Senior citizens are still the most targeted group for scammers.  Why?  There are several reasons:  They quite often have a savings account that is accessible, they are not as suspicious (growing up in a generation that didn’t have the problem with scams we have now), and they are notoriously less technologically inclined.  Those elements combine to make a senior citizen very susceptible to being victims.

Ken Kleinlein is a former detective with the Special Frauds Squad NYPD, now living in Englewood and working as a frauds/crime consultant and information specialist, and serving as a Special Deputy with the Charlotte County Sheriff’s Office in Florida.
Sun Newspapers

These qualifications make Mr. Kleinlein the perfect consultant.  He is able to recount actual stories to illustrate the reality of this problem.  But more importantly, he is able to point out ways to prevent the problem from ever occurring to begin with.  This column gives five easy ways to avoid being scammed.

Senior Citizens Targets For Scams

It is an inescapable fact of life:  Financial planning is a necessity.  For Baby Boomers the necessity of good financial planning for retirement is right on top of us – we don’t have the option anymore of delaying and hoping it will all work out.  There is no way Social Security can take care of all of us and there is no way we can go from a paycheck-to-paycheck lifestyle and then suddenly one day meet on the flip side and let the government foot the bills.  It just isn’t going to happen.

It doesn’t take a rocket scientist to know that research and education about financial planning are key to organizing our future.  What is harder is knowing what resources to trust. 

To begin, there are two blogs at Syntagma Media that can be very helpful.  They are written by intelligent authors who are informed about the topic.  They have forgotten more than I will ever know about this area of life; money to me has always been a difficult thing to manage – now that I am widowed, I don’t have a lot of choice about whether I learn.  Being a Baby Boomer, I need to learn fast.  I have found both Money Finesse and The Money Blog to be great resources.

Another source that I will be investigating more fully is a new book by Mark Cornwall.  He has addressed a topic that is vitally important for a family’s security and although no one likes to think about it, estate planning is just as important as the planning we do to live daily right now.  The book is entitled, Everything a Baby Boomer Should Know - An Insider’s Guide to Estate Planning, and is available at the link below or through the publisher, Baby Boomer Publishing, which also offers a great deal of information on financial and estate planning.

When you read this article, the first few paragraphs will make you think I have sent you to the wrong news report.  I haven’t.  It just illustrates the seriousness of this problem.  Baby Boomers don’t want to think about nursing homes; it isn’t something that is part of the reality of our life and its future.  Unfortunately, what is in our mind as reality, may be leaps and bounds away from reality.  Baby Boomers will eventually need nursing homes for themselves and there is a huge problem in determing how these expenses will be met.

In fact, by 2040, 67 cents of every dollar the federal government collects will be needed to pay for current promises to boomer retirees. And that statistic doesn’t include the $16 trillion estimated unfunded liability of the new Medicare Part D drug benefit for seniors.
Terry Savage, Chicago Sun-Times

According to Savage, this translates into a 40% cut in income.  Can you live on 40% less?

Boomers Could Get Buffeted By Retirement

There is a lot of controversy about senior citizens driving.  Just because you hit a certain age, do you lose your ability to be safe on the road?  And if so, what age?  65?  70?  Older?  It is hard to say when, or even if, this is true.  Statistically speaking, seniors have fewer accidents than teenagers.  I think it is discriminatory to pull a driver’s license from someone because of age – on the other hand, I do see seniors that shouldn’t be driving (I also see people in their 30s that shouldn’t be driving.)  We need a better solution.

A Utah television station has reported on a solution for seniors, and it is such a good idea it wouldn’t hurt to expand it to the general population.  (That last part is my idea.)  Reduce the rates of auto insurance for senior citizens who take an eight hour driving refresher course.  The course costs $10 and the 10% discount will apply to anyone taking the course who is 50 or older.  Now this is a solution that can only benefit everyone!

Auto Insurance Discount for Senior Citizens