Worried Your Money Isn’t Safe? Ready for a Cyber Refresh?

Speaker A00:00:28

Does it ever feel like all your money, I'm talking about your banking, your bills, your passwords, is just floating out there online and you're just hoping nothing goes wrong. You're not crazy for feeling that way. And you're not paranoid. Guess what? You're paying attention.Because the truth is, when your money lives online, you're just one scam, one password or one rush clicked that create real damage in your life. But there is hope. Stewardship isn't just budgeting. It's protecting what God has entrusted to you.And the good news, I've got a few small habits that can block some very big headaches. Let me show you how.Listen, before I get too much into it today, this is a great episode to share with everyone, especially your parents and your grandparents. This can change lives today. Hello and welcome to the show. I'm Ralph. Thank you so much for joining me today.And we're going to have a real practical discussion today. But every day I try to help you break that cycle of financial shame with comments. I'm trying to help you break that cycle of being exposed online.And a listener said to me, ralph, everything is online now. My bank, my bills, my shopping, my passwords, everything. Ralph, I feel exposed. How do I protect my accounts and feel safe again? That is no joke.And if that's you, if you feel that right now, you're not alone in that. But here's the best part of that. You're also not helpless. And if we look at the news every week, the headlines repeat the same pattern.Data breaches, phishing attacks. Not the kind where you go fish for a little bobber and all that. I'm talking about phishing attacks. Identity theft is through the roof.Account takeovers. And every expert says the same three anchors protect you. To us. We're going to lean into these today. Strong, unique passwords.Two factor authentication. Yes, I'm gonna define what that is. And ongoing monitoring. Now I know it. Cybersecurity feels big. It feels like this thing. Bruff. I don't get it.I'm not a tech person, but I've got some small steps that can make it work for you. And I've walked hundreds of clients through simple cyber habits. Just 10 minute fixes that prevented weeks of cleanup.You don't want to be in one of these. Trust me. These 10 minute fixes will prevent your life from going in a crazy direction. Just small changes can reduce enormous anxiety.And just some simple tools that turn fear into confidence. See, people don't feel safer because they Know everything. They feel safer because they finally take control of something I'll never forget.I work with a client who used one password for everything. Now you're probably saying, ralph, that's me. Raise my hand, I do the same thing. Not a good idea. So with this client, I said, we got to stop this.I set him up with what's called a password manager. You can sign up for these services. I gave him some unique logins and we turned on two factor authentication for everything.And a few months later, I never forget this. He sent me an email. He said, ralph, a retailer that I use all the time was breached. Their store and login information was breached.But he says, ralph, guess what? I'm good. My bank is safe. My email is safe. My credit cards are safe.All untouched, Ralph, because one small change that you helped me make, it created a huge wall of protection and friend, that's how simple this can be. So here's the real question.How do you guard your financial life online without feeling overwhelmed, without feeling scared, or without feeling confused? Let me walk you through it. I've got four cyber habits that can actually build peace.Number one thing, I'm going to lean into what the experts are saying. Update your passwords, make them unique and long passwords, and dare I say, use a password manager.If you're using 1Password for everything, think about it like this. If you've got one key that opens everything, opens your whole life. And that's not good.The better approach is to have long and unique passwords, not password 1, 2, 3. Not a good one. But those long and unique passwords are the safest. Use a password manager. Because here's the benefit of a password manager.You can have a different password for every single thing. You don't have to memorize anything. Maybe you just have to memorize the one master password. Now that's one thing you got to memorize.Don't make it simple. And when you start to do this, don't feel like, oh, I've got to change everything. No, listen, use the most sensitive accounts first.Start with your bank. Go to your email. A lot of people don't think about your email password. That's a big one. Because a lot of people use authentication.They'll send you an email. Well, if your email has been hacked, you're in trouble. Another one heavy hitter. Check those credit cards.Just one small shift can give you the biggest immediate protection boost you want to boost. Do that second thing. Turn on two factor authentication for everything.Now listen, a lot of sites are making you do this, what I call the digital deadpool. Think of a big door, you got the regular lock, but man, you put that deadbolt, that puppy slides across and boom, you know it's safe.Those two factor authentications will block most quick hit attacks because listen, even if they get your password, that password leak like my friend talked about didn't matter because as soon as he got that text code, he looks at his phone and goes, oh no, not today. You can do that with text codes. You can do it with app codes. There's great authenticator apps, all of these work and guess what it does.It dramatically reduces anxiety because you know they're going to have to have that second piece. That one extra step now, we talked about this earlier, will save you thousands of steps later.Number three thing, and I can't stress this enough, monitor your credit and bank accounts. Set up alerts for those things. You don't have to be a tech expert, just be aware of what's going on.Just take a weekly glance to catch problems early. I don't know how many people don't look at their stuff. They don't log into their bank account. Now you can get a little crazy with it too.Like I've got people checking like three or four times a day. Set up alerts on your account. If a transaction is more than X number of dollars, you're like, ralph, I never spend that much. Set up the alert.You'll see it, you'll be able to do something about it. If you catch those problems early, you can avoid the pain later. Those alerts will help you find suspicious transactions.Watch the withdrawals, watch the transfers. But listen, check your credit, of course as well. I love credit monitoring. You don't to pay a lot of money for it.There's some great opportunities out there. But that awareness creates confidence. That's what we're really talking about today, awareness.And when you have confidence, it replaces fear with clarity. One more main takeaway. Share this with your folks. Share this with your grandparents. Share this with everybody. Slow down on those emails and links.So many people get jammed up on this and I've had it happen to me personally. Most scams don't hack your system, they hack your attention.They're not going into your computer and stealing your stuff from your phone or your iPad or whatever you've got. They hack your attention. And scams rely on urgency. If something says click now, as soon as I see click now. Not today, not today.Pause when you see that. Whenever you see click now, guess what that means? Stop. Red light, stop. Don't go any further. Do not pass go. Do not collect $200.If you play Monopoly, you get that. But that's what I'm talking about. Second thing you do, once you pause, check the sender's email address. Most of the time it's a dead giveaway.The email addresses don't quite make sense, but let's say you got a little bit of doubt, but you're like, maybe I need to do this. Call the company directly. Now listen, here's one. King, King, don't use the number. It's in the email.A lot of people say, well, I'm going to call this number in an email. Guess what? They've spoofed the number. Now you're done. Call the company directly.Go in the back of your credit card, go in your bank statement, find the phone number that they gave you and call that number and say, hey, is this you? Oh, great, you did want to get in touch with me. Fantastic. Because that wisdom protects what God has placed in your hands.God has given you so many things, but he wants you to protect it. Which leads me to Proverbs, chapter 4, verse 23. Now this is a stretch, but I'm going to take us there.Above all else, guard your heart well, let me say right now, today we want to guard our resources that God has entrusted to us as well so we don't have heartbreak. How about we pray together, Lord, we just ask that you would give us wisdom and diligence with our digital lives, Lord.Help protect me and my family from fraud and confusion and that anticipation, that anxiety comes with that. No. Help us not to live in fear, Lord. Give us peace as we take small steps towards better security. We ask this in the name of Jesus. Amen.Okay, I got a super simple action item for you today. Just one thing I want you to do. I want you to update one major password today, whether it be your bank, your credit card, your email.Just one of those. Turn on that. Multi factor authentication. If you need somebody to help you reach out to your younger people in your life, they can help you with this.But that one small choice provides the biggest protection with the smallest effort. It takes almost no effort.And while we're talking about effort, I want to invite you right now to join our insider financially covenant Christian community. It's a safe place to ask questions without embarrassment. We give you practical and spiritual stewardship support.Hey, we can talk about tech support if you want, a little bit of cyber security.But as more people join, we're going to be adding more resources, more tools and support and now's the perfect time to be part of the community as it grows. You can be one of the foundational people. You don't have to navigate this digital world alone. Come grow with us.Go to financiallyconfidentchristian.com/join again. That's financiallyconfidentchristian.com/Join. You don't have to fear the digital world.As I said today, with a few wise and simple habits, you can protect what God has entrusted to you and truly walk in peace instead of panic. Because as I said, stewardship isn't just about giving or budgeting. It's guarding your financial life both offline and online. You can do this.Go out there today and be a financially confident Christian. Trust me, you can handle this. You don't have to be a tech expert. Just a couple of things. Stay financially savvy, stay cyber savvy today.God bless you and I'll see you again on tomorrow's show.