How to Organize Your Personal Investments
- 1). Separate the various documents related to investments into piles. Create a pile for bank records, brokerage firm statements, brokerage firm buy/sell confirmations and tax returns. Also gather all life insurance and annuity policies.
- 2). Get a file cabinet (or desk drawer) large enough to hold all your paperwork. You will want to give yourself extra space for new statements and forms that arrive.
- 3). Decide what system is best for you. One simple method keeps all bank information in one file with brokerage, real estate and insurance policies each having their own file. If you have an account, such as a brokerage account, that has order confirmations, you may want to create a two-hole punch on the left file side for all confirmation tickets and a two-hole punch on the right side for the actual statements.
- 4). Use separate folders for IRA accounts, keeping track of contributions, distributions and subsequent recording forms such as 1099-R and 5498 documents.
- 5). Identify each file by writing the name of the account and account type (bank, brokerage, real estate) on the file tab. Include the contact information for a personal contact or financial adviser on the inside folder for easy access.
- 6). Mark all contributions, distributions or expiration deadlines for things such as IRAs, time certificate maturities or annuity anniversary dates on your calendar.
- 7). Place the items in the file cabinet. Decide if you prefer to alphabetize the folders or place them in according to importance or frequency of use. For example, if you are doing a lot of stock trading, you will access the stock folders more frequently than a fixed annuity.
- 8). Create file tabs that label the contents of the folders in the file cabinet sleeve.
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