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Should withheld income tax be included as income? | Does it make sense to report withheld tax income as an additional income? Is it required by the IRS? Is $T deductible? This is what is called imputed income. The ticket is an income for you, but the company doesn't want you to pay tax on it. But you have to. But they want to be nice to you and give you the ticket on ... |
How long can I convert 401(k) to Roth 401(k)? | the deadline for roth conversions is december 31st. more precisely, roth conversions are considered to have happened in the tax year the distribution was taken. this creates a kind of loop hole for people who do an ira rollover (not a trustee-to-trustee transfer). technically, you can take money out of your traditiona... |
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... |
What should I do with the stock from my Employee Stock Purchase Plan? | Judge this stock no differently than any other is the answer. Optimism isn't fact. http://clarkhoward.com/liveweb/shownotes/2007/06/06/12304/?printer=1 Now because you get to buy extremely low, and sell for probably higher and you believe in the stock, I'd say go ahead and purchase the stock, manage it for taxes with ... |
Good book-keeping software? | I like using Mint.com to track my expenses. It makes it very easy to watch my budget and monitor my spending. |
How do I explain why debt on debt is bad to my brother? | Two suggestions: I don't know if you have them in South Africa, but here we have some TV reality shows where a credit consultant visits a family that is deeply in debt and advises them on how to get out of it. The advice isn't very sophisticated, but it does show the personal impact on a family and what is likely to ha... |
How to measure systematic risk of a stock? | Beta is the correct answer. It is THE measure of the risk relationship of a stock with the broad market. R squared is incorrect unless you mean something very odd by "co-efficiency." A stock that goes up each time the market goes down has very low co-efficiency (negative risk as you have defined it) but very high R s... |
What's a reliable way for a non-permanent resident alien in the USA to get an auto loan? | You have figured out most of the answers for yourself and there is not much more that can be said. From a lender's viewpoint, non-immigrant students applying for car loans are not very good risks because they are going to graduate in a short time (maybe less than the loan duration which is typically three years or mor... |
Digital envelope system: a modern take | I definitely get where you're coming from. The envelope system sounds good, but doesn't appeal to most people under 50 for many of these reasons (physical cash in my hand is just a hassle - it has no appeal or reduced spending affect on me). There are various options for prepaid debit cards such as https://www.netspen... |
What are the important differences between mutual funds and Exchange Traded Funds (ETFs)? | Behind the scenes, mutual funds and ETFs are very similar. Both can vary widely in purpose and policies, which is why understanding the prospectus before investing is so important. Since both mutual funds and ETFs cover a wide range of choices, any discussion of management, assets, or expenses when discussing the diff... |
What are the advantages/disadvantages of a self-directed IRA? | Our company does a lot of research on the self-directed IRA industry. We also provide financial advice in this area. In short, we have seen a lot in this industry. You mentioned custodian fees. This can be a sore spot for many investors. However, not all custodians are expensive, you should do your research before choo... |
What is the correct pronunciation of CAGR? | I always hear people pronounce it to rhyme with "bagger". |
If I have no exemptions or deductions, just a simple paycheck, do I HAVE to file taxes? | As a Canadian resident, the simple answer to your question is "yes" Having worked as a tax auditor and as a Certified Financial Planner, you are required to file an income tax return because you have taxable employment income. All the employer is doing is deducting it at source and remitting it on your behalf. That doe... |
Why do I get a much better price for options with a limit order than the ask price? | What you have to remember is that Options are derivatives of another asset like stocks for example. The price of the Option is derived from the price of the underlying. If the underlying is a stock for example, as the price of the stock moves up and down during the trading day, so will the Market Maker's fair value fo... |
Put idle savings to use while keeping them liquid | I would suggest a high interest checking account if you qualify, or if you don't, an Investor's Deposit Account (IDA). |
Why do people always talk about stocks that pay high dividends? | Mostly we invest in companies to make money. The money can be paid to as in the form of dividends that are a share of the profit. Or the company can convince enough people that it will make a lot higher profit next year, so its stock prices increases. Clearly a company that reinvests its 20% profit from one shop to o... |
Like a Roth IRA for intellectual property, offshore assignment? | One can have a self-directed IRA. This is not like a Schwab, eTrade, etc IRA. It has a special type of custodian that knows how to manage it. I became aware of such an account as a way to purchase a rental property. There were two issues. The type of property I looked at wasn't anything a bank was willing to finance. ... |
Can PayPal transfer money automatically from my bank account if I link it in PayPal? | See this help article from Paypal about payment methods for purchases. When you don’t have a PayPal balance or don’t have enough in your PayPal balance, we’ll use your bank account as the default payment method unless you select a different way to pay. So yes, Paypal will automatically deduct from your bank account whe... |
Prepaying a loan: Shouldn't the interest be recalculated like a shorter loan? | Your thinking is unfortunately incorrect; an amortising loan (as opposed to interest only loans) pay down, or amortise, the principal with each payment. This means that the amount that is owed at prepayment will always be less than the total borrowed, and is also why some providers make a charge for prepayment. The "fa... |
Do I still need to pay capital gains taxes when I profit from a stock in a foreign currency? | I'll break it down into steps. Total gain/ loss for the whole thing is 5 CAD. You only have to worry about these calculations if you keep some USD and convert it at your leisure. Or if you have a US dollar in your wallet from your last vacation. Don't forget to subtract commissions (converted to CAD of course). *Some ... |
What are the options for a 19-year-old college student who only has about $1000? | Kid, you need to start thinking in thresholds. There are several monetary thresholds that separate your class from a more well funded class. 1) You cannot use margin with less than $2000 dollars Brokers require that you have at least $2000 before they will lend to you 2) In 2010, Congress banned under 21 year olds from... |
How credible is Stansberry's video “End of America”? | If we postulate that there is at least some element of truth to the phrase 'A leopard does not change his spots' and then consider this tidbit He conveniently forgets to mention his 1.5 million dollar fraud fine from the SEC over investment “advice” he sold through a news letter. The SEC claimed and the judge agre... |
Why is day trading considered riskier than long-term trading? | But I don't see how it's any different than buying a stock at a low price and holding on to it for some months. Based on your question, I would say the difference is time. Day trading by its nature is a 6-hour endeavor. If you buy low and are planning to sell high, then you only have a few hours to make this happen. As... |
Is 0% credit card utilization worse than 1-20% credit card utilization for any reason other than pure statistics? | Going off hearsay here. I believe your question is. "Does not having a credit card lower your credit score" If that is the question then in the UK at least the answer appears to be yes. Having a credit card makes you less of a risk because you have proven that you can handle a little bit of debt and pay it back. I have... |
Why do shareholders participate in shorting stocks? | There are two primary reasons shares are sold short: (1) to speculate that a stock's price will decline and (2) to hedge some other related financial exposure. The first is acknowledged by the question. The second reason may be done for taxes (shorting "against the box" was once permitted for tax purposes), for arbit... |
Why invest in becoming a landlord? | There are at least three important aspectss missing from your equation. However they come with some uncertainty as one typically cannot tell the future performance. Appreciation of the rental units value. When comparing to the gain of any alternative investment an increasing value of the flat is a gain too. Increase of... |
In a competitive market, why is movie theater popcorn expensive? | It's called extracting consumer surplus. Basically I have a bunch of movie goers (who have paid a lot for their tickets). Some of them don't like popcorn, and some do. Of the people in the latter group, there are some who are willing to pay a lot for it. That's partly because I have a select group (rich movie goers) an... |
What forms of payment am I compelled to accept? | I just listened to a podcast on this topic this week, and Satanicpuppy is pretty much correct. If you are interested, here is a link to the podcast on Legal Lad: Can Businesses Refuse to Accept Cash? |
My investment account is increasingly and significantly underperforming vs. the S&P 500. What should I do? | Around Oct 03 2010 the SPY closed at 113. Today it is trading at 130. After four months, that means that the S&P is up 15% over that particular 4 month period. You said you need something pretty low maintenance, and you are comparing your returns to the S&P 500 (which as @duffbeer703 points out is a good thing to com... |
Why does capital gains tax apply to long term stock holdings? | It's a matter of social policy. The government wants people to make long term investments because that would lead to other long-term government goals: employment, manufacturing, economical growth in general. While speculative investments and day-trading are not in any way discouraged, investments that contribute to the... |
The Asset Allocation Paradox | Asset Allocation serves many purposes, not just mitigating risk via a diversification of asset classes, but also allowing you to take a level of risk that is appropriate for a given investor at a given time by how much is allocated to which asset classes. A younger investor with a longer timeframe, may wish to take a l... |
Money Structuring | There's a difference between your street level drug dealer sending you sales proceeds of $20,000 in $5,000 increments to avoid sending you $10,000 or $20,000 at once to avoid the scrutiny of a government agency that might not be thrilled with your business venture, and a tire shop paying a wholesaler $5,000 each time f... |
Are there any investment strategies which take advantage of an in-the-money option price that incorporates no “time value”? | Options can have a negligible time premium. For American1 calls the time premium is never negative. If it had a negative premium it would be profitable to exercise it immediately. A deep in the money call has a delta of exactly one. That is, it's price movements completely mirror the price movements of the underlying s... |
Search index futures in Yahoo Finance or Google Finance | Yahoo finance does in fact have futures quotes. But I've found them difficult to search for because you also have to know the expiration codes for the contract to find them. S&P 500 Emini quote for June 2012 |
Paying taxes on income earned in the US, but from a company based in Norway | I don't see why you would need an "international tax specialist". You need a tax specialist to give you a consultation and training on your situation, but it doesn't seem too complicated to me. You invoice your client and get paid - you're a 1099 contractor. They should issue you a 1099 at the end of the year on everyt... |
How to approach building credit without a credit card | Apply for a secured credit card (several financial institutions provide these, including most banks. WalletHub gives you a way to search/filter for these cards quite easily). You will need to deposit funds to cover your credit limit. Deposit as much as they allow, I believe it is 500.00. Pay for EVERYTHING with the ... |
What to do with old company's 401k? [duplicate] | I suggest rolling it over to the 401(k) with your new employer. Particularly if they match any percentage of your contribution, it would be in your interest to take as much of that money as possible. When it comes to borrowing money from your 401(k), it looks like the issues AbraCadaver mentioned only apply if you don... |
What is the market rate of non-cash ISA fund administration fee in UK? | Is he affiliated with the company charging this fee? If so, 1% is great. For him. You are correct, this is way too high. Whatever tax benefit this account provides is negated over a sufficiently long period of time. you need a different plan, and perhaps, a different friend. I see the ISA is similar to the US Roth acco... |
Which online services offer logarithmic charts for equities such as index funds and ETFs? | The charts on nasdaq.com are log based, if you look closely you can see that the spacing between evenly incremented prices is tighter at the top of the chart and wider at the bottom. It's easiest to see on a stock with a wide price range using candlestick where you can clearly see the grid. I'm also not seeing the "... |
ETF vs Mutual Fund: How to decide which to use for investing in a popular index? | What is your time horizon? Over long horizons, you absolutely want to minimise the expense ratio – a seemingly puny 2% fee p.a. can cost you a third of your savings over 35 years. Over short horizons, the cost of trading in and trading out might matter more. A mutual fund might be front-loaded, i.e. charge a fixed init... |
What does PMI mean? | Yes, PMI is what the lender requires to loan you more than 8O% of the home's value. I could easily present scenarios where it's exactly the right decision to use PMI and get the purchase done. A 100K mortgage at 90% LTV will cost you $521/year in PMI. If you are renting and struggling to get a higher downpayment, it c... |
How best to grow my small amount of money starting at a young age? [duplicate] | (Congrats on earning/saving $3K and not wanting to blow it all on immediate gratification!) I currently have it invested in sector mutual funds but with the rise and fall of the stock market, is this really the best way to prepare long-term? Long-term? Yes! However... four years is not long term. It is, in fact, bord... |
Company asking for card details to refund over email | I used to work for a online payment posting company. Anytime a payment is made via Credit Card to a company that does not have PCI DSS(aka the ability/certification to store credit card information) there is a MD5 checksum(of the confirmation code, not the Credit Card information) that get sent to the company from the ... |
Should I finance a new home theater at 0% even though I have the cash for it? | Read the fine print and you will be fine. The big caveat is that if you miss a payment for any reason, you will be in default as far as the promotional financing is concerned and will typically owe ALL of the accrued interest, which is usually computed at 20-25% per year. Personally, I use these sorts of offers all of... |
Since many brokers disallow investors from shorting sub-$5 stocks, why don't all companies split their stock until it is sub-$5 | Vitalik has mentioned this in a comment but I think it ought to be expanded upon: Companies that aren't already penny stocks really don't stand to gain anything from trying to prevent short interest. Short selling does not inherently lower the stock price - not any more so than any other kind of selling. When somebod... |
Why would a stock opening price differ from the offering price? | The offering price is what the company will raise by selling the shares at that price. However, this isn't usually what the general public sees as often there will be shows to drive up demand so that there will be buyers for the stock. That demand is what you see on the first day when the general public can start buy... |
Can a stock exchange company actually go bust? | A stock exchange is a marketplace where people can bring their goods [shares] to be traded. There are certain rules. Stock Exchange does not own any shares of the companies that are trading in. The list of who owns with stock is with the registrar of each company. The electronic shares are held by a Financial Institut... |
VAT and German freelance working on international project | 11 / 111 / 11111 looks like the (old) tax number: it is used by the tax office to know who you are, it isn't good at all for the spanish company. It would even change when you move inside Germany. VAT IDs are not exclusive to GmbHs (but a GmbH always has one). As freelancers you can get at VAT ID but you don't always ... |
Making your first million… is easy! (??) | Easy. Start with 2 millions and lose only one. Jokes aside, if you want a million USD, you should be asking yourself how you can produce products or services worth $5 millions. (expect the extra to be eaten up by taxes, marketing, sales, workforce...) If by investment you mean making risky bets on the stock market, you... |
How much life insurance do I need? | Life Insurance can be a difficult decision. We have to first assess the "want" for it vs. the "need" for it, and that differs from person to person. Any Life licensed agent should be happy to do this calculation for you at no cost and no obligation. Just be sure you are well educated in the subject to make sure they... |
Why won't my retirement account let me write a “covered put”? | A "covered put" of the form of being short, and buying at the strike price if the "put ... is put" (excercise), is off the table simply because you can't do shorts in the retirement account. Even if you feel you "win" the argument that you're hedged by being short, any broker can say, "we simply forbid shorts" and that... |
What exactly is a “bad,” “standard,” or “good” annual raise? If I am told a hard percentage and don't get it, should I look elsewhere? | What makes a "standard" raise depends on how well the economy is doing, how well your particular industry is doing, and how well your employer is doing. All these things change constantly, so anyone who says, "a good raise is 5%" or whatever number is being simplistic. Even if true when he said it, it won't necessarily... |
How to avoid getting back into debt? | Depending on how marketable your degree is, in the long run you may be better aquiring some student debt rather than slowing down your studies. For example finishing finance, medicine, or engineering a year later would mean one less year of your life that you are earning substantial income. The only situation where sl... |
Do I need to pay tax on the amount of savings I have in the bank? | Not for the amount in the accounts but for the interest you earn per year is taxable. But the sum of your all taxable incomes is under the limit, then you dont need to pay any income tax. The limit is available at wiki here But you should intimate your bank not to deduct TDS (Tax Deducted at Source) by submitting Form ... |
United Kingdom: Where to save money for a property deposit | From April 2017 the plan is that there is now also going to be a "Lifetime ISA" (in addition to the Help to Buy ISA). Assuming those plans do not change, they government will give 25% after each year until you are 50, and the maximum you can put in per year will be £4000. Catches: You can only take the money out for c... |
How much is my position worth after 5-1 stock split? | The average price would be $125 which would be used to compute your basis. You paid $12,500 for the stock that is now worth $4,500 which is a loss of $8,000 overall if you sell at this point. |
Does an Executed Limit Order Imply a Spot Price? | I can't say I know everything about the underlying details, but from what I understand, your limit buy adds to the bid side of open orders, and one possibility is that someone placed a market order to sell when the bid price for the stock fell to $10 which was matched to your open limit order. So using your terminology... |
Settling house with husband during divorce. Which of these two options makes the most sense? | Both seem to be reasonable. To decide you need to guess if the value of the house will go up or down between now and when you sell. If you think the value will go up - reach a calculation agreement now. If you think the value will go down - wait until the house is actually sold. So ya pays yer money, and ya takes yer c... |
Rolled over husband's 401(k) to IRA after his death. Can I deduct a loss since? | First: In most cases when you inherit stocks the cost basis is stepped up to the date of the death of the person you inherited them from. So the capital gain/loss is likely reset to zero. The rules vary a bit for joint accounts, but retirement accounts (401k/ROTH) are considered individual accounts by the IRS. The rule... |
Is there any circumstance in which it is necessary to mark extra payments on a loan as going to “principal and not interest”? | The mortgage I got last year through Wells Fargo explicitly indicates in its terms that excess payment will be considered against future payments (i.e., pay $500 extra in January and you owe $500 less in February) unless indicated otherwise. It goes on to state that with electronic payments you do not get to specify wh... |
Why is property investment good if properties de-valuate over time? | When you buy a property the house or the building goes down in value every year (it gets depreciated) similar to when you drive a new car out of the lot. However, it is the land that increases in value over time. As land becomes scarcer the value of land in that area will increase in value, as does land in sought after... |
As a contractor, TurboTax Business-and-Home or Basic? | Assuming you file state tax returns, you shouldn't buy Basic. Ever. Your choice is probably between the "Premier" version and the "Business and Home" version. Price difference is insignificant (I have a comparison on my blog, including short descriptions as to who might find each version useful the most). The prices ha... |
Where should I park my money if I'm pessimistic about the economy and I think there will be high inflation? | The best investment is always in yourself and increasing your usable skills. If you invest the money in expanding your skills, it won't matter what the economy does, you will always be useful. |
Can paying down a mortgage be considered an “investment”? | If your mortgage interest is tax-deductible, it's generally a bad idea to pay down the principal on the mortgage because you'd be losing the tax deduction. You could instead invest it in a tax-free municipal bond fund, especially if you're in a high tax bracket (including state and local marginal tax rates). For exampl... |
Online tools for monitoring my portfolio gains/losses in real time? | I use Google Finance too. The only thing I have problem with is dividend info which it wouldn't automatically add to my portfolio. At the same time, I think that's a lot to ask for a free web site tool. So when dividend comes, I manually "deposit" the dividend payment by updating the cash amount. If the dividend comes ... |
What's the difference between “Index” and “Accumulation” tracker funds? | Whenever a website mentions Hypothetical Growth of $100, $1,000, or $10,000, it assumes that that investor himself will reinvest the dividend. This is true whether you look at Morningstar or Financial Times. Unless the website does not have dividend data, e.g. Google Finance. If you want to compare the account value ... |
Definition of gross income (Arizona state tax filing requirements) | Disclaimer: I am not a tax professional. Please don't rely on this answer in lieu of professional advice. If your sole source of Arizona income is your commercial property, use the number on line 17 of your federal form 1040. This number is derived from your federal Schedule E. If you have multiple properties (or other... |
I have more than $250,000 in a US Bank account… mistake? | Build a trust. I have a trust account under my name and 3 dependents, FDIC confirmed we're good to 1m. Then I have personal accounts for the 4 of us and a corp account, all at the same bank, each also insured. |
Starting with Stocks or Forex? | This is an old post I feel requires some more love for completeness. Though several responses have mentioned the inherent risks that currency speculation, leverage, and frequent trading of stocks or currencies bring about, more information, and possibly a combination of answers, is necessary to fully answer this quest... |
Why don't people generally save more of their income? | This question is likely to be voted closed as opinion-based. That said - In general people have become accustomed to instant gratification. They also have the media showing them luxury and are enticed every day to buy things they don't need. In the US, the savings rate is awfully low, but it's not just the lower 50%, ... |
How can I buy shares of oil? I'm told it's done through ETFs. How's that related to oil prices per barrel? | The papers you would need to buy are called 'futures', and they give you the right to buy (or sell) a certain amount of oil at a certain location (some large harbor typically), for a certain price, on a certain day. You can typically sell these futures anytime (if you find someone that buys them), and depending on the ... |
What risks are there acting as a broker between PayPal and electronic bank transfers? | I too received a "job offer" from this CENEO outfit but mine was a proof reading position.Supposedly,I was to edit the email they were sending to U.S. customers. They needed proof reading alright,I've never seen such atrocious grammar and syntax.Half the time I could not figure out what these polaks were trying to conv... |
Buying an ETF vs. The explicit Index | what reason would I have in buying an ETF? Apart from the efforts, the real reason is the ticket size. One can't buy shares in fraction. To truly reflect the index in equal weight, the amount to invest will be in multiples of millions [depending on the Index and the stock composition] This related question should hel... |
Snowball debt or pay off a large amount? | My advice: IMO, all things being somewhat equal, you should always try to retire debts as quickly as possible in most cases, so start with the small cases. The method of calculating credit card interest is written on the statement. Usually it is "average daily balance method". Don't sweat the details. Just pay the thin... |
Why would a long-term investor ever chose a Mutual Fund over an ETF? | There is little difference between buying shares in your broker's index fund and shares of their corresponding ETF. In many cases the money invested in an ETF gets essentially stuffed right into the index fund (I believe Vanguard does this, for example). In either case you will be paying a little bit of tax. In the ... |
What is the 'real' monthly cost of a car? | How can I find out what these 'additional' costs will be when looking to buy a car? If you know what model you're interested in buying you can try out Edmund's True Cost To Own calculator. This will estimate the depreciation, taxes and fees, financing costs, fuel costs, insurance premiums, maintenance, repairs, and any... |
How do I explain why debt on debt is bad to my brother? | Talk about opportunity cost. Show a rope, and put a tag with him on the end of it. Explain that since he has max out his credit, he can no longer get more. Without more credit here are the things he can't have The key to illustrate is that all the money he makes, for the next several years is obligated to the people ... |
Working on a tax free island to make money? | From http://www.taxrates.cc/html/cayman-islands-tax-rates.html: There is no income tax, corporate tax, sales tax, capital gains tax, wealth tax, inheritance tax, property tax, gift tax or any other kind of direct taxation in Cayman Islands. Cayman Islands government receives the majority of its income from indirect... |
Should you keep your stocks if you are too late to sell? | If the stock starts to go down DO NOT SELL!! My reasoning for this is because, when you talk about the stock market, you haven't actually lost any money until you sell the stock. So if you sell it lower than you bought it, you loose money. BUT if you wait for the stock to go back up again, you will have made money. |
How to use a stop and limit order together? | You need to use one of each, so a single order wouldn't cover this: The stop-loss order could be placed to handle triggering a sell market order if the stock trades at $95 or lower. If you want, you could use a stop-limit order if you have an exit price in mind should the stock price drop to $95 though that requires ... |
Is it a good practice to keep salary account and savings account separate? | I pretty much only use my checking. What's the downside? Checking accounts don't pay as much interest as savings account. Oh, but wait, interest rates have been zero for nearly 10 years. So there is very little benefit to keeping money in my savings account. In fact, I had two savings accounts, and Well Fargo closed on... |
Why do some people go through contortions to avoid paying taxes, yet spend money on expensive financial advice, high-interest loans, etc? | One is a choice the other is not. While they are both liabilities on the balance sheet, in the real world they are quite different. We do not feel as much ownership over our money that goes to interest payments as we do over our tax payments. Taxes pay for our government and the services it provides. Interest, on t... |
The Benefits/Disadvantages of using a credit card | An advantage of using a major credit card is that they act as a buffer and source of recourse between you and the merchant. Cheated and the store won’t answer you letters? Call Visa (or more accuratly, call the number on the back of the card). (That is, #2 on this answer, which you can also reference for a whole list o... |
Is losing money in my 401K normal? | While historical performance is not necessarily indicative of future performance, I like to look at the historical performance of the markets for context. Vanguard's portfolio allocation models is one source for this data. Twenty years is a long term timeline. If you're well diversified in passively managed index funds... |
How to calculate average drawdown of a trading system? | First of all, I think I'll clear off some confusion in the topic. The Sterling Ratio is a very simple investment portfolio measurement that fits nicely to the topic of personal finance, although not so much to a foreign exchange trading system. The Sterling Ratio is mainly used in the context of hedge funds to measure ... |
Why are there many small banks and more banks in the U.S.? | Wikipedia has a good summary: Historically, branch banking in the United States - especially interstate branch banking - was viewed unfavorably by regulatory authorities, and this was codified with the enactment of the McFadden Act of 1927, which specifically prohibited interstate banking. Over the next few decades, so... |
What effect would sovereign default of a European country have on personal debt or a mortgage? | If the default happens through mass monetary inflation rather than openly ("We're not paying interest on our bonds") then make sure you pay off your house. There may not be a very long window to do so. If the currency becomes worthless, then it depends on what you have of value that would be accepted by the lender as ... |
Would betting on fallen (blue chip) stocks be a good strategy? | You can't do this automatically; you want to understand whether the drop is from a short-term high. is likely to be a short-term low, or reflects an actual change in how folks expect the company to do in the future. Having said that, some people do favor a strategy which resembles this, betting on what are known as "th... |
Changing Bank Account Number regularly to reduce fraud | Couple of my friends went through a fraud agent who ran off with their money and the landlords were none the wiser. So it always pays to be a bit diligent. Are they a well known letting agents nationally ? Many agents do have different accounts to manage their properties. Yours seems a case as such probably i.e. they ... |
Is there a list of OTC stocks being added to the major exchanges? | Check your broker's IPO list. Adding a new stock to a stock exchange is called "Initial Public Offering" (IPO), and most brokers have a list of upcoming IPO's in which their clients can participate. |
If I own x% of company A, and A buys company B, do I own x% of B? | No, thanks to the principle of corporate personhood. The legal entity (company C) is the owner and parent of the private company (sub S). You and C are separate legal entities, as are C and S. This principle helps to legally insulate the parties for purposes such as liability, torts, taxes, and so forth. If company ... |
How to protect a Stock you still want to own from a downturn? | Adding on to all the fine answers, you can consider selling a covered call. You will have to own a minimum of 100 shares. It will offer a bit of protection, but limit your upside. If your confident long term, but expect a broader market pull back then a covered call might give you that small protection your looking for... |
Currently sole owner of a property. My girlfriend is looking to move in with me and is offering to pay 'rent'. Am I at risk here? | With regard to worries about ownership: I'll point you towards this - The Cohabitants Rights Bill currently in First Reading at the House of Lords. Without a date for even the second reading yet. In short the Bill is attempting to redress is the lack of rights when a non-married relationship ends when compared to marr... |
Questioning my Realtor | A mortgage lender will not usually lend more than they could get if they had to repossess the property and sell it to recover their investment (in the U.S. it is generally accepted that 80% of market value is the golden number that makes the mortgage work). That's why an appraisal is required. Even with 50% down, the ... |
Does it make sense to trade my GOOGL shares for GOOG and pocket the difference? | Too much fiddling with your portfolio if the difference is 3-4% or less (as it's become in recent months). Hands off is the better advice. As for buying shares, go for whichever is the cheapest (i.e. Goog rather than Googl) because the voting right with the latter is merely symbolic. And who attends shareholders' me... |
Where should I invest to hedge against the stock market going down? | If you believe the stock market will be down 20-30% in the next few months, sell your stock holdings, buy a protective put option for the value of the holdings that you want to keep. That would be hedging against it. Anything more is speculating that the market will fall. |
Why do stocks gap up after a buyout is announced? | The price gaps up because the offer is for a price above the current price. Therefore people want to buy now before the price jumps to the offer level. Of course it does depend on the tone of the announcement, which party is making the announcement, and are they announcing an offer or a deal. If the price is $10, and ... |
Prepaying a loan: Shouldn't the interest be recalculated like a shorter loan? | If you take a loan, you make a contract with your lender, let's call them "bank" (even if it might not be a real bank). This loan contract contains an agreed-upon way of paying back the loan. Both sides agreed upon these conditions. Any change of it (like paying back early) needs the consent of both sides. So, in g... |
how does one see the CBOE VIX index on Google Finance? | You can pull up the VIX index on Google Finance by entering INDEXCBOE:VIX |
Does borrowing from my 401(k) make sense in my specific circumstance? | I completely agree with Pete that a 401(k) loan is not the answer, but I have an alternate proposal: Reduce your 401(k) contribution down to the 4% that you get a match on. If you are cash poor now and have debts to be cleaned up, those need to be addressed before retirement savings. You'll have plenty of time to mak... |
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