We all have enough to worry about and better things to deal with — the last thing you need is a shadowy hacker opening a new bank account or credit card in your name. Yet identity theft and financial fraud are on the rise. In one year alone during the COVID-19 pandemic, from 2019 to 2020, identity theft cases in the U.S. increased by a whopping 45%, according to the Federal Trade Commission.
We all have enough to worry about and better things to deal with — the last thing you need is a shadowy hacker opening a new bank account or credit card in your name. Yet identity theft and financial fraud are on the rise. In one year alone during the COVID-19 pandemic, from 2019 to 2020, identity theft cases in the U.S. increased by a whopping 45%, according to the Federal Trade Commission.
Last year the S&P 500 delivered a whopping 25% annual return, continuing its momentum from 2023 and marking its best two-year stretch since 1997–1998. Other major asset classes, modest by comparison, also delivered positive returns in a year when prominent economists had predicted a recession:
