6. Consider changing your phone number to a silent number. This will considerably minimise number of calls you get from both tele marketers and identity thieves. There are other advantages to having a silent number as well. Generally a silent number tends to increase your privacy.

7. Never store you PIN numbers or passwords near you plastic cards or account details.

Yes, I know. You want to keep your PIN number close to your plastic card, just in case you forget it. You may even disguise it as another number. Guess what. If a thief gets hold of your wallet, they will try any numbers they can find in it, to steal money from your plastic card account. It's true, after a few unsuccessful attempts account is usually locked. But even that would inconvenience you, to say least. And why risk losing your hard-earned money?

8. Don't use credit cards in restaurants or other places where your credit card can be taken away from your sight for even a minute. Before you know it, your card could be scanned and used by thieves to buy all sorts of goods, particularly via telephone shopping, mail order, and online shopping.

9. And finally, there is a huge and growing subject of Internet identity theft. You can read our article on Internet identity theft at www.credit-report-a-z.com/internet-identity-theft.html.

We obviously didn't cover everything here. But hopefully this article opened your eyes to some easy, common-sense, ways to prevent someone from stealing your identity and/or your money.

Will it guarantee that you never fall a victim? No, but it will go a long way towards making a life of a thief very difficult. Usually, if you make life difficult for them they will move on to an easier target.

There is one more thing you should seriously consider. Checking your credit report regularly. It's not uncommon for an identity thief to apply for a loan, or a credit card, under your name. Of course, they have no intention of ever paying it back. All other issues aside, this will affect your credit rating and borrowing capacity for years, unless you clean it up quickly.

There are inexpensive services available that will monitor your credit files all year round and notify you minute anything in your credit file changes. Or you may prefer to check your credit report yourself every few months.

Oh, and those shocking statistics I mentioned earlier? According to recent studies, up to 7,000,000 people became a victim of identity theft in past 12 months. That's more than 19,000 people a day. Don't become a statistic! Do something about it today.

Andrew Obremski is the owner of www.credit-report-a-z.com, a web site devoted to information about credit reports, identity theft, debt, and other personal finance topics.

Once you've got an accurate dream based in your own reality, then look at where you really are today in comparison to where you want to be. How long do you want to take to get from A to B? How hard are you willing to work to get there? What are you willing to give up in order to get there? What are you absolutely never going to give up to get there? Find a balance between these answers and plot your course.

In plotting your course, what steps do you need to take? Do you need to educate yourself? Maybe you need an actual college education or a trade school degree. Maybe you need to educate yourself on how your market works? Maybe you need to learn how to present yourself or how to sell your product? Do you need to move to another town because that's where industry is centered? Do you need to perfect your craft? Do you need to create a reputation as an expert? Do you have self-defeating habits that must be broken? This is a tough one for most people to answer honestly about themselves. If you need help get it. Change whatever you need to change about yourself. Heal whatever you need to heal. Educate, grow, evolve, and inspire yourself however you need to in order to get to that end goal. Only you can answer what steps you really need to take and how long they will take.

The most important part is that you plot your course from a realistic set of expectations and timelines. Positive affirmations can help keep you on track and can even work a bit of magic to help you to speed process up a bit here and there, but plan on staying course however long it takes. It's a commitment that you're making to yourself and to that lifestyle that your money is going to create. Along way, reward yourself with pieces of dream. It's not like you have to wait until entire million dollars is in your bank account before you can suddenly live that millionaire lifestyle that you planned for yourself. Give yourself a piece of good life each step of way. It'll help fuel fires and it'll confirm that affirmations are coming true.

Copyright 2004, Skye Thomas, Tomorrow's Edge