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Auto and Home Insurance

17 years ago

I have both auto and home policies with the same company. After I renew each policy every year, should I toss the old one. I am drowning in paper.

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Comments (7)

Chemocurl zn5b/6a Indiana
17 years ago
I usually check and compare the 2 to see that the coverage and everything has stayed the same, or see what has changed and why, and then pitch the old one.

I sure know what you mean about drowning in a sea of paper. It is a lifelong dream to get everything that I want/need filed and the rest pitched.

Somewhere here I have a list of what all one needs to keep, for how long, and what should be kept in a safe deposit box (or fireproof safe).

Maybe someone here knows where to find a good list here on the net. I don't know when I would be able to find my hard copy, and get it scanned in here.

Sue
harriethomeowner
17 years ago
Usually, they send you the policy when you sign up, and then each they send a rider. I believe you can toss the yearly riders, but you should keep the original policy.
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Hi again, Sue, Our system is far from perfect. It's a multi-billion dollar enterprise ... and if you have a pot of honey sitting in the yard, don't be surprised if you attract a bunch of bees to go buzzing around! The system is a national one, largely ruled by the national government, and partly funded by them (but on a drastically reduced basis in recent years) - but administered provincially. The government-related agency is the only payer allowed, and I understand that in most provinces a doctor can choose to practise outside of that system, but if he does so, he must practise entirely that way, that he can't be billing the provincial system for part of the service that he offers (to avoid having him bill the lucrative stuff directly). The chief problem is that for many elective procedures, there is a long waiting list. When one has a painful hip, the prospect of waiting for more than a year to have replacement is not a pleasant experience. But I don't think that we use our operating rooms on a 24 hour basis, either. And they have beds (or O.R.s) shut down, sometimes - shortage of staff ... or shortage of money. Some people travel to the U.S. for care, at far higher cost, and some travel to such as India, where quality care is available, and at much lower cost, for people who can't wait in the line-up here (or whose service isn't covered, e.g. facial tucks - but they can be done here: private-pay). Sometimes (usually a rather small) part of their costs are recoverable from the provincial plan when they've gone elsewhere for service. While there are a good deal of tears shed over the shortage of staff, no one seems to get much out of breath running hard to get some trained people from other parts of the world to become licensed here: quite a few Ph.D.'s from various third world countries are driving cabs, here. Though a large number of Canadians can't find a family doctor, quite a few of us figure that the government isn't enthused about empowering a lot more doctors - which means more bullet holes in the rain barrel, depleting the water even more rapidly. And many of us feel that quite a few procedures currently restricted to doctors could well be carried out by nurses ... but no way are the medical associations going to stand still for any kind of nonsense like that being put into place! Plus - there's a shortage of nurses, as they cut back on training a while ago, and many of our grads move to the U.S. Same with our doctors. Seems to me that such people should reimburse for much of their training. But - we're just as bad - we seduce many such trained people from various less developed parts of the world, where such trained people are scarce and precious, and losing them something of a disaster. Also, many nurses work short hours per week per institution, in order to avoid the need to pay benefits to full-time workers. And any fool knows that a patient needs to be seen successively, day by day, by the same nurses - a lot of incipient problems can be forestalled by an observant nurse ... provided that s/he deals with the patient daily. Also - the medical system, in whatever country, is a bottomless pit. My old step-uncle, who died in his mid-80's a few years ago, had had three hip replacements. Such things were unheard of 50 years ago. And many patients undergo heart by-pass procedures in recent years: it's routine, these days. And we replace hearts, lungs, liver, kidneys, etc. (everything except heads?). I think that I heard a while ago that when a heart transplant takes place, something like 25 people are in the operating room. We old farts never heard of having MRI tests, CAT scans, etc. - but now they are reasonably commonplace (but still expensive). 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And your sustem costs a lot more than ours, per capita ... and a substantial number of your people aren't covered, and do get some care, but many say that it's not first class. I'm thankful that on my occasional visits to my doc, for regular (if somehat infrequent) physical exam, he doesn't give me any indication that he's under time pressure. But we patients are aware that most of us sat for an hour or so after the time assigned to us, as well. I am mightily thankful that I've had almost no contact with the medical system for many years - haven't taken a pill in 30 years at least, I think. When my ex- (named Sue, by the way) was suffering on a downward trail with cancer a few years ago, our adult children felt that they had no complaint whatever with the care that she received. 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partst
17 years ago
I keep the rider with the original policy. I have a file for each policy. Life policy's are kept in a safe along with trust and will copy's. My agent , a personal friend, told me she could get me copy's of any policy we ever needed if mine were ever destroyed or lost.

Sue, This is how I got myself out of the paper work mess after years of putting it off.
When we moved, 4 years ago, I had to do something I didn't want to take all the mess with me. I went through everything and shredded papers for three days. On the advice of our attorney and CPA I put all tax returns older than 5 years in a box. I have a note in that box to my daughter saying" If you are reading this I am gone, you don't need this stuff so shred it. Love ya MOM". CPA said to keep the tax returns forever no matter what the IRS says. I keep the current 5 years worth in the file. I made up a box and put everything from the house we were selling, blue prints, permits, warranty's, manuals, in it and left it for the new owners.

For household bills I keep one months worth. When the new bill comes in I pay it, file the new bill , take out the previous bill and shred it. Every January I go through and clean out all the files and shred anything that I missed the previous year. I shred all pay stubs except the year ending one and keep that with the tax returns.

I have 3 file drawers, one for household and personal stuff, one for household appliance manuals and one for household repairs. I keep all receipts with the proper bill, invoice, manual, ect. One of the handiest thing I did is make up a file for each month, January through December where I put every receipt for every penny we spend, cash, ATM, charges even deposit receipt. It has really come in handy. I shred a month as I come around to it. I will be shredding April at the end of this month.

It took me several week to get this set up and I did and do change things along the way but it has made the paper work mess go away. I pay, file, shred almost every time I come home from the post office. We are on the "Do not call', Do not send" list for everything I know about so junk mail is not a problem. If I do get any I call and ask to be removed from the list.

With all that said I do have one file that is totally out of control. I have a file that just says Dad. In it is piles of paper work for thing I am involved with for my father and it seems that anytime I shred anything in that file I end up needing it. LOL so it will stay the mess it is.

Just start and do one file at a time. It sure has made my life easier, less cluttered and I can find anything I need in a hurry. Well except for the dad file.
sparksals
17 years ago
wow partst... I love your method of organization! We will be moving sometime this year, so maybe I should take the bull by the horns and do this so we don't have to lug all those weighty years worth of papers with us. Investing in a shredder sounds like a great way to save money on the move as well as space in a new home.
saphire
17 years ago
Partst

Love the monthly method. What do you do with mutual fund statements or monthly statements from your IRA/401ks where nothing has really changed and it is minor variation from month to month. We have so many different accounts it is ridiculous. Between banks and retirements it is just silly and I really feel like I drown in paper and there are no new buys or sells its mostly for buy and hold stuff
partst
17 years ago
Saphire

I keep bank statement for five years. CD statements I keep until they come due and all the 1099's come in.Year end they go with the tax papers. DH keep all the 401 statements in a file in his office at work. Odd as it sounds I don't deal with the 401 at all and all I ever did with it was made sure our trust was the beneficiary. I think that's what we did. It's been a long time but I know we did something when we had the trust made. I do know he scanned several years statements to a disk and it's in our safe. DH just said he can keep a file of statements on line with the broker also.

Another good thing I did, and should update, after being evacuated several times with fires. I took pictures of everything in our house and garage and put it on a disk. It took me about 2 days. I just opened every drawer, cabinet, closet, even the refirg and snapped pictures. My insurance agent said that the food and liquor would probably meet our $1000.00 deductible. I gave a copy to my daughter, DH gave one to his boss to put in his safe and belive it or not I have one in my purse along with copy's of all the necessary legal paper work I would need if something happens to my father.
joyfulguy
17 years ago
This message is off-topic relative to auto and home insurance, the subject of this thread, but some similar issues have been raised earlier, I think.

If you have mutual funds, or, possibly, stocks, where the growth/dividend is reinvested each year, quite likely you were taxable annually on those amounts ...

... and if you will be liable for tax on capital gain when those assets are liquidated ...

... it is very important that you keep track of all of the amounts of those reinvested growth/dividends over the years, for those amounts, added to the original cost, is your cost base that's deducted from the final value in order to calculate your capital gain, on liquidation.

Quite likely this action will not be encessary if your asset is in a tax-deferred retirement account.

Check with your advisor who is familiar with the tax system.

Good wishes for careful and increasingly wise management of both your income and your assets.

ole joyful

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