A Brigham Young University Student Journal
by Amanda Ricks Eating healthy while in college can be a daunting task. Fast food restaurants, particularly ones with a dollar menu, are cheap and easily accessible, and this convenience can sometimes outweigh the negative consequences of eating foods that have been fried, saturated, or …
by Alissa Strong On Tuesday morning, Former President Bill Clinton appeared on CBS and issued a no-holds-barred statement to Muslim activists. Clinton condemned the tendency to resort to violence when the Islamic faith is disrespected and claimed that the modern world is too diverse, too …
by Caitlin Schwanger
Your filing system. It may be a big set of file drawers. It may be a small accordion-style folder. It may not even exist at all. Regardless of what it looks like, how big it is, or how organized it is (*cough cough*), we all know what goes in the files. Birth certificates, social security cards, marriage certificates, insurance policies, and so on.
It all seems so boring and impersonal, but our record-keeping systems are essential. What would happen if you didn’t have those important documents? It is never too early to start working on your record-keeping system.
Create a system that works for you. My husband and I keep our important papers together in an accordion folder. That’s all we need for now (although I’m excited for the day we’ll have an important-looking set of file drawers and color-coded folders). Categorize your documents in a way that’s logical to you, and keep it all in a safe place.
Don’t know what to save? Here is a list of important documents to help you get started:
Some of us, including me, have some areas to improve in! For example, when you get your bank statement electronically, do you print it out? Start doing that, because they can get harder to access (sometimes even costing you money) as time goes on. Do you keep all your pay stubs? Hold on to those! Why seven years, you ask? That’s in case you ever get audited for taxes.
But this whole record-keeping thing still seems rather boring, cold, and impersonal, right? Think of this as your family’s record-keeping system. There’s more to records than financial statements and birth certificates. What about photos? journals? important letters? Saving personal records is just as essential and important.
Now, I’m not going to lecture on how we’re all supposed to be keeping a journal—I’ll let our consciences do that. I just want to emphasize how important it is to save these other important documents as well. You will be able to remember exciting family vacations with your photo albums, show your children pictures of great-grandparents they have never met, and share stories from your childhood with your children from your old, chicken-scratchy journals. These things will be important to your children! So do your best to save your records.
Here are some ideas of personal records you might want to start saving:
(On a side note, having all of your photos saved onto your computer is not good enough. One day, your computer will crash. Don’t lose your photos in that disaster. Save them to a disk, print them out—do something to keep them safe and saved forever.)
So, while you’re setting up your family’s filing system, don’t think of it as just a filing system, but as a record-keeping system. Make it personal!
The lists of items to save came from my workbook for SFL 260: Family Finance. Israelsen, Craig L. 2011. Personal and Family Finance Workbook. 6th ed. Provo, UT: BYU Academic Publishing.
by Alissa Holm The start of school brings not only students back to the BYU campus, but also many vendors to the annual Farmers Market at LaVell Edwards Stadium. Every Thursday until October 25, about 25 vendors will fill the south parking lot of the …
by Mandy Teerlink The whirlwind scent of the fair tickled my six-year-old nose. We walked into a big white tent, and I saw them. The ostriches. They were huge. Their long pink necks stretched high above my head, and their fluffy bodies seemed so soft to …
by Dustin Schwanger
Vice presidential candidate, Paul Ryan, spoke to over 700 people on Wednesday evening in Provo’s Utah Valley Convention Center after a day of fundraising in the area.
Introduced by Josh Romney, one of Mitt Romney’s five sons, and in the company of Utah senator Orrin Hatch, Ryan continued with the campaign’s emphasis on capitalism and American ingenuity saying, “In America, we don’t want to resent success; we want to emulate it.”
Following the theme of freedom, Ryan said, “America is special because it is the only country in history founded upon an idea, that freedom comes from nature and God—not government,” which statement roused the mostly student audience.
Ryan finished his fifteen-minute speech again attacking government intrusion into Americans’ lives, saying, “The family is the nucleus of society—not government.”
This reception wrapped up a day of fundraising in the Provo area. Earlier in the day the campaign hosted a dinner with Ryan for $25,000 a plate, and later, for $3,000, supporters could meet Ryan and have their picture taken with him. The final fundraising event was this reception costing $1,000 a person, but only $20 for students.