context stringlengths 0 2.63k | question stringlengths 9 489 | answer stringlengths 0 17k |
|---|---|---|
Utilize your financial knowledge, give your answer or opinion to the input question or subject . Answer format is not limited. | Is it irresponsible for me to lease a $300/month car for 18 months? | With a gross income of $ 95,000 per year, and a net savings rate of over $ 18,000 per year, a budget of $ 3,600 per year for automobile interest and depreciation is not irresponsible. But poor car choices, poor car maintenance habits, and driving habits that risk totalling cars are irresponsible. Also, not fully under... |
Offer your insights or judgment on the input financial query or topic using your financial expertise. Reply as normal question answering | Is it irresponsible for me to lease a $300/month car for 18 months? | Some questions: Will you need a car after 18 months? What are you going to do then? How likely are you able to go over the mileage? Granted paying $300 per month seems somewhat attractive as a fixed cost. However lease are notorious for forcing people into making bad decisions. If your car is over miles, or there is... |
Based on your financial expertise, provide your response or viewpoint on the given financial question or topic. The response format is open. | Is it irresponsible for me to lease a $300/month car for 18 months? | Presumably you need a car to get to work, so let's start with the assumption that you need to buy something to replace the car you just lost. The biggest difficulty to overcome in buying a car is the concept of the monthly payment. Dealers will play games with all of the numbers to massage a monthly payment that the bu... |
Share your insights or perspective on the financial matter presented in the input. | Help required on estimating SSA benefit amounts | Some details in case you are interested: Being a defined benefit kind of pension plan, the formula for your Social Security benefits isn't tied directly to FICA contributions, and I'm not aware of any calculator that performs an ROI based on FICA contributions. Rather, how much you'll get in retirement is based on your... |
Offer your thoughts or opinion on the input financial query or topic using your financial background. | Help required on estimating SSA benefit amounts | There has been an abundance of articles in recent years which make it fairly clear that many participants in the Social Security system-- especially those who have started contributing recently, and going forward from that-- will experience negative rates of return. In other words, they will put in more than they will ... |
Utilize your financial knowledge, give your answer or opinion to the input question or subject . Answer format is not limited. | Help required on estimating SSA benefit amounts | The social security administration has a webpage to get your Social Security estimate. It replaces the yearly estimate they used to mail everybody. It shows the amount you paid for social security and medicare and what they estimate you will receive at your retirement age. They also discuss disability benefits. Everybo... |
Offer your insights or judgment on the input financial query or topic using your financial expertise. Reply as normal question answering | Why are real-term bond yields systematically declining, and what does it mean for investors? | Keep in mind there are a couple of points to ponder here: Rates are really low. With rates being so low, unless there is deflation, it is pretty easy to see even moderate inflation of 1-2% being enough to eat the yield completely which would be why the returns are negative. Inflation is still relatively contained. With... |
Based on your financial expertise, provide your response or viewpoint on the given financial question or topic. The response format is open. | Why are real-term bond yields systematically declining, and what does it mean for investors? | On a longer time scale, the plot thickens: It almost looks random. A large drop in real rates in the mid-70s, a massive spike in the early 80s, followed by a slow multi-decade decline. The chaos doesn't seem to be due to interest rates. They steadily climbed and steadily fell: All that's left is inflation: First, ... |
Share your insights or perspective on the financial matter presented in the input. | Why is the price of my investment only updated once per day? | Mutual funds are collections of investments that other people pay to join. It would be simpler to calculate the value of all these investments at one time each day, and then to deem that any purchases or sales happen at that price. The fund diversifies rather than magnifies risk, looking to hold rather than enjoy a q... |
Offer your thoughts or opinion on the input financial query or topic using your financial background. | Why is the price of my investment only updated once per day? | Mutual funds are only traded once per day, while other securities can be traded any time during the day. Mutual funds are actually a collection of other things that have value, such as stocks. The price of a mutual fund is calculated at the end of the day after the market closes by looking at how much the collection of... |
Utilize your financial knowledge, give your answer or opinion to the input question or subject . Answer format is not limited. | Why is the price of my investment only updated once per day? | I strongly suggest you go to www.investor.gov as it has excellent information regarding these types of questions. A mutual fund is a company that pools money from many investors and invests the money in securities such as stocks, bonds, and short-term debt. The combined holdings of the mutual fund are known as its port... |
Offer your insights or judgment on the input financial query or topic using your financial expertise. Reply as normal question answering | Why is the price of my investment only updated once per day? | Mutual funds are a collection of other assets, such as stocks, bonds and property. Unless the fund is a type that is traded on an exchange, you will only be able to buy into the fund by applying for units with the fund manager and sell out by contacting the fund manager. These type of non-traded funds are usually updat... |
Based on your financial expertise, provide your response or viewpoint on the given financial question or topic. The response format is open. | Why is the price of my investment only updated once per day? | There is no fundamental, good reason, I think; "that's just how it's done" (which is what all the other answers seem to be saying, w/o coming out and admitting it). Just guessing, but I'll bet most of the reason is historical: Before up-to-the-moment quotes were readily available, that was a bit tedious to calculate/up... |
Share your insights or perspective on the financial matter presented in the input. | Borrowed shares how are they tracked? | Brokerage firms are required to report the number of shares being shorted. This information is reported to the exchange (NYSE of NASDAQ) and is made public. Most financial sites indicate the number of shares being shorted for a particular stock. The image below from Yahoo finance shows 3.29 million shares of CMG wer... |
Offer your thoughts or opinion on the input financial query or topic using your financial background. | Is it possible to eliminate PMI (Personal/Private Mortgage Insurance) on a mortgage before reaching 20% down on principal? | On a 5% mortgage, after 24 months of payments on a 30 yr amortization, you will have paid 3% of the principal, so all else being equal, you have 15% equity. If the value is up, even a bit, the first step is to call the bank. If you are pretty sure it's up enough, ask them to remove PMI in exchange for you paying the ap... |
Utilize your financial knowledge, give your answer or opinion to the input question or subject . Answer format is not limited. | Is it possible to eliminate PMI (Personal/Private Mortgage Insurance) on a mortgage before reaching 20% down on principal? | Banks are currently a lot less open to 'creative financing' than they were a few years ago, but you may still be able to take advantage of the tactic of splitting the loan into two parts, a smaller 'second mortgage' sometimes called a 'purchase money second' at a slightly higher interest rate for around 15-20% of the v... |
Offer your insights or judgment on the input financial query or topic using your financial expertise. Reply as normal question answering | Refinance when going to sell? | When evaluating a refinance, it all comes down to the payback. Refinancing costs money in closing costs. There are different reasons for refinancing, and they all have different methods for calculating payback. One reason to finance is to get a lower interest rate. When determining the payback time, you calculate how ... |
Based on your financial expertise, provide your response or viewpoint on the given financial question or topic. The response format is open. | Refinance when going to sell? | In the first years of a loan, most of what you're paying is interest, so my guess is that this is a bad idea. But there are lots of mortgage calculators offered for free on the web (your bank's website may have one) so I'd suggest that you spend some time running actual numbers before deciding. Reminder: Most renovatio... |
Share your insights or perspective on the financial matter presented in the input. | Advice for college student: Should I hire a financial adviser or just invest in index funds? | Couple of clarifications to start off: Index funds and ETF's are essentially the same investments. ETF's allow you to trade during the day but also make you reinvest your dividends manually instead of doing it for you. Compare VTI and VTSAX, for example. Basically the same returns with very slight differences in how... |
Offer your thoughts or opinion on the input financial query or topic using your financial background. | Advice for college student: Should I hire a financial adviser or just invest in index funds? | Exactly what you do with the money depends on various personal choices you'll have to make for yourself. Investing your money in Vanguard index funds such as the ones you mentioned is certainly one smart move. However, I think you're quite right to be suspicious of an advisor with a 1% fee. In many cases, such advis... |
Utilize your financial knowledge, give your answer or opinion to the input question or subject . Answer format is not limited. | Advice for college student: Should I hire a financial adviser or just invest in index funds? | Two things to consider: When it comes to advice, don't be "Penny wise and Pound foolish". It is an ongoing debate whether active management vs passive indexes are a better choice, and I am sure others can give good arguments for both sides. I look at it as you are paying for advice. If your adviser will teach you about... |
Offer your insights or judgment on the input financial query or topic using your financial expertise. Reply as normal question answering | Advice for college student: Should I hire a financial adviser or just invest in index funds? | Though @mehassee mentioned it in a comment, I would like to emphasize the point that the financial planner (CFP) you talked to said that he was a fiduciary. A fiduciary has an obligation to act in your best interests. According to uslegal.com, "When one person does agree to act for another in a fiduciary relationship... |
Based on your financial expertise, provide your response or viewpoint on the given financial question or topic. The response format is open. | Advice for college student: Should I hire a financial adviser or just invest in index funds? | If you use a financial planner not only should they be a fiduciary but you should just pay them an hourly rate once a year instead of a percentage unless the percentage is cheaper at this time. To find a good one, go to the National Association of Personal Financial Advisers website, NAPFA.org. Another good resource is... |
Share your insights or perspective on the financial matter presented in the input. | First Time Home Buyers - Down Payment, PMI and Points | 1 - For FHA loans PMI is required for mortages where there is not at least 20% equity. Bank Financed Non-FHA loans may have other standards. If you are getting an FHA loan ,if possible put down 20% so that you do not have to pay PMI. That said your PMI costs should be reduced by the size of your down payment since t... |
Offer your thoughts or opinion on the input financial query or topic using your financial background. | First Time Home Buyers - Down Payment, PMI and Points | The question Why would refinancing my mortgage increase my PMI, even though rates are lower? contains a decent discussion of PMI. It's based on the total amount you borrow, not just the difference to 80% LTV. For easy math, Say you put 15% down on a $100K house. Your PMI is 1.1%, not on the 'missing' $5000, but on the... |
Utilize your financial knowledge, give your answer or opinion to the input question or subject . Answer format is not limited. | What is a bull put spread? | Bull means the investor is betting on a rising market. Puts are a type of stock option where the seller of a put option promises to buy 100 shares of stock from the buyer of the put option at a pre-agreed price called the strike price on any day before expiration day. The buyer of the put option does not have to sell ... |
Offer your insights or judgment on the input financial query or topic using your financial expertise. Reply as normal question answering | Does an individual share of a stock have some kind of unique identifier? | I agree with the answer by @Michael that this number doesn't exist. It's hard to see what use it would have and it would be difficult to track. I'm writing a separate answer because I also disagree with the premise of your question: Individual shares of stock have never to my knowledge had such a number. Your commen... |
Based on your financial expertise, provide your response or viewpoint on the given financial question or topic. The response format is open. | Does an individual share of a stock have some kind of unique identifier? | There is no unique identifier that exists to identify specific shares of a stock. Just like money in the bank, there is no real reason to identify which exact dollar bills belong to me or you, so long as there is a record that I own X bills and I can access them when I want. (Of course, unlike banks, there is still a 1... |
Share your insights or perspective on the financial matter presented in the input. | Does an individual share of a stock have some kind of unique identifier? | Nope, think what a nightmare that would be, a bunch of shares would be issued and then sold to tonnes of people, who might sell various partial numbers of them to others, who might buy them and others from 20 others all as part of one order though multiple fills... It would be nuts, and if one were to issue a certifica... |
Offer your thoughts or opinion on the input financial query or topic using your financial background. | What is the best way to help my dad consolidate his credit card debt at a lower rate? | Are you doing the right thing? Yes, paying back some of the expense of college is a great way to show your gratitude. Could your sister also pitch in a little to help pay the debt down? Will you get approved for a $30,000 unsecured loan? You don't mention your credit rating but that will have an effect obviously. You m... |
Utilize your financial knowledge, give your answer or opinion to the input question or subject . Answer format is not limited. | What is the best way to help my dad consolidate his credit card debt at a lower rate? | I agree with you that you need to consolidate this debt using a loan. It may be hard to find a bank or credit organization that will give you an unsecured personal loan for that much money. I know of one, called Lending Club (Disclaimer - I'm an investor on this platform. Not trying to advertise, it's just the only pl... |
Offer your insights or judgment on the input financial query or topic using your financial expertise. Reply as normal question answering | 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... |
Based on your financial expertise, provide your response or viewpoint on the given financial question or topic. The response format is open. | Why is there inconsistent returns difference between direct and regular Mutual Funds? | (This answer refers to the US investment landscape) I'm not sure your classification of funds as direct and regular accurately reflects the nature of the mutual fund industry. It's not the funds themselves that are "direct" or "regular." Rather it's the way an investor chooses to invest in them. If you make the inve... |
Share your insights or perspective on the financial matter presented in the input. | What retirement plans/options should i pick for a relatively unstable career path? | Your retirement plan shouldn't necessarily be dictated by your perceived employment risks. If you're feeling insecure about your short-term job longevity and mid-career prospects, you will likely benefit from a thoughtful and robust emergency fund plan. Your retirement plan is really designed to fund your life after wo... |
Offer your thoughts or opinion on the input financial query or topic using your financial background. | How to Create Personal Balance Sheet and Budget Plan for Several Accounts | As your financial situation becomes more complex, it becomes increasingly more difficult to keep track of everything with a simple spreadsheet. It is much easier to work with software that is specifically designed for personal finances. A good program will allow you to keep track of as many accounts as you want. A gr... |
Utilize your financial knowledge, give your answer or opinion to the input question or subject . Answer format is not limited. | What does it mean to long convexity of options? | First lets understand what convexity means: Convexity - convexity refers to non-linearities in a financial model. In other words, if the price of an underlying variable changes, the price of an output does not change linearly, but depends on the second derivative (or, loosely speaking, higher-order terms) of the... |
Offer your insights or judgment on the input financial query or topic using your financial expertise. Reply as normal question answering | What does it mean to long convexity of options? | Long convexity is achieved by owning long dated low delta options. When a significant move occurs in the underlying the volatility curve will move higher. Instead of a linear relationship between your long position and it's return, you receive a multiple of the linear return. For example: Share price $50 Long 1 (equals... |
Based on your financial expertise, provide your response or viewpoint on the given financial question or topic. The response format is open. | What does it mean to long convexity of options? | Convexity refers to vega. Gamma refers to delta. Negative carry refers to time decay. |
Share your insights or perspective on the financial matter presented in the input. | Why do banks insist on allowing transactions without sufficient funds? | The reason they want the transaction to go through is because they make money that way. Remember the overdraft protection might incur a fee. If it does their experience may show them that the fee is a greater source of profit when balanced against the losses incurred because of insufficient funds. Even free overdraft t... |
Offer your thoughts or opinion on the input financial query or topic using your financial background. | Why do banks insist on allowing transactions without sufficient funds? | Believe it or not, this is done as a service to you. The reason for this has to do with a fundamental difference between a credit card account and a checking account. With a credit card account, there is no money in the account; every charge is borrowed money. When you get to your credit limit, your credit transaction... |
Utilize your financial knowledge, give your answer or opinion to the input question or subject . Answer format is not limited. | Why do banks insist on allowing transactions without sufficient funds? | The laws about this changed in 2010 with the new Overdraft Protection Law HR 1261. § 140B. (c) Consumer consent opt-In.—A depository institution may charge overdraft coverage fees with respect to the use of an automatic teller machine or point of sale transaction only if the consumer has consented in writing, in... |
Offer your insights or judgment on the input financial query or topic using your financial expertise. Reply as normal question answering | Why do banks insist on allowing transactions without sufficient funds? | This really should be a comment, but I can't yet. The question desperately needs a location tag. In at least some countries(New Zealand), the default action on all insufficient funds transactions is to refuse the transaction. Credit cards are the only common exception. Every bank operating in NZ that I know of acts thi... |
Based on your financial expertise, provide your response or viewpoint on the given financial question or topic. The response format is open. | Saving up for an expensive car | The question is how does $16,000/year for 6.5 years fit into your budget. Or to put it another way, what won't you be spending that money on? Housing, food, vacations, retirement fund, investments (though you can invest your car fund in the meantime), building a hefty emergency fund, kids college funds, saving for a do... |
Share your insights or perspective on the financial matter presented in the input. | Saving up for an expensive car | I've read online that 20% is a reasonable amount to pay for a car each month - Don't believe everything you read on the internet. But, let me ask, does your current car have zero expense? No fuel, no oil change, no repairs, no insurance? If the 20% is true, you are already spending a good chunk of it each month. My ca... |
Offer your thoughts or opinion on the input financial query or topic using your financial background. | Saving up for an expensive car | If you can afford to put $1,333 towards saving for a new car each month, then there is nothing wrong with your logic You should be aware that your car will probably cost around $110,000 in 6.5 years, but other than that the logic is fine. However... |
Utilize your financial knowledge, give your answer or opinion to the input question or subject . Answer format is not limited. | Saving up for an expensive car | This seems really simple to me. |
Offer your insights or judgment on the input financial query or topic using your financial expertise. Reply as normal question answering | Saving up for an expensive car | Any way you look at it, this is a terrible idea. Cars lose value. They are a disposable item that gets used up. The more expensive the car, the more value they lose. If you spend $100,000 on a new car, in four years it will be worth less than $50,000.* That is a lot of money to lose in four years. In addition to the... |
Based on your financial expertise, provide your response or viewpoint on the given financial question or topic. The response format is open. | What is a good 5-year plan for a college student with $15k in the bank? | I disagree with the IRA suggestion. Why IRA? You're a student, so probably won't get much tax benefits, so why locking the money for 40 years? You can do the same investments through any broker account as in IRA, but be able to cash out in need. 5 years is long enough term to put in a mutual fund or ETF and expect reas... |
Share your insights or perspective on the financial matter presented in the input. | What is a good 5-year plan for a college student with $15k in the bank? | Fifteen thousand dollars is not a whole lot of cash. It should probably be kept liquid. To that end, savings accounts and certificates of deposit (CDs) are typically used. (There are also money market funds, but I am not sure that makes sense once trading costs are figured into the equation.) I would set some of tha... |
Offer your thoughts or opinion on the input financial query or topic using your financial background. | What is a good 5-year plan for a college student with $15k in the bank? | You can put them in a 5 years CD and getting a maximum of %2.5 APY if you're lucky. If you put 15k now, in 5 years you'll have $1.971. If it sounds good then take a look at the current inflation rate (i'm in usa)... If you want to think about retirement then you should open a Roth IRA. But you won't be able to touch th... |
Utilize your financial knowledge, give your answer or opinion to the input question or subject . Answer format is not limited. | What is a good 5-year plan for a college student with $15k in the bank? | I just checked TCF's rates, and they only pay a miserly rate of 0.25%. Banks like Capital One or Sallie Mae pay about 1.15%, which is more than 4x, though still nothing great. Do you expect to use these funds in 5 years (e.g. for down payment on a house), or could you contribute them to an IRA? |
Offer your insights or judgment on the input financial query or topic using your financial expertise. Reply as normal question answering | What is a good 5-year plan for a college student with $15k in the bank? | First thing to do right now, is to see if there's somewhere equally liquid, equally risk free you can park your cash for higher rate of return. You can do this now, and decide how much to move into less liquid investments on your own pace. When I was in grad school, I opened a Roth IRA. These are fantastic things for y... |
Based on your financial expertise, provide your response or viewpoint on the given financial question or topic. The response format is open. | What is a good 5-year plan for a college student with $15k in the bank? | A good question -- there are many good tactical points in other answers but I wanted to emphasize two strategic points to think about in your "5-year plan", both of which involve around diversification: Expense allocation: You have several potential expenses. Actually, expenses isn't the right word, it's more like "app... |
Share your insights or perspective on the financial matter presented in the input. | Fundamentals of creating a diversified portfolio based on numbers? | Good question. There are plenty of investors who think they can simply rely on intuition, and although luck is always present it is not enough to construct a proper portfolio. First of all there are two basic types of portfolio management: Passive and Active. The majority of abnormal gains are made with active portfoli... |
Offer your thoughts or opinion on the input financial query or topic using your financial background. | Fundamentals of creating a diversified portfolio based on numbers? | Most of the “recommendations” are just total market allocations. Within domestic stocks, the performance rotates. Sometimes large cap outperform, sometimes small cap outperform. You can see the chart here (examine year by year): https://www.google.com/finance?chdnp=1&chdd=1&chds=1&chdv=1&chvs=maximized&chdeh=0&chfdeh... |
Utilize your financial knowledge, give your answer or opinion to the input question or subject . Answer format is not limited. | Fundamentals of creating a diversified portfolio based on numbers? | Your question is a complex one because knowledge of the investor's beliefs about the market is required. For almost any quantitative portfolio, one must have a good estimate of the expected return vector and covariance matrix of the assets in question. The expected return vector, in particular, is far from estimable.... |
Offer your insights or judgment on the input financial query or topic using your financial expertise. Reply as normal question answering | Difference between Hedge Fund and Private Equity? | Private Equity is simply some type of an investment company, which is owned in a way not accessible to the public. ie: Warren Buffet runs Berkshire Hatheway, which is an investment company which itself is traded on the New York Stock Exchange. This means that anyone can buy shares in the company, and own a small fracti... |
Based on your financial expertise, provide your response or viewpoint on the given financial question or topic. The response format is open. | Deposit cash into US bank account | Sure; you can deposit cash. A few notes apply: Does the source of cash need to be declared ? If you deposit more than $10,000 in cash or other negotiable instruments, you'll be asked to complete a form called a Currency Transaction Report (here's the US Government's guidance for consumers about this form). There's some... |
Share your insights or perspective on the financial matter presented in the input. | Should I use a credit repair agency? | Repairing your credit takes time. Companies that offer to do it for you (for money) generally succeed mostly at getting money from you. Nonprofit agencies will help you with advice and encouragement and will not want money from you. They may be able to help you apply for a consolidation loan, but to be honest that is ... |
Offer your thoughts or opinion on the input financial query or topic using your financial background. | 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... |
Utilize your financial knowledge, give your answer or opinion to the input question or subject . Answer format is not limited. | Should I use a credit repair agency? | Don't use a "credit repair" agency. They are scams. One of the myriad of ways in which they work is by setting you up with a bogus loan, which they will dutifully report you as paying on time. They'll pretend to be a used car dealer or some other credit-based merchant. For a time, this will actually work. This is calle... |
Offer your insights or judgment on the input financial query or topic using your financial expertise. Reply as normal question answering | Should I use a credit repair agency? | I've kind of been there myself. I stretched my finances for the deposit on a house, and lived off my credit card for a few months to build up what I was short on the deposit. Add some unexpected car repairs, and I ended up with £10k on the card. The problem I had then was that interest on the card ran at around 20%,... |
Based on your financial expertise, provide your response or viewpoint on the given financial question or topic. The response format is open. | Should I use a credit repair agency? | So you are in IT, that is great news because you can earn a fabulous income. The part time is not great, but you can use this to your advantage. You can get another job or three to boost your income in the short term. In the long term you should be able to find a better paying job fairly easily. There is one way ... |
Share your insights or perspective on the financial matter presented in the input. | Should I use a credit repair agency? | Here's what my wife and I did. First, we stopped using credit cards and got rid of all other expenses that we absolutely didn't need. A few examples: cable TV, home phone, high end internet - all shut off. We changed our cell phone plan to a cheap one and stopped going out to restaurants or bars. We also got rid of ... |
Offer your thoughts or opinion on the input financial query or topic using your financial background. | Should I use a credit repair agency? | I think you already have a lot of good ideas here. I also don't agree with going with a company to "repair" your credit. They don't have any secret method on how to do so anyway, it takes time and hard work. Cut out things that you are more luxury items. Cable for me is a must (Haha) but I can go without having HBO, s... |
Utilize your financial knowledge, give your answer or opinion to the input question or subject . Answer format is not limited. | Calculate time to reach investment goals given starting balance? | The Finance functions in spreadsheet software will calculate this for you. The basic functions are for Rate, Payment, PV (present value), FV (Future value), and NPER, the number of periods. The single calculation faces a couple issues, dealing with inflation, and with a changing deposit. If you plan to save for 30 ye... |
Offer your insights or judgment on the input financial query or topic using your financial expertise. Reply as normal question answering | 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" |
Based on your financial expertise, provide your response or viewpoint on the given financial question or topic. The response format is open. | Calculate time to reach investment goals given starting balance? | Fairly straightforward to match the result from the calculator soup link. There is a formula to calculate n from the future value s (using natural logs) In Excel This was derived as shown To calculate n from the inflation-adjusted future value si requires using a solver since an algebraic formula cannot be formulated... |
Share your insights or perspective on the financial matter presented in the input. | Identifying “Dividend Stocks” | If you don't have a good knowledge of finance, maybe you should not put too much money in individual stocks. But if you really want to invest, you can just compare the rate of return of the most known stocks available to you (like the one from the S&P for the US). The rate of return is very simple to compute, it's 100*... |
Offer your thoughts or opinion on the input financial query or topic using your financial background. | Identifying “Dividend Stocks” | How to find good divided stocks? Research and read. Google, Yahoo, and most likely your broker offer some sort of stock screener tool where you can look for stocks with given P/E ratios, dividend payouts, pricing, and any of a number of other filters. When you've found some that appeal to you, read what others are sayi... |
Utilize your financial knowledge, give your answer or opinion to the input question or subject . Answer format is not limited. | Identifying “Dividend Stocks” | How do you find good quality dividend stocks? That is an easy one. Past performance has always been my key to this answer. also remember why you are investing in the first place. Do you want cash flow, security or capital growth. Also let's not forget... how much time do you want to devote to this venture. There is goi... |
Offer your insights or judgment on the input financial query or topic using your financial expertise. Reply as normal question answering | How to measure a currencies valuation or devaluation in relevance to itself | It's very hard to measure the worth of an abstract concept like money, particularly over long periods of time. In the modern era we have things like the Consumer Price Index (CPI) in the United States, where the Bureau of Labor Statistics literally sends "shoppers" out to find prices of things and surveys people to fin... |
Based on your financial expertise, provide your response or viewpoint on the given financial question or topic. The response format is open. | How to measure a currencies valuation or devaluation in relevance to itself | The measure of change of value of a currency in relation to itself is inflation (or deflation). |
Share your insights or perspective on the financial matter presented in the input. | How to measure a currencies valuation or devaluation in relevance to itself | As the value of a currency declines, commodities, priced in that currency, will rise. The two best commodities to see a change in would be oil and gold. |
Offer your thoughts or opinion on the input financial query or topic using your financial background. | What should a 19 year old with a moderate inheritance look for in a financial advisor? | I think your question is pretty wise, and the comments indicate that you understand the magnitude of the situation. First off, there could be nothing that your friend could do. Step parent relationships can be strained and this could make it worse, add the age of the girl and grief and he could make this a lot worse... |
Utilize your financial knowledge, give your answer or opinion to the input question or subject . Answer format is not limited. | How to make a decision for used vs new car if I want to keep the car long term? | This is my opinion as a car nut. It depends on what you want out of a car. For your situation (paying cash, want to keep the car long-term but also save money) I recommend seriously considering a slightly used vehicle, maybe 2 or 3 years old, or a "certified pre-owned vehicle". Reasons: Much less expensive than a brand... |
Offer your insights or judgment on the input financial query or topic using your financial expertise. Reply as normal question answering | How to make a decision for used vs new car if I want to keep the car long term? | Hard to say in general. It depends on the actual numbers. First you need to check the suggested retail price of a new car, and the price that you can actually get it for. The difference between these prices is between non-existing and huge, depending on the car. Some dealers will sell you a car that has done 50 miles ... |
Based on your financial expertise, provide your response or viewpoint on the given financial question or topic. The response format is open. | How to make a decision for used vs new car if I want to keep the car long term? | In a perfect world scenario you would get a car 2-5 years old that has very little mileage. One of the long standing archaic rules of the car world is that age trumps mileage. This was a good rule when any idiot could roll back an odometer. Chances are now that if you rolled your odometer back the car was serviced so... |
Share your insights or perspective on the financial matter presented in the input. | How to make a decision for used vs new car if I want to keep the car long term? | New cars are sold for about $500 over their blue book value. They drop in value by about 20% their first year. Used cars are sold for about $2,500 above their blue book. They depreciate like normal. My advice based on my personal experience is to get a new car. When buying a used car, remember that the previous owner s... |
Offer your thoughts or opinion on the input financial query or topic using your financial background. | A little advice please…car loan related | Let's assess the situation first, then look at an option: This leaves you with about $1,017/mo in cash flow, provided you spend money on nothing else (entertainment, oil changes, general merchandise, gifts, etc.) So I'd say take $200/mo off that as "backup" money. Now we're at $817/mo. Question: What have you been doi... |
Utilize your financial knowledge, give your answer or opinion to the input question or subject . Answer format is not limited. | A little advice please…car loan related | Suggested way to make the decision to repair or buy: Figure out what it will cost to repair your car. (If necessary, pay a garage to evaluate it "as if your daughter was interested in buying it".) Then think about whether you would pay that much to buy a car just like yours but without those problems. If the answer is ... |
Offer your insights or judgment on the input financial query or topic using your financial expertise. Reply as normal question answering | Oversimplify it for me: the correct order of investing | I am a firm believer in the idea of limiting debt as much as possible. I would not recommend borrowing money for anything other than a reasonably sized mortgage. As a result, my recommendations are going to be geared toward that goal. The top priorities for me, then, would be to make sure, first, that we don't have t... |
Based on your financial expertise, provide your response or viewpoint on the given financial question or topic. The response format is open. | Oversimplify it for me: the correct order of investing | One can generalize on Traditional vs Roth flavors of accounts, I suggest Roth for 15% money and going pretax to avoid 25% tax. If the student loan is much over 4%, it may make sense to put it right after emergency fund. For emergency fund priority - I'm assuming EF really requires 2 phases, the $2500 broken transmiss... |
Share your insights or perspective on the financial matter presented in the input. | Oversimplify it for me: the correct order of investing | Organize your expenses in order of the rate of return, and pay them in that order. By far the highest rate of return on your list is: Nowhere else are you going to see an immediate 100% return (or 50%, depending on the company's matching policy) on every dollar you allocate to this pot. Second would probably be: Money... |
Offer your thoughts or opinion on the input financial query or topic using your financial background. | Oversimplify it for me: the correct order of investing | Money is a tool. Here is an "oversimplified" order of investments: |
Utilize your financial knowledge, give your answer or opinion to the input question or subject . Answer format is not limited. | Oversimplify it for me: the correct order of investing | Great questions -- the fact that you're thinking about it is what's most important. I think a priority should be maximizing any employer match in your 401(k) because it's free money. Second would be paying off high interest debt because it's a big expense. Everything else is a matter of setting good financial habits so... |
Offer your insights or judgment on the input financial query or topic using your financial expertise. Reply as normal question answering | Oversimplify it for me: the correct order of investing | All of the provided advice is great, but a slightly different viewpoint on debt is worth mentioning. Here are the areas that you should concentrate your efforts and the (rough) order you should proceed. Much of the following is predicated upon your having a situation where you need to get out of debt, and learn to bett... |
Based on your financial expertise, provide your response or viewpoint on the given financial question or topic. The response format is open. | Oversimplify it for me: the correct order of investing | It isn't always clear cut that you should pay off a debt at all, particularly a mortgage. In simple terms, if you are making a better return than what the bank is charging you, and the investment meets your risk criteria, then you should not pay back the debt. In the UK for example, mortgage rates are currently quite l... |
Share your insights or perspective on the financial matter presented in the input. | How much time does a doctor's office have to collect balance from me? | They have forever to collect a balance from you. Furthermore they can add whatever penalties and fees they wish to increase that balance. Worst of all, they don't have to remind you or send you bills or any other notification. You owed it when you left the office. (There very well could be local laws that require n... |
Offer your thoughts or opinion on the input financial query or topic using your financial background. | How much time does a doctor's office have to collect balance from me? | If they had told me that I owe them $10,000 from 3 years ago, I wouldn't have anything to fight back. Why? First thing you have to do is ask for a proof. Have you received treatment? Have you signed the bill when you were done? This should include all the information about what you got and how much you agreed to pay.... |
Utilize your financial knowledge, give your answer or opinion to the input question or subject . Answer format is not limited. | How much time does a doctor's office have to collect balance from me? | Seems like the doctor's office is not very organized. Ask for a line itemized bill. You want the date and the specific service(s) performed on those dates. If the bill seems fair and correct, try to negotiate cash discount payment. Ask how much they would settle for if you paid cash. If it is higher than you were think... |
Offer your insights or judgment on the input financial query or topic using your financial expertise. Reply as normal question answering | 401k with paltry match or SPY ETF? | Answers: 1. Is this a good idea? Is it really risky? What are the pros and cons? Yes, it is a bad idea. I think, with all the talk about employer matches and tax rates at retirement vs. now, that you miss the forest for the trees. It's the taxes on those retirement investments over the course of 40 years that really ma... |
Based on your financial expertise, provide your response or viewpoint on the given financial question or topic. The response format is open. | 401k with paltry match or SPY ETF? | I think you understood much of what I say, in general. Unfortunately, I didn't follow Patches math. What I gleen from your summary is a 1% match to the 10% invested, but a .8% expense. The ETF VOO has a .05% annual fee, a bit better than SPY. A quick few calculations show that the 10% bonus does offset a long run of ... |
Share your insights or perspective on the financial matter presented in the input. | 401k with paltry match or SPY ETF? | Switching to only 401k or only SPY? Both bad ideas. Read on. You need multiple savings vehicles. 401k, Roth IRA, emergency fund. You can/should add others for long term savings goals and wealth building. Though you could combine the non-tax-advantaged accounts and keep track of your minimum (representing the emerg... |
Offer your thoughts or opinion on the input financial query or topic using your financial background. | Next option(s) after house is not selling on market? | EDIT: new ideas based on the full story. I wouldn't worry about the price history. While it is certainly true that some buyers might try to leverage that information against you, the bottom line is the price is the price. Both the buyer and the seller have to agree. If the initial listing was too high, then lower t... |
Utilize your financial knowledge, give your answer or opinion to the input question or subject . Answer format is not limited. | How do I pick the right company for investing services? | Traditional brokers There are tons of players in this market, especially in USA. You have traditional brokers, brokers tied to your bank and a bunch of startups. The easiest is probably a broker tied to your bank, because you probably don't have to wait to fund your brokerage account and can start trading immediately. ... |
Offer your insights or judgment on the input financial query or topic using your financial expertise. Reply as normal question answering | What is the purpose of property tax? | Property taxes, where they exist, are generally levied by cities, counties and other local-level administrative bodies like MUDs, and are the primary source of revenue at these levels of government. These taxes pay the lion's share of the expenses for basic services provided by a city or county: There are federal dolla... |
Based on your financial expertise, provide your response or viewpoint on the given financial question or topic. The response format is open. | What is the purpose of property tax? | Property taxes, at least in Canada, are levied by the municipality or city in which the property is situated. For many cities, it is a significant source of income. Part of the justification from the municipal point of view is that the land is serviced, in that it generally has city services like water, sewer, garbage... |
Share your insights or perspective on the financial matter presented in the input. | What is the purpose of property tax? | Property taxes cover more items than have already been mentioned. As an example, my property tax bill lists the following items: county general purpose, community college, police, police, headquarters, fire prevention, environmental bonds, sewage, town general purpose, highway department, building & zoning, town light... |
Offer your thoughts or opinion on the input financial query or topic using your financial background. | What is the purpose of property tax? | Governments only have a few ways to get income: tax income, tax consumption, tax property (cars & boats), tax real estate, or tax services (hotel & meals). The National, state, county, city, and town taxing authorities determine what is taxed and what the rate will be to get enough money to run their share of the gover... |
Subsets and Splits
No community queries yet
The top public SQL queries from the community will appear here once available.