Women and Wealth Resources

To learn more about financial issues affecting women go to http://www.nefe.org/tabid/86/Default.aspx and click on “Exploring Solutions for Women’s Financial Challenges.”

To check your credit report go to www.annualcreditreport.com.  You are entitled to one free credit report from each of the three credit reporting agencies each year.

To see how much your savings and investments can grow over various time periods and rates of return go to the savings calculator at Bankrate.com http://www.bankrate.com/brm/cgi-bin/savings.asp.

To learn more about the various types of insurance go to the USAA Educational Foundation website at http://www.usaaedfoundation.org/insurance/index.asp. 

To see how inflation affects spending power go to the inflation calculator provided by the Bureau of Labor Statistics at http://data.bls.gov/cgi-bin/cpicalc.pl.

For information about equity-indexed annuities visit the SEC’s website at http://www.sec.gov/investor/pubs/equityidxannuity.htm.

To learn more about unscrupulous marketing of equity-indexed annuities to seniors watch the Dateline NBC investigative report titled “Tricks of the Trade” at http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/24095230/.  

To listen to the U.S. Senate Special Committee on Aging hearings go to http://aging.senate.gov/hearings.cfm.  The hearing concerning reverse mortgages was on 12/12/07, and the hearing on senior designations was 9/5/07.

To better understand your Social Security benefits see the publication titled “Social Security:  What Every Woman Should Know” available at http://www.ssa.gov/pubs/10127.html. 

For more information about identity theft, go to the Federal Trade Commission’s website at http://www.ftc.gov/bcp/edu/microsites/idtheft/consumers/about-identity-theft.html.

For publications on choosing a financial planner see the Financial Planning Association’s brochure titled, “How a Financial Planner Can Help You… and How to Choose the Right One” at http://www.fpaforfinancialplanning.org/docs/assets/9-15-06Englishhow.pdf.  Also look at the list of brochures on the Certified Financial Planner Board of Standard’s website at http://www.cfp.net/learn/resources.asp#Publications.

To check out a broker or registered investment advisor, go to the SEC’s website at http://www.sec.gov/investor/brokers.htm.