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What's the best application, software or tool that can be used to track time? | A free solution that I've been using is Task Coach. It has tasks, subtasks, categories, and all the stuff you would expect from a time tracking program. It also counts each distinct period spent on a task as a separate "effort" that you can add comments, for example to remind you what that chunk of time was spent on. |
Investment property information resources | I personally found the "For Dummies" books, on property investment, very helpful and a great primer. I found them unbiased and very informative, laying out the basic principles. Depending on your knowledge it can provide you with enough of a foundation to have an informed conversation with banks/real estates etc. Watc... |
Is this mortgage advice good, or is it hooey? | This doesn't say the whole story (like the length of the HELOC). if you have 15 years left on a mortgage and "refinance" into a 30 year HELOC then yes, your payments maybe 20% lower, but you add 15 years to pay it off. Just remember that interest occurs daily on what you owe. If you move 100K of debt from 5% mortgage ... |
What is a good price to “Roll” a Covered Call? | There is no reason to roll an option if the current market value is lower than the strike sold. Out-of-the-money strikes (as is the $12 strike) are all time value which is decaying constantly and that is to our advantage. If share price remains below the strike, the option will expire worthless, you will still have you... |
Should we buy a house, or wait? | Some highly pessimistic things worth noting to go alongside all the stability and tax break upside that homes generally provide: Negative equity is no joke and basically the only thing that bankrupts the middle classes consistently en masse. The UK is at the end of a huge housing bull run where rents are extremely chea... |
I received $1000 and was asked to send it back. How was this scam meant to work? | This is almost certainly a scam or a mistake. This is not good, spendable money: it is not yours to keep. Very simple to handle. Tell the bank, in writing that you were not expecting to receive this money and are a bit surprised to receive it. Preferably in a way that creates a paper trail. And then stop talking. ... |
Does this sound like a great idea regarding being a landlord and starting a real estate empire? | BEFORE you invest in a house, make sure you account for all the returns, risks and costs, and compare them to returns, risks and costs of other investments. If you invest 20% of a house's value in another investment, you would also expect a return. You also probably will not have the cost interest for the balance (80% ... |
How to acquire skills required for long-term investing? | I would say that the three most important skills are: Note that some costs are hidden. So, for example, a mutual fund investing in other countries than where you live in may mean the investment target country charges a certain percentage of dividends going to the mutual fund. The mutual fund company doesn't usually wan... |
Is diversification better | Diversification is the only real free lunch in finance (reduction in risk without any reduction in expected returns), so clearly every good answer to your question will be "yes." Diversification is good." Let's talk about many details your question solicits. Many funds are already pretty diversified. If you buy a mu... |
Is it possible to make money by getting a mortgage? | Sounds like a poorly written piece at best... The way you make money with a mortgage, if you're careful and/or lucky and/or patient, is to use that loan to make leveraged investments. If the return on the investments is higher than the interest on the loan, you win. Of course if the investments don't do well you can lo... |
Why does Warren Buffett say his fund performance, relatively, is likely to be better in a bear market than in a bull market? | If I have $100 and put it under the bed it will return 0%. Relatively good in a bear market and relatively bad in a bull market. |
Where can I see the detailed historical data for a specified stock? | To see a chart with 1-minute data for a stock on a specific date: For example, here is the chart for TWTR on November 7, 2013 - the day of the IPO: Here is the chart for TWTR on November 8, 2013 - its second day of trading: Here is the chart for TWTR on November 11, 2013 - its third day of trading: |
Is it worth working at home to earn money? Can I earn more money working at home? | It completely depends on what type of work you intend to do. Are you intending to run/setup your own business? Or stay with your current employer, but work from home instead of going to the office? If thats the case, then yes it is a good idea, since you will save on commuting costs amongst other things If you are aski... |
Why can Robin Hood offer trading without commissions? | It isn't the first initiative (see link below) and maybe this one will stick around. Time will be a good test. Here is an article on it.... http://www.investopedia.com/articles/active-trading/020515/how-robinhood-makes-money.asp They plan to make money off unused balances - so they hope to get the masses signed up ... |
Why do put option prices go higher when the underlying stock tanks (drops)? | When you buy a put on a stock, you buy the right to sell the stock at fixed price, F, that his usually different from the market price, M. You paid a price, P, for the put. Your potential profit, going forward, is represented by the DIFFERENCE you get to collect between your fixed price F, and that market price M, plu... |
What are your experiences with 'self directed' 401ks? | My employer matches 1 to 1 up to 6% of pay. They also toss in 3, 4 or 5 percent of your annual salary depending on your age and years of service. The self-directed brokerage account option costs $20 per quarter. That account only allows buying and selling of stock, no short sales and no options. The commissions are $12... |
How are option contracts enforced? | By their agreements with the central counterparty - in the US, the exchange or the Options Clearing Corporation, which interposes itself between the counterparties of each trade and guarantees that they settle. From the CCP article: A clearing house stands between two clearing firms (also known as member firms or parti... |
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... |
How do third-party banks issue car loans? | I have gotten a letter of credit from my credit union stating the maximum amount I can finance. Of course I don't show the dealer the letter until after we have finalized the deal. I Then return in 3 business days with a cashiers check for the purchase price. In one case since the letter was for an amount greater the... |
What Did Benjamin Graham Mean by Earnings Stability in The Intelligent Investor? | Yes - this is exactly what it means. No losses (negative earnings). With today's accounting methods, you might want to determine whether you view earnings including or excluding extraordinary items. For example, a company might take a once-off charge to its earnings when revising the value of a major asset. This ... |
How do investment banks evaluate a private firm going public? Is it based on the assets owned by the company? | They're not going to look very hard at the asset value (except for actual cash in the bank), which doesn't bear much relationship to the real value of the company. More likely they will look at the last three years' earnings and choose a target P/E ratio based on that. The owner's share depends entirely on how much of ... |
Judge market efficiency from raw price action | The shortest-hand yet most reliable metric is daily volume / total shares outstanding. A security with a high turnover rate will be more efficient than a lower one, ceteris paribus. The practical impacts are tighter spread and lower average percentage change between trades. A security with a spread of 0% and an avera... |
What does “Company Distribution” mean on Google Finance's stock screener? | Company Distribution is attempting to show a histogram of how many companies fall within a given range so you can visualize the number of companies that meet a certain parameter. For example if you move the "Market Cap" sliders so the minimum slider is just before the large rise in the distribution and move the maximu... |
Executor of will | I strongly doubt that being executor will make the assets of the estate vulnerable to a suit against him personally. The estate is it's own separate legal entity with its own TIN. Only creditors against the estate itself can make claims against it and after all creditors are paid, then the balance is distributed in acc... |
Is it legal if I'm managing my family's entire wealth? | If you go through the web pages of some online brokers, you will find out that some of them allow you to manage friends/relatives accounts from your account as a trusteer. That should really solve your underlying problem, you will need only one login, etc. (Example: https://www.interactivebrokers.com/ff/en/main.php) If... |
Paying restaurants in cash instead of credit card - how signficant is this? | Credit cards charge about 2% fee from merchants. This is already priced into the restaurant menu. Generally, dealing with cash will not cost the merchant significantly less since he needs to make more trips to the bank, pay fees for frequent cash deposits (banks charge per operation), and maintain a safe location for s... |
Is there a benefit, long term, to life insurance for a youngish, debt, and dependent free person? | As others have said, if you don't have dependents, there's little need for life insurance. If you can't think of any obvious beneficiary for an insurance policy, than you probably don't need one. "Dependents" here should be understood broadly. It wouldn't necessarily be limited to wife and children. If you're the only ... |
Is a robo-adviser worth the risk? | If you are looking for an advisor to just build a portfolio and then manage it, a robo-advisor can be beneficial (especially if the alternative is doing it your self, assuming that you are not well versed in the markets). The primary risk with one is that it does not build a portfolio that accurately represents your ne... |
What to do when paying for an empty office space? | Generally speaking, yes, you're obliged to pay rent for the remainder of the lease term. But the landlord is obliged to mitigate damages, so if you can find a suitable tenant the landlord has to let you out of the lease. |
Are you preparing for a possible dollar (USD) collapse? (How?) | Invest in other currencies and assets that have "real" value. And personally I don't count gold as something of real value. Of course its used in the industry but besides that its a pretty useless metal and only worth something because everybody else thinks that everybody thinks its worth something. So I would buy land... |
How hard for US customers make payments to non-resident freelancer by wire transfer? | Can you tell me please, is it really hard to make international wire transfer for payment my job and can i resolve this problem without using third party services? This is mostly a barrier, the form at times is quite complicated. For Russia, one has to enter "Purpose of remittance" ... at times select intermediate bank... |
Why can't a US state default, but a EU state can? | But do you know about a US state risking to go default now or in the past? In 1847 four states - Mississippi, Arkansas, Michigan, and Florida - failed to pay all or some of their debts. All of these states had issued debt to invest in banks. From the detailed source listed below: "...it should be remembered that all... |
A friend wants to use my account for a wire transfer. Is this a scam or is it legitimate? | Just one further point to add to what everyone else has said. There are no oil rigs or platforms "off the shores of Liverpool". Liverpool is on the west coast of England, on the oil-free Irish Sea. The UK's oil industry is in the North Sea, to the north-east. Aberdeen would be the correct city. |
Company asking for card details to refund over email | While I agree with Ben a lot I feel like his answer is really poor here. You do not call a number to give your credit card information out for a refund. That is ridiculous. Just from his answer - he has had 5 cases of fraud lately - you should know that you shouldn't follow this advice. I personally don't ever give m... |
Should I pay off my car loan within the year? | First, don't owe (much) money on a car that's out of warranty. If you have an engine blow up and repairs will cost the lion's share of the car's bluebook value, the entire car loan immediately comes due because the collateral is now worthless. This puts you in a very miserable situation because you must pay off the c... |
1040 Schedule A Un-Reimbursed Business Expense Reporting | It would be unusual but it is possible that the expenses could be very high compared to your income. The IRS in pub 529 explains the deduction. You can deduct only unreimbursed employee expenses that are: Paid or incurred during your tax year, For carrying on your trade or business of being an employee, and Ordinary an... |
Can a shareholder be liable in case of bankruptcy of one of the companies he invested in? | I am a tax lawyer and ALL the RESPONSES ABOVE are 1/2 Correct but also 1/2 Wrong and in tax law this means 100% WRONG (BECAUSE ANY PART INCORRECT UNDER TAX LAW will get YOU A HUGE PENALY and/or PRISON TIME by way of the IRS! So in ESSENCE ALL the above answers are WRONG! Let me enlighten you to the correct answer in 5... |
For very high-net worth individuals, does it make sense to not have insurance? | The point about insurance is solidarity. Think about this: In London a few hundred years ago people first started insuring their houses against fire. There were several insurance companies, and if you used one you got a marker on your house. So if your house caught fire they would come and check, and they would put the... |
What is the meaning of “short selling” or “going short” a stock? | This is a gross simplification as there are a few different ways to do this. The principle overall is the same though. To short a stock, you borrow X shares from a third party and sell them at the current price. You now owe the lender X shares but have the proceeds from the sale. If the share price falls you can buy ba... |
What sort of tax treatment does a charitable micro-lending loan incur? | Lending is not a charitable contribution. Its an investment. If the loan becomes a bad debt - you'll have to show that it had become a bad debt. For example - bankruptcy declaration. You'll have to show an arm's length transaction, for example - real intention to repay (evidenced by payments of principal and interest m... |
Is it possible to create a self-managed superannuation fund to act as a mortage offset? (Australia) | You can set up a Self Managed Super Fund (SMSF) and use it to buy residential investment property, and as Justin has mentioned even borrow to acquire the investment property through the SMSF. However, you cannot hold your home in the SMSF, as this would be classed as an in-house asset, and you are only allowed to hold... |
Can individual investors buy precious metals at the spot price? | There are various exchanges around the world that handle spot precious metal trading; for the most part these are also the primary spot foreign exchange markets, like EBS, Thomson Reuters, Currenex (website seems to be down), etc. You can trade on these markets through brokers just like you can trade on stock markets. ... |
My investment account is increasingly and significantly underperforming vs. the S&P 500. What should I do? | The majority (about 80%) of mutual funds are underperforming their underlying indexes. This is why ETFs have seen massive capital inflows compared to equity funds, which have seen significant withdrawals in the last years. I would definitively recommend going with an ETF. In addition to pure index based ETFs that (al... |
Tax implications of diversification | Yes, to change which stocks you owe you need to sell one and buy the other, which for tax purposes means taking the profit or loss accrued up to then. On the other hand this establishes a new baseline, so you will not be double-faced on those gains. It just makes a mess of this year's tax return, and forced you to set ... |
What are the possible metrics for evaluating annual performance of a portfolio? | The Investopedia article you linked to is a good start. Its key takeaway is that you should always consider risk-adjusted return when evaluating your portfolio. In general, investors seeking a higher level of return must face a higher likelihood of taking a loss (risk). Different types of stocks (large vs small; intern... |
Is there a way to set a stop for a stock before you own it? | Yes it is possible, as long as the broker you use allows conditional orders. I use CMC Markets in Australia, and they allow free conditional orders either when initially placing a buy order or after already buying a stock. See the Place New Order box below: Once you have selected a stock to buy, the number of shares y... |
How does “taking over payments” work? | I think this phrase originates from when it was common to have an assumable mortgage. In that case, you would "take over payments" and the loan would become yours. From Investopedia: Assumable Mortgage: A type of financing arrangement in which the outstanding mortgage and its terms can be transferred from the ... |
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. |
What are the best software tools for personal finance? | Emergency Account Vault (Windows) I use it to store info about all of my accounts/assets in an encrypted document. It's more for keeping track of everything that is in your name than managing money. Good for situations when you need to quickly look up info about a specific account you own. |
I'm 23 and was given $50k. What should I do? | To add to @michael's solid answer, I would suggest sitting down and analyzing what your priorities are about paying off the student loan debt versus investing that money immediately. (Regardless, the first thing you should do is, as michael suggested, pay off the credit card debt) Since it looks like you will be having... |
What one bit of financial advice do you wish you could've given yourself five years ago? | When I was contracting I wish I had joined a tax efficient umbrella organisation rather than just work as a sole trader. I also wish I had put money aside to pay my taxes rather than just spend it all. :( |
Why are there many small banks and more banks in the U.S.? | As an addendum to PeterK's answer, once upon a time, there were many Savings and Loan Associations (S&Ls) that acted as small banks, accepting savings deposits from people and lending money for home mortgages to local residents. Some of these S&Ls were chartered Federally with deposits insured by the FSLIC (similar to ... |
In what cases can a business refuse to take cash? | They don't have to take cash if they reasonably told you in advance they don't take cash, because they made fair effort to prevent you from incurring a debt. They don't have to take cash if the transaction hasn't yet happened (not a debt) or if it can be easily undone at no cost to either party - such as a newspaper s... |
Why do stores and manufacturers use mail in rebates? A scam, or is there a way to use them effectively? | Some notable percentage of buyers won't even try to do the rebate, or will forget - so it's a [relatively] cheap incentive to the consumer than most will miss out on. |
How do I get into investing in stocks? | The best way I know of is to join an investment club. They club will act like a mutual fund, investing in stocks researched and selected by the group. Taking part in research and presenting results to the group for peer review is an excellent way to learn. You'll learn what is a good reason to invest and what isn't.... |
How To Record Income As An Affiliate ( UK ) | Every bill you write counts as income (if the bill doesn't get paid, you would count that as an expense). In cases where you don't write bills, I think the payment you receive would count as income, but you might check that on the HMRC website. So to record your income, you can basically record the payments that you re... |
How can I get the most value from my employer's ESPP? | A 15% discount is a 17.6% return. (100/85 = 1.176). For a holding period that's an average 15.5 days, a half month. It would be silly to compound this over a year as the numbers are limited. The safest way to do this is to sell the day you are permitted. In effect, you are betting, 12 times a year, that the stock won'... |
Capital Gains Tax with Multiple 'buy' Transactions per Stock (U.S.) | According to the following article the answer is "first-in, first-out": http://smallbusiness.chron.com/calculate-cost-basis-stock-multiple-purchases-21588.html According to the following article the last answer was just one option an investor can choose: https://www.usaa.com/inet/pages/advice-investing-costbasis?akredi... |
Can saving/investing 15% of your income starting age 25, likely make you a millionaire? | I see a lot of answers calculcating with incomes that are much higher than yours, here is something for your situation: If you would keep your current income for the rest of your life, here is approximately how things would turn out after 40 years: All interest is calculated relative to the amount in your portfolio. Th... |
APR for a Loan Paid Off Monthly | The periodic rate (here, the interest charged per month), as you would enter into a finance calculator is 9.05%. Multiply by 12 to get 108.6% or calculate APR at 182.8%. Either way it's far more than 68%. If the $1680 were paid after 365 days, it would be simple interest of 68%. For the fact that payment are made alon... |
Joining a company being acquired | The best answer I can give is - be prepared for change. There's no perfect question you can ask or assurance you can get prior to accepting the offer that will give you any particularly perfect security or sense of stability here. The company itself is going through a change of identity that can change how it will do ... |
What do I need to consider when refinancing one home to pay the down-payment of another? | What kind of financial analysis would make you comfortable about this decision? The HELOC and ARM are the biggest red flags to me in your current situation. While I don't expect interest rates to skyrocket in the near future, they introduce an interest rate risk that is easy to get rid of. Getting rid of the HELOC an... |
AVS Address Verification System of BOTH Credit and Debit Cards - WHERE, HOW? | Parts of what you want are possible, but taken as a whole, you're out of luck. First of all, there is no master database of every cardholder in the country. The only way to check if information is correct is to ask the issuing bank. The AVS system is a way to automate doing so, but it's possible to call the bank dire... |
Adjusting a value for inflation each month using rolling 12-monthly inflation figures | In the style of the Bank of England's Inflation Calculator, you can do the calculation like so. The third column is an index made from the inflation figures and the forth column shows the inflation-adjusted values. Using the index to calculate the difference in costs, for example: The formulas used to produce the tabl... |
Will a Barclaycard Visa help me in building up credit score? | Payment history is probably the most significant contributor to your credit score. Having a solid history of making, at least the minimum, payments on time will have a positive impact on your credit score. Whether or not this specific transaction means anything to that equation is up for debate. If you have no cred... |
Analyze stock value | It seems like you want to compare the company's values not necessarily the stock price. Why not get the total outstanding shares and the stock price, generate the market cap. Then you could compare changes to market cap rather than just share price. |
PayPal wants me to “add a bank account”, another funding source. Credit card isn't working. Why? | It's always a good idea to check your credit history on a regular basis - try checking your credit score from one of the independent providers recently (like Equifax) ? Maybe that will offer a clue what PayPal is doing. |
How to contribute to Roth IRA when income is at the maximum limit & you have employer-sponsored 401k plans? | From the way you frame the question it sounds like you more or less know the answer already. Yes - you can make a non-deductable contribution to a traditional IRA and convert it to a Roth IRA. Here is Wikipedia's explanation: Regardless of income but subject to contribution limits, contributions can be made to a Tradit... |
us citizen receiving bank transfer from foreign boyfriend | No, any gifts you receive are not taxable to you. In fact, losing money in a scam (as this sure sounds like to me) can even be tax-deductible if you lose enough! I wouldn't recommend accepting anything. Usually people with millions are dollars are capable of setting up their own bank accounts. |
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... |
Income and taxes with subcontracting? | Since you say 1099, I'll assume it's in the US. :) Think of your consulting operation as a small business. Businesses are only taxed on their profits, not their revenues. So you should only be paying tax on the $700 in the example you gave. Note, though, that you need to be sure the IRS thinks you're a small business. ... |
Credit report - Not able to establish identity | It looks like from their response, they would like you to send a copy of your social security card. Your drivers license or passport will not help verify your social security number. Another option you could try is to get your credit report from one of the other credit bureaus. You should be able to choose from Experia... |
How quickly does short float ratio/percent change? | The short float ratio and percent change are all calculated based on the short interest (the total number of shares shorted). The short interest data for Nasdaq and NYSE stocks is published every two weeks. NasdaqTrader.com shows the exact dates for when short interest is published for Nasdaq stocks, and also says the... |
Why is stock dilution legal? | For new shares to be successfully sold, the price has to be below market price. If you currently own shares of that company, you should always get an option to buy those newly sold shares at that discounted price. The number of options depends on the relative number of shares you hold. Lets say you own 100 out of 1000 ... |
Over how much time should I dollar-cost-average my bonus from cash into mutual funds? | The OP invests a large amount of money each year (30-40k), and has significant amount already invested. Some in the United States that face this situation may want to look at using the bonus to fund two years worth of IRA or Roth IRA. During the period between January 1st and tax day they can put money into a IRA or R... |
How to measure a currencies valuation or devaluation in relevance to itself | It's very hard to measure the worth of an abstract concept like money, particularly over long periods of time. In the modern era we have things like the Consumer Price Index (CPI) in the United States, where the Bureau of Labor Statistics literally sends "shoppers" out to find prices of things and surveys people to fin... |
Implications of receiving small amounts of money on the side | HMRC may or may not find out about it; the risks and penalties involved if they do find out make it unwise not to just declare it and pay the tax on it. Based on the fact you asked the question, I am assuming that you currently pay all your tax through PAYE and don't do a tax return. You would need to register for Self... |
Treasury Bonds, and why has the NYSE 20+ Year Treasury Bond index (AXTWEN) gone up so much in the last year (2011)? | The price of a bond goes up when yields go down. For example, you purchase a 5% bond today for $100 and the very next day the same bond is being offered with a rate of 10%. Will you be able to sell you bond for the $100 you paid? No, you must compete with the 10% bonds being sold so you will have to sell your bond f... |
Ideas for patenting/selling a trading strategy | If you have a great technical trading system that gets you winning trading 80-85% of the time in backtesting, the question should be why are you not trading it? To get a better idea of how good your trading system is you should work out your expectancy per trade. This will tell you how much you should make on average f... |
What to do with old company's 401k? [duplicate] | I suggest rolling it over to the 401(k) with your new employer. Particularly if they match any percentage of your contribution, it would be in your interest to take as much of that money as possible. When it comes to borrowing money from your 401(k), it looks like the issues AbraCadaver mentioned only apply if you don... |
Currently sole owner of a property. My girlfriend is looking to move in with me and is offering to pay 'rent'. Am I at risk here? | Edit #2 My whole answer was based on my misunderstanding that you were renting out a totally separate property to your girl friend. I finally understand now that you're renting out a room in YOUR apartment flat to your gf. So, based on my new understanding, I don't think it's necessarily a bad idea. The answer below... |
Is there a term that better describes a compound annual growth rate (CAGR) when it is negative? | Not sure why CAGR is a problem for both directions. I used to be a physicist, and, when I taught classes in graduate school, students always wanted to use the terms "accelerate" and "decelerate" to describe "speeding up" and "slowing down". But acceleration is just a vector with magnitude and direction. There's nothing... |
Should I pay off my 50K of student loans as quickly as possible, or steadily? Why? | I recently paid-off $40k in student loan debt. One of the motivations for me to accelerate my payments was that over time, as my income increased, the amount of student loan interest I could write-off on taxes started to phase-out. |
How do i get into investing stocks [duplicate] | 50 (dollars, Euros?) is a very small amount to invest. The first time I ever bought stock I picked a winner. It went up by about 40% in the first few months. I sold it and lost money. How? I only bought 10 shares at $7.50 each. The profit was less than the two commissions for buying and selling (about $17 a piece). If ... |
What expenses do most people not prepare for that turn into “emergencies” but are not covered by an Emergency Fund? | Annual property tax and home insurance come to mind as things that are easily forgotten, but surely the biggest true, "I didn't see that coming," is a major car repair. There are a number of things that can go wrong with a car with little warning and end up costing a thousand dollars or more. Since most people are dep... |
Would I qualify for a USDA loan? | If you even qualify for a no-down payment USDA loan, which I'm not sure you would. It would be extremely risky to take on a $250K house loan and have near-zero equity in the house for a good while. If property values drop at all you are going to be stuck in that house which likely has a pretty high monthly payment, ins... |
When is it better to rent and when is better buy in a certain property market? | For US punters, the Centre for Economic and Policy Research has a Housing Cost Calculator you can play with. The BBC provides this one for the UK. For everyone else, there are a few rules of thumb (use with discretion and only as a ball-park guide): Your example of a Gross Rental Yield of 5% would have to be weighed u... |
How do currency markets work? What factors are behind why currencies go up or down? | According to Soros in "The Alchemy of Finance", exchange rates fluctuations are mostly influenced by: (sorry I do not have the quote here, and I am paraphrasing from the top of my head what I read about a week ago). I mention his point of view as he is one of the most successful hedge fund manager ever, proved his skil... |
What options do I have at 26 years old, with 1.2 million USD? | You should invest your money. To figure out what rate of return you need, use this equation: (How Much Money You Want Per Year) / (Total Amount of Cash You Have) = (Annualized Interest Rate) If we plug in the amount of annualized interest you can expect to safely get while not managing your money personally, 2% by my e... |
Why sometimes payable date is BEFORE the ex-dividend date? | Do you realise that the examples you have given are for stock splits not for dividends, that is why the date payable is before the ex-date for the split. The payments for the split occur on 30th June and the first day the stock trades with the new split is on the next trading day, being the ex-date, 1st July. |
Does the rise in ACA premiums affect employer-provided health insurance premiums? | Depends on the insurance company itself, as well as the costs of treatments. Imagine an ideal scenario where costs of treatments stayed the same, and that all insurance plans were segregated and pulled from the same pool of funds to pay for treatments. Then employer subsidized health insurance plans would be unaffected... |
Recent college grad. Down payment on a house or car? | Not long after college in my new job I bought a used car with payments, I have never done that since. I just don't like having a car payment. I have bought every car since then with cash. You should never borrow money to buy a car There are several things that come into play when buying a car. When you are shopping wit... |
How an ETF pays dividend to shareholders if a holding company issues dividend | Join me for a look at the Quote for SPY. A yield of 1.82%. So over a year's time, your $100K investment will give you $1820 in dividends. The Top 10 holdings show that Apple is now 3% of the S&P. With a current dividend of 2.3%. Every stock in the S&P has its own different dividend. (Although the zeros are all the sa... |
Recent college grad. Down payment on a house or car? | Don't buy the new car. Buy a $15k car with $5k down and a 3 year loan and save up the rest for your car. A $500/mo car payment is nuts unless you're making alot of money. I've been there, and it was probably the dumbest decision that I have ever made. When you buy a house, you end up with all sorts of unexpected expens... |
Does a failed chargeback affect my credit score? | If this chargeback failed then would it negatively affect my credit score? A credit score is a measure of how dependable of a borrower you are. Requesting a refund for not receiving goods not delivered as promised, whether it is successful or it fails, should not impact your credit score since it has no implications on... |
Where does the money go when I buy stocks? | The money goes to the seller. There are a lot of behind the scenes things that happen, and some transactions are very complicated with many parties involved (evidenced by all the comments on @keshlam's perfectly reasonable high-level answer), but ultimately the money goes to the seller. Sometimes the seller is the co... |
How do I know what loan terms I can qualify for? | You can find out the most money they will loan you for a car loan when you approach your current bank/credit union. They should be willing to layout options based on your income, and credit history. You then have to decide if those terms work for you. There are several dangers with getting loan estimates, they may be w... |
Why do banks require small businesses to open a business bank account instead of a cheaper personal one? | You could, but the bank won't let you... If you're a sole proprietor - then you could probably open a personal account and just use it, and never tell them that is actually a business. However, depending on your volume of operations, they may switch you on their own to business account by the pattern of your transactio... |
How long should I keep my tax documents, and why? | Unfortunately, my taxes tend to be complicated This. In and of itself, is a greater reason to keep the documents. The other answer offered a good summary, but keep in mind, if the IRS decides you fraudulently withheld claiming income, they can go back 7 years. I bought a rental property in 1987, and sold it in 2016. I... |
Why would I vote for an increase in the number of authorized shares? | I'll skip the "authorizing...." and go right to uses of new shares: Companies need stock as another liquid asset for a variety of purposes, and if not enough stock is available, then may be forced to the open market to acquire, either by exchanging cash or taking on debt to get the cash. |
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