I don't even use a check register for my checking account, so I have no need to keep them.

I don't use a check register either. All my entries go in an excel spreadsheet that keeps my running balance.

Banks don't keep copies of checks but if you need a copy, they can gat it for you if you call & request.

I do keep everything you mentioned for at least 10 years. I have a box of important receipts & paperwork.

I just keep them. I did toss the last one, it had all kinds of purchases and repair costs from my last house. House is gone, thus, I tossed it. Same with all those receipts. But I did write down my BEST repair people, never know when you might need them again. :)

Moni

Funny, only yesterday I went looking for some large expenditures between 1998 and now. They were easy to find by glancing through my old check registers. Probably took me 30 minutes to get them all.

I write very few checks also, but I use checks with carbons. Every January 1st., I begin with a new empty cardboard checkbook box to store the carbon copies in. They land in chronological order. When a checkbook ledger is full, I add that to the box. Every New Years day I label and seal the box and stack it in an office cabinet with the dated end facing outward. I can easily find a copy of every check I have written in at least 10 years and corresponding ledgers.

Forever.

5 years. I have receipt folders for ALL the houses. When they get old, we tie them up and store them in the attic filing boxes. I have to remodel the houses in order to rent them out, so they're a tax write off. If you remodel in order to sell a property it's also a tax write off...otherwise....warranted items, like appliances are a separate folder.

I haven't even SEEN a check register in years. We never write checks. OK. Maybe one or two a year.

Since they're not bulky, the pile stays around forever. But I have never needed them so it's probably just unnecessary clutter

Lindsey: Do you use an Excel spreadsheet, too? Or some other method?

I write only a handful of checks per year. Most of them are small personal checks to luddites who require them because they refuse to use Paypal or other services. So I have no reason to keep them (the registers, not the luddite friends).

Check registers aren't considered proof of payment. To prove payment of a deductible expense or basis addition (improvement) to an asset for tax purposes requires either an account statement (like bank account or credit card account) or check. Images of same are perfectly acceptable and available from the institution going back >5 years. For long term assets like houses, where improvements may be made over a long period of time, copies or images of improvement spending should probably be accumulated as you go and kept until sold.

The federal tax statute of limitations is 3 years. Add another year or two for state income tax. After that, other than for improvements to houses or other assets, you have no need to keep any of your tax or financially related papers.

Few individuals are audited these days. If you have been in the past, you will be in the future and if you haven't, you likely won't. Most people keep financial papers well beyond their needs and nothing is gained by doing so. I don't know about you, but I've switched all my monthly accounts (where possible) to electronic accounts. It's cut down on unneeded and bulky mail pieces and clutter around the house.

For non tax and income related things, retention is at the individual's option. I'm not sure there's a need to keep receipts for furniture and other household items, etc. but I know many people do.

Don't get rid of your tax documents. We found out we had an unknown lien against us by a previous state for non-payment of taxes. We didn't owe them any taxes since we didn't live there and had sold the house and moved away the previous year. That state didn't get some paperwork to track us and so had filed the lien. It was a pita to get rid of and it shows up on our credit report as resolved although it should have never have been there in the beginning. It was almost a full seven years before we found out about it. We had moved a couple of times in the mean time and had to go through old boxes to find our tax records, proof of newer residence, and filing of state and federal taxes. Our credit reports had been run a couple of times before that and we had good credit. It took years for this to show up.

We manage our banking online. We keep stuff longer than we should, but the bank does have our check records.

Forever or until there's a flood . Just saying . . .

I have carbon checks too & I save the carbons for @ least a decade, in the boxes the checks came in. I always staple or tape receipts, warranties, etc. into appliance manuals & keep them in my household files.

Check writing is such a rare thing these days. It takes me months & months to use up 1 set.

Additionally, since I do many purchases electronically, both for work and for myself, & some stores will email your receipt to you, I save all the order emails (invoices, receipts etc.) too in my email accounts, no matter how they were paid for.

That's come in handy more than once for work. They lose stuff a lot!

I keep check registers for 7 years. We have been audited by the IRS in the past. Being able to refer back to check registers was a big help in locating check numbers and being able to get cancelled checks from our bank.

Kessala

This may have been a conversation topic before, but I think the easiest way to keep track of personal financial information, both for tax and for management purposes, is to use Quicken. Or Mint, an online version. (Both formerly owned by Intuit, the Turbo Tax people, but Quicken was sold off earlier in the year).

Either Mint or Quicken will download transactions directly from banks and financial institutions. Either can act as an overall "income and expense register" that consolidates all transactions going through multiple bank and charge accounts in one place. It also track investment activity and balances, as well as tax related spending categories. You can use it for bill paying, or just use your bank's capabilities and then the results get downloaded into Quicken/Mint all the same.

Both are easy to use. Quicken, which runs on your PC, is very moderately priced. Mint is accessed from its own website and is free.

Files are easily (even automatically) backed up and can be stored either on personal devices like SD cards or thumb drives, or in the cloud.

They don't take up much room and I pay all my bills by check. I have years and years worth. I have had occasion to want to find a particular check and it's very easy to run through them. I prefer having paper records to keeping things on the computer.

I save appliance and other receipts for big ticket items. They came in a big manila folder from the builder with this house. Last house, I had a 3" binder and I put everything in page protectors or used a 3 hole punch to get everything in there. I think I shocked my realtor with all of the stuff I had, Most people must not pass that stuff on.

PammyFay asked, Lindsey: Do you use an Excel spreadsheet, too? Or some other method?

I write a physical check maybe twice a year. Of course, expenditures made with a debit card, or ATM withdrawals should/would also be written in a check register, to keep an accurate running balance. But, I don't write those down, either. (I don't make purchases with my ATM/debit card other than at the grocery store.) If I purchase something "in person" or purchase something online, I use a credit card.

I pay my monthly bills (credit cards, cell phone, car payment, etc.) via my bank's online Bill Pay system. That system will also generate and send a physical check (and they cover the postage!). When the money electronically leaves my account and goes to the payee, the deduction shows up in my online account. I don't receive a physical/paper statement each month -- I can view my statement online. I do download the PDFs of the statements to my computer, where they are organized by bank, then account (checking/savings/credit card) then by year, then by month. Paperwork for major purchases, etc., goes into a file folder for that purchase, and stored in the file drawer with other similar folders.

When I do write a physical check, the bank does not return the canceled check to me. They quit doing that many years ago, even when I was still receiving a monthly paper statement. I can go into my account online and view both sides of the check, and download a copy of the images, which I do.

My PC is backed up to a 2TB portable drive. Every time I make a change to an existing file, or add a new file, it is backed up.

And, no, I don't worry about my running balance. I know how much money is direct-deposited to my account each month, and I know how much I have left each month after I pay my bills. Since I use my credit cards more than my debit card, I don't need to know my balance. (I'm 67 years old and haven't overdrawn my checking account since I was 19.)

I pay everything that is a tax deduction by check, thus I have a record of it in my checkbook register. It makes it easier come tax reporting time. Therefore, my check registers are correlated to my tax forms, so i generally keep the registers as long as I keep the corresponding tax report. After the information in the registers is over 2 years old, I file the register in a corresponding tax folder.

FWIW, my bills also are paid almost exclusively through my bank & it's all archived for me to recall, if necessary. Not only that, but any charges I make, electronic or otherwise, can be categorized so I can easily see what was spent on groceries, gas, insurance & other categories - a very budgeting friendly service!

There is an auto-pay option, but I don't use it because some of the companies change their pay-by dates & use a missed payment as an excuse to raise rates or add a late fee.

Wow -- a lot of good advice here! Thanks, all! My main problem has always been keeping track of my ATM withdrawals -- the tiny receipts always get shoved in my purse and I end up accounting for them at the end of the month, not a great thing. I am going to check out Mint and the Excel spreadsheet system; maybe one of the them will keep me more "honest"! I'm a bit concerned, tho, about how much personal info Mint eventually knows about its clients?

I have some bills that require a check - property taxes, insurance, etc. I enter everything in my register and keep them for five years. I should use the Excel spreadsheet bc I occasionally make a math error.

I don't keep a check register either. I wrote 2 checks in the past 2 years. One was a wedding present for 1/2 their present and the other half on their first anniversary as an anniversary present and to me, the other half of their wedding present. Thought it might not last a year. Well it did. They split after about 14 or 15 months! But those checks are available online where I do pretty much all of my banking except to withdraw cash. I pay bills online and for the ones that can't be electronic, the bank mails a check, and pays the postage/mailing costs. If it's a major item that I'll need for taxes, I note it in my tax file. I can always get the proof from the bank if needed but very seldom is it needed by most people.