Protecting Your Personal Information
When it comes to protecting your identity, you may think that it only relates to usernames and passwords. However, it's also important to think about any document that contains your personal and financial information. How do you determine what you should shred or delete and what to keep?
There are four timeframes to consider for physical document retention, ranging from one year to forever. If you receive electronic statements, stubs, and bills you can shred paper copies and keep them digitally.
Keep for a year:
- Bank statements
- Pay stubs
- Undisputed medical bills
- Credit card and utility bills
- Deposited checks
Keep for at least three years:
- Income tax returns
- Tax-related documents, like canceled checks, receipts. W-2s, and 1099s
- Records related to selling a home
Keep while you own:
- The title or deed to your home
- The title to your vehicle
- Documents related to mortgage or vehicle loans
- Home improvement receipts
- Rental agreements and leases
- Sales receipts and warranty information for major appliances
Keep forever and lock up, consider obtaining a safe and fire-resistant document bags:
- Birth certificate or adoption papers
- Social Security cards
- Valid passports and citizenship or residency papers
- Marriage licenses and divorce decrees
- Military records
- Wills, living wills, powers of attorney, and retirement and pension plans
- Death certificates of family members
- Vital health records (especially those that predate electronic health records)
When it's time to dispose of documents with your personal or financial information, shred them. If you don't have a shredder, look for a local shred day in your community. Some SFB branches have free community shred days in the spring that you can participate in.
