It’s National Consumer Protection Week – or so it’s been deemed by the Federal Trade Commission. But actually, this is a good thing.
 

I’ve put together some links that will take you to the right Federal website that can give you excellent and comprehensive information on where to go to protect yourself from any number of risks, from identity theft to making sure your retirement is on track.

Take some time this week to protect yourself – you won’t be sorry.

Opting Out
How to Opt Out of People-Finder Services
DoNotCall.Gov
Payday Loans
Saving for Retirement

Opting Out

I have a load of information on my website about opting out:

How to Get Rid of Your Junk Mail

How to Get Rid of Spam

Opt Out and Keep Your Personal Information Private

How to Opt Out of Pop-Up Ads

How to Opt Out of People-Finder Services

www.555-1212.com

www.intelius.com (Covers the related sites: PeopleFinder.com, People-Lookup.com, PeopleRecordFinder.com

To Opt Out: Fax or mail name and address as it appears on the Web site, along with proof of identity to Intelius Inc., 500 108th Avenue, NE, 25th Floor, Bellevue, WA 98004. Fax number: 425-974-6194

DoNotCall.Gov

Are you tired of having your dinner interrupted by telemarketers? It’s time to protect the dinner hour (and your private family time) by signing up at DoNotCall.gov.

Simply go online to www.donotcall.gov and register up to 3 telephone numbers. You can register your cell phone. You can verify from the home page that your numbers have been added to the list and within 31 days, you should see a noticeable drop in the number of telemarketing calls to your phone number.

Your numbers will stay on the DoNotCall list for 5 years. Then, you’ll have to reregister.

If a telemarketer calls you, simply say, this number is on the DoNotCall list, and I’m going to report you. You can file a complaint (action is taken!!) at the home page www.donotcall.gov.

Other Consumer Information, Provided by the Federal Trade Commission (www.ftc.gov)

Payday Loans

Consumer Federation of America’s Payday Loan Information website. Here you’ll find great information and resources on payday loans.

www.paydayloaninfo.org

Saving for Retirement

Are you saving enough for retirement? Try my back of the envelope calculation to see if you’re on track.

First, figure out how much it’ll cost you to live if you retired today. Next, add up all of the cash coming to you in retirement from pensions, social security, an inheritance, and current savings.

Are these numbers about equal? If so, then you’re probably on track to saving enough money for retirement. If not, then you need to calculate how much more you’ll need.

Here are some links that might prove helpful:

Top 10 Ways to Beat The Clock and Prepare for Retirement

The Security and Exchange Commission’s (SEC) Roadmap to Saving and Investing

Social Security Benefit Calculator

All of the major financial institutions have retirement information and help at their websites. Two of my favorites include www.fidelity.com and www.vanguard.com

CNN/Money has a great set of calculators that I actually use to figure out my back-of-the-envelope calculations. Try them at http://cgi.money.cnn.com/tools/savingscalc/savingscalc.html

NOTE: This column is distributed by Real Estate Matters Syndicate, PO Box 366, Glencoe, Illinois, 60022. This column may not be resold, reprinted, resyndicated or redistributed without written permission from the publisher.