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How do credit card payments work? What ensures the retailer charges the right amount? | When you give your credit card number and authorize a merchant to charge your credit card, the merchant then gives the information to their merchant processor which in turns bills the bank that issued the card (it's a little more complex and it all happens instantly unless the merchant is using the very old fasion impr... |
Is there a legal deadline for when your bank/brokerage has to send your tax forms to you? | I got notice from Charles Schwab that the forms weren't being mailed out until the middle of February because, for some reason, the forms were likely to change and rather than mail them out twice, they mailed them out once. Perhaps some state tax laws took effect (such as two Oregon bills regarding tax rates for higher... |
How can a freelancer get a credit card? (India) | I don't know about India, but here in the US banks, and more friendly institutions such as credit unions, use to offer the option of a 'secured' credit card where the card was secured by placing a lock on money in a savings account equal to the credit limit on the card. So for example, if you had $1500 in savings, you ... |
Why do some people go through contortions to avoid paying taxes, yet spend money on expensive financial advice, high-interest loans, etc? | One is a choice the other is not. While they are both liabilities on the balance sheet, in the real world they are quite different. We do not feel as much ownership over our money that goes to interest payments as we do over our tax payments. Taxes pay for our government and the services it provides. Interest, on t... |
What does this diagram from Robert Kiyosaki about corporations mean? | These types of diagrams appear all throughout Kiyosaki's Rich Dad, Poor Dad book. The arrows in the diagrams represent cash flow. For example, the first two diagrams of this type in the book are: The idea being presented here is that an asset generates income, and a liability generates expenses. According to the boo... |
Get interest on $100K by spending only $2K using FOREX rollovers? | Now, is there any clever way to combine FOREX transactions so that you receive the US interest on $100K instead of the $2K you deposited as margin? Yes, absolutely. But think about it -- why would the interest rates be different? Imagine you're making two loans, one for 10,000 USD and one for 10,000 CHF, and you're go... |
Why would a bank need to accept deposits from private clients if it can just borrow from the Federal Reserve? | Banks cannot just borrow from the Federal Reserve and use that money to make loans. The first thing you need to understand is how fractional reserve banking works. The banks can make loans with money that their customers have deposited in their accounts. The interest and fees from those loans go to pay the salaries of ... |
Online transaction - Money taken out late | When processing credit/debit cards there is a choice made by the company on how they want to go about doing it. The options are Authorization/Capture and Sale. For online transactions that require the delivery of goods, companies are supposed to start by initially Authorizing the transaction. This signals your bank t... |
How can I predict which way mortgage rates are moving? | If economic conditions are weakening, i.e. unemployment rising, business and consummer confidence dropping, etc., you can expect interest rates and thus mortgage rates to drop. If economic conditions are strengthening you can expect interest rates and thus mortgage rates to start rising. As you are in the US, and with ... |
What ETF best tracks the price of gasoline, or else crude oil? | There is no ETF that closely tracks oil or gasoline. This is because all existing oil and gasoline ETFs hold futures contracts or other derivatives. Storing the oil and gasoline would be prohibitively costly. Futures contracts are prone to contango and backwardation, sometimes resulting in large deviations from the pri... |
How to treat miles driven to the mechanic, gas station, etc when calculating business use of car? | I contacted Stephen Fishman, J.D., the author of Home Business Tax Deductions, to let him know that this question was missing from his book. He was kind enough to send a reply. My original phrasing of the question: If your car is used for both business and personal use, and you deduct via the actual expense method, do ... |
When Employees are “Granted” Stock Options, is the Company encouraging Long-Term investments from them? | There are two things to consider: taxes - beneficial treatment for long-term holding, and for ESPP's you can get lower taxes on higher earnings. Also, depending on local laws, some share schemes allow one to avoid some or all on the income tax. For example, in the UK £2000 in shares is treated differently to 2000 in ca... |
Can you buy gift cards at grocery store to receive a higher reward rate? | In a similar situation I wrote about How I Made $4,000+ on a Cash Back Credit Card Offer. The total was actually $4550, and was from an insane offer from a new credit card my bank advertised. 10% cash back on all spending during the first 90 days. I wondered if gift card purchases counted, and more than store cards, I ... |
What is an effective way to invest in electric car industry? | You could have googled this question. I did so and found a link to this article. YMMV taking investment advice from thestreet.com is very likely to lose you money. However, there do not seem to be any sector funds that specifically focus on the electric vehicle market. Along similar, but not exactly the same lines, t... |
Smartest Place to Put Tax Refund | Welcome to Money.SE. Your question is similar to a number of others. The "How do I pay my debt down?" and "How do I invest extra money?" is a bit of a continuum since there's no consensus than one should pay off the last cent of debt before investing. Oversimplify it for me: the correct order of investing offers a goo... |
What does the average log-return value of a stock mean? | Knowing the log return is useful - the log return can help you to work out the annual return over the period it was estimated - and this should be comparable between stocks. One should just be careful with the calculation so that allowance for dividends is made sensibly. |
Can you recommend some good websites/brokers for buying/selling stocks in India? | Most of the Indian Brokers started offering API's to retail client these days. And NSE Exchange also supports algo trading at retail level. Currently two levels of API are offered. 1)Semi-automatic or one touch trading (Retail Traders) 2)Fully Automatic ( Dealers) I had tested the API with a discount broker www.tradeji... |
Why do stocks gap up after a buyout is announced? | The price gaps up because the offer is for a price above the current price. Therefore people want to buy now before the price jumps to the offer level. Of course it does depend on the tone of the announcement, which party is making the announcement, and are they announcing an offer or a deal. If the price is $10, and ... |
Tenant wants to pay rent with EFT | Yes, it is safe, we have been doing it for years. We prefer our tenants to make their rent payments in this manner. In fact, we prefer that they set up an automatic payment for the rent, either through their online banking or through their bank directly. Apart from getting your rent on time, this method also has the ad... |
How can I verify that a broker I found online is legitimate? | How you check if a broker is legitimate: 1) Are they a registered broker dealer? Broker dealers have to be registered with FINRA and the SEC , which have their own databases for you to look up individuals and companies. here is FINRA's http://www.finra.org/Investors/ToolsCalculators/BrokerCheck/ FINRA is a self-regulat... |
How are exchange rates decided for each country? | Today the rates are arrived simply on the basis of demand and supply. Historically rates were pegged to Gold, when all currencies were printed depending on the Gold reserves. So if one country printed 100 units of currency of a 1gm of gold and other country 10 units of currency for 1 gm of gold, the rate would be 1:10.... |
Should I use regular or adjusted close for backtesting? | You would have to compare your backtesting to what you will be doing in real trading, and try to have the backtesting as close to your real trading as possible. Note: you may never get the backtesting to match your real trading exactly but you need to get as close as possible. The whole purpose of backtesting is to che... |
What to do with a 50K inheritance [duplicate] | My grandma left a 50K inheritance You don't make clear where in the inheritance process you are. I actually know of one case where the executor (a family member, not a professional) distributed the inheritance before paying the estate taxes. Long story short, the heirs had to pay back part of the inheritance. So the... |
How should minor children be listed as IRA beneficiaries? | I think that "better" is up to a discussion, but the difference is that while in trust you can control the money after your death in some way - giving it directly to children means you have no such control. I.e.: in trust you can stipulate that the children will be able to spend the money under certain terms or in cert... |
Is there a general guideline for what percentage of a portfolio should be in gold? | My personal gold/metals target is 5.0% of my retirement portfolio. Right now I'm underweight because of the run up in gold/metals prices. (I haven't been selling, but as I add to retirement accounts, I haven't been buying gold so it is going below the 5% mark.) I arrived at this number after reading a lot of different ... |
What is an “International Equity”? | Assuming you're in the United States, then International Equity is an equity from a different country. These stocks or stock funds (which reside in a foreign country) are broken out seperately becuase they are typically influenced by a different set of factors than equities in the United States: foreign currency swing... |
What is a “fiat” currency? Are there other types of currency? | In short. A fiat currency is money that has value only because (usually) a government says it does. A counter example (non-fiat currency) is a gold coin that has intrinsic value usually because it is made of valuable materials that people would trade goods/services. That is the value comes from what you are holding mo... |
Buying insurance (extended warranty or guarantee) on everyday goods / appliances? | Most of the consumer products that you buy at retail these days are commodity priced, and have been for a long time. Margins are thin, so if there are retail salespeople milling about, their compensation isn't coming from the TV or computer with a 6% gross margin. It comes from the extended warranty programs (which are... |
Can I move my 401k to another country without paying tax penalty? | hello – I am a natural born US citizen; I have worked 35+ years in the United States; I have a 401(k), IRA, Social Security benefits. I have researched the ex-patriot possibilities for several years. I've consulted both accountants and tax attorneys. The long answer is: hire tax consultants/attorneys to try to shelter ... |
How to compute for losses in an upside down trade-in of a financed car? | I think you are making this more complicated that it has to be. In the end you will end up with a car that you paid X, and is worth Y. Your numbers are a bit hard to follow. Hopefully I got this right. I am no accountant, this is how I would figure the deal: The payments made are irrelevant. The downpayment is irrel... |
How can I make a profit by selling a stock short? | How so? If i sell short, then i make a profit only if the price goes down so i can buy back at a lower price. Yes, but if the price is going up then you would go long instead. Shorting a stock (or any other asset) allows you to profit when the price is going down. Going long allows you to profit when the price is going... |
Why is the highest quintile the only quintile whose wealth exceeds its income? | There are a lot of forces at play here, one of which is addressed in your second bullet point. Housing, transportation, food, and healthcare are pretty much the staple expenses of a modern day human. While these expenses all have a range from minimum required to function and luxurious all humans incur these costs. Th... |
Does it make sense to refinance a 30 year mortgage to 15 years? | Unless I'm missing something, this doesn't make sense at all. Why take out money at 3.25% (the Heloc) to reduce the balance on a 3% loan (the refi)? It would be better to move as much from the Heloc to the refi as possible to get the best rate. If this results in a lower monthly payment, keep paying the higher payme... |
Are there alternatives to double currency account to manage payments in different currencies? | Banks in certain countries are offering such facility. However I am not aware of any Bank in Hungary offering this. So apart from maintaining a higher amount in HUF, there by reducing the costs [and taking the volatility risks]; there aren't many options. |
Why does low interest rate prevent bankruptcy and foreclosure? | Most of the bankruptcy is due to taking [or building over a period of time] a loan that one cannot service, if the interest rates rise, then the amount of money to repay the loan increases, when one doesnt pay the revised amount and keeps paying less, the over all debt keeps shooting through the roof ... a lower intere... |
At tax time, what is the proper way to report cryptocurrency earnings and fiat income when you've started with “nothing”? | In 2014 the IRS announced that it published guidance in Notice 2014-21. In that notice, the answer to the first question describes the general tax treatment of virtual currency: For federal tax purposes, virtual currency is treated as property. General tax principles applicable to property transactions apply to transac... |
Are there alternatives to double currency account to manage payments in different currencies? | Cheaper and faster are usually mutually exclusive. If you want faster, nothing is faster than cash. I would recommend using an ATM to withdraw cash from your USD account as Florints and then use as appropriate. If you want cheaper, then the cheapest currency conversion commonly available is foreign exchange / transfer... |
What should I be aware of as a young investor? | Just don't buy any kind of paper and you will be fine :-) And don't forget most of these 'blue-chip companies' sell marketing garbage which have no real market. Finally, make all decissions slooooowly and after extensive research. |
Is it a good idea to get an unsecured loan to pay off a credit card that won't lower a high rate? | I think it depends on how you're approaching paying off the credit card. If you're doing some sort of debt snowball and/or throw all available cash at the card, it's not likely to matter much. If you're paying a set amount close to the minimum each month then you're probably better off getting a loan, use it to pay off... |
Stocks and bonds have yields, but what is a yield? | Yield can be thought of as the interest rate you would receive from that investment in the form of a dividend for stocks or interest payments on a bond. The yield takes into account the anticipated amount to be received per share/unit per year and the current price of the investment. Of course, the yield is not a gu... |
When's the best time to sell the stock of a company that is being acquired/sold? | This is but one opinion. Seek others before your act. "When someone puts a million dollars in your hand, close your hand." A 50% gain in two weeks is huge. |
How does the purchase of shares on the secondary market benefit the issuing company? | Stock trading (as opposed to IPO) doesn't directly benefit the company. But it affects their ability to raise additional funds; if they're valued higher, they don't need to sell as many shares to raise a given amount of money. And the stockholders are part owners of the company; their votes in annual corporate meeting... |
Are AAA private-sector corporate bonds safer than government bonds? | If you are afraid of your government defaulting, then you also have reason to fear that your country's so-called "AAA" corporate bonds might not be a safe investment. When governments default, they often do things like: In these scenarios, it is not predictable whether government bonds will suffer more or less than an... |
How can I find hotel properties to buy other than using Google? | Probably the easiest way to invest in hotel rooms in the U.S. is to invest in a Real Estate Investment Trust, or REIT. REITs are securities that invest in real estate and trade like a stock. There are different REITs that invest in different things: some own office buildings, some residential rentals, some hold mortg... |
How to find a good third-party, 401k management/advice service? | Any fee based financial adviser should be able to help you. I don't think you need to worry about finding a 401K specific adviser. I'm not even sure that's a thing. A good place to start is the National Association of Personal Financial Advisors. The reason I specifically mentioned a fee based adviser is that the free ... |
How should I report my RSUs in my tax return | Your employer should send you a statement with this information. If they didn't, you should still be able to find it through E*Trade. Navigate to: Trading & Portfolios>Portfolios. Select the stock plan account. Under "Restricted Stock", you should see a list of your grants. If you click on the grant in question, you sh... |
If you buy something and sell it later on the same day, how do you calculate 'investment'? | Your initial investment in this case is $9 on the first morning. Every other morning you are using part of your profits to buy the new piece of jewelry, so you are actually not investing any new funds. So each day you are effectively keeping $1 of your profits and re_re-investing $9. But your initial investment of your... |
It's possible to short a stock without paying interest? | As others have said: unless you can find someone willing to make a zero-interest loan, the answer is no. If you can figure out how to turn a "0% for first N months" credit card offer onto a leveraged investment or something of that sort -- seems unlikely -- maybe. |
Dividend vs Growth Stocks for young investors | First, what Daniel Carson said. Second, if you're getting started, just make sure you are well diversified. Lots of growth stocks turn into dividend stocks over time-- Microsoft and Apple are the classic examples in this era. Someday, Google will pay a dividend too. If you're investing for the long haul, diversify an... |
Why won't my retirement account let me write a “covered put”? | I have a Roth IRA with Scottrade, and they allow me to write cash secured puts, as well as covered calls. I can also purchase calls or puts, if I choose. When I write a cash secured put, it automatically deducts the amount required to purchase the shares at the strike price from my "cash available for transactions". |
If I invest in securities denominated in a foreign currency, should I hedge my currency risk? | As the other answer already states, whether you should or shouldn't currency-hedge your equity investments depends on a lot of factors. If you decide to do so, depending on your investment vehicles, there might be a more cost-efficient way than arranging a separate futures contract with a bank: If you are open to (or a... |
What is the most common and profitable investment for a good retirement in Australia? | I don't look to Super or Pension, I am working on self funding. My method is work in Sydney and buy a house in Sydney (I bought 6 years ago). Let my property rise on this stupidly insane Sydney growth (my place has risen by 76% in the last 6 years and thats in a "bad" economic climate). Each time the equity hits a cert... |
Value investing | One aspect of this - no matter which valuation method you choose - is that there are limited shares available to buy. Other people already know those valuation methods and have decided to buy those shares, paying higher than the previous person to notice this and take a risk. So this means that even after you have calc... |
When can you adjust for (and re-allow) a disallowed year-end (December) wash-sale loss? | Disallowed losses are created when you buy a stock */- 30 days of a sale at a loss. When you sell and have no shares left, the loss is taken. You can't have no shares and leftover disallowed loss. |
Should I pay off my 50K of student loans as quickly as possible, or steadily? Why? | Two things you should consider about paying off student loans ahead of the 10 year amortization schedule: What interest rate are you paying on your loans? What are you earning on your investments in a balanced mutual fund? When you pay off your student loans you are essentially guaranteed a return of the interest rate ... |
What things should I consider when getting a joint-mortgage? | The first and most important thing to consider is that this is a BUSINESS TRANSACTION, and needs to be treated as such. Nail down Absolutely All The Details, specifically including what happens if either of you decides it's time to move and wants to sell off your share of the property. Get at least one lawyer involved ... |
Why deep in the money options have very low liquidity | One reason might be the 100% margin requirement on long options. Suppose I want to go long AAPL. I could get a deep ITM call or buy shares. $12,700 for 100 shares, with it's 25% margin requirement is like around $3200 locked up cash. Combine with a deep OTM Jan 2017 $70 strike put for $188, would give a $3400 margi... |
Options vs Stocks which is more profitable | The first thing that I learned the hard way (by trying my hand at actual options trading) is that liquidity matters. So few people are interested in trading the same options that I am that it is easy to get stuck holding profitable contracts into expiration unless I offer to sell them for a lot less than they are worth... |
Should I cash out my Roth IRA to pay my mother's property tax debt, to avoid foreclosure on her home? | You're crazy to cash out your Roth or take on 401k loan, as that is addressing a short-term problem without doing anything about the longer-term issue. Just don't do it. Through no fault of her own, your mom is insolvent. It happens to people all of the time, and the solution is chapter 7 bankruptcy. The only thing th... |
Is there any flaw in this investment scheme? | You didn't win in case B. Borrowing shares and then selling them is known as "selling short". You received $2000 when you sold short 100 shares at $20. You spent $1000 to buy them back at $10, so you come out $1000 ahead on that deal. But at the same time, the 100 shares you already owned have declined in value from... |
When to trade in a relatively new car for maximum value | Cars depreciate the most their first year after introduction. So you could buy a "new" car in year 2 for the optimal price, and at year 4 (when you finish paying yours off) you could buy the next car in year 2 (this is surprisingly similar to rolling options in a buy-write strategy, an arguably more constructive use of... |
Is there any way to buy a new car directly from Toyota without going through a dealership? | Yes, nothing is impossible! :) You can buy it directly from the factory of manufacturer, but then you will have to pay for sea shipping of this car. E.g. you can buy it directly from Japanese Toyota but then you will have to pay to sea cargo ship to deliver your car in container from Japan. Since this car is already yo... |
Book or web site resources for an absolute beginner to learn about stocks and investing? | There is only one book worth reading in my opinion: One Up on Wall Street. It's short and no other book even comes close to it for honesty, correctness and good sense. Also, it is written by the second most successful investor of all time, Peter Lynch. The Intelligent Investor has some good technical content, but the b... |
Does doing your “research”/“homework” on stocks make any sense? | In fact markets are not efficient and participants are not rational. That is why we have booms and busts in markets. Emotions and psychology play a role when investors and/or traders make decisions, sometimes causing them to behave in unpredictable or irrational ways. That is why stocks can be undervalued or overvalued... |
NYSE vs. Nasdaq - can I tell what exchange a ticker traded on, based solely on the ticker? | Things are in fact more complicated. It really depends what you mean by "ticker" and who gave you this ticker. There is several codes to identify a security: The Bloomberg code contains a code to identify the exchange as in ALU:FP the FP part refers to Euronext Paris. The RIC code works the same way but with a differen... |
What to do with an expensive, upside-down car loan? | First suggestion: Investigate refinancing the auto loan with a reputable credit union or bank. I reduced my costs by changing my auto loan to Pentagon Federal Credit Union, which charges about 4% interest rate (compared to 6% which was the standard about 2 years ago). (for instructions on how to join penfed, look at ... |
What do I need to do to form an LLC? | You can file an LLC yourself in most states, although it might be helpful to use a service if you're not sure what to do to ensure it is correct. I filed my LLC here in Colorado online with the Secretary of State's office, which provided the fill-in-the-blank forms and made it easy. In the U.S., taxation of an LLC is ... |
Should I buy out my brother on a property we will inherit before making improvements? | In the end you, your dad, and your brother should come to an agreement so there's no surprises or unfulfilled expectations, but here's my opinion: If you can afford to make the additions now: I would offer to pay fully for the addition, with the understanding that the additional value that it generates is yours. That ... |
Meanings of “price of the derivative” | No, it means what it says. Prices change, hence price of the derivative can go down even if the price of the underlying doesn't change (e.g. theta decay in options). |
Assessed value of my house | You said the tax assessor gave you an appraised value, but I think you mean assessed value. This article YOUR HOME; Market vs. Appraisal: What's the Real Value? explains the differences pretty well. |
Pay off car loan entirely or leave $1 until the end of the loan period? | I used to work for Ally Auto (formerly known as GMAC) and I'd advise not to pay off the account unless you need to free up some debt in your credit report since until the account is paid off it will show that you owe your financial institution the original loan amount. The reason why I am saying not to pay-off the acco... |
Real estate agent best practice | There are people that make up a small segment of the population that have an unsatisfied need to see the insides of other people's houses. There's also a segment of the population that don't quite understand the "big picture" of how service professions work... for example, any group of friends going into a restaurant ... |
What is the difference between a bad/bounced check and insufficient funds? | There is no difference they are both insufficient in 1 form or another.Bad slang for any check the bank won't cash, for any reason, Ie. insf. unreadable amount, acct or routing number, the acct.has been closed, or you didn't write the check(fraud). Bounced is slang for bank returned check unpaid.I wrote a bad check but... |
How can I trade in U.S stock exchange living in India by choosing the broker in U.S? | i have been trading with dollarbird Trading firm for past 1 year there is absolutly no problem everything is fine you can google them to find anything about them.they have provided me with LASER trading platform which requires a bit of training as in to know the software but i can say one thing trading in US Equity mar... |
What intrinsic, non-monetary value does gold have as a commodity? | Gold has no "intrinsic" value. None whatsoever. This is because "value" is a subjective term. "Intrinsic value" makes just as much sense as a "cat dog" animal. "Dog" and "cat" are referring to two mutually exclusive animals, therefore a "cat dog" is a nonsensical term. Intrinsic Value: "The actual value of a company ... |
Live in California but work for Illinois-based company | They might be concerned with having to charge sales tax in California if they have a single employee in California, creating a nexus situation with CA. If that's the case, or even if there is some other issue, you might be able to switch from being a W2 employee to being a 1099 independent contractor. There's a host of... |
Do the gain and loss during futures rollover each month will be even out in long run? | There are 2 schools of thought in determining the price of a future contract in a day prior to expiration. The cost of carry model, states that the price of a future contract today is the spot price plus the cost of carrying the underlying asset until expiration minus the return that can be obtained from carrying the ... |
UK limited company and personal bank account | I don't think there is a legal requirement that you need a separate bank account. Just remember that you can only take money from your LLC as salary (paying tax), as dividend (paying tax), or as a loan (which you need to repay, including and especially if the LLC goes bankrupt). So make very sure that your books are in... |
First Time Home Buyers - Down Payment, PMI and Points | The question Why would refinancing my mortgage increase my PMI, even though rates are lower? contains a decent discussion of PMI. It's based on the total amount you borrow, not just the difference to 80% LTV. For easy math, Say you put 15% down on a $100K house. Your PMI is 1.1%, not on the 'missing' $5000, but on the... |
My account's been labeled as “day trader” and I got a big margin call. What should I do? What trades can I place in the blocked period? | I assume that whatever you're holding has lost a considerable amount of its value then? What sort of instrument are we talking about? If the margin call is 14k on something you borrowed against the 6900 you're a bit more leveraged than "just" another 100%. The trading company you're using should be able to tell you exa... |
Is there any reason not to buy points when re-financing with intent not to sell for a while? | In such a situation, is there any reason, financial or not, to NOT pay as many points as mortgage seller allows? I can think of a few reasons not to buy points, in the scenario you described: If interest rates decrease you could be better off refinancing to a lower rate than buying points now. If buying points reduce... |
What are the differences between a REIT and an MLP? | A REIT is a real estate investment trust. It is a company that derives most of its gross income from and holds most of its assets in real estate investments, which, in this case, include either real property, mortgages, or both. They provide a way for investors to get broad exposure in a real estate market without goi... |
On what dates do the U.S. and Canada release their respective federal budgets? | Canada does not have a set date on which a (Federal) budget plan is unveiled. In 2011 it was June 6th. In 2012 it was March 29th and in 2013 it was 21st March. |
How to send money across borders physically and inexpensively, but not via cash? | There are checks, international wire transfers (SWIFT), depending on country pair remittance services. |
Which is the better strategy for buying stocks monthly? | Powers makes a good point: trading costs may eat up a significant portion of your ROI. A fee as little as 2% can consume more than 50% of your long-term ROI! A rule of thumb is keep your fees to less than 1%. One way to do that is to buy stock in companies that have a DRIP with a Share Purchase Plan (SPP). Often the SP... |
Why does short selling require borrowing? | You can't make money on the way down if it was your money that bought the shares when the market was up. When you sell short, borrowing lets you tap into the value without paying for it. That way, when the price (hopefully) drops you profit from the difference. In your example, if you hadn't paid the £20 in the first ... |
Why can't you just have someone invest for you and split the profits (and losses) with him? | The issue is the time frame. With a one year investment horizon the only way for a fund manager to be confident that they are not going to lose their shirt is to invest your money in ultra conservative low volatility investments. Otherwise a year like 2008 in the US stock market would break them. Note if you are willin... |
Debt collector has wrong person and is contacting my employer | Don't waste your time threatening legal action or screwing around with certified mail. If they're contacting your employer to garnish your wages they probably already have a summary judgment against you for failing to appear at a court date you didn't know about. Your employer might have had your back but these guys w... |
Is there any way to know how much new money the US is printing? | The Federal Reserve is not the only way that money can be "printed." Every bank does fractional reserve banking, thereby increasing the money supply every time they make a new loan. There's a number called the reserve requirement which limits how much money each bank can create. Lowering the reserve requirement allows ... |
Where to start with finding good companies to invest? | There obviously is not such a list of companies, because if there were the whole world would immediately invest in them. Their price would rise like a rocket and they would not be undervalued anymore. Some people think company A should be worth x per share, some people think it should be worth y. If the share price is ... |
Selecting between investment vehicles for income | You have a comparatively small sum to invest, and since you're presumably expecting to go to college.university soon, where you may well need the money, you also have a short timescale for your investment. I don't think anything stock-related would be good for you -- you need a longer timescale for stock market investm... |
What are the alternatives to compound interest for a Muslim? | I cannot tell you what is or is not allowed under Islamic law. What I can tell you is that when most investors talk about the "power of compound interest," they are not actually necessarily talking about interest! The idea of the magic of compound interest is that when you receive an interest payment on your investment... |
As director, can I invoice my self-owned company? | Sure you can. Obviously it means your company will make less profit, saving you 20% corporation tax, while your personal income will be higher, meaning you will likely spend more than 20% in income tax and National Insurance contributions. |
Is my employee stock purchase plan a risk free investment? | It's a risk free investment only if you have 100% warranty that you will be able to sell these stocks for a better price than what you've paid. And that's virtually impossible. I don't think there is any "risk free investment" when stocks are involved. You can try to minimize the risks and consider them low, but IMO it... |
What are the tax implications on selling the Share ISA portfolio? | Assets held within an ISA or New ISA are completely free of CGT, so you won't have to pay either income tax or capital gains tax. |
As a shareholder, what are the pros and cons of a Share Consolidation and Return of Capital? | The basic theoretical reason for a company to return money to shareholders is that the company doesn't need the money for its own purposes (e.g. investment or working capital). So instead of the company just keeping it in the bank, it hands it back so that shareholders can do what they think fit, e.g. investing it else... |
Can someone recommend a book that discusses the differences between types of financial statements? | I would recommend "How to Read a Financial Report : For Managers, Entrepreneurs, Lenders, Lawyers, and Investors" by John A. Tracy for the following reasons: I also think the book would bridge the gap nicely between a broad understanding of finance and a more serious technical know-how. |
Accidentally opened a year term CD account, then realized I need the money sooner. What to do? | In my experience, the only penalty to breaking a CD is to lose a certain amount of accumulated interest. Your principal investment will be fine. Close the CD. A few days of interest is nothing. |
How is my employer affected if I have expensive claims on my group health insurance? | Many big companies self insure. They pay the insurance company to manage the claims, and to have access to their network of doctors, hospitals, specialists, and pharmacies; but cover the costs on a shared basis with the employees. Medium sized companies use one of the standard group policies. Small companies either hav... |
What are the tax implications if I do some work for a company for trade, rather than pay? | Yes, the business can count that as an expense but you will need to count that as income because a computer = money. |
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