Money Talks Blog by Oxford Planning Group

     Summer travel!                                                  

We all look forward to getting away from it all. Summer means trips and family time – but don’t forget to take precautions at home and while you’re away to secure physical and digital devices.

At home

Back up all devices either to local storage or cloud services protected by strong encryption. Use password security on all devices and specify a number of failed attempts before lockout. 

Don’t post details of your adventure while you’re away – it’s so exciting to share with everyone, but wait until your adventure is over before sharing.

Physical security

Stolen wallets are a traveler’s nightmare.  Minimize potential dangers by carrying only essential items.  Invest in a money belt or pouch that can be concealed under clothing.

Take photos of all important documents like credit cards and passports and store them in an encrypted format such as a cloud service.  This will give you access to basic forms of identity in the event of theft.

Laptops are vulnerable to theft – consider if you really need to bring one. If you do, it’s best not to have information stored on the device that could be stolen (personal financial info, etc.)

Public Wi-Fi – be careful! 

-          Be sure your firewall is active and up to date

-          Don’t use banking and shopping sights

-          Email is the most important service to secure – criminals can use your email to reset passwords on other sites

-          For an extra layer of security, CNet suggests subscribing to a public VPN service (it sets up a secure channel between you and sites you connect to, protecting data with strong encryption). Most plans are under $15 a month

Security shouldn’t stop the fun – consider it part of your vacation plan to really allow you to unwind!

Source: AARP

Do you have a plan for Long Term Care?

As we age, or in the event of a medical event, we may need Long Term Care.  Surprisingly, a large percentage of people have no plan for such an occurrence.  Additionally, many people believe that health insurance or government programs such as Medicare will pay for these needs.  Sadly, that is not the case.  Lack of planning in this area can be a major financial burden for families.  In addition, this lack of planning puts a heavy strain on community and social service programs that are not funded or designed for this purpose.   

In 2017, I was appointed by Governor Hogan to a Task Force on Long Term Care.  The purpose of the Task Force was to make recommendations for better education around Long Term Care.  Unfortunately, many families are unware of what may lie ahead for their Long Term Care needs.  Over 70% of all people will require some form of Long Term Care services in their lifetime.  This may be very short-term care or care lasting the remainder of their lives.  In order that families are better prepared for this, our task force was assigned to review education around the topic and to recommend ways to help people be more prepared.

It all starts with having a plan.  While there are many components of an overall financial plan, this blog focuses on planning for Long Term Care.  So, what’s in a plan? 

This article by Kiplinger “Why Families Need a Plan for Caregiving” discusses some considerations faced when planning for Long Term Care.

First, should you need any kind of care, where do you want to receive that care?  The answer is not the same for everyone, but many people would prefer to receive care in their homes initially.

Questions to consider:

• Who will provide that care? 
• Do you have a spouse, children or other relatives or friends that are willing to provide that care? 
• Are they physically able to provide that care?  (It is one thing for a 200lb stronger man to care for a     more petite spouse, but the reverse may not be physically possible.) 
• Is your home set up to allow you to be cared for in home? 
• Do you live on more than one floor or a single floor? 
• Are your bathrooms handicapped accessible?
• Or would you prefer to live in a Long-Term Care Facility?

Next, it is important to review what financial resources will be available for Long Term Care. 

• Long Term Care insurance may be an option, but not everyone will be able to afford this option.  Long Term Care Insurance, if you are eligible, may be purchased to cover part of or most of these care expenses. 
• Without insurance to cover Long Term Care, there should still be a plan in place for who will care for a yourself or a relative.
• Additionally, a plan should be in place to decide where that care will occur.  Will you stay in your home?  Will you move in with a relative?  Will you move to a Long Term Care Facility?

We recommend beginning planning early.  This will give you the most time to begin saving ahead of time, to review insurance costs and eligibility and to have ongoing discussions with family members.  Whether you need Long Term Care or how much Long Term Care you need will vary greatly from person to person.  In this case, averages don’t always serve you best.  If you are the person who needs full time Long Term Care, you will be grateful if you have a plan in place.

This post provided by Howard Tech Advsors

Have you ever signed up or logged in to an app and bypassed creating a new account by using your Facebook account? Most likely, you were in such a rush to create an account with this third party app that you just kept clicking “Ok” and “Next” through the instructions.  When you use your Facebook account to sign up for another app, you are giving that app access to the information in your Facebook account. This can include your friends, your location, your work, your photos, your groups, your birthday, and even your contact information.

If you haven’t reviewed these apps, now is as good a time as ever to look at what apps can access this information.

HOW TO LOOK AT YOUR THIRD PARTY APPS

Once in Facebook, click on the down arrow next to the question mark in the upper righthand corner. Then, click on Settings. In the left, you will see towards the bottom of the list, “Apps.” When you click on “Apps,” you’ll see all of the apps you have permitted access to your Facebook account. By default, “your name, profile picture, cover photo, gender, networks, username, and user id are always publicly available to both people and apps.” (Learn why here.) Some of the apps require this information. You can select what other information you give the apps access to, including your friends list, birthday, education history, hometown, and current city.

CHANGE WHO CAN SEE THE APPS YOU USE

At a minimum, you should edit your “App visibility” settings or who on Facebook can see which apps you use. This is important in protecting your identity, especially if some of your apps have confidential information. If you are searching for vacation rentals on AirBnB, you may not want the “Public” to know you are planning a 2-week vacation to backpack through Europe. You can tighten the security settings to “Only Me.” For apps such as Instagram, you want your friends to see your photos, so you can loosen the visibility settings to “Friends.”

DISCONNECT FROM ANY APPS YOU DON’T USE

This is the easiest and safest practice. If you aren’t using and don’t plan on using it in the near future, simply remove it. In the future, you may be prompted to create an account with the app. Maybe your perspective will differ from before and you’ll be intentional with your app selection.

BE (MORE) IN CONTROL OF YOUR PRIVACY

Nobody really knows where your information goes once you click, “Like,” or connect. Even if you read through the many, many, many pages of every security policy from every app, tool, website, and third party vendor, you still can’t be 100% certain your data isn’t spinning off in to some cosmic database for anyone and everyone to view. Take ownership of your privacy by being intentional with what accounts you create. Anything worth having (access to) takes time and shouldn’t be done hastily.

 “What apps have your personal information?” posted by Howard Tech Advisors By: Michelle Pelszynski on March 22, 2018

Happy New Year!  As we enter 2018, we are seeing another surge of identity fraud.  Clients are receiving emails from their banks and other institutions that look real, but that are in fact “phishing” to commit fraud or identity theft.  

The methods used by those committing fraud varies and is constantly changing.  Many of these methods are quite advanced, requiring that we all stay vigilant in our efforts to avoid fraud.  Here are some common things we recommend to all our clients to help avoid credit fraud;

1) Check your credit report several times per year and pay attention to any unusual activity or activity that you did not initiate. 

2)  If you receive a call from your bank or credit card company regarding anything about your accounts, pause, then tell them that you will call them back.  Feel free to ask their name or department.  Never call back on a number the caller provides.  It may be a fraud.  Look up the information yourself, either on the back of your card, the web or off one of your statements.  Then call the main number you have on record to speak with someone at your bank or credit card company to confirm what the call is about.  If the call is legitimate, they will know exactly what is needed and if it was not a legitimate call, then you have avoided an incidence of credit fraud.

3) Next, if you receive an alert from your bank or credit card company by email, never follow any of the links in the email -  log into your bank separately on your own.  These emails often look very legitimate and the average person might not be able to tell if they are a fraud or not.  Once you log into your bank or other agencies’ web site, you will generally see the alerts are posted right there online.   If it’s easier for you to call your bank, do that.  Just mention to the person you speak with that you received an email and wanted to check on it by phone.  

Our goal is for all to have a safe and wonderful 2018.  If you have any questions about any of the above information or how Oxford Planning Group, LLC can help you be more secure with your financial planning and investments, please contact us.  If you would like a copy of our “Credit Report Agency Contact Info and Frequently Asked Question” just send us an email and we’ll be happy to provide you with that information.  https://oxfordplannng.com/contact-us