By
Chris Buchheit on November 24, 2010
Have you ever wanted to be someone else? No, we are not embarking on a teenage existential rant. If you want to, that is your own business. I am referring to identity theft. A rising crime in America, identity theft, especially if left undetected for a long period of time, can wreak havoc on your finances. Often times, it is a long, complicated process to get your identity back.
An easy target for identity thieves is your very own mail.
The key to reversing identity theft is, like so many things in good financial practices, prevention. Thankfully, there are a few steps to
prevent identity theft via mail.
First and foremost, be very familiar with your finances, and make sure you are checking your credit report every so often. Look for fraudulent accounts, charges, etc. If you are up to date on your finances, you will know how much money is in what account, and it will be that much easier to spot mysterious money shortages. In short, take the extra time to make sure you are up to date.
Secondly, as far as mail is concerned, never, ever leave sensitive documents in your mailbox to be sent. Take these documents to the post office. If you have to leave mail somewhere overnight, the post office is the best place as well. If there is a drop box with a lock, this is also sufficient, but not one hundred percent secure. If you receive these kinds of sensitive documents, be sure they are sufficiently shredded before disposing of them.
Thirdly, tell marketers to remove your address from their mailing lists. These types of mailings contain just what identity thieves need, and by telling the marketers to stop sending mail to you, you will also cut down on your junk mail levels. On that note, be sure that information-sensitive packages and documents are sent to a place other than your home, and pick them up personally. Treat your information like it is about to be stolen, and take the necessary precautions.
Finally, if your identity has been stolen, file a
fraud alert on your account immediately. Keep a close eye on your finances and figure out for certain if your mail and identity have been stolen.
Thankfully, if you follow these steps to
prevent mail and identity theft, you will not have to worry about sorting out the mess that identity theft always brings.
Source:
http://www.essortment.com/home/protectfamilys_slke.htm
By
Chris Buchheit on November 23, 2010
Obesity Is Risky
There are several aspects of insurance that many of us seem to misunderstand. Insurance costs, be it car, life, health, or lightning insurance, represents the amount of risk undertaken by insurance companies to insure you.
This fact is one reason why health insurance rates have been increasing – people are not as responsible with their health as they should be. Another reason is that with the increase in preventive medical care (i.e. lots of preventative medical tests et al), medical costs have risen. These reasons are several of the main causes of high insurance premiums.
These reasons make sense – hurricane insurance would cost more in North Carolina than it would in, say, Kansas. The same would apply to wheat insurance in Kansas, or whatever they like to insure there. The point is, wherever the risk for getting a pay out is higher, insurance companies are forced to increase premiums.
Where obese people are concerned, insurance companies can and should use the same logic. It is a fact that obese people are more likely than healthy people to contract type 2 diabetes, high blood pressure, sleep apnea, triglycerides, and high cholesterol, all of which are extraordinary health risks (
http://www.webmd.com/diet/tc/obesity-health-risks-of-obesity second paragraph).
Since the vast majority of people who are obese are people who can prevent it, the responsibility should fall on their shoulders to make themselves healthy. Not only will be it be smarter from a financial standpoint, but there is absolutely no negative to getting healthy. For example, if obese patients were to lose ten percent of their body fat, their lifetime medical costs could be reduced $2,200 to $5,300 (
http://www.ers.usda.gov/publications/efan04004/efan04004g.pdf page 1, first paragraph). So it is clear that beyond the obvious physical benefits that can be attained from taking obesity into people’s own hands, the financial benefits are staggering. Not only could people reduce their medical costs, their insurance premiums would immediately drop as well.
To make a long story short, insurance represents risks of insurance, and since obesity, for the large part, represents something that patients can prevent, insurance companies should be allowed to increase costs for patients who are clinically obese.