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Does investing more money into stocks increase chances of profit? | The investment return for a given strategy is directly proportional to the amount invested. Invest twice as much, profit (or lose) twice as much. It's a straight multiplier. However, there are some strategies which are less risky with a larger investment, and some investments which have a minimum unit of purchase that ... |
Are COBRA premiums deductible when self-employed? | I am very late to this forum and post - but will just respond that I am a sole proprietor, who was just audited by the IRS for 2009, and this is one of the items that they disallowed. My husband lost his job in 2008, I was unable to get health insurance on my own due to pre-existing ( not) conditions and so we had to ... |
Do my 401k/Roth accounts benefit from compounding? | Sure, stocks don't pay interest. I just looked up the word "compound" in a couple of dictionaries and the relevant definition in all of them just mentioned interest and not growth in the value of stock. So it may be technically inaccurate to talk about "compound growth" of a stock. I'll yield to someone more knowledgea... |
How do I go about finding an honest & ethical financial advisor? | Most individuals do not need a personal financial advisor. If you are soon entering the world of work, your discretionary investments should be focused on index funds that you commit to over the long run. Indeed, the best advice I would give to anyone just starting out would be: For most average young workers, a financ... |
What happened when the dot com bubble burst? | What happened was that people would start an "Internet" company without any viable business plan, and investors would pour money. Any company with ".COM" or "eSomething" or "netXXX" or whatever would get tons of money from investors, basically selling dreams of getting rich fast. The companies that flourished back than... |
How much time would I have to spend trading to turn a profit? | Making a profit in trading is not a function of time, it's a function of information, speed, and consistency. Regardless of how much time you spend learning about trading, there is no guarantee that you will ever become profitable because you will always be competing against a counter-party who is either better- or mor... |
What is a Student Loan and does it allow you to cover a wide range of expenses relating to school? | The short answer is that you can use student loans for living expenses. Joe provides a nice taxonomy of loans. I would just add that some loans are not only guaranteed, but also subsidized. Essentially the Government buys down the rate of the loan. The mechanics are that a financial aid package might consist of gran... |
New car price was negotiated as a “cash deal”. Will the price change if I finance instead? | as a used dealer in subprime sales, finance has to be higher than cash because every finance deal has a lender that takes a percentage "discount" on every deal financed. if you notice a dealer is hesitant to give a price before knowing if cash or finance, because every bit of a cash deal's profit will be taken by a fin... |
Is there a NY tax form to use when one is missing a K-1 (or 1065) from an LLC? | Form 10-K is filed by corporations to SEC. You must be thinking of form 1065 (its schedule K) that a partnership (and multi-member LLC) must file with the IRS. Unless the multi-member LLC is legally dissolved, it must file this form. You're a member, so it is your responsibility, with all the other members, to make sur... |
How can I diversify $7k across ETFs and stocks? | You may want to look into robo-investors like Wealthfront and Betterment. There are many others, just search for "robo investor". |
Should I invest in the world's strongest currency instead of my home currency? | Currency speculation is a very risky investment strategy. But when you are looking for which currency to denote your savings in, looking at the unit value is quite pointless. What is important is how stable the currency is in the long term. You certainly don't want a currency which is prone to inflation, because it mea... |
Is inflation a good or bad thing? Why do governments want some inflation? | In general the consensus is that a small amount of inflation (usually 1.5-2% per year) is desirable. That is why the Federal Reserve sets its inflation target in that range. The reasons why are quite complex though. One reason is "wage stickiness" - ie., the observed phenomenon that employers don't like to cut wages.... |
Buying car from rental business without title | I would steer well clear of this. The risk is that they take your money but don't pay the bank. This wouldn't require dishonesty - what if they run into financial trouble? Any money of yours that they have that hasn't gone on to the bank yet might end up paying off other debts instead of yours. It's not clear if the id... |
Does home equity grow with the investment put into the house? | If I have a house that its market value went from $100k to $140k can I get HELOC $40K? Maybe - the amount that you can borrow depends on the market value of the house, so if you already have $100k borrowed against it, it will be tough to borrow another $40k without paying a higher interest rate, since there is a real r... |
When's the best time to sell the stock of a company that is being acquired/sold? | Here is one "other consideration": don't, don't, don't sell based on insider information. Insider trading can land you in jail. And it's not restricted to top executives. Even overhearing a discussion about the current status of the acquisition talks can mean that you have insider information that you legally cannot ac... |
My ex sold our car that still had money owed | It is a legal issue for two reasons. In the United States if both names were on the title both people would have had to sign the paperwork in order to transfer the title. If the car was collateral for the loan, then the bank would have had to be involved in the transaction. The portion of the check need to repay the lo... |
How to secure one's effort when working on a contract? | Anytime you do work without any payment until the work is complete, you are effectively extending credit to the party receiving your service. How much credit you are willing to extend will vary greatly, depending on the amount and the trustworthiness of the party. For example, if you are charging $50 for something, you... |
Is it possible for credit card companies to check credit score in India? | Is it possible for the card issuing banks to check my score without my permission? As far as I understand these things, that is exactly the whole purpose of these sorts of credit-rating institutions. The banks and other financial businesses are their customers. They exist to serve those customers. Their relationship, i... |
Difference between Edward Jones or Betterment | Instead of saying which one is better, which is too subjective, I think it is more important to understand what these institutions are. They are kind of different animals. Edward Jones pretty much a full service wealth manager. They meet with you in person, advise you on what retirement and savings accounts to get, t... |
How can I determine if leaving a lower paying, tax advantaged, job for a higher paying one makes sense financially? | It looks like a coin toss. What you have isn't bad at all. If you have enough free time with your $50k job to do extra stuff on the side, you can use that time to build a business. You're obviously a go-getter type, so this might suit you. Which job is closer to your calling? All other things being equal, the more f... |
Investing / Options idiot - how can I get out of this position? | Your broker should make you whole by adjusting the quantity of the underlying (see: http://www.schaeffersresearch.com/education/options-basics/key-option-concepts/dividends-stock-splits-and-other-option-contract-adjustments) but I would check with them that this will happen. You will then have an option on 4 times the ... |
Are leverage/ko products the only reasonable way to trade stocks? | There's no free lunch. Here are some positions that should be economically equivalent (same risk and reward) in a theoretically-pure universe with no regulations or transaction costs: You're proposing to buy the call. If you look at the equivalent, stock plus protective put, you can quickly see the "catch"; the protect... |
Why do new car loans, used car loans, and refinanced loans have different rates and terms? | New car loans, used car loans, and refinances have different rates because they have different risks associated with them, different levels of ability to recoup losses if there is a default, and different customer profiles. (I'm assuming third party lender for all of these questions, not financing the dealer arranges,... |
What gives non-dividend stocks value to purchasers? [duplicate] | A share of stock is a share of the underlying business. If one believes the underlying business will grow in value, then one would expect the stock price to increase commensurately. Participants in the stock market, in theory, assign value based on some combination of factors like capital assets, cash on hand, revenue,... |
Is it wise for an independent contractor to avoid corporation tax by planning to only break even each year? | First, point: The CRA wants you to start a business with a "Reasonable expectation of profit". They typically expect to see a profit within 5 years, so you may be inviting unwanted questions from future auditors by using a breakeven strategy. Second point: If the goal is to pay as little tax as possible, you may want t... |
Sell a stock and buy a new one | You have to wait for three (business) days. That's the time it takes for the settlement to complete and for the money to get to your account. If you don't wait - brokers will still allow you to buy a new stock, but may limit your ability to sell it until the previous sale is settled. Here's a FAQ from Schwab on the iss... |
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'... |
Why invest for the long-term rather than buy and sell for quick, big gains? | Plenty of good answers here, but probably the best answer is that The Market relies on suckers...er...investors like you. The money has to come from somewhere, it might as well be you. So-called "day traders" or "short-term investors" are a huge part of the market, and they perform a vital function: they provide capi... |
Where can I get a list of all Stocks that were acquired or went bankrupt | Where can I download all stock symbols of all companies "currently listed" and "delisted" as of today? That's incredibly similar . You can also do it with a Bloomberg terminal but there's no need to pay to do this because he data changes so slowly. |
In a competitive market, why is movie theater popcorn expensive? | John R. Lott, Jr. and Russell D. Roberts argue that popcorn in movie theaters has a price commensurate with its much higher cost. See also Lott's criticism of the Gil and Hartmann paper. |
What is a decent rate of return for investing in the markets? | What do you think is a reasonable rate of return? A reasonable rate really breaks down into three things: opportunity cost, what you need, and risk appetite. Opportunity cost comes into play because whatever returns you make should at least exceed, after expenses, the next best option. Typically the "next best option"... |
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). |
How do day-traders or frequent traders handle their taxes? | You need to track every buy and sell to track your gains, or more likely, losses. Yes, you report each and every transactions. Pages of schedule D. |
Bank denying loan after “subject-to” appraisal: What to do? | The first red-flag here is that an appraisal was not performed on an as-is basis - and if it could not be done, you should be told why. Getting an appraisal on an after-improvement basis only makes sense if you are proposing to perform such improvements and want that factored in as a basis of the loan. It seems very bi... |
When does it make sense for the money paid for equity to go to the corporation? | If the check is written as a check to BigCo, it is less clear how Jack can compensate himself for the equity sale. It is as if the equity was owned by the corporation, not by Jack. This is correct. If the check is written to BigCo, then it is BigCo issuing new shares. Jack doesn't compensate himself for the equity sa... |
Why is silver so volatile compared to the S&P 500? | Silver is a commodity. It's valuable for certain kinds of manufacturing, jewelry, and as a speculative financial instrument or hedge against the dollar. The S&P 500 includes companies which make money off of mining, manufacturing, medicine, media, technology, banking, dining, agriculture... There's a lot more variety t... |
What are pros and cons of UK Building Societies compared to banks? | they may be willing to issue mortgages with smaller deposits, but may take longer to make a decision That cannot be farther from the truth. If you are getting a mortgage on a smaller deposit, you will be paying a higher interest rate. Time to take a decision depends very much on your credit situation, earnings, spendin... |
What is the interest rate online brokerages paying out tied to? | The prime rate is the interest rate banks use amongst themselves to lend money to each other only. It is used as the basis (sometimes) for what interest rate banks charge you. The prime rate is based loosely on the Fed rate. There is a committee that meets regularly to set this and other industry interest rates. http... |
Should you keep your stocks if you are too late to sell? | The price at which a stock was purchased is a sunk cost--that is, you cannot go back in time and reverse the decision you made to purchase that stock. Another example of a sunk cost would be purchasing a non-refundable, non-transferable movie ticket. Sunk costs have the tendency to create a cognitive bias in which we... |
Expecting to move in five years; how to lock mortgage rates? | If interest rates have gone up, don't sell when you move. Refinance to lock in a low rate and rent out your current house when you move. Let the rent pay your new mortgage. |
What should I be doing to protect myself from identity theft? | Here are a handful of measures I take myself: I check my credit reports once in a while and look for anything out of the ordinary. If somebody calls me on the telephone claiming to be from my bank or credit card company, utility, etc. I ask for their number, check it, and call them back. I don't give personal informat... |
Personal finance app where I can mark transactions as “reviewed”? | Not web-based, but both Moneydance and You Need A Budget allow this. |
What actions should I be taking to establish good credit scores for my children? | You really can't. Credit rating is determined by financial history, and until your kids are old enough to legally sign a contract they have essentially no financial history. Interesting out-of-the-box thought, but not workable. |
New company doesn't allow 401k deposits for 6 months, what to do with money I used to deposit? | I would open a taxable account with the same custodian that manages your Roth IRA (e.g., Vanguard, Fidelity, etc.). Then within the taxable account I would invest the extra money in low cost, broad market index funds that are tax efficient. Unlike in your 401(k) and Roth IRA, you will now have tax implications if your ... |
Do Americans really use checks that often? | A very interesting topic, as I am moving to the US in a month. I realise this thread is old but its been helpful to me. My observations from my home country "Before we judge anyone who doesn't use direct deposit or who prefers to be paid in cold hard cash, consider that direct deposit is a luxury of stability. Steady... |
Is my mortgage more likely to be sold if I pre-pay principal? | There are two ways that mortgages are sold: The loan is collateralized and sold to investors. This allows the bank to free up money for more loans. Of course sometime the loan may be treated like in the game of hot potato nobody want s to be holding a shaky loan when it goes into default. The second way that a loan is ... |
Automatic investments for cheap | Almost all major no-load mutual fund families allow you to do the kind of thing you are talking about, however you may need an initial investment of between $1000 to $3000 depending on the fund. Once you have it however, annual fee's are usually very little, and the fees to buy that companies funds are usually zero if... |
Is it a bad idea to invest a student loan? | This answer is better served as a comment but I don't have enough rep. It is not guaranteed that they 'do not accrue interest while you are a full time student'. Some student loans can capitalize the interest - before pursuing leveraged investing, be sure that your student loan is not capitalizing. https://www.salliem... |
Stock trading after a crash | If the stock has dropped from $10 to $2 and now is range trading between $2 and $3, and you were not able to sell your shares earlier, then I would no be holding on to them now. As soon as the price hit $3 sell them. After you have sold them and you noticed the stock still range trading one strategy you could apply is ... |
How do you find out who the investors are in a U.S. stock? e.g. how ownership may be concentrated? | Companies absolutely know who ALL their shareholders are. Ownership is filed on Form 3/4 and in 10-Q/Ks. Look there. Guidelines for required disclosure are as follows: 1) Individuals must disclose when their ownership exceeds 5%; 2) Non-individual legal entities (read: companies; e.g. a hedge fund) must disclose when ... |
Are stocks always able to be bought and sold at market price? | In general stock markets are very similar to that, however, you can also put in limit orders to say that you will only buy or sell at a given price. These sit in the market for a specified length of time and will be executed when an order arrives that matches the price (or better). Traders who set limit orders are call... |
Should I move my money market funds into bonds? | Your only real alternative is something like T-Bills via your broker or TreasuryDirect or short-term bond funds like the Vanguard Short-Term Investment-Grade Fund. The problem with this strategy is that these options are different animals than a money market. You're either going to subject yourself to principal risk o... |
Should I pay off a 0% car loan? | Ultimately the question is more about your personality and level of discipline than about money. The rational thing to do is hang on to your cash, invest it somewhere else, and pay off the 0% loan as late as possible without incurring penalties or interest. Logically it's a no-brainer. Problem is, we're humans, so ... |
Can I write off time I spent working on my business? | No, you cannot write off time, period. You should price the time spent into your product. I, occasionally, work on side projects of my own and forgo the possibility of earning direct income for that time. Income not earned is income not taxed, so there's nothing to deduct. |
If a company I bought stock in was de-listed but is now listed again under a new symbol, what happened to my shares? | If the company went bankrupt, the issued public shares that were outstanding at the time most likely were voided, in which case your shares are most definitely gone. The company might have done a new stock issuance coming out of bankruptcy with a different symbol, and while it could be substantially the same company, ... |
Should I learn to do my own tax? | Interesting. When you say DIY you mean pencil and paper. For most of us the choice came down to using a professional vs using the software. Your second bullet really hits the point. The tax return is a giant spreadsheet with multiple cells depending on each other. Short of building my own spreadsheet to perform the ta... |
Cheapest way to wire or withdraw money from US account while living in Europe | Atm machine and my Credit Union account. Low fees (often zero, if the machine is on any of the same networks) and decent exchange rate, and no need to carry cash or traveler's checks to be exchanged. Alternatively, pay by credit card, though there is a foreign transaction fee on that. |
What are the reasons to get more than one credit card? | In the case of reward cards, different cards may offer different rewards for different kind of purchases. For example, in the UK, one of the Amex cards offers 1.25% cashback on all purchases, whereas one of the Santander cards offers 3% on fuel, 2% or 1% on certain other transactions, and nothing on others. Of course, ... |
What are the pros and cons of investing in a closed-end fund? | One advantage not pointed out yet is that closed-end funds typically trade on stock exchanges, whereas mutual funds do not. This makes closed-end funds more accessible to some investors. I'm a Canadian, and this particular distinction matters to me. With my regular brokerage account, I can buy U.S. closed-end funds t... |
When to use geometric vs. arithmetic mean? Why is the former better for percentages? | Simple. Say in 2012 you were up 50% (brilliant) but then in 2013 you were down 50% (sorry). i.e. if you started with $1000, you were up to $1500, then down to $750. You lost $250 overall. If you were to compute the mean of the percentages using each method, then: Arithmetic mean: The average of +50% and -50% (really 1... |
How to decide on limits when purchasing/selling stocks? | You said your strategy was to put it into a index fund. But then you asked about setting stock limits. I'm confused. Funds usually trade at their price at the end of the day, so you shouldn't try to time this at all. Just place your order. If you are buying ETFs, there is going to be so much volume on the market th... |
Selling mutual fund and buying equivalent ETF: Can I 1031 exchange? | You cannot do a 1031 exchange with stocks, bonds, mutual funds, or ETFs. There really isn't much difference between an ETF and its equivalent index mutual fund. Both will have minimal capital gains distributions. I would not recommend selling an index mutual fund and taking a short-term capital gain just to buy the eq... |
Why are prices in EUR for consumer items often the same number as original USD price, but the GBP price applies the actual exchange rate? | In the EU prices on consumer-focussed sites* are quoted inclusive of VAT. In the USA prices are quoted exclusive of sales tax. Consumer pricing is usually driven at least partly by psychological concerns. Some pricepoints are more appealing to certain types of buyers than others. The Euro vs dollar exchange rate has ... |
Any reason to keep IRAs separate? | Can't see why would you need to track the sources of the original funds. Can't think of a reason not to consolidate, if at all it will only make the management of your IRA more convenient, and may be even cheaper (if the fees depend on the account value...). |
Sales Tax Licence/Permit - When is it required and how can I make a use of it as a non-US resident selling in USA? | Sales tax permits come from the state in which your business is operating. You need a business license first for them to issue you one. US sales taxes are collected by the business and remitted to the government, you need the permit in order to do this. A bigger question is whether it's legal for you to engage in busi... |
Take car loan out of mortgage to improve equity | I guess I don't understand how you figure that taking out a car loan for $20k will result in adding $20k in equity. A car loan is a liability, not an asset like your $100k in cash. Besides, you don't get a dollar-for-dollar consideration when figuring a car's value against the loan it is encumbered by. In other word... |
Why don't banks give access to all your transaction activity? | A big issue for historical data in banking is that they don't/can't reside within a single system. Archives of typical bank will include dozen(s) of different archives made by different companies on different, incompatible systems. For example, see http://www.motherjones.com/files/images/big-bank-theory-chart-large.jpg... |
Why doesn’t every company and individual use tax-havens to pay less taxes? | Your "average company and taxpayer" generally wouldn't have significant off-shore/foreign income. In the U.S., for example, even if you have your employer deposit all of your salary to an account at a foreign bank, they would still report it to the IRS as income. Removing the money from your home country isn't what get... |
What can we learn from when the trading volume is much higher/lower than average? | You should not look at volume in isolation but look at it together with other indicators and/or the release of news (good or bad). When there is lower than average volume this could be an indication that the stock is in a bit of a holding pattern, possibly waiting for some company or economic news to come out (especial... |
How can I invest my $100? | A safe investment would be to get a 5-year CD from Ally Bank. No minimum deposit and no monthly maintenance fees. 1.74% APY at the moment. I would choose a 5-year CD since the early withdrawal penalty is only 60 days interest, which will be negligible for a $100 investment and increasing the term significantly incre... |
If the U.S. defaults on its debt, what will happen to my bank money? | Government default doesn't mean that all US money is immediately worthless. First, the bondholders will get stiffed. Following that, interest rates will shoot up (because the US is a bad credit risk at this point) and the government will monetize its ongoing expenses -- i.e., fire up the printing presses. If you're c... |
Why are Rausch Coleman houses so cheap? Is it because they don't have gas? | Not only are they high volume but also most finish materials are very basic. For example lighting fixtures, most builders put ceiling fans in all bedrooms ($75) where Rausch coleman uses a flush mount ($15) in the spare bedrooms. Same with flooring they use a vinyl plank where most builders use wood. This can be $1sqf... |
What investments work for these goals? | Assuming this will be a taxable account (since you want to pull income off of it, although this will lower wealth growth), you could open a brokerage account at some place like Vanguard (free on their ETFs) and look at tax efficient index fund ETFs (such as total stock market or their 500 fund), including some interna... |
Ethics and investment | There are the Dow Jones Sustainability Indices. I believe the reports used to create them are released to the public. This could be a good place to start. |
Why is the stock market price for a share always higher than the earnings per share? | Earnings per share are not directly correlated to share price. NV Energy, the company you cited as an example, is an electric utility. The growth patterns and characteristics of utilities are well-defined, so generally speaking the value of the stock is driven by the quality of the company's cash flow. A utility with a... |
How can I invest in an index fund but screen out (remove) certain categories of socially irresponsible investments? | I think the answer to your question is no, in theory. By screening out funds, you must actively manage the investments. To then try to ensure you track the index closely enough, you have to do further management. Either you spend your own time to do this or you pay someone else. This is ok, but it seems contrary to th... |
Is the MBA an overrated degree/qualification? | There is a distinct difference between 'having a degree' and 'being genuinely smart and business savvy'. If you're genuinely smart and business savvy you could theoretically break into the business world with no degree and make a decent salary. The trouble there is that many people aren't smart and business savvy until... |
S-Corp and distributions | Does the corporation need the money for its ongoing business? If so, don't transfer it. If not, feel free. This decision has nothing to do with whether the corporation made money in any particular year. |
How can one get their FICO/credit scores for free? (really free) | I visited annualcreditreport.com to get my annual credit report. It is only the report, not the score or FICO score. This is the only outlet I know of that allows you to get your report for free, without a bunch of strings attached or crap to sign up for and cancel later. It was very easy. I was wary of putting in m... |
Connection between gambling and trading on stock/options/Forex markets | I think that the answer by @jkuz is good. I'd add that the there's a mathematically precise difference: Gambling games are typically "zero-sum" games, which means that every dollar won by one person is lost by another. (If there's a "house" taking a cut then it's worse than zero-sum, but let's ignore that for the mom... |
Money market account for emergency savings | I'm not a fan of using cash for "emergency" savings. Put it in a stable investment that you can liquidate fairly quickly if you have to. I'd rather use credit cards for a while and then pay them off with investment funds if I must. Meanwhile those investments earn a lot more than the 0.1 percent savings or money market... |
Is it wise to invest in bond fund when interest rates are low? | This is just a pedestrian (my) opinion: Yes, It is wise to invest in bond funds even in a low interest environment. Check out the lazy man's portfolio on bogleheads. The reason is: |
Do I need to invest to become millionaire? | You're ignoring inflation. Even if we assume the ECB sticks to its 2% inflation target, and your salary only rises in line with inflation, you will be saving considerably more in forty years' time than you are today. In fact, an interest rate of 2% and an inflation rate of 2% make the sums exceptionally easy. You need... |
Are 'no interest if paid in in x months' credit cards worth it? | No, because of the balance transfer fees, which could be 4%. Unless of course you get a deal for 12 months of no payment, and you pay it back in 12 months, in which case a 4% annual interest rate is much less than a loan! At that point you are gambling that you will be responsible with the payments, and the card compan... |
I'm thinking of getting a new car … why shouldn't I LEASE one? | I agree with Speedbird389 - I leased an economy car 10 years ago, paid the residual at the end of the lease because I knew the car would last a long time, but that cost me $5000 more than if I had bought it in the first place... |
Bank will not accept loose change. Is this legal? | They cannot refuse to accept coins and demand some other payment after providing a good or service. Legal tender is legal tender for all debts. But until they provide the good or service, they don't have to accept it. In this case, you want the service of depositing money. But by its nature, they have to accept th... |
Is it beneficial to convert non-investment real estate to rental if I need to make major repairs? (USA/Missouri) | I think you may have a significant misunderstanding here. You have been renting your property out for two years, now. There is no special "roommate" clause in the tax code; roommates are renters, and the rent they pay is rental income. (If they were roommates in a property you both rented from a third party, that wo... |
If I have some old gold jewellery, is it worth it to sell it for its melt value? | Avoid gold brokers who do business through the mail. Video Full Article |
I have $100,000 in play money… what to do? | You can start a software company. Than your office will be around the world and you can work whenever you want. If you can appoint some people who can collect work from here and there and the coder around the world can give you the job done(this can be done by posting your work in various freelancing site). It is chall... |
Wash sale rule impact on different scenarios between different types of accounts | Brokerage->Brokerage 13-16 The loss from the previous purchase will be added to the cost basis of the security for the second purchase. Since you sold it at a loss again it would increase your losses. Your loss from the first sale will be disallowed. Your loss will be added to the cost basis of the next purchase. Your ... |
A University student wondering if investing in stocks is a good idea? | Investing in the stock market early is a good thing. However, it does have a learning curve, and that curve can, and eventually will, cost you. One basic rule in investing is that risk and reward are proportional. The greater the reward, the higher the risk that you either (a) won't get the reward, or (b) lose your m... |
What is the preferred way to finance home improvements when preparing to sell your house? | sheegaon's reply looks fine to me, a HELOC can usually be set up for a minimal ($50?) fee, and is currently a pretty low rate, mine is 2.5%. If this doesn't appeal to you, my other suggestion is a 401(k) loan. While this is usually a last resort and 'not' recommended, a short term use may make sense. The rate is low, ... |
Emerging markets index fund (VDMIX) for an inexperienced investor | In this environment, I don't think that it is advisable to buy a broad emerging market fund. Why? "Emerging market" is too broad... Look at the top 10 holdings of the fund... You're exposed to Russia & Brazil (oil driven), Chinese and Latin American banks and Asian electronics manufacturing. Those are sectors that don... |
I'm 13. Can I buy supplies at a pet store without a parent/adult present? | My 12 year old routinely makes purchases with cash or a gift card (either a store's card or a Visa/Amex card that acts like credit card but is a gift card) and has never had an issue. Clothing, make-up, bath items, etc. I understand in some areas you need to be over 18 to buy certain markers, spraypaint, or other prope... |
What to do with an expensive, upside-down car loan? | First suggestion: Investigate refinancing the auto loan with a reputable credit union or bank. I reduced my costs by changing my auto loan to Pentagon Federal Credit Union, which charges about 4% interest rate (compared to 6% which was the standard about 2 years ago). (for instructions on how to join penfed, look at ... |
How safe is a checking account? | If the checking account is in a FDIC insured bank or a NCUA insured Credit Union then you don't have to worry about what happens if the bank goes out of business. In the past the government has made sure that any disruption was minimal. The fraud issue can cause a bigger problem. If they get a hold of your debit card, ... |
Saving up for an expensive car | This seems really simple to me. |
Are COBRA premiums deductible when self-employed? | Here is a quote from the IRS website on this topic: You may be able to deduct premiums paid for medical and dental insurance and qualified long-term care insurance for yourself, your spouse, and your dependents. The insurance can also cover your child who was under age 27 at the end of 2011, even if the child was... |
Legality of facilitating currency exchange between private accounts | Disclaimer: it's hard to be definitive as there may be some law or tax rule I'm not aware of. From a UK perspective, this should be perfectly legal. If it's just a one-off or occasional thing for personal reasons, rather than being done in the course of a business, there probably aren't any tax implications. In theory ... |
Any experience with maxing out 401(k)? | I second CrimsonX's advice to max out Roth then 401k. At your age in what sounds like a similar situation I did the same thing -- thankfully. It's easier to do when you're young and unencumbered. 10 years later with kids, house, changing from double to single income, job changes, etc, it's harder to max out retirement ... |
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