PROTECT · VOLUME 2 OF 3 · STRATEGIESInsurance and protection shelf
Security & Crisis Recovery
The second book on protection. It shows how to set insurance limits and deductibles so the same budget covers the losses that would break you, how to lock down your accounts and credit against theft and scams, and what to do with your money in the first days and months of a crisis, a job loss or a natural disaster.
Chapters8
Reading time50 min
Worked examples19
Updated2026-10-01
What you will be able to do
- Set deductibles your cash reserve can carry, and size liability, life and home cover to what you actually stand to lose.
- Secure your email, phone number and financial accounts, and freeze your credit at every bureau that matters.
- Recognise the pattern behind most scams and respond correctly if you or a relative has already paid.
- Recover from identity theft using the federal report that unlocks your strongest rights.
- Triage bills and choose the cheapest source of money in a crisis, a layoff or after a disaster.
Contents
8 CHAPTERS · ABOUT 50 MIN- 01Right-Sizing Your Insurance Coverage How to move premium away from small, survivable losses toward the ones that would break you: deductibles your reserve can carry, liability limits and umbrella cover, life and disability sized to the income at risk, and a home insured for its rebuild cost.7 min4 computed
- 02Securing Your Financial Accounts Why your email and phone number are the keys to every account, how passwords, passkeys and second factors rank, the bank and brokerage settings that stop money leaving, and what federal rules and deposit insurance cover when something gets through.6 min
- 03Credit Freezes, Fraud Alerts and Monitoring How a free credit freeze blocks most new-account fraud, how it differs from one-year and seven-year fraud alerts, which specialty files to freeze too, what free and paid monitoring can do, and how to dispute errors on your report.6 min1 computed
- 04Recovering From Identity Theft The signs of identity theft, the first-day steps that contain it, the FTC report that unlocks blocking and extended alerts, how to clear fraudulent accounts, your liability limits, and the tax, medical and child cases.6 min
- 05Recognizing and Stopping Financial Scams The four-step pattern behind nearly every scam, why payments you make yourself are hard to recover, the scripts in use today from fake bank calls to crypto schemes, the habits that defeat them, and what to do in the first hour if you have paid.6 min2 computed
- 06Crisis Triage When Several Things Go Wrong What to do in the first 72 hours of a financial crisis, how cutting to essentials extends your runway, which bills to pay first, and the cheapest order in which to draw on cash, investments, loans and retirement accounts.6 min7 computed
- 07Job Loss: The First 60 Days The deadlines that start when a job ends: filing for unemployment, choosing COBRA or a marketplace plan, the tax on benefits and severance, what to do with a 401(k), and how benefits stretch your runway.6 min3 computed
- 08Natural Disasters: Coverage, Records and Recovery The gaps in a homeowners policy that disasters expose, how flood insurance works and its limits, the cash reserve and records to keep ready, and how to handle claims, contractors, FEMA and SBA help and tax relief afterwards.6 min2 computed
CALCULATORS USED IN THIS BOOK