Keep It

• When you get your bank statement, you should go through the process of balancing your checkbook. Once that’s done, file each monthly statement. If you get cancelled checks with your statement, keep them for one year in case you have some type of payment dispute.

• Tax returns for the past seven years (three years is the rule for most returns, but seven years covers a few other situations).

• Birth certificates, death certificates, marriage certificates

• Deeds

• Car titles

• Insurance policies

• Estate documents: wills, trusts, powers of attorney

• Contracts

• Medical records

• Prospectuses

• Investment confirmation statements for purchases and sales

• Year-end brokerage statements

• Monthly credit card statements (especially if they list items you deduct on your income tax return)

• Property tax bills

Toss It

• Once a year, go through the previous year’s cancelled checks and only keep the ones that you may need in the future, such as checks written for home improvements (may become part of your home’s cost basis), major purchases (may need for insurance purposes), or tax-deductible items. You can throw away cancelled checks for other routine purchases such as groceries, gasoline, clothing, utility bills (unless you deduct them).

• Your bank and brokerage statements may come with “stuffers”--typically some marketing material about other services. Read it once when it arrives and if you don’t plan to use that service, throw it out.

• If you’re going to vote your proxies, do it right away. If you choose not to vote your proxies, toss them.

• Read your annual reports when you get them. Then you can throw them out.

• Credit card receipts--after you verify them on your monthly statements.

• Utility bills (unless you deduct them for tax purposes)

For additional information and details refer to this article from the New York Times.