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What do Earnings Per Share tell potential shareholders?
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How to interpret stock performance charts “vs S&P 500”
tl;dr: The CNN Money and Yahoo Finance charts are wildly inaccurate. The TD Ameritrade chart appears to be accurate and shows returns with reinvested dividends. Ignoring buggy data, CNN most likely shows reinvested dividends for quoted securities but not for the S&P 500 index. Yahoo most likely shows all returns withou...
Why is the dominant investing advice for individuals to use mutual funds, exchanged traded funds (ETFs), etc
Great question! While investing in individual stocks can be very useful as a learning experience, my opinion is that concentrating an entire portfolio in a few companies' stock is a mistake for most investors, and especially for a novice for several reasons. After all, only a handful of professional investors have ever...
Choosing a vehicle to invest a kid's money on their behalf (college, etc.)?
Roth is currently not an option, unless you can manage to document income. At 6, this would be difficult but not impossible. My daughter was babysitting at 10, that's when we started her Roth. The 529 is the only option listed that offers the protection of not permitting an 18 year old to "blow the money." But only if...
At what point is the contents of a trust considered to be the property of the beneficiary?
Both a trust and an estate are separate, legal, taxpaying entities, just like any individual. Income earned by the trust or estate property (e.g., rents collected from real estate) is income earned by the trust or the estate. Who is liable for taxes on income earned by a trust depends on who receives or retains benefit...
What is the stock warrant's expiration date here?
These warrants do not have a fixed expiration date, rather their expiration date is dependant upon the company completing an acquisition. Thirty days after the acquisition is complete the warrants enter their exercise period. The warrants can then be exercised at any time over the next five years. After five years t...
Deposit a cheque in an alternative name into a personal bank account (Australia)
You actually don't have to open a business account with your bank, you can have a personal account with the bank and have your business funds go into it, whether it be from cheques or from Eftpos\Credit Card Facilities. You just have to get your customers to make the cheque out under your name (the same name used for y...
Why do people take out life insurance on their children? Should I take out a policy on my child?
It's Permanent Insurance, sold as a savings scheme that is a bad deal for most people. The insurance aspect really doesn't mean much to most people. The classic example that's been around for decades is the "Gerber Grow Up Plan". Basically, it's a whole-life policy that accumulates a cash value. The pitch is typically ...
I carelessly invested in a stock on a spike near the peak price. How can I salvage my investment?
I am very surprised no one mentioned the Stock Repair Option Strategy which has real benefits and is one of the mainstream Option Strategies. Quote: Who Should Consider Using the Stock Repair Strategy? In a nutshell, you are buying call options with current strike price (at-the-money) and sell call options with higher ...
Getting started in stock with one special field of activity
I don't think investing in only one industry, which you may know well, is very wise. You may want to invest in that industry but you should not restrict yourself from investing solely in that industry. There are many times when your chosen industry may not be performing very well and other industries are performing mu...
Why is property investment good if properties de-valuate over time?
Properties do in fact devaluate every year for several reasons. One of the reasons is that an old property is not the state of the art and cannot therefore compete with the newest properties, e.g. energy efficiency may be outdated. Second reason is that the property becomes older and thus it is more likely that it requ...
Relation between inflation rates and interest rates
Is it true that due the to the increase in interest rates that inflation is likely to increase as well? It is typically the reverse where inflation causes interest rates to rise. Interest rates fundamentally reflect the desire for people to purchase future goods over present day goods. If I loan money to someone for 5...
Need a formula to determine monthly payments received at time t if I'm reinvesting my returns
With 10% return over three years, depositing $900 each month, in three years $34,039.30. Re. downvote. I guess this is too brief and without explanation, but I was rushing. If you want further explanation of how this is calculated check the link already posted by JoeTaxpayer, and have a look at the formula for contin...
Shared groceries expenses between roommates to be divided as per specific consumption ratio and attendance
When I was in grad school (at an engineering school) my apartment-mates and I came up with this formula: Worked marvelously.
Are large companies more profitable than small ones?
Small companies could have growth prospects. Large companies may not have that many. So look at ROE of companies by quatile to determine which companies have better growth.
With respect to insider trading, what is considered “material information”?
Material Information means that any information that can reasonable affect the share price of the company [upward or downward] as looked by the investors. The idea is to provide a level playing field to all investors. Hence it forces people having material information not to trade when they have this information that i...
Hourly rate negotiation tips for paid internship
Interns are not hired to do work, they are hired so that people at the company can get a look at their abilities in a real situation (not an interview) before hiring them for real. This way instead of 30% of your new hires being a dud, it's more like 5%, because the bad ones were filtered out in the intern process. If ...
Why is tax being paid on my salary multiple times?
Businesses do not pay income tax on money that they pay out as salary to their employees. Businesses generally only pay income tax on profit. Profit is the money that comes in (revenue) minus the business expenses. Payroll to the employees is a deductible business expense.
Does buying and selling a stock OR holding onto it make a company look better?
Not sure I fully understand your question but my take on it is this: There a lot of people out there that admire companies and own the stock just because they like the company. For example, I know some kids who own Disney stock. They only have a share or two but they keep it because they want to say "I own a part of Di...
I'm 23 and was given $50k. What should I do?
I'd be tempted to pay off the 35k in student loans immediately, but if you have to owe money, it's hard to beat zero percent. So I don't think I would pay it all off. Maybe cut it in half to make it a more comfortable payment. Currently, you are looking at $6K a year to pay them off, which is about 20% of your income. ...
How do I fold side-income into our budget so my husband doesn't know?
I doubt that it is possible to keep something like this secret from your husband forever. If you get away with it once, I'd guess you'll probably try it again, and sooner or later he'll find out. He'll notice that things show up in the house that aren't accounted for in the budget, or he'll see a statement from your se...
Tax implications of diversification
If so, are there ways to reduce the amount of taxes owed? Given that it's currently December, I suppose I could sell half of what I want now, and the other half in January and it would split the tax burden over 2 years instead, but beyond that, are there any strategies for tax reduction in this scenario? One possibilit...
Can my spouse be the primary signer on my car's loan?
Go to your local bank or credit union before talking to a dealership. Ask them if putting both names on the loan makes a difference regarding rates and maximum loan you qualify for. Ask them to run the loan application both ways. Having both names on the loan helps build the credit of the spouse that has a lower score....
I carelessly invested in a stock on a spike near the peak price. How can I salvage my investment?
Yes, you could sell what you have and bet against others that the stock price will continue to fall within a period of time "Shorting". If you're right, your value goes UP even though the stock price goes down. This is a pretty darn risky bet to make. If you're wrong, there's no limit to how much money you can owe. ...
What should I do with a savings account in another country?
If the fees to keep the account open are reasonable then it's worth keeping it open for now. It streamlines things if you need to visit or otherwise have business transactions (e.g. order things from online stores) with France or other EU countries. If you are not yet even in university, I think it is far too early t...
How do cashier's checks work and why are they good for scams?
There are two different issues at play here, and they are completely separate from each other: A bank or cashier's check is "safer" than a regular personal or business check because it avoids problem #1. Problem #2 exists with all kinds of paper checks. I assume the reason the warnings are about cashier's check moreso ...
Why do consultants or contractors make more money than employees?
All the existing answers are right and the general theme is: contracting is a different kind of relationship. It's a business-to-business relationship rather than a business-to-employee relationship. This has implications such as: Of course, some contractors are effectively just over-paid employees, and some of the abo...
What is the incentive for a bank to refinance a mortgage at a lower rate?
The big one is to keep you from refinancing it with someone else to get a better rate. There may also be some funny-money reasons having to do with being able to count this as a new sale.
Evidence for timing market in the short run?
Timing the market and by extension the efficient market hypothesis is one of the most hotly debated subjects in finance academia. If you are to believe the majority of finance professors and PHD's out there chances of timing a market like the NYSE, NASDAQ or LSE is not possible. If you are to take into account the huge...
How smart is it to really be 100% debt free?
Keep in mind that you NEED to have a cash reserve. Blindly applying all stray cash to debt reduction is a bad idea. Your lenders do not care about your balance. All they care about is your NEXT payment. It is therefore imperative that you have a cash reserve that can carry these payments for several months. Having...
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.
If I sell a stock that I don't have, am I required to buy it before a certain amount of time?
If you sell a stock you don't own, it's called a short sale. You borrowed the shares from an owner of the stock and eventually would buy to close. On most normal shares, you can hold a short position indefinitely, but there are some shares that have a combination of either a small float or too high a short position tha...
How to sell a worthless option
Sounds like an illiquid option, if there are actually some bidders, market makers, then sell the option at market price (market sell order). If there are not market makers then place a really low limit sell order so that you can sit at the ask in the order book. A lot of time there is off-book liquidity, so there may b...
Should you keep your stocks if you are too late to sell?
The standard answer on any long term stock is hold on during the rough times. You have not lost anything until you sell. If your concern is just that you are not certain where the stock price is headed, unless you need the money now and can not afford to hold on to the stock then I would hold it.
First concrete steps for retirement planning when one partner is resistant
I can understand your nervousness being 40 and no retirement savings. Its understandable especially given your parents. Before going further, I would really recommend the books and seminars on Love and Respect. The subject matter is Christian based, but it based upon a lot of secular research from the University of...
Snowball debt or pay off a large amount?
You've already received good advice here, pay off the highest rate card first, in this case the Best Buy card. I completely agree. To answer your question about the minimum payment, I can't guarantee that this is how Citi does it on your particular card, but several online calculators seem to use the following formula....
What are the costs to maintain an Inc?
According to this FAQ published by the state of Delaware, your annual filing fees will be: Anything above and beyond that is based on company income. If you decide to file an LLC in Delaware instead of a Corporation your annual tax is $300. As others have mentioned in comments to your original question it's worth explo...
Buying back a covered Call
Your three options are: Options 2 and 3 are obviously identical (other than transaction costs), so if you want to keep the stock, go for option 1, otherwise, go for option 3 since you have the same effect as option 2 with no transaction costs. The loss will likely also offset some of the other short term gains you men...
What can we learn from when the trading volume is much higher/lower than average?
You should not look at volume in isolation but look at it together with other indicators and/or the release of news (good or bad). When there is lower than average volume this could be an indication that the stock is in a bit of a holding pattern, possibly waiting for some company or economic news to come out (especial...
W-4 was not updated when moving from part-time to full-time, still showed Tax-Exempt. What happens now?
Legally, do I have anything to worry about from having an incorrectly filed W-4? What you did wasn't criminal. When you submitted the form it was correct. Unfortunately as your situation changed you didn't adjust the form, that mistake does have consequences. Is there anything within my rights I can do to get the compa...
How does giving to charity work?
For many people, giving to charity will have minimal effect on their taxes. Non-profits love to attract donations by saying the money is tax deductible, but for most people, it doesn't work out that way. You will only itemize deductions if they exceed your standard deduction. The IRS allows you to either "itemize" your...
Closing a futures position
Assuming these are standardized and regulated contracts, the short answer is yes. In your example, Trader A is short while Trader B is long. If Trader B wants to exit his long position, he merely enters a "sell to close" order with his broker. Trader B never goes short as you state. He was long while he held the con...
Is there a way I can get bid/ask price data on the NSE in real time?
Quite a few Banks/brokers offer direct terminals to NSE where you can see live prices.
First concrete steps for retirement planning when one partner is resistant
Bringing your spouse on board a financial plan is key to success. The biggest part is to have a shared dream. Having retirement saving doesn't mean that you can't work. It does mean that you both will have some level of security as you age. Does your husband really want you to be impoverished when he dies? I doubt...
Is real (physical) money traded during online trading?
I asked a followup question on the Islam site. The issue with Islam seems to be that exchanging money for other money is 'riba' (roughly speaking usury). There are different opinions, but it seems that in general exchanging money for 'something else' is fine, but exchanging money for other money is forbidden. The physi...
How to share income after marriage and kids?
You currently have 5400€ between you and 2600€ expenses leaving you 2800€. You currently keep 1900€ and she keeps 900€ at the end of each month splitting 68/32. If you marry and have a child, your combined income will go down to 4900€ while your expenses will increase by 300€ to 2900€ leaving 2000€. You could continue ...
Payroll question
That $200 extra that your employer withheld may already have been sent on to the IRS. Depending on the size of the employer, withholdings from payroll taxes (plus employer's share of Social Security and Medicare taxes) might be deposited in the US Treasury within days of being withheld. So, asking the employer to reimb...
Can used books bought off Amazon be claimed as a tax deduction in Australia?
Yes, if they meet the ATO's criteria. Books, periodicals and digital information If the item cost less than $300 you can claim an immediate deduction where it satisfies all of the following requirements: http://www.ato.gov.au/Individuals/Income-and-deductions/Deductions-you-can-claim/Other-deductions/Books,-periodicals...
Why don't banks print their own paper money / bank notes?
In Scotland, each bank issues its own separate notes. It's not uncommon to see identical-valued £10 notes, for example, from three different banks in one's wallet.
What is the purpose of endorsing a check?
Paper trail of who did the deposit. Less significant for a personal account, but a bigger deal for accounts that are used by multiple people (e.g. a corporate checking account).
Few questions related to Balance sheet and Income Statement?
1.) There is no logic in this question, because when there is an increase in net income for the year it will be in the form of something, ie it can be cash and cash equivalent like cash in hand or cash at bank. So as your ques says if there is increase in net income of 20 then asset side also increase by 20(cash) which...
How to rebalance a passive portfolio if I speculate a war is coming?
Normally, in a war everybody suffers and the entire economy goes down. Military contractors do better than average, but the average sucks. The way to take advantage of knowing a war is coming is to leave as soon as possible. There are strategic materials that can become valuable in a war, but such investments are gener...
How does Value Averaging work in practice?
Value averaging has you shift the balance of your portfolio over time, not the amount of contributions. So you can only do it if you have a portfolio holding both risky assets (shares etc) and some cash. You start out by making a plan about how much you will contribute every month and at what rate you expect the share...
How should I be contributing to my 401(k), traditional or Roth?
The Finance Buff discusses why the Roth 401k is often disadvantaged compared to a Traditional 401k in the article The Case Against the Roth 401k, including the following reasons (paraphrased): Contributions to the 401k come from the "top" of your highest tax bracket rate but withdrawals fill in from the "bottom". For ...
Are banks really making less profit when interest rates are low?
profit has nothing to do with the level of interest rates. Is this correct? In theory, yes. The difference that you're getting at is called net interest margin. As long as this stays constant, so does the bank's profit. According to this article: As long as the interest rate charged on loans doesn't decline faster than...
Home owners association for houses, pro/cons
I agree with the basic purpose of an HOA. Unlike the poster above Jay, I do believe that people painting their houses purple will definitely affect the value of my house or property. I for one would not want to live next to someone who has a wild purple house, even though it is his right to do so. In saying that I know...
Should I use my non-tax advantaged investment account to pay off debt?
You could pay off a portion of the debt and your minimum payments should also go down proportionately. Your investment managers may be able to continue making returns in the markets in a sideways and a bear market. So you have 24k contributing to your net worth, and ~50k giving you a negative net worth. At best, you c...
Tenant wants to pay rent with EFT
Other options would be to use paypal, your tenant would only need your e-mail address. Most banks have a similar system to do a person-to-person transfers. My bank uses an e-mail address and only the last 4 digits of the account number.
What traditionally happens to bonds when the stock market crashes?
It depends on why the stocks crashed. If this happened because interest rates shot up, bonds will suffer also. On the other hand, stocks could be crashing because economic growth (and hence earnings) are disappointing. This pulls down interest rates and lifts bonds.
How to find a reputable company to help sell a timeshare?
You own something with very little market value - even if you paid a large price for it initially. Your cost to sell may be more than the price you get. Like any other item that has limited resale value, your best option may be to donate it. A quick Google search will turn up some options. This will likely be less hass...
Mutual Funds Definition and Role
I think you are asking about actively managed funds vs. indexes and possibly also vs. diversified funds like target date funds. This is also related to the question of mutual fund vs. ETF. First, a fund can be either actively managed or it can attempt to track an index. An actively managed fund has a fund manager who t...
Can a CEO short his own company?
If we take only the title of the question "can the CEO short the stock": It was probably different before Enron, but nowadays a CEO can only make planned trades, that is trades that are registered a very long time before, and that cannot be avoided once registered. So the CEO can say "I sell 100,000 shares in exactly s...
Pay off car loan entirely or leave $1 until the end of the loan period?
Among the other fine answers, you might also consider that owning a vehicle outright will free you from the requirement to carry insurance on the vehicle (you must still carry insurance on yourself in most states).
Options for Cash only Buyout due to Company Merger
What are my options, if any, in how to deal with a buyout that forced me to sell, and accept cash only for my Florida USA company shares? Options are limited;
What are the advantages of a Swiss bank account?
A lot of Americans have used Swiss bank accounts to avoid paying taxes. However recently several large Swiss banks have started disclosing the details on some of their customers to the IRS. There isn't much security in Swiss banking at this point in time.
Pros/cons for buying gold vs. saving money in an interest-based account?
What you are seeing is the effects of inflation. As money becomes less valuable it takes more of it to buy physical things, be they commodities, shares in a company's stock, and peoples time (salaries). Just about the only thing that doesn't track inflation to some degree is cash itself or money in an account since th...
Is a “total stock market” index fund diverse enough alone?
Brendan, The short answer is no, there is no need to get into any other funds. For all intents and purposes the S&P 500 is "The Stock Market". The news media may quote the Dow when the market reaches new highs or crashes but all of the Dow 30 stocks are included in the S&P 500. The S&P is also marketcap weighted, whic...
Is it safer to send credit card number via unsecured website form or by e-mail? What safer options are there?
Some (most) credit cards have a way to get a one-time use number. If that is an available option for one of your cards, that is probably the way to do the very risky transaction. These numbers can be good for only one purchase, or for multiple purchases with a single vendor. This will limit your exposure because they w...
How does a bank make money on an interest free secured loan?
In addition to all the points made in other answers, in some jurisdictions (including the UK where I live) the consumer credit laws require the lender to allow the borrower to pay off the loan at any time. If the lender charges interest and the borrower pays off the loan early then the lender loses the interest that wo...
Is it prudent to sell a stock on a 40% rise in 2 months
Depends entirely on the stock and your perception of it. Would you buy it at the current price? If so, keep it. Would you buy something else? If so, sell it and buy that.
Should you co-sign a personal loan for a friend/family member? Why/why not?
Never co-sign a loan for someone, especially family Taking out a loan for yourself is bad enough, but co-signing a loan is just plain stupid. Think about it, if the bank is asking for a co-signer its because they are not very confident that the applicant is going to be paying back the loan. So why would you then step ...
Are services provided to Google employees taxed as income or in any way?
(1). Is this right? Pretty much, though this is a really rudimentary way to think about it. (2). If it is, why is it that extensive services are provided by high margin companies competing for talent, rather then lower margin businesses looking to boost their profits by reducing their expenditures on employees (by cutt...
Changes in Capital Gains Tax in the US - Going to 20% in 2011?
The top long-term capital gains tax rate will rise to 20% effective 1 Jan, 2011, unless Congress decides to do something about it before then. (Will they? Who knows!! There's been talk about it, but, well, it's Congress. They don't even know what they're going to do.) Anyway. The rules about when you can sell stock ar...
Stock trading models that use fundamental analysis, e.g. PEG ratios?
One idea: If you came up with a model to calculate a "fair price range" for a stock, then any time the market price were to go below the range it could be a buy signal, and above the range it could be a sell signal. There are many ways to do stock valuation using fundamental analysis tools and ratios: dividend discount...
Is selling only shares you bought with margin on a margin/unsettled cash purchase free ride?
There is no free ride at most brokers. You will likely be charged a margin fee for that trade even though you only held the margin shares for part of one day. The margin fee would be the annual margin interest rate calculated down to a one day holding period,so it would be smaller. Check your broker's policies but most...
Credit cards: How is a cash advance different from a purchase? Why are the fees so high?
Essentially speaking, when you purchase goods worth $100 using your card, the store has to pay about $2 for the transaction to the company that operates that stores' credit card terminal. If you withdraw cash from an ATM, you might be charged a fee for such a transaction. However, the ATM operator doesn't pay the cred...
When filing taxes in Canada, in what cases does box 39 on the T4 get reported as half of box 38?
Assuming you purchased shares that were granted at a discount under the ESPP the 50% exemption would not apply. It's pretty unusual to see a US parent company ESPP qualify for the 110(1)(d) exemption, as most US plans provide for a discount
Will there always be somebody selling/buying in every stock?
Many people assume that if the price of something is $10 and they have 1,000 of that thing, they should expect to be able to sell them for something around $10,000. Such an assumption may hold much of the time, but it doesn't always. Worse, the cases where it fails to hold are often those where it would be relied upo...
Tax Allocation - Business Asset Transfer
And my CPA is saying no way, it will cost me many thousands in taxes and doesn't make any sense. I'd think so too. It looks like it converts from capitol gains at 14% to something else at about 35% Can be, if your gain under the Sec.1231 rules is classified as depreciation recapture. But, perhaps the buyers will be s...
Can one be non-resident alien in the US without being a resident anywhere else?
If you aren't a US National (citizen or Green Card holder or some other exception I know not of), you're an alien, no matter where else you may or may not be a citizen. If you don't meet the residency tests, you're nonresident. Simple as that.
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...
Does it make any sense to directly contribute to reducing the US national debt?
It doesn't make any financial sense for you personally, because the impact on the debt would be so little it would have no significant benefit to you, and you'd be out the money you donated.
What's best investment option? Mutual fund or Property [duplicate]
nan
Tax implications of restricted stock units
RSU are taxed when vested, based on their value at that point, as salary. If you don't sell to cover, you need to pay the taxes, if you sell to cover - you sell the portion that is worth the taxes (brokers do that automatically, and remit the taxes on your behalf). Once paid your taxes, it becomes a regular stock posit...
What happens if a purchase is $0.02 in Canada?
The rounding should always follow the same rule. If the value ends in .01 or .02 then you round to .00. Doesn't matter if it's 10.01 rounding to 10.00 or 0.01 to 0.00. The decision on what a company wants to do if an invoice total is $0.01 or $0.02 would be up to the company. The POS system should follow the rule and r...
Understanding stock market terminology
One of the most useful ways to depict Open, High, Low, Close, and Volume is with a Candlestick Chart. I like to use the following options from Stockcharts.com: http://stockcharts.com/h-sc/ui?s=SPY&p=D&yr=0&mn=3&dy=0&id=p57211761385
Taxable income on full-time job + business earnings
In Australia, any income you earn is taxable despite where it came from. Using your example your taxable income is $70,000. Keep in mind that with a business even as a sole trader any business expenses that contribute to the earning of your business income is deductible, reducing the final amount of tax you'll have to ...
Pros and cons of bond ETF versus traditional bond mutual fund?
Bond ETFs are just another way to buy a bond mutual fund. An ETF lets you trade mutual fund shares the way you trade stocks, in small share-size increments. The content of this answer applies equally to both stock and bond funds. If you are intending to buy and hold these securities, your main concerns should be purc...
What to bear in mind when considering a rental home as an investment?
What are the most important facts to keep in mind as I consider this? IMHO, the most important consideration to keep in mind is - do you really want to be in the landlord business, and if so, how much experience do you have in this business?
Are variable rate loans ever a good idea?
Up to some degree, a higher or lower interest rate means a bit less or a bit more money in your pocket. If the interest rate gets too high, you may be in trouble. So you first look at the situation and ask yourself: At what interest rate would I be in trouble? If this is a $20,000 student loan, then even a very high r...
Average Price of a Stock
That metric is not very useful for anything other than very extremely long trading periods. Most strategies or concerned with price movement over much shorter time frames, 15 mins, 1 hr, 4 hr, daily, weekly, monthly. The MA or moving average is a trend following lagging indicator used to smooth out price fluctuations a...
Who can truly afford luxury cars?
Not a direct answer, but... a friend pointed out to me that z proper luxury limo, if loaded with four sales reps going to the same meeting, is cheaper than airfares would be and lets them hold a planning meeting en route. Yeah, most of it is conspicuous consumption. But some of the road yachts have legitimate uses.
Which Roth IRA is the best for a 21 year old who has about $1500?
Your question seems like you don't understand what a Roth IRA is. A Roth IRA isn't an investment, per se. It is just a type of account that receives special tax treatment. Just like a checking and savings account are different at a bank, a ROTH IRA account is just flagged as such by a brokerage. It isn't an investment...
Bait-and-switch on new car lease
I strongly discourage leasing (or loans, but at least you own the car at the end of it) in any situation. it's just a bad deal, but that doesn't answer your question. Most new cars are "loss leaders" for dealerships. It's too easy to know what their costs are these days, so they make most of their money though financ...
Can I locate the name of an account holder by the account number and sort code? (U.K.)
No, the best you can do is (probably) determine the bank, from the sort code. using an online checker such as this one from the UK payments industry trade association. Revealing the name of an account holder is something the bank would typically require a warrant for, I'd expect, or whatever is covered in the account T...
Is gold really an investment or just a hedge against inflation?
Over time, gold has mainly a hedge against inflation, based on its scarcity value. That is, unless finds some "killer app" for it that would also make it a good investment. The "usual" ones, metallurgical, electronic, medicine, dental, don't really do the trick. It should be noted that gold performs its inflation hedge...
How do I get bill collectors who call about people I know to stop calling me?
If they really won't stop calling you, just waste their time. Usually the best thing I do to telemarketers (the ones that constantly call even through I've told them to stop) is to say "oh yes, I'm interested I'll just get a pen" - put them on hold and keep them on hold. Do it every time they call and soon they'll get...
Getting financial advice: Accountant vs. Investment Adviser vs. Internet/self-taught?
I think the OP is getting lost in designations. Sounds to me that what he wants is a 'financial advisor' not an 'investment advisor'. Does he even have investments? Does he want to be told which securities to buy? Or is he wanting advice on overall savings, insurance, tax-shelters, retirement planning, mortgages, ...
How does giving to charity work?
The intention of making the charitable contributions tax deductible is to provide an economic incentive to contribute to organizations which tend to improve the general welfare of the community. Deductibility impacts government revenue generation, but has positive impacts that probably offset that loss by encouraging m...
Contract job (hourly rate) as a 1099: How much would I be making after taxes?
Does your spouse work? That's one factor that can put your income into a higher bracket. The one difference to note is you will pay 2x the social security portion, so even though not "federal" tax, its right off the top nearly 13%. I'm not familiar with your states tax. It's really worth dropping the $75 on a copy of t...