If you are an online person, and lot of your personal and business work depends on emails etc there is always a risk of loosing all the data in your email box due to account ban, someone hacking your account or you forgetting your password.
Account retrieval in gmail is not a very easy task as you have to enter the exact date on which your account was created along with any memorable information. Though you might be able to regain your email back it's always useful to create a backup of your account.
Gmail backup can be done using lot of techniques like forwarding through POP, using thunder bird etc. But the most easiest way is to create another gmail account and then forward your emails to that account. This can be done by going to settings in your gmail account and then clicking on Forwarding and POP tab. Enter your new email address in "forward a copy of incoming mail to" field and also select the option "Keep gmail's copy in Inbox".
This will at least save you from any fear of loosing your email data at anytime.
