The Senior and Her Moments! again

 

Last week, I took a couple of days off to work on 

My To DO list!

I knew what to do with my day and dreaded it, 

Put down the phone.

Stop Peering out the windows at the neighbors and their dogs.

Get it together.

Attack the #!@%$@$ computer.

It did not go well or quickly.

I spent FOUR HOURS updating a spread sheet, line by line and dealing with the 

craziness of someone selling my 401k account to another company.

Let's call them...

"#! FinancialCompany#!1" and 

" #! FinancialCompany#!2"

Hereafter referred to as, F-1 and F-2

This sounded simple, except step one was the information I needed to log into F-2 was trapped in F-1 because the account is PAPERLESS per them pestering me to do it and I HAD NO PAPER to get the info from.

As I fought through the old system finding what I needed, my mind kept losing focus while I pondered just what I would do if the power was out, the internet down or the computer had died.

First, I had to log on to F-1 to retrieve account information because I had gone paperless and 

: Senior Focus is not good, and stress makes it worse. the ability to put in a password correctly the first try has become impossible due to senior moments, assuming I can remember said password.

I spent 40 minutes finding and printing 2022 statements from F-1 for just in case I needed them to prove to F-2 I had the money in the account and to verify what F-2 has in their accounts, which turned out to be a waste of time because F-2 Had NOTHING BUT the Total.

Seems records will stay with F-1 and if I need anything in the future, before F-2 I have to log on to F-1 to get it and by the time I need it the password will not work because it has been to long since I logged on and I have do jump through Hoops. Sorry, my mind went down the Alice hole.

Logging into F-2 was a challenge because after hunting through the paper pages from F-1

to find the information to prove I was who I am, I found myself reading the instructions on how many letters and numbers and the length of the LOG IN should be. 

and drawing a BLANK because F-1 allowed log in ID to be easy peasy and was created before cyberbullies made everyone terrified.

oops there I go again.

then I was asked to create a new password, and each time I did, I got a red error,

not long enough, no capital, can't use those characters, and I estimate the time to create a new password at 30 minutes.

I must tell you I was prepared with log in ID and password, but In a note they advised I NOT use the log in password from F-1 which was my plan.

I ended up with an A Plus on password which meant the red turned green and said Excellent Strength.

I kid you not I wanted to cry by this time.

Next came the security questions which turned out to be SIX of them, I was warned to pick questions that I KNEW the answers and to pick something I could not forget.

To be sure make the answer was ONE WORD and something that could not have 2 answers. Also to pick harder questions so people who know me can't guess what I can't remember.

I was so upset, by this time when it asked me to set up double authentication, I had to go get the phone to look up the phone number.

I finally was In and the only thing I could prove was the total amount. 

Plus, an hour of what I want to see or not to see, MAKE IT ALL PAPERLESS, had to pick each thing click yes/no OV VEY!

When I retired in 2006 I could have done this with one arm tied behind me. Now it is like my brain is tied behind my head. I said to Bob, it's a good thing I am not still working because I could not do the job I did then and who knows what that has changed too.

PS.... I wrote all this to make you as frustrated as I was, assuming you made it to the end.