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How prudent would it be to invest (stocks/equity) in businesses that are based on Cash transactions?
If they're hiding their profits from the government, what makes you think they wouldn't hide their profits from their shareholders?
Filing Taxes for Two Separate Jobs Being Worked at the Same Time?
You file taxes as usual. W2 is a form given to you, you don't need to fill it. Similarly, 1099. Both report moneys paid to you by your employers. W2 is for actual employer (the one where you're on the payroll), 1099 is for contractors (where you invoice the entity you provide services to and get paid per contract). You...
How far into the future is a stock future? How do stock futures work?
Futures are an agreement to buy or sell something in the future. The futures "price" is the price at which you agree to make the trade. This price does not indicate what will happen in the future so much as it indicates the cost of buying the item today and holding it until the future date. Hence, for very liquid pr...
Can PayPal transfer money automatically from my bank account if I link it in PayPal?
I linked my bank account (by making a transfer from bank account to Paypal) without linking a card. This should not give Paypal any rights to do anything with my bank account - transfer that I made to link it was exactly the same as any other outgoing transfer from my bank account. On attempting to pay more that reside...
Why are the banks and their customers in the United States still using checks? [duplicate]
Check use is declining here too, but it still has some practical advantages over electronic means:
Saving/ Investing a lump sum
5 years is very short term, and since you are sure you'll need the money, investing it into the markets should probably not be done. You can toss it in Ally bank for 1% or consider a 5 yr raise your rate CD A decent write-up on time horizons: http://www.investopedia.com/articles/investing/110813/using-time-horizons-inv...
Do mutual fund companies deliberately “censor” their portfolios/funds?
There is a survivorship bias in the mutual fund industry. It's not about individual stocks in which those funds invest. Rather, it's in which funds and fund companies/families are still around. The underperforming funds get closed or merged into other funds. Thus they are no longer reported, since they no longer exist....
How can contractors recoup taxation-related expenses?
Anything is negotiable. Clearly in the current draft of the contract the company isn't going to calculate or withhold taxes on your behalf - that is your responsibility. But if you want to calculate taxes yourself, and break out the fees you are receiving into several "buckets" on the invoice, the company might agree ...
What intrinsic, non-monetary value does gold have as a commodity?
Borrowing Wikipedia for a bit, it seems like the intrinsic uses are these. I've ordered these approximately in technology-level order: The importance of any of these uses largely depends on the state of a civilization and the level of technology of that civilization. However, most of these applications have far cheaper...
Why do stock brokers charge fees
Retail brokers and are generally not members of exchanges and would generally not be members of exchanges unless they are directly routing orders to those exchanges. Most retail brokers charging $7 are considered discount brokers and such brokers route order to Market Makers (who are members of the exchanges). All brok...
financial institution wants share member break down for single member LLC
What exactly would the financial institution need to see to make them comfortable with these regulations The LLC Operating Agreement. The OA should specify the member's allocation of equity, assets, income and loss, and of course - managerial powers and signature authorities. In your case - it should say that the LLC...
Do you know of any online monetary systems?
Edit: I discovered Bitcoin a few months after I posted this answer. I would strongly recommend anyone interested in this question to review it, particularly the myths page that dispels much of the FUD. Original answer: Although it is not online, as a concept the Totnes Pound may be of interest to you. I live quite clos...
Uncashed paycheck 13 years old
Even going to small claims court the burden would be on you to prove that they never paid you. The 13 year gap would be the core of the argument by the company that they have no obligation to keep records from 13 years ago. That is far longer than they need to keep them for tax purposes. Even if they sent you a replac...
How do I know if refinance is beneficial enough to me?
The proper answer is that you run the numbers and see whether what you'll save in interest exceeds the closing costs by enough to be interesting. Most lenders these days have calculations that can help with this on their websites and/or would be glad to help if asked. Rule of thumb: if you can reduce interest rate by ...
Ensuring payment from client
You should absolutely have a contract between you and your client stipulating the quid-pro-quos of the arrangement. They get the product, you get the money. First off, this contract should specify what you must do, and what they must do, for the contract to be "satisfied". This isn't necessarily just product for money;...
What happens if a Financial Services Company/Stockbroker goes into administration in the UK?
Nothing. Stockbrokers set up nominee accounts, in which they hold shares on behalf of individual investors. Investors are still the legal owners of the shares but their names do not appear on the company’s share register. Nominee accounts are ring-fenced from brokers’ other activities so they are financially secure.
Calculating profits on a covered call. What method do you use?
yes, you are double counting. Your profit is between ($7.25 and $8) OR ($7.75 and $8.50). in other words, you bought the stock at $7.75 and sold at $8.00 and made $0.50 on top. Profit = $8.00-$7.75+$0.50 (of course all this assumes that the stock is at or above $8.00 when the option expires. If it's below, then your p...
UK Ltd taxation on stocks/bonds income and real estate rent income
For stocks, bonds, ETF funds and so on - Taxed only on realised gain and losses are deductible from the gain and not from company's income. Corporate tax is calculated only after all expenses have been deducted. Not the other way around. Real estate expenses can be deducted because of repairs and maintenance. In gener...
I'm currently unemployed and have been offered a contract position. Do I need to incorporate myself? How do I do it?
In short - if you can't get the job without incorporating, then incorporate! Some clients will require you to be incorporated (which is why I did it 10 years ago). Essentially, for them, it's a way of distancing themselves from you to ensure they are not responsible for any monies if you don't pay your taxes. For you...
It's possible to short a stock without paying interest?
It is possible and it depends on your strategy. As short selling interest rates are annual and levied monthly at a prorated rate. Interest rates are also low in general, with the exception of hard to borrow stocks. Therefore you can maintain a short position for weeks on end and notice nothing. Months even, if the posi...
Is there a “reverse wash sale” rule?
Yes, the newly bought shares will have a long-term holding period, regardless of when you sell them. In addition, it's only a wash sale if you sold the first shares for a loss; it's not a wash sale if you sold them for a gain. Wikipedia mentions this: When a wash sale occurs, the holding period for the replacement sto...
Why do some stores have card-only self-checkouts?
There are a couple of advantages that I can think of. Since the machines are less complicated because they don't have to handle cash, they are less expensive and require less maintenance. Machines that handle cash require lots of moving parts. Cash machines require lots of employee interaction. The machines need to b...
How much lump sum investment in stocks would be needed to yield a target stable monthly income?
If your requirements are hard (must have $1000/month, must have the same or bigger in capital at the end), stocks are a poor choice of investment. However, in many cases, people are willing to tolerate some level of risk to achieve the expected returns. You also do not mention inflation, which can take quite a lot out ...
Ticker symbols differences between Yahoo Finance and BestInvest
It depends on what site you're looking on and what exchange they're pulling the data from. Even though funds and stocks are called the same thing, they have different ticker symbols in each country's exchange or could be traded as pink sheet stocks in the US. If a company or fund is based in another country (like Canad...
Trouble sticking to a budget when using credit cards for day to day transactions?
Discipline. If you have to have a hard limit on your account that prevents you from spending - credit cards are not for you. If you can discipline yourself not to make purchases in excess of your budget even if the plastic technically allows it - then you can go on using the credit card. Make sure to stay on top of you...
mortgage vs car loan vs invest extra cash?
Since you've already maxed out your 401k and your IRA, if you wanted to invest more-- then it would either be in a brokerage account or a 529 (if you have kids/ intend on going back to school). As to investing versus paying off your loans -- the interest on them are small enough that it will depend on your preference. ...
give free budgeting advice
The counsel of a friend doesn't come with a legal or professional liability. The key to doing this sort of thing successfully is to respect boundaries. You are providing advice and discussion, not taking over your friend's life.
Does Apple have $0 of treasury stock?
Treasury stock is not really represented in the Balance Sheet as a "Treasury stock" line item in the assets. Some companies will break out Treasury Shares as a line item in the "Shareholders Equity" heading of the balance sheet but Apple hides it in the "Shares Issued and Outstanding" counts under the "Shareholders Eq...
car purchase loan versus car collateral loan
Generally speaking personal loans have higher rates than car loans. During fairly recent times, the market for car loans has become very competitive. A local credit union offers loans as low as 1.99% which is about half the prevailing mortgage rate. In comparison personal loans are typically in the 10-14% range. E...
Getting Cash from Credit Card without Fees
Nope. Or at least, if it were possible the company offering such a credit card would quickly go out of business. Credit card companies make money off of fees from the merchants the user is buying from and from the users themselves. If they charged no fees to the user on cash advances and, in fact, gave a 3% back on cas...
Which technical analysis indicators are considered leading stock market indicators?
Relative Strength Indicators are also trailing indicators. They are based on the number of recent upticks or downticks in an investment's price. (The size of a tick is quantized, and related to the investment's price.) By the time enough upticks have accumulated to generate a buy signal, the investment has already i...
Buying a multi-family home to rent part and live in the rest
The biggest question is do you want to be a landlord? There are a lot of ups and down to managing property from bad tenants to having to fix a water heater or replace a fridge. If you aren't interested in being a landlord, it is definitely a bad idea. If you do want to be a landlord, then the question is how close ...
Equation to determine if a stock is oversold and by how much?
There are those who would suggest that due to the Efficient Market Hypothesis, stocks are always fairly valued. Consider, if non-professional posters on SE (here) had a method that worked beyond random chance, everyone seeking such a method would soon know it. If everyone used that method, it would lose its advantage. ...
If stock price drops by the amount of dividend paid, what is the use of a dividend
You buy stocks for dividends over the long term. If a share of stock pays $1.00 in dividends every quarter, that's four dollars a year. If you bought it for $40, it pays out $4 in a year, and it's still worth roughly $40 at the end of the year, you're $4 richer. People will often invest large amounts of money in sta...
Execute or trade an options contract?
Here is the answer for #3 from my brokerage: Your math is correct. Typically, option traders never take delivery of the stock simply to then turn around and sell it at the higher price that the stock is trading at. You wold always expect the option to have a higher value that simply selling the stock at market price. T...
First Time Home Buyers - Down Payment, PMI and Points
The question Why would refinancing my mortgage increase my PMI, even though rates are lower? contains a decent discussion of PMI. It's based on the total amount you borrow, not just the difference to 80% LTV. For easy math, Say you put 15% down on a $100K house. Your PMI is 1.1%, not on the 'missing' $5000, but on the...
Friend was brainwashed by MLM-/ponzi investment scam. What can I do?
So here's the sad truth. He might actually be making a return on his investment. Not because it's right or because the system works, but in all these schemes there are a range of people that actually do make money. In addition to that, there is that fact that he "believes" that he is doing a good thing, and is unwilli...
What is the difference between a stock and a bond?
A stock is an ownership interest in a company. There can be multiple classes of shares, but to simplify, assuming only one class of shares, a company issues some number of shares, let's say 1,000,000 shares and you can buy shares of the company. If you own 1,000 shares in this example, you would own one one-thousandth...
What impact does trading in a car have on your credit score?
Paying off your loan in full will most likely not help your credit score, and could potentially even hurt it. Because car loans are installment loans (and thus differ from consumer credit), lenders really only like seeing that you responsibly pay off your loans on time. They don't really care if you pay it off early--l...
Data source for historical intra-day bid/ask price data for stocks?
This amazing site will answer all your data questions. You will need some patience and willingness to spend to get the data that you want. A lot of data is available for free too` https://www.quandl.com/
How to prevent myself from buying things I don't want
We all buy stuff from time to time that only satisfies us for a short time. I was able to locate a few expenses that fall under that category. I see a lot answers that focus on not getting these things. I'm going to tell you how to at least attempt to have your cake and eat it too. If you can get these things without p...
Book capital losses in gnucash
According to the gnucash guide, losses are recorded as negative transactions against Income:Capital Gains. I've followed this model in the past when dealing with stocks and commodities. If on the other hand, you're talking about an asset which could normally follow a depreciation schedule, you might want to look at t...
What size “nest egg” should my husband and I have, and by what age?
There's a bit of working backwards that's required. This is a summary of a spreadsheet I wrote which helps to get to the answer. What you see here is that at age 25, one might have saved about a half year's salary, assuming they worked 5 years. The numbers grow exponentially to at 65, about 15 years salary saved. Thi...
What's are the differences between “defined contribution” and “defined benefit” pension plans?
Defined Benefit - the benefit you receive when you retire is defined e.g. $500 a month if you retire at age 65. It is up to the plan administrators to manage the pension fund, and ensure that there is enough money to cover the benefits based on the life expectancy of the retiree. Defined Contribution - the amount you c...
That “write your own mortgage” thing; how to learn about it
The other answers are talking about seller financing. There is another type of arrangement that might be described as "writing your own mortgage," where the buyer arranges his (or her) own financing. Instead of using a bank, a buyer might find his own investor to hold the mortgage for him. An example would be if I we...
Investing tax (savings)
You'd want the money to be "liquid" and ready for you to use when tax time comes around. You also don't want to lose "principal", i.e. if you put it into stocks and have the value of what you put in be less than what you invested—which is possible—when you need the money, again, at tax time. That doesn't leave you with...
Money market account for emergency savings
From a quick look at sources on the web, it looks to me like Money Market Accounts and savings accounts are both paying about the same rate today: around 1%, give or take maybe 0.4%. I suppose that's better than nothing, but it's not a whole lot better than nothing. (I saw several savings accounts advertising 0.1% inte...
Should I charge my children interest when they borrow money?
As per the age of your son you mentions i would suggest Yes, charge them an interest amount but lesser than the market rate. And give them a valid reason behind taking interest on given amount. The reason you might grab from below real incident happen with me at the time of Diwali last year. I am 26, and i am currently...
I received $1000 and was asked to send it back. How was this scam meant to work?
Answers to your questions: (1) Do bank account numbers have a checksum. NO. (2) Is it plausible that they found out your number after sending you the money by "accident". NO. There is no way to find out who possesses a particular bank account just by the number. Also, how they even know they made a mistake? They target...
Is it legal to receive/send “gifts” of Non-Trivial Amounts to a “friend”?
Am I right to say that no tax needs to be given for the annual ~$130k USD, since they are considered as annual gift tax exclusion? Not only that you're wrong, but it also looks like a tax fraud, not just mere avoidance. You'll have hard time proving to any judge or jury that the gifts are "in good faith". By the way,...
Is a “total stock market” index fund diverse enough alone?
and seems to do better than the S&P 500 too. No, that's not true. In fact, this fund is somewhere between S&P500 and the NASDAQ Composite indexes wrt to performance. From my experience (I have it too), it seems to fall almost in the middle between SPY and QQQ in daily moves. So it does provide diversification, but you'...
Is insurance worth it if you can afford to replace the item? If not, when is it?
Another factor to consider is that resale value of the laptop is quite bit more if it is still under warranty. This would apply to people who replace their laptop often. It is higher because the purchaser can be assured they are not getting a lemon. I determined this by comparing prices on ebay before selling my comp...
Short term parking of a large inheritance?
The person who told you "no-load funds" had the right idea. Since you are risk-averse, you tend to want a "value" fund; that is, it's not likely to grow in value (that would be a "growth" fund), but it isn't like to fall either. To pick an example more-or-less at random, Fidelity Blue Chip Value Fund "usually" returns...
Is it possible to dispute a wash sale?
The IRS has been particularly vague about the "substantially identical" investment part of the wash rule. Many brokers, Schwab for instance, say that only identical CUSIPs (exactly the same ETF) matter for the wash rule in their internal calculations, but warn that the IRS might consider two ETFs over the same index t...
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...
What are the benefits of opening an IRA in an unstable/uncertain economy?
As I stated in my comment on @JCotton's answer, the only way you benefit by putting your money in an IRA or other tax-deferred vehicle is if you expect to have a lower tax rate when you withdraw than when you put the money in. If you look at @JCotton's numbers and remember to pay taxes when you withdraw the money in 3...
Is there any reason not to buy points when re-financing with intent not to sell for a while?
There is the opportunity cost. Let's say it cost you $1000 to buy 0.25% discount. Over N number of years that saves you let's say $2000 thus your profit is $1000. What if you took that $1000 and invested it? Would you have more than $2000 after N number of years? Obviously answering this question is not easy but you ...
Do other countries have the equivalent of Australia's Negative Gearing?
In India, where I live, you can: In addition, housing loans are given priority status as well - bank capital requirements on housing loans is lower than for, say, a corporate loan or a loan against other kinds of collateral. That makes housing loans cheaper as well - you get a home loan at around 10% in India versus 15...
Why can't I short a stock that sells for less than $5? Is there another way to “go short” on them?
Timothy Sykes specializes in this type of trade, according to his website. He has some recommendations for brokers that allow shorting low-priced stocks:
How to start buying shares with small amount of money?
Before anything else, read up on the basics of economics. After that, there a few things you need to ask yourself before you even think about investing in anything: If you have an answer to those questions: Once you answered those questions I could make a simple first suggestion: Confident in handling it yourself and l...
Is this trick enough to totally prevent bankrupcy in a case of a crash?
When you buy a stock, the worst case scenario is that it drops to 0. Therefore, the most you can lose when buying a stock is 100% of your investment. When you short a stock, however, there's no limit on how high the stock can go. If you short a stock at 10, and it goes up to 30, then you've lost 200% on your investme...
Why are banks providing credit scores for free?
It's the inevitable result of the Fair, Isaac Company deciding to sell access to credit scores to the general public: some marketing dude at one of the banks thought, "Wouldn't it be a great idea if we could use 'free' access to FICO scores as a differentiator for our CCs?" And, because most humans play follow the lead...
What is the difference between a bad/bounced check and insufficient funds?
This may vary some by the state, but the general facts are consistent broadly. The elements of check fraud typically are: This means that not only do you have to have presented a check that is returned for insufficient funds, but you must have known at the time that it wouldn't be honored. It must typically also be g...
Where can I find a good online fundamental data provider for Hong Kong stocks?
If you check out China Stock Markets Web provides details on all things that trade on there. It covers the Hang Seng Index, SSE Index, and SSE Component Index. There is also tons of information for investors on the exchange website here.
In the US, does getting a loan with a cosigner, help your credit rating?
It all comes down to how the loan itself is structured and reported - the exact details of how they run the loan paperwork, and how/if they report the activity on the loan to one of the credit bureaus (and which one they report to). It can go generally one of three ways: A) The loan company reports the status to a cre...
Naked calls and buying the stock later
Has anyone done this before? I'm sure someone has, but it doesn't completely remove any price risk. Suppose you buy it at 10 and it drops to 5? Then you've lost 5 on the stock and have no realized gain on the option (although you could buy back the option cheaply and exist the position). To completely remove price ri...
What options are available for a home loan with poor credit but a good rental history?
Here are some (not all) things that can help overcome a low credit score: Getting a new job may actually hurt unless it's a substantial increase in income. Banks usually look at salary going back 2 years, and look for consistent, maintainable income. If you just got a new job that pays more, the bank may conservative...
Why are estimated taxes due “early” for the 2nd and 3rd quarters only?
I suspect that the payments were originally due near the end of each quarter (March 15, June 15, September 15, and December 15) but then the December payment was extended to January 15 to allow for end-of-year totals to be calculated, and then the March payment was extended to April 15 to coincide with Income Tax Retur...
Why would a restaurant offer a very large cash discount?
Why would such a large discount make business sense to the restaurant? The legit reasons could be; Or can I assume that the restaurant is trying to avoid leaving a paper trail so that they could avoid paying tax? The illegal reasons could be;
Reinvesting dividends and capital gains
No, the reinvestment is done as a courtesy. Consider, one can have, say, 100 shares of a $50 stock. A 2% dividend is $100/yr or $25/quarter. It would be a pretty bad deal if brokers charged you even $5 for that trade. When cap gains and dividends are grouped as you suggest, it refers to Mutual Funds. My funds will have...
What happens to bank account of non-resident alien who falls out of status?
Nothing happens. A bank is a business; your relationship with the bank doesn't change because your visa or immigration status changes. Money held in the account is still held in the account. Interest paid on the account is still taxable. And so on. If the account is inactive long enough, abandoned account rules may app...
Can't the account information on my checks be easily used for fraud?
When an someone as esteemed and smart as Donald Knuth tells you the chequing system is busted it's time to close your cheque account, or I guess live with the associated risk. Answer to question, yes your account information can be used to commit fraud on you via your bank.
Is buying a lottery ticket considered an investment?
From a mathematical expected-value standpoint, there is no difference between gambling (e.g. buying a lottery ticket) and investing (e.g. buying a share of stock). The former probably has negative expected value while the latter probably has positive expected value, but that is not a distinction to include in a defini...
Why would anyone want to pay off their debts in a way other than “highest interest” first?
Another unmentioned reason: flexibility and liquidity. There is a fundamental difference between installment and revolving debt, such that it could be rational to pay revolving debt before an amortizing loan. Lets say you have 100K in cash, a 100K mortgage at 4% and 4 25K credit cards at maximum balance and a 0% pro...
Is it possible for the average person to profit on the stock market?
There's a huge difference between "can an anverage person make a profit on the stock market" and "can an average person get rich off the stock market". It is certainly possible for an average person to profit, but of course you are unlikely to profit as much as the big Wall Street guys. An S&P 500 index fund, for inst...
Stocks and Shares ISA: What are the options for “near cash equivalents”?
You can actually hold cash in your account as long as the manager has reason to believe it is awaiting investment. As for your question, some near cash equivalents are: It's difficult to go into more detail about which investments are eligible due to the variety of risk characteristics, but you can certainly find inves...
Which graduate student loans are preferable?
Of course, the situation for each student will vary widely so you'll have to dig deep on your own to know what is the best choice for your situation. Now that the disclaimer is out of the way, the best choice would be to use the Unsubsidized Stafford loan to finance graduate school if you need to resort to loans. The m...
Are there any credit cards with a statement period longer than 1 month?
If the billing cycle is 2 to 3 months, it would mean Banks have to give credit for a longer period and it makes the entire business less profitable as well as more risky compared to the Monthly billing cycle. For example the current monthly billing cycle with a date say of 14th, means if you swipe your card on 1st day,...
Why diversify stocks/investments?
Any investor can make a bad bet, even Buffett. Even if you have done every bit of research on an investment possible you are exposed to random external events.. acts of god, and outright fraud.
Why does it seem unnecessary to fully save for irregular periodic expenses?
I think we'd need to look at actual numbers to see where you're running into trouble. I'm also a little confused by your use of the term "unexpected expenses". You seem to be using that to describe expenses that are quite regular, that occur every X months, and so are totally expected. But assuming this is just some cl...
Will my current employer find out if I have a sole proprietarship/corporation?
I would have thought that if you are doing it in your own time using your own resources it really has nothing to do with your current employer, so there is really no need at all to keep it from them. By being open and transperant you might even get some business from your work mates.
Ideal investments for a recent college grad with very high risk tolerance?
You have a high risk tolerance? Then learn about exchange traded options, and futures. Or the variety of markets that governments have decided that people without high income are too stupid to invest in, not even kidding. It appears that a lot of this discussion about your risk profile and investing has centered around...
Home Renovations are expensive.. Should I only pay cash for them?
Is it a safety thing? If the heat pump goes out you replace it immediately, if your floor looks bad but you aren't tripping, I would suggest saving. Use the extra time to find a great deal and educate yourself on your options. Maybe even take a class and learn to do it yourself. In these rough times, anything I can ...
As an investor or speculator, how might one respond to QE3 taper?
As I tell all my clients... remember WHY you are investing in the first. Make a plan and stick to it. Find a strategy and perfect it. A profit is not a profit until you take it. the same goes with a loss. You never loose till you sell for less than what you paid. Stop jumping for one market to the next, find one stra...
How to trade fundamentally good stocks over the short to medium term?
Using Fundamental and Technical Analysis together is actually a good idea for longer term trading of up to 6 months or longer. The whole idea behind trading with Technical Analysis is to increase the probabilities of a trade going in the desired direction by using uncorrelated indicators that produce the same signal t...
Found an old un-cashed paycheck. How long is it good for? What to do if it's expired?
The two banks involved may have different policies about honoring the check. It might not be written on the check. Your bank may decide that the stale check has to be treated differently and will withhold funds for a longer period of time before giving you access to the money. They will give time for the first bank to...
Are stock prices likely drop off a little bit on a given friday afternoon?
It is called the Monday Effect or the Weekend Effect. There are a number of similar theories including the October Effect and January Effect. It's all pretty much bunk. If there were any truth to traders would be all over it and the resulting market forces would wipe it out. Personally, I think all technical analysis h...
Repaying Debt and Saving - Difficult Situation
Your mother has a problem that is typical for a woman with children. She is trying to help her children have a good life, by sacrificing to get them to a point where they can live comfortably on their own. Though she has a difficult situation now, much of the problems come from a very few choices by her and her child...
How can I invest my $100?
There are websites out there that let people apply for micro-loans, and let other people fund those loans, and get a percent of the interest back as the loans are paid off. I have heard of people with spare cash "investing" in these sites. However, I don't think there is a guarantee of return of your money, and I have ...
Why buy a vertical spread if I could instead buy a naked call?
Question: are you saying that buying a call is better than buying a vertical spread regardless of fees, or only because of fees? If the former, you are saying that buying a call and selling a vertical spread will always be profitable, which effectively means you're going short an out-of-the-money call. While that's a g...
Market index analysis and techniques
Volume and prices are affected together by how folks feel about the stock; there is no direct relationship between them. There are no simple analysis techniques that work. Some would argue strongly that there are few complex analysis techniques that work either, and that for anyone but full-time professionals. And the...
Can Professional Certifications be written off in taxes?
There are a number of federal tax deductions and credits available for education expenses. They are too numerous to describe here, but the place to get full details is IRS Pub 970. Note that many, but not all, of them require that you be enrolled in a degree program; since this does not seem to be the case for you, ...
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 ...
What's a good personal finance management web app that I can use in Canada?
CashBase has a web app, an iPhone app and an Android app, all sync'ed up. It doesn't integrate with banks automatically, but you can import bank statements as CSV. Disclosure: Filip is CashBase's founder.
Making your first million… is easy! (??)
I think there's a measure of confirmation bias here. If you talk to somebody that started a successful business and got a million out of it, he'd say "it's easy, just do this and that, like I did". If you consider this as isolated incident, you would ignore thousands of others that did exactly the same and still strugg...
Investment for beginners in the United Kingdom
If you havent yet maxed out your ISA, then its a no-brainer. You get excellent tax rebates and its silly not to take advantage of these before considering self investing in shares. Note that even if your ISA is maxed out, the economic turbulence means that investing in individual stocks is an intimidating place for b...
Who could afford a higher annual deductible who couldn't afford a higher monthly payment?
I edited in the total annual out of pocket for each level to help illustrate what's going on. Your question makes sense, of course, but it's less a matter of afford vs an attempt to save. The way these plans work is to allow some choice based on your past experience. I can afford any option, but knowing the number of v...
What can my relatives do to minimize their out of pocket expenses on their fathers estate
Consider contracting with a property management company to lease and maintain the house until it can be sold. Rent on the property should cover the mortgage, property taxes, etc. The property management company can handle maintenance and the tenant would be responsible for utilities.
How should I pay off my private student loans that have a lot of restrictions?
Are there any (monthly) administrative fees on those loans that are charged separately? If not, you should just pay as much as you can as quick as you can to get the loan amount down on those loans with the highest interest rate. If there are no separate fees on the loans, then it's just a lump of money with some inter...
When the market crashes, should I sell bonds and buy equities for the inevitable recovery?
When the market moves significantly, you should rebalance your investments to maintain the diversification ratios you have selected. That means if bonds go up and stocks go down, you sell bonds and buy stocks (to some degree), and vice versa. Sell high to buy low, and remember that over the long run most things regress...