How To Organize Your Financial Documents
By Pamela Wong
Pamela is a Trained Professional Organizer based in Oakville, Ontario and is the owner of Zen N Organized. She helps homeowners and small business owners transform their homes and home offices into organized spaces. She has a practical, non-judgemental approach to organizing. Her objective is to create functional and harmonious spaces for her clients.
With November being financial literacy month and my background in finance, I’d like to talk about organizing your financial documents in this blog.
Feeling Overwhelmed
From bills to investment statements, the incoming paper and documents seem to never end. There is a constant inflow of paper and can be daunting at times, but it shouldn’t have to.
I’ve helped many clients transform a once disorganized paper mountain, to a functional system that works for them. The key is to discard/shred anything that is no longer needed and keep your financial papers organized for easy retrieval.
Organizing Structure
Depending on your specific situation, there may be slight modifications for filing your financial documents, but, in general, here are the main categories:
- Banking
- Insurance
- Investments
- Taxes
Sub-categories may be needed (e.g. insurance for house, insurance for car) for each main category, and rules may be different for different jurisdictions (e.g. keep tax returns and supporting documents for 7 years). So, be sure to check with the authorities and the respective professionals who can provide the specific information to you.
Keep It Simple
The overall structure is simple, right? That’s the idea. Keeping it simple. Things often get lost when there are too many categories and sub-categories. By keeping it simple, you can easily find what you need in no time.
Digitize or Hard Copies
Digitize* as much as possible to reduce the physical clutter, but some originals such as government issued documents (e.g. birth certificate, marriage certificate) or notarized documents must be kept.
*If you need help with organizing your computer files, see my other blogpost Organizing Your Computer Files.
One More Tip
Old statements are available online for most utility companies and financial institutions, so there is no need to keep the printed hard copies. Keep that shredder handy and get rid of the papers that you no longer need. Decrease clutter, decrease stress!
