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At what percentage drop should you buy to average down
TL;DR; There is no silver bullet. You have to decide how much to invest and when on your own. Averaging down definition: DEFINITION of 'Average Down' The process of buying additional shares in a company at lower prices than you originally purchased. This brings the average price you've paid for all your shares down. B...
From Facebook's perspective, was the fall in price after IPO actually an indication that it went well?
@Joe.E, I disagree with your logic. The IPO clearly didn't go well--not relative to other IPOs. Were it not for the stocks underwriters stepping in late in the trading day, Facebook would likely have closed below their opening price. This story and others indicate that institution investors were given negative informa...
Over how much time should I dollar-cost-average my bonus from cash into mutual funds?
I'm staring at this chart and asking myself, How long a period is enough to have an average I'd be happy with regardless of the direction the market goes? 3 years? 4 years? Clearly, a lump sum investment risks a 2000 buy at 1500. Not good. Honestly, I love the question, and find it interesting, but there's likely no e...
How to chose index funds, mutual funds from a plethora of options (TD Ameritrade)
I agree with others here that suggest that you should be taking higher risk since it is repaid with higher returns. You have 40 years or so to go before you might switch to safer but lower return funds. I suggest that you look at the Morningstar rating for the funds you are considering: http://www.morningstar.com/ A fu...
Is there a government-mandated resource that lists the shareholders of a public company?
There are several such "lists." The one that is maintained by the company is called the shareholder registry. That is a list that the company has given to it by the brokerage firms. It is a start, but not a full list, because many individual shareholders hold their stock with say Merrill Lynch, in "street name" or anon...
Which % of the global economy is considered “emerging”?
The company that runs the fund (Vanguard) on their website has the information on the general breakdown of their investments of that fund. They tell you that as of July 31st 2016 it is 8.7% emerging markets. They even specifically list the 7000+ companies they have purchased stocks in. Of course the actual investment a...
World Indexes - Variance between representation of a country's stocks and the country's proportion of world GDP
Stock market indexes are generally based on market capitalization, which is not the same as GDP. GDP includes the value of all goods and services produced in a country; this includes a large amount of small-scale production which may not be reflected in stock market capitalizations. Thus the ratio between countries' ...
How much do large sell orders affect stock price?
Most of the investors who have large holdings in a particular stock have pretty good exit strategies for those positions to ensure they are getting the best price they can by selling gradually into the volume over time. Putting a single large block of stock up for sale is problematic for one simple reason: Let's say yo...
How to get rid of someone else's debt collector?
As a former debt collector myself, I can tell you that we did occasionally get someone claiming that they weren't who they really were. However, it was pretty obvious who was telling the truth after a while. Above all else, just be calm and polite. Technically, you can also say "do not call this number again" and they ...
Capital gains loss, can IRS waive the loss?
The cap loss can be used to offset future gains or $3000/yr of ordinary income. (I just used up the last of mine from the dot com bubble.) I hope you have future gains that let you use this up quickly. The IRS debt is separate, and I don't imagine they'll let you use any of the loss to offset it. As always, it can't h...
How do I determine how much rent I could charge for a property or location?
Check out the property websites to get an idea of how much, the property in question, could yield as rent. Most give a range and you can get a good idea of it. Just one example from zoopla. Likewise you can refer mouseprice or rightmove and get yourself an idea. Property websites do a lot of data crunching to do an upd...
How to motivate young people to save money
I posted a comment in another answer and it seems to be approved by others, so I have converted this into an answer. If you're talking about young adults who just graduated college and worked through it. I would recommend you tell them to keep the same budget as what they were living on before they got a full-time job....
What is a good 5-year plan for a college student with $15k in the bank?
You can put them in a 5 years CD and getting a maximum of %2.5 APY if you're lucky. If you put 15k now, in 5 years you'll have $1.971. If it sounds good then take a look at the current inflation rate (i'm in usa)... If you want to think about retirement then you should open a Roth IRA. But you won't be able to touch th...
Why would you ever turn down a raise in salary?
I don't know of a situation where rejecting a raise would make sense. Often, one can be in a phaseout of some benefit, so that even though you're in a certain tax bracket, the impact of the next $100 is greater than the bracket rate alone. Taxation of social security benefits is one such anomaly. It can be high, but ne...
How to avoid getting back into debt?
First, you've learned a very good lesson that quite a few people miss out on: notice how easy it is to get out of debt when you get a windfall of money? The trouble is that if a person doesn't have the behavior to maintain their position, they will end up in the same place. Many lottery winners end up being poor in t...
Is there a limit on the dollar amount of a personal check?
Many businesses will request that you get a bank-issued check for large amounts of money. The exception is often in cases where you're not going anywhere: you can write a 50,000 check for a deposit on a new house, and you'll never have a problem, but a car dealer will probably request a counter check for the same sum.
American living abroad and not working for an American company - tax reporting and bank accounts
I'll add a bit to Paul's excellent write up. Foreign Earned Income Exclusion (form 2555): notice the earned there. It doesn't exclude capital gains, interest, dividends, and basically everything that is not salary. You pay US taxes on it from the first cent. Foreign tax credit - foreign tax credit (form 1116) doesn't r...
One of my stocks dropped 40% in 2 days, how should I mentally approach this?
There are 2 approaches. One of them is already mentioned by @Afforess. If the approach by @Afforess is not feasible, and you can not see yourself making an unbiased decision, close the position. By closing the position you will not get the best price. But by removing a distraction you will reduce amount of mistakes yo...
How does an index rearrange its major holdings
S & P Index Announcements would have notes on when there are changes to the index. For example in the S & P Small-cap 600 there is a change that takes affect on Feb. 19, 2013. As for how index funds handle changes to the fund, this depends a bit on the nature of the fund as open-end mutual funds would be different tha...
How much power does a CEO have over a public company?
This is a very good question and is at the core of corporate governance. The CEO is a very powerful figure indeed. But always remember that he heads the firm's management only. He is appointed by the board of directors and is accountable to them. The board on the other hand is accountable to the firm's shareholders an...
Td Ameritrade Roth IRA question
Your broker, Ameritrade, offers a variety of Exchange Traded Funds (ETFs) that you can buy and sell with zero commission. An ETF is like a mutual fund, but you buy and sell shares the same way you buy and sell shares of stocks. From your point of view, the relevance of this is that you can buy and sell as many or as ...
New company doesn't allow 401k deposits for 6 months, what to do with money I used to deposit?
Bit hesitant to put this in an answer as I don't know if specific investment advice is appropriate, but this has grown way too long for a comment. The typical answer given for people who don't have the time, experience, knowledge or inclination to pick specific stocks to hold should instead invest in ETFs (exchange-tra...
Is person-person lending/borrowing protected by law?
Yes, it is, under some circumstances (basically, a piece of paper saying "John Doe borrowed Josh Shoe 100 USD" is not enough). Usually, the paper should include: This is the case for Czech Republic, I believe it's similar for other countries as well. Remember that without the repair date, you have very complicated posi...
Pay bill now or later?
Another, perhaps simpler approach to the same result as @BenMiller. Firstly, if you can pay off the debt today, for 1695.70 cash, then that is the amount of your debt to the hospital. There is no such thing as a discount for cash; just extra money to pay if don't pay immediately. This extra money is called interest, ...
Why are credit cards preferred in the US?
Personally, I use my credit cards for everything because I get reward points (or, cash back, depending on the card), and I build credit history. I've had credit cards since I was 18 (now 22), and my credit score is in the higher end 700s which I'm told is pretty good for my age. Additionally, since I put my rent and la...
why is the money withdrawn from traditional IRA taxed at the ordinary income tax rate?
Basically, the idea of an IRA is that the money is earned by you and would normally be taxed at the individual rate, but the government is allowing you to avoid paying the taxes on it now by instead putting it in the account. This "tax deferral" encourages retirement savings by reducing your current taxable income (pro...
Do I need to start a 529 plan for each child (2 separate plans), or can I just open one 529 plan and let both children use it?
Create one account. You can change the beneficiary of the plan (even to nephews, nieces, yourself or your wife) as many times as you need so long as you are spending the money on valid educational expenses. Are you 100% sure both of your kids are going to college? If you aren't really 100% sure, a single account tha...
Why should a company go public?
You go public to raise money, to invest in the business and/or pay off the existing shareholders. It's really as simple as that. The advantage of being public is that your shares can easily be bought and sold, and so you can issue and sell new ones and your existing shareholders can sell out if they want to. The disadv...
What does it mean to long convexity of options?
First lets understand what convexity means: Convexity - convexity refers to non-linearities in a financial model. In other words, if the price of an underlying variable changes, the price of an output does not change linearly, but depends on the second derivative (or, loosely speaking, higher-order terms) of the...
Got charged ridiculous amount for doctor's walk in visit. What are my options?
To answer the specific question of whether you can get the bill reduced without hurting your credit, yes, as long as the bill never goes to collections, there's no reason it should ever show up on your credit report. Will they reduce your bill without sending it to collections first? Maybe. All you can do is ask.
Is it unreasonable to double your investment year over year?
Yes, because you cannot have an exponential growth rate that is faster than the rate at which the economy grows on the long term. 100% growth is much more than the few percent at which the economy grows, so your share in the World economy would approximately double every year. Today the value of all the assets in the W...
Why are people from UAE and Dubai so rich?
They aren't all rich on average. And oil and gas is actually now only about 25% of the economy in the UAE (incredibly!). There are good reasons why it felt that way, though: The UAE and a number of other oil-rich nations all realize that they need to diversify away from oil revenues. International investment and touris...
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...
Is it unreasonable to double your investment year over year?
Not at all impossible. What you need is Fundamental Analysis and Relationship with your investment. If you are just buying shares - not sure you can have those. I will provide examples from my personal experience: My mother has barely high school education. When she saw house and land prices in Bulgaria, she thought i...
Does material nonpublic information cover knowledge of unannounced products?
So is knowledge of unannounced products simply not considered material nonpublic information? Well "material" is relative but it certainly is nonpublic information. And trading based on that information would likely be considered illegal if it is actually material. Many companies require that employees with material...
Pay off car or use money for down payment
Break the transactions into parts. Go to your bank or credit union and get a loan commitment. When applying for loan get the maximum amount they will let you borrow assuming that you will no longer own the first car. Take the car to a dealer and get a written estimate for selling the car. Pick one that gives you an est...
How safe is a checking account?
Money in a U.S. checking account is FDIC insured, so it's "safe" in the sense that you don't have to worry about a run on the bank or going out of business. Purchase fraud is something else entirely -- you need to check with your bank and see what their policy is for unauthorized charges made with your debit card. Fede...
Is my wash sale being calculated incorrectly?
According to Wikipedia this is still a wash sale: In the USA wash sale rules are codified in "26 USC § 1091 - Loss from wash sales of stock or securities." Under Section 1091, a wash sale occurs when a taxpayer sells or trades stock or securities at a loss, and within 30 days before or after the sale:
What are the advantages of paying off a mortgage quickly?
The financial reasons, beyond simply owning your home outright, are: You're no longer paying interest. Yes, the interest is tax-deductible in the U.S. (though not in Canada), but the tax savings is a percentage of a percentage; if you paid, say, $8000 in interest last year, at the 25% marginal rate you effectively save...
Do I have to explain the source of *all* income on my taxes?
@RonJohn's answer for pallet of $20's is right for the specific case. For the general case of all income, it depends on whether or not the the source of the income was potentially criminal. https://www.forbes.com/sites/timtodd/2015/11/16/a-win-for-the-5th-amendment-at-the-tax-court/ I am not a lawyer, but reading that ...
Common practice for start/end date of balance sheet
One's paycheck typically has a YTD (year to date) number that will end on the latest check of the year. I am paid bi-weekly, and my first 2012 check was for work 12/25 - 1/7. So, for my own balance sheet, brokerage statements and stock valuations end 12/31, but my pay ended 12/24. And then a new sheet starts.
2008-2009 Stock Market Crash — what caused the second drop?
The second drop was part of the same event. The short-term resurgence is often called a "dead cat bounce". Mongus Pong's answer is a great answer, I'm going to approach from a more anecdotal POV. Think about the fear that was in the air in Fall 2008. From my recollection, that short-term stabilization came from the Fed...
Are “hard money loans” meant only for real estate?
From Wikipedia: A hard money loan is a specific type of asset-based loan financing through which a borrower receives funds secured by the value of a parcel of real estate. Hard money loans are typically issued at much higher interest rates than conventional commercial or residential property loans and are almost never ...
What is considered high or low when talking about volume?
The daily Volume is usually compared to the average daily volume over the past 50 days for a stock. High volume is usually considered to be 2 or more times the average daily volume over the last 50 days for that stock, however some traders might set the crireia to be 3x or 4x the ADV for confirmation of a particular p...
Why can't house prices be out of tune with salaries
Here's another way to think about. Let's assume it is 2011 and we have a married couple who are 25 and make a combined salary of $50,000/yr net. A suitable first house in their area is $300,000, six times their annual net salary. Assuming they could scrimp so that 1/2 of take-home went toward saving for their home, ...
How should I value personal use television for donation?
The usual lazy recommendation: See what similar objects, in similar condition, of similar age, have sold for recently on eBay. That establishes a fair market value by directly polling the market.
Should my husband's business pay my business?
It depends on the finances involved, but particularly if you're not billing anything right now and may have no revenue this year, it's probably a good idea to bill his company. This is in part because some deductions or other tax treatments are only allowed if you have revenue and/or income. The biggest example I can ...
United Kingdom: Where to save money for a property deposit
From April 2017 the plan is that there is now also going to be a "Lifetime ISA" (in addition to the Help to Buy ISA). Assuming those plans do not change, they government will give 25% after each year until you are 50, and the maximum you can put in per year will be £4000. Catches: You can only take the money out for c...
Covered calls: How to handle this trade?
Your broker likely didn't close your position out because it is a covered position. Why interfere with a trade that has no risk to it, from their perspective? There's no risk for the broker since your account holds the shares available for delivery (definition of covered), for if and when the options you wrote (sold) a...
Do Fundamentals Matter Anymore in Stock Markets?
Are you implying that Amazon is a better investment than GE because Amazon's P/E is 175 while GE's is only 27? Or that GE is a better investment than Apple because Apple's P/E is just 13. There are a lot of other ratios to consider than P/E. I personally view high P/E numbers as a red flag. One way to think of a P/...
Using Loan to Invest - Paying Monthly Installments by Selling Originally Bought Shares
In addition to the answer from CQM, let me answer your 'am I missing anything?' question. Then I'll talk about how your approach of simplifying this is making it both harder and easier for you. Last I'll show what my model for this would look like, but if you aren't capable of stacking this up yourself, then you REALLY...
Can a US bank prevent you from making early payments to the principal on a home mortgage?
littleadv's first comment - check the note - is really the answer. But your issue is twofold - Every mortgage I've had (over 10 in my lifetime) allows early principal payments. The extra principal can only be applied at the same time as the regular payment. Think of it this way - only at that moment is there no intere...
What's the fuss about Credit Score / History?
Use credit and pay your bills on time. That's really about it. If you do that, you don't need to think about credit score. It's really a big distraction that is dwelled on too much.
How big of a mortgage can I realistically afford?
My primary concerns. There seems to still be a fair bit of distressed property (forclosures etc) on the market at current, which might well keep prices down for the next year or so that it takes to finish flushing that stuff out of the market. The gist I get from most experts/pundits is that There will be good deals a...
Website for managing personal cash inflow and outflow, applicable to India?
https://moneycenter.yodlee.com/ You can link your bank accounts, credit cards, trading accounts etc at Yodlee. These will be updated automatically if you share your username and password from your existing financial institutions. You also have the option of creating manual accounts. You will have to manually add/update...
Are personal finance / money management classes taught in high school, anywhere?
In Houston, Texas USA where I went to a private high school they had a half-semester class in personal finance, but it was optional and didn't give you any credits towards graduation. You are right though, it should be a standard class. After all, who doesn't need that information in their adult lives, and not everyone...
Most common types of financial scams an individual investor should beware of?
If anyone offers you guaranteed better than average returns, run. They are either lying to you or to themselves. (Claiming that they will try to beat the market is more credible, but that becomes a matter of whether there is any reason to believe that they'll succeed.) If anyone sends you an unsolicited stock tip, run....
Why is the breakdown of a loan repayment into principal and interest of any importance?
The breakdown between how much of your payment is going toward principal and interest is very important. The principal balance remaining on your loan is the payoff amount. Once the principal is paid off, your loan is finished. Each month, some of your payment goes to pay off the principal, and some goes to pay inte...
Could someone place an independent film on the stock market?
Stock is a part ownership of a business. First there has to be a business that people want to own part of because they expect to make a profit from that ownership. Nobody is going to be interested if the business isn't worth anything. In other words: sure, you could try to start a movie production house to make this ...
Do I have to pay the internet installation charges for my home's company internet?
Of course you don't have to pay them - you just might not like the result. As a matter of law - given that I am not a lawyer - I am not aware of any requirement for a company to pay employees business-related expenses. An example might be having a cell phone, and according to this article companies aren't required to p...
Why do banks require small businesses to open a business bank account instead of a cheaper personal one?
You could, but the bank won't let you... If you're a sole proprietor - then you could probably open a personal account and just use it, and never tell them that is actually a business. However, depending on your volume of operations, they may switch you on their own to business account by the pattern of your transactio...
What fiscal scrutiny can be expected from IRS in early retirement?
IRS Pub 554 states (click to read full IRS doc): "Do not file a federal income tax return if you do not meet the filing requirements and are not due a refund. ... If you are a U.S. citizen or resident alien, you must file a return if your gross income for the year was at least the amount shown on the appropriate line ...
As a 22-year-old, how risky should I be with my 401(k) investments?
Whatever you do, don't take your retirement savings to Vegas. Second, you should also consider investment expenses. Your investments profit after the managers pay themselves. Get the lowest expense ratio mutual funds you can. Third, most active managers do not beat the market. Index funds are your friends. They also te...
Can two companies own stock in each other?
Yes, this happens a lot. And in many cases companies don't even know this is happening. Collateralized Debt Obligations frequently contain pieces of the same financial products, where it is not obvious what the underlying asset is. It gets complicated to explain, but I can make an analogy to a portfolio of stocks you m...
How to know which companies enter the stock market?
For months prior to going public a company has to file financial documents with the SEC. These are available to the public at www.sec.gov on their Edgar database. For instance, Eagleline is listed as potentially IPOing next week. You can find out all the details of any IPO including correspondence between the company a...
How to protect a Stock you still want to own from a downturn?
If you really believe in the particular stocks, then don't worry about their daily price. Overall if the company is sound, and presumably paying a dividend, then you're in it for the long haul. Notwithstanding that, it is reasonable to look for a way out. The two you describe are quite different in their specifics. S...
My university has tranfered me money by mistake, and wants me to transfer it back
Call in to the bank using a publicly available number to verify the request.
Put idle savings to use while keeping them liquid
I'm new to this, but how about putting a big part of your money into an MMA? I don't know about your country, but in Germany, some online banks easily offer as much as 2.1% pa, and you can access the money daily. If you want decent profit without risk this is a great deal, much better than most saving accounts.
Should I pay off my 401k loan or reinvest the funds elsewhere?
Pay the 401(k) loan back as soon as possible. To be clear, the money from your 401(k) loan is no longer invested and working for you. It doesn't make sense to pull money out of your 401(k) investments and then invest it in something else. If you want to invest for retirement, pay back the loan and invest that money in...
Are COBRA premiums deductible when self-employed?
http://www.ehow.com/about_4625753_cobra-as-selfemployed-health-insurance.html This link makes it clear... it has to be itemized, and is subject to the > than 7.5% AGI rule.
Ethics and investment
Domini offers such a fund. It might suit you, or it might include things you wish to avoid. I'm not judging your goals, but would suggest that it might be tough to find a fund that has the same values as you. If you choose individual stocks, you might have to do a lot of reading, and decide if it's all or none, i.e. i...
Borrowing money to buy shares for cashflow?
Don't do it. I would sell one of my investment houses and use the equity to pay down your primary mortgage. Then I would refinance my primary mortgage in order to lower the payments.
Must a company have a specific number of employees to do an IPO?
While there is no legal reason to have a minimum number of employees, there can be a practical reason. They want to look like a good solid investment so that investors will give them money, which is what an IPO is, really. Hiring lots of people is part of that. Once the investors are committed, they can cut expenses...
At what point should I begin paying off student loans?
Everyone has made some good points that I was going to mention but to put it in terms that might make it easier to decide. As stated by others, paying off debt and being free is always the goal and desirable. However, you must also consider the "efficiency" of what you do as well. For example, there are two common type...
How long to wait after getting a mortgage to increase my credit limit?
I'm not sure what raising your credit limit would do to your score in the short term. I don't think it's a clear win, though. Your percent utilization will go down (more available credit for the same amount of debt) but your available credit will also go up, which may be a negative, since potentially you can default ...
Need to change cash to cashier's check without bank account (Just arrived to the US)
If you have an SSN and foreign passport - it's all you need to open account, so just open it and order a checkbook. It will take some time before they will issue it but most probably they'll give you some checks to use till that very moment. So basically you should: Also I strongly suggest you to open two accounts - o...
Capital Gains Tax - Does this apply only to the actual “gains” or to the entire amount of my sale?
You normally only pay taxes on the difference between the sale price and the cost basis of the asset. In your example, you would probably pay taxes on the $10 difference, not the full sale price of $110. If you paid a commission, however, you would be taxed on your gain minus the commission you paid. Since you held the...
Why can't you just have someone invest for you and split the profits (and losses) with him?
The 2 and 20 rule is a premium arrangement that hedge funds offer and venture capital funds offer, and they also offer different variations of it. The 2 is the management fee as percent of assets under management, the 20 is the profit cut, which they only get if they are profitable. There are 0/20, 1/15, and many varia...
Why might it be advisable to keep student debt vs. paying it off quickly?
One of many things to consider is that in the United States student loan interest is tax deductible. That fact could change the math enough to make it worth putting A's money elsewhere depending on his interest rate and income bracket.
What to do with an expensive, upside-down car loan?
First suggestion: Investigate refinancing the auto loan with a reputable credit union or bank. I reduced my costs by changing my auto loan to Pentagon Federal Credit Union, which charges about 4% interest rate (compared to 6% which was the standard about 2 years ago). (for instructions on how to join penfed, look at ...
What prevents investors from buying high yield stocks and selling them as soon as their dividend is paid out?
The rest of the market knows when the dividends are paid out, and that will be reflected naturally in the share price. That's why there is no way to consistently beat the market. Because the market is other human beings, who's sum of knowledge is greater than any individual. Everything in the stock market boils down to...
S-Corp partnership startup. How to pay owners with minimal profit?
If you're really interested in the long-term success of your business, and you can get by in your personal finances without taking anything from the business for the time being, then don't. There is no "legal requirement" to pay yourself a prevailing wage if doing so would put the company out of business. it is comm...
Is is possible to take a mortgage using Bitcoin as collateral?
This doesn't make any sense. For the people who ask you this, suggest that they borrow the money to invest with you. They can use their bitcoins as collateral for the loan. That way, they get the same benefit and your company doesn't go out of business if the price of bitcoin drops, even temporarily, because the loan b...
If accepting more than $10K in cash for a used boat, should I worry about counterfeiting?
I'd not do business under these terms. A bill of sale needs a signature, right? Your signature is your word, and your word is your bond. I wouldn't participate in such a fraud, nor would I accept this sum of cash, who knows its origins?
How does a stock operate when it is listed between two exchanges?
Say a stock is listed in Nasdaq, and the same company has a stock listed in Tsx. Does the Nasdaq price affect the Tsx price as trading commences? Not directly. Basically, an exchange is a market, and the price is defined only by supply and demand in that market. However, any substantial price differential for a commodi...
What bonds do I keep and which do I cash, why is the interest so different
Bonds released at the same time have different interest rates because they have different levels of risks and liquidity associated. Risk will depend on the company / country / municipality that offers the bond: their financial position, and their resulting ability to make future payments & avoid default. Riskier organ...
Should the poor consider investing as a means to becoming rich?
Definitions are in order: These definitions are important. Someone making 1,000,000 a year who spends all of it is poor. Someone who makes 500K, spends 450K a year and has three million in stocks and a paid-for million dollar home may be rich but they can't retire. They need another seven to eight million to retire. So...
Do I need a business credit card?
I would suggest at least getting a personal card that you only use for business expenses, even if you don't opt for a business card. It makes it very clear that expenses on that card are business expenses, and is just more professional. The same goes for a checking account, if you have one of those. It makes it easi...
How to take advantage of home appreciation
There might just not be anything useful for you to do with that 'value'. As others mentioned, HELOCs have their risks and issues too. There is no risk-less way to take advantage of the value (outside of selling) It is similar to owning a rare stamp that is 'worth a million' - what good does it do you if you don't sell ...
Should I open a credit card when I turn 18 just to start a credit score?
Definitely not. Credit cards only exist to suck you into the soulless corporate system. What you want to remember here is that you can't trust banks, so you'll want to convert all your savings into some durable asset, say, bitcoins for example, and then hoard them like Smaug until after the Fall.
First Time Home Buyer - How much down payment? Where to go for Mortgage?
You are correct that 20% has an impact on your interest rate, although it is not always hugely significant. You would have to do your own shopping around to find that information out. However 20% has an impact that I consider to be far more important than your monthly payment, and that is in your equity. If the DC m...
Is there a sell-side version of dollar-cost averaging?
None of your options or strategies are ideal. Have you considered looking at the stock chart and making a decision? Is the price currently up-trending, or is it down-trending, or is it going sideways? As Knuckle Dragger mentions, you could just set a limit price order and if it does not hit by Friday you can just sell ...
Entering the stock market in a poor economy
Buy low and sell high. Right now stocks are cheap (or at least cheapish). If you wait for better forecasts, the price will be higher. They might go down still farther, but no one knows for sure when that will happen, or where the bottom is -- despite what the talking heads on TV say. Remember that what you really c...
US Foreign-Owned LLC that owes no income tax - Do I have to file anything?
If you intend to do business "outside the country", why establish an LLC "here" at all? You should establish a business in your home country if you desire business organization for sequestering liabilities or something. With or without a business organization, you will presumably be taxed for domestic income "there",...
Deceived by car salesman
The only thing that is important here is the documentation you and your daughter signed. If that documentation states that you were a co-signer and that your daughter was the primary on the loan, and then if the loan is not being reported in your daughter's name, you have a cause for action. If, however, the documentat...
Paying off a loan with a loan to get a better interest rate
Your current loan is for a new car. Your refinanced loan would probably be for a used car. They have different underwriting standards and used car loan rates are usually higher because of the higher risks associated with the loans. (People with better credit will tend to buy new cars.) This doesn't mean that you can't ...
Are all financial advisors compensated in the same way?
No, they certainly are not compensated the same way. Some are paid by commission that they earn from the products they sell (ie, certain mutual funds, insurance, etc.) Others are paid for their advice based on an hourly fee, or a percentage of the portfolio you have to invest. This is a great question, because too ma...
Does investing in a company support it?
As others have said, it simply makes you a part owner. Even if you have ethical objections to a company's behavior, I'd argue that investing in it and using the proxy votes to influence the company's decisions might be even more ethical than not investing.
Option on an option possible? (Have a LEAP, put to me?)
There are many stategies with options that you have listed. The one I use frequently is buy in the money calls and sell at the money staddles. Do this ONLY on stocks you do not mind owning because that is the worse thing that can happen and if you like the company you stand less of a chance of being scared out of the t...
Deducting last years (undocumented) side business loss
You should speak to a good tax adviser. The less documentation you have the more problems IRS are going to cause you. Generally you can deduct business losses (in the year they occurred, which is 2011), but you have to show that that was a valid business, not just a way to reduce your tax bill with personal expenses. T...