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Is there difference in risk between physical or synthetic replication of an index by an ETF? | First, make sure you understand the objective of an ETF. In some cases, they may use leverage to get a multiple of the index's return that is different than 1. Some may be ultra funds that go for double the return or double the inverse of the return and thus will try to apply the appropriate leverage to achieve that ... |
IRA contributions in a bear (bad) market: Should I build up cash savings instead? | You should consider dollar cost averaging your investments. Retirement account is perfect for that - it's long term with periodic deposits. Overall, by investing in stocks now for a long term, you'll benefit more because the stocks are at their low(er) point. |
Anyone have experience with Brink's 5% savings account? | Down in the Fine Print are these points to consider for the limit: For an average daily balance up to but not exceeding $5,000.00, the interest rate for the Savings Account is 4.91% with an annual percentage yield (APY) of 5.00%. For that portion of the average daily balance of the Savings Account that is $5,000.01, ... |
What's the fuss about Credit Score / History? | If human beings were Homo Economicus, i.e. textbook rational and self-interested economic-minded beings, as opposed to simply human, then yes, simple advice like "just stay out of debt and your credit score will take care of itself" could work. Your simplification would be very persuasive to such a being. However, peo... |
Multiple accounts stagnant after quitting job. | What is my best bet with the 401K? I know very little about retirement plans and don't plan to ever touch this money until I retire but could this money be of better use somewhere else? If you don't know your options, I would suggest reading some material on it that might be a little more extensive than an answer h... |
What's the catch with biweekly mortgage payments? | So the principle is true. Assuming that you get paid bi-weekly, you end up getting three paychecks two months during the year. Typically that is in January and July/August. So if things were different, and your mortgage was setup so you paid half a monthly payment each paycheck, then you would wind up making one ful... |
If I short-sell a dividend-paying stock, do I have to pay the dividend? | Yes, you would. You owe it to the person you borrowed the shares from. (source) |
When will the U.K. convert to the Euro as an official currency? | I read an account of why the U.K. didn't end up with the euro as its currency in David M. Smick's great book The World Is Curved: Hidden Dangers to the Global Economy. Chapter 6 of the book is titled "Nothing Stays the Same: The 1992 Sterling Crisis." Here's a very brief excerpt; emphasis mine: [...] As this story sho... |
Putting borrowed money into an SIPP | You may have misunderstood some parts of the system. If you make a pension contribution in any given year, the tax relief is based on your income for that year - the gross pension contribution is subtracted from your gross income and you only end up paying tax based on the reduced gross income. So if the higher rate th... |
stock(paper) delivery to home | Getting "physical stocks" will in most cases only be for the "fun of it". Most stocks nowadays are registered electronically and thus the physical stock will be of no value - it will just be a certificate saying that you own X amount of shares in company X; but this information is at the same time registered electronic... |
I have a horrible 401k plan, with high expenses. Should I stay with it or move my money elsewhere? | The first question is essentially asking for specific investment advice which is off-topic per the FAQ, but I'll take a stab at #2 and #3 (2) If my 401k doesn't change before I leave my job (not planned in the near future), I should roll it over into my Roth IRA after I leave due to these high expense ratios, corre... |
Debt collector has wrong person and is contacting my employer | This seems very suspicious, as if it were fraud, and not a legitimate collector. Garnishing wages takes a court order. A court would require a bit more proof than a name. Names can easily be common, I know sets of first cousins named after the common grandparent, 4 pairs in my extended family, along with 2 triples. Th... |
How to get an ITIN if I don't have passport? | On the IRS site you can find a list of "acceptance agents" in your country. Talk to one of them, they'll deal with the IRS on your behalf. If you don't have any in your country, you can contact the big-4 accounting firms or any other agent elsewhere to provide you service. I'd suggest doing this through an agent. |
Short selling - lender's motivation | As the other answer said, the person who owns the lent stock does not benefit directly. They may benefit indirectly in that brokers can use the short lending profits to reduce their fees or in that they have the option to short other stocks at the same terms. Follow-up question: what prevents the broker lending the ... |
How to rescue my money from negative interest? | In Switzerland you should have access to many brokers with fair rates, e.g. Interactive Brokers. Going through them you then put the money in various Swiss stocks like Roche, Novartis, Swisscom, Credit Suisse, Logitech, etc. No stock should be more than 10% of the total. Since you pay 0% taxes on investment profits, yo... |
Why might it be advisable to keep student debt vs. paying it off quickly? | There are a great number of financial obligations that should be considered more urgent than student loan debt. I'll go ahead and assume that the ones that can land people in jail aren't an issue (unpaid fines, back taxes, etc.). I cannot stress this enough, so I'll say it again: setting money aside for emergencies is... |
Is there an advantage to a traditional but non-deductable IRA over a taxable account? [duplicate] | The simplest answer is that you can convert the IRA to a Roth, and since it was already taxed, pay no tax on conversion. If, in your hypothetical situation, you happen to have an IRA already in place, you are subject to pro-rata rules on conversions, e.g. your balance is total $40K, $10K 'not deducted', a conversion i... |
How to allocate profit and loss in partnership where one partner's activities are profitable and the other's aren't? | You should have a partnership agreement of some sort. The reason partnership agreements exist is so nobody can change the game because of the outcome. I'd say the most typical partnership agreement is that everyone gets an equal cut, meaning that everyone also makes an equal contribution. If you have start up expen... |
Implications of a Canadian company IPO having a dual TSX/NYSE stock listing? | Investors who are themselves Canadian and already hold Canadian dollars (CAD) would be more likely to purchase the TSX-listed shares that are quoted in CAD, thus avoiding the currency exchange fees that would be required to buy USD-quoted shares listed on the NYSE. Assuming Shopify is only offering a single class of sh... |
What is the basis of an asset that is never depreciated? | That's tricky, actually. First, as the section 1015 that you've referred to in your other question says - you take the lowest of the fair market value or the actual donor basis. Why is it important? Consider these examples: So, if the relative bought you a brand new car and you're the first title holder (i.e.: the rela... |
What kinds of exchange-traded funds (ETFs) should specifically be avoided? | Stay away from leveraged or synthetic ETFs. This answer talks about why leveraged ETFs are dangerous. There are numerous articles to be found by searching for "leveraged etf". My answer to this question links to one of the more accessible explanations I've read. |
Can GoogleFinance access total return data? | This is the same answer as for your other question, but you can easily do this yourself: ( initial adjusted close / final adjusted close ) ^ ( 1 / ( # of years sampled) ) Note: "# of years sampled" can be a fraction, so the one week # of years sampled would be 1/52. Crazy to say, but yahoo finance is better at quick, e... |
Would I ever need credit card if my debit card is issued by MasterCard/Visa? | I was hoping to comment on the original question, but it looks to me like the asker lives in the EU, where credit cards are a lot less common and a lot of the arguments (car rental, building up of credit etc) brought forward by people living in the US just don't apply. In fact especially airlines (and other merchants)... |
Why invest for the long-term rather than buy and sell for quick, big gains? | Every time you buy or sell a share for some price, somebody must have thought that that was exactly the right moment to sell or buy that share at that price (and to trade with you). Every time a trade is made, both sides think they are doing the smart thing. Most of the time, one will turn out to be wrong, the other ri... |
How much do large sell orders affect stock price? | The volume required to significantly move the price of a security depends completely on the orderbook for that particular security. There are a variety of different reasons and time periods that a security can be halted, this will depend a bit on which exchange you're dealing with. This link might help with the halt as... |
How much percent of my salary should I use to invest in company stock? | I would not hold any company stock for the company that provides your income. This is a too many eggs in one basket kind of problem. With a discounted stock purchase plan, I would buy the shares at a 10% discount and immediately resell for a profit. If the company prevents you from immediately reselling, I don't k... |
What can I do when the trading price of a stock or ETF I want to buy is too high? | If you find a particular stock to be overvalued at $200 for example and a reasonable value at $175, you can place a limit order at the price you want to pay. If/when the stock price falls to your desired purchase price, the transaction takes place. Your broker can explain how long a limit order can stay open. This meth... |
How much should a new graduate with new job put towards a car? | most of the people who lurk in money.se will probably tell you to spend as little as possible on a car, but that is a really personal decision. since you live with your parents, you can probably afford to waste a lot of money on a car. on the other hand, you already have a large income so you don't really have the norm... |
How much should a new graduate with new job put towards a car? | I think the answer to how much you "should" spend depends on a few more questions: Once you answer these questions I think you'll have a better idea of what you should spend. If you have no financial goals then what kind of car you buy doesn't really matter. But if your goals are to build and accumulate wealth both in ... |
I'm thinking of getting a new car … why shouldn't I LEASE one? | You SHOULDN'T lease one if you are going to get an economy car, if you don't drive too much (<15K / year), and you want to hang on to the car for a long time. Otherwise, if you are a regular driver, driving a leased new quality car can be cost effective. Many cars now have bumper-to-bumper warranties that last as long... |
Prices go up and salary doesn't: where goes delta? | I expected a word or two on the price elasticity of demand here :) Andrey, Your question needs slight revision in its current form. Rising prices actually do not mean increased profitability for a company. The quantity they sell also pays a huge part and actually is correlated to the price at which they sell the goods ... |
Does my net paycheck decrease as the year goes on due to tax brackets filling up? | No, you will (generally speaking) not see a decrease in your net earnings from crossing a tax bracket: This means that your highest marginal rate (the top bracket you fall into) only applies to the portion of your income that is in that bracket, not your total income. This helps ensure that your total tax burden does n... |
Can I open a personal bank account with an EIN instead of SSN? | According to IRS Publication 1635, Understanding your EIN (PDF), under "What is an EIN?" on page 2: Caution: An EIN is for use in connection with your business activities only. Do not use your EIN in place of your social security number (SSN). As you say your EIN is for your business as a sole proprietor, I would also ... |
Will prices really be different for cash and cards? | My guess would be for small merchants there could be a small difference. For large merchants, the cash is also at a cost equivalent to the card fees. Check for my other answer at How do credit card companies make profit? |
Investing small amounts at regular intervals while minimizing fees? | Keep it simple: mutual funds (preferably index, low fee or ETF linked funds) do make a nice start for your little princess college fund. You dont need a real fortune to offset the trading cost of an online broker but if your really going to take advantage of dollar cost averaging, you might want to invest into a trust... |
Calculate investment's interest rate to break-even insurance cost [duplicate] | I wouldn't call it apples and oranges. This is literally an opportunity cost calculation. You can safely assume S&P500 will perform at least 11% over any 10 year period. Since failing companies are delisted and replaced with new growing companies, the market should continue to grow. No, it's not guaranteed. Lets u... |
Pay off car or use money for down payment | To focus on your question.. pay it off then trade in. The reason is because say you just have 14k laying around and buy a car for 14k, you must pay 14k plus tax. If you are in one of the states that allows the tax break, then trading the 14k valued vehicle in for a 14k vehicle will nullify your sales tax. As per your q... |
Is it ever logical to not deposit to a matched 401(k) account? | The other answers assumed student loan debt -- and for that, it's rarely worth it (unless your company only offers managed plans w/ really bad returns, or the economy recovers to the point where banks are paying 5% again on money market accounts) ... but if it's high rate debt, such as carrying a credit card debt, and ... |
Do Americans really use checks that often? | Ever since my apartment complex started accepting rent payments online, I've almost never written a check. I use my debit card for everything. And I get paid by direct deposit. |
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... |
Are there any disadvantages to DHA Investment Properties? | Well, I am an investor/ Lessor under DHA properties. Oflate, DHA lost it identity as a Govt agency and try to imitate a worst (not the best) real eastate agent. Every year rental valuation is a drama or waste of time and money to lessor. They pull down the rent by 10 to 22% and ask for a secondary valuation for no reas... |
Estimated Taxes after surge in income | Well a definitive answer would require a lot of information. Instead of posting that kind of info online, you should take a look at the instructions for Form 2210 and in particular "Schedule AI -- Annualized Income Installment Method," which corrects the penalty for highly variable income. Using this form you will l... |
Please explain: What exactly is a CDS or “Credit Default Swap”? | From my understanding, a CDS is a financial product to buy protection against an event of "default" (default of payment). Example: if General Motors owes me money $10,000,000 (because I own GM bonds for example) and I wish to protect myself against the event of GM not repaying the money they owe me (event called "credi... |
How does the price of oil influence the value of currency? | Because we need energy in the form of oil. If more of our money is spent on oil, there is less money to spend on other items especially luxuries like dining out and new cars (ironically) Since there is less money available, the price of other things shift with it and the whole economy moves. Since less money is avail... |
Should the poor consider investing as a means to becoming rich? | Definitions are in order: These definitions are important. Someone making 1,000,000 a year who spends all of it is poor. Someone who makes 500K, spends 450K a year and has three million in stocks and a paid-for million dollar home may be rich but they can't retire. They need another seven to eight million to retire. So... |
Should I Pay Off my Student Loan Debts First or Invest in an Index Fund? | Pay off the debt first. Life circumstances change without notice, and starting any stage of life with a debt puts you at a disadvantage. Luckily, your debt is small. Please also consider accumulating a 6 month emergency fund before making investments. This will further protect you when life hands you a curveball. |
Single investment across multiple accounts… good, bad, indifferent? | The other issue you could run into is that each deferred account is going to be subject to its own RMD's (Required Minimum Distributions) when you've retired or hit 70.5 years of age. Roth's don't generally care about RMD's at first, but are still subject to them once the person that created the Roth has passed. Havi... |
How could I find someone to find a room for me to live in? (For a fee, of course.) | There are services, usually associated with real estate agents, that provide apartment search services for relocating professionals. I was very underimpressed when I was offered the use of such a service and did better on my own, but I did have the company paying for a hotel room while I searched so I had time to inves... |
Finding stocks following performance of certain investor, like BRK.B for Warren Buffet | Since the vast majority of fund managers/big investors run private entities, it's not possible to track their performance. It's possible to look at what they are holding (that's never real-time information) and emulate their performance. |
What investments are positively related to the housing market decline? | During the actual decline, there's very little money to be made and a lot to lose. When housing prices tank, everybody loses; the banks are exposed to higher risk of mortgage defaults, insurers start having to pay out more for "gas leaks" claiming over-leveraged homes, realtors starve because their commissions go do... |
For what dates are the NYSE and U.S. stock exchanges typically closed? | Stumbled upon this question, I've found the updated dates for 2016 and 2017 in a more permanent location. https://www.nyse.com/markets/hours-calendars |
Why would I buy a bond with a negative yield? | Perhaps something else comes with the bond so it is a convertible security. Buffett's Negative-Interest Issues Sell Well from 2002 would be an example from more than a decade ago: Warren E. Buffett's new negative-interest bonds sold rapidly yesterday, even after the size of the offering was increased to $400 millio... |
New business owner - How do taxes work for the business vs individual? | Through your question and then clarification through the comments, it looks like you have a U.S. LLC with at least two members. If you did not elect some other tax treatment, your LLC will be treated as a partnership by the IRS. The partnership should file a tax return on Form 1065. Then each partner will get a Sche... |
How do I calculate two standard deviations away from the stock price? | The formula for standard deviation is fairly simple in both the discrete and continuous cases. It's mostly safe to use the discrete case when working with adjusted closing prices. Once you've calculated the standard deviation for a given time period, the next task (in the simplest case) is to calculate the mean of that... |
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 purchase a whole life insurance policy? (I am close to retirement) | First of all, congratulations on being in an incredible financial position. you have done well. So let's look at the investment side first. If you put 400,000 in a decent index fund at an average 8% growth, and add 75,000 every year, in 10 years you'll have about $1.95 Million, $800k of which is capital gain (more o... |
Which types of insurances do I need to buy? | Can you afford to replace your home if it suffers major damage in a fire or earthquake? Is your home at risk of flooding? In the United States, one can purchase insurance for each of these risks, but the customer has to ask about each of them. (Most default American homeowners policies cover fire and wind damage, bu... |
How does the importance of a cash emergency fund change when you live in a country with nationalized healthcare? | The issue is how likely you will have zero income for six months, and what are your monthly expenses. If you know the maximum medical bill you face that may allow you to save a smaller amount. But you still have to protect for that loss of income. The interuption could be because of job loss, medical emergency, or othe... |
Are variable rate loans ever a good idea? | The simple answer is absolutely. With the parameters you quote, if you will pay off the loan in 82 months or less, you will be ahead taking the variable rate. You have put your finger on the important question as well. The higher initial interest is buying insurance against rates rising if you don't pay off the loan w... |
Paid cash for a car, but dealer wants to change price | I've been an F&I Manager at a new car dealership for over ten years, and I can tell you this with absolute certainty, your deal is final. There is no legal obligation for you whatsoever. I see this post is a few weeks old so I am sure by now you already know this to be true, but for future reference in case someone in ... |
When should I walk away from my mortgage? | To put a different spin on it, suppose you loaned someone $100K, expecting that they would pay it back, and then a little later they decided not too. They are perfectly capable of paying back the money, but just decided they didn't want to, and it seems the laws of your state said you couldn't make them. How would you ... |
Why do employer contributions count against HSA limits? | It's going to be quite a challenge to give a definitive answer to any "Why" question about law, and especially so for a question about tax law. One would need to try to dig up statements made by the legislators (and/or their aides) crafting and debating the law. As it is, tax law is already inconsistent in many ways. (... |
Is there a list of OTC stocks being added to the major exchanges? | Reuters has a service you can subscribe to that will give you lots of Financial information that is not readily available in common feeds. One of the things you can find is the listing/delist dates of stocks. There are tools to build custom reports. That would be a report you could write. You can probably get the d... |
What are the downsides that prevent more people from working in high-income countries, and then retiring in low-income (and cost of living) ones? | I know folks who considered retiring to another country. Their conclusion was that while base cost of living was lower, the cost of the things that they enjoy doing -- not to mention the cost of spending time with friends they didn't want to give up -- would be sufficiently higher to erase most of the advantages. Those... |
What emergencies could justify a highly liquid emergency fund? | If you engage in any kind of dangerous activity, the training courses will often state that an accident is not the result of a simple error. Examples of this include SCUBA and motorcycle training. Properly maintained equipment and training will mitigate many emergencies. Recently my dive buddy was 60' down, and ran ... |
Option on an option possible? (Have a LEAP, put to me?) | I can sell a PUT on it a bit out of the money, and I seemingly "win" either way: i.e. make money on selling the PUT, and either I get to pick up the stock cheaper if XYZ goes down, or the PUT expires worthless. In 2008, I see a bank stock (pick one) trading at $100. I buy that put from you, a $90 strike, and pay you $5... |
What is a good rental yield? | The rule of thumb I have always heard and what we rent our rental house at is 1% per month at the minimum (in the US). The rent has to cover the mortgage, the property taxes, the homeowners insurance, your income taxes (on the rent), the maintenance of the property and the times when the property is vacant. Even at 1% ... |
Is it ever logical to not deposit to a matched 401(k) account? | The original question was aimed at early payment on a student loan at 6%. Let's look at some numbers. Note, the actual numbers were much lower, I've increased the debt to a level that's more typical, as well as more likely to keep the borrower worried, and "up at night." On a $50K loan, we see 2 potential payoffs. A ... |
Options revisited: Gold fever | Your plan already answers your own question in the best possible way: If you want to be able to make the most possible profit from a large downward move in a stock (in this case, a stock that tracks gold), with a limited, defined risk if there is an upward move, the optimal strategy is to buy a put option. There are a... |
Companies that use their cash to buy back stock, issue dividends, etc. — how does this this typically affect share price? | IBM is famous for spending lots of money on stock buyback to keep the stock price higher. The technique works, and investors in growth stocks generally prefer a high market prices to a taxable dividend payment. Dividends are ways to return shareholder value when a company generates a lot of cash, but doesn't have alot ... |
How do cashier's checks work and why are they good for scams? | There are two different issues at play here, and they are completely separate from each other: A bank or cashier's check is "safer" than a regular personal or business check because it avoids problem #1. Problem #2 exists with all kinds of paper checks. I assume the reason the warnings are about cashier's check moreso ... |
Can you use external money to pay trading commissions in tax-free and tax-deferred accounts? | According to Publication 590, broker's commissions for stock transactions within an IRA cannot be paid in addition to the IRA contribution(s), but they are deductible as part of the contribution, or add to the basis if you are making a nondeductible contribution to a Traditional IRA. (Top of Page 10, and Page 12, colum... |
What is a better way for an American resident in a foreign country to file tax? | If you live outside the US, then you probably need to deal with foreign tax credits, foreign income exclusions, FBAR forms (you probably have bank account balances enough for the 10K threshold) , various monsters the Congress enacted against you like form 8939 (if you have enough banking and investment accounts), form ... |
Pay Yourself With Credit Card Make Money With Cash Back [duplicate] | This is basically a form of credit card kiting, it's not necessarily illegal but it can be. It is, however, against the TOS in pretty much every merchant agreement (including Paypal and Square), so you'd most likely have your account suspended, and the merchant could pursue legal action if they felt they could prove in... |
What should we consider when withdrawing a large amount of money from a bank account? | You state "Any info will be appreciated", so here's some background information on my answer (you can skip to my answer): When I worked for banks, I was required to submit suspicious activity to the people above me by filling out a form with a customer's name, SSN, account number(s) and ID. You may hear in media that ... |
What to do with your savings in Japan | Been here in Japan 12 years mate, and you're right, the investment options here suck. Be very wary of them, they will take all your money in outrageous fees--3% in and 3% out of some "investment" options. It's a scam. Send the money back home and manage it there. I recommend setting up a Vanguard account back in the UK... |
If I go to a seminar held overseas, may I claim my flights on my tax return? | I think you can. I went to Mexico for business and the company paid for it, so if you are self employed you should be able to expense it. |
Is it OK to use a credit card on zero-interest to pay some other credit cards with higher-interest? | I am sure everyone is different, but it has helped me a great deal. I have had several card balances go up and the interest on those per month was more than $200 in just interest combined. I transferred the balances over to 0% for 15 months – with a fee, so the upfront cost was about $300. However, over the next 15 mo... |
If a stock doesn't pay dividends, then why is the stock worth anything? | Not sure how this has got this far with no obvious discussion about the huge tax advantages of share buy backs vs dividend paying. Companies face a very simple choice with excess capital - pay to shareholders in the form of a taxable dividend, invest in future growth where they expect to make more than $1 for every $1... |
Tracking down forgotten brokerage account | A company as large as Home Depot will have a fairly robust Human Resources department and would probably be able to steer you in the right direction: odds are they know the name of the brokerage and other particulars. I did some googling around, their # is (1-866-698-4347). Different states have different rules about ... |
Is expense to freelancers tax deductible? | Yes, but make sure you issue a 1099 to these freelancers by 1/31/2016 or you may forfeit your ability to claim the expenses. You will probably need to collect a W-9 from each freelancer but also check with oDesk as they may have the necessary paperwork already in place for this exact reason. Most importantly, consult ... |
Why would you not want to rollover a previous employer's 401(k) when changing jobs? | Another minor reason not to rollover would be to avoid the pro-rata taxes when doing a backdoor Roth IRA contribution. |
What's the point of Ford loosening financing requirements? | The article states their reasons pretty clearly, and indicates that some people won't qualify under the new requirements that would have previously, they're not courting people with bad credit, they're just looking beyond credit score at other factors. They aren't opening floodgates for anyone with a pulse to get a car... |
What is inflation? | Money itself has no value. A gold bar is worth (fuzzy rushed math, could be totally wrong on this example figure) $423,768.67. So, a 1000 dollars, while worthless paper, are a token saying that you own %.2 of a gold bar in the federal reserve. If a billion dollars are printed, but no new gold is added to the treasury, ... |
Selling put and call Loss Scenario Examples | The question you are asking concerns the exercise of a short option position. The other replies do not appear to address this situation. Suppose that Apple is trading at $96 and you sell a put option with a strike price of $95 for some future delivery date - say August 2016. The option contract is for 100 shares and ... |
Could someone place an independent film on the stock market? | Stock is a part ownership of a business. First there has to be a business that people want to own part of because they expect to make a profit from that ownership. Nobody is going to be interested if the business isn't worth anything. In other words: sure, you could try to start a movie production house to make this ... |
$700 guaranteed to not be touched for 15 years+, should I put it anywhere other than a savings account? | (Since you used the dollar sign without any qualification, I assume you're in the United States and talking about US dollars.) You have a few options here. I won't make a specific recommendation, but will present some options and hopefully useful information. Here's the short story: To buy individual stocks, you need t... |
Can you recommend some good websites/brokers for buying/selling stocks in India? | API wise there's just one at the retail level: Interactive Brokers (India). Brokerage is high though - 3.5 bps for F&O and 5 bps for cash. I've used Sharekhan (good, can get to 2 bps brokerage, trading client software, no API). Also used multiple other brokerages, and am advising a new one, Zerodha http://www.zerodha.... |
Pay off car loan entirely or leave $1 until the end of the loan period? | I used to work for Ally Auto (formerly known as GMAC) and I'd advise not to pay off the account unless you need to free up some debt in your credit report since until the account is paid off it will show that you owe your financial institution the original loan amount. The reason why I am saying not to pay-off the acco... |
What happens if the term insurance company closes? | This depends on the jurisdiction, but such companies are typically subject to regulations (and audits) that require them to keep the customers' accumulated premiums very strictly separated from the company's own assets, liabilities and expenses. Additionally, they are typically only allowed to invest the capital in ver... |
Is there an online cost-basis calculator that automatically accounts for dividend re-investments and splits? | Calculating and adjusting cost basis accurately is a daunting task, but there is a (paid) online tool, NetBasis, which will automatically calculate and adjust your cost basis. It is used by brokerage firms and Fortune 500 companies and is available to the public. Go to netbasis.com. All you need are the purchase and ... |
What is a good size distribution for buying gold? | You are really tangling up two questions here: Q1: Given I fear a dissolution of the Euro, is buying physical gold a good response and if so, how much should I buy? I see you separately asked about real estate, and cash, and perhaps other things. Perhaps it would be better to just say: what is the right asset allocati... |
What is the meaning of “writing put options”? | Write means sell to open. It is called that because options writers are creating (i.e. writing) new contracts. No such thing as "reading" an option. |
Purchasing options between the bid and ask prices, or even at the bid price or below? | Yes, almost always. I trade some of the most illiquid single stock options, and I would be absolutely murdered if I didn't try to work orders between the bid/ask. When I say illiquid, I mean almost non-existent: ~50 monthly contracts on ALL contracts for a given underlying. Spreads of 30% or more. The only time you s... |
What are the alternatives to compound interest for a Muslim? | In the UK at least, we have Credit Unions. Credit Unions are not-for-profit organisations that don't pay interest on your balance, but instead give you a share of their profits at the end of the year (or at least my local branch do). This normally equates to around 1% of my balance. |
Accounting for reimbursements that exceed actual expenses | I've been in a very similar situation to yours in the past. Since the company is reimbursing you at a flat rate (I assume you don't need to provide documentation/receipts in order to be paid the per diem), it's not directly connected to the $90 in expenses that you mention. Unless they were taking taxes out that woul... |
What assets would be valuable in a post-apocalyptic scenario? | Guns. Without them, any other conceivable asset would be taken from you. By someone with guns. |
Paid cash for a car, but dealer wants to change price | Don't take the car back! The dealership wants you to take it back to try and earn more money. Simply stated, the dealerships hate paid up front cash deals. They make money on the financing. So to call back and try to up their fee is them realizing their not making a large enough profit. Say thank you and move on. The d... |
Do market shares exhaust? | Everyone has a price. If nobody is selling shares, then increase the price you will buy them for. And then wait. Somebody will have some hospital bills to pay for eventually. I buy illiquid investments all the time, and thats typically what happens. Great companies do not have liquidity problems. |
Pensions, annuities, and “retirement” | With an annuity, you invest directly into an annuity with money you have earned as wages/salary/etc. You pay for it, and trade your payments into the annuity for guaranteed payments from the annuity issuer in the future. The more you pay in before the annuity payments begin, the more you will receive for your annuity p... |
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