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My friend wants to put my name down for a house he's buying. What risks would I be taking?
Short answer: don't do it. Unless you know something that the bank doesn't, it's safe to assume that banks are a lot better at assessing risk than you are. If they think he can't afford it, odds are he can't afford it regardless of what he might say to the contrary. In this case, the best answer may be "sorry for your ...
Should I file taxes or Incorperate a personal project?
Normally, incorporation is for liability reasons. Just file your taxes as a business. This just means adding a T2125 to your personal return. There's no registering, that's for GST if over a certain threshold. There's even a section in the instructions for internet businesses. http://www.cra-arc.gc.ca/E/pub/tg/t4002...
What happens to a call option in a cash/stock acquisition?
I believe that your option contracts will become "non-standard" and will be for a combination of ACE stock and cash. The allocation between stock and cash should follow that of the acquisition parameters of the underlying - probably with fractional shares converted to cash. Hence 1 call contract for 100 shares of CB w...
How can I get a wholesaler ID number?
This is a state by state thing, and I'm cheating because I know you are in New York State:
New car cash vs finance
Yes, maybe. Sometimes the mother company (that makes the car) covers a bit of the loss that comes from the super-offer loan, so the dealer loses a bit less. But generally, you are right. you should be able to talk them into some rebate that gets you around the given number, depending on how good you are a negotiator (a...
Placing bid in market price
Market price is just the bid or offer price of the last sell or buy order in the market. The price that you actually receive or pay will be the price that the person buying the stock off you or selling it to you will accept. If there are no other participants in the market to make up the other side of your order (i.e. ...
What is the preferred way to finance home improvements when preparing to sell your house?
You should look into a home equity line of credit: A home equity line of credit (often called HELOC and pronounced HEE-lock) is a loan in which the lender agrees to lend a maximum amount within an agreed period (called a term), where the collateral is the borrower's equity in his/her house. Because a home often is a co...
Do investors go long option contracts when they cannot cover the exercise of the options?
I do this often and have never had a problem. My broker is TD Ameritrade and they sent several emails (and even called and left a message) the week of expiry to remind me I had in the money options that would be expiring soon. Their policy is to automatically exercise all options that are at least $.01 in the money. ...
Why would you elect to apply a refund to next year's tax bill?
Not a financially sound decision in my humble opinion. Basically, you are prepaying your taxes and the only reason you want to do that is if you don't have the discipine to save that money for when it is time to pay next year (assuming you will have to).
Vanguard Target Retirement Fund vs. Similar ETF Distribution (w/ REIT)
Target Date Funds automatically change their diversification balance over time, rebalancing and reassigning new contributions to become progressively more protective of what you've already earned. (As opposed to other funds which continue to maintain the same balance of investments until you explicitly move the money a...
Avoid Capital Gains on Rental
Your question is best asked of a tax expert, not random people on the internet. Such an expert will help you ask the right questions. For example you did not point out the country or state in which you live. That matters. First point is that you will not pay tax on 60K, its expensive to transact real estate, so you...
Child is on the way, invest for college and car fund options - opinions
Look at your options with a 529 program. If the money is used for education expenses: that currently includes tuition, room & board (even if living off campus), books, transportation; it grows tax free. Earnings are not subject to federal tax and generally not subject to state tax when used for the qualified educatio...
Why do 10 year-old luxury cars lose so much value?
The answer is very simple. Part of the luxury is having the cutting edge technology with the very latest features. The price premium is not just from increased build quality; it's simply a perception. Additionally, 10 years takes its toll on a car. The smooth suspension gets rougher over time, and all the little featur...
What one bit of financial advice do you wish you could've given yourself five years ago?
2 things:
Can company owners use lay offs to prevent restricted stock from vesting before an acquisition?
As littleadv says it depends on the local laws. Normally one shouldn't be too worried. Typically the stocks given to the employees are a very small portion of the overall stocks ... the owners would not try to jeopardize the deal just so that they make an incrementally small amount of money ... they would rather play...
Can someone help me understand my student loans?
Paying the minimum balance on a loan can be DEVASTATING and is highly UN-RECOMMENDED. It is important you understand your loan and the terms associated with it. Loans are given for a period of time but if you pay the minimum it does NOT mean you will pay it all off by the end. When paying a loan money is applied to the...
How can I diversify $7k across ETFs and stocks?
nan
What are stock indexed funds and how do they lower taxes?
who computes the S&P 500? Standard and Poor's. Why are they sharing this information and Because that's what they do. This is a financial research company. how do they recuperate the costs inherent in computing the S&P 500? By charging clients for other information. The computing of the index itself is not all that com...
Offer Price for my stock not shown on quote and a subsequent sale higher than my offer
Many exchanges trade the same securities. An order may be posted to a secondary exchange, but if the National Best Bid and Offer data provider malfunctions, only those with data feeds from that exchange will see it. Only the data provider for the primary exchange where a stock is listed provides the NBBO. Missing orde...
Negatives to increased credit card spending limit? [duplicate]
https://money.stackexchange.com/a/79252/41349 https://money.stackexchange.com/a/79261/41349 Adding to @Chris H answer about damage limitation Online purchases could include phone/tablet app purchases, which could be an issue if you have children or you are a victim of fraud. First link from googling "Kid racks up almo...
Beginner questions about stock market
First, welcome to Money.SE. If you are interested in saving and investing, this is a great site to visit. Please take the tour and just start to read the questions you find interesting. 1 - even though this is hypothetical, it scales down to an average investor. If I own 1000 shares of the 1 billion, am I liable if th...
Would it be considered appropriate to use a market order for my very first stock trade?
A few of the answers are spot on but here's another thing to consider: the type of trade. For example, I sometimes day trade stocks with momentum where the stock price is spiking relatively fast. A limit order in this situation may never get filled and you will miss out on the trade. A market order will get you filled ...
How bad is it to have a lot of credit available but not used?
While @BrianRogers makes some good points, there are a few things you need to consider from the FICO perspective that I want to lay out simply for you:
Why can't poor countries just print more money?
Printing money doesn't mean that their wealth increases. It just devalues the money they already have. So it will just take more money to buy goods from another country. Printing money will also lead to over inflation which has its own set of problems such as:
Plan/education for someone desiring to achieve financial independence primarily through investing?
The basic problem here is that you need to have money to invest before you can make a profit from it. Now if you have say $500K or more, you can put that in mutual funds and live modestly off the profits. If you don't have that $500K to start out with, you're either looking at a long time frame to accumulate it - say...
why is the money withdrawn from traditional IRA taxed at the ordinary income tax rate?
This is actually (to me) an interesting point to note. While the answer is "that's what Congress wrote," there are implications to note. First, for many, the goal of tax deferral is to shift 25% or 28% income to 15% income at retirement. With long term gains at 15%, simply investing long term post tax can accomplish a...
Advice on strategy for when to sell
I bought 1000 shares of a $10 stock. When it doubled, I sold half, no need to be greedy. I watched the shares split 2 for one, and sold as it doubled and doubled again. In the end, I had $50,000 in cash pulled out and still had 100 shares. The shares are now worth $84K since they split 7 for one and trade near $120. H...
I'm only spending roughly half of what I earn; should I spend more?
Looks like you don't want to participate in the consumerist rush but feel that you just have to do that too. First of all, you don't have to do what you don't want. Then there're researches showing that joy from a compulsive purchase only lasts for a short period of time and then you are left with a relatively useless ...
2016, USA banks with low/no fee for incoming OVERSEAS USD wire transfers?
Ally Bank $0 - from their website (emphasis mine): To receive a wire transfer from a non-U.S. bank: Incoming wire transfers from a non-US bank are processed by our designated receiving bank, JP Morgan Chase Bank, N.A. You'll need to provide the following information to the person or business sending the wire transf...
Are there any viable alternatives to Paypal for a small site?
I found out about Google checkout today, it looks like it may meet my needs, but I'd still be interested to find out about other options.
What happens if one brings more than 10,000 USD with them into the US?
Bad plan. This seems like a recipe for having your money taken away from you by CBP. Let me explain the biases which make it so. US banking is reliable enough for the common citizen, that everyone simply uses banks. To elaborate, Americans who are unbanked either can't produce simple identity paperwork; or they got ...
Withdraw funds with penalty or bear high management fees for 10 years?
Most financial "advisors" are actually financial-product salesmen. Their job is to sweet-talk you into parting with as much money as possible - either in management fees, or in commissions (kickbacks) on high-fee investment products** (which come from fees charged to you, inside the investment.) This is a scrappy, cu...
Which is the better strategy for buying stocks monthly?
Powers makes a good point: trading costs may eat up a significant portion of your ROI. A fee as little as 2% can consume more than 50% of your long-term ROI! A rule of thumb is keep your fees to less than 1%. One way to do that is to buy stock in companies that have a DRIP with a Share Purchase Plan (SPP). Often the SP...
What happens when a calendar spread is assigned in a non-margin account?
I would think that a lot of brokers would put the restriction suggested in @homer150mw in place or something more restrictive, so that's the first line of answer. If you did get assigned on your short option, then (I think) the T+3 settlement rules would matter for you. Basically you have 3 days to deliver. You'll ge...
What software do you recommend for Creating a To-The-Penny, To-The-Day Budget?
I wrote a little program one time to try to do this. I think I wrote it in Python or something. The idea was to have a list of "projected expenses" where each one would have things like the amount, the date of the next transaction, the frequency of the transaction, and so on. The program would then simulate time, det...
How much percent of my salary should I use to invest in company stock?
Does your company offer a 401k? or similar pre-tax retirement plans? Is your company a publicly traded company? These questions are important, basically the key to any of your investments should be diversification. This means buying more than one kind of investment, amongst stock(s), bonds, real estate or more. The ans...
What is the correct answer for percent change when the start amount is zero dollars $0?
There is no numerical convention in finance that I have ever seen. If you look at statements or reports that measure growth when the starting value is negative or zero, you typically see "n/a" or "-" or "*" as the result. Any numerical result would be meaningless. Suppose you used 100% and another company had a legi...
Is 0% credit card utilization worse than 1-20% credit card utilization for any reason other than pure statistics?
The whole point of a credit report and, by extension, a credit score, is to demonstrate (and judge) your ability to repay borrowed funds. Everything stems from that goal; available credit, payment history, collections, etc all serve to demonstrate whether or not you personally are a good investment for lenders to purs...
Do Americans really use checks that often?
When you start at a new job here in the U.S., the default means of payment is usually a paper check. Most folks will quickly set up direct deposit so that their employer deposits their paycheck directly into their personal bank account - the incentive to do so is that you receive your funds faster than if you deposit a...
$1.44 million in holdings: Help my non-retired, 80-year-old dad invest it
This is not the answer you were hoping for. I recommend that you stay out of it and let your parents do what they want with their money. They are obviously very good savers and very thrifty with their money. At this point, they likely have more money than they need for the rest of their lives, even if it doesn't grow...
If a country can just print money, is global debt between countries real?
This is a extremely complicated subject, but I assume you want a very simple answer (otherwise I'm not qualified to answer). The value of most currencies is closely tied to the economy of the county, so if China were to print a huge amount of yuan, then since the value of their economy has not really changed, the inter...
Why buy insurance?
There are many situations where injecting a certain amount of cash at the right time may reap rewards far in excess of the value of the cash injected. For example, if someone who needs a car to get to work gets in a wreck and that person does not have ready money to make it driveable may have no choice but to secure ve...
Are stories of turning a few thousands into millions by trading stocks real?
If they could really do this, do you really think they would be wasting their time offering this course? You are being lied to. (Or more accurately: It's certainly possible to gamble and get lucky, but those gambles are more likely to result in your rapidly losing your money than in your rapidly gaining value.) It is...
Shared groceries expenses between roommates to be divided as per specific consumption ratio and attendance
Bren's comment is right on the mark. The typical solution is to divide all bills by 5, and for special items, the person buying it just marks his name that it's not community food. Your attempt at a granularity level this detailed is admirable, but produces false results. What happens when I claim to be a zero percen...
In Australia, how to battle credit card debt?
JoeTaxpayer mentioned a budget. Staying on top of your spending will be the result of getting out from under this debt. You may have Excel on your PC now, if not Open Office is free which has a program that handles finance applications. There is budgeting software for free out there. Youneedabudget.com is a lot better ...
How to evaluate an annuity
Guaranteed 8.2% annual return sounds too good to be true. Am I right? Are there likely high fees, etc.? You're right. Guaranteed annual return is impossible, especially when you're talking about investments for such a long period of time. Ponzi (and Madoff) schemed their investors using promises of guaranteed return ...
Why do passive ETFs require so much trading (and incur costs)?
Now, if I'm not mistaken, tracking a value-weighted index is extremely easy - just buy the shares in the exact amount they are in the index and wait. Yes in theory. In practise this is difficult. Most funds that track S&P do it on sample basis. This is to maintain the fund size. Although I don't have / know the exact n...
Income tax laibility in India for Stock traded in USA as a resident Indian
my tax liabilities in India on my stock profit in US You would need to pay tax on the profit in India as well after you have become resident Indian. India and US have a double tax avoidance treaty. Hence if you have already paid tax in US, you can claim benefit and pay balance if any. For example if you US tax liabili...
Buying my first car out of college
I've seen this approach to buying/funding cars described in a couple of different ways over the years. Random thoughts:
How should I pay off my private student loans that have a lot of restrictions?
Are there any (monthly) administrative fees on those loans that are charged separately? If not, you should just pay as much as you can as quick as you can to get the loan amount down on those loans with the highest interest rate. If there are no separate fees on the loans, then it's just a lump of money with some inter...
Why is the stock market price for a share always higher than the earnings per share?
First, the earnings are per year, not per quarter. Why would you expect to get a 100% per year return on your money? The earnings can go one of two ways. They can be retained, reinvested in the company, or they can be distributed as a dividend. So, the 'return' on this share is just over 5%, which is competitive with ...
What to do with your savings in Japan
The reason for these low interests is that the Japanese central bank is giving away money at negative interests to banks. Yes, negative. So, short of opening your own bank, you'll have to either choose less liquid investments or more risky ones. Get Japanese government bonds. Not a great interest, band not that liquid,...
Once stock prices are down, where to look for good stock market deals?
Something you might want to consider, instead of going out bargain hunting in hopes of picking something up on the cheap is to start doing you research now for a stock you would like to have in your portfolio and watch it for news that might cause it to go down before picking it up when it is down for a bit. As you poi...
Germany: Employee and Entrepreneur at same time (for getting AppStore payments)
In Germany you can register a Einzelunternehmen and receive payments into your personal bank account with a German bank. Apple will certainly be able to transfer to accounts in Germany as payments go via the European SEPA standard. Tax wise if you are living in Germany you will need to pay tax in Germany, so this is re...
Net money invested in Stock indexes ended up in red
Not sure where you got the 296 crores figure. The data on the sheet shows activity by category of investors. In the end NET of all BUY and SELL across all categories will always be Zero. It has no bearing on whether the stock market goes up or goes down. If you compare only activity by certain category, say FII then th...
Why would anyone buy a government bond?
Great question. There are several reasons; I'm going to list the few that I can think of off the top of my head right now. First, even if institutional bank holdings in such a term account are covered by deposit insurance (this, as well as the amount covered, varies geographically), the amount covered is generally triv...
Does the low CAD positively or negatively impact Canadian Investors?
At the time of writing, the Canadian dollar is worth roughly $0.75 U.S. Now, it's not possible for you to accurately predict what it'll be worth in, say, ten years. Maybe it'll be worth $0.50 U.S. Maybe $0.67. Maybe $1.00. Additionally, you can't know in advance if the Canadian economy will grow faster than the U.S., o...
401K - shift from agressive investment to Money Market
If you look at history, it shows that the more people predict corrections the less was the chance they came. That doesn't prove it stays so, though. 2017 is not any different than other years in the future: Independent of this, with less than ten years remaining until you need to draw from your money, it is a good idea...
Do dividend quotes for U.S. stocks include witheld taxes?
The dividend quoted on a site like the one you linked to on Yahoo shows what 1 investor owning 1 share received from the company. It is not adjusted at all for taxes. (Actually some dividend quotes are adjusted but not for taxes... see below.) It is not adjusted because most dividends are taxed as ordinary income. Thi...
Adjusting a value for inflation each month using rolling 12-monthly inflation figures
In the style of the Bank of England's Inflation Calculator, you can do the calculation like so. The third column is an index made from the inflation figures and the forth column shows the inflation-adjusted values. Using the index to calculate the difference in costs, for example: The formulas used to produce the tabl...
Where to park money while saving for a car
I would split the savings as you may need some of it quickly for an emergency. At least 1/2 should be very liquid, such as cash or MMA/Checking. From there, look at longer term CDs, from 30 day to 180 day, depending upon your situation. Don't be surprised if by the time you've saved the money up, your desire for the ...
Home Renovations are expensive.. Should I only pay cash for them?
Is it a safety thing? If the heat pump goes out you replace it immediately, if your floor looks bad but you aren't tripping, I would suggest saving. Use the extra time to find a great deal and educate yourself on your options. Maybe even take a class and learn to do it yourself. In these rough times, anything I can ...
Can you use external money to pay trading commissions in tax-free and tax-deferred accounts?
Nice idea. When I started my IRAs, I considered this as well, and the answer from the broker was that this was not permitted. And, aside from transfers from other IRAs or retirement accounts, you can't 'deposit' shares to the IRA, only cash.
What expenses do most people not prepare for that turn into “emergencies” but are not covered by an Emergency Fund?
The most obvious one these days is unexpected and extended unemployment. If you are living paycheck to paycheck, you are asking for trouble in this economy.
Converting bank statements to another currency?
If the account is not dollar-denominated, I would say it does not make sense at all to have dollar-denominated statements. Such a statement would not even be accurate for any reasonable amount of time (since FX rates constantly fluctuate). This would be a nightmare for accounting purposes. If you really need to know th...
Why would a tender offer be less than the market price?
As an addition to Chris Rea's excellent answer, these tender offers are sometimes made specifically to cast doubt on the current market price. For instance, a large public company that contracts with a smaller supplier or service company, also public, might make a tender offer below market price. The market will look a...
Is it ever logical to not deposit to a matched 401(k) account?
Some have suggested you can put the money in the 401k then take a loan to pay off the student loan debt. Some things to consider before doing that: Check your 401k plan first. Some plans allow you to continue paying on a loan if you leave the company, some do not. If you have to change jobs before you pay back the 4...
What are some time tested passive income streams?
Dividends are a form of passive income.
I am the sole owner of an LLC. Does it make a difference if I file as an S-Corp or a sole-member LLC?
S-Corp are taxed very different. Unlike LLC where you just add the profit to your income with S-Corp you have to pay yourself a "reasonable" salary (on w-2) which of course is a lot more paperwork. I think the advantage (but don't hold me accountable for this) is if your S-Corp makes a lot more than a reasonable salary...
First time home buyer. How to negotiate price?
No offer is too low. You can always offer more but you can't offer less once you have made your first offer. And there is always another great deal just around the corner. The more enthusiastic you are about buying this property the less your negotiating power will be. The pproperty has already been on the market for a...
Source of income: from dividends vs sale of principal or security
Some people have this notion that withdrawing dividends from savings is somehow okay but withdrawing principal is not. Note, this notion. Would someone please explain the "mistake" on P214 and why it's a mistake? Because there may be times where withdrawing principal may be a good idea as one could sell off someth...
Renting or Buying an House
When you sell a house around between 7-10% of the sales price will go to various fees. Mostly to the agents, but also to county fees, city fees, deed tax, and possibly covering closing costs for the buyers. So if you sell a $400k house for the same price you buy, just in fees, you're out $40k. Mortgages are structured ...
RSU vested recently
ML is a brokerage firm. Tell them to sell. If you can't or don't know how to do it on-line - call them and do it over the phone. Your citizenship might come in effect when tax are withheld, you need to fill form W8-BEN if you haven't done so yet. If US taxes are withheld, you can file 1040NR to request refund, or get i...
JCI headache part 1: How to calculate cost basis / tax consequences of JCI -> TYC merger?
The $47.67 per share figure is the trading price, or fair market value, of the OLD Johnson Controls, and should not be used to figure your gain nor to figure your basis in the new Johnson Controls International. Your new basis is the total of the gross proceeds received; that is, the cash plus the fair market value of...
Options profit calculation and cash settlement
The other two answers seem basically correct, but I wanted to add on thing: While you can exercise an "American style" option at any time, it's almost never smart to do so before expiration. In your example, when the underlying stock reaches $110, you can theoretically make $2/share by exercising your option (buying ...
Can I buy stocks directly from a public company?
If the company has a direct reinvestment plan or DRIP that they operate in house or contract out to a financial company to administer, yes. There can still be transaction fees, and none of these I know of offer real time trading. Your trade price will typically be defined in the plan as the opening or closing price on...
What does quantitative easing 2 mean for my bank account?
Probably means next to zero chance of having decent rates on savings accounts for the near future - who needs your money if banks can have government money for free? Probably no short-term effects on you besides that.
Canceling credit cards - insurance rate increase?
You don't need to have a bunch of credit cards lying around; just a couple is fine. Get a "rewards" card (without annual fee) that pays you back for use, and use it regularly to buy groceries, for example. Pay it off promptly each month, using the rewards, if you like, to reduce the amount you have to send in. Or you c...
How should I decide whether to buy more shares of a stock when its price drops?
There is no way to find out what future will be if you have only quote from past. In other words, nobody is able to trade history successfully and nobody will be able, ever. Quote's movement is not random. Quote is not price. Because brokerage account is not actual money. Any results in past do not guarantee you anythi...
How do I know if a dividend stock is “safe” and not a “dividend yield trap”?
zPesk has a great answer about dividends generally, but to answer your question specifically about yield traps, here are a few things that I look for: As with everything, if it looks too good to be true, it probably is. A 17% yield is pretty out of this world, even for a REIT. And I wouldn't bet on it holding up. Co...
Is it better to buy put options or buy an inverse leveraged ETF?
The only use of options that I will endorse is selling them. If you believe the market is going down then sell covered, out of the money, calls. Buying calls or buying puts usually wastes money. That is because of a quality called Theta. If the underlying security stays the same the going price of an option will decre...
Does receiving a 1099-MISC require one to file a tax return even if he normally would not be required to file?
Does he need to file a tax return in this situation? Will the IRS be concerned that he did not file even if he received a 1099? No. However, if you don't file the IRS may come back asking why, or "make up" a return for you assuming that the whole amount on the 1099-MISC is your net earnings. So in the end, I suspect yo...
Advantages of paying more of your mortgage while you know you won't continue to live there your whole life
In the Netherlands specifically, there are several reasons to pay extra off on your mortgage. First, house prices have dropped significantly in the last several years. They are rising slowly now, but it's region specific and you can still borrow more than 100% of the price of the house. Under these conditions, if you...
How do I get into investing in stocks?
Read "The intelligent Investor" book before you do anything. I started when I really didn't understand anything about stocks. I bought an internet stock for $150 per share which sold at 75cents a year later. I sold it for a profit but would've been a disaster.
I'm upside down on my car loan and need a different car, what can I do?
For the future: NEVER buy a car based on the payment. When dealers start negotiating, they always try to have you focus on the monthly payment. This allows them to change the numbers for your trade, the price they are selling the car for, etc so that they maximize the amount of money they can get. To combat this you...
Why don't some places require a credit card receipt signature, and some do?
This is basically done to reduce costs and overhead, with agreement of the credit card issuers. When the card is physically present and the charge is low, the burden of keeping the signed receipts and of additional delays at the cash register is not worth the potential risk of fraud. Depending on the location and the s...
How will going from 75% Credit Utilization to 0% Credit Utilization affect my credit score?
You really don't know how credit scoring works. Let's think about the purpose of a credit score: to assess whether you're a high default risk. A lender wants to know, in this order: Utilization factors into the solvency assessment. If you are at 100% utilization of your unsecured credit, you're insolvent -- you can't p...
Does owning BP ADR from US stock market required to pay custody fees
Rules appear to be changing (21NOV2014) Aviva Plc. AV on NYSE pass thru fee is 0.02 cents per ADR but that equals 11% deduction from ADR dividend. For utility or insurance stock that is significant ongoing fee. Registrar in US is Citibank, could be specific to them. This is the first for me except some modest fees on i...
Strategic countermeasures to overcome crisis in Russia
If you have significant assets, such as a large deposit, then diversification of risks such as currency risk is good practice - there are many good options, but keeping 100% of it in roubles is definitely not a good idea, nor is keeping 100% of it in a single foreign currency. Of course, it would be much more benefici...
What is inflation?
Inflation is basically this: Over time, prices go up! I will now address the 3 points you have listed. Suppose over a period of 10 years, prices have doubled. Now suppose 10 years ago I earned $100 and bought a nice pair of shoes. Now today because prices have doubled I would have to earn $200 in order to afford the...
Collecting Dividends while insulating volatility through options?
The strategy is right. As pointed out by you, will the " volatility cause the premium on the price of the options to be too high to make this worthwhile" ... this is subjective and depends on how the markets feels about the volatility and the trend ... ie if the market believes that the stock will go up, the option at ...
Are there any banks in Europe that I can have an account without being in that country?
Opening account in foreign bank is possible, but you must have strong proofs you use it for legitimate purposes. More chances to get an account if you visit Europe and able to stay, for example, for a week, to visit bank in person and wait for all the checks and approvals. Also keep in mind that there will be deposit/w...
Should I sell my stocks when the stock hits a 52-week high in order to “Buy Low, Sell High”?
As per the chart pattern when ever a stock breaks its 52 week high. This information may differ for penny stocks,small caps and mid cap stocks
Typical return for an IRA? How can I assess if my returns were decent?
To try and address your 'how' it goes a bit like this. You need to first assess how your stuff is invested, if for example half is in stocks, and the other half is in bonds, then you will need to calculate a 'blended' rate for what are reasonable 'average return' for both. That might mean looking at the S&P500 or Russ...
What is the median retirement savings in the United States today?
Note that the quote distinguishes between "all families" and "families with some savings" - this just means there are so many families with less than 5k that they equal all those with savings above 5k. That might be because they are young and haven't started yet, or because it is just not a priority for them compared t...
interest rate on online banks
There are no "on-line" banks in Israel. There were various attempts to create something that would look like an online bank (HaYashir HaRishon comes to mind, Mizrahi did something similar recently), but that essentially is a branch of a brick and mortar bank (Leumi and Mizrahi, respectively) that allows you online mana...
Can PayPal transfer money automatically from my bank account if I link it in PayPal?
Practically, as an ebay buyer I have never seen any way to keep a balance in paypal and top it off from my bank account under my own control. It is all automated, and as I seem to recall linking with a bank account or credit card was necessary to get some kind of "confirmed address" status out of Paypal so that eBay s...
How do I cash in physical stock certificates? (GM 1989)
I'm afraid you're not going to get any good news here. The US government infused billions of dollars in capital as part of the bankruptcy deal. The old shares have all been cancelled and the only value they might have to you are as losses to offset other gains. I would definitely contact a tax professional to look at y...
Is it worth it to reconcile my checking/savings accounts every month?
Account statements and the account information provided by your personal finance software should be coming from the same source, namely your bank's internal accounting records. So in theory one is just as good as the other. That being said, an account statement is a snapshot of your account on the date the statement wa...
How to evaluate an annuity
Annuities are usually not good deals. Commissions to the salesman can be as high as 9% of the initial premium. They're not scams, just not the best deals for most circumstances. Basically, these things are a combination of an investment vehicle and multiple insurance policies, including permanent insurance. The 8.2% "r...