Now is a good time to clean out your folders and files of unneeded paperwork, while still making sure you’re holding on to the tax records that you need to. Real Simple has a great chart that will tell you exactly what to keep and what to toss, split into whether you should toss an item every month, after one year, seven years, or keep forever. In addition, this Kiplinger article goes into the reasons why it’s important to keep some records for the specified period of time. The exercise will also help you get your papers in order for the upcoming tax season, which, as we’ve started seeing ads for tax prep software, is now upon us.

Deciding Which Financial Records to Keep [Real Simple]
(Photo: megan_soh)

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