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Why do gas stations charge different amounts in the same local area? | Location, Location, Location. The closer to the highway, the more they can charge. People want to go less than a mile from the exit to get gas. Therefore they save time, but spend more money. That is understandable, so the gas station takes advantage of the situation. |
Lost credit card replaced with new card and new numbers. Credit score affected? | This will have no effect on your credit score. Even though your credit card account number is changing, it is still the same account, so your history of payments and age of accounts will remain unchanged. |
Why is the fractional-reserve banking not a Ponzi scheme? | You are forgetting one crucial point regarding the money supply. The US Federal Reserve increases the money supply, meaning some of the money is not really loaned, it just appears out of nowhere. At first glance this seems even worse: over the short term, the Fed changes the money supply to help the economy in whatev... |
Possible to purchase multiple securities on 1 transaction? | No you can't, as you would have to have a different order for each security. Usually the bigger the order the more the brokerage you would also pay. |
From Facebook's perspective, was the fall in price after IPO actually an indication that it went well? | You are right that Facebook really doesn't get impacted as they got their $38. However it would make it slightly more difficult for Facebook to raise more money in future as large investors would be more cautious. This can keep the price lowers than it actually needs to be. Quite a few companies try to list the IPO at ... |
Do I even need credit cards? | Like many things, there are pros and cons to using credit cards. The other folks on here have discussed the pros and length, so I'll just quickly summarize: Convenience of not having to carry cash. Delay paying your bills for a month with no penalty. Build your credit rating for a time when you need a big loan, like bu... |
Has the likelihood of getting a lower interest rate by calling & asking been reduced by recent credit card regulations? | I don't know that this can actually be answered objectively. Maybe it can with some serious research. (Read: data on what the issuers have been doing since the law went into affect.) Personally, I think the weak economy and general problems with easy credit are a bigger issue than the new rules. Supposedly, there is... |
How to measure the cost/value of an Asset in the Financial Statement | Does the friend fix your electrical wiring and the engine of your car? If you need a professional advice - ask a professional. In this case - an accountant (not necessarily a CPA, but at least an experienced bookkeeper). Financial Statements (official documents, that is) must be signed by a public accountant (CPA in th... |
Deducting SEP-IRA contributions as a sole proprietor with no employees | SEP IRA deduction goes to line 28 of your 1040, which is above the line (i.e.: pre-AGI). It should not be included in your taxable income (AGI) for Federal purposes. |
Paying extra on a mortgage. How much can I save? [duplicate] | Can I pay $12,000 extra once a year or $1000 every month - which option is better? Depends when. If you mean 12K now vs 1K a month over the next 12 months, repeating this each year, now wins. If you mean saving 1K a month for 12 months then doing a lumpsum, the 1K a month wins. Basically, a sooner payment saves you mor... |
Making $100,000 USD per month, no idea what to do with it | I would be more than happy to find a good use for your money. ;-) Well, you have a bunch of money far in excess of your regular expenses. The standard things are usually: If you are very confused, it's probably worth spending some of your windfall to hire professional help. It beats you groping in the dark and possibly... |
Why are credit cards preferred in the US? | There are several reasons why credit cards are popular in the US: On the other hand, debit cards do not have any of these going for them. A debit card doesn't make much money for the bank unless you overdraw or something, so banks don't have incentive to push you to use them as much. As a result they don't offer rewa... |
How can a person protect his savings against a country default? | These have the potential to become "end-of-the-world" scenarios, so I'll keep this very clear. If you start to feel that any particular investment may suddenly become worthless then it is wise to liquidate that asset and transfer your wealth somewhere else. If your wealth happens to be invested in cash then transferrin... |
First time consultant, doubts on Taxation | This is how a consulting engagement in India works. If you are registered for Service Tax and have a service tax number, no tax is deducted at source and you have to pay 12.36% to service tax department during filing (once a quarter). If you do not have Service tax number i.e. not registered for service tax, the compan... |
Why are “random” deposits bad? | Random deposits are a bit like playing the lotery - especially if one is frequently chasing "hot tips". You might make it big, but the odds are vastly against you. "Random" deposits into various investments won't be optimal, because such "random" decisions will not be properly diversified and balanced. Various invest... |
Why is it rational to pay out a dividend? | Firstly, investors love dividend paying company as dividends are proof of making profit (sometimes dividend can be paid out of past profits too) Secondly, investor cash in hand is better than potential earnings by the company by way of interest. Investor feels good to redeploy received cash (dividend) on their own ... |
Is This Money Laundering? | No, this is misbehavior of sales software that tries to automatically find the price point which maximizes profit. There have been much worse examples. Ignore it. The robot will eventually see that no sales occurred and try a more reasonable price. |
First time home buyer. How to negotiate price? | No offer is too low. You can always offer more but you can't offer less once you have made your first offer. And there is always another great deal just around the corner. The more enthusiastic you are about buying this property the less your negotiating power will be. The pproperty has already been on the market for a... |
Should I get an accountant for my taxes? | Let me offer an anecdote to this - I started helping a woman, widowed, retired, who had been paying $500/yr to get her taxes done. As I mentioned in my comment here, she got a checklist each year and provided the info requested. From where I sat, it seemed a clerk entered the info into tax software. As part of the tr... |
What taxes are assessed on distributions of an inherited IRA? | All transactions within an IRA are irrelevant as far as the taxation of the distributions from the IRA are concerned. You can only take cash from an IRA, and a (cash) distribution from a Traditional IRA is taxable as ordinary income (same as interest from a bank, say) without the advantage of any of the special tax ra... |
How can small children contribute to the “family economy”? | Another suggestion I heard on the radio was to give the child the difference between the name brand they want, and the store brand they settle on. Then that money can be accumulated as savings. Saving money is as important a feature of the family economy as earning money. Be careful with what you have a child do for r... |
What does the Fed do with the extra money it is printing? | Usually the FED uses newly printed money to buy US treasuries from Goldman Sachs, JP Morgan, etc.. These banks then lend out the new cash which expands the money supply. During the height of the crisis the FED printed over $1.0 Trillion and bought....well...almost anything the banks couldn't offload elsewhere. Mortga... |
Owing state tax Interest and a result of living in Maryland and working in Virginia | Ultimately, you are the one that is responsible for your tax filings and your payments (It's all linked to your SSN, after all). If this fee/interest is the result of a filing error, and you went through a preparing company which assumes liability for their own errors, then you should speak to them. They will likely co... |
Taxing GoFundMe Donations | From WePay (GoFundMe's payment processor) support. I received only gifts and donations. Will I receive a Form 1099-K? As of 2015, the IRS has clarified that WePay is not required to send a Form 1099-K with respect to payments that are made solely as gifts or donations. The purpose of Form 1099-K is to report p... |
Brokerage account for charity | If the charity accepts stock, you can avoid the tax on the long term cap gain when you donate it. e.g. I donate $10,000 in value of Apple. I write off $10,000 on my taxes, and benefit with a $2500 refund. If I sold it, I'd have nearly a $1500 tax bill (bought long enough ago, the basis is sub $100). Any trading along ... |
Why do financial institutions charge so much to convert currency? | Banks do of course incur costs on currency transactions. But they're not as high as the fee charged to the customer. Most banks in most places lose a lot of money on operating bank accounts for customers, and make the money back by charging more than their costs for services like currency exchange. If you don't choose ... |
Which technical analysis indicators are considered leading stock market indicators? | Relative Strength Indicators are also trailing indicators. They are based on the number of recent upticks or downticks in an investment's price. (The size of a tick is quantized, and related to the investment's price.) By the time enough upticks have accumulated to generate a buy signal, the investment has already i... |
Is it a good practice to keep salary account and savings account separate? | This seems like a risky setup. All it takes is one missed or delayed transfer for you to overdraw your "savings". There is a benefit to keeping your regular expenses and savings separate, and I can see some benefits in having multiple checking accounts depending on how you organize your finances, but I don't see a be... |
What expenses do most people not prepare for that turn into “emergencies” but are not covered by an Emergency Fund? | The way you ask this is interesting, it implies (quite correctly) that for many, an annual bill for house insurance, property tax, etc, can turn into an emergency. My answer to the true emergency is a breakage that can't be foreseen (although you have to know the furnace isn't going to last forever) or a medical bill t... |
Smartest Place to Put Tax Refund | Welcome to Money.SE. Your question is similar to a number of others. The "How do I pay my debt down?" and "How do I invest extra money?" is a bit of a continuum since there's no consensus than one should pay off the last cent of debt before investing. Oversimplify it for me: the correct order of investing offers a goo... |
Why charge gross receipts taxes to the customer? | the state of New Mexico provides guidance in this exact situation. On page 4: Gross receipts DOES NOT include: Example: When the seller passes tax to the buyer, the seller should separate, or “back out”, that tax from the total income to arrive at "Gross Receipts," the amount reported in Column D of the CRS-1 Form.... |
Margin when entered into a derivative contract | A derivative contract can be an option, and you can take a short (sell) position , much the same way you would in a stock. When BUYING options you risk only the money you put in. However when selling naked(you don't have the securities or cash to cover all potential losses) options, you are borrowing. Brokers force you... |
Is it legal if I'm managing my family's entire wealth? | Assuming you and your family always get along and everyone is happy with the situation... Should you become ill, die, or go on government benefits for some catastrophe, the government will look at all those funds as YOURS, and now your wonderful family is hurt by the estate tax and/or expectations of how much of the bi... |
What prevents interest rates from rising? | A lot of loans are taken out on a fixed rate basis, so the rate is part of the contract and is therefore covered by contract law. If the loan is taken out on a variable basis then in principle the rate can rise within the terms of the contract. If a particular lender tries to raise its rates out of line with the marke... |
Calculating Pre-Money Valuation for Startup | Since you have no sales, I'd likely question how well could you determine the value of the company's assets in a reasonable fashion. You may be better to estimate sales and discount that back to a current valuation. For example, insurance companies could determine that if you wanted to be paid $x/month for the rest of ... |
Pensions, annuities, and “retirement” | Pension in this instance seems to mean pension income (as opposed to pension pot). This money would be determined by whatever assets are being invested in. It may be fixed, it may be variable. Completely dependant on the underlying investments. An annuity is a product. In simple terms, you hnd over a lump sum of cash a... |
For very high-net worth individuals, does it make sense to not have insurance? | I'm going to take a very crude view of this: Suppose that you have an event that would cost $100,000 if it occurred. If there's a 10% chance that it'll happen to you and the insurance costs less than $10,000, you'll make a profit "on average." This is, of course, assuming that you could afford a $100,000 loss. If you c... |
Primerica: All it claims to be? | Probably not, though there are a few things to be said for understanding what you are doing here. Primerica acts as an independent financial services firm and thus has various partners that specialize in various financial instruments and thus there may exist other firms that Primerica doesn't use that could offer bett... |
What part of buying a house would make my net worth go down? | In general, buying a house will improve your net worth over the long haul, because unlike cars, houses don't suffer as much from depreciation. The problem with real property is that markets are very cyclic and aren't very liquid assets. Farmers with thousands of acres of valuable land are often cash poor for that very... |
First job: Renting vs get my parents to buy me a house | Personally, I started renting out because I couldn't afford to buy a place but now I'm quite comfortably past that point. My three main issues are: These views aren't for everyone but I find it hard to seriously contemplate dealing with 2 while 1 and 3 are issues. To be honest, I found that I learned a lot sharing a... |
Do I need a Like-Kind Exchange when selling a personal vehicle for a company car | You cannot do a like-kind (Sec. 1031) exchange for personal property, only for business/investment property. Since you said that you traded in your personal car - no like-kind exchange is possible. Also, since the new car doesn't belong to you - you didn't actually perform any exchange. You sold your old car, but you d... |
“Inflation actually causes people not to spend”… could it be true? | We need to be careful what we are talking about here. Inflation on a economy-level scale at an expected rate will not change consumer habits because the price increase is manageable. You have to realize that prices are not increasing in isolation: wages will have to rise along too. High inflation that is expected will... |
Using a cash account can someone trade all day on it? | According to Regulation T, you can make as many day trade (round trip) stock purchases using a cash account as long as you have the funds to cover each and every round trip sale. However, the funds generated from the sales cannot be used again to purchase new stocks until the settlement period (T-2 or T-3) is over. For... |
Primerica: All it claims to be? | I was a Primerica representative, left to be on my own, and then returned. Insurance is one matter that depends on the individual. Some do not need it. For example, when I was an independent agent with an independent marketing organization (IMO) (oh yes! multi-level is everywhere, dont kid yourself) I had an upline as... |
How come I can't sell short certain stocks? My broker says “no shares are available” | In finance, short selling (also known as shorting or going short) is the practice of selling assets, usually securities, that have been borrowed from a third party (usually a broker) with the intention of buying identical assets back at a later date to return to the lender. Remember your broker has to borrow it from so... |
What US tax laws apply to a 13 year old game developer? | After doing a little research, I was actually surprised to find many internet resources on this topic (including sites from Intuit) gave entirely incorrect information. The information that follows is quoted directly from IRS Publication 929, rules for dependents First, I will assume that you are not living on your own... |
First job: Renting vs get my parents to buy me a house | As everyone is saying, this depends on a lot of variables. However... I had my dad help me with the downpayment on my house. In my case, the cost of mortgage payment and all maintenance expenses is still lower than paying rent. If I sell my house and walk away from the closing office with just $1 then I've still come o... |
Why would a bank need to accept deposits from private clients if it can just borrow from the Federal Reserve? | Let's just focus on the "why would a bank need to accept deposits from private clients part" and forget the central bank for a moment. I'm a guy. I have a wife and two kids. They have this pesky habit of wanting to buy stuff. When I get paid, I could just get a check, cash it, stuff it under a mattress, and pull it out... |
Why do Americans have to file taxes, even if their only source of income is from a regular job? | For two reasons: 1- People are entitled to deductions and credits that your employer cannot possibly know. Only you as an individual know about your personal situation and can therefore claim these deductions and credits by filing income tax returns. 2- Me telling you that you made $100,000 last year is not the same as... |
What is a good size distribution for buying gold? | Look at a broader diversification. Something like: For physical gold, I'd look at a mix of gold coins and bullion. Study the pricing model for coins -- you'll probably find that the spreads on small coins make them too expensive. There are a few levels of risk with storing in a vault -- the practical risk is that your ... |
What's the difference between a high yield dividend stock vs a growth stock? | I think Fidelity has a very nice introduction to Growth vs Value investing that may give you the background you need. People love to put stocks in categories however the distinction is more of a range and can change over time. JB King makes a good point that for most people the two stocks you mentioned would both be c... |
hardship withdrawal | Gaining traction is your first priority. WARNING: as @JosephZambrano explains in his answer the tax penalty for withdrawing from a 401(k) can easily exceed the APR of the credit card making it a very bad strategy. Consult in-depth with a financial advisor to see before taking that path. As @JoeTaxpayer has noted a loa... |
How does GST on PayPal payments work for Australian Taxation? | Regardless of wether or not you are registered for GST, you are legally required to include a GST total on every invoice sent to an Australian customer. This GST total must be 10% of the payment amount if you are registered for GST, or it must be $0.00 if you are not registered for GST. Since all GST transactions with ... |
Is it sensible to redirect retirement contributions from 401(k) towards becoming a landlord? | Here are the issues, as I see them - It's not that I don't trust banks, but I just feel like throwing all of our money into intangible investments is unwise. Banks have virtually nothing to do with this. And intangible assets has a different meaning than you assume. You don't have to like the market, but try to under... |
Should I Use an Investment Professional? | Ask yourself the same question for furniture making. Would you feel more comfortable sitting in a chair that you made yourself versus one that you bought from a furniture store? How about one that you bought from IKEA and assembled? For an experienced, competent furniture maker, you might be able to make an equivalent... |
End-of-season car sales? | It completely varies by manufacturer, dealer, and time of year, but in general yes, you can get a (sometimes significant) discount on brand new last year models. In general though, it comes down to supply and demand. As an example, in April 2016 I was looking at a brand new 2016 in which the 2017 model had come out th... |
2 401k's and a SEP-IRA | question #2 - yes, 25% of your 1099 income. Good idea. It adds up quickly and is a good way to reduce taxable income. |
How long does it take for money to transfer into a mastercard? | In a nutshell, as long as they (Sparkasse) choose to. I work with banks where it happens the moment I submit the transaction (so the next screen already shows the new totals), and I work with banks that make it take 3 days. In the past, Sparkasse and Raifeissenkassen were especially famous to take a looong time ('Wir n... |
Is it better to wait for a market downturn to do a Roth conversion? | On average, the market will be down 1 year out of 4. 26 of the last 100 years on the S&P were negative. The Roth conversion offers a unique opportunity to convert early in the year, and decide at tax time next year whether you are happy with the result. Of course, if your fund or stock is up, you are likely better off,... |
Transfer money from a real estate sale in India to the US | How would I go about doing this? Assuming you had purchased the house by funding from your NRE account, you can easily move back the 30K into NRE Account and out of India from NRI Account. The 30K profit would be taxed in India as per capital gains and can only be moved into NRO account. A CA would need to certify that... |
What happens if a Financial Services Company/Stockbroker goes into administration in the UK? | Although I posted this question more than a year ago, I subsequently read information which may be of use as an answer, specifically regarding Pritchard Stockbrokers in the UK several years ago, in which the FSCS stepped in to compensate investors, as detailed in the following: http://www.fscs.org.uk/what-we-cover/ques... |
Is it better to use DRIP or invest when stock drops before ex-date? | The benefit of a dividend reinvestment program is you, generally, don't pay transaction costs or commissions and you don't have to remember to do it. Whether or not you may be able to eek out a little more by managing this yourself is a crapshoot and the equivalent of timing the market. If you're so good at timing t... |
Where to find Vanguard Index Funds? | You cannot actually buy an index in the true sense of the word. An index is created and maintained by a company like Standard and Poor's who licenses the use of the index to firms like Vanguard. The S&P 500 is an example of an index. The S&P 500 "index includes 500 leading companies", many finical companies sell pro... |
(Theoretical) Paying credit cards with other credit cards | A "balance transfer" is paying one credit card with another. You probably get offers in the mail to do this all of the time. As other posters have noted, however, this usually comes with finance fees rather than the rewards that you get for normal purchases because it's written into your credit card agreement as a di... |
At what percentage drop should you buy to average down | Only average down super blue chips with a long history or better still, ETFs or index type funds. I do it with income producing funds as I'm a retiree. Other people may have much shorter horizins. |
How are various types of income taxed differently in the USA? | Many individual states, counties, and cities have their own income taxes, payroll taxes, sales taxes, property taxes, etc., you will need to consult your state and local government websites for information about additional taxes that apply based on your locale. Wages, Salaries, Tips, Cash bonuses and other taxable empl... |
Comparing/reviewing personal health insurance plans for the self-employed | I was in your situation a few years ago and I discovered something that worked perfectly for me - a local health insurance broker. I met with her, discussed my needs, reviewed the options with her, then acted. She received a commission from the insurer, so it cost me nothing. I would certainly follow a similar approach... |
Why does the calculation for percentage profit vary based on whether a position is short vs. long? | The problem with rate of return calculation on short positions is, that the commonly used approach assumes an initial investment creating a cash outflow. If we want to apply this approach to short selling, we should look at the trade from another perspective. We buy money and pay for this money with stock. Our investme... |
What forms of payment am I compelled to accept? | When you're selling something through a provider, like Craig's List or newspapers, the only thing that may limit your choices is the provider. They may refuse your post if it's against their rules or the law. But luckily they usually don't limit or enforce certain payment choices. These private business providers have... |
Will depositing $10k+ checks each month raise red flags with the IRS? | You're getting confused between several different things. 10K - cash transactions over $10,000 are reported to FinCEN under BSA. This is to prevent money laundering. IRS - IRS wants to see your tax return with all your income reported there. They don't see your bank deposits unless they audit you. 1 and 2 are not relat... |
Dollar-cost averaging: How often should one use it? What criteria to use when choosing stocks to apply it to? | Dollar cost averaging can be done in a retirement plan, and can be done for individual stock purchases, as this will increase your returns by reducing your risk, especially if you are buying a particular stock for the first time. How many time have I purchased a stock, bottom fishing, thinking I was buying at the low... |
How does the person lending shares to the short selller protect themselves if the short sellers are correct? | It is true, as farnsy noted, that you generally do not know when stock that you're holding has been loaned by your broker to someone for a short sale, that you generally consent to that when you sign up somewhere in the small print, and that the person who borrows has to make repay and dividends. The broker is on the h... |
GBP savings, what to do with them if leaving the U.K. in about 2 years time? | In general, to someone in a similar circumstance I might suggest that the lowest-risk option is to immediately convert your excess currency into the currency you will be spending. Note that 'risk' here refers only to the variance in possible outcomes. By converting to EUR now (assuming you are moving to an EU country u... |
Entering the stock market in a poor economy | Buy low and sell high. Right now stocks are cheap (or at least cheapish). If you wait for better forecasts, the price will be higher. They might go down still farther, but no one knows for sure when that will happen, or where the bottom is -- despite what the talking heads on TV say. Remember that what you really c... |
Auto insurance on new car | Auto insurance is a highly personalized item, so depending on your driving record and other factors, $600 a month for full coverage may be as good as you can get. Look at the premium for each category, and consider raising the deductible if you have some savings that could be used in the event that you have a claim. Al... |
Is it necessary to pay tax if someone lends me money to put into my mortgage? | This answer is specifically for the UK, but one building society has an account set up specifically for this. You actually refer your friend/family member to set up an account and then it can be linked to your mortgage. They don't get any interest for their account as it's all offset against your mortgage. If you then ... |
What is the preferred way to set up personal finances? | There's a lot of personal preference and personal circumstance that goes into these decisions. I think that for a person starting out, what's below is a good system. People with greater needs probably aren't reading this question looking for an answer. How many bank accounts should I have and what kinds, and how much... |
Understanding option commission costs | From what I see, it is more like .70 per contract, with a $1 minimum (for options that trade over a dime.) IB does not provide any help, at all, so you have to know what you are doing. I use tradeking, which charges about $6 for a contract, but you can call them for help if needed. There looks to be other fees for I... |
Is the stock market a zero-sum game? | No. Share are equity in companies that usually have revenue streams and/or potential for creating them. That revenue can be used to pay out dividends to the shareholders or to grow the company and increase its value. Most companies get their revenue from their customers, and customers rarely give their money to a compa... |
Why do investors buy stock that had appreciated? | I understand you make money by buying low and selling high. You can also make money by buying high and selling higher, short selling high and buying back low, short selling low and buying back even lower. An important technique followed by many technical traders and investors is to alway trade with the trend - so if th... |
In which country can I set up a small company so that I pay a lower rate of corporate tax? | There are countries out there that are known as tax havens, where they offer companies low or no taxes on earned revenue. I haven't looked into this in over a decade, but recall that countries like the Cayman Islands, Switzerland, Ireland, and Nauru, to name a few fit that tag. But like bstpierre stated, there's a reas... |
Idea for getting rich using computers to track stocks | I (and probably most considering trading) had a similar thought as you. I thought if I just skimmed the peaks and sold before the troughs, perhaps aided by computer, I'd be able to make a 2% here, 2% there, and that would add up quickly to a nice amount of money. It almost did seem "foolproof". Then I realized that s... |
I file 83(b) election, but did't include a copy of it in that year’s tax return | I've consulted with 5-6 accountants and people who've had the issue before. The advice I received boils down to: "If you do not attach your 83b with your personal tax return it is not effective. However you can still correct the requirement to file it along with your tax return, because you are within the 3 year window... |
What prevents investors from buying high yield stocks and selling them as soon as their dividend is paid out? | You have to be the owner of record before the ex-dividend date, which is not the same day as the date the dividend is paid. This also implies that if you sell on or after the ex-dividend date, you'll still get the dividend, even if you no longer own the stock. Keep in mind, also, that the quoted price of the stock (an... |
Are my parents ripping me off with this deal that doesn't allow me to build my equity in my home? | First, I don't think your parents are ripping you off, but you should get your agreement in writing. The fact that you never own more than 25% doesn't matter. If the condo's value is increasing, you are in fact building equity. Your share of the equity just doesn't increase, but it doesn't decrease either. For example,... |
How do I determine ownership split on a franchise model? | There is no right and wrong answer to this question. What you and your business partner perceive as Fair is the best way to split the ownership of the new venture. First, regarding the two issues you have raised: Capital Contributions: The fact that you are contributing 90% of initial capital does not necessarily tran... |
How will a limit order be executed when the stock market opens if there is a large change from the price of the day before? | The next day the market opens trading at 10.50, You haven't specified whether you limit order for $10.10 is to buy or sell. When the trading opens next day, it follows the same process of matching the orders. So if you have put a limit order to buy at $10.10 and there is no sell order at that price, your trade will not... |
How do I find a legitimate, premium credit repair service? | If the bad credit items are accurate, disputing the accuracy of the items seems at best, unethical. If the bad credit items are inaccurate, the resolution process provided by each of the 3 credit bureaus, while time consuming, seems the way to go. |
What intrinsic, non-monetary value does gold have as a commodity? | This was answered wonderfully in a recent Planet Money podcast: Why Gold?. Here are some higlights of gold: If listening to podcasts isn't your thing, read this summary. |
How expensive is it to keep minimal cash at a brokerage? | Losses at a brokerage firm due to fraud are insured up to $500,000 per account for securities by the SIPC (Securities Investors' Protection Corporation), which is the stock market version of the FDIC (that insures deposits). The protection amount for cash is $250,000. That's small comfort to "big" players in MF Global... |
Are there any viable alternatives to Paypal for a small site? | While I've never used the service, there's also Amazon Flexible Payments Services (AFPS): (emphasis below is mine) Amazon Flexible Payments ServiceTM (Amazon FPS) is the first payments service designed from the ground up for developers. It is built on top of Amazon’s reliable and scalable payments infrastruct... |
Is unrealized gain part of asset? | Stocks, as an asset, represent the sum of the current market value of all of your holdings. If your portfolio is showing unrealized gains and losses, then that net amount is inherently reflected in the current market value of your holdings. That's not to say cost basis is not important. Any closed trades, realized gai... |
Could one person with a card with no spending limit pay off everyone's debt? | The problem would not only be that of Kyle but also that of American Express. When Kyle pays by credit card, American Express pays the bills out of their pockets on his behalf and then forwards the bill to Kyle. The issuer of a credit card takes the risk that the holder of the card won't pay the credit card bill. In pr... |
Better rate for investment between CD or savings | Excel has two functions you can use: Your question has the CD with a APR and the savings account that mentions both APR and APY. So convert them both to APY to compare them. The savings account (2.27 APY) will return more money based on the numbers in your question (2.27% vs 1.56%) The previous part was the math part o... |
Why do investors buy stock that had appreciated? | You seem to prefer to trade like I do: "Buy low, sell high." But there are some people that prefer a different way: "Buy high, sell higher." A stock that has "just appreciated" is "in motion." That is a "promise" (not always kept) that it will continue to go higher. Some people want stocks that not only go higher, but ... |
CD interest rate US vs abroad, is there a catch? | I think your approach of looking exclusively at USD deposits is a prudent one. Here are my responses to your questions. 1) It is highly unlikely that a USD deposit abroad be converted to local currency upon withdrawal. The reason for offering a deposit in a particular currency in the first place is that the bank wants ... |
In Australia, how to battle credit card debt? | Victor addressed the card issue with an excellent answer, I'd like to take a stab at the budget and income side. Your question clearly stated "I am left with no extra money" each month. Whenever I read such an assertion, I ask the person, "but surely, X% of people in your country get by on a salary that's 95% of yours... |
How does the U.S. wash sale replacement stock rule work? | Edited: Pub 550 says 30 days before or after so the example is ok - but still a gain by average share basis. On sale your basis is likely defaulted to "average price" (in the example 9.67 so there was a gain selling at 10), but can be named shares at your election to your brokerage, and supported by record keeping. A... |
Do brokers execute every trade on the exchange? | There are two terms that are related, but separate here: Broker and Market Maker. The former is who goes and finds a buyer/seller to buy/sell shares from/to you. The latter (Market Maker) is a company which will agree to partner with you to complete the sale at a set price (typically the market price, often by defin... |
Car dealer saying that they cannot see any credit information for my co-applicant. Could this be a scam? | Its not a scam. The car dealership does not care how you pay for the car, just that you pay. If you come to them for a loan they will try and service you. If you come with cash, they will sell you a car and not try to talk you into financing. If you come with a check from another bank, they will happily accept it. ... |
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