5. Break Down the Cardboard Boxes from Expensive Purchases

Retirement often brings lifestyle upgrades: a new flat-screen television, a premium espresso machine, or high-end golf equipment. When you place the intact boxes from these purchases on the curb for trash collection, you are broadcasting your newly acquired valuables to anyone driving through the neighborhood.

Thieves routinely cruise residential streets the evening before trash day looking for these exact signals. To keep your purchases private, take a box cutter and slice cardboard packaging into small, unrecognizable pieces. Bundle the pieces together inside a black, opaque trash bag, or slide them deep into your recycling bin so no logos or brand names are visible from the street.