Question
stringlengths
14
166
Answer
stringlengths
3
17k
Should I use a bank or a credit union for my savings account?
In practical terms, these days, a credit union IS a small "savings and loan" bank -- the kind of bank that used to exist before bankers started making money on everything but writing loans. They aren't always going to offer higher interest and/or cheaper loans than the bank-banks, but they're almost always going to be ...
Why is gold not a good investment?
I think what the person meant to say is that Gold is not a one stop solution. There's nothing wrong with having Gold in an otherwise diversified portfolio but you need to be aware about the potential downsides: The problem with gold is that its value nowadays depends mainly on investor confidence, or the lack of it (ac...
Tenant wants to pay rent with EFT
The mode of payment mentioned by your bank is called the ACH(Automatic Clearing House) which means that anyone(Trusted payment gateway owners like banks themselves) can process payments. There can be a fraud declared against any payment that you have made and you can get every single penny back. This amount can not be ...
Beginning investment
I am a huge fan of jim Cramer and while you may not get CNBC in Australia you can prolly catch jim cramers podcasts If you have an iPod or iPhone which really will help your financial literacy a bit. Here's my advice . Set up a IRA or tax advantaged accounts if they exist in Australia (sorry I only know usa markets re...
How to tell if you can trust a loan company?
Look for people who have done business with them. If you don't know anyone who has used their services, look for a company that at least has a brick and mortar branch in your area. Being able to deal with them face to face is a must. Have you checked with your local bank?
Working abroad in Australia, what is involved financially and administratively?
If you think there is no complication in your application and you can easily satisfy all criteria you can do the process yourself without using any agent and save few thousand dollars. I have done myself. Another cost Chris forgot to mention is the medical examination cost which is mandatory. If your certificates and d...
Canceling credit cards - insurance rate increase?
You can't ask insurers to use a particular score -- they have a state-approved underwriting model that they must follow consistently. Insurance companies make money by not paying claims, and poor credit score (including limit access to credit) increases the probability that you will file a small claim. Why? If you get ...
Options vs Stocks which is more profitable
The first thing that I learned the hard way (by trying my hand at actual options trading) is that liquidity matters. So few people are interested in trading the same options that I am that it is easy to get stuck holding profitable contracts into expiration unless I offer to sell them for a lot less than they are worth...
How hard for US customers make payments to non-resident freelancer by wire transfer?
You are right in insisting upon a proper B2B contract in any business relationship. You wish to reduce your risk and be compensated fairly. In addition to the cost and complexity of international wire transfers, the US companies may also be considering the fact that as an international contractor in a relatively hard-t...
why would someone buy or sell just a few shares in stocks
Simple, there is no magic price adjustment after sales - why do you expect the stock price to change? The listed price of a stock is what someone was willing to pay for it in the last deal that was concluded. If any amount of stock changes ownership, this might have the effect that other people are willing to buy it fo...
Why don't banks allow more control over credit/debit card charges?
Credit card fraud is an extremely (to stress, EXTREMELY) small proportion of total credit card transactions. The card issuing entities all offer zero fraud liability, even on debit cards. There are millions of transactions every day and fraud loss just isn't worth developing, and supporting, an additional authenticat...
Faster degree with debt or slower degree with no debt?
Basically do some math on the 2 schools. Let's say you know it will take 4 years if you go the cheaper route, at $8k/yr, plus the $300/month, total cost: $46,400. If you (for these purposes) do not have to pay back new loans until school is completed, (and depending on the rate of those loans), you would need approx $6...
Is it a good practice to keep salary account and savings account separate?
I live in the UK so it's a little different but generally you'd have one account (a current account) which would have a Visa/MasterCard debit card associated before working and any high street bank (don't know what the US equivalent would be, but big banks such as HSBC/Santander) will offer you a savings account which ...
If I own x% of company A, and A buys company B, do I own x% of B?
Ok, so imagine I own x% of Facebook and Facebook buys WhatsApp, does this mean I own x% of WhatsApp? Yea definitely , you own x% of Whatsapp assuming Facebook buys 100% of WhatApps which is in this case How much shares of FaceBook do I need to own to have access to WhatsApp's books? As WhatsApp is a privately held...
View asset/holdings breakdown within fund
according to the SEC: Shareholder Reports A mutual fund and a closed-end fund respectively must provide shareholders with annual and semi-annual reports 60 days after the end of the fund’s fiscal year and 60 days after the fund’s fiscal mid-year. These reports contain updated financial information, a list of th...
How much should a new graduate with new job put towards a car?
I have a slightly different take on this, compared to the other answers. In general, I think your emergency fund should always be at least 3K, especially if you own a used car that is out of warranty. Any number of unlucky auto repairs could easily cost over 2K. So, if you have 7K in savings, I would personally buy a c...
Why might it be advisable to keep student debt vs. paying it off quickly?
One of many things to consider is that in the United States student loan interest is tax deductible. That fact could change the math enough to make it worth putting A's money elsewhere depending on his interest rate and income bracket.
What are the risks & rewards of being a self-employed independent contractor / consultant vs. being a permanent employee?
In the current economy there is no upside to working for yourself. Get in a salaried position as soon as you can, and sacrifice to whatever gods you worship that you don't get made redundant. If you're already working for yourself, and wouldn't give it up for anything, hire someone, and get them off the street.
Claiming income/deductions on an illegal apartment
The IRS demands and expects to be paid tax on all taxable activity, including illegal activity. If they expect drug dealers, hit men, and smugglers to pay tax, they expect you to pay tax on your basement apartment. The flip side of this is that the IRS keeps reported tax activities confidential. They only share what ...
What would I miss out on by self insuring my car?
You're trading a fixed liability for an unknown liability. When I graduated from college, I bought a nice used car. Two days later, a deer came out of nowhere, and I hit it going 70 mph on a highway. The damage? $4,500. If I didn't have comprehensive insurance, that would have been a real hit to me financially. For me,...
How can it be possible that only ~10% of options expire worthless, and only ~10% are exercised?
You gave your own answer - the 80% is positions, not contracts. Most actors on the option market have no interest in the underlying asset. They want "just" exposure to its price movement. It makes more sense to close your position than to be handed over bushels of wheat or whatever.
Found an old un-cashed paycheck. How long is it good for? What to do if it's expired?
In the UK the official rule is that a cheque is valid for 3 years from the date it was wrote. However after 3 months some banks can choose to turn them down. I had a cheque once that was a year old which is when I looked it up to see whether it was stil valid, and I found the laws regarding it then. I was actually qui...
Price of a call option
EDIT quid keenly identified the 1:7 reverse split In May 2017. In a 1:7 reverse split, your shares are worth 7 times as much per share but you have 1/7 the amount of shares. A share worth $3.78 now was worth (all else being equal) $0.54 a month ago. So a call with a $2.50 strike a month ago was well out-of-the-mone...
How Long Can It Take For a Check I Write to Clear on My Account?
According to this Q&A by a Houston law professor: The law, however, is not designed to interfere with an individual's right to stop payment on a valid check because of a dispute with someone. If he didn't deliver as promised, you do not owe the money and have the right to stop payment. Assuming that you had enough mone...
After consulting HR Block, are you actually obligated to file your taxes with them, if they've found ways to save you money?
It sounds like they want to enter you into a contract in which they are allowed to charge a flat fee for filing contingent on money saving results from a tax review service, paid in full. Like those who answered before I have no legal experience. IRS Circular 230 defines the ethics for tax practitioners and the defini...
What does inflation mean to me?
short answer: any long term financial planning (~10yrs+). e.g. mortgage and retirement planning. long answer: inflation doesn't really matter in short time frames. on any given day, you might get a rent hike, or a raise, or the grocery store might have a sale. inflation is really only relevant over the long term. a...
What is an “International Equity”?
Assuming you're in the United States, then International Equity is an equity from a different country. These stocks or stock funds (which reside in a foreign country) are broken out seperately becuase they are typically influenced by a different set of factors than equities in the United States: foreign currency swing...
OTC Markets, Time, and Trading
Depending on your broker, you can buy these stocks directly at the most liquid local exchanges. For instance, if you are US resident and want to to buy German stocks (like RWE) you can trade these stocks over InteractiveBrokers (or other direct brokers in the US). They offer direct access to German Xetra and other loca...
Why do grocery stores in the U.S. offer cash back so eagerly?
Cash-back also lets the store turn hard currency into an electronic transfer or check, which reduces the hassle/risk of hauling bagfulls of cash to the bank. (The smaller stores I've spoken to have called this out as a major advantage of plastic over either cash or checks. I'm assuming that the problem scales with numb...
What foreign exchange rate is used for foreign credit card and bank transactions?
A lot of questions, but all it boils down to is: . Banks usually perform T+1 net settlements, also called Global Netting, as opposed to real-time gross settlements. That means they promise the counterparty the money at some point in the future (within the next few business days, see delivery versus payment) and collec...
Selling high, pay capital gains, re-purchase later
Ignoring brokerage fees and the wash-sale rule (both of which are hazardous to your health), and since the 15% LTCG tax is only on the gain, the stock would have to drop 15% of the gain in price since you originally purchased it.
How to calculate my real earnings from hourly temp-to-hire moving to salaried employee?
If you are a temp-to-hire, or you are asked to setup a company then you are not an employee. They expect you to fund everything from your hourly rate. This includes pay, insurance, taxes, social security, sick, vacation, holidays... The rule of thumb for an established company is 1.75 to 2.25 times the salary rate is t...
Once stock prices are down, where to look for good stock market deals?
Keep in mind, that bargain hunting will fail you from time to time. I know a lot of guys who bought Nortel at $10, planning to hold it until the inevitable recovery.
Why doesn’t every company and individual use tax-havens to pay less taxes?
There are tax free bonds in the United States. They are for things like public housing and other urban projects. They are tax free for everyone but only rich people buy them. Why? The issue is that the tax free nature of the bond is included in its yield. So rather than yielding say a 5% return, they figure that ...
Is it ok to have multiple life time free credit cards?
The following is based on my Experian credit scoring feedback and experience here in the UK over many years. (And for further information I currently hold a credit score of 999, the highest possible, with 6 credit cards.) Now I'm assuming that while there may be some differences in particulars in your case due to the...
Can I write off time spent learning my trade - Two-Man S-Corp
I'm not sure what you mean by "writing off your time," but to answer your questions: Remember that, essentially, you are a salaried employee of a corporation. So if you are spending time at your job, even if you are not billing anything to a client, you are earning your salary. If there are costs involved with these a...
Can I get a dumbed down explanation of risk measures used for evaluating stocks?
Standard deviation from Wikipedia : In statistics and probability theory, the standard deviation (represented by the Greek letter sigma, σ) shows how much variation or dispersion from the average exists.1 A low standard deviation indicates that the data points tend to be very close to the mean (also called expe...
how much of foreign exchange (forex/fx) “deep liquidity” is really just unbacked leverage and what is the effect?
I'd think that liquidity and speed are prioritized (even over retail brokers and in come cases over PoP) for institutional traders who by default have large positions. When the going gets tough, these guys are out and the small guys - trading through average retail brokers - are the ones left holding the empty bag.
Want to buy expensive product online. Credit line on credit cards not big enough. How do “Preferred Account” programs work?
The preferred accounts are designed to hope you do one of several things: Pay one day late. Then charge you all the deferred interest. Many people think If they put $X a month aside, then pay just before the 6 months, 12 moths or no-payment before 2014 period ends then I will be able to afford the computer, carpet, or...
Should I lease, buy new, or buy used?
Rule of thumb is always BUY, NEVER lease, unless you plan to use it for a business where you can expense the lease payments. Leasing is the biggest scam. Lease is just a fancy word for renting and the dealerships PRAY that people like us lease. As for new or old, new cars have better warranty but you may get a great d...
Would it be considered appropriate to use a market order for my very first stock trade?
A few of the answers are spot on but here's another thing to consider: the type of trade. For example, I sometimes day trade stocks with momentum where the stock price is spiking relatively fast. A limit order in this situation may never get filled and you will miss out on the trade. A market order will get you filled ...
Do my parents need to pay me minimum wage?
There is actually a restriction on how high a wage they can pay you. There didn't use to be, but now it has to be reasonable for the work you are doing, so they can't pay you $100/hr while other people doing the same work get minimum wage. You might ask why on earth a parent would want to pay a child way more than they...
What are the advantages of paying off a mortgage quickly?
The main reason for paying your mortgage off quickly is to reduce risk should a crisis happen. If you don't have a house payment, you have much higher cash flow every month, and your day-to-day living expenses are much lower, so if an illness or job loss happens, you'll be in a much better position to handle it. You s...
Question on buying selling and buying again
Firstly 795 is not even. Secondly - generally you would pay tax on the sale of the 122 shares, whether you buy them back or not, even one minute later, has nothing to do with it. The only reason this would not create a capital gains event is if your country (which you haven't specified) has some odd rules or laws about...
Where can I find the dividend history for a stock?
Google Finance gives you this information.
How would I use Google Finance to find financial data about LinkedIn & its stock?
The most likely answer to your question regarding what the 'market expects' is perhaps that the market expects that currently Linked-In like a lot of other startups has been plunging almost eveything it makes into building the business and brand. So right now the net profits are pretty low percentage of income (roughl...
Saving $1,000+ per month…what should I do with it?
Daniel, first of all, I'm jealous of your predicament. That said, I think you've gotten some good advice already, so I won't repeat what's been said. But I will throw out a few ideas that haven't come up. My first thought is that you may be underestimating upcoming expenses. It sounds like your current expenses are...
Student loan payments and opportunity costs
Already a lot of great answers, but since I ask myself this same question I thought I'd share my 2 cents. As @user541852587 pointed out, behavior is of the essence here. If you're like most recent grads, this is probably the first time in your life you are getting serious about building wealth. Can you pay your loans ...
Bank denying loan after “subject-to” appraisal: What to do?
I'm not sure about your first two options. But given your situation, a variant of option three seems possible. That way you don't have to throw away your appraisal, although it's possible that you'll need to get some kind of addendum related to the repairs. You also don't have your liquid money tied up long term. ...
Are prepayment penalties for mortgages normal?
It used to be much more common, particularly for sub-prime loans. If you do run into someone offering a loan with a prepayment penalty, you should certainly consider other options.
Book capital losses in gnucash
According to the gnucash guide, losses are recorded as negative transactions against Income:Capital Gains. I've followed this model in the past when dealing with stocks and commodities. If on the other hand, you're talking about an asset which could normally follow a depreciation schedule, you might want to look at t...
What happens to public shareholders when a public stock goes private?
If a deal is struck, you're part of that deal because you own shares. If someone offers $10/share for the entire company, you'll get that. If the stock price is $1.50 and someone offers $2/share, you'll get that.
What can cause rent prices to fall?
Sure! Anything that affects the balance of supply and demand could cause rent prices to fall. I'll betcha rent prices in Wilmington, Ohio collapsed when the biggest employer, DHL, shut down. An economic depression of any sort would cause people to substitute expensive rentals for cheaper ones, putting downward pressure...
How smart is it really to take out a loan right now?
I think it's smart. It's the same game, just stiffer regulations, so your lender will ask more from you. Buy if you... If someone has been saving for years and years and still can't put 20% down, I think they're taking a significant risk. Buy something where your mortgage payment is around one week's salary at most. Tr...
How does giving to charity work?
If something is tax-deductible in the US, it means that, in the eyes of the Internal Revenue Service, you effectively didn't earn that money. Within restrictions, your adjusted gross income, which is the income that your tax is calculated on, is reduced by the amount of your tax deductions. In the case of the ASPCA, ...
How to determine whether 1099-MISC income is from self-employment?
These kinds of questions can be rather tricky. I've struggled with this sort of thing in the past when I had income from a hobby, and I wanted to ensure that it was indeed "hobby income" and I didn't need to call it "self-employment". Here are a few resources from the IRS: There's a lot of overlap among these resources...
What kind of traditional IRA should I use to hold funds from old employer 401K plans?
Magazines like SmartMoney often have an annual issue that reviews brokers. One broker may have a wider variety of no-fee mutual funds, and if that's your priority, then the stock commissions may be a moot issue for you. In general, you can't go wrong with a Fidelity or Schwab, and to choose investments within the accou...
Pay team mates out of revenues on my name
Note: This is not professional tax advice. If you think you need professional tax advice, find a licensed professional in your local area. What are the expected earnings/year? US$100? US$1,000? US$100,000? I would say if this is for US$1,000 or less that registering an EIN, and consulting a CPA to file a Partnershi...
How to record “short premium” in double-entry accounting?
You don't. No one uses vanilla double entry accounting software for "Held-For-Trading Security". Your broker or trading software is responsible for providing month-end statement of changes. You use "Mark To Market" valuation at the end of each month. For example, if your cash position is -$5000 and stock position is...
Are mutual funds safe from defaults?
There are very strict regulations that requires the assets which a fund buys on behalf of its investors to be kept completely separate from the fund's own assets (which it uses to pay its expenses), except for the published fees. Funds are typically audited regularly to ensure this is the case. So the only way in which...
Why have U.S. bank interest rates been so low for the past few years?
These rates are so low because the cost of money is so low. Specifically, two rates are near zero. The Federal Reserve discount rate, which is "the interest rate charged to commercial banks and other depository institutions on loans they receive from their regional Federal Reserve Bank's lending facility--the discount...
Why do stock prices of retailers not surge during the holidays?
Systemic and well know patterns in sales are priced in to the security. Typically companies with very cyclical earnings like this will issue guidance of earnings per share within a range. These expected earnings are priced in before the earnings are actually booked. If a company meets these expectations the stock wi...
Meaning of reinvestment
1) When it says "an investment or mutual fund", is a mutual fund not an investment? If no, what is the definition of an investment? A mutual fund is indeed an investment. The article probably mentions mutual funds separately from other investments because it is not uncommon for mutual funds to give you the option to...
Will paying off my car early hinder my ability to build credit?
1) How long have you had the car? Generally, accounts that last more than a year are kept on your credit report for 7 years, while accounts that last less than a year are only kept about 2 years (IIRC - could someone correct me if that last number is wrong?). 2) Who is the financing through? If it's through a used ca...
Should I be claiming more than 1 exemption?
J - Approaching the answer from the W4 perspective (for calculation purposes) may be more trouble that it's worth. I'd strongly suggest you use tax software, whether it's the 2016 SW or a current year one, on line, to get an estimate of your total tax bill for the year. You can then look at your current run rate of tax...
Does it make sense to talk about an ETF or index in terms of technical indicators?
With the disclaimer that I am not a technician, I'd answer yes, it does. SPY (for clarification, an ETF that reflects the S&P 500 index) has dividends, and earnings, therefore a P/E and dividend yield. It would follow that the tools technicians use, such as moving averages, support and resistance levels also apply. Ke...
Is it unreasonable to double your investment year over year?
It is not unheard of. Celebrity investors such as Warren Buffet and Carl Icahn gained notoriety by more than doubling investments some years, with a few very stellar trades and bets. Doubling, as in a 100% gain, is actually conservative if you want to play that game, as 500%, 1200% and greater gains are possible and we...
On paper I have 1 share in my company. How can I sell a smaller percentage of my company to another party?
Simple: Do a stock split. Each 1 Ordinary share now = 100 Ordinary shares (or 100,000 or whatever you choose). Then sell 20 (or 20,000) of them to your third party. (Stock splits are fairly routine occurrence. Apple for example has done several, most recently in 2014 when 1 share = 7 shares). Alternatively you could go...
Stocks and Shares ISA: What are the options for “near cash equivalents”?
You can actually hold cash in your account as long as the manager has reason to believe it is awaiting investment. As for your question, some near cash equivalents are: It's difficult to go into more detail about which investments are eligible due to the variety of risk characteristics, but you can certainly find inves...
When should I walk away from my mortgage?
I'm in a similar situation, but I live in a state that doesn't allow mortgagees to "walk away" without recourse. I would consider a short sale or otherwise abandoning the property if: At the end of the day, real estate is an investment, and you don't realize gains or losses until you close the position. The "ra, ra" cr...
Roth IRA - Vanguard or Fidelity? If a college student had to pick one?
Well, a couple things to keep in mind: Even if you have enough to meet the minimum initial amount, you need to have at least that much income in the year you make the contribution. You'll probably be best served saving up in a savings account so that by the time you have an income (and can thus make contributions), you...
What percent of a company are you buying when you purchase stock?
What percent of a company are you buying when you purchase stock? The percent of a company represented by a single share can be calculated by percent = 1/number_of_shares*100% Apple comprises 5,250,000,000 shares, so one share makes up about 1.9e-8% of a company, or 0.000000019% of Apple.
Are quarterly earnings released first via a press release on the investor website, via conference call, or does it vary by company?
Companies typically release their earnings before the market opens, and then later host an analyst/investor conference call to discuss the results. Here's a link to an interesting article abstract on the subject: Disclosure Rules For Earnings Releases And Calls | Bowne Digest. Excerpt: In the aftermath of the Sarba...
How to deal with the credit card debt from family member that has passed away?
You also might want to see what sort of documentation the credit card company has. Companies can get pretty lazy sometimes about recordkeeping; there have been cases where banks tried to foreclose on a property but weren't able to produce documents establishing the mortgage. With your father dead, is there anything oth...
What are my risks of early assignment?
One reason this happens is due to dividends. If the dividend amount is greater than the time value left on a call, it can make sense to exercise early to collect the dividend. Deep in the money puts also may get exercised early. There's usually little premium on a deep in the money put and the spread on the bid-ask mi...
Online brokers with a minimum stock purchase lower than $500
With InteractiveBrokers there is no minimum trade amount, they also offer Australian Equities.
Is there any way to buy a new car directly from Toyota without going through a dealership?
Any car manufacturer that undercuts their own dealer network would have that network fall apart quickly. Tesla is using a dealer-free distribution model from the start, so they don't have that problem. Toyota doesn't work that way, though. GM imposed a uniform no-haggling policy with their Saturn brand, but that poli...
How often are preferred shareholders made whole after a company goes bankrupt?
From the Times A Reader Q.&A. on G.M.’s Bankruptcy Q. I own G.M. preferred shares. Should I be looking to sell them, or hold on? I bought them at $25 a share when they were issued in late 2001. — Karen, Manhattan A. When a company files for bankruptcy, its various stock and bondholders essentially get in line. Th...
value of guaranteeing a business loan
The guarantee's value to you is whatever you have to pay to get the guarantee, assuming that you don't decide it's too expensive and look for another guarantor or another solution entirely. How much are you willing to pay for this loan, not counting interest and closing costs? That's what it's worth. See past answers a...
Is there a bank account that allows ACH deposits but not ACH withdrawals?
Yes, kinda. Talk to local banks about a business account, and tell them you want to enable certain employees to make deposits but not withdrawals. They don't need to know you're all the same person. For instance I have a PayPal account for business. These allow you to create "sub accounts" for your employees with...
How can a school club collect money using credit cards?
Large and small universities have procedures in place regarding the use of the universities name, logo, facilities, and budget. They should have in place guidelines regarding the collection and use of funds from members, and participants. These guidelines are what allows you to have an account with the university. Gene...
Do ETF dividends make up for fees?
Any ETF has expenses, including fees, and those are taken out of the assets of the fund as spelled out in the prospectus. Typically a fund has dividend income from its holdings, and it deducts the expenses from the that income, and only the net dividend is passed through to the ETF holder. In the case of QQQ, it cer...
Why do people invest in mutual fund rather than directly buying shares?
There are several reasons. One, mutual funds provide instant diversification. To build a diverse portfolio "manually" (by buying individual shares) requires a lot of time and effort. If your portfolio is not diverse, then it is wrong to say "buying shares gives higher return"; in many cases diversification will incre...
Can I write off time I spent working on my business?
To expand a little on what littleadv said, you can only deduct what something cost you. Even if you had done volunteer work for a charity as a sole prop you could only deduct your actual costs. If you paid an employee to do charity work or to learn something related to the business that would be deductible as a normal ...
which types of investments should be choosen for 401k at early 20's?
If you don't want to pay much attention to your investments, target date funds -- assuming you find one (like Vanguard's) with no management fees beyond those acquired from the underlying funds -- are usually a great choice: when the target date is far off, they invest almost entirely (usually 90% or so) in (mutual fun...
Hearing much about Dave Ramsey. Which of his works is best in describing his “philosophy” about money?
My beef with day (and to ape Yishai's answer a little) is that his good advice is no different than anybody's good advice. The seven steps are on the home page, Clark Howard, Suze Orman and probably quite a few others all chat about spend less, save more, shop wisely and live within your means. Anything specific is ju...
Can the Philadelphia Center City District Tax be deducted on my Schedule-A?
My basic rule of thumb is that if the the bill come from a government office of taxation, and that if you fail to pay the amount they can put a tax lien on the property it is a tax. for you the complication is in Pub530: Assessments for local benefits. You cannot deduct amounts you pay for local benefits that tend t...
Can LLC legally lend money to a friend?
I can't say if there is anything specific that makes lending illegal, but if your company goes bankrupt, you might end up in trouble. First, it's a loan. It must be repaid. It must be in the books as a loan, and if your company couldn't pay its bills, you would have to ask for the money back. If the company goes bankr...
Apartment lease renewal - is this rate increase normal?
If it is true that for the same price, you could get a better place (or that for a lower price you could get an equivalent place), you should do some soul-searching to decide what monetary value you would place on the hassle of moving to such an alternative. You should then negotiate aggressively for a rent that is no...
Can an unmarried couple buy a home together with only one person on the mortgage?
In this case can the title of the home still be held by both? Yes, it is possible to have additional people on title that are not on the mortgage. Would the lender (bank) have any reservations about this since a party not on the mortgage has ownership of the property? Possibly, but there is a very simple way to avoid t...
I spend too much money. How can I get on the path to a frugal lifestyle?
There's plenty of advice out there about how to set up a budget or track your expenses or "pay yourself first". This is all great advice but sometimes the hardest part is just getting in the right frugal mindset. Here's a couple tricks on how I did it. Put yourself through a "budget fire drill" If you've never set a b...
1099-MISC vs K-1 — duplicated numbers?
Well, you won't be double taxed based on what you described. Partners are taxed on income, typically distributions. Your gain in the partnership is not income. However, you were essentially given some money which you elected to invest in the partnership, so you need to pay tax on that money. The question becomes, are y...
What should I look for when looking for stocks that are 'on-sale'?
Don't invest. Keep cash. And wait till you see a crash in the price of some of your favorite blue chip stocks. But wait till the true bottom is in...you will know when is the right time as it will be obvious.
Why the volume disparity between NUGT and DUST?
NUGT and DUST both track GDX with triple leverage, but in opposite directions. GDX has been rising steadily throughout 2016, and certainly since over the last month. DUST experiences much higher volume when GDX is in a downward trend, as it was from 2013-2016. I think you'll see the same thing with DRIP and GUSH when o...
Optimal balence of 401K and charitable savings
Two things I would recommend doing: I would save a minimum of 15% into retirement. By young I will assume that you are under 30. 15K/year + company match will grow into a sick amount of money by the time you are in your 60s. So you have a net worth that is north of 5 million. What kind of charitable giving can yo...
Should I collect receipts after paying with a card?
Keeping a receipt does allow you to verify that the expected amount was charged/debited it also can help when you need to return an item. Regarding double charging, the credit card companies look for that. If the same card is used at the same vendor for the same exact amount in a short period of time the credit card c...
Do Fundamentals Matter Anymore in Stock Markets?
Are you implying that Amazon is a better investment than GE because Amazon's P/E is 175 while GE's is only 27? Or that GE is a better investment than Apple because Apple's P/E is just 13. There are a lot of other ratios to consider than P/E. I personally view high P/E numbers as a red flag. One way to think of a P/...
What to sell when your financial needs change, stocks or bonds?
You have to understand what risk is and how much risk you want to take on, and weight your portfolio accordingly. I think your 80/20 split based on wrong assumptions is the wrong way to look at it. It sounds like your risk appetite has changed. Risk is deviation from expected, so risk is not bad, and you can have cas...
Thrift Saving Plan (TSP) Share Price Charts
The recommended way to track TSP funds in online portfolio tools is to track the underlying index and know that the results are pretty close. Not a perfect solution: :( Source including suggested ETFs: http://finance.yahoo.com/news/breaking-down-tsp-investment-funds-194600393.html Related, but not exactly what you ar...
Why online brokerages sometimes allow free ETF buying
The same reason a company would offer coupons. I'd guess they're just doing it as a way to entice people to do their investing with them. Since it is any ETF I doubt they are being compensated by the ETF companies, as is sometimes the case (iShares does this with Fidelity, for example). And they still get the commissio...