Hey everyone,
Most of us track our budgets carefully — and still leave our family’s personal data wide open online.
Your address, phone numbers, relatives’ names, and even approximate income get scraped by data brokers and sold on people-search sites. Public Wi-Fi at hotels, airports, and coffee shops can expose logins. For a Catholic household building toward financial independence, that isn’t just an inconvenience. Identity theft, account takeovers, and relentless spam cost real money, real time, and real peace of mind — the opposite of the margin FI is supposed to create.
Stewardship isn’t only about dollars invested. It’s about protecting what God has entrusted to you: your family’s safety, reputation, and ability to focus on faith and vocation instead of cleaning up digital messes.
I’ve added both of these to the Tools page with the same referral perks we use ourselves. They’re not flashy “get rich” apps — they’re quiet defenses that free up attention and reduce downside risk.
Incogni is an automated service that finds your personal information on 420+ data-broker and people-search sites and requests removal — then keeps requesting removal when the data reappears. Family plans can cover up to five people from one account, which matters when you have a spouse and kids whose names and addresses show up in the same search results as yours.
Why it fits FI: less exposure means fewer scams, fewer cold calls about “your car’s extended warranty,” and less chance that a bad actor stitches together enough details to open accounts or harass your household. The hours you don’t spend fighting identity issues are hours you can put toward work, prayer, and family.
Through the friends link on our Tools page you can get a deep discount (up to about 58% off annual plans), with a 30-day money-back guarantee. Code GIFTOFPRIVACY is applied at checkout via the referral.
Get Incogni at Friends Pricing →A VPN encrypts your traffic on public Wi-Fi and makes everyday browsing less visible to random networks. Surfshark’s standout for families is unlimited devices on one account — practical when you have phones, tablets, and a couple of laptops under the same roof.
Use it on travel, hotel stays, and any network you don’t control. It’s a small monthly cost relative to the headache of a compromised email or banking login. Through the friend link you get free months added depending on the plan you choose (including multi-month options).
Get Surfshark + Free Months →Financial independence is partly about numbers — savings rate, investments, debt. It’s also about reducing the hidden taxes on your attention and peace. Privacy tools won’t replace tithing, investing, or living below your means. They do protect the household so those efforts aren’t derailed by preventable digital risk.
Teach older kids the basics: don’t overshare addresses and birthdays online, use strong unique passwords, and treat public Wi-Fi as untrusted. Model the same habits. Stewardship is often unglamorous — and that’s fine.
If you’ve never audited your family’s digital footprint, start with data-broker removal (Incogni) and a VPN for travel and public networks (Surfshark). Both are on our Tools page with the referral perks above. Pair that with the FI Calculator when you’re ready to put any freed-up cash toward the bigger plan.
Protect the household. Invest the margin. Keep the mission first.
– Dustin
Kalshi is a CFTC-regulated exchange for event contracts (elections, economics, weather, and more). Sign up through this referral link; new users who complete a small qualifying trade often unlock a trading credit (amount varies — sometimes advertised up to $500).
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