Documents to keep

The simple system

1. One folder on your phone (a photo album or a cloud folder) named with the year. Photograph every document the day you receive it.
2. One physical envelope at home for originals.
3. One trusted person who knows where both are.
4. Back up the phone folder once a month to a second place (cloud or a relative's phone).

Photos are enough for almost everything; originals are needed rarely and we will tell you when.

Work

• A daily note of hours: start, end, breaks — in a calendar app, a notebook, or a text to yourself. This single habit wins wage claims.
• Pay stubs, bank deposits, photos of cash envelopes with the date and amount.
• Any written offer, contract, schedule or policy.
• Messages with the employer about pay, hours, safety or time off — screenshots with the date visible.
• The business's legal name and address, the owner's or manager's name, a photo of the licence or the storefront.
• Photos of unsafe conditions, with dates; names of co-workers who saw them.
• For an injury: the date you reported it, the DWC-1 claim form, medical records.

Housing

• The lease and every addendum.
• Proof of every rent payment (receipts, bank records, money-order stubs).
• Every notice received, front and back, with the envelope.
• Repair requests and photos of conditions, dated.
• Move-in and move-out photos of every room.
• All messages with the landlord or manager.

Money and bills

• Utility bills and any shut-off notices.
• Medical bills, itemised statements, and financial-assistance applications.
• Insurance policies — life, health, auto, renters, repatriation — and the contact number for claims.
• Benefit approval letters (Medi-Cal, CalFresh, WIC) and renewal dates.

Family

• Identity documents for every family member — photographed, with copies kept separately from the originals.
• Birth, marriage and death certificates.
• Children's school and medical records.
• Emergency contacts, including the family's association and the consulate.
• Wishes: burial or repatriation preferences, and where the insurance policy is. A one-page note saves a family days of anguish.

Scams and fraud

• Screenshots of every suspicious message, profile and payment.
• Transaction IDs, dates, amounts.
• Report numbers from the FTC, IC3, police or bank.

What never to do with documents

• Hand original identity documents to an employer, recruiter or landlord to 'hold'. Show them; do not surrender them.
• Send copies of ID or bank details to anyone who contacted you first.
• Keep the only copy of anything on a single phone.

How the Foundation helps

• Setting up the system with you in fifteen minutes.
• Reviewing what you have before a claim, a hearing, an application or a court date.
• Safe storage guidance for families who share phones or housing.