In fact, you aren't out the money at all, ever. If someone steals my credit card and runs up $8000 in charges on it, I'm not out $8000. There is a piece of pa

In fact, you aren't out the money at all, ever. If someone steals my credit card and runs up $8000 in charges on it, I'm not out $8000. There is a piece of paper somewhere that says I owe $8000, but that's not being out the money. One might have a model of "net worth" as "total assets minus total debts," and normally it's a decent model, and this makes net worth go down. But illegitimate debts put a wrinkle in that model. Never underestimate the advantage of having money versus being owed money. (This is a start-up lesson, too.)