Question
stringlengths
14
166
Answer
stringlengths
3
17k
How do the returns generated via Equity/Debt investment differ from the returns from a Mutual Fund based on Equity/Debt?
Just sticking to equities: If you are investing directly in a share/stock, depending on various factors, you may have picked up a winner or to your dismay a loser. Say you just have Rs 10,000/- to invest, which stock would you buy? If you don't know, then it’s better to buy a Mutual Fund. Now if you say you would buy...
Stock prices using candlesticks
No it does not. Candlesticks really have nothing to do with this, a stock price can open different then the previous day's close. Examining the chart of TSLA provides an example it closed on 1/18 at 238.8 it opened on 1/19 at 243.7 In candlestick parlance is is known as a "gap up".
What prices are compared to decide a security is over-valued, fairly valued or under-valued?
I was wondering how "future cash flows of the asset" are predicted? Are they also predicted using fundamental and/or technical analysis? There are a many ways to forecast the future cash flows of assets. For example, for companies: It seems like calculating expected/required rate using CAPM does not belong to either fu...
How do I calculate the quarterly returns of a stock index?
Here's a few demo steps, first calculating the year to date return, then calculating the Q4 quarterly return based on the cumulative returns for Q3 and Q4. It's fine to use closing price to closing price as return periods.
Accepting high volatility for high long-term returns
This is basically what financial advisers have been saying for years...that you should invest in higher risk securities when you are young and lower risk securities when you get older. However, despite the fact that this is taken as truth by so many financial professionals, financial economists have been unable to form...
Does anyone offer no interest loans?
Such loans are of course possible. They exist because the lender gains something other than interest from them: What would happen to the economy if these were common? These are common, common as anything. In fact where it's not banks lending the money, these are the default. So, nothing would happen to the economy, thi...
Selling To Close
Absolutely. There is no requirement that an option be in-the-money for you to close out a position. Remember that there are alwayes two sides to a trade - a buyer and a seller. When you bought your option, it's entirely possible that someone else was closing out their long position by selling it to you.
Can I work with two or more mortgage brokers at the same time?
While it is possible, it's not a really good use of your time or theirs. Mortgage brokers have access to dozens of lenders, can assemble deals you can't even dream of, and are much more intimately acquainted with the latest lending rule changes than you are. They are paid by the lenders to bring them business, so there...
Is it a good investment for a foreigner to purchase a flat/apartment in China?
China is in the middle of a residential housing bubble, and now is probably a horrible time to invest in real estate in China. Even if China wasn't near the peak of its bubble it would probably still be a bad idea because owning real estate in a foreign country is expensive and risky. There are real currency risks, th...
In USA, what circumstances (if any) make it illegal for a homeless person to “rent” an address?
You owe taxes to the state where you earned the income, and also to the state where you physically live. Most, maybe all, states have laws that let you claim credits for taxes paid to other states so that you're not paying double taxes by living in one state while working in another. Most states have deals with all the...
What are the differences between an investment mortgage and a personal mortgage?
I used to own a few investment properties, so I'm pretty familiar with this. As MrChrister mentions, lenders see investment mortgages as higher risk. People who fall into financial trouble are much more likely to let their investment properties go than their personal residence. Consequently, the interest rates and do...
Strategy for accounting personal finance in multiple currency?
How can I correctly account for having money in different currencies, without currency transfers or currency fluctuations ending up as gains or losses? In my view, your spreadsheet should be in multiple currencies. i.e. if you have gained some in specific currency, make a note of it in that specific currency. If you ha...
Why are residential investment properties owned by non-professional investors and not large corporations?
Economy of scale on one side versus "person monetizing an illliquid asset" on the other. Most multifamily rental buildings are owned by professional real estate investors (as well as individuals growing an empire to become a professional real estate investor whom I will count in this group). The rental difference bet...
Can my rent to own equity be used as a downpayment?
I do not think the bank would consider the 52K as equity. Typically, a rent-to-own lease is technically a lease-option contract where you lease for a fixed amount and at some point during the lease you have the option to buy it at a discounted price. I think the bank would consider it a negotiated price. I know t...
Foreign Earned Income Exclusion - Service vs. Product?
Even though you will meet the physical presence test, you cannot claim the FEIE because your tax home will remain the US. From the IRS: Your tax home is the general area of your main place of business, employment, or post of duty, regardless of where you maintain your family home. Your tax home is the place where you a...
I paid a contractor to make roof repairs to a house in my LLC. How can I deduct this cost?
This new roof should go on the 2016 LLC business return, but you probably won't be able to expense the entire roof as a repair. A new roof is most likely a capital improvement, which means that it would need to be depreciated over many years instead of expensed all in 2016. The depreciation period for a residential r...
Is an interest-only mortgage a bad idea?
Really the question you need to ask yourself is how much Risk you want to take in order to save a little on interest for 5 years. Rates are pretty close to a historic low, and if you have good credit you should shop around a bit to get a good ideal of what a 15 or 30 year fixed loan would go for. For people that are SU...
When applying for a mortgage, can it also cover outstanding debts?
That really depends on the lender, and in the current climate this is extremely unlikely. In the past it was possible to get a loan which is higher than the value of the house (deposit considered), usually on the basis that the buyer is going to improve the property (extend, renovate, etc.) and this increase the value ...
60% Downpayment on house?
I put about that down on my place. I could have purchased it for cash, but since my investments were returning more interest than the loan was costing me (much easier to achieve now!), this was one of the safest possible ways of making "leverage" work for me. I could have put less down and increased the leverage, but ...
How much of my capital should I spend on subscribing to a stock research company?
You should spend zero on your stock research company. If the management of the company actually had persistent skill in picking stocks, they would not be peddling their knowledge to the retail market for a few hundred dollars. They would rake in millions and billions by running a huge hedge fund and buy themselves a ...
In US, is it a good idea to hire a tax consultant for doing taxes?
It's going to depend entirely on your tax situation, its complexity, and your willingness/interest in dealing with tax filings. Personally I find that not only do I not enjoy dealing with figuring out my taxes, but I don't know even a fraction of the possible deductions available and all the clever ways to leverage th...
Do I need to write the date on the back of a received check when depositing it?
Changed to answer match the edited version of the question No, you do not need to write the date of your endorsement, but you can choose to do so if you want to. The bank stamp on the back will likely have the date and perhaps even the exact time when the check was deposited. The two lines are there in case you want t...
Buy tires and keep car for 12-36 months, or replace car now?
New tires will increase the resale value of the car; while not by the full cost of the tires, it will not be entirely a sunk cost. You'd need to factor that in and find out how much the new tires increase the resale value of the car to determine how much they would truly cost you. However, I suspect they would cost yo...
LLC: Where should the funds for initial startup costs come from?
Like you said, it's important to keep your personal assets and company assets completely separate to maintain the liability protection of the LLC. I'd recommend getting the business bank account right from the beginning. My wife formed an LLC last year (also as a pass-through sole proprietorship for tax purposes), and ...
Free “Rich Dad” education, with “free gift”: Is it legitimate, or is it a sales ploy?
Robert Kiyosaki's is basically a get-rich quick author. But to answer your question: It is a sales pitch in disguise. See Marketplace's report on a Kiyosaki seminar, which reveals that the free work shop is a sales pitch for a 3-day work shop which costs several hundred dollars. And the 3-day workshop is a sales pitc...
If one owns 75% of company shares, does that mean that he would have to take upon himself 75% of the company's expenses?
You can look at the company separately from the ownership. The company needs money that it doesn't have, therefore it needs to borrow money from somewhere or go bankrupt. And if they can't get money from their bank, then they can of course ask people related to the company, like the two shareholders, for a loan. It's ...
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 ...
What actions should I be taking to establish good credit scores for my children?
My son who is now 21 has never needed me to cosign on a loan for him and I did not need to establish any sort of credit rating for him to establish his own credit. One thing I would suggest is ditch the bank and use a credit union. I have used one for many years and opened an account there for my son as soon as he got...
Can I take money from my employee stock and put it towards another stock?
Only if you sell the stock in question, and use the proceeds to buy other stock. (You should probably never feel bad about selling your company stock, even if it goes up a lot later, because from a risk-exposure basis you are already exposed to your company's performance through your career. Unless you have a lot of ot...
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 is it rational to pay out a dividend?
First, you need to understand that not every investor's goals are the same. Some investors are investing for income. They want to invest in a profitable company and use the profit from the company as income. If that investor invests only in stocks that do not pay a dividend, the only way he can realize income is to se...
Scam or Real: A woman from Facebook apparently needs my bank account to send money
Yes, it is a scam. Think about it: Why would a stranger offer to give you money? Why would she need you to pay her own employees? She wouldn't. It is a scam. You have more to lose than just the $25 that is in the account. Just as has happened to your dad before, you will be receiving money that is not real, but payin...
Paid cash for a car, but dealer wants to change price
Lets look at it this way. Your son bought the car and then 2 days later, he wants to change the price. Will the dealership let him do that after all the paperwork is signed?
What should I do with $4,000 cash and High Interest Debt?
This is the kind of scenario addressed by Reddit's /r/personalfinance Prime Directive, or "I have $X, what should I do with it?" It follows a fairly linear flowchart for personal spending beginning with a budget and essential costs. The gist of the flowchart is to cover your most immediate costs and risks first, while ...
Why doesn't change in accounts receivable on balance sheet match cash flow statement?
Increase in A/R in balance sheet includes the A/R of acquired businesses. Change in A/R in cash flow statement might say "excluding effects of business acquisitions".
How to explain quick price changes early in the morning
You may simply be asking why stocks 'gap up' or 'gap down' when the stock market opens. This is because the price adjusts to news that occurred while the exchanges were closed overnight. Perhaps Asian stocks crashed, or perhaps a news story was released in the New York Times about some major company. There are thousand...
Should I pay cash or prefer a 0% interest loan for home furnishings?
Read the terms and conditions very carefully. Many zero percent deals have a requirement that you pay back at a certain date, and if you don't, you'll have to pay some enormous percentage. Nobody will remind you of the date, because the lender has the secret hope that you will forget.
GnuCash: expense tracking/amounts left under limits
Yes. The simplest option to track your spending over time is to familiarize yourself with the "Reports" menu on the toolbar. Take a look specifically at the "Reports > Income/Expense > Income Statement" report, which will sum up your income and spending over a time frame (defaults to the current year). In each report...
What choices should I consider for investing money that I will need in two years?
Are you going to South Africa or from? (Looking on your profile for this info.) If you're going to South Africa, you could do worse than to buy five or six one-ounce krugerrands. Maybe wait until next year to buy a few; you may get a slightly better deal. Not only is it gold, it's minted by that country, so it's easi...
What publicly available software do professional stock traders use for stock analysis?
Factset also provides a host of tools for analysis. Not many people know as they aren't as prevalent as Bloomberg. CapitalQ and Thomson Reuters also provide analysis tools. Most of the market data providers also provide analysis tools to analyze the data they and others provide.
What percentage of my stock portfolio should be international (non-US) stocks?
Without knowing anything else about you, I'd say I need more information. If all of your investments are in stocks, then that's not really diversified, regardless of how many stocks you own. There are other things to invest in besides stocks (and bonds, for that matter). What countries? "International" is pretty broa...
Need a formula to determine monthly payments received at time t if I'm reinvesting my returns
How does compounding of annual interest work? answers this question. It's not simple compound interest. It's a time value of money calculation similar to mortgage calculations. Only the cash flow is the other way, a 'deposit' instead of 'payment'. When using a finance calculator such as the TI-BA35 (Note, it's no longe...
My Co-Signer is the Primary Account Holder for my Car Loan - Does this affect my credit?
It sounds like your father got a loan and you are making the payments. If your name and SSN are not on the loan then you are not getting credit for making the payments your father is. So it will not affect your credit. If you are on the loan as a secondary borrower it will affect your credit but not substantially on...
Is a stock's trade size history publicly available?
That is called a 'volume chart'. There are many interactive charts available for the purpose. Here is clear example. (just for demonstration but this is for India only) 1) Yahoo Finance 2) Google Finance 3) And many more Usually, the stock volume density is presented together (below it) with normal price vs time chart...
Any experience with maxing out 401(k)?
Everybody else has given great answers on what to do, but I just want to add some encouragement. Keep saving. Learn to live within your means while saving, and things like houses and cars and new electronics will come. You can always wait a year and save money up for that new TV, but when retirement hits you are out ...
Why do US retirement funds typically have way more US assets than international assets?
You need growth in your retirement fund. Sad to say but the broad U.S. marks still has better growth perspective than the emerging markets. Look at China they are only at 6.7% growth for next year the same as this year. Russia's economy is shrinking. These are the other two super powers of 2015. The USA is still the b...
Investments - Huge drop in bid price versus last close
Depends on when you are seeing these bids & asks-- off hours, many market makers pull their bid & ask prices entirely. In a lightly traded stock there may just be no market except during the regular trading day.
Do bond interest rate risk premiums only compensate for the amount investors might lose?
[...] are all bonds priced in such a way so that they all return the same amount (on average), after accounting for risk? In other words, do risk premiums ONLY compensate for the amount investors might lose? No. GE might be able to issue a bond with lower yield than, say, a company from China with no previous records o...
What happens if I just don't pay my student loans?
employed under the table and doesn't have a bank account If I could make that size 10,000,000 font I would. Your friend likely also isn't paying taxes. The student loan penalties will be nothing compared to what the IRS does to you. Avoid taking financial advice from that person.
Why is the stock market price for a share always higher than the earnings per share?
When you buy a stock, you're really paying for a STREAM of earnings, from now till whenever. The job of an investor is to figure out how large that stream will be in the future. But if the stock price were the same as "earnings" (for one year), it would mean that you would get all future earnings for "free." That's not...
US Stock Market - volume based real-time alert
Real-time equity (or any other market) data is not available for free anywhere in the US. It is always delayed by 10-15 minutes. On the other hand, online brokers who target the "day trader" (Interactive Brokers, TD Ameritrade, etc.) offer much closer to real-time data AND feature all the tools/alerts/charts/etc. you ...
Why should the P/E ratio of a growth stock match its percentage earnings growth rate?
This is only a rule of thumb. Peter Lynch popularized it; the ratio PE/growth is often called the Lynch Ratio. At best it's a very rough guideline. I could fill up this page with other caveats. I'm not saying that it's wrong, only that it's grossly incomplete. For a 10 second eyeball valuation of growth stocks, it's fi...
Why does historical price data not go back all the way on Google Finance?
Google Finance and Yahoo Finance have been transitioning their API (data interface) over the last 3 months. They are currently unreliable. If you're just interested in historical price data, I would recommend either Quandl or Tiingo (I am not affiliated with either, but I use them as data sources). Both have the same h...
Is it legal if I'm managing my family's entire wealth?
I am not going to discuss legality, because with family members you are able to give a lot of guidance and assistance without running into legal issues. The biggest problem is that when they transfer the funds to you and you invest the money, all the tax rates and tax limits are determined by your situation; plus you ...
BATS/Chi-X Europe Smart Order routing
It is explained on their website. Just look for the word "routing" on the Features page: Choose Your Venues Liquidity Pools Group 1: Bats Europe Group 2: Liquidity Partner (LP) Add this group to access dark pool liquidity. Group 3: Exchanges and MTFs Choose to access additional Exchanges and MTFs across Europe.
What one bit of financial advice do you wish you could've given yourself five years ago?
2 things:
Can banks deny that you've paid your loan?
Yes, if their record keeping is faulty or failed. It is best to keep all records of repayment. Incomplete records such as signing for a loan yet no repayment receipt can be at least a headache and at most expensive. The most important document is a record of 0 balance then there is nothing that the courts will allow c...
How to value employee benefits?
Employee Stock Purchase Plans (ESPPs) were heavily neutered by U.S. tax laws a few years ago, and many companies have cut them way back. While discounts of 15% were common a decade ago, now a company can only offer negligible discounts of 5% or less (tax free), and you can just as easily get that from fluctuations in t...
Who can truly afford luxury cars?
I want to add that in my country, Israel, the tax on cars is extraordinarily high. Cars in Israel cost in average twice or more then in the US (for example, a new VW golf with the cheapest configuration costs around 25kUSD). Israel's average salary is lower then US's average salary and the fuel in Israel costs twice. T...
Is there a tax deduction for renting office space in service of employer?
According to this post on TurboTax forums, you could deduct it as an "Unreimbursed Employee" expense. This would seem consistent with the IRS Guidelines on such deductions: An expense is ordinary if it is common and accepted in your trade, business, or profession. An expense is necessary if it is appropriate and helpfu...
23 and on my own, what should I be doing?
Assuming the numbers in your comments are accurate, you have $2400/month "extra" after paying your expenses. I assume this includes loan payments. You said you have $3k in savings and a $2900 "monthly nut", so only one month of living expenses in savings. In my opinion, your first goal should be to put 100% of your ex...
Tax on Stocks or ETF's
If you sell a stock, with no distributions, then your gain is taxable under §1001. But not all realized gains will be recognized as taxable. And some gains which are arguably not realized, will be recognized as taxable. The stock is usually a capital asset for investors, who will generate capital gains under §1(h), b...
401k with paltry match or SPY ETF?
Answers: 1. Is this a good idea? Is it really risky? What are the pros and cons? Yes, it is a bad idea. I think, with all the talk about employer matches and tax rates at retirement vs. now, that you miss the forest for the trees. It's the taxes on those retirement investments over the course of 40 years that really ma...
Do personal checks expire? [US]
It depends on the bank. According to the Uniform Commercial Code, a bank is not obliged to pay a cheque after six months, but may do so if it wants to. § 4-404. BANK NOT OBLIGED TO PAY CHECK MORE THAN SIX MONTHS OLD. A bank is under no obligation to a customer having a checking account to pay a check, other than a cer...
What are the implications of a corporate stock repurchase or share buyback program?
Ignoring taxes, a share repurchase has exactly the same effect on the company and the shareholders' wealth as a cash dividend. In either case, the company is disbursing cash to its shareholders; in the former, in exchange for shares which shareholders happen to be selling on the market at the time; in the latter, equal...
Owning REIT vs owning real estate - which has a better hypothetical ROI?
REIT's usually invest in larger properties (apartment complexes), individuals usually invest in small properties (single units, duplexes, fourplexes, etc). REIT's also invest in a lot of commercial properties - malls, commercial and business office buildings, etc. These are very different markets. Not to mention the ri...
Treatment of web domain ownership & reselling for tax purposes: Capital asset, or not?
I must say that this is a question that you should hire a professional tax adviser (EA/CPA licensed in your State) to answer. It is way above our amateurs' pay-grade. That said, I'll tell you what I personally think on the issue. I'm not a licensed tax adviser, and nothing that I write here can be used in any way as a ...
“Business day” and “due date” for bills
I don't believe Saturday is a business day either. When I deposit a check at a bank's drive-in after 4pm Friday, the receipt tells me it will credit as if I deposited on Monday. If a business' computer doesn't adjust their billing to have a weekday due date, they are supposed to accept the payment on the next business...
Stock portfolio value & profit in foreign currency
I think this will do the trick:
Buying International Stock
For example, if the Dow, S&P 500, NASDAQ are all down does that necessarily mean the Canadian stock will get negatively impacted? Or is it primarily impacted by the Canadian market? The TWMJF stock makes up a very small part of the Canadian market so it affects the overall market, but this doesn't mean that the overall...
How a company can afford to give away so many shares as part of its ESOP
Companies theoretically have an infinite number of equity units at their disposal. Issuance must be approved according to its founding contracts. If an equity is trading on an open market then the price of each unit issued in lieu of cash compensation is known. Even if an equity doesn't trade openly, bidders can be s...
Is it accurate to say that if I was to trade something, my probability of success can't be worse than random?
The stock market is not a zero-sum game. Some parts are (forex, some option trading), but plain old stock trading is not zero sum. That is to say, if you were to invest "at random", you would on average make money. That's because the market as a whole makes money - it goes up over time (6-10% annually, averaged over ...
Pros & cons of investing in gold vs. platinum?
@Michael Kjörling answered why platinum is in demand like it is. But it missed some of the significant risks so I will address some of them. Platinum is much more rare than gold. But not because there is less platinum than gold just that the known existing platinum veins are smaller and more disbursed. So if a larg...
Carry-forward of individual losses, with late-filed past taxes [US]
Is Jim right to be worries? Yes, since the statute of limitations for refunds for 2012 is close and he might lose any tax refunds he might be entitled to for that year. Also, the pattern itself may raise some flags of suspicion and trigger audits, both because of such a variance in income and because of the medical exp...
First job: Renting vs get my parents to buy me a house
There is a mathematical way to determine the answer, if you know all the variables. (And that's a big if.) For example, suppose you rent for 4 years and the price of rent never increases. The total amount you will have paid is: 600*48 = 28,800. If you currently have money sitting in the bank earning only a negligible a...
If I get a bill (e.g. for internet service), is that a debt I owe? If no, what are the practical difference between a bill and a debt?
A debt is created when the service is rendered or the goods are sold to you. The bill is simply a way of recording the debt and alerting you to it.
Malaysian real estate: How to know if the market is overheated or in a bubble?
I don't buy the "house prices will always increase due to the increased cost of raw materials" argument. In a lot of countries you will find that the cost of (re)building a property is substantially lower than its perceived sale value. If it wasn't, there would be no incentive for developers to take the risk of buying ...
Why do some stocks have a higher margin requirement?
It is a question of how volatile the stock is perceived to be, its beta correlation to the S&P500 or other index. Margin requirements are derived from the Federal Reserve, Self Regulatory Organizations, the exchange itself, the broker you use, and which margining system you are using. So that makes this a loaded questi...
I received $1000 and was asked to send it back. How was this scam meant to work?
I've skimmed through the answers given and I'd like do add another possible scenario. I've recently heard about this exact thing happening to someone only the money originally was a loan taken in the receivers name. 1) Scumbag finds out personal data – including social number, bank account and phone – of Innocent Vict...
Splitting Hackathon Prize Money to minimize tax debt
I would just take $2000 and multiply by your marginal tax rate, weight that between the 5 other people according to their share of the prize money and ask them to give you that. From your question it seems like you all have a good working relationship, I'm sure the other partners would agree to that. I think it's the s...
How do I build wealth?
CEOs are compensated with stocks and options on top of their salary. Most is in the form of stocks and options. You may see them with a fancy car, but they don't necessarily possess the car, house, etc. They merely control it, which is nearly as good. You may lease it, or time share it. It might be owned by the company...
How can I help others plan their finances, without being a “conventional” financial planner?
In the UK there is a non-profit called the Citizen's Advice Bureau which provides free advice to people on a wide range of subjects, but including debt and budgeting. Consumer Credit Counselling Service provides explicit help but again, in the UK. A search for "volunteer debt counsellor" reveals a whole host of organiz...
Shifting income to 401k
Assumptions made for this answer, they may not be true for anybody: For the numbers part we will assume you are single and make 96,000 per year. Unknowns: how long you have to wait post accumulation to convince the bank you really do make $96,000 per year.
Are long-term bonds risky assets?
In truth there is no such thing as a risk-free asset. That is why your textbook feels the need to add the qualifier "for practical purposes," meaning that the risk of a money market account is so much lower than virtually any other asset class that it can reasonably be approximated as risk free. The main risk of any b...
Do Online Currency Exchanges' registration with the government guarantee safety and reliability?
Government registering of financial institutions usually is to make the government safe (eg FINTRAC is watching for money laundering and financing terrorism) rather than to make it's customers safe. Most governments have many levels of registrations and regulatory bodies. The most stringent requirements are usually ob...
Bid/ask spreads for index funds
First, what structure does your index fund have? If it is an open-end mutual fund, there are no bid/ask spread as the structure of this security is that it is priced once a day and transactions are done with that price. If it is an exchange-traded fund, then the question becomes how well are authorized participants t...
How can home buying be considered a sound investment with all of that interest that needs to be paid?
Your question isn't great, but I will attempt to answer this piece as it seems really the root of your personal finance question: I want to convince my wife to make this move because it will save us at least 800 month, but she fails to see how buying a second home is financially sound because we have to lose our sa...
Does a growing economy mean the economy is becoming less efficient?
A growing economy should become more efficient because of increased opportunity for division of labor: specialization. External regulation or monetary policy external to the free market can cause parts of the economy to grow in response to said regulations. This creates inefficiencies that are wrung out of the economy...
Are services provided to Google employees taxed as income or in any way?
Is this right? The example is slightly off. Google would be running a cafeteria that can be subsidized. Employees pay an amount to buy food. Not every one spends the same amount or eats the same amount of food. If someone doesn't use cafeteria; he doesn't get more money. For example, suppose John Doe makes $100,000 a y...
I thought student loans didn't have interest, or at least very low interest? [UK]
From the description, you have a post-1998 income contingent loan. The interest rate on those is currently 1.5% but it has varied quite a bit in the last few years due to the formula used to calculate it, which is either the inflation rate (RPI), or 1% + the highest base rate across a group of banks - whichever is smal...
Bucketing investments to track individual growths
Some personal finance packages can track basis cost of individual purchase lots or fractions thereof. I believe Quicken does, for example. And the mutual funds I'm invested in tell me this when I redeem shares. I can't vouch for who/what would make this visible at times other than sale; I've never had that need. For th...
What are the best software tools for personal finance?
KMyMoney Pros: Cons:
Beginner questions about stock market
First, welcome to Money.SE. If you are interested in saving and investing, this is a great site to visit. Please take the tour and just start to read the questions you find interesting. 1 - even though this is hypothetical, it scales down to an average investor. If I own 1000 shares of the 1 billion, am I liable if th...
If I have some old gold jewellery, is it worth it to sell it for its melt value?
I have a buddy that used to run one of those companies that buys gold like the ones you see on TV. Here's the deal... 1) If the jewelry isn't total junk, get it appraised. Making raw materials into jewelry obviously increases the value since you can't buy jewelry for the price of raw gold. In many cases it will be wort...
Where to invest, that compounds interest more than annual?
Securities (things you can buy on the stock market) that pay dividends usually pay every quarter (every three months), but some pay every month. (For example: PGF pays dividends each month.) IF you reinvest your dividends back into the stock then you will be compounding your return. I use the feature at Scottrade to ...
What one bit of financial advice do you wish you could've given yourself five years ago?
Get an advanced degree. This should increase your earning power. Also learn how to use a computer, this should also tend to increase your earning power.
Why divide by ask rate to get the spread?
Mathematically it's arbitrary - you could just as easily use the bid or the midpoint as the denominator, so long as you're consistent when comparing securities. So there's not a fundamental reason to use the ask. The best argument I can come up with is that most analysis is done from the buy side, so looking at liqui...
Why do Americans have to file taxes, even if their only source of income is from a regular job?
Why is the US still working with paper checks when Europe went digital about a decade ago? Tax filing is just another area in which the US is lagging. Modernizing it costs money, and the US is quite close to bankruptcy (as seen by the repeated government shutdowns). Also, the US tax code is quite complicated. For inst...
When I calculate “internal rate of return (IRR)”, should I include cash balance?
Both are correct depending on what you are really trying to evaluate. If you only want to understand how that particular investment you were taking money in and out of did by itself than you would ignore the cash. You might use this if you were thinking of replacing that particular investment with another but keeping ...
What U.S. banks offer two-factor authentication (such as password & token) for online banking?
E*Trade offers banking services, and will provide you with a security token free if you have sufficient assets there ($50,000). Otherwise they'll charge you a $25 fee.