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question regarding W4 | Yes. W4 determines how much your employer will withhold from your wages. Leaving everything at default would mean that your salary is your only taxable income, and you only take default deductions. Your employee will calculate your tax withholding based on that. But, if your salary is >200k, I assume that you have othe... |
Renting or Buying an House | I actually didn't do the math with your numbers, but I recall Sal from Khan Academy did a nice video about your question, challenging the notion that it is always better to buy. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YL10H_EcB-E |
What should a 21 year old do with £60,000 ($91,356 USD) inheritance? | Depending on where you live in the UK, buying a house sooner might be a better option. I would echo the advice about putting some money away into a "rainy day" fund etc. above but I know that in my area house prices are going up by around 7% per year. I bought a house two years ago and I'm paying 4% interest on my mort... |
Which is better when working as a contractor, 1099 or incorporating? | I'll just re-post my comment as an answer as i disagree with Michael Pryor. According to this article (and few others) you may save money by incorporating. These factors don’t change the general payroll tax advantage of an S corporation, however: A S corporation can often save business owners substantial amount... |
Leasing a car I intend to buy | You are still paying a heavy price for the 'instant gratification' of driving (renting) a brand-new car that you will not own at the end of the terms. It is not a good idea in your case, since this luxury expense sounds like a large amount of money for you. Edited to better answer question The most cost effective solu... |
Is it smarter to buy a small amount of an ETF every 2 or 3 months, instead of monthly? | By not timing the market and being a passive investor, the best time to invest is the moment you have extra money (usually when wages are received). The market trends up. $10 fee on $2000 represents 0.5% transaction cost, which is borderline prohibitive. I would suggest running simulations, but I suspect that 1 month... |
Are large companies more profitable than small ones? | Small companies could have growth prospects. Large companies may not have that many. So look at ROE of companies by quatile to determine which companies have better growth. |
What caused this drop? | I do not fully understand the transactions involved, but it appears that there was a reverse stock split (20:1) and some legal status change as well on June 29th. This seems to be the cause for the change in valuation of the stock as the dates match the drop. https://www.otcmarkets.com/stock/RMSLD/filings |
Taxable income on full-time job + business earnings | I'm not sure I am fully understanding the nuance of your question, but based on your answer in the comments you and your business are not separate legal entities. So your income is the full $70K, there is no distinct business to have income. If you clarify your question to include why you want to know this I might be a... |
Risk and reward of a synthetic option position | You sold a call, and have a risk if the stock rises. You bought a put and gain when the stock drops. You, sir, have a synthetic short position. It's Case 3 from your linked example: Suppose you own Long Stock and the company is going to report earnings but you’re going on vacation. How can you hedge your position w... |
In US, is it a good idea to hire a tax consultant for doing taxes? | It's going to depend entirely on your tax situation, its complexity, and your willingness/interest in dealing with tax filings. Personally I find that not only do I not enjoy dealing with figuring out my taxes, but I don't know even a fraction of the possible deductions available and all the clever ways to leverage th... |
How can I set up a recurring payment to an individual (avoiding fees)? | I think about as close as you're going to get is to use a personal PayPal account, and set up a reminder to yourself to log in and send the money. (Because, as you said, setting up a recurring payment is a business account thing.) From PayPal's website: Sending money – Personal payments: It's free within the U.S. to s... |
How should I calculate the opportunity cost of using a 401(k) loan? | Make sure that when you have the loan you still contribute enough to get the company match. For example: An inability to maximize the match might need to be figured into the opportunity cost of the loan. Some companies will suspend your contributions for a specific number of months for a hardship withdraw. Make sure ... |
Doctor's office won't submit claim to insurance after 5 months | I'm a business law student, so medical stuff isn't really my specialty. I'll share with you what I know though. First, as to the legality, I'm not aware of anything making it illegal for them to consider their business with you concluded. Absent any contract between you and the doctor, it seems to me that you agreed to... |
Is there a government-mandated resource that lists the shareholders of a public company? | You can obtain a stocklist if you file a lawsuit as a shareholder against the company demanding that you receive the list. It's called an inspection case. The company then has to go to Cede and/or the Depository Trust Company who then compiles the NOBO COBO list of beneficiary stockholders. SEC.gov gives you a very lim... |
Do I have to explain the source of *all* income on my taxes? | Nah. Fill it in on the line that says "Other Income" with type of "5th Amendment". There's lots of reasons why you might want to do this, and it's the government's job to find out which one, and they're not allowed to use the bare fact that you put 5th Amendment there to open an investigation. |
Are stores that offer military discounts compensated by the government? | Nope, only base commissaries or BX/PX's are subsidized. The rest is just done for goodwill/marketing purposes. |
Does a company's stock price give any indication to or affect their revenue? | If the company reported a loss at the previous quarter when the stock what at say $20/share, and now just before the company's next quarterly report, the stock trades around $10/share. There is a misunderstanding here, the company doesn't sell stock, they sell products (or services). Stock/share traded at equity market... |
Retired, want to buy a mobile home; how to finance? | Do you think your 403b will earn more than the mortgage interest rate? If so, then mortgage seems the way to go. Conservative investment strategies might not earn much more than a 3-4% mortgage, and if you're paying 5-6% it's more likely you'll be earning less than the mortgage. From another point of view, though, I w... |
Should you keep your stocks if you are too late to sell? | The stock price is not only based on the general market trend and the stock's current profitability and prospects, but is also based on prediction of how the stock's prospects might change in the future. In almost every case, there are professional investors analysing the stock's future prospects and considering whethe... |
Financed medical expenses and tax deductions | You deduct expenses when you incur them (when you pay the hospital, for example). Medical expenses are deducted on Schedule A, subject to 7.5% AGI threshold. Financed or not - doesn't matter. The medical expense is deductible (if it is medically necessary), the loan interest is not. |
Hdgs to be removed from the S&P/ASX Indices | As I said in the comments, from the SMH article, you will get $3.30 per share you hold in Wotif. The bit about Wotif veing replaced in the S&P ASX200 index by another company has no impact on your shares in Wotif. It just means that the index (the amalgamation of 200 companies) will have one drop out (Wotif) and anothe... |
How to diversify IRA portfolio given fund minimum investments and IRA contribution limits? | If you have other savings, the diversification occurs across the accounts. e.g. my 401(k) has access to the insanely low .02% fee VIIIX (Vanguard S&P fund) You can bet it's 100% in. My IRAs are the other assets that make the full picture look better allocated. A new investor has the issue you suggest, although right n... |
What is a Master Limited Partnership (MLP) & how is it different from plain stock? | MLP stands for master limited partnership. Investors who buy into one are limited partners, rather than shareholders, and have their taxable income reported on K-1s, rather than 1099s. MLPs are engaged in businesses (e.g. real estate, natural resources) that generate a lot of cash that doesn't need to be "reinvested," ... |
Does a larger down payment make an offer stronger? | There is considerable truth to what your realtor said about the Jersey City NJ housing market these days. It is a "hot" area with lots of expensive condos being bought up by people working on Wall Street in NYC (very easy commute by train, etc) and in many cases, the offers to purchase can exceed the asking price signi... |
How to deposit a cheque issued to an associate in my business into my business account? | Just have the associate sign the back and then deposit it. It's called a third party cheque and is perfectly legal. I wouldn't be surprised if it has a longer hold period and, as always, you don't get the money if the cheque doesn't clear. Now, you may have problems if it's a large amount or you're not very well know... |
What is a good way to save money on car expenses? | Apparently, if you keep your tires' air filled to the recommended level, your car will burn less gas. I loved this article at WikiHow, which confirmed what I had heard about air in tires, and had others to suggest, such as removing unnecessary items from inside and on your car (such as bike racks, trailer balls) as t... |
I bought a new car for a month and wanted to return it | Following up on @petebelford's answer: If you can find a less expensive loan, you can refinance the car and reduce the total interest you pay that way. Or, if your loan permits it (not all do; talk to the bank which holds the loan and,/or read the paperwork you didn't look at), you may be able to make additional paymen... |
Am I considered in debt if I pay a mortgage? | If you owe money to someone else then you are in debt, at least in the common meaning of the word. What you happen to own, or what you spent that money on doesn't alter that fact. Are people considered in debt if their only 'debt' is the mortgage/loan for their house, or are these people excluded from the statistic? T... |
What should I consider when factoring fluctuating exchange rates into risk/return of overseas stock trading? | Which of these two factors is likely to be more significant? There is long term trend that puts one favourable with other. .... I realise that I could just as easily have lost 5% on the LSE and made 5% back on the currency, leaving me with my original investment minus various fees; or to have lost 5% on both. Yes that... |
Can I get a tax deduction for PMI? | No. And I'll let my good friend and fellow blogger Kay Bell answer in some detail, in her article Deducting private mortgage insurance. |
Who are the sellers for the new public stocks? | Usually the big institution that "floats" the stock on the market is the one to offer it to you. The IPO company doesn't sell the stock itself, the big investment bank does it for them. IPO's shareholders/employees are generally not allowed to sell their shares at the IPO until some time passes. Then you usually see th... |
What's the best way to make money from a market correction? | What's the best strategy? Buy low and sell high. Now. A lot of people try to do this. A few are successful, but for the most part, people who try to time the market end up worse. A far more successful strategy is to save over your entire lifetime, put the money into a very low-cost market fund, and just let the average... |
Offer Price for my stock not shown on quote and a subsequent sale higher than my offer | It depends on the way you have directed the order and the execution agreement you have signed with your broker. In case of DMA (direct market access) you would direct your order to the specific exchange - and that exchange would post your offer, assuming you did not tag it as hidden. However, if you just gave your orde... |
Might I need a credit score to rent, or for any other non-borrowing finances? | Alas, institutions do not always act rationally, and being an outlier by never having debt may be bad enough. Therein is your problem. The question, then, is do you want to do business with institutions that are not acting rationally? While I cannot specifically speak to Canadian business practices, I have to imagine t... |
Ballpark salary equivalent today of “healthcare benefits” in the US? | Many answers here have given what look to be useful perspectives on your question. I want to point out an interesting technical issue. If an employer contracts with an insurer, it agrees to cover all employees (or all that fill some pre-specified definition and no one else), and to offer only a limited range of option... |
Are parking spaces and garage boxes a good investment? | If the company that owns the lot is selling them it is doing so because it feels it will make more money doing so. You need to read carefully what it is you are getting and what the guarantees are from the owner of the property and the parking structure. I have heard from friends in Chicago that said there are people... |
Intentions of Deductible Amount for Small Business | If your sole proprietorship losses exceed all other sources of taxable income, then you have what's called a Net Operating Loss (NOL). You will have the option to "carry back" and amend a return you filed in the last 2 years where you owed tax, or you can "carry forward" the losses and decrease your taxes in a future y... |
Why are Rausch Coleman houses so cheap? Is it because they don't have gas? | I walked into my sister's new Rausch Coleman house this afternoon to help her move in and told her to make sure that they put on the hot water heater room door in the garage on when they come back to take care of the final touch ups. I also said and don't let them forget to paint the garage because I noticed while driv... |
Restricting a check from being deposited via cell phone | I agree with you that smartphone deposits make you more vulnerable to a variety of issues. Checks are completely insecure, since anyone with your routing/account number can create a check, and individuals are less likely to shred or otherwise secure the check properly. Ways to control this risk are: |
What should a 21 year old do with £60,000 ($91,356 USD) inheritance? | The above answers are great. I would only add to the "rainy day" part, that even though the cash provides a good cushion, "a stormy day" could mean even losing those emergency savings to the unignorable randomness that governs the world economy. Though unlikely, what happened to the russian ruble and the latest decisio... |
Purpose of having good credit when you are well-off? | Your dad may have paid an "opportunity cost" for that outright purchase. If the money he saved had been invested elsewhere, he may have made more money. If he was that well off, then his interest rate should have been the lowest possible. My own father is a multi-millionaire (not myself) and he could afford to have ... |
What is a formula for calculating equity accumulated while repaying car loan? | By the sounds of things, you're not asking for a single formula but how to do the analysis... And for the record you're focusing on the wrong thing. You should be focusing on how much it costs to own your car during that time period, not your total equity. Formulas: I'm not sure how well you understand the nuts and b... |
Should I charge my children interest when they borrow money? | Because this is Money.SE and you're connecting it to offspring, I'd think about a discussion with them to get their agreements. From my perspective, anything (my wife and) I have will go to offspring in the end. As such, everything borrowed and not repaid simply reduces the estate by that much. Among multiple offspring... |
Options revisited: Gold fever | Make a portfolio with gold and put options for gold. If the price rises again, sell a part of your gold and use it to buy new put options. If the price goes down, then use your put options to sell gold at a favorable price. |
Creating S-Corp: Should I Name My Wife as a Director/Shareholder? | There are many aspects to consider in deciding what sort of company you want to form. Instead of an S-corporation, you should determine whether it would be better to form a Limited Liability Company (LLC), Limited Partnership (LP) or even a professional company (PC). Littleadv is correct: There is minimal benefit in fo... |
What is the difference between “good debt” vs. “bad debt”? | I think people are conflating two orthogonal sets of terms. Unsecured/secured and good/bad are not synonyms. Debt may be secured or unsecured. If I take a loan against a car or house it is typically secured, so the object is collateral against the loan. Bad debt in financial terms is a loan that is not expected to be r... |
How do I use investments to lower my taxes [US]? | Consider the individual who pays $1,000,000 in taxes. His/her income must be substantial. That is what one should aim for. Investments for the most part, do not lower ones taxes. In one of John Grisham's novels, tax shelters are being discussed. Sorry, I do not remember which book. The discussion goes something ... |
How to calculate my real earnings from hourly temp-to-hire moving to salaried employee? | This arrangement is a scam to get around certain tax and benefits laws, both State and Federal. I know they can't get away with this with a person-as-contractor, but this "he's not a contractor, he's a business owner" may move it into a gray area. (I used to know this stuff cold, but I've been retired for a while.) The... |
US tax returns for a resident - No US income and indian shares | I'm assuming that by saying "I'm a US resident now" you're referring to the residency determination for tax purposes. Should I file a return in the US even though there is no income here ? Yes. US taxes its residents for tax purposes (which is not the same as residents for immigration or other purposes) on worldwide in... |
How can I stop wasting food? | Most basic tip: Don't go to the grocery store hungry. What we do to minimize food waste: On Sunday when my wife and I go grocery shopping, we figure out what meals we are going to have for dinner that week, and we only buy what we need for those meals. We also try to decide in advance what night(s) we are going out fo... |
Curious about Liverpool FC situation | AFAIK gillet and hicks received massive loans to fund their purchase and they have not been keeping up the repayments so now the creditors own the club. Its like getting a car on the never never, or a mortgage, i fyou don't keep up repayments the credit company take back the car or the bank repossess your house. I am s... |
Pros & cons of investing in gold vs. platinum? | @Michael Kjörling answered why platinum is in demand like it is. But it missed some of the significant risks so I will address some of them. Platinum is much more rare than gold. But not because there is less platinum than gold just that the known existing platinum veins are smaller and more disbursed. So if a larg... |
Is it possible to buy commodity ETFs (e.g. silver) through Questrade? | Questrade is a Canada based broker offering US stock exchange transactions as well. It says this right on their homepage. ETFs are traded like stocks, so the answer is yes. Why did you think they only offered funds? |
I am an American citizen but have never lived in the US. Do I need to fill a W8-BEN or a W-9? | Your employer can require a W8-BEN or W-9 if you are a contractor, and in some special cases. I believe this bank managing your stock options can as well; it's to prove you don't have "foreign status". See the IRS's W-9 instructions for details. |
Can banks deny that you've paid your loan? | If the loan is for a car, or mortgage there is specific paperwork that is processed when the loan payments have been completed. For other types of loans ask the lender, what will they give you regarding the payoff of the loan. Keep this paperwork, in hard copy and electronic form forever. |
Are there contracts for fixed pay vs. fixed pay rates? | Yes. I have personally signed such contracts (fixed budget software development) and lost money every single time. And yes, it is quite possible for you to get paid under minimum wage if you take too long. Scope creep is the primary culprit for these kinds of contracts, so make sure you put together iron-clad explanati... |
Should I try to negotiate a signing bonus? | I was able to request a modest advance on my salary when I started my first job out of college, for essentially the same reason. Alternatively, you might consider requesting a small personal loan from friends or family. If you have a credit card that can cover things like grocery expenses for that period, this may also... |
What to ask Warren Buffet at the Berkshire Hathaway shareholder meeting? | For whatever it's worth, when I went to the meeting a couple of years ago, the question and answer segment is mostly students asking how to pick a stock or what book they should read. I'm sure someone else will ask but it would be interesting to hear their take on the Syrian refugee situation in Europe and how it may ... |
Shares; are they really only for the rich/investors? | I think small sums invested regularly over long-term can do good for you, things to consider: I would go with an index fund and contribute there there regularly. |
Shares; are they really only for the rich/investors? | Put £50 away as often as possible, and once it's built up to £500, invest in a stockmarket ETF. Repeat until you retire. |
Does a withdrawal of $10000 for 1st home purchase count against Roth IRA basis? | From Schwab With a Roth, withdrawals of contributions are always tax-free because you've already paid income taxes on that money. So are withdrawals of earnings of up to $10,000 under the homebuyer exemption, assuming you've had the Roth for five-plus years. But if you withdraw more than $10,000 in earnings, th... |
Where can I find announcements of official GDP figures for the US and other countries? | There are tons of data provided on the CIA - The World Factbook webpage. Among the rest, there are the GDP values as well. The World Factbook provides information on the history, people, government, economy, geography, communications, transportation, military, and transnational issues for 267 world entities. Our ... |
Are lottery tickets ever a wise investment provided the jackpot is large enough? | Question: Does a billion dollars make you 1,000 times more happy than a million dollars? Answer: It doesn't. What counts is not the amount of money, but the subjective improvement that it makes to your life. And that improvement isn't linear, which is way the expected value of the inrease in your happiness / welfare /... |
How To Record Income As An Affiliate ( UK ) | Adsense don't pay you daily. They pay you every month (as they have to calculate the final value). I'd say you only have to declare it when it hits your bank account. £60 actually isn't that much. It only took me a couple of months of just making a few quid, to making enough to get a monthly payment, and I only tot up ... |
Is it true that if I work 6 months per year, it is better than to work for 1 calendar year and take a break for 1 year? | Yes, if you can split your income up over multiple years it will be to your advantage over earning it all in one year. The reasons are as you mentioned, you get to apply multiple deductions/credits/exemptions to the same income. Rather than just 1 standard deduction, you get to deduct 2 standard deductions, you can do... |
Can future rental income be applied to present debt-to-income ratio when applying for second mortgage? | They will include the rental income into the calculation. They don't give you a 100% credit for the income because they have to factor that you might have a gap between tenants. Years ago they only credited me with 66% of the expected monthly income. Example: This expense was then supposed to come from the 10% of my ... |
Are Certificates of Deposit worth it compared to investing in the stock market? | For the specific example you gave, a CD with a 0.05% rate of return, I'd shop around some more, that's a VERY low rate of return. A more realistic one would be 0.5%, depending on the terms. As has been mentioned, CDs are good when you need to preserve your capital. What might be a situation for that? They are great for... |
Do ETF dividends make up for fees? | Any ETF has expenses, including fees, and those are taken out of the assets of the fund as spelled out in the prospectus. Typically a fund has dividend income from its holdings, and it deducts the expenses from the that income, and only the net dividend is passed through to the ETF holder. In the case of QQQ, it cer... |
Do you avoid tax when taking a home equity loan? | You'll be taxed when you sell the house, but not before that (or if you do some other transaction that realizes the gain, talk to your real estate attorney or accountant for more details). A Home Equity line-of-credit is simply a secured loan: it's a loan, conditioned on if you fail to pay it back, they have a lien on ... |
What should I be doing to protect myself from identity theft? | Every 90 days add an Initial Fraud Alert to each of the 3 major credit bureaus. |
How can I figure out how much to bid on a parking space? | Scenario 1: Assume that you plan to keep the parking space for the rest of your life and collect the income from the rental. You say these spaces rent for $250 per month and there are fees of $1400 per year. Are there any other costs? Like would you be responsible for the cost of repaving at some point? But assuming th... |
Should I buy a house or am I making silly assumptions that I can afford it? | Having convinced myself that there is no point of paying someone's else mortgage Somewhat rhetorical this many years later, but I expect some other kid forcefed the obsession with propping up the housing market might be repeating the nonsense about "paying someone else's mortgage" and read this. Will you be buying yo... |
Credit Card Purchase - 'it is the bank's money no[t] yours' ? | Yes, they're referring to the credit card dispute (chargeback) process. In the case of dispute, credit card company will refund/freeze your charge so you don't have to pay until the dispute is resolved (or at all, if resolved in your favor). If the dispute is resolved in your favor, your credit card company will charge... |
Should I save for my children's university education in Canada, or am I better off paying off loans and gaining debt room? | At the very least I'd look closely at what you could get from the RESP (Registered Education Savings Plan). Depending on your income the government are quite generous with grants and bonds you can get over $11,000 of 'free' money if you qualify for everything CESG - Canada Education Savings Grant By applying for the C... |
What's the best online tool that can track my entire portfolio including gains/losses? | You can use a tool like WikiInvest the advantage being it can pull data from most brokerages and you don't have to enter them manually. I do not know how well it handles dividends though. |
Google Finance: Input Parameters For Simple Moving Averages | The difference is that for the one year time frame the data is represented based on daily data and the SMA is 20 days, whilst for the 5 year timeframe the data is automatically represented as weekly data with the SMA represented by 20 weeks not 20 days anymore. This happens due to daily data on this chart being too muc... |
Is gold really an investment or just a hedge against inflation? | Gold is not an investment. Gold is a form of money. It and silver have been used as money much longer than paper. Paper money is a relatively recent invention (less than 350 years old) with a horrible track record of preserving wealth. When I exchange my paper US dollars for gold I'm exchanging one form of money fo... |
Medical Bill Consolidation | There are definitely ways to retroactively consolidate medical bills -- there's an entire industry of companies offering debt consolidation (many of which are scummy/predatory, be careful! See https://www.consumer.ftc.gov/articles/0150-coping-debt and some decent articles at http://blog.readyforzero.com/are-there-legit... |
Is this follow-up after a car crash a potential scam? | Do not give them any money until you have a signed contract that releases your liability completely. It's imperative that this contract be drafted correctly. The contract needs proper consideration (money in exchange for release of liability), among other things. In other words, talk to a lawyer if you want to go this ... |
How common is “pass-through” health insurance? | Even though this isn't really personal finance related I still feel like there are some misconceptions here that could be addressed. I don't know where you got the phrase "pass-through" insurance from. What you're describing is a self-funded plan. In a self-funded arrangement an employer contracts a third-party-admin... |
Ways to trade the Euro debt crisis | The way I am trading this is: I am long the USD / EUR in cash. I also hold USD / EUR futures, which are traded on the Globex exchange. I am long US equities which have a low exposure to Europe and China (as I expect China to growth significantly slower if the European weakens). I would not short US equities because E... |
W-8BEN? What's the tax from selling my software to a U.S. company, from abroad? | You should not form a company in the U.S. simply to get the identification number required for a W-8BEN form. By establishing a U.S.-based company, you'd be signing yourself up for a lot of additional hassle! You don't need that. You're a European business, not a U.S. business. Selling into the U.S. does not require... |
Can the Securities Investor Protection Corporation (SIPC) itself go bankrupt? | SIPC is a corporation - a legal entity separate from its owners. In the case of SIPC, it is funded through the fees paid by its members. All the US brokers are required to be members and to contribute to SIPC funds. Can it go bankrupt? Of course. Any legal entity can go bankrupt. A person can go bankrupt. A country can... |
How does a stake sale affect a company's stock price? | Is it normal for such transactions to create new outstanding shares? Yes a company can create new shares or a Majority share holder can sell some of his stake or it can be a mix of both. how will this news affect the short-term and long-term price of the company's stock? This is opinion based and not apt for this site.... |
What are the consequences of being classified as a day trader, in Australia? | In Australia the ATO can determine if you are considered a shareholder or a share trader. The ATO defines a shareholder as: A shareholder is a person who holds shares for the purpose of earning income from dividends and similar receipts. Whilst they define a share trader as: A share trader is a person who carries out b... |
How much life insurance do I need? | After some thought, I follow Dave Ramsey's advice because it's simple and I can do the math in my head - no online calculator needed. :) You need Life Insurance if someone depends on your income. You can replace your income with a single lump sum of 8-10 times your current income where those who need your income, can... |
Buying my first car out of college | I support the strategy to buy a less expensive car at the outset and then save for that more expensive car. You mentioned that you would be able to save $9000 by the time you had to start making payments. That sounds like a great budget for car shopping. For $9k you can get a dependable used car. If you find the right... |
What to do with south african currency free fall | Use other currencies, if available. I'm not familiar with the banking system in South Africa; if they haven't placed any currency freezes or restrictions, you might want to do this sooner than later. In full crises, like Russian and Ukraine, once the crisis worsened, they started limiting purchases of foreign currenci... |
How should I prepare for the next financial crisis? | Those ‘crises’ are only an issue if you need your savings during the time of crisis. If you have time to sit it out, you should just do that, and come out of the crisis with a gain. People that lose money during a crisis lose it because they sell their investments during the crisis, either because they had to or becaus... |
Is the stock market a zero-sum game? | Suppose everybody stopped all economic activity right now. No more work for others, no payments, no trade in kind or otherwise. Would average wealth stay the same? Of course not. Economic activity is not a zero sum game. Most of our economic activity is organized in the form of companies. If the companies manage to mak... |
How to deal with the credit card debt from family member that has passed away? | You also might want to see what sort of documentation the credit card company has. Companies can get pretty lazy sometimes about recordkeeping; there have been cases where banks tried to foreclose on a property but weren't able to produce documents establishing the mortgage. With your father dead, is there anything oth... |
Are stocks suitable for mid term money storage? | The volatility of an index fund should usually be a lot lower than that of an individual stock. However even with a broad index fund you should consider the fact that being down by 10% in the time frame you refer to is quite possible! So is being up by 10% of course. A corporate bond might be a better choice if you can... |
Canadian in California - filing taxes as a non-resident | What do you mean by "Canadian income"? Was it income paid to you as wages for the job you did in the US? Or rental/interest income in Canada? If the former - then it doesn't go to NEC, it goes to the main part of the return. If the latter - it doesn't appear on your NR return at all. Yes, it is to validate your residen... |
Why would selling off some stores improve a company's value? | I'd like to modify the "loss" idea that's been mentioned in the other two answers. I don't think a retail location needs to be losing money to be a candidate for sale. Even if a retail location is not operating at a loss, there may be incentive to sell it off to free up cash for a better-performing line of business. ... |
How can I avoid international wire fees or currency transfer fees? | I did some empirical research, comparing the exchange rates for wire transfers vs. the exchange rates for ATM withdrawals. With my bank, wire transfers typically take a 4% float off the exchange rate. ATM withdrawals seem to take just over 2%. And ATM withdrawals don't have a wire transfer fee, as long as I'm withdrawi... |
Why might it be advisable to keep student debt vs. paying it off quickly? | There are several ways you can get out of paying your student loans back in the USA: You become disabled and the loan is dismissed once verified by treating doctor or the Social Security Administration. You become a peace officer. You become a teacher; generally K-12, but I have heard from the DOE that teachers at stat... |
What are the top “market conditions” to follow? | The very term 'market conditions' is subjective and needs context. There are 'market conditions' that favor buying (such as post crash) or market conditions that favor selling (such as the peak of a bubble). Problem with mutual funds is you can't really pick these points yourself; because you're effectively outsourci... |
Why does Yahoo Finance and Google Finance not match historical prices? | I work on a buy-side firm, so I know how these small data issues can drive us crazy. Hope my answer below can help you: Reason for price difference: 1. Vendor and data source Basically, data providers such as Google and Yahoo redistribute EOD data by aggregating data from their vendors. Although the raw data is taken ... |
What is an accounting term that factors growth as a function of time and discount rate? | Since you are trying to compare corporate bonds that have a defined coupon over the specified time of the bond. Why not use a simple Net Present Value (NPV) calculation. Refer: Net Present Value (NPV) You could use the discounting factor as the current repo rate of your central bank. As I said, this would be a simple f... |
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