“Forgot to pay the Mortgage” By Greg Rank I'm dining inside a restaurant at SFO with my wife waiting for our flight to New Orleans, connected to Wi-Fi at the airport with my iPod Touch. Incoming email: our mortgage has not been paid this month. There is a link and phone number in the email, I touch the number, Magic Jack dials the number via VOIP and I learn that auto pay was not setup to re-occur after a recent re-finance. Five minutes later, my mortgage is paid. My wife, who manages our finances looks at me and asks: “How did you know the mortgage didn't get paid?” “Email” I replied. But that's not an iPhone, it's your iPod?” She says. “Isn't it great” I exclaimed. My wife look like she had just witnessed slight of hand in Vegas. On a return flight from Southern California to Sacramento I befriend the guy in the seat next to me. He owns his own company and we start talking tech. Turns out he has a son who underwent cancer treatment, doesn't have much money and asked me to explain three times how I use my iPod for email and phone for free. It could save his son money who has had a hard time since his cancer. He thanked me we and exchanged Linkedin information. I live a pretty predictable life: I create, eat and sleep at home, drive to work, dine, read and write at restaurants. Every location has Wi-Fi. I am not supposed to use a phone in the car, so I listen to music in the car on my iPod. Monthly cell phone and data plan cost: zero Have a favorite phone number you don't want to lose? I could also move any phone number to my Google Voice or Magic Jack account if I want to sever the carrier cord completely. Magic Jack: $60.00 for five years. Security concerns: Free Wi-Fi can be hacked and your credit card information stolen? True and false. Wickr is an encrypted messaging app that I use even on unsecured Wi-Fi connections to protect my conversations. Both parties must use have the Wickr app to communicate. Otherwise: I do not buy things with my credit cards using free unsecured Wi-Fi on the iPod Touch. I make sure “https” is enabled on all of my social media sites so passwords can't be intercepted. If a hacker wants to steal my mortgage and make the payments though, thank you in advance. There are many ways to secure my connection on Wi-Fi. Companies like xoware and others are working on interesting solutions for securing Wi-Fi. I use these products and others as they become available. Smart phones do cool things like GPS my golf yardage to the green, take credit cards, measure radiation, navigate lost travelers and keep track of steps each day. If being frugal is the highest priority: you can walk the yardage off from the fairway markers, leave a little early, rely on paper maps and use a step counter with no monthly fees.
Doing without a cell phone
Jul 28, 2015
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“Forgot to pay the Mortgage”By Greg Rank
I'm dining inside a restaurant at SFO with my wife waiting for our flight to New Orleans, connected to Wi-Fi at the airport withmy iPod Touch. Incoming email: our mortgage has not been paidthis month. There is a link and phone number in the email, I
touch the number, Magic Jack dials the number via VOIP and I learn that auto pay was not setup to re-occur after a recent re-finance. Five minutes later, my mortgage is paid. My wife, who manages our finances looks at me and asks: “How did you know the mortgage didn't get paid?” “Email” I replied. But that's not an iPhone, it's your iPod?” She says. “Isn't it great” I exclaimed. My wife look like she had just witnessed slight of hand in Vegas.
On a return flight from Southern California to Sacramento Ibefriend the guy in the seat next to me. He owns his own companyand we start talking tech. Turns out he has a son who underwentcancer treatment, doesn't have much money and asked me toexplain three times how I use my iPod for email and phone forfree. It could save his son money who has had a hard time sincehis cancer. He thanked me we and exchanged Linkedin information.
I live a pretty predictable life: I create, eat and sleep at home, drive to work, dine, read and write at restaurants. Every location has Wi-Fi. I am not supposed to use a phone in the car, so I listen to music in the car on my iPod. Monthly cell phone and data plan cost: zero
Have a favorite phone number you don't want to lose? I could also move any phone number to my Google Voice or Magic Jack account if I want to sever the carrier cord completely. Magic Jack: $60.00 for five years.
Security concerns: Free Wi-Fi can be hacked and your credit card information stolen? True and false. Wickr is an encrypted messaging app that I use even on unsecured Wi-Fi connections to protect my conversations. Both parties must use have the Wickr app to communicate. Otherwise: I do not buy things with my credit cards using free unsecured Wi-Fi on the iPod Touch. I make sure “https” is enabled on all of my social media sites so passwords can't be intercepted. If a hacker wants to steal my mortgage and make the payments though, thank you in advance. There are many ways to secure my connection on Wi-Fi. Companies like xoware and others are working on interesting solutions for securing Wi-Fi. I use these products and others as they become available.
Smart phones do cool things like GPS my golf yardage to the green, take credit cards, measure radiation, navigate losttravelers and keep track of steps each day. If being frugal is the highest priority: you can walk the yardage off from the fairway markers, leave a little early, rely on paper maps anduse a step counter with no monthly fees.
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