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Advice on low-risk long-term strategy for extra cash? | I can think of three things you might do: Talk to a fee-only adviser. As the comments suggest, this would only be one or two sessions to lay out what all you have, establish what you want it to do, and write a plan that you are comfortable carrying out yourself. What do your 401k and Roth IRA look like? If you mean for... |
Are stories of turning a few thousands into millions by trading stocks real? | It's possible to make money in the market - even millions if you "play your cards right". Taking the course being offered can be educational but highly unlikely to increase your chances of making millions. Experience and knowledge of the game will make you money. The stock market is a game. |
How does unemployment insurance work? | Unemployment insurance provides a temporary safety net to workers who lose their jobs by replacing a portion of their salary for certain periods. Each state administers its own unemployment insurance program so some rules may vary from state to state. To receive unemployment insurance payments, you must have lost your ... |
What percentage of my money should I invest outside my country? | Your definition of 'outside your country' might need some redefinition, as there are three different things going on here . . . Your financial adviser appears to be highlighting the currency risk associated with point three. However, consider these risk scenarios . . . A) Your country enters a period of severe financia... |
What things are important to consider when investing in one's company stock? | It appears your company is offering roughly a 25% discount on its shares. I start there as a basis to give you a perspective on what the 30% matching offer means to you in terms of value. Since you are asking for things to consider not whether to do it, below are a few considerations (there may be others) in general y... |
What happened when the dot com bubble burst? | From the perspective of an investor and someone in high-tech during that period, here is my take: A few high tech companies had made it big (Apple, Microsoft, Dell) and a lot of people were sitting around bemoaning the fact that we all should have realized that computers were going to be huge and invested early in tho... |
Any reason to keep IRAs separate? | Once upon a time, money rolled over from a 401k or 403b plan into an IRA could not be rolled into another 401k or 403b unless the IRA account was properly titled as a Rollover IRA (instead of Traditional IRA - Roth IRAs were still in the future) and the money kept separate (not commingled) with contributions to Traditi... |
Reinvesting dividends and capital gains | I'd like to add that many companies offer Divident Re-Investment Plans or DRIPs, which is basically a regular automatic stock purchase program. More info here: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dividend_reinvestment_plan. While your stock broker may offer dividend reinvestment, this is not the same as a DRIP. DRIPs are offe... |
Is it accurate to say that if I was to trade something, my probability of success can't be worse than random? | I'm just trying to visualize the costs of trading. Say I set up an account to trade something (forex, stock, even bitcoin) and I was going to let a random generator determine when I should buy or sell it. If I do this, I would assume I have an equal probability to make a profit or a loss. Your question is what a mathem... |
Does bull/bear market actually make a difference? | The main difference between a bull market and a bear market is due the "the leverage effect". http://www.princeton.edu/~yacine/leverage.pdf The leverage effect refers to the observed tendency of an asset’s volatility to be negatively correlated with the asset’s returns. Typically, rising asset prices are accompanie... |
How to search efficiently for financial institutions, credit cards, etc (At least in Canada)? | Searching for Banks or Credit Unions based on their high interest accounts is likely to be a giant waste of your time. The highest you might find is 1.5% not clearing inflation. For anything less than 100k youre better off putting it in a money market fund until you know what you want to do with it, which you can find ... |
When does it make sense for the money paid for equity to go to the corporation? | If Jack owns all of the one million founding shares (which I assume you meant), and wants to transfer 250,000 shares to Venturo, then he is just personally selling shares to Venturo and the corporation gains nothing. If Jack does not own all of the founding shares, and the corporation had retained some, then the corpor... |
Is buying a home a good idea? | The New York Times offer a remarkably detailed Buy vs Rent calculator. You enter - From all of this, it advises the break-even rent, when monetarily, it's equal. I'd suggest you keep a few things in mind when using such a tool. Logic, common sense, and a Nobel prize winner named Robert Shiller all indicate that housi... |
Why might it be advisable to keep student debt vs. paying it off quickly? | Two different questions: Is it better to be in debt or to pay off the debt? And: Is it better to have student debt than other debt? Any debt needs to be paid off eventually, and any debt makes you less flexible. So if you have the choice between spending/wasting your money and paying off debt, I would recommend paying... |
What name is given to a value such as this? | This is called "change" or "movement" - the change (in points or percentage) from the last closing value. You can read more about the ticker tape on Investopedia, the format you're referring to comes from there. |
Contract job (hourly rate) as a 1099: How much would I be making after taxes? | In addition to taking into account your deductions, as mentioned by @bstpierre, you also need to account for vacation, and other time off such as sick days. You also need to estimate what percentage of the year you expect to be working and pro-rate your salary accordingly. For example it is not uncommon to use 40 week... |
Why doesn’t every company and individual use tax-havens to pay less taxes? | Ditto @GradeEhBacon, but let me add a couple of comments: But more relevantly: GradeEhBacon mentioned transaction costs. Yes. Many tax shelters require setting up accounts, doing paperwork, etc. Often you have to get a lawyer or accountant to do this right. If the tax shelter could save you $1 million a year in taxes, ... |
Get tax deduction for expensive car expense | Unless you own a business and the car is used in that business you can't write off your auto repairs. If you start a sole-proprietorship in your own name there are all sorts of things you can write off as long as there is a reasonable expectation of profit. This includes a portion of your car repairs, a portion of your... |
How to incorporate dividends while calculating annual return of a Stock | You simply add the dividend to the stock price when calculating its annual return. So for year one, instead of it would be |
Stock options: what happens if I leave a company and then an acquisition is finalized? | Having stock options means that you have worked for and rightfully earned a part of the company's capital appreciation. Takeover of the company would indicate someone is interested in the company (something should be valuable). It would be unwise to not strike before the period lapses since the strike price is always l... |
What is the relationship between the earnings of a company and its stock price? | I have heard that people say the greater earning means greater intrinsic value of the company. Then, the stock price is largely based on the intrinsic value. So increasing intrinsic value due to increasing earning will lead to increasing stock price. Does this make sense ? Yes though it may be worth dissecting ... |
Can saving/investing 15% of your income starting age 25, likely make you a millionaire? | I'll offer another answer, using different figures. Let's assume 6% is the rate of return you can expect. You are age 25, and plan to retire at age 65. If you have $0 and want $1M at retirement, you will need to put away $524.20/month, or $6,290.40/year, which is 15% of $41,936. So $41,936 is what you'd need to make... |
Why do governments borrow money instead of printing it? | My own simple answer is that it will affect and reduce productivity (e.g. Zimbabwe). it will also cause inflation which mean that no one will want to work for production again. |
Due Diligence - Dilution? | Publicly traded companies perform dilution via an FPO (Follow-up Public Offer). It is a process similar to IPO, with announcements, prospectus, etc. You will know ahead of time when that happen. Stocks traded OTC are not required to file a lot of regulatory documents that publicly traded stocks are required to file, an... |
Why the volume disparity between NUGT and DUST? | NUGT and DUST are opposites - DUST is a 'bear' (tracks 3x the inverse) and NUGT is a 'bull' (tracks 3x the actual). So if NUGT is much higher, sounds like people are betting on Gold (or specifically, on the NYSEARCA Gold Miners Index). When this Investopedia article was written in July 2016, the volumes were reverse... |
Is it better to wait for a market downturn to do a Roth conversion? | On average, the market will be down 1 year out of 4. 26 of the last 100 years on the S&P were negative. The Roth conversion offers a unique opportunity to convert early in the year, and decide at tax time next year whether you are happy with the result. Of course, if your fund or stock is up, you are likely better off,... |
Investment for beginners in the United Kingdom | Before jumping into stock trading, do try Mutual Funds and Index funds, That should give you some good overview of the equity markets. Further, do read up on building a balanced portfolio to suit your need and risk apetite. This would help you decide on Govt. bonds and other debt instruments. |
Why are american call options more valuable than european options ONLY if the underlying asset pays cash flows? | Really all you need to know is that American style can be exercised at any point, European options cannot be exercised early. Read on if you want more detail. The American style Call is worth more because it can be exercised at any point. And when the company pays a dividend, and your option is in the money, if the ex... |
Should I use regular or adjusted close for backtesting? | If you want to monitor how well you did in choosing your investments you will want to use stock prices that account for the dividends and splits and other changes (not just the closing price). The adjusted close will include these changes where the straight close will not include them. Using the adjusted close you wi... |
Annuities question - Equations of value | These are the steps I'd follow: $200 today times (1.04)^10 = Cost in year 10. The 6 deposits of $20 will be one time value calculation with a resulting year 7 final value. You then must apply 10% for 3 years (1.1)^3 to get the 10th year result. You now have the shortfall. Divide that by the same (1.1)^3 to shift the ... |
When is the best time to put a large amount of assets in the stock market? | Dollar Cost Averaging isn't usually the best idea for lump sum investment unless your risk tolerance is very low or your time horizons are low (in which case is the stock market the right place for your money). Usually you will do better by investing immediately. There are lots of articles around on the web about why D... |
Job Offer - Explain Stock Options [US] | Since the 2 existing answers addressed the question as asked. Let me offer a warning. You have 10,000 options at $1. You've worked four years and the options are vested. The stock is worth $101 when you get a job offer (at another company) which you accept. So you put up $10k and buy the shares. At this moment, you put... |
What is Fibonacci values? | Usually when a stock is up-trending or down-trending the price does not go up or down in a straight line. In an uptrend the price may go up over a couple of days then it could go down the next day or two, but the general direction would be up over the medium term. The opposite for a downtrend. So if the stock has been ... |
How to measure how the Australian dollar is faring independent of the US dollar | If you're interested in slower scale changes, one option is to use indexes that value a common commodity in different currencies such as the Big Mac Index. If a Big Mac costs more in AUD but stays the same in USD, then AUD have gone up. |
Why would a bank take a lower all cash offer versus a higher offer via conventional lending? | A bank selling a foreclosed property would negotiate a lower cash deal, I doubt it would be that extreme, 130 vs 100. An individual seller may give up $10K to save time and get his next home closed as well, but again, I suspect it would be rare to find that large a delta. |
If I'm going to start doing my own taxes soon, do I need to start keeping receipts for everything? | You need receipts only if you claim deductions in the itemized deductions section based on them. You itemize deductions only if your claims exceed the standard deduction (which for a single person was $5,800 last year). Even then, you need receipts for everything only if you claim sales tax as the deduction (you have t... |
Any Loop Holes for Owner Occupancy? | There are 2 and 3 family houses that have an "owner occupied" clause for certain financing. Of course, one would rent out the extra apartments without question. The key thing is that owner-occupied means just that, occupancy for tax purposes. Just using a small area like an office won't satisfy the requirement, so no,... |
How to find a good third-party, 401k management/advice service? | The vanilla advice is investing your age in bonds and the rest in stocks (index funds, of course). So if you're 25, have 75% in stock index fund and 25% in bond index. Of course, your 401k is tax sheltered, so you want keep bonds there, assuming you have taxable investments. When comparing specific funds, you need to p... |
How to determine how much to charge your business for rent (in your house)? | Your best approach is to assess rent levels in your local area for offices of a similar size. You need to take into account all the usuals - amenities, parking, etc, just as if your home-office was provided by a third-party. Get your $/sq ft and work out the monthly amount. With this figure, you need to then work out w... |
What are the economic benefits of owning a home in the United States? | @Alex B already answered the first question. I want to respond to the second and third: I have heard the term "The equity on your home is like a bank". What does that mean? I suppose I could borrow using the equity in my home as collateral? Yes, you can borrow against the equity in your home. What you should keep in mi... |
Stock portfolio value & profit in foreign currency | I think this will do the trick: |
What does a reorganization fee that a company charges get applied to? | Its a broker fee, not something charged by the reorganizing company. E*Trade charge $20, TD Ameritrade charge $38. As with any other bank fee - shop around. If you know the company is going to do a split, and this fee is of a significant amount for you - move your account to a different broker. It may be that some port... |
Buying my first car out of college | You have a job "lined up". What if it falls through? Then you have to sell your fancy car, and you are back to scare, apart from the dough you owe your dad. For consumption items, live within your means. A cheap first car is just fine. Spend cash where it brings you more cash. |
Free, web-based finance tracking with tag/label support? | Mint.com does all of that (except for the cash at hand). |
How to start investing/thinking about money as a young person? | There are books like, "The Millionaire Mind" that could be of interest when it comes to basics like living below your means, investing what you save, etc. that while it is common sense, it is uncommonly done in the world. Something to consider is how actively do you want your money management to be? Is it something t... |
Low risk hybrid investment strategy | I recall similar strategies when (in the US) interest rates were quite a bit higher than now. The investment company put 75% or so into into a 5 year guaranteed bond, the rest was placed in stock index options. In effect, one had a guaranteed return (less inflation, of course) of principal, and a chance for some market... |
Ask FBI permission to withdraw large sums from your checking or savings? | An international Outlook (in this case Sweden in European Union). According to laws and regulations large cash transactions are considered conspicuous. The law makers might have reasoned is that cash transactions can be used in as example: - financing terrorism - avoiding taxes - buying or selling illegal goods such as... |
What is the difference between a check and a paycheck? | There is little difference. A paycheck is a type of check used to pay wages. These days many people opt for direct deposit. So, the term paycheck can also refer to the payment itself: 1: a check in payment of wages or salary 2: wages, salary http://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/paycheck |
What tax laws apply to Meetup group income? | In the United States tax law, a group of people who are neither an individual nor an incorporated entity is called "partnership". Here's the IRS page on partnerships. Income derived by such a "meetup.com" group is essentially a partnership income with the group members being the partners. However, as you can see from ... |
When does a low PE ratio not indicate a good stock? | Some companies have a steady, reliable, stream of earnings. In that case, a low P/E ratio is likely to indicate a good stock. Other companies have a "feast or famine" pattern, great earnings one year, no earnings or losses the following year. In that case, it is misleading to use a P/E ratio for a good year, when earni... |
selling apple stock limit order | Your order may or may not be executed. The price of stock can open anywhere. Often yesterday's close is a good indication of today's open, but with a big event overnight, the open may be somewhere quite different. You'll have to wait and see like the rest of us. Also, even if it doesn't execute at the open, the pri... |
Should I “hedge” my IRA portfolio with a life cycle / target date mutual fund? | First of all, it's great you're now taking full advantage of your employer match – i.e. free money. Next, on the question of the use of a life cycle / target date fund as a "hedge": Life cycle funds were introduced for hands-off, one-stop-shopping investors who don't like a hassle or don't understand. Such funds are g... |
Dispute credit card transaction with merchant or credit card company? | You should dispute the transaction with the credit card. Describe the story and attach the cash payment receipt, and dispute it as a duplicate charge. There will be no impact on your score, but if you don't have the cash receipt or any other proof of the alternative payment - it's your word against the merchant, and he... |
How profitable is selling your customer base? | Yes, some companies sell personal data on their customers, but it almost always means a bad business due to reputation cost. The Financial Times even made a calculator to demonstrate how much personal information is worth: The sellers get pennies for the info, so that any decent business would earn more staying away fr... |
Transfering money from NRE to saving account is taxable or not | Meagrely transferring money within your own accounts doesn't result in any tax, however legally once you are an NRI you cannot operate a savings account at all as per Reserve Bank Guidelines found here One option is for you to transfer to a joint account held by a close relative of yours with you and this would be tax ... |
Why do shareholders participate in shorting stocks? | Because they receive compensation (generally interest + dividends) for loaning out the shares. I own an asset X. Somebody else wants to borrow asset X for some time period. I agree to loan them asset X in return for some form of compensation (generally a rate of interest plus, in this specific case, any dividend pa... |
Does the profit of a company directly affect its stock or indirectly by causing people to buy or sell? | people implicity agree to sell stocks when a company does bad But, remember, when you sell the stock of a company that, in your estimation, 'did bad', someone else had to buy; otherwise, there is no sale. The someone else who bought your shares evidently disagrees with your assessment. Did you sell because the company ... |
Using simple moving average in Equity | One of the most obvious uses of SMAs is the detection of a trend reversal. A trend reversal happens when a short term SMA crosses over a longer term SMA. For example, if a 20 day moving average was, previously, above a 200 day moving average, but has crossed over the 200 day and is currently below the 200 day then the... |
What is the smartest thing to do in case of a stock market crash | If the market has not crashed but you know it will, sell short or buy puts. If the market has crashed, buy equities while they are cheap. If you don't know if or when it will crash hold a diversified portfolio including stocks, bonds, real estate, and alternatives (gold, etc). |
How are bonds affected by the Federal Funds Rate? | I'll answer your question, but first a comment about your intended strategy. Buying government bonds in a retirement account is probably not a good idea. Government bonds (generally) are tax advantaged themselves, so they offer a lower interest rate than other types of bonds. At no tax or reduced tax, many people wi... |
Retirement Options for Income | I agree that you should CONSIDER a shares based dividend income SIPP, however unless you've done self executed trading before, enough to understand and be comfortable with it and know what you're getting into, I would strongly suggest that as you are now near retirement, you have to appreciate that as well as the usual... |
What's the general principle behind choosing saving vs. paying off debt? | Depends upon the debt cost. Assuming it is consumer debt or credit card debt, it is better to pay that off first, it is the best investment you can make. Let's say it is credit card debt. If you pay 18% interst and have for example a $1,000 amount. If you pay it off you save $180 in interest ($1,000 times 18%). You wou... |
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... |
What will be the capital gains tax after we sell a rental home? | This will be a complex issue and you will need to sit down with a professional to work through the issues: When the house was put up for rent the initial year tax forms should have required that the value of the house/property be calculated. This number was then used for depreciation of the house. This was made more co... |
What are some good, easy to use personal finance software? [UK] | Money Dashboard and Love Money look like two best options out there now that Kublax closed their doors. Mint were making noises last year about spreading to UK/Canada, but I've not heard anything new about that. |
Can a Roth IRA be used as a savings account? | (To be clear, IRA accounts are just wrappers, and can contain a large variety of investments. I'm restricting myself to the usual setup of investment in the stock market.) So, let's say you have $5000 in savings, as an emergency fund. Of the top of my head, putting some of it into a Roth IRA could backfire in the follo... |
How an ETF pays dividend to shareholders if a holding company issues dividend | The amount, reliability and frequency of dividends paid by an ETF other than a stock, such as an index or mutual fund, is a function of the agreement under which the ETF was established by the managing or issuing company (or companies), and the "basket" of investments that a share in the fund represents. Let's say you... |
Is it a good practice to keep salary account and savings account separate? | There is no "should", but I am strongly of the view that if you have savings of several months' salary or more, they should not only be in a separate account, but with a separate financial institution, or even split between two others. A fraction of a percent of extra interest is scant reward for massively increased pe... |
Credit rating in Germany | The SCHUFA in Germany works a bit different from the FICO score in the US. My background: I am a German currently living in the US. The information others want to see from the SCHUFA are a bit different. If you want to example rent a house or an apartment, the landlord often wants to see a SCHUFA statement which only s... |
What investments are positively related to the housing market decline? | During the actual decline, there's very little money to be made and a lot to lose. When housing prices tank, everybody loses; the banks are exposed to higher risk of mortgage defaults, insurers start having to pay out more for "gas leaks" claiming over-leveraged homes, realtors starve because their commissions go do... |
Effect of Quantitative Easing on Price of Bonds | QE is artificial demand for bonds, but as always when there are more buyers than sellers the price of anything goes up. When QE ends the price of bonds will fall because everyone will know that the biggest buyer in the market is no longer there. So price of bonds will fall. And therefore the interest rate on new bonds... |
Live in Florida & work remote for a New York company. Do I owe NY state income tax? | New York State is one of a few states that will go after telecommuter taxes (such that some people may end up paying double tax even if they don't live in NY). There are a few ways that you can avoid this. If you NEVER come to NY for work, and your employer can stipulate that your position is only available to be fill... |
Can signing up at optoutprescreen.com improve my credit score? | Some credit checks are ignored as part of the scoring process. Some companies will pull your info, to make sure you haven't become a risk. Others will inquire before they send you an offer. Since you didn't initiate the inquiry it can't impact your score. |
Forex vs day trading for beginner investor | This image is an advertisement from this week's Barron's. The broker would want to put himself in the best light, correct? This shows you that of their current accounts, 53.5% are not profitable. And these guys have the best track record of the list. Also keep in mind that their client base isn't random. The winners t... |
Suitable Vanguard funds for a short-term goal (1-2 years) | If you are younger, and you not under undue pressure to buy a home at any particular time, investing in the market is a reasonable way to prepare. Your risk tolerance should be high. Understand that this means you may buy in 3-4 years instead of 1-2 if the market takes a down turn. It took ~3-4 years for the S&P 50... |
Solid reading/literature for investment/retirement/income taxes? | You bring up some very high level stuff, each of which can be the subject of a life's work. For taxes, I first read J.K. Lasser's Your Income Tax. I actually read it cover to cover instead of using it as a reference guide. I hit topics that I'd otherwise have never looked up on purpose. Once you familiarize yourself w... |
What are some good ways to control costs for groceries? | This may not help with the overall grocery issue, but I find that there are items that I can do without the name brand version of. A handy rule-of-thumb is to start with the least-expensive brand and work your way up, until you find one that your family likes. For instance, I've learned I can do without French's must... |
Is it unreasonable to double your investment year over year? | One thing I like to do every once in a while is look at the day's market movers. It's a list of symbols that had huge movement. There tend to be a couple of 50+% movers every time I look. In fact today I see ATV moved up 414.48%: So there it is—doubling your investment in one day and then some is technically possible.... |
Why would a company with a bad balance sheet be paying dividends? | Having a debt on a balance sheet does impact the capability and willingness of the company to pay dividend. But more than this it depends on the profitability of the company. If the company is profitable, there is no reasons why it's share holders should not be rewarded. If the company does not have debt, lot of money... |
I have around 60K $. Thinking about investing in Oil, how to proceed? | One possibility would be to invest in a crude oil ETF (or maybe technically they're an ETP), which should be easily accessible through any stock trading platform. In theory, the value of these investments is directly tied to the oil price. There's a list of such ETFs and some comments here. But see also here about s... |
How will I pay for college? | Firstly, good on you for thinking about it before you commit to it. Next. Chelonian provides lots of detail. Read that answer. Consider the cost of going. Use your local community college. Use a state school. Get a job as an intern or another entry level position, with an employer that will reimburse you for educa... |
Friend was brainwashed by MLM-/ponzi investment scam. What can I do? | Chances are high your friend isn't in it for the money, but the community or some vague dream of having a future income-generating side business because he can't get a loan for a 7-11 franchise. I run a few successful online businesses and had an import/export so naturally I run into these guys looking for advice on se... |
What to think of two at the money call options with different strike prices and premiums? | Your scenario depicts 2 "in the money" options, not "at the money". The former is when the share price is higher than the option strike, the second is when share price is right at strike. I agree this is a highly unlikely scenario, because everyone pricing options knows what everyone else in that stock is doing. Much a... |
In the USA, does the income tax rate on my wages increase with the amount of money in my bank account? | You can call what you're asking about a 'wealth tax', or 'capital tax'. These are taxes not based on income you earned in a year, but some measure of how much you own. Some countries (Italy I believe is a prime example) tax ownership of foreign land. Some countries tax amounts owned by corporations [Canada did this un... |
401k Rollover - on my own or through my financial advisor? | Call up vanguard and tell them you want to do a rollover. They walk you through the process. Spend some time on reading up on asset allocation and benefits of indexing. 1.5% every year is steep and what do you have in return? The advisor's word that he'll make it up. How much did he manage to return during the la... |
What is the ticker symbol for “Vanguard Target Retirement 2045 Trust Plus”? | Use VTIVX. The "Target Retirement 2045" and "Target Retirement 2045 Trust Plus" are the same underlying fund, but the latter is offered through employers. The only differences I see are the expense ratio and the minimum investment dollars. But for the purposes of comparing funds, it should be pretty close. Here is th... |
Paying restaurants in cash instead of credit card - how signficant is this? | You know those perks/benefits that you don't want to give up? Those are funded by the fees you are trying to eliminate by paying cash. The credit card company makes money by interest, merchant fees, and other fees such a annual fees. They give you perks to generate more transactions, thus bringing in more merchant fees... |
Why does gold have value? | I use to play marbles at school. Marbles were like gold the more you had the richer you were. They were a scarce commodity only a few in circulation. Once I secured a wealth of marbles I realized they were of little real value. They were only of illusory value. As long as we all were deceived into believe they had valu... |
Difference between GOOGL and GOOG | Note that these used to be a single "common" share that has "split" (actually a "special dividend" but effectively a split). If you owned one share of Google before the split, you had one share giving you X worth of equity in the company and 1 vote. After the split you have two shares giving you the same X worth of equ... |
Is being a landlord a good idea? Is there a lot of risk? | If you are able to buy a 150K home for 50K now that would be a good deal! However, you can't you have to borrow 100K in order to make this deal happen. This dramatically increases the risk of any investment, and I would no longer classify it as passive income. The mortgage on a 150K place would be about 710/month (... |
When does giving a gift “count” for tax year? | Based on past case law, a check made payable to qualified charity and delivered (e.g., placed in the mail on 12/31 would count as delivered as it is out of the hands of the donor) would fall under the "constructive receipt doctrine". However, for non-charitable gifts (e.g., gifts to family members) it is the date the c... |
What are the tax implications if I do some work for a company for trade, rather than pay? | Bartering is a tricky discussion. Yes, it definitely applies when you are self-employed and do a job that you would charge anyone else for, but what if you are helping a friend in your spare time? If you receive something in exchange, the value of the item you received would be your income, but what if you don't receiv... |
What options do I have at 26 years old, with 1.2 million USD? | You need the services of a hard-nosed financial planner. A good one will defend your interests against the legions of creeps trying to separate you from your money. How can you tell whether such a person is working in your best interest? Here are some ways. You'll be able to tell pretty quickly whether the planner let... |
Does a market maker sell (buy) at a bid or ask price? | The answer posted by Kirill Fuchs is incorrect according to my series 65 text book and practice question answers. The everyday investor buys at the ask and sells at the bid but the market maker does the opposite. THE MARKET MAKER "BUYS AT THE BID AND SELLS AT THE ASK", he makes a profit form the spread. I have posted a... |
I'm 23 and was given $50k. What should I do? | Here's what I'd do: Pay off the cards and medical. Deposit 35k in the best interest bearing accounts you can find (maybe some sort of ladder). Link your student loans payments to this account. This frees up $486 a month in income, and generates a small amount of interest at the same time. Now, set up some sort of reti... |
Why do gas stations charge different amounts in the same local area? | This is known as "Zone Pricing" or "Geographical Pricing". http://articles.latimes.com/2005/jun/19/business/fi-calprice19 Such price variations may seem odd, but they are not unique to Anaheim. On any given day, in any major U.S. city, a single brand of gasoline will sell for a wide range of prices even when the cost t... |
Anticipating being offered stock options in a privately held company upon employment. What questions should I ask? | Good questions. I can only add that it may be valuable if the company is bought, they may buy the options. Happened to me in previous company. |
Paying off a loan with a loan to get a better interest rate | If it's possible in your case to get such a loan, then sure, providing the loan fees aren't in excess of the interest rate difference. Auto loans don't have the fees mortgages do, but check the specific loan you're looking at - it may have some fees, and they'd need to be lower than the interest rate savings. Car loan... |
Should I move my money market funds into bonds? | If your money market funds are short-term savings or an emergency fund, you might consider moving them into an online saving account. You can get interest rates close to 1% (often above 1% in higher-rate climates) and your savings are completely safe and easily accessible. Online banks also frequently offer perks su... |
Bucketing investments to track individual growths | Some personal finance packages can track basis cost of individual purchase lots or fractions thereof. I believe Quicken does, for example. And the mutual funds I'm invested in tell me this when I redeem shares. I can't vouch for who/what would make this visible at times other than sale; I've never had that need. For th... |
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