What You Need To Know About...
Being Smart with Money
I'm the first to admit that I've made a LOT of mistakes managing my money. Thanks to the recent sale of my home I have the good fortune of a fresh start and I'm looking forward to doing much better going forward. This page will contain some information, ideas and resources to help you do better too.
1. The Basics
2. Credit
3. Identity Theft
10. Useful Links
Identity Theft
3.1 What is Identity Theft?
3.2 How can I prevent it?
A1: Keep key bits of personal data, such as your social security number, carefully guarded. Invest in a shredder for your home and shred, rather than throw away, any documents that may reveal your social security number, bank account data, credit card accounts or other financial or personal information.
Bonus Shredder Tip: Try to get a cross-cut shredder rather than a shredder that just cuts the paper into strips. It is possible, if the culprit wants to invest the time and money, for them to reconstruct your shredded pages from strips. It's harder, though theoretically possible, with cross-cut shreds. If you're worried about it and want to make it a little harder for the bad guys, every half dozen or so pages shred a random piece of junk mail too. Just to introduce some noise. That might be borderline paranoid, though.
Useful Links
10.1 Dave Ramsey - Nationally syndicated radio personality whose daily show on personal finance is an interesting listen. He's a little too "preachy" for me sometimes but his financial advise is generally right on. I subscribe to his podcast through iTunes and listen regularly - even if I don't learn much new at this point he reminds me to do the right things.
10.2 Craigslist - A garage sale without sitting in your yard all day. I've posted a number of pieces of furniture and other items like string trimmers and had excellent luck with selling them. As good as eBay? Probably not, but it's free. Sell some things and both simplify your life and get some extra cash to pay off bills.
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