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Utilize your financial knowledge, give your answer or opinion to the input question or subject . Answer format is not limited.
Should you co-sign a personal loan for a friend/family member? Why/why not?
I know this question has a lot of answers already, but I feel the answers are phrased either strongly against, or mildly for, co-signing. What it amounts down to is that this is a personal choice. You cannot receive reliable information as to whether or not co-signing this loan is a good move due to lack of information...
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What can I replace Microsoft Money with, now that MS has abandoned it?
I've been budgeting with MS Money since 2004 and was pretty disappointed to hear it's being discontinued. Budgeting is actually a stress-relieving hobby for me, and I can be a bit of a control-freak when it comes to finances, so I decided to start early looking for a replacement rather than waiting until MS Money can n...
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What can I replace Microsoft Money with, now that MS has abandoned it?
I use GnuCash which I really like. However, I've never used any other personal finance software so I can't really compare. Before GnuCash, I used an Excel spreadsheet which works fine for very basic finances. Pros Cons
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What can I replace Microsoft Money with, now that MS has abandoned it?
Well, you could replace it with.. itself! Microsoft Money Plus Sunset versions The Microsoft Money Plus Sunset versions are replacements for expired versions of Microsoft Money Essentials, Deluxe, Premium, and Home and Business. They allow existing customers to use MoneyPlus to continue accessing their data. Changes to...
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What can I replace Microsoft Money with, now that MS has abandoned it?
How complicated is your budget? We have a fairly in depth excel spreadsheet that does the trick for us. Lots of formulas and whatnot for calculating income, outgo, expected and actual expenses, expenses budgeted over time (i.e. planned expenses that are semi-annual or annual) as well as the necessary emergency funds ba...
Utilize your financial knowledge, give your answer or opinion to the input question or subject . Answer format is not limited.
What can I replace Microsoft Money with, now that MS has abandoned it?
Current Money users may want to take a look at this: http://sites.google.com/site/pocketsense/home/msmoneyfixp1 Pretty easy (and secure) way to continue getting online data into Money.
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What can I replace Microsoft Money with, now that MS has abandoned it?
www.mint.com is a very good web site that can upload your financial data from your bank and analyze it for you. Security concerns seem to have been addressed reassuringly.
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What can I replace Microsoft Money with, now that MS has abandoned it?
MoneyDance Is the way to go. I've been using it for years and it works well. It keeps getting better, and best of all, it's completely cross platform! Mac, Windows and linux!
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What can I replace Microsoft Money with, now that MS has abandoned it?
I used to use Quicken, but support for that has been suspended in the UK. I had started using Mvelopes, but support for that was suspended as well! What I use now is an IPhone app called IXpenseit to track my spending.
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What can I replace Microsoft Money with, now that MS has abandoned it?
I use http://moneydance.com/ it has Mac, Windows and Linux versions and works well for my needs.
Utilize your financial knowledge, give your answer or opinion to the input question or subject . Answer format is not limited.
What can I replace Microsoft Money with, now that MS has abandoned it?
Uh, Quicken is virtually identical to MS Money. If you liked money and don't want to change, use that.
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What can I replace Microsoft Money with, now that MS has abandoned it?
I use MoneyStrands.com to manage my spending. It's a lot like Mint, but provides support for more banks, and works with most Canadian financial institutions. I can't really compare them fairly though, since I didn't bother with Mint after learning that they don't care about Canadians. If your bank isn't supported by Mo...
Based on your financial expertise, provide your response or viewpoint on the given financial question or topic. The response format is open.
What can I replace Microsoft Money with, now that MS has abandoned it?
I have been using Acemony http://www.mechcad.net/products/acemoney/ for a couple of years now and extremely happy with it. Very simple and intuitive to use. The best part is - life-long free upgrades
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What can I replace Microsoft Money with, now that MS has abandoned it?
If you would like to use linux I suggest you to use KMyMoney http://kmymoney2.sourceforge.net/ It is based on gnucash but it is easier to use IMO
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What can I replace Microsoft Money with, now that MS has abandoned it?
hledger is a free software, cross-platform double-entry accounting tool I've been working on for a while. It has command-line and web-based interfaces to your local data, and some other interesting features. There's also ledger (http://wiki.github.com/jwiegley/ledger/) which is command-line only. These are.. different,...
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What can I replace Microsoft Money with, now that MS has abandoned it?
I have used Quicken for over 10 years. It has always provided the information I needed and I have always received good support from Intuit.
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What can I replace Microsoft Money with, now that MS has abandoned it?
Check the Financial section in this list of Open Source Software
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What can I replace Microsoft Money with, now that MS has abandoned it?
I suggest you to test AlauxSoft Accounts and Budget. This software is a money-like. There is a freeware and a shareware (24 EUR). You will find its at http://www.alauxsoft.com Best regards, Michel ALAUX.
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Idea for getting rich using computers to track stocks
The main reason I'm aware of that very few individuals do this sort of trading is that you're not taking into account the transaction costs, which can and will be considerable for a small-time investor. Say your transaction costs you $12, that means in order to come out ahead you'll have to have a fairly large position...
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Idea for getting rich using computers to track stocks
I (and probably most considering trading) had a similar thought as you. I thought if I just skimmed the peaks and sold before the troughs, perhaps aided by computer, I'd be able to make a 2% here, 2% there, and that would add up quickly to a nice amount of money. It almost did seem "foolproof". Then I realized that s...
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Idea for getting rich using computers to track stocks
There are many ways to trade. Rules based trading is practiced by professionals. You can indeed create a rule set to make buy and sell decisions based on the price action of your chosen security. I will direct you to a good website to further your study: I have found that systemtradersuccess.com is a well written blog,...
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Why do only motor insurers employ “No Claims Discounts”?
Some people are better drivers than others. A collision can happen to anybody, even good drivers. The collision might not be your fault at all; it might be entirely the fault of the other party. However, the best drivers do a better job of avoiding collisions in situations where the other drivers on the road are doing...
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Why do only motor insurers employ “No Claims Discounts”?
Discounting premiums based on some past history is not unique to auto policies. Other insurers will discount premiums based on past claims history they just don't shout about it as a marketing means to attract customers. Life insurance is underwritten based on your health history; if you want to consider your "prefer...
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Renting from self during out of area remodel project - deductible?
There are certain situations where you could legally pay yourself rent, but it'd be in the context of multiple business entities interacting, never in the context of an individual renting their own property. Even if you could, any rent paid to yourself would count as rental income, so there'd be no benefit. Edit: I wa...
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Why do governments borrow money instead of printing it?
Governments borrowing money doesn't create new money. When banks "borrow" money (i.e. take deposits), it does effectively create money because the depositor expects to be able to get the money back at any time, but the bank assumes that most won't actually do this and lends out most of the money to other people. If eve...
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Why do governments borrow money instead of printing it?
“Why do governments borrow money instead of printing it? (When printing money, one doesn't need to pay interest).” Good question. Numerous leading economists, including a couple of economics Nobel Laureates have asked the same question and concluded that borrowing can be dispensed with. First, Milton Freidman set out...
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Why do governments borrow money instead of printing it?
Yes - Simply put, printing money is called "monetizing the debt" and would result in some nasty inflation. It's a no-no as it quickly devalues the currency and makes it far more difficult to borrow in the future, an entire generation will remember getting burned by it. If, say, Canada's currency were suddenly worth hal...
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Why do governments borrow money instead of printing it?
One important answer is still missing: governments may not be able to do print money because of international agreements. This is in fact a very important reason: it applies to the entire Eurozone. (I admit that many Eurozone countries also not allowed to borrow as much as they do now, but somehow that's considered a ...
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Why do governments borrow money instead of printing it?
If the government prints money recklessly and causes inflation, people will come to expect inflation, and the value of the currency will plummet, and you'll end up like Zimbabwe where a trillion dollars won't buy a loaf of bread. If the government actually pays people for the money they borrow, they don't have this pr...
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Why do governments borrow money instead of printing it?
I believe there are two ways new money is created: My favorite description of this (money creation) comes from Chris Martenson: the video is here on Youtube. And yes, I believe both can create inflation. In fact this is what happened in the US between 2004 and 2007: increasing loans to households to buy houses created ...
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Why do governments borrow money instead of printing it?
The Government doesn't borrow money. It in fact simply prints it. The bond market is used for an advanced way of controlling the demand for this printed money. Think about it logically. Take 2011 for example. The Govt spent $1.7 trillion more than it took in. This is real money that get's credited in to people's bank a...
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Why do governments borrow money instead of printing it?
The government could actually do either one to expand the money supply as necessary to keep up with rising productivity / an increased labor supply. The question is merely political. In the case of the US, printing money involves convincing politicians to spend it. While we currently run a deficit, there is a large l...
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Why do governments borrow money instead of printing it?
My own simple answer is that it will affect and reduce productivity (e.g. Zimbabwe). it will also cause inflation which mean that no one will want to work for production again.
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Why do governments borrow money instead of printing it?
My answer is that when confronted with the obvious, the most common human reaction is to seek reasons for it, because things have to be right. They have to have a reason. We don't like it when things suck. So when finding out that you are being ripped off every day of your life, your reaction is "There must be a logic...
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Prepaying a loan: Shouldn't the interest be recalculated like a shorter loan?
When you pay off a loan early, you pay the remaining principal, and you save all of the remaining interest. So you do save on interest, but it's the interest you would have paid in the future, not the interest you have paid in the past. (Your remaining balance when you pay off the loan only includes the principal, not ...
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Prepaying a loan: Shouldn't the interest be recalculated like a shorter loan?
One way to think of the typical fixed rate mortgage, is that you can calculate the balance at the end of the month. Add a month's interest (rate times balance, then divide by 12) then subtract your payment. The principal is now a bit less, and there's a snowball effect that continues to drop the principal more each mon...
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Prepaying a loan: Shouldn't the interest be recalculated like a shorter loan?
A few years ago I had a 5 year car loan. I wanted to prepay it after 2 years and I asked this question to the lender. I expected a reduction in the interest attached to the car loan since it didn't go the full 5 years. They basically told me I was crazy and the balance owed was the full amount of the 5 year car loan. T...
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Prepaying a loan: Shouldn't the interest be recalculated like a shorter loan?
So, let's take a mortgage loan that allows prepayment without penalty. Say I have a 30 year mortgage and I have paid it for 15 years. By the 16th year almost all the interest on the 30 year loan has been paid to the bank This is incorrect thinking. On a 30 year loan, at year 15 about 2/3's of the total interest to be ...
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Prepaying a loan: Shouldn't the interest be recalculated like a shorter loan?
Your thinking is unfortunately incorrect; an amortising loan (as opposed to interest only loans) pay down, or amortise, the principal with each payment. This means that the amount that is owed at prepayment will always be less than the total borrowed, and is also why some providers make a charge for prepayment. The "fa...
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Prepaying a loan: Shouldn't the interest be recalculated like a shorter loan?
Forget about terms. Think about loans in terms of months. To simplify things, let's consider a $1000 loan with .3% interest per month. This looks like a ten month term, but it's equally reasonable to think about it on a month-to-month basis. In the first month, you borrowed $1000 and accrued $3 interest. With the...
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Prepaying a loan: Shouldn't the interest be recalculated like a shorter loan?
Loans do not carry an "interest balance". You can not pay off "all the interest". The only way to reduce the interest to zero is to pay off the loan. Otherwise, the interest due each month is some percentage of the outstanding principal. Think of it from the bank's perspective: they've invested some amount of money in ...
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Prepaying a loan: Shouldn't the interest be recalculated like a shorter loan?
For the mortgage, you're confusing cause and effect. Loans like mortgages generally have a very simple principle behind them: at any given time, the interest charged at that time is the product of the amount still owing and the interest rate. So for example on a mortgage of $100,000, at an interest rate of 5%, the inte...
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Prepaying a loan: Shouldn't the interest be recalculated like a shorter loan?
There is no interest outstanding, per se. There is only principal outstanding. Initially, principal outstanding is simply your initial loan amount. The first two sections discuss the math needed - just some arithmetic. The interest that you owe is typically calculated on a monthly basis. The interested owed formula ...
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Prepaying a loan: Shouldn't the interest be recalculated like a shorter loan?
If you take a loan, you make a contract with your lender, let's call them "bank" (even if it might not be a real bank). This loan contract contains an agreed-upon way of paying back the loan. Both sides agreed upon these conditions. Any change of it (like paying back early) needs the consent of both sides. So, in g...
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Prepaying a loan: Shouldn't the interest be recalculated like a shorter loan?
The key to understanding a mortgage is to look at an amortization schedule. Put in 100k, 4.5% interest, 30 years, 360 monthly payments and look at the results. You should get roughly 507 monthly P&I payment. Amortization is only the loan portion, escrow for taxes and insurance and additional payments for PMI are ext...
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Prepaying a loan: Shouldn't the interest be recalculated like a shorter loan?
You are expecting, that if you pay off a 30 mortgage after 16 years, you should be charged the same amount of interest as someone who had a 16 year mortgage for the same amount and with the same interest rate. This isn't correct, and here's why: the person with the 16 year mortgage paid it off faster than you. They pai...
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Prepaying a loan: Shouldn't the interest be recalculated like a shorter loan?
You seem to think that you are mostly paying interest in the first year because of the length of the loan period. This is skipping a step. You are mostly paying interest in the first year because your principle (the amount you owe) is highest in the first year. You do pay down some principle in that first year; this ...
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Why do card processing companies discourage “cash advance” activities
This is most likely protecting Square's relationship with Visa/Mastercard/AMEX/etc. Credit card companies typically charge their customers a much higher interest rate with no grace period on cash advances (withdrawals made from an ATM using a credit card). If you use Square to generate something that looks like a "merc...
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Why do card processing companies discourage “cash advance” activities
Square does not care if you run a $10 transaction to test the system. They are concerned with its use to move meaningful amounts of money. The only people who do this will be the Dunning-Kruger gang, who only think they are clever. Because of course Square will hunt them down, sue, garnish and/or prosecute them! B...
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Why do card processing companies discourage “cash advance” activities
Square charges a 2.75% fee (which the merchant pays), so you would be losing money if you only got a 1.5% cashback bonus. I would guess that the real reason Square prohibits you from getting cash is because of Visa/MC, state and federal regulations. Visa/MC probably prohibit it for regular merchants due primarily to l...
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Why do card processing companies discourage “cash advance” activities
I thought this was because credit card companies charge the retailer a fee to accept credit card payments. If you spend $100, the retailer pays $1 (or whatever percentage they have negotiated) to the credit card provider. Handing over $100 cash and paying $1 fee to Visa means a loss to the retailer. The same transacti...
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What is the difference between a check and a paycheck?
A paycheck is simply a check for your salary. It's just like a rent check, or a birthday check, or a grocery check... I've had "paychecks" that were personal checks from the owner of the business, I've had ones that are printed in the office I worked in and signed right there, and I've had paychecks that are printed ...
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What is the difference between a check and a paycheck?
There is little difference. A paycheck is a type of check used to pay wages. These days many people opt for direct deposit. So, the term paycheck can also refer to the payment itself: 1: a check in payment of wages or salary 2: wages, salary http://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/paycheck
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What's the process to buy an old house to tear it down and create a new one?
By process, I assume you mean the financial process. Financially, this doesn't look any different to me than buying an empty lot to build a rental unit, with the added expense (potentially significant) of doing the tear-down. Given your lack of experience and capital, I would be very hesitant to jump in like this. You ...
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What's the process to buy an old house to tear it down and create a new one?
Thank you for your response KeithB and Ross. I was researching more about this and looks like I have to follow all these steps (please, correct me if I'm wrong):
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How to take advantage of home appreciation
Assuming "take advantage" means continue to build wealth, as opposed to blow it all on a fancy holiday... Downgrade As you already note, you could downgrade/downsize. This could happen via moving to a smaller house in the same area, or moving to an area where the cost of buying is less. HELOC Take out a Home Equity L...
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How to take advantage of home appreciation
There are basically two ways to get value out of an appreciating asset such as a home: (a) Sell it and take the profit. In the case of a home, you presumably still have to live somewhere, so unless you buy a cheaper home to replace it, this doesn't get you anywhere. If you can get another house that is just as nice and...
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How to take advantage of home appreciation
There might just not be anything useful for you to do with that 'value'. As others mentioned, HELOCs have their risks and issues too. There is no risk-less way to take advantage of the value (outside of selling) It is similar to owning a rare stamp that is 'worth a million' - what good does it do you if you don't sell ...
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How to take advantage of home appreciation
Even selling isn't riskless. Sure, your house has gained value-- but unless that's due to improvements you made to it, every other house in the neighborhood you might buy has gained value too, so moving might not result in extracting any net value. This is one of the reasons I keep reminding folks that a house is not a...
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Got charged ridiculous amount for doctor's walk in visit. What are my options?
You should start by calling the clinic and asking them to tell you how the visit was coded. Some clinics have different billing codes based on the complexity of the visit. If you have one thing you are seeing the doctor about, that could be coded differently than if you have 4 things you are seeing the doctor about. In...
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Got charged ridiculous amount for doctor's walk in visit. What are my options?
Some doctors will give folks who are not covered by insurance a price break. If that describes you, you could ask. But if you didn't discuss the price in advance, that isn't the doctor's fault, any more than it would be the mechanic's fault if you asked for auto service without getting an estimate first. Consider it a ...
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Got charged ridiculous amount for doctor's walk in visit. What are my options?
If you are disputing the size of the charge for specific services, like you think that they overcharged for lab work, you can try disputing it with the business office staff at the doctor's office. If, on the other hand, you just think that the overall bill is too expensive then you really only have one option. You can...
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Got charged ridiculous amount for doctor's walk in visit. What are my options?
To answer the specific question of whether you can get the bill reduced without hurting your credit, yes, as long as the bill never goes to collections, there's no reason it should ever show up on your credit report. Will they reduce your bill without sending it to collections first? Maybe. All you can do is ask.
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Got charged ridiculous amount for doctor's walk in visit. What are my options?
You will often receive a lower bill if you simply wait for a second or third billing statement. I was once given the advice to never pay a medical bill until after they had sent three notices, because they will almost certainly reduce the amount due. Sounds crazy, right? I have excellent credit, so the idea of risking ...
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Are parking spaces and garage boxes a good investment?
If the company that owns the lot is selling them it is doing so because it feels it will make more money doing so. You need to read carefully what it is you are getting and what the guarantees are from the owner of the property and the parking structure. I have heard from friends in Chicago that said there are people...
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Are parking spaces and garage boxes a good investment?
15 years ago I bought a beach condo in Miami for $400,000 and two extra parking spaces for $3000 each. Today the condo is worth 600,000 but the rent barely covers mortgage repairs and property taxes. Most of The old people in the building have since died and are now replaced with families with at least two cars and spo...
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Are parking spaces and garage boxes a good investment?
No no no no!!!! Do not spend 25k on a damn slab of concrete when you don't even own the land! You are not "truly" the owner unless you legally own the land. I don't care what country your talking about. If you like I'll come over to your place, mix and pour some concrete on the floor, and you can pay me 5 euro. Deal? ...
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Are parking spaces and garage boxes a good investment?
In Italy (even with taxes that are more than 50% on income) owning garages is generally a good business, as you said: "making money while you sleep", because of no maintainance. Moreover garages made by real concrete (and not wood like in US) are still new after 50 years, you just repaint them once every 20 years and y...
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Why would a public company not initiate secondary stock offerings more often?
Selling stock means selling a portion of ownership in your company. Any time you issue stock, you give up some control, unless you're issuing non-voting stock, and even non-voting stock owns a portion of the company. Thus, issuing (voting) shares means either the current shareholders reduce their proportion of owernsh...
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Why would a public company not initiate secondary stock offerings more often?
What prevents a company from doing secondary public stock offerings on regular basis? The primary goal of a company doing secondary public offering is to raise more funds, that can be utilized for funding the business. If no funding is needed [i.e. company has sufficient funds, or no expansion plans], this funding crea...
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How To Assign Payments Received Properly In GnuCash?
When I receive a check from a customer whom I previously sent an invoice, I go to the customer report for that customer, click on the link "Invoice" for that invoice, then click on the Pay Invoice button (very far right side). I then do a customer report and see that there is no balance (meaning all the invoices have b...
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Where to find turnover / average amount of time investors & mutual funds held stocks they purchased?
You can make a rough calculation of the annual turnover rate of stocks by calculating the institutional investors holding of that stock. Institutional investors are the only firms that are required to provide such data. The good this is they usually make the lion share of trading activity. On the other hand, this task ...
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Will my Indian debit card work in the U.S.?
Debit cards with the Visa or Mastercard symbol on them work technically everywhere where credit cards work. There are some limitations where the respective business does not accept them, for example car rentals want a credit card for potential extra charges; but most of the time, for day-to-day shopping and dining, deb...
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Will my Indian debit card work in the U.S.?
I recommend that you first try to use your card at a store in your home country, just to make sure that the point-of-sale features are enabled. After you've verified that, you need to contact your bank and ask them if the card will work in both ATMs and in stores in the U.S. They may need to enable it to work in anot...
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Will my Indian debit card work in the U.S.?
Whether your card will work, I believe, depends on the institution that issued it. You'll just have to try. What I can tell you, is that the process of using a debit card or credit card in the US is fairly straight forward. If your card has a chip, you'll 'insert' your card, chip end first, into the bottom slot of the ...
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Will my Indian debit card work in the U.S.?
You can use the debit card for practically any purchase that you make. You'll have to take the usual precautions and then a few additional ones. Cards make your life really easy and convenient with some basic precautions. All the best for your travel and stay in the USA. My two cents.
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How to read a balance sheet to determine if a company has enough money to keep paying their employees?
I heard today while listening to an accounting podcast that a balance sheet... can be used to determine if a company has enough money to pay its employees. The "money" that you're looking at is specifically cash on the balance sheet. The cash flows document mentioned is just a more-finance-related document that explai...
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What are the advantages and disadvantages of leasing out a property or part of a property (such as a basement apartment)?
The obvious advantage is turning your biggest liability into an income-generating asset. The downside are: (1), you have to find tenants (postings, time to show the place, credit/background check, and etc) (2), you have to deal with tenants (collection of rent, repairs of things that broke by itself, complaints from ne...
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What are the advantages and disadvantages of leasing out a property or part of a property (such as a basement apartment)?
It doesn't make a lot of sense to buy a house/condo and rent it out now. On the other hand, I think finishing your basement and then renting it out is an excellent idea. The ROR is excellent as long as you can deal with the "strangers" in the basement, have the extra driveway space and negative association with rentin...
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What are the advantages and disadvantages of leasing out a property or part of a property (such as a basement apartment)?
Complexity has mentioned some good points. I'd also like to add on the downsides: It's not that easy to get rid of a tenant! Imagine if your tenant passed your background check with flying colors but then turned out to be the tenant from hell... How would you resolve the situation? If the thought of that kind of si...
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How do I enter Canadian tax info from US form 1042-S and record captial gains from cashing in stock options?
I can't give you a specific answer because I'm not a tax accountant, so you should seek advice from a tax professional with experience relevant to your situation. This could be a complicated situation. That being said, one place you could start is the Canada Revenue Agency's statement on investment income, which contai...
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How do I enter Canadian tax info from US form 1042-S and record captial gains from cashing in stock options?
There are two parts in this 1042-S form. The income/dividends go into the Canada T5 form. There will be credit if 1042-S has held money already, so use T2209 to report too.
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How do I enter Canadian tax info from US form 1042-S and record captial gains from cashing in stock options?
Depending on what software you use. It has to be reported as a foreign income and you can claim foreign tax paid as a foreign tax credit.
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What does Capital Surplus mean?
I think it's easiest to illustrate it with an example... if you've already read any of the definitions out there, then you know what it means, but just don't understand what it means. So, we have an ice cream shop. We started it as partners, and now you and I each own 50% of the company. It's doing so well that we dec...
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What does Capital Surplus mean?
Capital surplus is used to account for that amount which a firm raises in excess of the par value (nominal value) of the shares (common stock).. Investopedia has a much simpler answer. Somebody has tried to be smart on wikipedia and have done the calculations without much explanation. The portion of the surplus of a bu...
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Why would a tender offer be less than the market price?
Rational shareholders wouldn't accept such an offer. The company making the offer is simply trying to get a deal with questionable — though not illegal — tactics. Your answer is actually in the link you provided. Quoting from the fourth paragraph [emphasis is mine]: The SEC has cautioned investors about mini-tender o...
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Why would a tender offer be less than the market price?
As an addition to Chris Rea's excellent answer, these tender offers are sometimes made specifically to cast doubt on the current market price. For instance, a large public company that contracts with a smaller supplier or service company, also public, might make a tender offer below market price. The market will look a...
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How do you get out of a Mutual Fund in your 401(k)?
One of the strengths of 401K accounts is that you can move from investment X in the program to investment Y in the program without tax consequences. As you move through your lifetime you will tend to want to lower risk by investing in funds that are less aggressive. The only way this works is if there is an ability to ...
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How do you get out of a Mutual Fund in your 401(k)?
Most 401k plans (maybe even all 401k plans as a matter of law) allow the option of moving the money in your 401k account from one mutual fund to another (within the group of funds that are in the plan). So, you can exit from one fund and put all your 401k money (not just the new contributions) into another fund in th...
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How do you get out of a Mutual Fund in your 401(k)?
The S&P top 5 - 401(k) usually comply with the DOL's suggestion to offer at least three distinct investment options with substantially different risk/return objectives. Typically a short term bond fund. Short term is a year or less and it will rarely have a negative year. A large cap fund, often the S&P index. A balanc...
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Why do people buy US dollars on the black market?
A falling exchange rate is an indication of falling confidence in a currency. Countries like Iran or Venezuela, with a managed exchange rate, set their exchange rates at a higher value than the market accepts. Such market expectations may be influenced by poor government management, interventions into markets (such as...
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Why do people buy US dollars on the black market?
The main reason people buy dollars (or other currency) on the black market is because they are prevented from exchanging currency on the official government market. Venezuela for example restricts citizens to a maximum number of dollars the citizen can buy or sell per year, depending on various factors such as whether ...
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Why do people buy US dollars on the black market?
As a Venezuelan who used to buy USD, I believe there is not better explanation than the one given to someone who actually lives and works here in Venezuela. Back in 1998 when Hugo Chavez took the presidency, we had a good economy. Fast forward 10 years laters and you could see how poor management, corruption and commu...
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Ask for credit decrease
Aside from an annual fee, if any, the card issuer makes money 2 ways, the transaction fee, about 1.5%-2% charged to the merchant, and interest from you if you leave a balance month to month. Obviously, the bank has some cost in processing statements and maintaining your account. If up front you are saying you will not ...
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Ask for credit decrease
I agree with JoeTaxpayer that you will be better off in the end if you can just not use your card you are better off in the long run. That said if you are determined to get a card you can control go to a credit union or local bank. Most of them will give you the credit limit you want. This may provide you with a car...
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Ask for credit decrease
$500 should not have a massive impact on your credit. Why not at the beginning of each month buy a $500 prepaid Visa instead of using your credit card? That way you set a hard limit, but you still have the option of using credit in an emergency.
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Do Fundamentals Matter Anymore in Stock Markets?
All you have to do is ask Warren Buffet that question and you'll have your answer! (grin) He is the very definition of someone who relies on the fundamentals as a major part of his investment decisions. Investors who rely on analysis of fundamentals tend to be more long-term strategic planners than most other investor...
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Do Fundamentals Matter Anymore in Stock Markets?
Are you implying that Amazon is a better investment than GE because Amazon's P/E is 175 while GE's is only 27? Or that GE is a better investment than Apple because Apple's P/E is just 13. There are a lot of other ratios to consider than P/E. I personally view high P/E numbers as a red flag. One way to think of a P/...
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Do Fundamentals Matter Anymore in Stock Markets?
It sounds to me like you may not be defining fundamental investing very well, which is why it may seem like it doesn't matter. Fundamental investing means valuing a stock based on your estimate of its future profitability (and thus cash flows and dividends). One way to do this is to look at the multiples you have des...
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Investing $50k + Real Estate
I would say that, for the most part, money should not be invested in the stock market or real estate. Mostly this money should be kept in savings: I feel like your emergency fund is light. You do not indicate what your expenses are per month, but unless you can live off of 1K/month, that is pretty low. I would bump ...