Everyone knows that saving early is important because time value of money means that your money will grow in value the more time you have through investments. But, that is not we are here to talk about today. Today, we want to talk about the importance of keeping your financials secure from physical and cyber threats because there’s nothing worse than spending your entire life saving to find it all gone through a scam or hack.
First to do with all your accounts is to make sure each account has a unique password. Keeping one password for everything sure is easy to keep track of, but the easier it is for you to keep track of, that means the easier it is for hackers to use that one password to break into all your accounts.
Additionally, make sure if there is a two factor authentication option to enable it. This gives an added layer of security and with it usually just meaning you get an additionally one time passcode text, it’s not something that is too much of a hassle. But, we should note that two factor authentication is not hacking proof. Here’s an article that can give some further reading about 2 factor authentications short fall. While this is a good start for most people, you can do your own research and find out that your cell phone number can be “stolen” which allows hackers to get the code and bypass the two factor authentication if you use a phone. To prevent this, make sure you update your latest phone number on the accounts you use and check in every once in a while with your cell carrier to make sure no one else tried getting access to your number.
You might already have known all of this, but we know way to many people that don’t do the aforementioned basics out of convenience sake which is a poor excuse.
So, what else can you do to keep your financial accounts safe?
Try not to log in to your accounts on public WiFi or any other network outside of your home network. Doing so may make your activity susceptible to hackers monitoring the network.
Keep all the fraud and security alerts on and make sure the alerts go to multiple sources like emails and phone numbers. You want to be notified as soon as something happens so you can prevent further damage from happening.
These are just some of the basics, but there are plenty of other activities you can take to protect your accounts. While we always worry about saving enough for whatever, it is equally as important to make sure the accounts that hold your savings are secure so you can enjoy them in the future.