Brothers_Moreign™ Life_beside_Tech™

Welcome to 

☀  Brothers_Moreign™   Life-beside-Tech™   (a.k.a. non-tech  stuff)

    Expanding beyond tech ...  here's a sneak peek of what is NEW for 2024 ... yes, they too are FREE :-) 

Disclosure:  approved to use and modify extracts from the Book_of_Moreign™ chapters on Living_in_America™ 

▹  "secure by default" — Book_of_Moreign™

• "do not use debit card or ATM/cash, only credit card to insulate yourself from risk" — Book_of_Moreign™
  ~~ eg. credit-card is best as it creates a separation between your monies and vendors. If you have difficulty managing credit, shrink the credit-limit on a credit-card to prevent yourself from overspending.  Remember pro-privacy is about you being in control of what you knowingly share, the benefits of the credit card outweigh the tracking.

• "only push payments and do not authorize any pull payments" — Book_of_Moreign™
  ~~ e.g., first pay from your credit card; if you cannot, then use your bank's billpay feature to push payments — it's safer:  you know when payment reaches, in case an oops happens you have proof of your transaction, plus it  saves stamps, money & time!   IF your bank tries to charge you for it, switch institutions :-)

• "no single point/place has everything about you" — Book_of_Moreign™
  ~~ e.g., split your monies across financial institutions;  most companies now allow splitting your direct-deposit (DD) across 2 banks.  If not able, then setup an automatic push.

▹  "insulate yourself by default" — Book_of_Moreign™

"check & freeze your credit, and only thaw it when needed, and that too for a tight window" — Book_of_Moreign™

There are several credit/data agencies, but these are the big/primary ones, for now, who have expanded globally!    Remember to always Create a login, so, you can CHECK your credit, FREEZE it, THAW/unfreeze just before you need to use it, and that too only for a tight window, so it AUTO-FREEZES) ... KEEP it accurate & safe ... God Bless!

• Equifax:          https://my.equifax.com

• Experian:       https://www.freecreditscore.com   — this is Experian's FREE credit score + report.

• Transunion:   https://www.trueidentity.com   — this is Transunion's FREE report only, not score.

• Innovis: https://innovis.com  — FREE credit report

• LexisNexis:   https://consumer.risk.lexisnexis.com/consumer  — this is the big-daddy as it is for banking accounts, towing, and even US Govt.
  ~ federalnewsnetwork.com/agency-oversight/2023/03/for-years-gsa-deceived-agency-customers-about-login-govs-security-bonafides
  ~ nextgov.com/digital-government/2022/11/logingov-getting-new-anti-fraud-tools-privacy-advocate-raises-concerns/380159
  ~ https://www.reuters.com/technology/us-treasury-weighs-alternatives-idme-after-privacy-concerns-raised-2022-01-29 

Food-for-thought: (feel free to search this) 

• ID.me — is a private entity that is supposed to ID you for you to access US Govt. sites

• Login.gov — IRS/EFTPS/etc. use Login.gov to identify you;  Login.gov uses LexisNexis (HQ in New York, is subsidiary of UK based RELX) 

*** Need to know how to avoid Login.gov & ID.me and still work with the the US Govt. sites … leave a message

▹  "keep your finger on the pulse" — Book_of_Moreign™

Finance dictates our day-to-day life, cost of goods, lay-offs, raises, etc. — so even if we are not going to invest,  it is imperative that we learn to be aware.   After dabbling around for a few years, realized that charting tools paint the most realistic near-realtime picture of the markets.  After playing around with various products, and seeing some promising startups morph/fade/etc., I landed on TradingView.   After testing them for many months, TradingView  stood out for me to the point I decided to become an  affiliate.

• NOTE: this is the first time ever that I am providing an affiliate link,  you do not have to use it, but if you are going to take a look at them then do so via https://www.tradingview.com/?aff_id=132605.

• If you want to get a decent look into live trading, without shelling out, check out their FREE option — so you can get a feel for what is going on, and be prepared, think of it as checking the weather news even if you are not going out/fishing :-)

• tid-bit:  When you are ready, rather than using your brokerage's tools only, you now have one of the best third-party tools to separate your actual trading from your learning/trying/strategizing/etc.