Recently I sold my old MacBook Pro, and until I buy myself a new laptop, I had to log in to my gmail account from a windows laptop.

So when I tried to login, Google flagged my attempt as an unknown device and wanted me to prove my identity.

I thought they would ask for the two factor authentication code by sending it to my mobile phone. However, the only two options they provided was to enter a code using the Google authenticator app, or accept a notification sent to my android device.

I haven’t used my android phone for a good six month, it got bricked, and since then I’m using an Apple device. I was unable to comply with both options provided by Google.

I was at risk of getting locked out of my account.

Lucky for my I was able to reset my password, provided some details, answer security questions, and reset my Google password.

However, what if I got locked out of my account? I could have lost access to almost all the services I have signed up for.

What if Google decided to delete or suspend my account? This has happened before, even popular YouTube content creators got their Google accounts deleted, or suspended.

Why should get a personal email address

I maybe exaggerating, but I believe that everyone should have their personal email address.

By personal email address I mean not using the generic @gmail or @ymail email address etc, but instead using an @yourdomain email address.

This looks professional, and you are not at risk of losing your access to services you signed up when you get locked out of your gmail account.

Buy a domain name

Buy a domain name, there are lot of domain name providers out there, find the best place to buy a domain name and purchase a domain name that suites your identity.

If you have a hosting plan

If you you are someone with a hosting plan, create an email account from your cPanel, and add email forwarding to your gmail account.

If you buy your domain name from Google, you can also forward emails to your gmail address for free. (But since we are talking about not getting locked out of your Google account, this maybe the worst best option)

Use an email hosting service

If you don’t have a hosting plan, you can use something like Zoho mail which provides free email accounts for your domain without the need of a hosting plan.

Namecheap also has an email hosting service for starting $0.75 per month.

Whatever you chose, it’s always better to have a personal email address and a domain name for yourself.

Even if you lose access to your gmail account, you can easily change the forwarding address to a different email address and receive emails and avoid getting locked out of important services you signed up.

I’m currently setting up a personal email address for myself. Let’s see how things work out.