Tag Archives: Password

Cell Phone Replacement … How Many Passwords Can a Cell Phone Have? … Friday

With travels hopefully opening up … a rather old Cell AND the opportunity to get jet speed coverage (5G+ which I have yet to see connected…grrrr) … longer battery life, the switch was on!

Not sure if the prior switch was smoother or maybe it is our obsession with security i.e. Two Factor Authentication, Authenticators, Face Recognition…

Sure know why they give you 30 days to turn your old cell in!

EEEEEKKKKKKKKKKKKK

The amount of Passwords from emails, to websites to log ins is staggering… have them all, but just when the thought of the coast is clear…. “Please Enter Your XXXX!”

Ya, ya, all real world problems, but sure will not upgrade the cell anytime soon again – Wow!

Next week we say good bye to January … a Month End Video is in the cards with some hopeful Inflation analysis, unless of course some thing more important jumps to the front of the line…

Ahhhh…. but that is next week, today is a Friday heading into a weekend… hopefully a chance to wish my 94 year old Father Happy Belated Birthday in person without the family being non symptomatic !

Have a Great Friday and weekend!

John A. Kvale CFA, CFP

Founder of J.K. Financial, Inc.

A Dallas Texas based fee only

Financial Planning Total Wealth

Management firm.

jkfinancialinc

street-cents

Q 3 2019 Newsletter Video Audio Podcast Review By John Kvale

Welcome to our Video and Audio Podcast Review of our Q 3 2019 Newsletter. For those on the road or just unable to grab the time to read, our podcast type review gives you the behind the scenes insight to our thoughts, observations and deep views of the entire Newsletter.

Click Here for direct link to an electronic version (an early peek-good ole fashion paper versions are on their way to you shortly) and here for our Newsletter page

Let’s get going!

Q 3 2019 Newsletter

Click for PDF/printable version of Newsletter

And here is your review!

Why We Write!

Here we are again:20190630_133340742_iOS

We had planned on leaving this out due to repeated appearances here in our blog and in the Newsletter – but in true “Break In” like format, as this post is completed and the video – hopefully the local wifi is strong enough for uploading … the time is spent in Austin Texas at this moment in another rain delay- the same exact place the original article was written!

Tax Talk/Review

Change Likely the New Normal

After two decades of only minor changes in the Tax Law… it was overhauled and many changes were made that were reflected in our 2018 tax returns.

This neat chart is a nice reminder of the current brackets and can be helpful in income distribution tax bracket management.
Tax Bracket Graph

Inverted Yield Curve Update

This chart featured in our Newsletter is a slightly different term comparison of the 2 year (we like the 90 day) versus the 10 year, but a wonderful historical view of inversions and recessions. We have fully inverted for over a month now and if we use this historic guide as our yardstick a recession would be in the cards mid year 2020!

JPMorgan Inverted Yield Curve History

Social Security Update3-20-19 - Invitatation to SS Info Event with Tom Clark_Page_2

We have begun a detailed review of the late spring event and it is going great. Weekly we dissect a section of Social Security Expert, Tom Clark’s presentation and give handy links to greater details and explain in bullet fashion the main points. Here is a link to the Audio on a special page here at our blog and you can also click here for a link that will pull up each complete post!

There are tons of nuances regarding Social Security, Disability, Death Benefit and Medicare decisions…we look forward to discussing many more with you as the summer weeks occur!

We hope you enjoy … talk to you near the end of Summer!

John A. Kvale CFA, CFP

Founder of J.K. Financial, Inc.
A Dallas Texas based fee only
Financial Planning Total Wealth
Management firm.
www.jkfinancialinc.com
www.street-cents.com

June 2019 Podcast Video, Financial Planning and Capital Market Update – By John Kvale

Hello and Welcome to our June 2019 Financial Planning and Capital Market Update!

If you are too busy to read, feel free to listen as we describe our post and thoughts in friendly podcast format as well as Video!

June – 2019 Video

 

Break In:

The Perot Museum Thursday November 14th, 2019 from 6:30 to 9 PM for a fun filled event!

Newbies –

We like to articulate our thoughts and review on a Monthly basis our Financial Planning Tips, Capital Markets and current events!

 

Financial Planning Tip (s) –

Password Safe Keeping Idea and 1 Minute Video

After attending a conference that mentioned multiple times the troubles associated with Digital Assets AKA your passwords, a brain storming session led to this terrific post about how to safeguard your password, upload to the private portion of your Vault, password your document, and then refresh occasionally. A possible Excel file with links that is itself heavily/strong password protected!

We even completed a video and added it to our Video page on our main website here!

 

Capital Market Comments –

FOMC Pre and Post Meeting Update

Here in the Preview meeting post and with Robert Kaplan audio (below) explaining how he and the FOMC (Federal Open Market Committee) go about determining what to do with rates, we also mentioned many expecting a LOWERING of rates….just a few quarters ago, unthinkable.

Here is the Kaplan Audio:

MP3 File

Wave File

Post meeting Market Participants…

Fast forward to our Post Meeting Post here , and while we did not get a lowering of rates, the great consensus feel like the following quote signaled they are coming all garnered from this statement and supported by the lowered GDP expectations – chart below:

“…. but uncertainties about this outlook have increased…”

6-19-19 GDP Estimate FOMC

For a sleepy time of the year, there is a lot going on – That’s what we are here for!

Have a Great Day – Talk to you at the end of July!

John A. Kvale CFA, CFP

Founder of J.K. Financial, Inc.
A Dallas Texas based fee only
Financial Planning Total Wealth
Management firm.
www.jkfinancialinc.com
street-cents

Password Safe Keeping Idea, Confidential Portion of Your Personal Vault

Digital Assets, AKA your Passwords have become a challenging item for many. We find that in most cases, one party is controller of them and those single folks may not have an easy back-up.

Did you know your Personal Vault has a confidential folder area?

1 Minute Video –

Confidential File Area of Your Personal Vault

We know many of you may have a notebook with a special area that has all of your Passwords –

Our favorite –

An Excel file, NOT named “Passwords” – that has a very strong Excel password to open the file. You can even have the respective websites linked in the Excel file so when you go to your password file, you just click on the link for the website and boom your browser opens to that page ….

Share that Excel file password carefully, update the file whenever you have to do the eventual mandated password update for your selective sites!

Upload that file to your Confidential Area of your Vault, and you are set.

Have a Great “Safe Password” Day!

John A. Kvale CFA, CFP

Founder of J.K. Financial, Inc.
A Dallas Texas based fee only
Financial Planning Total Wealth
Management firm.
jkfinancialinc
street-cents

1 Minute Video, How to Reset Your Password on your NEW TOTAL VAULT, Second in special series

Last week we told you how to get into your New Total Vault with our (hard to believe it was only 60 seconds) 1 minute video.

The most common issue we have with our NEW TOTAL VAULT, heck any site for that matter, is forgetting or having to reset the password.

For the record, due to our over the top focus on security we have stringent features on our Vault that create an automatic mandatory reset if the Vault goes un-used for a length of time.

How to Reset Your Vault Password

Email or call us and we can quickly and easily reset your password  …. Ahh, but we know you may be accessing your Vault in a peaceful “off-time” during non working hours, late at night, early in the morning with that cup of coffee on the weekend or other time….

Here is how to reset your password, a quick 1 minute video:

Have a Great “New Password” Day!

John A. Kvale CFA, CFP

Founder of J.K. Financial, Inc.
A Dallas Texas based fee only
Financial Planning Total Wealth
Management firm.
www.jkfinancialinc.com
www.street-cents.com

 

 

 

 

Wire Fraud Update — They Are Getting Bold … Explosion of Attempts

If you, your family, children, or any other email you control does not have a password with at least one symbol (preferably two), large, and small capital letter, PLEASE go change it right now …….. We will wait …… Still waiting ………

THANK YOU THAT WAS NOT THAT BAD, WAS IT??

Wire FraudIn completing this article I went to ALL of my personal, junk, duplicate, and kids emails and upped the strength of the passwords, including Google+ and others. While it took more than a minute or two, given our recent findings (to follow) ….  well worth it!

Wire Fraud Update

Casually from our personal experiences over the last year we mentioned here in a post and here in our latest newsletter that Wire Fraud is on the increase. Little did we know it is not increasing it is exploding.

Take note, here are examples of what these crooks are doing:

  • Masking your home number while calling from their line on a static sounding line (to hide their voice) and asking for money (How Bold Can you Get?  Check the next one out!)
  • Complete identity theft of a person, opening a bank account in their name and asking their contact to wire the money to the new “like titled” account (This is VERY scary)
  • Emailing for money, and having a phone number that has a voice message that they instruct to call, later sending an email that they are in a meeting and need the money quickly
  • Saying they just saw your contact at an event (church etc..) and they needed to suddenly send money to a new source

All About the Password

Ok, so you may ask how can they do this? Our lives read in print, well email these days, and with open access to your email, and history, a crook can become you with a few hours (maybe minutes) of review.

If you did not change your password in the beginning of this post, and it is not strong, please do so now…it all starts there!

Please do not take a chance, we are all in this together, and while better than the muzzle of a gun in our face (Bonnie and Clyde) the theft is still unwarranted.

We are on notice and have been for some time. Please excuse our overly cautious answers to wire question from now on….it is for our collective safety.

John Kvale CFA, CFP

PS This was not meant to develop fear or paranoia, only to inform every one of the seriousness of what we are dealing with.

http://www.jkfinancialinc.com
http://www.street-cents.com
8222 Douglas Ave # 590
Dallas, TX 75225

Increase in Wire Fraud ….. How to deal with it

Over the last several years there has been an increase in wire fraud.  Anytime money is involved and with the dependence/acceptance of internet related communications it is not surprising to see such an increase.  Think of it as a modern-day Bonnie and Clyde, but without the firearms…yaya, always glass half full!Thief

How the scam works

Most frequently the scam begins via a hijacking of an email address. A bad guy may step in the middle of an email conversation and request money in various forms.

Prevention Techniques

To prevent this, we recommend a strong password (letters, numbers and symbols) and frequent changing of the password. Most all of you have received an email asking you to click on a link/virus from a friend or contact, this is a small hijacking but is similar to losing control of your email. Don’t let it happen to you and if it does, change your password IMMEDIATELY!

How it affects us

Current account/wire information on file does not change and will be unaffected.  New wire requests are where the action lies.

If there is a request to send funds to a non-similar titled account, expect our back office to not only call the receiving party, but in certain cases we may need to conference call with our wire department for audible verification. Yes an inconvenience, but a minor one given the alternatives.

If possible, giving a little extra time for money transfers is advised, but we understand there are times when this is not possible.

Have a Great Monday!

John Kvale CFA, CFP

http://www.jkfinancialinc.com
http://www.street-cents.com
8222 Douglas Ave # 590
Dallas, TX 75225

7 Tips for The Electronic Age – Safety and Location of Your Passwords

Yesterday the IRS announced that they will no longer be mailing tax forms in the mail to individuals and forms can be downloaded and printed from their website at http://www.irs.gov/, which has comprehensive information and has made great strides in the last several years. Earlier there was also an announcement of mandatory EFTPS deposits by those who make payroll deposits for employees, also an easy to use site.

Both of these announcements exemplify the ease, speed, and productive use of the web for financial transactions this day and age. If you are like most, you have a long list of websites and passwords for your personal and business use, as checks go the way of the buggy whips this information will gain in importance and become more valuable to others.

Here are a few tips for protecting this information and ideas that you may consider for your personal and business organization:

  1. Our favorite way of saving passwords, websites, and account information is using, an Excel or Word file that has a strong (letters and symbol) password.
  2. Save the file somewhere deep in your system, not on your desktop or in the root directory of your “My Documents” folder.
  3. Do not name the file “Passwords” as my fellow workers noted to me, it is easy to identify.
  4. Let someone (spouse or co-worker) know of the location and master password for your electronic file.
  5. Occasionally print a copy of this information, especially if it is not backed up offsite or on a separate device, and put it with your Will and Estate documents, just in case you and your co-knowledged person are incapacitated at the same time.
  6. My favorite Iphone application for this service is Keeper , although I have not used the computer linked version and only save personal email passwords, airline and hotel frequency use program numbers on my phone.
  7. Change your passwords frequently, at minimum a few times per year.

Bonnie and Clyde used guns and violence for their hold ups, today financial hold ups are much different and less intrusive to us as a person, yet very much end in the same result if successful. Take a few moments to organize your important information, it may save a lot of time in the future, not only to you, but other important people in your life.

Have a Great Day!

JK