I used to be a packrat. Every piece of paper got filed, every stinkin receipt, deposit slip, paystub. My file cabinet would have been a financial archeological dig. (And it was, every time I needed to find something that actually was important, it was buried in a pile of minutiae.)
Now in the past 5 years, I've tended to keep only the most recent paystub. Look at the previous one, verify that the Year to Date correctly reflects all the activity and shred the old one. It seemed to save hours of shredding a year's worth of stuff at a time, and since my shredder overheats and stops working after shredding 5 or 6 pages, that meant I'd have a pile of stuff out for a month at a time, working my way through, shredding a few at a time.
Fortunately, however I did retain the stubs pre-and post of my recent salary cut which came as a couple of step-downs beginning in August of last year. I didn't keep every single one, but the last one at the old rate and at least the first one at the new rate each time. And then when we started working on the loan modification request (what a flippin waste of time and mental and emotional cycles that turned out to to be - bank says we're in no danger and don't need a modification - then why am I in this much trouble and not sleeping at night? but I digress)... anyway when that process started, I retained paystubs. Still a few went missing, mostly my husband's. And that's an annoyance, because at that time, his income was hours based, coming from multiple part time jobs. So I'm having to research deposits at the bank to reconstruct the income for the 6 month look back. Will that present a problem when we actually file? Most of these employers he's not working for anymore, but I guess we can request the records, right?
I'd just wait and let this stuff age off, but then we lose the best 6 months for passing a means test as those were also some of our darkest days. We are both on salary now and doing better, but not enough better to recover from this nightmare. This week, we had an unexpected fuel oil delivery a month earlier than normal because spring has been cold ($465) and a vehicle repair ($455) and an upcoming vehicle repair ($unknown, hasn't been looked at yet)... it just never freakin ends.
So... as long as I can get images from the bank of the checks that were deposited, or get a report from each employer, will that be sufficient for the attorneys and the trustee?
Now in the past 5 years, I've tended to keep only the most recent paystub. Look at the previous one, verify that the Year to Date correctly reflects all the activity and shred the old one. It seemed to save hours of shredding a year's worth of stuff at a time, and since my shredder overheats and stops working after shredding 5 or 6 pages, that meant I'd have a pile of stuff out for a month at a time, working my way through, shredding a few at a time.
Fortunately, however I did retain the stubs pre-and post of my recent salary cut which came as a couple of step-downs beginning in August of last year. I didn't keep every single one, but the last one at the old rate and at least the first one at the new rate each time. And then when we started working on the loan modification request (what a flippin waste of time and mental and emotional cycles that turned out to to be - bank says we're in no danger and don't need a modification - then why am I in this much trouble and not sleeping at night? but I digress)... anyway when that process started, I retained paystubs. Still a few went missing, mostly my husband's. And that's an annoyance, because at that time, his income was hours based, coming from multiple part time jobs. So I'm having to research deposits at the bank to reconstruct the income for the 6 month look back. Will that present a problem when we actually file? Most of these employers he's not working for anymore, but I guess we can request the records, right?
I'd just wait and let this stuff age off, but then we lose the best 6 months for passing a means test as those were also some of our darkest days. We are both on salary now and doing better, but not enough better to recover from this nightmare. This week, we had an unexpected fuel oil delivery a month earlier than normal because spring has been cold ($465) and a vehicle repair ($455) and an upcoming vehicle repair ($unknown, hasn't been looked at yet)... it just never freakin ends.
So... as long as I can get images from the bank of the checks that were deposited, or get a report from each employer, will that be sufficient for the attorneys and the trustee?
) Stopped paying creditors: Aug 2010 Filed Chap 7: Apr 29, 2011 341: Jun 1, 2011 Report of no distribution: Jun 1, 2011 Discharged Aug 2, 2011 
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