My method is pretty straight forward... Kim takes care of it. I have a hard time keeping anything organized, really... While I'm capable of doing it, Kim is much more so.
The *only* reason I get my bills paid on time every month is the autopay system through my bank. I have a place for the current month's bills to go as soon as I get my mail & the rest of my mail gets put in a basket. I open the bills and verify that all of them are set up & the right amount is set to go out. Afterwards, though... I have the same issues as you... I have statements & bills and stuff going back 7 years. I'm usually about a year (!) behind on filing them & have a couple of crates full of papers that need to be filed. Something tells me I don't need to keep this stuff that long, but I've never found out how long I *should* keep them. I've tried software programs but putting everything in is too time consuming, even though I know once it's in life will be good...
I do everything pretty much online, either through my bank or on the company's website. I still receive some paper bills, so those go into my bill rack and once they're paid, they go to the trash. The only thing I hold on to are tax bills for the house/cars and any sort of policy changes for the various insurance stuff.
I figure, virtually eveything is online now, so if I need a statement I can download it or print it off.
I pay some bills online but still get paper statements. I have a filing box with a folder for each month. I put in bills to be paid and just grab the folder when it's time to write checks or pay online. I write on the bills I've paid and put them back in the folder. The next month I move that folder to the back of the box and start again with the next month. When I get back to the first month, I'll throw away last year's papers.
This system is working out a lot better for me than tracking it on paper or the computer. I used to keep paid bills filed by company but I would never get around to putting the bills in there after I've paid them. I would also misplace bills to be paid in piles of other papers. Oh, and never throw out old bills. I'm on track now!
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I figure, virtually eveything is online now, so if I need a statement I can download it or print it off.
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This system is working out a lot better for me than tracking it on paper or the computer. I used to keep paid bills filed by company but I would never get around to putting the bills in there after I've paid them. I would also misplace bills to be paid in piles of other papers. Oh, and never throw out old bills. I'm on track now!
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