Adulting means paperwork: What to keep and what to shred

Finishing college, wrapping up an advanced degree or just starting out in a job or career can mean new milestones and opportunities.

It also means managing all the paperwork — bank statements, tax returns, maybe student loan documents — that comes with the financial and other aspects of adulting.

This likely is of particular interest to those members of Gen Z who are now in their early to late 20s and likely focused on accumulating wealth faster and retiring early. Dubbed “digital natives” as the first generation to grow up with the internet, those in Gen Z were born in 1997-2012.

The average Gen Z member expects to retire at 60 and began saving for retirement at 22, according to a Northwestern Mutual survey released in April.

“So many young people in that college-age demographic are very interested in finances and investments and how to set themselves up for the future,” Thrivent financial adviser Mia Erickson said. “This generation is already thinking of, ‘How early can I retire so that I can enjoy my time on the back end? I don’t want to work forever.’”

Good news on the paperwork front for Gen Z, and others, is the advent of electronic statements and online account access. These can cut down on the piles of paper documents that used to accumulate on desks and in home offices, and still do in some.

Despite that, you still need to keep hard copies of certain financial, legal and other documents. From time to time, you might have to print out an online document or one you’ve saved on a computer or in a cloud storage service. Here is advice on managing these documents — what to keep, what to shred and when — from lawyers, a financial adviser and coach as well as an accountant.

In many cases, people hold on to documents far longer than they need to, according to attorney Michael Sampson, a partner in the Maslon law firm in Minneapolis. He knows someone who still has every bank statement going back the Clinton administration.

“No matter how many times I tell her she can get rid of all that stuff, she won’t,” Sampson said. “It’s a question of whether you have the intestinal fortitude to throw it away or whether there’s some sort of Linus blanket effect of, well, at least [I have] all of my bank statements going back to 1997.”

His rule of thumb is whether you’ll one day need a document as proof that you own something, such as your house or your car, or when you want to sell something.

“Is there ever a time when I’m going to need to refer to this or use it to prove something to somebody,” Sampson said, “or is there ever a time I can imagine somebody asking to see the original document?”

Sampson and Maslon partner Sarah Khoury recommended keeping originals of the following documents on paper, along with, of course, your driver’s license and passport (having photos of your license and passport on your phone might help in a pinch, though):

While you might proudly display your framed diploma in a work or home office, you’ll also want to keep a paper or digital copy of your college transcripts as well. Transcripts for current and former students might be available from online services or via your school.

Write down your passwords to banking, investment and other accounts and make sure a legally authorized representative knows where the passwords and accounts are in the event of your death.

Students living in dorms or apartments just off campus might want to have parents or guardians keep items like Social Security cards, passports and birth certificates for them.

“As they start to sign on the dotted line for more things on their own, a lot of these documents are going to be required,” Erickson said. “Even if they don’t have them in their possession, they should know where they are.”

Keep any document you use to substantiate your tax return for up to seven years, according to Khoury. That includes Internal Revenue Service forms like W-2s and 1099s, which report wages/taxes and nonemployment income, respectively, as well as checks or receipts for charitable contributions.

“That typically is what is recommended because that’s how long the IRS typically has to make an audit of your returns and collect any income that isn’t received,” she said.

Jerry Lee, a certified public accountant based in Wayzata, offered a reminder to retain forms related to gambling activities and capital gains from the sale of stock or cryptocurrencies if those are part of your return.

“It’s important for younger people to have a good reporting or tracking system for those digital currency transactions because, ultimately, they’re going to have to be disposed of or they will be disposed of, and there will be some tax consequences,” Lee said.

Monthly statements for bank, credit card, investment, retirement and other accounts can pile up quickly, if you’re even still receiving them on paper through the mail. Ask your bank or financial institution to see how many years of records are available online and access them there as needed, Sampson said. That should work with monthly cellphone, utility and other bills.

“Make sure that you can get copies of any statement or tax reporting form that you might need off the website,” Sampson said. “If so, then you don’t really need to keep paper copies. If you have a digital copy, you can always turn it into a paper copy if you have a printer or have access to a printer. That’s the advantage of being online and going paperless.”

If you hold onto paper copies of monthly statements, shredding or otherwise disposing of them at the end of the year should be fine. Sampson did suggest keeping — online or on paper — a few years of annual statements from investment or other accounts.

“That way, you can get rid of 11 of them and just keep the 12th,” he said. “If I had the Dec. 31 statement for the last five or six years, I think I’d be able to get pretty close to the big picture of what happened.”

Young adults new to managing their paperwork should view their financial picture according to these categories: income, housing, education, investment and lending, said Samantha Prudhon Falkowski, a financial coach at Affinity Plus Federal Credit Union. That will help you see how your personal finances affect things like your credit score, interest rates and whether you can a buy a cellphone.

“Slowly working through these things and making mindful decisions for immediate financial success and long-term financial success, this is a component of that,” Prudhon Falkowski said.

Start small with managing your documents and build from there, Thrivent’s Erickson said. The first year, keep your tax return and related documents in a filing cabinet or fireproof box. Continue that the next year while adding bank or credit card statements to the file, on paper or online.

“Just start adding to it piece by piece,” Erickson said. “The last thing we want people to do is get so overwhelmed by thinking about all the documents that they need to have that they don’t secure any of them.”

Todd Nelson is a freelance writer in Lake Elmo. His e-mail is todd_nelson@mac.com.