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I keep getting overcharged at the grocery store. Foul play? | Of course, there is no way for us to know whether or not the clerk is trying to rip you off $1.29 at a time, but I can't understand the possible motivation for doing so. I would imagine that most people would catch this at some point, so for a store to consistently overcharge for something like this is really bad for ... |
Possible replacement for Quicken | I would investigate mint.com further. Plenty of people have written off using them because Intuit purchased them, but that seems like cutting of your nose to spite your face. I think mint.com is worth it for its Trends functionality alone, not to mention its automatic categorization of your purchases, reminders when b... |
Home owners association for houses, pro/cons | I think it depends a lot on your idea of how you should relate to your neighbors. Personally, I think that I should be allowed to do just about whatever I want with my property, and I grant my neighbor the same right. If my neighbor wants to paint his house purple with orange stripes and fill his front lawn with pink f... |
Should I pay off a 0% car loan? | Here's my take: 1) Having a car loan and paying it on time helps build credit. Not as much as having credit cards (and keeping them paid or carrying balance just enough to be reported and then paying it), but it counts. 2) Can't you set in your bank, not the lender, something to pay the car automagically for you? Then ... |
What are the advantages and disadvantages of leasing out a property or part of a property (such as a basement apartment)? | Complexity has mentioned some good points. I'd also like to add on the downsides: It's not that easy to get rid of a tenant! Imagine if your tenant passed your background check with flying colors but then turned out to be the tenant from hell... How would you resolve the situation? If the thought of that kind of si... |
What taxes are assessed on distributions of an inherited IRA? | All transactions within an IRA are irrelevant as far as the taxation of the distributions from the IRA are concerned. You can only take cash from an IRA, and a (cash) distribution from a Traditional IRA is taxable as ordinary income (same as interest from a bank, say) without the advantage of any of the special tax ra... |
Are Index Funds really as good as “experts” claim? | Picking yourself is just what all the fund managers are trying to do, and history shows that the majority of them fails the majority of the time to beat the index fund. That is the core reason of the current run after index funds. What that means is that although it doesn’t sound so hard, it is not easy at all to beat ... |
Why do stock prices of retailers not surge during the holidays? | Excellent question for a six year old! Actually, a good question for a 20 year old! One explanation is a bit more complicated. Your son thinks that after the Christmas season the company is worth more. For example, they might have turned $10 million of goods into $20 million of cash, which increases their assets by $1... |
What's the most correct way to calculate market cap for multi-class companies? | From their 10-K pulled directly from Edgar: As of October 22, 2015, there were 291,327,781 shares of Alphabet Inc.’s (the successor issuer pursuant to Rule 12g-3(a) under the Exchange Act as of October 2, 2015) (Alphabet) Class A common stock outstanding, 50,893,362 shares of Alphabet's Class B common stock ou... |
If accepting more than $10K in cash for a used boat, should I worry about counterfeiting? | I'd be a bit concerned about someone who wanted to transact that large of a transaction in cash. Also consider what you are going to do with the funds, if you deposit it, you will need to tell the bank where it comes from. Why does the bank want to know, because most legal businesses don't transact business with large... |
How do you invest in real estate without using money? | I have a friend who had went on a seminar with FortuneBuilders (the company that has Than Merrill as CEO). He told me that one of the things taught in that seminar was how to find funding for the property that you want to flip. One of the things he mentioned was that there are so-called "hard money" lenders who are wil... |
What is this type of risk-free investment called? | The name of this type of investment is Capital Guaranteed Investment, and yes they do exist, some financial institutions do offer them from time to time and they can be better than putting money in the bank. Unlike what someone else said, your money is not is not locked for the five years. You can take out your investm... |
how late can i put money into an IRA and still have it count for 2015? | The IRA contribution for the year are allowed until the tax day of that year. I.e.: you can contribute for 2015 until April 15th, 2016 (or whatever the first business day is after that, if the 15th is a holiday). You'll have to explicitly designate your contribution for 2015, since some of the IRA providers may automat... |
What are “headwinds” and “tailwinds” in financial investments? | Headwinds in an economic situation represent events or conditions e.g. a credit crisis, rising costs, natural disasters, etc, that slow down the growth of an economy. So headwinds are negative. Tailwinds are the opposite and help to increase growth of an economy. |
Should I buy a home or rent in my situation? | I think the consensus is that you can't afford a home now and need to build more of a down payment (20% is benchmark, you may also need to pay mortgage insurance if you are below that) and all considered, it takes up too much of your monthly budget. You didn't do anything wrong but as mentioned by Ben, you are missing ... |
Query regarding international transaction between governments | For the US government, they've just credited Person B with a Million USD and haven't gained anything (afterall, those digits are intangible and don't really have a value, IMO). Two flaws in this reasoning: The US government didn't do anything. The receiving bank credited the recipient. If the digits are intangible, suc... |
How to know which companies enter the stock market? | Thanks to the other answers, I now know what to google for. Frankfurt Stock Exchange: http://en.boerse-frankfurt.de/equities/newissues London Stock Exchange: http://www.londonstockexchange.com/statistics/new-issues-further-issues/new-issues-further-issues.htm |
Buying an ETF vs. The explicit Index | what reason would I have in buying an ETF? Apart from the efforts, the real reason is the ticket size. One can't buy shares in fraction. To truly reflect the index in equal weight, the amount to invest will be in multiples of millions [depending on the Index and the stock composition] This related question should hel... |
How does a big lottery winner cash his huge check risk-free? | If the funds are deposited into a noninterest-bearing account, they will be covered by FDIC insurance regardless of the amount (However, this extended coverage may not be valid after Dec. 31, 2012): On November 9, 2010, the FDIC issued a Final Rule implementing section 343 of the Dodd-Frank Wall Street Reform and Consu... |
Should I take a student loan to pursue my undergraduate studies in France? | Edit: lazy math The answer to this question depends on two things: How bad will it be if you cannot repay this loan in the way you expected? - How likely are you to actually get into a PhD program with a stipend? Is there a possibility that you will not get a stipend? What is the penalty for failure to repay? Will yo... |
Can my accounting for Tax Basis differ from my broker's | No. If you didn't specify LIFO on account or sell by specifying the shares you wish sold, then the brokers method applies. From Publication 551 Identifying stock or bonds sold. If you can adequately identify the shares of stock or the bonds you sold, their basis is the cost or other basis of the particular share... |
How can a person protect his savings against a country default? | The default of the country will affect the country obligations and what's tied to it. If you have treasury bonds, for example - they'll get hit. If you have cash currency - it will get hit. If you're invested in the stock market, however, it may plunge, but will recover, and in the long run you won't get hit. If you're... |
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... |
What's the difference between TaxAct and TurboTax? | I typed my information into both last year, and while they were not exactly the same, they were within $10 of each other. For my simple 2009 taxes they were not different in any meaningful way. |
How to save money for future expenses | how can I save money for the future The fact that you are worrying is good. This is the first step. Follow this up with a plan. One way is first get hold of your income [its fixed you know the salary]. Maintain expenses, then see which costs can be cut down. Create individual goals and start investing for these. The be... |
Figuring out an ideal balance to carry on credit cards [duplicate] | One key point that other answers haven't covered is that many credit cards have a provision where if you pay it off every month, you get a grace period on the interest. Interest doesn't accrue at all unless you rollover a non-zero balance. But if you do, you pay interest on the average balance, not the rolled-over ba... |
Why buy bonds in a no-arbitrage market? | There is no single 'market interest rate'; there are myriad interest rates that vary by risk profile & term. Corporate bonds are (typically) riskier than bank deposits, and therefore pay a higher effective rate when the market for that bond is in equilibrium than a bank account does. If you are willing to accept a high... |
Legal documents required for managing an investment portfolio among friends? | You have to register with the SEC as an Investment Company. The SEC has a "Investment Company Regulation and Registration Package", available here: http://www.sec.gov/divisions/investment/invcoreg121504.htm I found that off their overall page for funds and advisors: http://www.sec.gov/divisions/investment.shtml Final... |
If the U.S. defaults on its debt, what will happen to my bank money? | Government default doesn't mean that all US money is immediately worthless. First, the bondholders will get stiffed. Following that, interest rates will shoot up (because the US is a bad credit risk at this point) and the government will monetize its ongoing expenses -- i.e., fire up the printing presses. If you're c... |
Should I sell my stocks when the stock hits a 52-week high in order to “Buy Low, Sell High”? | Buy low, sell high. I think a lot of people apply that advice wrongly. Instead of using this as advice about when to buy and when to sell, you should use it as advice about when not to buy and when not to sell. Don't buy when P/Es cannot support the current stock price. Don't sell when stocks have already fallen due to... |
I am a contractor with revenue below UK's VAT threshold. Should I register for VAT? | If you are providing VAT-liable services (you probablly are) and you register normally for VAT then you will be able to reclaim VAT on your buisness purchases but you will have to charge VAT to your clients. So the question really comes down to will your clients regard you adding VAT to their invoices as a price increa... |
Where can publicly traded profits go but to shareholders via dividends? | If a company earns $1 Million in net profit (let's say all cash, which is not entirely realistic), it can do one of three things with it: On the balance sheet - profits that have not been distributed show up as "retained earnings". When dividends are paid, Retained Earnings and cash are reduced. None of the other opti... |
Is a car loan bad debt? | A car loan might be considered "good" debt, if the following circumstances apply: If, on the other hand, you only qualify for a subprime loan, or you're borrowing to buy a needlessly expensive car, that's probably not a good idea. |
What does “interest rates”, without any further context, generically refer to? | In the United States, if someone refers to the "interest rate", especially if heard on news or talk radio in particular, they are almost always referring to the federal funds rate, a rate set forth and maintained by the United States Federal Reserve (the "fed" for short). If the fed opts to raise or lower this rate, it... |
Is it worth it to buy TurboTax Premier over Deluxe if I sold investments in a taxable account? | I have used turbo tax for years. Apart from the snafu in 2014, I have had no problem using deluxe, and I have lots of asset sales to report. I prefer form mode anyway. I can import the data from my broker, and I can e-file with no problem. So the only thing I'm missing is the support. I can usually find answers to ... |
Stochastic Oscillator for Financial Analysis | When using the Stochastic Indicator your basic aim is to buy (go long) when the stochastic becomes oversold (goes below 20%) and then the %K line crosses above the %D line at a market low, and to sell (go short) when the stochastic becomes overbought (goes above 80%) and then the %K line crosses below the %D line at a ... |
Can I exercise my put if a company goes bankrupt? | according to the Options Industry council ( http://www.optionseducation.org/tools/faq/splits_mergers_spinoffs_bankruptcies.html ) put options the shares (and therefore the options) may continue trading OTC but if the shares completely stop trading then: if the courts cancel the shares, whereby common shareholders rece... |
What is a “retail revolving account,” and does it improve my credit score? | A retail revolving account is essentially a credit card offered by a store (or chain of stores) and usable only at that store. In my area, the Sears department store's "Sears card" would be a good example. Stores offer these to capture a bit more profit from the transaction. They don't have to pay someone else's proces... |
Why should a company go public? | The purpose is to go public but also to generate more wealth. The real money comes when market values you at a price more than your cash flow. If a company brings in $1000 of cash flow, then that is what the employees and owners have to distribute among themselves. But if they are likely to increase to $2000 next and $... |
Hiring a teenager as a household employee | First you need to ensure that you are not violating any Federal child labor laws. I would look at this: U.S. Dept of Labor, Wage & Hour Div., Standards for 14- and 15-Year Olds in Nonagricultural Employment. These were the items that pertained to Federal Law, for 14 year olds: 14 is the minimum age for employment in sp... |
My landlord is being foreclosed on. Should I confront him? | I wouldn't confront him. It's really none of your business what he has done or not done with your money as long as you've been a faithful tenant. Whoever gets the house after the foreclosure wants you to stay. I mean, a faithful tenant paying rent is a whole lot better than no one in the house at all. The new landlord ... |
How is money actually made from the buying or selling of options? | Not all call options that have value at expiration, exercise by purchasing the security (or attempting to, with funds in your account). On ETNs, they often (always?) settle in cash. As an example of an option I'm currently looking at, AVSPY, it settles in cash (please confirm by reading the documentation on this set... |
Why would a bank need to accept deposits from private clients if it can just borrow from the Federal Reserve? | borrow money from the Central Bank Wrong premise. They cannot borrow as much as they want and they cannot borrow without collateral i.e. government debt instruments they hold or any other instrument with value. And banks don’t have unlimited collateral to borrow against. Secondly central banks aren’t in the business ... |
Investment strategy for a 20 year old with about 30k in bank account | You don't state a long term goal for your finances in your message, but I'm going to assume you want to retire early, and retire well. :-) any other ideas I'm missing out on? A fairly common way to reach financial independence is to build one or more passive income streams. The money returned by stock investing (capit... |
Is the BA Avios Visa airlines rewards card worth it? | I am a proud member of the BA frequent fliers' club (Executive Club). Their service is superb. Their avios (aka miles) are quite useful. However, that is if you're not flying with British Airways, because if you do - you'll pay enormous amounts as "taxes". I've used their avios on Air Berlin, American Airlines and Iber... |
If you own 1% of a company's stock, are you entitled to 1% of its assets? | If you own 1% of a company, you are technically entitled to 1% of the current value and future profits of that company. However, you cannot, as you seem to imply, just decide at some point to take your ball and go home. You cannot call up the company and ask for 1% of their assets to be liquidated and given to you in c... |
How to check stock prices online? | Yes, there are a lot of places you can research stocks online, Google Finance, Yahoo Finance, Reuters etc. It's important to understand that the price of the stock doesn't actually mean anything. Share price is just a function of the market capitalization divided by the number of shares outstanding. As an example tak... |
How hard for US customers make payments to non-resident freelancer by wire transfer? | For most major banks, wire transfers are simple, if expensive, to arrange. For example, I can initiate an international wire transfer from my online banking portal. |
Supply & Demand - How Price Changes, Buy Orders vs Sell Orders [duplicate] | Yes for every order there is a buyer and seller. But overall there are multiple buyers and multiple sellers. So every trade is at a different price and this price is agreed by both buyer and seller. Related question will help you understand this better. How do exchanges match limit orders? |
Will I always be able to get a zero-interest credit card? | After looking at the comments, and your replies it seems that your mind is made up: "You will always be able to obtain 0% credit, and nothing bad will ever happen". Credit cards that offer 0% on balance transfers are very rare. Most have a transfer fee of some kind, which acts like an interest rate. This is a change ... |
Effect of Quantitative Easing on Price of Bonds | QE is artificial demand for bonds, but as always when there are more buyers than sellers the price of anything goes up. When QE ends the price of bonds will fall because everyone will know that the biggest buyer in the market is no longer there. So price of bonds will fall. And therefore the interest rate on new bonds... |
Is it possible to quantify the probability of sudden big movements for a high-volume stock? | The P/E is currently 20. In hindsight, it's easy to see that when it was 50, not long ago, it was very overpriced. They were not adding customers or increasing revenue as they should have to sustain that P/E level. Probability? I suppose this can happen with any company that has both a high P/E and non-diversified bus... |
W2 vs 1099 Employee status | Another thing to consider, however, is the deductibility of business expenses. Let's assume that the employer can legitimately hire you as a 1099 contractor. (Would you be able to telecommute? Would you have a high degree of control over when you worked and when you didn't? These factors also affect whether you're a... |
What is the difference between “good debt” vs. “bad debt”? | In general, all forms of debt are bad, as they keep you tied to a financial institution and can be an emotional burden for many. In the book Payback (by Margaret Atwood), debt is even described as a sin. However some forms of debt are necessary and some can help create wealth. "Good" debt: a mortgage - to purchase a ho... |
Can a shareholder be liable in case of bankruptcy of one of the companies he invested in? | The answer depends on whether the company involved has 'limited liability'. Most, but not all public and listed companies and corporations have this, but not all so it is worth checking and understanding what you are getting involved with. The expression 'limited liability' means that the owners (shareholders) of a c... |
Whole life insurance - capped earnings | The question that I walk away with is "What is the cost of the downside protection?" Disclaimer - I don't sell anything. I am not a fan of insurance as an investment, with rare exceptions. (I'll stop there, all else is a tangent) There's an appeal to looking at the distribution of stock returns. It looks a bit like a b... |
How do I manage my portfolio as stock evaluation criteria evolve? | Don't sell. Ever. Well almost. A number of studies have shown that buying equal amounts of shares randomly will beat the market long term, and certainly won't do badly. Starting from this premise then perhaps you can add a tiny bit extra with your skill... maybe, but who knows, you might suck. Point is when buying y... |
Why do financial institutions charge so much to convert currency? | Echoing that bank fees are mostly "because they can", although partly this is because simply holding onto the money doesn't really pay enough for the physical infrastructure of branches, ATMs and staff. So like a budget airline they make it up on additional fees. But that document doesn't actually say they charge 3% fo... |
What intrinsic, non-monetary value does gold have as a commodity? | Extrinsic value is not a factor with respect to gold. Intrinsic value by definition is the natural value of a commodity set by the market -- extrinsic value is externally set. The "extrinsic" value of gold in the United States is $50/oz. If the market value of gold fell below $50/oz, a US American Eagle coin would be ... |
What to consider before buying (exercising) a family member's private company employee stock options, about to expire? | The company may not permit a transfer of these options. If they do permit it, you simply give him the money and he has them issue the options in your name. As a non-public company, they may have a condition where an exiting employee has to buy the shares or let them expire. If non-employees are allowed to own shares,... |
Buying my first car out of college | I agree with the consensus as far as getting a cheaper car, paying with cash, getting a more fuel efficient car, etc. But I'd like to point out, you should make sure you really need a car at all. I ride a bike to work! If I need a car, I can use Zipcar or City Car Share or borrow a friend's car, rent a car, take the... |
If the co-signer on my car loan dies, can the family take the car from me like they're threatening to? | I was in a similar situation about a year ago, and the expedient thing to do would be to remove your grandfather from the Title. He would probably have to agree with this, but I think he will if you approach it correctly. In my case, I was the cosigner for my son's car loan and was told by the dealer that I "had to be... |
How can I deposit a check made out to my business into my personal account? | You should have a separate business account. Mixing business and personal funds is a bad practice. Shop around, you should be able to find a bank that will let you open a free checking account, especially if you are going to have minimal activity (e.g. less than 20 of checks per month) and perhaps maintain a small bala... |
Cannot get a mortgage because I work through a recruiter | To a mortgage lender, it appears that you have a temporary contract (perhaps extending for nine more months) with a agency that supplies workers to companies that need temporary help. You have been placed currently with a company and are making good money, but that job might disappear soon and then you will have no inc... |
Does the Black-Scholes Model apply to American Style options? | Just a few observations within the Black-Scholes framework: Next, you can now use the Black-Scholes framework (stock price is a Geometric Brownian Motion, no transaction costs, single interest rate, etc. etc.) and numerical methods (such as a PDE solver) to price American style options numerically, but not with a simpl... |
Should I accept shares as payment? | I like the answer given by mikeazo. If paid in cash would you immediately buy the stock of the company? We all want to be the next Steve Jobs (or Woz), but the truth is that a Jobs comes along only once in a lifetime and chances are that you are not him. We have seen this kind of question here before. Search the site ... |
Payroll reimbursments | After reading OP Mark's question and the various answers carefully and also looking over some old pay stubs of mine, I am beginning to wonder if he is mis-reading his pay stub or slip of paper attached to the reimbursement check for the item(s) he purchases. Pay stubs (whether paper documents attached to checks or thi... |
What are some sources of information on dividend schedules and amounts? | Yahoo Finance is definitely a good one, and its ultimately the source of the data that a lot of other places use (like the iOS Stocks app), because of their famous API. Another good dividend website is Dividata.com. It's a fairly simple website, free to use, which provides tons of dividend-specific info, including the... |
Why is being “upside down” on a mortgage so bad? | For most people "home ownership" is a long term lifestyle strategy (i.e. the intention is to own a home for several decades, regardless of how many times one particular house might be "swapped" for a different one. In an economic environment with steady monetary inflation, taking out a long-term loan backed by a tangi... |
Reason for “qualified” buyer requirements to exercise stock options/rights spun off from parent company? | Accredited investors are required to have 1 million in assets (not including primary residence) or $200,000/yr income for the last 3 years. These kinds of regulations come from the SEC, not the company involved, which means the SEC thinks it's a risky investment. If I recall correctly, [someone I know] had to submit ev... |
How to donate to charity that will make a difference? | In the. US, i'd suggest hitting the Charity Navigator website for evaluation of how efficiently various charities will use your money. At this point I won't donate money to anything that gets less than three stars unless I know the organization very well indeed -- and I've been progressively swapping out 3-star groups ... |
Why do people buy stocks at higher price in merger? | There are kind of two answers here: the practical reason an acquirer has to pay more for shares than their current trading price and the economic justification for the increase in price. Why must the acquirer must pay a premium as a practical matter? Everyone has a different valuation of a company. The current tradin... |
Why is the total 401(k) contribution limit (employee + employer) so high? | Some 401k plans allow you to make "supplemental post-tax contributions". basically, once you hit the pre-tax contribution limit (17.5k$ in 2014), you are then allowed to contribute funds on a post-tax basis. Because of this timing, they are sometimes called "spillover" contributions. Usually, this option is advertised ... |
How do rich people guarantee the safety of their money, when savings exceed the FDIC limit? | The FDIC has been pretty good at recovery lost money from failed banks. The problem is the temporary loss from immediate needs. The best thing for anyone to do is diversify in investments and banks with adequate covered insurance for all accounts. Immediate access to available cash is always a priority that should be g... |
I am turning 18 and I am a Student, I need strategies on building great credit soon. Where should I start? | Your goals are excellent. I really admire your thoughts and plans, and I hold you in high esteem. Good credit is indeed an important thing to have, and starting young is THE smart idea with respect to this. I see that you have as a goal the purchase of a home. Indeed, another fine ambition. (Wow, you are a different br... |
Is this mortgage advice good, or is it hooey? | This doesn't say the whole story (like the length of the HELOC). if you have 15 years left on a mortgage and "refinance" into a 30 year HELOC then yes, your payments maybe 20% lower, but you add 15 years to pay it off. Just remember that interest occurs daily on what you owe. If you move 100K of debt from 5% mortgage ... |
Is there software to buy and sell stocks in real time on very small moves in price? | Note that the pros pay for extremely fast access and are literally fighting over nanoseconds to get every possible advantage. Your system won't come close to that by several orders of magnitude. Consider the implications for the kinds of automated trading you want to perform. (Pico was overstating it. Nano, at the proc... |
Taxing GoFundMe Donations | To echo part of stannius' response. If it's taxable, there would be tax on $19,999, just a bit less than on $20,000. Your uncle may have a credential, and members here may not, but still he may be mistaken. Or he could be giving you advice on how to skirt the law. The taxability and the $20,000 threshold are unrelated... |
Correct way to amend tax return as a result of not correctly reporting gains on sale of private stock based on Installment method? | After much research, the answer is "a": recompute the tax return using the installment sales method because (1) the escrow payment was subject to "substantial restrictions" by virtue of the escrow being structured to pay buyer's indemnification claims and (2) the taxpayer did not correctly elect out of the installment ... |
Can stock market gains be better protected under an LLC arrangement? | All corporate gains are taxed at the same rate as corporate income, for the corporate entity, so this actually can be WORSE than the individual capital gains tax rates. There are a lot of things you can do with trading certain asset classes, like opening you up to like-kind re-investment tax perks, but I can't think of... |
Can a company block a specific person from buying its stock? | I assume you are talking about a publicly traded company listed on a major stock exchange and the buyer resides in the US. (Private companies and non-US locations can change the rules really a lot.) The short answer is no, because the company does not own the stock, various investors do. Each investor has to make an in... |
How are long term capital gains taxes calculated? | You pay taxes on capital gains when you realize your gains by selling the investment property. Also, in the US, taxes on capital gains are computed at special rates depending on your current income level, and so when you realize your gains two years from now, you will pay taxes on the gains at the special rate then ap... |
Setting up a LLC for two partners in different states, what should we look into? | TL;DR: Get a tax adviser (EA/CPA licensed in your State) for tax issues, and a lawyer for the Operating Agreement, labor law and contract related issues. Some things are not suitable for DIY unless you know exactly what you're doing. We both do freelance work currently just through our personal names. What kind of ta... |
What is the theory behind Rick Van Ness's risk calculation in the video about diversification? | John Bensin's answer covers the math, but I like the plain-English examples of the theory from William Bernstein's fine book, The Intelligent Asset Allocator. At the author's web site, you can find the complete chapter 1 and chapter 2, though not chapter 3, which is the one with the "multiple coin toss" portfolio exam... |
How do I calculate the dwelling coverage I need from the information I have? | You can't compare the different quotes unless they have the same numbers to work with. The big companies should use similar models to come up with values for the contents. In many cases they will assume some standard values for things like appliances. Yes you have a stove, but unless it is commercial grade they won't c... |
Best Practices for Managing Paper Receipts | I store all my receipts digitally, and make sure to input them into accounting program sooner than later, just so I don't forget about it. For practical purposes, the two important things are: Any kind of a digital system makes this pretty easy, even just putting the sums in a spreadsheet and the receipts into files wi... |
How Does A Special Memorandum Account Work | The Margin Account holds the funds that are MUST for any margin trades. Any funds excess of the MUST for margin trades are kept in the SMA account. These funds can be used for further Margin trades in new securities [funds get transfered into the Margin Account]. They cannot be used to met the Shortfall due to margin c... |
How can I minimize the impact of the HST? | The HST is a sales tax levied on most goods and services. It is important to realize that in both BC and Ontario, the new HST does not (in most cases) result in an increase in sales tax paid. For example, in Ontario the PST is 8% and when combined with the GST the sales tax is 13%. With the HST, the GST and PST are rep... |
Is there any reason not to put a 35% down payment on a car? | Makes sense so long as you can afford it while still maintaining at least six months living reserves. The sooner you own outright a decreasing asset the better which should be considered when selecting your loan term. However, with today's low rates and high performing stock market you may want to consider allowing tha... |
Are stock investments less favorable for the smaller investor? | You have got it wrong. The profit or loss for smaller investor or big investor is same in percentage terms. |
Consolidating company pensions | Have you shopped around? I would agree that the fees seem high. The first question I would ask if if the .75% management fee is per year or per month? If it is per month, you will almost certainly lose money each year. A quick search shows that Fidelity will allow one to transfer their pensions into a self direct... |
Does bull/bear market actually make a difference? | Who are the losers going to be? If you can tell me for certain which firms will do worst in a bear market and can time it so that this information is not already priced into the market then you can make money. If not don't try. In a bull market stocks tend to act "normally" with established patterns such as correlation... |
trailing stop loss in slow price decline | The price doesn't have to drop 5% in one go to activate your order. The trailing aspect simply means your sell trigger price will increase if the current value increases (it will never decrease). |
Hearing much about Dave Ramsey. Which of his works is best in describing his “philosophy” about money? | My beef with day (and to ape Yishai's answer a little) is that his good advice is no different than anybody's good advice. The seven steps are on the home page, Clark Howard, Suze Orman and probably quite a few others all chat about spend less, save more, shop wisely and live within your means. Anything specific is ju... |
What are the ins/outs of writing equipment purchases off as business expenses in a home based business? | Most items used in business have to be depreciated; you get to deduct a small fraction of the cost each year depending on the lifetime of the item as per IRS rules. That is, you cannot assume a one-year life for an electronic item even if it will be obsolete in three months. Some items can be expensed; you get to ded... |
Is it legal to receive/send “gifts” of Non-Trivial Amounts to a “friend”? | Am I right to say that no tax needs to be given for the annual ~$130k USD, since they are considered as annual gift tax exclusion? Not only that you're wrong, but it also looks like a tax fraud, not just mere avoidance. You'll have hard time proving to any judge or jury that the gifts are "in good faith". By the way,... |
Can the Philadelphia Center City District Tax be deducted on my Schedule-A? | My basic rule of thumb is that if the the bill come from a government office of taxation, and that if you fail to pay the amount they can put a tax lien on the property it is a tax. for you the complication is in Pub530: Assessments for local benefits. You cannot deduct amounts you pay for local benefits that tend t... |
College student lacking investment experience: How to begin investing money? | If you have wage income that is reported on a W2 form, you can contribute the maximum of your wages, what you can afford, or $5500 in a Roth IRA. One advantage of this is that the nominal amounts you contribute can always be removed without tax consequences, so a Roth IRA can be a deep emergency fund (i.e., if the ch... |
Why do people buy new cars they can not afford? | Most people today (and maybe regardless of era) are irrational and don't properly valuate many of their purchases, nor are they emotionally equipped to do the math properly, including projection into the future and applying probabilities. This compounds. Imagine that each individual is bound to others by a rubber band... |
Buying a home with down payment from family as a “loan” | I would recommend against loans from family members. But if you decide to go down that path take care of the basics: This is a business decision so treat it like one. I would add that the situation you describe sounds extremely generous to your family member. I'd look at standard loan agreements (ie. in the marketplace... |
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