Inside Your Wealth - January 2022

A Note from Marilyn and Ora

Is it that time of the year again to make New Year resolutions? I’ve had some time to think about my own and realized how important it is to set the pace to accomplish them. If you’re like many, we end the year only to realize that we’ve abandoned the original New Year’s resolution, then set a new one for the upcoming year. So, let’s take control of 2022 by setting realistic goals and not forgetting about them. Make a promise to yourself that you will check back on the list and reflect. Cheers to 2022!

As you think about your life, your lifestyle, and how best to design your Financial House, I’ve made a list of 22 Tips for 2022. To kick off this year’s Inside Your Wealth January newsletter, you will find the first 2 tips of 22 Quick Tips on page 3.

Best wishes, Marilyn and Ora

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SAVVY Women Blog

Key Steps for Your Bigger Brighter New Year

I have a had a lot of time to think about my lifestyle and my Financial House these past 22+ months. While I am grateful to be healthy and thriving despite this pandemic, I want to be as sure that I am taking my key steps that support my ideal lifestyle now and in the future. You can call these 2022 New Year’s resolutions. Ready, set go… and stay tuned for more next month.

1. Just imagine that you are at the end of 2022.

Envision its year-end, December 31st, 2022. What were your greatest milestones, experiences, or something you thought was impossible to achieve but you accomplished?
What were the successful action steps that you used? What are some things you like to change? Will you make the change in your life to build the lifestyle you desire? Perhaps it’s how you manage your money, your finances, and your overall Financial House? Are you ready to invest your time and your energy today, right now, to set up your best year ever? Today is a good time to start planning and building your ideal lifestyle. Create a purpose driven life!

2. Establish your baseline and build Your Financial House

Let’s be honest, many of us spend hours planning our travel to take a break from everyday life. How many hours do you invest in planning for a domestic vacation? For an international holiday? Now, when was the last time you took time to assess the overall health of your Financial House? Make this a priority in 2022-know where you are today by establishing a baseline and build or update Your Financial House.

Take a stab at calculating your net worth. List all your assets; whether it’s cash in checking and savings accounts, real estate, insurance policies, investments, retirement accounts, cars, etc. Then subtract your debts like student loans, mortgages, overdue credit card bills, etc. There are many online tools or simply use an excel spreadsheet, or if you’re like me, use a sheet of paper to track the list. It’s hard to measure results and progress if you don’t know where you stand. Tax season is just around the corner and year-end statements, W2s, 1099s, etc. will soon hit your inbox (or mailbox). It’s an excellent time to think and invest in designing your ideal lifestyle, leveraging your income, your assets, and managing any liabilities. When you are ready to formalize your plan or to get started, I would love the opportunity to collaborate with you to design your Prosperity BluePrint™.

Stay tuned for the next tips on our February Issue. 22 Tips for 2022 available on our website to download, free!

Insuring Your Business Against Cyber Liability

According to one study done by the US Small Business Administration, 88% of small business owners feel their business is vulnerable to a cyber attack.¹

These concerns may be well founded: according to another study, 46% of all small businesses have at some point been the target of a ransomware attack.²

Business owners are required to protect their customers’ personal information. In all 50 states, Guam, Puerto Rico, The Virgin Islands, and the District of Columbia, businesses are required to notify individuals of security breaches involving personally identifiable information.³

As evidenced by news of large-scale data breaches, online hacking has become another form of risk that businesses now face everyday. Like many risks, businesses can insure themselves against the financial damage a cyber-attack may inflict.

Cyber liability insurance may cover a range of risks, including:

Data Breach Management: Pays expenses related to the investigation, management, and remediation of an incident, including customer notification, credit check support, and associated legal costs and fines.
Media Liability: Covers third-party damages such as website vandalism and intellectual property rights infringement.
Extortion Liability: Reimburses for expenses associated with losses arising from a threat of extortion.
Network Security Liability: Covers costs connected with third-party damages due to a denial of access and theft of third-party information.

Cyber liability insurance is fairly new so expect a wide divergence of coverage and costs. It may be purchased separately or as a rider to your current business insurance policy. Be prepared to comparison shop to get a better understanding of coverage and costs.

Small business owners might also keep in mind that “an ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure.” There are steps you can take to protect your business from becoming a cyber victim.

Consider these steps to protect your data.

Maintain robust malware detection software and keep existing software updated.
Train employees not to open links contained in emails from unknown senders. Research shows that 30% of

security-related incidents are caused by internal actors.⁴

Encrypt your important data, such as bank account information, customer credit card numbers, etc.
Perform a security audit.

As obvious and simple as these precautions may sound, some businesses fall victim to cyber-attacks because of their failure to take them.

Sources:

SBA.gov, 2021
StaySafeOnline,org, 2020
National Conferences of State Legislatures, 2020
SmallBizTrends.com, 2020

Identity Theft:

How to Protect Yourself Against the Fastest Growing Crime in America

Just How Big of a Problem is Identity Theft?

According to the Federal Trade Commission (FTC), identity theft topped its national list of consumer complaints for the 15th consecutive year in 2014. The numbers, and the damage, are staggering:

17 million Americans were victims of identity theft in 2014.
$25 billion of financial losses in the U.S.
$2,000 average loss per victim.

Identity thieves target people of all ages, from senior citizens to the youngest children—even the deceased have had their identities stolen. This brochure will help you understand identity theft in its many forms and offer practical recommendations that will help you protect yourself and your family. Your first line of defense against Identity Theft is you.

What Is Identity Theft?

Identity theft occurs when criminals steal your personal information—including, but not limited to Social Security Number, credit card and bank account numbers, medical insurance card, driver’s license number, even your address—with the intent of using it to assume your identity for the purpose of committing fraud. Criminals often use your identity to apply for credit cards and loans, steal your tax refund, and/or gain access to your assets and drain your bank accounts.

Identity theft is the fastest growing crime in America: Someone becomes a victim of identity theft every two seconds.¹

The consequences of identity theft may be catastrophic. Victims may find themselves liable for purchases made with credit cards and repayments of loans obtained through the fraudulent use of their personal information. Identity thieves may run up medical bills in your name and, if they’ve used your personal information to obtain false identity documents, pretend to be you if they are arrested.

Repairing the damage to your credit history and reputation is often costly and always time consuming—the process may literally take years of phone calls, paperwork, and correspondence with creditors and others, not to mention potential legal fees.

While most people have a general understanding of identity theft, most also probably think it won’t happen to them. This brochure explains just how easy it is to have your identity stolen, how to protect yourself using our three-pronged security cycle, and provides actionable ideas you and your family can use to protect your identity.

Who’s Most at Risk for Identity Theft?

Everyone is at risk for identity theft. However, there are some shocking statistics of the higher susceptibility of identity theft within the following demographics.

Kids Under the Age of 19

51 times more likely to become victims than adults.²
Often doesn’t build a credit history until later in life and, as a result, their credit reports are usually overlooked by parents. Thieves can have years to rack up debt without being discovered.

Senior Citizens

Usually have large nest eggs and carry little debt.
Don’t check their credit reports generally, enabling identity thieves to use their information longer.
Studies show they are more susceptible to digital theft and phone scams.

What’s the Most Common Type of Identity Theft?

Identity theft may occur in a variety of ways and take many forms.

Types of Non-Financial Identity Theft

Criminal Fraud
Children’s Identity Theft
Medical Fraud
Identity Cloning
Synthetic Theft
Employment Theft

Types of Financial Identity Theft

Banking Fraud
Mortgage
Tax

Children: The Most Frequently Targeted

Victims of Identity Theft⁵

By using a child’s SSN, identity thieves may access a clean credit slate that will likely go unexamined until the child applies for college loans or his or her first credit card. This provides identity thieves a potentially long runway of criminal activity before any red flags are raised. Did you know that 1 out of 10 children were victims of Identity Theft?5

10.2% of the SSNs sampled in a Carnegie Mellon University study belonged to minors with active credit files.
76% of the credit activity was fraudulent.
Fraudulent activity is likely to go unnoticed until the child attends college, applies for a job or attempts to open a credit card.

How Identity Thieves Steal Information

Direct Theft
Wallet, Purse, Briefcase, Luggage Theft
Home Invasion
Mail Theft
Digital Theft
Hacking
Social Engineering
Wireless Theft
Skimming
Pharming & Phishing
Shoulder Surfing

The Security Cycle

Prevention
Recovery
Detection

Protecting your identity starts with you.

By taking a common-sense approach to safeguarding your most valuable information, you can make it much more difficult for identity thieves to victimize you and your family members. Our three-pronged security cycle offers simple but highly effective methods to protect your identity that focus on:

Prevention

Follow these steps to help minimize the likelihood of becoming a victim of identity theft.

Reduce Your Paper Trail
Protect Your Cards
Be Less Social on Social Media
Think of Others
Control Your Electronics

Detection

Occasionally something may seem unusual, but we ignore it. Keep the following in mind to help detect fraudulent activities.

Look Out for Red Flags
Check Your Credit Report Annually
Stay Alert

Recovery

Once you confirm that you are a victim of identity theft, follow these three steps to begin the process of recovering your losses, repairing your credit and restoring your reputation.

Act Fast
Clear Your Name
Build a Recovery Plan

Know Your Allies

Government site to help with identity theft protection, detection and recoveryIdentityTheft.gov

Source of your free annual credit report from the three credit reporting agencies Experian, Equifax and Transunion.

Federal Trade Commission

File identity theft complaints with the FTC.
Help customize a recovery plan.
Tips about prevention, detection and recovery.

Sources:

All statistics sourced from the Bureau of Justice Statics: Victims of

Identity Theft, 2014.

Source: CNN Money, “Identity Fraud Hits New Victim Every Two Seconds,” 2014.

Residents of Florida, California, Nevada and Washington, D.C.3

Carnegie Mellon University, CyLab Report, 2011.
Money Magazine, “These States Are Most Vulnerable to Identity Theft and Fraud.”
Federal Trade Commission Survey, 2015.
Carnegie Mellon University, CyLab Report, 2011.

Brown Butter-Raspberry Baked Oatmeal

Author: Melissa Grey

In this baked oatmeal, perfectly tender spiced oats mixed with sweet and tart fruit are topped with crispy coconut and pecans. The recipe calls for raspberries—blackberries, blueberries, or sliced strawberries would work as well. Blooming the spices in the hot brown butter releases their flavors and infuses the entire dish with a nutty warmth.

Ingredients

Ingredients:
Cooking Spray
¼ cup unsalted butter
1 ½ teaspoons ground cinnamon
¼ teaspoon ground nutmeg
2 cups uncooked old-fashioned regular rolled oats
1 teaspoon baking powder
½ teaspoon kosher salt
½ cup plus 2 tablespoons chopped toasted pecans, divided
2 cups plain unsweetened almond milk
⅓ cup pure maple syrup, plus more for serving, if desired
1 large egg, beaten
2 teaspoons vanilla extract
2 medium bananas, sliced 1/2-in. thick (about 1 1/2 cups)
1 ½ cups fresh raspberries divided
¼ cup unsweetened flaked coconut

Instructions

Directions:
Step 1
Preheat oven to 375°F. Lightly coat an 8-inch square baking dish with cooking spray. Melt butter in a small skillet over medium. Continue cooking, stirring constantly, until butter is browned and has a nutty aroma, 2 to 3 minutes. Pour butter into a large bowl; stir in cinnamon and nutmeg. Let cool 5 minutes.
Step 2
Stir together oats, baking powder, salt, and 1/2 cup of the pecans in a medium bowl; set aside. Add milk, maple syrup, egg, and vanilla to cooled butter mixture; whisk to combine. Stir in oat mixture.
Step 3
Arrange bananas in a single layer on bottom of prepared baking dish. Sprinkle evenly with 3/4 cup of the raspberries. Spoon oat mixture evenly over top. Sprinkle with remaining 3/4 cup raspberries, then with coconut, and finally with remaining 2 tablespoons pecans. Bake in preheated oven until set and golden brown, about 35 minutes. Let cool 5 minutes. Serve with additional maple syrup, if desired.

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