The breach ticks me off – this never should have happened. Clearly Equifax has some major vulnerability in their system which they should have known about and protected. A credit bureau should be utilizing the highest level of security at every level. Your information with them should be as secure as a vault. On top of that, to add insult to injury, three of Equifax’s executives (including the CFO) sold nearly $2 million worth of stock after the breach, but before they told the public about it. That’s right – here’s a timeline for you:

• Between mid-May and July, 2017 – breach happens
• July 29, 2017 – the hack was discovered
• Aug 1-2, 2017 – executives sell almost $2 million worth of stock
• Sept 7, 2017 – the public is informed of the breach (thank you, Equifax, for waiting more than a month before letting us know)
• Sept 8, 2017 – Equifax stock drops by double-digits

Equifax cliams that these executives had no knowledge of the hack when they sold their shares, but I don’t buy it. You’re telling me the CFO didn’t know about this? If he didn’t know, then who did? I’m sure that the timing of the sale will be part of any investigation.

The breach has happened, though, and you need to take specific steps to be sure you protect yourself. Let me warn you now, the few hours you spend on this are not going to be the most fun, but it is critical you take care of it now. It will be much, much worse if you wait and are a victim of identity theft.

I’ll try to make it as easy as possible for you with links and instructions.

• First, don’t sign up for the protection that Equifax is offering. It’s garbage and only lasts a year, and, unless you opt-out of it, means you can’t be part of suing Equifax later on. I also don’t trust the company that just had the biggest data breach in history to be able to protect my data. Pass. Due to the severity of the breach, they should offer identity theft protection for life.

• Sign up for Credit Karma (https://www.creditkarma.com/). You will get free credit scores and free monitoring of your credit reports. If anything unusual happens, they will contact you. It’s a free service and you should sign up for all adult members of your family.

• Place a credit freeze on all three of your credit bureau files. A credit freeze is THE SINGLE MOST IMPORTANT THING YOU CAN DO TO PROTECT YOURSELF. It literally locks your credit bureau files so NO ONE, including you, will be approved for new credit. A thief could have your information and they will apply rapidly for credit, all of which will be denied. They will eventually move on. Depending on the state you live in, there will be a $0-$15 fee to set this up, and you need to do this for each adult member of your family.Here are the links:
  https://www.freeze.equifax.com/Freeze/jsp/SFF_PersonalIDInfo.jsp
  https://www.transunion.com/credit-freeze/place-credit-freeze
  https://www.experian.com/freeze/center.html

  Because millions of people are setting these up the systems are not all working. I was able to set up Equifax and Experian, but not TransUnion. I will keep trying throughout the next day or so, and if it doesn’t work I will take care of it via mail.If you need to apply for credit later, you can un-freeze your reports for a limited period of time, after which is will re-freeze.

• Place a fraud alert on your accounts. This is simply an extra step that puts an alert on your credit report that you might be a victim of identity theft, and that they need to call you before any transactions can be approved. It only lasts 90 days, but you can put the alert on there repeatedly. I already have a note on my calendar 90 days from today to renew the alert. You only need to place the alert with one company then they will place the alert with the other two. I recommend you use TransUnions fraud alert system – I found it to be the easiest one: https://www.transunion.com/fraud-victim-resource/place-fraud-alert

• Sign up for Zander Insurance identity theft insurance. For $145 a year it protects your entire family, including your children. They have a 100% recovery success rate and protect you against all types of ID theft, including tax fraud, medical ID theft, and, of course, financial fraud. If your identity is stolen as a result of the Equifax, or any other breach or identity theft, they will take over and fix everything. It is well worth every penny. You can sign up for that here: https://www.zanderins.com/idtheft2

• Speaking of children, does it make sense to freeze their reports? The credit bureaus don’t want you to be able to do that, but some states have made it mandatory. All three bureaus are falling in line, but none will allow you to do it online. TransUnion will do a search, for free, to see if your children have credit reports. You can find that here: https://www.transunion.com/credit-disputes/child-identity-theft-inquiry-form.

• Utah is taking things one step further – they have set up a Child Identity Protection Program through the Attorney General’s office that registers your children’s Social Security numbers as a number belonging to a minor, which will help protect their data. You can find that program here: https://cip.utah.gov/cip/SessionInit.action. If you live in a different state encourage your attorney general to create a similar program. Because I live in Utah and have this option, along with the Zander protection, I don’t feel that I need to freeze their credit, but if I lived outside of Utah I would absolutely take that step.

• Because credit card numbers were stolen, I recommend calling the toll-free number on the back of each credit card you have and requesting a new number. It’s a pro-active step you can take to prevent unauthorized charges in the future.

Again, I realize this isn’t fun – it’s a lot of work to set these things up, but I wouldn’t delay. Take a couple of hours today and get all of this done. Taking these steps is like building a brick wall between you and identity thieves.

• your fridge broke down?
• your car transmission went out?
• the primary breadwinner in your family dies?
• the primary breadwinner in your family becomes disabled?
• the Social Security fund goes bankrupt and you will no longer receive a Social Security check?

As many as 76% of Americans live paycheck-to-paycheck – they have little to no savings and they spend more than they earn each month. These people are the Financially Fragile.

When one of the above events happens it can be challenging for anyone, but it is devastating for the Financially Fragile.

If you are living this way, you can take a few steps to become Financially Resilient. Being Financially Resilient means that you are able to withstand or recover quickly from difficult financial conditions, such as your car transmission going out. Again, that can be difficult for anyone, but the Financially Resilient will recover quickly while it can destroy the Financially Fragile.

Here are some things I recommend to start down the path to becoming Financially Resilient:

• Have an emergency fund – start out with $1,000
• Use a budget[i]
• Spend less than you earn
• Have adequate insurance
• Pay off debt
• Use a Revolving Savings account[ii]
• Have some “fun money” or “mad money”
• Pay attention to your credit score[iii]

For more information on these topics, see the links below. I encourage you to take steps to become more Financially Resilient.

[i] http://blog.ryanhlaw.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/02/MFH-Guide-to-Budgeting.pdf

[ii] http://blog.ryanhlaw.com/revolving-savings/

[iii] http://blog.ryanhlaw.com/know-your-score/

Essential expenses are those things you need to survive, and would include food, clothing, transportation, shelter and utilities. I would also include giving in here as I find it essential to financial success. The writer of Proverbs teaches us that we need to, “Honour the Lord with thy substance, and with the firstfruits of all thine increase.” For me giving 10% is the top line of the budget.

Important expenses would include insurance, savings, debt payment and revolving (we’ll cover revolving in a moment).

Wants includes everything else – from Netflix and vacations to eating out and entertainment.

There’s a number of other expenses that could fit in either important or wants. A cell phone and internet are important for most people. A bigger vehicle may be important if you are having a baby and your family won’t all fit in your current one. If you want a nicer car just for fun that would be a want.

Go through your budget and break them into one of the three categories – essential, important or wants.

How do you handle things that only happen once a year such as Christmas or car registration? It’s simple – you just make a calendar with all your known, but irregular expenses with a dollar amount attached, divide by 12 and save that much per month. I call this my Revolving Savings account. For more information see this post: http://blog.ryanhlaw.com/revolving-savings/

Budgeting is the foundation of financial wellness and success. Budgeting puts you in control of your money and helps you achieve your goals.

A few years back two professors did the largest research study on millionaires in the United States. They studied how they made their money, what their family structure was, what kind of car they drove, what kind of watch they had and on and on. After they compiled the research they wrote a great book titled “The Millionaire Next Door.” One of the key findings of the book was about budgeting:

“Millionaires became millionaires by budgeting and controlling expenses, and they maintain their affluent status the same way.”

That’s right – they set a goal to become a millionaire then the budget was the tool they used to get them there.

Maybe you have a goal to become a millionaire, maybe you don’t. You have financial goals, though, even if you haven’t attached a dollar amount to it yet. Do you want to retire someday? That’s a financial goal. Do you want to travel? Go on vacation next year? Buy a better car? Buy a house? Those are all financial goals, and you will achieve those through your budget. Once you attach a dollar amount and a deadline to the goal your budget can start to really work for you.

In this day and age there is no reason not to use budgeting software. It is cheap (or free) and does all the hard work for you.

In today’s post I want to do a review of the top three budgeting programs – Mint, You Need a Budget and EveryDollar. All three are online, have great mobile apps and are very secure.

The basic premise of all three programs is that you budget based on what you actually have – it’s not a projection in the future or a record of the past. If you just got paid and you have $2,000 in the bank then you budget $2,000. In all three programs the $2,000 will go at the top of the page and you give every dollar of the $2,000 a job or a name.

If $1,000 of that is allocated to the mortgage category you put $1,000 in the mortgage category and you have $1,000 remaining. Let’s say you take the remaining $1,000 and put $500 in groceries, $250 in utilities, $200 to a car payment and $50 to entertainment.

At this point your mindset needs to shift. You no longer have $2,000 in the bank – you have $1,000 allocated to your mortgage, $500 in the grocery category, $250 in the utility category, $200 for your car payment and $50 for entertainment. Your bank balance is irrelevant – all that matters is having categories that are funded.

Let’s move on now to what some of the differences are, the costs involved and pros and cons.

EveryDollar

EveryDollar was developed by Dave Ramsey and his team at Ramsey Solutions.

EveryDollar has two versions – a free version and a paid version. The paid version is $99 a year. The paid version gives you the software and app and the paid version connects to your bank account and imports transactions, which is vital in my opinion. The free version also has a lot of ads pushing you to use the paid version.

EveryDollar recommends you:

1. Budget before the month begins in a team meeting with your spouse if you are married.
2. Budget to $0 – or give every dollar a name.
3. Track your transactions – you enter them manually or with the paid version you import them and assign them to a category.

In addition to the ads pushing you toward the paid version, there are ads for Dave’s ELPs, or Endorsed Local Providers. For example, on the sample budget I set up ads came up for auto insurance, home insurance and life insurance.

EveryDollar comes with a good 15-page Guide to Budgeting that teaches you how to use the software.

I found the interface to be clean and very easy to use. Entering transactions was simple. You can set or change the categories any way you want – adding, deleting, or renaming.

The big problems I see with the software are:

• Neither version tracks your bank account. The paid one pulls transactions in, but it doesn’t track your account. You would have to log in to each one to be sure your balances are the same. Other software acts as a bank register in addition to the budget. Using EveryDollar gives you an extra step.
• The ads for the paid version and ELPs got annoying.
• The paid version is expensive for what you are getting.
• In most of the categories money doesn’t roll over from month-to-month. If you have $10 left in “gas” at the end of the month it is gone on the first of the next month. I think that is a major flaw. When I looked up why they did that it says that there shouldn’t be any extra money at the end of the month. If there is $10 leftover you should apply it towards your goals. I get that, but I still think it should roll over. What if I am putting extra in the gas category to save for the gas for our vacation?
  
  There is an exception to this – the “goals” categories do roll over. Put $100 in a category labeled “Emergency Fund” and it will roll over. Supposedly you can also turn any category into a “Fund” and it will roll over. When I tried doing that, though, nothing rolled over. It is possible I got frustrated too early and didn’t learn how to fully use it, though.

While it is clean and simple to use, I think the cons outweigh the positive features. I don’t think it fully does what you want a budget to do.

Mint

Mint was one of the original players in the online budgeting software game. They were acquired by Intuit a few years back who really hasn’t done much with it. My guess is that they bought Mint to market its other products to the users, of which Mint has over 300 million.

Mint is 100% free. It is supported by ads that can get quite intrusive.

When you first sign up the first step is to link it with your bank account. You can’t move past the first screen until you link it. I don’t like that at all. I think they should let people take it for a spin before they commit, but I think we should also read bills before we pass them. I do wonder how many of their 300 million users signed up, then never actually linked an account.

Because I didn’t want to link an account today, my review is based on how the software used to function. However, just last week I tried to help someone with their Mint account, and it looked the same and had the same limitations it used to have, so my review should be fairly accurate.

Mint will allow you to connect all of your accounts, so it can act like a Financial Dashboard for you. As I mentioned, it is also free.

For me that is where the pros stop. I found Mint to be incredibly inflexible and not user-friendly at all, starting from page one where you can’t see what you are getting unless you link your account. Want to rename a category? Nope. Mint fixes the categories and you can’t change them, which means you have to fit your budget around their predetermined account names. Here is their fixed list: https://www.mint.com/mint-categories.

“Honey, which category in Mint is the money we’re saving for a snowblower?” “It’s the laundry category.” It’s about like that.

Returning things and getting credits to your account throws the budget off as well. If you return $50 worth of clothing it sees that as income. I found full blog posts about how to manipulate the software so it isn’t treated as income. It shouldn’t be that hard.

Remember, though, Mint IS free. If you can’t afford a paid version and you want it to link to your accounts (and you do want to), then Mint is a good option.

You Need a Budget

You Need a Budget, or YNAB for short, was developed by Jesse Mecham while he was a student at BYU. He had taken an Excel class and created a spreadsheet that he used to track their family budget. He decided to try to sell it and to his surprise it sold – a lot. Jesse has a full team working on YNAB now and it has moved far beyond the Excel spreadsheet. It is now a web-based app with an Android and Apple app. YNAB focuses on one thing – budgeting – and they do it extremely well.

YNAB has four rules for making your budget work:

1. Give every dollar a job. You budget just the money that you have on hand by asking yourself, “What should this money do before I’m paid again?” You follow this rule by connecting your bank and credit card accounts to YNAB, setting up spending categories, putting money in the categories and tracking your expenses.
2. Embrace your true expenses. Think about your less-frequent expenses such as Christmas and insurance. You set a goal with a deadline and a dollar amount to meet those goals. The software tells you if you are on-track or not. See my blog post at http://blog.ryanhlaw.com/revolving-savings/ for more details.
3. Roll with the punches. When you need to change your budget, just change it.
4. Age your money. Work towards spending money that you earned at least 30 days ago – that way you aren’t living paycheck to paycheck anymore. The software displays an “Age of Money” number at the top of your budget.

YNAB is free for 34 days, then you can pay either $5 a month or $50 a year. Students can get a copy for free for a year by emailing student@ynab.com.

YNAB is simple to use, and in my opinion it is the most powerful budgeting software out there. The only downsides I can think of are:

• The Android and Apple apps need some more developing. I happen to know that this is a feature they are working on right now.
• It has a bit of a learning curve. While they have user guides, they could benefit from a simple booklet like EveryDollar puts out with their software. However, they have free online classes (over 100 per week) – including some early in the morning and others in the evening. You should be able to find a class time that works for you. There are currently 13 different classes – from Getting Started to Learn From Reports (https://www.youneedabudget.com/classes/).

Conclusion

If you need a free solution I recommend Mint. If you are willing to pay for a far superior product, though, I recommend YNAB. I have been using YNAB for years now and I recommend it all the time. It is the most powerful and versatile option. You will get far more from YNAB than you will from either other software package.

With any budgeting software, though, it only works if you put in the time. EveryDollar recommends a weekly meeting and check-in. This will work for most people. Being the budgeting nerd that I am, though, I actually log in each morning, pull transactions in from the previous day, and make sure everything is up-to-date. It takes just a few minutes, then I can be sure that all of our budget categories reflect correct numbers.

You can learn more about any of these solutions at:

http://www.everydollar.com

http://www.mint.com

http://www.youneedabudget.com

I don’t like cheap disposable razors, so for years I was using expensive razors such as the Gillette Fusion or similar blades. For the Gillette Fusion razor handle with 1 cartridge you will pay $9.99 on Amazon, and for a pack of 8 blades it is $29.96, or $3.74 per blade.

I was thinking about checking out Dollar Shave Club a while back, then I found out that their razors are Dorco razors. Why not go right to the source?

I have been using Dorco razors for a while now, and they are, by far, the best razors I have ever used.

For their 3 blade system the handle with 2 cartridges it is $6, and a pack of 4 blades is $7.15, or $1.79 per blade.

$3.74 per blade vs. $1.79 per blade – that’s a big difference!

You can regularly find coupons for 20% off that, as well. For example, this link will save 20%:

http://dorcousa.refr.cc/CT7LL7F

Bonus Tip: To make blades last longer, and for the best shave ever with no nicks, cuts or razor burn, I recommend Shave Secret.

I’ve been using it for several years now and it is the best stuff ever.

You can find it online, on Amazon and at Wal-mart.

I’m fairly certain that all these droids will be in Star Wars episode 18:

• W-2
• 1099
• 1098
• W-4P

That can only mean one of two things. Droids are finally making their long awaited arrival on Earth, or it is tax time.

Just in case it is tax time, here are some answers to common questions to help make tax season a little less taxing.

1. How early can I file my taxes?

Wait to file your taxes until you have ALL the tax forms. This includes W-2s, 1099s, Interest statements, etc. Employers and companies have until January 31 to send you everything, so you should have everything shortly after that. Make a list of what you should receive and wait to start until you have it. The most common forms are:

• Form W-2: You should receive one from each of your employers
• Form 1098: If you paid interest on a home or student loan or paid college tuition you will receive a 1098
• Form 1099-DIV: If you received dividends, distributions or capital gains on any investments, watch for one of these to grace your mailbox
• Form 1099-INT: Any interest paid to you, such as interest on a CD or bank account, will be reported on this form.
• 1099-MISC: If you did work as an independent contractor you’ll get one of these.
• If you donated to a charity they will either provide you a receipt when you donated, or an end of year statement.

There’s other forms as well, but those are some of the most common ones.

Here’s a great printable checklist from TurboTax:

http://images.turbotax.intuit.com/iqcms/marketing/lib/TurboTax_TaxPrepChecklist.pdf

2. Should I file my own taxes or have someone do it for me?

There’s a few different ways you can file your taxes:

• On paper
  • I don’t recommend this – calculations can be complicated
• Software such as TaxAct, TurboTax or H&R Block at home
  • As long as you use top-rated software you’ll find it’s intuitive and simple. You’ll enter your tax forms in and the software will search for possible errors. I personally use TaxAct.
• Discount tax preparation services, such as H&R Block or Jackson-Hewitt
  • These companies have their place, but can be expensive. Their tax preparers are trained, but basically use similar software that you can use on your own. If you want the peace of mind from having someone do your taxes, this can be a good option.
• Volunteer Income Tax Assistance (VITA) or Tax Counseling for the Elderly (TCE)
  • VITA and TCE volunteers are IRS-certified and will file your taxes for free. You read that correct. It’s free, and there’s no catch. VITA is available for anyone that makes under $54,000, and TCE is available for those over age 60. You can find them here: https://www.irs.gov/Individuals/Free-Tax-Return-Preparation-for-You-by-Volunteers. Both VITA and TCE tend to fill up quickly, and many are first-come, first-served.
• Accountant or CPA
  • Unless you run a business you probably don’t need an accountant or CPA to prepare your return. I have several small businesses, and we still file our own, but if your business starts to move beyond small you should work with the accountant or CPA throughout the year.

3. What is the due date to file my tax return?

It’s normally April 15, but this year it is Tuesday, April 18. Why? The 15^th is a Saturday, and anytime tax day falls on a weekend it is pushed to Monday. However on Monday the 17^th Washington DC has a holiday (Emancipation Day), therefore tax day gets moved to the next business day.

To close up this week’s article, I strongly encourage you to check out one of the VITA sites if you make less than $54,000 a year. Almost anyone who uses a discount tax preparer could have their taxes filed for free instead.

One last note – don’t ever get a Tax Refund Anticipation Loan. Companies will offer to give you your tax refund right then, for a fee that ranges between $30 and $150. Don’t fall for it – if you file electronically you’ll have your refund in 1-2 weeks.

The first day someone shut it shortly after it was emptied. The next few days it was shut before noon. The kids, determined to keep the light on later, were really diligent and would remind anyone by the dishwasher not to shut it. The next few days we made it later and later until one day, when I started the dishwasher around 11 PM, the light was still on.

The next day the same thing happened and since then we’ve only closed it all the way during the day a time or two.

Now clearly this is a minor thing and this post is not about the virtues of leaving your dishwasher open a bit[1]. As the title of the article says, it is about the power of focus. This experience with the dishwasher got me thinking about how we were able to change a habit and achieve a goal by focusing.

How can you use this idea to achieve on your major goals? Focus on them. Here are some ideas:

• Read and even re-write your goals each morning
• Look at your goals and think about them during the day
• Journal about your progress
• Fall asleep focusing on your goals
• Create a vision board and screensaver with a picture of your goals

Just as the Proverb says, “As a man thinketh in his heart, so is he” (Prov 23:7), or as Buddha said, “The mind is everything. What you think, you become” or Emerson, “You become what you think about all day long.”

Focus on and think about your goals and you will eventually achieve them.

[1] It turns out this is a good practice, though: http://homeguides.sfgate.com/keep-dishwasher-building-up-mold-61036.html

Here’s an example. I know I shouldn’t eat refined sugar. It is addicting, fattening, a depressant, it causes inflammation, leads to aggressive behavior, anxiety, fatigue and even cancer. I know all of that, but I continue to eat it.[i] I’ve cut back, but I still eat it.

People know that riding in a car without a seat belt or driving a motorcycle without a helmet leads to an increased chance of dying in an accident. But they still drive without a seat belt or without a helmet.

The Surgeon General has warned us for years that smoking is hazardous to your health, yet millions of people still smoke.

We think the odds are in our favor. I won’t get cancer from sugar. I won’t be in a life-threatening accident. I won’t get lung cancer.

It would probably take a trained psychologist to work out all the issues around these statements and thoughts, but the fact is that we know, deep down, that we should change.

The same is true of our finances. Personal finance is mostly common sense. Use a budget, get out of debt, save for the future, insure for major losses and plan for emergencies. We have the knowledge, it’s the execution that is lacking. If you fail to take action, though, you are going to wind up broke and frustrated.

The challenge today is simple. Turn your knowledge into power through wise application. Pick an area of your personal finances that you need to make a change in. Maybe it’s reigning in your fast food spending. Perhaps it is finally setting up a budget. Maybe you need to take a step to protect your identity. Do it today! Add it to your to-do list and get it done.

[i] Sorry if I ruined Halloween, but all of these things are true…

What about identity theft monitoring or insurance? Does it make sense to purchase it?

An important note up front – no product or company can protect you from having your information stolen. The most common way your data is stolen is through data breaches. If you have a Yahoo account, for example, some of your data has already been stolen and, as we have learned recently, it has probably been sold several times over.

That doesn’t mean there aren’t steps you can take to secure your information better (see last post for ideas), but having identity theft “insurance” doesn’t prevent your data from being stolen any more than having auto insurance keeps you from being involved in an accident.

Let’s take a look at each of the various types of identity theft protection – monitoring, insurance and recovery.

MONITORING SERVICES

Monitoring services alert you when someone else might be using your information. Services generally include:

• Tracking activity on your credit report
• Sending you an alert when your personal information (bank account, Social Security number, driver’s license number, passport or medical ID) is being used
• Access to credit reports and/or scores

No company or service can monitor all activity on all websites and merchants, but most of these companies do their best to monitor your personal information at as many places as possible.

IDENTITY THEFT INSURANCE

Identity theft insurance pays for out-of-pocket expenses incurred for recovery, which may include:

• Postage, copying and notary fees
• Less often, lost wages and legal fees

A few important notes about identity theft insurance:

• This type of insurance almost never covers stolen money or other financial losses
• There is generally a deductible
• There is no payout if the loss is covered by any other types of insurance, such as homeowner’s or renter’s insurance
• The majority of people who are involved in identity theft have almost no out-of-pocket losses. Most people pay little to nothing to copy or print things at home, postage is cheap and notary services are usually free at your bank. By the time your deductible kicks in you are unlikely to gain anything.

RECOVERY SERVICES

Recovery services help you deal with the effects of identity theft after it happens. Services generally include:

• Assigning a case manager to help you work through the process
  • With some plans you actually grant authority for the case manager to act in your name, with others they guide you through the process
• Placing a fraud alert on your credit file
• Placing a security freeze on your credit file
• Helping you prepare letters to send to collectors
• Closing any tampered or fake accounts and opening new ones

Let’s take a look at two specific companies – LifeLock and Zander Insurance.

LifeLock[i]

Standard protection is $10 a month or $109 annually. Prices go up to $29.95 a month for premium services.

Basic services include:

• Website surveillance
• Cancel credit cards if stolen
• Send alerts when your information is being used
• Replace stolen funds up to $250,000 (only what the bank won’t replace)
• Spend up to $1,000,000 on lawyers, accountants or others to restore your previous status

Zander Insurance

Zander is $75 year ($6.76 a month) for an individual or $145 a year ($13 a month) for family protection.

Zander operates their protection plan on the premise that financial identity theft is only one of more than 15 types of identity theft. There is also Social Security, criminal, employment, medical, tax refund and other types of fraud, many of which won’t be discovered by monitoring. In many cases you won’t know you have been a victim until you get a letter from the IRS or a doctor bill or even a warrant for your arrest.

Their focus is on identity theft recovery. Services provided include:

• Up to $1,000,000 reimbursement for any stolen bank funds or unauthorized electronic funds transfer (only what the bank won’t replace)
• Unlimited legal fees if needed
• $0 deductible
• Contact banks, bureaus, insurance companies and doctors for you

What I Recommend

No strategy is perfect, but this is my plan:

• Use CreditKarma.com for monitoring (they send me an e-mail anytime something changes on my credit report)
• Use YNAB (youneedabudget.com) to review my bank and credit card transactions daily
• Shred any documents with financial or personal information
• Use https://www.optoutprescreen.com/ to stop receiving most pre-screened credit card offers
• Put a security freeze on my credit bureau reports
• Check one credit report every 4 months on annualcreditreport.com
• Copy the front and back of all cards in my wallet
• Use a service such as LastPass.com to manage and use different, secure passwords on each website
• If my wallet is stolen or I am a victim of a breach place a 90-day fraud alert on my credit bureau accounts
• Sign up for Zander’s plan for recovery services (I believe it is worth the $145 a year for the services they will provide)

If you have taken all of these steps but choose not to sign up for recovery services, the FTC has created a new website that will help you recover. It generates pre-filled letters and walks you through exactly what you need to do to recover. You can find the website at http://www.identitytheft.gov.

[i] For both LifeLock and Zander be sure to review their services before signing up. Services may have changed since this article was written.