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Can my brother fix his credit?
In a nutshell, not really. That's the risk you take when you co-sign for someone. The lender only made the loan because of the strength of your brother's credit, not your mother's, so his reputation (in the form of his credit rating) is going to take the hit because of his mother's behaviors. The one thing he can do ...
How do I log a Canadian NR4 form to my income taxes
Income code 09 is dividends, so yes - it is the same as line 1 of the US form 1099-DIV. 1a or 1b however depends on whether the requirements for qualified dividends are met. If they're met - its 1b, if not - 1a. These are treated and taxed differently. See here on what are the qualification requirements. Note that Cana...
How does high frequency trading work if money isn't available for 2-3 days after selling?
As previously answered, the solution is margin. It works like this: You deposit e.g. 1'000 USD at your trading company. They give you a margin of e.g. 1:100, so you are allowed to trade with 100'000 USD. Let's say you buy 5'000 pieces of a stock at $20 USD (fully using your 100'000 limit), and the price changes to $20...
Employer skipped payments, should I allow them to defer payment until Jan 2017?
TL;DR: The difference is $230. Just for fun, and to illustrate how brackets work, let's look at the differences you could see from changing when you're paid based on the tax bracket information that Ben Miller provided. If you're paid $87,780 each year, then each year you'll pay $17,716 for a total of $35,432: $5,183 +...
What is the point of owning a stock without dividends if it cannot be resold?
Shares often come associated with a set of rights, such as ability to vote in the outcome of the company. Some shares do not have this right, however. With your ability to vote in the outcome of the company, you could help dictate that the company paid dividends at a point in time. Or many other varieties of outcomes. ...
Options for the intelligent but inexperienced
Realize this is almost a year old, but I just wanted to comment on something in Dynas' answer above... "Whenever you trade always think about what the other guys is thinking. Sometimes we forget their is someone else on the other side of my trade that thinks essentially the exact opposite of me. Its a zero sum game." ...
Fund or ETF that simulates the investment goals of an options “straddle” strategy?
Why bother with the ETF? Just trade the options -- at least you have the ability to know what you actually are doing. The "exotic" ETFs the let you "double long" or short indexes aren't options contracts -- they are just collections of unregulated swaps with no transparency. Most of the short/double long ETFs also only...
How to share income after marriage and kids?
I think you have succumbed to a category error. The rational course forward is to classify all property as either his, hers, or family's. Each contributes a portion of wages to the family. Each logs hours spent performing familial duties and is "paid" in virtual dollars into their family account at market rates for tha...
Do I even need credit cards?
A credit card can be a long running line of credit that will help to boost your FICO score. However if you have student loans, a mortgage, or car payments those will work just as well. If you ever get to the point where you don't have any recent lines of credit, this may eventually end up hurting your score, but until...
How to save money for future expenses
My answer will suck but it comes from someone who has been married: You can't control another person or convince them to do something. What you can do is identify what they value and show how saving money increases their opportunities in what they value, but understand that the person could see what you're saying as i...
Is leveraging notoriety to raise stock prices illegal in the US?
pump and dump is a common Illegal practice of boiler room operations. It refers to the talking a stock up, both through word of mouth as well as selling shares to unwitting buyers. I fail to see much difference between that practice and this.
Prepaying a loan: Shouldn't the interest be recalculated like a shorter loan?
You seem to think that you are mostly paying interest in the first year because of the length of the loan period. This is skipping a step. You are mostly paying interest in the first year because your principle (the amount you owe) is highest in the first year. You do pay down some principle in that first year; this ...
What happens if someone destroy money?
Depending on the country, nothing. For example, the US has about $1.3 trillion dollars of cash in circulation. Which means that if you were to burn a million dollars of it, that would be 0.000077% of the circulating cash. But cash is a small portion of the actual money in the US. Only about 8% of all money is in c...
Is it ever a good idea to close credit cards?
I'd say close them if they have fees, if you're worried about fraud or if you're going to be tempted to use them. It may have an affect on your credit rating, but it shouldn't hurt you seriously. Having too many cards gives you the "opportunity" to overspend, which obviously isn't good.
Pay off credit cards in one lump sum, or spread over a few months?
it is better for your credit score to pay them down over time. This is a myth. Will it make much of a difference? You are paying additional interest even though you have the means to pay off the cards completely. Credit score is a dynamic number and it really only matters if you are looking to make a big purchase (vehi...
How can a U.S. citizen open a bank account in Europe?
Each country will have different rules. I can only speak about the Netherlands. There, there are two options as a resident to open an account. You needed a BSN (Dutch ID number) or a strong reference from an international company sponsoring your residence there at a bank branch that dealt frequently with foreign cust...
Discount Rate vs. IRR
The IRR is the Discount Rate r* that makes Net Present Value NPV(r*)==0. What this boils down to is two ways of making the same kind of profitability calculation. You can choose a project with NPV(10%)>0, or you can choose based on IRR>10%, and the idea is you get to the same set of projects. That's if everything is ...
Prepaying a loan: Shouldn't the interest be recalculated like a shorter loan?
Loans do not carry an "interest balance". You can not pay off "all the interest". The only way to reduce the interest to zero is to pay off the loan. Otherwise, the interest due each month is some percentage of the outstanding principal. Think of it from the bank's perspective: they've invested some amount of money in ...
How can you possibly lose on investments in stocks?
I think it may be best to take everything you're asking line-by-line. Once you buy stocks on X day of the month, the chances of stocks never actually going above and beyond your point of value on the chart are close to none. This is not true. Companies can go out of business, or take a major hit and never recover. Tak...
Isn't an Initial Coin Offering (ICO) a surefire way to make tons of money?
Given your premise is correct: How do you cash in a large sum of YetAnotherCryptoCoin shortly after it´s ICO? The crypto-exchanges take some time to add a new currency, if they do at all. And even if they already have, trading volume is usually low. I think that´s what really makes it unattractive for Investors as op...
Is buying a lottery ticket considered an investment?
This question feels like an EL&U question to me, and so I will treat it as one. Investment, noun form of to invest, originally from the Latin investire, meaning to clothe, means: [T]o commit (money) in order to earn a financial return Merriam-Webster Online Dictionary, Invest, vb. tr., definition 1 As such, when a pers...
Are cashiers required to check a credit card for a signature in the U.S.?
I'm not sure if they're required to do so, but I have been neglecting to sign my cards for some time now. If they do check, that triggers an ID check, where they'll find my signature. I know of at least one person that writes "see ID" instead of signing their cards. He began that practice over 10 years ago.
Frustrated Landlord
If you're sinking 1k/year into it, and the value is rising by $100k in 15 years, or $6k/year, you have a fine investment. Ignore the wife, she just wants something even better.
What's a reliable way for a non-permanent resident alien in the USA to get an auto loan?
I took @littleadv 's recommendation that online apps only ask for citizenship due to post-9/11 legislation. I applied to 2 banks in person (one big, one small), and at the dealership. None of my in-person applications ever touched on the issue of citizenship. I even applied in person at the same bank that insta-rejec...
Choose online stock trading companies
Lower fees are always better, everything else equal. A lower fee makes your transaction overall a better deal, all else equal. Other transactions costs (like the SEC fee on sales) are mostly the same across brokers and there is unlikely to be any difference in execution quality either. When comparing brokers be sure ...
Is investing in housing considered an adequate hedge against inflation?
Even if the price of your home did match inflation or better — and that's a question I'll let the other answers address — I propose that owning a home, by itself, is not a sufficient hedge against inflation. Consider: Inflation will inflate your living expenses. If you're lucky, they'll inflate at the average. If you'r...
Why would we need a “stop-limit order” for selling?
An important thing that many people fail to realize is that the number of shares outstanding in a stock, times the current market price of those shares, does not represent anything related to the total value of those shares. If a company has one million shares outstanding and its total value is $10 million, then the r...
If there's no volume discount, does buying in bulk still make sense?
I agree with Rich Seller. Avoiding a trip to the store is a benefit. Not only do you save the time and hassle, but there's real money saved if a car trip is avoided: I maintain a spreadsheet for all of my car expenses – depreciation, maintenance, insurance, license & registration, gas, etc. Combined with starting & e...
How much should I save up per trade?
I'd answer it this way: What do you want to do? I'd say any amount is acceptable from as low as $100. When you look at the specific "tree" of investing paying $5 for a $100 seems unacceptable. However when observing the "forest" what does it matter if you "waste" $5 on a commission? Your friends (and maybe you) pro...
When to trade in a relatively new car for maximum value
I love giving non-answer answers. It will depend on you. Suppose you are embarrassed by driving older cars, your significant other doesn't like having you drive an older car, you don't really maintain the car well, it develops a variety of problems, acquires a few dents and you really worry about reliability. Then t...
Rollover 401k into Roth IRA?
For #1, I see no advantage in putting money from your non-retirement savings into a Roth just for the purpose of using it as a down payment on your house. Why not just put the $5.5K directly toward the down payment? For #2, dollars converted from a traditional 401K or IRA to a Roth are considered income, and will be t...
Why do some companies offer 401k retirement plans?
Let me add another consideration to the company's side of the equation. Not only is a 401K a tool for the company to make them competitive when recruiting employees among other companies that offer that benefit, it is also a good retention tool. Most company's 401K plans include a vesting period of at least 3 years, s...
Should you always max out contributions to your 401k?
I think better advice would be always max out your 401K at least to the level that the company provides a match. For example, my company will match 50% up to 10% of your salary. Good luck finding another investment with a guaranteed immediate 50% return. Beyond the company match, it is probably good advice to put as mu...
Saving/ Investing a lump sum
In my mind, when looking at a five year period you have a number of options. You didn't specify where you are based, which admittedly makes it harder, to give you good advice. If you are looking for an investment that can achieve large gains, equities are impossible to ignore. By investing in an index fund or other div...
Buying insurance (extended warranty or guarantee) on everyday goods / appliances?
I usually say "no thank you", but if the salesperson gets pushy I say "if I need insurance, I guess I won't buy the product because I only want to buy quality that will last a good long while" I have never actually walked away from a purchase because I generally research these things ahead of time, but I think I mean i...
Best way to start investing, for a young person just starting their career?
Not 100% related, but the #1 thing you need to avoid is CREDIT CARD DEBT. Trust me on this one. I'm 31, and finally got out of credit card debt about eight months ago. For just about my entire 20s, I racked up credit card debt and saved zero. Invested zero. It pains me to realize that I basically wasted ten years of p...
Must a company have a specific number of employees to do an IPO?
While there is no legal reason to have a minimum number of employees, there can be a practical reason. They want to look like a good solid investment so that investors will give them money, which is what an IPO is, really. Hiring lots of people is part of that. Once the investors are committed, they can cut expenses...
What happens to bonds values when interest rates rise? [duplicate]
You can look at TIPS (which have some inflation protection built in). Generally short term bonds are better than long if you expect rates to rise soon. Other ways that you can protect yourself are to choose higher yield corporate bonds instead of government bonds, or to use foreign bonds. There are plenty of bond funds...
Why REIT prices are not going down while bonds are being hammered?
There are five main drivers to real estate returns: Income (cash flow from rental payments); Depreciation (as an expense that can be used to reduce taxes); Equity (the gradual paydown of the mortgage the increases underlying equity in the property); Appreciation (any increase in the overall value of the property); Leve...
What should I be aware of as a young investor?
You are your own worst enemy when it comes to investing. You might think that you can handle a lot of risk but when the market plummets you don't know exactly how you'll react. Many people panic and sell at the worst possible time, and that kills their returns. Will that be you? It's impossible to tell until it happens...
Is unrealized gain part of asset?
Stocks, as an asset, represent the sum of the current market value of all of your holdings. If your portfolio is showing unrealized gains and losses, then that net amount is inherently reflected in the current market value of your holdings. That's not to say cost basis is not important. Any closed trades, realized gai...
How do I find an ideal single fund to invest all my money in?
A single fund that reflects the local currency would be an index fund in the country. Look for mutual funds which provide for investing on the local stock index. The fund managers would handle all the portfolio balancing for you.
How do credit card payments work? What ensures the retailer charges the right amount?
Your credit card limit is nothing more than a simple number. When you purchase something, the merchant receives a number (i.e. the amount of the transaction) from your card company (e.g. Visa) in their bank account, and that number is subtracted from your limit (added to your balance). The amount is recorded, and isn'...
How to increase my credit score
Get a credit card is NOT the answer. The reason people have a bad (or no) credit score is often because they're new to the country, have just turned 18, have previously fallen into arrears or are just bad with money. Getting a credit card is risky because, if you don't stay on top of your payments, it'll just damage yo...
Is it ever a good idea to close credit cards?
Yes, it can be a good idea to close unused credit cards. I am going to give some reasons why it can be a good idea to close unused accounts, and then I will talk about why it is NOT necessarily a bad idea. Why it can be a good idea to close unused accounts "I'd like to close the cards." That is reason enough. Simpl...
Fringe Benefits (Lodging) for single member S-Corp
None whatsoever, no. Moreover, trying something like that would very likely trigger a full audit.
Rationale behind using 12, 26 and 9 to calculate MACD
The values of 12, 26 and 9 are the typical industry standard setting used with the MACD, however other values can be substituted depending on your trading style and goals. The 26d EMA is considered the long moving average when in this case it is compared to the shorter 12d EMA. If you used a 5d EMA and a 10d EMA then t...
Exercising an option without paying for the underlying
As other answers state, selling the options contracts to the market is a definite way out, and probably the best in most cases. If you're determined to exercise your options (or there's not enough liquidity to reasonably sell your contracts to the market), then you could plan ahead and exercise smaller number of contr...
How a company in India can misuse my PAN number and its scanned copy that I provided as an interview candidate?
There is a possibility of misuse. Hence it should be shared judiciously. Sharing it with large / trusted organization reduces the risk as there would be right process / controls in place. Broadly these days PAN and other details are shared for quite a few transactions, say applying for a Credit Card, Opening Bank Accou...
What is a “retail revolving account,” and does it improve my credit score?
A retail revolving account is essentially a credit card offered by a store (or chain of stores) and usable only at that store. In my area, the Sears department store's "Sears card" would be a good example. Stores offer these to capture a bit more profit from the transaction. They don't have to pay someone else's proces...
Can't the account information on my checks be easily used for fraud?
Yes, those numbers are all that is needed to withdraw funds, or at least set online payment of bills which you don't owe. Donald Knuth also faced this problem, leading him to cease sending checks as payment for finding errors in his writings.
Trading when you work for a market participant
There is normally a policy at the organisation that would restrict trades or allow trades under certain conditions. This would be in accordance with the current regulations as well as Institutions own ethical standards. Typical I have seen is that Technology roles are to extent not considered sensitive, ie the employe...
What choices should I consider for investing money that I will need in two years?
Are you going to South Africa or from? (Looking on your profile for this info.) If you're going to South Africa, you could do worse than to buy five or six one-ounce krugerrands. Maybe wait until next year to buy a few; you may get a slightly better deal. Not only is it gold, it's minted by that country, so it's easi...
How does stock dilution work in relation to share volume?
The reason a company creates more stock is to generate more capital so that this can be utilized and more returns can be generated. It is commonly done as a follow on public offer. Typically the funds are used to retire high cost debts and fund future expansion. What stops the company from doing it? Are Small investo...
What is the point of owning a stock without dividends if it cannot be resold?
If that condition is permanent -- the stock will NEVER pay dividends and you will NEVER be able to sell it -- then yes, it sounds to me like this is a worthless piece of paper. If there is some possibility that the stock will pay dividends in the future, or that a market will exist to sell it, then you are making a lon...
How long does a bank's “Know Your Customer” (KYC) process typically take?
The idea is to positively identify you with properly issued government ID. If you show up with your passport, visa, and another form of government-issued identification which the banker can recognize and use (for example - international driver's license, a US-State driver's license, EU internal ID, etc) - it will be qu...
How to explain quick price changes early in the morning
The gap up/down and rapid movement immediately following market open is due to overnight futures activity. In your example, SP500 on June 20, 2016 saw a 20-point gap up at market open. This was because the SP500 futures were trading 20 points higher at 9:30 AM than at its close on Friday. The index will always "catch u...
For a major expensive home renovation (e.g. addition, finished basement, or new kitchen) should one pay cash or finance with a loan? Would such a loan be “good” debt?
The number one reason to borrow is quite simple; when you have no other choice. The primary reason to do this is when renovations or additions must be made in a timeframe that precludes you being able to save enough money to pay cash. Harmanjd's example of a kid on the way with no space to put him is a very good hypoth...
Escrow Removal Fee?
Consider that the bank of course makes money on the money in your escrow. It is nothing but a free loan you give the bank, and the official reasons why they want it are mostly BS - they want your free loan, nothing else. As a consequence, to let you out of it, they want the money they now cannot make on your money upfr...
What does this diagram from Robert Kiyosaki about corporations mean?
It looks like RK is encouraging tax fraud. Suggesting that one have their business cover personal expenses sounds like the advice that got Leona Helmsley in hot water.
Company asking for card details to refund over email
If it is a well known company that wants to give you a refund, I would not worry about giving them your credit card number. However, I would never type my credit card number into an e-mail message. E-mail messages are very insecure, and can be read by many people along its way to the destination. They also can be arch...
Is there a benefit, long term, to life insurance for a youngish, debt, and dependent free person?
As Mhoran stated, no dependents, no need. Even with dependants, insurance is to cover those who would otherwise have a hardship. Once the kids are off to college and house paid for, the need drops dramatically. There are some rather complex uses for insurance when estates are large but potentially illiquid. Clearly ...
Why is Insider Trading Illegal?
Capitalism works best when there is transparency. Your secret formula for wealth in the stocks should be based on a fair and free market, as sdg said, it is your clever interpretation of the facts, not the facts themselves. The keyword is fair. Secrets are useful for manufacturing or production, which is only a small...
Why would a long-term investor ever chose a Mutual Fund over an ETF?
http://www.efficientfrontier.com/ef/104/stupid.htm would have some data though a bit old about open-end funds vs an ETF that would be one point. Secondly, do you know that the Math on your ETF will always work out to whole numbers of shares or do you plan on using brokers that would allow fractional shares easily? This...
Did an additional $32 billion necessarily get invested into Amazon.com stock on October 26th, 2017?
Stock A last traded at $100. Stock A has 1 million shares outstanding. No seller is willing to sell Stock A for less than $110 a share. One buyer is willing to buy 1 share for $110. The order executes. The buyer pays the seller $110. Stock A's new price is $110. An $110 investment increased the market cap by $10 millio...
If one owns 75% of company shares, does that mean that he would have to take upon himself 75% of the company's expenses?
Another way to decide would be to do a fair valuation of the company agreeable to both the partners. Lets assume when you started the company it was worth $10,000 and to acquire 75%, you must have put $7,500 worth of money and effort. Similarly, the other partner must have put $2,500 worth of time and money. Now say af...
Hobby vs. Business
You can list it as other income reported on line 21 of form 1040. In TurboTax, enter at: - Federal Taxes tab (Personal in Home & Business) - Wages & Income -“I’ll choose what I work on” Button Scroll down to: -Less Common Income -Misc Income, 1099-A, 1099-C. -The next screen will give you several choices. Choose "Oth...
Mortgage refinancing fees
2.5%? Whoa, you are being robbed there. Straight-up, stripped-down, and bent-over-a-table robbed. Never agree to "fees". If they don't want to do the work to give you a loan, there are other lenders who do. Rarely agree to "points". If you know -- and I don't mean "think", I mean "know" -- if you know that you are g...
Price graphs: why not percent change?
Actually, total return is the most important which isn't necessarily just price change as this doesn't account for dividends that may be re-invested. Thus, the price change isn't necessarily that useful in terms of knowing what you end up with as an ending balance for an investment. Secondly, the price change itself m...
Equity As Part of Compensation
With LLCs, the operation agreement can define different shares for different kinds of income or equity, and different partners may be treated differently. In essence, you can end up with a different stock class for each partner/member. So you need to read the grant document and the OA really carefully to know what you'...
What things are important to consider when investing in one's company stock?
Does your job give you access to "confidential information", such that you can only buy or sell shares in the company during certain windows? Employees with access to company financial data, resource planning databases, or customer databases are often only allowed to trade in company securities (or derivatives thereof...
Shorting Stocks And Margin Account Minimum
First, you are not exactly "giving" the brokerage $2000. That money is the margin requirement to protect them in the case the stock price rises. If you short 200 shares as in your example and they are holding $6000 from you then they are protected in the event of the stock price increasing to $30/share. Sometime before...
At what point should I begin paying off student loans?
Pay off your highest-interest debt first: credit card, car, maybe even mortgage. Pay minimums on all else. Student loans are typically low interest, so pay off anything else first, but double-check your rate of course. Even if you have no other debt, you may still want to hang on to your savings instead of paying down...
How much should a new graduate with new job put towards a car?
What are your goals in life? If one of them is to appear wealthy then buying a high price import is a great place to start. You certainly have the salary for it (congratulations BTW). If one of your goals is to build wealth, then why not buy a ~5000 to ~6000 car and have a goal to zero out that student loan by the e...
What's the catch with biweekly mortgage payments?
Pete and Noah addressed the math, showing how this is, in effect, converting a 30yr to a ~23yr mortgage, at a cost, plus payment about 8% higher (1 extra payment per year). No magic there. The real issue, as I see it, is whether this is the best use of the money. Keep in mind, once you pay extra principal, which in eff...
Is Cost of Living overstated?
I do not believe there is a strong correlation between CPI (Consumer Price Index) and housing value appreciation. Take, for example, New York City which has the highest CPI in the US. A great deal of the CPI number is skewed by Manhattan. One can live in Brooklyn or Queens and avoid some of NYC's high CPI. I would s...
Are there any other investing methods I should look into?
401Ks and IRAs are types of retirement accounts. They have rules regarding maximum amount of investments per year; who can invest; destructibility; and the tax treatment of the growth. Stock, bonds, mutual funds, ETFs are all types of investments that can exist either inside or outside of the retirement account. Some ...
Recent college grad. Down payment on a house or car?
Not long after college in my new job I bought a used car with payments, I have never done that since. I just don't like having a car payment. I have bought every car since then with cash. You should never borrow money to buy a car There are several things that come into play when buying a car. When you are shopping wit...
What is the theory behind Rick Van Ness's risk calculation in the video about diversification?
The calculation and theory are explained in the other answers, but it should be pointed out that the video is the equivalent of watching a magic trick. The secret is: "Stock A and B are perfectly negatively correlated." The video glasses over that fact that without that fact the risk doesn't drop to zero. The rule is...
What are the advantages of paying off a mortgage quickly?
Considering that it's common for the monthly mortgage payment to be 25% of one's income, it's an obvious advantage for that monthly burden to be eliminated. The issue, as I see it, is that this is the last thing one should do in the list of priorities: The idea of 'no mortgage' is great. But. You might pay early and h...
Why do people invest in mutual fund rather than directly buying shares?
Buying the right shares gives higher return. Buying the wrong ones gives worse return, possibly negative. The usual recommendation, even if you have a pro advising you, is to diversify most of your investments to reduce the risk, even though that may reduce the possible gain. A mutual fund is diversification-in-a-can. ...
Pay off car or use money for down payment
The best thing to do is pay off the car. Adding more variables to a negotiation with a car dealer (in this case, a trade in), is always going to go in their favor. This is why people recommend negotiating a price down first, before ever mentioning to the dealer you want to do a trade in or financing.
Are there any benefits of FMLA beyond preserving your job?
How will your employer treat your pay and benefits status while you're on leave? Disability income coverage and leave policies work in tandem to solve very different problems. Disability income coverage covers your income, leave policies guarantee your status as an employee. Typically, STD coverage requires an act...
Would betting on fallen (blue chip) stocks be a good strategy?
You can't do this automatically; you want to understand whether the drop is from a short-term high. is likely to be a short-term low, or reflects an actual change in how folks expect the company to do in the future. Having said that, some people do favor a strategy which resembles this, betting on what are known as "th...
Is income from crypto-currencies taxed?
In Canada, it is similarly taxed as CQM states. Mining is considered business income and you need to file a T1 form. Capital appreciation is no different than treating gains from stock.
Scammer wants details and credentials for my empty & unused bank account. What could go wrong?
It's a scam. Here are the many signs: The bank will never ask for your password. They can access your account without it. The bank will never use a customer's account for their own business. They have their own accounts. "Some guy" is not a bank employee. Bank employees are people that you meet at the bank. Banks d...
Paying for things on credit and immediately paying them off: any help for credit rating?
The biggest risk is Credit Utilization rate. If you have a total of $10,000 in revolving credit (ie: credit card line) and you ever have more than 50% (or 33% to be conservative) on the card at any time then your credit score will be negatively impacted. This will be a negative impact even if you charge it on day one ...
Effect of Job Change on In-Progress Mortgage Application
Best advice is to ask your lender. That being said, if you are changing jobs, but keeping the same type of job you are usually ok and if the loan was approved before, it would still be approved. If you switch from W-2 to 1099 or vice-versa, permanent to contract, switch industries (software dev to accountant), or make...
Why does short selling require borrowing?
In order to compare the two, you need to compare your entire portfolio, which is not just how much money you have, but how much stock. In both scenarios, you start with (at least, but let's assume) £20 and 0 stock. In your scenario, you buy 10 shares, leaving you with £0 and 10 shares. You then sell it at £1.50/share t...
How can you possibly lose on investments in stocks?
Some stocks do fall to zero. I don't have statistics handy, but I'd guess that a majority of all the companies ever started are now bankrupt and worth zero. Even if a company does not go bankrupt, there is no guarantee that it's value will increase forever, even in a general, overall sense. You might buy a stock when i...
How to read Google Finance data on dividends
The dividend is for a quarter of the year, three months. 80 cents is 3.9% of $20.51. Presumably the Div/yield changes as the stock price changes. On Yahoo, they specify that the yield is based on a particular stated date. So it's only the exact number if the stock trades at the price on that date.
Should I sell a 2nd home, or rent it out?
I kind of hate piling on with another opinion, but this is too long for a comment. I did what you are thinking of doing, I would at least try renting it for a couple years so long as: The primary risks of renting are mostly related to unexpected costs and bad tenants, you've got a very healthy income, so as long as you...
Buy tires and keep car for 12-36 months, or replace car now?
I tend to agree with Rocky's answer. However it sounds like you want to look at this from the numbers side of things. So let's consider some numbers: I'm assuming you have the money to buy the new car available as cash in hand, and that if you don't buy the car, you'll invest it reasonably. So if you buy the new car...
Need a formula to determine monthly payments received at time t if I'm reinvesting my returns
With 10% return over three years, depositing $900 each month, in three years $34,039.30. Re. downvote. I guess this is too brief and without explanation, but I was rushing. If you want further explanation of how this is calculated check the link already posted by JoeTaxpayer, and have a look at the formula for contin...
How to evaluate investment risk in practical terms
Generally investing in index-tracking funds in the long term poses relatively low risk (compared to "short term investment", aka speculation). No-one says differently. However, it is a higher risk than money-market/savings/bonds. The reason for that is that the return is not guaranteed and loss is not limited. Here vol...
Are these scenarios considered as taxable income?
For case 1, there is no tax due as you sold the book for less than your cost basis. If you had sold for more than $100, then you would have had a profit. For case 2, that depends on the value of the gift card with respect to the value of your fare. Most likely that gift card is less than the cost of the fare. And in th...
Are there good investment options to pay off student loans?
What you're getting at is the same as investing with leverage. Usually this comes in the form in a margin account, which an investor uses to borrow money at a low interest rate, invest the money, and (hopefully!) beat the interest rate. is this approach unwise? That completely depends on how your investments perform a...
Why is day trading considered riskier than long-term trading?
Well, let me take your question for baremetal, and aknowledge you did not asked about the difference between daytrading and investing which is obviously leverage. I would not consider daytrading more risky as long as you keep leverageout of the equation. Daytrading can be turbolent and confusing, where things unfold i...
Why are banks providing credit scores for free?
An alternative take on the "why" is that most people's credit is better than they think, and all of these banks offer credit products. Put a "good credit" badge next to an ad for a shiny new card or auto refi, and it's just good business.
Buying a foreclosed property
No, it is not true. It depends on the market, the banks' inventory, the original debt that was owed, etc etc. The banks generally want to recover their money, so in case of underwater properties they may end up hold a property for years until prices bounce back (as it happened during the last crisis when many houses we...