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One company asks for picture of my debit card
I don't see a way that this would make matters worse than just giving them the credit card info... Except that it would make abusing the card easier at some other site (or the bank) if they have a similar (unreasonably weak) security-by-photo test. Still, I'd strongly recommend you use a separate card for this so you c...
How do I calculate the quarterly returns of a stock index?
So for quarters So, if Q1's value was 10 and Q2's value was 25 For closing or opening prices, I would use closing prices. For instance, some used Adjusted Close or Close on Yahoo Finance (see this example of AAPL). Added Note: In your example, for your example, you'll want to take the absolute value of the denominator...
Looking to buy a house in 1-2 years. Does starting a Roth IRA now make sense?
Lets do the math (assuming a lot of stuff, like your interest rates and that you make the contribution at the beginning of the year, also your tax bracket at the withdrawal time frame.) 1.) Beginning of year 1 Roth Option $5k contribution Non Roth Option $5k contribution 2.) Beginning of year 2 Roth Option $5000 + $150...
Why is the highest quintile the only quintile whose wealth exceeds its income?
I think you came up with a worthy Masters/PhD research project, it is a great question. This is in Australia so it is difficult for me to have complete perspective. However, I can speak about the US of A. To your first point relatively few people inherit their wealth. According to a brief web search about 38% of bill...
Nanny taxes and payroll service
Whether to employ a payroll service to handle the taxes (and possibly the payroll itself) is a matter that depends on how savvy you are with respect to your own taxes and with using computers in general. If you are comfortable using programs such as Excel, or Quicken, or TurboTax, or TaxAct etc, then taking care of pay...
Why is the dominant investing advice for individuals to use mutual funds, exchanged traded funds (ETFs), etc
Cost. If an investor wanted to diversify his portfolio by investing in the companies that make up the S&P 500, the per-share and commission costs to individually place trades for each and every one of those companies would be prohibitive. I can buy one share of an exchange-traded fund that tracks the S&P 500 for less ...
Why are big companies like Apple or Google not included in the Dow Jones Industrial Average (DJIA) index?
Traditionally, the Dow Jones Industrial Average (DJIA) was only comprised of stocks that were traded on the New York Stock exchange. Neither Apple (AAPL) nor Google (GOOG) are traded on the New York Stock Exchange but instead are traded on NASDAQ. All NASDAQ tickers are four characters long and all NYSE tickers are o...
why do I need an emergency fund if I already have investments?
From a budgeting perspective, the emergency fund is a category in which you've budgeted funds for the unexpected. These are things that weren't able to be predicted and budgeted for in advance, or things that exceeded the expected costs. For example you might budget $150 per month for car maintenance, and typically s...
Debt collector has wrong person and is contacting my employer
It's probably a scam or maybe some amateur agency trying to put pressure on their target. Normal garnishment goes through the court system. Just ignore it. Tell your employer they obviously have the wrong person since the SS is wrong. Suing clowns like this is not worth it. Just to clarify this some more for you: Tryi...
Malaysian real estate: How to know if the market is overheated or in a bubble?
I am also from Malaysia and I just purchase a property around Klang Valley area. Property market is just like share market. You will never know when is the highest peak point and when is the lowest peak point. Yes. Not only you, but everyone of us. What I would say that, just buy according to your need and your financi...
How does cash ISA & share ISA mix together
There are two different types of ISA; the "Cash ISA" for cash savings, and the "Stocks and Shares ISA" for stock market investing. You can transfer funds between these two different types of ISA. If your current cash ISA provider does not provide stocks and shares ISAs, then there may be a fee involved when transferr...
Is Weiss Research, Inc. a legitimate financial research company?
Weiss Ratings is an independent company providing data and analysis for the bank and insurance industries. We’ve published the Weiss Financial Strength Ratings for banking institutions and insurance companies since 1989 and continue to use the methodology praised by the GAO back in 1994. Weiss Ratings has consistent...
A University student wondering if investing in stocks is a good idea?
I say, before investing your real capital into the Stock Market, play around on the virtual stock exchange game. It let's you invest with virtual capital and you can gain experience with the stock market. I wouldn't start investing in stock until I'm sure I can cover losses though. If you do intend to invest stocks so ...
What is a trust? What are the different types of trusts?
From a more technical point of view, a trust is a legal relationship between 3 parties: Trusts can take many forms. People setup trusts to ensure that property is used in a specific way. Owning a home with a spouse is a form of a trust. A pension plan is a trust. Protecting land from development often involves placing ...
How can people have such high credit card debts?
I'm not sure if the rules in Canada and the US are the same. I'm as amazed as you are by the amounts of debts people have, but I can see how this credit can be extended. Generally, with good credit history and above average pay - it is not unheard of to get about $100K credit limit with a bunch of credit cards. What yo...
How can I find a list of self-select stocks & shares ISA providers?
I'm currently using Halifax. Pros: Cons: I'm might start using TD Waterhouse in future, as they claim to have no admin charge.
How do I go about finding an honest & ethical financial advisor?
You want a fee-only advisor. He charges like an architect or plumber: by the hour or some other "flat fee". That is his only compensation. He is not paid on commission at all. He is not affiliated with any financial services company of any kind. His office is Starbucks. He does not have a well lit office like the ...
Does a stock really dip in price on the ex-dividend date? And why would it do this?
Suppose the price didn't drop on the ex-dividend date. Then people wanting to make a quick return on their money would buy shares the day before, collect the dividend, and then sell them on the ex-dividend date. But all those people trying to buy on the day before would push the price up, and they would push the price ...
Degiro Stocks & Shares Account for Minor
Get answers from your equivalent of the IRS, or a local lawyer or accountant who specializes in taxes. Any other answer you get here would be anectdotal at best. Never good to rely on legal or medical advice from internet strangers.
What happens if a bank no longer use an intermediary bank?
If your counterparty sent money to a correspondent account at another bank, then it is completely up to the other bank what to do with the money. If the wire transfer completed, then the account is not closed. If I were your business partner, I would immediately contact the bank to which the transfer was made and expla...
Is it ever a good idea to close credit cards?
It is an issue of both utilization and average age of accounts. If your cards with $0 balances on them are: A) newer cards than the ones you are carrying balances on and you don't want them B) much lower limit cards than the ones you are carrying balances on then you can raise your score by closing them, as the utiliza...
Apartment Security Deposit refunds in Maryland
In Maryland, a landlord must hold your security deposit in an escrow account and pay you interest when returning the deposit. The interest is simple interest; it does not compound. The interest rate that they must pay has changed over the last 43 years. Before October 1, 2004, the rate was 4%. Until January 1, 2015,...
Is 401k as good as it sounds given the way it is taxed?
If you put it in a normal account it is (1) taxed as ordinary income now and then (2) any growth is taxed again at the capital gains rate. Additionally, (3) any dividends will be taxed each year. If you put it in a 401(k), you will only be taxed once, at the ordinary income rate. Mathematically, if you start with X...
Shared groceries expenses between roommates to be divided as per specific consumption ratio and attendance
The solution to this problem is somewhat like grading on a curve. Use the consumption ratio multiplied by the attendance (which is also a ratio, out of 100 days) to calculate how much each person owes. This will leave you short. Then add together all of the shares in a category, determine the % increase required to get...
Options revisited: Gold fever
Make a portfolio with gold and put options for gold. If the price rises again, sell a part of your gold and use it to buy new put options. If the price goes down, then use your put options to sell gold at a favorable price.
help with how a loan repayment is calculated
It appears the interest is not compounded daily. Each period of interest has the loan amount calculated on the "capital" remaining on the start of period, for each day in the period. The Excel finance functions don't handle irregular periods that well, but I can reconstruct the interest calculations:
How to reconcile these contradictory statements about the effect of volume on stock price?
These statements aren't necessarily contradictory. In the first case, investors are bearish because they anticipate selling in the future (because all the interested buyers have bought, so all that remains in the short run are people willing to sell and therefore drive down the price). In the second case, the trend is...
Why would a bank need to accept deposits from private clients if it can just borrow from the Federal Reserve?
Central Banks are essentially a cartel, designed to let banks in general borrow money from depositors at relatively low interest rates. They do this in two ways: By reassuring depositors that momentary cash flow problems at banks will not result in banks failing, they lower the interest rates that depositors demand. ...
Are there any banks with a command-line style user interface?
A bank is unlikely to provide a 'command line' interface because typical users consider a graphical interface easier to use than a command line interface. The extra effort in providing a command line interface for the remaining handful of people isn't worth it. It's the same reason that everything else in the world has...
HSBC Hong Kong's “Deposit Plus” Product: What is it, and what strategies to employ?
15-19% gains also includes 15-19% and greater losses. They may not be required to disclose that to you in Hong Kong. If it isn't a leveraged account then that isn't too bad. Hong Kong is a nice jurisdiction, The US Federal Government is the only person you don't hide your assets from - but they dont want anything - so ...
Is this comparison of a 15-year vs. a 30-year mortgage reasonable?
I think your analysis is very clear, it's a sensible approach, and the numbers sound about right to me. A few other things you might want to think about: Tax In some jurisdictions you can deduct mortgage interest against your income tax. I see from your profile that you're in Texas, but I don't know the exact situation...
Why is the number of issued shares less than the number of outstanding shares
The formulae #issued shares = #outstanding shares + #treasury shares looks right. However it looks like the Treasury Shares are treated as -ve in accounting books and thus the outstanding shares are more than issued shares to the extent of Treasury shares. Further info at "Accounting for treasury stock" on wiki
How to execute a large stock purchase, relative to the order book?
What is the average daily volume traded? It looks like this stock may have a liquidity problem. If that is the case I would not buy this stock at all as you may have the same problem when you try to sell it. Generally try to stay away from illiquid stocks, if your order size is more than 10% of the average daily volume...
When to trade in a relatively new car for maximum value
So this has been bugging me for a while, because I am facing a similar dilemma and I don't think anyone gave a clear answer. I bought a 2012 kia soul in 2012. 36 months financing at 300/mo. Will be done with my car loan in 2015. I plan on keeping it, while saving the same amount of money 300/mo until I buy my next car....
Personal Asset Protection - How to protect asset against a deficiency judgement?
You should talk to a bankruptcy attorney local to you. While bankruptcy laws are federal, there are a variety of local rules. As an example in CA, I've heard of a trustee going after a debtor's IRA account. Retirement accounts are generally off limits, but not always. Additionally, structuring your assets for the pu...
MasterCard won't disclose who leaked my credit card details
As indicated in comments, this is common practice in the US as well as EU. For example, in this Fox Business article, a user had basically the same experience: their card was replaced but without the specific merchant being disclosed. When the reporter contacted Visa, they were told: "We also believe that the public ...
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...
Bid-ask price Question
(12 * 100) * 1.01 = 1212 Assuming the $12 ask can absorb your whole 100 share order.
Can a self-employed person have a Health Savings Account?
Whether you can establish an HSA has nothing to do with your employment status or your retirement plan. It has to do with the type of medical insurance you have. The insurance company should be able to tell you if your plan is "HSA compatible". To be HSA compatible, a plan must have a "high deductible" -- in 2014, $12...
Does an issue of bonus shares improve shareholder value?
It sounds like "bonus shares" are the same as a stock dividend. Stock dividends are equivalent to a stock split except for accounting treatment (good explanation here: http://www.accountingcoach.com/online-accounting-course/17Xpg05.html). As an investor, the only likely effect of a stock dividend is to make it more com...
Dow Jones Industrial Average (DJIA), NASDAQ 100, and S&P 500 index historical membership listing?
Dow Jones: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Historical_components_of_the_Dow_Jones_Industrial_Average NASDAQ: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/NASDAQ-100 (scroll down) S&P Tricky. From what I can find, you need to be in Harvard Business School, a member of CRSP, or have access to Bloomberg's databases. S&P did have the info a...
Are junk bonds advisable to be inside a bond portfolio that has the objective of generating stable income for a retiree?
Corporate bonds have gotten very complicated in the last 20 years to the point where individual investors are at significant disadvantages when lending money. Subordinated debentures, covenants, long maturities with short call features, opaque credit analysis, etc. Interest rates are so low now that investors (individu...
Why not pay in full upfront for a car?
There many car loans at zero percent interest. Finance the car at zero percent, then take your money and invest it. If you want to be super safe buy a CD the same length as the car loan. 5 years you will get 2%. If you still want safety and a better return take up a asset allocation strategy that moves your cash to ...
Trustable, official sources on holdings, purchases and sales by finance academics/professionals?
You won't be able to know the trading activity in a timely, actionable method in most cases. The exception is if the investor (individual, fund, holding company, non-profit foundation, etc) is a large shareholder of a specific company and therefore required to file their intentions to buy or sell with the SEC. The thre...
How can a U.S. citizen open a bank account in Europe?
Be mindful of your reporting requirements. Besides checking the box on Schedule B of your 1040 that you have a foreign bank account, you also need to file a TD F 90-22.1 FBAR report for any year that the total of all foreign bank accounts reaches a value of $10,000 at any time during the year. This is filed separately ...
Am I eligible for a student maintenance loan?
Looking at https://www.gov.uk/student-finance/who-qualifies, it says: You can only apply if: As you meet all three requirements I think you are counted as a English student in every respect. I would advise applying as soon as possible though to verify this. EDIT: also, getting a British passport anyway might not hurt; ...
Self-employed individual 401k self, match, and profit sharing contribution limits?
It seems I can make contributions as employee-elective, employer match, or profit sharing; yet they all end up in the same 401k from my money since I'm both the employer and employee in this situation. Correct. What does this mean for my allowed limits for each of the 3 types of contributions? Are all 3 types ded...
Was on debt..can I now enter UK on visitor visa
Whether or not you'll be allowed to enter the UK is a topic for a different forum (and really more a topic for a lawyer rather than strangers on the internet). That being said, as a non-lawyer giving my opinion of the situation, you should be granted access to the UK as the banks/money lenders/phone companies don't hav...
Book capital losses in gnucash
It depends on whether or not you are referring to realized or unrealized gains. If the asset appreciation is realized, meaning you've sold the asset and actually collected liquidity from it, then Derek_6424246 has provided a good route to follow. However, if the gains are unrealized, meaning only that the current va...
Fundamentals of creating a diversified portfolio based on numbers?
Most of the “recommendations” are just total market allocations. Within domestic stocks, the performance rotates. Sometimes large cap outperform, sometimes small cap outperform. You can see the chart here (examine year by year): https://www.google.com/finance?chdnp=1&chdd=1&chds=1&chdv=1&chvs=maximized&chdeh=0&chfdeh...
If a mutual fund did really well last year, then statistically speaking, is it likely going to do bad this year?
Nearly all long-lived active funds underperform the market over the long run. The best they can hope for in almost all cases is to approximate the market return. Considering that the market return is ~9%, this fund should be expected to do less well. In terms of predicting future performance, if its average return is g...
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...
Does financing a portfolio on margin affect the variance of a portfolio?
Yes, more leverage increases the variance of your individual portfolio (variance of your personal net worth). The simple way to think about it is that if you only own only 50% of your risky assets, then you can own twice as many risky assets. That means they will move around twice as much (in absolute terms). Expected ...
Typical return for an IRA? How can I assess if my returns were decent?
To try and address your 'how' it goes a bit like this. You need to first assess how your stuff is invested, if for example half is in stocks, and the other half is in bonds, then you will need to calculate a 'blended' rate for what are reasonable 'average return' for both. That might mean looking at the S&P500 or Russ...
What to do when paying for an empty office space?
Generally speaking, yes, you're obliged to pay rent for the remainder of the lease term. But the landlord is obliged to mitigate damages, so if you can find a suitable tenant the landlord has to let you out of the lease.
What should I consider when selecting a broker/advisor to manage my IRA?
This is not a direct answer to your question, but you might want to consider whether you want to have a financial planner at all. Would a large mutual fund company or brokerage serve your needs better than a bank? You are still quite young and so have been contributing to IRAs for only a few years. Also, the wording in...
Double-Taxation of Royalties paid for in Korea to a US Company
If treaties are involved for something other than exempting student wages on campus, you shouldn't do it yourself but talk to a licensed US tax adviser (EA/CPA licensed in your state) who's well-versed in the specific treaty. Double taxation provisions generally mean that you can credit the foreign tax paid to your US ...
What kind of life insurance is cheaper? I'm not sure about term vs. whole vs. universal, etc
TL;DR: Only term is pure insurance and is the cheapest. The rest are mixtures of insurance and savings/investment. Typically the mixtures are not as efficient as doing it yourself, except that there can be tax advantages as well as the ability to borrow from your policy in some cases.
collateralized mortgage obligations
I think the definition of overcollateralization on investopedia will answer this question for you. Namely this part: For example, in the case of a mortgage backed security, the principal amount of an issue may be $100 million while the principal value of the mortgages underlying the issue may be equal to $120 million....
When people say 'Interest rates are at all time low!" … Which interest rate are they actually referring to?
As Sean pointed out they usually mean LIBOR or the FFR (or for other countries the equivalent risk free rate of interest). I will just like to add on to what everyone has said here and will like to explain how various interest rates you mentioned work out when the risk free rate moves: For brevity, let's denote the ris...
Do I purchase stocks or not?
You didn't give enough information. What is your goal? What is your financial situation? A discount to buy company stock can seem very tempting. I was tempted by it myself, gee, almost 20 years ago. I still own some of the stock. But I held mutual funds first. There are two disadvantages that have disuaded me fr...
What is the “point” (purpose) of the S&P 500?
I hate to point to Wikipedia as an answer, but it does describe exactly what you are looking for... The S&P 500 is a free-float capitalization-weighted index published since 1957 of the prices of 500 large-cap common stocks actively traded in the United States. The stocks included in the S&P 500 are those o...
How can I investigate historical effect of Rebalancing on Return and Standard Deviation?
Do not reinvent the wheel! Historical data about stock market returns and standard deviations suffer from number of issues such as past-filling and mostly survivorship bias -- that the current answers do not consider at all. I suggest to read the paper "A Century of Global Stock Markets" by Philippe Jorion (UC Irvine) ...
What's a good personal finance management web app that I can use in Canada?
Yodlee will also work. I asked a similar question (and provided answers) here. Thrive, so far, is the best in my opinion. Their tech support is top notch and their UI is far superior to Yodlee's (which provides the backend for Mint).
Can dues and subscriptions expenses be deducted 100% to calculate taxable income in an LLC company?
IRS Publication 529 is the go-to document. Without being a tax professional, I'd say if the dues and subscriptions help you in the running of your business, then they're deductible. You're on your own if you take my advice (or don't). ;)
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...
Less than a year at my first job out of college, what do I save for first?
You should plan 1-3 months for an emergency fund. Saving 6 months of expenses is recommended by many, but you have a lot of goals to accomplish, and youth is impatient. Early in your life, you have a lot of building (saving) that you need to do. You can find a good car for under $5000. It might take some effort, and...
Why might it be advisable to keep student debt vs. paying it off quickly?
I have never double-answered till now. This loan can't be taken out of context. By the way, how much is it? What rate? "Debt bad." Really? Line the debt up. This is the highest debt you have. But, you work for a company that offers a generous match, i.e. the match to your 401(k). Now, it's a choice, pay off 6% debt or...
Invest in (say, index funds) vs spending all money on home?
The short answer is that it depends on the taxation laws in your country. The long answer is that there are usually tax avoidance mechanisms that you can use which may make it more economically feasible for you to go one way or the other. Consider the following: The long term average growth rate of the stock market in ...
Chase bank not breaking large bills for non-account holders
Yes it is (legal). There is of course no law requiring any business you walk in to break your money. What made you think there would be? Being a bank in the US (and in other countries) has some legal consequences, but none of them relates to 'having to do business with anyone that walks in', neither 'having to break bi...
Do I need another health insurance policy?
Most of the points by MrChrister are valid. I can't say much for Philippines, however there is a reason for one to go with individual insurance from my experience in India.
What is market capitalization? [duplicate]
Market capitalization is one way to represent the value of the company. So if a company has 10 million shares, which are each worth $100, then the company's market capitalization is 1 billion. Large cap companies tend to be larger and more stable. Small cap companies are smaller, which indicates higher volatility. So i...
I earn $75K, have $30K in savings, no debt, rent from my parents who are losing their home. Should I buy a home now or save?
The biggest red flag is the fact that your parents may lose their house. There are multiple parts of the decision. The red flag comes in because you are stretching your finances to the max to afford the house you are interested in. Buying down the interest rate makes some sense depending on how long you plan on stayin...
Borrowing money to buy shares for cashflow?
It's generally a bad idea to use low-risk credit (low-risk in sense you're practically guaranteed to be forced to pay it off) to buy high-risk shares. In optimistic scenario, the profit from shares would be higher than your credit percentages. In less optimistic scenario you come with nothing. In worse scenario you hav...
What are the tax implications of dividends that I receive from stocks (equity) that I hold?
Note the above is only for shares. There are different rules for other assets like House, Jewellery, Mutual Funds, Debt Funds. Refer to the Income Tax guide for more details.
What is the difference between speculating and investing?
Classic investing guru Benjamin Graham defines "An investment operation is one which, upon thorough analysis, promises safety of principal and an adequate return." He contrasts this with speculation which is anything else (no thorough analysis, no safety of principal, or no adequate return). The word "adequate" is impo...
Is it better to buy put options or buy an inverse leveraged ETF?
The only use of options that I will endorse is selling them. If you believe the market is going down then sell covered, out of the money, calls. Buying calls or buying puts usually wastes money. That is because of a quality called Theta. If the underlying security stays the same the going price of an option will decre...
FATCA compliance for small Foreign Company. What do I need to do?
Unless you started a bank or other kind of a financial institution (brokerage, merchant processor, etc etc), the page you linked to is irrelevant. That said, there's enough in the US tax code for you to reconsider your decision of not living in the US, or at least of being a shareholder of a foreign company. Your compl...
Does the stock market create any sort of value?
Let's say that you bought a share of Apple for $10. When (if ever) their stock sold for $10, it was a very small company with a very small net worth; that is, the excess of assets over liabilities. Your $10 share was perhaps a 1/10,000,000th share of a tiny company. Over the years, Apple has developed both software and...
Car finance, APR rates and per week in adverts; help understanding them
Easier to copy paste than type this out. Credit: www.financeformulas.net Note that the present value would be the initial loan amount, which is likely the sale price you noted minus a down payment. The loan payment formula is used to calculate the payments on a loan. The formula used to calculate loan payments is e...
What happens to internal stock when a company goes public?
You'd likely be subject to a lock-up period before you could sell the shares along with possibly having other rules about how you could sell your shares as you'd likely be seen as an insider that may have information that gives you an unfair advantage for selling the stock possibly. Depending on how far in advance you ...
Payroll reimbursments
As @Dilip suggested in the comments, the problem is the accountability of the reimbursement plans. In order for the reimbursement to be non-taxable, there has to be a reimbursement plan and policy set up by the employer, it has to be done per receipt, and accounted for correctly. If the employer just cuts you a check -...
When should I walk away from my mortgage?
To put a different spin on it, suppose you loaned someone $100K, expecting that they would pay it back, and then a little later they decided not too. They are perfectly capable of paying back the money, but just decided they didn't want to, and it seems the laws of your state said you couldn't make them. How would you ...
Buying puts without owning underlying
Yes, it's completely normal to buy (and sell) puts and other options without holding the underlying. However, every (US) brokerage I know of only permits this within a margin account. I don't know why...probably a legal reason. You don't actually have to use the margin in a margin account. If you want to trade opti...
Tax benefits of recycling
If they charge a fee to accept an item, it's reasonable to assume the item has insignificant value, so the only tax-deductible bit would be the money you donated to their charity. What you describe sounds like a fee for service, not a charitable donation. The organization should provide a fee breakdown to show what per...
When are stock trade fees deducted?
Typically the fees are charged when the order is executed. The only catch I have ever ran into is when an order is partially executed. A good-till-cancel order that gets executed in several blocks over multiple days may get charged a separate commission for each day (but typically not each block). If this is a simple...
Stock spread: wide vs. narrow?
The point is that the bid and ask prices dictate what you can buy and sell at (at market, at least), and the difference between the two, or spread, contributes implicitly to your gains or losses. For example, say your $1 stock actually had a bid of $0.90 and an ask of $1.10; i.e. say that $1 was the last price. You wou...
Strategy to pay off car loan before selling the car
As far as ease of sale transaction goes you'll want to pay off the loan and have the title in your name and in your hand at the time of sale. Selling a car private party is difficult enough, the last thing you want is some administrivia clouding your deal. How you go about paying the remaining balance on the car is r...
Would I ever need credit card if my debit card is issued by MasterCard/Visa?
I haven't had a credit card in fifteen years. I use nothing but my debit card. (I find the whole idea of credit on a micro scale loathsome.) I have yet to encounter a single problem doing so, other than a lower than usual credit score for not keeping 23(!!!) revolving lines of credit open, or that's the number CreditKa...
What forces cause a company to write down goodwill?
To understand the answer we first have to understand what Goodwill is. Goodwill in a companies balance sheet is an intangible asset that represents the extra value because of a strong brand name, good customer relations, good employee relations and any patents or proprietary technology. An article from The Economist ex...
(Almost) no credit unions in New York City, why?
I would have been tempted to dismiss your claim, but the data I found shows that you're correct. On the plus side, the growth rate in credit union market share is higher in New York than it is in California. While there is no question that bankers hate credit unions, I can't tell you why credit unions have a smaller ma...
Electric car lease or buy?
I have coworker who reported that he leased a Nissan Leaf from 2013-2016 and was offered $4000 off the contracted purchase price at the end of the lease due to a glut of other lessees turning in for a lease on the newest model with greater range. It's not clear that this experience will be repeated by others three yea...
Short term investing vs Leaving money alone?
There are three basic concepts finance (as far as I'm concerned). Liquidity is basically an asset's spendability. Assets range in liquidity from cash (very liquid) to real estate (not very liquid). You can spend cash immediately, while real estate must first be converted to cash. Another important concept is your t...
Are wash sale rules different for stocks and ETFs / Mutual Funds?
What JoeTaxpayer means is that you can sell one ETF and buy another that will perform substantially the same during the 30 day wash sale period without being considered substantially the same from a wash sale perspective more easily than you could with an individual stock. For example, you could sell an S&P 500 index E...
Where do I find the exercise price and date for warrants?
I agree that a random page on the internet is not always a good source, but at the same time I will use Google or Yahoo Finance to look up US/EU equities, even though those sites are not authoritative and offer zero guarantees as to the accuracy of their data. In the same vein you could try a website devoted to warrant...
Shouldn't a Roth IRA accumulate more than 1 cent of interest per month?
Terminology aside. Your gains for this year in a mutual fund do seem low. These are things that can be quickly, and precisely answered through a conversation with your broker. You can request info on the performance of the fund you are invested in from the broker. They are required to disclose this information to yo...
How to hedge a long stock position that does not have options
You could always maintain a limit order to sell at a price you're comfortable with.
Paid cash for a car, but dealer wants to change price
Let me get this straight. I would stand my ground. Your son negotiated in good faith. Either they messed up, or they are dishonest. Either way your son wasn't the one supposed to know all the internal rules. I don't think it matters if they cashed the check or not. I would tell them if they have cashed it, that is even...
Change In Cash and Cash Equivalents (cash flow) vs Cash And Cash Equivalents (balance sheet)
tl;dr It's a difference between cash and cash equivalents and net cash and cash equivalents. Download the 2016 annual report from http://www.diageo.com/en-us/investor/Pages/financialreports.aspx On page 99 is the Consolidated Statement of Cash Flows at the bottom is a section "Net cash and cash equivalents consist of:...
Options for dummies. Can you explain how puts & calls work, simply?
An Xbox currently sells for $200 but you don't have the money right now to buy it. You think the price of the xbox is going up to $250 next month. Your friend works at BestBuy and says he has a "raincheck" that allows you to buy the Xbox for $200 but the raincheck expires next month. He offers to sell you the "rainch...