Money Blue Book

As one who used to practice law as an attorney, I’ve only had a smattering of exposure to ambulance chasing – the layman’s term for legal work that embodies mostly straight forward and very lucrative personal injury type cases. However based on the exposure I’ve had, I still retain some pretty strong opinions in counter response to persistent public calls for handicapping the wheels of litigation and placing caps on large damage awards.

Much of this anti-lawyer sentiment is based on mainstream public mistrust of trial attorneys and the work that they do. While I agree that our population has evolved into a society a bit too obsessed and even paranoid about lawyers and lawsuits, I think the passionate furor and lemming-like disdain of litigation beguiles its importance as one of the key cornerstones of what makes our country so democratic and free. Lest we forget, it is because of our pro-litigation society that our businesses and services have been able to consistently deliver such quality and corruption free excellence. Not all of society and the business world will forever remain pure and blameless, but should their actions harm or damage any person or entity, we as Americans can always rest assured that the offending parties will be held accountable. No where else in the world is there such a reliable guarantee in place.

A Pro Litigation Society Protects Quality and Advances Our Individual Rights and Freedoms

I frequently hear and read about writers and individuals who like to complain about lawsuits and denounce those who file claims for substantial amounts of money that the writer deem as frivolous. In my opinion, such genuinely frivolous causes of action would ultimately be summarily dismissed by the presiding judge of the case. But before that can happen, everybody must be able to have their entitled day in court. Thereafter, if the suit was initiated without merit or the reasonable likelihood of success, there are counter fines and sanctions available to punish the plaintiff for wasting the court’s time.

Many people like to blame greedy individuals and sleazy lawyers for filing frivolous and wasteful lawsuits. I agree that there are some wrongfully filed claims out there, but the majority are legitimate and in pursuit of damages for legitimate redresses of injury. I think most people in the United States would boldly state that they are against lawsuits – that is, until it is their turn to sue somebody. If the God forbid day should ever arrive when an uninsured business van driver negligently slams into your car, permanently rendering a close family member paralyzed for life, you’ll be glad we don’t live in a society where they tell you to just brush it off and let it go. You’ll be glad we live in a nation where you can personally seek the court’s protection to compensate you and your family member for your injuries and to ensure it never happens again. It is not above revenge, but about justice and fair play.

Without the developed and reliable ability to file individual lawsuits, as citizens, we would be powerless to effect positive societal change beyond begging and lobbying our own governmental representatives to legislate the law in our favor. Living in a litigious society is actually empowering for the lowly individual. It is by this developed common law system of precedence and judicial resolution that has compelled American businesses to become the most safe and reliable in the democratic world.

In the infamous McDonald’s millionaire dollar hot coffee case, a woman accidentally spilled hot coffee on her lap while waiting at a McDonald’s drive-thru and badly burned herself. Although the case seemed trivial and common-sensical, the case set the precedent for more improved temperature safety warnings and control. When we buy American products and utilize the services of American doctors today, we have very high expectations of quality and competence. It’s easy to blindly blame the unrepresentative pool of greedy lawyers out there, but remember, it was the successfully litigated precedents set by the product defect and physician malpractice test cases that made our system so driven towards fighting wrongdoing and rooting out faulty products. It’s not a perfect system, but it’s the best we’ve got for our large diverse population.

Money Is How Our Civilized Society Settles Disputes

This is no longer the wild wild west. When you have a problem with someone, when your personal property is damaged, or when you are injured due to someone else’s negligence, you don’t attempt to duke it out through hand to hand combat or resort to one-on-one pistol duel challenges anymore. More modern and civilized methods of dispute resolution have developed and evolved – culminating into a common law adversarial legal system that centers around the recovery of monetary damages. The reason why we always hear about plaintiff individuals filing lawsuits for money is because money is the primary medium of recovery that our legal system permits. Sometimes when monetary damages is insufficient, the court will permit specific performance or injunctive action, but in the vast majority of cases, the mode of redress is by forcing the losing defendant to pay the plaintiff.

The reason why recovery damages sometimes soar into the millions of dollars is because other than compensatory damages designed to put the plaintiff back in the same position he would have been in had the injury never occurred (thereby “making him whole”), courts sometimes grant additional punitive damages on top of that. These type of punitive or treble damages are usually extremely high, and designed with punishment in mind. In one case I read about, a defendant was found by the court to be liable for intentionally setting his neighbor’s cat on fire and burning the kitty to death. The court awarded a mere $200 of actual damages for the cat, regarded as personal property, but slapped something like an additional $5,000 of punitive damages to punish the defendant for his outrageous action. This is what justice is all about and the type of grievances our pro-litigation society was meant to protect.

I don’t mind giving gift cards as presents on occasion as I don’t see them as inherently evil. While the perception that they are somehow classier or more convenient is silly and misguided, they do serve a useful purpose for particular situations and for certain limited occasions. Of course, my biggest problem with gift cards is the fact they are rarely used right away by recipients including myself. I’ve received gift cards in the past but they’ve always sat in my wallet for months before I finally got around to using them. Perhaps it’s because I am accustomed to doing most of my shopping online, but I can never seem to find the right time to use up the cards. The longer the cards remain unused, the more money is wasted, and the higher the likelihood that expiration and maintenance fee problems may arise.

A Gift Card Is Nothing More Than A Zero Percent Interest Loan

Unlike giving cash as presents, when you buy a gift card today and redeem it in the future, you’re essentially offering the gift card company an interest free loan, whether it be with Best Buy, Starbucks, or Macy’s. When one of these companies issues you a prepaid gift card, they’ve already taken your money and given you a gift card claim ticket towards future purchases in that amount. Until you request for redemption, they have no obligation to pay the amount back as merchandise. Meanwhile they get to benefit from the earned interest on the amount you paid for the cards. Companies would like nothing better than the recipient of the gift card to misplace the card and wind up never using it. So long as the card remains unused, the company continues to enjoy the benefit of a free loan. That is why businesses love marketing, promoting, and selling gift cards. It’s a win win proposition for them.

Even Worse For Gift Card Consumers, The Interest Free Loan You Provide Is Unsecured

The longer you delay in using up your gift card, the more you expose yourself to possible balance forfeiture. When you purchase a gift card, the issuing company treats it as an unsecured loan to the company, not cash. If the company should ever heaven forbid face financial difficulty as a going concern and file for bankruptcy protection, because unsecured loans are low on the pecking order of creditors, holders of gift cards are likely going to be one of the first to lose out.

Just take a look at the poor souls who bought or received Sharper Image gift cards for example. Sharper Image has filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection and is currently undergoing a major reorganization. Part of the restructuring is the temporarily suspension of all outstanding and unused Sharper Image gift cards. If you’re one of many who purchased or received one of their $50 or even $100 gift cards, you are in serious danger of losing the stored value left on those cards forever. Your only hope is for the restructuring to yield another corporate buyer of the company who will honor the existing gift certificates. That’s why it’s important not to delay using up gift cards – you want to call in the unsecured loans and redeem them as soon as possible.

Use The Gift Card As Soon As Possible And Don’t Even Think About Recharging It

Once the gift card has been handed over as a gift, the card should be redeemed sooner than later. There is no sense in letting the company continue to accrue free interest at the card purchaser’s expense. Whatever you do though, don’t recharge the card again by adding more to it. There is no financial benefit to be gained for doing so.

At Starbucks and other trendy coffee shops, I always observe them marketing and selling rechargeable debit cards to customers. But I fail to see the prepaid gift card’s purpose other than to encourage unnecessary expenditure. Once you have them, the money has already been spent. These rechargeable gift cards are like casino chips, encouraging and facilitating overspending. Furthermore, if you recharge your card, all you are doing is committing and locking yourself further to that particular establishment. This limits your flexibility and freedom of choice. What if you change your mind and want to go somewhere else? Too late, you have to use up that card. Remember, it’s okay to occasionally buy gift cards for other people, but you should never buy gift cards for your own personal use other than to engage in gift card credit arbitrage, and certainly you should never attempt to recharge them.

Exclusive Share Builder Promotion Code For New Applicants!

Sign up with ShareBuilder today to take advantage of their $25-$50 promotional offers for new accounts before they expire. The ShareBuilder bonus codes listed below are for new individual customers. While some people have been able to successfully open up several ShareBuilder accounts and earn multiple new account bonuses, the policy technically limits such bonuses to just one.

If you are a Costco member, you may be entitled to special Costco Member Benefits for new ShareBuilder customers by using this link – they are worth even more! If you are a Costco Executive Member, use code: COEXECWALL08, to earn $90. If you are a Costco Gold Star or Business Member, use code: COGOLDWALL08, to earn $70. All non-Costco members should use the following table of codes to claim their free bonus money for new accounts:

ShareBuilder is still currently offering $25-$50 cash promotions to new ShareBuilder broker customers who fund their accounts with at least $50 of their own money or make at least one purchase transaction on their accounts (terms vary). Taking advantage of this free offer is relatively straightforward as ShareBuilder’s basic accounts have no minimum balance requirement, which means you can maintain your account with any amount of money you wish. Basic accounts also have no inactivity or subscriptions fees.

For a few years now, the company has become a popular online discount broker option for many new investors. Most people are attracted to the company’s low trading fees and their lack of maintenance or minimum balance requirements for basic accounts. At $4 per trade for equity transactions through an automatic investment plan, and $9.95 for regular real time market orders, ShareBuilder’s commission fees are competitive with that offered by other discount brokers.

Steps To Open A New ShareBuilder Account and To Qualify For Your Bonus Offer:

1. First, you’ll need to open a new ShareBuilder account and make sure you enter one of the active promotion codes listed on the table above. When selecting the account type, you should choose the basic individual account since there is no minimum for that account type and no additional subscription fee required.
2. The exact qualification terms will vary slightly. But next, you will either need to fund your new account with at least $50 of your own money, or you will need to execute at least one purchase. Either way, you will need to transfer into your account a bare minimum of funds.
3. Finally, after your account has been funded with at least $50 and your first purchase has been executed, you’ll need to wait around 4-6 weeks to receive your bonus money. Upon receiving your promo code bonus, you can transfer your bonus money into your checking account and decide what you want to do with the stock trade you made.

With The Qualifying ShareBuilder Stock Purchase You Made, You Should Leave It Alone And Let It Grow

One of the requirements to qualifying for the ShareBuilder promo offer is to make at least one equity trade. If you’re a new investor or you are opening the account merely to take advantage of the free bonus offer, then I’d recommend buying a stock that you will likely hold onto for a long time. Since there is no hard credit check for opening a ShareBuilder account and a modest transaction fee is required to sell your small stock position, I’d recommend holding onto whatever shares you purchase for a long, long time. After all, once you receive your $50 bonus in a few weeks and transfer the free promo money to your checking account, your monetary situation will have nearly evened out in terms of out of pocket money invested.

I suggest putting your starter money into a more stable exchange traded fund (ETF), which is basically a broad index fund that trades like an ordinary stock. Most ETF’s are less prone to wild trading swings and are less adversely affected by the news of a single company. Since I invest mostly in Asia funds, I recommend ETF’s that track the performance of emerging markets like China, Taiwan, South Korea, and Singapore, although Brazil and Mexico are worthy mentions as well.

If you want broader coverage, go for the iShare MSCI Emerging Markets Index (EEM). If you want regional growth coverage, go for the South Korea iShare MSCI Index (EWY), or if you’re gutsier, try the iShare FTSE/Xinhua China 25 Index (FXI). Yes, they are all certainly riskier and more volatile than your average bear, but do remember that you are investing with free ShareBuilder promotional money anyway. $50 is not that much so you might as well bet the house and hold for the ages. Who knows, in 25-30 years your $50 may have steadily grown into a few thousand dollars through the magic of compound interest. In that time I will personally report back here on how much my bonus money has grown.

Are you a wireless bandit? I was – back when I was just a poor cash-strapped student during my graduate school days. I know many of you out there have “borrowed” your neighbor’s Wi-Fi (wireless fidelity) internet signal before to save a few bucks. Maybe you just moved into your new apartment or house and haven’t had time to set up DSL or cable internet yet. So what’s your take on the moral and legal implications of using someone else’s wireless connection? Fortunately I am a working adult now with my own broadband connection so I don’t have to face this dilemma anymore. But is the practice of tapping into your neighbor’s Wi-Fi connection from the confines of your own home wrong? Is it some type of piracy or wireless theft, or is it merely receiving a free benefit that has either been knowingly or neglectfully dumped into the public domain?

I Don’t Have A Moral Problem With Accessing Someone Else’s Publicly Available and Unsecured Wireless Signal

Currently I have my own broadband service through my internet provider, Comcast. Thus I have no regular need to piggy back on someone else’s wireless signal, although I can see when the emergency occasion may arise, particularly if my internet connection ever went down. Rather than driving to the local library to use one of their free public computers, I may just find it more convenient to search for stray unsecured signals and temporarily utilize one. Besides, I wouldn’t even know how to go about tracking down the location of the wireless source to ask him or her for permission.

Personally, I have no substantial ethical problems with using my neighbor’s unsecured wireless signal from the vicinity of my own home. I feel the practice falls into the fuzzy gray area that encompasses questionable acts like speeding. It’s just something everyone does on occasion and not universally or equitably enforced. It’s not like I’m sneaking into one of my neighbors’ homes and plugging my laptop into their wireless router, or trying to intercept some other user’s data transmissions. I would simply be receiving something that is already floating around and rendered available in the public airwaves. For all I know, the person has no problem with giving the public reasonable access. In fact, some neighbors have been known to express such generosity. I’m not advocating moral wrongdoing, but I tend to view such practices through a pragmatic perspective.

Homeowners Should Do A Better Job Of Securing Their Wi-Fi Connection

I used to operate my own wireless router a few years ago. However, I always made sure my wireless network was fully secured and encrypted to protect against unauthorized access. Of course, my opinion would clearly depend on what side of the wireless connection I was on. If I was the one who had the wireless router and some stranger was accessing my signal without permission, I would obviously be upset at them for freeloading on a service I paid a monthly fee for. While their usage wouldn’t likely diminish my full enjoyment of my internet service by drastically consuming bandwidth to a noticeable degree, to me, it’s just the principle of freeloading involved. But at the same time I would blame myself for ignorantly not shielding my public broadcast signal from unauthorized access. Wireless network owners must take it upon themselves to protect their own service if they want to exclude the public from their Wi-Fi service. If the wireless signal is not properly secured once it takes flight, it’s reasonable to assume that any number of neighbors within the broadcast radius can easily pick up the stray signal.

Securing one’s own wireless router is very easy and something that everyone with a wireless router should do. There are a variety of security options available, from WEP encrypted passwords, MAC address authentication, signal encryption, limiting the SSID broadcast name, to simply not sending out a public wireless signal that frankly anyone can access. WEP passwords and MAC address authentication help to limit access to those who are authorized and help to protect the system from intruders. Blocking your router’s SSID name makes your signal identity more invisible to those who are not already aware of its existence. Securing your Wi-Fi is important because you never know who might be using your connection and what they might be using it for. It could be anything from illegal file sharing, to child pornography, to illegal spam activity. Setting up proper security measures should be every network owner’s top priority before they start utilizing the service.

The Legal Implications For Public Wireless Theft Are Murky, And Prohibitions Are Difficult To Enforce

In the legal realm, the area of so-called wireless signal theft is fuzzy at best, although many jurisdictions have enacted laws and ordinances prohibiting such activity. I think we can generally establish that the act of piggy backing on your neighbor’s Wi-Fi signal is probably not the purist thing any of us can do, but is it an act that might subject you to criminal prosecution or even civil suit by the wireless owner? The answer is probably not, unless the anonymous wireless user takes it to the extreme.

If your neighbor’s wireless signal was password protected but you somehow managed to hack your way in, I think it’s safe to say that you are accessing the connection unlawfully and without permission. But what about the vast majority of piggy backing cases in which the signal was completely unsecured and floating in the public neighborhood airwaves. It’s a harder legal case for the wireless owner to build. One of the legal cornerstones of litigation is also the issue of damages. If you only used your neighbor’s connection for occasional email and light web browsing without slowing the connection down, how much damages could your neighbor claim as the harm he received as a result of your actions?

Enforcement and prosecution of such acts have always been exceedingly difficult as well. Even the mega million music industry and their RIAA goons have difficulty tracking down illegal filesharers and downloaders of music. Tracking down the location of unauthorized wireless users is also quite difficult. It’s easy if you only have a few neighborhood houses nearby or if it was just some guy parked outside the home in his car and using his portable laptop to access the connection. But what about a situation like mine? I live in a medium size apartment complex. How would any wireless network owner determine which of the nearly 50 apartment rooms was the culprit? It’s a difficult task. That’s why homeowners need to resort to self help by taking better wireless security precautions.

Downsides and Dangers Of Using A Nearby Neighbor’s Wireless Signal

The most obvious disadvantage of using someone else’s wireless connection is that it is inherently unreliable. You are using a publicly available connection so the owner of that connection can boot you out or shut off any unauthorized connections on a whim. If you are a heavy internet user or frequently work at home using the internet like myself, relying on someone else’s Wi-Fi is a terrible idea, even with the cost savings. It’s not just a convenience matter either. Keep in mind that the owner of the wireless router has access to all data and information relayed through the router and if the owner is tech savvy and diabolical enough, he or she may intercept confidential information you’ve provided using the connection, including logins and passwords.

With all the free public wireless hotspots available today through commercial establishments like coffee shops and restaurants, perhaps this whole public Wi-Fi sharing problem will ultimately disappear. Perhaps one day all local and state governments will finally agree to provide free wireless internet for all. Now wouldn’t that be something?