Even after you have gone through the “taking stock” process and located, organized and filed all of your important documents and records, your day-to-day and periodic financial transactions will continue to generate new documents and records for which proper filing will save time and money down the road.    Maintaining a logical, dependable filing system will pay dividends in the future when you absolutely need to put your hands on that document in a hurry.   For example:     ●  If you have a trust, you must be sure to title any new financial assets in the name of the trust.   ●  All contracts and warranties should be properly filed for possible future reference.   ●  New insurance policies need to be filed.   ●  Any purchases or sales of mutual funds or bonds will require that you save a record  of the price paid (perhaps for years) or sold to allow calculating capital gains tax at tax time.  In some cases, your brokerage firm may maintain this information for you.   ● Tax returns need to be saved for at least three years, six years or longer is better.     Tax preparation, in fact, probably constitutes the largest (and most confusing) demand for sound record-keeping.

Another Perspective See by BankRate.com: Tax record-keeping tips and Records the IRS says to Keep -- and for how long