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Utilize your financial knowledge, give your answer or opinion to the input question or subject . Answer format is not limited. | Safe method of paying for a Gym Membership? | I once was reviewing one of those contracts with plenty of bad clauses in it, sitting across from the salesman whose commission depending on me signing it. I started crossing out all the bad clauses, initialed them and said I would sign it if he'd initial the changes as well. Oh, and there was one clause that said so... |
Offer your insights or judgment on the input financial query or topic using your financial expertise. Reply as normal question answering | Safe method of paying for a Gym Membership? | The safest way is to not sign contracts with terms that are onerous to you. |
Based on your financial expertise, provide your response or viewpoint on the given financial question or topic. The response format is open. | How do cashier's checks work and why are they good for scams? | There are two different issues at play here, and they are completely separate from each other: A bank or cashier's check is "safer" than a regular personal or business check because it avoids problem #1. Problem #2 exists with all kinds of paper checks. I assume the reason the warnings are about cashier's check moreso ... |
Share your insights or perspective on the financial matter presented in the input. | How do cashier's checks work and why are they good for scams? | Ok, few things to understand first: Secondly, think about the way a scam usually flows. A person (scammer) with an actual bank account with money issues a valid cashiers check, trick someone else (victim) into receiving it (typically in exchange for a percent) and passing along a portion to another account (back to the... |
Offer your thoughts or opinion on the input financial query or topic using your financial background. | Repairs to a house in order to rent it that were paid by the beneficiary, but is still owned by a Trust | The Trustee has allowed me to act as his "agent", continuing to pay bills, and take care of much of the administrative affairs for my mother's estate since I did all of it for years before she passed away. I was not paid for any of this work. ... The expenses were more than $30K last year, and there is still a pu... |
Utilize your financial knowledge, give your answer or opinion to the input question or subject . Answer format is not limited. | Economics of buy-to-let (investment) flats | Surely the yield should be Yield = (Rent - Costs) / Downpayment ? As you want the yield relative to your capital not to the property value. As for the opportunity cost part you could look at the risk free rate of return you could obtain, either through government bonds or bank accounts with some sort of government guar... |
Offer your insights or judgment on the input financial query or topic using your financial expertise. Reply as normal question answering | Economics of buy-to-let (investment) flats | Lucky you - here where I live that does not work, you put money on the table year 1. Anyhow... You HAVE to account for inflation. THat is where the gain comes from. Not investment increase (value of item), but the rent goes higher, while your mortgage does not (you dont own more moeny in 3 years if you keep paying, bu... |
Based on your financial expertise, provide your response or viewpoint on the given financial question or topic. The response format is open. | Economics of buy-to-let (investment) flats | Seems like a bad deal to me. But before I get to that, a couple of points on your expenses: Onward. You value a property by calculating its CAP rate. This is what you're calculating, except it does NOT include interest like you did -- that's a loan to you, and has no bearing on whether the unit itself is a good investm... |
Share your insights or perspective on the financial matter presented in the input. | Economics of buy-to-let (investment) flats | but the flat would be occupied all the time. Famous last words. Are you prepared to have a tenant move in, and stop paying rent? In the US, it can take 6 months to get a tenant out of the apartment and little chance of collecting back rent. I don't know how your laws work, but here, they do not favor the landlord. The... |
Offer your thoughts or opinion on the input financial query or topic using your financial background. | Work as a contractor for my current employer rather than become a full time employee after my graduation for health insurance continued coverage | There are several assumptions you made, that don't match the current laws: Costs: COBRA: |
Utilize your financial knowledge, give your answer or opinion to the input question or subject . Answer format is not limited. | fastest way to move USD to EUR | You're asking three different things: What is the fastest way, what is the cheapest way and what is the easiest way. You will not find one method that is all three at once. The fastest way is a wire transfer. The cheapest way that I've encountered is a foreign exchange service like XE. The easiest way is probably Pa... |
Offer your insights or judgment on the input financial query or topic using your financial expertise. Reply as normal question answering | How to minimize damage from sale of savings account | Bank of America has been selling off their local branches to smaller banks in recent years. Here are a few news stories related to this: Along with the branch buildings, the local customers' savings and checking accounts are sold to the new bank. It is interesting that you were told that your savings account is being... |
Based on your financial expertise, provide your response or viewpoint on the given financial question or topic. The response format is open. | I made an investment with a company that contacted me, was it safe? | Just browsed their website. Not a single name of anybody involved. Their application process isn't safe(No https usage while transferring private information). And considering they contacted you rather than you contacting them, I will be very wary about how they got my details. And they are located in Indonesia. And a... |
Share your insights or perspective on the financial matter presented in the input. | I made an investment with a company that contacted me, was it safe? | My personal experience tells me that nearly 100% of people who approach you have their own interests in mind. Things you searched yourself will be more beneficial. |
Offer your thoughts or opinion on the input financial query or topic using your financial background. | I made an investment with a company that contacted me, was it safe? | You can contact the french agency for stock regulation and ask them : http://www.amf-france.org/ |
Utilize your financial knowledge, give your answer or opinion to the input question or subject . Answer format is not limited. | I made an investment with a company that contacted me, was it safe? | It is a Scam. Don't invest more money here. Their website is the proof. Investments may appreciate or depreciate and you may not receive more than you initially invested. The Peterson Group offers products that are traded on margin and entail a degree of risk. You may incur losses that exceed your initial investm... |
Offer your insights or judgment on the input financial query or topic using your financial expertise. Reply as normal question answering | Old Cancelled Cards | FICO 08, a newer fico formula that many lenders are simultaneously switching to now, ignores artificially lengthened credit history/score by piggybacking. So don't feel left out in that regard. Average age of accounts is affected when closed accounts fall off your credit report, which can take 7 years, not just by clo... |
Based on your financial expertise, provide your response or viewpoint on the given financial question or topic. The response format is open. | Old Cancelled Cards | Closed accounts are used when calculating Average Age of Accounts (AAoA) by FICO. They will drop off your report 7 years after their closure, at which time your AAoA will decrease and most likely lower your credit score. Keeping your oldest card with an annual fee (AF) is a tough question. Since the exact calculations ... |
Share your insights or perspective on the financial matter presented in the input. | How to avoid tax when taking a windfall in small chunks? | How can I avoid this, so we are taxed as if we are making the $60k/yr that we want to receive? You can't. In the US the income is taxed when received, not when used. If you receive 1M this year, taking out 60K doesn't mean the other 940K "weren't received". They were, and are taxable. Create a pension fund in the corp... |
Offer your thoughts or opinion on the input financial query or topic using your financial background. | How to avoid tax when taking a windfall in small chunks? | I agree with the other posters that you will need to seek the advice of a tax attorney specializing in corporate taxation. Here is an idea to investigate: Could you sell the company, and thereby turn the profits that are taxed as ordinary income into a long-term capital gain (taxed at 15%, plus state income tax, if any... |
Utilize your financial knowledge, give your answer or opinion to the input question or subject . Answer format is not limited. | Why does FlagStar Bank harass you about payments within grace period? | A quick Google search for FlagStar Bank shows that this is their standard practice. Quite a few people are complaining about the robo-calls they start receiving on the 5th of every month and FlagStar's response is usually something along the lines of "we're required to do so". First and foremost, confirm the terms of y... |
Offer your insights or judgment on the input financial query or topic using your financial expertise. Reply as normal question answering | Why does FlagStar Bank harass you about payments within grace period? | They call you because that is their business rules. They want their money, so their system calls you starting on the 5th. Now you have to decide what you should do to stop this. The most obvious is to move the payment date to before the 5th. Yes that does put you at risk if the tenant is late. But since it is only one... |
Based on your financial expertise, provide your response or viewpoint on the given financial question or topic. The response format is open. | Why does FlagStar Bank harass you about payments within grace period? | One option is to try to get a month ahead on your mortgage payments. Rather than using the current month's rent to pay the current month's mortgage payments, try to use the previous month's rent to pay the current month's mortgage payments. This should allow you to pay on time rather than late but not unacceptably la... |
Share your insights or perspective on the financial matter presented in the input. | Why does FlagStar Bank harass you about payments within grace period? | All standard mortgage promissory notes mandate payments are due on the first of every month; I can almost guarantee the note you signed has this provision. Most lenders offer a grace period of generally 15 days before they assess a late charge, but the payment IS late on the 2nd. People have become incorrectly accust... |
Offer your thoughts or opinion on the input financial query or topic using your financial background. | Is is possible to take a mortgage using Bitcoin as collateral? | This doesn't make any sense. For the people who ask you this, suggest that they borrow the money to invest with you. They can use their bitcoins as collateral for the loan. That way, they get the same benefit and your company doesn't go out of business if the price of bitcoin drops, even temporarily, because the loan b... |
Utilize your financial knowledge, give your answer or opinion to the input question or subject . Answer format is not limited. | Reconciling transactions reimbursing myself for expenses as self-employed (UK) | For anyone that's curious, I had a number of chats with Quickbooks who recommended I import only the relevant business transactions from my personal account & personal credit card in order to lower the tax liability. This way money "paid" from the business account to myself rightly shows up as a transfer and not as inc... |
Offer your insights or judgment on the input financial query or topic using your financial expertise. Reply as normal question answering | Reconciling transactions reimbursing myself for expenses as self-employed (UK) | Any money that ScottMcGready gives to the company is a personal loan that must be repaid by the company at some point without tax consequences. Any money that the company gives to ScottMcGready is either salary (Scott pays income tax, company counts this as cost), or a dividend (Scott pays dividend tax), or a loan (Sco... |
Based on your financial expertise, provide your response or viewpoint on the given financial question or topic. The response format is open. | Is being a landlord a good idea? Is there a lot of risk? | Risk is the capital you have staked in pursuit of profit. The danger is that you lose what you have risked. For some bets (risks), you can get insurance to cover for losses. Now the "game" of Landlord and Tenant requires you to play fully by the rules set forth by your legislators. In your case, that is the legislato... |
Share your insights or perspective on the financial matter presented in the input. | Is being a landlord a good idea? Is there a lot of risk? | I have been a landlord in Texas for just over 3 years now. I still feel like a novice, but I will give you the benefit of my experience. If you are relying on rental properties for current income versus a long term return you are going to have to do a good job at shopping for bargains to get monthly cash flow versus eq... |
Offer your thoughts or opinion on the input financial query or topic using your financial background. | Is being a landlord a good idea? Is there a lot of risk? | If you are able to buy a 150K home for 50K now that would be a good deal! However, you can't you have to borrow 100K in order to make this deal happen. This dramatically increases the risk of any investment, and I would no longer classify it as passive income. The mortgage on a 150K place would be about 710/month (... |
Utilize your financial knowledge, give your answer or opinion to the input question or subject . Answer format is not limited. | Is being a landlord a good idea? Is there a lot of risk? | Based on what you've said I think buying a rental is risky for you. It looks like you heard that renting a house is profitable and Zillow supported that idea. Vague advice + a website designed for selling + large amounts of money = risky at the very least. That doesn't mean that rental property is super risky it just m... |
Offer your insights or judgment on the input financial query or topic using your financial expertise. Reply as normal question answering | Is being a landlord a good idea? Is there a lot of risk? | Rather than thinking of becoming a landlord as a passive "investment" (like a bank account or mutual fund), it may be useful to think of it as "starting a small part-time business". While certainly many people can and do start their own businesses, and there are many success stories, there are many cases where things d... |
Based on your financial expertise, provide your response or viewpoint on the given financial question or topic. The response format is open. | Is being a landlord a good idea? Is there a lot of risk? | Buying a property and renting it out can be a good investment if it matches your long term goals. Buying an investment property is a long term investment. A large chunk of your money will be tied up with the property and difficult to access. If you put your money into dividend producing stocks you can always sell th... |
Share your insights or perspective on the financial matter presented in the input. | Are account holders with a bank better able to receive a loan from that bank? | Banks are businesses, and as such should have the right to refuse service, so they should probably be able to choose one customer over another at will. [I say "should" because business owners protecting themselves against litigation related to discrimination could restrict their freedom as business owners.] However, ... |
Offer your thoughts or opinion on the input financial query or topic using your financial background. | What is your effective tax rate if you work from home in Montreal for a company in Toronto? | Assuming that you don't own the business, it would seem to apply. The CRA says: If you were a resident of Quebec on December 31, 2016, and you did not have a business with a permanent establishment outside Quebec, your refundable Quebec abatement is 16.5% of the basic federal tax on line 55 of Schedule 1. If you had in... |
Utilize your financial knowledge, give your answer or opinion to the input question or subject . Answer format is not limited. | What is your effective tax rate if you work from home in Montreal for a company in Toronto? | For tax purposes, what matters is your province of residence at December 31st. Quebec Tax abatement therefore applies if you were living in Quebec, regardless of your employer, assuming you are an employee. As for effective tax, your question misses some data and does not quite make sense as effective tax is the result... |
Offer your insights or judgment on the input financial query or topic using your financial expertise. Reply as normal question answering | Germany: Employee and Entrepreneur at same time (for getting AppStore payments) | (Selling apps is AFAIK business, not freelancing - unless the type of app you produce is considered a freelancing subject. The tax office will give you a questionnaire and then decide). As Einzelunternehmer, you can receive the payments for the apps to the same account where your wages go. However, there are lots of o... |
Based on your financial expertise, provide your response or viewpoint on the given financial question or topic. The response format is open. | Germany: Employee and Entrepreneur at same time (for getting AppStore payments) | In Germany you can register a Einzelunternehmen and receive payments into your personal bank account with a German bank. Apple will certainly be able to transfer to accounts in Germany as payments go via the European SEPA standard. Tax wise if you are living in Germany you will need to pay tax in Germany, so this is re... |
Share your insights or perspective on the financial matter presented in the input. | As a total beginner, how do I begin to understand finance & stocks? | Your understanding of the stock market is absolutely correct theoretically. However there is a lot more to it. A stock on a given day is effected by a lot of factors. These factors could really be anything. For example, if you are buying a stock in an agricultural company and there was no rainfall this year, there is a... |
Offer your thoughts or opinion on the input financial query or topic using your financial background. | As a total beginner, how do I begin to understand finance & stocks? | Your questions seek answers to specifics, but I feel that you may need more general help. There are two things, I feel, that you need to learn about in the general category of personal finance. Your asking questions about investing, but it is not as important, IMHO, as how you manage your day-to-day operations. For ... |
Utilize your financial knowledge, give your answer or opinion to the input question or subject . Answer format is not limited. | As a total beginner, how do I begin to understand finance & stocks? | I think you've got basics, but you may have the order / emphasis a bit wrong. I've changed the order of the things you've learned in to what I think is the most important to understand: Owning a stock is like owning a tiny chunk of the business Owning stock is owning a tiny chunk of the business, it's not just "like" i... |
Offer your insights or judgment on the input financial query or topic using your financial expertise. Reply as normal question answering | As a total beginner, how do I begin to understand finance & stocks? | How I understand it is: supply/demand affect price of stock negatively/positively, respectively. Correct. Volume is the amount of buying/selling activity in these stocks (more volume = more fluctuation, right?). Sort of. Higher volume means higher liquidity. That is, a stock that is traded more is easier to trade... |
Based on your financial expertise, provide your response or viewpoint on the given financial question or topic. The response format is open. | As a total beginner, how do I begin to understand finance & stocks? | Let me first give you my definitions of the words 'investor' and 'speculator'. To me, anyone looking to 'buy low, sell high' is a speculator. Only 'buy and hold' people are investors. The news agencies love to report on changes in the price of a stock. This gives them something to talk about. So speculation is encoura... |
Share your insights or perspective on the financial matter presented in the input. | Are social media accounts (e.g. YouTube, Twitter, Instagram, etc.) considered assets? | Assets with zero value, perhaps. Unless you can prove that they have resale value. Good luck with that. In other words, not worth spending time on. |
Offer your thoughts or opinion on the input financial query or topic using your financial background. | Are social media accounts (e.g. YouTube, Twitter, Instagram, etc.) considered assets? | The buyer of such an account is likely treating it as an asset, and if they ever resell it capital gains (or loss) would be realized. I don't see why this would be any different for the person that created the account initially, except that the basis starts at $0 making the entire sale price taxable. How you figure the... |
Utilize your financial knowledge, give your answer or opinion to the input question or subject . Answer format is not limited. | Is this follow-up after a car crash a potential scam? | Do not give them any money until you have a signed contract that releases your liability completely. It's imperative that this contract be drafted correctly. The contract needs proper consideration (money in exchange for release of liability), among other things. In other words, talk to a lawyer if you want to go this ... |
Offer your insights or judgment on the input financial query or topic using your financial expertise. Reply as normal question answering | Is this follow-up after a car crash a potential scam? | You have to realize that you're trying to have your cake and eat it too. You want to do things "unofficially" by not reporting the accident (to insurance companies and/or police), but you want to do it "officially" in that you want to have legal recourse if they try to hit you up for more money. The only way to have ... |
Based on your financial expertise, provide your response or viewpoint on the given financial question or topic. The response format is open. | Is this follow-up after a car crash a potential scam? | You wouldn't pay what the quote says, you would pay what the bill says. If the car is used as a taxi then either it's done illegally and not your problem, or they have proper insurance. One reason to go through your insurance is that they know how to handle all these things for you. If you have only their phone number... |
Share your insights or perspective on the financial matter presented in the input. | Is this follow-up after a car crash a potential scam? | I would write them a check or give them cash money. There are payment receipt forms available online, you can print one of have them fill it out and sign it. Just google "private party receipt". Money transfer (via bank account or Paypal) is also an option, but in my opinion it's more convenient to meet up and handle ... |
Offer your thoughts or opinion on the input financial query or topic using your financial background. | A friend wants to use my account for a wire transfer. Is this a scam or is it legitimate? | This is another version of an old scam -- "let me have a check deposited in your account because I can't open one for some reason, and I'll share some of the money with you." Here the scammer is promising to "start a business" with you as a way to gain your confidence and trust. The first danger sign is that you only ... |
Utilize your financial knowledge, give your answer or opinion to the input question or subject . Answer format is not limited. | A friend wants to use my account for a wire transfer. Is this a scam or is it legitimate? | I know people who work in the gulf and most contracts are of the 14 days on/ 14 days (or so) off flavor. I've never heard of someone being onboard a ship or platform for a year. I bet this is a scam. |
Offer your insights or judgment on the input financial query or topic using your financial expertise. Reply as normal question answering | A friend wants to use my account for a wire transfer. Is this a scam or is it legitimate? | 100% scam. This is classic of mixing real (Exxon) with fiction. This gives credibility to story. Don't give any thing, there is no damage yet. If you take the bait, there are multiple ways to get money from you. |
Based on your financial expertise, provide your response or viewpoint on the given financial question or topic. The response format is open. | A friend wants to use my account for a wire transfer. Is this a scam or is it legitimate? | A friend since July online and big business talks and trust/money forwards. Usually a question "is this a scam or legitimate?" is hard to answer since obviously scams are modelled after legitimate stories (or they'd easily fail). If there were bookmakers for "scam or legitimate", this one would easily gather odds of 1... |
Share your insights or perspective on the financial matter presented in the input. | A friend wants to use my account for a wire transfer. Is this a scam or is it legitimate? | Just one further point to add to what everyone else has said. There are no oil rigs or platforms "off the shores of Liverpool". Liverpool is on the west coast of England, on the oil-free Irish Sea. The UK's oil industry is in the North Sea, to the north-east. Aberdeen would be the correct city. |
Offer your thoughts or opinion on the input financial query or topic using your financial background. | A friend wants to use my account for a wire transfer. Is this a scam or is it legitimate? | As a woman who was once married to someone who worked offshore in the North Sea, in the Gulf of Mexico, off the coast of Nova Scotia, in fact all over the world...and my husband's rig was contracted through Exxon (by the way, Exxon contracts rigs, but doesn't own any), this is most certainly a scam. Even if you do not... |
Utilize your financial knowledge, give your answer or opinion to the input question or subject . Answer format is not limited. | A friend wants to use my account for a wire transfer. Is this a scam or is it legitimate? | This is not only a scam but it is potentially fraud that may get you in trouble. This "friend" of yours will wire you some money in which you do not know where this money is really from. It's obvious from other answers that his story is fictitious. Thus it is likely that this money was stolen through another scam/hack ... |
Offer your insights or judgment on the input financial query or topic using your financial expertise. Reply as normal question answering | A friend wants to use my account for a wire transfer. Is this a scam or is it legitimate? | In many countries it is a legal requirement or in some other way mandatory for the banks to ban the owner(s) of an account to allow a third party to use the account. In some countries if you willing give someone access in this way you get no compensation what so ever and you'll be lucky if they catch the crooks and eve... |
Based on your financial expertise, provide your response or viewpoint on the given financial question or topic. The response format is open. | Avoid Capital Gains on Rental | Don't let the tax tail wag the investment dog. There is risk in exchanging this (known) property for another (unknown) property. That risk may be more than $9000 worth of risk. Tax considerations are important, but most important is that your investments make money. If you intend to continue as a landlord, you had bett... |
Share your insights or perspective on the financial matter presented in the input. | Avoid Capital Gains on Rental | Your question is best asked of a tax expert, not random people on the internet. Such an expert will help you ask the right questions. For example you did not point out the country or state in which you live. That matters. First point is that you will not pay tax on 60K, its expensive to transact real estate, so you... |
Offer your thoughts or opinion on the input financial query or topic using your financial background. | Avoid Capital Gains on Rental | While it may not be your preferred outcome, and doesn't eliminate the income, in the event you find yourself in the path described here you have a way to defer gains to the future. but I would then want to buy another house as a rental If you sell this house and buy another investment property (within strict time windo... |
Utilize your financial knowledge, give your answer or opinion to the input question or subject . Answer format is not limited. | Avoid Capital Gains on Rental | Just brainstorming here, but my gut feeling is it should be possible to sell your home to yourself with the sole purpose of resetting your basis. Taken at face value it feels illegal, but since I think we all would agree that you could sell your house to a third party and purchase the identical house next door for the ... |
Offer your insights or judgment on the input financial query or topic using your financial expertise. Reply as normal question answering | Avoid Capital Gains on Rental | What you are looking for is a 1031 exchange. https://www.irs.gov/uac/like-kind-exchanges-under-irc-code-section-1031 Whenever you sell business or investment property and you have a gain, you generally have to pay tax on the gain at the time of sale. IRC Section 1031 provides an exception and allows you to postpone pay... |
Based on your financial expertise, provide your response or viewpoint on the given financial question or topic. The response format is open. | How far do I go with a mortgage approval process when shopping around? | As per my comments, I think this is up to you and how much work you want to put forth. I do not feel it is trivial to provide documentation even with 90% of it will be the same among lenders. See this question: First answer, third and fourth paragraphs. You need to go as far as understanding the total cost of the loan... |
Share your insights or perspective on the financial matter presented in the input. | Official Bank Check | The legal department at the Bank left me a message telling me that the bank check was paid & the recipient got the funds. Call up the bank and find out who the recipient was. Generally it can only be cashed by the person whose name is on it - the original business partner to whom it was intended. It is unlikely to be c... |
Offer your thoughts or opinion on the input financial query or topic using your financial background. | Official Bank Check | How? Basically all banks nowadays allow online deposits from a smartphone - you take a picture from the front and back of the check, and submit it, and that's it. You still have the paper check, and it looks pristine, but it is deposited (and the paper is worthless). |
Utilize your financial knowledge, give your answer or opinion to the input question or subject . Answer format is not limited. | Economics: negative consumer sentiment following failure to upsell | There are several different participants in the transaction, and you may not be aware of all the issues: In some business (fast food) they are required to ask if you want to super size, they are expected to do this at every transaction, but aren't paid more if you buy more. The employee can also decide that too much pr... |
Offer your insights or judgment on the input financial query or topic using your financial expertise. Reply as normal question answering | Investing in a offshore bank account | when investing in index funds Index fund as the name suggests invests in the same proportion of the stocks that make up the index. You can choose a Index Fund that tracks NYSE or S&P etc. You cannot select individual companies. Generally these are passively managed, i.e. just follow the index composition via automated ... |
Based on your financial expertise, provide your response or viewpoint on the given financial question or topic. The response format is open. | Should I finance rental property or own outright? | To answer some parts of the question which are answerable as-is: Yes, mortgage interest is deductible. So is depreciation. See this question and others. It would be a good idea to put some money away for tax season, just as you should save some money to cover unexpected property expenses. But as @JoeTaxpayer says, this... |
Share your insights or perspective on the financial matter presented in the input. | Should I finance rental property or own outright? | In general you do not want to show a taxable gain on rental properties if you can avoid it. One of the more beneficial advantages of owning cash flowing rental properties, is that the income is tax deferred because of the depreciation. I say deferred, because depreciation affects the cost basis of your property. Al... |
Offer your thoughts or opinion on the input financial query or topic using your financial background. | How to start personal finances? | I'm assuming you're in Germany or Europe based on your question, but here's an American's perspective that should pertain you you as well: Once you have a steady income and an emergency fund large enough to keep you from going bankrupt, then start learning about retirement and investment options. |
Utilize your financial knowledge, give your answer or opinion to the input question or subject . Answer format is not limited. | How to start personal finances? | Personal finances are not intuitive for everyone, and it can be a challenge to know what to do when you haven't been taught. Congratulations on recognizing that you need to make a change. The first step that I would recommend is what you've already done: Assemble your bank statements so you can get an accurate picture... |
Offer your insights or judgment on the input financial query or topic using your financial expertise. Reply as normal question answering | How to start personal finances? | A few practical thoughts: A practical thing that helps me immensely not to loose important paperwork (such as bank statements, bills, payroll statement, all those statements you need for filing tax return, ...) is: In addition to the folder (Aktenordner) where the statements ultimately need to go I use a Hängeregistrat... |
Based on your financial expertise, provide your response or viewpoint on the given financial question or topic. The response format is open. | How to start personal finances? | There are many paths to success, but they all begin with education. You made the first big step just by visiting here. We have 17,000 questions, arranged by tag so you can view those on a given topic. You can sort by votes to see the ones that have the best member acceptance. I'll agree with Ben that one of the best o... |
Share your insights or perspective on the financial matter presented in the input. | What options exist to make money in the US on a work-restricted visa? | Income generated from online sales is not considered "passive income", so you need to be authorized to work in the U.S. Those without work authorization can acquire passive income (through investments, lending, competition/contest earnings, etc.) In order to sell products on eBay (the description you've given leads me ... |
Offer your thoughts or opinion on the input financial query or topic using your financial background. | What options exist to make money in the US on a work-restricted visa? | Are you planning to not pay taxes? Any time someone has income in the U.S., it is subject to U.S. taxes. You must file tax returns (and pay taxes if necessary) if you have income above a certain threshold, regardless of whether you're not authorized to work or not. If you plan to intentionally not pay taxes, then that'... |
Utilize your financial knowledge, give your answer or opinion to the input question or subject . Answer format is not limited. | Is threatening to close the account a good way to negotiate with the bank? | If this matters to you a lot, I agree you should leave. My primary bank account raised chequing account and transaction fees. I left. When I was closing my account the teller asked for the reason (they needed to fill out a form) and I explained it was the monthly fees. Eventually, if a bank gets enough of these, they w... |
Offer your insights or judgment on the input financial query or topic using your financial expertise. Reply as normal question answering | Is threatening to close the account a good way to negotiate with the bank? | Take your business elsewhere, where the products and services are priced at a level you agree to pay. This does two things. First, you end a bad business relationship. Why bad? Because you're not happy with the deal. Second, it sends an unambiguous signal to the losing bank that you were unhappy with their service... |
Based on your financial expertise, provide your response or viewpoint on the given financial question or topic. The response format is open. | Is threatening to close the account a good way to negotiate with the bank? | To avoid going on and on in the comments I'm going to add this point that seems to be missing from the other answers. "Banks often offer me deals while negotiating to open an account (since they are under high pressure to open an account)" Would these happen to be the regionally advertised account opening deals like ... |
Share your insights or perspective on the financial matter presented in the input. | Is threatening to close the account a good way to negotiate with the bank? | I would hold off on making that threat (closing your account). First, because as others have said, it's not likely to help. And second, assuming you're willing to make good on that threat, you should only play that card as a final absolute last resort, because if it fails, and you close your account, there is little to... |
Offer your thoughts or opinion on the input financial query or topic using your financial background. | Is threatening to close the account a good way to negotiate with the bank? | From the bank's perspective, they are offering a service and within their rights to charge appropriately for that service. Depending on the size of their operation, they may have considerable overhead costs that they need to recoup one way or another to continue operating (profitably, they hope). Traditionally, banks w... |
Utilize your financial knowledge, give your answer or opinion to the input question or subject . Answer format is not limited. | How to keep control of shared expenses inside marriage? | JoeTaxpayer's answer mentions using a third "house" account. In my comment on his answer, I mentioned that you could simply use a bookkeeping account to track this instead of the overhead of an extra real bank account. Here's the detail of what I think will work for you. If you use a tool like gnucash (probably also po... |
Offer your insights or judgment on the input financial query or topic using your financial expertise. Reply as normal question answering | How to keep control of shared expenses inside marriage? | Why not start a third account, the "house" account? However you decide to fund it, equally or in proportion to income, you both chip in, and the payments for all joint expenses come from there. Rent, utilities, food, phone, cable. |
Based on your financial expertise, provide your response or viewpoint on the given financial question or topic. The response format is open. | How to keep control of shared expenses inside marriage? | Being new does not allow me yet to vote on your question, but what a good question it is. We share our opinion in separating finances in our very well going mariage. Currently I have found a sort of okay solution in two websites. These are http://www.yunoo.nl and http://www.moneytrackin.com/. You can actually tag spend... |
Share your insights or perspective on the financial matter presented in the input. | How to keep control of shared expenses inside marriage? | Websites like neobudget dot com or mint dot com can help you see where your money is going, especially if you use mostly checks, debit cards, or credit cards for your purchases. They are less useful if you use cash often. |
Offer your thoughts or opinion on the input financial query or topic using your financial background. | How to keep control of shared expenses inside marriage? | I'd say its time to merge finances! |
Utilize your financial knowledge, give your answer or opinion to the input question or subject . Answer format is not limited. | How to keep control of shared expenses inside marriage? | Call me old fashioned, but that sounds less like a marriage and more like a business partnership. Maybe there are business tools that would be useful. |
Offer your insights or judgment on the input financial query or topic using your financial expertise. Reply as normal question answering | Is it usual for a tradesperson not to charge VAT? | Assuming this to be in the UK, and I suspect the rules are similar elsewhere, this indeed may be true. There is a threshold beneath which a business does not have to register for VAT - currently a turnover of £81,000. A non VAT registered business does not charge VAT but also cannot reclaim the VAT on their business e... |
Based on your financial expertise, provide your response or viewpoint on the given financial question or topic. The response format is open. | What tax year does my income get assigned to if my client sends the payment in December but I receive it in January? | Confused? see your CPA |
Share your insights or perspective on the financial matter presented in the input. | Does being on the board of a bankruptcy-declaring company affect my credit rating? | The answer to your question is governed by the structure of the company and your ownership or lack thereof in the business. Australian business can be structured the same way U.S. ones are, as a sole proprietorship, partnership, LLC, or company. If you are only on the board and have no equity, you cannot be affected.... |
Offer your thoughts or opinion on the input financial query or topic using your financial background. | Prize Money, Taxes and Foreign / International Students | The committee folks told us Did they also give you advice on your medication? Maybe if they told you to take this medicine or that you'd do that? What is it with people taking tax advice from random people? The committee told you that one person should take income belonging to others because they don't know how to expl... |
Utilize your financial knowledge, give your answer or opinion to the input question or subject . Answer format is not limited. | What factors go into choosing residency? | A couple of thoughts. Tax benefits are the usual reasons to decide on one residency or another. International tax law is complex, and it's probably best to consult a professional. Certainly without knowing which the other country is I would not want to hazard a guess. If he is really not going to be taxed on the other ... |
Offer your insights or judgment on the input financial query or topic using your financial expertise. Reply as normal question answering | Back of Check Images are Blank and not Endorsed | In general, a lack of endorsement (meaning nothing written by the receiver on the back of the check) is equivalent to it being endorsed "as deposit only" to a bank that the depositor has an account with. (See Uniform Commercial Code §4-205.) That is, the bank that receives a deposit without any endorsement promises to ... |
Based on your financial expertise, provide your response or viewpoint on the given financial question or topic. The response format is open. | UK Limited Company paying third party medical costs | According to HMRC's manual BIM42105, you can't deduct expenses of this kind when calculating your profits for corporation tax: No deduction is allowed for expenditure not incurred wholly and exclusively for trade purposes So at the least, the company will have to pay corporation tax on this donation at some point, assu... |
Share your insights or perspective on the financial matter presented in the input. | UK Limited Company paying third party medical costs | One possibility to consider would be making an arrangement with a registered UK charity where you would donate the necessary amount for the specific purpose of covering medical costs of that particular person. Charitable donations are expressly deductible from business profits. Some charities may be genuinely inter... |
Offer your thoughts or opinion on the input financial query or topic using your financial background. | State tax issues for NJ resident with DC tax withheld, and likely refunded | If you already filed the DC return, you can try and wait with filing the NJ return until you get the answer from DC. You can file an extension request with the NJ division of taxation here. Or, you can file without claiming the credit, and worst case amend later and claim it if DC refuse to refund. I find it highly un... |
Utilize your financial knowledge, give your answer or opinion to the input question or subject . Answer format is not limited. | U.S. nonresident alien: Is my state tax refund taxable? | Federal income tax refunds received during 2016 are not taxable income for 2016 (or any other year) on either the Federal or the State tax return. The State income tax refund for 2015 received during 2016 is not taxable income on the State tax return for 2016. It is taxable income on the Federal tax return for 2016 onl... |
Offer your insights or judgment on the input financial query or topic using your financial expertise. Reply as normal question answering | Roth IRA - Vanguard or Fidelity? If a college student had to pick one? | The minimum at Schwab to open an IRA is $1000. Why don't you check the two you listed to see what their minimum opening balance is? If you plan to go with ETFs, you want to ask them what their commission is for a minimum trade. In Is investing in an ETF generally your best option after establishing a Roth IRA? sheegao... |
Based on your financial expertise, provide your response or viewpoint on the given financial question or topic. The response format is open. | Roth IRA - Vanguard or Fidelity? If a college student had to pick one? | Well, a couple things to keep in mind: Even if you have enough to meet the minimum initial amount, you need to have at least that much income in the year you make the contribution. You'll probably be best served saving up in a savings account so that by the time you have an income (and can thus make contributions), you... |
Share your insights or perspective on the financial matter presented in the input. | Insurance, healthcare provider, apparent abuse, lack of transparency | Just as with any other service provider - vote with your wallet. Do not go back to that doctor's office, and make sure they know why. It's unheard of that a service provider will not disclose the anticipated charges ahead of time. A service provider saying "we won't tell you how much we charge" is a huge red flag, and ... |
Offer your thoughts or opinion on the input financial query or topic using your financial background. | Insurance, healthcare provider, apparent abuse, lack of transparency | I wouldn't classify your treatment as abuse. Medical billing has become more complex not less complex. You need to learn to ask even more questions regarding expenses, you probably need to see these price quotes in writing. You did several things correctly. Staying in-network generally is best because many plans have t... |
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