Here’s a breakdown of some common types of fraud to watch out for:

Account Takeover – Account takeover (ATO) fraud occurs when a cybercriminal takes over another person’s legitimate online accounts without permission. It can involve stealing banking and credit card information, email accounts, or other sensitive data such as social media logins.

Phishing/Social Engineering – Phishing and Social Engineering scams are manipulation techniques that aim to trick an individual into giving up their sensitive data. This data can include passwords, social security numbers, bank records, or other personal or private information. The request usually appears to be from a familiar person, organization, or company and often contains links to malicious websites.

Check Fraud – While not as common, check fraud happens when a scammer knowingly writes a bad check, alters a check, or fraudulently forges a check. If your checks are not stored in a secure location, they can be stolen by burglars, service workers, and even trusted houseguests, or even straight from your mailbox.

Card Fraud – Have you ever stumbled upon a website you’ve never shopped at before that has deals that seem too good to be true? Scammers will set up a legitimate looking website in hopes of capturing your credit card information at check-out if you try to make a purchase.Impersonation – Impersonation scams are a type of fraud initiated by a person who pretends to be someone you can trust to get your sensitive data. These scams may target an individual or seek to capture sensitive information about a company. They are often elaborate and may target you via email, text messages, social media, or phone calls.

Identity Theft – Identity theft happens when someone other than you uses your personal information to impersonate, and often steal from you. This personal information can include your Social Security number, bank account or credit card information, and even physical identification like your mail, driver’s license, or passport.

Now that you understand these common types of fraud, here are some ways you can protect yourself from falling victim to these scams:

Fraud Prevention Tips:

Use strong, unique passwords and leverage multi-factor authentication (MFA).

Instead of following the links in an email or text message, contact companies or people using a phone number or website you know is real.

Don’t open attachments or click on links if you don’t know the sender or you didn’t request the information.

Make sure your devices are up to date from a security standpoint and have anti-virus protection installed.

Always mail checks using a secure envelope, and whenever possible hand the envelope directly to your mail carrier or drop it in a secure location or mail processing facility.

courtesy- DCU newsletter.

I used to do that as well, standing in lines early in the morning at almost 50 degrees to buy a laptop or small gadget or bike for my son to save few bucks. I don’t do that anymore but I do go check out things on the Black Friday to really see whether they are really super deals like they say.

So I want to ask, are BLACK FRIDAY DEALS really great deals as they advertise and say or it’s just hyped up sale to get more people to come to shop and sell them things which they really don’t need. Many times people buy things just because it’s cheap and they don’t even have plan to buy or use them. I have many friends who buy things in Black Friday sitting in shelves without opening box for months.

Another thing, I have seen that deals on Black Friday are the materials which are either going to be retired or about to be retired as they plan to come with new version for next year especially laptops and electronic gadgets. Also, I have seen the pricing for these deals are lower 2 weeks before Black Friday but they increase and reduce during the Black Friday time.

My suggestion, if you really want something and looking for good price/deal, track the pricing for the last 6 months and make the decision on the purchase during Black Friday accordingly. Don’t just make impulse decision on the deals and buy things which you really didn’t plan to buy.

Have Happy Holidays and Shopping!!!

CNN has a new series called “Chasing Life with Dr. Sanjay Gupta”, and its first episode examines the lifestyles of the impressive centenarians of Okinawa, Japan.

Nearly two-thirds of the residents of Okinawa are still functioning independently at age 97. That meant they were in their own homes, cooking their own meals and living their lives fully — at nearly 100 years old!

Here are three factors noted in the show:

Ikigai. This means having a sense of purpose in life. Gupta says that one way to figure this out is to first imagine that you no longer needed to do anything for money. In that case, what would you regret not doing with your life? What do you love, and what does the world need?

Here is a previous post on Ikigai – Finding Your “Reason For Being”. I have noticed that many people who seek out financial independence feel something “wrong” about their current trade-your-life-for-money environment. They are not living a life aligned with their “ikigai”.

Moai. This means having a social group within the community that has common interests and can provide both financial and emotional support. Family is important, but this appears to be an additional support system. This social component of longevity is critical and should not be overlooked.

Hara hachi bu. This means that you should stop eating when you are 80% full (and thus still a little bit hungry). People in Okinawa eat fewer calories in general, and the calories that they do eat tend to come from sweet potatoes, soybeans (legumes), a variety of vegetables, and only a little meat.

Okinawans centarians have also been examined in the book Blue Zones: 9 Lessons for Living Longer From the People Who’ve Lived the Longest (which I have not yet read). Here is another Venn diagram from the Wikipedia entry that shows the common characteristics between Okinawa and two other Blue Zones (Loma Linda, USA and Sardinia, Italy).

Bottom line. It’s not just living for a long time, but it’s living an active, engaged, happy life for a long time. You won’t get this by taking the right pills from orange bottles. You need to spend your time doing something that you feel matters to the world. You need love and support from other humans. You need to eat natural foods, but not too much.

Here is couple of snippet from the article,

First off, it’s obvious that minimum coverage costs less than full coverage, but there are some states where the difference is relatively small. For example, take a look at North Carolina, where full coverage goes for $1,027 but minimum coverage is only $527, so you’re only saving $500 for a lot less coverage. Compare that to Louisiana, where the difference is $1,794. It seems like insurance companies believe driving in Louisiana is much more dangerous than in North Carolina. And if it doesn’t cost that much more for full coverage, then you may as well get it and protect yourself and your family.

There are two ways to think about paying for car insurance in the US: the amount it takes to get the minimum level of insurance required by your state (liability coverage), and the amount to get full coverage (liability, collision, and comprehensive). Nerdwallet crunched the numbers behind our latest visualization to find out the average cost of insurance in each state, which we plotted in an intuitive visualization. It turns out that insurance rates vary dramatically by state, even though there isn’t an obvious explanation why.

To read the full article, go to https://howmuch.net/articles/minimum-and-full-coverage-car-insurance

Vanguard has been really great about publishing articles and tools to help out investors. This Vanguard tool helps you visualize how much you’ll need to save for college and how changing up a specific factor would affect your results. It adjusts for age, contributions, investment returns, tuition inflation, and even looks up the current cost of your favorite university. A formal report is spit out with lots of charts, just like a financial advisor might create for you. Here is sample screenshot of my scenario.

Here is another set of handy Vanguard tools, a 529 Plan Interactive Comparison Map and Tax Deduction Calculator.

Courtesy: mymoneyblog.com

Mr. Dalio just released a series of animated YouTube videos where he breaks down his “Principles for Success” into 8 videos at about 4 minutes each. Instead of reading a review or even paying for an “executive summary”, you can get a 30-minute version straight from the source. Here’s the trailer (embedded below) and first episode:

I really liked the short videos which touched lots of aspect of life journey. Getting with reality, facing problems, evolving by learning, find right people to work together and reaching out the goal and enjoying the journey. It is bit much descriptive with really nice animation, but it could have been fun with some stories and take away’s.

Starbuck Promotion

If any questions, check out the fine prints.

Thanks to MyMoneyblog.com for keeping us updated on great offers.

Today, I came across another new tool, Willing.com from another money blogger. The website seems to be very user friendly, easy and fast. It won’t ask tedious and unimaginable questions to tie you down. Just simple steps and you have your WILL ready. Now my friends cannot say NO, i don’t have time or don’t have common sense to even fill these simple steps

They better try it out and get a simple WILL which can at least help to save their kids and assets. Something is better than nothing right!!

Get Reacquainted with Your Finances: The first step toward financial improvement is to get the lay of the land. That means checking the status of all your financial accounts, taking stock of your assets and debts, and evaluating your monthly cash flow. This will enable you to identify particular areas that warrant improvement as well as evaluate if upgrading an account would be beneficial.
Not only are your financial needs bound to change from year to year, but there are also a number of interesting market developments that you would do well to take advantage of. For example, credit card companies are offering extremely lucrative sign-up perks – such as a $400 statement credit or 0% for 18 months – to new customers with above average credit standing. Online-only bank accounts now offer vastly superior terms to branch-based accounts as well, and you can save a lot of money by refinancing your mortgage in the current low-rate environment.

Make a Budget: Only 39% of adults have a budget, according to survey data from the National Foundation for Credit Counseling, which makes the fact that we are on pace to rack up at least $60 billion in credit card debt in 2014 and likely another $70 billion in 2015 a bit less surprising. Those statistics make the need to create and maintain a budget seem a bit more pressing, though, especially since we’ll be putting ourselves at risk of another recession if we keep overleveraging at this pace.
The best way to make a budget is to gather together all of your bills from the past few months and then make a list of your recurring expenses in order of importance – with true necessities like housing, food and healthcare obviously taking precedence. You can then compare the cost of these expenses against your monthly take-home and eliminate any outlays that would outpace your spending power. After that, just make sure to compare your ensuing monthly spending to your planned budget to make sure you’re abiding by it.

Implement the Island Approach: The Island Approach is a personal finance technique based on the theory of compartmentalization that encourages consumers to isolate different financial needs on different financial products – as if they are a chain of related islands. For example, this might entail getting one credit card for everyday purchases that you can pay off in full by the end of the month and another for revolving debt.
Doing so will enable you to get the best possible terms on each card (i.e. a great rewards earning rate on your everyday card and an extended 0% term on your debt card) rather than compromising for middling terms on a single card. It will also help you reduce the cost of your debt, since everyday purchases won’t be inflating your average daily balance, and garner valuable perspective on your finances – if you ever incur interest on your everyday card, you’ll know you spent too much that month.

Automate as Much as Possible: One of the most easily avoidable mistakes that people make in regards to their finances is missing due dates. Often due to pure forgetfulness, tardiness can have serious ramifications on your financial life – such as missed credit card payments fostering credit score damage.
Luckily, avoiding such a negative event is as simple as setting up recurring monthly payments from a checking account. You can do so for your full balance, the minimum amount required or a customized amount, and this applies to a variety of different types of bills – from credit cards to cable. Of course, you’ll have to remember to review your monthly statements in order to avoid being overcharged or missing a sign of fraud, but you’re not on the clock for that like you would be with payment.

Build an Emergency Fund: Roughly 56% of Americans do not have a rainy day fund, according to the Financial Industry Regulatory Authority’s National Financial Capability Study. Like someone without insurance, folks who lack an emergency fund are merely tempting fate and putting themselves at risk of financial catastrophe in the event of prolonged job loss or significant emergency expenses. Building up some monetary reserves should therefore be one of the first orders of business for any financial makeover.
While we recommend ultimately building a fund with about 12-18 months’ take-home income, it’s important to understand that won’t happen overnight. As a result, you needn’t put the rest of your financial life on hold until your emergency fund is complete, but rather chip away at it over time. That is key because we actually recommend creating a 6-month safety net before beginning to even pay down your debts in earnest. Doing so will help ensure that you do not end up right back where you started upon finally reaching debt freedom.

I like the Island approach, emergency fund ideas which I always recommend to friends. Check out the remaining resolutions by visiting, wallethub.com

Happy New year every one!!!