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If a stock doesn't pay dividends, then why is the stock worth anything?
Securities change in prices. You can buy ten 10'000 share of a stock for $1 each one day on release and sell it for $40 each if you're lucky in the future for a gross profit of 40*10000 = 400'0000
Is it ever logical to not deposit to a matched 401(k) account?
One situation where it would be prudent not to contribute would be if expenses are so tight that you cannot afford to contribute because you need that cashflow for expenses.
How can I detect potential fraud in a company before investing in them?
Given that such activities are criminal and the people committing them have to hide them from the law, it's very unlikely that an investor could detect them, let alone one from a different country. The only things that can realistically help is to keep in mind the adage "If something sounds too good to be true, it prob...
How does start-up equity end up paying off?
Equity could mean stock options. If that's the case if the company makes it big, you'll have the option to buy stocks cheap (which can then be sold at a huge profit) How are you going to buy those without income? 5% equity is laughable. I'd be looking for 30-40% if not better without salary. Or even better, a salary....
Is the stock market a zero-sum game?
No. Share are equity in companies that usually have revenue streams and/or potential for creating them. That revenue can be used to pay out dividends to the shareholders or to grow the company and increase its value. Most companies get their revenue from their customers, and customers rarely give their money to a compa...
How do I calculate tax liability on the turnover of a small vendor?
There are quite a few questions as to how you are recording your income and expenses. If you are running the bakery as a Sole Proprietor, with all the income and expense in a business account; then things are easy. You just have to pay tax on the profit [as per the standard tax bracket]. If you running it as indivi...
How does one determine the width of a candlestick bar?
There's no rule of thumb but the purpose of candlesticks of any kind (fixed, volume weighted etc.) is to display the intra-period price action. So if you'd fit 3 years worth of 1 minute bars on a chart, candlesticks become useless and you might as well use a line chart.
Where can I invest my retirement savings money, where it is safer than stocks?
Does your employer provide a matching contribution to your 401k? If so, contribute enough to the 401k that you can fully take advantage of the 401k match (e.g. if you employer matches 3% of your income, contribute 3% of your income). It's free money, take advantage of it. Next up, max out your Roth IRA. The limit is...
Why invest for the long-term rather than buy and sell for quick, big gains?
The stock market's principal justification is matching investors with investment opportunities. That's only reasonably feasible with long-term investments. High frequency traders are not interested in investments, they are interested in buying cheap and selling expensive. Holding reasonably robust shares for longer ...
Can you beat the market by investing in double long ETFs? [duplicate]
NO. All the leveraged ETFs are designed to multiply the performance of the underlying asset FOR THAT DAY, read the prospectus. Their price is adjusted at the end of the day to reflect what is called a NAV unit. Basically, they know that their price is subject to fluctuations due to supply and demand throughout the day ...
Can someone explain how government bonds work?
The short of it is that bonds are valued based on a fundamental concept of finance called the "time value of money". Stated simply, $100 one year from now is not the same as $100 now. If you had $100 now, you could use it to make more money and have more than $100 in a year. Conversely, if you didn't invest it, the $10...
Net income correlation with Stock Price
Ideally, stock price reflects the value of the company, the dividends it is expected to pay, and what people expect the future value of the company to be. Only one of those (maybe one and a half) is related to current sales, and not always directly. Short-term motion of a stock is even less directly linked, since it a...
At what point is it most advantageous to cease depositing into a 401k?
A fascinating view on this. The math of a 10% deposit and projected 10% return lead to an inevitable point when the account is worth 10X your income (nice) and the deposit, 10% of income only represents 1% of the account balance. The use of an IRA is neither here nor there, as your proposed deposit is still just 1% of...
Why pay estimated taxes?
Your logic is not wrong. But the risk is more significant than you seem to assume. Essentially you are proposing taking a 2.6% loan to buy stocks. Is that a good strategy? On average, probably. But if your stocks crash you might have significant liabilities. In 1929, the Dow Jones dropped 89%. In 1989, >30%. In 2...
How Often Should I Chase a Credit Card Signup Bonus?
An inquiry to your credit report is a slight ding and lasts 2 years. I'd suggest that if you are playing the bonus game you watch your score closely, and if it drops below the level you'd like to maintain, hold off a while. Credit Karma offers a good simulation to show the impact of inquiries, utilization, new accounts...
Why would this FHA refinance cause my mortgage insurance payment to increase so much?
In the spring of this year FHA increased their rates for Mortgage Protection insurance. (I am looking for a good refernceon the government website) Non Government reference Annual MIP For an FHA Streamline Refinance that replaces a FHA loan endorsed on, or after, June 1, 2009, the annual MIP varies based on loan type a...
Canadian accepting money electronically from Americans
I am not aware of a version of Interac available in the U.S., but there are alternative ways to receive money: Cheque. The problem with mailed cheques is that they take time to deliver, and time to clear. If you ship your wares before the cheque has cleared and the cheque is bad, you're out the merchandise. COD. How th...
Do I need to write the date on the back of a received check when depositing it?
Changed to answer match the edited version of the question No, you do not need to write the date of your endorsement, but you can choose to do so if you want to. The bank stamp on the back will likely have the date and perhaps even the exact time when the check was deposited. The two lines are there in case you want t...
I need a car for 2 years. Buy or lease (or something else)?
Have you considered getting a bike? you would be able to ride it in Europe the same as over here because of no left right bias, also cost wise they are much much cheaper to run.
Options for dummies. Can you explain how puts & calls work, simply?
Great answer by @duffbeer. Only thing to add is that the option itself becomes a tradeable asset. Here's my go at filling out the answer from @duffbeer. "Hey kid... So you have this brand-new video game Manic Mazes that you paid $50 for on Jan 1st that you want to sell two months from now" "Yes, Mr. Video Game Broker, ...
Are there any hedged international funds in India?
There aren't and for a good reason. The long term trend of INR against USD, GBP, EUR and other harder currencies is down. Given the inflation differential between these economies and India's, fund managers and investors should expect this to continue. Therefore, if you are invested for any reasonable length of time, yo...
What does a Dividend “will not be quoted ex” mean?
The ex indicator is meant to be a help for market participants. On the ex-day orders will go into a different order book, the ex order book, which at the start of the ex day will be totally empty, i.e. no orders from the non-ex day book have been copied over. Why does this help? Well imagine you had a long-standing b...
How to calculate stock price (value) based on given values for equity and debt?
There is no formula for calculating a stock price based on the financials of a company. A stock price is set by the market and always has a component built into it that is based on something outside of the current valuation of a company using its financials. Essentially, the stock price of a company per share is whatev...
Where should I invest to hedge against the stock market going down?
There are multiple ETFs which inversely track the common indices, though many of these are leveraged. For example, SDS tracks approximately -200% of the S&P 500. (Note: due to how these are structured, they are only suitable for very short term investments) You can also consider using Put options for the various indi...
What's the point of a benchmark?
Yes an index is by definition any arbitrary selection. In general, to measure performance there are 2 ways: By absolute return - meaning you want a positive return at all times ie. 10% is good. -1% is bad. By relative return - this means beating the benchmark. For example, if the benchmark returns -20% and your portfol...
Confirm Dividend Yield
There are lots of provisos, but in general you are correct. The provisos, off the top of my head: The only fees will be any brokerage fees when you purchase the stock. I haven't seen any handling fees when you get the dividend, but it may depend on how you hold the stock.
What should I be doing to protect myself from identity theft?
http://annualcreditreport.com gives you free access to your 3 credit bureau records. (Annual, not "free". The "free" guys will try to sell you something.)
No-line-of-credit debit card?
Having worked at a financial institution, this is a somewhat simple, two-part solution. 1) The lendor/vendor/financial institution simply turns off the overdraft protection in all its forms. If no funds are available at a pin-presented transaction, the payment is simply declined. No fee, no overdraft, no mess. 2) This ...
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...
How can I lookup the business associated with a FEIN?
In most cases you cannot do "reverse lookup" on tax id in the US. You can verify, but for that you need to have more than just the FEIN/SSN. You should also have a name, and some times address. Non-profits, specifically, have to publish their EIN to donors, so it may be easier than others to identify those. Other busin...
How many days does Bank of America need to clear a bill pay check
I just had this happen to me with Chase and speaking with my executive support contact, they will not return the funds unless you request them back. Which I find appalling and just one more reason that I don't like working with Chase!
Is there a good rule of thumb for how much I should have set aside as emergency cash?
I think that Dave Ramsey has a good approach to emergency funds. Save $1,000 that is immediately accessible in an emergency, pay off your debts, then build a 3-6 month fund. Two years is great, but takes a really long time to build up.
Does the stock market create any sort of value?
When you own stock in a company, you do literally own part of the business, even if it's a small portion. Anyone amassing over 50% of shares really does have a controlling interest. No, you can't trade a handful of AAPL shares back to Apple for an iPod, but you can sell the shares and then go buy an iPod with the proce...
How to read Google Finance data on dividends
However, you have to remember that not all dividends are paid quarterly. For example one stock I recently purchased has a price of $8.03 and the Div/yield = 0.08/11.9 . $.08 * 4 = $0.32 which is only 3.9% (But this stock pays monthly dividends). $.08 * 12 = $0.96 which is 11.9 %. So over the course of a year assum...
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...
Clarifications On PFIC Rules
Are these PFIC rules new? No, PFIC rules are not new, they've been around for a very long time. what would that mean if a person owned a non-US company stock, like a company in Europe that makes chocolate? Is that considered assets that produces passive income? No. But if a person owned a non-US company stock like ...
Trading : how to deal with crashes (small or big)
caveat: remember that complex derivatives can be very bad for your wealth (even if you FULLY understand them).
What would the broker do about this naked call option?
If the underlying is currently moving as aggressively as stated, the broker would immediately forcibly close positions to maintain margin. What securities are in fact closed depends upon the internal algorithms. If the equity in the account remains negative after closing all positions if necessary, the owner of the ac...
Relation between inflation rates and interest rates
Is it true that due the to the increase in interest rates that inflation is likely to increase as well? It is typically the reverse where inflation causes interest rates to rise. Interest rates fundamentally reflect the desire for people to purchase future goods over present day goods. If I loan money to someone for 5...
How much of my capital should I spend on subscribing to a stock research company?
You should spend zero on your stock research company. If the management of the company actually had persistent skill in picking stocks, they would not be peddling their knowledge to the retail market for a few hundred dollars. They would rake in millions and billions by running a huge hedge fund and buy themselves a ...
Section 179 vs depreciation of laptop
The CPA's mention of $2,500 is probably referring to the recently increased de minimis safe harbor under the final tangible property regulations (used to be $500) without an applicable financial statement. The IRS will not challenge your choice of expense or capitalization on amounts on or below $2500 if you elect the ...
Evidence For/Against Real Estate Investing Vis-a-vis Investing in ETFs
Real Estate potentially has two components of profit, the increase in value, and the ongoing returns, similar to a stock appreciating and its dividends. It's possible to buy both badly, and in the case of stocks, there are studies that show the typical investor lags the market by many percent. Real estate is not a h...
How can someone with a new job but no credit history get a loan to settle another debt?
I believe the best way to go about it is to approach a good friend or relative to borrow the money, interest free. Do discuss with them the repayment schedule. If you have any assets such as house / stocks, you can pledge them in exchange for $5000 cash. I believe the banks would be more than happy to lend to you. You ...
Should we prepay our private student loans, given our particular profile?
Don't frett to much about your retirement savings just put something towards it each year. You could be dead in ten years. You should always try to clear out debt when you can. But don't wipe yourself out! Expedite the repayment process.
Options strategy - When stocks go opposite of your purchase?
Robert is right saying that options' prices are affected by implied volatility but is wrong saying that you have to look at the VIX index. For two reasons: 1) the VIX index is for S&P500 options only. If you are trading other options, it is less useful. 2) if you are trading an option that is not at the money, your im...
How to plan in a budget for those less frequent but mid-range expensive buys?
You would simply plan for misc. expenses in your budget, and allocate a small amount to this every time you do your budget, eventually building up a pool of money that you can then use whenever you have to make a purchase such as that.
Employer options when setting up 401k for employees
If you were looking to maximize your ability to save in a qualified plan, why not setup a 401K plan in Company A and keep the SEP in B? Setup the 401K in A such that any employee can contribute 100% of their salary. Then take a salary for around 19K/year (assuming under age 50), so you can contribute and have enough t...
Did an additional $32 billion necessarily get invested into Amazon.com stock on October 26th, 2017?
No. The market cap has no relation to actual money that flowed anywhere, it is simple the number of shares multiplied by the current price, and the current price is what potential buyers are (were) willing to pay for the share. So any news that increases or decreases interest in shares changes potentially the share pri...
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...
why do I need an emergency fund if I already have investments?
Let me first start by defining an emergency fund. This is money which is: Because emergency's usually need to be deal with ASAP, boiler breaks, gears box in a car. Generally you need these to be solved as soon as possible, because ou depend on these things working and you can't budget for this type of expenditure using...
Who buys variable annuities?
An annuity makes sense in a few different scenarios: In general, they are not the best deal around (and are often ripoffs), and will almost certainly be a bad deal if pitched by a tax preparer, insurance salesman, etc. Keep in mind that any "guarantees" offered are guarantees made by an insurance company. The only bac...
What are some of the key identifiers/characters of an undervalued stock?
P/E = price per earnings. low P/E (P/E < 4) means stock is undervalued.
In USA, what circumstances (if any) make it illegal for a homeless person to “rent” an address?
It depends on the rules in the specific places you stay. Specific places being countries or states. Some states may consider pension payments to be taxable income, others may not. Some may consider presence for X days to constitute residency, X days may be 60 days in a calendar year whether or not those days are co...
How do I analyse moving averages?
If you are going to be a long term investor you are only going to buy and hold. You will not sell. Thus future price is not relevant. Only dividend payout is relevant. Divide the dividend by the price you paid to get the yeald. Edit: once again the sitesite will not allow me to add a comment, so I have to edit a prev...
Is Real Estate ever a BAD investment? If so, when?
Real estate is a lousy investment because: Renting a home and buying a home, all else being equal, are pretty similar in costs in the long term (if you can force yourself to invest the would-be down payment). So, buy a home if you want to enjoy the benefits of home ownership. Buy a home if you need to hedge against ris...
How much is inflation?
FYI...prices don't always go up. Inflation is a monetary phenomenon. I'm simplifying greatly here: if more money is printed (or the money supply increases through fractional reserve banking) and it is chasing the same amount of goods then prices will go up. Conversely, if money is held constant and the economy becom...
At what point do index funds become unreliable?
private investors that don't have the time or expertise for active investment. This may be known as every private investor. An index fund ensures average returns. The bulk of active trading is done by private institutions with bucketloads of experts studying the markets and AI scraping every bit of data it can get (fr...
Protecting Gains: Buying a Put vs. Leveraged Bear Market vs. Liquidating Long Positions?
Buying a put is hedging. You won't lose as much if the market goes down, but you'll still lose capital: lower value of your long positions. Buying an ultrashort like QID is safer than shorting a stock because you don't have the unlimited losses you could have when you short a stock. It is volatile. It's not a whole ...
Why would a company care about the price of its own shares in the stock market?
The other answer has some good points, to which I'll add this: I believe you're only considering a company's Initial Public Offering (IPO), when shares are first offered to the public. An IPO is the way most companies get a public listing on the stock market. However, companies often go to market again and again to i...
For very high-net worth individuals, does it make sense to not have insurance?
There are 2 maxims that help make sense of insurance: Following those 2 rules, "normal" insurance makes sense. Can't afford to replace your car? insure it. Can afford to lose your TV? Don't insure it. People with a net worth in the low millions have very similar insurance needs to the middle class. For example, they mi...
Why would you ever turn down a raise in salary?
In Australia there are cases for the argument. 1) We have laws against unfair dismissal that do not apply above certain thresholds. Your position is more secure with the lower salary. 2) Tax benefits for families are unfairly structured such that take home pay may actually be less, again due to a threshold. This tends ...
How come we can find stocks with a Price-to-Book ratio less than 1?
A lower Price/Book Value means company is undervalued. It could also mean something horribly wrong. While it may look like a good deal, remember;
What are the economic benefits of owning a home in the United States?
Altough this may vary a lot depending on where you live and your actual finance, here what convinced me buying a home instead of renting : Other benefits :
How should I handle student loans when leaving University and trying to buy a house?
Concise answers to your questions: Depends on the loan and the bank; when you "accelerate" repayment of a loan by applying a pre-payment balance to the principal, your monthly payment may be reduced. However, standard practice for most loan types is that the repayment schedule will be accelerated; you'll pay no less ea...
I have an extra 1000€ per month, what should I do with it?
If I were you, I would save 200 euros for retirement each month and another 800 I would stash away with the hope to start investing soon. I think you have to invest a bigger lump sum, then 1000 euros. It makes sense to invest at least 30K to see any tangible results. My acquaintances started from 50K and now see pretty...
How does a bank make money on an interest free secured loan?
Other answers didn't seem to cover it, but most "0%" bank loans (often offered to credit card holders in the form of balance transfer checks), aside from less-obvious fees like already-mentioned late fees, also charge an actual loan fee, typically 2-3% (or a minimum floor amount) - that was the deal with every single t...
In India, what is the difference between Dividend and Growth mutual fund types?
A growth fund is looking to invest in stocks that will appreciate in stock price over time as the companies grow revenues and market share. A dividend fund is looking to invest in stocks of companies that pay dividends per share. These may also be called "income" funds. In general, growth stocks tend to be younger com...
Why would selling off some stores improve a company's value?
Maybe the location isn't yet, but will soon become a new loss. For example older soon out of warranty equipment, new tax laws in the locality soon to take affect or even just declining sales over the past periods of measurement. Perhaps labor disputes or other locality issues make running the store difficult. There ...
Personal Loan issuer online service
It is pretty easy to setup a spreadsheet for calculating interest payments and remaining balance. Do a quick search online. You may want to put it in something like Google Docs, where brother can view the status, but only you can edit it. When you get a payment, a portion goes to interest and another to principle. ...
If I invest in securities denominated in a foreign currency, should I hedge my currency risk?
As the other answer already states, whether you should or shouldn't currency-hedge your equity investments depends on a lot of factors. If you decide to do so, depending on your investment vehicles, there might be a more cost-efficient way than arranging a separate futures contract with a bank: If you are open to (or a...
How to start investing for an immigrant?
For starting with zero knowledge you certainly did a great job on research as you hit on most of the important points with your question. It seems like you have already saved up around six months of expenses in savings so it is a great time to look into investing. The hardest part of your question is actually one of t...
Borrowing money and then investing it — smart or nart?
The biggest concern is how you get $250,000 in unsecured credit. It's unlikely that you will be loaned that amount at a percentage lower than what you expect to earn. Unsecured credit lines are rarely lower than 10% and usually approach 20%. On top of that, for a bank to approve you for that credit line, you have to ha...
Beginner questions about stock market
First, welcome to Money.SE. If you are interested in saving and investing, this is a great site to visit. Please take the tour and just start to read the questions you find interesting. 1 - even though this is hypothetical, it scales down to an average investor. If I own 1000 shares of the 1 billion, am I liable if th...
International (ex-US) ETFs with low exposure to financial sector?
If you are looking for a European financials ETF to short, you could take a look at the iShares EURO STOXX Banks, which is traded on a a few German stock exchanges (Frankfurt etc.): iShares Euro Stoxx Banks Website You find its current holdings here: holdings.
Buying my first car: why financing is cheaper than paying cash here and now?
The advice given at this site is to get approved for a loan from your bank or credit union before visiting the dealer. That way you have one data point in hand. You know that your bank will loan w dollars at x rate for y months with a monthly payment of Z. You know what level you have to negotiate to in order to get a...
What tax laws apply to Meetup group income?
In the United States tax law, a group of people who are neither an individual nor an incorporated entity is called "partnership". Here's the IRS page on partnerships. Income derived by such a "meetup.com" group is essentially a partnership income with the group members being the partners. However, as you can see from ...
Tax liability in US for LLC's owned by an Indian Citzen
The LLC will not be liable for anything, it is disregarded for tax purposes. If you're doing any work while in the US, or you (or your spouse) are a green card holder or a US citizen - then you (not the LLC) may be liable, may be required to file, pay, etc. Unless you're employing someone, or have more than one member ...
Can you explain the mechanism of money inflation?
In simple terms, inflation is a result of too much money chasing too few goods, i.e. there is an imbalance between demand and supply. The demand exceeds the supply. With all other things being constant it leads to increase in price, i.e. inflation.
How to represent “out of pocket” purchases in general ledger journal entry?
You're lending the money to your business by paying for it directly. The company accounts must reflect a credit (the amount you lend to it) and a debit (what it then puts that loan towards). It's fairly normal for a small(ish) owner-driven company to reflect a large loan-account for the owners. For example, if you ...
Buy securities at another stock exchange
Yes, it does matter very much. There's a thing called fungible instruments. These are the instruments where it doesn't matter. E.g. most options I ever dealt with in the US are fungible no matter which US exchange you trade them on. A fungible instrument is an instrument where you buy 1 lot on exchange A, then sell 1 l...
As a total beginner, how do I begin to understand finance & stocks?
Your questions seek answers to specifics, but I feel that you may need more general help. There are two things, I feel, that you need to learn about in the general category of personal finance. Your asking questions about investing, but it is not as important, IMHO, as how you manage your day-to-day operations. For ...
Should I open a credit card when I turn 18 just to start a credit score?
I also feel it's important to NOT get a credit card. I'm in my mid 30's and have had credit cards since I was 20, as has everyone I know. Every single one of those people, with the exception of my dad, is currently carrying some amount of credit card debt - almost always in the thousands of dollars. Here is the essent...
Is it better to buy this used car from Craigslist or from a dealership?
The 200K vehicle is likely the better deal. Get your own mechanic to check it out. If it doesn't have major issues, it will likely cost you less. Why? Because you've wisely included $6000 in expected maintenance. Yet it has the possibility of not needing more than $500 of maintenance during the 4 years you plan on ...
Is it really possible to get rich in only a few years by investing?
Short answer: Not likely. Long answer: As a rule of thumb, over the long run if you are generating 20% compounded returns on your money consistently, you are doing very good. Since in the average case your 10k would compound to $61.4k YoY, you are very unlikely to be rich in a decade starting with 10k.
What does quantitative easing 2 mean for my bank account?
QE2 will mean that there are about $500 billion dollars in existence which weren't there before. These dollars will all be competing with the existing dollars for real goods and services, so each dollar will be worth a little less, and prices will rise a little. This is inflation. You can probably expect 1.5%-2% annual...
Is selling put options an advisable strategy for a retiree to generate stable income?
There is only one way to create "stable" income using options: write COVERED calls. This means you must own some stocks which offer an active and liquid option market (FB would be good; T would be useless.) In other words, you need to own some "unstable" stocks, tickers that have sometimes scary volatility, and of co...
How to sell a stock in a crashing market?
Your question contains a faulty assumption: During crashes and corrections the amount of sellers is of course higher than the amount of buyers, making it difficult to sell stocks. This simply isn't true. Every trade has two sides; thus, by definition, for every seller there is buyer and vice versa. Even if we broaden...
If a trendline or pattern breaks due to some bad news but it returns back what to do?
There is a technique called the Elliott wave which explains these 'shocks'. The reversal directions you are questioning are part of the pattern, it is known as corrections. The Elliott wave is an indicator based on psychology of investors. Think about it this way, if you see a huge up trend what are you most likely to ...
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...
I spend too much money. How can I get on the path to a frugal lifestyle?
My father imparted this advice to me when I was a teenager, and it hasn't failed me yet. > Pay yourself first What this means is that the first "bill" you pay should always be your savings. Preferably in a way that automatically comes out of your paycheck or account without requiring you to take an active step to make ...
Changing Bank Account Number regularly to reduce fraud
We change it every so often to reduce fraud. If you're absolutely sure you didn't just send money to a scammer impersonating a landlord, this has nothing to do with fraud-- they're playing a game with you. By changing the account number frequently, it makes it more likely you make a mistake in entering the payment acco...
Multiple accounts stagnant after quitting job.
What is my best bet with the 401K? I know very little about retirement plans and don't plan to ever touch this money until I retire but could this money be of better use somewhere else? If you don't know your options, I would suggest reading some material on it that might be a little more extensive than an answer h...
How many days does Bank of America need to clear a bill pay check
We have a local bank that changed to a bill pay service. The money is held as "processing" when the check is supposed to be cut and shows as cleared on the date the check is supposed to be received. Because our business checking is with the same bank, we discovered recently that the although the check shows cleared f...
Can rent be added to your salary when applying for a mortgage?
The decision as to what counts as income is up to the bank. You'll need to ask them whether or not rental income can be included in the total. I can offer some anecdotal evidence: when I applied for a mortgage to buy my home, I already had a rental property with a buy-to-let mortgage on it. Initially the bank regarded ...
What happens to my stocks when broker goes bankrupt?
If you are using a US broker, you are protected by SIPC up to $500,000. SIPC also oversees the liquidation of the broker itself, either by appointing a trustee, or by directly contacting clients. If they are able to transfer accounts to a healthy broker before bankruptcy, they will do so, but if not, you will need to f...
How to deposit a cheque issued to an associate in my business into my business account?
Have the check reissued to the proper payee.
What U.S. banks offer two-factor authentication (such as password & token) for online banking?
Some credit unions also offer them and support Business banking as well. First Tech Credit Union is a great example. They also have the most security-oriented banking website I've seen to date. https://www.firsttechfed.com/ As a side note I've found that Credit Unions are a MUCH better deal for personal and business ba...
Should I stockpile nickels?
The question I think is not: "What is a certain material worth in a coin" but "What is a certain material worth in a coin and how much does it cost to get it out of there". Just because something contains a certain element doesn't mean that you can get to it cheaply. Also as George Marian said: I don't think that it is...
I'm 23 and was given $50k. What should I do?
First of all, I am sorry for your loss. At this time, worrying about money is probably the least of your concerns. It might be tempting to try to pay off all your debts at once, and while that would be satisfying, it would be a poor investment of your inheritance. When you have debt, you have to think about how much th...
I'm thinking of getting a new car … why shouldn't I LEASE one?
It's a very simple equation. If we forget about the stress and limitations that come with the so-called "lease", and make the following assumptions: Then after 3 years of using this new car: I will never understand why people still "lease" a car. Even for very low income people who have to have a car, financing a per-o...