not sexy, but I know, but keep your old financial papers

I can feel your eyes glazing over, but stick with me and I swear I'll keep this one short. Trust me: You're gonna need this.

I see you drifting away. Come back here for a sec!

As you open bank accounts, store credit cards, etc. just stash a few of your monthly statements in a file.

This weekend I've been pulling my credit scores, and I've had to answer some questions to prove I am me (and not someone pretending to be me). I've had to answer questions like the name of the company that bought a student loan years ago, the account number of a JC Penney store credit card I opened back in the mid-1990s, what my minimum monthly payment on a certain account was back in 2003, etc.

You have to be able to look these things up one day, even many years later than you might expect.

As identity theft becomes an increasingly big deal, the importance of this step will only grow.

Personally, I just keep a file folder for each account I open in a filing cabinet. People have told me I overdo it because the IRS only requires that you keep files going back a certain number of years. But twice in the last few months I've had to dig deep in the files for TransUnion and then FairIsaac.

Please, keep your old files.