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Why do so many NFL (pro football) players have charities?
In addition to tax-related benefits, one answer may be that it helps them avoid being inundated with requests to support other foundations. Most charities have access to public records that indicate potential donors based on income and demographic. They can use that info to solicit for donations. "Hey NFL Player, you h...
Calculating profits for a private fund
The total number of shares on April 1st is 100 + 180 + 275 = 555. The price on April 1st is required. The current price is stated as $2, but $2 * 555 = $1110 and the current fund values is stated as $1500. Opting to take the current value as $1500, the price on April 1st can be calculated as $1500/555 = $2.7027. The...
Why does the biotechnology industry have such a high PE ratio?
Most biotech companies do not have a product they are selling. They have a set of possible drugs that they are developing. If any of these drugs get proven to be better than the current drugs they can be sold at a great profit. Therefore as soon as a biotech company proves a drug candidate is likely to pass large...
Does this plan make any sense for early 20s investments?
I'm not following what's the meaning of "open a mutual fund". You don't open a mutual fund, you invest in it. There's a minimum required investment ($2000? Could be, some funds have lower limits, you don't have to go with the Fidelity one necessarily), but in general it has nothing to do with your Roth IRA account. You...
NYSE vs. Nasdaq - can I tell what exchange a ticker traded on, based solely on the ticker?
You cannot determine this solely by the ticker length. However, there are some conventions that may help steer you there. Nasdaq has 2-4 base letters BATS has 4 base letters NYSE equity securities have 1-4 base letters. NYSE Mkt (formerly Amex) have 1-4 base letters. NYSE Arca has 4 base letters OTC has 4 base letters....
How did Bill Gates actually make his money?
Bill gates is founder of microsoft along with his friend allen.in microsoft as its vast empire increasing the wealth and enormous property of bill gates is increasing
How long should I keep my bills?
Shred it all. You might want to keep a record going back at most a year, just in case. But just in case of what? What is a good idea is to have an electronic record. It's a good practice to know how your spending changes over time. Beyond that, it's just a fire hazard. The thing is, I know I'm right in the above p...
Comparing/reviewing personal health insurance plans for the self-employed
Health insurance is tough, as you know, because the offerings vary dramatically by State, and there is the added complication of the Affordable Care Act, which depending on where and who you are has had either a good or bad impact on the available options. If you are a sole proprietor or other business person, I'd advi...
Short term cutting losses in a long term investment
What you are suggesting would be the correct strategy, if you knew exactly when the market was going to go back up. This is called market timing. Since it has been shown that no one can do this consistently, the best strategy is to just keep your money where it is. The market tends to make large jumps, especially lat...
What are my investment options in real estate?
Real estate investment is a proven creator of wealth. Check into the history of the rich and you will find real estate investment. Starting your investment in multi-family is a great idea. It is a good way to gain experience in real estate while exponentially increasing cash flow. If you turn the properties over to a...
If a company in China says it accepts Visa, does it accept all Visas?
Many businesses that accept regular VISA credit cards will not accept VISA purchase cards intended for corporate/gov purchasing departments and able to furnish a more detailed audit trail (purchase order #, lot #, etc.) than a regular credit card. Other merchants take ONLY VISA purchase cards.
Are credit histories/scores international?
Credit history is local, so when you move to the US you start with the blank slate. Credit history length is a huge factor, so in the first year expect that nobody would trust you and you may be refused credit or asked for deposits. I was asked for deposits at cell phone company and refused for store cards couple of ti...
How do I establish the cost basis of shares bought in an employee stock purchase program?
A public company should have a link for investor relations, which should help provide a trail of basis if this is a matter of company buyout, takeover, etc. This gets you close, but if you don't have an exact date, it will just be close, not exact. One clean way out of this, assuming the goal is to get rid of the sto...
Townhouse or stand-alone house for a first home?
I very much agree with what @Grade 'Eh' Bacon said about townhouses, but wanted to add a bit about HOA's, renting after moving on, and appreciation: HOA's HOA's can be restrictive, but they can also help protect property values, not all HOA's are created equal, some mean you have zero exterior maintenance, some don't. ...
Why don't banks allow more control over credit/debit card charges?
Credit cards and debit cards make up the bulk of the transactions in the US. Visa and Mastercard take a percentage of each credit card transaction. For the most part, this fee it built into the price of what you buy. That is, you don't generally pay extra at the grocery store if you use a credit card (gasoline purch...
Are there any Social Responsibility Index funds or ETFs?
At the other end of the spectrum is the VICEX fund. it invests in industries such as tobacco, gaming, defense/weapons, liquor and other companies whose products or services are widely considered not to be socially responsible
Are stocks always able to be bought and sold at market price?
In general stock markets are very similar to that, however, you can also put in limit orders to say that you will only buy or sell at a given price. These sit in the market for a specified length of time and will be executed when an order arrives that matches the price (or better). Traders who set limit orders are call...
Are Forex traders forced to use leverage?
No one is FORCED to use leverage. But most people do. Trading companies like it because, the more leverage, the more "business" (and total commissions). If someone starts with $1 million and leverages it up ten times to ten million, companies would rather do ten million of business than one. That's a given. On the othe...
Offshore bank account with online International wire-transfer facility for Indians
All Indian Banks are offering USD accounts known as multicurrency account, where you can hold your fund, this account also permits you to book the USD to INR rates in advance if you require. You can keep your money in this account and also can remit the same back to source or other destination country.
What are the best software tools for personal finance?
For Mac it's definitely iFinance.
Why is the stock market price for a share always higher than the earnings per share?
Imagine a stock where the share price equals the earnings per share. You pay say $100 for a share. In the next year, the company makes $100 per share. They can pay a $100 dividend, so now you have your money back, and you still own the share. Next year, they make $100 per share, pay a $100 dividend, so now you have yo...
Definition of “U.S. source” for US non-resident alien capital gains tax
The examples you provide in the question are completely irrelevant. It doesn't matter where the brokerage is or where is the company you own stocks in. For a fairly standard case of an non-resident alien international student living full time in the US - your capital gains are US sourced. Let me quote the following tex...
Is the writer of a call ever required to surrender dividends to the call option buyer?
The dividend goes to he who owns the stock when it goes ex-div. A buyer (the call buyer who exercises) will not exercise unless the stock plus dividend are in the money. Otherwise they'd be buying the stock at a premium. I like the scenario your friend doesn't. If I can find a high dividend stock and sell the call for...
Why would you ever turn down a raise in salary?
Sometimes it's not entirely about take-home pay. A pay raise can affect other things like: These things need to be considered since they also affect quality of life.
Are there any Social Responsibility Index funds or ETFs?
Try this site for the funds http://www.socialinvest.org/resources/mfpc/ I'm not aware of any etfs. I'm sure some exist though.
Does cash back apply to online payments with credit card
Retail purchases are purchases made at retail, i.e.: as a consumer/individual customer. That would include any "standard" individual expenditure, but may exclude wholesale sales or purchases from merchants who identify themselves as service providers to businesses. Specifics of these limitations really depend on your c...
Money transfer to the U.K
I'd recommend an online FX broker like XE Trade at xe.com. There are no fees charged by XE other than the spread on the FX conversion itself (which you'll pay anywhere). They have payment clearing facilities in several countries (including UK BACS) so provided you're dealing with a major currency it should be possible...
Legitimate unclaimed property that doesn't appear in any state directory?
So while these companies are not a scam, 30% feels pretty darn high. How about you negotiate a much lower rate? 10% or 15%? Here is why: You will spend time and effort (which technically isn't free) to find the money. I bet you can find it if you look hard enough. But you could also just collect it and give this co...
Large BUY LIMIT orders' effect on a stock's price
Traders sometimes look at the depth of the book (number of outstanding limit orders) to try and gauge the sentiment of the market or otherwise use this information to formulate their strategy. If there was a large outstanding buy order at $49.50, there's a decent chance this could increase the price by influencing oth...
Is there a free, online stock screener for UK stocks?
I use and recommend barchart.com. Again you have to register but it's free. Although it's a US system it has a full listing of UK stocks and ETFs under International > London. The big advantage of barchart.com is that you can do advanced technical screening with Stochastics and RS, new highs and lows, moving averages e...
Deducting Hobby Expenses on my Federal Income Taxes?
Does your wife perform solo or in association with other actor/actresses and other volunteers? The latter arrangement sounds more like an unincorporated association or a partnership, which might be a bit freer to match the revenue and expenses. By grinding through the proper procedures, it might be possible to get off...
No transaction fee ETF trades - what's the catch?
what is the mechanism by which they make money on the funds that I have in my account? Risk drives TD Ameritrade to look for profits, Turukawa's storytelling about 100,000$ and 500$ is trivial. The risk consists of credit risk, asset-liability risk and profit risk. The third, based on Pareto Principle, explains the...
250k USD in savings. What's next?
Find a good financial advisor that is willing to teach you and not just interested in making a commission on your net worth. Talk to them and talk some more. Go slow and don't make impulsive buying decisions. If you don't understand it then don't buy it. Think long term - how do I turn this 250K into 2.5M? Congrats on ...
How Warren Buffett made his money
There is actually a recent paper that attempted to decompose Buffett's outperformance. I've quoted the abstract below: "Berkshire Hathaway has realized a Sharpe ratio of 0.76, higher than any other stock or mutual fund with a history of more than 30 years, and Berkshire has a significant alpha to traditional risk facto...
What is the theory behind Rick Van Ness's risk calculation in the video about diversification?
He's calculating portfolio variance. The general formula for the variance of a portfolio composed of two securities looks like this: where w_a and w_b are the weights of each stock in the portfolio and the sigmas represent the standard deviation/risk of each asset or portfolio. In the case of perfect positive or nega...
Does a restaurant have to pay tax on a discount?
In almost any jurisdiction, the restaurant will pay tax on the amount after the discount. Discounting is just a selective way to reduce prices for particular clients and thus achieve some degree of price discrimination. It's no different in principle to cutting prices for everyone or having a sale or similar. It would ...
Company revenue increased however stock price did not
looking over some historical data I cannot really a find a case where a stock went from $0.0005 to $1 it almost seem that once a stock crosses a minimum threshold the stock never goes back up. Is there any truth to that? That would be a 2000X (200,000%) increase in the per-share value which would be extraordinary. Whe...
Why are interest rates on saving accounts so low in USA and Europe?
The 8% rate offered by Russian banks on US Dollar accounts reflects the financial problems they have. They would prefer to lend US Dollars on the international financial markets at the same rate as US banks, but loans to Russian banks are considered to be more risky. In fact, the estimated "default" risk is ~6%. Your ...
How to plan in a budget for those less frequent but mid-range expensive buys?
Personally I solve this by saving enough liquid capital (aka checking and savings) to cover pretty much everything for six months. But this is a bad habit. A better approach is to use budget tracking software to make virtual savings accounts and place payments every paycheck into them, in step with your budget. The big...
Where can I buy European-style options?
On the US markets, most index options are European style. Most stock and ETF options are, as you noted, American style.
How detailed do itemized deductions have to be? (source needed)
When you do your taxes, you have two choices for your deductions. You can take the standard deduction, or you can choose to itemize your deductions. If you itemize your deductions, you use Form 1040 Schedule A. By looking at Schedule A, you can see the list of deductions that are itemized: On Schedule A itself, you on...
How common is “pass-through” health insurance?
Even though this isn't really personal finance related I still feel like there are some misconceptions here that could be addressed. I don't know where you got the phrase "pass-through" insurance from. What you're describing is a self-funded plan. In a self-funded arrangement an employer contracts a third-party-admin...
Can a US bank prevent you from making early payments to the principal on a home mortgage?
Many mortgages penalize early payment, and I assume it's possible to disallow it altogether. It makes sense why they don't want early payment. If you pay off the loan early, it is usually because you re-financed it to a loan with a lower rate. You would do this when the interest rate is low (lower than when you got you...
What is inflation?
I've seen a lot of long and complicated answers here so here is my simple and short answer: Let's say the economy consists of: 10 apples and 10$. Then an apple costs 1$. If you print 10$ more you have: 10 apples and 20$. Then an apple costs 2$. That is it! It's not what Kenshin said: Over time, prices go up! However I...
Should I invest in the world's strongest currency instead of my home currency?
Currency speculation is a very risky investment strategy. But when you are looking for which currency to denote your savings in, looking at the unit value is quite pointless. What is important is how stable the currency is in the long term. You certainly don't want a currency which is prone to inflation, because it mea...
Visitor Shopping in the US: Would I get tax refund? Would I have to pay anything upon departure?
Sales tax and luxury tax is what you will have to pay tax wise, and they are non-refundable (in most cases but the rules vary area to area). This really tripped up some friends of mine I had come from England. The rules are complicated and regional. Sales tax is anywhere from 0% to 10.25% and are not usually applied...
Should I get an accountant for my taxes?
A reason to get an accountant is to avoid penalties for possible mistakes. That is, if you make a mistake, the IRS can impose penalties on you for negligence. If the professional makes the SAME mistake, the burden of proof for "negligence" shifts to the IRS, which probably means that you'll pay more taxes and interest,...
Should I switch to this high rate checking account for my emergency fund?
I do this, and as you say the biggest downside is not having a separate account for your savings. If you're the type of person who struggles with restraint this is not for you. On the other hand this type of account gives more interest than any other type of US Checking or Savings account I've seen, so you will benefi...
No-line-of-credit debit card?
This arrangement might be a bit of a pain, but what about Visa gift card(s)? The transfer of money just doesn't happen if the money isn't already on the card. See here.
Is there any online personal finance software without online banking?
CashBase has a web app, an iPhone app and an Android app, all sync'ed up. It doesn't integrate with banks automatically, but you can import bank statements as CSV. Disclosure: Filip is CashBase's founder.
Where can I find a definition of psychological barriers with respect to marketable securities?
I will teach you to be rich blog is all about psychological barriers and behavioural change.
What is the process of getting your first share?
Let's handle this as a "proof of concept" (POC); OP wants to buy 1 share of anything just to prove that they can do it before doing the months of painstaking analysis that is required before buying shares as an investment. I will also assume that the risks and costs of ownership and taxes would be included in OP's futu...
Why do bank statements end on *SUCH* wildly inconsistent days of the month?
Looking at your dates, I think I see a pattern. It appears that your statement closing date is always 17 business days before the last business day of the month. For example, if you start at May 31 and start counting backwards, skipping Saturdays, Sundays, and May 30 (Memorial Day), you'll see that May 5 is 17 busine...
Should I pay off my credit card online immediately or wait for the bill?
Theoretically there is always a time value of money. You'll need to keep your cash in a Money Market Fund to realize its potential (I'm not saying MMFs are the best investment strategy, they are the best kind of account for liquid cash). Choose an accounts that's flexible with regard to its minimum required so you can...
Plan/education for someone desiring to achieve financial independence primarily through investing?
Stay in school, learn everything you can, and spend as little money as possible. And realize that the chances of you dropping out and becoming a millionaire are much lower than the chances of you staying in school and becoming a millionaire. You're unlikely to be a good investor if you make bets with negative expecte...
How is options implied volatility for a stock determined?
There are a few different "kinds" of implied volatility. They are all based on the IVs obtained from the option pricing model you use. (1) Basically, given a few different values (current stock price, time until expiration, right of option, exercise style, strike of the option, interest rates, dividends, etc), you can ...
Is it correct to call an exchange-traded note a type of ETF?
They're exchange traded debt, basically, not funds. E.g. from the NYSE: An exchange-traded note (ETN) is a senior unsecured debt obligation designed to track the total return of an underlying market index or other benchmark, minus investor fees. Whereas an ETF, in some way or another, is an equity product - which doesn...
is the bankruptcy of exchange markets possible?
@MichaelBorgwardt gave an excellent answer. Let me add a little analogy here that might help. Suppose you bought a car from Joe's Auto Sales. You pay your money, do all the paperwork, and drive your car home. The next day Joe's goes bankrupt. What affect does that have on your ownership rights to your car? The answer i...
Protecting savings from exceptional taxes
Don't worry. The Cyprus situation could only occur because those banks were paying interest rates well above EU market rates, and the government did not tax them at all. Even the one-time 6.75% tax discussed is comparable to e.g. Germany and the Netherlands, if you average over the last 5 years. The simple solution is ...
How to send money across borders physically and inexpensively, but not via cash?
There are checks, international wire transfers (SWIFT), depending on country pair remittance services.
How can I get the car refinanced under my name if my girlfriend signed for the loan?
The best solution is to "buy" the car and get your own loan (like @ChrisInEdmonton answered). That being said, my credit union let me add my spouse to a title while I still had a loan for a title filing fee. You may ask the bank that holds the title if they have a provision for adding someone to the title without cha...
Most important skills needed to select profitable stocks
You need to have 3 things if you are considering short-term trading (which I absolutely do not recommend): The ability to completely disconnect your emotions from your gains and losses (yes, even your gains but especially your losses). The winning/losing on a daily basis will cause you to start taking unnecessary risk ...
Is buying a home a good idea?
It certainly seems like you are focusing on the emotional factors. That's your blind spot, and it's the surest path to a situation where your husband gets to say "I told you so". I recommend you steer straight into that blind spot, and focus your studies on the business aspects of buying and owning homes. You shoul...
Should one only pursue a growth investing approach for Roth IRAs
For me the aggressive approach makes sense since I have a longer time horizon before I need to withdraw the funds. This style should also match your personality and you should have the patience and appetite to deal with market fluctuations which can be wild in some cases (as we saw in 2008-2009). Not an easy question...
How much life insurance do I need?
One simple calculation to determine your life insurance need: D.I.M.E. method D: Debt All your car loan balances, credit card balances, student loans, business loans, etc. I: Income Your annual income times 10 (for 10 years of income replacement). M: Mortgage Your home mortgage balance. E: Education Your children's edu...
What kind of symbol can be shorted?
Some platforms/brokers have HTB indication for a stock symbol, meaning Hard To Borrow. That usually means you can't sell it short at the moment.
What is a 10 Year Treasury Note and How Can it be Used to Calculate the Intrinsic Value of a Stock?
It's a form of debt issued by the United States Treasury. As the name implies, a 10-year note is held for 10 years (after which you get the face value in cash), and it pays interest twice per year. It's being used in the calculator to stand for a readily available, medium-term, nearly risk-free investment, as a means o...
Why do Americans have to file taxes, even if their only source of income is from a regular job?
One of the reasons is also general distrust to the government. Another one is that there exist special interest group which profits from the complicated scheme, keep adding special cases, and has stronger financial situation that the opponents of such complex scheme. People do not trust government, or companies, to act...
What is the maximum I can have stored in a traditional 401(k) and a Roth 401(k)?
I've never seen anything in any IRS publication that placed limits on the balance of a 401K, only on what you can contribute (and defer from taxes) each year. The way the IRS 'gets theirs' as it were is on the taxes you have to pay (for a traditional IRA anyway) which would not be insubstantial when you start to figur...
How does remittance work? How does it differ from direct money transfer?
The Option 2 in your answer is how most of the money is moved cross border. It is called International Transfer, most of it carried out using the SWIFT network. This is expensive, at a minimum it costs in the range of USD 30 to USD 50. This becomes a expensive mechanism to transfer small sums of money that individuals ...
How do I explain why debt on debt is bad to my brother?
I'm not good at persuasion, and I'm not an expert at any of this, but here's what I've been thinking. Rather than telling him that he shouldn't rack up more debt, I'd ask him whether he's planning for his debt levels to increase, remain static, or decrease over the next five years. Try to make it feel like he's the one...
Exercise a put option when shorting is not possible
You are the one lending yourself the shares to sell;you purchase the stock at market price and sell at the strike price of the option to the put seller when you exercise the option.
How will the fall of the UK Pound impact purchasing my first property?
There are two impacts: First, if the pound is dropping, then buying houses becomes cheaper for foreign investors, so they will tend to buy more houses as investments, which will drive house prices up. Second, in theory you might be able to get a mortgage in a foreign country, let's say in Euro, and you might hope that ...
How do dividend reinvestment purchases work?
In order: A seller of the stock (duh!). You don't know who or why this stock was sold. It could be any reason, and is of no concern of yours. It doesn't matter. Investors (pension funds, hedge funds, individual investors, employees, management) sell stock for many reasons: need cash, litigation, differing objectives, s...
Will a stop order get triggered if the floor is hit and trading is halted?
quantycuenta is right, if a halt is in place, then no trading will occur, simple as that. But in the practice of risk management it is a little different. Want to remind you that you are assuming that trading is halted immediately upon the drop in price. That doesn't always happen, so if there is any time between the a...
What should I do with the stock from my Employee Stock Purchase Plan?
I like C. Ross and MrChrister's advice to not be heavily weighted in one stock over the long run, especially the stock of your employer. I'll add this: One thing you really ought to find out – and this is where your tax advisor is likely able to help – is whether your company's stock options plan use qualified incenti...
Do I just let an options conversion/reversal trade go to expiration?
To Chris' comment, find out if the assignment commission is the same as the commission for an executed trade. If that does affect the profit, just let it expire. I've had spreads (buy a call, sell a higher strike call, same dates) so deep in the money, I just made sense to let both exercise at expiration. Don't panic ...
Harmony Gold Mining Company is listed on the NYSE and JSE at different prices?
The quotes on JSE are for 100 share lots. The quotes on NYSE are for single shares. That still leaves some price difference, but much less than you calculated. (EDIT: Equivalently, the price is quoted in 1/100th of a Rand. The Reuter's listing makes this explicit since the price is listed as ZAc rather than ZAR. ht...
What does F[YY]e mean in reporting
It means it's estimate and not final numbers and generally used for future years
Tax exemptions for US stocks held in a Candian account
The dividend tax credit is not applicable to foreign dividend income, so you would be taxed fully on every dollar of that income. When you sell a stock, there will be a capital gain or capital loss depending on if it gained or lost value, after accounting for the Adjusted Cost Base. You only pay income tax on half of t...
Can I buy stocks directly from a public company?
This is allowed somewhat infrequently. You can often purchase stocks through DRIPs which might have little or no commission. For example Duke Energy (DUK) runs their plan internally, so you are buying from them directly. There is no setup fee, or reinvestment fee. There is a fee to sell. Other companies might have ...
How to keep control of shared expenses inside marriage?
Why not start a third account, the "house" account? However you decide to fund it, equally or in proportion to income, you both chip in, and the payments for all joint expenses come from there. Rent, utilities, food, phone, cable.
Why would we need a “stop-limit order” for selling?
One practical application would be to protect yourself from a "flash crash" type scenario where a stock suddenly plunges down to a penny due to transient market glitches. If you had a stop-loss order that executed at a penny (for a non-penny stock) it would be probably be voided by the exchange, but you might not want ...
Company A is buying company B, what happens to the stock?
It depends on the timing of the events. Sometimes the buying company announces their intention but the other company doesn't like the deal. It can go back and forth several times, before the deal is finalized. The specifics of the deal determine what happens to the stock: The deal will specify when the cutoff is. Some ...
What to bear in mind when considering a rental home as an investment?
First off, I would label this as speculation, not investing. There are many variables that you don't seem to be considering, and putting down such a small amount opens you to a wide variety of risks. Not having an "emergency fund" for the rental increases that risk greatly. (I assume that you would not have an emerg...
How to get a credit card as a minor?
I have a job and would like to buy equipment for producing music at home and it would be easier for me to pay for the equipment monthly I just want to address your contention that it would be easier to pay monthly, with an interest calculation. Lets say you get a credit card with a very reasonable rate of 12% and you ...
Should I really pay off my entire credit card balance each month or should I maintain some balance?
Always pay on time, and stop listening to whoever is telling you not to -- they are clueless. Credit cards are revolving accounts with a grace period. The balance owed is due on the statement date, and you have a grace period of 20-40 days to pay. Paying bills on time is the single most important thing that you can do...
For very high-net worth individuals, does it make sense to not have insurance?
I think that insurance is one of the best things ever created for this reasons:
Do I even need credit cards?
No you do not need a credit card. They are convenient to have sometimes. But you do not "need" one. I know people who only have one for use when they travel for work and get reimbursed later. But most companies have other ways to pay for your travel if you tell them you do not have a credit card.
What does APR mean I'm paying?
Welcome to the world of personal finance. IMO, you are heading for trouble. To answer your question, the APR is the annual percentage rate, or what you pay to borrow money from the CC issuer. For example, if you charge $100, and the bill comes, and you pay $100 on or before the due date you pay nothing. If you pay t...
Are PINs always needed for paying with card?
There generally isn't much in the way of real identity verification, at least in the US and online. The protection you get is that with most credit cards you can report your card stolen (within some amount of time) and the fraudulent charges dropped. The merchant is the one that usually ends up paying for it if it get...
What happens to the original funds when a certified bank check is not cashed?
The answer probably varies with local law, and you haven't said where you're located. In most or all US states, it appears that after some statutory length of time, the bank would transfer the money to the state government, where it would be held indefinitely as "unclaimed property" in the name of the recipient (techni...
How can I avoid international wire fees or currency transfer fees?
Depending on your income/savings level and who you work for (if you work for a big company check with an HSBC Premier advisor, they may waive the requirements), you may qualify for an HSBC Premier account, which can allow you to open accounts in different countries and transfer money between them without a fee. You can...
How can I stop a merchant from charging a credit card processing fee?
It may seem very simple on its face but you don't know the merchant's agreement. You don't know who is providing the processing equipment. You don't know a lot of things. You know that Visa, Mastercard, Discover, Amex and others have network requirements and agreements. You know that laws have been changed to allow...
Are solar cell panels and wind mills worth the money?
Solar water heaters are definitely worth the money (if you live in sunny states like South-South-West or Hawaii, at least). In some countries (like Greece, Cyprus and Israel, to name a few) most people use hot water from the solar heaters almost exclusively. I pay $30-$40 a month to PG&E for the privilege. Unfortunatel...
Is there an online cost-basis calculator that automatically accounts for dividend re-investments and splits?
Google Finance portfolios take into account splits and cash deposits/withdrawals.
Beginner dividend investor - first steps
Question 1: How do I start? or "the broker" problem Get an online broker. You can do a wire transfer to fund the account from your bank. Question 2: What criticism do you have for my plan? Dividend investing is smart. The only problem is that everyone's currently doing it. There is an insatiable demand for yield, no...
How to manage currency risk in international investing
Let's make a few assumptions: You have several ways of achieving (almost) that, in ascending complexity: Note that each alternative will have a cost which can be small (forwards, futures) or large (CFDs, debit) and the hedge will never be perfect, but you can get close. You will also need to decide whether you hedge th...
Can the risk of investing in an asset be different for different investors?
Capping the upside while playing with unlimited downside is a less disciplined investment strategy vis-a-vis a stop-loss driven strategy. Whether it is less risky or high risky also depends on the fluctuations of the stock and not just long-term movements. For example, your stop losses might get triggered because of a ...
If I pay someone else's property taxes, can I use it as a deduction on my income tax return?
According to page 107 of the instructions for schedule A for form 1040 : Include taxes (state, local, or foreign) paid on real estate you own that was not used for business. ... If you want to make a business out of her property and be her agent in the management, you might be able to work with an accountant on this, b...