Organising your finances

hjw1985

Hi.

I've used this site lots but am new to the forums really so apologies if this is not exactly the right place to post.

I am in debt but only with my mortgage and an interest free loan so is all manageable and I'm generally not too bad at managing my money but I was doing a "spring clean" of my finances yesterday and was wondering how everyone else keeps things.

I used to be a bit OCD and keep EVERYTHING and thought yesterday I would tone it down a bit and keep all bank statements and the like for this tax year and the previous tax year and just keep summaries for the years before that (back 7 years in total).

But I wasn't sure what other people did. Should I be keeping bills (electricity/gas/mobile/council tax) for years? Should I keep details of bank accounts that have since been closed?

I'm currently keeping all current payslips/bank statements/bills in a lever arch file. All prior years information in document wallets in a filing cabinet with separate wallets for information relating to pensions/car insurance/important docs like marriage certificate/passports.

How does everyone else organise their finances/lives??!!

Thanks.

opinions4u

I tend to work on two years for bank/credit card statements and bills and 6 years for anything relating to pay slips, tax statements from savings providers etc.

Lokolo

Nowdays the interest keeps everything for me.

staffie1

Agree with o4u. Banks / CC companies can produce past statements for around 6 yrs anyway.

Also (although I'm sure I don't need to remind you) make sure you have a good cross-cut shredder to hand when destroying all personal paperwork.