Before throwing away any old piece of mail you will want to make sure that it does not contain important information about you.  Documents such as credit card statements, bank statements, financial documents, and credit card applications should be put through a paper shredder before disposing of these items in the garbage.  By shredding these documents you will be destroying the paper that contains important information about you and your finances.  If someone were to get their hands on your credit card statement or bank account information, he or she may be able to use these accounts to make unauthorized purchases.  Also, if any document has information such as your social security number, you will certainly want to destroy that document in a paper shredder.  Anyone who comes into contact with this information could open up new lines of credit in your name, ruining your credit history in the process.

To help protect yourself against the every growing problem of identity theft, it is vital that you shred any document that has your personal information before throwing that piece of paper in the trash.  This will enable you to discard your old documents with the knowledge that your personal information is still safe and secure.