When Good Recordkeeping Saves Us Money

I think those of us who have been doing the dance with the ex for a good amount of time know how important it is to keep good records (telephone records, conversations, decisions, requests, visitation issues, support issues, etc.). It can make a big difference if the other party decides not to uphold their end of any negotiations. In our case, if we hadn't had good child support records, we'd have been in trouble because each year for the first five years or so, the child support agency messed up the accounting and tried to get more money out of my husband by saying he was in arrears when he wasn't. Of course, the ex wouldn't lift a finger to help, even though she knew she'd received all her child support, until after we'd fought with them for awhile. At one time, it was a whole year of auditing and there were written threats of them taking our income tax return before she agreed to write them a letter and tell them she'd received all her support. It was such a joy!

I plan on keeping great records until the kids are 18 (at least). I may even go to age 21 or so. You never know what type of stuff is going to come our way in the future or if things will be said to the kids that may need to be disproved with documentation. You just never know. We have written proof of all the times their dad requested more time with them and all the denials...all the times we tried to get my stepson help when he needed it...records from their different counselors.

I keep paper files and have a separate drive set up on my computer for back up. My husband uses online backup which I want to look into as well. What I'd LOVE to do is get rid of all the paperwork in storage...it'd be nice to have that scanned and computerized so I'd have more room in my storage room!