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Should I pay half a large balance this month before I get my CC statement? | It will reduce the credit ding you will take but why does it matter? Next cycle when it's paid off your credit score will go back to where it was. Unless you're looking for a loan right now and your credit is marginal why worry about it? |
Tax Allocation - Business Asset Transfer | And my CPA is saying no way, it will cost me many thousands in taxes and doesn't make any sense. I'd think so too. It looks like it converts from capitol gains at 14% to something else at about 35% Can be, if your gain under the Sec.1231 rules is classified as depreciation recapture. But, perhaps the buyers will be s... |
Interest on Amount Exceeding CC Balance? | In the US, if your monthly statement was issued by the credit card company on January 1 and it showed a balance of $1000, then a payment must be made towards that balance by January 25 or so, not February 1 as you say, to keep the card in good standing. The minimum payment required to keep the card in good standing is ... |
Are Index Funds really as good as “experts” claim? | The point of buying an index fund is that you don't have to pick winners. As long as the winners are included in the index fund (which can include far more than 500 stocks), you benefit on average because of overall upward historical market performance. Picking only the top 50 capitalized stocks in the S&P 500 does not... |
Can I pay off my credit card balance to free up available credit? | The card you have is one where you had to deposit an amount equivelent to your card limit -a secured limit credit card. Capital One is one if the primary cards of this type. The typical rules of credit card usage and building your credit, do not apply. So, yes, you want to use the card as much as possible and pay off... |
Creating a personal company | You're confusing so many things at once here...... First thing first: we cannot suggest you what to do business-wise since we have no idea about your business. How on Earth can anyone know if you should sell the software to someone or try to distribute to customers yourself? How would we know if you should hire employe... |
Top 3 things to do before year end for your Stock Portfolio? | Bonus: Contribute to (or start!) your IRA for 2010. This doesn't have to be done have to be done by the end of the year; you can make your 2011 contribution in 2010, before you file your tax return (by Apr. 15 at the latest, even if you get an extension.) |
Is Bogleheadism (index fund investing) dead? | From http://blog.ometer.com/2008/03/27/index-funds/ , Lots of sensible advisers will tell you to buy index funds, but importantly, the advice is not simply "buy index funds." There are at least two other critical details: 1) asset allocation across multiple well-chosen indexes, maintained through regular rebala... |
Why is there inconsistent returns difference between direct and regular Mutual Funds? | If this is the case, then shouldn't the difference between their annualized returns be same year on year? In general yes, however there difference has a compounding effect. i.e. if the difference if 5% first year, this money is invested and it would generate more of the said returns. However in reality as the corpus si... |
Why do stores and manufacturers use mail in rebates? A scam, or is there a way to use them effectively? | Rebates are a great way to give discounts to customers who are cost sensitive. A long time ago, I worked for a retailer that extensively used rebates as a marketing tool. From my point of view, about 90% of the complaints that I investigated were a result of people not following directions. Biggest single thing was not... |
Online stock screener to find stocks that are negatively correlated to another stock/index? | There are lists with Top 1,000 Most and Less correlated stocks for different markets, I think you'll find the solution here: https://unicornbay.com/tools/most-less-correlated-assets |
What happens if my order exceeds the bid or ask sizes? | Sure. Depending on how you configure your order, it will either be fulfilled partially or wait until it can be fulfilled. You can set a time limit on your order (usually its either 1 day or 60 days, but may vary between brokerages), and allow or disallow partial fulfilment. |
What type of returns Vanguard is quoting? | From the Vanguard page - This seemed the easiest one as S&P data is simple to find. I use MoneyChimp to get - which confirms that Vanguard's page is offering CAGR, not arithmetic Average. Note: Vanguard states "For U.S. stock market returns, we use the Standard & Poor's 90 from 1926 through March 3, 1957," while the ... |
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... |
What should I do with the 50k I have sitting in a European bank? | You can do many things: Risk free: Risk of losing: |
Will I get a tax form for sale of direct purchased stock (US)? | I think I found the answer, at least in my specific case. From the heading "Questar/Dominion Resources Merger" in this linked website: Q: When will I receive tax forms showing the stock and dividend payments? A: You can expect a Form 1099-B in early February 2017 showing the amount associated with payment of your sha... |
Are stocks suitable for mid term money storage? | You have several options depending on your tolerance for risk. Certainly open an investment account with your bank or through any of the popular discount brokerage services. Then take however much money you're willing to invest and start earning some returns! You can split up the money into various investments, too. A ... |
Resources to begin trading from home? | So you're 23 with no higher graduation, certificates etc which would allow you to study / training but with a high passion for logical thinking and math? Im 31 now, i was in a similar position back then when i was 23. The very best thoughts i want to throw you over: FORGET IT (AT LEAS THIS WAY) - You need cash equity (... |
What does it mean when someone says “FTSE closed at xxx today” | FTSE is an index catering to the London stock exchange. It is a Capitalization-Weighted Index of 100 companies listed on the London Stock Exchange with the highest market capitalization . When somebody says FTSE closed at 6440, it basically means at the end of the day, the index calculated using the day end market ca... |
Is there a general guideline for what percentage of a portfolio should be in gold? | My personal gold/metals target is 5.0% of my retirement portfolio. Right now I'm underweight because of the run up in gold/metals prices. (I haven't been selling, but as I add to retirement accounts, I haven't been buying gold so it is going below the 5% mark.) I arrived at this number after reading a lot of different ... |
How Do I Fix Excess Contribution Withdrawl | I think there are several issues here. First, there's the contribution. As littleadv said, there is no excess contribution. Excess contribution is only if you exceed the contribution limit. The contribution limit for Traditional IRAs does not depend on how high your income goes or whether you have a 401(k). It's the de... |
What exactly is a “bad,” “standard,” or “good” annual raise? If I am told a hard percentage and don't get it, should I look elsewhere? | There are many variables to this answer. One is, how close are you to the average salary range in the industry you are working in. If you are making more than average it would make sense that you are not getting a big raise from the employer's perspective. You have to be a top performer if you are looking for the top s... |
Where should I park my rainy-day / emergency fund? | I am using ING for my emergency savings, but sometime last year I discovered SmartyPig. As of 4/24/2010 they offer 2.1%, which is even better than the 1 year CDs at most banks. I've switched two small accounts to SmartyPig and plan to switch my emergency savings. Their accounts are geared around monthly contributions, ... |
Started new job. Rollover previous employer 401k to new 401k, IRA or Roth IRA? | You can't roll it over to a Roth IRA without tax penalties. The best thing to do is roll it to an IRA that isn't tied to work at all. Second best is to roll it into your new employer's 401k. The reason that an IRA makes sense is that it gives you the same tax savings as a 401k, but it allows you to remain in contro... |
Why can't I short a particular stock? | In order to short a stock, you have to borrow the number of shares that you're shorting from someone else who holds the shares, so that you can deliver the shares you're shorting if it becomes necessary to do so (usually; there's also naked short selling, where you don't have to do this, but it's banned in a number of ... |
When do I sell a stock that I hold as a long-term position? | If you are already invested in a particular stock, I like JoeTaxpayer's answer. Think about it as if you are re-buying the stocks you own every day you decide to keep them and don't set emotional anchor points about what you paid for them or what they might be worth tomorrow. These lead to two major logical fallacies t... |
Are my parents ripping me off with this deal that doesn't allow me to build my equity in my home? | yes and no its definitely not charitable as they are making money of off you but depending on the outside conditions if you had to pay a mortgage on that condo with only 35k in payments to start off it would more than likely exceed 500 dollars a month however there would always be a point were the mortgage would end an... |
Retirement savings vs building lucrative assets | Well... (in the US, at least) "making investments and building assets" is how you save for retirement. The investments just happen to be in the stock market, and the federal legislature has directed the US version of Inland Revenue Services to give special tax breaks to investments which are not withdrawn until age 5... |
Scam or Real: A woman from Facebook apparently needs my bank account to send money | If it's real, it's illegal. She needs someone to be a middle man who transfers money and doesn't ask questions. The list of possible reasons should be plenty obvious and range anywhere from fraud to terrorism. There are thousands of ways to get already transferred money back from your account. If the source of the mon... |
Why I cannot find a “Pure Cash” option in 401k investments? | My 401k allows cash holdings to 100% if desired. I'm not sure why some won't, they are making money on your money after all. If you are looking to the funds vehicles for investing suggestions however, they will never allow cash. I found you must go into "Invest on my own" vehicle to make that change. I have beaten and... |
Are distributions from an S corp taxable as long term capital gains? | If you have an S-Corp with several shareholders - you probably also have a tax adviser who suggested using S-Corp to begin with. You're probably best off asking that adviser about this issue. If you decided to use S-Corp for multiple shareholders without a professional guiding you, you should probably start looking fo... |
Are there any statistics that support the need for Title Insurance? | When I bought the house I had my lawyer educate me about everything on the forms that seemed at all unclear, since this was my first time thru the process. On of the pieces of advice that he gave was that title insurance had almost no value in this state unless you had reason to believe the title might be defective but... |
What is down -34% in stock terms? | The sentence is mathematically wrong and verbally unclear. Mathematically, you calculate the downwards percentage by So, it should be Verbally, the reporter should have written "The stock is down by 25%", not "down by -25%". |
How to build a U.S. credit history as a worker on a visa? | In the US, money talks and bullshit walks. You can skip any credit history requirement if you demonstrate your ability to pay in a very obvious way. Credit history is just a standardized way of weeding out people that cannot reliably pay, instead of having to listen to an individual's excuses about how the bank overdra... |
Why would selling off some stores improve a company's value? | I'd like to modify the "loss" idea that's been mentioned in the other two answers. I don't think a retail location needs to be losing money to be a candidate for sale. Even if a retail location is not operating at a loss, there may be incentive to sell it off to free up cash for a better-performing line of business. ... |
Should rented software be included on my LLC's balance sheet? | I was only able to find Maryland form 1 to fit your question, so I'll assume you're referring to this form. Note the requirement: Generally all tangible personal property owned, leased, consigned or used by the business and located within the State of Maryland on January 1, 201 must be reported. Software license (w... |
Purpose of having good credit when you are well-off? | Credit in general having no significant change between an income level or net worth is due to the economic reciprocity principle inherent in many societies. Although some areas of credit may be more admirable to those who aren't as well-off, such as car loans, the overall understanding of credit is a trust agreement be... |
Any Ubiquitous Finance App That is on Mac, iOS and Windows? | Mint.com is a web app with an iPhone (and Android) app. Also, You Need A Budget appears to support all three. |
Can I trust the Motley Fool? | The Motley Fool is generally regarded as relatively legit, at least in that they're not likely to do anything outright fraudulent and they definitely have reasonably in-depth content to provide you. The Motley Fool makes a fair amount of money off the subscriptions, though, and they do hawk them quite violently. If I ... |
What exactly is a “derivative”? | There are a few unsavory factors that have led to the creation of new derivatives: |
What effect would currency devaluation have on my investments? | My question boiled down: Do stock mutual funds behave more like treasury bonds or commodities? When I think about it, it seems that they should respond the devaluation like a commodity. I own a quantity of company shares (not tied to a currency), and let's assume that the company only holds immune assets. Does ... |
What happens to the insider trade profits? | You seem to have a little confusion over terminology that should be cleared up: You are calling this "day-trading" Day-trading is the term for performing multiple trading actions in a single day. While it appears that the COO has performed a buy and a sell on the same day, most people would consider this a 'single trad... |
Buying a multi-family home to rent part and live in the rest | You are a "strategic" investor, which is to say that you are in the best position to evaluate the deal because you already live there. Others don't have this advantage going in, which is why they might not be inclined to do what you're doing. Your biggest advantage is that you know at least one tenant. In essence, you ... |
Can we estimate the impact of a large buy order on the share price? | There are two distinct questions that may be of interest to you. Both questions are relevant for funds that need to buy or sell large orders that you are talking about. The answer depends on your order type and the current market state such as the level 2 order book. Suppose there are no iceberg or hidden orders and th... |
When a stock price rises, does the company get more money? | No. Not directly. A company issues stock in order to raise capital for building its business. Once the initial shares are sold to the public, the company doesn't receive additional funds from future transactions of those shares of stock between the public. However, the company could issue more shares at the new higher... |
How do historically low interest rates affect real estate prices? | The article John cites says no correlation, but this chart from the article says otherwise; One sees the rate drop from 14% to 4% and housing rise from an index of 50 to near 190. (reaching over to my TI BA-35 calculator) I see that at 14%, $1000/mo will buy $84,400 worth of mortgage, but at 4%, it will buy $209,500. ... |
Some stock's prices don't fluctuate widely - Is it an advantages? | What is your investment goal? Many investors buy for the long haul, not short-term gain. If you're looking for long-term gain then daily fluctuations should be of no concern to you. If you want to day-trade and time the market (buy low and sell high with a short holding period) then yes less volatile stock can be le... |
Will ADR owner enjoy same benefit as common shares holders | One other issue you may face is when the company announces poor financial results and begins to tank, you will not be able to sell until the US market open and could incur a lot of pain. |
Is it possible to transfer stock I already own into my Roth IRA without having to sell the stock? | No. A deposit to an IRA must be in cash. A conversion from traditional IRA to Roth can be "in kind" i.e. As a stock transfer. Last, any withdrawals can also be in stock or funds. IRS Publication 590, so important, it's now in 2 sections Part A and Part B, addresses IRA issues such as this as well as most others. By t... |
Options liquidity and trading positions larger than the daily volume? | One broker told me that I have to simply read the ask size and the bid size, seeing what the market makers are offering. This implies that my order would have to match that price exactly, which is unfortunate because options contract spreads can be WIDE. Also, if my planned position size is larger than the best bid/bes... |
How is not paying off mortgage better in normal circumstances? | The reason is that although the American economy is functioning normally, mortgage rates are stupid-low, and are below a prudent expectation of long-term (30 year) rates of return in the market. I manage endowments, so I say "prudent" in the context of endowment investment, which is the picture of caution and subject... |
Why is being “upside down” on a mortgage so bad? | The largest problem and source of anxiety / ruin for homeowners during the housing market collapse was caused by the inability to refinance. Many people had bought homes which they were stretched to afford, by using variable-rate mortgages. These would typically offer a very attractive initial rate, with an annual cap... |
Accidentally opened a year term CD account, then realized I need the money sooner. What to do? | In my experience, the only penalty to breaking a CD is to lose a certain amount of accumulated interest. Your principal investment will be fine. Close the CD. A few days of interest is nothing. |
Transfer $50k to another person's account (in California, USA) | A non-cash transaction will not be a problem. The bank will have to fill out federal paperwork if there are large amounts of cash involved. This is to stop the underground economy. This can even extend to non-banks. If you were to walk into a car dealer or some other stores and hand them a bag of cash they will also... |
Is it a good practice to keep salary account and savings account separate? | I live in the UK so it's a little different but generally you'd have one account (a current account) which would have a Visa/MasterCard debit card associated before working and any high street bank (don't know what the US equivalent would be, but big banks such as HSBC/Santander) will offer you a savings account which ... |
what is the best way to do a freelancing job over the summer for a student | If this will be your sole income for the year, going self-employed is the best way to do this: So, here's how to go at it: Total cash in: £2000 Total Tax paid: £0 Admin overhead: approx 3 hours. Legit: 100% :) Edit: Can you tell me that in my case what are the required fields on the invoice? If you're non-VAT regist... |
Value of a call option spread | You have to look at the real price of the share to calculate the value of the spread. 42$ at the start, 46$ at the end. Think of it this way: When price was 42$ the call 45$ was out of the money, worth 100$ of time value only=100 the call 40$ was in the money and worth 200$ of intrinsic + 100 time value=300 the differ... |
APR for a Loan Paid Off Monthly | If your APR is quoted as nominal rate compounded monthly, the APR is 108.6 %. Here is the calculation, (done in Mathematica ). The sum of the discounted future payments (p) are set equal to the present value (pv) of the loan, and solved for the periodic interest rate (r). Details of the effective interest rate calcula... |
Why do gas stations charge different amounts in the same local area? | I'll echo: many factors. Brand: There are generally two levels of pricing: "major brand" and "discount brand". You can generally expect the "discount brand" to cost about 5-10 cents less per gallon in the same neighborhood as "major brand" gas. This is for a number of sub-factors; chief among them is that not all gasol... |
When filing taxes in Canada, in what cases does box 39 on the T4 get reported as half of box 38? | Apparently box 39 does not receive half of box 38 if "The price of the share or unit is less than its fair market value when the agreement was made." - the last point in paragraph 110(1)(d): *http://www.cra-arc.gc.ca/tx/bsnss/tpcs/pyrll/bnfts/fnncl/scrty/stckpt03-eng.html#dspst The employee can claim a deduction under ... |
Should I pay a company who failed to collect VAT from me over 6 months ago? | Note: I am not a lawyer. This is my personal opinion and interpretation. First, your source is European Law, which obviously doesn't apply outside of the EU. The EU cannot make laws that bind entities in other countries; so you cannot claim that the VAT was needed to be mentioned. Second, if you owe something, you owe ... |
What one bit of financial advice do you wish you could've given yourself five years ago? | Get an advanced degree. This should increase your earning power. Also learn how to use a computer, this should also tend to increase your earning power. |
Where are the non floated Groupon shares | Many people have criticized the Groupon IPO model because it doesn't make sense as an investment, unless you are an insider with cheap shares. Basically, you have: |
Can I get a dividend “free lunch” by buying a stock just before the ex-dividend date and selling it immediately after? [duplicate] | There are indeed various strategies to make money from this. As Ben correctly said, the stock price drops correspondingly on the dividend date, so the straightforward way doesn't work. What does work are schemes that involve dividend taxation based on nationality, and schemes based on American Options where people can ... |
Does the bid/ask concept exist in dealer markets? | Why would there not be a bid and ask? Dealers make their money in the spread between what they buy it from one entity for and what they sell it to another entity for. This doesn't mean they have to do it auction-style, but they'll still have a different buy price from a sell price, hence "bid" and "ask". |
Getting money from online websites I own to my UK bank account | Now i want to get this money in my new UK bank account, does this mean that gov will take taxes from this money as well. Yes that is income and you have to pay tax on that. But it might be a bit complicated than that, so I would ask you to call up HMRC or visit an accountant or maybe ask the finance people of your empl... |
What U.S. banks offer two-factor authentication (such as password & token) for online banking? | Bank of America supports two-factor authentication using SMS messages, similar to PayPal. You can enable the feature from Online Banking under Customer Service -> SafePass Settings. Update: Over the weekend of July 28th, 2012, the SafePass control on the authentication page was updated to simple HTML + JavaScript inste... |
What can I replace Microsoft Money with, now that MS has abandoned it? | If you would like to use linux I suggest you to use KMyMoney http://kmymoney2.sourceforge.net/ It is based on gnucash but it is easier to use IMO |
What are some good ways to control costs for groceries? | Keep a notebook. (or spreadsheet, etc. whatever works) Start to track what things cost as few can really commit this all to memory. You'll start to find the regular sale prices and the timing of them at your supermarkets. I can't even tell you the regular price of chicken breasts, I just know the sale is $1.79-1.99/lb... |
What cost basis accounting methods are applicable to virtual currencies? | The only "authoritative document" issued by the IRS to date relating to Cryptocurrencies is Notice 2014-21. It has this to say as the first Q&A: Q-1: How is virtual currency treated for federal tax purposes? A-1: For federal tax purposes, virtual currency is treated as property. General tax principles applicable to p... |
Financing with two mortgages: a thing of the past? | There are a few of ways to do this: Ask the seller if they will hold a Vendor Take-Back Mortgage or VTB. They essentially hold a second mortgage on the property for a shorter amortization (1 - 5 years) with a higher interest rate than the bank-held mortgage. The upside for the seller is he makes a little money on the s... |
What should I be aware of as a young investor? | You can't get much better advice for a young investor than from Warren Buffet. And his advice for investors young and old, is "Put 10% of the cash in short‑term government bonds, and 90% in a very low‑cost S&P 500 index fund." Or as he said at a different time, "Most investors, both institutional and individual, will f... |
What does it mean “sell on ask” , “sell on bid” in stocks? | Bid and ask prices are the reigning highest buy price and lowest sell price in the market which doesn't mean one must only buy/sell at thise prices. That said one can buy/sell at whatever price they so wish although doing it at any other price than the bid/ask is usually harder as other market participants will gravita... |
What is the most effective saving money method? | A trick that works for some folks: "Pay yourself first." Have part of your paycheck put directly into an account that you promise yourself you won't touch except for some specific purpose (eg retirement). If that money is gone before it gets to your pocket, it's much less likely to be spent. US-specific: Note that if y... |
Is losing money in my 401K normal? | Bottom line is our system is broken. For three years running I am 0% return with over 600k in. Yet, the 401k admin institution charges us all enormous fees that most aren't even aware exist. A helpful tip is to also check out your expense ratios and learn how those work as well so you know how much you are paying in... |
How Long Can It Take For a Check I Write to Clear on My Account? | There's nothing you can do. If he has indeed deposited the check, it would appear on your account fairly quickly - I've never seen it taking more than 2-3 business days. However, a check is a debt instrument, and you cannot close the account until it clears, or until the "unclaimed property" laws of your state kick in.... |
Form 1042-S for foreign resident and owner of trade account | As you have indicated, the 1042-S reflects no income or withholding. As such, you are not required to file a US tax return unless you have other income from the US. Gains on stocks are not reported until realized upon sale. FYI, your activity does not fit the requirements of being engaged in a trade or business activ... |
Optimal Asset Allocation | There are a couple of reasons to diversify your assets. First, since we cannot predict which of our investments will perform best, we want to "cast our net" broadly enough to have something invested in what's going to be performing well. Second, diversification isn't intended to provide the highest returns, but rather ... |
ESPP (Employee Stock Purchase Plan) Funds on Mortgage Loan Application | ESPP shares, once purchased, are just normal shares that you got at a discount. They're just as much a part of your current net wealth as any other shares of stock. What you can't do is claim that discount increases your salary, even if it does result in your effectively taking home more money. It's a benefit like the ... |
Is there anything comparable to/resembling CNN's Fear and Greed Index? | Lipper publishes data on the flow of funds in / out of stock and bond funds: http://www.lipperusfundflows.com Robert Shiller works on stock market confidence indices that are published by Yale: http://som.yale.edu/faculty-research/our-centers-initiatives/international-center-finance/data/stock-market-confidence |
Should I invest my money in an ISA or Government bonds? (Or any other suggestion) | So you are off to a really good start. Congratulations on being debt free and having a nice income. Being an IT contractor can be financially rewarding, but also have some risks to it much like investing. With your disposable income I would not shy away from investing in further training through sites like PluralSite... |
How profitable is selling your customer base? | Yes, some companies sell personal data on their customers, but it almost always means a bad business due to reputation cost. The Financial Times even made a calculator to demonstrate how much personal information is worth: The sellers get pennies for the info, so that any decent business would earn more staying away fr... |
What is a good investment vehicle for introducing kids to investing? | For "real" investing I would usually recommend mutual funds. But if you are trying to teach a kid about investing, I would recommend they choose individual stocks. That will give them a great opportunity to follow the companies they bought in the news. It also gives you an opportunity to sit down with them periodic... |
Should I Purchase Health Insurance Through My S-Corp | I'm not sure about reimbursement, you'll have to talk to a tax adviser (CPA/EA licensed in your State). From what I know, if you pay your own insurance premiums - they're not deductible, and I don't think reimbursements change that. But again - not sure, verify. However, since you're a salaried employee, even if your o... |
Which state do saving interests come from? | Most (if not all states) in the US are only interested in source income. If you worked in that state they want to tax it. Many states have reciprocity agreements with neighboring states to exempt income earned when a person works in lets say Virginia, but lives in a state that touches Virginia. Most states don't consi... |
What are some examples of unsecured loans | Some other unsecured loans that are common: |
Where should I park my money if I'm pessimistic about the economy and I think there will be high inflation? | If you think your cash will buy fewer goods in the future due to inflation, are there goods you will want or need in the future that you can purchase now? I think the cost of storage would need to be less than the inflation in price for this to make sense. If you used commodity trading there may not actually be a stora... |
How to pay with cash when car shopping? | I have in the last few years purchased several used cars from dealers. They have handled it two different ways. They accepted a small check ~$1,000 now, and then gave me three business days to bring the rest as a cashiers check. They also insisted that I submit a application for credit, in case I needed a loan. They a... |
Theory/Strategy for pricing by volume | Actually, the rate of change could be more or less constant, but you might have a minimum price that represents your fixed costs. So you might sell a milligram for $1 (which is ridiculous in terms of per-unit pricing) to cover fixed costs, and add $0.50/lb for each step in size to cover variable costs (cost of raw mat... |
Is there a government-mandated resource that lists the shareholders of a public company? | There are several such "lists." The one that is maintained by the company is called the shareholder registry. That is a list that the company has given to it by the brokerage firms. It is a start, but not a full list, because many individual shareholders hold their stock with say Merrill Lynch, in "street name" or anon... |
Mortgage or not? | Better in terms of what? less taxes paid? or more money to save for retirement? In terms of retirement, it would be better for you to keep the condo you currently have for at least two reasons: You wouldn't incur the penalties and fees from buying and selling a home. Selling and buying a home comes with a multitude of ... |
What options do I have at 26 years old, with 1.2 million USD? | This may be a great idea, or a very bad one, or it may simply not be applicable to you, depending on your personal circumstances and interests. The general idea is to avoid passive investments such as stocks and bonds, because they tend to grow by "only" a few percent per year. Instead, invest in things where you will ... |
Why is retirement planning so commonly recommended? | I suggest that you think in terms of "financial independence" rather than retirement. You do not need to retire in the stereotypical sense of playing golf and moving to Florida. If you reach a point where your "day job" does not need to pay your bills, you open up more options for what you can do. I am not saying to w... |
23 and on my own, what should I be doing? | Congratulations on earning a great income. However, you have a lot of debt and very high living expenses. This will eat all of your income if you don't get a hold of it now. I have a few recommendations for you. At the beginning of each month, write down your income, and write down all your expenses for the month. Inc... |
What exactly is a “bad,” “standard,” or “good” annual raise? If I am told a hard percentage and don't get it, should I look elsewhere? | your question is based on a false premise. there is no "standard" for raises. some jobs in some years see huge raises. other years those same jobs may see average pay rates drop. if you want a benchmark, you would be better off looking at typical pay rates for people in your job, in your city with your experience. si... |
Can you recommend some good websites/brokers for buying/selling stocks in India? | API wise there's just one at the retail level: Interactive Brokers (India). Brokerage is high though - 3.5 bps for F&O and 5 bps for cash. I've used Sharekhan (good, can get to 2 bps brokerage, trading client software, no API). Also used multiple other brokerages, and am advising a new one, Zerodha http://www.zerodha.... |
Stock sale cost basis calculations for 2013, now that rules changed, is FIFO or another method the smartest financially? | You have to calculate the total value of all shares and then ask yourself "Would I invest that amount of money in this stock?" If the answer is yes, then only sell what you need to sell. Take the $3k loss against your income, if you have no other gains. If you would not invest that amount of cash in that stock, then... |
Free brokerage vs paid - pros and cons | Emotion aside, you can calculate the cost of the funds you have tied up at the bank. If I can earn 5% in a CD, my "free" checking with minimum $5000 balance really costs me $250/yr. You have money tied up, I understand, but where would you place it otherwise, and at what return? The subject of frequent trading even a... |
What is the best credit card for someone with no credit history | You have a lack of credit history. Lending is still tight since the recession and companies aren't as willing to take a gamble on people with no history. The secured credit card is the most direct route to building credit right now. I don't think you're going to be applicable for a department store card (pointless any... |
Why would refinancing my mortgage increase my PMI, even though rates are lower? | There are deals out there which allow refinancing up to 125% of appraised value so long as you have a solid payment history. You need to research banks in your area working with HARP funded mortgages. An alternate method is to find a bank that will finance 80% of the current value at 4% and the rest as a HELOC. The ra... |
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