old documents - what to do

[BMan]

what do you do with your old documents?
do you keep them and file them away in archive boxes or shred/burn/dispose of them?

what files do you have to keep and what do you throw away?

can i scan them and then destroy my hard copy.?

what about other personal files like ppor house insurance etc do i need to keep old ones?

 

[RPI]

There is state and federal legislation that relates to this. In SA you have the Electronic Transactions Act 2000 which may help you (QLD one does just guessing about SA).

In QLD we are now able to scan and archive most documents, you just need to be able to produce a copy of the document within a reasonable time.

 

[scoobadu]

I scan and shred everything. Takes up too much space otherwise.

 

[Terry_w]

I scan and shred everything. Takes up too much space otherwise.

Don't forget to back up your electronic files too

 

[Richard Feynman]

Don't forget to back up your electronic files too

Cloud solutions like google drive are great for this.

 

[scoobadu]

Don't forget to back up your electronic files too

...and store them offsite. I have an onsite backup and an offsite backup of everything. The internet has made offsite backup a lot easier than it used to be, so there's really no excuse.

 

[BMan]

yeah i use dropbox but will use google drive or microsoft skydrive for my house files.
that way its synced on computer on laptop at parents and over the internet.
would a password on the pdf be good enough if storing on a cloud? or would you not worry about it?

 

[allsuccess]

Don't forget to back up your electronic files too

Good point. Backed them up last night

I keep the originals in folders but also scans them during the tax time and save it into a portable hard disk. That disk is backed up to another one. So, I have two copies.