Even if you have to store them in your parent's garage, don't toss bank records and tax returns. I was so proud of myself for cleaning out the household financial files. I was told we only needed to keep financial records for 7 years for tax purposes. And who needs 20 year old bank statements, right?  YOU DO!

I never would have guessed I'd be going through a divorce after 40 years of marriage, nor would I have known what kind of information I needed to dig up for settlement purposes. Now I find that our accountant and banks don't keep records for more than 7 years either. 

I have some records on old financial software - but either the media the data is stored on or the software I used to create it is not compatible with my current computer.

There are other reasons you might need financial records from years past  - estate disputes, etc.. So just keep them. Print your records rather than storing data on external media if you can. The state-of-the-art software and hardware you use now will be tomorrow's dinosaurs.