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Covered calls: How to handle this trade?
I would expect that your position will be liquidated when the option expires, but not before. There's probably still some time value so it doesn't make sense for the buyer to exercise the option early and take your stock. Instead they could sell the option to someone else and collect the remaining time value. Occasiona...
How do I manage my portfolio as stock evaluation criteria evolve?
Don't sell. Ever. Well almost. A number of studies have shown that buying equal amounts of shares randomly will beat the market long term, and certainly won't do badly. Starting from this premise then perhaps you can add a tiny bit extra with your skill... maybe, but who knows, you might suck. Point is when buying y...
what is the meaning of allowing FDI in Insurance and pension funds
Insurance in India is offered by Private companies as well [ICICI, Maxbupa, SBI, Max and tons of other companies]. These are priavte companies, as Insurance sectors one has to look for long term stability, not everyone can just open an Insurance company, there are certain capital requirements. Initially the sharehold...
How much lump sum investment in stocks would be needed to yield a target stable monthly income?
I will add another point to ChrisinEdmonton's answer... I recognize that this is perhaps appropriate as a comment--or maybe 1/2 of an answer, but the comment formatting is inadequate for what I want to say. The magic formula that you need to understand is this: (Capital Invested) * (Rate of Return) = (Income per Peri...
Townhouse or stand-alone house for a first home?
If you buy a townhouse, you often are in a condominium arrangement in the US (when you're really in a rowhouse in particular). So that's a downside right away: you have to have a HOA, or at least some sort of common agreement, though it might not have formal meetings. Everyone who owns an interest in the entire group...
Renting or Buying an House
I actually didn't do the math with your numbers, but I recall Sal from Khan Academy did a nice video about your question, challenging the notion that it is always better to buy. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YL10H_EcB-E
Understanding the symbols next to the Ticker
BATS here means your data feed is coming from BATS only. You're not seeing up to date prices from NASDAQ, NYSE or any other of the ECNs. For a liquid equity like AAPL, BATS prices are typically up to date but for a less liquid listing, you wouldn't always see the NBBO. To get live feeds from every ECN, you have to pay....
What to bear in mind when considering a rental home as an investment?
Real estate is not an investment but pure speculation. Rental income may make it look like an investment but if you ask some experienced investor you would be told to stay away from real estate unless it is for your own use. If you believe otherwise then please read on : Another strong reason not to buy real estate rig...
What is a typical investment portfolio made up of?
Most people carry a diversity of stock, bond, and commodities in their portfolio. The ratio and types of these investments should be based on your goals and risk tolerance. I personally choose to manage mine through mutual funds which combine the three, but ETFs are also becoming popular. As for where you keep your p...
What are the risks of Dividend-yielding stocks?
The risk in a divident paying stock can come from 2 sources. The business of the company, or the valuation of the stock at the time you buy. The business of the company relates to how they are running things, the risks they are taking with the company, innovations in their pipeline, and their competitive landscape. Yo...
Is the MBA an overrated degree/qualification?
For some situations, an MBA can be overrated in the sense that given the cost of time and money, it isn't going to be a great return in some cases. There can be tens of thousands of dollars and a couple of years to get an MBA that some people believes should automatically make them worth $x more in their salary and lif...
Warrant shares/UNIT
A warrant is similar to a call option (the right to buy stock at a certain price), with the difference that warrants are filled by the issuing company with new shares, diluting the existing shareholders' ownership. The language is a bit confusing, but how I interpret it is: So your 9,000 shares will get you 3,000 share...
Why do cash back credit cards give a higher rate for dining and gasoline purchases?
I am not sure but probably it depends upon the cut the credit card company receives from the merchant. For Hotels such as dining etc. the cut could be more. Again, periodically, many merchants join with the card company to launch promotions. It could be part of such promotions. Apart from class of merchants, these poin...
If I plan to buy a car in cash, should I let the dealer know?
Yes you tell them. I can say that I pay cash for all my cars and always get cars for lower than the TrueCar low-end. There are basically two steps: go test drive, negotiate fully, leave (unless you are given a mind-blowing offer). This may take you one to many dealerships. It depends on how well you know what car y...
How to calculate how far a shorted stock's price can rise before broker issues a margin call?
Most brokers have a margin maintenance requirement of 30%. In your example, it would depend on how much money you're borrowing from your broker on margin. Consider this: You have $250, and short AAPL at $500 on margin. This would be a common scenario (federal law requires investors to have at least 50% of their margin...
Did I get screwed in taxes on a mutual fund dividend payment?
How is that possible?? The mutual fund doesn't pay taxes and passes along the tax bill to shareholders via distributions would be the short answer. Your basis likely changed as now you have bought more shares. But I gained absolutely nothing from my dividend, so how is it taxable? The fund has either realized capital...
How could the 14th amendment relate to the US gov't debt ceiling crisis?
Section Four of the amendment reads: The validity of the public debt of the United States, authorized by law, including debts incurred for payments of pensions and bounties for services in suppressing insurrection or rebellion, shall not be questioned. In other words, if President Obama wants to, he could unilaterally...
Advantages/Disadvantages to refinancing online?
For what its worth, I recently closed on a 30 year refinance mortage with an agent I found through Zillow. The lender has a perfect 5/5 reputation score, whose office was located within 5 miles of my house, and as suggested by justkt on MrChrister's response, I checked out the business on the better business bureau an...
How do I notify the IRS of a new member to an LLC?
You don't need to notify the IRS of new members, the IRS doesn't care (at this stage). What you do need, if you have a EIN for a single-member LLC, is to request a new EIN since your LLC is now a partnership (a different entity, from IRS perspective). From now on, you'll need to file form 1065 with the IRS in case of b...
Is a “total stock market” index fund diverse enough alone?
and seems to do better than the S&P 500 too. No, that's not true. In fact, this fund is somewhere between S&P500 and the NASDAQ Composite indexes wrt to performance. From my experience (I have it too), it seems to fall almost in the middle between SPY and QQQ in daily moves. So it does provide diversification, but you'...
How risky are penny stocks?
The biggest problem with penny stocks is that they are easily manipulated, and they frequently are. Many of the companies trading as penny stocks have poor track histories of accurate financials, and what information that is available is not very reliable or verifiable. I recall a few years ago when there were article...
Are investor's preference for dividends justified?
This question is predicated on the assumption that investors prefer dividends, as this depends on who you're speaking to. Some investors prefer growth stocks (some which don't pay dividends), so in this case, we're covering the percent of investors who like dividend paying stocks. It depends on who you ask and it also...
As a minor in the UK do I need to pay taxes on self-employment income, and if so how?
As a minor you certainly can pay tax, the government wants its cut from you just like everyone else :-) However you do get the personal allowance like everyone else, so you won't have to pay income tax until your net income reaches £10,800 (that's the figure for the tax year from April 2015 to April 2016, it'll probabl...
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...
How does a portfolio of long stocks and short futures generate profits
I know some derivative markets work like this, so maybe similar with futures. A futures contract commits two parties to a buy/sell of the underlying securities, but with a futures contract you also create leverage because generally the margin you post on your futures contract is not sufficient to pay for the collatera...
Would it make sense to buy a rental property as an LLC and not in my own name?
IANAL, but if you're planning to sell shares in your LLC you may be disappointed in the protection granted. I looked into this corporate structure for the same purpose myself, and my attorney said something like, "If an owner of one of the shares of your company is driving to look at one of the properties, and gets int...
Cash out 401k for house downpayment
As @AlexKuhl says, ever? yes, but generally? no. If your 401k is invested in stocks and bonds, the long term return is very likely higher than the interest on a mortgage. Long term return on the stock market is around 7%. Mortgage rates these days are around 4%. Add the tax penalty on top of that and you're almost sure...
How much money should I lock up in my savings account?
Firstly well done on building a really sold base of savings. An emergency fund needs to have two key characteristics: Be enough to get you through a typical emergency event (often seen as approx. ~6 months’ salary in your style of situation assuming you have no dependents etc) Be liquid and available to you instantly i...
Are parking spaces and garage boxes a good investment?
15 years ago I bought a beach condo in Miami for $400,000 and two extra parking spaces for $3000 each. Today the condo is worth 600,000 but the rent barely covers mortgage repairs and property taxes. Most of The old people in the building have since died and are now replaced with families with at least two cars and spo...
How should I pay off my private student loans that have a lot of restrictions?
Excellent question and it is a debate that is often raised. Mathematically you are probably best off using option #1. Any money that is above and beyond minimum payments earns a pretty high interest rate, about 6.82% in the form of saved interest payments. The problem is you are likely to get discouraged. Personal f...
Should I continue to invest in an S&P 500 index fund?
You shouldn't. The Dow has gained 7% annually on average since October 1915(inflation-adjusted). It has also lost 73% of its inflation-adjusted value from 1966 to 1982 meaning that it would have lost you 4.5% annually for 16 years. Furthermore, past performance is not indicative of future results. If stock markets keep...
Capital gains tax: Retirement vehicle (IRA, 401k) vs. anything else?
First of all, there are some differences between the retirement accounts that you mentioned regarding taxes. Traditional IRA and 401(k) accounts allow you to make pre-tax contributions, giving you an immediate tax deduction when you contribute. Roth IRA, Roth 401(k) are funded with after tax money, and a non-retireme...
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...
Why do I not see goods and services all change their price when inflation is high?
In most circumstances prices do not change on a daily basis on most goods and services, and just because inflation is high does not mean all prices of every good and service has to increase over the short term. Prices are determined by costs of doing business, manufacturing costs and wage growth, and by competition. ...
Should you diversify your bond investments across many foreign countries?
The Vanguard Emerging Market Bond Index has a SEC yield of 4.62%, an expense ratio of 0.34%, a purchase fee of 0.75%, and an average duration of 6.7 years. The Vanguard Emerging Market Bond Index only invests in US Dollar denominated securities, so it is not exposed to currency risk. The US Intermediate Term Bond Ind...
How to calculate the price of a bond based with a yield to Maturity, term and annual interest?
The answer to almost all questions of this type is to draw a diagram. This will show you in graphical fashion the timing of all payments out and payments received. Then, if all these payments are brought to the same date and set equal to each other (using the desired rate of return), the equation to be solved is gene...
Why don't boards of directors try to produce results in line with estimates?
First off, some companies do something like this. Microsoft for example was well-known for consistently hitting earnings estimates every quarter - nearly never missed them, and most of the time didn't exceed by much either. In order to do this and not be prosecuted for accounting fraud, you typically have to be a ser...
What investment strategy would you deduce from the latest article from Charles Munger?
So, I've read the article in question, "Basically, It's Over". Here's my opinion: I respect Charlie Munger but I think his parable misses the mark. If he's trying to convince the average person (or at least the average Slate-reading person) that America is overspending and headed for trouble, the parable could have b...
How much more than my mortgage should I charge for rent?
I just wanted to add one factor to the other answers. The cost of maintenance etc. is not a fraction of the cost of financing - it is more likely a fraction of the value of the house, and a function of its age. If you say you need to replace a roof every 25 years, and that costs $10,000 (depends on the size of the hous...
Why do bank statements end on *SUCH* wildly inconsistent days of the month?
Looking at your dates, I think I see a pattern. It appears that your statement closing date is always 17 business days before the last business day of the month. For example, if you start at May 31 and start counting backwards, skipping Saturdays, Sundays, and May 30 (Memorial Day), you'll see that May 5 is 17 busine...
Can I deduct work equipment I am not required to purchase by my employer?
Old question, but in the comments of the accepted answer, I believe Nate Eldredge is correct and littleadv is incorrect. Nate copied the actual quote from the IRS guidelines, quoted below: An expense is ordinary if it is common and accepted in your trade, business, or profession. An expense is necessary if it is approp...
Why is silver so volatile compared to the S&P 500?
Silver is a commodity. It's valuable for certain kinds of manufacturing, jewelry, and as a speculative financial instrument or hedge against the dollar. The S&P 500 includes companies which make money off of mining, manufacturing, medicine, media, technology, banking, dining, agriculture... There's a lot more variety t...
File bankruptcy, consolidate, or other options?
If your parents can afford to shell out $1,250 a month for 5 years, they would pretty much have the debt paid off, provided the credit card companies don't start playing games with rates. If that payment is too high, maybe you could kick in $5k every few months to knock the principal down. If they think the business c...
Little hazy on how the entire RSU's and etrade works
(I'm assuming the tag of United-states is accurate) Yes, the remaining amount is tax free -- at the current price. If you sell at exactly the original price, there is no capital gain, no capital loss. So you've already payed the taxes. If you sell and there is a capital gain of $3000, then you will pay taxes on the $...
I'm 23 and was given $50k. What should I do?
I would be realistic and recognize that however you invest this money, it is unlikely to be a life-changing sum. It is not going to provide an income which significantly affects your monthly budget, nor is it going to grow to some large amount which will allow you to live rent-free or similar. Therefore my advice is qu...
Making higher payments on primary residence mortgage or rental?
I'll assume you live in the US for the start of my answer - Do you maximize your retirement savings at work, at least getting your employer's match in full, if they do this. Do you have any other debt that's at a higher rate? Is your emergency account funded to your satisfaction? If you lost your job and tenant on the...
For very high-net worth individuals, does it make sense to not have insurance?
I think that insurance is one of the best things ever created for this reasons:
What is a “retail revolving account,” and does it improve my credit score?
In the other question, the OP had posted a screenshot (circa 2010) from Transunion with suggestions on how to improve the OP's credit score. One of these suggestions was to obtain "retail revolving accounts." By this, they are referring to credit accounts from a particular retail store. Stores have been offering cre...
When is it better to rent and when is better buy in a certain property market?
For US punters, the Centre for Economic and Policy Research has a Housing Cost Calculator you can play with. The BBC provides this one for the UK. For everyone else, there are a few rules of thumb (use with discretion and only as a ball-park guide): Your example of a Gross Rental Yield of 5% would have to be weighed u...
If a stock doesn't pay dividends, then why is the stock worth anything?
Not sure how this has got this far with no obvious discussion about the huge tax advantages of share buy backs vs dividend paying. Companies face a very simple choice with excess capital - pay to shareholders in the form of a taxable dividend, invest in future growth where they expect to make more than $1 for every $1...
What are the economic benefits of owning a home in the United States?
To add to what other have stated, I recently just decided to purchase a home over renting some more, and I'll throw in some of my thoughts about my decision to buy. I closed a couple of weeks ago. Note that I live in Texas, and that I'm not knowledgeable in real estate other than what I learned from my experiences in t...
Query regarding international transaction between governments
$USD, electronic or otherwise, are not created/destroyed during international transactions. If India wants to buy an F-16s, at cost $34M USD, they'll have to actually acquire $34M USD, or else convince the seller to agree to a different currency. They would acquire that $34M USD in a few possible ways. One of which is ...
Do tax-exempt bond fund earnings need to be reported on taxes?
At the end of the year, the mutual fund company sends you a statement like any other investment and it has a bunch of boxes that you copy into your tax return software. Then you just check the box that says 'tax-exempt' and you're done.
What suggested supplemental income opportunities exist for a 70 year old Canadian retiree?
My initial thoughts would be an ESL teacher or a private tutor for various subjects would likely be the easiest ones to consider. Possibly there are some people that could use the help in their education that would work well.
Placing limit order and stop loss on same stock at same time
Although this is possible with many brokers, it's not advisable. In many cases you may end up with both trades executed at the same time. This is because during the opening, the stock might spike up or down heavily, bid/ask spread widens, and both of your orders would get picked up, resulting in an instant loss. Your b...
Is This A Scam? Woman added me on LinkedIn first, then e-mailed offering me millions of dollars [duplicate]
Yes. If you reply back, they'll confirm that Uncle Alex did indeed leave you $7 million, and you just need to send them a few thousand dollars for taxes and estate fees and then they'll wire you the money. And then there'll be customs fees. And then more taxes. And of course, there will be separate import fees. An...
Why are American Express cards are not as popular as Visa or MasterCard?
Those extra treat points have to come from somewhere, and they come from American Express charging merchants a higher percentage than Visa or Mastercard. So it's less attractive for those merchants to accept it.
How to calculate cash loss over time?
There are two things you need to keep in mind when you look at Inflation as an entity. Inflation is necessary to keep in check the value of goods. As per Moore's Law for example, a mobile phone that you buy for £100 today will be available for £50 in two years. With increased purchasing power, one needs to maintain bal...
What makes a stock get 40 times avg daily volume without any news?
Probably the biggest driver of the increased volumes that day was a change in sentiment towards the healthcare sector as a whole that caused many healthcare companies to experience higher volumes ( https://www.bloomberg.com/press-releases/2017-07-11/asset-acquisitions-accelerate-in-healthcare-sector-boosting-potential-...
US Dollar Index: a) where are long term charts; also b) is it available on Google Finance by any chance?
a) the quick answer to your correlation is quantitative easing. basically the central bank has been devaluing the US dollar, making the prices of all goods increase (including stocks.) the stock market appear to have recovered from 2009 lows but its mainly an illusion. anyway the QE packages are very known when the co...
Any difficulties in doing deceased relative's taxes?
There are two different tax returns you'll be doing: one is for her, until the day of her death. The other is for the estate. The personal one you could probably do on your own, it's nothing different from the one for a living person, except for the cut-off date in the middle of the year. The estate tax return may be a...
What publicly available software do professional stock traders use for stock analysis?
Bloomberg is very popular, especially for researching individual companies. Market QA and Factset are popular for analyzing data. Microsoft Excel and Matlab are very common for analyzing the data. Lots of time traders will take data from Bloomberg, Market QA, Factset or where ever, and then actually preform their anal...
Why is early exercise generally not recommended for an in-the-money option?
The crucial insight is that the alternative to early exercise of an American call is not necessarily to hold it to expiry, but to sell it. And selling it, at its value, is always better than exercising it. Note that this holds only for options on assets that don't pay dividends. Here's the proof, using Put-Call-Parity...
Online stock screener to find stocks that are negatively correlated to another stock/index?
Finviz can be screened by beta which is an index of correlation. Finviz covers all major North American exchanges and some others.
How to treat miles driven to the mechanic, gas station, etc when calculating business use of car?
Alright, IRS Publication 463: Travel, Entertainment, Gift, and Car Expenses Business and personal use. If you use your car for both business and personal purposes, you must divide your expenses between business and personal use. You can divide your expense based on the miles driven for each purpose. Example. Yo...
Opening 5 credit cards at once with no history to ruin, is it a good idea?
I would not call this a "good" idea. But I wouldn't necessarily call it a bad idea either. Before you even consider it, you need to do a little bit of soul searching. If there is ANY chance that having multiple credit cards could entice you to spend more than you otherwise would, then this is definitely a bad idea. Avo...
Does the IRS reprieve those who have to commute for work?
Short answer, yes. But this is not done through the deductions on Schedule A. This can happen if the employer creates a Flexible Spending Account (FSA) for its employees. This can be created for certain approved uses like medical and transportation expenses (a separate account for each category). You can contribute amo...
Why don't more people run up their credit cards and skip the country?
Even if you could get it with no major hassle, $100,000 is just not that much money. In a cheap third world country, as an expat you're looking at spending about $800-$2000/month, plus unexpected expenses. Locals live on less, but very few of us would be happy with the lifestyle of a Honduran or Thai farmer. Your 100k...
How can I help others plan their finances, without being a “conventional” financial planner?
You need a license/registration to be a "conventional" financial planner. But as long as your work is limited to budgets, and cash flow analysis, it may be more like accounting. In your shoes, I would consult the local CPA association about what you need (if anything) to do what you're doing.
Allocating IRA money, clarification needed
There was a time that a rule of thumb stated your stock allocation should be 100-your age. That rule suggests that you are at 65%stock/35% bond/cash. If you are comfortable having this money 100% invested, the best advice would be dollar cost averaging, anything more specific would suggest market timing.
What are the tax implications of lending to my own LLC?
It looks like you'd just be charging yourself interest and paying yourself back, because it's a pass-through entity, as I'm sure you know. (This assumes you're the only member of the LLC.) It all depends on how much money you want inside the protective cover of the LLC, and for how long. It doesn't seem to make much ...
Prices go up and salary doesn't: where goes delta?
Purchasing commodities (whose prices are increasing rapidly), improving corporate profitability, buying imports (the US dollar is weaker than it was, so the price of everything imported has gone up), paying down corporate debt, etc.
How can I claim tax back from whilst I was working in Austria?
I don't have any specific situation on the situation in Austria, but in general there are a few things that you should keep in mind. First of all, the official website of the Austrian tax authorities appears to be this one: https://www.bmf.gv.at/steuern/startseite-steuern.html. There is an English page there, but it is...
My friend wants to put my name down for a house he's buying. What risks would I be taking?
Wrong way round. Transitional arrangements are non-binding guidelines that the lenders can observe if they choose to. The borrower - like your friend - doesn't get to choose whether to use them or not. Your friend obviously can't afford the property, so if you do this, all I can say is congratulations on buying your n...
How can banks afford to offer credit card rewards?
Michael Pryor's answer is accurate to the actual question asked. The current accepted answer from Dheer is not entirely true but roughly provides an overview of the different entities involved in a typical transaction, with some wrong terminologies, corrected and improved below. The issuing bank, the one that issues t...
Can I work with two or more mortgage brokers at the same time?
Obviously mate. Mortgage advisors don't have just one client, similarly why should you have only one advisor? it´s an open market. Don't worry about wasting their time, you are not wasting their time if you are considering a mortgage. then, in case you found a better deal with another mortgage advisor then that´s life ...
Am I “cheating the system” by opening up a tiny account with a credit union and then immediately applying for a huge loan?
Credit Unions turn a profit by lending money at a higher interest rate than their savings do, just like banks do. It is an amoral feat, completely parallel to any moral weights you have assigned to "the system". If the most favorable circumstance is you receiving access to capital, then you can easily achieve that with...
How can home buying be considered a sound investment with all of that interest that needs to be paid?
The flaw in your reasoning is that you are assuming that renting a house is easy and automatic. Who is going to manage the property? Your parents? What are you going to do if the tenants burn the place down, start having drug parties there, or secretly have 6 cats who piss everywhere so noone will ever want to rent it ...
Where can I borrow money for investing?
Borrow money and start a business. Follow your business plan and invest in yourself and your entrepreneurship. If you mean invest in the market, do not borrow money. In your plan, you are willing to make payments right? There are lots of things you can do better, but borrowing money to invest in the market for a co...
What happens if my order exceeds the bid or ask sizes?
This is a great question precisely because the answer is so complicated. It means you're starting to think in detail about how orders actually get filled / executed rather than looking at stock prices as a mythical "the market". "The market price" is a somewhat deceptive term. The price at which bids and asks last cros...
Where should I park my money if I'm pessimistic about the economy and I think there will be high inflation?
If you think your cash will buy fewer goods in the future due to inflation, are there goods you will want or need in the future that you can purchase now? I think the cost of storage would need to be less than the inflation in price for this to make sense. If you used commodity trading there may not actually be a stora...
Why do people buy insurance even if they have the means to overcome the loss?
Insurance isn't a product designed to protect against financial loss. The product is designed to allow people to pay a small fee (the premium) for peace of mind. This allows the insured to feel as if their purchase was worthy (they see the potential of loss as a concern and the premiums small enough to allow them to no...
What can I replace Microsoft Money with, now that MS has abandoned it?
I've been budgeting with MS Money since 2004 and was pretty disappointed to hear it's being discontinued. Budgeting is actually a stress-relieving hobby for me, and I can be a bit of a control-freak when it comes to finances, so I decided to start early looking for a replacement rather than waiting until MS Money can n...
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?
If you think that your parents' home is in danger, you might want to check what it would take to make sure their house is safe, and what the financial situation actually is. You are paying rent, there are brothers who may or may not be paying rent. We don't have the information, you have. Saving that house might be a w...
How can I tell what is “real” Motley Fool advice?
These advertisements try to take advantage of the short term memory loss of older people. If you keep an old person watching long enough they will forget why they started watching in the first place. Yet they trust themselves and assume that it was for a good reason. So the long winded salespitch succeeds with older pe...
What are my chances at getting a mortgage with Terrible credit but High income
I also am paying roughly twice as much in rent as a mortgage payment would be on the type of house I have been looking at, so I'd really like to purchase a house if possible. Sounds like I need to rain on your parade a bit: there's a lot more to owning a house than the mortgage. Property tax, insurance, PMI, and mainte...
Why invest for the long-term rather than buy and sell for quick, big gains?
There are people (well, companies) who make money doing roughly what you describe, but not exactly. They're called "market makers". Their value for X% is somewhere on the scale of 1% (that is to say: a scale at which almost everything is "volatile"), but they use leverage, shorting and hedging to complicate things to t...
How can rebuilding a city/large area be considered an economic boost?
The people who benefit are large engineering and construction companies, manufacturers of construction equipment, bankers and lawyers. So in the world of realpolitik that we live in, the misery of millions of "other people" is spun as a net benefit, because "we" benefit from that misery.
Real estate loans for repairs
If you intend to flip this property, you might consider either a construction loan or private money. A construction loan allows you to borrow from a bank against the value of the finished house a little at a time. As each stage of the construction/repairs are completed, the bank releases more funds to you. Interest acc...
What one bit of financial advice do you wish you could've given yourself five years ago?
I was offered a student credit card and refused it. If I'd taken it and used it sparingly, paying off the balance on time in full every month, I'd have built up a better credit rating in the time period.
Do Options take Dividend into account?
The CBOE had a great article on this. I will search for it and edit. The normal dividends are not adjusted. Which is why you see early exercise of just out of the money options sometimes. To get that dividend. A special dividend, say a $50 stock with $1/yr dividend but now has a $3 one time dividend would likely result...
what would you do with $100K saving?
The real answer is "Why do you want to waste a windfall chasing quick returns?" Instead, use this windfall to improve your financial situation, and maybe boost you toward financial independence, or at least a secure retirement. In simplest terms, forget the short term, go for long term. Whatever you do, avoid lifest...
Is it cheaper to use car Insurance or pay out of pocket?
There's not a single answer here, as the premium you pay for car insurance depends on multiple factors, including (but not limited to): All these factors contribute to the likelihood of getting into an accident, and the expected damage from an accident. So just having an accident and making a claim will likely raise y...
How can I avoid international wire fees or currency transfer fees?
Be aware that ATM withdrawals often generate hidden fees, which are not obviously declared. Many banks operate e.g. with a currency exchange fee, giving you an exchange rate some 1-2% lower than actually applicable. If you withdraw larger amounts, such a currency exchange fee easily adds up to what you would have paid ...
Can I withdraw cash from selling investments before the settlement date?
No, you cannot withdraw the money until settlement day. Some brokers will allow you to trade with unsettled funds, but you cannot withdraw it until it is settled. Think about it, when you buy stock you have to pay for them by T+3, so if you sell you actually don't receive the funds until T+3.
If a employers supposed to calulate drive time pay with your weekly gross pay
You're getting paid by the job, not by the hour, so I don't see why you think the employer is obligated to pay you for the drive time. The only way that might be true, as far as I can see, is if he were avoiding paying you minimum wage by structuring your employment this way. It looks like to me you're over the minim...
Where should I park my rainy-day / emergency fund?
Something with an FDIC guarentee, so a bank. With an emergency fund, I think the 'return of capital' is more important than the 'return on the capital', so I'm fine with putting it in a standard savings account in a local bank(not an internet account) even if it pays next to nothing. The beauty is that since the bank i...
How can Schwab afford to refund all my ATM fees?
I am using my debit card regularly: in ATM's with a pin, in stores with my signature, and online. But later you say But from what I recall from starting my own business (a LONG time ago), for debit cards there's only a per-transaction fee of like $0.25, not a percentage cut. Only pin transactions have just a per-trans...
Should I Have Received a 1099-G?
If you don't itemize your deductions, your state tax refund is not considered income to you. Even if you didn't receive the actual 1099-G, you know how much refund you got, so you can calculate if you need to add it back to your income this year using the worksheet on page 23 of the instructions.
How smart is it to really be 100% debt free?
I think about debt as a good option for capital investments that offer a return. In my opinion, a house and clothes you need for that new job are good things to borrow for. School is ok, depending on the amount. Car is ok, if it's a 3 year loan. The rest is not good. You should try to carry as little debt as possible, ...