While financial scams are a big threat throughout all stages of life, they are especially prevalent during retirement. You must remain vigilant to protect your hard-earned assets after retirement. Learning to identify and avoid financial scams in retirement can save you thousands of dollars and greatly reduce financial stress in the later years of your life.
Watch What You Invest In
You may receive an increased number of calls or offers to help you better invest your money when you retire. When you first retire, it is imperative to plan out your finances and investments since you will be living on a relatively fixed income from that point on. Thus, those offering to help you decide what to invest in may seem like they are doing you a great favor. However, not all of these offers are legitimate, and you can easily be taken advantage of if you don’t do your research.
Protect Your Identity
Once you are ready to retire, you have most likely built up a substantial amount of good credit and impressive financial history. These are very attractive to hackers and scammers that may attempt to impersonate you or otherwise commit identity fraud. You should keep an eye on your credit report for missing or inaccurate information. Noticing something fishy on your credit report is often the first step to detecting identity fraud and protecting your identity. If you suspect identity fraud, seek help from trusted sources and make sure to secure your financial assets.
Limit the Calls You Take
Many scammers use phone calls to contact you and get your financial information by impersonating banks or investors, pretending to represent charity organizations, or fabricating stories about your debt. Limiting the amount of calls you take is a great way to avoid these types of financial scams. Make it a habit to check Caller-ID and not pick up calls from numbers you do not recognize. Also avoid giving out personal information over the phone including (but not limited to) your full name, social security number, and credit card number.
It can be difficult to recognize which financial offers are true and which are scams, especially as you grow older and reach retirement. However, staying aware of your assets and financial identity can help you avoid debilitating financial scams. Making a practice of carefully avoiding financial scams will ensure you with a well-deserved and relaxing retirement.
Check out this article on common sources of income in retirement!
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