Living_in_America™         (PREVIEW)

• "Paying Bills:  YOU control your money movements — ONLY push,  NEVER authorize any institution to pull monies" — Book_of_Moreign™
  ~~ DO NOT TRUST anyone to "pull" money from your bank account.   ALWAYS try to "push" payments from your credit card, first.  IF you cannot, then use your bank's FREE billpay feature to push payments.  ALWAYS take screenshots, so you have proof of issuing the payment, in a God Forbid situation, if an oops happens you have proof of your transaction. 
  Bonus:  it saves money/stamps & time/mailing!   The one benefit of https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/FedNow is the money should be instantaneous (that's what they say).  So, IF your bank delays your transaction ~or~ IF your bank tries to charge you for it — switch institutions (get out of there & go where you are welcome :-)   
  
  

• "NO single point/place has everything about you,  separate & compartmentalize" — Book_of_Moreign™
  ~~ SPLIT your monies across financial institutions;  most companies now allow splitting your direct-deposit (DD) across 2 banks, so you do not have to maintain minimum balance and can avoid the fees.  Keep only Checking account as external facing and barely anything, if it is breached that's your exposure.  So, make sure the day your DD/pay hits your Checking account, move the bulk of your money to your (Savings, Brokerage, etc.).  

NOTE:  you may want to check out brokerages as it gives you everything that a bank gives you for FREE and then some, plus they come under brokerage laws, and also gives you more coverage than FDIC.   Lots of sites recommend Fidelity,  just know that it is private not public company [full disclosure: we learnt that the hard way], so, do your own due dilligence (sharing per NOTICE in footer :-)

• "Reduce Risk:  YOU control your money movements — AVOID automatic with institutions" — Book_of_Moreign™
  ~~ INSTANT linking of institutions? ...  https://www.courthousenews.com/judge-approves-settlement-ordering-plaid-to-pay-58-million-for-selling-consumer-data/  

... maybe be better to opt for connecting via the old school way,  they make tiny deposits over a few days to link your account, and you just login & verify respectively.  So, fast comes at a cost ... and in somethings fast is NOT worth it.

about automatic money movement ~~~  you push it, and avoid the automatic (monthly bill-pay, automatic transfer from Checking to Savings, etc. )
Trust you see the point of taking the extra steps now to protect yourself.   The benefits are many while reducing your risk. plus  you will know what your financial status is and cut-off any wasteful spending and grow your financial well-being.  

tidbit:  Remember many of these banks/credit-unions/etc.,  rely on third-parties ...  and when you link your financial institutions they make it EASY for you with instant linking, except they do NOT always disclose they are using a third-party and WHAT that third-party does with your info. 

• "do NOT use debit card or ATM/cash, only credit card to insulate yourself from risk" — Book_of_Moreign™
  ―  WHY the sudden generosity of companies giving us a discount for  auto-pay from bank account, or debit-card, which also PULLs money from your bank account ??? 

―  such as,  AT&T ... which magically has varying extra charges ... https://www.phreeli.com/  is very unique provider (not recommending / not affiliated )   

~~ DO NOT TRUST anyone to "pull" money from your bank account.  Debit Card transactions PULL money directly from your bank account ~and~ we do NOT have the same protections like using a Credit Card, as credit-card transations use the bank's money, creating a layer of separation between your bank account and the vendor who is charging you.  

... now that you know you can be safer :-)

Disclaimer:  sharing what works for us — do you own due dilligence — we are not liable in any way — see NOTICE (in footer)

Finance dictates our day-to-day life, cost-of-goods, lay-offs, raises, 401K, etc. — so even if we are not going to directly invest,  it is imperative that we learn to be aware.   

After dabbling around for a few years, realized that charting tools paint what seems to be the near-realtime  (NRT)  picture of the markets — but be warry of where you gather your finance info, after all, this is the world's largest casino,  and it is moving to a 24-hr trading 2026/2027.  

Brokerages give more than Banks, and usually have some charting toools included,  After playing around with various products, and seeing some promising startups morph/fade/etc.,  and testing few chartings for many months, TradingView  (paid) stood out for me (in 2024), but has since drifted — with the advent of round-the-clock trading,  will be testing more, we found the live charting included with some Brokerages have caught up, esp. if you are NOT an Active-Trader but rather an Investor.

• If you want to get a glimpse into live trading, without shelling out, check out the Brokerages & TradingView FREE/$0 plan — 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 exclusively, you now have at least one third-party tools to separate & compartmentalize  your actual trading from your learning/trying/strategizing/etc.  best time to upgrade/sign up has been BlackFriday to CyberMonday (not sure if it will be true for 2026+) 

• note:  this is the first time ever that Caieus is providing an affiliate link,  it gives you a discount just in case/IF you wish to take a look at them www.tradingview.com/?aff_id=132605,   For clarity — NOT recommending or promoting, just sharing link IF you decide to go for it — proof:  burried this affiliate link :-)

Disclaimer:  sharing what works for us — do you own due dilligence — we are not liable in any way — see NOTICE (in footer)

"freeze your credit +only thaw when needed, only for a tight window.  periodically check your report, and immeidately address an issues" — 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,  auto-ins/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
  ~ reuters.com/technology/us-treasury-weighs-alternatives-idme-after-privacy-concerns-raised-2022-01-29 

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

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

• Login.gov — it seems like it uses LexisNexis  (HQ in New York, is subsidiary of UK based RELX) ... LexisNexis. private entity for gov access + owned by UK? 

*** Research and you can find ways to avoid Login.gov & ID.me and still work with the the US Govt. sites ...