Inexpensive, Effective Tips for Protecting Your Identity (Part 2)

Given that this is Part 2 to my December 12 post, you might want to read that one first – if you haven’t done so already.


I’ll be the first to admit that some of these tips might sound like we should be walking on pins and needles. Remember, though, that identity thieves are growing increasingly sophisticated in the schemes they use to snatch people’s information, so it behooves you to leave absolutely no stone unturned. Better armed than sorry.

Tip #6: One thing you need to bear in mind is that wireless networks in public areas like restaurants, coffeehouses, airports, and hotels most often have very low security settings – because the idea is to allow easy and/or free access. This, however, increases the possibility of someone intercepting your information.

 Tip #7: Always access your financial accounts from your very own computer because “public” computers may contain software that captures logon information, which could wind up in the hands of identity thieves. Of course, not everyone owns a computer, so if you must use another computer, please, be sure to completely delete all history of your use when you finish.


If possible, your passwords should combine letters, symbols, and numbers. It’s a great idea to mix upper and lower cases when composing your passwords. Make it a point to change your passwords on a regular basis – experts suggest doing this every 90 days or so. And desist from using the same password for multiple accounts. I know this is very tempting, but it’s a very dangerous habit. One last thing: Do not store your passwords on your computer or smartphone because should you ever lose it, you don’t know who might gain access to it.


Tip #8: Be sure to “logout” at the end of all your web sessions that involve your personal information. As it turns out, your access does not necessarily terminate by simply hitting the little “x” to close a browser or moving on to a new website.


Before you download anything, be sure you are fully aware of exactly what you are downloading. In this day and age when the face of this crime is getting more and more sophisticated, I’d strongly advise that you surf only those sites you know and trust and do your very best to avoid clicking on pop-up windows, no matter how tempting they may seem.


Let me mention here that, these tips are of course, not a guarantee that you won’t or cannot become a victim. But I believe they will go a mighty long way toward helping you  keep your information secure.


What to Do When You Discover Your Identity Has Been Stolen

• Place a fraud alert on your credit file by contacting one of the three national credit reporting bureaus. Call Equifax at (800-525-6285), Experian (888-397-3742), or TransUnion ( 800-680-7289). You need to contact only one of these credit bureaus, as whichever one you contact is required to notify the other two.

• Close accounts you know or believe may have been tampered with or opened fraudulently.
• Notify your local police department and get an “Identity Theft Report.”
• File a complaint with the Federal Trade Commission’s Identity Theft hotline at 877-438-4338 or by visiting their website. 

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Contact a financial professional at Laser Financial Group for a complimentary consultation to craft a personal plan that works for you. 877.656.9111 or LaserFG.com.

Season's Greetings from the Team at Laser Financial Group!

Season's Greetings from the team at Laser Financial Group!

Dear friend,

As you take some time off to gather with your family and friends, my team of exceptional professionals and I would like to express our sincerest gratitude to you – we thank you for your business, and most importantly, your friendship. We also extend to you and your family our wishes for a holiday season filled with love, joy, and hope.

Take care. Stay warm and blessed!


Samuel


PS: I’ll continue the ID theft series in my next post.

Inexpensive, Effective Tips for Protecting Your Identity (Part 1)

Inexpensive, Effective Tips for Protecting Your Identity (Part 1)

The Federal Trade Commission, estimates that somewhere in the neighborhood of 9 million Americans experience the horrible ordeal of having their identities stolen each year – a number that is growing by the hour.

Inasmuch as I wish no one would ever have to deal with the quite costly and cumbersome aftermath of this insidious crime, identity thieves are, unfortunately, REAL. And they have come up with countless, unassuming schemes (with new methods being discovered daily) that make it possible to rent apartments, obtain credit cards, sign up for cable TV and just about anything in their victims’ names.

So how do you ensure the safety of your personal information? Personally, (and I’m not an expert on this), I don’t think there’s any silver bullet, but I believe that by implementing these simple, everyday steps, you can greatly increase your chances of not becoming the easy prey of these good-for-nothing idiots who think they should make a living out of stealing other people’s credit and identities.

Tip #1: Understand that legitimate institutions will not and should not ask you to provide sensitive personal information via email. So, no matter how “official and legitimate” it may seem to you, DO NOT respond to any emails requesting personal information, such as your social security number, user IDs, passwords, credit card numbers, etc.

In that same spirit, NEVER release your personal information over the telephone, unless you initiated the call – as in, you dialed the institution’s number and know exactly whom you’re talking to.

Tip #2: Make a habit of reviewing all your account statements immediately after you receive them. Please pay attention to the transactions reported and be sure to promptly report any mistakes to your financial institution(s). 

Tip #3: Keep all documents containing your personal information in a secure place. It may be true that you live by yourself and that you allow only those you trust into your home, but there have been many cases of breached trust that resulted in stolen identities. Besides, keeping those critical information in a secure place does not necessarily mean you don’t trust people – it’s just good, old common sense.

Oh, and while on that subject of trust, remember to shred such documents before disposing of them, because some bad folks make a living out of Dumpster-diving, and you do not want them gaining access to your personal information.

Tip #4: Review your credit report for inaccuracies and unauthorized activity. Be sure to check and double-check for inquiries from companies you haven’t contacted, because someone else could have contacted them claiming to be you.

Everyone is entitled to a free copy of their credit report – each year – from the three major nationwide credit bureaus (Experian, Equifax, and TransUnion), so that could be a great starting point. The caveat here is that you must actually ask for your free report by calling (877) 322-8228 or visiting AnnualCreditReport.com.

Tip #5: Make sure your computer has security software and firewalls with the latest updates. Almost all security software has automatic update features, but to be sure and for the sake of safety, which by the way is the whole idea here, double-check that yours is configured to routinely perform those updates.

In my next post, I’ll share Tip #6 through #10, all of which are simple yet very effective ways of shielding your personal information from bad guys and gals.
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Contact a financial professional at Laser Financial Group today to schedule your complimentary, no-obligation consulation to review your financial goals and the best ways to reach them. 877.656.9111 or LaserFG.com.

The Surefire Way to Manage Your Holiday Shopping Budget

The Surefire Way to Manage Your Holiday Shopping Budget

It’s once again that time of year when we go shopping for our loved ones. Just so I don’t raise your hopes, this column is not about where you can get the best deals. Instead, let’s talk about what I call the “year-end shock syndrome.” Have you noticed that most people end up spending w-a-a-a-y much more than they actually “intended” – or rather, “expected” – when it’s all said and done?

Of course, that doesn’t happen to everyone, and I am by no means claiming to have a crystal ball, but I think I do know how it happens. You see, most of us want our loved ones to know how much we really care about them by the kind or size or price of the gift we give them. So we make a list of people (sometimes with gift items intended for them), and then we shop for the best deals we can find.

But at the end of it all, nine out of 10 people end up breaking their budgets – that’s if they had a budget to begin with. To be totally honest, that used to be me many, many years ago before I came up with this slightly different (yet powerful) approach that ensured that I stick to my budget.

Here’s what you need to do:

Understand the fact that the true value of a gift is not measured by its retail price. Just the thought behind presenting the gift trumps the price you paid for it at the store. I realize that conventional theory seems to suggest the opposite, but you’re going to have to make a shift in your thinking or be prepared to face the ugly consequences of excessive spending.

Just to be clear, I’m not suggesting that you give inexpensive gifts. Not at all. Who wouldn’t want to give their loved ones the entire world, so to speak? But to do that at the expense of staying financially sound is quite frankly foolish, wouldn’t you agree?


With that in mind, when you make your list of names, you MUST place dollar amounts next to them. As simple as this sounds, without this step you are sure to spend more than you intended to. If you think about it, why shouldn’t that happen? It’s an open check book (or credit), because you’ve placed no limit on your spending. 


To state the obvious, by actually including dollar amounts, you’ll know how much you will be spending so that it doesn’t come as a surprise after the fact. This is the best way for you to make the necessary adjustments to prevent any unintended negative consequences down the road. Have fun shopping!

Only 3 Options Exist to End America's Fiscal Crisis – the Likely Answer Will Affect YOU!

Only 3 options exist to end America's fiscal crisis – the likely answer will affect YOU!

Remember a couple Mondays ago when I shared my thoughts on the Congressional Super Committee? Well, Thanksgiving has now passed, and official news of the outcome of several weeks of super-special negotiations is, in one word, nothing – as in they failed to cut even a dollar of their $1.5 trillion target. Yep, zero!

From day one, I expected nothing other than what is referred to in legislative terminology as a stalemate for the outcome, and boy do I feel like a genius now. But if you really looked at the dots, it was pretty easy to draw the connections: You have a Congress that is fully responsible for this country’s fiscal mess to begin with. Some of the esteemed statesmen and women have been in Congress for as long as I have been alive, or just a little less.

My point is that this current situation, which is completely unsustainable, didn’t just happen. It’s been a long time coming. Even though this same Congress had something of a change of heart, the entire 535-member body couldn’t come up with a solution to fix a “serious” problem, yet they believed a 12-member committee would be able to nail it? Really?

Meanwhile, the debt/deficit problem is growing much, much worse by the day. And it will have to be fixed, one way or the other, or else… As I have said all along, this is not as big an issue as it is being made out to be, in the sense that we have three options:

Option #1: Cut spending, only.

Option #2: Raise more revenue, only.

Option #3: Make some spending cuts and some revenue increases.

That’s pretty much it for our options!

Politics aside, I call on our dear Congressional leaders to muster the courage to find us all a real solution, because day in and day out of pandering is only making things worse for us the folks, the very same folks they are charged with looking out for.
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Contact a financial professional at Laser Financial Group today to schedule your complimentary and no-strings-attached consultation to discuss how the inevitable tax increases will affect your bottom line, and the steps YOU can take to hold on to more of your money. LaserFG.com or 877.656.9111

In Gratitude...

In gratitude...

As we pause to celebrate Thanksgiving Day 2011, on behalf of the selfless professionals here at Laser Financial Group and myself, I'd like to say a gigantic THANK YOU for being part of our family. Besides being thankful to the good Lord for our health and sound mind, we want you to know that we appreciate our association with you and will do all in our power to maintain your trust in us.


As you partake in the celebrations, don’t forget President Abraham Lincoln’s reason for proclaiming a Thanksgiving Day right in the midst of the Civil War:

“To heal the wounds of the nation and restore it, as soon as may be consistent with the Divine purposes, to the full enjoyment of peace, harmony, tranquility, and union.”

Life sometimes gets very challenging, but even in the face of every unpleasant circumstance we have encountered, let’s not forget that the gift of life itself is a great blessing.

Happy Thanksgiving!! Have a blast.

Is Your Financial Advisor Inadvertently Sending You MIXED MESSAGES?

Is your financial advisor inadvertently sending you MIXED MESSAGES?

Most financial professionals are good people who want the best for their clients – because it would be, literally, only a complete jerk who’d do the opposite. If that’s the case, don’t you find it quite odd (as I do) that on the one hand, you have investors who painfully look on helplessly as their lives savings erode – not because they are spending it, but because the stock market tumbles for whatever reason – and on the other hand, you have financial advisors who believe that’s the best approach for those investors when it comes to their nest eggs? 

The vast majority of retirement investors in America seem to be in a constant struggle, so to speak, with their financial advisors – the advisors encouraging them to stay the course without panicking. My question is: Why do we have this constant battle IF everyone knew exactly what they signed up for? Wouldn’t it be an ethical violation if a financial advisor hadn’t clearly explained the upside and the downside possibilities of their client’s choices?

Many in the financial profession, either intentionally or unintentionally, tend to magnify the upside possibility of gains associated with the stock market and, quite frankly, downplay the risk of loss. But does that sort of hope change the reality? It’s true that you can make a lot of money in the stock market, but it’s also true that you can lose a lot of money, including some or all of your seed money.

While I cannot exactly quantify it, the error of failing to put all the pieces on the table when it comes to saving for retirement has ruined (and will probably continue to ruin) more retirement dreams than the stock market itself.

How often does your advisor discuss the downside with you?

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For a realistic alternative to investing directly in the volatile stock market, contact a financial professional at Laser Financial Group TODAY. Schedule your complimentary, completely no-strings-attached consultation and learn how you can protect your nest egg and existing investments while continuing to grow your retirement funds. LaserFG.com or 877.656.9111.