Life admin, going paper free...ish?

Sea_Shell

I'm looking to have a purge of the paperwork that we've accumulated in our home office, despite going "paper free" where offered.

We had a good clear out a few years ago, scanning what might be useful...but it's gradually creeping back.

How paper-free have you gone?

Are you ruthless and keep barely anything*, scanning anything received, printing nothing and just keeping a digital copy, or do you hoard paperwork, just in case?

Any tips?

Anything you wished you'd kept, or stuff you'd wish you'd thrown out?

What about stuff with some sentimental attachments. Old GCSE certificates 😁

Does one really need each P60 from every year of work!! 😉

TIA

(I picked this section of the forum, because it pretty much straddles all the others. Pensions, banking, insurance, death... basically anything that generates paperwork.)

*Obviously keeping very important documents like Birth certs, VRD, passports, wills, PoA etc 😉

Brie

I haven't scanned anything much at all but just keep the last few years worth of bills and statements etc that might be needed if something goes wrong or may be required for tax purposes. I've got one company that has all their statements online (no paper option at all) and I download those as otherwise you can't view them at all after about 2 months.

Every few months I go through the paperwork and file new stuff and chuck/shred old. It's tedious.

You might try asking on the decluttering board for opinions. It's about more than paperwork and is pretty noisy in a friendly way but might help you in other ways too.

2026 DECLUTTERING CAMPAIGN Mrs SD - our Year of Redistribution - Page 421 — MoneySavingExpert Forum

Cairnpapple

Martin discussed this on his podcast recently, maybe yesterday? He came down on the side of keeping stuff in case of e.g. future mis-selling issues. Tbh I'd rather just have the mental and physical space and take the risk of not being able to claim in future.

I do keep P60s, exam and degree certificates, most recent pension statements, and an opening letter or statement from active accounts.

Albermarle

https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/comment/82084036#Comment_82084036

Same here. I keep paper ( and digital) copies of house/car/travel insurance.
Plus recent pensions/ savings/ S&S Isa statements etc

I only print off the first one or two pages though, and have regular clear outs/ shredding.

Sea_Shell

https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/comment/82084036#Comment_82084036

How long do you keep the paperwork for these active accounts, once they're no longer active?

I have a box file full of minimal paperwork from closed accounts, from when I was a serial switcher and stoozer.

Does a 7 year 'rule' apply?

Cairnpapple

https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/comment/82084366#Comment_82084366

Good question and I'd like to see what others think about that. The only thing I move annually at the moment is ISAs and tbh I usually stick within the same 3-4 banks/building societies rather than chase the last 0.1%. So I pretty much shred them when the confirmation of transfer/closure comes through. Though thinking about it I do have a small notebook with all the account numbers (struck through on closure, but still readable if I needed to know that it had existed for some reason).

poseidon1

I went completely paperless over 10 years ago, no paper statements or bills other than once a year council tax and water bill.

This was intially driven by security concerns around a spate of theft of paper statements which was occurring in my part of London but I generally extended the elimination of paperwork on the realisation that I personally did not need to have an avalanche of paper invading my home on a weekly/ monthly basis. Have got to the point that when my printer/ scanner finally gave up the ghost, I did not replace it.

However, living alone I am also aware that this absence of paperwork means if I fell under a bus it would be extraordinarily difficult for others to ascertain my financial relationships with a large number of banks, investment accounts and savings institutions without access to my mobile app which collates and tracks these relationships. My challenge therefore is to find a way to permit post death access to the App as the primary portal to identifying personal assets and liabilities.

Sea_Shell

https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/comment/82084605#Comment_82084605

Maybe you could allow one paper document, detailing all your current financial arrangements. Handwritten, if you don't have a printer, but that could be a pain to update.

I've read people use the probate (and IHT if relevant) forms as their guide, so it at least gives their administrator/executor somewhere to start.

I'm not ready to trust my whole life admin to technology yet 😉

poseidon1

https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/comment/82084663#Comment_82084663

When collating my income and capital gains for self assessment tax reporting purposes, I do have a note book where I hand write a summary of the digital year end financial reports from the 15+ institutions I deal with, in preparation for completing the tax return on third party software.

However, the idea of hand writing and updating a paper document to record my ever changing financial relationships would (for me) be akin to maintaining a laborious Dickensian style ledger.

However based on your suggestion it does occur to me that a halfway house could be to annually print out a pdf of my App record of assets and liabilities to hold with a paper copy of my tax return which would provide a decent starting point for anyone having to delve into my financial affairs. As far as printing is concerned I visit my local library and pay to print from a USB stick when printing a document is unavoidable.

Not absolutely ideal, but will do until a better 'tech' solution can be found.

Sea_Shell

https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/comment/82084723#Comment_82084723

You could always appoint an attorney, and pass all the record keeping to them 🤣

Here, have this poisoned chalice 😲

poseidon1

https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/comment/82084726#Comment_82084726

Sadly such an attorney would need to be a financial professional with competency to handle complexities of a commercial property investment, Sipp, GIA, Companies House compliance etc.

Admin costs for 'employing' such a person would make a significant hole in annual income. However does rather highlight a 'poison chalice' a future executor would be burdened with.