If you’re like me, you receive few financial documents in the mail. Even tax docs, the stalwart of the formerly mailed, don’t arrive in paper form. You just get a notice to log into your account and pull your 1099. If you do opt for mailed statements, you are probably charged a monthly fee.
Do you print out your financial statements? Or at least download them and save them to a hard drive? Here’s the case for why you should print out your financial documents.
Informal Mini History of Printed Statements
I love not having so much paper to file neatly in my filing cabinet. Oh wait, I mean to stack randomly in piles that I eventually toss into a big, warped-lid Sterilite plastic bin and shove up in my attic for my poor kids to go through when I kick the bucket. No döstädning (Swedish death cleaning) here!
I do, however, periodically get pious/obedient and adhere to my own advice that I freely offer as a financial planner in blogs and in my workbook The 11-Step DIY Comprehensive Financial Plan. When I take a printing fit, which doesn’t happen nearly enough, I go into our accounts and print statements. That I then stack randomly in piles. But fewer piles now than I had in the 1980s.
I’m writing to advise you — to implore you — to take the time soon to log in to your financial accounts, save statements to a hard drive, and print statements in hard copy to save. Hopefully no random piles for you, but piles are better than no statements at all.
Why You Need to Print Out Your Financial Documents
It seems like a hassle to take this action, but it’s worth it. Here’s why:
The website that houses the documents may malfunction or disappear.
The bank, financial institution, brokerage, or other entity may be sold, closed, or compromised in a way that makes it hard for you to get online to see where your money is.
Older, historical statements eventually drop off and you can’t access them
If a weird digital error occurs that makes your balance incorrect, you have paper copies to help prove the amount you actually have.
Your heirs will be more easily able to find and access the money they are due to inherit.
Digital glitches could cause errors in your balances or amounts you might be owed.
What to Look for on Printed Statements
When you print, check to make sure that the statements have your account number on them. Many statements of today omit the account number —for safety I guess? — but that sure makes it hard to identify the account. Also check for an address, website, and phone number, although it’s getting tougher to get through via phone and many places have no phone calling capability. For credit cards, write the account number, expiration date, and CVC.
When you start this process, you might find an account you forgot you had — like a life insurance policy or other small account you opened many years ago that only has a little bit in it. But a little is better than none.
Creating Online Accounts
You may need to create accounts to access your statements. For example, my 91-year-old mom hasn’t created an online account for her bank — a local bank that is still cool with mailing paper statements (although I bet she gets charged $2 a month for them!).
Also, for decades the Social Security Administration mailed benefits statements (see sample statement here) yearly that showed how much you earned each year and the amount of Social Security benefits you were likely to get when you retired. That snail-mail feature ended, and now the way you see that info is by setting up an online account. I’m as shy as a turtle at giving out my personal info, but in this case, I advise you to stick out your neck, create the account, print out your benefits statement, save the statement on a hard drive, and store it all somewhere safe.
Not Everyone Has a Printer — Here’s What to Do If You Don’t
If you don’t have a printer, which my two millennial kids don’t and my good old mom has but doesn’t know how to troubleshoot (“OK, Mom, look at the screen and see if you see the words printer offline. Well, look higher up on your screen”), then buy a cheap thumb drive, save the statements onto it, drive to Staples/FedEx/the library, and pay to print them out. Don’t forget to pull your thumb drive out of the public printer.
What to Download and Print
Here are the things I recommend you should print. I know it’s a lot, and it’s a pain to do. I listed what I think are the most important ones first.
Social Security benefit statements (if you don’t have an online account, sign up here, using Login.gov for an SSA account)
Bank, brokerage, stock, and crypto account statements
IRA statements
Employer plan statements: 401(k), 403(b), 457, defined benefit (pension) plan
All your credit cards (to show total debt owed and your credit card numbers, expiration dates, and CVC codes because these are no longer available on your statements)
Copies of driver's licenses, passports, and passcards
Military discharge and pension information including DD214 and Certificate of Eligibility
Last two paystubs
Mortgage and home equity loan statement
Rental lease with payment info
Student loan documents with payment info
401(k) loan documents with payment info
Car loans with payment info
Car insurance documents with payment info
Health insurance page that lists benefits, deductible, and monthly cost and your medical/dental/vision insurance cards
Property tax bills
Any other loans or debt
Birth, adoption, marriage, and death certificates
Titles and deeds
Regular work pension information
Tax return (tax returns; W-2s for last few years; I do taxes and few of my clients print their returns. If you can't find yours, contact your tax preparer and they will send it to you again)
Sorry for the Homework Assignment — No Due Date and I Don’t Count Off for Late
Not too many places advocate printing your statements, but that doesn’t mean it’s not a worthwhile exercise. FINRA and the IRS were the only two official sites I could find that advised it, but I promise that the exercise is worth the effort. No stress if you can’t access and print it all. Even a little bit helps. Start with one and do as much as you can to protect your financial well-being.
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P.S. Another solution that I just thought of while I was running. If you don’t have the time, logistical capability, or energy to print out statements, you could go into your accounts, take screen grabs, save them to your hard drive and a thumb drive, and maybe print if you can.
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