Tips for financial spring cleaning [Video]

CHARLOTTE, N.C. (QC Life)—After deep cleaning your home, you might want to clean out your financial files as well.

CBS News Business Analyst Jill Schlesinger gave us a quick overview of what we need to keep and what we can toss.

According to Schlesinger, the IRS can look at tax returns from the past three years, in some instances even six years. As a result, she recommended keeping these files and all supporting documents for six years.

However, to avoid falling victim to identity theft and tax scam, she encouraged taxpayers to shred any statements prior to that period.

As far as bank and investment statements are concerned, she recommended only keeping documents that you need for tax purposes or a Medicaid application since many states require you to show statements from the past five years.

Lastly, according to Schlesinger there are some files we should retain forever, such as …