Now is a good time to go through your files and purge what you don’t need so you can start 2016 fresh. This is a first in a series of posts on organizing for the new year.<\/p>\n
As much as we might hate it, sometimes we need to have paper documents. As we get ready for tax season, we may have a combination of digital and paper files to work with. From Kiplinger.com<\/a> a few years ago:<\/p>\n \u201cAs you finish up your tax return this year, take the opportunity to clean house. With a few key exceptions — mainly tax-related documents — you don’t need to keep all those papers. And if you’re willing to use online banking and create a digital archive of crucial records, you may even be able to go paper-free<\/b><\/a>.<\/p>\n Before you dig into those piles of records and statements, invest in a shredder to guard against identity theft<\/b>. And don’t skimp on the shredder\u2026.\u201d<\/p><\/blockquote>\n Or do as one of our friends did and have a glass of wine with a friend and a\u00a0fireplace and burn the old documents in the fire with an \u201calternative shredding party\u201d where they talked and fed the fireplace log. But make sure you really don’t need those papers!<\/p>\n Here is some information from a filing system called Freedom Filer<\/a> that uses color coding to make filing and life easier:<\/p>\n \u201cSet Up A Self-Purging Reference File System While none of us really want to think about it, estate planning is an important part of financial planning. Siftsort.com can help you when you are planning with your advisors and family.<\/p>\n According to the Wall Street Journal, there are \u201c25 Documents You Need Before You Die<\/a>\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cIt isn’t enough simply to sign a bunch of papers establishing an estate plan and other end-of-life instructions. You also have to make your heirs aware of them and leave the documents where they can find them.<\/p>\n Consider: At least 10 states have been investigating whether some of the country’s largest insurers are failing to pay out unclaimed life policies to beneficiaries. California and Florida have held public hearings on the issue\u2026.<\/p>\n The financial consequences of failing to keep your documents in order can be significant. According to the National Association of Unclaimed Property Administrators, state treasurers currently hold $32.9 billion in unclaimed bank accounts and other assets. \u201d<\/p><\/blockquote>\n Siftsort.com is perfect for making your heirs aware of your estate plan and the necessary documents with the secure sharing feature.\u00a0 Sign up today for your free Siftsort.com account and start using it. If you need more storage space, you can add it by using a credit card, plus get a dedicated fax line along with that additional space.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Now is a good time to go through your files and purge what you don’t need so you can start 2016 fresh. This is a first in a series of posts on organizing for the new year. Paper files As much as we might hate it, sometimes we need to have paper documents. As we … Continue reading New Year Organizing: Paper Part I of III<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[8,5,13,6,11,15,12,14],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.siftsort.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/128"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.siftsort.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.siftsort.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.siftsort.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.siftsort.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=128"}],"version-history":[{"count":8,"href":"https:\/\/blog.siftsort.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/128\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":323,"href":"https:\/\/blog.siftsort.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/128\/revisions\/323"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.siftsort.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=128"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.siftsort.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=128"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.siftsort.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=128"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
\nSaving files for future reference is essential, but unless you create a maintenance-free reference system you’re going to find yourself constantly cleaning out your filing cabinet, having to set up new folders, and not having the right files at hand when you need them. The answer is to divide your filing cabinet into four sections<\/em>, color-coded if possible: GREEN for monthly miscellaneous transactions, BLUE for tax-related transactions, RED for permanent family and property records, ORANGE\/YELLOW for current policies, agreements, and up-to-date administrative files. You may set up an optional fifth section in PURPLE, for saving literature, articles, and notes. The main sections are called Monthly<\/em>, Tax<\/em>, Permanent<\/em>, and Remove\/Replace<\/em>, and the optional section is called Resource…<\/em>.\u201d<\/p><\/blockquote>\nEstate Planning<\/h2>\n