Gyroscopic Investing

WildAboutHarry wrote: I though Lastpass had some sort of security breach.  Do you use it?  How do you like it?

Yeah, there was a series of anomalies a few months back that indicated a possible breach.  LastPass tried to err on the side of caution and treated it like a data breach, which is the right way to handle this sort of thing.  (Compare this to Sony's terribly reaction to the PSN breach, which was a true, full-out loss of actual secrets, something Sony never should have had in unencrypted form anywhere in their system.)

Because of the way the LastPass system is constructed, though, I was not concerned.  Everything they hold is secured with extremely strong crypto.  Crucially, all of this crypto happens on your own machine.  (This is why if you forget your LastPass master password, you are completely SOL -- your secrets have never touched their servers in unencrypted form and LastPass itself knows none of your secret information.)

Since the worst case for this incident was that an attacker could have gotten hash data and email addresses, I wasn't worried.

I do two things that I recommend to others:

• I use an extremely strong master password.
• Set up LastPass to require multi-factor authentication (such as a grid card a la Treasury Direct or a USB key) for any new machines that attempt to access my data.  That way if someone did try to guess my password, they'd need to provide an additional secret that I can physically secure.  (And I won't be bothered for this from my home machines.)

For anyone uncomfortable with remote storage like this, KeePass is an excellent local password management implementation.  If you find yourself using the same password on every website you use, these are handy things to look into.

I also recommend some form of anti-keylogging countermeasure to anyone, regardless of how they manage their passwords.

I still am in awe of the fact that someone could be holding an i-bond from the early 2000's with a 3% fixed rate + inflation.

This thing would still have 20 years of "useful life" left on it.

moda0306 wrote:I still am in awe of the fact that someone could be holding an i-bond from the early 2000's with a 3% fixed rate + inflation.

I dumped some 1.2 and 1.6% I-Bonds because "I could do better..."  I kept the twos and threes, though.

And thanks LoneWolf for the information on LastPass.

I went to Bank of America today to get my 2011 paper EE bonds, and they told me today was the *LAST* day to get paper EE bonds through them.

Run, don't want, to the nearest bank!

to review the benefits of paper EE bonds:
- 1.1% CAGR if held less than 20 years
- 3.5% CAGR if held 20 years
- zero interest rate risk
- zero liquidity risk
- can liquidate whenever you want after holding for 12 months

Perhaps other banks or the treasury itself will still let you mail in the paperwork over the next three months... but perhaps not.

akratic wrote: I went to Bank of America today to get my 2011 paper EE bonds, and they told me today was the *LAST* day to get paper EE bonds through them.

Run, don't want, to the nearest bank!

...or just order them online.

http://www.treasurydirect.gov/buybonds.htm

Just print out the online form, mail in your check, and you're done.

Gumby,

I owe you one.

I purchassed my first EE bonds from your link.  I love these things right now.

moda0306 wrote: I still am in awe of the fact that someone could be holding an i-bond from the early 2000's with a 3% fixed rate + inflation.

This thing would still have 20 years of "useful life" left on it.

Moda:

To be in bigger awe, at the time you could have bought $80k per year of those bonds, if you were married, because the limit was $20k per year, per method (paper/electronic) per SSN.

That blows my mind!

...insane...

If somebody would have suggested these to me at that time I would have laughed in their face!

My paper EE bonds arrived in the mail today. They were pretty cool looking, but I already converted them to electronic EE bonds and they go out in the mail tomorrow.

A few months ago, I scoffed at the idea that the Treasury wouldn't raise the purchase limit on electronic savings bonds to offset the discontinuation of paper savings bonds. As far as I know, they still haven't raised the purchase limit on electronic savings bonds.

Perhaps we may look back in a few years and consider these last few weeks of $20,000 in I/EE savings bonds per SSN/year as a steal.