Financial Records

[vangogh]

I don't recommend the following, but it's a story that was shared by a friend about another friend.

This person would keep everything in boxes, which he dated. Every time he opened a box he'd cross out the old date and replaced it with the current date. It was a way to always know the last time he'd looked in the box.

Any time he came across a box that he hadn't opened in a year he threw it out without looking at it's contents. I guess he figured if a year went by without him needing anything in it he could do without it forever.

Very bad for record keeping. Very good for living in the moment.

[Evan]

That is probably not the worst record keeping system -- but probably isn't long enough in many cases.

It'd probably be resourceful for common things, such as your own personal accounts. I wouldn't do it with corporate records.

[vangogh]

I think it was really more about the usual stuff we collect in life and less about record keeping. The person in question was I think an artist and not likely a business person of any kind.

I'd still open the box before throwing it out.

[Evan]

For memories? :-P

[vangogh]

I wouldn't want to take a chance on throwing out something I wanted to keep. Years ago while going through a box I came across the title of a car I owned. Without looking I made the assumption it was for a car that had previously died on me and I just tore it up and threw it out. Turns out it was my current title at the time and I didn't realize until a few months later when I went to sell it.

It wasn't a big deal, but still annoying. I think it would be easy to throw things out that were important.

[KristineS]

It definitely would be easy to throw out things that are important. I have a filing system and I always start out with neatly labeled files. Then things pile up and I just put them near the filing cabinet until I have time to file. If I just swooped up the pile because I hadn't touched it in a while and threw it away, I could throw out stuff I really needed.

[orion_joel]

I think the standard requirement in Australia is 7 years, however the point that you make Evan is a very valid one i think, that for depreciation you should look at keeping the records for that period after you have disposed of the asset.

I really started to look at what i was actually keeping more so because of the volume of paperwork that i had from both business and work in just 8 years. i sort of realized some things just are not required, like payslips, once you have the final group certificate, which is a summary of the payslips for the year.