What is Money?

By Samuel Phineas Upham

Money is more than the dollar bills one holds in one hands. The paper bills in your wallet could be easily substituted for stones, tobacco leaves, tea leaves, copper, paper, cigarettes, vegetables, fruits or anything else that can be exchanged. The thing that we call money is not a defined object in itself. If the government and society collapsed tomorrow, basic necessities would take the place of currency.

So money is not what is printed, it is what is exchanged that gives money its value.

Money can be something valuable, like gold, or it can be something akin to credit like the dollar bills in a child’s piggy bank. When you consider that the dollar is a government IOU, it’s much easier to understand.

Money, as in what is printed by the US Mint, is a universal medium of exchange. In the old days, a vendor might review your wares and make what is considered a fair trade for goods. Sometimes, these goods would be valuable like gold, but other times the goods might consist of something like spices. These goods carried value according to individual demand, somewhat like what we have today. This old system was fragmented. You would have to make several stops on your way through a region to be sure that you have traded all goods you have of value, and to get their maximum return.

Paper notes, and coins in the olden days, largely simplified the bartering process. In this way, money became little more than universally agreed upon notes that came to represent forms of payment.

About the Author: Samuel Phineas Upham is an investor at a family office/ hedgefund, where he focuses on special situation illiquid investing. Before this position, Phin Upham was working at Morgan Stanley in the Media and Telecom group. You may contact Phin on his Samuel Phineas Upham website or LinkedIn.

Two ways you can deal with non-stop collection calls

Article Written by : Scrumpy Jack

When a debt collector starts to call you, there are many ways you can fight those threatening calls. You have immediate family needs that you need to attend and repayment of an overdue or contested debt shouldn’t be top priority over your family survival. So, prioritize all your bills and follow your heart in paying from most important to least important.

One way to deal with annoying collection calls is to find an agency or an attorney who specializes in debt relief for individuals. Once you have an attorney working on your debt, you can stop collection calls and send them to the attorney. They are more aware of all individual protections afforded to you under the law, especially the Fair Debt Collection Practices Act (FDCPA).

If you want to deal with your debt all by yourself and stop collection calls, you need to keep good records. Need to log in all calls you receive and times, names of persons you were in contact and other details. Most of all in order to stop any collection calls you need to request that in writing. Send them a certified letter asking them to stop harassment. However, if they send you proof of debt, they can start to call you again.