# Hanging on to pay stubs? **URL:** \ **Category:** In My Humble Opinion\ **Created:** [March 30, 2004, 3:38am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/hanging-on-to-pay-stubs/237239 "2004-03-30T03:38:17Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 10\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![hansel](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/6bbea6/32.png) [@hansel](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/hansel)\ **Post date:** [March 30, 2004, 3:38am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/hanging-on-to-pay-stubs/237239/1 "2004-03-30T03:38:17Z")
My mother told me when I first started working to hang on to my pay stubs. Now I’ve got drawers full of them, mostly from my current employer, for whom I’ve worked for the last five years. Is there any reason to keep them around? Is there some sort of dispute that might arise over what I was paid three years ago where my pay stubs might be the trump card? Or is it only useful to keep the last few months’ worth? Does anyone else here hang onto them for a long time? Or is this another of my mother’s sins against me to add to the list I’m keeping for when it’s time to put her in a home and I need to stiffen my spine? Gotta go: time to wash my hands for the 30th or 40th time today (thanks, Mom). ---
**Author:** ![peepthis](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/9d8465/32.png) [@peepthis](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/peepthis)\ **Post date:** [March 30, 2004, 4:53am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/hanging-on-to-pay-stubs/237239/2 "2004-03-30T04:53:38Z")
FWIW, [the Washington Post recently recommended keeping pay stubs for no more than one year](http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A25384-2004Mar25.html). ---
**Author:** ![Doomtrain](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/0ea827/32.png) [@Doomtrain](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Doomtrain)\ **Post date:** [March 30, 2004, 5:21am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/hanging-on-to-pay-stubs/237239/3 "2004-03-30T05:21:31Z")
We hang onto em until we get sick of seeing em sitting around the house, then we chuck em out. We don’t even open them half the time, as long as the direct deposit is in the right ballpark. ---
**Author:** ![Enola\_Straight](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/dec6dc/32.png) [@Enola\_Straight](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Enola_Straight)\ **Post date:** [March 30, 2004, 5:59am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/hanging-on-to-pay-stubs/237239/4 "2004-03-30T05:59:31Z")
I hang onto my paystubs (and lots of other documents) because I’m afraid of someone digging through my trash and steal my identity. ---
**Author:** ![gotpasswords](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/c57346/32.png) [@gotpasswords](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/gotpasswords)\ **Post date:** [March 30, 2004, 7:09am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/hanging-on-to-pay-stubs/237239/5 "2004-03-30T07:09:53Z")
How about those of us that don’t get them in the first place? ie: My payroll is entirely paperless. If I’m so inclined, I can go to an intranet site and see my pay vouchers, but otherwise, money just appears in my account. I like it - it’s one less envelope to open and one less piece of paper to put into the paper purgatory, otherwise known as a file folder. ---
**Author:** ![Gamaliel](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/b487fb/32.png) [@Gamaliel](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Gamaliel)\ **Post date:** [March 30, 2004, 8:04am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/hanging-on-to-pay-stubs/237239/6 "2004-03-30T08:04:57Z")
Couldn’t hurt to keep 'em. A friend of my had to go back to old employers and hassle them for records in a dispute with the IRS. You never know. ---
**Author:** ![Early\_Out](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/6f9a4e/32.png) [@Early\_Out](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Early_Out)\ **Post date:** [March 30, 2004, 12:51pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/hanging-on-to-pay-stubs/237239/7 "2004-03-30T12:51:17Z")
> [@Gamaliel](#): > > Couldn’t hurt to keep 'em. > > A friend of my had to go back to old employers and hassle them for records in a dispute with the IRS. You never know. Even with the IRS, however, they generally won’t go back more than three years - in fact, the IRS tells you that you don’t have to save stuff longer than that, with some exceptions, like certain property records. For your typical garden-variety tax audit problem, the statute of limitations is three years. ---
**Author:** ![cheapbastardon38thstreet](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/f0a364/32.png) [@cheapbastardon38thstreet](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/cheapbastardon38thstreet)\ **Post date:** [March 30, 2004, 1:18pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/hanging-on-to-pay-stubs/237239/8 "2004-03-30T13:18:51Z")
Hang on to them and reconsile them with your w-2, and thenyou can destroy them. It is so easy to get over-run with important papers and then you will never find just what you need ---
**Author:** ![Anaxagoras](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/b77776/32.png) [@Anaxagoras](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Anaxagoras)\ **Post date:** [March 30, 2004, 4:45pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/hanging-on-to-pay-stubs/237239/9 "2004-03-30T16:45:54Z")
> [@Enola Straight](#): > > I hang onto my paystubs (and lots of other documents) because I’m afraid of someone digging through my trash and steal my identity. Shredders are your friends 🙂 ---
**Author:** ![Casey1505](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/dc4da7/32.png) [@Casey1505](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Casey1505)\ **Post date:** [March 30, 2004, 5:31pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/hanging-on-to-pay-stubs/237239/10 "2004-03-30T17:31:08Z")
> [@Enola Straight](#): > > I hang onto my paystubs (and lots of other documents) because I’m afraid of someone digging through my trash and steal my identity. I use my paystubs as a deterrent against people wanting to steal my identity. They see my paystubs and figure it’s not worth the effort. 😃