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If I invest in securities denominated in a foreign currency, should I hedge my currency risk? | No. This is too much for most individuals, even some small to medium businesses. When you sell that investment, and take the cheque into the foreign bank and wire it back to the USA in US dollars, you will definitely obtain the final value of the investment, converted to US$. Thats what you wanted, right? You'll get... |
Snowball debt or pay off a large amount? | My advice: IMO, all things being somewhat equal, you should always try to retire debts as quickly as possible in most cases, so start with the small cases. The method of calculating credit card interest is written on the statement. Usually it is "average daily balance method". Don't sweat the details. Just pay the thin... |
Where can I trade FX spot options, other than saxobank.com? | Have you looked at ThinkorSwim, which is now part of TD Ameritrade? Because of their new owner, you'll certainly be accepted as a US customer and the support will likely be responsive. They are certainly pushing webinars and learning resources around the ThinkorSwim platform. At the least you can start a Live Help sess... |
Is sales tax for online purchases based on billing- or shipping address? | From my understanding as a seller, and having read through Amazon's 8 page calculation methodology document, the default is the ship to address, however the seller still has the option to charge the tax or not, only charge the state rate and local (city, county, district, etc.) rate(s), or even set their own self-deter... |
Apartment lease renewal - is this rate increase normal? | Yes, automatic rate increases are typical in my experience (and I think it's very greedy, when it's based on nothing except that your lease is up for renewal, which is the situation you are describing). Yes, you should negotiate. I've had success going to the apartment manager and having this conversation: Make these ... |
Does a SIM only cell phone contract help credit rating? | I'm not sure if there are nuances between countries and appreciate your question is specifically about the US, but in the UK, mobile phone contracts, including SIM only, as seen by the chat in this experion website chat shows that mobile contracts are included in credit ratings for 6 years. |
Why do put option prices go higher when the underlying stock tanks (drops)? | There are two components of option valuation, the value that's "in the money" and the "time value." In the case of the $395 put, that option was already in the money and it will move less than the stock price by a bit as there will still be some time value there. $22.52 is intrinsic value (the right word for 'in the mo... |
When a stock price goes down, does the money just disappears into thin air? | You buy a $100k sport car, but don't buy any insurance. You take a curve too fast and jump out just in time to see your car go off a cliff, like a chase movie. The value went from $100k to zero in seconds. Where did the $100k go? |
Paid cash for a car, but dealer wants to change price | I have one additional recommendation: if the dealer continues to press the issue, tell them that they need to drop it, or you will write a Yelp review in excruciating detail about the entire experience. Used car dealers are very aware of their Yelp presence and don't like to see recent, negative reviews because it can ... |
Should I exclude bonds from our retirement investment portfolio if our time horizon is still long enough? | I've had the same thoughts recently and after reading Investing at Level 3 by James Cloonan I believe his thesis that for the passive investor you're giving up too much if you're not 100% in equities. He is clear to point out that you need to be well aware of your withdrawal horizons and has specific tactics for shifti... |
How can I check my credit score? | Check with your bank. As of January, 2015, the following banks and credit unions are offering free credit-scores: Announced, in the pipeline: Source: Banks to offer FICO credit scores for free Personal Experience: I've been receiving free FICO score from my credit union for more than 6 months now. Advice: Most people ... |
I spend too much money. How can I get on the path to a frugal lifestyle? | My father imparted this advice to me when I was a teenager, and it hasn't failed me yet. > Pay yourself first What this means is that the first "bill" you pay should always be your savings. Preferably in a way that automatically comes out of your paycheck or account without requiring you to take an active step to make ... |
In Canada, how much money can I gift a friend or family member without them being taxed on it? | If the person gifting the property owed any debt to Canada Revenue Agency on the date of gift, you may getting a nice letter from Canada Revenue Agency advising you to settle the donor's tax liability with the property gifted. |
I'm upside down on my car loan and need a different car, what can I do? | For the future: NEVER buy a car based on the payment. When dealers start negotiating, they always try to have you focus on the monthly payment. This allows them to change the numbers for your trade, the price they are selling the car for, etc so that they maximize the amount of money they can get. To combat this you... |
Are there any caveats to withdrawing funds from brokerage? | nan |
How can I compare having accounts at various banks without opening an account? | I think that your best option is to use the internet to look for sites comparing the various features of accounts, and especially forums that are more focused on discussion as you can ask about specific banks and people who have those accounts can answer. "Requests for specific service provider recommendations" are off... |
How an ETF pays dividend to shareholders if a holding company issues dividend | Join me for a look at the Quote for SPY. A yield of 1.82%. So over a year's time, your $100K investment will give you $1820 in dividends. The Top 10 holdings show that Apple is now 3% of the S&P. With a current dividend of 2.3%. Every stock in the S&P has its own different dividend. (Although the zeros are all the sa... |
Accepting high volatility for high long-term returns | This is basically what financial advisers have been saying for years...that you should invest in higher risk securities when you are young and lower risk securities when you get older. However, despite the fact that this is taken as truth by so many financial professionals, financial economists have been unable to form... |
How will going from 75% Credit Utilization to 0% Credit Utilization affect my credit score? | You really don't know how credit scoring works. Let's think about the purpose of a credit score: to assess whether you're a high default risk. A lender wants to know, in this order: Utilization factors into the solvency assessment. If you are at 100% utilization of your unsecured credit, you're insolvent -- you can't p... |
Where do I invest my Roth IRA besides stock market and mutual funds? | Nowhere. To back up a bit, mutual funds are the stock market (and the bond market). That is, when you invest in a mutual fund, your money is ultimately buying stocks on the open market. Some of it might be buying bonds. The exact mix of stocks and bonds depends on the mutual fund. But a mutual fund is just a basket of ... |
If stock price drops by the amount of dividend paid, what is the use of a dividend | I'm not a financial expert, but saying that paying a $1 dividend will reduce the value of the stock by $1 sounds like awfully simple-minded reasoning to me. It appears to be based on the assumption that the price of a stock is equal to the value of the assets of a company divided by the total number of shares. But that... |
Why are the banks and their customers in the United States still using checks? [duplicate] | Check use is declining here too, but it still has some practical advantages over electronic means: |
Buying a truck to write off on taxes | Assuming your country is the United States there is. See schedule C line 9 and the corresponding instructions. There are many rules associated with this, in some cases the entire purchase can be written off but typically if the truck is only used for business. Most people write off partial usage in the form of cred... |
Working in Iran for foreign company | You should talk to a lawyer who's familiar with the matter. I'm not such a lawyer. For the best of my understanding, at least with regards to the US, the answer to all three of your questions is no. Legally, a US company cannot employ Iranian residents and transfer money to Iran. However, I know of Iranians working in ... |
Do banks give us interest even for the money that we only had briefly in our account? | The other answers demonstrate that you'll receive a paltry amount of money in two days, by comparing to things like wages, the cost of electricity, etc. But the real point is you're incurring risk by paying late, in particular, the realistic risk of the post office messing up. That's not worth it, and it's this kind of... |
Interactive Brokers: IOPTS and list of structured products | Interactive Brokers offers global securities trading. Notice that the security types are: cash, stock (STK), futures (FUT), options (OPT), futures options (FOP), warrants (WAR), bonds, contracts for differences (CFD), or Dutch warrants (IOPT) There is a distinction between options (OPT), warrants (WAR), options on ... |
Buying a foreclosed property | Usually... I think that's overstating the case. You CAN get a bargain (especially if the place is in not-so-great condition), but not every foreclosure will be a good deal even if it is priced well below its most recently appraised value. As the buyer it's your responsibility to determine whether it's priced well or n... |
What are FICA taxes for a sole proprietor in the United States | FICA taxes are separate from federal and state income taxes. As a sole proprietor you owe all of those. Additionally, there is a difference with FICA when you are employed vs. self employed. Typically FICA taxes are actually split between the employer and the employee, so you pay half, they pay half. But when you're ... |
Why do car rental companies prefer/require credit over debit cards? | A hotel can accept the debit card because each night they can withdraw the money. If you don't have sufficient funds they can instantly lock you out of your room. They an also limit your ability to access room service, and other extra expensive options. The rental car can't do that once you have the car. Plus they neve... |
Why would I want a diversified portfolio, versus throwing my investments into an index fund? | Diversification is extremely important and the one true "Free Lunch" of investing, meaning it can provide both greater returns and less risk than a portfolio that is not diversified. The reason people say otherwise is because they are talking about "true" portfolio diversification, which cannot be achieved by simply sp... |
Need to change cash to cashier's check without bank account (Just arrived to the US) | A cashier's check costs money to get and is not connected to an account. You have cash. You should be able to get a bank to sell you one, even without an account. Find a bank where you would like to open an account and explain the situation. I can't guarantee that that will work, but I would expect it to do so. If... |
How much can I withdraw from Betterment and be considered long-term investment? | No matter what, you owe taxes on the gains, known as capital gains. How much, depends on how long you invested it for. In your example, each month is treated separately - each month you contribute starts a new clock on that set of investments. If you hold it for longer than a year, the taxes are treated as long-term, a... |
How does a stake sale affect a company's stock price? | Is it normal for such transactions to create new outstanding shares? Yes a company can create new shares or a Majority share holder can sell some of his stake or it can be a mix of both. how will this news affect the short-term and long-term price of the company's stock? This is opinion based and not apt for this site.... |
Are real estate prices memory-less? | No, at least not with specific houses. When I bought my current house, our realtor looked at the previous selling price of this house, along with the prices at which it had been placed on the market. These values influenced the amount we offered for the house. I'm sure it also influenced the amount the house had been l... |
How big of a mortgage can I realistically afford? | Let's start with income $80K. $6,667/mo. The 28/36 rule suggests you can pay up to $1867 for the mortgage payment, and $2400/mo total debt load. Payment on the full $260K is $1337, well within the numbers. The 401(k) loan for $12,500 will cost about $126/mo (I used 4% for 10 years, the limit for the loan to buy a house... |
Facebook buying WhatsApp for 19 Billion. How are existing shareholders affected? | The answer to your question has to do with the an explanation of "shares authorized, issued and outstanding." Companies, in their Articles of Incorporation, specify a maximum number of shares they are authorized to issue. For example purposes let's assume Facebook is authorized to issue 100 shares. Let's pretend they h... |
What's the best application, software or tool that can be used to track time? | Surprised nobody has mentioned Freshbooks yet. It's lightweight, easy to use, and free for low-end use (scaling up price-wise as you scale up). |
Which types of insurances do I need to buy? | Evaluate if the Rs 5 million term insurance is sufficient. Typically the term insurance provided by employer is in the range of 1 to 3 times the gross. Generally one should be covered in the range of 5 to 10 times the Gross. The sooner you start the lesser the premium and you can get insured for a large amount for a lo... |
Is there any way to know how much new money the US is printing? | This chart summarizes the FED's balance sheet (things the FED has purchased - US treasuries, mortgage backed securities, etc.) nicely. It shows the massive level of "printing" the FED has done in the past two years. The FED "prints" new money to buy these assets. As lucius has pointed out the fractional reserve banki... |
What options do I have at 26 years old, with 1.2 million USD? | I'm surprised nobody else has suggested this yet: before you start investing in stocks or bonds, buy a house. Not just any house, but the house you want to live in 20 years from now, in a place where you want to live 20 years from now - but you also have to be savvy about which part of the country or world you buy in. ... |
What happens to the put option (longer expiration) of a collar if the call gets assigned? | The put will expire and you will need to purchase a new one. My advise will be that the best thing is to sell more calls so your delta from the short call will be similr to the delta from the equity holding. |
Best buying price on stock marketing based on market depth detail (CSE atrad tool) | If you are buying your order will be placed in Bid list. If you are selling your order will be placed in the Ask list. The highest Bid price will be placed at the top of the Bid list and the lowest Ask price will be placed at the top of the Ask list. When a Bid and Ask price are matched a transaction will take place an... |
Buying shares in employer's company during IPO | its the best investment you can have specially with the company you work for and IPO, if i was you i would invest in more then just the minimum since its IPO. ask you your manager or supervisor how much are they buying the stocks for if they are doing it the go for it you'll be okay just keep track of it regular someti... |
How to protect your parents if they never paid Social Security? | I'm not unsympathetic, but insurance of what kind? I don't know how he'd have owned a restaurant but failed to pay into the social security system. Was he paying taxes at all? As for the 'why,' there's not enough checks and balances to make sure that nothing is done under the table. I believe 40 quarters of work would... |
“No taxes to be paid with owning Berkshire” | It depends on your investment profile but basically, dividends increase your taxable income. Anyone making an income will effectively get 'lower returns' on their investments due to this effect. If you had the choice between identical shares that either give a dividend or don't, you'll find that stock that pays a divid... |
1.4 million cash. What do I do? | First--congratulations! I certainly wish I could create something worth buying for $1.4 million. In addition to what @duffbeer703 recommended, consider putting some of the money in Treasury Inflation-Protected Securities (TIPS). I second the advice on staying away from annuities as well. @littleadv is right about c... |
What exactly is a “bad,” “standard,” or “good” annual raise? If I am told a hard percentage and don't get it, should I look elsewhere? | There are many variables to this answer. One is, how close are you to the average salary range in the industry you are working in. If you are making more than average it would make sense that you are not getting a big raise from the employer's perspective. You have to be a top performer if you are looking for the top s... |
Why don't share prices of a company rise every other Friday when the company buys shares for its own employees? | This is an old question that has an accepted answer, but it has gotten bumped due to an edit and the answers given are incorrect. I am assuming this means that every other Friday, the company is going into the open public market, buying those shares and then giving it out to the employees. No. Companies will internally... |
How to know more about my tax situation in the States | The LLC (not you) is probably in debt to the California FTB. Any LLC registered in California must pay at least $800 a year, until it is officially dissolved (i.e.: notice of cancellation/dissolution properly filed with the California Secretary of State). The FTB may come after members (including you) personally, if it... |
Why does BlackRock's XIN page show XIN as having only 1 holding? | EFA must be bought and sold in US dollars. XIN allows people to buy and sell EFA in Canadian dollars without exposing their investment to unpredictable swings in the USD/CAD ratio. This is what's known as a currency-hedged instrument. Now, why the chart sums up to over 100% is anyone's guess. Presumably it's the resu... |
Sales Tax: Rounded Then Totaled or Totaled Then Rounded? | Taxes should not be calculated at the item level. Taxes should be aggregated by tax group at the summary level. The right way everywhere is LINE ITEMS SUMMARY PS:If you'd charge at the item level, it would be too easy to circumvent the law by splitting your items or services into 900 items at $0.01 (Which once rounded ... |
Process for dissolving a recently-opened Colorado LLC? | Forms for the Colorado LLCs are online. You can find the link to the dissolution form here, and instructions here. IRS instructions are here. That's what they want: To close your business account, send us a letter that includes the complete legal name of the entity, the EIN, the business address and the reason you ... |
Buy and sell stock at specific earnings | Enjoy the free trades as long as they last, and take advantage of it since this is no longer functionally a tax on your potential profits. On a side note, RobinHood and others in the past have roped customers in with low-to-zero fee trades before changing the business paradigm completely or ceasing operations. All bro... |
What's the best way to make money from a market correction? | Depends on how long you're willing to invest for. Broadly speaking, the best (by which I mean, more reliably repeatable) way to make money from market corrections is to accept them as a fact of life, and not sell in a panic when they happen, such that the money you already invested can ride back up again. Put another w... |
How do I calculate two standard deviations away from the stock price? | Standard Deviation is a mathematical term that is useful in many areas. It can be considered a measure of how tight the data points are to the average. If there is consistency in the measurement system, then a point that is two standard from the average can be considered an outlier. It doesn't even need to be time base... |
If something is coming into my account will it be debit or credit in my account? | I agree with mbhunter's suggestion of labeling your columns, 'income' and 'expenses'. However, to answer your question, money coming in (a paycheque, for example) is credited to your account. Money going out (a utility bill, for example) is debited from your account. There's no real 'why'... this is simply the definiti... |
Are the stocks of competitor companies negatively correlated? | Not especially. It depends on why sales have changed. If it's just consumer demand, that affects everyone in parallel rather than pushing in opposite direactions. If it's changes other than sales, that may have no effect on other companies. If it's because someone introduced the next must-have-it device and they're sel... |
Is it possible to improve stock purchase with limit orders accounting for volatility? | There is no such thing as buying at the best price. That only exists in hindsight. If you could consistently predict the lower bound, then you would have no reason to waste your time investing. Quit your job and bet with all leverage in. What if the price never reaches your lower bound and the market keeps rallying? Wh... |
How does historical data get adjusted for dividends, exactly? | According to Active Equity Management by Zhou and Jain: When a stock pays dividend, the adjusted price in Yahoo makes the following adjustment: Let T be the ex-dividend date (the first date that the buyers of a stock will not receive the dividend) and T-1 be the last trading day before T. All prices before T are adjust... |
Using a self-directed IRA to buy vacation condo, rent it out to an LLC for $1 | I don't quite understand your thought process here. First, in a tax-advantaged retirement account you are NOT allowed to engage in a transaction with yourself. If you just want to run a business and be able to write off expenses, how is using the self-directed IRA relevant? You can either buy the condo using your ta... |
Insurance company sent me huge check instead of pharmacy. Now what? | Option 4: Go talk with someone in person at an office of the Insurance company. They have helped me several times with things like this. They can get everyone involved on a conference call and make something happen. But you have to go in. Calling is a good way to waste time and get nowhere, they will throw the issue ba... |
Taxation from variations in currency | According to the answers to this question, you generally aren't taxed on gains until you sell the asset in question. None of those answered specifically for the U.K., so perhaps someone else will be able to weigh in on that. To apply those ideas to your question, yes your gains and losses are taxable. If you originally... |
Is trading stocks easier than trading commodities? | I would not argue if its more difficult, its different, and it much depends what kind of stocks you refer to, i take large caps as example. The players are different. Companies and even govts may hedge in the commodities (futures) market while in big caps this and other entities mainly invest. (Of course there’s HFT in... |
How to help a financially self destructive person? | Wow. Just ... wow. We all must start where we are, I guess. The past is the past. There almost certainly isn't a cheap way to fix this. You're already on the hook for $4k per month. Your money is enabling her behavior. You'd rather not enable her behavior, but the money is part of the consequences of your divorce,... |
How to deal with activist targeting of individual stocks? | The easiest way to deal with risks for individual stocks is to diversify. I do most of my investing in broad market index funds, particularly the S&P 500. I don't generally hold individual stocks long, but I do buy options when I think there are price moves that aren't supported by the fundamentals of a stock. All of ... |
When to trade in a relatively new car for maximum value | Cars depreciate the most their first year after introduction. So you could buy a "new" car in year 2 for the optimal price, and at year 4 (when you finish paying yours off) you could buy the next car in year 2 (this is surprisingly similar to rolling options in a buy-write strategy, an arguably more constructive use of... |
Unusual real estate market with seemingly huge rental returns | I would not claim to be a personal expert in rental property. I do have friends and family and acquaintances who run rental units for additional income and/or make a full time living at the rental business. As JoeTaxpayer points out, rentals are a cash-eating business. You need to have enough liquid funds to endure un... |
Can I get a discount on merchandise by paying with cash instead of credit? | Slightly off topic... Not merchandise, but I paid for various doctor's appointments with cash (as opposed to paying with health insurance). I'd call ahead of time and notify them that I'd be paying in cash. I got ridiculous discounts, sometimes even less than the copay. I do not know why this discrepancy exists and ... |
Is there an advantage to a traditional but non-deductable IRA over a taxable account? [duplicate] | The simplest answer is that you can convert the IRA to a Roth, and since it was already taxed, pay no tax on conversion. If, in your hypothetical situation, you happen to have an IRA already in place, you are subject to pro-rata rules on conversions, e.g. your balance is total $40K, $10K 'not deducted', a conversion i... |
What should a 21 year old do with £60,000 ($91,356 USD) inheritance? | The above answers are great. I would only add to the "rainy day" part, that even though the cash provides a good cushion, "a stormy day" could mean even losing those emergency savings to the unignorable randomness that governs the world economy. Though unlikely, what happened to the russian ruble and the latest decisio... |
Tax implications of restricted stock units | RSU are taxed when vested, based on their value at that point, as salary. If you don't sell to cover, you need to pay the taxes, if you sell to cover - you sell the portion that is worth the taxes (brokers do that automatically, and remit the taxes on your behalf). Once paid your taxes, it becomes a regular stock posit... |
Do I have to pay a capital gains tax if I rebuy the same stock within 30 days? | Yes. Wash rules are only for losses. |
collateralized mortgage obligations | Say there are 5 people took loan of $100000 each. Those 5 people work in different jobs and have different capacity to payoff loan. Someone earning $40000 a year has higher risk to default on their payment then someone making $250000 a year. As Bank wants to sell this CDO to investor but how would investor know what ... |
Books, Videos, Tutorials to learn about different investment options in the financial domain | Investopedia does have tutorials about investments in different asset classes. Have you read them ? If you had heard of CFA, you can read their material if you can get hold of it or register for CFA. Their material is quite extensive and primarily designed for newbies. This is one helluva book and advice coming from ... |
I've got $100K to invest over the next 2 to 7 years. What are some good options? | Given your timeframe, risk tolerance, and the fact that you don't need this money, I would suggest a balanced approach. Something like: If you want to have fun investing, you could look into things like lendingclub, or bonds, or stocks, etc. But an allocation like I've outlined above is a pretty good balance of risk an... |
Safe method of paying for a Gym Membership? | I've worked in gyms for 9 years. Here's a few things I've seen: 1)Contracts aren't necessarily a terrible thing if you know that you are going to stay for a while, just know the terms you're signing up for. 2)Be aggressive and relentless with the membership salesman, don't be afraid to put your own price out there and... |
What am I actually buying when trading in CFDs | The economic effect of a CFD from your point of view is very close to the effect of owning the stock. If the stock goes up, you make money. If it goes down you lose money. If it pays a dividend, you get that dividend. You'll typically pay commission for buying and selling the CFDs in a similar way to the commission on ... |
selling apple stock limit order | Your order may or may not be executed. The price of stock can open anywhere. Often yesterday's close is a good indication of today's open, but with a big event overnight, the open may be somewhere quite different. You'll have to wait and see like the rest of us. Also, even if it doesn't execute at the open, the pri... |
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