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Social media can be a nightmare for quite a lot of people in many ways. It can be used to distribute all kinds of malicious contents (malicious links, malware). Personal details shared on social media can help hackers gain access to your account or find high-value targets for cybercrime, fraud or attacks. Frontpoint offers awesome monitoring packages, so a review of Frontpoint is a necessity.

Here are six unique ways you can improve your social media security policy and posture:

 

Password Hygiene

Although some of your employees may frown at it, but requiring a password change every 60 to 90 days is something you should keep doing. An occasional change of passwords can limit the chances of a hacker gaining access to your site. Analysts said that maintaining a good password history is a global best practice.

Use two-factor authentication

Social media analysts have confirmed that two-factor authentication ensures all externally accessible applications or websites are secure.

Your passwords can easily be acquired by a third party if it is related to your email address. Thus, using two-factor authentication will provide another layer of security to your account.

Identity theft is high these days; this is why you should use other measures like retinal features and facial features to safeguard your sensitive data.

Think before you share

A lot of things are happening in the digital world today. Social media remains a great platform to share memories, thus many people are tempted to share personal details beyond limits. Many of them don’t know the legal implications of their actions.

With the advent of smartphones and social media, it becomes extremely easy for most people to snap pictures and share with their contacts. Most social media addicts upload up to 500 pictures

yearly. Some people have been sued for uploading the pictures of others without their permission, thereby tampering their right to privacy and security.

Be careful who are your friends on social media, and the type of personal details you share. Before you share anyone’s pictures, make sure you get their permission. If they didn’t permit you, please make sure you don’t do so.

Update privacy settings

Some social media platforms have an option which allows you to switch your account to a private mode. Even the ones that haven’t come with the option of managing who sees your status updates, check-ins, or photos.

Update your privacy settings, so that you can decide to make your profile invisible and/ or inaccessible to third parties and search engines. You can decide to share your personal profiles only with your inner circle. You are at liberty to make your posts visible to the public, friends or keep personal details only to yourself.

If you want to hide from someone or share your information with specific people, there is an option for that. Here, you have the right to review, approve or delete posts you were tagged in and/ or remove tags from some people.

Protect your accounts beyond the site’s options

Passwords are designed to safeguard our information on social media. The best way to protect your account beyond the site’s options is by increasing your password efficiency. Create a strong password that has at least 12 characters. The shorter your passwords, the easier it would be for hackers to have access to your site.

To be on safer side, always change your passwords at least three to four times every year and/ or change them any time you feel your account may have been compromised. Try as much as possible to avoid the ‘remember password’ option on most sites. Clear your browser history where you think your passwords might have been saved. Install a firewall to protect your device from hackers or outside users.

Test security before going live

Before you go live with new applications such as software applications, standalone, mobile, web app or infrastructure, try as much as possible to ensure it is secure.

Analysts said that performing a penetration test on new environments, applications and technologies before they go live can actually save heartache, money and time. Through a penetration test, you could determine what could be attacked, how it can be done, and how to fix the issue.

 

Thanks to Matt Tricot for sharing his wisdom and expertise of social media security with us at The Life You Can Afford to Live. You can learn more about additional security measures at Home Security List. We would love to hear your input on our social media channels at Facebook, twitter or LinkedIn.

The real estate market continues to stay red hot! We continue to get more and more questions about investment properties and just those looking to move their primary residence. So, I’m pleased to introduce our readers to our Guest Blogger, Larry Gavrich. Larry is an expert particularly in Golf Communities. He has written extensively on the subject so we should all benefit from his expertise. You can also re-visit my original article on Golf Real Estate for additional information.

 

 

Golf Communites

After visiting and writing about hundreds of golf communities over the last 10 years and helping dozens of couples, mostly retirees or those about to retire, identify the golf community best suited to them, it has become clear to me that some questions about golf communities are worth addressing and some best left alone.

Let’s start with those questions that are pretty much a waste of time:

 

Will the residents in the golf community like us, and will we like them?  When I am asked this question, my response is straightforward:  “Are you likable?”  If so, you will make friends, and probably quickly after you join the community’s golf club.  Keep in mind that in the typical golf community, everyone is from somewhere else.  Current residents recall their own anxieties about moving to a new place, and they will do all they can to make you comfortable.  (From a selfish standpoint, they are also happy you moved there to help stabilize the real estate in the community and pad the membership rolls of the club.)  Also, given human nature, folks who spent a few hundred thousand dollars on a home are not apt to admit readily to a stranger that they made a mistake.

 

Will we be bored if the community is at some distance from an urban area?  Many golf communities, especially those with bargain real estate, can be as much as an hour or more from an urban area that offers entertainment, restaurant and other services.  If you have ongoing medical service needs, the advice here is to look at communities closer to a city with a major hospital.  For others, the boredom question is easily answered with a multi-day visit to a community you are targeting.  Most offer “discovery packages,” low-priced stays that include lodging, maybe a few meals, a round or two of golf and access to the community’s other amenities.  You will learn over the course of a few days if activities “on campus” are enough to sustain you and if the distance to the nearest city is tolerable.  (Note:  I am happy to assist those interested in arranging a discovery package.)

 

Many customers ask me about the financial stability of a community.  Most communities will open their books to serious prospects; and if they don’t, my advice is to move on to another community that has nothing to hide.  If a community you are targeting is owned by its residents, ask specifically about the financial “reserves” available for both the homeowner’s association and the golf club.  These are the monies available in case of unexpected expenses, such as hurricane damage, a lost lawsuit (if insurance doesn’t cover it all), etc.  In most communities, reserves are in the hundreds of thousands of dollars range.  If the community is still owned by a developer, read the covenants to determine when the developer turns the community over to its residents and who will own the golf club at that time.  (Note:  In most states, developers are required to turn the community over to residents when property sales reach a certain point, typically around 75%.)

 

Of course, golfers will want to know the extent of the golf costs, both the initiation fee and ongoing monthly dues.  Most initiation fees these days are of the “non-equity” variety, which means you will not get any of it back when you resign your club membership.  I counsel my customers to focus more on the monthly dues than on the initiation fee.  Imagine you have set a budget of $400,000 for your golf home and $10,000 for initiation fees for the club.  Let’s say you fall in love with a community but the initiation fees are $25,000, and yet you identify a home you really like priced at $375,000.  Since your happiness will very much be tied to your social life in and around the club, consider the higher initiation fee as part of the cost of your home, rather than two separate items.  In total, you will still come in under budget.

 

I have visited and researched golf communities in which there are no initiation fees and no dues; golf membership is part of the homeowner association membership dues.  In general, semi-private golf clubs — those with memberships but that permit outsiders to pay green fees to play — have modest initiation fees (a couple thousand dollars) and monthly dues (between $200 and $400).  Fully private clubs tend to charge the highest initiation fees, and dues can approach and pass $1,000 per month, especially if multiple-courses are part of the club.  But, then again, I have visited fine private golf community clubs with initiation fees under $5,000 and dues under $500.

 

There is a lot to consider when searching for a golf community home.  If you would like assistance in sorting out country club and golf community options, please contact me at [email protected] to arrange a no-obligation phone discussion.

 

 

Larry Gavrich is the founder and editor of Home On The Course, LLC, whose mission is to assist those looking to relocate to a home in the Southeast US near excellent golf.  In the last 10 years, he has visited and reviewed nearly 200 golf communities.  A licensed real estate agent, he has helped dozens of couples find golf communities that match their requirements and interests.  His blog site, GolfCommunityReviews.com, features more than 1,500 articles and reviews written by Mr. Gavrich. 

It’s always exciting to get to welcome a new Guest Blogger to our platform. Let’s welcome Kathy Manson to The Life You Can Afford to Live! Kathy has an extensive resume and bodies of work within Financial Planning and Money Management. You can view her latest endeavors at Catalina Structured Funding. I feel certain that we will see her back here again soon. However, for now learn from her wisdom on this important subject around Money Management and your Teen!

                                                                                                                                          – Todd Burkhalter and our team at The Life You Can Afford to Live

 

The last thing on your teenager’s mind might be money and budgeting but prioritizing these lessons at this age might be one of the most important undertakings you can do as a parent. While there are certain online sites that provide tools, we believe some good old fashion techniques are a better way to lay the groundwork.  Below are 4 tools to help you get the conversation going (if you can get them to look up from their phone):

 

4 Tips to Teach Your Teen

Budgeting

Budgeting and More Budgeting. Maybe the best way to start teaching your teenager about money is to give them some to control. While some parents provide a monthly allowance, we believe that weekly increments help reinforce the principles on a more consistent and regular basis. By doing the allowance weekly, the teenager is giving the opportunity to “save up” for a larger purchase and understand the ramifications of spur of the moment purchases.

Teach them the Concept of Sales

While for adults shopping for the best price or waiting for an item to go on sale is second nature, the concept of delayed gratification is an additional benefit of showing a teenager to wait to an item they want is discounted.  It also begins to show a teenager that is focused on consumption how finding items at a reduced price may allow them to get more things they desire.

Projecting What They Need

Too often at teenager sees something and then “needs” to have it.  We suggest having your child come up with a list of items they will need for the upcoming semester or seasons. While it is a new backpack, a pair of sneakers or the hottest new jeans on the market, the teenager will learn to respect money more if they independently establish a “wish list” for the near future and then you sit down and distinguish necessities from luxuries. While we are not suggesting every purchase needs to be a necessity, we do think it prudent to make a teenager to set priorities on the non-essentials.  In time this proves a valuable tool instead of a discussion every time the teenager walks into a store and sees an item he or she desires.

Earn The Money

Whether it is on top of a basic allowance or not, and whether it simply being paid to do additional chores around the house, making the teenager earn the money instead of it being given to him or her, is maybe the most basic and powerful took in teaching the “value of the dollar”.

With all the lessons that need to be instilled by parents, and there are countless important ones, understanding and appreciating money should be near the top of the list.

 

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