Vol Opps for Financial Security

By: AARP Outreach & Service | Source: AARP.org | August 2008

Make a Difference to Friends and Family

  Help a friend fill out our Retirement Calculator.

  Be a monitor of investment sales seminars and report questionable practices to your state securities regulator.

  Tell five friends to sign up for the do-not-call list online or by calling toll-free, 888-382-1222.  

  Tell your neighbors how they can monitor their credit reports for identity theft by ordering one of the three free credit reports on a four-month cycle online.

  Help a Social Security beneficiary or veteran who didn’t need to file a tax return for 2007 file the appropriate form to obtain their stimulus payment.

  Forward the Retirement Calculator to friends who are wondering whether or not they are saving enough for retirement.

  Help a neighbor who is bothered by telemarketing calls to install an answering machine and to use caller ID.

  Help a friend find out if there are any public benefits they could be receiving.

  Encourage a friend to join an AARP online community group such as Make Ends Meet and Investing World.

  Get five friends to take proactive steps against identity theft by signing up for a credit freeze.  Share copies of sample letters they can use to notify the credit bureaus.

  Tell someone who's looking for a new financial planner about the questions they should ask.

  Start an investment club.

Make a Difference at Your Job

  Arrange with your Human Resources Department to distribute copies of the Money Matter Tip Sheets.

  Start an Employee Resource Group at your work to talk about preparing for retirement

  Ask your Human Resources Department to publish the Money Matters tips sheets in the employee newsletter.

  Get together with your co-workers to ask for more automatic features in your retirement plan at work.

Make a Difference in your Community

  Put a notice in your community association's newsletter about how easy it is to call toll-free, 888-5-OPT-OUT, to cut back on unsolicited credit offers.

  Put a stack of the Money Matters Tip Sheet order forms at your local library or include inserts in your monthly church newsletter

  Have your local Area Agency on Aging sign up for the free monthly Colorado ElderWatch Fraud Alerts    

  Contribute to your utility company's fuel assistance (often called "round up") program to help a neighbor keep the heat or electricity connected.