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My friend wants to put my name down for a house he's buying. What risks would I be taking? | The risk is that you will owe the bank the principal amount of the mortgage. Based on your question it would be foolish for you to sign. Anyone who describes a mortgage as "something" obviously has no idea what they are doing and should never sign a mortgage which is a promise to pay hundreds of thousands of dollars. Y... |
Best way to buy Japanese yen for travel? | Have you tried calling a Forex broker and asking them if you can take delivery on currency? Their spreads are likely to be much lower than banks/ATMs. |
Is there any way to buy a new car directly from Toyota without going through a dealership? | As others have addressed the legality in their answers, I want to address the idea of the dealership being 'a middleman'. A dealership serves more of a purpose than just 'middlemanning' a car to a consumer. Actually, they consume a great deal of risk. Let's remember that a dealership is really an extension of the OEM, ... |
Do my 401k/Roth accounts benefit from compounding? | You might be confusing two different things. An advantage of investing over a long term is the compounding of returns. Those returns can be interest, dividends, or capital gains. The mix between them depends on what you invest it and how you invest in it. This advantage applies whether your investment is in a taxabl... |
Can I pay off my credit card balance to free up available credit? | Is it possible to pay off my balance more than once in a payment period in order to increase the amount I can spend in a payment period? Yes, but you should only do that if you expect an expense that is larger than your limit allows. Then, provide an extra payment before your expense occurs since it will take longer fo... |
Suitable Vanguard funds for a short-term goal (1-2 years) | If you are younger, and you not under undue pressure to buy a home at any particular time, investing in the market is a reasonable way to prepare. Your risk tolerance should be high. Understand that this means you may buy in 3-4 years instead of 1-2 if the market takes a down turn. It took ~3-4 years for the S&P 50... |
How does a online only bank protect itself against fraud? | There are Cyber Security and Reporting Standards which Financial Service Provider (Banks and Financial services where customers deposit and/or transact fiat currency) You can find a comprehensive list on Wikipedia under Cyber security standards Depending on the geographic location there might be local Govt requirements... |
How can small children contribute to the “family economy”? | If you're trying to teach them the value of money and quantifying the dollar difference between prices, one very effective way to do this is by using bar charts. For instance, if a toy is $5, and movie they really want to see is $10, and a vacation they want to go on costs $2000, it can be a useful tool to help explain... |
How to evaluate stocks? e.g. Whether some stock is cheap or expensive? | Its like anything else, you need to study and learn more about investing in general and the stocks you are looking at buying or selling. Magazines are a good start -- also check out the books recommended in another question. If you're looking at buying a stock for the mid/long term, look at things like this: Selling is... |
Options vs Stocks which is more profitable | More perspective on whether buying the stock ("going long") or options are better. My other answer gave tantalizing results for the option route, even though I made up the numbers; but indeed, if you know EXACTLY when a move is going to happen, assuming a "non-thin" and orderly option market on a stock, then a call (or... |
Company A is buying company B, what happens to the stock? | I think the correct statement is that Expedia wants to buy Orbitz for $12/share. The market price is $11, which means there is somebody willing to sell for that price. But you can't say that a stock price of $11 means that everybody is willing to sell for that price. And Expedia is unlikely to bid $12/share for just 40... |
How are they earning money in the movie “Trading Places”? | Sell 200 at 142. What does that mean? I haven't seen the movie, so I won't try to put anything in story context. "Sell 200 at 142" means to sell 200 units (usually shares, but in this case it would likely be gallons or barrels of orange juice or pounds or tons of frozen juice). In general, this could mean that you h... |
What do brokerage firms do? | Off the top of my head, a broker: While there are stock exchanges that offer direct market access (DMA), they (nearly) always want a broker as well to back the first two points I made. In that case the broker merely routes your orders directly to the exchange and acts as a custodian, but of course the details heavily ... |
Looking for a stock market simulation that's as close to the real thing as possible | Many online brokers have a "virtual" or "paper" trading feature to them. You can make trades in near-real time with a fake account balance and it will treat it as though you were making the trade at that time. No need to manage the math yourself - plus, you can even do more complicated trades (One-Cancels-Other/One-T... |
what is the timezone that yahoo uses for stock information | Using your example link, I found the corresponding chart for a stock that trades on London Stock Exchange: https://ca.finance.yahoo.com/echarts?s=RIO.L#symbol=RIO.L;range=1d As you can see there, the chart runs from ~8:00am to ~4:30pm, and as I write this post it is only 2:14pm Eastern Time. So clearly this foreign ch... |
If you buy something and sell it later on the same day, how do you calculate 'investment'? | You're confused because the source you cite leaves out one number that isn't relevant to the argument they're making: total costs. The number you're expecting, $9 x 365 or $3285 is the total cost of buying the jewelry which, when subtracted from the $3650 sales volume gives us the net profit of $365. The investment is... |
If Bernie Madoff had invested in Berkshire Hathaway, would the ponzi actually have succeeded? | I could be wrong, but I doubt that Bernie started out with any intention of defrauding anyone, really. I suspect it began the first time he hit a quarter when his returns were lower than everyone else's, or at least not as high as he'd promised his investors they'd be, so he fudged the numbers and lied to get past the... |
Why is the number of issued shares less than the number of outstanding shares | The formulae #issued shares = #outstanding shares + #treasury shares looks right. However it looks like the Treasury Shares are treated as -ve in accounting books and thus the outstanding shares are more than issued shares to the extent of Treasury shares. Further info at "Accounting for treasury stock" on wiki |
Do US mutual funds and ETFs pay taxes on dividends? | Mutual funds don't pay taxes themselves, they distribute any dividends or capital gains to the shareholders. Thus, if you hold a mutual fund in a tax-advantaged account like a 401k or IRA then the distribution isn't a taxable event while in a regular taxable account you would have to pay taxes on the distributions. Fro... |
Execute or trade an options contract? | Here is the answer for #3 from my brokerage: Your math is correct. Typically, option traders never take delivery of the stock simply to then turn around and sell it at the higher price that the stock is trading at. You wold always expect the option to have a higher value that simply selling the stock at market price. T... |
How should I think about stock dividends? | Dividends are actually a very stable portion of equity returns, the Great recession and Great Depression notwithstanding: However, dividends, with lower variance have lower returns. Most of the return is due to the more variant price: So while dividends fell by 25% during the worst drop since the Great Depression, ... |
How can I tell what is “real” Motley Fool advice? | These advertisements try to take advantage of the short term memory loss of older people. If you keep an old person watching long enough they will forget why they started watching in the first place. Yet they trust themselves and assume that it was for a good reason. So the long winded salespitch succeeds with older pe... |
Company asking for card details to refund over email | I used to work for a online payment posting company. Anytime a payment is made via Credit Card to a company that does not have PCI DSS(aka the ability/certification to store credit card information) there is a MD5 checksum(of the confirmation code, not the Credit Card information) that get sent to the company from the ... |
A guy scammed me, but he gave me a bank account number & routing number. Can I use that to take out what he owes me? | You're not focusing in the right place and neither is anyone else on this thread because this isn't about the guy owning you money... This is about you not having enough money to pay your rent. If rent wasn't due and the utility bills weren't piling up, you wouldn't be trying to justify taking money out of someone els... |
Military Separation | It's not usually a good idea to buy a house as an investment. Buy a house because you want the house, not for an investment. Your money will make more money invested somewhere other than a house. Additionally, based on talking about renting rooms to pay the mortgage and the GI bill, I assume you are planning on going t... |
How to help a financially self destructive person? | You can't help people that don't want help, period. It just doesn't work, and you will waste your time and energy while making the other person mad. Both sides end up in the same place they started except now they are frustrated with each other. In a normal situation I would advise to stop enabling her by giving her mo... |
Who are the sellers for the new public stocks? | In an IPO the seller is the Company selling new shares. Some of the IPOs also include something called "secondary" sales which are existing holders selling at the same time at the IPO price. But that is a but more unusual. And as someone noted, the $68 is the price paid for the people who bought at the IPO (the aggre... |
Is buying a lottery ticket considered an investment? | From a mathematical expected-value standpoint, there is no difference between gambling (e.g. buying a lottery ticket) and investing (e.g. buying a share of stock). The former probably has negative expected value while the latter probably has positive expected value, but that is not a distinction to include in a defini... |
Should you always max out contributions to your 401k? | As long as you're in a lower tax bracket - you would probably be better off paying the taxes now, and investing into the Roth IRA/401K. However, you should be investing for your retirement now, and not later, because of the compounding effect, and also you'll gain the employer matching (if available). |
Equity - date of offer, or date of joining? | Options or Shares vest by date they are granted. It would strike me as odd for anyone to say their shares were given with 4 year vesting, but the clock was pre-started years prior. In my opinion, you have nothing to complain about. |
Why doesn’t every company and individual use tax-havens to pay less taxes? | Ditto @GradeEhBacon, but let me add a couple of comments: But more relevantly: GradeEhBacon mentioned transaction costs. Yes. Many tax shelters require setting up accounts, doing paperwork, etc. Often you have to get a lawyer or accountant to do this right. If the tax shelter could save you $1 million a year in taxes, ... |
What risk of a diversified portfolio can be specifically offset by options? | Options are contractual instruments. Most options you'll run into are contracts which allow you to buy or sell stock at a given price at some time in the future, if you feel like it (it gives you the option). These are Call and Put options, respectively (for buying the stock and selling the stock). If you have a lot of... |
What is a good open source Windows finance software | Have you tried others on Wikipedia's list? |
I can make a budget, but how can I get myself to consistently follow my budget? | Switch to cash for a few months. No debit. No credit. This will help for two reasons: Once you've broken the bad habits, you should be able to go back to cards for the convenience factor. |
Price graphs: why not percent change? | I am in complete agreement with you. The place i have found with the sort of charts you are looking for is stockcharts.com. To compare the percentage increase of several stocks over a period of 2 market-open days or more, which is quite useful to follow the changes in various stocks… etc., an example: Here the tick... |
Is CLM a stock or an ETF? | Cornerstone Strategic Value Fund, Inc. is a diversified, closed-end management investment company. It was incorporated in Maryland on May 1, 1987 and commenced investment operations on June 30, 1987. The Fund’s shares of Common Stock are traded on the NYSE MKT under the ticker symbol “CLM.”[1] That essentially means th... |
How to become an investment banker? | Apply for a job/internship to get a first impression of what it means to work in investment banking. Go to a tier one business school and try to get an CFA. Most importantly: work, work, work... Get practical experience as much as possible. |
devastated with our retirement money that we have left | The answers you've received already are very good. I truly sympathize with your situation. In general, it makes sense to try to build off of existing relationships. Here are a few ideas: I don't know if you work for a small or large company, or local/state government. But if there is any kind of retirement planning thr... |
What is the difference between hedging and diversification? How does each reduce risk? | The difference is in the interrelation between the varied investments you make. Hedging is about specifically offsetting a possible loss in an investment by making another related investment that will increase in value for the same reasons that the original investment would lose value. Gold, for instance, is often rega... |
Should I wait to save up 20% downpayment on a 500k condo? | I'm of the belief that you should always put 20% down. The lower interest rate will save you thousands over the life of the loan. Also PMI is no different then burning that much cash in the fireplace every month. From Wikipedia Lenders Mortgage Insurance (LMI), also known as Private mortgage insurance (PMI) in the US... |
What does it mean if “IPOs - normally are sold with an `underwriting discount` (a built in commission)” | Also, in the next sentence, what is buyers commission? Is it referring to the share holder? Or potential share holder? And why does the buyer get commission? The buyer doesn't get a commission. The buyer pays a commission. So normally a buyer would say, "I want to buy a hundred shares at $20." The broker would then... |
Saving up for an expensive car | This seems really simple to me. |
Company wants to sell all of its assets, worth more than share price? | The stock exchange here serves as a meeting place for current shareholders who want to sell their shares to someone else. This has nothing to do with liquidation, which is a transaction between the company and its shareholders. A company does not have to be listed on an exchange to make distributions to shareholders. |
Ways to avoid being labeled a pattern day trader | Sorry but you already provided the answer to your own question. The simple answer is to 'not day trade' but hold things for a longer period and don't trade a large number of different stocks every week. Seriously, have a look at the rules and see what it implies.. an average of 20 buys and sells of longer term positio... |
How does giving to charity work? | I'll answer your second question: it depends what your charity is for. There are two types: i) Emergency (i.e. to respond to environmental or social disasters where it acts a bit like an insurance policy); ii) Development (i.e. where the intention is to subsidise something missing in the local economy); A lack of insur... |
Does a growing economy mean the economy is becoming less efficient? | A growing economy should become more efficient because of increased opportunity for division of labor: specialization. External regulation or monetary policy external to the free market can cause parts of the economy to grow in response to said regulations. This creates inefficiencies that are wrung out of the economy... |
Be a partner, CTO or just a freelancer? | I write software myself and was involved in a couple of start ups. One failed, another was wildly successful, but I did not receive much in compensation. The former I received stock, but since it failed, it was worthless anyway. There should be compensation for your time in addition to equity in a company. Any agre... |
How to teach personal reconciliation and book balancing | If you are wanting to teach your kids basic accounting principles there is some good stuff on Khan Academy. However most of the stuff takes practice to really make it hit home and its kinda boring (Especially to kids who may or may not care about it). Maybe if you help them set up an account on Mint so that they are at... |
How to reconcile performance with dividends? | You didn't identify the fund but here is the most obvious way: Some of the stocks they owned could had dividends. Therefore they would have had to pass them on to the investors. If the fund sold shares of stocks, they could have capital gains. They would have sold stocks to pay investors who sold shares. They also coul... |
My investment account is increasingly and significantly underperforming vs. the S&P 500. What should I do? | Around Oct 03 2010 the SPY closed at 113. Today it is trading at 130. After four months, that means that the S&P is up 15% over that particular 4 month period. You said you need something pretty low maintenance, and you are comparing your returns to the S&P 500 (which as @duffbeer703 points out is a good thing to com... |
What if I sell an stock that is going to give an stock dividend after the ex-date but before the payable date | I know that in the case of cash dividends I will get the dividend as long as I bought the stock before the ex-date but what happens in the case of an stock dividend? This is same as cash dividends. You would receive the additional stock. |
Why do people buy stocks that pay no dividend? | people buy stocks because there is more to Return on Investment than whether dividends are issued or not. Some people want ownership and the ability to influence decisions by using the rights associated with their class of stock. Another reason would be to park capital in a place that would grow faster than the rate of... |
Withdraw funds with penalty or bear high management fees for 10 years? | I think the main question is whether the 1.5% quarterly fee is so bad that it warrants losing $60,000 immediately. Suppose they pull it out now, so they have 220000 - 60000 = $160,000. They then invest this in a low-cost index fund, earning say 6% per year on average over 10 years. The result: Alternatively, they lea... |
Does investing in a company support it? | As said by others, buying shares of a company will not support it directly. But let's think about two example companies: Company A, which has 90 % stocks owned by supporters, and Company B, which has only 1 % of stocks owned by supporters. Both companies release bad news, for example profits have decreased. In Company ... |
Should I buy a house because Mortgage rates are low | There is a significant tie between housing prices and mortgage rates. As such, don't assume low mortgage rates mean you will be financially better off if you buy now, since housing prices are inversely correlated with mortgage rates. This isn't a huge correlation - it's R-squared is a bit under 20%, at a 1.5-2 year l... |
few question about debit credit and liabilities | Exactly what accounts are affected by any given transaction is not a fixed thing. Just for example, in a simple accounting system you might have one account for "stock on hand". In a more complex system you might have this broken out into many accounts for different types of stock, stock in different locations, etc. So... |
How do I use investments to lower my taxes [US]? | Not exactly. There are a few ways to manage your taxes with investments. 1) For most investments you get taxed on any gain in value in the investment or dividends paid by that investment. Most investments (with some exceptions for mutual funds) you don't take the tax hit until you sell the investment and realize the ga... |
Is an open-sourced World Stock Index a pipe-dream? | An index is just a mathematical calculation based on stock prices. Anyone can create such a calculation and (given a little effort) publish it based on publicly available data. The question of "open source" is simply whether or not the calculator chooses to publish the calculation used. Given how easy an index is to cr... |
Are those “auto-pilot” programs a scam or waste of time? | These have been around for decades. In the 80's and 90's they had you setup small ads in local newspapers and you would sell a brochure tells people how to make money, or solve some other problem. The idea was that money would roll in. The more ads you placed the more money you made. In the late 90's they had you setup... |
What should I do with $4,000 cash and High Interest Debt? | I see some merit in the other answers, which are all based on the snowball method. However, I would like to present an alternative approach which would be the optimal way in case you have perfect self-control. (Given your amount of debt, most likely you currently do not have perfect self-control, but we will come to th... |
Will a credit card issuer cancel an account if it never incurs interest? | Technically, yes but, in practice, no. I use a card for everything and pay it off every month. Sometimes, several times a month depending on how the month is going. In the last 10 years, I've paid a total of $8 in interest because I legitimately forgot to pay my balance before the statement came out when I was out of ... |
How should I think about stock dividends? | DRiPs come to mind as something that may be worth examining. If you take the Microsoft example, consider what would happen if you bought additional shares each year by re-investing the dividends and the stock also went up over the years. A combination of capital appreciation in the share price plus the additional share... |
What is high trading volume in a stock indicative of? Is high liquidity a good thing or a bad thing? | In general, liquidity is a good thing, because it means it is easy for you to buy or sell a stock. Since high liquidity stocks have a lot of trading, the bid-ask spreads tend to be pretty low. That means you can go into the market and trade easily and cheaply at just about any time. For low liquidity stocks, the bi... |
How to read a mutual fund spec sheet? | The 0.14% is coming out of the assets of the fund itself. The expense ratio can be broken down so that on any given day, a portion of the fund's assets are set aside to cover the administrative cost of running the fund. A fund's total return already includes the expense ratio. This depends a lot on what kind of account... |
effect of bond issue on income statement | No, it would not show up on the income statement as it isn't income. It would show up in the cash flow statement as a result of financing activities. |
How do I research, analyze, and choose the right mutual fund for a roth ira? | There is a lot of interesting information that can be found in a fund's prospectus. I have found it very helpful to read books on the issue, one I just finished was "The Boglehead's Guide to Investing" which speaks mostly on mutual and index funds. Actively managed funds mean that someone is choosing which stocks to bu... |
Dividend vs Growth Stocks for young investors | In financial theory, there is no reason for a difference in investor return to exist between dividend paying and non-dividend paying stocks, except for tax consequences. This is because in theory, a company can either pay dividends to investors [who can reinvest the funds themselves], or reinvest its capital and earn ... |
Why is the total 401(k) contribution limit (employee + employer) so high? | Because 401k's are also used by self employed. A person who has a schedule C profitable income can open a 401k and "match" in whatever ratio he wants, up to 25% of the net profits or the limits you stated. This allows self-employed to defer more income taxes to the future. Why only self-employed? Good question. Ask you... |
Where can I find all public companies' information? | Moody's is now Mergent Online. It's no longer being printed, and must be accessed digitally. In order to browse the database, check with your local public library or university to see if you can get access. (A University will probably require you to visit for access). Another good tool is Value Line Reports. They are ... |
Sales Tax: Rounded Then Totaled or Totaled Then Rounded? | Taxes should not be calculated at the item level. Taxes should be aggregated by tax group at the summary level. The right way everywhere is LINE ITEMS SUMMARY PS:If you'd charge at the item level, it would be too easy to circumvent the law by splitting your items or services into 900 items at $0.01 (Which once rounded ... |
On what time scales are stock support and resistance levels meaningful? | Support and resistance only works as a self-fulfilling prophecy. If everyone trading that stock agrees there's a resistance at so-and-so level, and it is on such-and-such scale, then they will trade accordingly and there will really be a support or resistance. So while you can identify them at any time scale (although ... |
How do I interpret these income tax numbers for Chinese public company Dangdang Inc. (DANG)? | It was not taxed in the previous years because it wasn't in profit. The amount for 2010 is more due to accounting treatment, on account of "Deferred Domestic Income Tax". The figures are at http://data.cnbc.com/quotes/DANG/tab/7.2 You can search for a better understanding of Deferred Domestic Income Tax, a brief explan... |
Why do card processing companies discourage “cash advance” activities | This is most likely protecting Square's relationship with Visa/Mastercard/AMEX/etc. Credit card companies typically charge their customers a much higher interest rate with no grace period on cash advances (withdrawals made from an ATM using a credit card). If you use Square to generate something that looks like a "merc... |
How does a brokerage firm work? | Real target of commisions is providing "risk shelter". It is kind of "insurance", which is actually last step for external risks to delete all your money. In part it cuts some of risks which you provide, brokers track history of all your actions for you (nobody else does). When brokerage firm fails, all your money is z... |
Credit Card Points from Refund | Because your friend isn't going to like the ~2% charge they have to pay to the credit card company on the $10,000 purchase. Credit card companies make money off of transactions. The cardholder normally doesn't pay any transaction fees (and in fact can make a profit via rewards), but the merchant has to pay a certain am... |
Is Bitcoin a commodity or a currency [duplicate] | It has properties of both. Tax authorities will eventually give their opinion on this. Through its properties of finite quantity, fungibility, and resistance to forgery/duplication, it acts as a commodity. It can be sent directly between any two parties anywhere on Earth, without regard for the quantity transacted o... |
Schwab wants to charge me interest on the money I received for selling TSLA short | Brokers have the right to charge interest on any stock that they lend you. Since you borrowed the TSLA to short it, the owner of those shares can charge you interest until you return them. If you are not getting charged interest on some shares that you have borrowed to short, consider it generosity on the part of the l... |
In what cases can a business refuse to take cash? | A business can refuse cash (paper currency) payment pretty much in all cases provided it's a reasonable policy and/or notified during/in advance of contracting. Details in this link. "all United States money as identified above are a valid and legal offer of payment for debts when tendered to a creditor. There is, howe... |
Do I make money in the stock market from other people losing money? | The stock market is no different in this respect to anything that's bought or sold. The price of a stock like many other things reflects what the seller is prepared to sell it at and what the buyer is prepared to offer for it. If those things match then a transaction can take place. The seller loses money but gains sto... |
How to make an investment in a single company's stock while remaining market-neutral? | You can employ a hedging strategy using short selling, put options, or other methods that will partially neutralize your exposure to the overall market. e.g. You could short sell a market-wide index such as the S&P500, while going long (buying) the company you are interested in. Investopedia has a nice primer on this... |
Shorting diluting stocks | It depends on how big the dilution is. Could be a good trade. Do the math yourself, many times nobody else has as all the employees think they are going to get rich because "options" :) |
Transfer $50k to another person's account (in California, USA) | It will not be a problem; people regularly move larger sums. It will be reported to law authorities as large enough to be potentially of interest, but since you can explain it that's fine. |
How to avoid getting back into debt? | Spend less than you earn. If you have no job (source of income), then you can not possibly stay out of debt as you have to spend money to live and study. |
How do you choose which mortgage structure is appropriate when buying a home? | Down payment: Emphatically avoid PMI if at all possible; it's pouring money down the drain. Do 20% down if you can, or pay off enough to bring you above 20% and ask for PMI to be removed as soon as you can. Beyond that it's a matter of how much risk you want to accept and how long you'll own the place, and you'll have ... |
how much of foreign exchange (forex/fx) “deep liquidity” is really just unbacked leverage and what is the effect? | In essence the problem that the OP identified is not that the FX market itself has poor liquidity but that retail FX brokerage sometimes have poor counterparty risk management. The problem is the actual business model that many FX brokerages have. Most FX brokerages are themselves customers of much larger money center ... |
How to exclude stock from mutual fund | Mutual funds invest according to their prospectus. If they declare that they match the investments to a certain index - then that's what they should do. If you don't want to be invested in a company that is part of that index, then don't invest in that fund. Short-selling doesn't "exclude" your investment. You cannot s... |
Why can't online transactions be completed outside of business hours? | Generally, unless you're doing a wire transfer, bank transactions are processed in batches overnight. So the credit card company won't be able to confirm your transfer until the next business day (it may take even longer for them to actually receive the money). |
Evidence for timing market in the short run? | The time horizon for your IRA is years or decades, therefore there is little evidence that there is a benefit to waiting for the "perfect time" to invest. Unless you plan on making only one or 2 years of investments now and then waiting till retirement; the other deposits you will make over the decades will have a gre... |
Can you explain the mechanism of money inflation? | An economy produces goods and services and people use money to pay for those goods and services. Money has value because people believe that they can buy and sell goods and services with it in that economy. How much the value of money is, is determined by how much money there is in comparison to goods and services (su... |
Social Trading Platforms Basically Front Running? | I don't think you can really classify it as front running. Technically, the only information, that the alleged front runner in this case has over the followers is the knowledge of the trade itself. Knowledge of the trade may indeed be share price sensitive information (for some high volume traders or those respected an... |
Homeowners: How can you protect yourself from a financial worst-case scenario? | Honestly, the best way to manage this risk is to manage your savings appropriately. Many experts recommend that maintain a reasonably liquid account with 6-9x your minimum monthly expenses for just this occurrence. I know, easier said than done. Right? As for insurance, I can only speak for what is the case in the US. ... |
What should I do with my $25k to invest as a 20 years old? | My original plan was to wait for the next economic downturn and invest in index funds. These funds have historically yielded 6-7% annually when entered at any given time, but maybe around 8-9% annually when entered during a recession. These numbers have been adjusted for inflation. Questions or comments on this... |
To rebalance or not to rebalance | In theory, investing is not gambling because the expected outcome is not random; people are expecting positive returns, on average, with some relationship to risk undertaken and economic reality. (More risk = more returns.) Historically this is true on average, that assets have positive returns, and riskier assets have... |
What are the benefits of opening an IRA in an unstable/uncertain economy? | Even Gold lost 1/2 of it's value between 1980 and 2000. You would not have fared well if you retired during that period heavily invested in Gold. http://www.usagold.com/reference/prices/history.html You said yourself that one can not foresee what the future will bring. At least IRA's force you to into dollar cost ave... |
How do index funds actually work? | Now company A has been doing ok for couple of weeks, but then due to some factors in that company its stock has been tanking heavily and doesn't appear to have a chance to recover. In this kind of scenario, what does happen? In this scenario, if that company is included in the index being tracked, you will continue ho... |
car loan but 2 people on title | Yes, but then either of you will need the other's permission to sell the car. I strongly recommend you get an agreement on that point, in writing, and possibly reviewed by a lawyer, before entering into this kind of relationship. (See past discussions of car titles and loan cosigners for some examples of how and why th... |
How do I know when I am financially stable/ready to move out on my own? | I recently moved out from my parents place, after having built up sufficient funds, and gone through these questions myself. I live near Louisville, KY which has a significant effect on my income, cost of living, and cost of housing. Factor that into your decisions. To answer your questions in order: When do I know tha... |
Purpose of having good credit when you are well-off? | People just love becoming more well-off than they currently are, and one of the ways they do it is with leverage. Leverage requires credit. That desire is not exclusive to people who are not already well-off. For a well-off person who wants to become more well-off by expanding their real estate ventures, paying cash fo... |
Tax me more: Can I pay extra to the government so I don't have to deal with all this paperwork? | Actually, if you don't care about paying a bit more, either hire an accountant and dump the paper on them, or (may be cheaper but a bit more work) spring for tax software. Modern tax programs can often download most of your data directly. If you don't care about claiming deductions you can skip a lot of the rest. I'm p... |
Why are banks providing credit scores for free? | I think the biggest reason is price; it's a lot cheaper now than it was to offer these. That's because for the most part, when you get a credit score for free, you're not getting a true FICO score. You're getting instead a VantageScore. VantageScore was created by the three credit bureaus, and as such they can offer ... |
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