Back when I worked as a consultant in the defense industry, I was expected to wear a suit every single day into work. I was fortunate in that I had just made a trip to China and came back with five suits (at around $80 a piece – they were very nice quality too) so I was well equipped to wear one every single day. (I would later learn that you just left a jacket behind your door and only wore a full suit to meet with clients) Even with five suits, I wanted to make sure I maintained them properly so that I could get the most out of them. While they were under $80 a piece, a great price for a great suit (that’s what happens when you go straight to the tailor), I knew they were worth two or three times that and wanted to treat them that way.

So I read up on how to maintain a suit and was surprised how simple it was.

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Here’s an interesting question – is taking advantage of an exploitable bug in something inherently illegal? By luck and lots of playing, John Kane discovered a bug in the Game King video poker gaming system (this is true of all systems, not a single unit, in which certain settings were turned on) that would give him a significant advantage. I won’t go into the exact exploit, it gets pretty detailed, but Kane was charged with a violation of federal anti-hacking law even though he didn’t tamper with anything. He simply looked for a setting (or asked that it be turned on) and used his workaround. He also worked with others to visit several casinos over and over to use the exploit to the tune of hundreds of thousands of dollars.

The exact charge wasn’t that they hacked the unit itself, since they didn’t, but that they exceeded “their otherwise legitimate access ‘to obtain or alter information in the computer that the accesser is not entitled so to obtain or alter.’” In other words, they discovered this workaround, used it, and made lots of money. They found a bug (the thing the accesser is not entitled to obtain or alter).

Personally, I don’t think what they did should be a crime. The manufacturers of the Game King system didn’t test their systems enough and now turning this into a legal case just brings more exposure to their oversight. This is big news only because of all the recent news about Aaron’s Law (named after Aaron Swartz), and the fight over internet regulation laws.

Did they do something ethical? No, certainly not. But you could argue that gambling is hardly ethical either (and being unethical in an unethical place… well, that’s not two wrongs make a right either!). That said, gamblers are always trying to beat the house when they play any rigged game (all casino games favor the house), these gamblers simply found a way to work things in their favor. I applaud them!

What do you think? Did they commit a crime?

(Credit: midom)

A few weeks ago, I wrote a post talking about a weird charge on my bank statement and how it’s important to review your statements every month. For many people, ourselves included, reviewing credit card and bank statements are a monthly ritual because we are aware of much identity theft is out there.

What we don’t often think about is less obvious fees and charges that companies stick on bills. I download my internet/cable bill from Comcast each month in order to fill out an expense report. When I looked at my bill, I noticed that it was a little higher than normal. About forty dollars higher.

I did some digging and here was the culprit:
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Probably not… but I tried!

We recently put in an offer on a new home and one of the fun parts of the home buying process is getting a mortgage loan. One of the fun parts of getting a home mortgage loan is finding out whether or your not you can get on in the first place and how much it’ll cost you!

When the lender pulled our credit, we found out that the bank would be taking the our median credit score and using that as our score. As cruel fate would have it, our middle score happened to be 739. 739 puts it exactly one point under 740, which would’ve made us eligible for the best possible interest rate. The difference between the two rates was 0.125% APR, which equals thousands over the thirty year life of the mortgage.

Since we didn’t have an accepted offer and we weren’t locking in the rate, we still had a chance to try to boost our score just a little bit in the next month in order to get the best possible rate. We needed just a single point. Here is what we were going to do:

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Have you ever met someone who said they loved their cable company? I haven’t. We pay them a lot of money to watch television, surf the internet, and give us access to entertainment options we otherwise wouldn’t have access to. Most of them hold monopolies and they all act like they do.

One of the best things you can do for yourself, when it comes to negotiating monthly fixed costs, is review your options when it comes to cable and internet services and go with whomever is cheaper. The services are near perfect substitutes so why not pay less for the same thing? The only thing really stopping anyone is how much of a pain in the ass it is to switch. We recently switched from Verizon to Comcast in part because Comcast offered us cheaper service, plus faster internet, and around two hundred and fifty bucks in statement credits. You can’t go wrong with cheaper and free “cash,” so I switched.

With cable bills, you actually prepay for service. So you that bill you received in March goes towards April’s monthly payments. When you cancel, the cable company actually owes you money and you need to get that back (it’s almost like a security deposit on their equipment). I returned their equipment, saw they owed me $135 and now goes the annoying process of getting my own money back.

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When my lovely wife was growing up, she’d work small summer jobs and put those savings into a certificate of deposit. Even back then, CDs weren’t exactly offering blockbuster yields (they never do relative to other riskier options), but she diligently contributed them into CDs and left them to to mature. The value in doing so wasn’t in the interest she earned but the habit of saving and understanding the importance of saving.

If that’s a lesson you want to teach your kids, the options today are far better than they used to be. Back then, if you were under 18, it was extremely difficult to open an account at the bank. In my case, I simply gave the money to my parents and they saved it on my behalf. It was good enough. Back then, online banking was just starting and I couldn’t log in to check my balance or do anything banking related. These days, with smart phones and always-on internet, giving your kids an account with their name on it can bestow a sense of responsibility and ownership that will help those lessons stick.

So what are the best bank accounts for kids?

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We’ve covered the issue of money buying happiness a few times in the past (just look at the Related Posts below and you’ll see a few fine examples). However, the last time we even mentioned it was several years ago and there’s new research! There is always new research… the question is whether that research says anything new.

This one does.

The study looked at the question of “satiation.” In plain English, they simply wondered if there was ever a point in which you earned “enough” to be happy. If you earned enough where your basic needs were met, like food and shelter, would you be happier if you continued to make more. Is there a point at which you no longer happier?

Some people have likened it to air. It’s no fun when you don’t have enough to breathe but you really don’t gain extra by have more air. Well, the results of the study suggest that the answer is that there is no point at which your happiness stops. The richer you get, the happier you are about it.

Do you think that’s true?

(Credit: stevendepolo)

When was the last time you saw a credit card offer this rich a sign on bonus? It’s been many many years. While I’m not one for travel credit cards, I know there are a lot of folks out there who see a 40,000 bonus mile offer like that and begin salivating. It’s not common but Barclaycard is trying to make a splash and by offering 40,000 bonus miles after you make $1,000 in purchases in the first 90 days, they’re certainly doing that.

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