Here are some questions I want you to answer honestly:
- Do you have a list of all of your passwords stored somewhere? no.
- Is your password the same for multiple accounts? yes, definitely.
- Does your family know what online accounts you have in your name? not a chance.
When my brother in law passed away, we somehow had the unbelievable luck of finding a notebook with most of his passwords and accounts he had in his name. It made accessing his information so much easier, but so many families don’t have that luxury. So, if you are wanting to get yourself or a family member more organized in case anything were to happen to you or them, let’s talk about password managers. These systems are great for several reasons:
- They grab all of your passwords for every site/account you have open and condense it into one place. This would be great in the event that something were to happen to you, you know your family could look at your password manger and see where all of your accounts are.
- You only have to give your family one master password (depending on the password manager) that controls access to the password manager, which introduces less risk of incorrectly documenting a myriad of passwords we have out there and leading your family down a rabbit hole.
- These are password storage systems are more secure than writing it in a notebook or saving them in your browser
- It provides you with more secure password suggestions and keeps all of your passwords up to date, so if you change a password for an account, you don’t have to remember to go update your documentation of your username and password for that site.
Now that you’re on board, let’s talk about which ones were the most recommended based on my research and talking with others who use password managers:
- LastPass: This was hands down the most recommended on every review site I found thanks to the high quality free option and ease of use. Something unique about this one is that you can actually build in emergency contacts so that designated family members can access your passwords.
- Dashlane: I personally use this system and have loved it so far. Setup was easy and it pulled all of the passwords I had stored through Google Chrome so I didn’t have to enter each password into the Dashlane system. The desktop version is free but there is a paid version that offers more robust features like VPN.
- 1Password:1Password was a stand out because it also offers a family subscription if you are wanting to get your family members on the same platform.
There is exciting new technology coming that would eventually allow us to use things like biometrics to log into devices and accounts. But, until that day comes, let’s get organized and secure our online identity.
