You spend more time online than you used to, so does everyone. Bank accounts, credit cards, investments, insurance, tax payments, utilities, subscriptions, shopping, and every other way you spend or move money have been pushed further online. And with every account comes a login, with a username and password. Does your spouse know them all?
If you’re like most busy families, you divide and conquer. One person might handle the bank accounts while the other handles the investments. Or one the electric bill and the other the groceries. So it’s possible you have set up some accounts that your husband or wife doesn’t use regularly, or maybe has never used at all. What happens in an emergency?
The time to safely share passwords and logins is before an emergency hits. There are services that can help you, like LastPass, Proton Pass, Dashlane, and others (this isn’t an ad for any of these, but they might help if the feature set works for you).
Alternatively, you can do it the old-fashioned way and simply print out your logins and passwords on a piece of paper. The trouble with this method is that multi-factor authentication (MFA) has become much more popular, and if you don’t have access to passkeys, cell phones, or email accounts, you can quickly find yourself just as stuck as you would be with no password at all. You can mitigate those problems somewhat by sharing cell phone and email login passwords.
Action Line: No one enjoys imagining worst-case scenarios, but everyone is happier when they happen if they’re prepared for them. Don’t get locked out at the worst of times. Prepare your family for the future today, and when you need help preparing your investments for the future, email me at ejsmith@yoursurvivalguy.com. And click here to subscribe to my free monthly Survive & Thrive letter.
