Quick Look
- PCMag has a great summary of their favorite 11 password managers for 2022.
- We’ll give you one recommendation: LastPass. LastPass is the one we’re the most familiar with and it’s also the one PCMag rated “Best for Ease of Use.”
- LastPass has Free, Premium ($3/month), and Family ($4/month) versions. The paid versions have extra features and the ability to sync across multiple devices.
Read About it From the Experts
If you search for “password manager comparisons” you can find articles from reputable sources like PCMag, CNET and many others. These experts know security and can dive into all the details you may be interested in.
For our purposes we’ll focus on a few features are specifically important to personal finance. Then, you can see if the password manager you’re considering has those features (or others you care about).
Important Features
Emergency access for trusted people, login sharing, and secure notes are three of our favorite features.
- Emergency Access: This feature gives you the ability to designate one or more emergency contacts who can gain access to your password vault in the event you become incapacitated. For example, if you pass away suddenly, and your mother is a designated emergency contact, she can request access to your password vault. After a pre-determined waiting period, she would be granted access to your password vault.
This feature can be incredibly useful. For example, if there are costs associated with your death, the emergency contact can get access to your accounts to help cover those costs. This might be preferable to waiting for the funds through the “designated beneficiary” or probate process. This means there is one less challenge in what is a very challenging time.
- Login Sharing: This is the ability to share access to an account without actually sharing the password itself. For example you may have a bank account that you want to share with your partner but you don’t necessarily want to have the password shown to him or her and you also don’t want to give that person the ability to change the password. Login sharing allows you to do this.
- Secure Notes: Secure notes are simply a way to write down important notes and know they are secure because they are stored as part of your secure password manager. This could be the combination to your bike lock or all the social security numbers for your entire family. Having quick and secure access to these types of details can be helpful when you’re applying for joint loans or simply designating a beneficiary for one of your accounts.
Take Action
- Choose your password manager and go to their site to create your account.
- As needed, download a browser extension. (After you create your account you’ll likely see an obvious link to do this.)
- As needed, download the mobile app and login to your account.
in Boulder and San Diego.