By:  Ralph Broadwater, MD, CFP^®, AIF^®

I recently stumbled upon a very helpful service that has solved one of my most frustrating tasks living in the paperless, digital world. If you are like me, you have turned off most paper bills and statements, and have had to go directly to the company website and login to retrieve and view your statement. This requires the time and effort to do this, as well as remembering a number of infrequently used web addresses, logins, and passwords. To be honest, it has been such a hassle that I frequently didn’t review the bills and statements.

FIleThis (http://filethis.com) is a web-based service that automatically and securely fetches and delivers your bills, financial statements and other documents from your banks, credit card companies, utility companies, retirement funds, and financial institutions. Without any effort on your part, these important documents are delivered to your computer, Evernote, Dropbox, Box, or Google Drive.

This service is free for up to 6 connections and runs automatically once per week. If you have more bills and statements there are plans for $20 per year for up to 12 connections, and an ultimate plan for $50 per year that will retrieve up to 30 connections daily.

You enter which companies you have accounts and receive statements from and your login and password information. This data is encrypted using AES 256-bit encryption, and stored in the cloud on secure servers managed by Rackspace.

There is also an iPhone app that also lets you manage your accounts, and review your statements.

Finding this service has made my digital life much more organized and simpler. I never have to go to these company websites to retrieve my statements or bills, and I never have to remember the passwords. It has significantly improved my ability to monitor my financial life. I recommend that you check out their website and try it for yourself. FileThis at http://filethis.com.

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