I have been trying very hard to streamline our paperwork and filing. I’ve been trying to go paperless for more things. I wondered how the rest of you do it, especially as a family. If you start doing more paperless statements and files, can both you and your spouse figure out where things are? How? Do you share passwords? Do you have an email account that is just for household things, or just have it all in your personal email?
I put a lot of things in .pdf files. At the end of the year, I back all annual files, bills, etc to a flash drive and put that with the paper tax report. Will pitch after 7 years. You have to back up your computer (or print and destroy at year end) for critical stuff, though.
DW hasn’t shown any interest in being involved in any of this, so I have to keep a spreadsheet listing all the companies we have accounts with and my IDs and p/w in case I get hit by a truck. As to filing, if a company provides electronic statements I go with it so as to avoid paper. I also try to get non-pdf downloads that can be put in spreadsheets or imported into Quicken. And before I deposit physical checks, I scan the image so that I know what a deposit last March was for. Unlike intparent, haven’t got the guts to pitch anything. I still have file folders in the basement with the likes of Charles Schwab statements from the early 80s.
I do have more than one p/w, but not for this reason. If I need to give a p/w to sign up for an account with the local supermarket, I’ll give my Comcast email which I may scan once a week and basically delete everything in a couple of minutes.
I am getting ready to move/downsize, so have gotten more discerning about what paper to keep. I do keep investment account paperwork longer than 7 years, may need it for capital gains questions. But things like invoices or timesheets for my small business – once they are in that year end flash drive, I toss 'em.
I am concerned that if I made a spreadsheet of user names and passwords for my spouse, someone else might see it. When everything was coming in the mail, I figured it would be pretty obvious that someone else would have to open the mail if anything happened to me. If everything is online, then what?
Agree, I don’t keep passwords in a spreadsheet. They are on paper, in a lockbox.
A simple password system is an app with multiple password protected vaults. I use 1Password. It’s great. Generates passwords, stores them, stores secure notes, credit cards, etc.
I keep plastic envelopes, the kind that tie shut, for things. One folder was for school financial stuff. Another is for the animals’ records. My system is to dump everything in a box with a lid and then sort it from time to time. The idea is to avoid piles and avoid putting things where they can’t be found but to keep a single location for collection and sorting. One place to look and then it’s in the right folder.
I do not have any paper statements, and I don’t even download them. I go online to get my statements when I need them. I have a computer at home that my kids know my PW to. If necessary they could see all statement notifications on my email acct. I also have very limited number of accounts. I have a spreadsheet with all my PWs and it is PW protected.