Question stringlengths 14 166 | Answer stringlengths 3 17k |
|---|---|
What is a 401(k) Loan Provision? | As Mhoran answered, typical match, but some have no match at all, so not bad. The loan provision means you can borrow up to $50k or 50% of your balance, whichever is less. 5 year payback for any loan, but a 10 year payback for a home purchase. I am on the side of "don't do it" but finance is personal, and in some sit... |
Do I still need to pay capital gains taxes when I profit from a stock in a foreign currency? | Yes, you still need to pay income tax on your capital gain regardless of whether you converted your USD proceeds back into CAD. When you calculate your gains for tax purposes, you'll need to convert all of your gains to Canadian dollars. Generally speaking, CRA will expect you to use a historical USD to CAD exchange ra... |
What are some good, easy to use personal finance software? [UK] | +1 for YNAB. I used to use MS Money until it was decommissioned. I used that to historically record my spending and investing, and plot my net worth. Whilst YNAB will do that, it is actually geared towards forward planning much more so. In this area, it is fantastic. I like that there are mobile apps for it too. |
How can I decide whether do a masters even if I have go into debt after doing it? | What should I do? Weigh your options and decide which education investment lines up better with your goals. Some of the costs from pursuing a degree at the more reputable university may include: However there are probably some benefits to pursuing a degree at this university: You will know best which of these apply to ... |
Should I pay my Education Loan or Put it in the Stock Market? | I read your question that you have a comfortable amount toward retirement. If not, pad your retirement accounts if possible. If your loan rate is locked at 2.67%, invest that money in the market and pay the loan as agreed. So long as you feel comfortable in your employment and income status for the next few years, I ... |
What's the difference between Market Cap and NAV? | At any given moment, one can tally the numbers used for NAV. It's math, and little more. The Market Cap, which as you understand is a result of share value. Share value (stock price) is what the market will pay today for the shares. It's not only based on NAV today, but on future expectations. And expectations aren't t... |
Why invest for the long-term rather than buy and sell for quick, big gains? | A lot of people have already explained that your assumptions are the issue, but I'll throw in my 2¢. There are a lot of people who do the opposite of long term investing. It's called high frequency trading. I'd recommend reading the Wikipedia article for more info, but very basically, high frequency traders use progr... |
Personal credit card for business expenses | You should be careful about mingling your personal money and that of the business, even if it is a sole prop right now. It is a good habit to keep separate business and personal bank/credit accounts just so that when you change to an LLC, it is simpler for you to separate what belongs to the company and what is yours ... |
Getting financial advice: Accountant vs. Investment Adviser vs. Internet/self-taught? | Do I need an Investment Adviser? No, but you may want to explore the idea of having one. Is he going to tell me anything that my accountant can't? Probably. How much expertise are you expecting from your accountant here? Do you think your accountant knows everything within the realms of money from taxes, insurance pr... |
On paper I have 1 share in my company. How can I sell a smaller percentage of my company to another party? | There are 2 basic ways to have someone buy partial ownership of your company: OR If they buy shares that you already own, then their shares will have the same rights as yours (same voting rights, same dividend rights, etc.). If they buy shares newly created from the company, they could be either identical shares to wha... |
What U.S. banks offer two-factor authentication (such as password & token) for online banking? | USAA does - that's my bank. Wells Fargo tries to determine whether the online activity is a risk; if it is, they'll require an SMS code or phoned code be entered. You can get a fairly definitive list of online companies at twofactorauth.org. |
Is the “Bank on Yourself” a legitimate investment strategy, or a scam? | Technically, this doesn't seem like a scam, but I don't think the system is beneficial. They use a lot of half-truths to convince you that their product is right for you. Some of the arguments presented and my thoughts. Don't buy term and invest the rest because you can't predict how much you'll earn from the "rest" ... |
Is there any way to buy a new car directly from Toyota without going through a dealership? | No you can't buy direct from Toyota. Largely because of many states' laws (assuming you're in the US) requiring a dealer relationship for car purchasing, read about Tesla's struggles with direct to customer sales. Secondly because Toyota corporate simply isn't set up to sell a car directly to a customer. I know there... |
What are the tax liabilities or impact for selling gold? | Gold is classified as a collectible so the gain rates are as follows: So you'd report a gain of $100 or $1,000 , depending on which coin you sold. |
Will I, as a CS student, be allowed to take loans for paying the fees of Ivy Leagues? | This article gives the very good advice to simply contact one of the schools in question and ask how to apply for financial aid as an international applicant. Most Ivy League schools admit so many international students that they will have answers to any financial question you can imagine. They may even already expla... |
Why can it be a bad idea to buy stocks after hours? | Unless you want to be a short term day trader, then it is not foolish to be an end of day trader. If you are looking to be a medium to long term trader/investor then it is quite acceptable to put orders in after market close. Some would say it is even less risky, because you are not watching the price fluctuate up and ... |
What should I do with the change in my change-jar? | Are you in an occupation that regularly collects change or is this change left in your pocket at the end of the day? Here in the US it is typically worth it to invest in some automatic coin counters if you are in an occupation that regularly collects coins. In your case you can collect the little baggies from the bank... |
Why are credit cards preferred in the US? | nan |
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... |
Creating S-Corp: Should I Name My Wife as a Director/Shareholder? | If you're creating an S-Corp for consulting services that you personally are going to provide, what would it give her to have 50% of the corporation when you're dead? Not to mention that you can just add it to your will that the corporation stock will go to her, and it will be much better (IMHO, talk to a professional)... |
Are forward curves useful tools for trading decisions and which informations can be gathered from them? | The forward curve for gold says little, in my opinion, about the expected price of gold. The Jan 16 price is 7.9% (or so) higher than the Jan 12 price. This reflects the current cost of money, today's low interest rates. When the short rates were 5%, the price 4 years out would be about 20% higher. No magic there. (The... |
Are buying and selling futures based on objective data? | If you hold a future plus enough cash collateral it is economically equivalent to owning the underlying asset or shorting the underlying asset. In general financial assets such as stock indices have a positive expected return - that's the main difference between investing and gambling. There's nothing that special abou... |
What's the catch with biweekly mortgage payments? | Another thing to consider is that paying extra principal (either via one of these services, or by including something extra with your normal mortgage payment and designating that it go to principal rather than be held to reduce next month's payment, or just sending an additional payment to the bank and designating it a... |
Which dividend bearing stock should be chosen by price? | In the scenario you describe, the first thing I would look at would be liquidity. In other words, how easy is it to buy and sell shares. If the average daily volume of one share is low compared to the average daily volume of the other, then the more actively traded share would be the more attractive. Low volume shar... |
How does compounding of annual interest work? | The general concept is that your money will grow at an accelerating rate because you start getting interest paid on your returns in addition to the original investment. As a simple example, assume you invest $100 and get 10% interest per year paid annually. -At the end of the first year you have your $100 + $10 inte... |
Pay via Debit Card or Bank's portal | There are reward points that you have already mentioned. Some banks also give reward points for netbanking transfer, although very few and less than debit card. On a fraudulent site, debit card adds a layer, if compromised, easy to change. i.e just hot list the card, get a new card issued. Netbanking quite a few banks ... |
Saving up for an expensive car | The question is how does $16,000/year for 6.5 years fit into your budget. Or to put it another way, what won't you be spending that money on? Housing, food, vacations, retirement fund, investments (though you can invest your car fund in the meantime), building a hefty emergency fund, kids college funds, saving for a do... |
Buying a home without a Real Estate Agent - Who should I get to do the paperwork? | For a real estate transaction there are multiple stages: From the sellers viewpoint: From the buyers viewpoint: If both parties are comfortable skipping some of the steps the role of the agent can be minimized. How will a fair price be determined? Some realism might be needed, to make sure that the loan appraisal will ... |
Should you co-sign a personal loan for a friend/family member? Why/why not? | Never co-sign a loan for someone, especially family Taking out a loan for yourself is bad enough, but co-signing a loan is just plain stupid. Think about it, if the bank is asking for a co-signer its because they are not very confident that the applicant is going to be paying back the loan. So why would you then step ... |
What could be the best tax saving option before a month of financial year end | I was thinking to do mix of ELSS and Tax Saving FDs. But is my choice correct? Also what other options I am left with? This depends on individual's choice and risk appetite. Generally at younger age, investment in ELSS / PPF is advisable. Other options are Life Insurance, Retirement Plans by Mutual Funds, NSC, etc |
How often do typical investors really lose money? | I'll just add this: In the best hedge funds and proprietary trading funds, stock selection is approached very scientifically in order to minimize losses/maximize gains. Researchers think of a trading idea and carefully test it to see which methods of stock selection work and how well, and finally they combine them. Eve... |
Using credit cards online: is it safe? | So, my questions: Are payment cards provide sufficient security now? Yes. If so, how is that achieved? Depending on your country's laws, of course. In most places (The US and EU, notably), there's a statutory limit on liability for fraudulent charges. For transactions when the card is not present, proving that the char... |
Is it normal that US Treasury bills(0.07%) yield smaller than interest rate(0.25%)? | I have been charting the CPI reported inflation rate vs . the yeald on the 10-year T-note. Usually, the two like to keep pace with each other. Sometimes the T-note is a bit higher than the inflation rate, sometimes the inflation rate is a bit higher than the T-note yeald. One does not appear to follow the other, but (u... |
Should you always max out contributions to your 401k? | As long as you're in a lower tax bracket - you would probably be better off paying the taxes now, and investing into the Roth IRA/401K. However, you should be investing for your retirement now, and not later, because of the compounding effect, and also you'll gain the employer matching (if available). |
Are buying and selling futures based on objective data? | If you're simply a futures speculator, then yes, it does seem like gambling. If you're a farmer producing a few thousand bushels of wheat, futures can be a mechanism for you to hedge against certain kinds of market risk. Same if you're running a heating oil company, etc. I just read somewhere that the bad spring weathe... |
Is selling put options an advisable strategy for a retiree to generate stable income? | Selling options is a great idea, but tweak it a bit and sell credit spreads on both sides of the market, i.e. sell OTM bear call spreads and OTM bull put spreads. This is also known as an iron condor, and limits risk, and allows for much more flexibility. |
How to pay taxes on YouTube if I'm a dependent? | The Form 1040 (U.S. tax return form) Instructions has a section called "Do You Have To File?". Below a certain income, you are not required to file a tax return and pay any tax. This amount of income at which you are required to file depends on several things, including your dependency status (you are a dependent of ... |
Is the Yale/Swenson Asset Allocation Too Conservative for a 20 Something? | You can look the Vanguard funds up on their website and view a risk factor provided by Vanguard on a scale of 1 to 5. Short term bond funds tend to get their lowest risk factor, long term bond funds and blended investments go up to about 3, some stock mutual funds are 4 and some are 5. Note that in 2008 Swenson himsel... |
Debit card funds on preauthorization hold to paypal: can it be used for another transaction? | Imagine the following scenario: You have a credit limit of $1000 and you want to by a tablet from a store. It costs $600. You then walk next door and buy a TV for $600. You would expect that you would go over your limit and the second transaction will be rejected. As long as that hold is in place, you don't have access... |
Why buy insurance? | There are many situations where injecting a certain amount of cash at the right time may reap rewards far in excess of the value of the cash injected. For example, if someone who needs a car to get to work gets in a wreck and that person does not have ready money to make it driveable may have no choice but to secure ve... |
Should I invest or repay my debts? | You didn't mention how much is the interest rate of your debts. It is a very simple rule. If you think you can make more money by investing (the best way you can) in spite of having debts then go ahead and invest. Else, if you donno what you're doing and can't make sure you earn more than what you're paying off for i... |
Does money made by a company on selling its shares show up in Balance sheet | Share sales & purchases are accounted only on the balance sheet & cash flow statement although their effects are seen on the income statement. Remember, the balance sheet is like a snapshot in time of all accrued accounts; it's like looking at a glass of water and noting the level. The cash flow and income statements ... |
In the UK, could low-income pensioners (or those near a low-income retirement) find a student loan useful for boosting their finances? | As noted in richardb's comment buried in the comments/debate on the other answer (and all credit for this answer should be due to him): a significant issue with the scheme as originally envisaged in the question (up to £11K pa) is that there is actually a cap on the maintenance part for over 60s: On page 28 of this "St... |
Are you preparing for a possible dollar (USD) collapse? (How?) | I've thought of the following ways to hedge against a collapsing dollar: |
Why is the dominant investing advice for individuals to use mutual funds, exchanged traded funds (ETFs), etc | No. You're lucky, maybe, but not really a successful investor. Warren Buffet is, you're not him. Sometimes it is easier to pick stocks to bid on, sometimes its harder. I got my successes too. It is easier on a raising market, especially when it is recovering after a deep fall, like now. But generally it is very hard to... |
Why might it be advisable to keep student debt vs. paying it off quickly? | I see two advantages to not paying student loan debt off more quickly: For #1, however, there are plenty of other ways to build credit and I don't see this as being worth the downsides of not paying off the debt more quickly. In fact, in the United States student loan debt cannot be written off if you go bankrupt. This... |
Short Selling Specific to India | In India the only way to short a stock is using F&O which I personally find to be sufficient for any shorting needs. However, Futures can be generally sold for upto 3 months but options have more choices which are even upto 5 years you can buy a put of a longer duration and when you want to do buy-back, you can directl... |
What typically happens to unvested stock during an acquisition? | I've been through two instances where I worked for a public company that was merged (for stock) into another company. In both cases the options I had were replaced with equivalent options in the merged company with the number of shares and strike price adjusted at the same rate as the actual stock was converted, and t... |
Is losing money in my 401K normal? | Bottom line is our system is broken. For three years running I am 0% return with over 600k in. Yet, the 401k admin institution charges us all enormous fees that most aren't even aware exist. A helpful tip is to also check out your expense ratios and learn how those work as well so you know how much you are paying in... |
Consequences of buying/selling a large number of shares for a low volume stock? | First, If you buy $10K of a penny stock and try to sell it that afternoon, you probably won't get your money back. The bid/ask spread may cost you dearly. On the shady side, if you are able to afford to trade enough shares to attract attention, the interest of those who believe the volume is an indication of some real... |
Is it possible to quantify the probability of sudden big movements for a high-volume stock? | In general, when companies are regarded as "hot" growth stocks, they are expected to keep up an accelerated level of growth for a good long time. That accelerated growth justifies a high PE relative to a slow-growth stock. When companies that are supposed to grow miss expectations or (worse) lose money, the markets pun... |
Leasing a car I intend to buy | I have a colleague who always leases cars first. He's very well off, has piles of money in savings, owns a home, and the cherry on top, he could just write a check for the car.... He sees the lease as an insurance policy on the first couple of years of the car's life. If it gets in an accident or he finds something... |
Get a loan with low interest rate on small business | I am going to assume your location is the US. From what I am seeing it is unlikely you will get a loan other than some government backed thing. You are a poor risk. At 7k/month, you have above average household income. The fact that all of your income "is being washed off somewhere" is a behavior problem, not a mathe... |
I'm thinking of getting a new car … why shouldn't I LEASE one? | It's a very simple equation. If we forget about the stress and limitations that come with the so-called "lease", and make the following assumptions: Then after 3 years of using this new car: I will never understand why people still "lease" a car. Even for very low income people who have to have a car, financing a per-o... |
trailing stop loss in slow price decline | The price doesn't have to drop 5% in one go to activate your order. The trailing aspect simply means your sell trigger price will increase if the current value increases (it will never decrease). |
Someone asks you to co-sign a loan. How to reject & say “no” nicely or politely? | I'm going to be buying a house / car / home theater system in the next few months, and this loan would show up on my credit report and negatively impact my score, making me unable to get the financing that I'll need. |
How can I determine if a debt consolidation offer is real or a scam? | I believe no-one who's in a legal line of business would tell you to default voluntarily on your obligations. Once you get an offer that's too good to be true, and for which you have to do something that is either illegal or very damaging to you - it is probably a scam. Also, if someone requires you to send any money w... |
How do I adjust to a new social class? | Housing, eh? Housing costs are driven by salaries and land availability. Over in the Bay Area, $1500/mo for a nice 1-bedroom apartment is a good deal... but a decent software engineer with ~4 years' experience can get $120k, easily. The standard benchmark of affordability of housing is spending a third of your income o... |
Do personal checks expire? [US] | When I last asked a certain large bank in the US (in 2011 or 2012), they didn't offer expiring personal checks. (I think they did offer something like that for business customers.) They also told me that, even if the payee cashes the check a year later and the check bounces, even if it's because I have closed the respe... |
How FTB and IRS find mistakes in amended tax returns? Are their processes reliable? | The FTB, as any government agency, is understaffed and underpaid. Even if someone took a glance and it wasn't just an automated letter - consider the situation: you filed as a LLC and then amended to file as a partnership. Unless someone really pays attention - the obvious assumption would be that you had a limited par... |
Is it wise to invest in a stock with a large Div yield? | IMO, what it seems like you've done is nothing more than having screened out a company worth further investigation. The next step would be a thorough analysis of the company's past financials and current statements to arrive at your own opinion / forecast of the immediate and far future of the company's prospects. Typ... |
Should I buy a house with a friend? | There are lots of good reasons not to do this. HOWEVER if you do decide to, there are four things you need to consider: |
How can I stop wasting food? | The best way to stop wasting food is to create a weekly plan. Every weekend, before making your grocery shopping, take 30-60 mins and plan (with your spouse if your married) for the next week's meals. It doesn't need to be too detailed, but it'll help you to approximate what you need in terms of food for the whole week... |
Data source for historical intra-day bid/ask price data for stocks? | Check the answers to this Stackoverflow question https://stackoverflow.com/questions/754593/source-of-historical-stock-data a number of potential sources are listed |
Is it ever a good idea to close credit cards? | There is also security aspect. By reducing the number of active credit/debit cards, one significantly reduces the surface of attack. There is smaller chance of getting one of your card information stolen and misused (cf Target data leaks and others). |
Buy Php in Malaysia and sell to Philippines | I noticed the buy/sell board table. Where did you notice this. Generally for a pair of currencies, there is Unit associated along with direction. The Unit is generally constant. These are only revised when there is large devaluation of a particular currency. Buying Php for MYR 8.52, Selling MYR 8.98. So in this case t... |
What is insider trading exactly? | The CEO of a public company can, and often does, buy (and sell) the stock of his company. In fact, frequently the stock of the company is part of the compensation for the CEO. What makes this legal and fair is that the CEO files with the SEC an announcement before he buys (or sells) the stock. These announcements allow... |
Best personal finance strategy to control my balance | The key to understanding where your money is going is to budget. Rather than tracking your spending after the fact, budgeting lets you decide up front what you want to spend your money on. This can be done with cash envelopes, on paper, or on Excel spreadsheets; however, in my opinion, the best, most flexible, and ea... |
If I buy a share from myself at a higher price, will that drive the price up so I can sell all my shares the higher price? | Yes it is possible but with a caveat. It is a pattern that can be observed in many lightly traded stocks that usually have a small market cap. I am talking about a stock that trades less than 2,000 shares per day on average. |
Why does it take two weeks (from ex-date) for dividends to pay out? | So from Investopedia - Who actually declares a dividend states that the Board of Directors of a company sets the 4 key dates: As these dates are chosen by the Board of Directors, either by internal corporate convention or special situation. Conceivably a Board may choose a Payable Date greater than 2 weeks which may ma... |
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... |
Why so much noise about USA's credit rating being lowered? | The credit scale is deceptive, it goes: AAA, AA, A, BBB, BBB-, BB+, BB, B, CCC, CC, C, D. In reality it should be A,B,C,D,E, F, G,H, I, etc. The current scale does not reflect with clarity the ranking of risks and ratings. AA is much worse than AAA, but the uncertainty involved can be scary. Check out these corporate a... |
Why are Rausch Coleman houses so cheap? Is it because they don't have gas? | They are cheap because they are made from cheap material. All the homes in my addition are Ruasch Coleman and a lot of them are having issues (Oklahoma). Several are around 5 years old and have already had to get new roofs. On our neighborhood FB page there have been complaints with the plumbing system and flooding ... |
Are low commission trading sites safe? | Generally, yes. Rather than ask, "why are these guys so cheap?", you should be asking why the big names are so expensive. :) Marketing spend plays a big role there. Getting babies to shill for your company during the super bowl requires a heck of a lot of commissions. Due to the difficulties involved in setting up a b... |
What is the rationale behind stock markets retreating due to S&P having a negative outlook on the USA? | When people (even people in the media) say: "The stock market is up because of X" or "The stock market is down because of Y", they are often engaging in what Nicolas Taleb calls the narrative falacy. They see the market has moved in one direction or another, they open their newspaper, pick a headline that provides a pl... |
What are some good books for learning stocks, bonds, derivatives e.t.c for beginner with a math background? | My personal favorites are Options, Futures, and Other Derivatives by John C Hull Thinking Fast and Slow - Daniel Kahneman Expected Returns - Antti Ilmanen [check out the video : How to Think About Expected Returns] It is a 600 page book … A summary of it: Without a rational expectation of expected returns, investing ca... |
What are your experiences with 'self directed' 401ks? | My employer matches 6% of my salary, dollar for dollar. So you have a great benefit. The self-directed side has no fees but $10 trades. No option trading. Yours basically allows you to invest your own funds, but not the match. It's a restriction, agreed, but a good plan. |
Accidentally opened a year term CD account, then realized I need the money sooner. What to do? | I did find this information from the US Department of the Treasury: What are the penalties for withdrawing money early from a Time Certificate of Deposit (CD)? Federal law stipulates that all time certificates of deposit (CD) that are cashed out early are subject to a minimum penalty. If you withdraw an amount within t... |
Using financial news releases to trade stocks? | No matter how a company releases relevant information about their business, SOMEBODY will be the first to see it. I mean, of all the people looking, someone has to be the first. I presume that professional stock brokers have their eyes on these things closely and know exactly who publishes where and when to expect new ... |
As a 22-year-old, how risky should I be with my 401(k) investments? | At twenty-two, you can have anywhere between 100%-70% of your securities portfolio in equities. It is reasonable to start at 100% and reduce over time. The one thing that I would mention with that is that your target at retirement should be 70% stocks/30% bonds. You should NEVER have more than 30% bonds. Why? Becau... |
moving family deposits away from Greece (possibly in UK) | I can't comment about your tax liability in Greece. You will have to pay tax on interest in the UK. If you are earning massive amounts of interest, unlikely with the current interest policies from Merv, then you might be bumped up a tier. The receiving bank may ask for proof of the source of the funds, particularly if ... |
What do I need to be aware of if I choose to resell property early (in Alberta)? | You will have no problem doing this for one home and living in it for one or two years. There's a recent court case with around six homes bought and sold by the same person in that time frame. That's what you've probably heard about. There's no hard and fast rule about when it becomes a business but here are some hi... |
How can I figure out how much to bid on a parking space? | If the cash flow information is complete, the valuation can be determined with relative accuracy and precision. Assuming the monthly rent is correct, the annual revenue is $1,600 per year, $250/mo * 12 months - $1,400/year in taxes. Real estate is best valued as a perpetuity where P is the price, i is the income, and r... |
Td Ameritrade Roth IRA question | Since you're 20-30 years out of retirement, you should be 90% to 100% in stocks, and in one or two broad stock market funds likely. I'm not sure about the minimums at TD Ameritrade, but at Vanguard even $3k will get you into the basic funds. One option is the Targeted Retirement Year funds, which automatically rebalanc... |
Are you preparing for a possible dollar (USD) collapse? (How?) | There are two basic ways you can separate your investments from the dollar (or any other currency). |
My friend wants to put my name down for a house he's buying. What risks would I be taking? | What are the risks, if any The risks are exemplified by the outcomes presented on this website, including: There's a chance you will end up paying large mortgage payments on a house occupied by an ex-friend and paying large amounts of money to lawyers to try and get things straightened out. You could come out of it a l... |
How to distinguish gift from payment for the service? | All of this assumes that this relationship isn't as employer-employee relationship, which would require you to withhold taxes. If you send them a small token of appreciation, and you are unable to record it as a business expense, or some other deductible expense, you don't have to be concerned about how they claim it. ... |
Why is the stock market closed on the weekend? | Simply, most of the above given 'answers' are mere 'justifications' for a practice that has become anachronistic. It did make sense once in the past, but not any more. Computers and networks can run non-stop 24/7; even though the same human beings cannot be expected to work 24/7, we have invented the beautiful concept ... |
Where do I-Bonds fit into personal finance plans? | tl,dr: I-bonds do not fit well into most personal finance plans. First the questions (succinct reference): I like your thought process weighing your liquidity and risk versus your return. This is very important. However, I think you might be sidetracked a bit by I-Bonds. I-Bonds are not generally good for personal i... |
(Almost) no credit unions in New York City, why? | I would have been tempted to dismiss your claim, but the data I found shows that you're correct. On the plus side, the growth rate in credit union market share is higher in New York than it is in California. While there is no question that bankers hate credit unions, I can't tell you why credit unions have a smaller ma... |
Where should I park my rainy-day / emergency fund? | Something with an FDIC guarentee, so a bank. With an emergency fund, I think the 'return of capital' is more important than the 'return on the capital', so I'm fine with putting it in a standard savings account in a local bank(not an internet account) even if it pays next to nothing. The beauty is that since the bank i... |
Teaching school kids about money - what are the real life examples of math, budgeting, finance? | I am a numbers guy, the math is great. Instead of "jane was twice her son's age when he married, and is now 1.5 times his age....." questions in math class, I think the math problems should mostly have dollar/pound signs in front of them. In general, I like the idea of relating to the kids' situations as much as possi... |
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 ... |
When are stock trade fees deducted? | Typically the fees are charged when the order is executed. The only catch I have ever ran into is when an order is partially executed. A good-till-cancel order that gets executed in several blocks over multiple days may get charged a separate commission for each day (but typically not each block). If this is a simple... |
Query regarding international transaction between governments | Buyer A didn't send money to the US government, Buyer A sent money to Seller B, a US resident. I think the most common way to facilitate a transaction like this is a regular old international wire transfer. Buyer A in India goes to their bank to exchange X INR to $1mm USD. $1mm USD is then wire transferred to Seller ... |
Should I Use an Investment Professional? | People ... are nearly twice as likely to ... feel confident Great, confidence is amazing. That and $5 will buy you a cup of coffee. 44% [who hired a pro] have $100K or more [vs.] 9% of DIYers There's no way to examine these numbers without a link to the source, but it stands to reason that if you have a plan that you'r... |
Why is the regulation of “swaps” important to failing systemically significant institutions? | Have you ever considered how much faith and confidence play a role in the financial sector? The calling in of swaps could cause issues similar to a Bank Run, which may or may not involve others coming into play. While this is cleaning up the mess from a few years ago, there is something to be said for how complicated... |
Does the IRS give some help or leniency to first-time taxpayers? | There's no such thing as "leniency" when enforcing the law. Not knowing the law, as you have probably heard, is not a valid legal defence. Tax law is a law like any other. That said, some penalties and fines can be abated if the error was done in good faith and due to a reasonable cause. First time penalties can be aba... |
How does a bank make money on an interest free secured loan? | Very good answers as to how 0% loans are typically done. In addition, many are either tied to a specific large item purchase, or credit cards with a no interest period. On credit card transactions the bank is getting a fee from the retailer, who in turn is giving you a hidden charge to cover that fee. In the case of... |
What should I invest in to hedge against a serious crash or calamity? | If you're referring to investment hedging, then you should diversify into things that would profit if expected event hit. For example alternative energy sources would benefit greatly from increased evidence of global warming, or the onset of peak oil. Preparing for calamities that would render the stock market inaccess... |
Subsets and Splits
No community queries yet
The top public SQL queries from the community will appear here once available.