medical Records

1. Each member of family
2. Medical information hospital or doctor
3. Pets

Inspiration:

1. Book list
2. Cooking
3. Hobbies
4. Volunteer information
5. Magazine subscriptions
6. Church

Lifestyle

1. Restaurants
2. Entertaining ideas
3. Shopping
4. Travel

Memories

1. Photos
2. News articles
3. Misc.

Correspondence Letter

1. Business
2. Personal
3. Friends and relatives

When? How? Why?

File on a regular basis.

Any new project-create a file

 I suggest auditing files at least once a year. It’s definitely worth the time investment. I prefer to go through my files right before tax season and at the end of the year.

Purge when necessary. I like to create a tax file that will hold all of the information I will need for my next tax session.

 No need to hold onto your store credit card statements! Most are paperless and you have access to each statement. Are you old school and need to pay bills manually? No worries, you can still cut your paperwork clutter by discarding the previous month’s statement. If you make a payment and next month you see your payment recorded you don’t need that old statement.

Set up your system and if you find a file or files that are not being used then pull the file. Remember less is more…

Need help starting the process? Contact me and together we can begin the process!

Planting Peacefulness,

Shelley