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Are there any Social Responsibility Index funds or ETFs?
Try this site for the funds http://www.socialinvest.org/resources/mfpc/ I'm not aware of any etfs. I'm sure some exist though.
How do rich people guarantee the safety of their money, when savings exceed the FDIC limit?
Even assuming hypothetically that you are able to split money in different bank accounts to get full coverage and all your accounts are in top ranking financial institutions in USA, you can not rely on FDIC if all or most of those banks go broke. Because FDIC just has a meagre 25 billion dollars to cover all bank accou...
Should I buy ~$2200 of a hot stock or invest elsewhere?
Forget investing, you need to focus on managing your debt. I would keep the 6k in a checking or savings account because you need that money in case of an emergency. If you save up more than 10k, use the excess to pay down the principal on your debt. Worry about investing when you have a positive net worth.
How do I find an ideal single fund to invest all my money in?
Though a fan of ETFs (esp. high volume commission-free ones) recently a single, new fund VQT appeared on my radar of interest. It's based on dynamic hedging that has sort of build-in diversification and adapts to the market climate, pulling in and out varying amounts from cash, the S&P 500 and volatility futures based...
Profiting off $0.01 changes in real life?
You can certainly try to do this, but it's risky and very expensive. Consider a simplified example. You buy 1000 shares of ABC at $1.00 each, with the intention of selling them all when the price reaches $1.01. Rinse and repeat, right? You might think the example above will net you a tidy $10 profit. But you have to fa...
Entering the stock market in a poor economy
Forecasts of stock market direction are not reliable, so you shouldn't be putting much weight on them. Long term, you can expect to do better in stocks, but obtaining this better expected return has the danger of "buying in" to the market at a particularly bad moment, leading to a substantially lower return. So mitig...
What's the fuss about identity theft?
While everything can be fixed in the end, and you can usually get all your money back, recovering from identity theft can take months or years. In the meantime, these are some of the things which you might not be able to do: In addition, you could face the following events: For all that, checking your credit report / s...
Is 401k as good as it sounds given the way it is taxed?
If you put it in a normal account it is (1) taxed as ordinary income now and then (2) any growth is taxed again at the capital gains rate. Additionally, (3) any dividends will be taxed each year. If you put it in a 401(k), you will only be taxed once, at the ordinary income rate. Mathematically, if you start with X...
Good yield vs. safer route (Checking vs. Savings)
There is no difference in safety form the perspective of the bank failing, due to FDIC/NCUA insurance. However, there is a practical issue that should be considered, if you allow payments to be automatically withdrawn from your checking account In the case of an error, all of you money may be unavailable until the er...
Micro-investing: How to effectively invest frequent small amounts of money in equities?
Compound interest is your friend. For such a low amount of cash, just pop it into savings accounts or deposits. When you reach about 1.500€ buy one very defensive stock that pays high dividends. With deposits, you don't risk anything, with one stock, you can lose 100% of the investment. That's why it's important to buy...
Do “Instant Approved” credit card inquires appear on credit report?
Yes, they do. Generally though you'll only see it on one or two reports. With regards to the impact on your credit score. Hard inquiries only stay on your credit for 2 years, after that they fall off. For most credit scores (specifically FICO) they only have an impact for 1 year after their date. If you have a few i...
What factors should I consider when evaluating index funds?
Your link is pointing to managed funds where the fees are higher, you should look at their exchange traded funds; you will note that the management fees are much lower and better reflect the index fund strategy.
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...
Personal Tax Deduction for written work to a recognized 501c3
If it's work you'd be producing specifically for this organization, that would not be deductable. Per Publication 526, Charitable Deductions, "You can't deduct the value of your time or services, including: … The value of income lost while you work as an unpaid volunteer for a qualified organization." On the other hand...
Paying tax for freelance work while travelling
Having freelanced myself in South America I could give you a sound advice BUT you would first need to answer some questions. 1) How long do you plan on being in South America? At the end of 2017 will you be back in Ireland or still being in South America? In other words was is your country of residence for tax purpose...
Short term investing vs Leaving money alone?
There are three basic concepts finance (as far as I'm concerned). Liquidity is basically an asset's spendability. Assets range in liquidity from cash (very liquid) to real estate (not very liquid). You can spend cash immediately, while real estate must first be converted to cash. Another important concept is your t...
Why are stocks having less institutional investors a “good thing”?
Let’s turn this round. Now what if the only people willing to own part of company are doing it due to the expectation that they will make money in the short term form the company….
Retirement & asset allocation of $30K for 30 year old single guy
I would definitely recommend putting some of this in an IRA. You can't put all $30K in an IRA immediately though, as the contribution limit is $5500/year for 2014, but until April 15 you can still contribute $5500 for 2013 as well. At your income level I would absolutely recommend a Roth IRA, as your income will very l...
Why is there some latency between the time a check deposit was processed and when one can withdraw the money on Fidelity CMAs?
Every bank and credit union in the US has a Deposit Agreement and Disclosures document, Bank of America is no different. Our general policy is to make funds from your cash and check deposits available to you no later than the first business day after the day of your deposit. However, in some cases we place a hold ...
What's the catch in investing in real estate for rent?
There are several things that are missing from your estimate: The terms for the mortgage for a rental property will be different. You may be required to have a larger down payment. When approving you for the mortgage they will not count all the rental income as income, they will assume periodic vacancies. This differen...
Owning REIT vs owning real estate - which has a better hypothetical ROI?
REIT's usually invest in larger properties (apartment complexes), individuals usually invest in small properties (single units, duplexes, fourplexes, etc). REIT's also invest in a lot of commercial properties - malls, commercial and business office buildings, etc. These are very different markets. Not to mention the ri...
Does the sale of personal items need to be declared as income on my income taxes?
Books would be considered Personal-Use Property according to Canada's income tax laws. The most detailed IT I was able to find is IT-332R, which says: GAINS AND LOSSES 3. A gain on the disposition of personal-use property is normally a capital gain within the meaning of paragraph 39(1)(a). Where the property is a prin...
What options do I have at 26 years old, with 1.2 million USD?
Former financial analyst here, happy to help you. First off, you are right to not be entirely trusting of advisors and attorneys. They are usually trustworthy, but not always. And when you are new to this, the untrustworthy ones have a habit of reaching you first - you're their target market. I'll give you a little bre...
Using a Roth IRA instead of a college savings account
One problem with this plan is that the individual must have earned income to contribute to a Roth IRA. If you have an infant, unless she is the new Gerber baby or something like that, there is probably no legitimate way for her to earn income. If you own a business and have kids who are older, you can employ them to do...
Definitions of leverage and of leverage factor
Your original example is a little confusing because just shorting for 1k and buying for 1k is 100% leveraged or an infinitive leverage ratio. (and not allowed) Brokerage houses would require you to invest some capital in the trade. One example might be requiring you to hold $100 in the brokerage. This is where the 10...
Loan for car buy “cash” (third party) or bank loan
The car dealership doesn't care where you get the cash; they care about it becoming their money immediately and with no risk or complications. Any loan or other arrangements you make to raise the cash is Your Problem, not theirs, unless you arrange the loan through them.
What options do I have at 26 years old, with 1.2 million USD?
Windfalls can disappear in a heartbeat if you're not used to managing large amounts of money. That said, if you can read a bank statement and can exercise a modicum of self control over spending, you do not need a money manager. (See: Leonard Cohen) First, spend $15 on J.L. Collins' book The Simple Path to Wealth. ht...
Why would a company have 2 listings on the same exchange?
Some companies like Royal Dutch Shell have multiple share classes to suit the tax regimes in Holland and the UK the A shares have dutch withholding tax applied and the B shares dont. Also some split capital investment trusts have multiple share classes http://www.trustnet.com/Education/Split.aspx?ms=1
Chase bank not breaking large bills for non-account holders
First, they don't have an obligation to provide a service for a non-customer. In theory, the could even refuse this service to account holders if that was their business model, although in practice that would almost surely be too large of a turn-off to be commercially feasible. Non-account holders aren't paying fees ...
How does Yahoo finance adjust stock data for splits and dividends?
Yahoo's "Adj Close" data is adjusted for splits, but not for dividends. Despite Yahoo's webpage's footnote saying *Close price adjusted for dividends and splits. we can see empirically that the "Adj Close" is only adjusted for splits. For example, consider Siemens from Jan 27, 2017 to Mar 15, 2017: The Adj Close adjus...
What is the purpose of the wash sale rule?
In a comment on this answer you asked It's not clear to me why the ability to defer the gains would matter (since you never materially benefit until you actually sell) but the estate step up in basis is a great point! Could you describe a hypothetical exploitive scenario (utilizing a wash sale) in a little more detail...
How can home buying be considered a sound investment with all of that interest that needs to be paid?
Since then I wanted to move out of this house because the property taxes are so high and the mortgage payment is a killer. As I understand this is a property jointly owned by your parents and you. As they are not living staying in the house, you have taken over the mortgage payments for this house along with any other ...
What traditionally happens to bonds when the stock market crashes?
The short answer is if you own a representative index of global bonds (say AGG) and global stocks (say ACWI) the bonds will generally only suffer minimally in even the medium large market crashes you describe. However, there are some caveats. Not all bonds will tend to react the same way. Bonds that are considered hi...
Am I “cheating the system” by opening up a tiny account with a credit union and then immediately applying for a huge loan?
Credit Unions turn a profit by lending money at a higher interest rate than their savings do, just like banks do. It is an amoral feat, completely parallel to any moral weights you have assigned to "the system". If the most favorable circumstance is you receiving access to capital, then you can easily achieve that with...
Is accident insurance worth it for my kids who play sports
The general answer to any "is it worth it" insurance question is "no," because the insurance company is making a profit on the insurance.* To decide if you want the insurance, you need to figure out how much you can afford to pay if something happens, how much they cover, and how badly you want to transfer your risk to...
Employer 401K thru Fidelity - Investment options
The best predictor of mutual fund performance is low expense ratio, as reported by Morningstar despite the fact that it produces the star ratings you cite. Most of the funds you list are actively managed and thus have high expense ratios. Even if you believe there are mutual fund managers out there that can pick invest...
What are the benefits of opening an IRA in an unstable/uncertain economy?
IRAs have huge tax-advantages. You'll pay taxes when you liquidate gold and silver. While volatile, "the stock market has never produced a loss during any rolling 15-year period (1926-2009)" [PDF]. This is perhaps the most convincing article for retirement accounts over at I Will Teach You To Be Rich. An IRA is just a ...
Why do stores and manufacturers use mail in rebates? A scam, or is there a way to use them effectively?
There are many reasons, some already covered by other answers. I have a blog post on the issue here, and I'll summarize:
UK student loans, early repayment/avoiding further debt
I think you're right that from a pure "expected future value" perspective, it makes sense to pay this loan off as quickly as possible (including not taking the next year's loan). The new student loans with the higher interest rates have changed the balance enough that it's no longer automatically better to keep it goin...
Car dealers offering lower prices when financing a used car
It is a legitimate practice. The dealers do get the loan money "up front" because they're not holding the loan themselves; they promptly sell it to someone else or (more commonly) just act as salesmen for a lending institution and take their profit as commission or origination fees. The combined deal is often not a goo...
What are the top “market conditions” to follow?
The best advice I've heard regarding market conditions is: Buy into fear, and sell into greed. That is, get in when everyone is a bear and predicting economic collapse. Start selling when you hear stock picks at parties and family functions. That said. You are better off in the long term not letting emotion (of you or...
How much would it cost me to buy one gold futures contract on Comex?
In order to understand how much you might gain or lose from participating in the futures markets, it is important to first understand the different ways in which the slope of the futures markets can be described. In many of the futures markets there is a possibility of somebody buying a commodity at the spot price and ...
Can vet / veterinary bills be considered deductions (tax-deductible) for Income Tax purposes [Canada]?
In the US service animals are treated like durable medical equipment from a tax POV, and some expenses can be deducted. Likewise, expenses associated with working animals are business or hobby expenses than can be deducted to a certain extent. But pets, no. Legally they are "chattels" -- property that can move. Genera...
How much would it cost me to buy one gold futures contract on Comex?
Brokers usually have this kind of information, you can take a look at interactive brokers for instance: http://www.interactivebrokers.co.uk/contract_info/v3.6/index.php?action=Details&site=GEN&conid=90384435 You are interested in the initial margin which in this case is $6,075. So you need that amount to buy/sell 1 fut...
No-line-of-credit debit card?
We have a pre-paid mastercard. This will only allow the spending up to the amount already paid into the card account. Visa Electron is a bank account linked debit card that will not allow the account to go overdrawn but this card type is getting quite rare.
What could a malicious party potentially achieve by having *just* a name, account number, and sort code?
When you want to pay a bill on line there are several ways to do it. You can give them your credit card details: Name on Card, zip code, credit card number, and 3 or 4 digit security code on the back. Most of the information is available on the card or via an easy Google search. If the crook has your card they can use ...
Rate of change of beta
This is a useful metric in that it gives you a trust factor on how reliable the beta is for future expectations It is akin to velocity and acceleration First and second order derivatives of distance / time. Erratic acceleration implies the velocity is less trustworthy Same idea for beta
Currently sole owner of a property. My girlfriend is looking to move in with me and is offering to pay 'rent'. Am I at risk here?
If you are living together 'casually' (no formal partnership agreement) then my option would be to ask her politely to as she has offered make a contribution by buying the groceries or some such which you share. A 'voluntary contribution' not an enforceable one. Just as between flat mates where only one is the actual ...
What factors you have do you count on to speculate effectively?
Strategy would be my top factor. While this may be implied, I do think it helps to have an idea of what is causing the buy and sell signals in speculating as I'd rather follow a strategy than try to figure things out completely from scratch that doesn't quite make sense to me. There are generally a couple of different...
30% share in business
Keep in mind a good lawyer will have the contract cover the five D's: Its really best to lay these things out ahead of time. I watched, first hand, two friends start a business. When they were broke and struggling the worked very well together. Then the money started rolling in. Despite exceeding their dreams they ...
Why is auto insurance ridiculously overpriced for those who drive few miles?
There is plenty of over-rationalisation in the majority of these answers, when the simple answer is that it is simply down to statistics. Say an insurer had two pieces of information about two separate drivers: annual mileage, and whether they had had an accident in the last 3 years. Driver A drives 10,000 miles a year...
What are the contents of fixed annuities?
This is really two questions about yield and contents. Content As others have noted, an annuity is a contractual obligation, not a portfolio contained within an investment product per se. The primary difference between whether an annuity is fixed or variable is what the issuer is guaranteeing and how much risk/reward y...
Should I pay myself a dividend or a salary?
In cases like this you should be aware that tax treaties may exist and that countries are generally willing to enter into them. Their purpose is to help prevent double taxation. Tax treaties often times give you a better tax rate than even being a resident of the countries in question! (For instance, the Italy to US ta...
What is a “retail revolving account,” and does it improve my credit score?
A retail revolving account is essentially a credit card offered by a store (or chain of stores) and usable only at that store. In my area, the Sears department store's "Sears card" would be a good example. Stores offer these to capture a bit more profit from the transaction. They don't have to pay someone else's proces...
What are some tips for getting the upper hand in car price negotiations?
I love John's answer, but I just can't help myself from adding my 2 cents, even though it's over 5 years later. I sold cars for a while in the late 90s, and I mostly agree with John's answer. Where I disagree though, is that where I worked, the salesperson did not have ANY authority to make a sale. A sales manager was ...
(Legitimate & respectable) strategies to generate “passive income” on the Internet?
One idea that I read among some of the many, many personal finance blogs out there is to create a niche website with good content and generate some ad revenue. The example the author gave was a website he'd made with some lessons to learn basic Spanish. Something as specific as that has a reasonable chance of becoming ...
Should I pay off my credit card online immediately or wait for the bill?
If you carried a balance from the last month, then pay the card off as soon as possible. Otherwise I agree with @mbhunter that you should wait until close to time for the bill to become due. Then always pay the credit card off in full and you will borrowing Chase's money interest free for up to 30 days.
Should I switch to this high rate checking account for my emergency fund?
I would also check into whether you can keep using your credit card instead of switching to a debit card tied to your checking account. The credit card provides you protection from someone wiping your account out. Most banks will help you get the money back if this happens while using a debit card. But you are out t...
What is the meaning of “short selling” or “going short” a stock?
The reason for selling a stock "short", is for when you believe the stock value will decrease in the near future. Here is an example: Today Exxon-Mobile stock is selling for $100 / share. You are expecting the price to decrease, so you want to short the stock, which means your broker (i.e. eTrade, etc) allows you to bo...
Does Tennessee have anything like a principal residence exemption?
There's no homestead property tax exemption in TN. According to the TN comptroller site: Exemptions Exemptions are available for religious, charitable, scientific, and nonprofit educational uses, governmental property, and cemeteries. Most nongovernmental exemptions require a one-time application and approval by ...
Is there a return-on-investment vs risk graph anywhere?
There may well be several such graphs, I expect googling will turn them up; but the definition of risk is actually quite important here. My definition of risk might not be quite the same as yours, so the relative risk factors would be different. For example: in general, stocks are more risky than bonds. But owning com...
Rules for SEP contributions in an LLC?
From Schwab - What are the eligibility requirements for a business to establish a SEP-IRA? Almost any type of business is eligible to establish a SEP-IRA, from self-employed individuals to multi-person corporations (including sole proprietors, partnerships, S and C corporations, and limited liability companies [LLCs])...
How Should I Go About Buying a Car? (College Student)
So you want to buy a car but have no money saved up.... That's going to be hard!! I'd suggest you get a part-time job, save up and buy a used car. Even with the minimum wage pay in the U.S., if you are in the U.S., you could save up and buy a car in less than a month. This route would be the quickest way for you to get...
Should you always max out contributions to your 401k?
First, the limit this year is $16,500, $22,000 for age 50 or older. Next, does the company give you any match? If so, how much? Some will match your deposits dollar for dollar up to a certain percent of your pay. If you make $50k and deposit say 6%, that's $3k matched by company, for example. This deposit/match is the ...
Assessed value of my house
I had the same thing happen to my house. I bought it in 2011 for 137,000, which was the same as the FHA appraised value (because FHA won't guarantee a loan for more than their appraiser thinks its worth). January of last year, I get the letter from the tax office and see that my house has been assessed at only 122,000....
Calculate time to reach investment goals given starting balance?
Here's a formula; I had to go over to SEMath, use their MathJax to compose the answer and then paste this screen shot. As a result, I can't fix a typo: "ST" is the same as "St"
Net loss not distributed by mutual funds to their shareholders?
When you invest (say $1000) in (say 100 shares) of a mutual fund at $10 per share, and the price of the shares changes, you do not have a capital gain or loss, and you do not have to declare anything to the IRS or make any entry on any line on Form 1040 or tell anyone else about it either. You can brag about it at par...
How is Discover different from a Visa or a MasterCard?
From the business side of credit cards, Discover and American Express carry their own risk. AmEx has lent their logo to banks such as Bank of America (BofA) to use the AmEx transaction network, but the financial risk and customer service is provided by BofA. Visa and MasterCard let banks use their logo and process thro...
What to do with old company's 401k? [duplicate]
I suggest rolling it over to the 401(k) with your new employer. Particularly if they match any percentage of your contribution, it would be in your interest to take as much of that money as possible. When it comes to borrowing money from your 401(k), it looks like the issues AbraCadaver mentioned only apply if you don...
Why don't some places require a credit card receipt signature, and some do?
This is basically done to reduce costs and overhead, with agreement of the credit card issuers. When the card is physically present and the charge is low, the burden of keeping the signed receipts and of additional delays at the cash register is not worth the potential risk of fraud. Depending on the location and the s...
How much percent of my salary should I use to invest in company stock?
Does your company offer a 401k? or similar pre-tax retirement plans? Is your company a publicly traded company? These questions are important, basically the key to any of your investments should be diversification. This means buying more than one kind of investment, amongst stock(s), bonds, real estate or more. The ans...
Being a 1099 for a company I part-own?
The contract he wants me to sign states I'll receive my monthly stipend (if that is the right word) as a 1099 contractor. The right word is guaranteed payment, which is what "salary" is called when a partner is working for a partnership she's a partner in. Which is exactly the case in your situation. 1099 is not the ...
Can used books bought off Amazon be claimed as a tax deduction in Australia?
Yes, if they meet the ATO's criteria. Books, periodicals and digital information If the item cost less than $300 you can claim an immediate deduction where it satisfies all of the following requirements: http://www.ato.gov.au/Individuals/Income-and-deductions/Deductions-you-can-claim/Other-deductions/Books,-periodicals...
Is it a good idea to teach children that work is linearly related to income?
Get a copy of Capitalism for Kids - finally back in print (after being out of print for years). It's a great introduction to being an entrepreneur, aimed at young people. Six years old might be a bit early, though - but definitely before the teenage years.
Could someone please provide an example of a portfolio similiar to the GFP or Couch potato, but for Australia?
The portfolio described in that post has a blend of small slices of Vanguard sector funds, such as Vanguard Pacific Stock Index (VPACX). And the theory is that rebalancing across them will give you a good risk-return tradeoff. (Caveat: I haven't read the book, only the post you link to.) Similar ETFs are available fr...
Investing in real estate when the stock market is high, investing in stocks when it's low?
You're "onto" something. Investing in real estate was not a bad idea about 10-15 years ago, when stocks were high, and real estate was not. On the other hand, by about 2006, BOTH stocks and real estate were high, and should have been avoided. And around 1980, both were LOW, and should have been bought. I expand this co...
Clothing Store Credit Card Account closed but not deleted
There are three parties involved here: there's the store that issued you the card, then they have some bank that's actually handling the account, and there is some network (VISA, MasterCard, etc.) that the transactions go through. So one avenue to consider is seeing whether all three are aware of you canceling the card...
Why would someone want to sell call options?
I have an example of a trade I made some time ago. By entering the position as a covered call, I was out of pocket $5.10, and if the stock traded flat, i.e. closed at the same $7.10 16 months hence, I was up 39% or nearly 30%/yr. As compared to the stock holder, if the stock fell 28%, I'd still break even, vs his loss...
Value of a call option spread
The Explanation is correct. The Traders buys the 1st call and profits linearly form 40$ onwards. At at 45 the short call kick in and neutralizes any further profit on the first call.
What is the market rate of non-cash ISA fund administration fee in UK?
Is he affiliated with the company charging this fee? If so, 1% is great. For him. You are correct, this is way too high. Whatever tax benefit this account provides is negated over a sufficiently long period of time. you need a different plan, and perhaps, a different friend. I see the ISA is similar to the US Roth acco...
Why are wire transfers and other financial services in Canada so much more expensive than in Europe?
Transaction fees are part of the income for banks, and as we know they are profit making corporations just like any other Company. The differene is that instead of buying and packing and Selling groceries, they buy and package and sell Money. Within the rules and the market they will try to maximize their profit, exact...
Teaching school kids about money - what are the real life examples of math, budgeting, finance?
I am a numbers guy, the math is great. Instead of "jane was twice her son's age when he married, and is now 1.5 times his age....." questions in math class, I think the math problems should mostly have dollar/pound signs in front of them. In general, I like the idea of relating to the kids' situations as much as possi...
Given a certain yearly savings, how much can I spend on a capital improvement? NPV of future cash flow
This investment does not have a payback period as the net present value of your investment is negative. Your investment requires an initial cash outlay of $40,000 followed by annual savings of $2060 for the next 20 years. Your discount rate is 5% at which the NPV is $-14327.85 as calculated below by using this JavaScri...
How much house can a retired person afford
Consider a single person with a net worth of N where N is between one and ten million dollars. has no source of income other than his investments How much dividends and interest do your investments return every year? At 5%, a US$10M investment returns $500K/annum. Assuming you have no tax shelters, you'd pay about $...
What expenses do most people not prepare for that turn into “emergencies” but are not covered by an Emergency Fund?
Here's a few. Is this what you're looking for? Also this should probably be a community wiki.
Are variable rate loans ever a good idea?
I have an example that may be interesting for your question. My grandfather had a tennis club around 35 years ago, and some other businesses. Some investments went bad and he was heading for bankruptcy due to the tennis club's expensive payments. So he asked to renegotiate a variable rate rather than a fixed rate, even...
Retirement Options for Income
I agree that you should CONSIDER a shares based dividend income SIPP, however unless you've done self executed trading before, enough to understand and be comfortable with it and know what you're getting into, I would strongly suggest that as you are now near retirement, you have to appreciate that as well as the usual...
Downside to temporarily lowering interest rates?
it is possible that if you do not accept the offer, they will try offering you an even lower rate. if they offered you close to 0%, you could start carrying a balance and find a better use for the cash you would have spent paying it off. there are plenty of investments with a guaranteed return of over 0%. personally, ...
Do I make money in the stock market from other people losing money?
The stock market is no different in this respect to anything that's bought or sold. The price of a stock like many other things reflects what the seller is prepared to sell it at and what the buyer is prepared to offer for it. If those things match then a transaction can take place. The seller loses money but gains sto...
Pension or Property: Should I invest in more properties, or in a pension?
Diversification is one aspect to this question, and Dr Fred touches on its relationship to risk. Another aspect is leverage: So it again comes down to your appetite for risk. A further factor is that if you are successfully renting out your property, someone else is effectively buying that asset for you, or at least ...
In a competitive market, why is movie theater popcorn expensive?
Movie theater popcorn concessions are not really a competitive market.
Wisest option to pay for second career education
Tl;dr by anecdata I paid for my master's degree from investments/savings with a HELOC backstop It appears you don't have the 62k cash needed for tuition and living expenses so your decision is between financing a degree by selling your investments or a loan. Ultimately this comes down to the yes/no sell decision on ...
Non Resident Alien(Working full time on F1-OPT) new car sales tax deduction
A non-resident alien is only allowed for deductions connected to producing a US-sourced income (See IRC Sec. 873). Thus you can only deduct things that qualify as business expenses, and State taxes on your wages. In addition you can deduct a bunch of stuff explicitly allowed (like tax preparation, charitable contributi...
Stocks vs. High-yield Bonds: Risk-Reward, Taxes?
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Snowball debt or pay off a large amount?
You've already received good advice here, pay off the highest rate card first, in this case the Best Buy card. I completely agree. To answer your question about the minimum payment, I can't guarantee that this is how Citi does it on your particular card, but several online calculators seem to use the following formula....
Should I use a credit repair agency?
My sister had a similar problem and went to an actual lawyer, not a "credit repair agency". The lawyers settled her debt for a lot less than she owed, and she also got a bonus: one of the creditors called her repeatedly, even after her lawyers had told them not to. The lawyers ended up getting her an extra $40,000...
What are my options for this high interest student loan?
There is no magic formula to this, quite simply: earn, cut expenses, and pay. It sounds like you can use a little bit of help in the earning area. While it sounds like you are career focused (which is great) what else can you do to earn? Can you start a low cost of entry side business? Examples would include tutor...
I am turning 18 and I am a Student, I need strategies on building great credit soon. Where should I start?
The details of credit score calculation tend to change periodically, but the fundamentals are mostly consistent. Pay your bills, keep your average account age high, overpay your credit card minimums, and keep your overall debt low. And do soft pulls on your credit report to see what's happening. First, the simplest r...
Can PayPal transfer money automatically from my bank account if I link it in PayPal?
Practically, as an ebay buyer I have never seen any way to keep a balance in paypal and top it off from my bank account under my own control. It is all automated, and as I seem to recall linking with a bank account or credit card was necessary to get some kind of "confirmed address" status out of Paypal so that eBay s...
For very high-net worth individuals, does it make sense to not have insurance?
Indeed, there is conservation of money. If the insurance companies have those big buildings and television commercials and CEOs, then that money comes from only one place: the insurance premiums of customers. To say insurance is a good deal is either The benefit and cost of insurance for most: Indeed, of all the answ...