Happy Monday, Barkada --

The PSE gained 66 points to 6602 ▲1%

Congrats to Vince R for winning the P500 Grab Food voucher draw for entering his ALTER allocation into my ALTER IPO Allocation Poll!
Congrats also to ReaperCraft07 for correctly predicting ALTER's first-day performance ("breakeven"). I'm trying to figure out a way to expand this fun contest beyond Reddit, but I'm not quite sure how to do that.
Thanks to Jullian Masangcay and Mark Crismon Santarina for the positive feedback on my FB-based test of whether its better to send the main post, REIT Index post and IPO Index post as one single post (instead of individually as I do now). I'm going to expand the experiment this week to Twitter and Investa as well, so please let me know what you think (all feedback is appreciated!)
Shout-outs to Dominic Espinosa, Marcos Maharlika-watan, Jonathan Burac, mArQo, SE Accounting Solutions Philippines, meloi, CHARToons, avenmicjohn, Lance Nazal, LanAustria, Justn, Evolves Capital, Inc., Dividend Pinoy PGG, Rolex Jodieres, Palaboy Trader, Antonio Javier, Chip Sillesa, and Jing for the retweets, and to Greenvest and Grow PH, Froilan Ramos, Jayvee Menil, Francisco Pascual, Evolves.co, and Mike Ting for the FB shares!

▌In today's MB:

• Alternergy's IPO finishes flat
• COMING UP: Quick look at the week ahead
• Holcim FY22 profit down 63%
• CREIT indemnified against $5M settlement

▌Daily meme Subscribe (it's free) Today's email

▌Today's sponsor: Fruitas Holdings

▌Main stories covered:

• [RECAP] Alternergy finishes flat after a quiet first day... Alternergy [ALTER 1.28 unch] [link] started its life on the PSE on the wrong-side of its ₱1.28/share IPO offer price, with the first few trades of the day coming in at around ₱1.22/share (-5%). While the price climbed consistently, it took nearly an hour, until 10:30 AM, for the organic demand (or the stabilization fund) to push ALTER back up to break-even. The price even pushed into gain territory, reaching ₱1.30/share, but it do so on very light volume. The stock dipped back down below the offer price when trading started up again after lunch, but the price was stickier to the offer price from that point forward. ALTER ended the day at ₱1.28/share, which is exactly what IPO buyers paid.
  
  • MB: That start in the red got a lot of people on forums asking questions like, “Where’s the stabilization fund?” While ALTER had (and still has) a stabilization fund, just remember that stabilization funds are not a guarantee that an IPO won’t go below the offer price. They are a potential source of artificial demand, but the stabilization agent -- the bank or brokerage charged with administering the stabilization fund -- gets to use its own discretion as to how that fund is deployed. If the price is below offer, as it was for the first hour of ALTER’s life, the stabilization agent has the authorization to make purchases on the open market with the goal of manipulating the stock’s price upward, but it gets to choose when to engage and to what extent. The stabilization fund has a limited lifespan (1 month max) and a finite amount of resources that it can use to achieve that goal, so there is a little bit of gamesmanship when it comes to how the agent will deploy the funding. We won’t know if the stabilization fund was used yesterday until ALTER makes its first stabilization fund disclosure, but it’s something that I will continue to track so that I can give everyone a better idea of how the fund is doing and how long it might live.
• [COMING] UP Quick look at the week ahead... Now that the central bank “stuff” is all out of the way, we get to pay closer attention to analyzing FY22 earnings reports and tracking the progress of the various equity-raising transactions that the PSE has scheduled to complete in the near future. Today is the day that the Upson International [UPSON 5.50] IPO offer period will end (the IPO is on Monday of next week). Tomorrow (Tuesday), the Megawide [MWIDE 3.07 ▲1.7%] follow-on offering starts, with shares of the preferred series MW₱5 going on sale for ₱100.00. On Thursday, the Cemex Philippines [CHP 1.03 ▼1.0%] tender offer will settle, which means that all the shareholders that tendered their shares in CHP to CHP’s parent company will finally receive the cash payment for those committed shares. Then, on Friday, the Philippine Business Bank [PBB 9.48 ▼3.3%] stock rights offering (SRO) shares will list. We’ll also get a slew of FY22 earnings reports from Nickel Asia [NIKL 6.61 ▼1.3%], Citicore Energy REIT [CREIT 2.48 ▲0.4%], D&L Industries [DNL 7.65 ▲0.1%], JG Summit [JGS 52.45 ▲3.5%], Monde Nissin [MONDE 11.34 ▲2.5%], and MacroAsia [MAC 4.92 unch].
  
  • MB: Underneath all of this is the common denominator of valuations. This is really “valuation season”, with equity raising forcing large investors to do a round of comparables and forward projections to invest in IPOs, and everyone else consuming the regular annual reports of the PSE companies to track progress to assumptions and models, to update price projections, and further expand or contract the valuations for those companies. The next two weeks will feel pretty action packed for price-action traders and value traders alike.
• [NOTES] Quick takes from around the market...
  
  • **Holcim [HLCM 3.87 ▼0.8%] [link] FY22 net income of ₱0.9 billion, down 63% from its FY21 net income of ₱2.6 billion. Gross revenues were down marginally to ₱26.6 billion, from ₱26.9 billion. HLCM said that, excluding a one-off expense in Q3, its net income would have been ₱1.6 billion for FY22, which still represents a drop of 38%. The company said that its “excellence” allowed it to increase prices in an attempt to offset the inflationary pressure on its unit costs for coal, fuel, and power, but that the “surge” in the price for fuel and energy caused costs associated with these inputs to rise 60%, overwhelming those price increase efforts and other cost-cutting efforts.
    • MB Quick Take: Inflation is eating HLCM alive, and what is happening to HLCM here is a good demonstration of how elevated inflation will impact the average consumer going forward. The increased input prices for HLCM cause HLCM to raise its prices, which in turn, become increased input prices for new construction projects like dams, roadways, condo towers, and housing developments. The increased inputs for those developers cause the developers to raise their prices.
  • **Citicore Energy REIT [CREIT 2.48 ▲0.4%] [link] said that it believes that it is fully indemnified against any negative results in the arbitration case it disclosed last week. The legal dispute in question was between Enfinity Philippines Renewable Resources (EPRR) and two contractors that assisted EPRR to build a solar power project. After the contract between EPRR and the two contractors was signed, EPRR was acquired by CREIT, but the project that forms the basis of the complaint was “carved out” prior to CREIT’s purchase of EPRR. CREIT’s Investor Relations department said that EPRR has provided indemnity protection to CREIT as part of the purchase agreement, which the IR team says “effectively relieved us of any monetary consequences or claims”.
    • MB Quick Take: *An indemnity clause is a very important one in the mergers and acquisition space. When you buy physical assets (like a car or a painting), you just get that physical assets, but when you buy a corporation (like when CREIT bought EPRR), you don’t just buy its products and facilities, you buy all of its rights and obligations as a legal entity as well. Doing due diligence on “all the potential legal liability with respect to everything the company did before right now” is (obviously) a rather overwhelming scope for a pre-deal legal review, so indemnification agreements become a more-efficient workaround to solve the problem. *

MB is written and distributed every trading day. The newsletter is 100% free and I never upsell you to some "iNnEr cIrClE" of paid-membership perks. Everyone gets the same! Join the barkada by signing up for the newsletter, or follow me on Twitter. You can also read my daily Morning Halo-halo content on Philstar.com in the Stock Commentary section, and in the Saturday edition of the Daily Manila Shimbun.

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Was sick all week, so doing the bare minimum.

Monday

Ritchie Bros. - RBA.to
Ritchie Bros. Completes Acquisition of IAA, Creating a Premier Global Marketplace Leader
announced that it has completed its acquisition of IAA, Inc. ("IAA"). As previously announced on January 23, 2023, under the terms of the amended merger agreement, IAA shareholders will receive $12.80 per share in cash and 0.5252 common shares of Ritchie Bros. for each share of IAA common stock they own.
"The closing of the IAA acquisition represents the beginning of an exciting new chapter for Ritchie Bros. as we expect the combination of our businesses to drive long-term, profitable growth and significant, sustainable shareholder value creation," said Ann Fandozzi, CEO of Ritchie Bros. "With IAA, we will accelerate our transformation into a premier digital marketplace and expand into an attractive, adjacent vertical, broadening our global footprint. Our combined yard footprint, marketplace infrastructure and comprehensive suite of innovative solutions will allow us to serve customers more effectively and efficiently than ever before."

Tuesday

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Wednesday

CEMATRIX - CVX.v
CEMATRIX Announces $4.5 Million in New Contracts as Backlog Continues to Grow
announced that its wholly owned operating subsidiaries, which include CEMATRIX (Canada) Inc. (“CCI”), MixOnSite USA Inc. (“MOS”) and Pacific International Grout Company (“PIGCO’) have executed $4.5 million in new contracts in 2023.
Factoring in the $4.5M in contracts executed, converted contracts, the increase in contracts in process of $1.6 million and sales completed to the end of February 2023, the Corporation’s backlog has increased to $87.2 million, a 10% increase compared to CEMATRIX’s sales adjusted backlog of $79.5 million at December 31, 2022. $40.2 million of the Corporation’s current backlog is now Contracted and $47.0 million is Contracts in Process. $30.9 million of the current backlog is scheduled for 2023, of which $25 million are contracted.
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Water Ways - WWT.v
Water Ways Signs Smart Irrigation and Fertigation Project in Canada With a Total Expected Value of CAD$850,000
has signed an agreement to design and supply a complete smart irrigation and fertigation system for a recurring customer.
Under the agreement, HGWWT will provide irrigation and fertigation system for an apple orchard project in Southern Ontario. The first stage of the project, with a total expected value of CAD$850,000, will use the latest Israeli technologies for smart irrigation, fertigation and control systems and are designed by Water Ways' engineers.
The installation of the project is expected to begin in Q3 2023 and continue throughout the first months of 2024. Commissioning of the system is expected at the end Q1 2024. HGWWT expects to recognize revenues accordingly.
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Thursday

Plurilock - PLUR.v
Plurilock Receives C$3.4 Million Purchase Order from Department of National Defence
has received a C$3.4 million purchase order from the Department of National Defence.
The Department of National Defence provides support to the Canadian Armed Forces in its role of defending Canadians' interests at home and abroad1. According to the terms of the purchase order, Integra will deliver IT solutions to the Department of National Defence.
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DRONE DELIVERY CANADA- FLT.v
DRONE DELIVERY CANADA CORP. AWARDED FIRST CONTRACT FOR ITS HEAVY-LIFT CONDOR DRONE FROM THE GOVERNMENT OF CANADA
has signed a contract (the "Contract") with the Canadian Government to work with Transport Canada in operating and evaluating DDC's proprietary drone delivery platform using DDC's heavy-lift Condor remote piloted aircraft, the largest drone currently being developed by DDC. The Contract, with a value up to approximately $1.2 million is with the Canadian government's Innovative Solutions Canada program. Under the terms of the Contract, DDC will provide Transport Canada with a Condor drone, and collaborate with Transport Canada in operating, testing and evaluating the capabilities of the Condor drone solution until December 2023. The contract consists of 3 phases:
(1) Short range flights (2) Long range endurance flights (3) Extreme environmental testing

Friday

KWESST- KWE.v
G7 Capital Police Force First To Acquire KWESST's New Overwatch Commander System For Critical Incident Management
Announced that a G7 capital police force has adopted the Company’s new Overwatch Commander system, with delivery expected this summer.
Designed specifically for Critical Incident Management (“CIM”), KWESST’s Overwatch Commander system closes the gap in real-time video surveillance for incident commanders as events unfold. Lack of timely, shared information from the “front lines” of an incident has been cited over and over as a major deficiency during incidents such as civil unrest, mass shootings, natural disasters and search and rescue operations.

I have a small closet on Poshmark and historically sell my own clothing/accessories. To relieve some stress from law school and studying for the bar exam, I've been buying up more colors of a fad accessory item on Poshmark and refurbishing it to resell. I put in a lot of work doing this and only make a small profit (typically $8-$10 dollars per item), but it helps me cope with the stress.
Poshmark has been my main source of income throughout law school, but I've really been ramping up my closet because I have serious doubts I passed the bar, my student loans are coming due, and it seems my $160,000 degree is absolutely useless unless I pass an exam. I have quite a bit of said accessory inventory I've accumulated over the years (over $10,000).
A few days ago, a buyer opened up a case based on authenticity. The buyer took screenshots from the merchant's website showing details and features the item I sold him did not have, but the item he was comparing was a completely different version of the item I sold him (mini versus regular). Furthermore, he cited features on the current accessory that were absent on the accessory he purchased. The problem with that comparison is that the merchant changed this item in 2021 and did away with some of the features he was citing. My listing stated the year this particular color of accessory was released and all 14 of my images were extremely detailed. I stated this in the case, including screenshots of how the buyer was comparing a completely different accessory as evidence the accessory I sold him was counterfeit. Anyone who knows anything about this particular item would immediately understand the buyer was mistaken in his beliefs, but apparently Poshmark cannot bother to do an iota of internet research to substantiate or refute an opened case.
Poshmark approved the return and sent an email cautioning that I am violating Terms of Service and Federal Law. Veiled threats from a platform that openly permits trafficking of ACTUAL counterfeit items as I currently browse newly listed items of this accessory and see 3 completely obvious counterfeits that have just sold for waaaaaay more than the seller paid for them on Alibaba. .
Every single one of the accessories listed I have either purchased on Poshmark or bought directly from the merchant. It might also be important to note that I worked as a sales associate for said merchant for several years during college. I know a lot about the product and spotting counterfeits. In fact, I purchased the alleged counterfeit item from a seller on Poshmark a few months ago. I have a lot of other colors of this item (from various sellers on Poshmark and the merchant) and they all look absolutely identical to the item in question. They are not counterfeit.
However, Poshmark has just set a precedent that 150 of my 190 listings are counterfeit, despite overwhelming evidence of the contrary simply by taking the buyer's word at face value. If someone doesn't like the item or mistakenly purchased the wrong colosize, heck, let's just call it counterfeit and Poshmark will approve unless the seller can produce security footage from the mall showing the transaction actually occurred and the seller left the mall with said item in their hands. It doesn't even matter if Poshmark was the one who facilitated the sale of the alleged counterfeit item AND ADMITTED TO IT by ruling the item was counterfeit.
Poshmark does nothing to protect a seller who is paying a 20% extortion fee to use their server to post pictures. Furthermore, a buyer isn't guaranteed absolute protection as a claim's approval is entirely in the hands of whichever representative is running the help desk. There is no due process. There are no rules. And I am done giving mafioso Poshmark my hard-earned money each sale for "protection" that never comes.
TL;DR I am a Poshmark II Ambassador and have done over $15,000 in year-to-date gross sales, yet Poshmark just ruled that 150 out 190 items listed are counterfeit based of a buyer's ignorant claims.

Dear Colleagues,
Montclair State is accepting applications for an Assoc/Full Professor in Technical Communication. The ad (as well as submission portal) is accessible here: https://montclair.wd1.myworkdayjobs.com/JobOpportunities/job/Montclair-NJ/Associate-Full-Professor-of-Technical-Communication_R1002852
The full position description is also pasted below. Applications are currently under review and will be accepted until the position is filled.
Please don't hesitate to write to me directly with questions.
Thanks--Jess Restaino
POSITION DESCRIPTION
A new and exciting position is available for a person with a Ph.D. in Professional or Technical Communication. Housed at the intersection of the College of Humanities and Social Sciences and the College of Science and Mathematics, this position is ideally suited for someone who writes in the field of science, medicine, and/or health, with additional specializations in health disparities/social determinants of health, social justice, usability, artificial technology (AI), disability, multilingualism, mental health, health literacy, or STEM education. This position is part of a new initiative to foster cross college and cross discipline collaboration. Qualified candidates will have established publication records, a history of grant acquisition, and evidence of successful interdisciplinary collaboration with colleagues in science and medicine. Candidates should demonstrate evidence of success in interdisciplinary curriculum development, community engagement, student mentoring, and program administration. As a joint appointment, the successful candidate will share time between Writing Studies, including instruction in the undergraduate Public and Professional Writing majominor, and the College of Science and Mathematics, including curricular development and professional development initiatives to support faculty, staff, and students. The ideal candidate will be able to work independently and have latitude to forge relationships, innovate existing strengths and capacities, and engage in projects that benefit both schools.
COLLEGE/SCHOOL AND DEPARTMENT DESCRIPTIONS
The Writing Studies Department is a growing department with an undergraduate major and minor in Public and Professional Writing. The department offers a range of courses that include emphases on technical, digital, medical/health, social justice, and community-based rhetorics; the department also houses the general education writing program, which serves over 3,500 students each semester. Faculty occupy tenure/tenure-track, full-time lecturer, and adjunct positions with expertise areas that include rhetoric-composition studies, creative writing, and literary study. Research interests include digital rhetorics, professional writing, community-based and social justice writing, queer and feminist research methodologies, disability rhetorics, and rhetorics of medicine and health.
The College of Humanities and Social Sciences (CHSS) is the University’s largest academic unit with over 5,000 undergraduate, master’s, and doctoral students. CHSS awards BA, MA, and PhD degrees through its 16 departments and 9 programs with over 30 majors and 50 minors. Offering traditional and interdisciplinary learning, the College is home to outstanding researchers across all disciplines while its faculty are also superb classroom instructors. The College proudly embraces the University’s diversity and its dual mission of promoting both research excellence and social mobility through transformative, accessible education.
The mission of the College of Science and Mathematics (CSAM) is to prepare the next generation of STEM leaders. Our success is based on a simple educational philosophy: outstanding and dedicated faculty, engaged students and a commitment to academic and research excellence. State-of-the-art facilities and technology support distinctive BS, MS, and PhD programs across seven departments. Discovery-based courses and experiential learning opportunities result in an optimal environment to provide our diverse student body with a transformative education. The College is committed to the ongoing formation of academic/industry collaborations and partnerships to provide long-term economic benefits to New Jersey and beyond. We are home to several institutes, centers, and laboratories including the Clean Energy and Sustainability Analytics Center, the Microscopy and Microanalysis Research Laboratory, the New Jersey Center for Water Science and Technology, the PSEG Institute for Sustainability Studies, and the Sokol Institute for Pharmaceutical Life Sciences.
QUALIFICATIONS:
Ph.D. in Professional or Technical Communication or related field
DIVERSITY, EQUITY & INCLUSION STATEMENT
Montclair State University is committed to establishing and maintaining a diverse campus community that is representative of the State of New Jersey through inclusive excellence and equal opportunity. Montclair State University's commitment to access and equity is designed to prepare each graduate to thrive as a global citizen. As an affirmative action, equal opportunity institution we are working to support a campus-wide agenda to foster a community that both values and promotes the varied voices of our students, faculty, and staff. The University encourages candidates to apply who will contribute to the cultural tapestry of MSU and who value teaching a diverse student population, many of whom are first generation students.
SALARY RANGE: Commensurate with experience
STARTING DATE: August 28, 2023

REQUIRED MATERIALS:

• Cover letter, curriculum vitae, research and teaching statements, diversity statement, and representative publications, which can be uploaded during the application process.
• 3 letters of recommendation, which can be sent to: [[email protected]](mailto:[email protected])

APPLY BY: The position is open until filled and application review begins immediately.
Department
Writing Studies
Position Type
Faculty
Contact Information:
For questions or concerns, please contact Human Resources' Workday Recruiting Support at 973-655-5000 (Option 2), or email [talent](mailto:[email protected])[@montclair.edu](mailto:[email protected]).
EEO/AA Statement
Montclair State University is an Equal Opportunity/Affirmative Action institution with a strong commitment to diversity.
Additional information can be found on the website at
www.montclair.edu/human-resources/about-us/eo-aa-and-diversity/
Title IX and 34 C.F.R. 106 Policy
Montclair State is required by Title IX and 34 C.F.R. 106 not to discriminate on the basis of sex or gender, and does not discriminate on the basis of sex or gender in the operation of education programs and activities. The requirement to not discriminate on the basis of sex or gender in the operation of education programs and activities extends to admission and employment. For further details, please visit: https://www.montclair.edu/human-resources/job-seekers/
-------Jessica Restaino, PhDProfessor and Chair
Department of Writing StudiesMontclair State Universityshe/hehers
Land Acknowledgement: The land upon which we gather at Montclair State University is part of the traditional territory of the Lenni-Lenape, called “Lenapehoking.” If you want to know more,https://nlltribe.com/land-acknowledgement/.
via IFTTT

Probably the most basic questions in the world but I had never thought about Sales Engineering until now.

1. How much do you travel? Couldn't all the presentations, POC environment building and all other aspects of "selling" be done completely remote?
2. Is your performance based on how many sales you close? Are you reprimanded if a potential customer passes?
3. Is your salary commission based? If so, how much of your salary is dependent on commission? Also a ball-park figure of the typical salary range for this type of role would be appreciated.

Thank you!

The SEC Has Charged Justin Sun & related entities over ‘Fraud & Other Securities Law Violations’ - The SEC’s charges allege Tron’s Native Token, TRX, is a security.

• The SEC’s charges target Justin Sun and 3 of ‘his wholly-owned companies,’ Tron Foundation Limited, BitTorrent Foundation, and Rainberry, formerly BitTorrent.
• The SEC alleges TRX and the BitTorrent cryptocurrency BTT constituted unregistered offers and sales of ‘crypto asset securities.’ In addition, Sun and the entities were charged with ‘fraudulently manipulating the secondary market for TRX through extensive wash trading.’
• Charges were also brought due to an alleged ‘scheme to pay celebrities to tout TRX and BTT without disclosing their compensation.’ The SEC also brought charges against the celebrities involved in the scheme.

According to the SEC, Sun violated ‘antifraud and market manipulation provisions’ when he used wash trading to inflate TRX trading volume. Sun, on secondary markets ‘generated proceeds of (~$31M) from illegal, unregistered offers and sales of the token.’ Following the charges, Sun responded via Twitter that:

"We believe the complaint lacks merit, and in the meantime will continue building the most decentralized financial system."

Tron was launched in 2018, and despite the network achieving success on some fronts, such as hosting 55% of USDt tokens, the network has often been criticized for copying new crypto trends. For instance, the network’s algorithmic stablecoin USDD was seen as attempting to replicate the UST stablecoin on the Luna network. Tron itself is often described as a copy of Ethereum with limited changes.
TRX sold off as much as 12% following the SEC announcing the charges. The token currently has a market cap of USD 5.72B. In regards to US trading venues, TRX is not supported on Coinbase, but is offered on Kraken.
Takeaway: In many ways, Tron and TRX represent a relatively typical example of a cryptocurrency and associated network: TRX was launched via an ICO in 2017 which raised USD 70M; Tron is supported via the efforts of the Tron Foundation, other entities, and Sun; the Tron network claims to be decentralized and not dependent on any one group. In this context, the charges highlight the extent of regulatory and legal complexity faced by the crypto space.

Hi team,
After a bit of advice and a different perspective please as I have been going in circles on this.
Long story short, my partner and I have 260K deposit for a house we're looking at on Deadline Sale that we feel will go for around 800K down in CHCH, maybe less. Looking at current interest rates, our finances and other potential life events in the future (another kid), I am wondering if it would be wise to cash in some stock I have through a work ESPP scheme to bulk up the deposit another 20-40K?
My employer grants annual stock allocations which take time to vest, which vary from months to years, and I also allocate a % of my salary to buy additional stock as well on a quarterly basis, i.e. the money is pooled and then a purchase goes through at the end of the qtr at whatever the going rate is at the time.
I have around $55K NZD in said stock plan account, which I have always thought that I would keep there as an emergency fund / nest egg if I ever needed it due to loss of employment etc.
Would it be a dumb decision to cash some of this out and invest in an inflated housing market, or should I just revisit my finances as they are and make yes/no decision on that and leave the stock where it is.
Thanks!

https://www.effizojobs.com/job/american-airlines-full-time-american-airlines-remote-jobs-full-time-call-center-representative-home-based-reservations-representative/

Been offered an English school sales position. What salary and compensation package should I negotiate for? What is offered at your school?

For context, am a 26 years old male, i have bac and an IT diploma(2 years), back in 2021 i tried finding a internship but didn't succeed, so I joined a call centre, i lasted 6 months, it was a sales gig and hated the constant pressure for objectives, i quit then joined one of the best call centres for insurance and it was even worse, the calls were back to back all day every day, the role was pretty serious as it involved car breakdowns and accidents and a lot of other factors and companies,i struggled for as long as I could knowing that the salary and social benefits were good, I started taking anti depressants and anxiety medicine, but it only kept getting worse, hearing the alarm in the morning the first thought that would cross my mind would be 'i cant do this for 8 hours again', my heart would ache and I'd want to throw up before even starting, after a while my own family suggested to quit and look for smth else, which I still didn't do until 3 months later when I really couldn't anymore, I lasted 11 months, now here i am, home, no job aligned, fearing for my future, still feeling depressed, running out of money each day and all I can see are other call centre offers, i don't know what to do anymore, any suggestions would be very appreciated

First post! Don't bash the formatting, please
Hi, I live in a VHCOL area (Vancouver) and I want to start creating wealth for myself as soon as possible, my $$'s are below
Salary: roughly $1100/week ~$57000/year
Monthly fixed expenses: Car payment: $310 Insurance: $270 Rent $500 (i live at home) Phone: $85
Total $1165/month
Assets:
Cash: $6600 Car: $28000 Gold: ~$2500 BTC: ~$3000 TFSA: $1000 RSP: $350
Liabilities:
Car Lease: $18000 (7/24 months left with $16k buyout)
Net worth: ~$23500
My car buyout is in September and given the market for used cars right now, I'm planning on saving up to pay it off, and potentially selling it back to the dealeprivate sale for profit.
My budget allocates 51% of my income to savings and investments around $2250 a month but I'm expecting a bump in income in the next 6-8 months as I am pursuing a different career.
I'd love to live on my own but I'm not at home much at the rent compared to a studio in the city is more than $1000 a month in savings. I'm still young so I'm considering staying home for a couple more years to really jump my NW.
Currently, I'm building my emergency fund to 6 months of expenses, then I will be focusing on my TFSA, and DCA into an S&P ETF (VOO vs VFV, any advice?)
Going for 100k NW by 21, very ambitious but also fairly good at getting results!
Any advice is appreciated!

🌎 Germany
Apply → https://jobboardsearch.com/redirect?utm_source=reddit&utm_medium=bot&utm_id=jobboarsearch&utm_term=web3jobs.so&rurl=aHR0cHM6Ly93ZWIzam9icy5zby9qb2JzL3NhbGVzLWRldmVsb3BtZW50LXJlcHJlc2VudGF0aXZlLXJ1c3NpYW4tc3BlYWtpbmctY2hhaW5hbHlzaXMtMzk3MDgvP3JlZj1qb2Jib2FyZHNlYXJjaA==

🌎 Germany
Apply → https://jobboardsearch.com/redirect?utm_source=reddit&utm_medium=bot&utm_id=jobboarsearch&utm_term=www.crypto-careers.com&rurl=aHR0cHM6Ly93d3cuY3J5cHRvLWNhcmVlcnMuY29tL2pvYnMvMjA4OTczMjc2LXNhbGVzLWRldmVsb3BtZW50LXJlcHJlc2VudGF0aXZlLXJ1c3NpYW4tc3BlYWtpbmctYXQtY2hhaW5hbHlzaXMvP3JlZj1qb2Jib2FyZHNlYXJjaA==

https://www.nytimes.com/2013/01/27/magazine/how-much-can-restitution-help-victims-of-child-pornography.html
When Nicole was a child, her father took pornographic pictures of her that still circulate on the internet.
Victims of child pornography can now collect damages directly from those convicted of possessing their images. But how much can restitution help them repair their lives?
By Emily Bazelon Jan. 24, 2013
The detective spread out the photographs on the kitchen table, in front of Nicole, on a December morning in 2006. She was 17, but in the pictures, she saw the face of her 10-year-old self, a half-grown girl wearing make-up. The bodies in the images were broken up by pixelation, but Nicole could see the outline of her father, forcing himself on her. Her mother, sitting next to her, burst into sobs.
The detective spoke gently, but he had brutal news: the pictures had been downloaded onto thousands of computers via file-sharing services around the world. They were among the most widely circulated child pornography on the Internet. Also online were video clips, similarly notorious, in which Nicole spoke words her father had scripted for her, sometimes at the behest of other men. For years, investigators in the United States, Canada and Europe had been trying to identify the girl in the images.
Nicole's parents split up when she was a toddler, and she grew up living with her mother and stepfather and visiting her father, a former policeman, every other weekend at his apartment in a suburban town in the Pacific Northwest. He started showing her child pornography when she was about 9, telling her that it was normal for fathers and daughters to "play games" like in the pictures. Soon after, he started forcing her to perform oral sex and raping her, dressing her in tight clothes and sometimes binding her with ropes. When she turned 12, she told him to stop, but he used threats and intimidation to continue the abuse for about a year. He said that if she told anyone what he'd done, everyone would hate her for letting him. He said that her mother would no longer love her.
Nicole (who asked me to use her middle name to protect her privacy) knew her father had a tripod set up in his bedroom. She asked if he'd ever shown the pictures to anyone. He said no, and she believed him. "It was all so hidden," she told me. "And he knew how to lie. He taught me to do it. He said: 'You look them straight in the eye. You make your shoulders square. You breathe normally.'"
When she was 16, Nicole told her mother, in a burst of tears, what had been going on at her father's house. Her father was arrested for child rape. The police asked Nicole whether he took pictures. She said yes, but that she didn't think he showed them to anyone. A few months later, while her father was out on bail, Nicole was using a computer he gave her to work on a presentation for Spanish class when she came across a file with a vulgar name that she couldn't open. She showed it to her mother and stepfather, and they brought the computer to the police.
A search detected five deleted video files of child pornography, two of them showing Nicole and her father. In the spring of 2006, he was charged with a new crime—producing the videos—and he fled the country. At this point, the police didn't realize that Nicole's father had also distributed the images.
Months later, the police said they had no leads on her father, so Nicole went on television to ask the public for any tips that might help them find him. A police officer in Toronto involved in tracking child pornography around the world saw the broadcast and recognized Nicole as an older version of the girl in the notorious videos. The Toronto officer set off an alert that reached the police in Nicole's hometown, informing them that she was the victim in a major pornography-distribution case.
The alert brought the local detective to Nicole's house on that December day, to confirm that she was in fact the girl in the pictures that circulated around the globe. "It was the worst moment of my life," Nicole said of seeing the pictures of herself. "In a way, I didn't remember it being that bad with my father—and then I saw that it was. Knowing that other people, all over, had seen me like that, I just froze. I could hear my mother crying, but I couldn't cry."
Nicole's appearance on TV produced a tip that eventually led the police to arrest her father in Hong Kong. But by going public, she had inadvertently exposed her identity to thousands of men who for years had collected her images. On one Web site with an American flag design, on a thread that continued for four years, commenters described in detail the acts of rape and bondage Nicole had experienced. One called the videos "legendary." Another called her "an eager participant" because her father instructed her to smile and talk in the videos. "The fact remains that she is the most searched for, sought after and downloaded ever," a third commenter wrote. "There are hours of video out there. It's just too bad there are not more willing like her."
For Nicole, knowing that so many men have witnessed and taken pleasure from her abuse has been excruciating. "You have an image of yourself as a person, but here is this other image," she told me. "You know it's not true, but all those other people will believe that it's you—that this is who you really are."
Until the 1970s, magazines with titles like Lolita were rife with sexual images of minors and routinely sold alongside adult pornography at red-light bookstores. In 1978, Congress made child pornography illegal, and four years later, the Supreme Court upheld a state law banning its sale. The court's decision changed the market along with the law. "The commercial distributors started to go out of business," said Kenneth Lanning, a retired F.B.I. agent who consulted on child pornography cases for decades. For a time, distribution and production plummeted. But then came the Internet. By the mid- to late 1990s, Lanning said, "there was a way for people seeking it to find each other and send images."
A decade later, the Justice Department interviewed veteran experts like Lanning for a 2010 report, and concluded that "the market—in terms of numbers of offenders, images and victims"—was growing to a degree described as "overwhelming" and "exponential." In the early-Web year of 1994, only 61 defendants were sentenced in federal court for child-pornography offenses; in 2011, 1,880 were, a 30-fold increase. The federal definition of child pornography extends to young people up to age 18, but the 2010 report noted that it had become more common for images to involve young children, as well as violence and sadism.
Precise numbers of child-pornography viewers are hard to come by. Unicef estimates that there are at least hundreds of thousands of Web sites with child pornography worldwide. Child-pornography consumers are even more likely to swap with one another via hidden networks. Using a tool developed at the University of Massachusetts, Amherst, in 2009, police have logged close to 22 million public I.P. addresses offering child-pornography pictures or videos via peer-to-peer file sharing, which allows users to download content from one computer to another; almost 10 million of the I.P. addresses were located in the United States. Many of the users shared only a single illegal image, perhaps downloaded inadvertently, but others offered collections of hundreds or thousands of pictures.
To gain access to a group of downloaders, a recent arrival may have to prove himself by delivering new material. Often this involves digitally altering an existing image, but in some cases, it can also mean seducing children to create new pictures to trade. The most desired series zoom around the Internet. "A lot of these guys have a collector's mentality," Lanning said. The pictures Nicole's father took became must-haves and went viral.
For Nicole, knowing that her photos were circulating was an unrelenting burden. It was hard to concentrate at school and hard to forge new friendships. She stayed close to just a few friends from her church. Her family is deeply Christian—"I've found comfort in my faith," she says—and she was home-schooled for a few years as a younger child. Her friends from church were the only ones she told about her father. "Everyone else I held at arm's length," she told me when we met this summer at her lawyer's office. Nicole speaks deliberately and carefully, and on that day she was wearing an outfit that matched her coral nail polish and perfectly applied makeup. "But other kids found out after my father was charged. I remember walking down the hallways and thinking I could hear people saying, 'There's the girl who was raped by her dad.'"
In her junior year, Nicole transferred to a community college with a program for students who wanted to earn an associate's degree while finishing high school. "At the time I'd have said I went for academic reasons, but looking back, it was also to isolate myself," she said.
Late that spring, Nicole got a series of messages on Myspace from a man who said he had been looking for her for five years. He asked, "Want me to come visit u?" When Nicole blocked him, he wrote to one of her friends on Myspace, telling her that Nicole was a "porn star"—and sending two images. "That's when I fully realized what it meant for these pictures to be out there," Nicole said. "I couldn't get away from it, not really. I started getting paranoid and having nightmares."
The man was arrested and went to prison, but Nicole couldn't avoid the knowledge that other men were still looking at the sexual photos of her young self. Later that year, she got a letter from the Victim Notification System at the Justice Department. Congress had passed a law in 2004 mandating that crime victims receive notice every time a suspect is arrested or has a court appearance. The letter was addressed to Nicole's mother and stepfather because she hadn't yet turned 18; it informed them that a man in California had been arrested for possessing a pornographic photo of her. "It just sat there on the counter for days," Nicole remembered. "We didn't really know where to put it." More arrests followed and more letters—piles of them. "We stacked them in a laundry basket in a walk-in closet so I wouldn't have to see them," Nicole said. "Then there were more baskets, and we had to move them to the garage. It was really hard for me. I was still scared of my father, but I knew him. These other people, they were strangers, and there were so many of them."
The piles of letters would eventually connect Nicole with another young woman who had also been abused and then lead them both to court. Back in April 1998, in one of the first investigations into Internet trafficking of child pornography, the F.B.I. started tracking an AOL user, with the handle HAZMAT029, who was posting on an AOL bulletin board service. HAZMAT029 sent 80 illegal pictures to another user, BMR169, along with e-mails that included the message: "do me a favor. get a peice [sic] of paper and wright HI HAZ on it and take a pic of her in nothing but stockings pulled down below her [genitals]." BMR169 e-mailed back pictures of a young girl, her shorts and underwear pulled to the side, sitting on a gray carpet in front of a wooden dresser. Next to her, a note read, "HI HAZ."
The F.B.I. traced BMR's AOL account to a suburban house in a small town, and in October of that year, a team of agents arrived with a search warrant. In a basement bedroom, they found the gray carpet and the dresser. They also seized a computer full of illegal images, including pictures that showed the same girl being forced to give oral sex and being raped. The man the F.B.I. suspected was BMR wasn't home, so the agents showed the face of the child in the photos to his wife and his adult son. Did they recognize the girl?
They did. As they spoke, one of the agents looked out the window of the house and saw the girl playing in the yard across the street. "It's something I'll never forget," he told me.
Amy, as she's called in the court documents, was BMR's 9-year-old niece. Shown sanitized versions of the pictures, Amy denied that her uncle had abused her. She said he told her she was special and took her to buy treats like beef jerky, and she didn't want anything bad to happen to him. "How is he?" she asked her parents in the weeks after his arrest. "Is he going to be mad at me?"
Over months of therapy, Amy began to talk about the abuse. "My mind has everything in it," she told her therapist, according to court records I read with her permission. She remembered her uncle trying to have sex with her—it hurt, and she pulled away. And she remembered, at his direction, chatting with men over the Internet about the photos he sent them.
Amy's uncle pleaded guilty to one count of rape and two counts of child sexual abuse in state court and was sentenced to the minimum for each one, adding up to 12½ years in prison. In federal court, he pleaded guilty to one count of production of child pornography and received a 12-year sentence. Amy's current lawyer, James Marsh, says her parents were told the state and federal penalties would run consecutively, but instead, her uncle was allowed to serve the two at the same time.
Amy was given a diagnosis of depression and post-traumatic stress disorder the year her uncle was sentenced, but she also asked to stop going to therapy—she told her parents that she didn't want to talk about the abuse anymore. Her mother, who worked in health care, and her father, a tradesman, blamed themselves for trusting Amy's uncle with her. For years Amy's mother barely spoke to Amy's aunt, who remained married to her husband, even though the sisters continued to live across the street from each other.
As Amy grew up, she tried to push aside what had happened to her. Every few months, in middle school and high school, her parents would ask if she wanted to talk about it, and each time she would say no. "I was always thinking about it, but I wasn't ready to deal with how I felt," she says now. Amy threw herself into her social life, going out and drinking in the hills behind her house. Even to the friends who knew, it almost seemed as if the abuse hadn't happened.
When she was 17, Amy received her first crime-victim notice from the Justice Department. "My mom said it was a mistake, because I was still a minor—the letter should have been addressed to her and my dad," she said. "But it had my name on it, and I never got mail, so I wanted to open it. My parents took me into their room and said we needed to have a talk." Amy's parents had never told her that her uncle had distributed images of her to other men. "It had been so long by then, eight years," she said. "They didn't know how to tell me."
Amy's parents took her to see Marsh, who had started the public-interest Children's Law Center in Washington. At their first meeting, he explained to Amy that the letters meant her pictures had been traded countless times online. "I just felt so full of shame," Amy said. "I started wondering, Has he looked at them? He said he hadn't, and that made me feel better. But then I thought, Who has?"
Marsh researched legal remedies for Amy. Combing through his casebooks, he found a provision in the Violence Against Women Act that he had never heard of before: it gave the victims of sex crimes, including child pornography, the right to restitution or compensation for the "full amount" of their losses. Enumerating what those losses could be, Congress listed psychiatric care, lost income and legal costs and concluded, "The issuance of a restitution order under this section is mandatory."
The provision for restitution, enacted in 1994, had yet to be invoked in a case of child-pornography possession. The basis for such a claim wasn't necessarily self-evident: how could Amy prove that her ongoing trauma was the fault of any one man who looked at her pictures, instead of her uncle, who abused her and made the pornography?
Marsh suggested that Amy see a forensic psychologist, Joyanna Silberg, who evaluated Amy and said she would need therapy throughout her life and could expect to work sporadically because of the likelihood of periodic setbacks. Silberg attributed these costs—Amy's damages—to her awareness of the ongoing downloading and viewing. "Usually, we try to help survivors of child sexual abuse make a very strong distinction between the past and the present," Silberg, who has given testimony on Amy's behalf for restitution hearings, told me. "The idea is to contain the harm: it happened then, and it's not happening anymore. But how do you do that when these images are still out there? The past is still the present, which turns the hallmarks of treatment on their head."
Marsh put together a lifetime claim for Amy totaling almost $3.4 million. With the crime notices arriving in the mail, Marsh started tracking men charged with possession of her pictures. He looked, in particular, for wealthy defendants. He planned to use the concept of joint and several liability to argue that each defendant should be on the hook for the full amount of his client's damages—that is, for millions of dollars. Joint and several liability is often used in pollution cases: when several companies dump toxic waste in a lake over time, a plaintiff can go after the company with the deepest pockets, and a judge can hold that single company responsible for the entire cost of the cleanup—with the understanding that it's up to that polluter to sue the others to pay their share.
In July 2008, Marsh learned about the arrest of Alan Hesketh, a former vice-president of Pfizer, who was charged with trading nearly 2,000 child-pornography photos online—among them four pictures of Amy. Marsh filed one of his first requests for restitution with the prosecution. Hesketh pleaded guilty, and his sentencing was scheduled for later that year.
At the time of the Hesketh case, Amy was struggling. She was 19 and living with her boyfriend. She had enrolled at a local community college, but she drank too much to concentrate on studying. The crime-victim notices had stirred up the past for her, and she wasn't in regular therapy. "The last class I went to, there was this PowerPoint slide, something about child sexual abuse, and I thought, I can't do this," she told me as she sat in her kitchen smoking a cigarette. "It just brought everything back." Amy dropped out after that, without telling her parents. "I told myself I would just take a year off," she continued. "But you know, statisticwise, once you leave school, the chances you'll finish go down about 80 percent."
Amy has a quick intelligence—she's a college dropout who can rattle off her own odds of going back—and asks lots of questions. She has focused her curiosity on the legal strategy that Marsh has pursued for her. When Hesketh was sentenced, Amy decided she would be there. "I kind of wanted to face my fear," she told me. She also wanted to prove a point: Hesketh was arguing, through his lawyer, that he had committed a victimless crime—a common defense in cases of child-pornography possession. "I thought, I want him to look at me and know that I'm not a picture; I'm a person," she said.
In a federal courthouse in Bridgeport, Conn., in October 2008, Amy sat on the opposite side of the courtroom from Hesketh's family. The judge opened the proceedings by acknowledging that there was a victim in the courtroom. Amy listened as Hesketh's grown children asked the judge for mercy for their father. "His kids kept saying he was the best grandfather ever," she said. "And I was like: 'But you know. You know what he did.'"
Then Hesketh took the stand. As Amy remembers it, he said, "I'm so sorry." Earlier, he said that "he hadn't hurt anyone," Amy told me. "Now he totally flipped around. I felt like I'd made an impact. It was like, 'He knows now.'"
Hesketh was sentenced to 6½ years. Four months later, in an unprecedented move, the judge advised Hesketh to settle the restitution claim and he agreed to pay $130,000.
Not long after, Amy found out she was pregnant. She wasn't sorry—at the time she had faith in her boyfriend, whom she had told about the abuse and the photos. But he was a heroin user and dealer, and he went to jail two months after their son was born. Amy started seeing another man who she says had a jealous streak and broke her nose, twice. He also broke her infant son's leg, she told me. She took the blame when he threatened her, and she had to give up custody to her mother for six months.
As she recalled this time in her life, she took out her phone and scrolled through her photos until she found a close-up of her beaten face: lip split, one eye half-closed, nose swollen and cheek yellow with bruises. The young woman next to me had clear skin and bright eyes, and I had just watched her charm a police officer into calling us a cab. The girl in the photo was expressionless.
Amy stared at the picture on her phone. "That was my normal," she said.
Six months after Hesketh's sentencing, Marsh went after another child-pornography defendant, Arthur Staples, a 65-year-old sheriff's deputy in Virginia, who had chatted online with an undercover detective and expressed an interest in young children. Staples sent one image of a young girl (not Amy), and he was caught with more than 600 pictures on his computer, including hers. Staples agreed not to appeal any sentence or restitution judgment. The judge sentenced him to 17½ years, and made the unusual move of ordering him to pay all of Amy's claim. To Marsh's surprise, Staples turned out to have $2 million in assets. He has since paid $1.2 million to Amy. (Marsh says the government let Staples's wife keep part of the estate.) While Amy has been turned down for restitution by some courts, which have stated that there was not enough proof that any one man who viewed her pictures was responsible for the harm she has suffered, she has won more than 150 cases, totaling $1.6 million. Most of the amounts aren't large: $1,000 or even $100, paid out in checks as small as $7.33.
Nicole has also been pursuing restitution. Her lawyer, Carol Hepburn, did her own research and got in touch with Marsh when she learned about the claims he was bringing for Amy. The two lawyers now collaborate on ideas and strategy, though they represent their clients separately. Since receiving her first check for $10,000, Nicole has collected more than $550,000, mostly in small amounts from 204 different men. So far only a few other child-pornography victims have gone to court for restitution. Many may not know there is a legal remedy; others don't know their images have circulated.
The restitution checks gave Nicole a lift when they started to trickle in, but, like Amy, she had trouble with the transition into adulthood. In the fall of 2008, Nicole was attending a one-year bible college and working at an ice-cream shop. At work she felt increasingly self-conscious around male customers. Had they seen her pictures? Were they like the man who stalked her on Myspace—were any of them coming to the store because they knew? That spring, Nicole testified at her father's sentencing. She asked the judge to give him a long punishment, and her father was sent to prison for 50 years. Her roommates, one of whom was a friend from her childhood church, supported her. "But I didn't have a counselor there, and that was tough," she said. "I called my parents and said: 'I have to quit my job, and I need to come home. I feel like I'm going crazy.'"
During her first few weeks at home, Nicole slept all day in her childhood bedroom and stayed up late watching sitcoms like Sabrina and The Nanny. Finally, she started counseling and was able to get a job doing administrative work at a nuclear-waste site. That June, she testified at the sentencing hearing of four child-pornography defendants caught with her images, hoping to gather strength from speaking out. Instead, the experience made her feel exposed.
More than a year later, in the fall of 2010, she left for a four-year college away from home. She was worried about being on her own, but she wanted to try. "I push myself," she told me. "I don't like to say something is too much for me." Like Amy, however, she took a psychology course, about child development, that brought up unbearable memories. During lectures, she began going blank. "All of a sudden class would be over, and I would be like, 'What happened?'" she said. She started skipping class for fear of continuing to disassociate.
Nicole, who wasn't in counseling at the time, failed all but two of her courses that spring. "I just totally broke down," she said. "I'd come home and sit in the same position and stare into space, and then I'd look at the clock, and it was six hours later." Nicole talked about this period of her life with Hepburn and me over dinner one night last summer. She showed us a tattoo on her right wrist: a heart sheltered by wings that she got after her father's sentencing. She also learned to make tattoos, and she took out her phone to show us a picture of the first one she created, an anchor with a rope curled around it. "My cousin is a tattoo artist, and he taught me," she said. "We grew up together, and he was a very easy person to hang out with during that bad time. I'd go over to his place, and he'd be drawing, and he said, 'You're into design, you could do this.' When I tried I felt this release of emotions. We started drawing for hours to music—Tom Petty, Cake, everything. You have to learn how to go smoothly and keep the same pressure on the line the whole time. I drew anchors over and over again on grapefruit. I'd been numb for months, and now I could feel again. I actually felt joy."
In the fall of 2011, Nicole transferred to a campus closer to her family. She made her way through her course work by avoiding subject matter that upset her and by allowing for her own limitations. "I had to accept that, because I have this extra stressor, I get overwhelmed by things that other people can do," she said.
Nicole decided to spare herself going to court, so she wasn't in El Paso, in September 2011, for the sentencing of Luis Enriquez-Alonso, a student at the University of Texas. He agreed to plead guilty after being caught with thousands of illegal videos and images, including Nicole's, on his computer. At the hearing, Enriquez-Alonso and his parents listened while the prosecutor read into the record a statement Nicole wrote about what it is like to know men are looking at her pictures: "After all these years and going to different counselors, I still haven't learned the trick to let my mind rest," Nicole wrote. "When I do sleep, my dreams are vivid and I remember them for weeks. A common theme is finding myself naked in front of a crowd of people or in an enclosed space and I can't escape or run away fast enough."
That day, without a court order, Enriquez-Alonso's family handed over a check for $150,000, along with an expression of remorse. "That really touched me," Nicole said, "that his family wanted to make sure that I was taken care of, that I could get all the counseling I need. Most of the time when I get restitution, there's no story behind it. I feel like they're forced to give the money. In this case, they wanted to do it, and there were words behind it, kind words." Enriquez-Alonso, who faced a maximum of 10 years in prison, is serving 5.
Study after study links child sexual abuse to psychological trauma, addiction and violent relationships in adulthood. There is almost no research, however, that deals with the specifics of Amy and Nicole's experiences: What additional harm comes from knowing that pictures of your childhood exploitation are circulating widely?
The Supreme Court actually addressed this question in its 1982 decision upholding child-pornography bans. "Pornography poses an even greater threat to the child victim than does sexual abuse or prostitution," Justice Byron White wrote, quoting from a book about abused children. "Because the child's actions are reduced to a recording, the pornography may haunt him in future years, long after the original misdeed took place."
David Finkelhor, a sociologist who directs the Crimes Against Children Research Center at the University of New Hampshire, sees the moral weight of the Supreme Court's proclamation, but not the empirical proof. "The evidence doesn't yet tell us to what extent the experience of being a pornography victim aggravates the experience of the sexual abuse itself," he told me. "How do you separate it out?"
Courts have disagreed on this question. In at least a dozen cases, defendants have appealed restitution decisions and mostly won. In five of those cases, federal appeals courts have expressed skepticism that Amy and Nicole should receive more than nominal restitution. Two other appeals courts have allowed the young women to recover from individual defendants as members of the group of viewers but, so far, only for amounts of $10,000 or less. (Amy collected a far greater sum from Arthur Staples because he waived his right to appeal.)
Last spring, the legal battle was focused on the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit, which covers Texas, Louisiana and Mississippi. One panel of three judges upheld full restitution to Amy of millions of dollars from a Texas man. Based on that decision, a second three-judge panel affirmed a separate $529,000 restitution order for Amy against a New Orleans defendant, but voiced its fundamental disagreement with the original ruling. To address the dispute, 15 Fifth Circuit judges gathered last May for a hearing in New Orleans. James Marsh and Carol Hepburn were there along with Amy; Nicole chose not to go. Amy knew this was the most significant hearing to date, and she wanted to show the judges that she was real, just as she had shown Alan Hesketh.
At the lectern to argue her side was Paul G. Cassell, a former federal judge who teaches law at the University of Utah. Cassell is a staunch conservative (he challenged the right to a Miranda warning before the Supreme Court), and Marsh and Hepburn, both Democrats, were surprised at first to be allied with him. But as a leading advocate for victims' rights, Cassell sees in Amy's claims a chance to lay the groundwork for broader change.
For 30 years, the victims'-rights movement has fought for a larger role for victims in criminal prosecutions. Victims have gained the right to make statements in court about the impact a crime has had on them, which judges can take into account in determining punishment. Restitution remains an ambitious next step. The standard context is crime involving financial loss—a bank robber ordered to return stolen money to the bank or an embezzler who must repay the employer he defrauded. Cassell sees Amy and Nicole's cases as a route to expand the idea. "I'd like to pursue the concept of total restitution for all victims, for whatever crimes and losses a defendant has caused," Cassell told me. "This is a good opportunity to show how it can work."
In the courtroom, Cassell linked the defendants to the network for child-pornography distribution. "What the defendants have done is collect images of an 8-year-old girl being bound, raped and sodomized," he said. "If you participate in a market, you become responsible for that market." The lawyer for the New Orleans defendant disagreed. She argued that there was no proof that her client, in particular, had harmed Amy—no way to show that his viewing of her images caused damage. She also called the restitution order for $529,000 "grossly disproportionate to his culpability relative to other people who have abused Amy."
Michael Rotker, the lawyer for the department, told the court that the problem with the restitution awards was that there was no statutory authority for joint and several liability—nothing in the law, as Congress wrote it, which allowed a victim to recover a large award from one defendant who could then seek to recoup those losses by suing other defendants. Instead, Rotker argued, each defendant could be held responsible only for a small and roughly equal fraction of the whole. He offered this hypothetical example: if 200 men were convicted of possessing Amy's images, and her claim for damages totaled $3 million, then a judge would have discretion to order a defendant to pay restitution of $15,000 to $30,000.
As the lawyers spoke, Amy's eyes filled with tears. "Some of it was hard to listen to," she told me later. "But my therapist said to think of it as a store, with different compartments you can take out and put back. She said, 'When you were a little girl, you had to compartmentalize to deal with everything you went through.' So I can still do that now, and sometimes it's good, I guess."
At one point in the proceedings, Judge Emilio Garza stopped Cassell, not to challenge him, but to pick up on his theme. "It seems to me that we're in this brave new world, where not only was there an actual rape, but I'm going to suggest to you there is a continuing digitized rape," the judge said. "Possession of the digitized recording of the rape contributes to the system, contributes to the economic benefit of those who produced this thing."
The judges would not announce their decision for several months, but at the end of the hearing, Amy focused on what Garza said that day. "To hear that from a judge—I couldn't believe it," she told me. "It was so relieving. It was like he really got it. He understood."
Just six weeks after Amy got home from New Orleans, her uncle was released from prison after completing his concurrent 12-year sentences. Amy says she was greatly relieved when her aunt told her that she wouldn't allow him in the house. Instead, he was paroled nearby. When Marsh texted to give her the address, Amy happened to be only a few blocks from it. "I almost dropped the phone," she said. "Oh, my God, it was just so weird. I thought, He's got binoculars, he's looking for me. I thought the worst." Marsh reminded her that if her uncle contacted her, he would go back to prison. And also that she was an adult now and safe from her uncle's [abusiveness toward children].
Last month, while standing in line at Wal-Mart with her brother and a friend, Amy saw a man who she thought was her uncle looking at her. "I wasn't positive because I haven't seen him for so long," she said. "But as soon as I made eye contact, I didn't breathe." Was she being paranoid? She couldn't tell. The man seemed to follow them out of the store. As they got into her car, the man stopped to light a cigarette, and she thought he was staring at them. "It was very, very scary," she said.
Today, a sentence like the one Amy's uncle received—with no additional prison time for a federal conviction for pornography production and distribution—is extremely rare. The penalties for distributing or receiving pornography have become harsher. Receiving one illegal photo carries a mandatory minimum penalty of five years. The number of images a defendant downloads increases the punishment, as does his use of a computer. Now that large volumes of data stream with a click, the average recommended prison term for possession has jumped to 10 years, even if a defendant has no criminal record and there is no evidence that he produced or distributed porn. Because some child sexual abuse cases still end in relatively low penalties in state court, there's a paradox: defendants who look at sexual pictures of children can spend more years in prison than people who abuse children but don't have pornography of them.
The United States Sentencing Commission held hearings last February to discuss whether the punishment for child-pornography offenders has become both disproportionate and unfair—with people who committed similar crimes receiving vastly different penalties, based on the subjective decisions of judges. Restitution was discussed even though the prevailing view is that technically it isn't considered part of punishment. Its purpose is to "make the victim whole," as the legal phrase goes. "Simply put, an innocent victim should not suffer financial losses from a crime—the defendant should make good on those losses," Cassell said.
But Douglas Berman, an Ohio State University law professor who writes a frequently cited blog about sentencing, argues that the commission could rethink the role of restitution. In some cases, restitution could be considered commensurate to prison time—and courts could recommend shorter sentences for child-pornography collectors who agree to compensate victims based on their ability to pay. Berman thinks the key to making this leap is adopting the point of view of the victim. "Victims are shrewder than most prosecutors about the diminishing returns of long incarceration," he said. "They want perpetrators to serve some time. They want these men's lives disrupted, and they want the deterrence that helps protect other people. But they're often wise enough to realize that there's not much gain in deterrence from a 5 or 10 year sentence to 15 years. If victims are saying that restitution is as, or more, important to them than five extra years, I very much think the sentencing commission and Congress should listen."
When I asked Amy about such a trade-off, she supported it. Nicole had mixed feelings: she liked the idea of greater incentives for restitution, but she wasn't sure about giving up longer punishments, given how easy it would be for someone to leave prison and go back to downloading child pornography. Cassell says that using restitution in this way could have value. "If it makes the perpetrators internalize how they've hurt the victims—if it makes them see there are real victims—then you deter them from doing this again when they get out," he said.
Berman also favors a proposal that has been discussed at the Justice Department: a general compensation fund that would systematically collect restitution from child-pornography offenders and pay it out to victims like Amy and Nicole based on the harm they suffered and the costs they've incurred because of it. A compensation fund could give more victims the financial means to put their lives back together. And it could force more defendants to reckon with the children in the pictures and with their own role in supporting a market that depends on abuse.
Restitution has allowed Amy and Nicole to get the counseling they need, but receiving large sums can be complicated. When Amy received her $130,000 check from Alan Hesketh, she went on shopping sprees at the mall, splurging at stores like Abercrombie & Fitch. She had never been able to earn a steady paycheck, and the money was a sudden windfall. By the time the $1.2 million check came last spring, she was more considered. She didn't want to stand out in her small town. Last summer, she bought a modest three-bedroom house a few miles from her childhood home, where her mother and brothers still live.
Amy has also discovered that she likes giving money away—to her mother for a new deck, to a close friend who wanted kitchen cabinets she couldn't otherwise afford. It's her way of dealing with the discomfort of having resources that people around her don't and repaying those who helped her along the way.
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Section One: Assets and Debt
Retirement Balance: $5,173.90 in a 401k and $45 in a Roth IRA. The 401k balance represents 9 months of contributions. I opened the IRA in high school and haven't contributed anything since.
Equity if you're a homeowner: N/A
Savings account balance: $5,012 in HYSA and $4,860 in savings account. $1,520 in vacation savings, and $230 in moving sinking fund.
Checking account balance: $5,600 in main checking account.
Credit card debt: I pay my cards off in full twice a month when I get paid. I use a Chase Sapphire Preferred for the majority of my expenses but keep my wifi recurring bill on my oldest card.
Student loan debt: $26,000 for a degree in the field I currently work in. I went to a very expensive private school that was mostly covered by scholarship and financial aid. Additionally, my parents took out a $25,000 loan to help pay for my degree. I have BEGGED my parents to let me pay them back for some of these loans (since they are private and my federal loans are on pause) but its extremely important to them that they helped contribute to my education.
I track my expenses on Mint.
Section Two: Income Progression: (buckle up its a long one)
2016: paid canvasser in high school on political campaigns. $15 an hour but hours/campaigns were inconsistent.
2017-2018: barista (15 hrs a week @ $15 an hour+tips)+ work study job ($15 an hour)
That summer did an internship program that paid for housing+provided a stipend ($800 a month).
2018-2019: Interned at a non-profit ($15 an hour) part-time. Worked as a resident advisor and got a food stipend in addition to free housing. That summer I worked the front desk at a gym on the weekends ($15 an hour), worked a research job on campus that covered my housing (20 hrs a week), and interned 24 hours a week ($15 an hour).
2019-2020 Worked at the gym, worked for the school as an RA, and then interned in the Spring as well.($15 an hour)
2020: Working 30 hours a week at my internship while going to school virtually full-time.
2021: In March I am extremely burnt out and am scared I won’t be able to get my shit together and graduate. Quit my job and got a short-term nannying gig to cover rent+expenses($20 an hour). Got a full-time job offer for an entry-level consulting role in May. Was offered $56,000 and got a small raise to $60,000.
2022: Really hate my job. Start casually applying and got a job offer at my current org. Was offered $85,000 but with an end-of-year COLA was $92,000 by EOY 2022.
2023: Got a promotion and a senior title. I’m now making $103,000 a year.
Main Job Monthly Take Home: $5558
Side Gig Monthly Take Home: $depends
I started babysitting in college and would babysit 2-4 times a month. In March it’ll be $300 which I’m putting towards my vacation fund.
Section Three: Expenses
Monthly
Rent: $1,110 for 1 bedroom in a 2-bedroom apartment utilities included.
Renters insurance: $15 a month
Wifi: $33 for my portion
Retirement contribution: $130 taken from my paycheck (company matches this)
Savings contribution: $540 or 10% of my take-home pay
Therapy copay- $80 a month
Health Insurance: Covered 100% by work
Apple storage: $3
Groceries ~ Roughly $300 but I love to host so sometimes more
Donations (please specify if monthly or annual):
$25 monthly reoccurring to color of change
$30 monthly reoccurring to DC abortion fund
~$20-30 a month in cash for when people on the street ask for money.
Annual expenses
One Medical: $199
Annual Capital bike share membership: $95
Credit Card: $95 (really worth it)
Paid hobbies: I’m an endurance athlete but have already purchased expensive gear. I use my company’s quarterly $250 wellness stipend to cover race fees+ and any one-off purchases. I use my office gym+public recreation centers.
Day 1 Tuesday:
5:30 am: I wake up but decide its too cold to go outside and that morning workout will happen tonight.
7:00 am: Finally get up and reheat homemade refried beans for breakfast (savory breakfast ftw) and read. I fall asleep for 30 minutes (I call these morning naps) and barely have enough time to shower before therapy. I have a $20 copay. (Included in monthly expenses)
10:00 am: walk to the office. I settle into work with all the free beverages.
1:00 pm: I put together a desk salad from stuff I brought from home and eat while watching a webinar.
5:30 pm: I walk to cvs on my way home and buy dishwasher pods. (**$10 for my half)**I get two since they are buy one get one. I realize in the CVS that I forgot to bring a hair tie but I don’t want to buy a new pack just for one. I text my friend who lives nearby and go to her apartment.
6:30 pm: I visit for a while and then walk over to the pool. There is no entrance fee since it’s a public facility.
7:45 pm: I’m out and showered and realize if I hustle I can make it for at least half of weekly trivia. I call an Uber. ($11). At trivia I just get a club soda even though I really want a sandwich and fries. ($5 for soda water+tip). We win! I forgo the free celebratory shot bc school night+empty/exercised stomach.
9:00 pm: My friend drives me home and we catch up in the alley behind my apartment. My roommate offers some soup that he made but its not enough and I end up eating more refried beans.
10:00 pm: I read 3 pages of a book before falling asleep with my kindle in my hand.
​
Day 2 Wednesday
5:45 am: Wake up, brush teeth, choke down some apple sauce and I’m out the door for a workout. I come back home to shower, change, and bike to meet 2 friends for coffee/breakfast near my office.
8:00 am: By far the best part of living in a city is having friends in close proximity. I get a bagel sandwich and a black coffee ($11.84). I come into work and book some misc. work travel. I have a bit of a crisis that I don’t have any practical luggage for work travel. I look at Kate Spade, Everlane, Dagne Dover, Lululemon for weekender bags. I have pretty impulsive spending tendencies but am on a big anti-lifestyle creep campaign right now.
1:00 pm: Office has pizza in recognition of March Madness. I get a slice to supplement the salad I brought from home. The pizza isn’t great which I make a big mental note for next time.
3:00 pm: I hit the wall and all I want to do is browse!!!
5:30 pm: I take the train to meet my friend for dinner close to her office. I have to reload my transit card. ($20). We get burgers and then she drives me home. ($15)
1:00 am: I can’t fall asleep which is pretty rare for me.
($46.84)
Day 3 Thursday
7:00 am: I sleep in and make breakfast at home. I’m stressed about work deliverables so I quickly take a shower and bike to work. At my desk by 8 AM.
1:00 pm: It's a really nice day out so I bring the salad I brought from home to the public park near my office and eat there. I bring my laptop in case something comes up but take a half hour after eating to read on my kindle. I finish my book and am tempted to buy the next in the series, but instead, I’ll just wait for my turn through the public library.
5:00 pm: I would love to work a bit longer but have hit a wall and am useless. I go downstairs and do a 30-minute ride on the office gym peloton and then do a pretty basic core routine. Despite exercising a lot, I’m pretty weak and lack a ton of core strength so these cross-training sessions are important. I used to do a lot of studio fitness but found the energy to not be my vibe and many instructors to be rude and dismissive.
6:00 pm: As I’m heading out, I run into a friend who is also leaving his office. I haven’t seen him in a while and it's a great surprise! He lives close to my neighborhood so we walk together.
6:30 pm: I shower because I’m meeting some friends at a drag show tonight. I’m exhausted and want to skip. I make some eggs and then go take a nap.
9:00 pm: I take the bus over to the bar and meet my friends. There aren’t a ton of women there but it’s a nice vibe. My friend buys me a drink since he knows how hard it was for me to commit to late-night plans, and also has a ton of singles so we can tip the queens. I run into a woman whom I’ve seen before, and she asks if we want to get coffee. I get the impression that she wants to be friends (lesbian problems!!!).
11:00 pm: I mooch on my friend's uber and walk home. I text my friend's boyfriend to split the Uber but he said don’t worry about it.
Day 4 Friday
8:00 am: I sleep in after a later night. I take a shower and get ready for work. I wear the wrong jacket and am freezing. I enter the office and raid the shared fridge for yogurt and fruit.
1:00 pm: I’m only working a half day today because of some comp time I need to use up from last week. Normally I wouldn’t go into the office on a Friday but they are doing construction outside of my apartment and I know I would focus better outside of my home. The return to the office is completely voluntary and I prefer going in to working from home. At the same time, I would be pissed if my employer mandated office days.
2:00 pm: I get lunch at Chipotle ($14.03) before my waxing appointment. I get my eyebrows done next door. ($23 with a $10 tip). It's raining so I take the bus home.
3:30 I get a text from a family canceling a babysitting job for tonight. I'm really bummed but send some feelers out to try to get together with people. I'm thankful I don't depend on babysitting money anymore.
5:00 pm: I walk to a brewery nearby to meet some friends. I get two 5 oz beers and some appetizers for the table to split. My friend brings their mom which is fun. ($37.62). On my way out I got proper dinner to go ($22.07)
Day 5 Saturday
7:30 am: I have some friends running a race so I get up and meet my friends at a designated spot. We have speakers and cheer for everyone for several hours. I buy Starbucks egg bites and a coffee for me and a sandwich and coffee for a friend. I have to refill my app. ($25).
11:30 am: After the race, we meet up with everyone and go grab lunch. Someone else pays for the uber, and my friend's mom generously picks up the tab for lunch.
4:00 pm: I walk home with a friend but we stop at a grocery store so I can buy Rice Krispies, food coloring, and marshmallows for a treat I’m bringing to a party later tonight. ($13.36)
5:00 pm: I make the rice crispy treats as well as a bright green margarita for an st Patricks day party. I lie down for a few hours before the party.
8:00 pm: I take the bus over to my friend's house. I realize I didn’t eat a real dinner but convinced a few people to go in on a pizza. Another friend goes and picks it up. ($6 for my portion). I end up staying longer than planned and take an uber home. ($14.20)
Day 6 Sunday
9:30 am: A little hungover. I make breakfast and coffee but go back to bed.
2:00 pm: I finally decide it's time to be a real person. I get up and take the train uptown to the public pool.
4:00 pm: I swim for an hour and then head out. On my way to the train station, I get a tea ($4.26) which is objectively overpriced and ridiculous but hot herbal tea on a cold Sunday just hits.
5:00 There is some maintenance on the train and I have to wait for a shuttle or bus back to my place. I’m going out of town early this week and decide I’m not meal-prepping or cooking just for one day. There is a chipotle near the train station. As I’m walking over, I stopped by a woman asking for change. I have no cash but offer to buy her dinner. She gets a large sandwich combo ($23.11). She says that she is $20 short of a hotel room and asks if I can get money out of an ATM for her. I go to CVS where I also buy her shampoo, conditioner, body wash, and deodorant. ($19.11) My card isn’t working with the ATM. I try to see if I can add my debit card to my apple wallet so I can get cash back from CVS for buying gum ($1.97) but it doesn’t work. I end up getting a $50 visa gift card. ($56.95 with activation fee). She is upset I wasn’t able to give her cash and yells at me. I hand over the stuff but just feel weird about the situation and our interaction.
6:00 pm: I ended up missing the bus and have to go a bit further than intended. I still haven’t grabbed dinner yet (rip my chipotle plans) and grab a salad from a generic fast-casual place. ($13.51)
8:00 pm: When my roommate comes home I debrief on the situation at the train station but tell him I bought a woman dinner- not that I also spent $70 at CVS. He said that he and several friends have seen that woman before and that she has the story for everyone. I hope my $50 helps her nonetheless.
10:00 pm: I download a new book from the library and fall asleep.
Day 7 Monday
5:30 am: I get up, pack my stuff for the whole day, and go and work out. I bike to the pool and get ready for work there.
8:00 am: I’m OOO for the rest of the week and am under a big crunch to get everything done. I get to work early and settle in with provided breakfast.
12:30 pm: I was in back-to-back meetings this morning but need to run an errand across town. Normally I would bike but I uber so I can work from the backseat. ($12.38) I pick up birthday cupcakes for a friend (someone else paid for them) and then hail an uber back to the office. ($8.94). On my way in I Sweetgreen but am able to expense because of a particular meeting I was in.
6:00 pm: My friend and I take the train uptown for a friend's birthday party. I get one beer ($11.54 with tip) but the rest of the food and drink were covered by my friend's parents.
10:00 pm: My friends and I take the train back and I grab a bike to make it the rest of the way.
Weekly total: $383.69
Reflections:
This felt like a very typical week of spending for me. I try to follow the 50/30/20 rule, but proportional to my income my rent is pretty low- so I don’t mind spending money especially to be social and in the company with others. It may not feel like it from this library, but the (ongoing) pandemic was (and is) disruptive to my life/routines and I have had a really hard time getting out of the house for a while. I’m glad that is no longer the case.
A few months ago I think this spending would have come as a shock but I downloaded MINT at the beginning of the year and am now way more on top of my spending. Lifestyle creep is so real, and I feel it. So I’m doing as much as possible to live a full and well-balanced life within my means.
I constantly am confronted with things I want to buy but the more I learn about values based spending (Her First 100k on Instagram) I realize that these items won't get me closer to the things that make me happy. To me those are my hobbies, traveling, and spending time with friends. My mom has never bought a name-brand thing full-price in her life, and I know that I've been influenced by others to love and want name-brand things. I'm proud anytime I resist the impulse to get something, especially if it is an item that many other people have.
Edit to add:
I know my salary is ridiculous — especially for the field and my age. Tbh, I was just lucky I found an org with a great culture+benefits+work life balance. I definitely operate from a scarcity mindset around money. There were many times in college when I had less than $20 to my name. It feels good to not be there anymore.

Long story shot, discovered kurzickchris amd PM_ME_YOUR_BEST_BOOK were the same user. On both accounts they had many many sales, and no scam reports - except for some delays due to timezones/other internet issues. But never an outright scam.
However, this behavior of having multiple accounts is a major concern - You can easily 'vouch' for each other and run an actual scam ring. While I have nothing to suggest that was the eventual intention - the fact remains that they were dishonestly representing themselves on this sub.
So, I'm going to put it to a vote - should we allow them to continue to sell with one of the accounts only, or keep them both banned for this?

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Hello, I got an offer but I’m concerned because someone was helping me clean my resume and suggested I change my job title of “deli clerk” to “customer sales representative” to make it sound nicer. He explained it in a way I thought made sense, but what I didn’t know is that background checks check for position titles. This is for an web developer role so it has nothing to do with the job but I’m still concerned about this. The one helping me with my resume said I helped customer, I sold products, and was a representative of my company. Sterling reported an alert for this, also I said I started august 2018 but Sterling put an alert saying I said I started in 2008 which is a mistake on their end. What should I do?