8 Things You Should Shred Right Now

10/18/2011

According to financial services consulting firm Javelin Strategies and Research, identity theft affects 11 million people a year, at a cost of $54 billion.

If you don't want to become a statistic, a good place to start is to get a shredder.

Shredding documents isn't just for accounting firms and people with something to hide — every day working Americans have houses full of documents containing potentially compromising information, from Social Security numbers to bank account information.

To dispose of them, security experts recommend getting a good cross-cut shredder (which makes your documents into confetti, as opposed to the long strips that a determined thief could reconstruct); one cheap option is this $30 model from Walmart.

OK, got your shredder? Now here's what to put in it. Continue Reading