The Boy Scout motto is very applicable to our personal/financial lives. Many of us will spend more time planning our next vacation, and actually have checklists to make sure we don’t forget anything, than making the same effort in preparing for unexpected events in our lives.
A Disaster Recovery File may be the answer. Such a file includes detailed information that your spouse, children or other family members will find extremely helpful and necessary if something were to happen to you. Such a file or plan is a much better proactive response than rifling through drawers, file cabinets and frantically searching for information after an event has occurred such as a fire, tornado or accident, etc.
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My wife and I were victims of identity fraud this summer. While on vacation we were alerted by a phone message from a national department store regarding an online purchase we didn’t make. Without going into all the details, we were able to take corrective action and close any illegally accessed accounts and are currently working with the local police to pursue the criminals. We were not responsible for any unauthorized charges.
Thus far, we have been impressed by how quickly we were able to closes accounts down and get the various credit card companies and banks to take corrective action. Based upon my personal experience, I asked Toan Nguyen, IIA’s Director of Operations, to give you some information that may allow you to monitor and protect your credit.
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- In this week’s commentary I am including links to interviews on Yahoo and CNBC in which two economic professionals lay out very valid arguments on which direction the economy and stock market will go in the coming months. I recommend you take the time to view both of them.
- Only time will tell if either professionals’ analysis / prediction is correct. I would just hope that instead of either extreme occurring (boom or bust), we just have a gradually improving economy and stock market and very modest corrections along the way. In this environment I believe dollar-cost averaging (investing the same dollar amount over several months) may be the best strategy for putting cash to work.
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Bullish news
For the first time since January of 2008, an index based upon a survey of U.S. manufacturing purchasing managers crossed a threshold indicating growth in manufacturing output. Separate surveys showed manufacturing activity grew in China, France, Australia and other countries.
A recent pick up in the number of new companies filing for initial public offerings may indicate the U.S. stock market still has some steam left in it. A rise in IPOs indicates that risk tolerance among investors is increasing and corporate confidence is returning.
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