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Are services provided to Google employees taxed as income or in any way? | Is this right? The example is slightly off. Google would be running a cafeteria that can be subsidized. Employees pay an amount to buy food. Not every one spends the same amount or eats the same amount of food. If someone doesn't use cafeteria; he doesn't get more money. For example, suppose John Doe makes $100,000 a y... |
Why are the banks and their customers in the United States still using checks? [duplicate] | Check use is declining here too, but it still has some practical advantages over electronic means: |
What happened to GOOG-stock? Why isn't it 1.000 USD? | The stock split, it is similar to what happened to Apple a little while back. When Google split 2 to 1, it means that each share holder got 2 shares for each 1 share they had and each share was 1/2 the price. |
What will happen to my shares if company delisted | If they own enough shares to vote to sell, you will be paid the offer price quoted to you. At that point if you do not wish to sell your only recourse will be to file a lawsuit. This is a common tactic for significant shareholders who have a minority stake and cannot block the sale because they have insufficient voting... |
What is a good rental yield? | Our two rentals have yielded 8.5% over the past two years (averaged). That is net, after taxes, maintenance, management, vacancy, insurance, interest. I am only interested in cash flow - expenses / original investment. If you aren't achieving at least 4.5-5% net on your original investment you probably could invest els... |
What happens if I just don't pay my student loans? | Same thing as for any debt: bank sues you, you lose, you are in an even deeper hole because you now owe them for the cost of the court case, your credit rating goes into the toilet, you may even have trouble retaining/finding a job. Being stupid is always more expensive. |
How can you possibly lose on investments in stocks? | Easiest thing ever. In fact, 99% of people are loosing money. If you perform worse then 10% annually in cash (average over 5-10 years), then you better never even think about trading/investing. Most people are sitting at 0%..-5% annually. They win some, loose some, and are being outrun by inflation and commissions. In ... |
How can I buy government bonds from foreign countries? | Significantly less effort to buy into any of several international bond index funds. Off the top of my head, VTIBX. |
How can I deposit a check made out to my business into my personal account? | Depending on where you are, you may be able to get away with filing a "Doing Business As" document with your local government, and then having the bank call the county seat to verify this. There is generally a fee for processing/recording/filing the DBA form, of course. But it's useful for more purposes than just this ... |
Are stocks suitable for mid term money storage? | The volatility of an index fund should usually be a lot lower than that of an individual stock. However even with a broad index fund you should consider the fact that being down by 10% in the time frame you refer to is quite possible! So is being up by 10% of course. A corporate bond might be a better choice if you can... |
Apartment lease renewal - is this rate increase normal? | What happened in the past, the rent you paid last year, is in the past. You shouldn't be concerned with the percentage increase, but with whether you want that apartment at the new rent for the coming year. If your rent had been half what it was last year and the new proposal were to double it, you would be outraged ... |
I am a contractor with revenue below UK's VAT threshold. Should I register for VAT? | I love the flat rate VAT scheme. It's where you pay a percentage based on your industry. An example might be Computer repair services, where you'll pay 10.5% of your total revenue to the HMRC. But you'll be invoicing for VAT at 20% still. Would definitely recommend registering for it since you're expecting to cross the... |
What one bit of financial advice do you wish you could've given yourself five years ago? | I wish I would have: |
Earning salary from USA remotely from New Zealand? | Yes. You must register for GST as well, if you will be making over the threshold (currently $60,000). That's probably a bonus for you, as your home office expenses will mostly include GST, but your income will most likely be zero-rated. Check with an accountant or with the IRD directly. Just be certain to put aside eno... |
Automatic Extension online filing request gets denied w/ code R0000-052-01 - why? | There are penalties for failure to file and penalties for failure to pay tax. The penalties for both are based on the amount of tax due. So you would owe % penalties of zero, otherwise meaning no penalties at all. The IRS on late 1040 penalties: Here are eight important points about penalties for filing or paying lat... |
Take car loan out of mortgage to improve equity | I guess I don't understand how you figure that taking out a car loan for $20k will result in adding $20k in equity. A car loan is a liability, not an asset like your $100k in cash. Besides, you don't get a dollar-for-dollar consideration when figuring a car's value against the loan it is encumbered by. In other word... |
How can the Samsung Upgrade Programme offer 0% APR? | The financing is built into the price. I do not have hard facts, but I strongly suspect that very few people buy brand-new smartphones at full price upfront. Most pay a monthly installment to the carrier or retailer equal to 1/24 of the full price, which in effect is "0% financing for 2 years". Samsung might be able... |
Using 2 different social security numbers | Social security number should only be needed for things that involve tax withholding or tax payment. Your bank or investment broker, and your employer, need it so they can report your earnings. You need it when filing tax forms. Other than those, nobody should really be asking you for it. The gym had absolutely no goo... |
What Happens to Bank Stocks If Country Defaults | The prices seem very low even considering the risk? The prices are low because of the risk. Nothing happens to the banks if the sovereign defaults. However, the sovereign debt holders - lose some or all the money they lent to that sovereign. Incidentally, many banks invest in the treasury bonds of various countries, es... |
Death and Capital Gains Taxes (United States) | My understanding is that when you die, the stocks are sold and then the money is given to the beneficiary or the stock is repurchased in the beneficiaries name. This is wrong, and the conclusion you draw from michael's otherwise correct answer follows your false assumption. You seem to understand the Estate Tax fe... |
Are there limits on frequency of withdrawal from Roth 401K? | Back in the late 80's I had a co-worked do exactly this. In those days you could only do things quarterly: change the percentage, change the investment mix, make a withdrawal.. There were no Roth 401K accounts, but contributions could be pre-tax or post-tax. Long term employees were matched 100% up to 8%, newer employe... |
When a company reports it earnings, when does the SEC EDGAR system show the report online? | IT appears the company you're talking about did not report as you expected them to, which is not unusual for OTC companies because, as Milo stated, they are not well-managed. That being said, reports on EDGAR are available as soon as they're posted. I'm not aware of any lag between when the company uploads their repor... |
Should I sell my stocks to reduce my debt? | I'd get rid of the debt with the stock money. Stocks are at a high for the year. Get out while the getting's good and get your financial house in order. |
Why does Warren Buffett say his fund performance, relatively, is likely to be better in a bear market than in a bull market? | From the letter you link: Our performance, relatively, is likely to be better in a bear market than in a bull market so that deductions made from the above results should be tempered by the fact that it was the type of year when we should have done relatively well. In a year when the general market had a substantia... |
TFSA over-contributions: How would the penalty apply in this scenario? | First, if your stock is trading at $1 and you transfer the 5000 shares in-kind to your TFSA on August 2, 2011, you are deemed to have disbursed that stock in your (assumed) non-registered account. This may have tax consequences depending on the ACB of the original purchase. As for your TFSA overcontribution, you will o... |
What software do you recommend for Creating a To-The-Penny, To-The-Day Budget? | I really don't know about will it help you, but here is what I do: It is not classic solution, but maybe it will work for you (works for me very well). |
Simultaneous long/short India | I know its not legal to have open long and short position on specific security (on two stock exchanges - NSE/BSE) There is nothing illegal about it. There are prescribed ways on how this is addressed. In Cash Segment / Intra Day trades: One can short sell a security. If by end of day he does not buy the security; it... |
Are there any banks with a command-line style user interface? | There are API libraries available to various banks in various programming languages. For example, in Perl there are many libraries in the Finance::Bank:: namespace. Some of these use screen-scraping libraries and talk to the GUI underneath, so they are vulnerable to any changes the bank makes to their interface, but so... |
To whom should I report fraud on both of my credit cards? | First thing to do when you notice a credit card fraud is to call the respective banks who issues the credit card and most banks immediately (as far as my experience goes - twice) they will cancel the credit card and issue a new card with different number. Your credit card account will remain the same, no effect on cred... |
How to pay bills for one month while waiting for new job? | This is just a partial answer, but I believe the following observations are relevant: |
Are there any investment strategies which take advantage of an in-the-money option price that incorporates no “time value”? | you asked for strategies which use deep in the money options: dividend mispricing can use deep in the money options, basically its an arbitrage play on ex-dividend dates. and any kind of spread can use deep in the money options, depending on how wide you want your spread to be |
Reinvesting dividends and capital gains | I have found The DRiP Investing Resource Center to be a useful resource for more information about DRIP investing. Moneypaper.com offers a list of companies offering both direct purchase options and dividend reinvestment plans. For those offering dividend reinvestment plans, but not direct purchase, you have the optio... |
What is the basis of an asset that is never depreciated? | That's tricky, actually. First, as the section 1015 that you've referred to in your other question says - you take the lowest of the fair market value or the actual donor basis. Why is it important? Consider these examples: So, if the relative bought you a brand new car and you're the first title holder (i.e.: the rela... |
How Should I Go About Buying a Car? (College Student) | So you want to buy a car but have no money saved up.... That's going to be hard!! I'd suggest you get a part-time job, save up and buy a used car. Even with the minimum wage pay in the U.S., if you are in the U.S., you could save up and buy a car in less than a month. This route would be the quickest way for you to get... |
Can a put option and call option be exercised for the same stock with different strike prices? | You could have both options exercised (and assigned to you) on the same day, but I don't think you could lose money on both on the same day. The reason is that while exercises are immediate, assignments are processed after the markets close at the end of each day. See http://www.888options.com/help/faq/assignment.jsp f... |
Are companies like EquityZen legitimate and useful? | Full disclosure: I’m an intern for EquityZen, so I’m familiar with this space but can speak with the most accuracy about EquityZen. Observations about other players in the space are my own. The employee liquidity landscape is evolving. EquityZen and Equidate help shareholders (employees, ex-employees, etc.) in private ... |
Advantage of credit union or local community bank over larger nationwide banks such as BOA, Chase, etc.? | Don't switch just because you hear people panicking on the talk shows. Banks are competitive business and won't start charging for using debit cards too fast. If and when they decide to do such a thing after all - then start shopping and see who doesn't catch up with the fees and still provides the services you want fo... |
Safe method of paying for a Gym Membership? | I've worked in gyms for 9 years. Here's a few things I've seen: 1)Contracts aren't necessarily a terrible thing if you know that you are going to stay for a while, just know the terms you're signing up for. 2)Be aggressive and relentless with the membership salesman, don't be afraid to put your own price out there and... |
How to keep control of shared expenses inside marriage? | Websites like neobudget dot com or mint dot com can help you see where your money is going, especially if you use mostly checks, debit cards, or credit cards for your purchases. They are less useful if you use cash often. |
Td Ameritrade Roth IRA question | Your broker, Ameritrade, offers a variety of Exchange Traded Funds (ETFs) that you can buy and sell with zero commission. An ETF is like a mutual fund, but you buy and sell shares the same way you buy and sell shares of stocks. From your point of view, the relevance of this is that you can buy and sell as many or as ... |
Does an individual share of a stock have some kind of unique identifier? | I agree with the answer by @Michael that this number doesn't exist. It's hard to see what use it would have and it would be difficult to track. I'm writing a separate answer because I also disagree with the premise of your question: Individual shares of stock have never to my knowledge had such a number. Your commen... |
Tax planning for Indian TDS on international payments | I am an Israeli based citizen who represents and Indian company who sells its products in Israel. As an agent I am entitled to commission on sales on behalf the Indian company who advised that. Any commission paid to you will be applicable to TDS at 20.9% of the commission amount, the tax will be paid and a Tax paid ce... |
In USA, what circumstances (if any) make it illegal for a homeless person to “rent” an address? | It depends on the rules in the specific places you stay. Specific places being countries or states. Some states may consider pension payments to be taxable income, others may not. Some may consider presence for X days to constitute residency, X days may be 60 days in a calendar year whether or not those days are co... |
Should I pay off my car loan within the year? | Credit reports have line items that, if all is well, say "paid as agreed." A car loan almost certainly gets reported. In your case it probably says the happy "paid as agreed." It will continue to say that if you pay it off in full. You can get the happy "paid as agreed" from a credit card too. You can get it by payin... |
Why UK bank charges are not taken account when looking on interest for taxation? | When I left the UK four years ago, free banking is still an option and I'm pretty sure it still is. Therefore, you have chosen to have a bank account with a 5.00/month charge. In return for this charge, you will be eligible to receive certain benefits. For example; reduced borrowing costs, discounted mortgage rates... |
Why does gold have value? | Gold's value starts with the fact that its supply is steady and by nature it's durable. In other words, the amount of gold traded each year (The Supply and Demand) is small relative to the existing total stock. This acting as a bit of a throttle on its value, as does the high cost of mining. Mines will have yields that... |
How can rebuilding a city/large area be considered an economic boost? | The people who benefit are large engineering and construction companies, manufacturers of construction equipment, bankers and lawyers. So in the world of realpolitik that we live in, the misery of millions of "other people" is spun as a net benefit, because "we" benefit from that misery. |
Pros/Cons of Buying Discounted Company Stock | I see another way of looking at this that hasn't been addressed yet. By offering the discount, the company is attempting to change your behavior into doing something irrational, that benefits them at your expense. The company hopes for one (or more) of the following psychological effects to happen to you: The proper th... |
What should we consider when withdrawing a large amount of money from a bank account? | You state "Any info will be appreciated", so here's some background information on my answer (you can skip to my answer): When I worked for banks, I was required to submit suspicious activity to the people above me by filling out a form with a customer's name, SSN, account number(s) and ID. You may hear in media that ... |
Choosing the “right” NAPFA advisor, and whether fees are fair, etc.? | The nature of this question (finding a financial adviser) can make it a conundrum. Those who have little financial experience are often in the greatest need of a financial adviser and at the same time are the least qualified to select one. I'm not putting you or anyone in particular in this category. And of course it's... |
Will I get taxed on withdrawals from Real Cash Economy games? | Income from a hobby is tax exempt under Dutch law. To consider whether it's hobby, a few rules are applied such as: How much time do you spend on the activity? And is the hourly wage low? Obviously, having a boss is a sure sign of it not being a hobby. The typical example is making dolls and selling them on a crafts fa... |
Do mutual fund companies deliberately “censor” their portfolios/funds? | Do mutual funds edit/censor underperforming investments to make their returns look better, and if so, is there any way one can figure out if they are doing it? No, that's not what the quote says. What the quote says is that the funds routinely drop investments that do not bring the expected return, which is true. T... |
How to share income after marriage and kids? | This would be my suggestion: I would approach the problem thinking about the loss of monthly income you (as a couple) will be facing due to your wife's change to a part time job and divide that loss between the two of you. This means that if she goes from 2200 to 1100 monthly, you'd be losing 1100 per month. To share ... |
Why doesn't change in accounts receivable on balance sheet match cash flow statement? | It is difficult to reconcile historical balance sheets with historical cash flow statements because there are adjustments that are not always clearly disclosed. Practitioners consider activity on historical cash flow statements but generally don't invest time reconciling historical accounts, instead focusing on balanci... |
I thought student loans didn't have interest, or at least very low interest? [UK] | From the description, you have a post-1998 income contingent loan. The interest rate on those is currently 1.5% but it has varied quite a bit in the last few years due to the formula used to calculate it, which is either the inflation rate (RPI), or 1% + the highest base rate across a group of banks - whichever is smal... |
Using Loan to Invest - Paying Monthly Installments with Monthly Income | Here are my re-run figures. Not counting capital gains taxes, I calculate you need to be making 1.875% per annum or 0.155% per month on your $8,000 investment to break-even on the loan. It's interesting that the return you need to gain to break-even is less than the interest you're paying, even with commission. It h... |
Why the volume disparity between NUGT and DUST? | NUGT and DUST are opposites - DUST is a 'bear' (tracks 3x the inverse) and NUGT is a 'bull' (tracks 3x the actual). So if NUGT is much higher, sounds like people are betting on Gold (or specifically, on the NYSEARCA Gold Miners Index). When this Investopedia article was written in July 2016, the volumes were reverse... |
Selling put and call Loss Scenario Examples | Here's a simple example for a put, from both sides. Assume XYZ stock trades at $200 right now. Let's say John writes a $190 out of the money put on XYZ stock and sells this put to Abby for the premium, which is say $5. Assume the strike date, or date of settlement, is 6 months from now. Thus Abby is long one put opti... |
Error in my car loan papers, what do I do? | The absolute first thing you need to do is contact the bank. Also, do you have a copy of the loan papers you signed? You should look over those as soon as possible as well. I'm sure you want these payments going toward your FICO score and not your mothers. |
Why invest for the long-term rather than buy and sell for quick, big gains? | If they return to their earlier prices Assuming I don't make too many poor choices That's your problem right there: you have no guarantee that stocks, will in fact return to their earlier prices rather than go down some more after the time you buy them. Your strategy only looks good and easy in hindsight when you know... |
Can I buy a new house before selling my current house? | You don't say why you want to move. Without knowing that, it is hard to recommend a course of action. Anyway... The sequence of events for an ECONOMICAL outcome in a strong market is as follows: (1) You begin looking for a new house (2) You rent storage and put large items into storage (3) You rent an apartment and mov... |
ETF vs Mutual Fund: How to decide which to use for investing in a popular index? | The factors to consider: |
Why do Americans have to file taxes, even if their only source of income is from a regular job? | One of the reasons, apart from historical, is that different people have different tax liabilities which the employer may not be aware of. For example, in the US we don't pay taxes in source on investment income, and there are many credits and deductions that we can't take. So if I have a child and some interest income... |
Why should the P/E ratio of a growth stock match its percentage earnings growth rate? | To perhaps better explain the "why" behind this rule of thumb, first think of what it means when the P/E ratio changes. If the P/E ratio increases, then this means the stock has become more expensive (in relative terms)--for example, an increase in the price but no change in the earnings means you are now paying more ... |
What does net selling or buying of a stock mean? | Consider the mechanic which actually drives the 'price' of a stock. In simplest terms, the 'price' of a stock is the price at which the most recent trade occurred. ie: if the price of IBM is $100/share, that means the last time someone bought IBM stock, they paid $100. Above and below the 'spot price', are dozens/hundr... |
Does the IRS reprieve those who have to commute for work? | You cannot deduct commute expenses. Regarding your specific example, something to consider is that if the standard of living is higher in San Francisco, presumably the wages are higher too. Therefore, you must make a choice to trade "time and some money for commuting costs" for "even more money" in the form of higher w... |
Buying from an aggressive salesperson | I often spend weeks or months (and sometimes even years) deciding whether to buy something. Certainly the dealer should recognize you by now if you take a third opportunity to look at the same instrument. You could politely remind him that you've twice declined his excellent prices. From there you can assert that you w... |
Making a big purchase over $2500. I have the money to cover it. Should I get a loan or just place it on credit? | You want to know if you should pay cash or use a credit card like cash? There are so many benefits to the card, like purchase protection, cash back, and postponed payments, that there needs to be a really good reason to pay cash. If you are concerned about the 10% threshold, ask your credit card company to raise your ... |
Potential phishing scam? | You need to talk to your bank. If you're unable to contact your bank until Monday, then wait until Monday. Don't fixate on the idea that the transaction may "hard post" on Monday. If it happens, it happens, but it's not the end of the world. Even if the transaction posts, it's not the end of the world. If the retai... |
How to keep control of shared expenses inside marriage? | JoeTaxpayer's answer mentions using a third "house" account. In my comment on his answer, I mentioned that you could simply use a bookkeeping account to track this instead of the overhead of an extra real bank account. Here's the detail of what I think will work for you. If you use a tool like gnucash (probably also po... |
Do you have to be mega-rich to invest in companies pre-IPO? | No you don't have to be super-rich. But... the companies do not have to sell you shares, and as others mention the government actively restricts and regulates the advertising and sales of shares, so how do you invest? The easiest way to obtain a stake is to work at a pre-IPO company, preferably at a high level (e.g. ... |
What are the procedures or forms for a private loan with the sale of a vehicle? | Draft up a promissory notes. Have a lawyer do it use one of those online contract places if you have simple needs. Your promissory note need to cover Be specific. There are probably a lot more items that can be included, and if a quick internet search is any indication it gets deep fast. http://lmbtfy.com/?q=car+sal... |
Name first on car loan can you also be the cosigner | I want to first state that I'm not an attorney and this is not a response that would be considered legal advice. I'm going to assume this was a loan was made in the USA. The OP didnt specify. A typical auto loan has a borrower and a co-borrower or "cosigner". The first signer on the contract is considered the "pri... |
Would there be tax implications if I used AirBnB as opposed to just renting out a unit normally? | There's no tax difference between using AirBnB or Craigslist or any other method to find tenants. The rules relating to occupancy and frequency may be different for some purposes if you go from yearly or monthly tenants to daily-rate tenants. Your state and local authorities may in the future try to consider you a mot... |
What will my taxes be as self employed? | Whether you're self-employed or not, knowing exactly how much tax you will pay is not always an easy task. Various actions you can take (e.g., charitable donations, IRA contributions, selling stocks) may increase or reduce your tax liability. One tool I've found useful for estimating federal taxes is the Excel 1040 sp... |
Why do shareholders participate in shorting stocks? | Why would a shareholder lend the investor the shares? Some brokers like IB will pay you to lend your shares: http://ibkb.interactivebrokers.com/node/1838 If you buy shares on margin, you don't have much of a choice. Your broker is allowed to lend your shares to short-sellers. |
Avoiding sin stock: does it make a difference? | This question drives at what value a shareholder actually provides to a corporation, and by extent, to the economy. If you subscribe for new shares (like in an Initial Public Offering), it is very straightforward to say "I have provided capital to the corporation, which it is using to advance its business." If you buy ... |
Why are there many small banks and more banks in the U.S.? | Wikipedia has a good summary: Historically, branch banking in the United States - especially interstate branch banking - was viewed unfavorably by regulatory authorities, and this was codified with the enactment of the McFadden Act of 1927, which specifically prohibited interstate banking. Over the next few decades, so... |
Auto Insurance: Adding another car to the existing policy (GEICO) | tl;dr: Call them. I'd be very surprised if you have a problem. I used to have have a policy with Geico, and would pay for my car insurance 6 months at a time. About 2 months into my last period, I purchased a house. Unfortunately, Geico didn't offer homeowners insurance in my state, so I ended switching to another comp... |
Are the guaranteed returns of regulated utilities really what they sound like? | Typically a private company is hit by demand supply issues and cost of inputs. In effect at times the cost of input may go up, it cannot raise the prices, because this will reduce demand. However certain public sectors companies, typically in Oil & Engery segements the services are offered by Public sector companies, a... |
Best starting options to invest for retirement without a 401k | Being from the UK, I'd not heard of a Roth IRA, but it sounds very similar to our own ISA (Individual Savings Account). Having just looked it up, I couldn't believe the annual limit was so low: $5500! Still, you have to work within your jurisdiction's legal framework (or agitate for change?). I would definitely agree... |
If a company in China says it accepts Visa, does it accept all Visas? | Many businesses that accept regular VISA credit cards will not accept VISA purchase cards intended for corporate/gov purchasing departments and able to furnish a more detailed audit trail (purchase order #, lot #, etc.) than a regular credit card. Other merchants take ONLY VISA purchase cards. |
Finance, Social Capital IPOA.U | (See also the question How many stocks I can exercise per stock warrant? and my comments there). Clearly, at the prices you quote, it does not seem sensible to exercise your warrants at the moment, since you can still by "units" (1 stock + 1/3 warrant) and bare stock at below the $11.50 it would cost you to exercise yo... |
In the UK, can authors split a single advance on a book over multiple tax returns? | HMRC calls it: Averaging for creators of literary or artistic works, and it is the averaging of your profits for 2 successive years. It's helpful in situations like you describe, where income can fluctuate wildly from year to year, the linked article has the full detail, but some of the requirements are: You can use av... |
Can gold prices vary between two places or country at the same time? | I don't know about an actual example now, but in the past, India had restrictions on how much gold you could bring into the country from abroad, and there were heavy customs duties. Thus, gold smuggling was a huge business, because by avoiding the duties, people could stand to make a lot of money. At some point in 90s,... |
Is this investment opportunity problematic? | If they own the old house outright, they can mortgage it to you. In many jurisdictions this relieves you of the obligation to chase for payment, and of any worry that you won't get paid, because a transfer of ownership to the new owner cannot be registered until any charge against a property (ie. a mortgage) has been d... |
Can mutual fund prices have opening gaps? Might my order to be filled at a higher price? | Mutual funds don't work like stocks in that way. The price of a mutual fund is set at the end of each day and doesn't fluctuate during the day. So no matter when you put in your order, it will be filled at the end of the day at whatever the closing price is for that day. Here is some good information on that There is n... |
Can travel expenses be deducted from Form 1040A if they were used to gather material for a book? | Hobby expenses are not tax deductible. Business expenses are, but only if it's a bona fide business. First they look at profitability: if you reported a net profit (i.e. paid taxes) in your first 3 years, they will believe you rant on Youtube for a living. Remember, by the time they get around to auditing you, you'... |
What are some factors I should consider when choosing between a CPA and tax software | Hiring a CPA comes into play if you're doing something that requires judgement or planning, such as valuation of internal shares in a partnership, valuation of assets in an asset swap, or distribution of the proceeds of a liquidation. That said, I would strongly suggest hiring someone who is also a Tax Attorney over a ... |
Can saving/investing 15% of your income starting age 25, likely make you a millionaire? | The article links to William Bernstein’s plan that he outlined for Business Insider, which says: Modelling this investment strategy Picking three funds from Google and running some numbers. The international stock index only goes back to April 29th 1996, so a run of 21 years was modelled. Based on 15% of a salary of $... |
Is 0% credit card utilization worse than 1-20% credit card utilization for any reason other than pure statistics? | Having no utilization makes you an outlier, it's an unusual circumstance for most people, and the scoring model cannot make any predictions based on it. If you think of it from the underwriter's perspective, zero utilization could mean all sorts of things... are you dead? indigent? unable to work? When you buying a pr... |
Is there a way to claim a car purchase in the tax return? | IRS Publication 463 is a great resource to help you understand what you can and can't deduct. It's not a yes/no question, it depends on the exact company use, other use, and contemporaneous record keeping. |
Getting a mortgage while self-employed | Would it be worth legitimizing his business or is it too late at this point? To be blunt, you're asking if we recommend that he stop breaking the law. The answer is obviously yes, he should be declaring his income. And it would probably benefit him to get on the same page as his employer (or client) so they can both st... |
Why would my job recruiter want me to form an LLC? | The "independent contractor" vs. "employee" distinction is a red herring to this discussion and not at all important just because someone suggested you use your LLC to do the job. Corp-2-Corp is a very common way to do contracting and having an LLC with business bank accounts provides you with more tax deductions (such... |
How can you possibly lose on investments in stocks? | For whatever it's worth. Judging from the comments in the other answers, I think everyone is addressing your question, "How can you possibly lose money," there are a lot of ways to possibly lose money in the stock market. Here are my thoughts. This is a chart of the S&P 500 from about 1996 to about 2012. At the to... |
Beginner questions about stock market | In the US, and I suspect in most of the developed world, one major point of a corporation is limited liability. The stockholders are not on the hook for liabilities beyond their investment. If the company does something terrible, or fails economically, it goes bankrupt. Usually the stockholders have their investment... |
Whole life insurance - capped earnings | Pretty simple: When is Cash Value Life Insurance a good or bad idea? It is never a good idea. How can life insurance possibly work as investment? It can't. Just as car, home, or health insurance is not an investment. Note for counter example providers: intent to commit insurance fraud is not an investment. Why not l... |
What is the preferred way to finance home improvements when preparing to sell your house? | In planning to buy a house, and sort out how to handle the costs of some initial renovations, I've been considering using Lowes and Home Depot credit cards (hopefully this will count differently than the typical credit cards I think you're referring to): http://www.homedepot.com/webapp/wcs/stores/servlet/ContentView?pn... |
Investing small amounts at regular intervals while minimizing fees? | I am not sure whether this hold in all countries, but at least in the Netherlands my bank allows for investment in funds without charging transaction costs. The downside is that these funds charge an annual fee of about 1%, but for the amounts you are talking about this definitely sounds more attractive than the altern... |
What are the risks with ETFs with relatively low market caps? | Market cap probably isn't as big of an issue as the bid/ask spread and the liquidity, although they tend to be related. The spread is likely to be wider on lesser traded ETF funds we are talking about pennies, likely not an issue unless you are trading in and out frequently. The expense ratios will also tend to be slig... |
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