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Why do grocery stores in the U.S. offer cash back so eagerly? | It doesn't cost them anything, they don't pay commission on you taking cash-back. But it brings customers to the stores because these customers would rather buy something and use cash-back to get cash, than go to an ATM and pay the ATM commission. |
How long should I keep my bills? | I'd imagine you want to keep the utility bills around to dispute any historical billing errors or anomalies for perhaps 6 months to a year. Beyond that, you always have the financial records of making the payments -- namely, your bank statements. So what benefit is there in keeping the paper receipts for utility paymen... |
Why would you ever turn down a raise in salary? | I had a colleague turn down a raise once because he believed that female colleagues were already being paid well below his salary and it was unfair to further increase this gap. For very public figures raises are often declined as a form of leadership: showing that management is willing to forgo bonuses and salary incr... |
Prices go up and salary doesn't: where goes delta? | I expected a word or two on the price elasticity of demand here :) Andrey, Your question needs slight revision in its current form. Rising prices actually do not mean increased profitability for a company. The quantity they sell also pays a huge part and actually is correlated to the price at which they sell the goods ... |
How much do big firms and investors affect the stock market? | The price of a company's stock at any given moment is established by a ratio of buyers to sellers. When the sellers outnumber the buyers at a given price, the stock price drops until there are enough people willing to buy the stock to balance the equation again. When there are more people wanting to purchase a stock ... |
Does an index have a currency? | There's no need for an index to have a currency as its purpose is not to act as an asset but rather to signal investors about the performance of a collection of stocks. An index can be price-weighted, meaning that its value equals the (arithmetic) average of the prices of each stock in the index. With no stock splits, ... |
Should I invest in the world's strongest currency instead of my home currency? | A currency that is strong right now is one that is expensive for you to buy. The perfect one would be a currency that is weak now but will get stronger; the worst currency is one that is strong today and gets weak. If a currency stays unchanged it doesn't matter whether it is weak or strong today as long as it doesn't ... |
May 6, 2010 stock market decline/plunge: Why did it drop 9% in a few minutes? | Part of it was an Oops, but not all of it. There were reports that the sudden drop was caused by a trader who mistyped an order to sell a large block of stock. The drop in that stock's price was enough to trigger "sell" orders across the market. Source: http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/36983596/ns/business-stocks_... |
How to spend more? (AKA, how to avoid being a miser) | Do you plan a monthly budget at the beginning of each month? This might seem counter-intuitive, but hear me out. Doing a budget is, of course, critically important for those who struggle with having enough money to last the month. Having this written spending plan allows people struggling with finances to control the... |
What would be the signs of a bubble in silver? | The problem with commodities is that they don't produce income. With a stock or bond, even if you never sold it to anyone or it wasn't publicly traded, you know you can collect the money the company makes or collect interest. That's a quantifiable income from the security. By computing the present value of that income ... |
What assets would be valuable in a post-apocalyptic scenario? | I find these type of questions silly, but I'll bite: |
What is the purpose of the wash sale rule? | Overall the question is one of a political nature. However, this component can have objective answers: "What behavior is trying to be prevented?" There are mechanisms by which capital gains can be deferred (1031 like-kind exchange, or simply holding a long position for years) or eliminated by the estate step up in ba... |
How to find out if a company has purchased government (or other) bonds? | This is in the balance sheet, but the info is not usually that detailed. It is safe to assume that at least some portion of the cash/cash equivalents will be in liquid bonds. You may find more specific details in the company SEC filings (annual reports etc). |
Why the volume disparity between NUGT and DUST? | NUGT and DUST both track GDX with triple leverage, but in opposite directions. GDX has been rising steadily throughout 2016, and certainly since over the last month. DUST experiences much higher volume when GDX is in a downward trend, as it was from 2013-2016. I think you'll see the same thing with DRIP and GUSH when o... |
What ETF best tracks the price of gasoline, or else crude oil? | UNG United States Natural Gas Fund Natural Gas USO United States Oil Fund West Texas Intermediate Crude Oil UGA United States Gasoline Fund Gasoline DBO PowerShares DB Oil Fund West Texas Intermediate Crude Oil UHN United States Heating Oil Fund Heating Oil I believe these are as close as you'... |
Is there any circumstance in which it is necessary to mark extra payments on a loan as going to “principal and not interest”? | I would always presume that given a choice of doing what is in its own self interest verses in the customer's interest, a bank will ALWAYS do the former rather than the latter. Banks are in the business of making money, always presume that their policies, processes and contractual terms will be slanted to maximize thei... |
What happens to my savings if my country defaults or restructures its debt? | Best thing to do is convert your money into something that will retain value. Currency is a symbol of wealth, and can be significantly devalued with inflation. Something such as Gold or Silver might not allow you to see huge benefit, but its perhaps the safest bet (gold in particular, as silver is more volatile), as me... |
Why credit cards are sold through banks and not from Visa or MasterCard directly | Visa and Mastercard are not consumer-oriented companies. They do not consider individual consumers as their direct clients, and do not sell directly to them. Instead, their clients are financial institutions who participate in their networks (which is what they're selling). The institutions target the individual consum... |
How does a financial advisor choose debt funds and equity funds for us? | A financial advisor is a service professional. It is his/her job to do things for you that you could do for yourself, but you're either too busy to do it yourself (and you want to pay somebody else), or you'd rather not. Just like some people hire tax preparers, or maids, or people to change their oil, or re-roof thei... |
What factors go into choosing residency? | A couple of thoughts. Tax benefits are the usual reasons to decide on one residency or another. International tax law is complex, and it's probably best to consult a professional. Certainly without knowing which the other country is I would not want to hazard a guess. If he is really not going to be taxed on the other ... |
Why do some stocks have trading halts and what causes them? | The company may have put a trading halt due to many reasons, most of the time it is because the company is about to release some news to the market. To stop speculation driving the price up or down, it puts a halt on trading until it can get all the information together and release it to the market. This could be news ... |
Making your first million… is easy! (??) | Easy. Start with 2 millions and lose only one. Jokes aside, if you want a million USD, you should be asking yourself how you can produce products or services worth $5 millions. (expect the extra to be eaten up by taxes, marketing, sales, workforce...) If by investment you mean making risky bets on the stock market, you... |
Will getting a new credit card and closing another affect my credit? | I once called Amex to cancel a card with an annual fee. Instead, they were able to give me a different card with no fee. They were happy to do it. Of course, Amex has fantastic customer service, while Capital One is not known for it. But, its worth a five minute call, and you will retain your good score. |
Should I get cash from credit card at 0% for 8 months and put it on loans? | Do you know how many people end up with an 18-21% rate on their credit card? They started off with low teaser rates. There was an article about it recently on Yahoo. Mainly this comes from a lack of discipline, or an unforeseen emergency. However, lets assume, that you are a bit uncommon and have iron discipline. I... |
If you buy something and sell it later on the same day, how do you calculate 'investment'? | Nothing wrong with the other answers, but here's a "trick" to hopefully make it totally transparent. Imagine that you're not the one implementing this business plan, but someone else is. Let's call this other person your asset manager. So on the first day, you give your asset manager $9. He takes this and generate... |
How can I calculate interest portion of income when selling a stock? | Their interest expense was $17M. Where you see $5.14/sh in Key Statistics, any daily interest received is more than canceled out by the expense paid at the same time. I understand your concern, but this company is not "sitting on cash" as are Apple, Google, etc. Short term rates are well below 1%, 1yr tbill looks like ... |
Investment for beginners in the United Kingdom | I'm in the US as well, but some basic things are still the same. You need to trade through a broker, but the need for a full service broker is no longer necessary. You may be able to get by with a web based brokerage that charges less fees. If you are nervous, look for a big name, and avoid a fly by night company. Stic... |
Is it accurate to say that if I was to trade something, my probability of success can't be worse than random? | In theory, in a perfect world, what you state is almost true. Apart from transaction fees, if you assume that the market is perfectly efficient (ie: public information is immediately reflected in a perfect reflection of future share value, in all share prices when the information becomes available), then in theory any ... |
Is a “total stock market” index fund diverse enough alone? | Good idea to stay only with VTI if you are 30. For 50, I recommend: 65% VTI 15% VOO 10% VXUS 10% BND |
Lump sum annuity distribution — do I owe estate tax? | If you are the beneficiary of an annuity, you might receive a single-sum distribution when the annuity owner dies. The amount of this death benefit might be the current cash value of the annuity or some other amount based upon contract riders that the owner purchased. The tax on death benefits depends on a number of fa... |
Which credit card is friendliest to merchants? | Merchants that accept American Express should have decided that the extra costs are worth the increased business (many business travelers only have an Amex Corporate Card). To complain about people actually using it after they've explicitly decided to accept it is a sign that they made the wrong decision, or that they... |
What are the costs to establish an LLC and to maintain it? | I'll answer in general terms, since I'm not familiar with the price ranges in Florida. The LLC formation costs $125 (state fee). In addition you'll need a registered agent. Registered agent could be your CPA/EA/bookkeeper/property manager/local friend, or you can pay firms specializing in providing registration and age... |
I spend too much money. How can I get on the path to a frugal lifestyle? | Gail Vaz-Oxlade from the television show Til Debt Do Us Part has a great interactive budget worksheet that helps you set up a "jar" or envelope system for each month based on your income and fixed expenses. We have used this successfully in the past. What we found most useful was, as others have said, writing everyth... |
Explanations on credit cards in Canada | Is my understanding okay ? If so, it seems to me that this system is rather error prone. By that I mean I could easily forget to make a wire some day and be charged interests while I actually have more than enough money on the check account to pay the debt. Which is where the credit card company can add fees so y... |
How can I avoid international wire fees or currency transfer fees? | Several possibilities come to mind: Several online currency-exchange brokers (such as xe.com and HiFx) offer very good exchange rates and no wire transfer fees (beyond what your own bank might charge you). Get French and American accounts at banks that are part of the Global ATM alliance: BNP Paribas in France and Ban... |
Double-entry bookkeeping: When selling an asset, does the money come from, Equity or Income? | There are basically two approaches, based on how detailed you want to be in your own personal accounting: Obviously the more like a business or like "real" accounting you want to be, the more complex you can make it, but in general I find that the purpose of personal accounting is (1) to track what I own, and (2) to en... |
What size “nest egg” should my husband and I have, and by what age? | There are three numbers that matter in that calculation: 1) How much do you expect per month from in pension/social security/or other retirement programs? 2) At what age will each of you retire? 3) How long will each of you live? 4) What will your annual expenses be when you retire? Unfortunately #3 is the most importa... |
What did John Templeton mean when he said that the four most dangerous words in investing are: ‘this time it’s different'? | There's an elephant in the room that no one is addressing: Suckers. Usually when there's a bubble, many people are fully aware that its a bubble. "This time its different" is a sales pitch to the outsiders. It the dotcom boom for example a lot of people knew that the P/E was ridiculous but bought objectively valueless ... |
Multi-user, non-US personal finance and budget software | My wife and I have been ridiculously happy with YNAB. It's not "online," but syncs across our phones & computers using Dropbox. It supposedly supports different locales and currencies, but I have never needed to try that out. |
How and Should I Invest (As a college 18 year old with minimal living expenses)? | You have great intentions, and a great future. As far as investing goes, you're a bit early. Unless your parents or other benefactor is going to pay every dime of your expenses, you'll have costs you need to address. $1000 is the start of a nice emergency fund, but not yet enough to consider investing for the long term... |
Why do financial institutions charge so much to convert currency? | Perhaps it's the terminology "fee" that makes it a little confusing. I'm not sure whether it's due legislation or if it's tradition but banks and money changers in my country don't charge "fees". Instead they advertise separate prices for buying and selling money. For example they'd normally advertise: USD, we buy: 4.5... |
I cosigned for a friend who is not paying the payment | If the bank is calling your employer, the federal Fair Debt Collection Practices Act (FDCPA) limits where and when debt collectors can contact consumer debtors. In many cases, debt collectors that contact debtors at work are violating the FDCPA. http://www.nolo.com/legal-encyclopedia/a-debt-collector-calling-me-work-is... |
How can OTC scams affect you? | Am I being absurd? No. Should I be worrying? Yes. If I sell in the morning, I've only lost a couple hundred dollars, and learned a valuable lesson. Is there any reason to believe it won't be that simple? If you're lucky, you'll be able to dump your stocks to someone like you who'll be punching himself in the face t... |
Smartest Place to Put Tax Refund | Congratulations on your graduation and salary. You are in a great career field (I know from experience.) As a background, I would feel pretty confident in your salary as demand for SE is pretty high right now. During my career there were times that demand was pretty to very low. Somehow I survived 2001 & 2002, but ... |
Co-signer deceased | Co-signing is not the same as owning. If your elderly lady didn't make any payments on the loan, and isn't on the ownership of the car, and there was no agreement that you would pay her anything, then you do not owe either her or her daughter any money. Also the loan is not affecting the daughter's credit, and the moth... |
Judge market efficiency from raw price action | The shortest-hand yet most reliable metric is daily volume / total shares outstanding. A security with a high turnover rate will be more efficient than a lower one, ceteris paribus. The practical impacts are tighter spread and lower average percentage change between trades. A security with a spread of 0% and an avera... |
When an insider discloses a stock trade are they required to execute? | They are not required to fulfill the trade that they have intended to execute. They are able to cancel or modify the trade at any point. Example: This is how insiders are able to manipulate the price of shares through there buying and selling intentions. A CEO would be able to disclose a buy order for a month from n... |
Official Bank Check | The legal department at the Bank left me a message telling me that the bank check was paid & the recipient got the funds. Call up the bank and find out who the recipient was. Generally it can only be cashed by the person whose name is on it - the original business partner to whom it was intended. It is unlikely to be c... |
Advice for opening an IRA as a newbie | If you want to 'offset' current (2016) income, only deductible contribution to a traditional IRA does that. You can make nondeductible contributions to a trad IRA, and there are cases where that makes sense for the future and cases where it doesn't, but it doesn't give you a deduction now. Similarly a Roth IRA has poss... |
83(b) and long term capital gain | You should apply for 83(b) within 30 days. 10 months is too late, sorry. |
Buying a home with down payment from family as a “loan” | Say you're buying a 400K house. Your relative finances 120K (30%). Say I'm optimistic, but the real-estate market recovers, and your house is worth 600K in 5-6 years (can happen, with the inflation and all). The gain is 200K. Your relative gets 100K. You repay him 220K on 120K loan for 5 years. Roughly, 16% APR. Quite ... |
Should I trade in a car I own to lower my payments on a new lease? | You need to look at the numbers when you're ready to transact. What your crossover is worth now, what the truck will lease for then, what financing deals may or may not be available will all change. I'm not sure why you've already decided you will lease the truck, perhaps you're planning to take advantage of some kind... |
What percent of my salary should I save? | A single percentage figure makes little sense here as you are asking for a bunch of different things: |
What is the effect of a cancelled stock order on a stock and the market? | That article, like almost any article written by a non-expert and quoting only "research" from lobbying groups, hugely misses the point. The vast majority of orders that end up being cancelled are cancelled as a standard part of exchanges' official market-maker programs. Each exchange wants you and me to know that it h... |
Student loan payments and opportunity costs | As Mr. Money Money Mustache once said: IF YOU HAVE CREDIT CARD DEBT, YOU SHOULD FEEL LIKE YOUR HAIR IS ON FIRE Student loan debt is different than credit card debt. Rather than having spent the money on just about anything, it was invested in improving yourself and probably your financial future. This was probably ... |
Why is the dominant investing advice for individuals to use mutual funds, exchanged traded funds (ETFs), etc | No. You're lucky, maybe, but not really a successful investor. Warren Buffet is, you're not him. Sometimes it is easier to pick stocks to bid on, sometimes its harder. I got my successes too. It is easier on a raising market, especially when it is recovering after a deep fall, like now. But generally it is very hard to... |
What is the best way to stay risk neutral when buying a house with a mortgage? | You can hedge your house price from losing value if you believe that the housing market is correlated with major stock indices. Speak with a commodities broker because they will be able to help you buy puts on stock indices which if correlated with housing prices will offer somewhat of a hedge. Example. House prices dr... |
Online tutorials for calculating DCF (Discounted Cash Flow)? | what do you mean exactly? Do you have a future target price and projected future dividend payments and you want the present value (time discounted price) of those? Edit: The DCF formula is difficult to use for stocks because the future price is unknown. It is more applicable to fixed-income instruments like coupon bo... |
What are the benefits of opening an IRA in an unstable/uncertain economy? | You bring up a valid concern. IRAs are good retirement instruments as long as the rules don't change. History has shown that governments can change the rules regarding retirement accounts. As long as you have some of your retirement assets outside of an IRA I think IRAs are good ways to save for retirement. It's not ... |
Is there a term for the risk of investing in an asset with a positive but inferior return? | I'd question whether a guaranteed savings instrument underperforming the stock market really is a risk, or not? Rather, you reap what you sow. There's a trade-off, and one makes a choice. If one chooses to invest in a highly conservative, low-risk asset class, then one should expect lower returns from it. That doesn... |
What to do with $50,000? | Considered a down payment on a house? Some illiquid assets? Otherwise you are doing 'responsible' get rich slow (read: get rich old) type things. And this question only invites opinion based answer. You tried futures and don't want to take that kind of risk again with your $50,000, so thats that |
Does reading financial statements (quarterly or annual reports) really help investing? | Wow, I cannot believe this is a question. Of course reading the 10Ks and 10Qs from the SEC are incredibly beneficial. Especially if you are a follower of the investing gurus such as Warren Buffett, Peter Lynch, Shelby Davis. Personally I only read the 10K's I copy the pertinent numbers over to my spreadsheets so I ... |
Can you buy out a pink sheet listed company by purchasing all of the oustanding shares? | Sure. No-one promises that all the outstanding stocks are ever for sale, but if you get them all - you get them all, what marketplace you used for that doesn't really matter. |
Do stocks give you more control over your finances than mutual funds? | The issue with trading stocks vs. mutual funds (or ETFs) is all about risk. You trade Microsoft you now have a Stock Risk in your portfolio. It drops 5% you are down 5%. Instead if you want to buy Tech and you buy QQQ if MSFT fell 5% the QQQs would not be as impacted to the downside. So if you want to trade a mutual fu... |
Should I pay cash or prefer a 0% interest loan for home furnishings? | A friend recently bought an 800€ TV on 0% financing. Sounded like a sensible thing to do. Why pay 800 when you can pay 80pm for 10 months? It took 30mins to set up the 'loan'. She had to sign all kinds of documents, giving away much personal information (age, employment info, income, email address etc). She now has a f... |
I earn $75K, have $30K in savings, no debt, rent from my parents who are losing their home. Should I buy a home now or save? | Plus, there's the feeling my parents want me to have a house in case we can't save the one we (my mom and brothers) all live in. First, you should not be forced to buy a home because your parents are telling you to. You should have your own life. Period. That said, while you are doing well from a salary perspective, ... |
Why UK bank charges are not taken account when looking on interest for taxation? | When I left the UK four years ago, free banking is still an option and I'm pretty sure it still is. Therefore, you have chosen to have a bank account with a 5.00/month charge. In return for this charge, you will be eligible to receive certain benefits. For example; reduced borrowing costs, discounted mortgage rates... |
How do amortization schedules work and when are they used? | Simply put, for a mortgage, interest is charged only on the balance as well. Think of it this way - on a $100K 6% loan, on day one, 1/2% is $500, and the payment is just under $600, so barely $100 goes to principal. But the last payment of $600 is nearly all principal. By the way, you are welcome to make extra princip... |
Does the bid/ask concept exist in dealer markets? | The Auction Market is where investors such you and me, as well as Market Makers, buy and sell securities. The Auction Markets operate with the familiar bid-ask pricing that you see on financial pages such as Google and Yahoo. The Market Makers are institutions that are there to provide liquidity so that investors can... |
File bankruptcy, consolidate, or other options? | If your parents can afford to shell out $1,250 a month for 5 years, they would pretty much have the debt paid off, provided the credit card companies don't start playing games with rates. If that payment is too high, maybe you could kick in $5k every few months to knock the principal down. If they think the business c... |
Does the P/E ratio not apply to bond ETFs? | A bond fund has a 5% yield. You can take 1/.05 and think of it as a 20 P/E. I wouldn't, because no one else does, really. An individual bond has a coupon yield, and a YTM, yield to maturity. A bond fund or ETF usually won't have a maturity, only a yield. |
Cannot get a mortgage because I work through a recruiter | To a mortgage lender, it appears that you have a temporary contract (perhaps extending for nine more months) with a agency that supplies workers to companies that need temporary help. You have been placed currently with a company and are making good money, but that job might disappear soon and then you will have no inc... |
What does it mean for issuing corporations to “crank out expensive shares when markets are frothy … and issue debt when markets are cheap”? | crank out expensive shares when markets are frothy Corporations go public (sell their shares for the first time) in market conditions that have a lot of liquidity (a lot of people buying shares) and when they have to make the fewest concessions to appease an investing public. When people are greedy and looking to make ... |
Expensive agenda book/organizer. Office expense or fixed asset? | I cannot imagine an organizer being worth enough to consider depreciating the expense over a period of time greater than one year. Also, once you write in an organizer, it's pretty much worthless to anyone else. Talk to your accountant if you'd like, but I cannot see how you would classify a fancy organizer as a fixed ... |
1.4 million cash. What do I do? | At 1.4 Million, you can definately afford a professional advisor who would give you the best advice taking into account all your goals and risk appetite. |
Should I get a personal loan to pay on my mortgage to go “above water” to qualify for a refinance? | Let's say you owe $200K (since you didn't mention balance. If you do, I'd edit my response), and can get 4.5%. You'd save 1.5% or about $3K/yr the first few years. If a $12K paydown is all that's between you and and refi I'd figure out a way. There are banks that are offering refi's under the HARP program if your curr... |
What is the point of the stock market? What is it for, and why might someone want to trade or invest? | The stock market is just like any other market, but stocks are bought and sold here. Just like you buy and sell your electronics at the electronics market, this is a place where buyers and sellers come together to buy and sell shares or stocks or equity, no matter what you call it. What are these shares? A share is no... |
Why don't SPY, SPX, and the e-mini s&p 500 track perfectly with each other? | I thought the other answers had some good aspect but also some things that might not be completely correct, so I'll take a shot. As noted by others, there are three different types of entities in your question: The ETF SPY, the index SPX, and options contracts. First, let's deal with the options contracts. You can bu... |
W2 vs 1099 Employee status | In general that's illegal. If you're a W2 employee, you don't miraculously become a 1099 contractor just because they pay you more. If your job doesn't change - then your status doesn't change just because they give you a raise. They can be sued (by you, and by the IRS) for that. Other issues have already been raised b... |
What evidence is there that rising interest rates causes Canadian condo prices to go down? | In general, prices are inversely proportional to rates; however, accurate interest rate prediction would make one worthy of managing a large credit derivative hedge fund. This is not to say that interest rates cannot go up in Canada since the world is currently undergoing a resource bust, and the United States has begu... |
How do I adjust to a new social class? | I live in one of the highest cost of living areas in my country. For the cost of less than half the down payment my spouse and I have saved up for a house we could easily buy a home in most of the lower cost of living areas (and several homes in, say, Detroit). As for the rest of your question, though, we've chosen no... |
Consequences of not closing an open short sell position? | 2 things may happen. Either your positions are closed by the broker and the loss or profit is credited to your account. Else it is carried over to the next day and you pay interest on the stocks lent to you. What happens will be decided by the agreement signed between you and your broker. |
How do credit card payments work? What ensures the retailer charges the right amount? | When you give your credit card number and authorize a merchant to charge your credit card, the merchant then gives the information to their merchant processor which in turns bills the bank that issued the card (it's a little more complex and it all happens instantly unless the merchant is using the very old fasion impr... |
Is giving my girlfriend money for her mortgage closing costs and down payment considered fraud? | There is not any fraud involved. Anybody can gift money to another person. |
Withdraw funds with penalty or bear high management fees for 10 years? | To me, it depends. How much are their total assets? Having 10% of your money in something like that isn't crazy. having it all in? That IS crazy. Can they reduce their exposure to this account without paying a penalty (say pull out 10%?) The Manager should be taking direction from them. If they aren't able to get t... |
What could be the cause of a extreme high/low price in after hours market? | Many of the above comments are correct about illiquidity. If someone needs to trade at a time of low liquidity, for instance when the markets are closed, the bid/ask spread can often be large to induce someone to trade at odd times. Especially as the broker/bank on the other side of the trade can't immediately go to ... |
What types of receipts do I need to keep for itemized tax deductions? | I would say to only bother keeping the ones you know you'll use for itemized deductions. This includes any unreimbursed business expenses and vehicle licensing fees. There are a lot of other itemized tax deductions possible, but those are two common ones. Also, keep track of your business mileage (mileage before and af... |
How do I determine how much rent I could charge for a property or location? | This may not be entirely scientific, but as a landlord my usual approach is just to do a search for rental properties on Craigslist for comparable homes in the neighborhood. There are all kinds of formulas professional property managers use, but in the end these listings are the ones you are going to be competing with ... |
When would one actually want to use a market order instead of a limit order? | After learning about things that happened in the "flash crash" I always use limit orders. In an extremely rare instance if you place a market order when there is a some glitch, for example some large trader adds a zero at the end of their volume, you could get an awful price. If I want to buy at the market price, I ju... |
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... |
Does gold's value decrease over time due to the fact that it is being continuously mined? | does it mean uncontrolled severe deflation/inflation is more likely to occur compared to "normal" currencies such as USD, EUR etc? Look at the chart referenced in the link in your question. It took approximately 50 years for annual production of gold to double from 500 tons to 1000 tons. It took approximately 40 ye... |
What are the common income tax deductions used by “rich” salaried households? | The $250K and up are not one homogeneous group. The lower end of this group benefits from normal Schedule A itemized deductions, e.g. mortgage interest, property tax, state income tax, and charitable donations. As you mention, 401(k) ($17k employee contribution limit this year), but also things like the dependent care ... |
What could be the harm in sharing my American Express statements online? | American Express is great for this use case -- they have two user roles "Account Agent" and "Account Manager" which allow you to designate logins to review your account details or act on your behalf to pay bills or request service. This scheme is designed for exactly what you are doing and offers you more security and ... |
How to pay with cash when car shopping? | I have in the last few years purchased several used cars from dealers. They have handled it two different ways. They accepted a small check ~$1,000 now, and then gave me three business days to bring the rest as a cashiers check. They also insisted that I submit a application for credit, in case I needed a loan. They a... |
Starting long-term savings account as a college student | Where is the money coming from? If you already have the money (inheritance, gifts or similar) sitting in your account, you can just buy e.g. index funds from Vanguard, Robinhood or other low-cost brokerages. But first you should estimate how much money you need for your studies - it is a bit of a gamble to invest money... |
Should I include retirement funds in calculating my asset allocation? | I separate them out, simply because they're for different purposes, with different goals and time-frames, and combining them may mask hidden problems in either the retirement account or the regular account. Consider an example: A young investor has been working on their retirement planning for a few years now, and has ... |
Is it sensible to redirect retirement contributions from 401(k) towards becoming a landlord? | Here are the issues, as I see them - It's not that I don't trust banks, but I just feel like throwing all of our money into intangible investments is unwise. Banks have virtually nothing to do with this. And intangible assets has a different meaning than you assume. You don't have to like the market, but try to under... |
Optimal down payment amount | The optimal down payment is 100%. The only way you would do anything else when you have the cash to buy it outright is to invest the remaining money to get a better return. When you compare investments, you need to take risk into account as well. When you make loan payments, you are getting a risk free return. You c... |
Can one be non-resident alien in the US without being a resident anywhere else? | If you aren't a US National (citizen or Green Card holder or some other exception I know not of), you're an alien, no matter where else you may or may not be a citizen. If you don't meet the residency tests, you're nonresident. Simple as that. |
What is the best way to stay risk neutral when buying a house with a mortgage? | Note: I am making a USA-assumption here; keep in mind this answer doesn't necessarily apply to all countries (or even states in the USA). You asked two questions: I'm looking to buy a property. I do not want to take a risk on this property. Its sole purpose is to provide me with a place to live. How would I go abo... |
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