I am looking for software to scan and read receipts
NeatReceipts come up from time to time on woot.com.   You can read up on the discussions which typically include several user testimonials at these past sales: Try the following apps/services: Receipt Bank (paid service, gathers paper receipts, scans them and processes the data), I've tested it, and it recognizing receipts very well, taking picture is very quick and easy, then you can upload the expenses into your accounting software by a click or automatically (e.g. FreeAgent), however the service it's a bit expensive. They've apps for Android and iPhone. Expentory (app and cloud-based service for capturing expense receipts on the move), Scanning receipts is easy and any decent scanner will do a good job for you. The difficult part is the software that 'extracts' the data. Today there is no software that can do this really well because there is just too great a range of receipts (e.g. handwritten receipts, receipts in foreign languages, etc.). For this reason services like Shoeboxed (in the US) and Receipt Bank (in Europe) are very popular. (Added disclosure: Michael Wood's profile web site link indicates he is associated with Receipt Bank.)
Scanned or electronic copies of invoices should be sufficient as long as they are accurate and you can deliver them during an audit. Also, if you have an accountant prepare your taxes you would either need to provide them a copy of the invoices or a summary of them with the corresponding amounts to be claimed. Personally I prefer to print out a paper copy and file that away with that quarter's and year's other tax documents. I do my own taxes and find paper copies handy as I can go through each invoice/receipt and make sure I have entered its information by ticking it. I find that when handling a large number of documents that paper copies are more easy to handle than electronic ones. In the end you will need to use a system that you feel comfortable with and are able to use effectively. "I don't think you should mix the two notions.  Not starting out with at least.  It takes so much money, time and expertise to invest for income that, starting out at least, you should view it as a goal, not a starting point. Save your money in the lowest cost investments you can find.  If you are like me, you can't pick a stock from a bond, so put your money into a target retirement fund.  Let the experts manage the risk and portfolio.  Start early and save often!  At only 35 you have lots of time. Perhaps you are really into finance, in which case you might somebody manage your own portfolio.  Great, but for now, let an expert do the heavy lifting. You are an app developer.  Your best bet to increase your income stream with via your knowledge and expertise.  While you are still so young, you should use labor to make money, and then save that money for retirement.  I am going to make an assumption that where you are will software development means you can become a great developer long before you can become a great financier.  Play to your strengths. I am also afraid you are over estimating how comfortable you are with risk.  Any ""investment"" that has the kinds of returns you are looking for is going to be wildly risky.  I would say those types of opportunities are more ""speculation"" rather than ""investments.""  There isn't necessarily anything wrong with speculations, but know the difference in risk.  Are you really willing to gamble your retirement?" "&gt;When you look at principles, whether you're a 'true' socialist, a watered-down SocialistLite or somwhere in between, the ideas are still anti-human.  I suggest you learn about a subject from the prolific authors of that subject, not people who claim to know it and bash it. Your argumentation is offensive, but I'll give you a reply anyway.  I know perfectly well what laissez-faire is, because I am in a way you are not also inclined to read texts of people who I do not agree with. I deliberately do not agree with laissez-faire, even though I believe in personal freedom as I am some variant of anarcho-socialist, but I don't believe in preserving the existing class relations and I don't believe laissez-faire to be fair for this exact reason; introducing it in the world today would only cement existing class differences, class differences brought on by the exploitation of the working class, which is the only way you can get really rich.  I suggest you actually read up on libertarian socialism and stop throwing around words like ""anti-human"", because you're quite honestly offending me, because obviously you're calling me ""anti-human"" as well, so even though I know you think you're playing some kind of enlightenment game by lecturing me on laissez-faire, a system that anyone who passed high school here in Sweden knows about, please stop and have some respect. I don't need to be lectured on the alternatives, I know them and I've chosen my beliefs." You know, I shop local when I can, but for big mass produced stuff I often go the Amazon route. It is quicker, easier, and usually cheaper. I wouldn't use this in a store I liked a lot, but a Best Buy type, where they have displays laid out to a scientific formula, christmas music playing two months early to Pavlov me into a shipping mood, and set their TVs on HD then non-HD channels in a effort into making me perceive a bigger quality difference than actually exists? It is nice to have a counter tactic. Scan scan scan I say... Check Buxfer here are the details about the API: http://www.buxfer.com/help.php?topic=API Given your needs, GNUcash will do swimmingly. I've used it for the past 3 years and while it's a gradual learning process, it's been able to resolve most stuff I've thrown at it. Schedule bills and deposits in the calendar view so I can keep an eye on cash flow.  GNUcash has scheduled payments and receipts and reconcilation, should you need them. I prefer to keep enough float to cover monthly expenses in accounts rather than monitor potential shortfalls.   Track all my stock and mutual fund investments across numerous accounts. It pulls stock, mutual and bond quotes from lots of places, domestic and foreign. It can also pull transaction data from your brokers, if they support that.  I manually enter all my transactions so I can keep control of them. I just reconcile what I entered into Quicken based on the statements sent to me. I do not use Quicken's bill pay There's a reconciliation mode, but I don't use it personally. The purpose of reconcilation is less about catching bank errors and more about agreeing on the truth so that you don't incur bank fees. When I was doing this by hand I found I had a terrible data entry error rate, but on the other hand, the bayesian importer likes to mark gasoline purchases from the local grocery store as groceries rather than gas. I categorize all my expenditures for help come tax time. GNUcash has accounts, and you can mark expense accounts as tax related. It also generates certain tax forms for you if you need that. Not sure what all you're categorizing that's helpful at tax time though. I use numerous reports including. Net Worth tracking, Cash not is retirement funds and total retirement savings. Tons of reports, and the newest version supports SQL backends if you prefer that vs their reports. "You likely won't require OCR software for the PDFs. Most PDFs are created entirely in software these days, rather then scanning in a printed or faxed letter. The text should be able to extracted from the them with a utility like ""pdftotext""." "Here are a handful of measures I take myself: I check my credit reports once in a while and look for anything out of the ordinary. If somebody calls me on the telephone claiming to be from my bank or credit card company, utility, etc. I ask for their number, check it, and call them back.  I don't give personal information to people merely claiming to be from a place I do business with. I never fill out ballots for free contests.  Most of the time these are scams.  When I get a call telling me ""you won a free cruise"" for a ballot I supposedly filled out at the mall, I say they're lying through their teeth.  For excitement, I'll sometimes buy a lotto ticket instead. I'm careful when I surf the web.  I don't give my personal information to web sites I can't trust.  If they look the least bit shady, I'm out.  Also, I use different passwords at different web sites.  I avoid using a password from a public terminal, but when I must, I change my password soon after. I'm careful when I download software.  I don't install anything I didn't get from a trusted source.  I pay for software when necessary, so finding a trusted source is not hard.  But, I've heard of people who – to save a buck – would download a pirated application from a shady warez site only to be ""gifted"" a trojan horse key logging or other spyware along with it. When I no longer need a bill, receipt, statement, etc. or any document containing personal information, I shred it, and I use a shredder that does a micro-cut, not just a strip- or cross-cut.  The micro-cut remains go in the green bin with wet and yucky organic waste. When I no longer need a hard drive, I use a secure wiping tool like Darik's Boot & Nuke before reusing.  If the drive isn't worth reusing, I'll wipe first then take apart with my Torx screwdriver.  Once I have the drive platter, I scratch the heck out of it.  Remains go to the community recycling depot. That's all I can think of right now; I probably missed a few :-) So, what do others do?  I'm curious, too."