Finance, Forex and Investments

How much personal finance history is it good to keep?

My boyfriend seems to think I have a problem with holding on to too much paper. I need to know how much paperwork I should hold on to. I know at work we are required to have 7 years of financial paperwork on hand, but I'm not sure how much history I need to have at home. Any one have any guidelines? I have heard 1 year and 3 years?

Public Comments

1. For tax stuff, seven years. For bank and credit catd statements, two years. For everthing else, one year.
2. The I.R.S. requires you to keep three years of tax returns, and all of the proof that goes with what you filed. If you own a business or have estates or something that is different. If you use a debit or credit card for your purchases, you have a "record" of note. If you are keeping cash receipts for stuff like food, clothes and misc, unless you are concerned about returning something, throw it out! (If you use your vehicle as a business expense you need to log those in your books.) P.S. The three credit bureaus keep track of your financial history 7 - 10 years. You can obtain 1 free copy a year from each. If you are an extremely uncomfortable getting rid of any record, buy yourself a small scanner, download all of your documents onto a usb drive, and toss the whole mess.