Two Quick Safety Tips
Welcome to Saving Money with Andrew!
Multi-Factor Authentication
First, if you are not already doing it, please, please, please enable some form of two-factor authentication.
I wrote about this issue at length last year, and the WSJ ran a great piece yesterday discussing the various ways to add additional security to your critical email and financial accounts. If you use only a password to log into your critical accounts, it isn’t a question of if you will be hacked, it’s a question of when.
Payment Safety
Also, check theft has become an epidemic. Signed, Sealed, Snatched describes the “thriving underground market for stolen checks.”
When we lived in a major city, it was well-known that if you put a check in certain mailboxes, there was a real risk it could get stolen by thieves literally “fishing” for mail. Now, thefts of USPS mailbox keys have become increasingly common (up 400% since 2019) and crooks often steal the entire contents of mailboxes.
I’ve become very nervous about making large payments with physical checks through the mail, and you should too. But one needs to be careful with the alternatives, with Zelle fraud growing as well, and payment services like Venmo filled with unexpected risks. When possible, I try to put large payments on my credit card. Otherwise, I will typically deliver a check in person or mail it from the post office when that isn’t feasible.
Some other great picks this week:
Retirement the Margaritaville Way is the best magazine piece I’ve read this year.
I unapologetically love The O.C. But I was not expecting Ben McKenzie (who played Ryan Atwood) to put his acting career on hold to become a full-time critic of crypto, NFTs, and all the other things that we now call “Web3”. A bit odd, but glad to see him taking a skeptical stance when plenty of Hollywood stars seem happy to fuel the frenzy.
New Jersey has, yet again and inexplicably, chosen to remain the only state that requires all gas to be pumped by an attendant. It’s one thing to offer the option, it’s another to require it, and eliminating this silly rule would probably reduce gas prices in the state. Albeit only slightly.
I hope this has been helpful. If you liked it, please share it on social media! Also, please send me your feedback, requests, and success stories.