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Why most of apple stock price since 10years have been gained overnight? | I'll answer this question: "Why do intraday traders close their position at then end of day while most gains can be done overnight (buy just before the market close and sell just after it opens). Is this observation true for other companies or is it specific to apple ?" Intraday traders often trade shares of a company ... |
What are the benefits of opening an IRA in an unstable/uncertain economy? | Your are mixing multiple questions with assertions which may or may not be true. So I'll take a stab at this, comment if it doesn't make sense to you. To answer the question in the title, you invest in an IRA because you want to save money to allow you to retire. The government provides you with tax incentives that mak... |
Do property taxes get deducted 100% from the Annual Tax Return or only a fraction of them? | In 2012, the standard deduction is $5950 for a single person. Let's assume you are very charitable, and by coincidence you donate exactly $5950 to charity. Everything that falls under itemized deductions would then be deductible. So, if your property tax is $6000, in your example - Other adjustments come into play, ... |
Does owning BP ADR from US stock market required to pay custody fees | Rules appear to be changing (21NOV2014) Aviva Plc. AV on NYSE pass thru fee is 0.02 cents per ADR but that equals 11% deduction from ADR dividend. For utility or insurance stock that is significant ongoing fee. Registrar in US is Citibank, could be specific to them. This is the first for me except some modest fees on i... |
Offered a job: Should I go as consultant / independent contractor, or employee? | To be honest I don't know how any of this work in the US so my answer will be of very limited value to yourself, I suspect, but when it comes to the UK if you're going to get the same pay gross either way than being independent makes very little sense. Running your own business is hassle, is generally more risky (alth... |
How do I invest in the S&P 500? | Buy the ETF with ticker "SPY". This will give you exposure to exactly the S&P 500 stocks, This is similar to the mutual fund suggestion by Ben Miller, except that the ETF has several advantages over mutual funds, especially as regards taxes. You can find information on the difference between ETF and mutual fund in o... |
how stock market sale work? | As stock prices have declined, the net worth of people has come down. Imagine owning a million shares of a stock worth $100/share. This is worth $100,000,000. Now, if the stock is suddenly trading at $50/share then some would say you have lost $50,000,000. The value of the stock is less. The uncertainty is always there... |
How should I begin investing real money as a student? | I like your enthusiasm and initiative. However, there are a few things you need to consider that you haven't yet thought about. First, it is important to remember that trading with fake money is not the same as trading with real money. In the fake world, you have $100k. With this fake money, you can do reckless thing... |
What are the advantages of a Swiss bank account? | For an American it nearly impossible to open a Swiss bank account. Even a Swiss person want to open a bank account, we have to fill out a document, which asks us if we have a greencard or other relationships with the united states. Some Swiss banks have transferred the money of Americans to Singapore to protect their c... |
Should I finance a new home theater at 0% even though I have the cash for it? | I won't repeat what's already been said, but I agree that it's a good move to take advantage of the free financing so long as you read the fine print carefully, keep the money designated to pay off this debt and not use it for anything else, and make sure to pay it off before you get smacked with some bad interest. One... |
Is paying off your mortage a #1 personal finance priority? | The answer depends entirely on your mortgage terms - is the interest rate low, how many years left? Questions like this are about Cost of Capital. If your mortgage has a low interest for a lot of years, you have a low cost of capital. By paying it off early, you are dumping that low cost of capital. Use the extra mone... |
How can I find a checking account that allows for automated transfers of dynamic amounts? | Almost any financial institution has the technical ability to do this (simply called sweeps, auto sweeps, or deposit sweeps); the issue you face is finding an institution that is willing to do it for you. I think you will have the most luck at your primary financial institution where you currently keep the majority of... |
Invest in ESPP Single Stock or General Market | Make sure to check the language describing the 'discount'. The company may be matching your contribution by 5% instead of a discount. You will likely be taxed on the match as compensation and your benefit would net to less than 5%. The next risk is that you've increased your exposure if your company does poorly. In... |
Events that cause major movement in forex? | Anything related to the central bank will have a large impact, as they are the ones who determine interest rates, and interest rates have a big effect on currency flows. GDP is also important, as when there is an economic slowdown it may result in the central bank reducing rates to boost economic activity. The opposit... |
JCI headache part 2: How to calculate cost basis / tax consequences of JCI -> ADNT spinoff? | OK, I found this filing by JCI on the SEC website: U.S. Federal Income Tax Consequences of the Distribution to U.S. Holders For U.S. federal income tax purposes, the distribution will not be eligible for treatment as a tax-free distribution by Johnson Controls with respect to its stock. Accordingly, the distribution wi... |
Why are interest rates on saving accounts so low in USA and Europe? | Some comments above are inaccurate. Advertised interest rates for deposits and savings in Russia (from Russian banks) are generally for Ruble (RUB) denominated accounts; however, USD and EUR denominated accounts still offer favorable interest rates when compared to Western counterparts. For example, Sberbank advertises... |
Help! I've cancelled their service, but this company continues to bill my credit card an annual fee. What can I do? | Short of canceling the card, you could just report the card as lost and ask for a new card number on the same account. Another option is to just make a note to look for the charge and keep disputing it. It has been a while since I did credit card processing at my business, but I think the company gets dinged if too man... |
Unmarried couple buying home, what are the options in our case? | Personally I would advise only buying what you can afford without borrowing money, even if it means living in a tent. Financially, that is the best move. If you are determined to borrow money to buy a house, the person with income should buy it as sole owner. Split ownership will create a nightmare if any problems deve... |
The spread goes to the market maker, is the market maker the exchange? | A "market maker" is someone that is contractually bound, by the exchange, to provide both bid and ask prices for a given volume (e.g. 5000 shares). A single market maker usually covers many stocks, and a single stock is usually covered by many market makers. The NYSE has "specialists" that are market makers that also p... |
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... |
Why don't banks print their own paper money / bank notes? | Who says they don't? In the United Kingdom the Bank of England and the Bank of Scotland print the money. In some other countries (like Hong Kong, Israel, and the US) commercial banks were issuing the currency at some point of time, but now the governments do that. The problem with commercial banks issuing currency is t... |
Profiting from the PWC Money Tree | The hardest part seems to be knowing exactly when to sell the stock. Well yes, that's the problem with all stock investing. Reports come out all the time, sometimes even from very smart people with no motivation to lie, about expected earnings for this company, or for that industry. Whether those predictions come true... |
If I donate depreciated stock to charity, can I deduct both the market value and the capital loss? | No. You should only donate appreciated stock. If you own a stock at a loss, you can only deduct the FMV (fair market value) when you donate. Instead, you should sell it, take the loss on your taxes, and donate the cash. |
Why are options created? | In general economic theory, there are always two markets created based on a need for a good; a spot market (where people who need something now can go outbid other people who need the same thing), and a futures market (where people who know they will need something later can agree to buy it for a pre-approved price, ev... |
Is it unreasonable to double your investment year over year? | Yes. The definition of unreasonable shows as "not guided by or based on good sense." 100% years require a high risk. Can your one stock double, or even go up three fold? Sure, but that would likely be a small part of your portfolio. Overall, long term, you are not likely to beat the market by such high numbers. That s... |
property owned 50/50 between my brother and me | Not sure what you are talking about. The house isn't part of a business so neither of you can deduct half of normal maintenance and repairs. It is just the cost of having a house. The only time this would be untrue is if the thing that you are buying for the house is part of a special deduction or rebate for that t... |
Are wash sale rules different for stocks and ETFs / Mutual Funds? | The IRS rules are actually the same. 26 U.S. Code § 1091 - Loss from wash sales of stock or securities In the case of any loss claimed to have been sustained from any sale or other disposition of shares of stock or securities where it appears that, within a period beginning 30 days before the date of such sale ... |
Is Mint allowed to share user data with other Intuit entities? | I wound up asking Mint over email so I'll share the answer I received: Thank you for contacting Mint.com. From my understand you want to know if Mint can transfer data to other Intuit products and vice versa. Let me address your concern based from what I can see on my tools. Upon confirming, while Mint and other I... |
Are quarterly earnings released first via a press release on the investor website, via conference call, or does it vary by company? | Companies release their earnings reports over news agencies like Reuters, Dow Jones and Bloomberg before putting them on their website (which usually occurs a few minutes after the official dissemination of the report). This is because they have to make sure that all investors get the news at the same time (which is ki... |
Investing in real estate when the stock market is high, investing in stocks when it's low? | The right time to buy real estate is easy to spot. It's when it is difficult to get loans or when real estate agents selling homes are tripping over each other. It's the wrong time to buy when houses are sold within hours of the sign going up. The way to profit from equities over time is to dollar-cost average a divers... |
Is foreign stock considered more risky than local stock and why? | One risk not mentioned is that foreign stock might be thinly traded on your local stock market, so you will find it harder to buy and sell, and you will be late to the game if there is some sudden change in the share price in the original country. |
Why doesn't Graham consider gold as an investment? | During Graham's career, gold and currency were the same thing because of the gold standard. Graham did not advise investing in currencies, only in bonds and stocks, the latter only for intelligent speculation. Graham died a couple of years after Nixon closed the gold window, ending the gold standard. Gold may be thoug... |
Why does my bank suddenly need to know where my money comes from? | Banks and credit unions are constantly required to improve their detection methods for suspicious transactions. It's not just big transactions anymore, it's scattered little ones, etc. Our credit union had to buy software that runs through transactions sniffing for suspicious patterns. More regulations and more costs... |
Should an ADR that is being delisted be sold off? | I'm a bit out of my element here, but my guess is the right way to think about this is: knowing what you do now about the underlying company (NZT), pretend they had never offered ADR shares. Would you buy their foreign listed shares today? Another way of looking at it would be: would you know how to sell the foreign-... |
Is it legal if I'm managing my family's entire wealth? | There are two issues. The first is that you can manage all of your family's money. The second issue arises if you now "own" all of your family's money. As far as entities go, it is best to keep money or assets in as many different hands as possible. Right now, if someone sued you and won, they could take away not only ... |
Online stock screener to find stocks that are negatively correlated to another stock/index? | There are lists with Top 1,000 Most and Less correlated stocks for different markets, I think you'll find the solution here: https://unicornbay.com/tools/most-less-correlated-assets |
Understanding highly compensated employees within 401ks | There are some nuances with HCE definition. To answer your questions. It's compensation as defined by the plan. Usually it's gross comp, but it can exclude things like fringe benefits, overtime pay, commissions, bonuses, etc. The compensation test is also a look-back test, meaning that an EE is determined to be an HCE ... |
Will there always be somebody selling/buying in every stock? | No, Mark is right, if you place a market order there will always be someone to buy or sell at the market price. Only if you place a limit order on the price can it not sell or be bought. Just research on your computer and you will find your answer. You must be specify about open order or limit order when asking. |
What are the best options for an RESP for my 2 year old kid? | Since your child is 2, he has a long time horizon for investment. Assuming the savings will be used at age 19, that's 17 years. So, I think your best bet is to invest primarily in equities (i.e. stock-based funds) and inside an RESP. Why equities? Historically, equities have outperformed debt and cash over longer ti... |
Looking to buy a house in 1-2 years. Does starting a Roth IRA now make sense? | First, look at the local housing market, and the price to rent ratios. If you are comfortable that a house can be had for near to the cost of renting, and are not still dropping is price, then focus on the down-payment. I don't imagine housing prices to start picking up any time soon, so you don't be too rushed. If you... |
My employer doesn't provide an electronic pay stub and I need one to get a car loan | You have a few options and sometimes challenges help us improve our situation. First, you can not borrow to buy a car. Reducing the massive depreciation that cars undergo will help you be wealthier. It is hard to find a good use car that you can buy for cash, but it will play out best for your finances in the long ru... |
How do I protect money above the FDIC coverage limit? | Be very careful to hold on tight to your money! I agree with paying for an investment advisor, but I would say use at least two to get different viewpoints, and get credentials and references! Don't let relatives convince you to invest in their business, or help them out, or any other such nonsense. Real estate still i... |
Can a buy market order be matched with a sell market order in Forex trading? | If there are no limit orders on the opposite side of the book when your market order gets its turn for execution, it should be rejected by the market. A market order should generally not "sit on the book" like your question suggests waiting for another order to arrive. Thus, the situation that you describe should not... |
Does the bid/ask concept exist in dealer markets? | The Auction Market is where investors such you and me, as well as Market Makers, buy and sell securities. The Auction Markets operate with the familiar bid-ask pricing that you see on financial pages such as Google and Yahoo. The Market Makers are institutions that are there to provide liquidity so that investors can... |
Interest payments for leveraged positions | I think to some extent you may be confusing the terms margin and leverage. From Investopedia Two concepts that are important to traders are margin and leverage. Margin is a loan extended by your broker that allows you to leverage the funds and securities in your account to enter larger trades. In order to use margin, y... |
What to do with $50,000? | Here is some good advice, read your UCO prospectus. It seems to hold 20% of it's value ($600MM out of $3B) via 13800 of the Apr 21st 2015 contracts. (expiring in 30 days) Those will be rolled very quickly into the May contracts at a significant loss of NAV. (based on current oil futures chains) Meaning if crude o... |
Do I have to explain the source of *all* income on my taxes? | You can report it as illegal income and you don't have to elaborate any further. For instance, spirit the cash off to a state where pot is legal and set up a dispensary. That is not legal at the Federal level, so it is in fact "illegal income" vis-a-vis your Form 1040 and that's all you say. Make sure you look, walk,... |
Sales Tax: Rounded Then Totaled or Totaled Then Rounded? | You should total the items first, to get $3.00, then add the tax, then round up/down accordingly. Your two examples above don't offer this option, even though your second example arrives at the same result. In your first example, a number of items taxed one at a time might result in many .006 results which would roun... |
Advice for a college student interested in investment opportunities. | Put it in a Vanguard fund with 80% VTI and 20% VXUS. That's what you'll let set for 10-15 years. For somebody that is totally new to investing, use "play money" in the stock market. It's easy for young people to get dreams of glory and blow it all on some stock tip they've seen on Twitter. |
Pay online: credit card or debit card? | One more thing to favor the card. Extended warranty, or damage coverage. An iPad, if dropped on a hard surface, stands a good chance of breaking. Apple isn't going to cover that, as it's not a defect. Many credit cards offer free coverage for breakage of this type as well as doubling the warranty up to a year. This sec... |
Is it OK to use a credit card on zero-interest to pay some other credit cards with higher-interest? | The short answer is no, it's probably not ok. The longer answer is, it might be, if you are very disciplined. You need to make sure that you have enough money to pay off the card after a year, and that you pay the card on time, every month, without exception. There may also be balance transfer or other fees that only... |
What are the primary investment strategies people use and why do they use them? | Your question seems to be making assumptions around “investing”, that investing is only about stock market and bonds or similar things. I would suggest that you should look much broader than that in terms of your investments. Investment Types Your should consider (and include) some or all of the following for your inve... |
How should I prepare for the next financial crisis? | Your asset mix should reflect your own risk tolerance. Whatever the ideal answer to your question, it requires you to have good timing, not once, but twice. Let me offer a personal example. In 2007, the S&P hit its short term peak at 1550 or so. As it tanked in the crisis, a coworker shared with me that he went to cas... |
Why is gold not a good investment? | Gold is not really an investment at all, because it doesn't generate an income. It's only worth money because people think it's worth money (it has some industrial uses, but most gold is used as a store of value and not for industrial purposes), not because of its income stream. |
Is Amazon's offer of a $50 gift card a scam? | The 'store card' that Amazon offers gives 5% back on Amazon purchases. Some time ago, when I realized how much of my spending was going through Amazon, I chose that card over this one. If you want the card, that's fine, but if you are going to play the reward game, there are far higher bonuses available for card signu... |
Do altcoin trades count as like-kind exchanges? (Deferred capital gains tax) | Like-kind of exchanges have a list of requirements. The IRS has not issued formal guidance in the matter. I recommend to be aggressive and claim the exchange, while justifying it with a good analogy to prove good faith (and persuade the IRS official reading it the risk of losing in tax court would be to high). Worst ca... |
Oil Price forcasting | In layman's terms, oil on the commodities market has a "spot price" and a "future price". The spot price is what the last guy paid to buy a barrel of oil right now (and thus a pretty good indicator of what you'll have to pay). The futures price is what the last guy paid for a "futures contract", where they agreed to bu... |
Why is the fractional-reserve banking not a Ponzi scheme? | The Ponzi/Madoff schemes were closed loops, so the only source of the so-called "interest" on the money was the contributions of future investors. The economy is more like a living thing, and the availability of capital allows people to develop new ways to do things in a more productive way. Agriculture is a great exam... |
Why invest in becoming a landlord? | As a landlord for 14 years with 10 properties, I can give a few pointers: be able and skilled enough to perform the majority of maintenance because this is your biggest expense otherwise. it will shock you how much maintenance rental units require. don't invest in real estate where the locality/state favors the tenant... |
Does a disciplined stock investor stick with their original sell strategy, or stay in and make more? | One of things I've learned about trading on the stock market is not to let your emotions get to you. Greed and fear are among them. You may be overthinking. Why not keep it simple, if you think it can go up to $300 a share, put in a stop loss at $X amount where you would secure your invested money along with some gains... |
Is Amazon's offer of a $50 gift card a scam? | Amazon has 2 different cards you can apply for, a store card and a credit card. The credit card is through Chase. The deal is not a scam, I can confirm this because I applied for their credit card and got $70 in the form of a digital gift card. By giving customers free money for signing up for their cards they get more... |
What does bank do with “Repaid Principal”? | Does it add to their lending reserves or is it utilized in other ways? It depends on how the economy and the bank in particular are doing. To simplify things greatly, banks get deposits and lend (or otherwise invest) the majority of those deposits. They must keep some percentage in reserve in case depositors want to ma... |
How to convince someone they're too risk averse or conservative with investments? | (Leaving aside the question of why should you try and convince him...) I don't know about a very convincing "tl;dr" online resource, but two books in particular convinced me that active management is generally foolish, but staying out of the markets is also foolish. They are: The Intelligent Asset Allocator: How to Bu... |
What happens to public shareholders when a public stock goes private? | I can see two possibilities. Either a deal is struck that someone (the company itself, or a large owner) buys out the remaining shares. This is the scenario @mbhunter is talking about, so I won't go too deeply into it, but it simply means that you get money in your bank account for the shares in question the same as if... |
Working for recruiter on W-2 vs. working for client on 1099? | The tax savings of being 1099 can be significant. It depends on your salary, and what you can deduct. You may want to consult with an accountant. The social security tax, for the self employed, is 12.4% of profit not on revenue. If you can write off more than half of the income as expenses then you could be paying... |
stock for a particular brand | In addition to the answer by Craig Banach: Sometimes brands are owned by publicly traded companies which have a very diverse product portfolio. In case of Microsoft their stock price and dividend will not be controlled solely by that one product they make but also by their many other products (plus a billion other fact... |
Are you preparing for a possible dollar (USD) collapse? (How?) | I'd like to provide ideas other than gold, stocks, property, bonds on how to prepare for a severe crisis. My suggestions below may even make your life more happy now. |
Info about managment compansation schemes in publicly traded companies | Compensation information is available in the annual reports (10-k filings) which are available from the SEC EDGAR system or, generally, the company's website. Additionally, insider transactions are reported to the SEC so you can see when an insider buys or sells stock or exercises options received as compensation. Bac... |
Do you have to be mega-rich to invest in companies pre-IPO? | There are a couple of ways to buy into a private company. First, the company can use equity crowd funding (approved under the JOBS act, you don't need to be an accredited investor for this). The offering can be within one state (i.e. Intrastate offerings) which don't have the same SEC regulations but will be governe... |
How to execute a large stock purchase, relative to the order book? | I normally just do a buy limit at the price I want to buy it at. Then it executes when it's that price or lower, but there's still a chance you might purchase some shares at a larger price. But since we're small fry and using brokerages, there's not much we can do about it. |
Buying a house, how much should my down payment be? | The reason to put more money down or accept a shorter maximum term is because the bank sweetens the deal (or fails to sour it in some fashion). For example, typically, if there is less than 20% down, you have to pay an premium called "Private Mortgage Insurance", which makes it bad deal. But I see banks offering the s... |
Selling on eBay without PayPal? | I've definitely seen a similar conversation about this, I personally don't buy from eBay (Amazon for me). So I turned to the internet to see what I could find to offer you any additional information (albeit not my personal experience). I first read this article: CodeNerdz Article and was pretty horrified by the scammi... |
How can I figure out how much to bid on a parking space? | Scenario 1: Assume that you plan to keep the parking space for the rest of your life and collect the income from the rental. You say these spaces rent for $250 per month and there are fees of $1400 per year. Are there any other costs? Like would you be responsible for the cost of repaving at some point? But assuming th... |
If something is coming into my account will it be debit or credit in my account? | The bank "credit's" your account for money coming into it. In double entry accounting, you always have a debit and a credit to balance the accounts. As an Example: for $500 that the bank credited to your checking account, you would post a debit to Cash and a Credit to Income Earned. The accounting equation is: Assets =... |
18 year old making $60k a year; how should I invest? Traditional or Roth IRA? | In asnwer to your questions: As @joetaxpayer said, you really should look into a Solo 401(k). In 2017, this allows you to contribute up to $18k/year and your employer (the LLC) to contribute more, up to $54k/year total (subject to IRS rules). 401(k) usually have ROTH and traditional sides, just like IRA. I believe the ... |
Credit card closed. Effect on credit score (USA) | So My question is. Is my credit score going to be hit? Yes it will affect your credit. Not as much as missing payments on the debt, which remains even if the credit line is closed, and not as much as missing payments on other bills... If so what can I do about it? Not very much. Nothing worth the time it would ta... |
How to value employee benefits? | Employee Stock Purchase Plans (ESPPs) were heavily neutered by U.S. tax laws a few years ago, and many companies have cut them way back. While discounts of 15% were common a decade ago, now a company can only offer negligible discounts of 5% or less (tax free), and you can just as easily get that from fluctuations in t... |
Does this plan make any sense for early 20s investments? | I'm not following what's the meaning of "open a mutual fund". You don't open a mutual fund, you invest in it. There's a minimum required investment ($2000? Could be, some funds have lower limits, you don't have to go with the Fidelity one necessarily), but in general it has nothing to do with your Roth IRA account. You... |
If NYSE has market makers, what is the role of NYSE ARCA which is an ECN | Electronic trading is many orders of magnitude cheaper and more liquid than floor trading and is rapidly displacing it. Stil, electronic trading accounts for 79% of stock trading volume in the U.S. Polcari is losing the battle. Floor trading is still offered, but it's only used for bulk orders, so electronic trading is... |
Money market account for emergency savings | Depends on how urgent your need for the emergency savings might be. If the money market account allows you to get your money in the same amount of time as the savings account then there is no real downside, but if the account takes a few days for you to access and you need your money sooner then you probably shouldn't.... |
How can I diversify $7k across ETFs and stocks? | You don't really have a lot of money, and that isn't a criticism as much as that you are limited to diversification. For example, I would estimate you can only have one or two stocks for a buy-write scheme. Secondly you may be only to buy one fund with a high minimum investment, and a second fund with a smaller minim... |
Gigantic point amount on rewards card - what are potential consequences? | An ideal option for you would be to use as many or as few as you choose, but have all of them available to you. The service desk guy told you you can do exactly that. Problem, though: you have no proof that a representative of the company told you that. Get proof. Recording, written statement, whatever. If writing a le... |
Tenant wants to pay rent with EFT | Similar to @SoulsOpenSource's answer, I would suggest Venmo, which works like PayPal but is free for debit-card-to-debit-card transactions. More information here. |
What drives the stock of bankrupt companies? | What drives the stock of bankrupt companies? Such stock is typically considered "distressed assets". Technically, what drives it is what drives every stock - supply and demand. A more interesting question is of course, why would there be demand? First, who exerts the buying pressure on the stock? Typically, three type... |
Would the effects of an anticipated default by a nation be mostly symbolic? | It's only symbolic if things continue as if nothing had happened. Once large segments of people start becoming poor, it ceases to be symbolic and starts becoming real. Will a Greek default be felt in the US? Hard to say, but probably not. Will it be felt in Greece? You bet it will. |
Are stores that offer military discounts compensated by the government? | This story is about military grocery stores - i.e.: grocery stores for military personnel on military bases. There are no discounts for military personnel in a regular grocery store. But they may have subsidised prices in grocery stores located inside a military installation, and these are those stores that the story i... |
Has anyone compared an in-person Tax Advisor to software like Turbo Tax? | A CPA or Enrolled Agent can be helpful, especially if you have a complicated situation such as owning your own business. The people at a lot of tax-prep places don't have many qualifications (they are not accountants or enrolled agents or certified financial planners or anything else). They are just trained to enter st... |
FICA was not withheld from my paycheck | Should I have a W-2 re-issued? A W-2 can be corrected and a new copy will be filed with the IRS if your employer incorrectly reported your income and withholding on a W-2 that they issued. In this case, though the employer didn't withhold those taxes, they should not reissue the W-2 unless they plan to pay your portion... |
How much time would I have to spend trading to turn a profit? | I suppose it depends on your goals and expectations, but I'd argue its not easy. Regardless of the chosen sub discipline of trading or investing you pursue there will be some theoretical and research work to do, some learning of the mechanics of the market, and some 'ropes' to learn upfront. After that the time frame y... |
I'm 23 and was given $50k. What should I do? | Wow, hard to believe not a single answer mentioned investing in one of the best asset classes for tax purposes...real estate. Now, I'm not advising you to rush out and buy an investment property. But rather than just dumping your money into mutual funds...over which you have almost 0 control...buy some books on real ... |
Extended family investment or pay debt and save | Here's a little different perspective. I'm not going to talk about the quality of the investment, the expected return, or any of the other things you normally talk about when evaluating investments. This is about family, and the most important thing here is the relationships. What you need to do here is look at the di... |
What is a good 5-year plan for a college student with $15k in the bank? | I just checked TCF's rates, and they only pay a miserly rate of 0.25%. Banks like Capital One or Sallie Mae pay about 1.15%, which is more than 4x, though still nothing great. Do you expect to use these funds in 5 years (e.g. for down payment on a house), or could you contribute them to an IRA? |
What happens if one brings more than 10,000 USD with them into the US? | The $10,000 mark is not a ceiling in importing cash, but rather a point where an additional declaration needs to be made (Customs Form 4790). At 1 million, I suspect you might be in for a bit of an interview and delay. Here's an explanation of what happens when the declaration isn't made: https://www.cbp.gov/newsroom/l... |
Can an S-Corp write off work and merchandise expenses donated to a non-profit organization? | An S-corp doesn't pay income tax -- taxation is pass-through. This being the case, there are no tax deductions it could take for charitable giving. The solution would be for you to make the contribution out of your own pocket and then personally claim the deduction on your own taxes. |
Is there a good rule of thumb for how much I should have set aside as emergency cash? | 6 to 9 months worth of expenses is recommended. You should also consider having long-term disability insurance in place, in case of serious illness or accident. |
Why having large capital is advantageous to trading | It is a general truism but the reasons are that the rules change dramatically when you simply have more capital. Here are some examples, limited to particular kinds of markets: Under $2,000 in capital Nobody is going to offer you a margin account, and if you do get one it isn't with the best broker on commissions and o... |
What should I be doing to protect myself from identity theft? | I believe the answer is that to protect yourself it is good to get credit protection so you will be notified when new credit is taken in your name. Also, you can use http://www.annualcreditreport.com/ to look at your credit report. HINT: While you do that, and while you are in the TransUnion report, you will have th... |
Consolidate my debt? Higher APR, but what does that actually mean? | There's a cliche, "out of the frying pan and into the fire". I've never had the occasion to use it till now. I understand some people find they have a dozen cards and struggle to keep organized. An extra percent or two seems worth the feeling of just one payment to make. In your case, 3 checks (or online payments) per... |
How much does it cost to build a subdivision of houses on a large plot of land? | The estimated cost of $200 sqft of living space is achievable by builders who are following one the their standard plans. They build hundreds of homes each year across the region using those standard plans. They have detailed schedules for constructing those homes, and they know exactly how many 2x4s are need to build ... |
Pay index fund expense ratios with cash instead of fund balance | The mutual fund is legally its own company that you're investing in, with its own expenses. Mutual fund expense ratios are a calculated value, not a promise that you'll pay a certain percentage on a particular day. That is to say, at the end of their fiscal year, a fund will total up how much it spent on administration... |
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