How to Organize Your Personal Year End Finances
Select your organizational categories., Use the same organizational system for all your documents., Know what to keep., Use an app or website to help you organize.
Step-by-Step Guide
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Step 1: Select your organizational categories.
Knowing how to organize your financial documents can be tough.
Thinking broadly about the sorts of documents you ought to organize for your year-end finances will help the process move along smoothly.
Some documents might need to be copied and placed in multiple locations.
For instance, education loan payments might need to be in a “loans” folder and also a “taxes” folder.Depending on what sort of financial documents you have, you may or may not need folders devoted to each of the main financial categories, which include:
Financial management (bank statements and loan records) Insurance and annuity documents (policies and statements) Estate documents (wills, trusts, and powers of attorney) Investments (stocks and bond) Income tax information (tax returns and documents attesting to charitable giving) Employment and military records (discharge papers and employee benefits) Home records (appraisals, renovation receipts) Medical documents (summaries of recent appointments and any medical bills or payments made) Legal documents (passports, personal records, and real estate settlements) -
Step 2: Use the same organizational system for all your documents.
You probably receive and pay some bills through regular mail, and some through digital outlets or automatic account debiting.
In this case, it’s important to impose a parallel structure on your analog and digital documents alike.For instance, if you organize your vertical files containing utility bills, credit card bills, and other significant financial documents in order that they were received, you should not organize your digital files into folders containing payments, bills, and receipts according to the company or institution that you made the payments to. , Retain anything tax-related for at least three years.
Keep anything that demonstrates a financial loss for seven years.
For instance, you ought to keep a bill of sale on a property that sold for less than what you paid for it.
You should also retain receipts for transactions paid by credit card until you get the credit card bill that reflects them.
Finally, keep all monthly account statements until you get the year-end reconciliation statement.Conversely, you should know what to get rid of.When new insurance policies arrive, get rid of the old ones.
Err on the side of caution when disposing of financial documents.
If you’re unsure if you need to keep something, retain it.For more in-depth guidelines on what you should pitch and keep, consult IRS Publication
17. , There are a variety of handy apps to help get your year-end finances organized.
For instance, you might check out feedthepig.com, manilla.com, or mint.com.Apps that might help include Mint, Personal Capital, and Spending Tracker. -
Step 3: Know what to keep.
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Step 4: Use an app or website to help you organize.
Detailed Guide
Knowing how to organize your financial documents can be tough.
Thinking broadly about the sorts of documents you ought to organize for your year-end finances will help the process move along smoothly.
Some documents might need to be copied and placed in multiple locations.
For instance, education loan payments might need to be in a “loans” folder and also a “taxes” folder.Depending on what sort of financial documents you have, you may or may not need folders devoted to each of the main financial categories, which include:
Financial management (bank statements and loan records) Insurance and annuity documents (policies and statements) Estate documents (wills, trusts, and powers of attorney) Investments (stocks and bond) Income tax information (tax returns and documents attesting to charitable giving) Employment and military records (discharge papers and employee benefits) Home records (appraisals, renovation receipts) Medical documents (summaries of recent appointments and any medical bills or payments made) Legal documents (passports, personal records, and real estate settlements)
You probably receive and pay some bills through regular mail, and some through digital outlets or automatic account debiting.
In this case, it’s important to impose a parallel structure on your analog and digital documents alike.For instance, if you organize your vertical files containing utility bills, credit card bills, and other significant financial documents in order that they were received, you should not organize your digital files into folders containing payments, bills, and receipts according to the company or institution that you made the payments to. , Retain anything tax-related for at least three years.
Keep anything that demonstrates a financial loss for seven years.
For instance, you ought to keep a bill of sale on a property that sold for less than what you paid for it.
You should also retain receipts for transactions paid by credit card until you get the credit card bill that reflects them.
Finally, keep all monthly account statements until you get the year-end reconciliation statement.Conversely, you should know what to get rid of.When new insurance policies arrive, get rid of the old ones.
Err on the side of caution when disposing of financial documents.
If you’re unsure if you need to keep something, retain it.For more in-depth guidelines on what you should pitch and keep, consult IRS Publication
17. , There are a variety of handy apps to help get your year-end finances organized.
For instance, you might check out feedthepig.com, manilla.com, or mint.com.Apps that might help include Mint, Personal Capital, and Spending Tracker.
About the Author
Paul Harvey
Professional writer focused on creating easy-to-follow hobbies tutorials.
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