NerdWallet's Smart Money Podcast
Last-Minute Tax Questions Answered and Tips for Keeping Your Financial Documents Safe
07 Apr 2025
How should you organize and store your financial documents?
Sean, one of my intrusive 3 a.m. thoughts is whether I've told my beneficiaries where my estate planning documents are. And when I last saw my birth certificates as well. Am I alone in this?
Definitely not. I sometimes have panicked thoughts about what's going to happen if I die some horrible sudden death and no one knows where any of my stuff is.
What a downer, but I'm going to pick it back up. I think it's a good time for us to discuss document management so I can make room for other intrusive 3 a.m. thoughts.
Welcome to NerdWallet's Smart Money Podcast, where you send us your money questions and we answer them with the help of our genius nerds. I'm Sean Piles.
And I'm Elizabeth Ayola. This episode, we're answering more of your questions about taxes ahead of the April 15th filing deadline. But before we sway that way, let's talk about managing important financial documents, which is also relevant when it comes to taxes.
I never thought I'd see the day where we'd be ready to nerd out about documents, but it is an important topic, so here we are.
Ha. So, Sean, how do you store your documents? What are you going to do with your tax documents, Sean? Yes, I'm all in your business.
Okay, well, this is where I confess that my document management is one of my biggest financial and adult blind spots. I'm embarrassed to admit that I have been keeping my documents in my nightstand for many years now, all mixed up with books I've been meaning to read and old headphones and whatever else accumulates in there. And let me tell you, it is not a good look for a CFP.
Well, this is a no-shame zone, and that means this episode is for you, Sean. But I will say at least they're not being stored on the kitchen counter and being decorated with food stains. That may or may not be a personal story. So I keep most of my documents inside of a folder tucked away somewhere in my garage and somewhere in my bedroom wardrobe in another folder and somewhere in my email.
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