"First off, your commitment to paying down debt and apparent strong relationship with your brother is admirable. However, I think you are overcomplicating your situation and potentially endangering your relationship by attempting to combine debts in this way. You could consider a simple example where you have interest bearing at 5% and your brother has interest bearing debt at 10%. If you both pay down his higher interest debt first, and then both pay down your debt after, then clearly you will have paid less interest combined. But, by waiting to pay off your debt until later, you have accrued more interest yourself. So who has saved money by doing this? Your brother. You will have paid (let's say, without getting into balances) $50 extra interest to save your brother $70 in interest. So why would you want to give your brother $50? Total interest savings between both of you in this simplified example are $20. So, in theory your brother could pay you $60 after the fact, effectively meaning you end up $10 ahead, and your brother ends up $10 ahead. Here, you end up in a position where you could still say, in theory 'we both came out ahead'. But what if your brother loses his job while you're both paying off your debt, and he can't help any more? Does he accrue some type of calculated interest until he pays you back? What if he's off work for 2 years and still owes you 30k? What if he just never makes his payments to you on time? At what point do you resent your brother for failing to uphold his end of the deal? Money and friends don't mix. Money and family mixes even worse. In rare circumstances where you absolutely must mix family and money, get everything in writing. Get it signed, make it legal. Outline all details of the transaction, including interest rates, and examples of how the balances calculate. In 5 years when things go haywire, following the letter of the law is what will keep you from becoming enemies. But with family, often people have an expectation that ""while we agreed I would pay x, he's my brother, so he should take pity on me and allow me to pay only y, if I need to"". Finally, to your question about how to calculate amounts to pay: it will be very complicated. You will need to track minimum balance payments, interest rates, and even potentially the lost income which one of you gives up to pay down the other's debt. You could do these things in a simplified way close to what I've set out above, but then ultimately one of you will lose out. If you pay down your debts first, how can you calculate the lost living potential for your brother, who might want to buy a house but can't save for a down payment for an extra year? What if he has to move, and without sufficient down payment, he needs to pay extra Mortgage Insurance on his loan from the bank? Will you compensate him for that? My recommendation, if you haven't caught it yet, is Do not do this. Your potential savings are not going to be worth the potential heartache of breaking your relationship with your brother.  Instead, look at joining your minds, not your money. Set goals for yourselves individually, and hold each other accountable. Make this an open conversation between yourselves, as it can be difficult to talk about finances with other people. Your support will help the other person, and hopefully help keep you on track as well. To provide numerical context for potential savings, which you appear to still want, consider the numbers you've provided [you have 40k debt at 10%, your brother has 20k of debt at 5%]. Let's assume you each can pay up to 20k against the principal of your loans each year. Finally assume for simplicity that you also have enough to pay off interest as it gets charged [so no compounding], and you pay in even instalments each year. Mathematically that means your interest each year is equal to your interest rate * your average annual balance. If you each go alone, then you will accrue 10% on an average balance of [(40k+20k)/2] = 30k per year, which equals 3,000 in interest in year 1, then [(20k+0)/2] = 10k * .10 = 1,000 interest in year 2. Total interest for you = 4,000. Your brother will accrue [(20k+0k)/2] = 10k * .05 = 500 in interest in total. Total interest for both of you combined would be 4,500. If you pool your debt snowball, then you will clear your debt first. So the interest on your debt would be [(40k+0k)/2] = 20k * .1 = 2,000. Your brother's debt would fully accrue 5% of interest on the full balance in year 1, so interest in year 1 would be 20k * .05 = 1,000. In year 2, your brother's debt would be cleared half way through the year; interest charged would be [(20k+0k)/2] = 10k * .05 * 50% = 250. You would then owe your brother 10k, which you would pay him over the remainder of year 2. His total interest paid to the bank would be 1,000 + 250 = 1,250. Total interest for both of you combined would be 3,250.  In a simplified payment example using your numbers, maximum interest savings would be about $1,250 combined. How you allocate those savings would be pretty subjective; assuming a 50:50 split, this yields $625 in savings to each of you. If you aren't able to each save 20k per year, then savings would be greater for snowballing, because otherwise it will take you even longer to pay off your high interest debt. This is similar to your brother loaning you 20k today that you can use to pay off your debts, after which you pay him back so he can pay off his. Because you will owe him 20k for 2 years, but an average of ~10k at any one time [because he slowly advances it to you today, and you slowly pay him back until the end of year 2], at $650 in benefit passed to your brother, this is roughly equivalent to him loaning you money at 6.5% interest."


Do not try to deposit piece wise. Either use the system in complete transparence, or do not use it at all. The fear of having your bank account frozen, even if you are in your rights, is justified. In any case, I don't advise you to put in bank before reaching IRS. Also keep all the proof that you indeed contacted them. (Recommended letter and copy of any form you submit to them) Be ready to also give those same documents to your bank to proove your good faith. If they are wrong, you'll be considered in bad faith until you can proove otherwise, without your bank account. Do not trust their good faith, they are not bad people, but very badly organized with too much power, so they put the burden of proof on you just because they can. If it is too burdensome for you then keep cash or go bitcoin. (but the learning curve to keep so much money in bitcoin secure against theft is high) You should declare it in this case anyway, but at least you don't have to fear having your money blocked arbitrarily.


I recently finished reading a book that you may be interested in based on your question, The Ultimate Suburban Survivalist Guide. The author begins with a discussion of why he thinks the US economy and currency could collapse. It gets a little scary. Then he goes into great detail on commodities, specifically gold. The rest of the book is about what you can be doing to prepare yourself and your family to be more self sufficient. To answer your question, I do anticipate problems with US currency in the future and plan to put some money in gold if the price dips.


“CEOs who recognize their lack of capital-allocation skills (which not all do) will often try to compensate by turning to their staffs, management consultants, or investment bankers. Charlie and I have frequently observed the consequences of such ‘help.’ On balance, we feel it is more likely to accentuate the capital-allocation problem than to solve it.” -- [Warren Buffet](http://www.fool.com.au/2013/08/28/warren-buffett-sage-for-the-ages/)


I would like to specifically address your second question. There are a number of great resources available online, but I found that when I was first starting out the website Investopedia was a very helpful resource. There you will find a wide range of information regarding investing, investment vehicles, and glossaries of key terms with robust definitions to help you with the financial jargon.


I feel like everyday the CEO's are making more. The parties are corrupt. Education is overpriced. Unions are too weak. And unemployment is too high.   I could not agree more!  But that's where it stops, everybody complains and says something. Words words and words. Your words don't create employment, they don't cut CEO pay, they don't reduce the costs of education, or push the corrupt out of government.  It's not because you have done nothing. But we must stay away from blanket terms. What companies are shipping jobs offshore? Who makes the decision?  Yes the government is corrupt, but who in government? Who decides the price of education? Who is better off from the higher prices?  What CEO's take home alot of pay and give no value back? who specifically is responsible for the writing and overall agenda at Fox? What companies don't allow people to unionize? What unions are corrupt?   Point the finger at specific people so that wean take them down! The government, economy, economy, rich, poor. These are not specific enough. You cannot rally for action behind these blanket terms.  You can only bitch and moan about them.  Redditors! Make a change, attack corruption, unfairness, ignorance, and lies directly. Behind everyone of these things is a person. And those people should be blamed!


If you are really worried your best bet is to move all your cash from Sterling into a foreign currency that you think will be resilient should Brexit occur. I would avoid the Euro! You could look at the US Dollar perhaps, make sure you are aware of the charges for moving the money over and back again, as you will at some stage probably want to get back into Sterling once it settles down, if it does indeed fall. Based on my experience on the stock markets (I am not a currency trader) I would expect the pound to fall fairly sharply on a vote for Brexit and the Euro to do the same.  Both would probably rebound quite quickly too as even if there is a Brexit vote it doesn't mean the UK Government will honour the outcome or take the steps quickly. ** I AM NOT A FINANCIAL ADVISOR AND HAVE NO QUALIFICATIONS AS SUCH **


IBAN is enough within SEPA and it should be so for your bank as well. Tell them to join our decade, or change bank. I received bank transfers from other continents to my SEPA account in the past and I don't remember ever needing to say more than my IBAN and BIC. Banks can ask all sorts of useless information, but if your bank doesn't have a standard (online) form for the operation then it probably means you're going to spend a lot.


"You could debate the ""why""s of tax policy endlessly. There are lots of things in tax law that I think are bad ideas, and probably a few here and there that I think are good ideas. I am well aware that there are things that I think are good ideas that others think are bad ideas and vice versa.  To your specific point: I suppose you could say that having a place to live is a necessity. But most people do not live in the absolute minimum necessary to give them a place to sleep and protection from the weather. You could survive with a one-room apartment with a bed on one side and a toilet and some minimal cooking facilities on the other. Most people have considerably more than that. At some point that's luxury and not necessity. And if you want to push it, you COULD live in a cardboard box under a bridge, you don't NEED a house or apartment to survive. Personally I think it's absurd that as a home-owner I get a deduction for my mortgage interest, while if someone were to rent an identical house with a monthly rental equal to exactly the same amount that I am paying on my mortgage, he would receive no deduction. The stated goal of that one was to encourage home ownership. But people who own homes are generally richer than those who rent, so the net result is that the poor are paying higher taxes to help subsidize the homes of the rich. And then the rich congratulate themselves on how they are giving these tax breaks to help make housing more affordable for poor people. To reiterate @keshlam, tax laws only makes sense when understood politically. Yes, some people have fine ideas about what is fair and just. Others simply want tax breaks that benefit their business or people with tough financial situations that just happen by chance to resemble their own. Many of the people with noble ideas have little concept of what the implications of the policies they push are. Many of the ideas that some people view as worthy and noble, others view as frivolous, counter-productive, or even evil. Then you mash all these competing groups and interest together and see what comes out."


Apple fucked up with the last set of iPhones, yet they still sold a ton.  I expect the same this time...no major innovation, will still sell a ton globally.  Why the fuck is there no major competition outside of Google/Samsung.  Oh windows? haha.  Seriously, you can see why Amazon would jump in, however stupid of them to do so (not their main business/focus)


"Here's my thought - call the insurance company back. Ask them to just tell you what the ""reasonable and customary"" approved payment would be. Offer that exact amount to the hospital, it's what they would have gotten anyway, and you learned a cheap lesson."


I would add to this that, while everyone is right on trading, there are certain special situations you could look into that could turn a profit in a relatively short time frame (one month, say).   A recent example is Northstar Realty Finance (NRF). I bought in at $16.50 prior to a spinoff, sold half (the spinoff company) at $18.75 within a month, and the other half (the REIT) has since paid a 50 cent dividend and gone up to mid $18s as well within a total of just over 2 months. (This admittedly sounds like bragging, which isn't intended- I just want to give an example of a short term position resulting in a gain, and I don't know any off the top of my head except the one I did recently).   This isn't trading, but it is a short term position that would have turned a profit with $1800. I still wouldn't recommend it, considering commissions eats a sizable portion. But if you want to take short term positions, you don't need as much as you would to be a day trader.   I would read Seth Klarman's Margin of Safety, the sections on spinoffs and bankruptcy. They provide some useful information on some short term positions. However, also be aware that you should be willing to hold any short term position as a long term position if it does not immediately work out. By way of example, I believed NRF would go up post spinoff but the spinoff company stay the same. Instead, NRF stayed the same and the spinoff went up. But NRF was undervalued, so I held it for another month.   Just my advice. As far as learning goes- use play money. But if you never are going to have enough money to really trade with, hopefully my info on short-term positions is helpful.


I've worked extensively overseas and I can say America is one of the most miserable places I have lived. But, it isn't even the poor, but the middle and upper middle class who are the most miserable - always thinking they are just about to turn the financial corner, trying to keep up with their in-debt neighbors, and never socializing. I wish it was mandatory for Americans to live overseas for a year or two.


You better consult with a tax adviser (EA or CPA) on this, my answer doesn't constitute such an advice. Basically, you're selling stuff on Kickstarter. No matter how they call it (projects, pledges, rewards - all are just words), you're selling stuff. People give you money (=pledges) and in return you're giving them tangible or intangible goods (=rewards). All the rest is just PR. So you will pay taxes on all the money you get, and you will be able to deduct some of the expenses (depends on whether its a business or a hobby, the deduction may be full or limited). It doesn't matter if you use LLC or your own account from the financial/taxation point of you, but it matters legally. LLC limits your personal liability, but do get a legal advice on this issue, and whether it is at all relevant for you. If you raise funds in 2012 you pay taxes on the money in 2012. If you go into production in 2013 - you can deduct expenses in 2013. If you're classified as a hobby, you'll end up paying full taxes in 2012 and deducting nothing in 2013. Talk to a tax adviser.


One of the best money related trades people acquired is obtaining a property. Notwithstanding whether you are looking for a home buy or a pivotal event home strikingly, finding the right property at the right cost is basic for advance. Blue Ridge Royalty is a secretly had and worked for the association, and we are centered around our property clients.


The best way to look at it is this: I would suspect most people would say no.  Most people do not have the time, skill, or risk tolerance to be able to leverage capital as large as the value of their own home. Remember that a 15-year fixed has a slightly lower interest rate than a 30-year fixed (difference of 0.5–1%).  If you won't have the discipline to invest every cent left in your pocket, then you are better off with the 15-year and the lower rate.


"The Form 1040 (U.S. tax return form) Instructions has a section called ""Do You Have To File?"".  Below a certain income, you are not required to file a tax return and pay any tax.  This amount of income at which you are required to file depends on several things, including your dependency status (you are a dependent of your parents), your marital status, and other factors.  The instructions have charts that show what these numbers are.  You would fall under Chart B. Assuming that you are under age 65, unmarried, and not blind, you only have to file when you reach the following conditions: Your unearned income was over $1,050. Your earned income was over $6,300. Your gross income was more than the larger of— $1,050, or Your earned income (up to $5,950) plus $350. (Note: Income from YouTube would count as ""earned income"" for the purposes above.) However, if you are producing your own videos and receiving revenue from them, you are technically self-employed.  This means that the conditions from Chart C also apply, which state: You must file a return if any of the five conditions below apply for 2015. As a self-employed person, you can deduct business expenses (expenses that you incur in producing your product, which is this case is your videos).  Once your revenue minus your expenses reach $400, you will need to file an income tax return."


Nope, we don't have cable, and we are able to watch it on Xbox Live for no additional charge. But our internet provider is CenturyLink, so I think that has something to do with it. It took them a long time to get it though, so just keep calling Time Warner to complain!


"I would suggest you forget everything you learned in economics. The only applicable knowledge is Accounting 101.  Step 1: An accrual basis financial statement. There is no step 2 if you don't do this. Most small business do everything cash basis. Simpler, cheaper but useless for analysis. You would get better answers from the local fortune teller than a cash basis statement.   Make one change from the general rules. If you have debt or are paying interest for inventory include that in your cost of sales. This is actually proper but the rule is little known and often ignored. Interest on debt up to the amount of inventory is a cost of inventory.  Step 2: Gross profit. If you seem to be working hard and still losing money it may be because you are selling products for less than they cost you. In this case the more you sell the more you lose. So suggestions like advertising or doing anything to increase sales are actually destructive.  Step 3 Price products at the level necessary to turn a profit at current sales and overhead. 'When we have enough sales we will make a profit"" is the philosophy of a start up business. It is toxic for a going concern.  Step 4 If sales are unsustainable at the price that produces a profit have the courage to sell or close the business. I have seen people waste their lives on futile endeavors just because they can't make that tough decision.  Finally Step 0: Ignore all other suggestions but this. They are well meaning but ill informed. To reiterate, growing sales while losing money on every transaction is a huge mistake. Trends, books, charts and graphs, analytics and market research are the tools of con-men and fortune tellers. Business is arithmetic and nothing more or less.  FYI if I don't get at least one upvote, this is the last time I am giving my valuable professional advice away for free on reddit. Folks will have to rely on the suggestions of their fellow college kids."


No, there is no downside. I personally don't use duplicate checks.  I simply make a record of the checks I write in the check register.  A copy of the check, whether a duplicate or a photo, isn't really proof of payment for anyone but yourself, as it is very easy to write a check after the fact and put a different date on it.


Mhmm, so it's not cheaper... you might want to shoot an email off to the execs at BK, I think they might be interested in your theory that they aren't going to save money in this merger.   They were dying out there (in the states) and they chose a Canadian rescue boat called Tims. Would it have appeased everyone if the US company just went belly up in the long-run?


I'm sure part of it is trusting the employees but the bigger thing as the amount of time (and cost) it takes to manage all that cash.  If they swipe a card - that's all it takes to collect the revenue, log the sale, manage the inventory, deposit the revenue, etc.


I like Bernie. But when people say Bernie is crazy/stupid they mean his solutions aren't good. For example, raising minimum wage to 15$ an hour will increase unemployment by the millions and cause automation to grow faster, causing even more longterm unemployment.  Hell, even basic income is a better idea.  But he's right, there's a lot of income inequality and we should think of better solutions.


The market is for sophisticated investors who have money to lose.  If you fall into that category then you belong there.  Otherwise it would be wise to have no confidence in the market whatsoever.  There is more borrowed investment money in the market than ever.  There are more derivatives out there than ever.  There is less regulation than ever.  The market makers will exit the market for the sole purpose of watching it drop in value as everyone else tries to get out at which time they will jump right back in after the crash. Its a game for them.  A very profitable game at that.


That seems a very bad offer, it borders on fraud. In the current US economy, you should be able to get between 3 and 4 % APR (and that number is what you should look at). That means that for $300,000 over 30 years, you'd pay $1,265 to $1,432 per month. If you are able to pay more than that monthly rate, you should go for less than 30 years - 20, 15, 10, whatever you can afford - but don't overextend yourself. Google 'mortgage calculator' to do your own calculations.


There are a few ways to look at this question. Assumptions. Per the original post's assumptions, this answer: In other words, if the owner paid the mortgage on its original schedule, the deal could boil down to a $ 40,000 up-front payment, in exchange for $ 200,000 of equity after 30 years.  Or the deal could boil down to a $ 40,000 up-front payment, in exchange for a $ 810.70 monthly payment starting in 30 years. While the owner is paying down the mortgage, the return on equity is the principal payment divided by the equity.  The principal payment is the net rent minus non-financing costs and interest, so it is actually a profit. The initial return on equity is 6.321 % APR, or 6.507 % APY.  This is calculated by dividing the $ 210.70 monthly principal payment by the initial $ 40,000 equity, and converting from monthly return to annual return. After 30 years, the return on equity is 4.864 % APR, or 4.974 % APY.  This is calculated by dividing the $ 810.70 monthly cash flow (which is no longer reduced by mortgage payments) by the $ 200,000 equity after 30 years, and converting from monthly return to annual return. The cap rate is the same as the return on equity in the absence of debt.  In this example, 4.864 % APR, or 4.974 % APY. The return on equity declines from 6.507 % APY initially to 4.974 % APY after 30 years. This is because the cap rate exceeds the note rate (4.974 % APY vs. 4.594 % APY), and the leverage decreases from 5x to 1x. The weighted average compound annual growth rate of the equity during the 30 years is 5.511 % APY.  Per the original poster's answer, this is computed by taking the 30th root of the 5-fold increase in equity.  Because the owner made no extra principal payments (besides those already discussed), the relevant amounts are the initial $ 40,000 owner payment and the final $ 200,000 owner equity.  5.511 % APY corresponds to a 5.377 % APR. The internal rate of return if the owner never sells can be computed by treating the deal as a $ 40,000 up-front payment, in exchange for an $ 810.70 monthly payment starting in 30 years.  The internal rate of return (IRR) is not a very useful number, because it assumes that you can somehow reinvest the eventual dividends at the same rate.  In this example, the IRR is 5.172 % APR, or 5.296  % APY.  In this example, the IRR is calculated by (iteratively) finding an interest rate for which (initial investment) * (1 + IRR) ^ (number periods before dividends start) = (periodic dividend) / (IRR - growth rate of dividend).  For example: $ 40,000 * (1.004309687)^360 = $ 810.70 / (0.004309687 - 0) = $ 188,111 I then converted the 0.431 % monthly IRR to an annual IRR. The deal can be thought of as a return on equity, plus a return on paying down the mortgage. When computing the return from paying down the mortgage, the initial equity is irrelevant.  It does not matter whether you start with a $ 160,000 mortgage on a $ 160,000 property, a $ 160,000 mortgage on a $ 200,000 property, or a $ 160,000 mortgage on a $ 1,000,000 property.  All that matters is the note rate on the mortgage, which is the applicable compound interest rate. The return on paying down the mortgage equals the note rate of the mortgage.  For a 4.5% note rate, this works out to a 4.594% annual percentage yield (APY). You can confirm this by looking at your amortization schedule.  Suppose you have a $ 160,000 mortgage with a fixed 4.5% APR note rate for 360 months.  Your monthly payment is $ 810.70.  In the first month, $ 600 goes toward interest, and $ 210.70 reduces the principal.  In other words, the $ 210.70 principal payment eliminated the need for a $ 810.70 payment 30 years later.  Notice that: . $ 210.70 * (1 + 0.045 / 12)^360 = $ 210.70 * (1.00375)^360 = $ 210.70 * 3.8477 = $ 810.71 which is within rounding error of $ 810.70. The interest rate is 3/8 % per month, which is an APR of 4.5%, and an APY of 4.594 %.


Hi I am assuming you are doing this in the US?  I run a social media / content marketing agency in the UK,  Some of our very first clients were real estate agents, the idea we had was to market properties through Facebook using interior and exterior video shots to commercial music,  This took off with some estate agents and not so much with others,  My biggest piece of advice find a chain and start there that way you will get a hell of a lot of recognition by the smaller firms,  You need to find a realistic price point for your clients that is measurable on the ROI and ultimately pays for your lifestyle. I started at £200 which is $257 dollars - arguably very underpriced but it gave me the opportunity to work with a cluster of people,  I even went to the extreme of offering free work so I could get work for the portfolio!  In terms of who to contact and how to find them.. enter Linkedin.com your new best friend - connect with real estate developers, buyers, owners you name it then informally introduce yourself and ask when they are free for a coffee. Post an article about why video and drone footage is the next big thing for real estate, don't be afraid to ask for the business at the end of the day you are providing cold hard value.  I've always tried to get retainer deals with clients in the real estate sector but to achieve this you have to talk to the big boys and not independent firms. I could be wrong though I haven't done business with a lot of people in the states so definitely something to keep in mind.  A good lot of this business idea is trial and error but I agree with it 100% just go and do basically,  Hope this helps - I am happy to show you some of my work if you want to shoot me over a private message!


Shareholders get to vote for the board, the board appoints the CEO. This makes the CEO care, which in turn makes everybody else working in the company care. Also, if the company wants to borrow money a good share price, as sign of a healthy company, gives them more favorable conditions from lenders. And some more points others already made.


"how many of those Indians were immigrants as opposed to born in the USA?  there are tough restrictions for anyone to move from India to USA - only college graduated, high earning people can go to USA to work.  the other groups might have born there and that's why they bring down the ""college-educated"" statistics."


I agree with your title, but am confused with your comment.  I am bullish on Gold in the long run.  I believe that current market fundamentals are poitning towards a longterm bullish trend on Gold.  These fundamentals are:  1. a weak USD.   Although the USD has appreciated as of late, I believe this will be short lived and reversed as soon as the situation in Europe relieves itself.  Once this happens, i forsee net outflows in the USD causing it to revert back to its long term deprciated trend, evidented by its performance (in real terms) over the past decade.  2.QE3 Similar to the above post, once the printing presses are turned back on, we will see all risk assets take off, a depreciation in the USD and of course a rise in the price of bullion  3.negative real rates As long as rates stay low (which they will for a while) Gold will have a cushion and will only push higher, given its historical negative correlation with this economic indicator.  4.Central Bank Buying If central banks are buying...I want in!


"This is the best tl;dr I could make, [original](https://www.reuters.com/article/us-japan-economy-labour-analysis/japan-inc-turns-contract-workers-into-permanent-staff-as-labor-market-tightens-idUSKCN1BC3PJ) reduced by 88%. (I'm a bot) ***** > Last year, the average monthly pay for regular workers was 321,700 yen while for contract workers it was 211,800 yen, so a change in status can mean a big jump in pay plus benefits workers weren&#039;t previously receiving.  > LABOR LAW REVISIONS. The trend is expected to accelerate toward April 2018 when a revised labor contract law starts forcing companies to provide permanent status for temporary workers who have served more than five years, if the workers request it.  > The share of non-regular workers has almost doubled as companies saddled with excess capacity, debt and excess workers have replaced regular employees with cheaper contract workers.   ***** [**Extended Summary**](http://np.reddit.com/r/autotldr/comments/6xgsde/japans_labor_market_is_getting_so_tight_that/) | [FAQ](http://np.reddit.com/r/autotldr/comments/31b9fm/faq_autotldr_bot/ ""Version 1.65, ~202637 tl;drs so far."") | [Feedback](http://np.reddit.com/message/compose?to=%23autotldr ""PM's and comments are monitored, constructive feedback is welcome."") | *Top* *keywords*: **work**^#1 **employee**^#2 **year**^#3 **job**^#4 **contract**^#5"


I went in one a couple months ago and the host asked us if we'd ever been there before. I just stopped for a minute and looked at it him. It was a bit longer and more awkward than it needed to be but he got the point


I'm not a big fan of tax-advantaged retirement accounts. The rules on tax-advantages accounts can change at any time.  It's already painful to get money out before retirement (earnings or possibly contributions taxed as current income, plus 10% penalty).  The rules could get worse. There's also the assumption that your taxes will be lower when you retire.  I think this is a poor assumption. If you get free money from your employer for contribution to a 401(k), contribute up to what will get you all of the free money you can.  Otherwise, pay your taxes and keep control of your assets. So short answer: Keep as much as you can out of tax-advantaged accounts unless you're turning down free money to do so.


Most of my coworkers and the number of crappy looking hybrids I see in traffic everyday would disagree with you about the status symbol bit.  Nobody wants an ugly car, but people give a crap about the money they're spending on gas.  The environment may not be the primary reason, but neither is status.  Having an cheap, efficient car you can comfortably commute in, is pretty valuable to most people.


While I agree with your sentiment that trades will be more useful than a university degree now and in the near future (at least in Canada). It worries me that the social mobility for this generation will lean to blue collar jobs.   After a generation this will build a social hierarchy of blue collar labour workers and company/owners. The university degree holders will be weaned out to the sidelines, intellectualism is being sidelined. If this keeps up we're going back to feudalism.


Stating poor estimates in advance will lower your share price to compensate for thge extras boost it gets later ... And may run afoul of stock manipulation laws. More pain than gain likely.


"HypoVereinsbank (member of UniCredit group), a few savings banks (""Sparkasse"") and VR Banks offer cash (bill) deposit machines.  However, it can take a few business days until the deposit is credited to your checking account, which has to be with the same bank. Google for ""Bargeldeinzahlungsautomat"" (=cash deposit machine). As Duffbeer stated correctly, HSBC Trinkaus which is the German arm of the HSBC group does not operate any ATMs in Germany. In addition they do not share the same bank accounts. So I would recommend going with the classic banks mentioned above."


"For their current operations, they need people because of all the rules and regulations around the world. It's not ""random dude downloads the app and becomes a driver"" everywhere. In Sweden, you need to have a registered taxi fleet company and you need to be a licensed taxi driver in order to operate any taxi business. Then you can drive for whoever you want, including Uber. Those regulations need to be handled by staff. Then there's the marketing department in every country/city.  As for the developers, I'm guessing many of them work on things of the future. I guess they're preparing for driverless cars?"


"The catch with any exchange service is that you're going to involve some sort of business and they're going to want to get paid for their service. These services all come with their own exchange rates, fees, waiting periods, or requirements to even use said service. Commonly, pros towards one of those comes at the cost of another— e.g. fast transfers have higher fees or worse exchange rates. Over the past few months I needed a service and ended up using USForex. Since you're going from CAD to USD, you'd likely need to use CanadianForex. Pros:  Cons:  Overall, this option was far better than the $97.00 I was quoted from WesternUnion; or the $25.00-45.00 I was quoted from BMO Harris, which would have required I open a saving account with them. I wasn't provided a clean exchange rate between these two to know how all three compared. The only bit of advice I can say with any service is compare exchange rates. If you're transferring more than a few hundred dollars, the exchange rate can be seen as a ""hidden"" fee when it's unreasonably low. I'm not affiliated with or accommodated by any of the exchange services mentioned."


"I learned just how stupid and useless Gartner Magic Quadrants were many years ago when I was working at a public utility that was trying to use one to determine ""which web server to use."" (I kid you not)  I had one look at the thing and immediately noticed what *wasn't* there: Apache.  This was about 10 years ago when Apache owned like 75% of all websites on the internet (before Microsoft bribed various DNS parking sites)."


"I'm a little confused on the use of the property today.  Is this place going to be a personal residence for you for now and become a rental later (after the mortgage is paid off)?  It does make a difference. If you can buy the house and a 100% LTV loan would cost less than 125% of comparable rent ... then buy the house, put as little of your own cash into it as possible and stretch the terms as long as possible.  Scott W is correct on a number of counts.  The ""cost"" of the mortgage is the after tax cost of the payments and when that money is put to work in a well-managed portfolio, it should do better over the long haul.  Don't try for big gains because doing so adds to the risk that you'll end up worse off. If you borrow money at an after-tax cost of 4% and make 6% after taxes ... you end up ahead and build wealth. A vast majority of the wealthiest people use this arbitrage to continue to build wealth.  They have plenty of money to pay off mortgages, but choose not to.  $200,000 at 2% is an extra $4000 per year.  Compounded at a 7% rate ... it adds up to $180k after 20 years ... not exactly chump change. Money in an investment account is accessible when you need it.  Money in home equity is not, has a zero rate of return (before inflation) and is not accessible except through another loan at the bank's whim.  If you lose your job and your home is close to paid off but isn't yet, you could have a serious liquidity issue. NOW ... if a 100% mortgage would cost MORE than 125% of comparable rent, then there should be no deal.  You are looking at a crappy investment.  It is cheaper and better just to rent.  I don't care if prices are going up right now.  Prices move around.  Just because Canada hasn't seen the value drops like in the US so far doesn't mean it can't happen in the future.  If comparable rents don't validate the price with a good margin for profit for an investor, then prices are frothy and cannot be trusted and you should lower your monthly costs by renting rather than buying.  That $350 per month you could save in ""rent"" adds up just as much as the $4000 per year in arbitrage. For rentals, you should only pull the trigger when you can do the purchase without leverage and STILL get a 10% CAP rate or higher (rate of return after taxes, insurance and other fixed costs).  That way if the rental rates drop (and again that is quite possible), you would lose some of your profit but not all of it.  If you leverage the property, there is a high probability that you could wind up losing money as rents fall and you have to cover the mortgage out of nonexistent cash flow. I know somebody is going to say, ""But John, 10% CAP on rental real estate?  That's just not possible around here.""  That may be the case.  It IS possible somewhere.  I have clients buying property in Arizona, New Mexico, Alberta, Michigan and even California who are finding 10% CAP rate properties.  They do exist.  They just aren't everywhere. If you want to add leverage to the rental picture to improve the return, then do so understanding the risks.  He who lives by the leverage sword, dies by the leverage sword.  Down here in the US, the real estate market is littered with corpses of people who thought they could handle that leverage sword.  It is a gory, ugly mess."


"Time for a lawyer. Essentially, regardless of the situation ""it's not right"" for him to be paying the mortgage and only get half the value out of the equity in the house. All other things aside, no court I can think of would allow that. The ""could happens"" are many, but the most common include; Keep in mind that if he keeps paying the mortgage ling enough most courts will end up giving him ownership outright. Essentially, they will say he has already bought her out by paying her half of the debt.  Unfortunately, any way he goes he is going to need to take action. When there is a missed mortgage payment, a bad tax year, or some other legal issue (some one is injured on the property), the last thing he is going to want is for the courts to decide the issue for him. For example, John breaks an arm while climbing a tree on the property line. John takes the owners of the property to court. ""He"" says ""but my sister owns half"" and the courts decide then and there that because he's been paying the mortgage alone he owns the house alone. Seems like a win, except now he owns the liability alone, and owns John $1,000,000 for a silly lawsuit alone.  Point is this. Ownership of property comes with risks and responsibilities. ""He"" really needs to get those risks and responsibilities under control so he can mitigate them, or he could end up in a very nasty situation in the years to come."


Haha -- you are wrong about that. Companies that outsource keep the high paying good jobs in the USA because 1. They know the business 2. They speak perfect English 3. They know American culture well, which sorta helps a lot in America


In all likelihood, the best thing you can do, if these really are your only two options (ie no other debt at all), paying-down your mortgage will shorten the term of the mortgage, and mean you spend less on your house in the long run. Investing is should be a long-term activity - so yes, the likelihood is that, given a modest investment, it will gain at historical averages over the life of the investment vehicle. However, that is not a guarantee, and is an inherent risk. Whereas paying-down a mortgage lowers your financial obligations and risk, investing increases your risk. I want to know how you got a 2.1% interest rate on a mortgage, though - the lowest I've seen anywhere is 3.25%.


"First of all, insurance never covers the cost of the item, it is almost always a partial payout at best. For example, a typical house in the Northeast US where I live that costs $300,000 will have the actual house valued at maybe $100,00 and rest of the value will be in the land. Therefore, the insured value will typically be $100,000. The only problem is that to actually rebuild the house might easily cost $250,000. So, your idea that some kinds of insurance allows the beneficiary to recoup their loss is usually never true. As you say, from an actuarial point of view insurance is a sheer waste of money. For example, a typical house has maybe a 0.5% chance of burning down every year. In other words out of 2000 houses, maybe 1 will burn down every year. So, lets say you got $100,000 of insurance on your house. Then the value of that policy would be $100,000 / 2000 = $50 per year. An insurance company will charge around $700 per year for the policy. That means you are basically flushing $650 down the toilet every year to maintain that policy. The reason why they do this is what blankip says above, they are buying ""peace of mind"", a psychological product. In other they imagine they are somehow safe. So, even though they are losing money, paying it makes them feel as though they are not losing money. It's delusional, but then again most people have a lot of delusions of which insurance is just one of many."


I disagree.  First off the SEC is under-funded anyhow, and most economists agree that there needs to be better regulation of the exchanges; ya know since it can fucking crash our economy and send us into WW3.  Secondly, it's a flat Transaction tax much like any other State Sales Tax.  State Sales Tax is arguably the most successful form of taxation there is, b/c it's so damn easy to implement, and so damn easy to audit.  You're blowing this thing way out of proportion.  They require the markets to charge a Transaction tax, and then they do periodic audits to ensure each exchange is doing it.  The rates go up or down based on the previous quarters number of HFTs.  Outside of said formula, this transaction rate can be altered by a meeting of a few SEC heads, and approved when approved by the appropriate congressional body.  Kills 2 birds with one stone:  * more money to the underfunded SEC * lessens the impact of HFTs and turns the markets back into a market instead of a casino.  It will have minimal effects on buy & hold traders since they typically research for a long time, then buy & hold stock for many months.    It will mainly affect those who buy & unload several times per day.    PS:  If you think that letting a market die and having new ones pop up periodically is a good idea then holy shit.  Financial markets need stability & regulation.  Finance doesn't like uncertainty.  Crash & burn marketplaces will help no one, and will raise uncertainty which we all know investors hate.


I got really lucky. I was hired on as a entry level employee at 80 at a small company and then an assistant manager ended up going to a different company and they needed someone to promote. They decided to go with me and groom me to exactly how they wanted as opposed to someone with more experience.


"I've come to accept the fact that all these people that hark on and on about ""moving up the ladder"" topped out in pay years ago and have no real understanding that the world is shaped more like a pyramid.   You're not standing on a ladder with 3 people above you waiting to get on the roof and 3 under you waiting for the same. You're standing at the bottom of a pyramid with 3 people and only one of you makes that next step at which point two others are now standing waiting for the next step up and so on. Some move up quickly, others never do. And the situations are all different."


Would anything happen if you bring this issue to the attention of the HR department? Everyone in the company who participates in the 401(k) is affected, so you'd think they'd all be interested in switching to a another 401k provider that will make them more money.


Ugh.   When will the fabled antichrist of Christian mythology come   To put the seer the consciousness of man with hot iron, to mark the front of his forehead with the sergeant of wisdom, to place a microchip into the prefrontal lobe which proceeds decision making skills, and gives the power of wisdom.   Oh right, consumer rights!   Something something, uhm, critical thinking is good, consumers should have rights.


Just saw the update: Here's some ETFs for Canada from Vanguard.


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You were the one who started the government talk.  > No.  Our taxes allocated the resources necessary for us to have roads, power, and all the nice facilities we use.  The rich benefited from the government offering them the jobs to build these things.  Or did you forget about that part?  I have no idea what lead you to believe that I said these businesses that do work for the government aren't getting paid, but in large part the money they are being paid with has been borrowed from the financial sector. I've told you this three times now, but you seem completely unwilling and overall too ignorant to absorb the information.


"> In the future, if nearly every job is taken by a very advanced robot, which are even capable of maintaining themselves, humans would not just be left behind. The economy needs consumers. Instead, we would live in a world of infinite entrepreneurship, in which the means of production are nearly free for anyone, and people prosper by their ambition and drive. Everyone would own their own robots that do work on their behalf. The amount of resources available to all would be incredible, and people would be free to do things they actually want to do. The contrary of course, is a socialist ""utopia""; a world of everyone being dependent on the government to provide them their basic income. Instead, we're looking at a free world in which every person is a capitalist in control of their own robots. >   Upfront investment cost to create a contemporary business is challenging today, and this is before a firm anticipation of the cost of labour declining in developed nations.   The lack of value for one's own labour will impede investment in new capital machines; using one's employed labour to generate start up capital is key to your projection (short of inheritance) and if this market fails to empower consumers with capital demand will suffer.  Secondly, I don't see every individual, or a majority of individuals endowed with the capacities to live in an economy of small businesses.    In fact imagining that world sort of economy seems inconceivable to me.    Dividends from certain automated industries might become an economic necessity, and this structure wouldn't necessarily disrupt private enterprise; but it may if that private enterprise were to evolve into something which gains overwhelming market power or monopoly."


I completely agree that there are experts that recognize it as a very serious problem, and I agree that it is a serious problem that could cause a large recession or crash (my large chunk of remaining loans definitely agrees). My point is that this article isn't looking at economic data. It's looking at a survey of recent college grads and asking them to rank the risk of student loan debt vs the risk of North Korea. I wouldn't consider that a very useful indicator.


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The purpose of long term care insurance is to pay for your long term care while protecting your assets. This is highly recommended to people who have high risk factors or family history. People who will most likely receive care should purchase this as early as possible in order to avoid the soaring cost of coverage and care. Another reason why people should buy this is is because of the much longer life expectancy today. Statistics would show that about 70% of people who are 65 years old will need long term care. This is obviously high and alarming. For me, this is enough to encourage people to prepare for their future and buy insurance for long term care.


You cannot roll over your 401k money in an employer's 401k plan into an IRA (of any kind) while you are still employed by that employer. The only way you can start on the conversion before you retire (as Craig W suggests) is to change employers and start rolling over money in the previous employer's 401k into your Roth IRA while possibly contributing to the 401k plan of your new employer. Since the amount rolled over is extra taxable income (that is, in addition to your wages from your  new job), you may end up paying more tax (or at higher rates) than you expect.


The real problem is everyone thinks they need a degree. A lifelong of crippling student debt is an indicator you had no business being in college. Its hard for people in America to accept that their time just isnt worth all that much.


One can't, this is a systemic problem and when One bank goes pop, it drags a couple down with it. While swaps should have worked to keep the system safe at one time, when money was real, they now act as anchors that drag the entire chain down because the volume of funny money debt is so great its just not ever getting paid back. Best bet is to burn the Fed down


"Take a Chilean cruise this year, and experience exploring the most beautiful, and untouched places on Earth: Patagonia, Tierra del Fuego & Cape Horn. Cruceros Australis will take you on an amazing journey to the ""uttermost end of the earth,"" providing you with an unforgettable cruise on one of the industry's most comfortable ships designed to make your trip a remarkable excursion of a lifetime."


You should also consider what the cost of the Put is, especially if the strike price is set at the current price, vs the average price delta of the security during the period between when you buy the put, and the expiration date.  Also note the prices for puts on stocks with a lot of price volatility. There are a good number of situations where you may come out behind. If the stock stays the same price, you are out the premium you paid for the put. If the stock price rises less than the premium, you are out the difference between the two. If the stock price falls less than the premium, you are out the difference between the two. In order to be 'in the money' when writing a protective put, the stock has to either rise more than the premium you paid for the put (and you MUST sell, or hold and write off the expense of the put) or the stock price has to fall below the strike price to a level lower  than the premium you paid, and you must SELL via the exercising the option. and you've protected yourself from a loss (presuming you were going to sell and not hold and see if the stock recovers.  And since selling is required in both cases, if you've held the stock less than a year, then pay on any profits at short term rates (taxed as regular income) and if the price went down, you can't claim any loss (unless strike price was below your buy price), and would still need to pay if you had a net gain, and you likely can't deduct the price you paid for the put.


Me triggered? Not at all. I am very happy with my vote, my president, the economy, and the prospects under Trump.  You are triggered!  But, Ok, let's wait and see.  So far, I and the stock market are showing great confidence in the future under Trump.


He's trying to create a compensation system that is as fair as possible.  >I can see certain benefits too, but look - as an employee, I want to work in an environment where I can advocate for myself and, occasionally, negotiate for better compensation. **Some people aren't good at these things, and frankly, that sucks for them. I'll eat their lunch if they let me.**  What you're saying is you want to work at a place that rewards the skills **you** have.  This is a very selfish perspective, but at least you're honest about it.  Of course you want to work somewhere that pays you more than other people.  However I don't see how it benefits the company to reward employees that are good at negotiating salary.  I'd rather have employees that are good at making product.


If you don't need to own a car for other reasons (i.e. if you are perfectly fine using Lyft and public transport), a new car loan should have just as much effect on your credit score as, say, opening a new credit card. Your credit score would take a temporary dip because of the hard inquiry to acquire the card, but your number of credit accounts would increase, and your credit utilization rate would go down, both of which are good things for your credit score. There may be better ways to increase your credit score that others know about, but I don't think getting a car loan when you don't need a car is the best one. Note, this assumes that you are paying all your credit cards off in full every month.


Exactly, it makes my poop pasty because it constipates me. I've not attacked anyone and you're out here being Internet big guy calling me all kinds of names and accusing me of stuff I haven't done. Nothing I've said is inaccurate or offensive. If you took it that way that is your issue you should talk to a therapist about.


I know quite a few mutual fund wholesalers making over a mil right here in the states.   Having said that, none of them are at Fido. Fidelity is a private firm but having started my career there, I wouldn't be surprised if they're paying a few people that much who have been there forever. They also extend extremely cheap credit to employees at the MD role and above, at least that was the case when I was there.


I see what your point is, but I would argue that the barriers to enter the web market are almost non-existent. It doesn't take huge capital to create a great product. Check out the author's product at http://letsfreckle.com/. It's a perfect example that it doesn't take VC's to make a good product and viable business. Everything that you mentioned can and is being done by entrepreneurs without the help of VC money. By the way just because you have investors involved doesn't mean you'll create a commercially viable product either.  That being said some people will still opt for the VC route because you can't be the next groupon without VC money right? Without investors how would companies with no business model survive?


Well, there are also cases where inflation actually helps you, individually, as a consumer. For example, if you have a mortgage or any other debt, debtors benefit from the value of a dollar today decreasing tomorrow.  In a very general sense, psychologically you want to avoid deflationary periods as well as it tends to seize up an economy (why would I spend a dollar today if it will be worth more tomorrow?).  Sure, the absolute value of a dollar decreases over time, but this is intentionally designed to diminish the value of hoarding cash today. Standard income should rise approximately with the rate of inflation, so from an absolute purchasing power standpoint you should remain approximately neutral.


"No, I do not.  The advice is to take advice :-) but it is not required.  Several ""low cost"" SIPPs allow an ""Execution Only"" transfer from some pensions (generally not occupational or defined benefits schemes [where transfers are generally a bad idea anyway] but FAVCs such as mine are ok). Best Invest is one such, and the fees are indeed relatively low. As far as anyone knows, the government's plans for changes to rules on using pension funds would still apply even once I've transferred my pension pot and begun to withdraw funds (provided I don't commit myself to an annuity or other irrevocable investment). I am not a financial adviser, nor employed or otherwise connected with Best Invest, and I'm not endorsing their SIPP schemes, just giving them as an example of what can be done. [Added after I carried out my plan] I found the process very straightforward; I needed to apply for a pension fund with my new provider and fill in a transfer form, which set up the scheme and transferred the funds with no expense required.  Once the money arrived in my pension account I filled in another form to take the lump sum and set up regular withdrawals from the fund. I had my lump sum within a couple of months of initiating the transfer.  I'm very happy I did not take independent advice because it would have been very poor value for money.  During my researches I was approached eagerly by one firm promising to get me my money quick and claiming to be an independent financial advisor.  Luckily I mistrusted the service they offered."


"Price is decided by what shares are offered at what prices and who blinks first.  The buyer and seller are both trying to find the best offer, for their definition of best, within the constraints then have set on their bid or ask. The seller will sell to the highest bid they can get that they consider acceptable. The buyer will buy from the lowest offer they can get that they consider acceptable. The price -- and whether a sale/purchase happens at all -- depends on what other trades are still available and how long you're willing to wait for one you're happy with, and may be different on one share than another ""at the same time"" if the purchase couldn't be completed with the single best offer and had to buy from multiple offers. This may have been easier to understand in the days of open outcry pit trading, when you could see just how chaotic the process is... but it all boils down to a high-speed version of seeking the best deal in an old-fashioned marketplace where no prices are fixed and every sale requires (or at least offers the opportunity for) negotiation. ""Fred sells it five cents cheaper!"" ""Then why aren't you buying from him?"" ""He's out of stock."" ""Well, when I don't have any, my price is ten cents cheaper."" ""Maybe I won't buy today, or I'll buy elsewhere. ""Maybe I won't sell today. Or maybe someone else will pay my price. Sam looks interested..."" ""Ok, ok. I can offer two cents more."" ""Three. Sam looks really interested."" ""Two and a half, and throw in an apple for Susie."" ""Done."" And the next buyer or seller starts the whole process over again. Open outcry really is just a way of trying to shop around very, very, very fast, and electronic reconciliation speeds it up even more, but it's conceptually the same process -- either seller gets what they're asking, or they adjust and/or the buyer adjusts until they meet, or everyone agrees that there's no agreement and goes home."


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There is no right way but changing your methodology to suit your situation is   a problem. They were happy to use a 4 years period during the crazy times to lower the VAR and then switch to 1 year afterwards to do the same. It is picking and choosing your measures to suit the situation and that is statistical heresy. While there may not be a right way to measure VAR choosing the measure that is suits your situation is bad methodology.    And of course there is such a thing as bad statistical methodology, you see it everyday.   I also pointed out above that it vairies from bank to bank what confidence interval you use.


"Other responses have focused on getting you software to use, but I'd like to attempt your literal question: how are such transactions managed in systems that handle them? I will answer for ""double entry"" bookkeeping software such as Quicken or GnuCash (my choice). (Disclaimer: I Am Not An Accountant and accountants will probably find error in my terminology.) Your credit card is a liability to you, and is tracked using a liability account (as opposed to an asset account, such as your bank accounts or cash in your pocket). A liability account is just like an asset except that it is subtracted from rather than added to your total assets (or, from another perspective, its balance is normally negative; the mathematics works out identically). When you make a purchase using your credit card, the transaction you record transfers money from the liability account (increasing the liability) to the expense account for your classification of the expense. When you make a payment on your credit card, the transaction you record transfers money from your checking account (for example) to the credit card account, reducing the liability. Whatever software you choose for tracking your money, I strongly recommend choosing something that is sufficiently powerful to handle representing this as I have described (transfers between accounts as the normal mode of operation, not simply lone increases/decreases of asset accounts)."


"Most banks will not allow you to use online bill pay with a savings account as the funding source; rather, instead it must be funded from either a checking or money market account. The reason for this is that checks can typically be written from a money market account but not from a savings account. Update: I was having trouble wrapping my head around what the check would look like when the ""pay from account"" is an external bank, so I just called Bank of America and asked them. Basically, they do an ACH Withdrawal from your external bank account and route the money directly to the payee electronically. This means that your BofA account isn't touched and it won't show up on your BofA statement (but you can see it in the online bill pay history, and on your external bank's statement.) If the payee cannot be paid electronically, than you cannot use an external funding source. In other words, if a physical check is going to be sent, then it must have a BofA account as its funding source. Even though the ACH withdrawal should technically be allowed from a savings account, I suspect that this is forbidden since the intended purpose of the ACH is actually to streamline the writing of a check."


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If you have self control and a good handle on your finances, which it sounds like - I suggest the following: Note: #3 is important - if you're not able to pay it off each month don't do this because it will cost you a lot in interest. Make sure to check how interest is calculated in case you don't pay it off in full or miss the due date for a month. If you can do this you'll earn some good benefits from the card using money that you're going to spend anyway, as well as build your credit profile. Regarding annual fees -


most def.  When I have an algorithmic trading strategy I want to spitball, or some question about how to exploit netback pricing inefficiency between West Texas Intermediate and Brent prices based on some sort of shipping rate change, I'd like to post here.  When I want a new job, I'll go to r/financialcareers.


"The question that I walk away with is ""What is the cost of the downside protection?"" Disclaimer - I don't sell anything. I am not a fan of insurance as an investment, with rare exceptions. (I'll stop there, all else is a tangent) There's an appeal to looking at the distribution of stock returns. It looks a bit like a bell curve, with a median at 10% or so, and a standard deviation of 15 or so. This implies that there are some number of years on average that the market will be down, and others, about 2/3, up. Now, you wish to purchase a way of avoiding that negative return, and need to ask yourself what it's worth to do so.  The insurance company tells you (a) 2% off the top, i.e. no dividends and (b) we will clip the high end, over 9.5%.  I then am compelled to look at the numbers. Knowing that your product can't be bought and sold every year, it's appropriate to look at 10-yr rolling returns. The annual returns I see, and the return you'd have in any period. I start with 1900-2012. I see an average 9.8% with STD of 5.3%. Remember, the 10 year rolling will do a good job pushing the STD down. The return the Insurance would give you is an average 5.4%, with STD of .01. You've bought your way out of all risk, but at what cost?  From 1900-2012, my dollar grows to $30080, yours, to $406. For much of the time, treasuries were higher than your return. Much higher.  It's interesting to see how often the market is over 10% for the year, clip too many of those and you really lose out.  From 1900-2012, I count 31 negative years (ouch) but 64 years over 9.5%. The 31 averaged -13.5%, the 64, 25.3%.  The illusion of ""market gains"" is how this product is sold. Long term, they lag safe treasuries."


Perhaps Ashlir is viewing it from the 1% angle and feels more entitled to handouts for creating minimum wage jobs in a mine or charter school that can declare bankruptcy after a couple years without any debt.


> He's supposed to be grading him as a board member. I dont think that a board member's vote should be seen as a positive or negative when it comes time for their job review.  Being a Trump supporter shows bad judgment. I certainly wouldn't want someone like that to be a board member of my company.


They are structured which gives me confidence choosing them over other podcasts. Many podcasts have a couple golden nuggets but are mostly personal filler and promotional material. The podcasts mentioned above follow a structure where I know what to expect but still at times they surprise me.


Your tax return will be due on April 18th of 2017 for the amounts made in 2016. Based on the figures that you have provided, assuming you are 18, and assuming you are a single taxpayer your total tax will be around $2600.00 ($2611.25 to be exact, without additional credits or deductions to AGI accounted for). The $1,234 in fed. inc. tax that you have already paid is considered to be a prepaid by the government. If at year-end you have provided more than you have made the government will refund you the excess (federal tax return).


In your situation you will be using your normal savings to offset additional funding from student loans or similar financing. Also, sending your children to or moving to a jurisdiction that has lower education costs but ample opportunity should also be in your cards. That can be another state, or another country.


"Why do people keep talking about 401K's at work?  That is NOT dollar cost averaging.  DCA refers to when you have a large sum of money.  Do you invest it all at once or spread it out over several smaller purchases over a period of time?  There really isn't a ""when"" should I use it.  It is simply a matter of where your preferences lie on the risk/reward scpectrum.  DCA has lower risk and lower reward than lump sum investing.  In my opinion, I don't like it.  DCA only works better than lump sum investing if the price drops.  But if you think the price is going to drop, why are you buying the stock in the first place? Example: Your uncle wins the lottery and gives you $50,000.  Do you buy $50,000 worth of Apple now, or do you buy $10,000 now and $10,000 a quarter for the next four quarters? If the stock goes up, you will make more with lump-sum(LS) than you will with DCA. If the stock goes down, you will lose more with LS than you will with DCA. If the stock goes up then down, you will lose more with DCA than you will with LS. If the stock goes down then up, you will make more with DCA than you will with LS. So it's a tradeoff.  But, like I said, the whole point of you buying the stock is that you think it's going to go up! So why pick the strategy that performs worse in that scenario?"


Please note that if you are self employed, then the profit sharing limit for both the SEP and Solo 401(k) is 20% of compensation, not 25%. There is no need for a SEP-IRA in this case.  In addition to the 401(k) at work, you have a solo-401(k) for your consulting business.  You can contribute $18,000 on the employee side across the two 401(k) plans however you wish.  You can also contribute profit sharing up to 20% of compensation in your solo 401(k) plan.  However, the profit sharing limit aggregates across all plans for your consulting business.  If you max that out in your solo 401(k), then you cannot contribute to the SEP IRA. In other words, the solo 401(k) dominates the SEP IRA in terms of contributions and shares a limit on the profit-sharing contribution.  If you have a solo 401(k), there is never a reason to have a SEP for the same company. Example reference: Can I Contribute to a solo 401(k) and SEP for the same company?


"1. Actually, using the word ""actually"" to begin a sentence just to sound pretentious does NOT get your point across any clearer.  2. I know it would be cheaper and better for the environment. What I'm saying is we already do have enough food an resources to feed the entire world, but we just don't do it."


Maybe, maybe not. By and large my union rep and my governor (nevermind the secretary of state) are also likely to engage in high stakes--possibly higher-stakes--negotiation. So I'll ask again: what distinguishes public employees and union reps so that they should fly coach, but c-corp execs should get fancier tickets?


> Currently many people are still getting virtually free healthcare as an untaxed employee benefit and therefore care nothing about anyone else.      If they only knew how much their salary increases are being eaten up by rising healthcare costs.  We are all paying for it.


But then why wouldn't that be their primary mode to control their currency now/are they starting/hinting at doing so to move away from US treasuries? There must be benefits to Treasury purchasing that seems better to them, maybe that QE can't do alone?  And I have to imagine with the tenuous nature of their financial system, the shock alone from losing access to the Dollar (and before they could use QE to devalue the currency back down) would be a major issue.


Worthwhile article. Long but very good read.  Interesting how only until recently were wiretaps being used. I heard about this from a friend- it took an outsider to the white collar crime division to get them to start pushing for wiretaps, and until they did that, they werent able to get anyone at all.


You run the regression R_{i,t} = a + bR_{m,t} + e_t, then a + e_t is the variation that isn't shared with the market's variation.


It would involve manual effort, but there is just a handful of exclusions,  buy the fund you want, plug into a tool like Morningstar Instant X Ray,  find out your $10k position includes $567.89 of defense contractor Lockheed Martin,  and sell short $567.89 of Lockheed Martin.  Check you're in sync periodically (the fund or index balance may change); when you sell the fund close your shorts too.


Next will be Applebees and Chilis and then slowly the Olive Gardens and Red Lobsters will follow suit. These eateries are no longer attractive. Millennials value craft and local food. I can not tell you the last time I saw a full parking lot at Chilis on a Friday night ( well maybe in 1996).


Time premium is the difference between the market value of the option and its intrinsic value the amount you would get if it expired right now.  Lets think about three cases for buying call options: Purchasing put options works similarly but in reverse.


Since you are only 16, you still have time to mature what you will do with your life, always keep your mind opend. If you are really passionated about investement : read 1 book every week about investement, read the website investopedia, financial time, know about macro economic be good a math in school, learning coding and infrastructure can also be interesting since the stock is on server. learn about the history, you can watch on yoube shows about the history of money. learn accounting, the basic at least open a  broker simulating account online ( you will play with a fake wallet but on real value) for 6 month, and after open a broker account with 100 real dollards and plays the penny stocks ( stock under 3 USD a share). after doing all this for 1 year you should know if you want to spend your life doing this and can choose universtity and intership accordingly. You can look on linkedin the profile of investement banker to know what school they attended. Best of luck for your future.


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Nobody is suggesting that China hasn't had massive amounts of growth. However, even a relatively small discrepancy (for instance, 6.9% against 6.5%, similar to what appears in the article) can compound in to a huge difference over years.  If that relatively minute 0.4% spread were misreported since the 90s, that produces output gap of about USD $2 trillion (roughly 10% of the GDP).   It's hard to guess the magnitude of the inaccuracies, though some estimates exist, but I'd be willing to bet that the government never *under* reports growth.  Why do inflated assets matter? Because they lead to unrealizable capital gains on the balance sheet that gets counted in GDP, potentially producing reporting inaccuracies.  I agree with you that infrastructure projects drive a lot of China's growth, but again, the other drivers notwithstanding, there is a material difference between 6.5% and 6.9%.


"I'm not sure the term actually has a clear meaning. We can think of ""what does this mean"" in two ways: its broad semantic/metaphorical meaning, and its mechanical ""what actual variables in the market represent this quantity"". Net buying/selling have a clear meaning in the former sense by analogy to the basic concept of supply and demand in equilibrium markets. It's not as clear what their meaning should be in the latter sense. Roughly, as the top comment notes, you could say that a price decrease is because of net selling at the previous price level, while a price rise is driven by net buying at the previous price level. But in terms of actual market mechanics, the only way prices move is by matching of a buyer and a seller, so every market transaction inherently represents an instantaneous balance across the bid/ask spread. So then we could think about the notion of orders. Actual transactions only occur in balance, but there is a whole book of standing orders at various prices. So maybe we could use some measure of the volume at various price levels in each of the bid/ask books to decide some notion of net buying/selling. But again, actual transactions occur only when matched across the spread. If a significant order volume is added on one side or the other, but at a price far away from the bid/offer - far enough that an actual trade at that price is unlikely to occur - should that be included in the notion of net buying/selling? Presumably there is some price distance from the bid/offer where the orders don't matter for net buying/selling. I'm sure you'd find a lot of buyers for BRK.A at $1, but that's completely irrelevant to the notion of net buying/selling in BRK.A. Maybe the closest thing I can think of in terms of actual market mechanics is the comparative total volumes during the period that would still have been executed if forced to execute at the end of period price. Assuming that traders' valuations are fixed through the period in question, and trading occurs on the basis of fundamentals (which I know isn't a good assumption in practice, but the impact of price history upon future price is too complex for this analysis), we have two cases. If price falls, we can assume all buyers who executed above the last price in the period would have happily bought at the last price (saving money), while all sellers who executed below the last price in the period would also be happy to sell for more. The former will be larger than the latter. If the price rises, the reverse is true."


"This is the best tl;dr I could make, [original](https://medium.com/united-green-alliance/the-reality-of-how-the-economy-of-the-third-reich-functioned-is-steeped-in-mystery-and-deception-80c29d28d0d9) reduced by 97%. (I'm a bot) ***** > Outlining the ideas that &quot;Unemployment causes poverty, employment creates prosperity,&quot; and &quot;Capital does not create jobs, rather jobs create capital.&quot; The complete and total elimination of unemployment is central to National Socialist economics, and was especially important to the German National Socialists of the 1920s and 30s, given Germany&#039;s situation.  > In point two, the NSDAP addressed the claim that there would be no markets for these new German goods.  > The concept of resettlement in the East is mentioned again, and it&#039;s goal is to reestablish the lost German agriculture in the East.In conclusion, the economic policies of NSDAP can best be seen as economically pragmatic; not wholly protectionist or pro-free trade, and not wholly pro-free market or pro-central planning.   ***** [**Extended Summary**](http://np.reddit.com/r/autotldr/comments/70uz3g/the_economics_of_the_nsdap_united_green_alliance/) | [FAQ](http://np.reddit.com/r/autotldr/comments/31b9fm/faq_autotldr_bot/ ""Version 1.65, ~212049 tl;drs so far."") | [Feedback](http://np.reddit.com/message/compose?to=%23autotldr ""PM's and comments are monitored, constructive feedback is welcome."") | *Top* *keywords*: **German**^#1 **work**^#2 **Germany**^#3 **economic**^#4 **National**^#5"


I understand where you are coming from, but you vote with your dollars. As long as you are willing to fork over for shitty service and shitty products, they will keep lowering the bar and keep treating the employees worse. When people stop buying, they either change their tune or go out of business. The financial reality is if you actually want improved working conditions for their employees, you need to have the fortitude to refuse to subsidise substandard behaviors.


You will need to merge CRSP with the Compustat Annual Fundamentals database, since CRSP only contains stock price/return data, whereas Compustat has data on total assets and other accounting variables.   What software are you using? It's usually very easy to filter the data after loading it into your software.


That would be my suggestion (and what I've personally done), but I can't tell you what's right for you.   As an aside, you don't usually need to manually fund an IRA (traditional *or* Roth) to open it for a rollover - Just tell them you're doing a rollover, and they'll set you up and tell you where to have the 401k checks sent (and sometimes even arrange it all *for* you).


"private investors that don't have the time or expertise for active investment.  This may be known as every private investor. An index fund ensures average returns. The bulk of active trading is done by private institutions with bucketloads of experts studying the markets and AI scraping every bit of data it can get (from the news, stock market, the weather reports, etc...). Because of that, to get above average returns an average percent of the time, singular private investors have to drastically beat the average large team of individuals/software. Now that index ETF are becoming so fashionable, could there be a tipping point at which the market signals that active investors send become so diluted that this ""index ETF parasitism"" collapses? How would this look like and would it affect only those who invest in index ETF or would it affect the stock market more generally? To make this question perhaps more on-topic: Is the fact (or presumption) that index ETF rely indirectly on active investment decisions by other market participants, as explained above, a known source of concern for personal investment? This is a well-covered topic. Some people think this will be an issue.   Others point out that it is a hard issue to bootstrap. I gravitate to this view. A small active market can support a large number of passive investors. If the number of active investors ever got too low, the gains & likelihood of gains that could be made from being an active investor would rise and generate more active investors. Private investing makes sense in a few cases. One example is ethics. Some people may not want to be invested, even indirectly, in certain companies."


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"Are these people making min wage dying en mass? No? Then they are supported. I don't want to sound crude, but there really isn't a profession on earth where you don't have to rough it out for a few years. Life's tough. The ""abundance"" of min wage jobs you speak of are either not as abundant as you think relative to the demand or the minimum wage is already too high relative to the demand. Either way my scenario in my previous comment holds true- do things the right way and you will be all set to make more money.   Staff and wage bloating are all a result of garunteed loans given to optimistic, short-sighted youths. Without the steady flow of these kids who can suddenly afford college there would be no bloating.   I agree on the rest, and the answer is accountability. we should start with holding people accountable to the high-interest loan they took out 4 years before they hand any income."


"if it opens below my limit order  What exactly are you trying to achieve here? If your limit order is for 100 and the stock opens ""below"" your limit order, say 99, then it is obviously going to buy it automatically.  also place a stop loss on the same order  Most brokers allow limit + stop loss order at the same time on same order.  What I conclude from your question is that you're with a broker that is using obscure technology. Get a better broker or maybe, retry phrasing your question correctly."


> It wasn't one side changing the contract though.  But it was.  FTA:  > [Argentina] forced most of its creditors to take a lot less money than they had loaned to Argentina in the first place.  You can argue that Elliot's actions after that were predatory, but that doesn't make them illegal nor does it discharge Argentina from its original obligations it agreed to when it borrowed the money in the first place.


> Consider someone like Mitt Romney, whose income in 2010 was $21.7 million. Even if Romney chose to live a much more indulgent lifestyle, he would spend only a fraction of that sum in a typical year to support himself and his wife in their several homes. But take the same amount of money and divide it among 500 people—say, in the form of jobs paying $43,400 apiece—and you’ll find that almost all of the money gets spent.  Romney invests his money in the market right? It's not sitting under the mattress, so isn't his investment another form of consumption and therefore demand?


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I think so. Where we are, the store-bought diapers are similarly expensive, so we pay something like a 2-4 cent/diaper markup for the honest diapers, including shipping. I found the honest diapers were a lot better at containing blowouts than pampers, and it's a lot easier to tell when a diaper is soaked through. Given a free pack of each, honest diapers and pampers, I'd put the honest diapers on my kid's butt first.


Here's a good rule of thumb. In any situation where you are required to purchase insurance (Auto Liability, Property Mortgage Insurance, etc.) you can safely assume that you aren't the primary beneficiary. You are being required to buy that insurance to protect someone else's investment.


Windows 8 and server 2013 rock, after you revert the ui to be the same as 7.   The managers who thought forcing a touch UI to every platforms including those without touch were seriously deranged.  Don't use office because VI+LaTeX works better for me! Makes MS tons of money.


"There are two fundamentally different reasons merchants will give cash discounts. One is that they will not have to pay interchange fees on cash (or pay much lower fees on no-reward debit cards).  Gas stations in my home state of NJ already universally offer different cash and credit prices.  Costco will not even take Visa and MasterCard credit cards (debit only) for this reason. The second reason, not often talked about but widely known amongst smaller merchants, is that they can fail to declare the sale (or claim a smaller portion of the sale) to the authorities in order to reduce their tax liability.  Obviously the larger stores will not risk their jobs for this, but smaller owner-operated (""mom and pop"") stores often will.  This applies to both reduced sales tax liability and income tax liability.  This used to be more limited per sale (but more widespread overall), since tax authorities would look closely for a mismatch between declared income and spending, but with an ever-larger proportion of customers paying by credit card, merchants can take a bigger chunk of their cash sales off the books without drawing too much suspicion. Both of the above are more applicable to TVs than cars, since (1) car salesmen make substantial money from offering financing and (2) all cars must be registered with the state, so alternative records of sales abound.  Also, car prices tend to be at or near the credit limit of most cards, so it is not as common to pay for them in this way."


Moving from the Taxi monopoly to the Uber monopoly... Uber has raised their prices in my city over 10 times in the last year. It's now more economically feasible (even during non-surge times) to call a cab. Hell, the taxi waits have even been less. I don't know. Call me old fashion but I'd rather use a company that is regulated by the state in terms of pricing and safety standards rather than a company that blatantly disregards the law. Fuck, I got into an Uber last week and my driver was an acquaintance from highschool. He is a two time drug/armed felon... and Uber says they do background checks LOL


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"Asset = Equity + (Income - Expense) + Liability Everything could be cancelled out in double entry accounting.  By your logic, if the owner contributes capital as asset, Equity is ""very similar"" to Asset.  You will end up cancelling everything, i.e. 0 = 0.  You do not understate liability by cancelling them with asset.  Say you have $10000 debtors and $10000 creditors. You do not say Net Debtors = $0 on the balance sheet.  You are challenging the fundamental concepts of accounting.  Certain accounts are contra accounts. For example, Accumulated Depreciation is Contra-Asset. Retained Loss and Unrealized Revaluation Loss is Contra-Equity."


The limit, if any, would be established by your financial institutions. You would need to contact both your sending and receiving bank to ascertain any limitation they impose on wire transfers. Generally, taxes aren't imposed on transference of funds between accounts you own, but I'm not familiar with tax in Thailand and I could be wrong on that half of the question.


Paying $12,000 in lump sumps annually will mean a difference of about $250 in interest vs. paying $1,000 monthly. If front-load the big payment, that saves ~$250 over paying monthly over the year. If you planned to save that money each month and pay it at the end, then it would cost you ~$250 more in mortgage interest. So that's how much money you would have to make with that saved money to offset the cost. Over the life of the loan the choice between the two equates to less than $5,000. If you pay monthly it's easy to calculate that an extra $1,000/month would reduce the loan to 17 years, 3 months. That would give you a savings of ~$400,000 at the cost of paying $207,000 extra during those 17 years. Many people would suggest that you invest the money instead because the annual growth rates of the stock market are well in excess of your 4.375% mortgage. What you decide is up to you and how conservative your investing strategy is.


I'm extremely suspicious of the assertion that tenure is a good proxy for quality of teaching. I'd like to see some sort of backing to that claim.  Also, I'm not so sure that performance measurement of students is all that difficult--after all, thousands of secondary institutions do it every year and generally do a pretty good job. There are certain basic skills that primary school-aged children need to have, and we have reasonably good metrics to determine if they have them. Gaming the system only occurs with improper alignment of incentives, which is clearly a difficult challenge but not one that I think is insurmountable.


I want to mention I've found 2 options for more powerful tools that can be used to manage asset allocation:  Advantages/Disadvantages: Vanguard Morningstar X-ray I hope this helps others struggling with asset allocation.


This is literally the thought process that caused the 2008 collapse, the only difference being the bonds consisted of sub-prime mortgages. Not saying its a bad idea, honestly you could make a lot of money, but macro-economically its a shit-storm brewing in the distance.


There are lot of options. I personally avoid keeping money in bank accounts and invest in one of the funds. It's just my personal opinion, you can ask your Ulamas


In addition to these fair points the argument that you can simply not buy from the unethical business breaks down in our current intermingled society. If I don't like Monsanto I can't simply stop buying their seeds (since I'm not a farmer and in lots of cases I'm pretty far removed from that stage of the process) yet their practices effect me in lots of ways and there's nothing I can do about it at the purchase level.


#####&#009;  ######&#009;  ####&#009;  [**Progress and Poverty**](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Progress%20and%20Poverty): [](#sfw)   ---  >  >___Progress and Poverty: An Inquiry into the Cause of Industrial Depressions and of Increase of Want with Increase of Wealth: The Remedy___ was written by [Henry George](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Henry_George) in 1879. The book is a [treatise](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Treatise) on the [cyclical](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Business_cycle) nature of an industrial [economy](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Economy) and its remedies.  >====  >[**Image**](https://i.imgur.com/b8JhYJK.jpg) [^(i)](https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Henry_George2.jpg) - *Henry George, author of Progress and Poverty.*  ---  ^Interesting: [^Henry ^George](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Henry_George) ^| [^Georgism](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Georgism) ^| [^Climate ^change ^and ^poverty](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Climate_change_and_poverty) ^| [^Business ^cycle](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Business_cycle)   ^Parent ^commenter ^can [^toggle ^NSFW](http://www.np.reddit.com/message/compose?to=autowikibot&subject=AutoWikibot NSFW toggle&message=%2Btoggle-nsfw+cjg6y18) ^or[](#or) [^delete](http://www.np.reddit.com/message/compose?to=autowikibot&subject=AutoWikibot Deletion&message=%2Bdelete+cjg6y18)^. ^Will ^also ^delete ^on ^comment ^score ^of ^-1 ^or ^less. ^| [^(FAQs)](http://www.np.reddit.com/r/autowikibot/wiki/index) ^| [^Mods](http://www.np.reddit.com/r/autowikibot/comments/1x013o/for_moderators_switches_commands_and_css/) ^| [^Magic ^Words](http://www.np.reddit.com/r/autowikibot/comments/1ux484/ask_wikibot/)


Add to this that every argument is incredibly generalized with almost no proof or support. I could think of 10 companies that this article could apply to off the top of my head, one being Apple. That said there are as many companies that fall under these same traits that have remained successful.   Maybe it's just really hip to trash talk Microsoft and Forbes is looking to cash in.


They're not. Literally by definition and existence. Cow milk is designed by nature to grow a baby calf to a four-legged, 800+ lb beast of a creature. A human baby has its own, natural, species-correct source of this kind of sustinence. As an adult human (or any human for that matter) there is no reason to consume what is effectively mass growth hormones and steroids from a species that is not yours.   Would you breast feed off of a cow? Would you let your child? Why not?


Ah, but that's not how the game is played. There are no free lunches, but there are lunches that are free (or mostly free) to individuals. As someone on the receiving end of a pension, your only objective is to lock in the highest average payout. The cost of that will be borne by shareholders and customers of the business so a higher number is always better right up to the point that the company folds. And... because of the PBGC, there is a discount on the risk of the company being dragged under by its pension costs. Even if the company goes under, the pensioners still probably get *something*. Likewise, it's in a company's best interest to underfund pensions as much as possible. Paying pensions from free cash flow keeps the least dollars tied up in poor investments, leaving the company the most room to manage its assets efficiently. Likewise, corporate bosses also know that they can be aggressive with  pension promises, because they are *allowed* to under-fund those liabilities. It's a taxpayer-backed boondoggle; just because taxpayers aren't paying up-front doesn't mean they aren't the lender of last resort: that's just a political reality. There's no IRABGC waiting to bail *my* ass out if the market crashes.


Their business model was based on annoying your friends with constant ads.  Evertually Facebook is going to see things like Zynga as parasites instead of adding value - people who thrive on Facebook as an advertising platform without paying Facebook for ads, while simultaneously reducing the pleasure of the user experience as any distracting advertisement would.  I get annoyed when my Facebook queue is flooded with details of my friends' gameplay.  I'm Facebook is aware of this.  Being a thorn in the side of the owner of your platform is *not* a good business-model.