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Working on a tax free island to make money?
From http://www.taxrates.cc/html/cayman-islands-tax-rates.html: There is no income tax, corporate tax, sales tax, capital gains tax, wealth tax, inheritance tax, property tax, gift tax or any other kind of direct taxation in Cayman Islands. Cayman Islands government receives the majority of its income from indirect...
Buying a mortgaged house
Just as a renter doesn't care what the landlord's mortgage is, the buyer of a house shouldn't care what the seller paid, what the current mortgage is, or any other details of the seller's finances. Two identical houses may be worth $400K. One still has a $450K loan, the other is mortgage free. You would qualify for th...
Put idle savings to use while keeping them liquid
I'm new to this, but how about putting a big part of your money into an MMA? I don't know about your country, but in Germany, some online banks easily offer as much as 2.1% pa, and you can access the money daily. If you want decent profit without risk this is a great deal, much better than most saving accounts.
What makes a Company's Stock prices go up or down?
I always liked the answer that in the short term, the market is a voting machine and in the long term the market is a weighing machine. People can "vote" a stock up or down in the short term. In the long term, typically, the intrinsic value of a company will be reflected in the price. It's a rule of thumb, not perfec...
Prepaying a loan: Shouldn't the interest be recalculated like a shorter loan?
A few years ago I had a 5 year car loan. I wanted to prepay it after 2 years and I asked this question to the lender. I expected a reduction in the interest attached to the car loan since it didn't go the full 5 years. They basically told me I was crazy and the balance owed was the full amount of the 5 year car loan. T...
Is it ever a good idea to close credit cards?
I'd say close them if they have fees, if you're worried about fraud or if you're going to be tempted to use them. It may have an affect on your credit rating, but it shouldn't hurt you seriously. Having too many cards gives you the "opportunity" to overspend, which obviously isn't good.
The Benefits/Disadvantages of using a credit card
Credit card interest rates are obscene. Try to find some other kind of loan for the furnishings; if you put things on the card, try to pay them off as quickly as possible. I should say that for most people I do recommend having a credit card. Hotels, car rental agencies, and a fair number of other businesses expect to ...
What to do when a job offer is made but with a salary less than what was asked for?
What I do in those cases - assuming I like the job - is ask for a review in 3-months. They usually take this to mean I want a raise-review and give me a raise. What I really want to know is how I'm doing. Some managers will only give feedback in a review instead of every day.
Where do I invest my Roth IRA besides stock market and mutual funds?
Many investment companies are also offering target retirement date portfolios to invest in. They manage reducing the risk over time so you don't have to worry about it if you choose not to.
How can I stop a merchant from charging a credit card processing fee?
I gather that, while it is not illegal for a merchant to pass their payment card processing fees on to their customers directly in the form of a surcharge, doing so is a violation of their merchant agreements with the payment card processor (at least for Visa/MC). It's not - surcharging has been permissible since 2013,...
Can I get my property taxes lowered?
You most definitely can appeal the county's appraisal of your property. How to do so, and your odds of success will vary widely by your location, but I have successfully appealed the valuation on one of my rental properties. I asked my realtor to provide me with recent sales of comparable homes in the neighborhood & p...
Why don't banks give access to all your transaction activity?
All the other answers here are correct, but I'll add one more perspective. I am a business architect at one of the world's largest retail banks. Every day I experience the frustration of trying to get large-scale corporate IT to do anything, so I feel that your question is just one facet of the wider question: "why are...
What are the consequences of not respecting a notice period when leaving a job?
It depends on your employer. They may not care to pursue matters if you don't give enough notice. They might be happy to see you go. Or they might be really sad to see you go, but not feel like they need to punish you. Or they might be really angry to see you go, and decide that they want to punish you to the full exte...
Why doesn't Japan just divide the Yen by 100?
So their programmers don't have to deal with floating point arithmetic. This is why they're so far ahead in technology!
Joint Account for Common Earnings
Do not use a shared bank account. One of you can cash/deposit the check in your personal account and then either pay the others in the group cash or write them a check. You open yourself up to many, many problems sharing a bank account and/or money. Treat it like a business as far as income goes, but I would not rec...
How does a bank make money on an interest free secured loan?
A "true" 0% loan is a losing proposition for the bank, that's true. However when you look at actual "0%" loans they usually have some catches: There might also be late payment fees, prepayment penalties, and other clauses that make it a good deal on average to the bank. Individual borrowers might be able to get away ...
Will a stop order get triggered if the floor is hit and trading is halted?
quantycuenta is right, if a halt is in place, then no trading will occur, simple as that. But in the practice of risk management it is a little different. Want to remind you that you are assuming that trading is halted immediately upon the drop in price. That doesn't always happen, so if there is any time between the a...
Definition of “U.S. source” for US non-resident alien capital gains tax
The examples you provide in the question are completely irrelevant. It doesn't matter where the brokerage is or where is the company you own stocks in. For a fairly standard case of an non-resident alien international student living full time in the US - your capital gains are US sourced. Let me quote the following tex...
CD interest rate US vs abroad, is there a catch?
I think your approach of looking exclusively at USD deposits is a prudent one. Here are my responses to your questions. 1) It is highly unlikely that a USD deposit abroad be converted to local currency upon withdrawal. The reason for offering a deposit in a particular currency in the first place is that the bank wants ...
How does a bank make money on an interest free secured loan?
In addition to all the points made in other answers, in some jurisdictions (including the UK where I live) the consumer credit laws require the lender to allow the borrower to pay off the loan at any time. If the lender charges interest and the borrower pays off the loan early then the lender loses the interest that wo...
What are the advantages of paying off a mortgage quickly?
The main reason for paying your mortgage off quickly is to reduce risk should a crisis happen. If you don't have a house payment, you have much higher cash flow every month, and your day-to-day living expenses are much lower, so if an illness or job loss happens, you'll be in a much better position to handle it. You s...
Can I work with two or more mortgage brokers at the same time?
Obviously mate. Mortgage advisors don't have just one client, similarly why should you have only one advisor? it´s an open market. Don't worry about wasting their time, you are not wasting their time if you are considering a mortgage. then, in case you found a better deal with another mortgage advisor then that´s life ...
How do I deal with a mistaken attempt to collect a debt from me that is owed by someone else?
It may be a scam. But it also may be a company trying to find a person with the same or similar name. They may have followed a trail to her old address, and still not have the correct person. They bought number of old debts at a large discount, and are trying to track down any money they can find. It is best to ignore ...
What are the advantages of doing accounting on your personal finances?
Everyone should keep track of what they spend. When you see how much you are spending on each category of expense, you can make good decisions about how much your life is improved by something vs. how much you spend on that thing. Everyone makes better decisions when they are informed by accurate information about tho...
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...
How can you correlate a company stock's performance with overall market performance?
Generally, if you are trend trading, and if the market as a hole is going up strongly and an individual stock is falling sharply on the same day, I would tend to stay away from buying that stock at the moment. The market is showing strength whilst at the same time the stock is showing weakness. The general rule of thum...
What happens if I get approved for financing, but don't make the purchase?
Nothing will happen. It will not affect your credit score. You are not in trouble. :) Assuming that you didn't already agree to a purchase contract, you are not obligated to purchase simply because you had a pre-approval credit check done. However, even if you did, since they aren't shipping yet, you could probably ca...
Is there a way to roll over short-term gains and avoid capital gain tax
If the investments are in a non-retirement, taxable account, there's not much you can do to avoid short-term capital gains if you sell now. Ways to limit short-term capital gains taxes: Donate -- you can donate some of the stock to charity (before selling it). Transfer -- you can give some of the stock to, say, a famil...
How do financial services aimed at women differ from conventional services?
It is just marketing and market segmentation. We could all shop at WalMart, but some people prefer wider aisles and mood music so they shop at Macys. Other people are fine shopping at Target or online. Women face no different challenges. The challenges in investing depend on who you are, where you are in life and wh...
Abundance of Cash - What should I do?
Since your 401k/IRA are maxed out and you don't need a 529 for kids, the next step is a plain ol' "Taxable account." The easiest and most hassle-free would be automatic contributions into a Mutual Fund. Building on poolie's answer, I think mutual funds are much more automatic/hassle-free than ETFs, so in your case (an...
Insurance broker - Online vs. physical location?
Traditional insurance agent guy here. There is no right answer in my opinion because your individual needs cannot be generalized. There are a variety of factors that influence the price charged to you including but not limited to your past claims history, geographic location, credit profile, and the carrier's book...
Clarification on 529 fund
You are faced with a dilemma. If you use a 529 plan to fund your education, the short timeline of a few years will limit your returns that are tax free. Most people who use a 529 plan either purchase years of tuition via lump sum, when the child is young; or they put aside money on a regular basis that will grow tax d...
Tracking Gold and Silver (or any other commodity investment) in Quicken 2010?
I would track it using a regular asset account. The same way I would track the value of a house, a car, or any other personal asset. ETA: If you want automatic tracking, you could set it up as a stock portfolio holding shares of the GLD ETF. One share of GLD represents 1/10 ounce of gold. So, if you have 5 ounces of...
How long to wait after getting a mortgage to increase my credit limit?
My recommendation is to not ask for a credit increase, but just increase the utilization of one card if you have multiple cards, and decrease the utilization of the others, and continue paying off all cards in full each month. In a few months, you will likely be offered a credit increase by the card that is getting ...
How do I manage my portfolio as stock evaluation criteria evolve?
Unfortunately I believe there is not a good answer to this because it's not a well posed problem. It sounds like you are looking for a theoretically sound criteria to decide whether to sell or hold. Such a criteria would take the form of calculating the cost of continuing to hold a stock and comparing it to the trans...
Loan holder wants a check from the insurance company that I already cashed and used to repair my car
What would happen if you was to cash a check, didn’t realize it was to you and your finance company, take it to a local business that has a money center, they cash the check without even having you sign let alone having the finance companies endorsement on it . The money cleared my account like a couple months ...
I'm only spending roughly half of what I earn; should I spend more?
Apart from what the other posters have said, you could look at some 'good cause'. I'd keep on saving 50% as spending more won't really make you more happy. You already sound happy. What I used to do, when I could, was to donate 10% of my 'profit' per year. I'd compare year start with year end and do the math. Afterward...
Ballpark salary equivalent today of “healthcare benefits” in the US?
While the other answers try to quantify the value of health care the question you ask is about employee vs contractor. The delta between those regarding benefits goes way beyond health care. In fact because almost every full time employee must have health care offered by their employer the option of "you can have X wi...
How to invest in stocks without using an intermediary like a broker? Can shares be bought direct?
Yes! What you are describing is an "off-exchange" trade and can be done using stock certificates. Here, you will privately negotiate with the seller on a price and delivery details. That is the old-school way to do it. Many companies (about 20% of the S&P 500) will not issue paper certificates and you may run a hefty p...
How are startup shares worth more than the total investment funding?
He is worth $17.5 billion today Note that he is worth that dollar figure, but he doesn't have that many dollars. That's the worth of his stake in the company (number of shares he owns times the assumed value per share), i.e. assuming its total value being several hundreds of billions, as pundits assume. However, it is ...
Tax advantages of using 529 plans to save for child's education?
There are several variables to consider. Taxes, fees, returns. Taxes come in two stages. While adding money to the account you can save on state taxes, if the account is linked to your state. If you use an out of state 529 plan there is no tax savings. Keep in mind that other people (such as grandparents) can set aside...
Why do I get a much better price for options with a limit order than the ask price?
What you have to remember is that Options are derivatives of another asset like stocks for example. The price of the Option is derived from the price of the underlying. If the underlying is a stock for example, as the price of the stock moves up and down during the trading day, so will the Market Maker's fair value fo...
Student loan payments and opportunity costs
Already a lot of great answers, but since I ask myself this same question I thought I'd share my 2 cents. As @user541852587 pointed out, behavior is of the essence here. If you're like most recent grads, this is probably the first time in your life you are getting serious about building wealth. Can you pay your loans ...
Theoretically, if I bought more than 50% of a company's stocks, will I own the company?
I almost agree. I am not completely sure about the ownership of stock, but to have the majority ownership of any company you must own more than 50% of a company's outstanding shares. Although a board in majority, could out vote a majority shareholder in most cases depending on the company policy regarding shareholders ...
Why not just invest in the market?
Perhaps someone has an investment objective different than following the market. If one is investing in stocks with an intent on getting dividend income then there may be other options that make more sense than owning the whole market. Secondly, there is Slice and Dice where one may try to find a more optimal investmen...
How do I find an ideal single fund to invest all my money in?
Not sure what your needs are or what NIS is: However here in the US a good choice for a single fund are "Life Cycle Funds". Here is a description from MS Money: http://www.msmoney.com/mm/investing/articles/life_cyclefunds.htm
Is it common in the US not to pay medical bills?
Is it common in the US not to pay medical bills? Certainly not. What some might do, however, is not pay them immediately, with the intent to negotiate them down or get them written off. You can also see if there's a discount for paying immediately - I've had moderate success with this, but it was during a time where ...
Can LLC legally lend money to a friend?
One thing I would add to TTT's answer: One of the benefits of using an LLC for your business is right there in the name - "limited liability". It provides a level of protection for your personal assets should your business go bankrupt, get sued, and so forth. However, if someone can show that there's no real separation...
Should I buy my house from my landlord?
Never buy a house unless you really want to buy that house. If you want to buy a rental, look around and find the right rental to buy; saving a few hundred on moving costs isn't a good reason to buy the wrong property at the wrong price.
Claiming business expense from personal credit card
There is no law that requires you to have a separate bank account for your business, or to pay all expenses from a business bank account. It is a GOOD IDEA to have a separate bank account and pay all business expenses from that account and all personal expenses from your personal account, because that makes sorting out...
Are founders of a company paid dividends?
Depends on if the stock pays a dividend or not. Some companies in their early years may choose to not pay dividends. Your calculations are off as the dividend stated is annual that you'd have to divide by 4 to get what the quarterly amount would be and there can be variances as Ellison's compensation package may well i...
Does the Black-Scholes Model apply to American Style options?
Black-Scholes is "close enough" for American options since there aren't usually reasons to exercise early, so the ability to do so doesn't matter. Which is good since it's tough to model mathematically, I've read. Early exercise would usually be caused by a weird mispricing for some technical / market-action reason whe...
What is the psychology behind the Dead Cat Bounce Pattern and how can it be traded?
You are correct, a possible Dead Cat Bounce is forming on the stock markets. If it does form it will mean that prices have not reached their bottom, as this pattern is a bearish continuation pattern. For a Dead Cat Bounce to form prices will need to break through support formed by the lows last week. If prices bounce o...
Does doing your “research”/“homework” on stocks make any sense?
In fact markets are not efficient and participants are not rational. That is why we have booms and busts in markets. Emotions and psychology play a role when investors and/or traders make decisions, sometimes causing them to behave in unpredictable or irrational ways. That is why stocks can be undervalued or overvalued...
Is person-person lending/borrowing protected by law?
By protected you mean what exactly? In the US, generally you'd get a promissory note signed by B saying "B promises to repay A such and such amount on such and such terms". In case of default you can sue in a court of law, and the promissory note will be the evidence for your case. In case of B declaring bankruptcy, yo...
Where can I find out details about the actual network on which SWIFT banking works?
The SWIFT network is federated. The connection routing is via country server to regional servers. All these are maintained by SWIFT. The Banks have corresponded relationship with other banks. They play a role in actual settlement and take some risk. L/C is very risky business. It is expensive.
Are stores that offer military discounts compensated by the government?
Nope, only base commissaries or BX/PX's are subsidized. The rest is just done for goodwill/marketing purposes.
In your 20s how much money should you have and how to properly use & manage it?
You need a budget. You need to know how much you make and how much you spend. How much you earn and what you choose to spend you money on is your choice. You have your own tolerance for risk and your own taste and style, so lifestyle and what you own isn't something that we can answer. The key to your budget is to re...
Advice for a college student interested in investment opportunities.
Over a period of time most mutual funds do not perform better that an index fund. Picking and buying individual stock can be a great learning experience.
Options tax treatment
You owe no tax on the option transaction in 2015 in this case. How you ultimately get taxed depends on how you dispose of the position. If it expires, then you will have a short-term capital gain on the option position at expiration. If it is exercised, then the option is "gone" for tax purposes and your basis in th...
Why did the Swiss National Bank fix the EUR/CHF exchange rate at CHF 1.20?
It's not. If you look at the page you link to and change dates, it's clear the rate changes a bit. 120.15 120.1 per hundred. The Swiss can keep the 1.200 as a target and if it's higher, sell agingst the euro to bring it down, if lower, buy. If the swiss experienced a serious financial crisis and their currency fell, th...
Where or how can I model historical market purchases
Robert Shiller has an on-line page with links to download some historical data that may be what you want here. Center for the Research in Security Prices would be my suggestion for another resource here.
Why would a company with a bad balance sheet be paying dividends?
Having a debt on a balance sheet does impact the capability and willingness of the company to pay dividend. But more than this it depends on the profitability of the company. If the company is profitable, there is no reasons why it's share holders should not be rewarded. If the company does not have debt, lot of money...
Is it OK to use a credit card on zero-interest to pay some other credit cards with higher-interest?
good vs "bad" debt in the context of that post. At least in the UK this can be a good tactic to reduce the cost of credit card debt. Some things to consider
What happens to my stocks when broker goes bankrupt?
Here is my perception of the situation, obtained from reading Degiro's Client Agreement. If Degiro shuts down, it will notify you about the fact at least one month in advance, and you will have enough time to order a transfer of your positions to a different broker. If Degiro shuts down unexpectedly, your assets will r...
Online tutorials for calculating DCF (Discounted Cash Flow)?
Check out Professor Damodaran's website: http://pages.stern.nyu.edu/~adamodar/ . Tons of good stuff there to get you started. If you want more depth, he's written what is widely considered the bible on the subject of valuation: "Investment Valuation". DCF is very well suited to stock analysis. One doesn't need to know,...
Do Americans really use checks that often?
In my business (estate planning law practice), probably 60-70% of my income is in the form of checks, with the balance as credit/debit cards. I prefer to get paid by check so I don't have to pay the approx 2.5% merchant fee, but I don't push clients to choose one method over the other. I offer direct deposit to my empl...
Where should I be investing my money?
Don't be too scared of investing in the market. It has ups and downs, but over the long haul you make money in it. You can't jump in and out, just consistently add money to investments that you 1) understand and 2) trust. When I say understand, what I mean is you can follow how the money is generated, either because ...
How will Hello Wallet benefit me? Is it worth the cost?
CreditKarma review I don't personally use HelloWallet, but I have also heard very good things about it. Independence from financial products is a HUGE thing in the field because so many investment advisers place the firm before the customer (c.f. Too Big To Fail), so having an independent resource is a huge benefit.
Using Euros to buy and sell NASDAQ stocks
Either way you'll be converting to US Dollars somewhere along the line. You are seeking something that is very redundant
Can PayPal transfer money automatically from my bank account if I link it in PayPal?
See this help article from Paypal about payment methods for purchases. When you don’t have a PayPal balance or don’t have enough in your PayPal balance, we’ll use your bank account as the default payment method unless you select a different way to pay. So yes, Paypal will automatically deduct from your bank account whe...
Complete Opposite Calculations and Opinions - Using Loan to Invest - Paying Monthly Installments with Monthly Income
Sorry in advance, but this will be long. Also, it sounds like your friend is a tool. I hope this "friend" is not also your financial advisor... they would be encouraging you to make a very poor investment decision. They also don't know how to do financial math. For what it's worth, I am not wrong. I have correctly an...
What is the rough estimate of salary value for a taxpayer to pay AMT?
Turbox Tax states the following: "For 2015, the AMT exemption amounts are $53,600 for individual taxpayers, $83,400 for married taxpayers filing jointly and surviving spouses, and $41,700 for married persons filing separately. This is the amount you're allowed to deduct from your taxable income before applying the AMT...
Principal 401(k) managed fund fees, wow. What can I do?
When you look at managed funds the expense ratios are always high. They have the expense of analyzing the market, deciding where to invest, and then tracking the new investments. The lowest expenses are with the passive investments. What you have noticed is exactly what you expect. Now if you want to invest in active ...
Taxes on selling stock
@BlackJack does a good answer of addressing the gains and when you are taxed on them and at what kind of rate. Money held in a brokerage account will usually be in a money-market fund, so you would own taxes on the interest it earned. There is one important consideration that must be understood for capitol Losses. T...
Do you avoid tax when taking a home equity loan?
(credits to Joe's answer above which alluded to what I was not considering) You aren't "bypassing" the tax liability if you invest in a home instead of, say, stocks. It's true stocks would be subject to tax during the year you cash in on them while the proceeds of a home equity loan would not affect your tax liability....
Are mutual funds a good choice for a medium to low risk investment with a two year horizon?
First, you don't state where you are and this is a rather global site. There are people from Canada, US, and many other countries here so "mutual funds" that mean one thing to you may be a bit different for someone in a foreign country for one point. Thanks for stating that point in a tag. Second, mutual funds are me...
What to do with an expensive, upside-down car loan?
Does the full time PHD student extend to 70-80 hours/week or more? If not, can you pick up an extra job to aid with living expenses? Also, whose name is the debt in? Is your wife paying to avoid the black mark on her credit record or her mother's? Basically what it looks like to me is that you guys currently have a car...
Purchasing a home using collateral
Since you only own half of the house, you would most likely need the cooperation of whoever owns the other half in order to use it as collateral for a loan, but if you can do that, there's no reason you couldn't do what you're talking about. The complication is that if you default on the loan, the bank isn't going to ...
Should Emergency Funds be Used for Infrequent, but Likely, Expenses?
This is probably a very opinion-based Q&A. But anyway: My solution to such questions is to have multiple layers of emergency funds. I have one amount in a bank account that I do not like to tap, but can (and do) when I need money. This is most close to your infrequent but not completely surprising moments of cash need....
What to do with $50,000?
Considered a down payment on a house? Some illiquid assets? Otherwise you are doing 'responsible' get rich slow (read: get rich old) type things. And this question only invites opinion based answer. You tried futures and don't want to take that kind of risk again with your $50,000, so thats that
Short or Long Term Capital Gains for Multiple Investments
Tell your broker. You can usually opt to have certain positions be FIFO and others LIFO. Definitely possible with Interactive Brokers.
Are assets lost in a bankruptcy valued at the time of loss, or according to current value?
You are not the person or entity against whom the crime was committed, so the Casualty Loss (theft) deduction doesn't apply here. You should report this as a Capital Loss, the same way all of the Enron shareholders did in their 2001 tax returns. Your cost basis is whatever you originally paid for the shares. The final ...
How can I save money on a gym / fitness membership? New Year's Resolution is to get in shape - but on the cheap!
Try a gym for a month before you sign up on any contracts. This will also give you time to figure out if you are the type who can stick with a schedule to workout on regular basis. Community centres are cost effective and offer pretty good facilities. They have monthly plans as well so no long term committments.
Live in California but work for Illinois-based company
California and New York are very aggressive when it comes to revenue and taxes. As such, mere having an employee in these States creates a nexus and tax/filing liability for the company. @Adam Wood mentioned sales tax - that is correct. Having an employee in the State of California will require collecting sales tax for...
What is a “retail revolving account,” and does it improve my credit score?
In the other question, the OP had posted a screenshot (circa 2010) from Transunion with suggestions on how to improve the OP's credit score. One of these suggestions was to obtain "retail revolving accounts." By this, they are referring to credit accounts from a particular retail store. Stores have been offering cre...
401(k) Investment stategies
Ending up with nothing is an unlikely situation unless you invest 100% in a company stock and the company goes under. In order to give you a good answer we need to see what options your employer gives for 401k investments. The best advice would be to take a list of all options that your employer allows and talk with a ...
Beginning investment
I am a huge fan of jim Cramer and while you may not get CNBC in Australia you can prolly catch jim cramers podcasts If you have an iPod or iPhone which really will help your financial literacy a bit. Here's my advice . Set up a IRA or tax advantaged accounts if they exist in Australia (sorry I only know usa markets re...
~$75k in savings - Pay off house before new home?
With an annual income of $120,000 you can be approved for a $2800 monthly payment on your mortgage. The trickier problem is that you will save quite a bit on that mortgage payment if you can avoid PMI, which means that you should be targeting a 20% down-payment on your next purchase. With a $500,000 budget for a new ho...
Need something more basic than a financial advisor or planner
What you are looking for is a Money Coach or a Personal Finance Coach. From mymoneycoach.com: "Money Coach: Everyone uses money, but few people fully understand how to use it wisely. To be debt free and enjoy a comfortable lifestyle takes special skills. Money coaches provide solutions for household budgeting, investin...
What to do with an expensive, upside-down car loan?
If you can't sell it, refinance the bugger. Even if you can knock the interest rate down to 8% and take out a 3-year loan, you'll save about $100 per month. Or really kill the payment (but pay more interest) by taking out another 6-year. A 6-year at 9% on $12k is only $215/month. My credit union routinely advertises...
Which forex brokerage should I choose if I want to fund my account with over a million dollars?
Oanda.com is a very respectable broker. They don't offer ridiculous leverage options of 200 to 1 that prove the downfall of people starting out in Forex. When I used them a few years back, they had good customer service and some nice charting tools.
How often do stocks become worthless?
The only thing that makes a stock worthless is when the company goes out of business. Note that bankruptcy, by itself, does not mean the company is closing. It could successfully restructure its affairs and come out of bankruptcy with a better outlook. Being a small or unprofitable business may cause a company's to tra...
Where to find historical quotes for the Dow Jones Global Total Stock Market Index?
A number of places. First, fast and cheap, you can probably get this from EODData.com, as part of a historical index price download -- they have good customer service in my experience and will likely confirm it for you before you buy. Any number of other providers can get it for you too. Likely Capital IQ, Bloomberg...
Will my current employer find out if I have a sole proprietarship/corporation?
Tell your employer during your initial contract Terms of Service discussions. Ordinarily, this is boilerplate but you should ask for a rider in your contract which says - in some form - I already have IP, I will continue to work on this IP in my own time, and any benefit or opportunity derived from this IP will contin...
Can I depreciate a car given to me?
That seems to indicate that you can in fact depreciate a vehicle given to you? Section 1015 discusses the calculation of basis for gifted property, it says nothing about depreciation. Personal property cannot be depreciated for tax purposes unless it is used for business purposes. So unless you drive your car as part...
Why would a bank need to accept deposits from private clients if it can just borrow from the Federal Reserve?
Banks cannot just borrow from the Federal Reserve and use that money to make loans. The first thing you need to understand is how fractional reserve banking works. The banks can make loans with money that their customers have deposited in their accounts. The interest and fees from those loans go to pay the salaries of ...
Where can I buy stocks if I only want to invest a little bit at a time, and not really be involved in trading?
I don't want to get involved in trading chasing immediate profit That is the best part. There is an answer in the other question, where a guy only invested in small amounts and had a big sum by the time he retired. There is good logic in the answer. If you put in lump sum in a single stroke you will get at a single pr...
FTB sent refund check for 2011 during audit; Does this really mean that whole audit is over for 2011?
Not it doesn't, and yes they can. If the audit is closed, you should have received invitation to attend the closing conference, and get the summary of decisions from that meeting in writing. I suggest you check with your tax representative about this refund check before cashing it.
What are the best software tools for personal finance?
For Mac it's definitely iFinance.