Burlingame, CA

To reduce or minimize the risk of becoming a victim of identity theft or fraud, there are some basic steps you can take. For starters, just remember the word "SCAM": Be Stingy about giving out your personal information to others unless you have a reason to trust them, regardless of where you are:

At Home

1. Start by adopting a "need to know" approach to your personal data. Your credit card company may need to know your mother's maiden name, so that it can verify your identity when you call to inquire about your account. A person who calls you and says he's from your bank, however, doesn't need to know that information if it's already on file with your bank; the only purpose of such a call is to acquire that information for that person's personal benefit. Also, the more information that you have printed on your personal bank checks - such as your Social Security number or home telephone number - the more personal data you are routinely handing out to people who may not need that information.
2. If someone you don't know calls you on the telephone and offers you the chance to receive a "major" credit card, a prize, or other valuable item, but asks you for personal data - such as your Social Security number, credit card number or expiration date, or mother's maiden name - ask them to send you a written application form.
3. If they refuse to send the application form, tell them you're not interested and hang up.
4. If they will send it, review the application carefully when you receive it and make sure it's going to a company or financial institution that's well-known and reputable. The Better Business Bureau can give you information about businesses that have been the subject of complaints.

On Travel

1. If you're traveling, have your mail held at your local post office, or ask someone you know well and trust - another family member, a friend, or a neighbor - to collect and hold your mail while you're away.
2. If you have to telephone someone while you're traveling, and need to pass on personal financial information to the person you're calling, don't do it at an open telephone booth where passersby can listen in on what you're saying; use a telephone booth where you can close the door, or wait until you're at a less public location to call.

Check your financial information regularly, and look for what should be there and what shouldn't:

What Should Be There?

1. If you have bank or credit card accounts, you should be receiving monthly statements that list transactions for the most recent month or reporting period.
2. If you're not receiving monthly statements for the accounts you know you have, call the financial institution or credit card company immediately and ask about it.
3. If you're told that your statements are being mailed to another address that you haven't authorized, tell the financial institution or credit card representative immediately that you did not authorize the change of address and that someone may be improperly using your accounts. In that situation, you should also ask for copies of all statements and debit or charge transactions that have occurred since the last statement you received. Obtaining those copies will help you to work with the financial institution or credit card company in determining whether some or all of those debit or charge transactions were fraudulent.

What Shouldn't Be There.

1. If someone has gotten your financial data and made unauthorized debits or charges against your financial accounts, checking your monthly statements carefully may be the quickest way for you to find out. Too many of us give those statements, or the enclosed checks or credit transactions, only a quick glance, and don't review them closely to make sure there are no unauthorized withdrawals or charges.
2. If someone has managed to get access to your mail or other personal data, and opened any credit cards in your name or taken any funds from your bank account, contact your financial institution or credit card company immediately to report those transactions and to request further action.

Ask periodically for a copy of your credit report.

Your credit report should list all bank and financial accounts under your name, and will provide other indications of whether someone has wrongfully opened or used any accounts in your name.

Maintain careful records of your banking and financial accounts.

Even though financial institutions are required to maintain copies of your checks, debit transactions, and similar transactions for five years, you should retain your monthly statements and checks for at least one year, if not more. If you need to dispute a particular check or transaction - especially if they purport to bear your signatures -your original records will be more immediately accessible and useful to the institutions that you have contacted.

Even if you take all of these steps, however, it's still possible that you can become a victim of identity theft. Records containing your personal data - credit-card receipts or car-rental agreements, for example - may be found by or shared with someone who decides to use your data for fraudulent purposes.

The long-awaited extension of the tax credit has been approved by both the House and the Senate and currently awaits President Obama's signature (which is not expected to be a problem). There is also an expansion of the credit to include current homeowners (not just first-time buyers)...however, there are several restrictions along with improvements. The income limits have been increased, the maximum sales price has been set at $800,000, etc.

Home Price Reduction Levels Stay Above 25% for Fourth Consecutive Month

Trulia, Inc announced that 25.6% of homes currently on the market in the U.S. as of October 1, 2009 have experienced at least one price cut. More than one in four current listings on Trulia have been reduced in price for the fourth straight month. The total amount slashed from home prices is $28.4 billion, a $967 million increase from June 2009. The average discount for price-reduced homes continues to hold steady at 10% off of the original listing price.

Northeast with Most Homes Reduced; West Sees Biggest Cuts
Five of the 10 states with the highest percentage of homes with price reductions are in the Northeast- Massachusetts, Rhode Island, Connecticut, New Hampshire and New Jersey. One in three homes in these states has cut their list price at least once.

Seven of the 10 states leading the country with the biggest listing price cuts are in the West, where heavy foreclosures have taken their toll. In Nevada, Idaho, Arizona, Wyoming, Hawaii, Utah and California, cuts are an average of 13% off the original list price. Of the $28.4 billion slashed nationally, New York, California and Florida account for 35% of the total value of reductions.

Report Findings
For the first time in four months, Jacksonville no longer holds the top spot for highest level of home-price reductions: Memphis replaced Jacksonville with 36% of current listings experiencing at least one round of discounts. Several cities continue to see high levels of cuts on home prices with Indianapolis, Milwaukee, Minneapolis, Portland and Raleigh, all earning a place in the top 10 for the third consecutive month.

"Interest in real estate typically wanes at the end of the year, which means that sellers who didn't aggressively price their homes may find themselves making difficult decisions to reduce their prices or delay the sale until interest piques again in January," said Pete Flint, Trulia co-founder and CEO. "We are seeing the beginning of this trend in the Northeast and Western United States with discounting happening at all price points, and expect it to continue."

Cities experiencing significant increases in percentage of listings with price reductions from June 2009 to October 2009 include:

-Kansas City, MO - 50% increase in price reductions
-Colorado Springs, CO - 32% increase in price reductions
-Louisville, KY - 27% increase in price reductions
-Indianapolis, IN - 27% increase in price reductions
-Portland, OR - 25% increase in price reductions
-Oklahoma City, OK - 24% increase in price reductions
-Memphis, TN - 24% increase in price reductions
-Tulsa, OK - 23% increase in price reductions
-Milwaukee, WI - 22% increase in price reductions
-Arlington, VA - 22% increase in price reductions

Cities showing the highest percentage of declines for listings with price reductions from June 2009 to October 2009 include:

-San Antonio, TX - 37% decrease in price reductions
-Las Vegas, NV - 36% decrease in price reductions
-Oakland, CA - 17% decrease in price reductions
-San Jose, CA - 16% decrease in price reductions
-Los Angeles, CA - 14% decrease in price reductions
-Honolulu, HI - 11% decrease in price reductions
-Long Beach, CA - 11% decrease in price reductions
-Dallas, TX - 11% decrease in price reductions
-Washington, D.C. - 10% decrease in price reductions
-New York, NY - 9% decrease in price reductions

Luxury Market Not Immune
Luxury homes (those listed at $2 million and above) continue to bear the brunt of discounts being offered with an average of 14% being slashed from the original asking price compared to the national average of 10%. Additionally, luxury homes represent less than 2% of all current listings on Trulia, but are responsible for 25% of the $28.4 billion in home price reductions.

Bernanke: Recession Is Over, but Tough Times Will Linger

The deep recession that's gripped the U.S. economy by the throat since December 2007 is "very likely over at this point," Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke recently said.

However, Bernanke painted a picture of an underperforming economy well into next year as he fielded questions after a speech at the Brookings Institution, a center-left research center in the nation's capital.

"From a technical perspective the recession is very likely over," Bernanke said, cautioning that unemployment is likely to remain high. "It's still going to feel like a very weak economy for some time, as many people will still find that their job security and employment status is not what they wish it was. So that's a challenge for us and all policymakers going forward."

Most mainstream economists think that the National Bureau of Economic Research, the official scorekeeper of when recessions begin and end, eventually will declare that this downturn came to an end in the summer or early fall of 2009.

What follows may not feel much like recovery, Bernanke cautioned, because structural problems in the U.S. economy are likely to resurface. There will be economic growth during the rest of this year, "but the general view of most forecasters is the pace of growth in 2010 will be moderate, less than you might expect, given the depth of the recession, because of ongoing head winds." The "head winds" he referred to include an impaired credit system, households still trying to dig out from personal debt and ongoing adjustments in many sectors of the economy, such as construction and autos.

In addition, the government must unwind many of its massive stimulus efforts or risk igniting inflation. That's all likely to lead to a weaker recovery than after past recessions, and a lingering high unemployment rate.

The sluggish outlook was punctuated by August retail sales data recently released by the Commerce Department. Sales rose by 2.7% over July, driven up by the government's "cash for clunkers" car sales program and higher gasoline prices. Drop those two factors, and retail sales rose by only 0.6%. That's another sign of consumer reluctance to spend amid widespread job insecurity.

"The various fiscal stimulus measures, including the cash for clunkers program, are playing a pivotal role in jump-starting the economy in the third quarter of 2009, and that should create enough initial momentum to keep the recovery in motion, but we should not be looking for consumer spending to be a major driver of the recovery beyond the current quarter," Brian Bethune, a U.S. economist for forecaster IHS Global Insight, warned in a research note.

Looking over a longer horizon, Bernanke said that a major factor in the recent global expansion of credit was significantly impaired and unlikely to revive anytime soon. The implication: less lending and at higher costs. The Fed chief was referring to securitization, the process by which loans are sold to Wall Street firms that bundle them together into securities that are sold to investors. Their returns on investment come from monthly payments that consumers make on their homes, cars, credit cards and student loans.

Securitization is in a deep freeze right now because investors no longer want pooled loans, fearing defaults by consumers and businesses. This is one reason it's so difficult now for consumers to get credit to buy cars or houses. Bernanke warned that even when this process resumes, it's unlikely to be as vigorous as it was during the go-go days earlier this decade.

"My forecast would be that the shadow banking system - securitization markets - will come back, will be a substantial part of the U.S. credit system. But they will certainly, at least in the medium term, be simpler, smaller, less opaque, subject to more oversight by regulators," Bernanke said. "And those things, I think, will constrain its growth for a period of time."

No Rest for the Weary: 75% of Americans Plan on Working as Long as They Can

A new study released by Bankrate, Inc. shows that the vast majority of working Americans plan to work as long as they can during retirement age, showing a redefinition of how Americans view traditional retirement plans. The poll, conducted by Princeton Survey Research Associates International, is included in the new Bankrate Financial Literacy series on Retirement Income.

Among the findings:

-75% of Americans plan to work as long as they can during retirement age. 39% plan to work because they enjoy work while almost one-third plan to work because they'll need the money;
-Although so many Americans plan on working through retirement age, only 15% of retirees polled are currently employed compared to 84% who are not;
-55% of retirees worry about money and wish they had saved more compared to only 38% who think they have enough money to retire without worry;
-The financial crisis has affected many people's plans to retire with only 31% expecting to retire on time as planned while 40% plan on postponing their retirement plans;
-53% of Americans made no changes to their investments due to the financial crisis compared to 14% who went with a more conservative investment approach;
-Almost 40% of Americans are investing for retirement on their own with 16% using an asset allocation plan, 15% picking mutual funds based upon performance, and 8% with a target date fund. Twenty-seven percent use a financial adviser for decisions while 18% don't invest in a retirement plan and 9% don't utilize any strategies;
-Due to a lack of pension plans like today's workforce, 26% of retirees polled are relying solely on Social Security for their income.

"This poll offers an interesting insight into Americans' views of employment and retirement," said Julie Bandy, editor in chief at Bankrate.com. "Seventy-five percent of today's generation plan to work as long as possible, a far cry from that of previous generations. Falling home values and losses in retirement accounts are forcing many Americans to re-evaluate their retirement needs. "