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Td Ameritrade Roth IRA question
Your broker, Ameritrade, offers a variety of Exchange Traded Funds (ETFs) that you can buy and sell with zero commission. An ETF is like a mutual fund, but you buy and sell shares the same way you buy and sell shares of stocks. From your point of view, the relevance of this is that you can buy and sell as many or as ...
Advantages of paying more of your mortgage while you know you won't continue to live there your whole life
The mortgage is a debt and you pay interest on it, typically more than you can earn elsewhere (especially once taxes are taken into account.) By lowering the principal, you lower the total interest you pay. This is true whether you sell the house after 1 year, 10 years, or 100 years. In your case, prepayments made in t...
Is it bad practice to invest in stocks that fluctuate by single points throughout the day?
Its hard to write much in those comment boxes, so I'll just make an answer, although its really not a formal answer. Regarding commissions, it costs me $5 per trade, so that's actually $10 per trade ($5 to buy, $5 to sell). An ETF like TNA ($58 per share currently) fluctuates $1 or $2 per day. IXC is $40 per share an...
Does getting a 1099 from another state count as working in another state if I was physically in my home state?
This depends on the state law. In case of the State of New York - these are the criteria for sourcing the NY income: As a sole proprietor or partnership, your New York source income includes: Business activities As a nonresident sole proprietor or partnership, you carry on a business, trade, profession, or occupati...
What exactly do fund managers of index trackers do?
From How are indexes weighted?: Market-capitalization weighted indexes (or market cap- or cap-weighted indexes) weight their securities by market value as measured by capitalization: that is, current security price * outstanding shares. The vast majority of equity indexes today are cap-weighted, including the S...
Who receives the money when one company buys another?
It's tempting to think of a corporation as a real thing, because in many respects it seems to be. But it isn't a corporeal thing (despite the root word of the name). It may own corporeal things, and employ corporeal people, but it is not itself a real thing. Borrowing heavily from Prof Joseph Heath: It might be better ...
Slow destruction on co-signed property
First off learn from this: Never cosign again. There are plenty of other "tales of woe" outlined on this site that started and ended similarly. Secondly do what you can to get off of the loan. First I'd go back to her dad and offer him $1000 to take you off the loan and sign over the car. Maybe go up to $3000 if yo...
What do people mean when they talk about the central bank providing “cheap money”? What are the implications for the stock market?
There are a couple of different things that could be referenced by "cheap money": The money supply itself - This is the Federal Reserve printing more money which could devalue the existing US dollars and thus make the dollars even cheaper since there would be more of them. Interest rates - Currently in the US interest ...
Short term parking of a large inheritance?
The person who told you "no-load funds" had the right idea. Since you are risk-averse, you tend to want a "value" fund; that is, it's not likely to grow in value (that would be a "growth" fund), but it isn't like to fall either. To pick an example more-or-less at random, Fidelity Blue Chip Value Fund "usually" returns...
Why don't more people run up their credit cards and skip the country?
Because most people aren't willing to sacrifice their ability to live in the US for 100k. Remember that you can't pull this off multiple times easily. So as a one and done kind of deal, 100k isn't a great trade for the right to live in tthe US or whatever country you have roots in, particularly once you factor in:
Possible replacement for Quicken
I would investigate mint.com further. Plenty of people have written off using them because Intuit purchased them, but that seems like cutting of your nose to spite your face. I think mint.com is worth it for its Trends functionality alone, not to mention its automatic categorization of your purchases, reminders when b...
What is the US Fair Tax?
The fair tax is a proposal to replace the US income tax with a sales tax. Pros of Fair Tax: It's a large change to the way the United States currently does things. The "Fair Tax Act of 2011" is H.R.25 in the US House and S.13 in the Senate. The full text of the bill is available at the links provided. There are some f...
If I pay someone else's property taxes, can I use it as a deduction on my income tax return?
To make matters worse, if you pay the property tax your mother in law can't take the deduction either. You may be better off paying rent and having her handle the property correctly, as a rental.
Shorting stocks: Indicators that a stock will drop?
First utilize a security screener to identify the security profiles you are looking to identify for identifying your target securities for shorting. Most online brokers have stock screeners that you can utilize. At this point you may want to look at your target list of securities to find out those that are eligible ...
Legitimate unclaimed property that doesn't appear in any state directory?
@ Chris: Companies like Keane, ours, and others know where to look for these funds and where to ask at the correct agencies that are holding this money that is not part of the public links that you have access to. This is how we find this information. Our types of companies spend significant time, money and resources...
Which U.S. online discount broker is the best value for money?
I've never used them myself, but Scottrade might be something for you to look at. They do $7 internet trades, but also offer $27 broker assisted trades (that's for stocks, in both cases). Plus, they have brick-and-morter storefronts all over the US for that extra "I gotta have a human touch". :-) Also, they do have af...
Is there any instance where less leverage will get you a better return on a rental property?
More leverage means more risk. There is more upside. There is also more downside. If property prices and/or rents fall then your losses are amplified. If you leverage at 90% then a 5% fall means you've lost half your money.
How to buy stock on the Toronto Stock Exchange?
You probably bought the cross listed WestJet stock. If you wanted to buy shares on the TSE, I'd suspect you'd have to find a way to open a brokerage account within Canada and then you'd be able to buy the shares. However, this could get complicated to some extent as there could be requirements of Canadian tax stuff l...
If a country can just print money, is global debt between countries real?
The debt is absolutely real. China loans money to US via buying the US treasury bonds. The bond is essentially a promise to pay back the money with interest, just like a loan. As you point out, the US can print money. If this were to happen, then the USD that the owner of a treasury bond receives when the bond matures ...
Does anyone know what Bank of NY Mellon's EB DLs are?
ACWI refers to a fund that tracks the MSCI All Country World Index, which is A market capitalization weighted index designed to provide a broad measure of equity-market performance throughout the world. The MSCI ACWI is maintained by Morgan Stanley Capital International, and is comprised of stocks from both developed ...
What is the fair value of a stock given the bid and ask prices? Is there such a relationship?
If you need to show that the sale/purchase was at FMV, then showing that you made a trade on a public exchange with an unrelated counterpart is enough to establish FMV. However, this is only one of the possible "fair market value" definitions. This is usually used to determine basis or value for tax purposes. For valua...
How can I calculate total return of stock with partial sale?
Treat each position or partial position as a separate LOT. Each time you open a position, a new lot of shares is created. If you sell the whole position, then the lot is closed. Done. But if you sell a partial quantity, you need to create a new lot. Split the original lot into two. The quantities in each are the amount...
Tenant wants to pay rent with EFT
In Britain it's standard practice to use an electronic bank transfer, otherwise known as a "standing order" for the monthly rent payment. Many letting agents insist on it here in Britain. It's rare to hear of fraud. It is possible to setup a Direct Debit with the account numbers, as happened in a famous case where Jere...
Which credit card is friendliest to merchants?
From experience, Mastercard and Visa charge vendors about the same (around 2%-5%) while American Express and Diners Club are astonishingly expensive (6%-10%) and you'll find that few small retailers are very comfortable accepting these. The variation comes from the volume of trade that vendors provide. A big retailer ...
How can I find the historical stock price for a specific stock on a specific date?
I've had luck finding old stock information in the Google scanned newspaper archives. Unfortunately there does not appear to be a way to search exactly by date, but a little browsing /experimenting should get what you want. For instance, here's a source which shows the price to be 36 3/4 (as far as I can read anyway) o...
Credit report - Not able to establish identity
The suggestion may be very delayed, have you personally gone to the Experian Office with all the documentation (in xerox copy and in original)? If not, please do so, there is always a difference between dealing with govt/semi-govt institutions over electronic channels and in person.
How can I stop wasting food?
You want to combine a set of techniques to avoid throwing food away. Consider setting aside a weekend day or other non-busy time to do some food prep. Check to see if there is anything in the fridge that needs to be used quickly and prioritize meals that use that item. Make a weekly menu and get your groceries. Chop...
How to calculate years until financial independence?
In this equation the withdrawal rate is the percent you must pull from your savings to meet your expenses. For example if your savings is $100,000 and you need $10,000 annually for your living expenses then your withdrawal rate would be 10% (where 10k is 10% of 100k). To complete this formula, you need to know how muc...
Debit cards as bad as credit cards?
Debit cards are the dumbest development ever. I now have a piece of plastic that allows any yahoo to cause me to bounce my mortgage. Great. Throw away the debit card. Use a credit card and exercise some self control. Take out a sufficient amount of cash to cover your weekly incidental expenses under $50. If you want so...
Monthly payment on a compounded daily car loan? [duplicate]
I would like to know how they calculated such monthly payment The formula is: Your values would come out to be: r = (1+3.06/(100*365))^31-1=0.002602 (converting your annual percentage to a monthly rate equivalent of daily compounded interest) PV = 12865.57 n = 48 Inserting your values into the formula: P = [r*(PV)]/[1...
Legitimate unclaimed property that doesn't appear in any state directory?
You can't blame companies like 'Legal Claimant Services' for making a profit by providing this service. That is capitalism and it is the way of the world. It is just like any other business you can do yourself - from making dinner to cutting your own grass. If you choose to do it yourself, you save money but you also ...
Would I ever need credit card if my debit card is issued by MasterCard/Visa?
The credit card may have advantages in at least two cases: In some instances (at least in the US), a merchant will put a "hold" on a credit card without charging it. This happens a lot at hotels, for example, which use the hold as collateral against damages and incidental charges. On a credit card this temporarily re...
What are the marks of poor investment advice?
I would also consider unnecessarily complex investment strategies a big warning sign as they can easily hide poor investment advice or a bad strategy. This is especially the case when it comes to retail investment as complex strategies can have so many moving parts that you, as someone with a day job, can't spend enoug...
Is it really possible to get rich in only a few years by investing?
10 year US Treasury bonds are currently yielding 3.46%. If you're offered an investment that looks better than that, you should ask yourself why big investors are putting their money in US Treasuries instead of what you've been offered. And obviously at 3.46% per year, you're not going to get rich quick -- it will take...
If you buy something and sell it later on the same day, how do you calculate 'investment'?
Nothing wrong with the other answers, but here's a "trick" to hopefully make it totally transparent. Imagine that you're not the one implementing this business plan, but someone else is. Let's call this other person your asset manager. So on the first day, you give your asset manager $9. He takes this and generate...
How would IRS treat reimbursement in a later year of moving expenses?
I believe moving reimbursement has to be counted as income no matter when you get it. I'd just put it under miscellaneous income with an explanation.
What one bit of financial advice do you wish you could've given yourself five years ago?
2 things:
What does cryptocurrency mean for governments?
Government's tax citizens and businesses in their currency. Earnings (even earnings in cryptocurrencies) are taxable income.
Does home equity grow with the investment put into the house?
The bank I work with would be more inclined to expand an existing HELOC rather than write a new one. I think that would be your best bet if you decide to continue borrowing against your home. Consider that your own income would have to support the repayment of these larger homes. If it is, why didn't you buy a larger h...
Is there a correlation between self-employment and wealth?
In a well-managed company, employees bring more dollars to their employers than the employers pay the employees (salary and benefits). Employees trade potential reward for security (a regular paycheck). Employers take on the risk of needing to meet payroll and profit from the company's income, minus expenses. The pot...
Should I learn to do my own tax?
If you've been using TurboTax, let me suggest a compromise: Let TTax fill out the forms, but then print them out and go through it again by hand. If you don't get the same numbers, investigate why. If you do, you can probably conclude that you could do it by hand if you really want to, especially if you have the previo...
Standard Deviation with Asset Prices?
Almost every online datasources provide historical prices on given company / index's performance; from this, you can easily calculate "standard deviation" by yourself. With that said, standard deviation presumes a fixed set of data. Most public corporations have data spanning multiple decades, during which a number of ...
Why would a person not want to purchase a Personal Liability (Umbrella) insurance policy?
This article has a section titled "Do you need an umbrella policy to cover your personal liability risks?" that says: If you have young children, for example, you might need a policy because they have lots of friends. These little tikes might get into some mischief and hurt themselves at your home. If so, you’re at...
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...
Google market cap
You are right: if the combined value of all outstanding GOOG shares was $495B, and the combined value of all GOOGL shares was $495B, then yes, Alphabet would have a market cap of at least $990B (where I say at least only because I myself don't know that there aren't other issues that should be in the count as well). Th...
Can you explain the mechanism of money inflation?
I don't think this can be explained in too simple a manner, but I'll try to keep it simple, organized, and concise. We need to start with a basic understanding of inflation. Inflation is the devaluing of currency (in this context) over time. It is used to explain that a $1 today is worth more than a $1 tomorrow. Inflat...
What is this type of risk-free investment called?
This is what is called a Structured Product. The linked page gives an overview of the relative pros and cons. They tend to hold the bulk of funds in bonds and then used equity index futures and other derivatives to match returns on the S&P, or other indices tracked. All combine to provide the downside protection. No...
What is a good rental yield?
A good quick filter to see if a property is worth looking at is if the total rent for the property for the year is equal to 10% of the price of the property. For example, if the property is valued at $400,000 then the rent collected should be $40,000 for the entire year. Which is $3,333.33 per month. If the property ...
Why do some people say a house “not an investment”?
I invested in single family homes and made ok. Houses can be an investment. (though the OP seems to equate "house" with primary residence) Just like any other investment buying houses has risks. I would not treat your primary residence or a vacation home as an investment. That is asking for trouble, but for many...
Do I need to write the date on the back of a received check when depositing it?
Changed to answer match the edited version of the question No, you do not need to write the date of your endorsement, but you can choose to do so if you want to. The bank stamp on the back will likely have the date and perhaps even the exact time when the check was deposited. The two lines are there in case you want t...
How do you measure the value of gold?
There are three aspects of what to value gold over. It doesn't easily chemically react with anything, so it stays pure over a long period of time (vs, say a bar of iron or a bar of butter). So it's valuable so far as it doesn't rot. It is shiny, and there is the historical allure of having a bag of shiny, jingly gold ...
Is it normal for brokers to ask whether I am a beginner?
In Canada, for example, they are expected or required to find out. They call it, The “Know Your Client” rule, part of which is knowing your "Investment knowledge and experience". They say it is, "to ensure their advice is suitable for you". I have always been given that kind of form to fill in, when opening an account.
How do I set up my finances when first moving out?
The first thing you need to do is to set yourself a budget. Total all your money coming in (from jobs, allowances, etc.) and all your money going out (including rent, utilities, loan repayments, food, other essential and the luxuries). If your money coming in is more than your money going out, then you are onto a posi...
How aggressive should my personal portfolio be?
Its important to note that aggression, or better yet volatility, does not necessarily offer higher returns. One can find funds that have a high beta (measure of volatility) and lower performance then stock funds with a lower beta. Additionally, to Micheal's point, better performance could be undone by higher fees. ...
How do I fold side-income into our budget so my husband doesn't know?
Maybe you can just hang onto the cash and upgrade the things you buy for cash now a bit. Buy the better cut of meat, the nicer pair of shoes, etc. Since you have no trouble with bending the truth a bit.. if challenged, the shoes were "on sale". And no you must have lost the receipt. Not that I'm advocating it, but th...
Selling on eBay without PayPal?
I think you need to have paypal for eBay selling, just for one reason: people will avoid buying from you if they can't pay by paypal. It decreases significantly your selling.
Is there a way to create a limit order with both an upper and lower limit
Yes there is, it is called a One-Cancels-the-Other Order (OCO). Investopedia defines a OCO order as: Definition of 'One-Cancels-the-Other Order - OCO' A pair of orders stipulating that if one order is executed, then the other order is automatically canceled. A one-cancels-the-other order (OCO) combines a stop order...
Is my employee stock purchase plan a risk free investment?
Your maximum risk is 100%. If you buy the stock 15% off and your company goes bankrupt tomorrow, you've lost everything. It also sounds like you have foreign exchange risk. One can debate how much risk this is in terms of expected outcomes, but that was not your question. However, if you purchase the company stock and ...
Should I sell a 2nd home, or rent it out?
If it was me, I would sell the house and use the proceeds to work on/pay off the second. You don't speak to your income, but it must be pretty darn healthy to convince someone to lend you ~$809K on two homes. Given this situation, I am not sure what income I would have to have to feel comfortable. I am thinking aro...
Taxes on foreign and local dividends held in a TFSA
As far as I read in many articles, all earnings (capital gains and dividends) from Canadian stocks will be always tax-free. Right? There's no withholding tax, ie. a $100 dividend means you get $100. There's no withholding for capital gains in shares for anybody. You will still have to pay taxes on the amounts, bu...
How to rescue my money from negative interest?
The problem is that every option comes with risk - as you note, if you put money in stocks, you could lose (and many stocks are overpriced). If you put money in bonds, you could lose (many bonds are overpriced). If you buy precious metals, they could fall further currently. If you hold cash, central banks might try ...
Personal finance management: precise or approximately?
If you are off by coins, how can you be sure that you only made a typo and didn't miss a transaction? To start off, I would strongly you find a way to be precise. It doesn't matter so much in the accounting, but the habit of doing a thorough job will pay off in other dividends down the line. Basically, do the pennies...
Is investing in housing considered an adequate hedge against inflation?
No, there is no linkage to the value of real estate and inflation. In most of the United States if you bought at the peak of the market in 2006, you still haven't recovered 7+ years later. Also real estate has a strong local component to the price. Pick the wrong location or the wrong type of real estate and the value ...
Is an interest-only mortgage a bad idea?
If you took a fixed loan, but paid it off at the accelerated rate, you would ultimately pay less total dollars in interest. So compare the actual amount paid in interest over the course of the loan rather than the interest rate itself. That should be your answer. Also, plan on failing in your plan to pay it off and se...
Buying shares in employer's company during IPO
I think of these things in terms of risk. Investing in individual stocks is risky, and investing in brand new individual stocks is riskier still. However, the payoff can be quite high. The fact that you work at the company increases your exposure. If the company goes under, then not only have you lost your investment...
Does an owner of a bond etf get an income even if he sells before the day of distribution?
Your ETF will return the interest as dividends. If you hold the ETF on the day before the Ex-Dividend date, you will get the dividend. If you sell before that, you will not. Note that at least one other answer to this question is wrong. You do NOT need to hold on the Record date. There is usually 2 days (or so) be...
Why are there many small banks and more banks in the U.S.?
First, is population density. You didn't say where exactly, but for example here in Tampa, Wells Fargo has 25 branches in the area (though that is a bit larger then what I would think of the Tampa area as a local) Second, we can mix in service expectation. I expect that in addition to "good" online service, "great" ph...
Do I need to invest to become millionaire?
I get the sense that this is a "the world is unfair; there's no way I can succeed" question, so let's back up a few steps. Income is the starting point to all of this. That could be a job (or jobs), or running your own business. From there, you can do four things with your income: Obviously Spend and Give do not provi...
Debit card for minor (< 8 y.o.)
You might consider a Green Dot card. You can personalize the name on the card. There is no risk of over-drafting. There are some fees when you fill the card in stores, but it is free to open and manage online. Check out their site and see if it will work for you. It could be a great pair with a joint bank account for y...
How to interpret a big ask size?
Yes, but it must be remembered that these conditions only last for instants, and that's why only HFTs can take advantage of this. During 2/28/14's selloff from the invasion of Ukraine, many times, there were moments where there was overwhelming liquidity on the bid relative to the ask, but the price continued to drop.
Can I write off time spent learning my trade - Two-Man S-Corp
I'm not sure what you mean by "writing off your time," but to answer your questions: Remember that, essentially, you are a salaried employee of a corporation. So if you are spending time at your job, even if you are not billing anything to a client, you are earning your salary. If there are costs involved with these a...
Good yield vs. safer route (Checking vs. Savings)
In personal finance, most of your success is determined by personal habit rather than financial savvy. Getting in the habit of making regular deposits to your savings account will have a much larger effect on your situation than worrying about which account pays the highest interest rate (particularly as neither one o...
Small withdrawals from IRA
Yes, it really will hurt you to keep pulling your money from your IRA. Your best bet is to set up a payment plan with the IRS, and pay the taxes you owe now, as well as adjust your withholding (with a new W-4 to your payroll department) so that you don't have a large tax liability next year. These tax advantaged plans ...
Why is early exercise generally not recommended for an in-the-money option?
For a deep in the money, it almost makes no difference because the intrinsic value, the price of the option, is seldom far above the liquidation value, the price of the underlying less the strike price. For an at the money, ceteris paribus, an early exercise would immediately cut the value of the option to 0; however, ...
Is compounding interest on investments a myth?
The S&P 500 index from 1974 to present certainly looks exponential to me (1974 is the earliest data Google has). If you read Jeremy Siegel's book there are 200 year stock graphs and the exponential nature of returns on stocks is even more evident. This graph only shows the index value and does not include the dividen...
Are there any countries where citizens are free to use any currency?
Shops in most touristic places tend to accept major currencies (at least dollar and euro). I remember a trip in Istanbul before the euro existed, the kids selling postcards near the blue mosque were able to guess your country and announce in your language the price in your currency.
Prepaid Rent (Accrual Based Accounting)
Your account entries are generally correct, but do note that the last transaction is a mixture of the balance sheet and income statement. If Quickbooks doesn't do this automatically then the expense must be manually removed from the balance sheet. The expense should be recognized on the balance sheet and income statem...
For net worth, should I value physical property at my cost to replace it, or the amount I could get for selling it?
My opinion: including the value of depreciating property one owns in a net worth calculation is silly - but could be interesting You don't expect your TV or laptop to gain value. Instead, you expect them to decrease in value every year until you replace them. Anything you expect to hold or increase in value (art, a h...
Price graphs: why not percent change?
I am in complete agreement with you. The place i have found with the sort of charts you are looking for is stockcharts.com. To compare the percentage increase of several stocks over a period of 2 market-open days or more, which is quite useful to follow the changes in various stocks… etc., an example: Here the tick...
Is there a candlestick pattern that guarantees any kind of future profit?
I did a historical analysis a few years back of all well-known candlestick patterns against my database of 5 years worth of 1-minute resolution data of all FTSE100 shares. There wasn't a single pattern that showed even a 1% gain with 60% reliability. Unfortunately I don't have spread data other than for a handful of ...
What part of buying a house would make my net worth go down?
One way to think of net worth is to think if you sold everything you owned, how big of a pile of money would be standing next to you (assuming your net worth is positive). If you started with $100K and then bought a house worth $100K you would have $0 in the bank and a house. If you sold that house for $100K you woul...
Where should I invest to hedge against the stock market going down?
If you believe the stock market will be down 20-30% in the next few months, sell your stock holdings, buy a protective put option for the value of the holdings that you want to keep. That would be hedging against it. Anything more is speculating that the market will fall.
Why is tax being paid on my salary multiple times?
Businesses do not pay income tax on money that they pay out as salary to their employees. Businesses generally only pay income tax on profit. Profit is the money that comes in (revenue) minus the business expenses. Payroll to the employees is a deductible business expense.
Is Amazon's offer of a $50 gift card a scam?
The most likely reason for this card is that Amazon has an arrangement with the issuer (I believe that that used to be Chase; may have changed since). Such an arrangement may allow Amazon to take the risk of chargebacks, etc. in return for the issuer handling the mechanics of billing. This is advantageous for Amazon,...
Wife sent to collections for ticket she paid ten years ago
The first thing you should do is write a letter to the collection company telling them that you dispute all charges and demand, per section 809 of the Fair Debt Collection Practices Act, that they immediately validate and confirm any and all debts they allege you owe. You should further request that that they only comm...
Direct access to the currency exchange market
Is my observation that the currency exchange market is indirect correct? Is there a particular reason for this? Why isn't currency traded like stocks? I guess yes. In Stocks its pretty simple where the stock is held with a depository. Hence listing matching is simple and the exchange of money is via local clearing. Cur...
How to explain quick price changes early in the morning
There are lots of good answers on here already. There are actually lots of answers for this question. Lots. I have years of experience on the exchange feed side and there are hundreds and thousands of variables. All of these variables are funneled into systems owned by large financial institutions (I used to manag...
What are the contents of fixed annuities?
For a variable annuity, you need to know the underlying investments and how your returns are credited to your account. For a fixed annuity, the issuer is responsible for the commitment to provide the promised rate to you. In a sense, how they invest isn't really your concern. You should be concerned about the overall h...
How does selling rights issues work in practice?
Do you simply get call options you can sell on an options exchange? No, you don't get call options that you can sell on an options exchange. Rather, you get rights that you can (generally) sell on the stock exchange. The right issue is in essence a call option – in that it behaves like one, but it is not considered a s...
Want to buy expensive product online. Credit line on credit cards not big enough. How do “Preferred Account” programs work?
First and foremost - make sure where you are purchasing the product is a reputable organization. Secondly (coming from a biased computer geek) - be aware that Apple is a content trap. Now on to my answer to your question... How do "Preferred Account" programs work? They're "Preferred" because they tend to bring in mo...
Is it true that 90% of investors lose their money?
No, 90% of investors do not lose money. 90% or even larger percentage of "traders" lose money. Staying invested in stock market over the long term will almost always be profitable if you spread your investments across different companies or even the index but the key here is long term which is 10+ years in any emerging...
Is real (physical) money traded during online trading?
When you buy a currency via FX market, really you are just exchanging one country's currency for another. So if it is permitted to hold one currency electronically, surely it must be permitted to hold a different country's currency electronically.
How profitable is selling your customer base?
but what about non-identifying information like emails or even telephone numbers? Are you allowed to do this? Most countries have privacy laws that would explicitly forbid companies from selling data not just to other companies, but even to other divisions within the company without explicit approval from customer. Th...
Why is mortgage interest deductible in the USA for a house you live in?
It's a scam pushed through to benefit the banking system. Tax payments become income for the banks. Any alleged benefits for property holders are ultimately reduced by increased property prices, capital gains tax and estate taxes
How can I save money on a gym / fitness membership? New Year's Resolution is to get in shape - but on the cheap!
If you're determined to save money, find ways to integrate exercise into your daily routine and don't join a gym at all. This makes it more likely you'll keep it up if it is a natural part of your day. You could set aside half the money you would spend on the gym towards some of the options below. I know it's not alway...
Is it a good investment for a foreigner to purchase a flat/apartment in China?
More infomation is needed for any meaningful discussion about this. I just assume you want to buy in China mainland, not Hongkong or other places. That depends on where you want to buy the flat. Which city, which district of the city, which community, which school district, how old is the building? Furthermore, alwa...
Freelancer in India working for Swiss Company
As you are earning an income by working in India, you are required to pay tax in India. If you contract is of freelance, then the income earned by you has to be self declared and taxes paid accordingly. There are some expenses one can claim, a CA should be able to guide you. Not sure why the Swiss comapny is paying t...
Changing Bank Account Number regularly to reduce fraud
We change it every so often to reduce fraud. If you're absolutely sure you didn't just send money to a scammer impersonating a landlord, this has nothing to do with fraud-- they're playing a game with you. By changing the account number frequently, it makes it more likely you make a mistake in entering the payment acco...
Is there a legal deadline for when your bank/brokerage has to send your tax forms to you?
Many of the custodians (ie. Schwab) file for an extension on 1099s. They file for an extension as many of their accounts have positions with foreign income which creates tax reporting issues. If they did not file for extension they would have to send out 1099s at the end of January and then send out corrected forms. ...
Why would someone want to sell call options?
I do this often with shares that I own - mostly as a learning/experience-building exercise, since I don't own enough individual stocks to make me rich (and don't risk enough to make me broke). Suppose I own 1,000 shares of X. I don't expect my shares to go down, but I want to be compensated in case they do go down. S...