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Record Retention Secrets: Keep What Matters, Ditch the Rest · The Millionaire Dentist™

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  Hello, everyone, Welcome to the Millionaire Dentist podcast, brought to you by
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  Four Quadrants Advisory. On this podcast, we break down the world of dentistry,
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  finances and business practices to help you become the millionaire dentist you deserve to
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  be. Please be advised we do speak with an honest tongue and may not
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  be safe for work. Hi, and welcome back to the Millionaire Dentist.
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  I am your host, Jared Bridgeman. Casey Hires is out of town at
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  the moment, you know, making some moves and doing some deals and shaking
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  babies. I guess is how they say. So today I have got a
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  special guest. His name is Steve Levy. We call them pipes around here
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  because of his magnificent singing voice. Steve, how are you great? How
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  are you good? Steve? Summers starting to end here pretty soon and kids
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  are going back to school and all that kind of stuff. Did you do
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  anything fun this summer? Well? I've been to some concerts, as the
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  pipe's nickname would lend to. And what was your favorite so far? Food
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  fighters? I would have returned strongly. So all right, all right,
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  they're nice. So today you've come to talk to us about a very very
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  I would say, sexy subject like this one just gets people's motors running,
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  you know what I mean. Oh yeah, so we're talking today about record
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  retention. Oh there it is, I know for those listeners out there.
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  And uh and the topic of record retention. Are you talking because you're you're
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  you're a tax guy, right, you're a CPA and a j D and
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  a overall BA. That's badass. Um. This is in terms of what
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  they should keep four taxes each year, really, what they should keep for
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  their life each year. Okay, personal business, not horde like some of
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  us have tended to do so. So really, so we shouldn't keep every
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  record forever. No, that would really pile up and be unnecessary unless you've
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  got like an entire basement of the filing cabinets or something even that you could
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  do use your basement for better use than that. So, is there a
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  period of time you should keep records like five years worth, two years worth,
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  or it really depends on what it is. If we're looking at like
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  tax returns, that's one of the things that we suggest that you keep forever.
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  Okay, if it's things like bank statements and canceled checks and things like
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  that. A year is good for that, So it varies on kind of
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  what what you've got going. This is all based off a little handy dandy
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  sheet you gave me. Sure. So the cool thing is that all make
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  these sheets available in a couple of places for on our website for you guys
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  to download, probably connected to this podcast or listening to right now, So
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  that'd be pretty cool. I think it'd be a nice thing, um for
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  you guys to take check out because there are quite a few, um different
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  things. It's like keep for one year, somebody keep for three slebm me
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  keep it for six some forever and ever. Yeah. Um, A big
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  one would be like life insurance policies. Yeah, that's that's definitely one.
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  Um like for individuals, medical records, um, health insurance policies. Really
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  kind of big stuff. Jeff Will's contracts, um a lot of bird to
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  deal with life and death and exactly. Okay, okay, fun fact about
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  you know, keeping things forever. You know, I still have my original
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  Social Security card. My mom when I was a child laminated it for me.
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  Nice says right on the back of the card, do not laminate.
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  So that's fine. She can't read it's okay. I hope to god she
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  is not listening today, Steve. Why is it important to uh to to
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  clear things out, to get rid of ones that are not needed for for
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  long periods of time. Well, first, for space reasons, both for
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  business and individual you just don't need. There's a lot of documents collected as
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  you can imagine over time, and um, it can just be a drag.
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  It can be unsightly as things pile up in an office or a home
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  and it's just not needed at all, right, and it just it's time
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  to get rid of stuff that. It probably helps if you're organized to begin
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  with with them. Um. I don't remember what show I was watching,
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  but I had the show where it was like this guy brought it in just
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  a box marked twenty twenty two with every receipt. Ever. Yeah, that's
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  uh, that's that's rough. Um. So we kind of discussed a little
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  bit of which type of records are important to keep forever, like life,
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  death, Um would I'm guessing like house things like deeds, would that fall
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  into that perfect as well, that's a right one. Deeds. Medical records
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  in home insurance policies is another good one. Health insurance policies initi would be
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  for both both individual records and business, right, Yeah, I mean that
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  kind of lends itself to really both. So on the business side, you've
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  got mortgages, you've got contracts, board of directors meetings, if you have
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  that depreciation schedules, financial statements, all the tax returns, because it's a
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  drag if you don't have your tax returns handy and you have to dig those
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  out from maybe the irs or a state, it's a really pulling teeth and
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  it's incomplete too. So to have that those tax returns complete and you can
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  store them on whatever drive you have, you don't obviously have to have them
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  on paper. You can scan them in store them somewhere that's secure year somewhere.
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  Yeah, certainly. So if you're if you're not going to keep it
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  or keep your paper file somewhere, it's yeah, not next to the fireplace
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  a right, paper and fire not a good mix. So we've kind of
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  talked a little bit, but like when when is a good time? Is
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  it like spring cleaning that would be good certainly time uh, that you have
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  available to kind of go through things. I would suggest that you have a
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  certain time in the year that you're going to do this, because each year
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  is a time to see what can I get rid of this year? What
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  can I get rid of um that's been around for three years or six years,
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  um? And what do I have to keep forever? Um. So
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  maybe there's a great time to in the year to really go through things on
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  a business and personal level so that you get into the habit of that and
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  don't let things pile up, which we all do. What the what these
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  things that were there, we're saying, you know you don't need to keep
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  forever? Do you suggest getting rid of them in a certain way? Like
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  do they should they be shredded? Or can you just toss them? I
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  mean, shredding is the best. You definitely don't want with security and suspicious
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  activity. You just don't want to take a chance because most of the time
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  we're talking about um, maybe past ubs, confidential things that you wouldn't want
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  out there. So shredding is certainly the best route to take. UM.
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  You can have a home shredder for your home stuff, and obviously businesses have
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  companies that they use for that type of thing. So it's it's best to
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  be on the careful side for shredding really kind of confidential and proprietary types of
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  things. Let me ask you, Steve, you obviously to work with a
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  lot with taxes, a lot a lot with our clients have when you're working
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  on these have you ever received things that people gave you that you're like,
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  this is not even needed whatsoever? Oh? Yeah, well a lot of
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  that on the individual side tends to lean towards personal expenses which you can't write
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  off. Here's my grocery bill, ye I can I write off what I
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  eat? I mean, I've seen it all. It's uh, here's services
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  for walking my dog that hey, it helps me work, so it takes
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  time, It takes time away from me having to do that. Can I
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  write it off? It feels like a business expense, Well not quite really.
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  Things that let lean towards what everybody has to go through. Eat,
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  drink, pay for your house, except for your mortgage, interest in real
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  estate tax those are there's exceptions, but for the most part, you're just
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  not gonna be able to deduct everything you spend on your personal life. It's
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  just not the case. That's what we got you for. Yeah, kind
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  of weed out that. What we do is send organizers to our clients and
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  kind of show what what you had last year on your return. So that's
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  sort of focuses folks to come up with similar items for this year as well.
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  Okay, so that's kind of sticking with what we like to do,
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  which is being proactive. Absolutely right. It makes it easier for our team,
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  it makes it easier for the client. Things get done on a faster
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  pacey Steve, is there anything else you wanted to add to this conversation today?
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  I would say that just don't keep everything. Really start getting rid of
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  things so that you can avoid the clutter, get more organized in your business
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  and personal life, and just roll with that. Perfect Steve, thank you
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  so much for coming into today, for all the all of you people out
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  there that want to come and listen to us chat. We are going to
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  be in Saint Louis and this week actually, and after that we'll be in
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  Minneapolis and then from there moving on to Houston. We're gonna be all over
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  the place. It's going to be a lot of fun. Please go online
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  and register. You can visit four Quadrants Advisory dot com slash events to do
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  that, and keep an eye out for these what to keep cheat sheets that
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  Steve created for me and uh, we'll get to it. Thanks, good,
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  Thanks Jared. That's all the time we have today. Thank you to
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  our guests for their insight and for sharing some really great information, and thank
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  you to you the listener for tuning in. The Millionaire Dentist Podcast is brought
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  to you by Four Quadrants Advisory to see if they might be a good fit
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  for you and your practice. Going over to four Quadrants Advisory dot com and
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  see why year after year they retain over ninety five percent of their clients.
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  Thank you again for joining us and we'll see you next time.