Tax Time

Right now, this month, it is important to start getting ready to prepare your taxes, so all of your filing needs to be up-to-date. Assuming that you have one or more piles of papers yet to be filed, set aside a block of time to start sorting through them, and follow this simple step to help the process go easier. For this purpose, every piece of paper does not need to be filed -- just sorted into the following piles:

Papers Needed to Prepare Your Taxes

• Tax forms (W-2s, 1099s, etc.)
  
• Medical/dental receipts (out of pocket)
  
• Real estate and school tax bills
• Child care expenses
• Charitable contribution receipts
• Interest statements
• Education payments/interest
• Retirement account papers
  

Paid Bills and Receipts to be Filed Later

• Paid bills (credit cards, electric, etc.)
• Shopping receipts
• Monthly statements
  

Papers You Want to Keep, Not Finance Related, to be Filed Later

• Articles you want to read/keep
• Children's schoolwork, report cards, etc.
• Letters or cards from family and friends
• Travel brochures
  

These are just general ideas, but you can see that once you sort your papers into main topics like this, you can pull out the tax-related papers quickly and only focus on them. Put the other piles of papers into boxes, clearly mark them, and we'll get back to sorting them later when the taxes are done.