Junk mail wastes an incredible amount of natural resources and contributes to global warming (and your stress level!). Taking the steps we have listed in our junk mail guide saves: Time: No unwanted mail to open and deal with. Less paper piles to search through. Trees: Keep 100+ million trees in forests, cooling the planet. Water: Protect 28 billion gallons of clean water. Climate: Junk mail produces more C02 than 9 million cars. Although we offer this FREE list of resources for people to stop unwanted junk mail, many people don’t take the time to do it. What one time… read more »

A very large number of our clients struggle with paperwork and mail. Many of them end up with a dozen or so boxes of mail that they’ve never even opened. Paper piles and paper management is one of my ultimate favorite things to organize and to help coach people on. A big part of why I love it is that we almost always find money in the paper piles either in check form, cash, gift cards or overpaid bills. I also love teaching people that most of the time, the paperwork they’re holding on to for dear life doesn’t have… read more »

Who doesn’t struggle with piles and piles of paperwork? Very few people, that’s who. I am highly aware of all of the marketing tactics there are out there that sneak paperwork into people’s homes and offices. One of the tactics that works like a dream is giving you additional paperwork with your receipts. For just one week, make yourself really pay attention to all of the paperwork that people hand to you. Watch how you take that paper, put it in your car and take it back to your office or home. That junk paperwork is then mixed in with… read more »

So what should you keep and how long should you keep it? Following is a list of documents and suggested retention times offered by the Better Business Bureau (BBB): Tax returns and supporting documents should be kept for eight years. Supporting documents may include charitable donation receipts, medical bills and property tax records, for example. Records on contributions to individual retirement accounts should be kept permanently. Retirement and savings plan statements should be kept from one year to permanently. Keep the monthly or quarterly statements until the end of the year, then keep the year-end statement and shred the others.… read more »