What do dentists who shoot lions, publicists who make jokes in poor taste on Twitter and Indiana pizza makers have in common? Their lives were suddenly and irrevocably changed for the worst while doing something that they could never have predicted would lead to it.Avoiding catastrophe is an important pillar of the wealth building strategy that I promote through Radical Personal Finance. As personal finance enthusiasts, we are one of the most prudent groups of people on this planet: we build our emergency funds, insure against negative events, diversify our investments and make careful choices about our spending.Radical Personal Finance is, however, about going beyond the obvious and into the territory of things less commonly considered, but just as important. I want you to be prepared to deal with a hurricane, becoming a refugee, dealing with food scarcity or even the possibility of getting arrested. In my experience as a financial advisor, it has often frustrated me with how little care is sometimes taken to ensure the client’s financial security, despite the good intentions of most people in the industry. But why is this possible? The answer is that most people care even less about their data. It’s shocking to discover how vulnerable we actually make ourselves by not taking simple security measures when using bank accounts, email and social media - vulnerable not only to a loss privacy but potentially to a very real financial loss. I’ve taken an interest in this subject a while ago, and have been really impressed by the book The Complete Privacy and Security Desk Reference which stood out in a field where information is often cursory or out of date. That is why I invited co-author Justin Carroll to Radical Personal Finance to talk about real, actionable ways in which you can become more secure and protect your privacy. This article contains some of the best tools mentioned in our discussion, though for a more complete picture I recommend that you listen to the episode above and purchase the book itself. But This Won’t Happen to Me I often get this objection: “I’m not doing anything wrong - why should I be concerned about privacy?”. Here’s an analogy that I’ve found helpful in explaining why I promote these ideas:Do you remember the time when every phone call was a party line? Anyone in the household could pick up another receiver and there was very little one could do about it at the time. Now, however, you do have a choice - do you want to make everything you search for, consume, talk about as well as access to all of your accounts and purchase history a party line? Complete privacy and security are very difficult to achieve, but some very simple steps and tools can protect you from most of the headaches in the future. Another thing to consider is this: You may not be a target right now - but you may become one in the future as your wealth increases, you endorse unpopular political or religious perspectives or just live your life the usual way, as the stories at the beginning of this article illustrate. This may be a decade from now, but to prevent it you must build the skills and the mindset starting today, because you don’t know what circumstances you will face in the future through no fault of your own, and you can’t control things after the fact. Some simple tools and habits that have a great impact: Accounts and Passwords You are at great risk if you use the same or the same few passwords for all of your accounts. You will see this warning often and for good reason when creating new accounts: it only takes one company to be breached (who didn’t store your data properly) and an attacker gains access to all of your accounts. Alternatively, it’s often enough if they just gain access to your main email and phone account (which isn’t very difficult) and that opens up everything else. Using a different strong password for every account mitigates some of this risk.Less often mentioned, but equally important is using