I was recently talking with an advisor who had his identity stolen. An attempt had been made to take out a $100,000 loan in his name from his very own bank! Because the bank had sent him numerous emails offering loans that he had sent to junk, the email notifications for this loan had been lost in a spam folder.

This experience pushed him to do a lot of research and he came to this conclusion that he shared with me. You should assume that your personal information is out there…

When my wife and I first got married, we lived in a one-bedroom apartment that was the cheapest option in our zip code. We literally went to apartments.com, sorted from least expensive, and then signed on the dotted line. Our room was sandwiched between habitual smokers. Our assigned parking spot was a 5-minute walk to the front door. They didn’t plow the parking lot when it snowed.

And we were so happy…

As the year ends, I wanted to take a moment to thank you all for your continued support. I have received notes of thankfulness, encouragement, and feedback - I appreciate them all! If you have a friend or family member that you think might benefit from these posts, they can subscribe here or on the home page of my blog's website, Financial Field Notes. 

Here are three books that I found particularly informative this year…

Our 5-year-old has certain tasks that he has to do because he’s just part of the family. However, this year my wife and I started giving our 5-year-old a dollar for certain “above and beyond” chores – unloading the dishwasher, pooper scooping, picking weeds, etc.

He needed a place to put this dollar, so I got him his very first wallet. After he had accumulated a few dollars, we took him to 5 Below and he bought a plastic plane that the dog proceeded to chew apart that night – ahh the joys of teaching about a sunk cost…