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Distribution vs withdrawal for an investment account | A mutual fund makes distributions of its dividends and capital gains, usually once a year, or seminanually or quarterly or monthly etc; it does not distribute any capital losses to its shareholders but holds them for offsetting capital gains in future years, (cf, this answer of mine to a different question). A stock pa... |
Highstreet bank fund, custom ETF or Nutmeg? | It's a good question, I am amazed how few people ask this. To summarise: is it really worth paying substantial fees to arrange a generic investment though your high street bank? Almost certainly not. However, one caveat: You didn't mention what kind of fund(s) you want to invest in, or for how long. You also mention an... |
Why would a company sell debt in order to buy back shares and/or pay dividends? | Businesses have bond ratings just like people have credit ratings. It has become common for businesses to issue low rate bonds to show that they are strong, and leave the door open for further borrowing if they see an opportunity, such as an acquisition. One of the reasons Microsoft might want to build a credit reputa... |
A University student wondering if investing in stocks is a good idea? | There isn't really a clear way to answer this question objectively. I'd offer my opinion that yes it is a good idea. You don't need very much money to start (I began investing on $200). To answer your second question, no there are never any "sure things." Instead on focusing on making money, focus on learning how the... |
Are there any disadvantages to DHA Investment Properties? | Along with the above reasons, the fact that DHA are under investigation by the Federal Police, should be a red flag to any potential investor. The Federal Police aren't called in over parking fines. The rules that are in place for effective and appropriate management appear to have been compromised. I would like to se... |
Why would my job recruiter want me to form an LLC? | This is pretty normal. I am in the UK and currently doing the exact same thing. As some answers state there is additional tax law called IR35. But thats all it is, an additional tax law that may be applicable to your situation (it very well may not). It is all perfectly legal and common (all my university friends no... |
Possible replacement for Quicken | Do you use any other online features of Quicken? How many unique ticker symbols do you have? How often do you really need to update the prices? You can always continue to use Quicken, and enter the stock prices by hand. Maybe update them once a month to get an idea of how your investments are doing. That should work... |
How can a person with really bad credit history rent decent housing? | Having been recently evicted she is unlikely to find any one willing to rent to her at anything close to reasonable terms. Any landlord that would consider it is likely to require a huge deposit. Her best solution may be a hotel/motel with weekly/monthly rates. It is generally much easier to get someone out of a hote... |
should the Market Capitalization be equal to the Equity of the firm | Lots of questions: In general, no. Market Capitalization and Equity represent 2 different things. Equity first, the equity of a firm is the value of the assets (what it owns) less its liabilities (what it owes) and consists (broadly) of two components - share capital (what the firm gets when it sells to investors as p... |
Paying over the minimum mortgage payment | Let's look at some of your options: In a savings account, your $40,000 might be earning maybe 0.5%, if you are lucky. In a year, you'll have earned $200. On the plus side, you'll have your $40,000 easily accessible to you to pay for moving, closing costs on your new house, etc. If you apply it to your mortgage, you a... |
Filing 1040-NR when I have been outside the US the entire year? | Yes, you can still file a 1040nr. You are a nonresident alien and were: engaged in a trade or business in the United States Normally, assuming your withholding was correct, you would get a minimal amount back. Income earned in the US is definitely Effectively Connected Income and is taxed at the graduated rates that... |
How can I check my credit score? | Assuming you are asking about a credit score in the United States, the following applies. To find out your FICO score, navigate to AnnualCreditReport, the official site to help consumers receive their credit report from each of the three organizations providing these scores - Equifax, Experian, and TransUnion. You are... |
Diversification reduces risk, but does this base on the assumption that expected return of each asset is always in proportion to its risk? | Diversifying your portfolio between asset A and asset B only reduces the portfolio risk if asset A and asset B are not correlated. If they have either a low correlation or a negative correlation to each other, then you benefit from combining them in a portfolio in terms of risk reduction. The standard deviation of retu... |
How do you declare revenues from YouTube earnings in the USA if you are a minor? | In the USA, you probably owe Self Employment Tax. The cutoff for tax on this is 400$. You will need to file a tax return and cover the medicaid expenses as if you were both the employer and employee. In addition, if he earns income from self-employment, he may owe Self-Employment Tax, which means paying both the emplo... |
Credit card fee and taxes | Credit card fees on a credit card used for personal expenses are not tax deductible. Credit card fees on a business credit card are deductible on schedule C (or whatever form you're using to report business income and expenses). If you are using the same card for both business and personal ... well, for starters, this ... |
Finance, Cash or Lease? | Now, to buy in full (and essentially have zero savings), buy in part (£10000 deposit, followed by a loan of £4000) or PCP/HP more of the value? So, you are assessing if the car is worth having with either none or only 4,000 in savings. This is the most critical information you have provided. My outright opinion is to... |
What are reasonable administrative fees for an IRA? | Whether or not it's reasonable is a matter of opinion, but there are certainly cheaper options out there. It does seem strange to me that your credit union charges a percentage of your assets rather than a flat fee since they shouldn't have to do any more work based on how much money you have invested. I would look int... |
Are there online brokers in the UK which don't require margin account? | Disclosure: I am working for an aggregation startup business called Brokerchooser, that is matching the needs of clients to the right online broker. FxPro and similar brokers are rather CFD/FX brokers. If you want to trade stocks you have to find a broker who is registered member of an exchange like LSE. Long list: htt... |
Are bond ETF capital gains taxed similar to stock or stock funds if held for more than 1 year? | Yes, that's correct. |
If the co-signer on my car loan dies, can the family take the car from me like they're threatening to? | Possession is 9/10 of the law, and any agreement between you and your grandfather is covered under the uniform commercial code covering contracts. As long as your fulfilling your obligation of making payments, the contract stands as originally agreed upon between you and the lender. In short, the car is yours until y... |
Can I buy stocks directly from a public company? | As far as I know, the answer to this is generally "no." The closest thing would be to identify the stock transfer company representing the company that you want to hold and buy through them. (I have held this way, but I don't know if it's available on all stocks.) This eliminates the broker, but there's still a "midd... |
How can I find out what factors are making a stock's price rise? | At any moment, the price is where the supply (seller) and demand (buyer) intersect. This occurs fast enough you don't see it as anything other than bid/ask. What moves it? News of a new drug, device, sandwich, etc. Earning release, whether above or below expectations, or even dead-on, will often impact the price. Ever... |
Importance of dividend yield when evaluating a stock? | Dividends yield and yield history are often neglected, but are very important factors that you should consider when looking at a stock for long-term investment. The more conservative portion of my portfolio is loaded up with dividend paying stocks/MLPs like that are yielding 6-11% income. In an environment when deposit... |
As a 22-year-old, how risky should I be with my 401(k) investments? | At twenty-two, you can have anywhere between 100%-70% of your securities portfolio in equities. It is reasonable to start at 100% and reduce over time. The one thing that I would mention with that is that your target at retirement should be 70% stocks/30% bonds. You should NEVER have more than 30% bonds. Why? Becau... |
Is an Income Mutual Fund a good alternative to a savings account? | The value will certainly fluctuate up and down (but on average gain more than a savings account), but so long as you have enough liquid assets for emergencies, then yes, it's a perfectly good alternative to savings accounts. how risky, in general, are Index Income Funds. How are you defining "risk"? If you mean "probab... |
Do I need to pay quarterly 1040 ES and 941 (payroll)? | I'm not sure why you're confusing the two unrelated things. 1040ES is your estimated tax payments. 941 is your corporation's payroll tax report. They have nothing to do with each other. You being the corporation's employee is accidental, and can only help you to avoid 1040ES and use the W2 withholding instead - like an... |
Protecting savings from exceptional taxes | Over the last few years I've read quite a bit about monetary history. I've developed two very important rules from this study: If you follow these two rules you will be able to weather almost any governmental or banking crisis. |
What can cause rent prices to fall? | Sure! Anything that affects the balance of supply and demand could cause rent prices to fall. I'll betcha rent prices in Wilmington, Ohio collapsed when the biggest employer, DHL, shut down. An economic depression of any sort would cause people to substitute expensive rentals for cheaper ones, putting downward pressure... |
At what percentage drop should you buy to average down | A big part of the answer depends on how "beaten down" the stock is, how long it will take to recover from the drop, and your taste for risk. If you honestly believe the drop is a temporary aberration then averaging down can be a good strategy to lower your dollar-cost average in the stock. But this is a huge risk if y... |
Should I use a credit repair agency? | Don't use a "credit repair" agency. They are scams. One of the myriad of ways in which they work is by setting you up with a bogus loan, which they will dutifully report you as paying on time. They'll pretend to be a used car dealer or some other credit-based merchant. For a time, this will actually work. This is calle... |
Is there any reason not to put a 35% down payment on a car? | I suggest you buy a more reasonably priced car and keep saving to have the full amount for the car you really want in the future. If you can avoid getting loans it helps a lot in you financial situation. |
Free brokerage vs paid - pros and cons | Unless you're an active trader, 30 trades per month is a number you'll probably never hit, so you might as well take advantage of the offer while you have it. But don't trade more than you normally would. Discount brokerages make money on the arbitrage between the bid and ask prices on the exchanges (legal as long as y... |
Do the gain and loss during futures rollover each month will be even out in long run? | There are 2 schools of thought in determining the price of a future contract in a day prior to expiration. The cost of carry model, states that the price of a future contract today is the spot price plus the cost of carrying the underlying asset until expiration minus the return that can be obtained from carrying the ... |
How to make money from a downward European market? | The best way to make money on a downward market is to buy at the bottom, sell at the top. Lather, rinse, repeat. |
What are the ins/outs of writing-off part of one's rent for working at home? | Before starting to do this, make sure that you are squeaky clean in all aspects of your tax preparation and are prepared to back up any claims that you make with documentation. Home office deductions are a huge red flag that often trigger audits. Follow mbhunter's advice and be incredibly meticulous about following the... |
Credit Card Approval | Three big ones that are common in almost all banks (though, individually, they may have other criteria): Other criteria I've seen (while working in the banking industry - varying by bank): the average balance you keep on deposit accounts (checking/savings/CDs/etc), number of overdraft fees in the past 12 months (one ba... |
What percent of a company are you buying when you purchase stock? | What percent of a company are you buying when you purchase stock? The percent of a company represented by a single share can be calculated by percent = 1/number_of_shares*100% Apple comprises 5,250,000,000 shares, so one share makes up about 1.9e-8% of a company, or 0.000000019% of Apple. |
If a mutual fund did really well last year, then statistically speaking, is it likely going to do bad this year? | From a mathematical point of view the stats do not change depending on past performance. Just because a fund is lucky one year doesn't mean that it will be unlucky the next. Consider tossing a coin, the chance of heads is 50%. If you have just thrown 3 heads, the chance of heads is still 50%. It doesn't go down. If yo... |
Is dividend included in EPS | Not quite. The EPS is noted as ttm, which means trailing twelve months --- so the earnings are taken from known values over the previous year. The number you quote as the dividend is actually the Forward Annual Dividend Rate, which is an estimate of the future year's dividends. This means that PFE is paying out more i... |
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... |
Do you have to be mega-rich to invest in companies pre-IPO? | There are a couple of ways to buy into a private company. First, the company can use equity crowd funding (approved under the JOBS act, you don't need to be an accredited investor for this). The offering can be within one state (i.e. Intrastate offerings) which don't have the same SEC regulations but will be governe... |
Do investors go long option contracts when they cannot cover the exercise of the options? | I do this often and have never had a problem. My broker is TD Ameritrade and they sent several emails (and even called and left a message) the week of expiry to remind me I had in the money options that would be expiring soon. Their policy is to automatically exercise all options that are at least $.01 in the money. ... |
How much time should be spent on Penny Stocks Trading a day? | How long is a piece of string? This will depend on many variables. How many trades will you make in a day? What income would you be expecting to make? What expectancy do you need to achieve? Which markets you will choose to trade? Your first step should be to develop a Trading Plan, then develop your trading rules an... |
Single investment across multiple accounts… good, bad, indifferent? | One implication is the added fees if you are investing in something with a trading cost or commission, such as your stock purchase. If you pay low costs to trade (e.g. with a discount broker) and don't switch your investments often, then costs overall should remain reasonable .. but always be aware of your costs and se... |
Paid credit card bill, but money didn't leave my checking account [duplicate] | The fact that your credit card has seen the payment is strong evidence that the transaction did in fact take place. But it's not unusual for there to be a delay of one or two business days before transactions show up in your online banking records. Saturday and Sunday are not business days. I bet you will see it on... |
First concrete steps for retirement planning when one partner is resistant | I would suggest you do three things: If you do all three of these, the time will come when "2 months off to go to Italy this winter and ride bikes through wine country" is something you both want to do, can afford to do, and have arranged your lives to make it feasible. Or whatever wow-cool thing you might dream of. Bu... |
Why can Robin Hood offer trading without commissions? | All discount brokers offer a commission structure that is based on the average kind of order that their target audience will make. Different brokers advertise to different target audiences. They could all have a lot lower commissions than they do. The maximum commission price for the order ticket is set at $99 by the i... |
How much more than my mortgage should I charge for rent? | Agree with the previous posts the question is poorly worded. -but- Clark Howard does say you really need to be getting 90% back in the mortgage payment. Remember that what ever your paying in principle a month is adding to your net worth and every month that gets you a little more money than the last payment. Also... |
Making $100,000 USD per month, no idea what to do with it | In my opinion, I would: If the income is from this year, you can tax shelter $59,000 plus somewhere between $50,000 and $300,000 depending on age, in a 401(k) and defined benefit plan. This will take care of the current tax burden. Afterwards, set aside your remaining tax liability in cash. The after-tax money should b... |
If you buy something and sell it later on the same day, how do you calculate 'investment'? | Not sure if your question is on topic, but the investment is only $9 because that is maximum amount of money the merchant ever needed to start up the business. He put in $9, started turning a profit, and never looked back. |
What is a “margin-call” and how are they enforced? | If you don't have a margin account, then you will not have margin calls. You need a margin account if you wish to "buy on margin", to sell stocks "short", or to sell options, or maybe some other esoteric things I have not thought of. If you don't do those things, then you do not need a margin account and will not get ... |
What are my investment options in real estate? | Your post seems to read as if you want to invest only in real estate rental properties as a start because they will be a reliable investment guaranteed to generate profits that you will be plowing back into buying even more rental properties, but you are willing to consider (possibly in later years) other forms of inve... |
What assets would be valuable in a post-apocalyptic scenario? | Bullets, canned goods, and farm supplies that don't need gas (e.g. seed, feed, plows). |
Are traders 100% responsible for a stock's price changes? | Value is the key word here. Traders should ideally trade on the perceived future value of a company. Changes in the perceived future value is what leads them to buy and sell shares. That said, if a company were to have some catastrophe happen (say it and all of its employees and property disappeared) and somehow ever... |
Is buying a home a good idea? | The New York Times offer a remarkably detailed Buy vs Rent calculator. You enter - From all of this, it advises the break-even rent, when monetarily, it's equal. I'd suggest you keep a few things in mind when using such a tool. Logic, common sense, and a Nobel prize winner named Robert Shiller all indicate that housi... |
How much financial information should a buyer give an estate agent? | Estate agents need the amount of deposit you will put down because they want to be able to assess the viability of your mortgage plans. If you have a high deposit (or are a cash buyer) that makes you an attractive buyer, and they can use it as leverage in your favour. It may also give them an idea of whether you could ... |
How can I invest in US Stocks from outside the US with a credit card instead of a bank account? | You'll have to take cash from your Credit Card account and use that to trade. I doubt any brokerage house will take credit cards as it's trading without any collateral (since credit cards are an unsecured credit) |
What are the options for a 19-year-old college student who only has about $1000? | Put them in Cds. Better than a savings account, you won't lose capital unlike the stock market. |
I am a Resident Alien for tax purposes. Can I claim exemptions from the India - US Tax Treaty (21)? | I was able to find several references that claim that the Indo-US treaty provision is limited to five years: Here it says this (on page 20): Generally the treaty exemption for students is limited to the first five calendar years that the international student is in the U.S. However there is no set time limit for st... |
How to make money from a downward European market? | Not a day goes by that someone isn't forecasting a collapse or meteoric rise. Have you read Ravi Batra's The Great Depression of 1990? The '90s went on to return an amazing 18.3%/yr compound growth rate for the decade. (The book sells for just over $3 with free Amazon shipping.) In 1987, Elaine Garzarelli predicted the... |
How can a person protect his savings against a country default? | Since you are going to be experiencing a liquidity crisis that even owning physical gold wouldn't solve, may I suggest bitcoins? You will still be liquid and people anywhere will be able to trade it. This is different from precious metals, whereas even if you "invested" in gold you would waste considerable resources on... |
How to make money from a downward European market? | If you want to make money while European equities markets are crashing and the Euro itself is devaluing: None of these strategies are to be taken lightly. All involve risk. There are probably numerous ways that you can lose even though it seems like you should win. Transaction fees could eat your profits, especially if... |
Can future rental income be applied to present debt-to-income ratio when applying for second mortgage? | Having both purchased income properties and converted prior residences into rental properties I have found that it is difficult to get the banks to consider the potential rental income in qualifying you for a loan. It helps if you have prior rental experience but in many cases you will have to qualify outright (i.e. w... |
Why public companies care how their stock price fluctuates? [duplicate] | The folks who hold stock are the legal owners of the company. If a majority of stock holders become unhappy with the management of a company they can fire the executives and put in new management, or they can direct the company to close its doors and sell off its assets. As a crude approximation, the stock holders are ... |
The doctor didn't charge the health insurance in time, am I liable? | If you read all that paperwork they made you fill out at the emergency room, there is probably something in there explicitly stating that you owe any bills you rack up regardless of what happens with the insurance company. They generally have a disclaimer that filing for you with your insurance company is a courtesy se... |
How long should I keep an uncleared transaction in my checkbook? | With a check, there are limits on cashing the stale check, but that is set by the banks involved. With a debit card transaction, it will be up the the debit card company and your bank. Imagine a situation where a person finds an old check and tries to cash it at their bank. If the bank considers the check stale, they m... |
I made an investment with a company that contacted me, was it safe? | It is a Scam. Don't invest more money here. Their website is the proof. Investments may appreciate or depreciate and you may not receive more than you initially invested. The Peterson Group offers products that are traded on margin and entail a degree of risk. You may incur losses that exceed your initial investm... |
If I pay someone else's property taxes, can I use it as a deduction on my income tax return? | According to page 107 of the instructions for schedule A for form 1040 : Include taxes (state, local, or foreign) paid on real estate you own that was not used for business. ... If you want to make a business out of her property and be her agent in the management, you might be able to work with an accountant on this, b... |
Can I pay taxes using bill pay from my on-line checking account? | And if you need to pay business taxes outside of the regular US 1040 form, you can use the IRS' Electronic Federal Tax Payment System (EFTPS). Basically, you enroll your bank accounts, and you can make estimated, penalty, etc. payments. The site can be found here. |
Scam or Real: A woman from Facebook apparently needs my bank account to send money | If it's not the classic scam described in Daniel Anderson's answer, then it's probably money laundering. In that case, the woman would actually wire you money, which you have to wire to someone else she names. This is done to enter illegally gained money into the regular money circulation, hiding the trail. If this is ... |
How to fund sabbatical to prepare house for sale? | I'll write this up as a more formal answer, here. I'd suggest looking into a Home Equity Line of Credit, or HELOC. You didn't mention in your question how much equity you have in the home, but assuming at least 20%, you might be able to open a HELOC with a line of $40,000. My experience is that you can do 50% of your e... |
Any difference between buying a few shares of expensive stock or a bunch of cheap stock | I was thinking that the value of the stock is the value of the stock...the actual number of shares really doesn't matter, but I'm not sure. You're correct. Share price is meaningless. Google is $700 per share, Apple is $100 per share, that doesn't say anything about either company and/or whether or not one is a bett... |
How do top investors pull out 20% ROI? | That is absolute rubbish. Warren Buffet follows simple value and GARP tenants that literally anyone could follow if they had the discipline to do so. I have never once heard of an investment made by Warren Buffet that wasn't rooted in fundamentals and easy to understand. The concept is fairly simple as is the math, ... |
Buying a car and learning to drive versus paying up study loans | Welcome to Money.SE. It appears there's public transportation to get you to work? And the area by your house is walkable? i.e. you and your wife can get groceries and other needs by walking. If it will take 5 years to pay the loans even without a car, how long if you get one? Will you even be able to afford the payment... |
Primerica: All it claims to be? | I was a Primerica representative, left to be on my own, and then returned. Insurance is one matter that depends on the individual. Some do not need it. For example, when I was an independent agent with an independent marketing organization (IMO) (oh yes! multi-level is everywhere, dont kid yourself) I had an upline as... |
Good yield vs. safer route (Checking vs. Savings) | There is no difference in safety form the perspective of the bank failing, due to FDIC/NCUA insurance. However, there is a practical issue that should be considered, if you allow payments to be automatically withdrawn from your checking account In the case of an error, all of you money may be unavailable until the er... |
Possible replacement for Quicken | I would investigate mint.com further. Plenty of people have written off using them because Intuit purchased them, but that seems like cutting of your nose to spite your face. I think mint.com is worth it for its Trends functionality alone, not to mention its automatic categorization of your purchases, reminders when b... |
Reducing taxable income in US in December | My first question to you is if you itemize? If not the charitable contributions will not do any good. Along these lines, donating unused items to Goodwill or similar can help boost your charitable giving. The bottom line is that the 401K is one of the few real deductions high earners have. If you anticipate earnin... |
How do I explain why debt on debt is bad to my brother? | This is not the case with your brother only. There are many business which run on this premise. It goes till the time all the conditions are in control and get busted when things goes out of way. You have mentioned the loan amount and not the monthly repayment amount. Even if you say, a new loan will not solve his pro... |
How can a credit card company make any money off me? I have a no-fee card and pay my balance on time | Ever wonder why certain businesses won't accept certain credit cards? (The sign above the register saying "Sorry, we don't accept AmericanExpress"). It's because they don't want to pay that credit card company's transaction fees. One of the roles of the credit card company is to facilitate the transaction process betwe... |
Stock Certificate In two names | The DOW is just an index, which is simply a group of stocks meeting the criteria for inclusion. In the case of the DOW, it's the 30 US stocks with the largest market capitalization, but other indices include many lesser stocks (such as the S&P500 or the Russell 2000). The fact that Holobeam is no longer a constituent o... |
How to buy stock on the Toronto Stock Exchange? | While most all Canadian brokers allow us access to all the US stocks, the reverse is not true. But some US brokers DO allow trading on foreign exchanges. (e.g. Interactive Brokers at which I have an account). You have to look and be prepared to switch brokers. Americans cannot use Canadian brokers (and vice versa). ... |
What do “cake and underwear” stocks refer to? | There are some euphemisms that are better known than others. A category of stocks that's suitable for "widows and orphans" would be stocks that are low beta, and perhaps high dividend. Safe (being relative) enough to put a window's money into. The term "cake and underwear" appears to me to be a Buffetism. And I'd inte... |
Why is OkPay not allowed in the United States? | according to their client services it is a licensing issue: Thread: OKpay didn't Accept USA clients? They do not elaborate but do suggest that they don't plan to fix that issue. |
Will I always be able to get a zero-interest credit card? | No. There is no guarantee that credit card issuing banks will always use 0% introductory rates to entice anyone. |
Is debt almost always the cause of crashes and recessions? | The statement can be true, but isn't a general rule. Crashes and recessions are two different things. A crash is when the market rapidly revalues something when prices are out of equilibrium, whether it be stocks, a commodity or even a service. When the internet was new, nobody knew how to design webpages, so web page... |
Why is OkPay not allowed in the United States? | Here's the real reason OKPay (actually the banks they interface with) won't accept US Citizens. The Foreign Account Tax Compliance Act Congress passed the Foreign Account Tax Compliance Act (FATCA) in 2010 without much fanfare. One reason the act was so quiet was its four-year long ramp up; FATCA did not really take ... |
What are the economic benefits of owning a home in the United States? | It is almost a sure thing that the housing market will crash again hugely.For this reason I prefer to own several houses that way when it does no one can ask for their money back and leave me homeless. Current economics suggest a fall of between 40-60% from 2011 prices meaning that if you have bought a house in the las... |
Relation between inflation rates and interest rates | When the inflation rate increases, this tends to push up interest rates because of supply and demand: If the interest rate is less than the inflation rate, then putting your money in the bank means that you are losing value every day that it is there. So there's an incentive to withdraw your money and spend it now. If,... |
Would it ever be a bad idea to convert a traditional IRA to a Roth IRA with the following assumptions? | To answer your question point by point - I'd focus on the last point. The back of my business card - Let's focus on Single. The standard deduction and exemption add to over $10K. I look at this as "I can have $250K in my IRA, and my $10K (4%) annual withdrawal will be tax free. It takes another $36,900 to fill the 10 ... |
UK - How to receive payments in euros | See my comment below about the official exchange rate. There is no "official" exchange rate to apply as far as I'm aware. However the bank is already applying the same exchange rate you can find in the forex markets. They are simply applying a spread (meaning they will add some amount to the exchange rate whichev... |
Is it safer to send credit card number via unsecured website form or by e-mail? What safer options are there? | Here's one option: Telephone is a lower-tech yet relatively more secure means for transmitting your payment information when a secure web site isn't available. And yet another option: You could send them an encrypted email, but this would require tools (e.g. GPG), setup (public keys), and expertise on their end which... |
How important is disability insurance, e.g. long-term, LTD? Employer offers none | (Oops - I had been meaning to come back to this Q. sooner. Just saw my reminder, so here goes.) Shortly before this question was asked, I actually read a good blog post on the subject of disability insurance at Evolution of Wealth - 7 Ways Your Group Disability Will Fail. I know the OP doesn't have group disability (a... |
Can I withdraw from my Roth IRA retirement account to fund a startup? | Chris's answer is a great start. Keep in mind that when you withdraw from a Roth IRA, you "shrink" the size of the IRA (i.e. if the start up flourishes, you can't put the $10k you withdrew back, as you're limited to ~$5k in contributions per year). You may want to consider funding your startup with a credit card (ideal... |
Real Estate: Please review my recent investment (with numbers from recent purchase) | Okay so I am going to break this answer into a couple sections: Okay so first things first. Did you get a good deal? This is challenging to answer for a number of reasons. First, a good deal is relative to the buyers goals. If you're attempting to buy an asset that provides passive income then maybe you met your goal a... |
Is paying off your mortage a #1 personal finance priority? | It is one thing to take the advice of some numb-skulls on a web site, it is another thing to take the advice of someone who is really wealthy. For myself, I enjoy a very low interest rate (less than 3%) and am aggressively paying down my mortgage. One night I was contemplating slowing that down, and even the possibili... |
On a debt collection agency's letter, what does “balance” refer to? | The balance is the amount due. |
eBay Account and SIM cards sent to my address | In your mother's position, I would do two things: Get a copy of her credit report. Money Advice Service has a useful page on how to do this - it is cheap (£2) or free to do and will immediately tell you if someone else is using her address for anything untoward. Check with the Post Office whether anyone has set up a re... |
Will my father still be eligible for SNAP if I claim him as my dependent? | It seems that counting your father as your dependent shouldn't, in itself, cause him to be ineligible for SNAP. Eligibility requirements for SNAP can be found on this FNS page. There are upper limits on the "countable resources, such as a bank account" that the beneficiary's household may have, and on that household's ... |
Giving kids annual tax free gift of $28,000 | From the IRS' website: How many annual exclusions are available? The annual exclusion applies to gifts to each donee. In other words, if you give each of your children $11,000 in 2002-2005, $12,000 in 2006-2008, $13,000 in 2009-2012 and $14,000 on or after January 1, 2013, the annual exclusion applies to each gi... |
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