Tax records should be kept for at least seven years. Automobile records should be kept as long as the car. But did you know that there are some records that you should keep forever? Although any effort to reduce excessive clutter should be applauded, there are some things that you should make sure to hold onto.
Real Estate Related Items
Real estate transactions are extremely intricate legal transactions that can raise their heads to impact you years after their completion. You should keep the records from these forever. This includes the purchase, refinance, and sale records for any piece of real estate or for any mortgages.
Wills
Wills should also be kept forever. Make sure that someone in your family knows where to find your will and make an effort to keep the will current.
Life Insurance
Life insurance documents should be kept in a secure location. Again, make sure that someone in your family and/or the executor of your will knows about these documents and where to find them.
Long Term Care Records
Provisions for your long-term health. If you’ve already made arrangements regarding your wishes in the event of a long-term illness, a record of these arrangements should be kept in your important documents.
Home Improvements
Receipts for major home improvement projects should be stored in your long-term files, as well. Major home improvements may impact the basis you have in your home when you sell it. However, you can’t take advantage of that adjustment to your basis if you don’t have the records to prove the costs involved.
Retirement and Mutual Fund Accounts
You need to keep retirement and mutual fund account statements. These accounts aren’t your typical bank accounts like a checking or savings account. You will need the historic information in your statements when you make withdrawals from these accounts later in life. Saving these statements now will be much easier than trying to hunt down the information in twenty or thirty years
Did I miss any? Where do you store your financial records?
Leave a Reply