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How exactly does dealing in stock make me money? | If you have money and may need to access it at any time, you should put it in a savings account. It won't return much interest, but it will return some and it is easily accessible. If you have all your emergency savings that you need (at least six months of income), buy index-based mutual funds. These should invest... |
What is insider trading exactly? | Using inside sensitive information about corporate and using the same to deal in securities, before the exchanges are made aware of the information. Its mostly used in derivatives to get maximum returns on investmens, but Its illegal in all the exchanges |
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... |
Is it possible to get life insurance as a beneficiary before the person insured dies? | Generally no. It does not make sense for insurance company to alter terms and if there are such rules it can be subject to misuse. |
End-of-season car sales? | Manufacturers sometimes give incentives to car dealers to ensure that the prior year models are sold out before the year is up. However, dealers are usually pretty smart on only ordering the cars they know they can sell before this happens. Also, manufacturers are usually pretty good about only producing enough vehic... |
How to estimate a reasonable amount for a signing bonus? | So you've already considered relocation. Here are a few additional things to consider with respect to negotiating a signing bonus (if any): Would you be leaving a position where you are eligible for an upcoming bonus, profit-share, or other special incentive payout, such as a stock option or RSU vesting date? A signin... |
What did John Templeton mean when he said that the four most dangerous words in investing are: ‘this time it’s different'? | There's an elephant in the room that no one is addressing: Suckers. Usually when there's a bubble, many people are fully aware that its a bubble. "This time its different" is a sales pitch to the outsiders. It the dotcom boom for example a lot of people knew that the P/E was ridiculous but bought objectively valueless ... |
I got my bank account closed abruptly how do I get money out? | If you can get to a physical branch, get a cashier's check (or call them and have them send you one by mail). When they draft the cashier's check they remove the money from your account immediately and the check is drawn against the bank itself. You could hold onto that check for a little while even after your accoun... |
Freelancing and getting taxes taken out up front instead of end of year? | Maybe I can explain a little clearer: Your LLC is not a person, and cannot have taxes withheld on its behalf. Therefore, anyone paying your company should not withhold taxes. If they are paying you directly, and withholding taxes, they are treating you as an employee, and will probably issue a W2 instead of a 1099. Pu... |
Contributing to a Roth IRA while income tax filing status is “Married Filing Separately”? | You must file as married for 2013 if you were married as of December 31, 2013. It is true that the Roth IRA contribution phaseout for Married Filing Separately is 0 - $10K. But you can still do backdoor Roth IRA contribution (contribute to a Traditional IRA, then convert it to a Roth IRA; assuming you do not have any p... |
High Leverage Inflation Hedges for Personal Investors | Look into commodities futures & options. Unfortunately, they are not trivial instruments. |
Is there any online personal finance software without online banking? | SavingsMap is a web-based personal finance forecasting tool that requires no bank account or personal information other than an email address. As founder of SavingsMap, our goal is to forecast future cash flows based on your current budget, while using strategies to minimize US tax obligations and taking into account e... |
Do retailers ever stock goods just to make other goods sell better? | There's a concept in retail called a "loss leader", and essentially it means that a store will sell an item intentionally at a loss as a way of bringing in business in the hope that while consumers are in the store taking advantage of the discounted item, they'll make other purchases to make up for the loss and generat... |
Can LLC legally lend money to a friend? | I can't say if there is anything specific that makes lending illegal, but if your company goes bankrupt, you might end up in trouble. First, it's a loan. It must be repaid. It must be in the books as a loan, and if your company couldn't pay its bills, you would have to ask for the money back. If the company goes bankr... |
Can LLC legally lend money to a friend? | The answer to your question is...it depends. Depending on the state you, your friend, and the LLC are located in, it can be very easy to run afoul of state banking laws, or to somehow violate some other statute pertaining to the legal activities an LLC may undertake by doing something like a loan. It is not unusual (o... |
Is compounding interest on investments a myth? | Compound growth isn't a myth, it just takes patience to experience. A 10% annual return will double the investment not in 10 years, but just over 7. Even though a mortgage claims to use simple interest, if your loan is 5% and there's 14 years to go, $100 extra principal will knock off $200 from the final payment. The... |
Does an issue of bonus shares improve shareholder value? | The bonus share also improves the liquidity however there is some difference in treatment. Lets say a company has 100 shares, of $10 ea. The total capital of the compnay is 100*10 = 1000. Assuming the company is doing well, its share is now available in the market for $100 ea. Now lets say the company has made a profit... |
Risk and reward of a synthetic option position | But if underlying goes to 103 at expiration, both the call and the put expire worthless If the stock closes at 103 on expiration, the 105 put is worth $2, not worthless. |
Why is being “upside down” on a mortgage so bad? | The problem comes when the borrower cannot afford his home. If a borrower buys more home than they can afford, as long as he can sell the house for more than he owes, he's not in a disastrous situation. He can sell the house, pay off the mortgage, and choose more affordable housing instead. If he is upside-down on hi... |
Does this plan make any sense for early 20s investments? | The plan doesn't make sense. Don't invest your money. Just keep it in your bank account. $5000 is not a lot, especially since you don't have a steady income stream. You only have $1000 to your name, you can't afford to gamble $4000. You will need it for things like food, books, rent, student loans, traveling, etc. If ... |
Impact of Extreme Situations such as WW2 on “legendary” Investors' Returns? | Possibly the best answer to why America became globally dominant after WW2 was written by a FRENCHMAN, Jean-Jacque Sergen-Schreiber, Le Defi American (The American Challenge). Probably the only legendary investor of the proper age to benefit from WW2 was John Templeton, who borrowed $10,000 before the war, and ended up... |
Is a fixed-price natural gas or electricity contract likely to save money? | The answer to this question will vary considerably by state and how utilities are regulated in your area. In New York, ESCOs (Energy Supply Companies) are almost always a ripoff for consumers versus the old-style regulated utility (in NY the utility supply markups are tightly regulated, but ESCOs are less regulated). ... |
What are NSCC illiquid charges? | NSCC illiquid charges are charges that apply to the trading of low-priced over-the counter (OTC) securities with low volumes. Open net buy quantity represents the total unsettled share amount per stock at any given time during a 3-day settlement cycle. Open net buy quantity must be less than 5,000,000 shares per stock ... |
Historical company performance data | The S&P report (aka STARS report) for each company has 10 years of financial data. These reports are available free at several online brokers (like E-Trade) if you have an account with the brokerage. |
Why would my job recruiter want me to form an LLC? | This is pretty normal. I am in the UK and currently doing the exact same thing. As some answers state there is additional tax law called IR35. But thats all it is, an additional tax law that may be applicable to your situation (it very well may not). It is all perfectly legal and common (all my university friends no... |
How does a no-limit charge card affect your credit score? | Apparently it is up to the credit card company on how they want to report your available balance. Another disadvantage to the no-limit credit card may not be apparent to most people, but it is something noted by organizations like The Motley Fool, which is expert in many issues of finance and investment. Part... |
Pay Yourself With Credit Card Make Money With Cash Back [duplicate] | The idea is old as dirt, and some millions of people had it before you. Credit card swipes cost you between 2.4 and 4.5%, depending on the cards, the provider, and the amounts, plus potentially a fixed small amount per swipe. Of course, a 2% cash back card cost more than 2% to swipe; and a 3% cash back card cost more t... |
What do I need to consider when refinancing one home to pay the down-payment of another? | What kind of financial analysis would make you comfortable about this decision? The HELOC and ARM are the biggest red flags to me in your current situation. While I don't expect interest rates to skyrocket in the near future, they introduce an interest rate risk that is easy to get rid of. Getting rid of the HELOC an... |
Is there a candlestick pattern that guarantees any kind of future profit? | I love technical analysis, and use candlesticks as part of my technical analysis system for trading mutual funds in my 401K. However, I would never use a candlestick chart on its own. I use combination of candlesticks, 2 different EMAs, MACD, bollinger bands, RSI and hand drawn trend lines that I constantly tweak. Th... |
Best Time to buy a stock in a day | One of the biggest laws in economics is that if an opportunity is very profitable and is very easily exploitable even by complete beginners, then it will very soon stop being profitable. That's how the market works. If you buy stock when it is at the lowest, then you are making money, but most of the time someone else ... |
How can I diversify investments across currencies in ISA? | Just buy a FTSE-100 tracker. It's cheap and easy, and will hedge you pretty well, as the FTSE-100 is dominated by big mining and oil companies who do most of their business in currencies other than sterling. |
Everyone got a raise to them same amount, lost my higher pay than the newer employees | Why do you think you are entitled to "fairness"? In this world you get what you get. I am pretty sure your employer is not paying you for how you "feel" either. And by-the-way turning up on time and not leaving early is not exceptional behaviour; it is expected behaviour. Bottom line: do you add more value to your empl... |
Is there any instance where less leverage will get you a better return on a rental property? | QUICK ANSWER When it comes to fixed income assets, whether rental real estate or government bonds, it's unusual for highly-leveraged assets to yield less than the same asset unleveraged or lowly-leveraged. This is especially so in countries where interest costs are tax deductible. If we exclude capital losses (i.e. th... |
Insurance company sent me huge check instead of pharmacy. Now what? | In one of your comments you say: Even if the pharmacy is not in the insurance provider network? This is why you got the check instead of your insurance company. I have Blue Cross/Blue Shield, and recently my wife underwent a procedure in the hospital, where one of the physicians involved was not in my providers network... |
Legal right to ask for someone bank records UK | You might want to head on over to https://law.stackexchange.com/ and ask the same question. However from a personal finance perspective this kind of drama is somewhat common when someone is deceased and financial expectations are not met by the heirs. It sounds like the daughter was expecting a lot more in inheritan... |
How does start-up equity end up paying off? | Read the book, "Slicing Pie: Fund Your Company Without Funds". You can be given 5% over four years and in four years, they hire someone and give him twice as much as you, for working a month and not sacrificing his salary at all. Over the four years, the idiot who offered you the deal will waste investors money on obv... |
What is the next step to collect money after a judgment has been ignored? | A lawyer might be overkill for recovering a judgment. Do a google search for "judgment recovery service" in your area. They specialize in what you're trying to do. The service will charge you a fee (usually 10%) for any monies recovered. What happens is that you assign the right to collect on the judgment to the ser... |
Why is a stock dividend considered a dividend? What makes it different from a stock split? | A stock dividend isn't exactly a split. Example: You have 100 shares of stock worth $5 a share (total value $500). The company wants to distribute a dividend worth 1%. You could expect a check for $5. But If they wanted to do a stock dividend they could send you 0.01 shares for every share you own, in your case you wil... |
What kinds of information do financial workers typically check on a daily basis? | Google Finance and Yahoo! Finance would be a couple of sites you could use to look at rather broad market information. This would include the major US stock markets like the Dow, Nasdaq, S & P 500 though also bond yields, gold and oil can also be useful as depending on which area one works the specifics of what are im... |
Why does the calculation for percentage profit vary based on whether a position is short vs. long? | Simple math: 50-25=25, hence decline from 50 to 25 is a 50% decline (you lose half), while an advance from 25 to 50 is 100% gain (you gain 100%, double your 25 to 50). Their point is that if you have more upswings than downswings - you'll gain more on long positions during upswings than on short positions during downsw... |
When's the best time to sell the stock of a company that is being acquired/sold? | This happened to me recently. What became the final offer was a cash buy-out of all of our shares rather than a conversion. The cash buy-out was higher than the company's original asking price and than the stock ever went on the market before hand. I was extremely pleased to have held on to the stock until the end. ... |
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 ... |
Should I have more than one brokerage account? | I believe the answer here is no: SIPC protection of customers with multiple accounts is determined by "separate capacity." Each separate capacity is protected up to $500,000 for securities and cash (including a $250,000 limit for cash only). Accounts held in the same capacity are combined for purposes of the SIPC prote... |
How can I profit on the Chinese Real-Estate Bubble? | Perhaps buying some internationally exchanged stock of China real-estate companies? It's never too late to enter a bubble or profit from a bubble after it bursts. As a native Chinese, my observations suggest that the bubble may exist in a few of the most populated cities of China such as Beijing, Shanghai and Shenzhen,... |
What is my next step with investing, given a signing bonus of restricted stock units? | Coincidentally just read a nice post on this topic: http://thefinancebuff.com/no-tax-advantage-in-rsu.html In short, sell the stock as soon as it vests and treat it as a cash bonus. Assuming you're in the US and the stock is possible to sell (public company, no trading window restrictions, you have no material nonpubli... |
Solid reading/literature for investment/retirement/income taxes? | You bring up some very high level stuff, each of which can be the subject of a life's work. For taxes, I first read J.K. Lasser's Your Income Tax. I actually read it cover to cover instead of using it as a reference guide. I hit topics that I'd otherwise have never looked up on purpose. Once you familiarize yourself w... |
What's the purpose of having separate checking and savings accounts? | A checking account is instant access. It can be tapped via check or debit card. A savings account is supposed to be used to accumulate cash for a goal that is is longer term or for an emergency. Many people need to separate these funds into different accounts to be able to know if they are overspending or falling sho... |
Can stock market gains be better protected under an LLC arrangement? | All corporate gains are taxed at the same rate as corporate income, for the corporate entity, so this actually can be WORSE than the individual capital gains tax rates. There are a lot of things you can do with trading certain asset classes, like opening you up to like-kind re-investment tax perks, but I can't think of... |
How can Schwab afford to refund all my ATM fees? | I am using my debit card regularly: in ATM's with a pin, in stores with my signature, and online. But later you say But from what I recall from starting my own business (a LONG time ago), for debit cards there's only a per-transaction fee of like $0.25, not a percentage cut. Only pin transactions have just a per-trans... |
What emergencies could justify a highly liquid emergency fund? | Emergency funds are defined in terms of months of tightened-belt living -- that's according to the usual gurus such as Suze Orman, Dave Ramsey etc. They aren't for short-term emergencies like a blown transmission. Use other money for those. Why? People with bad financial habits have short-term emergencies all the ... |
Why do car rental companies prefer/require credit over debit cards? | A few reasons make sense: They have a defined process for rentals, risk assessment, and customer credit. Especially for a large corporation, making changes to that process is not trivial, adds risk/uncertainty, and will be costly. Such changes for a relatively small customer base might not makes sense. Many rental comp... |
Tracking Gold and Silver (or any other commodity investment) in Quicken 2010? | You don't need to use a real stock like GLD. You can just create a "stock" called something like "1 oz Gold" and buy and sell them as if they were shares. It won't auto-update the price like GLD, but that's not a big deal to update manually once a month or so. I prefer to have accurate data that is correct at a parti... |
How can I invest in an index fund but screen out (remove) certain categories of socially irresponsible investments? | Hmm, this would seem to be impossible by definition. The definition of an "index fund" is that it includes exactly the stocks that make up the index. Once you say "... except for ..." then what you want is not an index fund but something else. It's like asking, "Can I be a vegetarian but still eat beef?" Umm, no. Ther... |
Why invest in becoming a landlord? | The value of getting into the landlord business -- or any other business -- depends on circumstances at the time. How much will it cost you to buy the property? How much can you reasonably expect to collect in rent? How easy or difficult is it to find a tenant? Etc. I owned a rental property for about ten years and I l... |
How do you find out who the investors are in a U.S. stock? e.g. how ownership may be concentrated? | I don't think that you will be able to find a list of every owner for a given stock. There are probably very few people who would know this. One source would be whoever sends out the shareholder meeting mailers. I suspect that the company itself would know this, the exchange to a lesser extent, and possibly the broker... |
How it actually works? Selling a call on a stock I hold, but has done poor, might the market thinks may rise | What you are proposing is called a "covered call" strategy. It is a perfectly reasonable speculative play on how far the stock will move within a certain amount of time. If your belief that the stock's volatility is such that it is unlikely to reach the strike price before the maturity is greater than the markets (wh... |
Why do people buy insurance even if they have the means to overcome the loss? | For a car, you're typically compelled to carry insurance, and picking up "comprehensive" coverage (fire, theft, act of god) is normally cheap. If the car was purchased with a loan, the lender will stipulate that you carry comprehensive and collision insurance. People buy insurance because it limits their liability. In... |
Why doesn't buy at open get the official open price? | There is no official price. There is only the price a seller is willing to offer and a buyer is willing to accept at that moment. It tends to be close to the price negotiated for the last such sale, but that's just market statistics, not anything actively managed or guaranteed. "Past performance is no guarantee of futu... |
How to increase my credit score | Get a credit card is NOT the answer. The reason people have a bad (or no) credit score is often because they're new to the country, have just turned 18, have previously fallen into arrears or are just bad with money. Getting a credit card is risky because, if you don't stay on top of your payments, it'll just damage yo... |
Why do I see multiple trades of very small quantities? | It looks more like someone is trying to pocket the spread. The trades are going off at the bid then the ask (from what I can tell without any L1 and L2 data, but the spread could be bigger than what the prices show, since the stock looks pretty volatile given the difference between current price and VWAP...). Looking... |
How to save money for future expenses | First, talk to your husband about this. You really need to persuade him that you need to be saving, and get him to agree on how and how much. Second, if you husband is not good at saving, work on getting something set aside automatically - ideally deducted from a paycheck or transferred to a savings account automatical... |
Is it wise to switch investment strategy frequently? | A guy who does a sports talk show here in the US can be pretty smart about some things. His advice: If you are wondering if something is a good idea, say it out loud. In his book he cites the fact that people thought, at one time, it would be a good idea to allow smoking on airline flights. Keep in mind you are usi... |
In the stock market, why is the “open” price value never the same as previous day's “close”? | Nobody has mentioned the futures market yet. Although the stock market closes at 4pm, the futures market continues trading 24 hours a day and 5.5 days a week. Amongst the products that trade in the future market are stock index futures. That includes the Dow Jones, the S&P 500. These are weighted averages of stocks an... |
Online tools for monitoring my portfolio gains/losses in real time? | This functionality is widely available, not only on brokerage sites, but also financial management and even financial information sites. For instance, two of the latter are Google Finance and Yahoo Finance. If you are logged in, they let you create "portfolios" listing your stocks and, optionally, the size of your ho... |
Shares Canceled after Merger | It seems like this was a "stock for stock" transaction. That is, your company was acquired, not for cash, but for the stock of Company X in a deal that your company's board of directors "signed off" on. Your company no longer exists, and that's why your stock was cancelled. The acquirer will be sending you an equivale... |
How do I apply for a mortgage after a cash closing on a property? | Is she correct in that you generally can't even apply until the cash transaction is complete? Probably. How can you commit to mortgage something you do not own? Makes sense for them to wait not even until the transaction is complete - but until the transaction is recorded. Is 45 days reasonable to complete the financ... |
How fast does the available amount of gold in the world increase due to mining? | If that fraction is really small, then the amount of gold can be thought of as relatively constant. That fraction is very small. After all, people have been mining gold for thousands of years. So the cumulative results of gold mining have been building up the supply for quite some time. Meanwhile, owners of gold rarely... |
Self-directed RRSP into mortgage investment | The Globe and Mail has an interesting article on what you can do with your RRSPs. Be aware that the article is from early 2011 and rules change. They describe holding your own mortgage inside your RRSP. That is, if you have $100,000 inside your RRSP already and your remaining mortgage is $100,000, you can use that mone... |
Can the Securities Investor Protection Corporation (SIPC) itself go bankrupt? | Not sure if I follow your question completely. Re: What if some fraud takes place that's too big even for it to fund? SIPC does not fund anything. What it does is takes over the troubled brokerage firm, books / assets and returns the money faster. Refer to SIPC - What SIPC Covers... What it Does Not and more specific... |
Buying a car and learning to drive versus paying up study loans | Welcome to Money.SE. It appears there's public transportation to get you to work? And the area by your house is walkable? i.e. you and your wife can get groceries and other needs by walking. If it will take 5 years to pay the loans even without a car, how long if you get one? Will you even be able to afford the payment... |
Oversimplify it for me: the correct order of investing | Great questions -- the fact that you're thinking about it is what's most important. I think a priority should be maximizing any employer match in your 401(k) because it's free money. Second would be paying off high interest debt because it's a big expense. Everything else is a matter of setting good financial habits so... |
How much is university projected to cost in Canada in 18 years? | I personally do not buy any those so-call forecasts - look no further than the economic forecasts by those experts with PhDs over the last decade or so. Truth is there are too many factors that affects the tuition fees that far down the road (think inflation, cost of living, the method for which the education is being... |
Why does it take two weeks (from ex-date) for dividends to pay out? | Why does it take two weeks (from ex-date) for dividends to pay out? For logistical and accounting purposes. This article says on the payment date: This date is generally a week or more after the date of record so that the company has sufficient time to ensure that it accurately pays all those who are entitled. It is fo... |
High-risk investing is better for the young? Why? | If you spent your whole life earning the same portfolio that amounts $20,000, the variance and volatility of watching your life savings drop to $10,000 overnight has a greater consequence than for someone who is young. This is why riskier portfolios aren't advised for older people closer to or within retirement age, th... |
Oversimplify it for me: the correct order of investing | It isn't always clear cut that you should pay off a debt at all, particularly a mortgage. In simple terms, if you are making a better return than what the bank is charging you, and the investment meets your risk criteria, then you should not pay back the debt. In the UK for example, mortgage rates are currently quite l... |
If the put is more expensive than the call, what does it mean | What it means is that the stock has already moved down. Options and other derivatives follow the price of the underlying they are not a precursor to what the underlying is going to do. In other words, the price of a derivative is derived from the underlying. |
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... |
Can signing up at optoutprescreen.com improve my credit score? | Some credit checks are ignored as part of the scoring process. Some companies will pull your info, to make sure you haven't become a risk. Others will inquire before they send you an offer. Since you didn't initiate the inquiry it can't impact your score. |
What are the procedures or forms for a private loan with the sale of a vehicle? | Draft up a promissory notes. Have a lawyer do it use one of those online contract places if you have simple needs. Your promissory note need to cover Be specific. There are probably a lot more items that can be included, and if a quick internet search is any indication it gets deep fast. http://lmbtfy.com/?q=car+sal... |
Why buy bonds in a no-arbitrage market? | For safety. If something catastrophic happens to your bank and your money is in there you will lose any not covered by FDIC. So if you have a very large amount of money you will store it in bonds as its much less likely that the US treasury will go bankrupt than your bank. I also literally just posted this in another t... |
Is it possible to make money by getting a mortgage? | In the Netherlands its cheaper in some cases to have a mortgage then to own a house. Example: If you own a house you pay more taxes (because you own something expensive you have to pay "eigendoms belasting" < owners tax). So if you instead of owning the house, keep the mortgage low and only pay the mortgage interest... |
Why do gas stations charge different amounts in the same local area? | I only have anecdotal evidence here as members of my family used to own a grocery store / gas station, but they were often time charged much more to have the gasoline delivered to than many gas stations which were just a mile or two away (up to 15% more). Also depending upon the branding of the gas station, they are r... |
What is the name of inverse of synergy? (finance) | You could call it "multiple streams of income" a la Robert Allen and others. Or you could call it "Do once, sell many" or something like that. |
How do online referal systems work? | Yeah, I'll take the challenge...:) How trustworthy these are and what are their sources of income? These are in fact two separate questions, but the answers are related. How trustworthy? As trustworthy as they're clear about their own sources of income. If you cannot find any clue as to why, what for and how they're pa... |
I'm in Australia. What should I look for in an online stock broker, for trading mostly on the ASX? | OptionsXpress is good. I have used them for many years to trade stocks mainly (writing Covered calls and trading volatility). You set the account up through OptionsXpress Australia, and then fund the account from one of your accounts in Australia (I just use my Bank of Queensland account). The currency conversion will ... |
Does a disciplined stock investor stick with their original sell strategy, or stay in and make more? | Ask yourself a better question: Under my current investment criteria would I buy the stock at this price? If the answer to that question is yes you need to work out at what price you would now sell out of the position. Think of these as totally separate decisions from your original decisions to buy and at what price to... |
Will a credit card company close my account if I stop using it? | There is no universal answer here. Some card issuers will. Some that will close the account will warn you first. For my "sock drawer" cards I'll try to take each out semi-annually to make a single transaction, then put it back in the drawer. I've heard you should charge something quarterly, I've never had one closed... |
Received an unexpected cashiers check for over $2K from another state - is this some scam? | This is a variation of a very common scam. The principle of the scam is this: I give you a check for a huge amount of money which you pay in your account. Then I ask you to pay some money from your account into a third account. Two months later the bank detects that my check was forged / stolen / cancelled / whatever a... |
Does it make any sense to directly contribute to reducing the US national debt? | No. Unless you are ten Bill Gates rolled into one man, you can not possibly hope to make a dent in the 14 trillion debt. Even if you were and paid off whole debt in one payment, budget deficits would restore it to old glory in a short time. If you have some extra money, I'd advise to either choose a charity and donate ... |
How can people have such high credit card debts? | In the United States, when applying for credit cards, proof of income is on an honor system. You can make $15k a year and write on your application that you make $150k a year. They don't check that value other than to have their computer systems figure out risk and you get a yes or no. It was traditionally easy to atta... |
Do any publically available documents from IR or SEC include all patents the company holds? | It appears as others have said that companies are not required to state this on as any sort of Asset. I remembered a friend of mine is a lawyer specializing in Intellectual Property Rights so asked him and confirmed that there's no document companies are required to file which states all patent holdings as assets. Ther... |
What are “trailing 12-month total returns”? | Total Return is the percent change in value (including andy dividends) of an instrument. The "trailing 12-month" means that your starting point is the value 12 months ago. So the formula is: where V is the value of the instrument on the reference date, V0 is the value of the instrument 12 months prior to the referenc... |
How are the $1 salaries that CEOs sometimes take considered legal? | Taxable fringe benefits are included in taxable wages for the purpose of FLSA. So when those executives get to use company cars or company jets that value is "wage" even if it isn't salary. |
What's the purpose of having separate checking and savings accounts? | For some people, it's easier to stick to a budget if they have separate checking and savings accounts because they can deposit funds directly into their savings account and not have those funds accessible by debit/credit card, checks, etc. This allows people to pay themselves first and accumulate savings, while making ... |
still have mortgage on old house to be torn down- want to build new house | I could be wrong, but I doubt you're going to be able to roll the current mortgage into a new one. The problem is that the bank is going to require that the new loan is fully collateralized by the new house. So the only way that you can ensure that is if you can construct the house cheaply enough that the difference b... |
Are the “debt reduction” company useful? | No. Not in the Uk anyway, they are just an extra person/company that you have to pay. |
Highest market cap for a company from historical data | In common with many companies, Microsoft has been engaging in share buyback programmes, where it buys its own shares in the market and then cancels them. It's often a more tax-efficient way to distribute profits to the shareholders than paying a dividend. So there were more Microsoft shares in circulation in 1999 than ... |
I carelessly invested in a stock on a spike near the peak price. How can I salvage my investment? | I am very surprised no one mentioned the Stock Repair Option Strategy which has real benefits and is one of the mainstream Option Strategies. Quote: Who Should Consider Using the Stock Repair Strategy? In a nutshell, you are buying call options with current strike price (at-the-money) and sell call options with higher ... |
Is keeping old credit cards and opening new credit cards with high limits and never using an ideal way to boost credit scores? | Problems with your plan (in no particular order) there is a limit, once they have decided that you have enough credit they won't offer any more. If the economy changes (like it did in 2008) they can reduce the limit on existing accounts. If you don't use them, they may decide to close them. Using existing cards will en... |
In general, is it financially better to buy or to rent a house? | I just read through all of the answers to this question and there is an important point that no one has mentioned yet: Oftentimes, buying a house is actually cheaper than renting the identical house. I'm looking around my area (suburbs of Chicago, IL) in 2017 and seeing some houses that are both for sale and for rent, ... |
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