This week’s tips are aimed at helping you better organize your financial life, and today I’m tackling one of the most common question that I get: “Ashley, how long should I keep all of my financial documents?”

That’s a really good question! Yesterday, I talked about what you can shred, so today I’m going to focus on what you should keep.

One of the most common questions on what to keep revolves around your taxes. How long should you keep your tax records?:

7 years is a good rule for keeping your tax records. It’s a good idea to keep annual tax filings, 1099s, and other tax forms for 7 years. Keep them in a file by year, then just cycle out the file every 7 years.

For your investment accounts, keep your annual summaries. I like keeping all of the year-end summaries, going back indefinitely, especially for taxable accounts where it matters knowing when you bought something and what you paid.

Speaking of when you bought something...

I also advise clients to keep trade confirmation statements forever. You may have bought a stock back in 1991, you still own it, and it has a massive gain. You’ll want to know what day you purchased the stock, at what price, and how many shares you bought to keep accurate records of the stock. Also, if you’ve been investing for a while, you’ve probably received those shareholder class action letters. If you ever want to participate in one of those, you’ll need to show proof of when you purchased the stock, so it’s just a good idea to always hold on to trade confirmations.

If you’re like, “crap! I haven’t held on to any of those things!” That’s ok. Go back to your financial institution or your tax advisor and see if they can send you copies of old tax records, year-end summaries, and trade confirmations that you might be missing.

That’s it for today. Thanks for listening.

Tomorrow we’re going to talk about how you can organize and keep track of all of these important documents that you need to hang on to.

My name is Ashley Micciche and this is the One Minute Retirement Tip.

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