The Savage Truth on Money, 3rd Edition

CHAPTER 2The Savage Truth on Money and TechnologyKnowledge Is Power

Technology has taken over the most tedious tasks of money management, freeing us to make important decisions that will have long-term impacts on financial success. In earlier editions, I focused on the basics of financial technologies we now take for granted: online bill payment, buying stocks, filing taxes, and instant, secure credit reports and scores. How quaint it seems that people once balanced their checkbooks using pencil and eraser.

Financial technologies have also created new potential liabilities. Data breaches have impacted the most trusted repositories of financial data—from the Equifax credit bureau to the Marriott hotel database, from Capital One to Target stores—to the IRS itself. The potential for identity theft creates an entirely new set of responsibilities around safeguarding your financial information. Phishing is a word that has been added to our vocabularies in the past decade, as global scam artists intrude into lives. And secure Wi-Fi is a tech concept that is as vital to communications as oxygen is to breathing.

Technology creates transparency—for better or worse. It allows you instant access to your investment portfolio and lower-cost products that give your long-term investments an extra boost. But, on its own, technology won’t create wealth or protect against losses. It must be used judiciously. I hope we have come far enough that I don’t need to give anyone a pep talk about the ...