We know that we need to be cautious with our personal information.
We need to create strong passwords and not share them, and we need to review our account statements (banking and billing). In a world that has been paper-driven for so long, we need to be cautious about disposing of documents, bills, and other paper remnants of our business lives.
This became very obvious to me when I found a gas company statement from 1984 while going through some old (very old) files. Digging deeper into the pile, I found a car payment booklet for a vehicle that had been paid off long ago (and would now be considered an antique) and other receipts that pre-dated computerization.
We keep paperwork for a variety of reasons. We may not know what to do with documents. We may NEED to keep some items. We may have stuck papers in a drawer and forgotten about them. The time comes, however, that we need to sort and purge our papers, and we need to do so safely.
Are you buried in paper? The Federal Trade Commission offers consumers advice on document retention.
What can we destroy after a year? Pay stubs, undisputed medical bills, credit card statements, and utility bills are among the items that we can get destroy.
What about income tax returns and tax-related documents? Those are included in documents to keep for at least 3 years.
We need to hold onto vehicle titles, home deeds, and sales receipts and warranty items for major appliances for as long as we own those items.
We never get rid of documents such as birth certificates, Social Security cards, marriage certificates and divorce decrees, military records, and advance planning documents such as wills, powers of attorney, and living wills.
What about other documents such as resumes, travel itineraries, or photos? Iron Mountain recommends that these items be destroyed to further protect your identity. Did you know that scammers can use your old photos to create fake identities?
You can shred items (preferably cross-cut), find a community shredding event, or use a professional shredding service. There are other ways to destroy sensitive information. You can soak documents in water or use a mixture of water and bleach. (If you just use water, you may be able to use the pulp as compost for your garden but be aware that not all paper can be used for compost!) You can burn sensitive documents. Make sure to destroy any papers that have identifying information such as Social Security Number, account numbers, names, addresses, or medical information.
It can be challenging to keep up with the daily deluge of paper but we need to diligent. Scammers will raid garbage for personal information to be used for fraud and identity theft. Don’t hand them the tools to scam you!
Stay safe.
