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Self-directed RRSP into mortgage investment | The Globe and Mail has an interesting article on what you can do with your RRSPs. Be aware that the article is from early 2011 and rules change. They describe holding your own mortgage inside your RRSP. That is, if you have $100,000 inside your RRSP already and your remaining mortgage is $100,000, you can use that mone... |
Is keeping track of your money and having a budget the same thing? | What you are doing is neither one. You are simply watching to make sure you don't overdraw, which itself suggests you might be living hand to mouth and not saving. Keeping track of your money and budgeting are useful tools which help people get on top of their money. Which tends to have the effect of allowing you to... |
Is it true that Income Tax was created to finance troops for World War I? | Canada did not introduce income taxes before World War I. Specifically deficits forced them to in the later part of the war: The Conservatives opposed income tax as they wanted to attract immigrants primarily from the United Kingdom and the United States, as opposed to Eastern Europe, and they wanted to give their pre... |
Is there anything comparable to/resembling CNN's Fear and Greed Index? | There are a number of ways to measure such things and they are generally called "sentiment indicators". The ones that I have seen "work", in the sense that they show relatively high readings near market tops and relatively low readings near market bottoms. The problem is that there are no thresholds that work consist... |
Why should we expect stocks to go up in the long term? | The last 300 years of civilization have been amazingly atypical. We have experienced industrial revolution after industrial revolution. Economic revolutions that would have changed the world in 1000 AD show up as noise. Coal, Canal, Rail, Trade, Electricity, Refrigeration, Oil, Gas, Nuclear, Assembly Line, Vacuum Tub... |
What is a trust? What are the different types of trusts? | Trusts are a way of holding assets with a specific goal in mind. At its simplest, a trust can be used to avoid probate, a sometimes lengthy process in which a will is made public along with the assets bequeathed. A trust allows for fast transfer and no public disclosure. Depending on the current estate tax laws (the de... |
What's the average rate of return for some of the most mainstream index funds? | This page from simplestockinvesting.com gives details of total returns for the S&P500 for each decade over the last 60 years, including total returns for the entire 60 year period. It is important to understand that, from an investors point of view, the total return includes both the change in index value (capital gain... |
Can one use dollar cost averaging to make money with something highly volatile? | That doesn't sound like dollar cost averaging. That sounds like a form of day trading. Dollar cost averaging is how most people add money to their 401K, or how they add money to some IRA accounts. You are proposing a form of day trading. |
Isn't an Initial Coin Offering (ICO) a surefire way to make tons of money? | There is no sure thing in investing. Everything has a risk component. Sure, people talk about these cryptocurrencies like they have nowhere to go but up, but there are massive risks with these. For example, they could be declared illegal, the exchanges could go bankrupt (and some have), the backing companies off the IC... |
Do I pay a zero % loan before another to clear both loans faster? | Wow, you guys get really cheap finance. here a mortage is 5.5 - 9% and car loans about 15 - 20%. Anyway back to the question. The rule is reduce the largest interest rate first ("the most expensive money"). For 0% loans, you should try to never pay it off, it's literally "free money" so just pay only the absolute minim... |
What is a good 5-year plan for a college student with $15k in the bank? | I disagree with the IRA suggestion. Why IRA? You're a student, so probably won't get much tax benefits, so why locking the money for 40 years? You can do the same investments through any broker account as in IRA, but be able to cash out in need. 5 years is long enough term to put in a mutual fund or ETF and expect reas... |
Can I pay off my credit card balance to free up available credit? | Banks only send your balance to credit bureaus once a month; usually a few days after your statement date. Thus, as long as your usage is below 10% in that date range, you're ok. Regarding paying it off early: sure. Every Sunday night, I pay our cards' charges from the previous week. (The internet makes this too eas... |
How to know if two ETFs are 'substantially identical' according to wash sale rules? | It sounds like this is an entirely unsettled question, unfortunately. In the examples you provide, I think it is safe to say that none of those are 'substantially identical'; a small overlap or no overlap certainly should not be considered such by a reasonable interpretation of the rule. This article on Kitces goes in... |
Whats the difference between day trading and flipping and their tax implications? | Flipping usually refers to real-estate transaction: you buy a property, improve/renovate/rehabilitate it and resell it quickly. The distinction between flipper and investor is similar to the distinction between trader and investor, even though the tax code doesn't explicitly refer to house flipping. Gains on house flip... |
What is the principle of forming an arbitrage strategy? | Arbitrage is basically taking advantage of a difference in price. Generally extending to "in different places for the same thing". A monetary version would be interlisted stocks, that is stocks in companies that are on both the NYSE/Nasdaq and Toronto stock exchanges. If somebody comes along and buys a large number o... |
How do credit union loans and dividends vs interest work? | A credit Union makes loans exactly the same ways a bank does. A portion of the money deposited in checking, savings, money market, Certificate of Deposit, or IRA is then used to make loans for cars, boats, school, mortgages, 2nd mortgages, lines of credit... The government dictates the percentage of each type of depos... |
What is the different between 2 :1 split and 1:1 split | The 1 for 1 split could be the case where a company is being split into two parts. The new part may be spun off, or sold to another company. Any time a company splits into two parts, the ratio of the resulting companies needs to be determined. |
Is it better to buy this used car from Craigslist or from a dealership? | You seem to be on the right track. I feel, though, that it's worth addressing your maintenance budget. Even if both cars described in your question are from the same model year, one has been in service 2x more; one car has been on the road, in weather, twice as much as the other. I'm not sure what's being represente... |
HSBC Hong Kong's “Deposit Plus” Product: What is it, and what strategies to employ? | 15-19% gains also includes 15-19% and greater losses. They may not be required to disclose that to you in Hong Kong. If it isn't a leveraged account then that isn't too bad. Hong Kong is a nice jurisdiction, The US Federal Government is the only person you don't hide your assets from - but they dont want anything - so ... |
How to trade fundamentally good stocks over the short to medium term? | Using Fundamental and Technical Analysis together is actually a good idea for longer term trading of up to 6 months or longer. The whole idea behind trading with Technical Analysis is to increase the probabilities of a trade going in the desired direction by using uncorrelated indicators that produce the same signal t... |
Books, Videos, Tutorials to learn about different investment options in the financial domain | Investopedia does have tutorials about investments in different asset classes. Have you read them ? If you had heard of CFA, you can read their material if you can get hold of it or register for CFA. Their material is quite extensive and primarily designed for newbies. This is one helluva book and advice coming from ... |
How to know more about my tax situation in the States | The LLC (not you) is probably in debt to the California FTB. Any LLC registered in California must pay at least $800 a year, until it is officially dissolved (i.e.: notice of cancellation/dissolution properly filed with the California Secretary of State). The FTB may come after members (including you) personally, if it... |
Opening American credit cards while residing in the UK | nan |
FX losses on non-UK mortgage for UK property - tax deductable? | I spoke to HMRC and they said #1 is not allowable but #2 is. They suggested using either their published exchange rates or I could use another source. I suggested the Bank of England spot rates and that was deemed reasonable and allowable. |
Net loss not distributed by mutual funds to their shareholders? | When you invest (say $1000) in (say 100 shares) of a mutual fund at $10 per share, and the price of the shares changes, you do not have a capital gain or loss, and you do not have to declare anything to the IRS or make any entry on any line on Form 1040 or tell anyone else about it either. You can brag about it at par... |
Can I deduct taxes for home office as a freelance computer software developer? | This answer is assuming you're in the US, which apparently you're not. I doubt that the rules in the EU are significantly different, but I don't know for sure. In case of an IRS control, is it ok to say that I regularly connect remotely to work from home although in the work contract it says I must work at client's... |
Do the proceeds from selling an option immediately convert to buying power in a margin account? | I'd say yes, and hope that my anecdotal evidence serves as proof. My IRA is not a margin account. It can't be. I attempt to create a covered call, buying a stock at say $20, and selling a call for $4, for net $16 cost. The account only had $1610 at the time, and the trades go through just fine. Yes, I needed to enter ... |
Who Can I Hire To Calculate the Value of An Estate? | Generally, it would be an accountant. Specifically in the case of very "private" (or unorganized, which is even worse) person - forensic accountant. Since there's no will - it will probably require a lawyer as well to gain access to all the accounts the accountant discovers. I would start with a good estate attorney, w... |
What's the difference between a high yield dividend stock vs a growth stock? | The general difference between high dividend paying stocks and growth stocks is as follows: 1) A high dividend paying stock/company is a company that has reached its maximum growth potential in a market and its real growth (that is after adjustment of inflation) is same (more or less) as the growth of the economy. Thes... |
What effect would a company delisting from the LSE to move to china have on shareholders? | Source Rule 41 of the AIM Rules sets out the procedure for delisting. In summary, a company that wishes to cancel the right of any of its trading securities must: The notification to the Exchange should be made by the company’s nominated adviser and should be given at least 20 business days prior to the intended cance... |
How to safely exit a falling security? | If the stock is below its purchase price, there is no way to exit the position immediately without taking losses. Since presumably you had Good Reasons for buying that stock that haven't changed overnight, what you should probably do is just hold it and wait for the stock to come back up. Otherwise you're putting yours... |
Why are bank transactions not instant? | If you want your bank to pay $1 to a beneficiary Bob, then the service (no matter how implemented) needs to result in Bob's bank saying to Bob "Hey, I owe you $1". The usual way how this is done consists of two parts - your bank needs to somehow tell Bob's bank "hey guys, do us a favor and please give Bob $1 with a ... |
What options do I have at 26 years old, with 1.2 million USD? | Lots of good advice so far. Here's some meta-advice. Read through everything here twice, and distill out what the big picture ideas are. Learn about what you need to know about them. Pick a strategy and/or long term goals. Work toward them. Get advice from many many places and distill it. This is currently known as cro... |
Why should the P/E ratio of a growth stock match its percentage earnings growth rate? | Your observation is mostly right, that 1 is a the number around which this varies. You are actually referencing PEG, P/E to Growth ratio, which is a common benchmark to use to evaluate a stock. The article I link to provides more discussion. |
Is this investment opportunity problematic? | Adding to what others have said, if the mortgage for the new house is backed by the federal government (e.g., through FHA or is to be sold to Fannie Mae/Freddie Mac) you would be violating 18 USC § 1001, which makes making intentionally false statements to any agent or branch of the federal government a crime punishabl... |
What is the incentive for a bank to refinance a mortgage at a lower rate? | It can be a good thing for the bank to refinance your loan for you - since you will be keeping the loan at that particular institution. This gives them more time to enjoy the free money you pay them in interest for the remaining life of the loan. Banks that offer "No closing costs" are betting that mortgage payers wil... |
What is a financial security? | First, realize that Wikipedia is written by individuals, just like this board has thousands of members. The two definition were written and edited by different people, most likely. Think Venn diagram. The definition for financial instruments claims that it's the larger set, and securities is contained in a subset. C... |
Are variable rate loans ever a good idea? | The earlier you are in your career, the more willing you should be to take a better opportunity even if it has a short-term financial cost. You go to college even if McDonald's has an opening. After college you may take an entry level job with better long-term prospects even if a higher paying job is available. You ... |
When applying for a mortgage, can it also cover outstanding debts? | Yes, but should you be even trying to get a mortgage if you can't aford at least a 5% deposit? Prove you do want the house by doing without a new car for a few years... |
Should I buy ~$2200 of a hot stock or invest elsewhere? | Forget investing, you need to focus on managing your debt. I would keep the 6k in a checking or savings account because you need that money in case of an emergency. If you save up more than 10k, use the excess to pay down the principal on your debt. Worry about investing when you have a positive net worth. |
Is it possible to quantify the probability of sudden big movements for a high-volume stock? | In general, when companies are regarded as "hot" growth stocks, they are expected to keep up an accelerated level of growth for a good long time. That accelerated growth justifies a high PE relative to a slow-growth stock. When companies that are supposed to grow miss expectations or (worse) lose money, the markets pun... |
Which banks have cash-deposit machines in Germany? | In my experience Sparkasse or VR Bank have them quite often. They stick out in my mind because when you make a withdrawal you have to reach in to get your money instead of it spitting it out. I'm always afraid its going to chop my hand off. |
Has anyone created a documentary about folks who fail to save enough for retirement? | To answer your question, Retirement Revolution may fit the bill to some extent. I'd also like to address some of the indirect assumptions that were made in your bullet points. I'm convinced that the best way to overcome this is not simply to hold down a good job with COLAs every year, max out your IRA accounts and 401... |
Avoiding timing traps with long term index investing | What are the risks pertaining to timing on long term index investments? The risks are countless for any investment strategy. If you invest in US stocks, and prices revert to the long term cyclically adjusted average, you will lose a lot of money. If you invest in cash, inflation may outpace interest rates and you w... |
What is a good price to “Roll” a Covered Call? | An expiration 2 years out will have Sqr(2) (yes the square root of 2!) times the premium of the 1 year expiration. So if the option a year out sell for $1.00, two is only $1.41. And if the stock trades for $10, but the strike is $12, why aren't you just waiting for expiration to write the next one? |
For the first time in my life, I'm going to be making real money…what should I do with it? | Your attitude is great, but be careful to temper your (awesome) ambition with a dose of reality. Saving is investing is great, the earlier the better, and seeing retirement at a young age with smooth lots of life's troubles; saving is smart and we all know it. But as a college junior, be honest with yourself. Don't y... |
Teaching school kids about money - what are the real life examples of math, budgeting, finance? | If these are children that may be employed, in a few years, it may well be worth walking them through some basics of the deductions around employment, some basic taxes, uses of banks, and give them enough of a basis in how the economy of the world works. For example, if you get a job and get paid $10/hour, that may so... |
Should I pay half a large balance this month before I get my CC statement? | It will reduce the credit ding you will take but why does it matter? Next cycle when it's paid off your credit score will go back to where it was. Unless you're looking for a loan right now and your credit is marginal why worry about it? |
Options for the intelligent but inexperienced | Realize this is almost a year old, but I just wanted to comment on something in Dynas' answer above... "Whenever you trade always think about what the other guys is thinking. Sometimes we forget their is someone else on the other side of my trade that thinks essentially the exact opposite of me. Its a zero sum game." ... |
Where to find LEAPS option quotes (full chain)? CBOE & Yahoo! Finance not working | I'm familiar with and have traded U.S.-listed LEAPS and I've always used the CBOE quotes page you linked to. So, I too was surprised I couldn't find 3M (MMM) LEAPS quotes at that page, even after checking the "List all options, LEAPS, Credit Options & Weeklys if avail." radio button. Used to work! Fortunately, I was ... |
Does investing in a company support it? | As said by others, buying shares of a company will not support it directly. But let's think about two example companies: Company A, which has 90 % stocks owned by supporters, and Company B, which has only 1 % of stocks owned by supporters. Both companies release bad news, for example profits have decreased. In Company ... |
Equity market inflow meaning | Suppose I purchase $10,000 worth of a particular share today. If the person(s) I am purchasing the shares from paid $9,000 for those shares, then I replacing their $9,000 investment with my $10,000 investment. This is a net inflow of $1,000 into the market. Similarly, if the person(s) I am purchasing the shares from p... |
Freelancer: Should I start a second bank account? | I feel the need to separate my freelance accounts from my personal accounts. Yes, you should. Should I start another savings account or a current account? Do you need the money for daily spending? Do you need to re-invest in your business? Use a current account. If you don't need the money for business expenses, put it... |
Can I invest in gold through Vanguard (Or another instrument that should perform well in financial crisis)? | The difficulty with investing in mining and gold company stocks is that they are subject to the same market forces as any other stocks, although they may whether those forces better in a crisis than other stocks do because they are related to gold, which has always been a "flight to safety" move for investors. Some inv... |
Can you explain the mechanism of money inflation? | In simple terms, inflation is a result of too much money chasing too few goods, i.e. there is an imbalance between demand and supply. The demand exceeds the supply. With all other things being constant it leads to increase in price, i.e. inflation. |
Where can I lookup accurate current exchange rates for consumers? | I want to shop in the currency that will be cheapest in CAD at any given time. How do you plan to do this? If you are using a debit or credit card on a CAD account, then you will pay that bank's exchange rate to pay for goods and services that are billed in foreign currency. If you plan on buying goods and services f... |
Home Valuation in a Dodgy neighborhood | I wouldn't personally spend any money on an appraisal. Spend some time yourself looking at Zillow.com and maybe Realtor.com and other sites to review recent sales in your specific area. Not the houses a mile away. Try to find comparables to yours. The key factor is dollars per square foot. See if the trend over th... |
Is there a White-list of Trusted Online Vendors? | I'm going to go with "ridiculous notion." :) The vast majority of businesses are legitimate, run by honest people trying to earn a living for themselves and their employees. These days, almost all of them accept credit cards. Crooked businesses are a very small minority. When a bad business over charges you, you dis... |
I'm about to be offered equity by my employer. What should I expect? | In my experience, any kind of equity you may be offered by the company is just a carrot. Your offer may be written in such a way that your potential ownership represents, say, 1% of the company today. But if the company goes for a round of financing your ownership percentage can get diluted. If this happens a couple of... |
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 |
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 feasible would it be to retire just maxing out a Roth IRA? | I wouldn't settle for 10%, and I certainly wouldn't settle for a Roth. I'd recommend not retiring. I'd recommend building up a side business in your "free" time while you're working that's closer to your calling that you can "retire into." Don't be complacent. |
How might trading volume affect future share price? | Volumes are used to predict momentum of movement, not the direction of it. Large trading volumes generally tend to create a price breakout in either positive or negative direction. Especially in relatively illiquid stocks (like small caps), sudden volume surges can create sharp price fluctuations. |
Swap hedging a currency hedge | I decided to try this in order to get a feel of it. As far as the interest rates are concerned, it works. You can set it up and forget about holding time as long as the rates and positions stay within a range. The problem is that currency volatility turns the interest paid for shorting USD/JPY into noise at best. And i... |
Are you preparing for a possible dollar (USD) collapse? (How?) | The collapse of the US economic system is one of the many things I am preparing for. To answer the how, me personally I am doing some investing in gold and silver. However I am investing more in the tools, goods and gear that will help me be independent of the system around me. In short nothing will change for me if th... |
Priced out of London property market. What are my accommodation investment options? | Be radical! (I assume you are not working for a city bank getting paid “city wages” – e.g. you are one of the 99% of people in London or more “normal” income.) House prices and rents in London and anywhere within reasonable commuting distances are now so high that couples in reasonable jobs often have to rent rooms in ... |
Options for dummies. Can you explain how puts & calls work, simply? | Put Options for Kids: You have a big box of candy bars. You saved up your allowance to get a lot of them, so you could have one whenever you want one. But, you just saw a commercial on TV for a new toy coming out in one month. Your allowance alone won't buy it, and you want that toy more than you want the candy. So, yo... |
How can a company charge a closed credit card? | You should contact the Company who purchased your visa balance and ask/write the following questions: 1. Dispute the charge from Emusic.com as invalid. 2. Instruct that no future charges will be accepted. 3. How come Emusic.com was allowed to debit your account? 4. When did they purchased your visa account? 5. Ask ... |
How are long-term/short-term capital gains tax calculated on restricted stock? | Is the Grant Date or the Vest Date used when determining the 12-month cutoff for long-term and short-term capital gains? You don't actually acquire the stock until it's vested, so that is the date and price used to determine your cost basis and short-term/long-term gain/loss. The grant date really has no tax bearing. ... |
What's the average rate of return for some of the most mainstream index funds? | When asking about rate of return it is imperative to specify the time period. Average over all time? Average over the last 10 years? I've heard a good rule of thumb is 8-10% on average for all stocks over all time. That may be overstated now given the current economic climate. You can also look up fund sheets/fact shee... |
Are there Cashflow Positive Investment Properties in the USA? | I'm an Aussie and I purchased 5 of these properties from 2008 to 2010. I was looking for positive cash flow on properties for not too much upfront investment. The USA property market made sense because of the high Aussie $$ at the time, the depressed property market in the US and the expensive market here. I used an i... |
Why do Americans have to file taxes, even if their only source of income is from a regular job? | There are a few reasons: 1) Deductions and credits. We have a lot of them. While I suppose we could pass this information on to our employers for them to file, why would we want to? That just unnecessarily adds a middle-man as well as sharing potentially private information more than it needs to be shared. This is the ... |
I have $10,000 sitting in an account making around $1 per month interest, what are some better options? | Based on your question, I am going to assume your criterion are: Based on these, I believe you'd be interested in a different savings account, a CD, or money market account. Savings account can get you up to 1.3% and money market accounts can get up to 1.5%. CDs can get you a little more, but they're a little trickier... |
splitting a joint mortgage - one owner in home | Definitely get a lawyer to write up all the details of the partnership in a formal agreement. If your ex does not want to do this, that is a bad sign. You both need to be clear about expectations and responsibilities in this partnership, and define an exit strategy in the case one of you wants out. This is the most fai... |
What are the downsides that prevent more people from working in high-income countries, and then retiring in low-income (and cost of living) ones? | A lot of good answers, but there’s one more factor: ignorance. The majority haven’t considered it, or considered it and assumed it’s not an option without investigating. PLUS, the widespread myth that every other country is primitive, unhealthy, and dangerous. |
Obtaining Private Prospectuses | How can I get quarterly information about private companies? Ask the owner(s). Unelss you have a relationship and they're interested in helping you, they will likely tell you no as there's no compelling reason for them to do so. It's a huge benefit of not taking a company public. |
Best Time to buy a stock in a day | Buy it at the close. That way you won't lose money (even if marked to market) on the day. |
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... |
How to invest for the event of a US default? | Lots of opportunities during threats to US debt demand. Most just involve being short the S&P or long the VIX (or short treasury bond futures, or short a US dollar currency pair). Those are the opportunities. And if you are worried about the utility of speculating in US dollars on a decline of the US dollar, then it is... |
Which US market indexes (Dow/DJIA, S&P500, NASDAQ) include reinvested dividends? | While the S&P500 is not a total return index, there is an official total return S&P500 that includes reinvested dividends and which is typically used for benchmarking. For a long time it was not available for free, but it can currently be found on yahoo finance using the ticker ^SP500TR. |
What are a few sites that make it easy to invest in high interest rate mutual funds? | If you want a ~12% rate of return on your investments.... too bad. For returns which even begin to approach that, you need to be looking at some of the riskiest stuff. Think "emerging markets". Even funds like Vanguard Emerging Markets (ETF: VWO, mutual fund, VEIEX) or Fidelity Advisor Emerging Markets Income Trust (FA... |
How much life insurance do I need? | Life Insurance can be a difficult decision. We have to first assess the "want" for it vs. the "need" for it, and that differs from person to person. Any Life licensed agent should be happy to do this calculation for you at no cost and no obligation. Just be sure you are well educated in the subject to make sure they... |
Where can I invest my retirement savings money, where it is safer than stocks? | This is a very open ended question with no concrete answer as it depends on your personal situation. However, for starters I would suggest picking up a copy of The Investment Answer. It's a very light read, less than 100 pages, but it has some amazingly simple yet very concrete advice on investing and answers a lot of ... |
How do you go about buying a house directly from an owner? I.e. no broker involved? | You don't have to use an agent (broker, as you call it), but it is strongly advised. In some counties lawyers are required, in some not. Check your local requirements. Similarly the escrow companies that usually deal with recording and disbursing of money. You will probably not be able to get a title insurance without ... |
Buying shares- Stocks & Shares ISA, or Fund & Share account? | The main difference is that the ISA account like a Cash ISA shelters you from TAX - you don't have to worry about Capital Gains TAX. The other account is normal taxable account. With only £500 to invest you will be paying a high % in charges so... To start out I would look at some of the Investment Trust savings scheme... |
What kinds of information do financial workers typically check on a daily basis? | I think it depends where you live in the world, but I guess the most common would be: Major Equity Indices I would say major currency exchange rate: And have a look at the Libors for USD and EUR. I guess the intent of the question is more to see how implicated you are in the daily market analysis, not really to see if ... |
Should I make more conservative investments in my company 401(K) if I'm going to leave the job in a couple of years? | Your retirement PLAN is a lifelong plan and shouldn't be tied to your employer status. Max out your 401(k) contribution to the maximum that your employer matches (that's a 100% ROI!) and as much as you can afford. When you leave the work force rollover your 401(k) to an IRA account (e.g.: you can create an IRA account ... |
Where can I borrow money for investing? | The question should read: "Borrow huge money for speculating". This is a bad idea on many levels. The lowest rates available will be from time-limited credit card offers, followed by broker margin accounts. Personal loans are going to be higher. My advice: if you insist on throwing your money away, go to Vegas with $40... |
Why is retirement planning so commonly recommended? | In addition to the choice that saving for retirement affords - itself a great comfort - the miracle of compounding is so great that even if you chose to work in old age, having set aside sums of money that grow will itself help your future. The are so many versions of the "saving money in your 20s" that equals million... |
What evidence is there that rising interest rates causes Canadian condo prices to go down? | In general, prices are inversely proportional to rates; however, accurate interest rate prediction would make one worthy of managing a large credit derivative hedge fund. This is not to say that interest rates cannot go up in Canada since the world is currently undergoing a resource bust, and the United States has begu... |
Is it legal if I'm managing my family's entire wealth? | You can perfectly well manage their wealth without transferring their money into your account first. Just make them open their own account on their name then ask them for credentials and then manage their money from within their own account. That way everyone will be taxed according to their wealth (which is probably a... |
Is www.onetwotrade.com a scam? | It is a binary options market licensed by the "gaming authority" of Malta. One of the most liberal "pay to play" jurisdictions in the European Union. It sells access to tighter regulatory regimes. This is distinctly a gambling website, not licensed or protected by securities regulations. But that aside, even if they we... |
How can I get free or discounted checks for my bank account? | There is no reason you must buy the bank's printed check. There are many places both physical stores and on line the offer check printing. From what I've seen, the requirement is the use of a magnetic ink the bank's equipment can properly scan. I may not even be correct there if they've all gone fully optical. The che... |
Is there any reason not to put a 35% down payment on a car? | Do you guys think it's a good idea to put that much down on the car ? In my opinion, it depends on a lot of factors. If you have nothing to pay, and are not planning to invest in something that cost a lot soon (I.E an house, etc). Then I see no problem in put "that much down on the car". Remember that the more you pay... |
Why would you elect to apply a refund to next year's tax bill? | The refund may offset your liability for the next year, especially if you are a Schedule "C" filer. By having your refund applied to the coming year's taxes you are building a 'protection' against a potentially high liability if you were planning to sell a building that was a commercial building and would have Capital... |
Is sales tax for online purchases based on billing- or shipping address? | The technical answer is defined by the laws of state you live in but most (all?) states with a sales tax have some form of use tax. Where if you buy something in another state for use in your home state you are technically liable for sales tax on it regardless of whether the merchant charged you tax on it or not. I don... |
Additional credit card with different limit on same account? | You can look into getting a business credit card. When I had my Chase business credit card, I could add authorized users to the main account and set a spending limit on each card. |
When should I start saving/investing for my retirement? | Start as soon as you can and make your saving routine. Start with whatever you feel comfortable with and be consistent. Increase that amount with raises, income gains, and whenever you want. |
Separated spouse filed for SNAP benefits as single. Does this affect ability to file taxes jointly? | The IRS isn't going to care how you filed for benefits - they're effectively the high man on the totem pole. The agency that administers the SNAP program is the one who might care. File the 1040 correctly, and then deal with SNAP as you note. Do deal with SNAP, though; otherwise they might be in trouble if SNAP noti... |
Using property to achieve financial independence | Be very careful about buying property because it has been going up quickly in recent years. There are some fundamental factors that limit the amount real-estate can appreciate over time. In a nutshell, the general real-estate market growth is supported by the entry-level property market. That is, when values are app... |
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