Are you aware of the risks you take online? Nearly half the U.S. population was impacted by identity fraud and financial fraud in 2020, responsible for $56B in losses. And the truth is, you’ve never been a bigger target.

Technology is woven into our lives. From remote work to shopping to banking, we can send/receive money and share sensitive information at the touch of a button. But behind the convenient reality of the digital age lurks a dark underbelly of hackers and sophisticated con artists. 

Everyone wants to protect their children, families, and financial assets from scammers. Unfortunately, modern-day con artists have grown to become more advanced. With various types of manipulation style phishing and brute force password attacks, hackers don’t need much to steal your data, access your online accounts, and wipe out your finances.

Avoiding financial fraud isn’t easy, but it’s achievable. It’s time to get familiar with what you’re up against. Read on to find out how to avoid financial fraud and protect your investments.

The following is a guest post from Aura, a leading identity and financial fraud protection company.

Looking ahead, the investing landscape seems more difficult, especially after three robust years of equity returns. More capital preservation strategies should be considered. At the same time, corporate earnings are still growing. Further, the long-term trend for stocks is up and to the right.

What is a person who doesn’t want to actively manage their money, but who also wants to hedge against downside risk to do? Find an investing platform that does these things.

In 2021, I was introduced to Titan Global Capital Management (Titan) by an old VC friend of mine, Mark G. He was an early investor in Personal Capital and acted as their CMO for several years. Mark and I actually overlapped at Personal Capital for a couple of years while I did some consulting.

Given Titan was founded only three years earlier in February 2018, I decided to see how they’d do for another year before sharing their work. I’m happy to say they’ve grown tremendously. Further, I think the timing is right to talk about their product now as the markets get more volatile.

Titan is an investment platform bringing premier, active investment management to everyone. Here’s Titan sharing their value proposition in their own words.

The following is a guest post by FarmTogether, a leading online marketplace that provides accredited investors with direct access to institutional-grade farmland. FarmTogether is a long-time supporter of Financial Samurai.

The mainstreaming of alternative investments and farmland investing is picking up steam. For example, FarmTogether recently closed on the largest single-asset crowdfunded farmland investment to date: a 201-acre organic redevelopment in Franklin County, Washington (Galaxy Organic Apple Orchard)  – a $22.28M deal.

Meanwhile, on February 8, 2021, Tesla announced that it had bought $1.5 billion worth of Bitcoin. Tesla also said it would start accepting the currency as payment. This news helped send the price of Bitcoin up from just under $39,000 to now roughly $58,000 today. Several companies have already jumped on the Bitcoin bandwagon and added the cryptocurrency to their balance sheets. More companies may soon follow.  

This is but one example of a wider trend of increasing mainstream acceptance of alternative investments as an essential component of a portfolio. Institutional investors have been increasing their allocation to alternatives in search of diversification and potentially higher returns.

Thanks to a range of technology-enabled platforms, more and more alternative assets are accessible to individual investors as well. Read on to find out why alternative investments are so popular and how you can add them to your portfolio.