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Best personal finance strategy to control my balance | My bank will let me download credit card transactions directly into a personal finance program, and by assigning categories to stores I can get at least a rough overview of that sidd of things, and then adjust categories/splits when needed. Ditto checks. Most of my spending is covered by those. Doesn't help with cash t... |
If I were to get into a life situation where I would not be able to make regular payments, do lenders typically provide options other than default? | The answer is generally yes. Depending on your circumstances and where you live, you may be able to get help through a federal, state, or lender program that: |
What is the minimum lot size (number of shares) for the London Stock Exchange? | Good question! It seems to me that there is no minimum order size for shares trading on the LSE. Please note, I couldn't find an definite answer, but: According to the "International Order Book" document (see: http://www.londonstockexchange.com/traders-and-brokers/rules-regulations/change-and-updates/stock-exchange-not... |
Making higher payments on primary residence mortgage or rental? | You're in the same situation I'm in (bought new house, didn't sell old house, now renting out old house). Assuming that everything is stable, right now I'd do something besides pay down your new mortgage. If you pay down the mortgage at your old house, that mortgage payment will go away faster than if you paid down the... |
Online resource to get expense ratios for mutual funds, index funds & ETFs? | If you want the answer from the horse's mouth, go to the website of the ETF or mutual find, and the expense ratio will be listed there, both on the "Important Information" part of the front page, as well as in the .pdf file that you click on to download the Prospectus. Oh wait, you don't want to go the fund's website ... |
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. |
Helping girlfriend accelerate credit score improvement | This is an all too common problem and is not easy to resolve. Divorce agreements do not alter prior mortgage contracts. Most importantly, the bank is not required, and will not normally, remove the girlfriend from the mortgage even if she quitclaimed it to her Ex. If he has abandoned the property there is a good chance... |
What's a good free checking account? | Online banks are the future. As long as you don't need a clerk to talk to (and why would you need?) there's nothing you can't do with an online bank that you can with a brick and mortar robbers. I use E*Trade trading account as a checking account (it allows writing paper checks, debit card transactions, ACH in/out, fre... |
What are futures and how are they different from options? | For futures, you are obligated to puchase the security at $x when the contract expires. For an option, you have the right or option to do so if it's favorable to you. |
Over the long term, why invest in bonds? | I can think of a few reasons for this. First, bonds are not as correlated with the stock market so having some in your portfolio will reduce volatility by a bit. This is nice because it makes you panic less about the value changes in your portfolio when the stock market is acting up, and I'm sure that fund managers wou... |
How to bet against the London housing market? | While I am not an advocate of shorting anything (unlimited downside, capped upside), you can: |
Using a cash account can someone trade all day on it? | According to Regulation T, you can make as many day trade (round trip) stock purchases using a cash account as long as you have the funds to cover each and every round trip sale. However, the funds generated from the sales cannot be used again to purchase new stocks until the settlement period (T-2 or T-3) is over. For... |
Buy or sell futures contracts | In general there are two types of futures contract, a put and call. Both contract types have both common sides of a transaction, a buyer and a seller. You can sell a put contract, or sell a call contract also; you're just taking the other side of the agreement. If you're selling it would commonly be called a "sell t... |
Does this plan make any sense for early 20s investments? | The plan doesn't make sense. Don't invest your money. Just keep it in your bank account. $5000 is not a lot, especially since you don't have a steady income stream. You only have $1000 to your name, you can't afford to gamble $4000. You will need it for things like food, books, rent, student loans, traveling, etc. If ... |
How to decide which private student loan is right for me? | I speak from a position of experience, My BS and MS are both in Comp Sci. I know very little about loans or finances. That is very unfortunate as you are obviously an intelligent human being. Perhaps this is a good time to pause your formal education and get educated in personal finance. To me, it is that important. ... |
Can an unmarried couple buy a home together with only one person on the mortgage? | It depends on the bank - In some cases(mine included :) ) the bank allowed for this but Emma had to sign on a document waiving the rights for the house in case the bank needs to liquidate assets in to recover their mortgage in case of delays or non-payment of dues in time. This had to be signed after taking independent... |
Why are Bank of America and Citi trading so far below book value? | Its not just Citi and BoFA, even Barclays, HSBC and other large Banks are trading below book value in markets they are listed. Are there particular assets that are causing these two banks to be valued lower relative to their book values than the other banks? There no particular assets. Given the current economic situat... |
Is www.onetwotrade.com a scam? | It is a binary options market licensed by the "gaming authority" of Malta. One of the most liberal "pay to play" jurisdictions in the European Union. It sells access to tighter regulatory regimes. This is distinctly a gambling website, not licensed or protected by securities regulations. But that aside, even if they we... |
Difference between Vanguard sp500 UCITS and Vanguard sp500 | The main difference is that VOO trades on US stock exchanges while VUSA/VUSD trade on the London Stock Exchange. (VUSA is listed in British pounds while VUSD is listed in US dollars.) They are essentially the same product, but the fees and legal hurdles for a European citizen to trade on the LSE may be quite different... |
Married, 55, grown kids: Should I buy life insurance, or invest in stocks? The ultimate decision | If I were in your shoes, I would invest conservatively fully aware that for the next few years the stock market is going to be depressed, but then again, don't take that as advice. Every situation is different, weigh the pros and cons carefully and if required, consult a qualified professional. |
What is the fair value of a stock given the bid and ask prices? Is there such a relationship? | None of the above. The fair value is a term used to describe an analytical result of projecting the company's future dividends and profits into a present value. Such estimates are published by the likes of Morningstar, S&P and Value Line. It is quite common for a stock to trade well above or below such estimated fair... |
Is it possible to get life insurance as a beneficiary before the person insured dies? | I recall the following business from the AIDS crisis: viatical settlement But because there were life-extending treatments developed in the 1990s, many third parties which engaged in these took a bath and it's not as common. |
If throwing good money after bad is generally a bad idea, is throwing more money after good Ok? | To expand a bit on what TripeHound said in the comment section, past performance is not indicative of future performance, which is why the best advice is to ignore if you already own the stock or not. If the stock goes down, but you've done your research and think it will come back, then investing more isn't a bad ide... |
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... |
Are my purchases of stock, mutual funds, ETF's, and commodities investing, or speculation? | I'd argue the two words ought to (in that I see this as a helpful distinction) describe different activities: "Investing": spending one's money in order to own something of value. This could be equipment (widgets, as you wrote), shares in a company, antiques, land, etc. It is fundamentally an act of buying. "Specu... |
Where can I find historic ratios by industry? | If you would like to find data on a specific industry/market sector, a good option is IBISworld reports. You can find their site here. You can find reports on almost any major US sector. The reports include historical data as well as financial ratios. In college projects, they were very useful for getting benchmark dat... |
Is there any reason not to put a 35% down payment on a car? | If you know that you have a reasonable credit history, and you know that your FICO score is in the 690-neighborhood, and the dealer tells you that you have no credit history, then you also know one of two things: Either way, you should walk away from the deal. If the dealer is willing to lie to you about your credit s... |
Scam or Real: A woman from Facebook apparently needs my bank account to send money | Yes, it is a scam. Think about it: Why would a stranger offer to give you money? Why would she need you to pay her own employees? She wouldn't. It is a scam. You have more to lose than just the $25 that is in the account. Just as has happened to your dad before, you will be receiving money that is not real, but payin... |
What are the best software tools for personal finance? | Intuit Quicken. Pros: Cons: |
Are Chase credit cards commonly accepted for purchases? | If you read the fine print in the Pricing & Terms section of that card, you'll see: By becoming a Visa Business Card cardmember, you agree that the card is being used only for business purposes and that the card is being issued to a public or private company including a sole proprietor or employees or contractors of an... |
Are long-term bonds risky assets? | Bonds have multiple points of risk: This is part of the time value of money chapter in any finance course. Disclaimer - Duff's answer popped up as I was still doing the bond calculations. Similar to mine but less nerdy. |
Investing using leverage | Let's do a real example of leverage on the SPY. Imagine you have $20K today and plan on having $100K by JAN 2018. You could get 100 shares of SPY and ride it out. Maybe buying another 100 shares every few months until 2018, ending up with less than 500 shares to your name ( and zero cash in the bank ). or You could l... |
When writing a covered call, what's the difference between a “net debit” and a “net credit”? | When you buy a stock and sell a covered call, the call can't be valued higher than the stock, right? How can a call on a $10 stock sell for more than the stock? So, the initial position of a covered call will cost you something. The transaction is a debit to you. The net amount of the deal, usually prices as per stoc... |
Help required on estimating SSA benefit amounts | Some details in case you are interested: Being a defined benefit kind of pension plan, the formula for your Social Security benefits isn't tied directly to FICA contributions, and I'm not aware of any calculator that performs an ROI based on FICA contributions. Rather, how much you'll get in retirement is based on your... |
Stock Exchange in US | The easiest route for you to go down will be to consult wikipedia, which will provide a comprehensive list of all US stock exchanges (there are plenty more than the ones you list!). Then visit the websites for those that are of interest to you, where you will find a list of holiday dates along with the trading schedule... |
Why does an option lose time value faster as it approaches expiry | NL7 is right and his B-S reference, a good one. Time decay happens to occur in a way that 2X the time gives an option 1.414X (the square root of 2) times the value, so half the time means about .707 of the value. This valuation model should help the trader decide on exactly how far out to go for a given trade. |
Where can I find all public companies' information? | Here are some approaches you may value: Wolfram Alpha This is a search engine with a difference. It literally is connected to thousands of searchable databases, including financial databases. http://www.wolframalpha.com/input/?i=list+of+public+companies+ Just keep clicking the "more" button until you have them all.You ... |
Video recommendation for stock market education | Before you go filling your head with useless information as there is way too much stuff out there on the stock market. First ask yourself a few questions: There is going to be a balance between the three... don't kid yourself. After you answer these questions find a trading strategy to get the returns you are looking f... |
What tax can I expect on US stocks in a UK ISA? | non-resident aliens to the US do not pay capital gains on US products. You pay tax in your home country if you have done a taxable event in your country. http://www.investopedia.com/ask/answers/06/nonusresidenttax.asp#axzz1mQDut9Ru but if you hold dividends, you are subject to US dividend tax. The UK-US treaty should t... |
Computer vendor not honoring warranty. What's the next step? | You're probably best off going to a different store to fix the computer. Right now you don't have "damages." You could sue him but, there's no thing to sue for. If you sue for your original costs, you'd have to return the computer and probably only receive a portion of your original costs, less court filing fees. If ... |
Should I consider my investment in a total stock market fund “diverse”? | Typically investing in only two securities is not a good idea when trying to spread risk. Even though you are in the VTI which is spread out over a large amount of securites it should in theory reduce portfolio beta to zero, or in this case as close to it as possible. The VTI however has a beta of 1.03 as of close toda... |
Considering buying a house in town with few major employers (economic stability) | BLUF: Continue renting, and work toward financial independence, you can always buy later if your situation changes. Owning the house you live in can be a poor investment. It is totally dependent on the housing market where you live. Do the math. The rumors may have depressed the market to the point where the houses... |
What would the broker do about this naked call option? | The broker would give you a margin call and get you to deposit more funds into your account. They wouldn't wait for the stock price to reach $30, but would take this action much earlier. More over it is very unrealistic for any stock to go up 275% over a few hours, and if the stock was this volatile the broker would be... |
Is there data and proof that a diversified portfolio can generate higher returns than the S&P 500 Index? | While it's definitely possible (and likely?) that a diversified portfolio generates higher returns than the S&P 500, that's not the main reason why you diversify. Diversification reduces risk. Modern portfolio theory suggests that you should maximize return while reducing risk, instead of blindly chasing the highest r... |
If one owns 75% of company shares, does that mean that he would have to take upon himself 75% of the company's expenses? | I think your question might be coming from a misunderstanding of how corporate structures work - specifically, that a corporation is a legal entity (sort of like a person) that can have its own assets and debts. To make it clear, let's look at your example. We have two founders, Albert and Brian, and they start a corpo... |
Can I prove having savings without giving out the account number? | Giving out your bank account number is not generally a security problem. The first time you write your landlord a security deposit or rent check, he'll have your account number. (It's printed on the check.) That having been said, in my experience, banks do not generally give out balance information to just anyone who... |
Will unpaid taxes prevent me from getting a business license? | Generally these things are unrelated. Your tax debt is to agency X, your license is (mostly) from agency Y. If your business involves agency X, then it may be a problem. For example, you cannot get a EA license (IRS Enrolled Agent) if you have unsettled tax debt or other tax compliance issues. You should check Michigan... |
Are variable rate loans ever a good idea? | It all has to do with risk and reward. The risk is that interest rates will rise. To entice you to go with the variable, they make it so it is cheaper if interest rates never rise. Your job is to guess whether interest rates are likely to go up or not. In a first approximation, you should go fixed. The bank employs ve... |
Please explain the relationship between dividend amount, stock price, and option value? | 4) Finally, do all companies reduce their stock price when they pay a dividend? Are they required to? There seems to be confusion behind this question. A company does not set the price for their stock, so they can't "reduce" it either. In fact, nobody sets "the price" for a stock. The price you see reported is simply... |
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... |
What return are you getting on your money from paying down a mortgage on a rental property? | As Chris pointed out: If your expenses are covered by the income exactly, as you have said to assume, then you are basically starting with a $40K asset (your starting equity), and ending with a $200K asset (a paid for home, at the same value since you have said to ignore any appreciation). So, to determine what you hav... |
What is the Difference between Life Insurance and ULIP? | I would refer you to this question and answers. Here in the US we have two basic types of life insurance: term and whole life. Universal life is a marketing response to whole life being such a bad deal, and is whole life just not quite as bad. I am not familiar with the products in India, but given the acronym (ULIP),... |
How late is Roth (rather than pretax) still likely to help? | Years before retirement isn't related at all to the Pretax IRA/Roth IRA decision, except insomuch as income typically trends up over time for most people. If tax rates were constant (both at income levels and over time!), Roth and Pretax would be identical. Say you designate 100k for contribution, 20% tax rate. 80k ... |
What significant negative factors affect Yahoo's valuation? | There are two very large negative factors that affect Yahoo's valuation. The first is that their search business is in decline and continues to lose ground to Google and even Bing. There's no sign that they have any plan or product in the works to offset this decline, so there's tremendous uncertainty about the comp... |
Do I have to explain the source of *all* income on my taxes? | Appears to be a hypothetical question and not really worth answering but... Must it be explained.. no, not until audited. It's saying that for everything reported on a tax return, people have to include an explanation for everything, which you do not, unless you want to make some type of 'disclosure' which is a differe... |
Why do so many NFL (pro football) players have charities? | In addition to tax-related benefits, one answer may be that it helps them avoid being inundated with requests to support other foundations. Most charities have access to public records that indicate potential donors based on income and demographic. They can use that info to solicit for donations. "Hey NFL Player, you h... |
Can the purchaser of a stock call option cancel the contract? | I'm adding to @Dilip's basic answer, to cover the additional points in your question. I'll assume you are referring to publicly traded stock options, such as those found on the CBOE, and not an option contract entered into privately between two specific counterparties (e.g. as in an employer stock option plan). Since ... |
Student loan payments and opportunity costs | Already a lot of great answers, but since I ask myself this same question I thought I'd share my 2 cents. As @user541852587 pointed out, behavior is of the essence here. If you're like most recent grads, this is probably the first time in your life you are getting serious about building wealth. Can you pay your loans ... |
Would it make sense to buy a rental property as an LLC and not in my own name? | You need to first visit the website of whatever state you're looking to rent the property in and you're going to want to form the LLC in that particular state. Find the Department of Licensing link and inquire about forming a standard LLC to register as the owner of the property and you should easily see how much it co... |
Should I give to charity by check or credit card? | In the US, if it's a large donation to a tax-exempt organization (401c3 or equivalent), you may want to consider giving appreciated equities (stocks, bonds, mutual fund shares which are now worth more than you paid for them). You get to claim the deduction's value at the time you transfer it to their account, and you ... |
Why can't I short a stock that sells for less than $5? Is there another way to “go short” on them? | A bit of poking around brought me to this thread on the Motley Fool, asking the same basic question: I think the problem is the stock price. For a stock to be sold short, it has to be marginable which means it has to trade over $ 5.00. The broker, therefore, can't borrow the stock for you to sell short because it isn't... |
I have $12k in a Chase checking account, but want to start earning interest/saving/investing/etc to make more money. What should I do? | These are the basics in order: Max your employer contributions to your 401k if available Pay off any loans Contribute to an IRA Perhaps max out your 401k Look into other investment options (refinance your mortgage, buy stocks) Those are the typical rules, special situations may need specials actions... |
Should a high-school student invest their (relative meager) savings? | The advice to invest in yourself is good advice. But the stock market can be very rewarding over the long pull. You have about 45 years to retirement now and that is plenty long enough that each dollar put into the market now will be many dollars then. A simple way to do this might be to open a brokerage account at a r... |
Why do credit cards require a minimum annual household income? | Here's one reason that's being overlooked in answers so far. (@ChrisInEdmonton, this is for your comment on @Chad's answer.) How do credit card companies make money? Sure, there's interest charges, but those are offset significantly by the cost of borrowing money, and by people defaulting on their debt / entering bankr... |
stock option grant being cancelled because strike price greater than FMV and replaced with a new grant at a higher strike price | What could the tax issues with the IRS be? I thought (but not totally certain) that the tax treatment of an ISO option was based on difference between exercise price and FMV at the time of the sale. This is an accounting issue. There were times not so long ago that companies actually did these things on purpose, to bo... |
Covered calls: How to handle this trade? | I would expect that your position will be liquidated when the option expires, but not before. There's probably still some time value so it doesn't make sense for the buyer to exercise the option early and take your stock. Instead they could sell the option to someone else and collect the remaining time value. Occasiona... |
Why is there inconsistent returns difference between direct and regular Mutual Funds? | (This answer refers to the US investment landscape) I'm not sure your classification of funds as direct and regular accurately reflects the nature of the mutual fund industry. It's not the funds themselves that are "direct" or "regular." Rather it's the way an investor chooses to invest in them. If you make the inve... |
Why do some people say a house “not an investment”? | When I purchased my house I struggled with this same idea. I felt sick to my stomach signing a contract stating how much money I now owe a bank. However, the lawyer I was using put it in terms that eased the nausea a little (I still hate owing that much money - but it's a little more palatable). His words, paraphra... |
Fractional Reserve Banking and Insolvency | Your question points out how most fractional reserve banks are only a couple of defaults away from insolvency. The problem arises because of the terms around the depositors' money. When a customer deposits money into a bank they are loaning their money to the bank (and the bank takes ownership of the money). Deposit ... |
My previous and current employers both use Fidelity for 401(k). Does it make sense to rollover? | I would check to see what the fee schedule is on your previous employer's 401k. Depending on how it was setup, the quarterly/annual maintenance fee may be lower/higher than your current employer. Another reason to rollover/not-rollover is that selection of funds available is better than the other plan. And of course al... |
Student loan payments and opportunity costs | Ponder this. Suppose that a reputable company or government were to come out and say hey, we are going to issue some 10 year bonds at 6.4%. Anyone interested in buying some? Assume that the company or government is financially solid and there is zero chance that they will go bankrupt. Think those bonds would sell? Woul... |
Business Expense - Car Insurance Deductible For Accident That Occurred During a Business Trip | As a general rule, you must choose between a mileage deduction or an actual expenses deduction. The idea is that the mileage deduction is supposed to cover all costs of using the car. Exceptions include parking fees and tolls, which can be deducted separately under either method. You explicitly cannot deduct insuran... |
Received mysterious K-1 form, seeking answers | You should contact the company and the broker about the ownership. Do you remember ever selling your position? When you look back at your tax returns/1099-B forms - can you identify the sale? It should have been reported to you, and you should have reported it to the IRS. If not - then you're probably still the owner. ... |
What is the correct answer for percent change when the start amount is zero dollars $0? | I'd personally display "n/a" The only other answer that makes sense to me other is "infinity" (phone keyboard doesn't allow me to input the symbol). This would at least allow you to show direction by using positive and negative infinity and mathematical as the the initial value approaches zero the percentage change ap... |
Retirement Savings vs. Student Loan payments | Your plan sounds quite sound to me. I think that between the choices of [$800 for Loans, $300 for Retirement] and [$1100 for loans], both are good choices and you aren't going to go wrong either way. Some of the factors you might want to consider: I like your retirement savings choices - I myself use the admiral ver... |
Precedent and models for 100% equity available via initial offering? | Founder makes available 100% equity, but uses a reasonable amount of the proceeds to pay him/herself a salary (or wage) and from that salary invests in the same initial offering to acquire shares for him/herself. I see several problems. What is a reasonable salary? Also, this leaves the door open to the following... |
Good book-keeping software? | Best Linux software is PostBooks. It is full double entry, but there is definitely a learning curve. For platform-agnostic, my favorite is Xero, which is web-based. It is full double entry balance sheet, the bank reconciliation is a pleasure to use, and they are coming out with a US version this summer. Easy to use an... |
Are you preparing for a possible dollar (USD) collapse? (How?) | I recently finished reading a book that you may be interested in based on your question, The Ultimate Suburban Survivalist Guide. The author begins with a discussion of why he thinks the US economy and currency could collapse. It gets a little scary. Then he goes into great detail on commodities, specifically gold. The... |
Is there an online service that provides public company information through a public API? | I don't know of any free API's for these data, but I'll provide what information I can. Compiling all of this information from the EDGAR system and exposing an interface to it requires a fair amount of work and maintenance, so it's usually market data companies that have the motivation and resources to provide such int... |
Paid off oldest CC keep it open or close it? | Close the account. The age doesn't outweigh the fact that you have to pay for the card. It would be one thing if the credit line was a couple thousand but showing the credit bureaus that you are staying away from the $425.00 doesn't really make them think you are any more trustworthy with your available credit. Util... |
What is title insurance, and should I get title insurance for my home? | Here is a pretty exhaustive article on that question. Long story short, it is an insurance policy against the possibility that the person selling the property to you doesn't legally own it. If there was some mistake or fraud along the way the proper owner could theoretically repossess the property without you getting y... |
Saving tax for long term stock investment capital gain by quiting my current job? | Reducing your income by 20k is guaranteed to lower your tax bill by less than 20k (because there are no tax rates greater than 100%). Your goal shouldn't be to minimize taxes but to maximize total net income. |
Risks associated with investing in dividend paying stocks for short term income. Alternatives? | Usually when a company is performing well both its share price and its dividends will increase over the medium to long term. Similarly, if the company is performing badly both the share price and dividends will fall over time. If you want to invest in higher dividend stocks over the medium term, you should look for com... |
Who maintains receipt for employee expense reimbursements? | In the normal course of events, you should receive a separate check for the amount of the purchase, and that amount should not be included in your wages as shown on your W-2 statement. If the amount is included on your paycheck, it should still be listed separately as a non-taxable item, not as part of wages paid. In... |
What are the contents of fixed annuities? | An annuity is a contract. Its contents are "a contractual obligation from the issuing company". If you want to evaluate how your annuity is likely to fare, you're essentially asking whether or not its issuer will honor its contract. They're legally required to honor the contract, unless they go bankrupt. (Even if they ... |
Is Stock Trading legal for a student on F-1 Visa in USA? [duplicate] | You can buy and sell stocks, if you like. You'll have to pay taxes on any profits. And short-term is speculating, not investing, and has high risk |
Why can't you just have someone invest for you and split the profits (and losses) with him? | This means that if your capital under my management ends up turning a profit, I will keep half of those profits, but if I lose you money, I will cover half those losses. The bold part is where you lose me. This absolutely exists with the exception of the loss insurance. It just requires a lot more than the general ret... |
Administrator vs Broker vs Custodian for a Solo 401(k)? | Their paperwork should help you along. Schwab is the broker and custodian, you are the administrator. There's virtually no paperwork after the account is opened, until you hit $250K in value, and then there's one extra IRS form you need to fill out each year. See One-Participant 401(k) Plans for a good IRS descripti... |
How can I help my friend change his saving habits? | Budgeting is the key. Saying that you need to eat out less and cook more is good, but ultimately difficult for some people, because it is very difficult to measure. How much eating out is too much? Instead, help him set up a monthly budget. Luckily, he's already got some built-in motivation: He's got a saving goal (tr... |
How do I go about finding an honest & ethical financial advisor? | If your financial needs aren't complex, and mostly limited to portfolio management, consider looking into the newish thing called robo-advisers (proper term is "Automated investing services"). The difference is that robo-advisers use software to manage portfolios on a large scale, generating big economy of scale and t... |
Should I keep most of my banking, credit, and investment accounts at the same bank? | Here's my answer for what it's worth: |
Why would my job recruiter want me to form an LLC? | Your recruiter is likely trying to avoid having to pay the employer's side of employment taxes, and may even be trying to avoid having to file a 1099 for you by treating your relationship as a vendor/service provider that he is purchasing services from, which would make your pay just a business expense. It's definitely... |
How much do large sell orders affect stock price? | In general, how does a large open market stock sale affect prices? A very general answer, all other things being equal, the price will move down. However there is nothing general. It depends on total number of shares in market and total turn over for that specific shares. The order book for the day etc. What is the max... |
Sanity check on choosing the term for a mortgage refinance | Have you looked at conventional financing rather than VA? VA loans are not a great deal. Conventional tends to be the best, and FHA being better than VA. While your rate looks very competitive, it looks like there will be a .5% fee for a refinance on top of other closing costs. If I have the numbers correct, you a... |
How to Create Personal Balance Sheet and Budget Plan for Several Accounts | As your financial situation becomes more complex, it becomes increasingly more difficult to keep track of everything with a simple spreadsheet. It is much easier to work with software that is specifically designed for personal finances. A good program will allow you to keep track of as many accounts as you want. A gr... |
Short or Long Term Capital Gains for Multiple Investments | The default is FIFO: first in - first out. Unless you specifically instruct the brokerage otherwise, they'll report that the lot you've sold is of Jan 5, 2011. Note, that before 2011, they didn't have to report the cost basis to the IRS, and it would be up to you to calculate the cost basis at tax time, but that has be... |
How do you find reasonably priced, quality, long lasting clothing? | On the quality angle a big part of it is experience, but the biggest thing is careful observation. You have to take a close, critical look at any article of clothing. (This holds true for just about any purchase.) As far as finding them for reasonable prices it's the usual thing: sales and buying them second-hand. Fi... |
What options do I have at 26 years old, with 1.2 million USD? | Former financial analyst here, happy to help you. First off, you are right to not be entirely trusting of advisors and attorneys. They are usually trustworthy, but not always. And when you are new to this, the untrustworthy ones have a habit of reaching you first - you're their target market. I'll give you a little bre... |
Do I need a business credit card? | It can certainly help build a credit score, but remember that businesses gain credit differently from individuals. Depending on the country, there isn't usually a national register of business credit ratings the way there is for individuals. The credit record you'd be gaining is with your own bank only. Banks will us... |
Why do banks finance shared construction as mortgages instead of financing it directly and selling the apartments in a building? | Why should a bank get into construction specifically? Lots of business opportunities require capital. Conceivably banks could build factories, develop consumer electronics, complete with SpaceX, etc. It's all capital in, profits out, with varying levels of risk and returns. There's nothing special about constructing ap... |
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