Question stringlengths 14 166 | Answer stringlengths 3 10.6k |
|---|---|
How smart is it really to take out a loan right now? | so this is a loan for a house? a loan on a house? a new mortgage? you shouldn't just get a loan for the hell of it any time. interests rates are low because the yields on US treasuries have been pushed closer to zero, and thats pretty much that. the risk is on the bank that approves the loan, and not you. (your ability... |
Why does an option lose time value faster as it approaches expiry | Not cumulative volatility. It's cumulative probability density. Time value isn't linear because PDFs (probability distribution function) aren't linear. It's a type of distribution e.g. "bell-curves") These distributions are based on empirical data i.e. what we observe. BSM i.e. Black-Scholes-Merton includes the factors... |
Should I pay off my car loan within the year? | Your plan isn't bad, but it probably isn't worth the cost for the small amount of credit building it will achieve. If you do decide to continue with it though, you'll save in interest if you make the big payment now rather than in 6 months. In other words, you can take the minimum payment, multiply it by 5, subtract th... |
Is the return on investment better with high or low dividends? | Let's say two companies make 5% profit every year. Company A pays 5% dividend every year, but company B pays no dividend but grows its business by 5%. (And both spend the money needed to keep the business up-to-date, that's before profits are calculated). You are right that with company B, the company will grow. So if... |
Are REIT worth it and is it a good option to generate passive income for a while? | One way is to think of a REIT as a fully managed portfolio of real estate investments. Risks and returns are averaged across the real estate portfolio and managed by experts, possibly industry leading experts. REITs have a well documented track record you can research - most individuals do not. Many individuals have l... |
Analysis of Valuation-Informed Indexing? | This is Rob Bennett, the fellow who developed the Valuation-Informed Indexing strategy and the fellow who is discussed in the comment above. The facts stated in that comment are accurate -- I went to a zero stock allocation in the Summer of 1996 because of my belief in Robert Shiller's research showing that valuations ... |
JCI headache part 2: How to calculate cost basis / tax consequences of JCI -> ADNT spinoff? | I am using the same logic as the two answers above. I got almost the same result ($46.60 instead of $46.59 per share) using the sold fractional share basis. However, the JCI Qualified Dividend (on the 1099-DIV, not the 1099-B) divided by the number of shares spun off yields a basis per share of only $40.97 That compare... |
Should I put more money down on one property and pay it off sooner or hold on to the cash? | I'm a little confused on the use of the property today. Is this place going to be a personal residence for you for now and become a rental later (after the mortgage is paid off)? It does make a difference. If you can buy the house and a 100% LTV loan would cost less than 125% of comparable rent ... then buy the house... |
What is a good way to save money on car expenses? | Can you tell I'm having fun with this question? Here's another great list, from Finally Frugal, which includes the above items, but also these gems: Avoid idling. Now, this just annoys me. Walking past a line of idling cars at the transit center waiting for their human 'pickup', makes me crazy! It makes me want to kno... |
What determines deal price on stock exchange? [duplicate] | Price is decided by what shares are offered at what prices and who blinks first. The buyer and seller are both trying to find the best offer, for their definition of best, within the constraints then have set on their bid or ask. The seller will sell to the highest bid they can get that they consider acceptable. The b... |
Why isn't money spent on necessities deductible from your taxes? | The answer is simple. You can generally claim a deduction for an expense if that expense was used to derive an income. Of course social policy sometimes gets in the way and allows for deductions where they usually wouldn't be allowed. Your rent is not tax deductible because this expense is not used to derive your incom... |
Clarify on some Stocks Terminology | Yep, you have it pretty much right. The volume is the number of shares traded that day. The ticker is giving you the number of shares bought at that price in a given transaction, the arrow meaning whether the stock is up or down on the day at that price. Institutional can also refer to pensions, mutuals funds, corp... |
What's the best way to manage all the 401K accounts I've accumulated from my past jobs? | I rolled mine over from the company I was at into my own brokerage house. You can't roll them into a Roth IRA, so I needed to setup a traditional IRA. There is paperwork your old jobs can provide you. I had to put in some mailing addresses, some account numbers and turn them in. My broker received it, I chose what I... |
What is high trading volume in a stock indicative of? Is high liquidity a good thing or a bad thing? | In general, there should be a "liquidity premium" which means that less-liquid stocks should be cheaper. That's because to buy such a stock, you should demand a higher rate of return to compensate for the liquidity risk (the possibility that you won't be able to sell easily). Lower initial price = higher eventual rate ... |
Multi-user, non-US personal finance and budget software | I know exactly what you are talking about. You may like |
Does gold's value decrease over time due to the fact that it is being continuously mined? | does it mean uncontrolled severe deflation/inflation is more likely to occur compared to "normal" currencies such as USD, EUR etc? Look at the chart referenced in the link in your question. It took approximately 50 years for annual production of gold to double from 500 tons to 1000 tons. It took approximately 40 ye... |
How can this stock have an intra-day range of more than 90% on 24Aug2015? | As you know, the market is in turmoil today. At this moment, 11:45 am, the S&P is down 2.3%, 45 points. But, premarket, it was down 100 points. Now, premarket, I heard Jim Cramer say, "today is not the day to use market orders." Yes, on Mad Money, he seems a bit eccentric, but he does offer some wise advice at times. ... |
What happened to GOOG-stock? Why isn't it 1.000 USD? | The stock split, it is similar to what happened to Apple a little while back. When Google split 2 to 1, it means that each share holder got 2 shares for each 1 share they had and each share was 1/2 the price. |
What options do I have at 26 years old, with 1.2 million USD? | Lots of good advice so far. Here's some meta-advice. Read through everything here twice, and distill out what the big picture ideas are. Learn about what you need to know about them. Pick a strategy and/or long term goals. Work toward them. Get advice from many many places and distill it. This is currently known as cro... |
What are my options for this high interest student loan? | There is no magic formula to this, quite simply: earn, cut expenses, and pay. It sounds like you can use a little bit of help in the earning area. While it sounds like you are career focused (which is great) what else can you do to earn? Can you start a low cost of entry side business? Examples would include tutor... |
Why are typical 401(k) plan fund choices so awful? | To piggy back mbhunter's answer, the broker is going to find a way to make the amount of money they want, and either the employee or the company will foot that bill. But additionally, most small businesses want to compete and the market and offer benefits in the US. So they shop around, and maybe the boss doesn't have... |
Do “Instant Approved” credit card inquires appear on credit report? | You'll see a hard inquiry for both, but not necessarily on all three agencies (Experian, TransUnion and Equifax). I have both the Amazon Chase and Amazon Store Card. Amazon Chase, is obviously through Chase bank. Amazon Store Card is through GE Money. |
In today's low interest environment, is it generally more economical to buy or lease a new car in the US? | It's my understand that leasing is never the better overall deal, with the possible exception of a person who would otherwise buy a brand new car every 2 or 3 years, and does not drive a lot of miles. Note: in the case of a company car, Canadian taxes let you deduct the entire lease payment (which clearly has some prin... |
incorrect printed information on check stock | Probably a bad assumption, but I'm assuming your in the United States. Keep in mind, that the check number is printed in 2 places on the front of each check. First, in the upper right corner, and also along the bottom edge on of the check. Since the check number is scanned by the bank from the bottom edge of the check,... |
How to calculate cash loss over time? | While it is a true loss, as you've determined, is not a cash cost, per se. A cash cost would be a decrease in cash holdings. Inflation does not take your cash balance; it devalues it, so it is an accrued loss. Central banks are extremely lazy in determining inflation, so the highest resolution available at a public le... |
Why liquidity implies tight spread and low slippage | Theoretically, it's a question of rate of return. If a desired or acceptable rate of return for market makers' capital is X, and X is determined by the product of margin & turnover then higher turnover means lower margin for a constant X. Margin, in the case of trading, is the bid/ask spread, and turnover, in the case... |
Do I have to pay taxes on income from my website or profits? | I am not an accountant, but I do run a business in the UK and my understanding is that it's a threshold thing, which I believe is £2,500. Assuming you don't currently have to submit self assessment, and your additional income from all sources other than employment (for which you already pay tax) is less than £2,500, yo... |
Why liquidity implies tight spread and low slippage | You have just answered your question in the last sentence of your question: More volume just means more people are interested in the stock...i.e supply and demand are matched well. If the stock is illiquid there is more chance of the spread and slippage being larger. Even if the spread is small to start with, once a t... |
How to help a financially self destructive person? | I'm afraid your best recourse may be legal. I don't know that internet is a necessity, but the court would frown upon anyone paying $4K for rent but not being able to afford to heat the water or turn the lights on. $48K a year net should be enough for her to at least keep the kids with these things. I don't know that ... |
How can I calculate how much an option would be worth after X days if the underlying stock changed by +/- $Y? | You'd need to know the delta and the theta of the option. You can either calculate them yourself using a model like Black-Scholes (assuming you have a market price and can imply a volatility, and know the other factors that go into the model) or, you can see if your broker quotes "greeks" as well (mine does). The delta... |
How to measure a currencies valuation or devaluation in relevance to itself | As the value of a currency declines, commodities, priced in that currency, will rise. The two best commodities to see a change in would be oil and gold. |
Why would a long-term investor ever chose a Mutual Fund over an ETF? | http://www.efficientfrontier.com/ef/104/stupid.htm would have some data though a bit old about open-end funds vs an ETF that would be one point. Secondly, do you know that the Math on your ETF will always work out to whole numbers of shares or do you plan on using brokers that would allow fractional shares easily? This... |
Options on the E-mini S&P 500 Futures at the CME: when were EW3, the weekly Monday options and the weekly Wednesday options introduced? | The traditional E-mini S&P500 options (introduced on 09/09/97) already expire on the 3rd Friday, so there's no need for another "weekly" option that expires at the same time. |
Roth vs. Whole Insurance vs. Cash | Week after week, I make remarks regarding expenses within retirement accounts. A 401(k) with a 1% or greater fee is criminal, in my opinion. Whole life insurance usually starts with fees north of 2%, and I've seen as high as 3.5% per year. Compare that to my own 401(k) with charges .02% for its S&P fund. When pressed... |
Are lottery tickets ever a wise investment provided the jackpot is large enough? | Lottery tickets where I live are often for charity. The charity does good things with your money. So you can buy a ticket and feel good whether you win or not, so that makes it an investment in your own well-being. For some of us, who maybe buy a lottery ticket once a year, it's the fun you are paying for. You know you... |
Are ACH transfers between individuals possible? | Yes, many banks offer such a service. Often such payments can be made through their "bill pay" interface. You log in to your account on the bank's website, enter the recipient's routing and account numbers, and off you go. You could ask your bank whether they offer this. If not, you could change banks to one that does. |
Advice on replacing my savings account | Liquid cash (emergency, rainy day fund) should be safe from a loss in value. Mutual funds don't give you this, especially stock funds. You can find "high yield" savings accounts that are now at around .8% to .9% APY which is much better than .05% and will hopefully go up. Barclays US and American Express are two big... |
Why buy insurance? | As someone who has worked for both an insurance carrier and an insurance agent, the reason people buy insurance is two fold: to spread risk out, and to get the benefits (when applicable) of approaching risk as a group. What you are really doing when you buy insurance is you are buying in to a large group of people who ... |
Postbank (Germany) - transferring money to the US - what are the best options? | For those who are interested, I am answering my own question: We used Postbank and transferred 6000 Euro, we chose to Transfer in US$, and selected Shared Fees. There were three fees in total: All in all, I paid ~37$; this is about half of what I expected; and I got a perfect exchange rate. Postbank might have its down... |
Do I need another health insurance policy? | I understand that if I have multiple health insurance policies, I can only make claim from only one of them if ever I incur medical expenses (I'm from the Philippines). In the US, you cannot simultaneously submit a claim for payment of a medical bill, or request reimbursement for a bill already paid, to multiple insura... |
Why do US retirement funds typically have way more US assets than international assets? | You need growth in your retirement fund. Sad to say but the broad U.S. marks still has better growth perspective than the emerging markets. Look at China they are only at 6.7% growth for next year the same as this year. Russia's economy is shrinking. These are the other two super powers of 2015. The USA is still the b... |
1031 Exchange and Taxes? | You bought a rental property in 2001. Hopefully you paid fair value else other issues come into play. Say you paid $120K. You said you have been taking depreciation, which for residential real estate is taken over 27.5 years, so you are about halfway through. Since you don't depreciate land, you may have taken a total... |
How could a company survive just on operations cash flow, i.e. no earnings? | It is true that operation profit comes from gross profit however it is possible for a company to have negative net profit yet have postive cash flow , it has to do with the accounting practice A possible example is that a company has extremely high depreciation expense of fixed asset hence net profit will be negative b... |
In which country can I set up a small company so that I pay a lower rate of corporate tax? | Grass is always greener at the other side of the hill. Tax is only a small proportion of your costs. you could easily set up a small company in a so called tax haven. But are you willing to emigrate? If not, will the gain in less taxes cover the frequent travel costs? Even if you would like to emigrate less tax might ... |
To pay off a student loan, should I save up a lump sum payoff payment or pay extra each month? | Just one more thing to consider: a friend of mine had some student loan debt left over from graduate school. Years later, through his employer, he was able to apply for and receive a grant that paid off the remainder of his student loan. It was literally free money, and a significant amount, too. The windfall was a lit... |
How do I adjust to a new social class? | The prices reflect what the market will bear. People have more money, things will likely cost more. Think of it in terms of percentages and you can start to justify the higher housing costs. My father likes to tell me that his first mortgage cost him $75 a month, and he had no idea how he was going to pay it each mon... |
Debit cards as bad as credit cards? | It's a real pain in the rear to get cash only from a bank teller (the end result of cutting the card as suggested). There is a self control issue here that, like weight loss, should ultimately be addressed for a psychologically healthy lifestyle. You don't mention a budget here. A budget is one of the first tools neces... |
Cost Basis in Retirement Accounts Irrelevant? | Cost basis is irrelevant because the entire distribution is taxed as ordinary income even if the custodian distributes stock or mutual fund shares to you. Such distributions save you the brokerage fees that you would incur had you taken a cash distribution and promptly bought the shares outside the retirement account f... |
Bringing money to UK for investment purposes | Transfers of money to the UK for any purpose are not generally taxed, so you can just transfer it here and invest. Once the money is here, you'll be taxed on the business activity like anyone else - the company will have to pay corporation tax, and depending on your own residency you might have to pay income tax on any... |
Simultaneous long/short India | I know its not legal to have open long and short position on specific security (on two stock exchanges - NSE/BSE) There is nothing illegal about it. There are prescribed ways on how this is addressed. In Cash Segment / Intra Day trades: One can short sell a security. If by end of day he does not buy the security; it... |
How is “The People's Trust” not just another Investment Trust? | Well the People's Trust's IPO prospectus is now (2017-09-08) available for all to read (or there's a smaller "information leaflet"). (May need some disclaimers to be clicked to get access). Both have a "highlights" bullet-point list: Coverage here has a comment thread with some responses by the founder attempting to ... |
Is there a free, online stock screener for UK stocks? | Yes, http://shares.telegraph.co.uk/stockscreener/ has what you're looking for. |
Why having large capital is advantageous to trading | It is a general truism but the reasons are that the rules change dramatically when you simply have more capital. Here are some examples, limited to particular kinds of markets: Under $2,000 in capital Nobody is going to offer you a margin account, and if you do get one it isn't with the best broker on commissions and o... |
Is paying off your mortage a #1 personal finance priority? | It is one thing to take the advice of some numb-skulls on a web site, it is another thing to take the advice of someone who is really wealthy. For myself, I enjoy a very low interest rate (less than 3%) and am aggressively paying down my mortgage. One night I was contemplating slowing that down, and even the possibili... |
Student loan payments and opportunity costs | I agree with the advice given, but I'll add another angle from which to look at it. It sounds like you are already viewing the money used to either pay off the loan early or invest in the market as an investment, which is great. You are wise to think about opportunity cost, but like others pointed out, you are overlook... |
Deriving the put-call parity | Think of it this way: C + (-P) = forward contract. Work it out from there. Anyways, this stack is meant for professionals, not students, I think. |
What is a stock split (reverse split)? | It was actually a reverse split meaning that every 10 shares you had became 1 share and the price should be 10x higher. - Citigroup in reverse split The chart just accounts for the split. The big dip is Googles way of showing from what price it split from. If you remember before the split the stock was trading around $... |
Is UK house price spiral connected to debt based monetary system? | There are a few factors at work here, supply and demand being the main one. The Office for National Statistics has some good information: http://visual.ons.gov.uk/uk-perspectives-housing-and-home-ownership-in-the-uk/ Supply has historically struggled to compete with demand in the UK and this situation has been exacerpa... |
mortgage vs car loan vs invest extra cash? | Pay off your car loan. Here is why: As you mentioned, the interest on your home mortgage is tax deductible. This may not completely offset the difference in interest between your two loans, but it makes them much closer. Once your car debt is gone, you have eliminated a payment from your life. Now, here's the trick: t... |
Negative properties of continuously compounded returns | Well, one can easily have rates below -100%. Suppose I start with $100, and end up with $9 after a year. What was my rate of return? It could be -91%, -181%, -218%, or -241%, or something else, depending on the compounding method. We always have that the final amount equals the initial amount times a growth factor G,... |
How useful is the PEG Ratio for large cap stocks? | It is not so useful because you are applying it to large capital. Think about Theory of Investment Value. It says that you must find undervalued stocks with whatever ratios and metrics. Now think about the reality of a company. For example, if you are waiting KO (The Coca-Cola Company) to be undervalued for buying it, ... |
Should I be claiming more than 1 exemption? | It's not possible to determine whether you can "expect a refund" or whether you are claiming the right number of exemptions from the information given. If your wife were not working and you did not do independent contracting, then the answer would be much simpler. However, in this case, we must also factor in how mu... |
Trying to figure out my student loans | The 5% to 6.5% loan rates are a bit high. You'll probably want to pay those off first, and make it one of your priorities as soon as you have a 6-month savings fund. This should probably take precedence over savings for retirement, unless you're giving up a 401(k) match. Pay extra on the highest-interest loan until it'... |
What are my options for paying off the large balance of my federal, high interest student loans? | As someone with a lot of student loan debt, I can relate - the first thing you should do is read the promissory note on your current loans - there might be information there you can use. For govt loans (stafford, etc) made after July 1, 2006 the interest rate is going to be fixed and even a federal direct consolidatio... |
Appropriate model for deferred costs as a line-of-credit | There's no standard formula. You can compare the going rates on the market for unsecured LOCs and take that as the starting anchor. Unsecured lines of credit run in the US at about 8-18%. Your risk should be reflected in the rate, and I see no reason why the rate would change throughout the loan. As to the amount of pr... |
Are car buying services worth it? | The buying service your credit union uses is similar to the one my credit union uses. I have used their service several times. There is no direct cost to use the service, though the credit union as a whole might have a fee to join the service. I have used it 4 times over the decades. If you know what make and model you... |
Scam or Real: A woman from Facebook apparently needs my bank account to send money | This is either laundering money or laundering non-money. All the other answers point out how a cheque or bank transfer will take days to actually clear. That is a red herring! There are lots of ways to illegally transfer real money out of existing accounts. Stolen cheque books, stolen banking details (partly in conn... |
Do I need to pay quarterly 1040 ES and 941 (payroll)? | Don't overthink it. As an employee, whether of your own corporation or of someone else, you get a salary and there are deductions taken out. As the owner of a business you get (hopefully) business profits as well. And, in general, you often have other sources of income from investments, etc. Your estimated tax payments... |
What does a contract's worth mean? | It means $400m expected revenue, likely spread out over multiple years as it gets implemented, and not entirely guaranteed to happen as they still need to fulfill the contract. The impact on the stock price is complex - it should be positive, but nowhere close to a $400m increase in market cap. If the company is expect... |
My investment account is increasingly and significantly underperforming vs. the S&P 500. What should I do? | Fire your fund manager. There are several passive funds that seek to duplicate the S&P 500 Index returns. They have lower management fees, which will make returns lower than S&P, and they have less risk by following a broadly diversified strategy (versus midcap growing stocks). There's also ETFs, but evidence is growin... |
Do precious metals and mining sector index funds grow as much as the general stock market? | Metals and Mining is an interesting special case for stocks. It's relationship to U.S. equity (SPX) is particularly weak (~0.3 correlation) compared to most stocks so it doesn't behave like equity. However, it is still stock and not a commodities index so it's relation to major metals (Gold for instance) is not that ... |
How should I report my RSUs in my tax return | Your employer should send you a statement with this information. If they didn't, you should still be able to find it through E*Trade. Navigate to: Trading & Portfolios>Portfolios. Select the stock plan account. Under "Restricted Stock", you should see a list of your grants. If you click on the grant in question, you sh... |
Buy tires and keep car for 12-36 months, or replace car now? | Would you buy this used car, in its current condition but with new tires, for the price of the tires? If so, buy the tires. |
Should I participate in a 401k if there is no company match? | With a match, the 401(k) becomes the priority, up to that match, often ahead of other high interest debt. Without the match, the analysis is more about the cost within the 401(k). The 401(k) is a tax deferred account (let's not go on a tangent to Roth 401(k)) so ideally, you'd be skimming off money at 25% and saving i... |
Free service for automatic email stock alert when target price is met? | I've used BigCharts (now owned by MarketWatch.com) for a while and really like them. Their tools to annotate charts are great. |
Can I sell a stock immediately? | Yes you can, provided if buyers are available. Normally high liquidty stocks can be sold at market prices a little higher or lower. |
If I have AD&D through my employer, should I STILL purchase term life insurance? | It probably does make sense for you to buy term life insurance separate from your employer, for a few reasons: There are a number of life insurance calculators on the web. Try two or three -- some of them ask different questions and can give you a range of answers regarding how much coverage you should have. Then take ... |
How is an ETF's NAV determined? | An ETF manager will only allow certain financial organisations to create and redeem ETF shares. These are called Authorised Participants (APs). The APs have the resources to bundled up packages of shares that they already own and hold in order to match the ETFs requirements. In the case of the EDEN ETF, this portfol... |
What are good games to play to teach young children about saving money? | Animal Crossing is great for all ages and teaches kids the importance of saving money to pay off a debt for a home and to become successful by helping out the community and what it gets you. |
Why don't market indexes use aggregate market capitalization? | They do but you're missing some calculations needed to gain an understanding. Intro To Stock Index Weighting Methods notes in part: Market cap is the most common weighting method used by an index. Market cap or market capitalization is the standard way to measure the size of the company. You might have heard of lar... |
Is This A Scam? Woman added me on LinkedIn first, then e-mailed offering me millions of dollars [duplicate] | In general, if you think something even MIGHT be a scam, the answer is"yes". |
Is it sensible to redirect retirement contributions from 401(k) towards becoming a landlord? | This is going to seem pretty far off the beaten path, but I hope when you finish reading it you'll see the point... Suppose someone offered you a part time job: Walk their dog once per day for at least 20 minutes, and once per week pick up the dog poo from their lawn. Your compensation is $300/month. Now suppose instea... |
What is the different between one company's two OTCMKTS symbols? | I have not looked in details but apparently the company has (at least) a dual listing in Hong Kong (its main listing, ticker 700) and in the US (ticker TCTZF). It also has an ADR (TCEHY), the underlying of which is the HK line. The two US listings essentially trade at the same price and will provide very similar return... |
Losing Money with Norbert's Gambit | There's a possibility to lose money in exchange rate shifts, but just as much chance to gain money (Efficient Market Hypothesis and all that). If you're worried about it, you should buy a stock in Canada and short sell the US version at the same time. Then journal the Canadian stock over to the US stock exchange and us... |
Would it make sense to sell a stock, then repurchase it for tax purposes? | What you're talking about is called "tax gain harvesting," and it is considered good tax management. From The Oblivious Investor, investors in the 10% or 15% bracket pay 0% tax on long-term capital gains. For an interesting take on never paying income taxes again, check out Go Curry Cracker. You can claim up to $70,000... |
Connection between gambling and trading on stock/options/Forex markets | For stocks, I would not see these as profiting at the expense of another individual. When you purchase/trade stocks, you are exchanging items of equal market value at the time of the trade. Both parties are getting a fair exchange when the transaction happens. If you buy a house, the seller has not profited at your ex... |
What's the difference between a high yield dividend stock vs a growth stock? | If you are looking to re-invest it in the same company, there is really no difference. Please be aware that when a company announces dividend, you are not the only person receiving the dividend. The millions of share holders receive the same amount that you did as dividend, and of course, that money is not falling from... |
Should you always max out contributions to your 401k? | As long as you're in a lower tax bracket - you would probably be better off paying the taxes now, and investing into the Roth IRA/401K. However, you should be investing for your retirement now, and not later, because of the compounding effect, and also you'll gain the employer matching (if available). |
Auto Loan and Balance Transfer | This is what your car loan would look like if you paid it off in 14 months at the existing 2.94% rate: You'll pay a total of about $277 in interest. If you do a balance transfer of the $10,000 at 3% it'll cost you $300 up front, and your payment on the remaining $5,000 will be $363.74 to pay it off in the 14 month pe... |
Investing $50k + Real Estate | Get rid of the lease and buy a used car. A good buy is an Audi because they are popular, high-quality cars. A 2007 Audi A4 costs about $7000. You will save a lot of money by dumping the lease and owning. Go for quality. Stay away from fad cars and SUVs which are overpriced for their value. Full sized sedans are the saf... |
Why are estimated taxes due “early” for the 2nd and 3rd quarters only? | nan |
I am the sole owner of an LLC. Does it make a difference if I file as an S-Corp or a sole-member LLC? | Be careful of the other answers here. Many are wrong or partially wrong. The question implies that you knew this, but for everyone else's benefit, you can keep you LLC organization and still elect to be treated as a S-Corp by the IRS just for tax purposes. You do this by filing Form 2553 with the IRS. (You can also, b... |
Is 401k as good as it sounds given the way it is taxed? | If you pay 20% tax now and none later or if you pay no tax now and 20% later, it doesn't make a difference. Mathematically, it's the same. You have to guess about which tax rate (now vs later) will be higher for you in order for you to make the best choice. Predicting tax rates 40 years in advance is hard. Everybody... |
What to do with your savings in Japan | The reason for these low interests is that the Japanese central bank is giving away money at negative interests to banks. Yes, negative. So, short of opening your own bank, you'll have to either choose less liquid investments or more risky ones. Get Japanese government bonds. Not a great interest, band not that liquid,... |
How to get the lowest mortgage rate on a new purchase? | Purchase loans tend to be more challenging to get the best possible rate, because you have to balance closing the loan and getting the contract. So there isn't as much time to shop around as when you do a refinance. I disagree with the sentiment to go with your local bank. Nothing wrong with asking at your local bank ... |
Deductible expenses paid with credit card: In which tax year would they fall? | I'm a CPA and former IRS agent and manager. Whether you are a cash or accrual basis taxpayer, you get to deduct the expense when your card is charged. Think of it this way: You are borrowing from the credit card company or bank that issued the credit card. You take that money to make a purchase of a product or service.... |
Buying a foreclosed property | Like most other things, this is "sometimes," but not always true. Sometimes banks will be willing to sell at a discount, sometimes they will hold out for "full price." But if you want a discount, this is a good place to "look." |
What are the ins/outs of writing equipment purchases off as business expenses in a home based business? | Keep this rather corny acronym in mind. Business expenses must be CORN: As other posters have already pointed out, certain expenses that are capital items (computers, furniture, etc.) must be depreciated over several years, but you have a certain amount of capital items that you can write off in the current tax year. |
Buying a house 50/50 | This question is really a variation of rent vs buy. Try looking at it this way - If you bought it 50/50 and rented it out, what would you both get? Now, moved in, you are effectively collecting that rent, but half is your own money, half is from the partner. Is the half you are getting the from the partner equal to 1... |
Are there any viable alternatives to Paypal for a small site? | I found out about Google checkout today, it looks like it may meet my needs, but I'd still be interested to find out about other options. |
Subsets and Splits
No community queries yet
The top public SQL queries from the community will appear here once available.