Financial Goals for 2025

What are your financial goals for 2025? Where do you hope to be financially? Before thinking about all of that, be sure to secure your identity. People are scouring the internet to steal people's identities. I would like to think that this is a small percentage of people but the numbers keep increasing and unfortunately, people are getting greedier. 

Check your credit a few times a year.  Most people check it more than that through apps like Credit Karma and Nerd Wallet.  Your credit belongs to you and not to someone else. Freeze your credit reports on TransUnion, Equifax, and Experian. People cannot apply on your credit for homes, cars, apartments, credit cards, etc. if you freeze your credit. You will also receive an alert that someone attempted to apply for credit.  You must have a monitor service like True Identity, Creditwise, Trusted ID, All Clear ID, Protect My ID or some other credit notifier. The Consumer Financial Protection Bureau is also your friend. Sign up for their newsletters. The Federal Trade Commission also has consumer alerts to look out for. The health care industry is also open to scams. Check consumer alerts with the Office of Health and Human Services.

I volunteer with my sorority.  To work with youth, you have to have a background check.  It is an extensive background check. I found out that someone had used my identity to apply for an apartment.  I don't know if they ever got the apartment, but this took place several years before I started freezing my credit. People might say.  You are not that important. Who would want to steal your identity? But you are important because you have an established identity.

Now, I am noticing with these data breaches how our information can appear on the dark web.  Sure, I get emails about this and have to utilize extra layers of protection to secure my identity.  I am even learning that scammers are constantly calling older adults, widows, and other people in an attempt to scam them. Personnel at banks tell stories of how elders have been swindled out of money because no one is really monitoring their affairs.

Scammers feed them some sort of sad story and they end of sending them money and sometimes their life savings.  I have seen the story on the news about this happening to educated people and the like. I have come face to face or rather voice to voice with scammers.  It is a good idea to have scam filters on your phone. If it's that important, they can just send you a letter.

Know how to stop a scam. Subscribe to newsletters.  AARP works hard to keep older people informed. That is the best twelve to fifteen dollars that you can spend in a year. As people get older, they are not working and are missing out on a lot of the social connections that many working or very active people have. Someone can call them and give them attention and talk to them about things they like to discuss over a period. It doesn't take long. They will get sent money. This is money that is meant for bills, groceries, and medical bills. Stay informed.  Stay in the know.  Avoid the scams.