Investing Blog Roundup: Getting Used to Passkeys

Last week’s article about passkeys generated a ton of questions, about how they work behind the scenes, how to use them, why they’re generally safer than passwords, and more.

As far as how they work behind the scenes (the public key/private key topic), that’s not something that you need to understand deeply (or at all, really) in order to use them and in order for them to improve your security. I simply included it because I know that many of the people who read this blog are the type who do want to understand the mechanics of how things work.

As far as what it’s like (from a user interface perspective) to actually use passkeys, it’s hard to explain universally what the process looks like, because it varies somewhat by website. (For example, when signing into Amazon with a passkey, they still send a 6-digit code by text, whereas most websites will not do so.) And it varies significantly based on what devices/browsers you’re using, as well as based on whether you’re using a separate password manager. For example:

• If you’re an Apple-only household, you browse only with Safari, and you use Apple Passwords to store your passwords, the whole thing will feel pretty seamless, with Apple Passwords storing your passkeys as well.
• If you’re on macOS, browsing with Chrome, and you use Bitwarden password manager, then Apple Passwords, Google Password Manager, and Bitwarden will each want to be the thing that stores your passkeys.

I would encourage you, next time you encounter a website that a) offers the option to use a passkey and b) is a low-stakes website for you so that it does not feel scary, create a passkey and then use that passkey to sign in going forward. Get used to using a passkey on one single website before trying to implement them more broadly.

For me personally, that would be something like target.com or walmart.com. Both of those websites have my name, email, shipping address, and my (not very lengthy nor particularly privacy-sensitive) order history. But neither has stored payment information, neither has my SSN, neither is linked to any financial accounts, etc.

Other Recommended Reading

• The Fallacy of Investing Based on Forecasts from Allan Roth
• An Asset-Liability Mismatch from Ben Carlson
• Dimensional Grafts Vanguard’s Tax-Busting Model Onto Mutual Fund from Katie Greifeld
• What’s Middle Class in NYC? from Ben Carlson
• Private Credit’s Angry Investors Are Showing Its Limits from Paul Davies
• The Best Strategies for Consistent Retirement Spending from Amy Arnott
• How do frontier AI agents perform in multi-step cyber-attack scenarios?
• Banks Are (Trying to Become) Bulwarks for Vulnerable Seniors from Paula Span (NYT)
• The Biggest Benefits Come from Consistency, Not Complicated Programs from the American College of Sports Medicine’s Updated Guidelines for Resistance Training

Thanks for reading!