Freelance Finance

Deciding how long you should keep your old tax documents and financial records is hard enough without getting bogged down in busy work. It’s entirely possible these days to scan and create a digital record of every single piece of paper you accumulate. But you’ll never find me doing it. That may sound weird after yesterday’s post, in which I probably seemed like a geek for the subject. But the there’s such a thing as overkill. Scanning paper when you can just as easily tuck it away in a paper folder is, in my opinion, overkill. Your goal in filing should be to handle a document once—and no more. Why consume more electricity, more space on the hard drive, and brain cells making something digital when you already have a hard copy? And yes, I’m aware that there are orgs that will scan all your docs for a price, but in an age of identity theft, why would you ever part with your personal data?

Don’t get me wrong: I’m not saying that you should never make such scans. Just be smart about it. Give yourself a darn good reason why you should take the time to make this extra effort. A scan of your electric bill? Why the hell for? A scan of the deed to your house? Now you’re talking. Be stingy with your time and bytes.