"It isn't an edge janitor.  As a whole, BART employees vastly better compensated than private industry.    http://blog.vctr.me/bart/  It's noble that you desire a ""fair wage"" for every worker but that's not how this works.  The role of the business is to earn profit and return money to the shareholder.  There is no corporate doctrine advocating that compensation must be equal or somehow divided.  The janitor doesn't need $100k/year -- he needs affordable housing.  But efforts like that are stymied by public unions sucking up undue compensation that would have been better invested in a public-private trust for affordable housing construction.  Even Zuckerberg, arguably the biggest liberal in town doesn't implement your ""fair wage"" system -- why?  Because he runs a private corporation and has to answer to share holders.  Watch a companies profits plunge and hard decisions be made -- if it's a bonus for your in-demand finance or engineers or a $100k salary for the janitor I think you know what will take precedence.  Companies make these decisions every day.    Back to the root issue.  My argument is that public transportation by rail can be a real money loser, even in a dense urban setting like SF Bay.  The only way to fix BART is to starve the beast but bay area voters see the system through rose-tinted glasses and fail to do.  Counties should privatize the system, disband the public union and cut labor costs by 50% so that taxpayer subsides aren't required to maintain a system that takes in $6B over 10 a ten year timespan."


"There are several areas of passive fraud by being unclear on what you are doing.  When a citizen buys a house, the mortgage lender wants all the details as to how the buyer rounded up the money.  That is so they can use their own formulas to assess the buyer's creditworthiness and the probability that the buyer will be able to keep up on payments, taxes and maintenance; or have they overextended themselves. The fraud is in the withholding of that info. By way of tricking them into making a favorable decision, when they might not have if they'd had all the facts.  Then there's making this sound all lovey-dovey, good intentions, no strings attached, no expectations. You're lying to yourself.  What you've actually done is put money between yourselves, because you have not laid down FAIR rules to cover every possibility.  You're not willing to plan for failure because you don't want to admit failure is possible, which is vain.  Once you leap into this bell jar, the uncertainty of ""what happens if..."" will intrude itself into everyone's thoughts, slowly corroding your relationship.  It's a recipe for disaster.  That uncertainty puts her in a very uncomfortable position.  She has to labor to make sure the issue doesn't explode, so she's tiptoeing around you to avoid fights.  Every fight, she'll wonder if you'll play the breakup card and threaten to demand the money back.  The money will literally come between you. This is what money does.  Thinking otherwise is a young person's mistake of inexperience.  Don't take my word on it, contact Suze Orman and see what she says. Your lender is also not going to like those poorly defined lovers' promises, because they've seen it all before, and don't want to yet again foreclose on a house that fighting lovers trashed.  (it's like, superhero battles are awesome unless you own the building they trashed.)  This thing can still be done, but to remove this fraud of wishful thinking, you need to scrupulously plan for every possibility, agree to outcomes that are fair and achievable, put it in writing and share it with a neutral third party.  You haven't done it, because it seems like it would be awkward as hell - and it will be! - Or it will test your relationship by forcing direct honesty about a bunch of things you haven't talked about or are afraid to - and it will! - And to be blunt, your relationship may not be able to survive that much honesty.  But if it does, you'll be in much better shape.   The other passive fraud is taxes.  By not defining the characteristics of the payment, you fog up the question of how your contribution will be taxed (if it will be taxed). A proper contract with each other will settle that.  (there's an argument to be made for involving a tax advisor in the design of that contract, so that you can work things to your advantage.)  As an example, defining the payment as ""rent"" is about the worst you could do, as you will not be able to deduct any home expenses, she will need to pay income tax on the rent, but she can cannot take landlord's tax deductions on anything but the fraction of the house which is exclusively in your control; i.e. none."


To piggy back mbhunter's answer, the broker is going to find a way to make the amount of money they want, and either the employee or the company will foot that bill. But additionally, most small businesses want to compete and the market and offer benefits in the US.  So they shop around, and maybe the boss doesn't have the best knowledge about effective investing, so they end up taking the offering from the broker who sells it the best. Give you company credit for offering something, but know they are as affected by a good salesperson as anybody else.  Being a good sales person doesn't mean you are selling a good product.


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The problem is, increased productivity is what's eliminating jobs, a lot of jobs. And its not going to be something governments can change. (What they can change is preventing their existing jobs from going elsewhere by not giving companies tax breaks to do so. And they need to stop the promotion of privatization and offshoring and outsourcing via FTAs like GATS and TISA!)  If you take the long view, its pretty much a good thing for society for people to be freed to move beyond many of these jobs that as our technology improves, are highly amenable to automation.  People should be able to get the kind of educations they need to do them, for free, as part of the public education we give people, (and should continue to give people, despite these changes!) so we can all remain relevant and employed in the 21st century.   We need to really take advantage of those years during which time the brain is growing so rapidly.  Basically, we need to make 12 years do the work of 18 years now. Meaning that people when they graduate their basic education (K-12) should be able to function at a MA or MS level. Thats what we need to do to stop this permanent loss of employment.   Because people with less than a masters degree are losing their jobs now. That should be the new normal.


One strategy to consider is a well-diversified index fund of equities. These have historically averaged 7-8% real growth. So withdrawing 3% or 4% yearly under that growth should allow you to withdraw 30+ years with little risk of drawing down all your capital. As a bonus you're savings target would come down from $10 million to $2.5 million to a little under $3.5 million.


Right, so once again, engineering problem -- Pension funds could be treated differently, and pension fund experts could be consulted as to how to design the taxation system such that pension fund recipients aren't able to cheat the idle tax laws if their expected benefit/share of the fund is larger than certain cutoff values.


How did you achieve a job in IR? I work in FP&A and IR seems way more interesting. The one IR analyst we have always has the coolest models and it seems like a fun/interesting career. There just aren't too many IR ugrads it seems.


You'd have to buy that information. Quoting from this page, Commercial Historical Data Higher resolution and more complete datasets are generally not available for free. Below is a list of vendors which have passed our quality screening (in total, we screened over a dozen vendors). To qualify, the vendor must aggregate data from all US national/regional exchanges as only complete datasets are suitable for research use. The last point is especially important as there are many vendors who just get data from a couple sources and is missing important information such as dark pool trades. They offer some alternatives for free data: Daily Resolution Data 1) Yahoo! Finance– Daily resolution data, with split/dividend adjustments can be downloaded from here. The download procedure can be automated using this tool. Note, Yahoo quite frequently has errors in its database and does not contain data for delisted symbols. 2) QuantQuote Free Data– QuantQuote offers free daily resolution data for the S&P500 at this web page under the Free Data tab. The data accounts for symbol changes, splits, and dividends, and is largely free of the errors found in the Yahoo data. Note, only 500 symbols are available unlike Yahoo which provides all listed symbols. And they list recommendations about who to buy the data from.


"When lending through Kiva you are not making a ""charitable contribution"" it's a loan so you cannot deduct the amount you loaned out.  If you do lose money from your loan you can write off your entire loss same as you would with any other investment. However you should be careful because in the event of a tax audit you need to have the proper documentation in order to prove that loss (I don't know what Kiva provides). So to answer your question, no you would not be liable for any taxes from a Kiva loan."


The government is by the boomers for the boomers.  They're in senior management.  Gen X is middle management.  And Gen Y is just starting out.  The boomer generation is going to do what it thinks benefits the boomer generation.  If it means re-inflating housing market so boomers can unload or reverse-mortgage their house for retirement, so be it.


With only $2000 in the account, I wouldn't worry about investing it.  Instead, I would roll this over into a new HSA account with a different provider.  Find a provider that doesn't charge ongoing fees, perhaps with a local credit union or bank.  Although you won't be able to add money to it, you can withdraw as you have eligible medical expenses, until it is gone.


"Yes! What you are describing is an ""off-exchange"" trade and can be done using stock certificates. Here, you will privately negotiate with the seller on a price and delivery details. That is the old-school way to do it. Many companies (about 20% of the S&P 500) will not issue paper certificates and you may run a hefty printing fee up to $500 (source: Wikipedia, above). Other other type of private-party transactions include a deal negotiated between two parties and settled immediately or based on a future event. For example, Warren Buffet created a deal with Goldman Sachs where Warren would have the choice to purchase GS shares in the future at a certain price. This was to be settled with actual shares (rather than cash-settled). Ignoring that he later canceled this agreement, if it were to go through the transaction would still have been handled by a broker transferring the shares. You can purchase directly from a company using a direct stock purchase plan (SPP). Just pick up the phone, ask for their investor relations and then ask if they offer this option. If not, they will be glad for your interest and look into setting it up for you."


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My own simple answer is that it will affect and reduce productivity (e.g. Zimbabwe). it will also cause inflation which mean that no one will want to work for production again.


People buy stocks with the intention of making money.  They either expect the price to continue to rise or that they will get dividends and the price will not drop (enough) to wipe out their dividend earnings.


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What to do when institutions stop lending you money, or lend at high rates? Live within your means! Your friend has shown financial behavior that indicates he's a bad credit risk. If he cleans up his act, banks will lend to him at reasonable rates again.  Not a whole lot he can do except build his credit again.  He didn't lose it overnight, and he won't get it back overnight either.


The money you will be bringing to the US will be classified as your own money, and will not be taxable. The proceeds from the sale are taxable to you, probably as capital gains. The fact that you kept the proceeds out of the US is irrelevant for that purpose (it is relevant for FBAR/FATCA etc). Since you had no basis in the property, all the proceeds are taxable to you at the time of the sale and should be reported on your tax return.


"This is the best tl;dr I could make, [original](https://qz.com/1017457/there-is-a-point-at-which-it-will-make-economic-sense-to-defect-from-the-electrical-grid/) reduced by 79%. (I'm a bot) ***** > A new study by the consulting firm McKinsey modeled two scenarios: one in which homeowners leave the electrical grid entirely, and one in which they obtain most of their power through solar and battery storage but keep a backup connection to the grid.  > As daily needs for many are supplied instead by solar and batteries, McKinsey predicts the electrical grid will be repurposed as an enormous, sophisticated backup.  > Solar panels and battery prices are dropping fast-lithium-ion batteries have fallen from $1,000 to $230 per kilowatt-hour since 2010-as massive new solar and battery factories come online in China and the US. By 2020, Greentech Media projects, homes and businesses will have more battery storage for energy than utilities themselves.   ***** [**Extended Summary**](http://np.reddit.com/r/autotldr/comments/6kchib/there_is_a_point_at_which_it_will_make_economic/) | [FAQ](http://np.reddit.com/r/autotldr/comments/31b9fm/faq_autotldr_bot/ ""Version 1.65, ~155595 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*: **grid**^#1 **battery**^#2 **utility**^#3 **solar**^#4 **McKinsey**^#5"


"The answer to your first question is true. No tax on withdrawls. Under these circumstances, the withdrawl is ""qualified"". To your second question, as long as the withdrawl is qualified, it is not taxed, regardless of your additional income. http://www.investopedia.com/articles/retirement/03/030403.asp?lgl=rira-baseline-vertical has a very comprehensive, plain English, description of the IRS rules (as of today, anyway)."


More likely I miswrote.  Yes, we're talking about capital gains.  But who, outside of the moneyed elite, have enough capital gains to incur substantial taxes?  Many don't and never will despite how hard they work or how productive they are.  Also, doesn't taxing income more than capital gains discourage production?  I always hear how high capital gains tax discourages investment and growth.


If you have the expired check in hand and take it back to the bank that issued it to you, I'd think they could do something for you.  (I'd hope they would, anyway.) But automatically?  I don't think so.


This is a funny comment, because not only are you misinformed, you didn't even read what the guy said.  You're just grumpily shouting at the voices in your head.  Welcome to the modern world, luddite.  The cat is out of the bag and it's never going back.  Too bad, so sad.


The post office has already been replaced with private options. Thats why it is failing and loosing billions a month. You have taken my money and have been trying to justify it this whole thread. Taxes are theft you just don't want to admit it. Taking less is still taking.


I think you can. I went to Mexico for business and the company paid for it, so if you are self employed you should be able to expense it.


Not everyone there is rich so not sure what you are getting at by labeling it as a rich community. Deal, NJ I can see you saying it as rich but not Lakewood. There are plenty of families there who honestly qualify for help from the Government.


It's in your interest to pay down these loans (just like any debt) at an accelerated rate, so long as you prioritize it appropriately and don't jeopardize your financial situation. What are your plans for the $50k? Is it a downpayment on a house? Are you already saving for retirement? At what rate are you saving each year? These are all important questions. There is nothing wrong with using some of the $50k to make a dent in your loans, but overpaying a debt at 6% should not be your first priority. Save for retirement, pay off credit cards, make sure you have an emergency fund of between 6-12 months living expenses (depending on your comfort level as well as how stable you think your job is, and how much you could downsize if need be). Then, tackle extra loan payments. Unfortunately 6% is about what you would expect to get in the market these days, so you can't necessarily make more money investing your remaining cash on hand as compared to putting it towards your loans. And you could always make less. Personally, I would divide the $50k as follows. Insert your own numbers/circumstances :) Of the ~$30k that remains...


Well, if you worked in the United States you have social security, and medicare and medicaid in most cases as well.  So you have a small amount of income to spend every month to cover your most basic living expenses, as well as your basic medical expenses.  At least, that's the idea. In reality, it probably isn't anywhere near enough money for most to live comfortably.  Also, there is a real fear that the US will have to inflate itself out of its debt to some extent in the future.  This theory implies that the money retired individuals have saved or are receiving down the road could buy significantly less in the future than they expect. If you have the ability to put money away into an IRA or 401K early in your life, it will be greatly beneficial to do so.  However, that is another issue I won't begin to discuss fully here. Edit since your question was restated after I typed my initial response, the final answer is:  You will receive some assistance from Social Security, Medicare, and Medicaid.  You will most likely need to either continue working, draw on savings such as an IRA or 401k, or will need assistance from others.  If none of those are options, you would most likely end up living in poverty or worse.


The obvious ones are retail sales and the service industry, you know McDonald's and Starbucks (sigh).  You simply need people where the transaction takes place.  I would like to say actual doctors (as opposed to X-ray technicians etc) but some diagnosis is being done over the net these days so even doctors will face some pressure though probably not too much.  They say software project management will survive but I'm seeing that gradually move overseas - that or US project managers end up managing such a huge number of overseas projects at once that the job is crazy stressful.  The only high-paying jobs I can think of that should be pretty safe from outsourcing are marketing and advertising.  You need to know the local culture pretty well to do that job well.  However, the pendulum's bound to swing back a fair bit.  I've worked at several places that were pretty hard core with outsourcing.  One of the biggest outsourcing cheerleaders said that it would stop being worth it when the wage ratio got to 5-to-1.  When it hit 5-to-1, he changed to 4-to-1.  When that was hit, they found a cheaper country.  But eventually, the travel, inherent inefficiency and frequent quality issues will force jobs back onshore.  It will likely be 5-10 years til we really see things turn around much.  A lot of the delay won't be that it's still a bit cheaper overseas than at home but rather that US companies love holding outsourcing over the heads of their workers to keep wages lower and keep us working all that free overtime.


Because it's the longest running bull market in history. And the recent surge is based on speculation that taxes will be lowered and regulations will be lifted. I don't think either will happen. The republican agenda is basically done until 2018. They've wasted all their political capital on the healthcare debacle and the Russia investigation.


"It really depends a lot on you and how much time you are putting into it. Since you're saying you want your money to work for you I'm going to assume you want as little hassle as possible. A few general tips: Save a fixed percentage of your monthly income Don't try to save ""whenever you have money left over"", you will just end up spending it somehow. Invest long term - don't trade Don't try to beat the market - it will just take up too much time and statistically you will end up making less. Hedge If you invest in the company/industry you work in, you will be double screwed if the sector drops (lose job + savings at the same time). Optimally you should invest in something that will benefit when the company you work for is doing bad. Pay off high interest debt Usually debt will have a higher interest than any safe investment you can make. Spend money to save/make money Sometimes the best investment you can make is on stuff that will save you money in the long run. Like buy an apartment close to work (less transport costs) or get a more expensive car that will save you money on gas, insurance etc."


For various reasons, real estate prices exhibit far more memory than stock prices.  The primary reason for this is that real estate is much less liquid.  Transaction costs for stock trading are on the order of 10 basis points (0.1%), whereas a real estate transaction will typically have total costs (including title, lawyers, brokers, engineers, etc.) of around 5% of the amount of the transaction.  A stock transaction can be executed in milliseconds, whereas real estate transactions typically take months.  Thus today's behavior is a much better indicator of future price behavior for real estate than for stocks.


It is pretty easy to setup a spreadsheet for calculating interest payments and remaining balance.  Do a quick search online.  You may want to put it in something like Google Docs, where brother can view the status, but only you can edit it.  When you get a payment, a portion goes to interest and another to principle.  The formulas will do the work for you. However, I feel that there is a bigger issue.  The math may seem like a good deal for the both of you, but I would be very hesitant to loan a family member money. What if he does not pay?  What if he is late with a payment and goes on a vacation himself?  What if his significant other resents the payment that you collect which precludes her from  buying a new TV, etc... People come to hate/resent big corporations that they have to make payments.  How much more so one that has a face....that comes over and eats?  While this loan is outstanding holidays may never be the same.   Is the loan a real need?  Are you in a position to give them the money?  You may want to consider the latter. Is there a reason he can't just borrow the money from the bank?


Since your child is 2, he has a long time horizon for investment.  Assuming the savings will be used at age 19, that's 17 years.  So, I think your best bet is to invest primarily in equities (i.e. stock-based funds) and inside an RESP. Why equities?  Historically, equities have outperformed debt and cash over longer time periods.  But, equities can be volatile in the short term. So, do purchase some fixed-income investments (e.g. 30% government bonds and money market funds), and do also spread your equity money around as well -- e.g. buy some international funds in addition to Canadian funds.  Rebalance every year, and as your child gets closer to university age, start shifting some assets out of equities and into fixed-income, to reduce risk.  You don't want the portfolio torpedoed by an economic crisis the year before the money is required! Next, why inside an RESP? Finally... what if your kid doesn't attend post-secondary education?  First, you should probably get a Family RESP, not a Group RESP.  Group RESPs have strict rules and may forfeit contributions if your kid doesn't attend.  Have a look at Choosing the Right RESP and Canadian Capitalist's post The Pros and Cons of Group RESP Plans. In a Family plan, if none of your kids end up attending post-secondary education, then you forfeit the government match money -- the feds get it back through a 20% surtax on withdrawals.  But,  you'll have the option of rolling over remaining funds into your RRSP, if you have room.


Are you out of your mind?  Federal spending has doubled since *2000*.  WWII might be the only time our government was ever bigger (and incidentally, slashing that by 75% directly preceded one of the greatest growth periods in our history).  Seriously, can you name me three programs or departments that have smaller budgets, in real dollars, in 2012 than they did in 2008?


"That depends, really. Generally speaking, though - Roth IRAs are THE PLACE for Stock-Market/Mutual-Fund investing. All the off the wall (or, not so off the wall) things like Real Estate investments, or buying up gold, or whatever other ideas you hear from people - they may be good or bad or whatnot. But your Roth IRA is maybe not the best place for that sort of thing.  The whole philosophy behind IRAs is to deliberately set aside money for the future. Anything reasonable will work for this. Explore interesting investment ideas with today's money, not tomorrow's money. That being said - at your age I would go for the riskier options within what's available.  If I were in your situation (and I have been, recently), I would lean toward low-fee mutual funds classified as ""Growth"" funds.  My own personal opinion (THIS IS NOT ADVICE) is that Small Cap International funds are the place to be for young folks. That's a generalized opinion based on my feel for the world, but I don't think I'm personally competent to start making specific stock picks. So, mutual funds makes sense to me in that I can select the fund that generally aligns with my sense of things, and assume that their managers will make reasonably sound decisions within that framework. Of course that assumption has to be backed up with reputation of the specific MF company and the comparative performance of the fund relative to other funds in the same sector. As to the generalized question (how else can you work toward financial stability and independence), outside of your Roth IRA: find ways to boost your earning potential over time, and buy a house before the next bubble (within the next 18 months, I'm GUESSING)."


The increase of currency value in relation to another is a critical determinant of the economic health. It plays an important part in the level of trade and affects the world’s free market economy. But, they also effect on smaller scale as they create an impact on the portfolio of investors. So, it is suggested that the investors should make their trades wisely keeping in mind the value of other currencies that might your trade. Also, you should check the news daily to get regular updates and be well-informed of any changes happening in the market


"I think this is more a symptom of the complexity and difficulty associated with buying a smartphone; unless you're technically inclined, the long lists of specs and features for each model are difficult to compare, turning buying a smartphone into ""I know the iPhone and galaxy s3 are good, so I'll just get one of those rather than doing hours of research on what's really best for me""."


Russia has become more risky as an investment, thus investors, basically the market, wants to be paid more for investing in or owning those bonds. As yields go up, prices go down. So right now you can buy a low priced Russian bond with a high yield because the market views the risk involved as higher than risks involved in other similar securities.


Well, this covers about 6 trillion.  Monetary base wasn't defined in the table and I was too lazy to drill down.  I'm guessing it is M2.  Annnnnnd if you think about it a lot of the red and blue section went into shoring up bank balance sheets.  Why?  I can't prove it yet but i suspect twas to support the derivatives market and keep it from collapsing.


It is COMPLETELY no use to pay earlier (during a billing cycle) to better your credit score! Your credit score gets affected ONLY once a month from each creditor, and that happens when they post your monthly statement. Thus, no matter what you do or pay and how many times a month or how many days earlier than your due date, it has NO EFFECT WHATSOEVER on your score. Anything you do will be reflected only after the statement. What you pay in between those two statements is irrelevant. So, as far as credit score goes IT DOESN'T MATTER. However, if you want to save on interest being charged, it is wise to pay as early as possible, so your balance is as low as possible for day-by-day calculation of your interest.


">Except it's not going to be ""Whole Foods"" as you know it. In the article it says how Amazon is planning to get rid of all the expensive whole food inventory and replace it with cheap foods with mass appeal. Their goal to to compete with Walmart.   LOL, I bet all those Whole Paycheck shoppers are pissed that they won't be able to use this store as a status symbol anymore."


"It seems that I recently saw someone post on twitter that Microsoft is making an unsupported ""Sunset"" edition of Money available.  If you're hooked on Money, you might want to investigate that."


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"I'll answer your second question: it depends what your charity is for. There are two types: i) Emergency (i.e. to respond to environmental or social disasters where it acts a bit like an insurance policy); ii) Development (i.e. where the intention is to subsidise something missing in the local economy); A lack of insurance is certainly a problem for people who lose their homes and livelihoods to disaster.  Your donations can go far. As for development aid: ""We find little evidence of a robust positive correlation between aid and growth,"" write two ex-IMF economists, Raghuram Rajan, who stepped down as IMF chief economist at the end of 2006, and Arvind Subramanian, who left the IMF this year. ""One of the most enduring and important questions in economics is whether foreign aid helps countries grow ... There is a moral imperative to this question: it is a travesty for so many countries to remain poor if a relatively small transfer of resources from rich countries could set them on the path to growth ... But if there is no clear evidence that aid boosts growth, then handing out more money makes little sense,"" they conclude. I do somewhat further in declaring that charity is equivalent to trade dumping.  By artificially lowering the real cost of a particular good it ensures that there will be no local investment in that good.  Free clothes to Africa has destroyed the local textiles industry.  Free doctors has resulted in more African doctors in New York than in the whole of Africa. So decide where your charity is going: emergencies or development?  Then decide what you can afford.  But your first investment should always be in yourself.  If by making use of that investment you can benefit the economy and keep others around you employed and productive you will achieve far more."


Many services charge prices that do not scale linearly with usage.  This is because the service provider has fixed costs that they must recoup by charging a rate with a fixed component.  A 5-mile taxi ride is unlikely to cost half what a 10-mile taxi ride costs.  Even a half sandwich at a sandwich place usually costs more than half of what a full sandwich costs.  In this respect, insurance is no different from many other items you may purchase.


Up until now I was looking at general European market and then dividing it up by sectors, but a country-specific distribution would also be a possibility, but I am afraid that the amount of work required to divide things up that much might be too much. Then again, it honestly might not. It could very well be that I'll come across this information during my research and if that's the case, it would certainly be worth incorporating into my paper.   My intention is to take pieces of my thesis and turn them into separate specials for my employer to publish if my employer allows me to work on my thesis at work over the summer. We'll see. Hoping to be done by the end of September, so we'll see. I'll certainly be sure to keep the subreddit posted. My thesis will also certainly make it over to my [Scribd](http://www.scribd.com/dwietstruk).


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"There's a reason that you get a discount code: to make you feel like you're getting a deal. A deal is what you get when there was something that you were already going to buy, and you got it for a lower price than you were going to originally spend on it. If you learn to look at ""rewards"" as a marketing ploy that is designed only to get your business, then it's easier to ignore them. But if you really do want a thing, and is is a thing that you are going to use, then by all means, go for it! Buy it, and use those rewards and enjoy them. Otherwise you're just giving your money to someone else for no good reason. And if you want to do that, you should just give it to me. At least I'm honest about it :)"


He said he would need my first and last name and my online banking information not my date of birth, SSN, Address, Bank Address, Routing number, or checking account number This is a scam. No one needs online Banking User name and password. If you have already given this info, close your account and disable internet banking.  not my date of birth, SSN, Address, Giving your date of birth and SSN is also dangerous.  So my question for you is it a scam or could he really be wanting to put money into my account? Oh yeah and also he said they'll send it through my account I'll send half BACK through money gram or western union. There is no legit reason for doing this. This is 100% scam, one would only loose money. Just walk away before any damage can be done


I highly recommend passive investing through something like betterment (www.betterment.com) or vanguard's ETFs.  FutureAdvisor.com can provide some good advice as to what funds to invest in. I'd recommend using that money to max out your Roth IRAs each year, too.


"> There aren't only two factors at play here.  Absolutely. There are many factors that go into success.  > His genius has been rivaled very few times over the past 250+ years.  The thing about art is that older is better. For example, who has rivaled shakespeare? Or even better homer? It's unfair to blame modern people for not being columbus because you can't ""rediscover"" america.  The point is that there are just as equally talented people at every generation, but a lot of external factors must come into play for one to become bach, shakespeare, etc.  >  Both Bach and such nameless composers put conscious effort into the placements of their notes, so luck is not a factor.   That's nonsense. Luck is always a factor. However, it's not the sole factor."


"The Wikipedia page for Repurchase Agreement has two relevant pointers on this topic:  The legal title for any securities used in a repo actually pass from seller to buyer during the term of the agreement. In basic terms this means that if one sells a bond on repo with a promise to buy it back, then the ownership actually transfers to the buyer for that period of time.  If a coupon is paid during this time period, it can either go to the buyer or the seller. Usually, the coupon payment goes to the initial owner of the security pre-repo (our ""seller""). But sometimes the repurchase agreement will specify otherwise. So, again in basic terms, usually the repo seller/initial security owner receives any payments made during the term of the repurchase agreement. (Both points are in the first paragraph of the section ""Structure and Terminology"".)"


Companies do both quite often.  They have opposite effects on the share price, but not on the total value to the shareholders.  Doing both causes value to shareholders to rise (ie, any un-bought back shares now own a larger percentage of the company and are worth more) and drops the per-share price (so it is easier to buy a share of the stock).  To some that's irrelevant, but some might want a share of an otherwise-expensive stock without paying $700 for it. As a specific example of this, Apple (APPL) split its stock in 2014 and also continued a significant buyback program: Apple announces $17B repurchase program, Oct 2014 Apple stock splits 7-to-1 in June 2014. This led to their stock in total being worth more, but costing substantially less per share.


Stock values are generally reflective of a company's overall potential; and to some extent investor confidence in the prospect of a continued growth of that potential. Sales over such a short period of time such as a single weekend do not noticeably impact a stock's valuation.  A stock's value has more to do with whether or not they meet market expectations for sales over a certain period of time (generally 1 quarter of a year) than it does that they actually had sales (or profits) on any given day. Of course, catastrophic events, major announcements, or new product releases do sometimes cause significant changes in a stock's value.  For this reason you will often see stocks have significant volatility in periods around earnings announcements, merger rumors, or when anything unexpected happens in the world that might benefit or hurt their potential sales and growth. But overall a normal, average weekend of sales is already built into the price of a stock during normal trading.


If we sealed our home completely, we should only get fresh air inside when we opened a door or window. To replace them with fresh air, exhaust unwanted smells, water vapor and pollution we need ventilation, but we can turn it on and off as we need it, and direct it where it is necessary we also need to control ventilation.


From a mathematical point of view the stats do not change depending on past performance. Just because a fund is lucky one year doesn't mean that it will be unlucky the next. Consider tossing a coin, the chance of heads is 50%. If you have just thrown 3 heads, the chance of heads is still 50%. It doesn't go down.  If you throw 10 heads in a row the chance of a heads is still 50%, in fact you many suspect there is something odd about the coin, if it was an unfair coin then the chance of a heads would be higher than 50%. It could be the fund is better run, but there could be other reasons, including random chance. Some funds will randomly do better and some will randomly do worse What you do know is that if they did better than average other funds have done worse, at least for last year.


There are several factors that can help you make a decision.  How friendly are the laws to tenants as opposed to landlords?  How easy will it be for you to collect rent?  How much management is needed?  Do you desire to own rental properties?  What does your schedule look like? Based upon pure numbers I would keep this property.  It looks like you can earn 3K per year, which you may have done some math wrong, on about a 15,000 per year investment.  About 20%, very good.  Even if you only collect half your profits due to maintenance or missed rent checks the numbers still look really good. If you don't need the extra funds, you can always pay more on the mortgage.  The other thing to consider is the rest of your fiances.  Can you cover a couple of months of missed rent?  Do you have an emergency fund?  Do you have other debts?


Your federal taxes in US include the tax which Indian government wants back from you under the treaty with US government. Some countries have treaty with US where all the money person earns in US can be reclaimed at the end of the financial year i.e no money goes to the country of citizenship. However, Indian citizens working in US are not liable for 100% reclaim on their federal tax.


From your question, it seems your problem is that you have a company that wants to make a deal, but does not currently have enough money to go through with it. Therefore it needs to raise capital. Assuming that you cannot get a loan from a bank and you do not want to seek funding from other sources, the two owners must provide the funds themselves somehow. Option A: The easiest and fairest way to do this is for the two shareholders to provide 75%, and 25% of the funding as a loan to the company. They will provide this loan knowing it may not be paid back if the company goes under. Note that it would not be fair for one of the shareholders to provide more, as that shareholder would be taking all the risk, while the other still reaps the rewards (although you could add a large interest rate to account for this). Option B: But say one of the shareholders cannot provide additional funds. In that case, the company should issue new shares, and each shareholder can purchase however many of the new shares he/she wants (each shareholder is entitled to purchase at least 75% or 25% respectively, but does not have to). The result of this may be that company ownership percentages have changed after the capital raising. This is more complex as it require valuing the company accurately to be fair, and probably requires reporting to a government (depending on the jurisdiction).


"Yes you can. Volvo for example sells ""polestar"" tunes. Walk into the dealership, plunk down $1600, and your car gains 40 horsepower  from a software tweak. Still maintains the full warranty. Ford sells ford performance tunes the same way. Zero hardware changes. Here is the link http://accessories.volvocars.com/en-az/XC70(08-)/Accessories/Document/VCC-480810/2016"


Money is a means to an end. If you see it as an end, of course you're not going to be happy, but so long as you utilize it to maintain a stable lifestyle which will allow for you to do things like spend quality time with loved ones, develop skills, and pursue interests (things that actually do tend to bring happiness), money is a good tool to have.


Sales and operating revenue (“Sales”) decreased by 6.2% compared to the previous fiscal year (“year-on-year”) to 7,603.3 billion yen (67,886 million U.S. dollars). This decrease was mainly due to the impact of foreign exchange rates. On a constant currency basis, sales were essentially flat year-on-year, due to significant increases in Game & Network Services (“G&NS”) and Semiconductors segment sales, substantially offset by a significant decrease in Mobile Communications (“MC”) segment sales. For further details about the impact of foreign exchange rates fluctuations on sales and operating income (loss), see Notes on page 11


While I do legitimately appreciate your sentiment, I think that in consideration of the larger context of evidently widespread corruption, it is fair to be frustrated at certain kinds of madness. There is sometimes a reason for it, and most executives are in fact highly intelligent people. But we can't help but wonder how much ill could be avoided if it weren't for some greedy or careless individuals, as the case may be.


Islamic wedding cards are very popular these days. There are many families that spend lots of money to get the best cards. Many companies have now started their own websites where potential customers can browse the site and pick the cards they want.


How to start is pretty simple.   With your next pay check set aside an amount and open a separate savings account.  Since this is an emergency fund - you want it someplace where you can get to the money quickly (so a CD or mutual fund is not good), but you want it in a separate account so that you don't accidentally use it.    Once the account is opened I'd recommend setting up an automatic transfer, or make it part of the direct deposit if you do that, so that you put in some money regularly (every pay check).  By adding to it regularly and not using it, you'll more quickly achieve your goal.   I'd recommend stopping, or slowing any retirement savings or other investing, until you get the emergency fund in place.  If you have an emergency, the money in the retirement fund isn't going to do you much good as it costs too much to do an early withdrawal.  The whole point of the emergency fund is to have liquidity when you need it so that you don't incur the costs of unplugging your longer term investments. Also don't worry overly much about making money on this money.  This isn't an investment it is there for emergencies.


What you posted didn't disagree though, as far as I could tell. Maybe I'm just tired and I'm missing something.  Until recently, I worked construction. Now I have a part time job while I learn computer programming.  Why do you ask?


"You ask a few different, though not unrelated, questions. Everywhere you turn today, you hear   people talk about how much they need   to save or how important it is to find   a good deal on things ""in this   economy"". They use phrases like ""now   more than ever"" and ""in these   uncertain times"". It seems to be a lot   of doom and gloom. Some of this is marketing spiel.  You may notice that when the economy goes south the number of ads for the cheaper alternatives goes north.  (e.g. hair clippers, discount grocery stores, discount just about anything)  Truth is, we should always be looking for ways to save money on goods and services we purchase.  The question is, what is acceptable to you for your desired lifestyle.  (And, is that desired lifestyle reasonable for your income, age and personal situation.)  Generally speaking, the harder times are the more we find discounted/cheaper alternatives acceptable.   Is there really a good reason that   people should be saving more than   spending right now? How much you are putting away is a personal matter.  I can still remember my dad griping whenever he couldn't save half of his paycheck.  That said, putting away half your paycheck may lead to a rather austere lifestyle.  This, of course, depends on the size of your paycheck and your desired lifestyle.  You could be raking it, living simply and potentially put away more than half your income with relative ease. If you have a stable job, and a decent cash reserve, is it anymore ""dangerous"" to make a large purchase now than it was seven years ago? Who knows?  Honestly, no one.  Predicting the future is a fool's errand.  (If you are interested in reading more on this view point, I suggest The Black Swan.) You mention the correct approach in this question.  Ensure that you have liquid assets (cash or cash equivalents, i.e. money that you can draw on immediately and isn't credit) which covers at least 3-6 months of your necessary expenses (rent/mortgage, bills, car payments, food).  (There is no reason that you couldn't try to increase this to 1 year, especially ""in this economy."") You should also strive to have money available for emergencies that don't necessarily include loss of income.  Of course, make sure you're putting away for retirement, as appropriate for your retirement goals.  After that should come discretionary items, including investing, entertainment, the large purchase you mentioned, etc.   You should never use money that you may need immediately (5-10 years) for investing.  This doesn't necessarily include the large purchase you are contemplating.  For example, if you are considering purchasing a home, the down-payment may be one of the items for which you need money in the ""immediate"" future. Is it really only because of unemployment numbers? This is probably the big one that is the focus of everyone's attention.  That said, the human attention span is limited.  We have a natural need to simplify things.  This is one of the reasons that we tend to focus on a few, hopefully important, things.  However, the unemployment numbers are not that the only thing of concern.  Credit is still pretty hard to come by these days.  The overall economy is still hurting, even if we are technically no longer in a recession.  There are also concerns about U.S. government borrowing, consumer spending, recent trucking numbers, etc.  (It may not be obvious, but trucking is used as a barometer of economic activity.  If there aren't as many trucks carting goods across the country, it probably means that there is less economic activity.)  The headline number these days is unemployment, as most census workers have now been returned to the pool. To answer the overall question, we should always be saving money, in good times or in bad.  Be that by squeezing more value out of our purchases or by putting some money away.  We should always try to reduce our risks, by having an emergency ""cash"" cushion.  We should always be saving for retirement.  Truth be told, it is probably more important to put money away in good times, before the hardships hit."


This creates high levels of efficiency, but is efficiency really what we need?  A robot is very efficient, and increases income, but for who?  When a corporation absorbs another, it does so *with the expectation* that redundant jobs will be shed, and that the income from those jobs will go to the shareholders.  And so one can see where income inequality has it's roots.


This doesn't make any sense. For the people who ask you this, suggest that they borrow the money to invest with you. They can use their bitcoins as collateral for the loan. That way, they get the same benefit and your company doesn't go out of business if the price of bitcoin drops, even temporarily, because the loan becomes unsecured. If they want to try to use a volatile asset as collateral and have to figure out how to cover when the price drops temporarily, great. But why should they put that risk on your other investors who may not be so crazy? Also, this obviously won't meet the investor's concerns anyway. Say the price of bitcoin goes up but you lose 10% of the money you borrowed. Clearly, your investors can't have an interest that worth as much as they would have if they held bitcoin since you lost 10%.


You could take these definitions from MSCI as an example of how to proceed.  They calculate price indices (PR) and total return indices (including dividends).  For performance benchmarks the net total return (NR) indices are usually the most relevant. In your example the gross total return (TR) is 25%. From the MSCI Index Defintions page :- The MSCI Price Indexes measure the price performance of markets   without including dividends. On any given day, the price return of an   index captures the sum of its constituents’ free float-weighted market   capitalization returns. The MSCI Total Return Indexes measure the price performance of markets   with the income from constituent dividend payments. The MSCI Daily   Total Return (DTR) Methodology reinvests an index constituent’s   dividends at the close of trading on the day the security is quoted   ex-dividend (the ex-date). Two variants of MSCI Total Return Indices are calculated: With Gross Dividends: Gross total return indexes reinvest as much as possible of a company’s   dividend distributions. The reinvested amount is equal to the total   dividend amount distributed to persons residing in the country of the   dividend-paying company. Gross total return indexes do not, however,   include any tax credits. With Net Dividends: Net total return indexes reinvest dividends after the deduction of   withholding taxes, using (for international indexes) a tax rate   applicable to non-resident institutional investors who do not benefit   from double taxation treaties.


...and charge it back to the customer.  So, I'm confused.  Are the fines designed to discourage future transactions or simply there to provide a cost to the client?  I guess the fact that no bankers have gone to jail over this answers that question.


"Your initial plan (of minimizing your interest rate, and taking advantage of the 401(k) match) makes sense, except I would put the 401(k) money in a very low risk investment (such as a money market fund) while the stock market seems to be in a bear market.  How to decide when the stock market is in a bear market is a separate question. You earn a 100% return immediately on money that receives the company match -- provided that you stay at the company long enough for the company match to ""vest"".  This immediate 100% return far exceeds the 3.25% return by paying down debt. As long as it makes sense to keep your retirement funds in low-risk, low-return investments, it makes more sense to use your remaining free cash flow to pay down debts than to save extra money in retirement funds. After setting aside the 6% of your income that is eligible for the company match, you should be able to rapidly pay down your debts.  This will make it far easier for you to qualify for a mortgage later on.  Also, if you can pay off your debt in a couple years, you will minimize your risk from the proposed variable rate.  First, there will be fewer chances for the rate to go up.  Second, even if the rate does go up, you will not owe the money very long."


>People with demanding, manual labor jobs (probably the only way to get enough calories for that kind of work -- none of them were fat)   Most men can eat 2300-2500 calories in a day with out much exercise, and a Whopper is a whole 660 calories. Most sandwiches at any chain restaurant are more than that. Not one salad at Applebees is less than 1000 calories. People have no idea what their calorie intake is.


Michael Pryor's answer is accurate to the actual question asked. The current accepted answer from Dheer is not entirely true but roughly provides an overview of the different entities involved in a typical transaction, with some wrong terminologies, corrected and improved below.  The issuing bank, the one that issues the credit card to the customer. When it comes to the service fee split, the issuer bank takes on the majority of the cut in the service fee paid by the merchant to the different entities. For example, on a 2.5% overall fee paid by merchant, roughly 1.5% goes to the issuer, 0.3% goes to the card network (visa, master card, etc) and the remaining 0.7% goes to the acquiring bank. Reward programs have a partnership with participating merchants, where merchants are charged a higher service fee, for the likelihood of driving a higher volume of transactions to the merchant. A portion of the rewards also comes from the issuer, who shares a percentage of their fee back to the customer, in exchange for the same likelihood of making more profit through increased volume in total transactions. For example, a reward program may charge merchants 4.5% fee, with 3.5% of it going to the issuer. Upto 3% of this can be given back to the customer for their loyalty in using the card service. The banks can afford to take as little as 0.5% instead of their regular 1.5% due to the increased volume of transactions and the fixed fee they collect as membership fee. Note that costco has a similar business plan, but they make money entirely of membership fee. So with enough clients, banks can theoretically afford to run their program entirely on membership fees, costing no additional service fee to merchants. The service fee depicted above is arbitrary, and it can be lowered if the merchant is also a client of the issuing bank, that is, both the issuing bank and acquiring bank are the same. So it is kind of a win-win-win situation. And as usual, the banks can afford to make a larger income, if the customer ends up paying interest for their credit - although the rewards program is not designed accounting on this.


Although I do not know about US Institutions; In India Banks have adopted a mix of features that mitigate the risk. Some ways that are used are;


"Merriam-Webster has the following definitions of the term, ""Interest"": While 2a may be the definition you know, there are more than a few others here that are worth understanding as there can be various contexts so that it isn't as simple as you may think."


Yeah, the more I think of it, the article had a feel of trying to garner sympathy for Swatch for some reason, but why in the hell would they choose to cut off a good revenue stream unless they had a contingecy plan?  Either it's not profitable anymore, or management screwed the pooch.  Possibly both.


Louis Ottimo has always been a controversial character within the securities industry, cited and sanctioned for fraud and misrepresentation, who has had many liens and bankruptcies, and was officially barred for life from the industry by FIRNA in 2017.  He filed personal bankruptcy in 2016 despite being the alleged shadow president of Cold Spring Advisory Group. Just search Louis Ottimo for more information.


"Lack of empathy forces your business to run at 100% turnover. Respect breeds respect.  The ""college kid working for beer money"" can suck a dick because he doesn't exist. Someone working for a little extra cash is not who we're talking about. As this Subway is showing, everybody knows it too.  The people doing the heavy lifting are the ""part-timers"" working 39 hours a week."


Suppose that the ETF is currently at a price of $100.  Suppose that the next day it moves up 10% (to a price of $110) and the following day it moves down 5% (to a price of $104.5).  Over these two days the ETF has had a net gain of 4.5% from its original price. The inverse ETF reverses the daily gains/losses of the base ETF.  Suppose for simplicity that the inverse ETF also starts out at a price of $100.  So on the first day it goes down 10% (to $90) and on the second day it goes up 5% (to $94.5).  Thus over the two days the inverse ETF has had a net loss of 5.5%. The specific dollar amounts do not matter here.  The result is that the ETF winds up at 110%*95% = 104.5% of its original price and the inverse ETF is at 90%*105% = 94.5% of its original price.  A similar example is given here. As suggested by your quote, this is due to compounding.  A gain of X% followed by a loss of Y% (compounded on the gain) is not in general the same as a loss of X% followed by a gain of Y% (compounded on the loss).  Or, more simply put, if something loses 10% of its value and then gains 10% of its new value, it will not return to its original value, because the 10% it gained was 10% of its decreased value, so it's not enough to bring it all the way back up.  Likewise if it gains 10% and then loses 10%, it will go slightly below its original value (since it lost 10% of its newly increased value).


Yes it most cases it is legal. Plus depending on how you look at it, the last payment of 1000 can be principal paid and interest was paid in initial installments.


"No man, I looked at this from an ""I myself was the victim of this supposed injustice"" perspective, and never did I feel entitled to more. We were fine with what we had but we wanted more and knew we would have to work very hard to get it. A favorite quote: If it is important to you, you find a way. If not, you find an excuse"


My bank will let me download credit card transactions directly into a personal finance program, and by assigning categories to stores I can get at least a rough overview of that sidd of things, and then adjust categories/splits when needed. Ditto checks. Most of my spending is covered by those. Doesn't help with cash transactions, though; if I want to capture those accurately I need to save receipts. There are ocr products which claim to help capture those; haven't tried them. Currently, since my spending is fairly stable, I'm mostly leaving those as unknown; that wouldn't work for you.


"As someone who has a very similar debt amount and environment (new grad, nice new paying job, want a car, etc), I'd like to share something with you. Life has unexpected costs. Luckily I didn't buy that new car the first few months out of college like I had planned to; I'm glad that I didn't because, as a fledgling ""adult"", despite having lived on my own while in college while working part-to-full time there are some things you just don't realize until it either happens or it happens to someone else. Here are some of those things: I could go on but I won't. $95K is good money and I would definitely recommend spending it a bit to enjoy yourself. But I would honestly tell you that taking your monthly expenses, adding a few hundred on top of that and then multiplying  that sum by 3 would be a smart savings amount before picking up a car loan. Maybe that's an excessive savings but I've seen way too many people burn out over their cost-of-living and their failure to adjust appropriately when shit hits the fan. So instead of having to deal with the stab at your pride when having to lower the cost/quality of living that you'll probably grow accustomed to at a $95K salary, just prepare for the worst.  Oh, and did I mention... A NEW JOB IS NOT A SECURE JOB Consider yourself to likely be the first asset dropped from the company if even the tiniest thing goes wrong. I know way too many people who were fresh hires at Intel, Boeing, and a few other big tech companies that pay around what you make and, despite being bad asses in college, they were dropped like a bad habit when their employers hit rough patches. To those even more experienced than me, please feel free to add to the list. I'd personally love to know them myself."


"I can't speak for Canada but in the US banks and other financial industry firms will lobby the SEC to some extent over proposed regulations. Basically any time the SEC proposes a regulation they have a period where anyone, including financial firms, can comment on it via letters. The purpose here is for the regulators to get different perspectives on the regulation to help them shape rules that go far enough to protect investors but don't go so far as to over burden or harm the industries they're regulating.   Now obviously this can be a problem largely because financial firms of course are always going to be opposed to new extensive regulations but also because more often than not few investors/members of the public actually comment so the SEC gets a LOT more comments from the industry. The SEC frequently treats the volume of comments almost like ""votes"" so in return the massive volume of industry comments tends to shape their proposed regulations towards being more industry friendly. You can see this in action as a huge majority of revisions to proposed regulation is use to water down the proposed rules.   All in all, industry members lobbying and working with their regulators isn't inherently bad, after all these are the people/firms that know the industry best and so their feedback is valuable and can truly help regulators to make more efficient and effective rules but it certainly can be excessive and will undoubtedly cause bad optics."


$15 being how much it costs to drive a car about 10 miles, and does not account for a driver's time.  Hilarious shit, from the biggest payday loan scam the planet has ever seen. Because Uber is nothing but a scam where you work your ass off, to steal money from your future self, and give 25% of it to Uber!  But if you think 6 cents a mile is a decent wage for a cab driver (which is what you can make, if you are lucky), then by all means, please sign up!


As an F1 student, I have been investing (and occasionally buying and selling within few weeks) for several years, and I have never had problems (of course I report to IRS gains/losses every year at tax time). On the other hand, the officer in charge of foreign students at my school advised me to not run ads on a website and make a profit. So, it seems to me that investing is perfectly legit for a F1 student, as it's not considered a business activity. That's obviously my personal understanding, you may want to speak with an immigration attorney to be on the safe side.


The 10K in savings and money market is equal to about 1.5 months of income for emergency funds. You should add additional funds to this account over the next few years to let that increase to 3 to 6 months of monthly expenses. This money should be kept secure so that it will be there when you need it. Growth is not the primary function for this account. Investment at this stage should be for retirement. This means take advantage of 401K matching if it is available. You will have to determine if Roth or regular makes the  most sense for you. In general the lower your current tax bracket the more sense Roth makes for you. If you want an IRA again decide which type. Also remember that you have until the tax deadline to make a contribution so you can decide to use a refund to fund the IRA. IRAs and 401Ks are just account types with some rules attached. They can be invested in everything from CD's to individual stocks depending on how aggressive you want to be.


Gosh darn it . . . I thought we had already established that all the liquidity went only to the banks and none of it came to the real economy, and all of it is still tied up in funny money exchanges for worthless assets that are still on the Feds books.  Jobs and employment has been fudged, other economic data has also been massaged  . .[latest factory](http://www.reuters.com/article/us-usa-economy-manufacturing/u-s-factory-orders-post-biggest-drop-in-nearly-three-years-idUSKCN1BG1Z5)  Did you expect to pull inflation out of the Donald's ass?  That orange toad is getting ready to default and with N.Korea flinging nukes and China and Russia calling the sanction bluff, and the Fed attempting to unwind QE . . .  What exactly do you think will happen to inflation?


If you buy foreign currency as an investment, then the gains are ordinary income. The gains are realized when you close the position, and whether you buy something else go back to the original form of investment is of no consequence. In case #1 you have $125 income. In case #2 you have $125 income. In case #3 you have $166 loss. You report all these items on your Schedule D. Make sure to calculate the tax correctly, since the tax is not capital gains tax but rather ordinary income at marginal rates. Changes in foreign exchange between a transaction and the conversion of the proceeds to USD are generally not considered as income (i.e.: You sold a property in Mexico, but since the money took a couple of days to clear, the exchange rate changed and you got $2K more/less than you would based on the exchange rate on the day of the transaction - this is not a taxable income/loss). This is covered by the IRC Sec. 988. There are additional rules for contracts on foreign currency, TTM rules, etc. Better talk to a licensed tax adviser (EA/CPA licensed in your State) for anything other than trivial.


50 (dollars, Euros?) is a very small amount to invest. The first time I ever bought stock I picked a winner. It went up by about 40% in the first few months. I sold it and lost money. How? I only bought 10 shares at $7.50 each. The profit was less than the two commissions for buying and selling (about $17 a piece). If you are thinking of buying individual stocks, You simply need to save up more money before it will be practical. If you are not trying to beat the market, which is probably not something an amateur like you or I should attempt, then you should consider low cost index funds. I have money in mutual funds, some of which, have as low as a $100 minimum investment. I have moved entirely away from picking stocks. It was a good experience and I could afford to lose the money, but as a long term strategy, it just was not working for me. Note: This is coming from an American. If this somehow does not apply in Europe...


Peer to peer lending such as Kiva, Lending Club, Funding Circle(small business), SoFi(student loans), Prosper, and various other services provide you with access to the 'basic form' of investing you described in your question.  Other funds: You may find the documentary '97% Owned' fascinating as it provides an overview of the monetary system of England, with parallels to US, showing only 3% of money supply is used in exchange of goods and services, 97% is engaged in some form of speculation.   If speculative activities are of concern, you may need to denounce many forms of currency. Lastly, be careful of taking the term addiction too lightly and deeming something unethical too quickly.  You may be surprised to learn there are many people like yourself working at 'unethical' companies changing them within.


So the Facebook IPO thus far has been a bomb.  People have rightly criticized the company for all sorts of things.  This got me thinking about what people were saying about Google just before its IPO.  So I used Google's wonderful search filter and searched for 'google ipo' and I set the time frame to be the 6 weeks leading up to Google's IPO on August 19, 2004.  Some of the articles are fantastic.  Below are some links to a couple of BusinessWeek articles.  They were really not feeling Google back then.  [Business Week hating on Google](http://www.businessweek.com/technology/content/jul2004/tc20040727_5797_tc024.htm)  [Another BW article](http://www.businessweek.com/magazine/content/04_32/b3895134_mz026.htm)


The option commissions with IB for trading in the US market are between $0.25 to $0.70 per contract. However if you are looking to trade in Canada, where you are from, their option commission for Canada are $1.50 per contract (as you mention in your question). Note that each contract is for 100 shares, so if you wanted to trade the equivalent of 1000 shares, you would need to trade 10 contracts, so you would have to multiply the above commissions by 10 to get your final costs. (i.e. $2.50 to $7.00 in the US and $15.00 in Canada).


No matter you want to rent, sell or buy the property, it’s very essential to find a reliable and professional broker who can ease the entire process for you. These are middle-men and are a great link between sellers and buyers of a specific property.


"I think a the thing with depression and recession is just what he uses  to define those economic statuses. He says at the begining that his thinking on the subject is what he uses and might not be conventional. Interest rates falling to near 0% might be the most common cause of a depression among others and why he chose to talk about it.   &nbsp; For the different methods of depression recovery I beleive he was trying to say that the path to a ""beautiful devleraging"" requires balance. Certaintly the deflationary tactics have there own merits, and are not solely for the purpose of offsetting the inflationary methods, but a balance of everything is the most crucial factor for an efficient recovery."


Well, the revenue of his restaurants in [2015](https://www.forbes.com/sites/abrambrown/2015/06/29/the-chef-that-ate-the-world-how-gordon-ramsay-earned-60-million-last-year/#28883a774e2f) was about $150m.  Restaurants usually have margins in the 5-20% range.  His are high end, so call it 20%.  A 1% increase in costs would be $1.2 million.  So, facing that, it is worth getting together some buyers to see if he can get better prices.


There is no perfect age. Factors that I consider important are, Perfect age for the long term care insurance is after you retire. When you are working, you do have insurance provided by your employer.  It also depends on your assets. If you have assets in excess of $250,000 then you will less likely get any government assistance.  In general, age between 60 and 65 would be perfect for the long term care insurance.


Pretty insightful post. Never thought that it was this simple after all. I had spent a good deal of my time looking for someone to explain this subject clearly and you’re the only one that ever did that. Keep it up.


"I place a trade, a limit order on a thinly traded stock. I want to buy 1000 shares at $10. The current price is $10.50. Someone places a market order for 500 shares. Another trader has a limit order for $10.10 for 400 shares. His order fills, and I get 100 at my price. I wait another day to see if I get any more shares. This is just an example of how it can work. I can place my order as ""all or none"" if I wish to avoid this."


What?! At that level of military, nearly everything that person does is through email (at least, in the Army, it is). I was enlisted, but for a couple years they put me at division level. Working with a 1-star, 2-star, and half a dozen full birds and sergeant majors, I can tell you every. thing. is done through email. Even though these people are in the same building, they're emailing each other constantly and passing docs back and forth. Maybe Navy admirals don't get much official mail, I don't know. But it definitely wasn't like that in the Army.


A log scaler on income would help visualize the data a little better. The physician is just so out of line with the other wages that it makes every other job seem to pay roughly the same. Or a break in the scale to look at outliers.   Or the data could be perfect and the zoom feature isn't working on mobile.   TLDR: According to this chart I should be a physician.


Citizens of Reddit, why must we care about workers making $9/hr when you own [electronics made by workers in Foxconn earning $1.87/hr](http://www.reuters.com/article/2010/10/01/us-foxconn-idUSTRE6902GD20101001)   Maybe some of you fail to see the point, would you pay more money for your computer, if it meant workers had a wage increase? Would you pay more money for your goods in walmart?  This may seem harsh and some of you may be in denial, but the fact is the american people have spoken with our wallets not our hearts. This post is in /r/business where we know profit margin is the key to successful company


Ofrecemos los mejores paquetes turísticos en La Habana. La Habana es la capital de Cuba y respira una energía y vivacidad diferente a cualquier otro lugar de la isla. Este es el lugar para pasear por las calles llenas de bandas de cultura tradicional o tríos, escuchar los golpes de salsa de voladura de una casa privada cercana lejos en los clubes de salsa y empezar a entender el verdadero estilo de vida cubano. Independientemente de los lugares que planea visitar durante su viaje, no vacaciones en Cuba sería una completamente disponible Casa particular en Habana. Cuba tiene dos monedas, una para los turistas y otra para los ciudadanos. Para conseguir una experiencia realmente auténtica en La Habana intenta alojarse en una Casa Particular.


I like that you are hedging ONLY the Roth IRA - more than likely you will not touch that until retirement.  Looking at fees, I noticed Vanguard Target retirement funds are .17% - 0.19% expense ratios, versus 0.04 - 0.14% for their Small/Mid/Large cap stocks.


Comcast it should be noted is following the law.  Government has given them near monopoly status and government failed to support net neutrality.  We should be going after comcast, yes, but also government and its cronyism and interventionism which made this possible.


I get it; money is money and shareholders demand businesses make as much as they possibly can. Great. That doesn't change my opinion that tax inversions are wrong. They deprive the US of valuable income which has been earned through infrastructure, defense, education, etc. It's legal right now so fine but I don't have to patronize businesses which choose to do this. So if the deal closes, as much as I don't eat fast food often, Burger King will lose my future business. Just my choice. And my choice to make the suggestion to others in as many public forums as possible.. <shrug>


So much bullshit in this article:  >In fact, libertarian writer Charles Murray once estimated that providing all unincarcerated Americans over the age of 21 with a **monthly check for $13,000** ($3,000 of which would fund their healthcare) would not only be sufficient enough to provide for their basic needs and help raise the poorest among them above the poverty line, but would also be less expensive than our current welfare state, which includes agricultural and corporate subsidies.  There are 325 million americans. 73% are over 21, so that leaves 237 million. About 1% of adults are incarcerated, so were left with about 235 million. If you gave each one $13,000 that would cost $3 trillion. Or basically the entire federal budget. But wait, that's a *per month* figure. Per annum, that would cost $36 trillion.  Please quit shit posting this UBI and do your fucking math homework.


Many drug developments are not finding cures for new diseases but finding better drugs/ways to improve existing ones.  That's why you have a ton of anti inflammatory drugs, each with a purpose. Even then, each drug, like dexamethazone can be in development to treat something else. Or even in development on how to improve safety/efficacy.  Funding these are unbelievably expensive. Wages for scientists, contractors, equipment..etc, and cost of failed drugs are immense. Keeping shareholders happy may be essential to keep the fundings coming.


Taking all your assumptions: With Roth, you take $6112 from work, (let's call you tax rate 10%) pay $612 in taxes, and contribute $5500 (the max if you are younger than 50).  This $5500 will grow to $21,283 in 20 years at 7% annual growth ($5500*(1.07^20)), and you will pay no additional taxes on it. With the traditional IRA, you take $6112 from work, pay $612 in taxes, and contribute $5500.  You will receive a tax deduction at tax time of $612 for the contribution.  This money will also grow to $21,283.  This will be taxed at your ordinary income rate (which we're calling 10%), costing you $2123 at the time of withdrawal.  You will have $19,155 left over. EDIT: If you invest your tax savings from every contribution to the Traditional IRA, then the numbers wash out.  Perhaps a pivotal question is whether you believe you will have greater taxable earnings from your investments in retirement than you have in taxable earnings today -- affecting the rate at which you are taxed.


"Each individual situation merits a fresh approach.  Working in venture capital, I've learned that the weights are always shifting and taking a ""one size fits all"" approach to business is probably the most foolish thing one can do."


> Children from low-income families have only a 1 percent chance of reaching the top 5 percent of the income distribution, versus children of the rich who have about a 22 percent chance.  * Most rich parents have children who become rich people.   * Therefore: Most rich people are the children of rich parents.   Is guilty of the same logical fallacy as:  * Most rapists are males.   * Therefore: Most males are rapists.   You're claiming the data suggest something that it does not. Stats don't lie, but people do.


Im not sure if this still holds true but when i asked my dad the same question years ago he said Aldis pays for everything up front no debt therefore they are able to get a better price since the money is guaranteed


Consult your local Small Business Administration office - they may have resources that can help you find what you're looking for.


The point of a total return index is that it already has accounted for the capital gains + coupon income. If you want to calculate it yourself you'll have to find the on-the-run 10y bond for each distinct period then string them together to calc your total return. Check XLTP if they have anything


"I often say ""don't let the tax tail wag the investing dog."" I need to change that phrase a bit to ""don't let the tax tail wag the mortgage dog."" Getting a tax deduction on a 4% mortgage basically results (assuming you already itemize) in an effective 3% rate mortgage. The best way to avoid tax is save pretax in a 401(k), IRA, or both.  You are 57, and been through a tough time. You're helping your daughter through college, which is an expense, and admirable kindness to her. But all this means you won't start saving $10K/yr until age 59. The last thing I'd do is buy a bigger home and take on a mortgage. Unless you told me the house you want has an in-law apartment that will bring in a high rent, or can be used to rent rooms and be a money maker, I'd not do this.  No matter how small the mortgage, your property tax bill will go up, and there would be a mortgage to pay. Even a tiny mortgage payment, $400, is nearly half that $10K potential annual savings plan.  Your income is now excellent. Can your wife do anything to get hers to a higher level? In your situation, I'd save every cent I can."


I think they're compounding the interest daily. That means you have to look at the number of days between payments to judge how much the interest charge is. From February 3 to March 2 is 28 days (2012 was a leap year). From March 2 to April 3 is 32 days. That's an increase of about 14% in number of days between payments, which accounts reasonably well to the ~$18 difference in interest charge.  Daily compounding also explains the minor fluctuations in the other interest charges. I think if you compute interest/day for each month, you'll find that it is, indeed, decreasing over time.


I'm down to hate Monsanto but the people who actually do are terrible at explaining why. Always such flimsy, easily falsifiable taking points. If you want me to be concerned about Nestle's terrible labor practices and monstrous position on water availability, don't tell me the Quik rabbit is a gay Muslim.


This was excellent.  VCs buy amazing ideas and people all the time for so little.  It was good to see someone who knows what their idea and execution are worth and stick to their guns.  I see small businesses sell for 2x revenue all the time and then flip on IPO for 10-20x earnings after some growth.  When you have a good team and process, let it ride.


Since the vast majority of fund managers/big investors run private entities, it's not possible to track their performance. It's possible to look at what they are holding (that's never real-time information) and emulate their performance.


"I live where Uber, Sidecar and Lyft are available and have almost regularly used all three services.  Out of all of my experiences, Lyft has been the worse. The drivers I've had are quite creepy. They don't seem to have any regulations of how the drivers should act. I've had a driver start smoking in the car with me. Also, they do not have upfront pricing. They do not give an estimate so it's a surprise when you get the bill. They are also a dollar or two more expensive per mile than Sidecar or Uber.  Sidecar is great for when you need longer rides. Their rates are generally cheaper for long trips. The drivers have rules they need to follow. As a driver for them, it kind of sucks. They are based off of a ""donation"" that you pay for your ride. So you could have a $20 bill. but only pay $3. And then Sidecar takes 20% of that and then to transfer that to your account is either $0.50 or $1. Unless you drive full time, it doesn't make much sense to drive.  And Uber. Oh how I love them! I had one bad experience riding with them and they called me the next day and gave me a refund and some extra ride credit. They are consistently cheaper than Sidecar or Lyft and much more professional. It's like getting a private town car without breaking the bank. Most of the drivers are former taxi drivers, but they go through training with Uber on how to be courteous and knowledgeable about the city. I cannot rave enough about them! :D  It's shady of Uber to mess with their ""competitors"" but that doesn't change my opinion about them. I highly doubt that Uber is telling the drivers to do this."


I think what actually happens is that at the very high end, people with high SAT scores don't go into Science or Math, not that they fail to graduate (I am pretty sure there is a positive correlation with graduation and SAT scores). If you look at graduation surveys at Harvard, half of the students go into finance and consulting. Tech has increased in the last few years because of increased salaries and increasing popularity of programmers/engineers in popular culture.  Basically, the statistic says nothing about the competence of the student. If you randomly select a Harvard student, you will probably get someone whose specialty will be finance or consulting. Graduation rates at Harvard are higher than the average state or community college. But you are right that this is completely irrelevant anyways because an employer will only look at students who have a degree from the right major(s).


Now that was a fun fucking Monday . . .   It seems our  Cheeto in Chief has lost his words and been reduced to a soggy sobbing Cheeto and his hands are trembling to much to abuse Twitter  You have to admit it has been quite peaceful not having to hear him blubber mindlessly about shit he has no clue about   The Koreans made him blink and shut up in Panic . . I guess they know he was a draft dodger and would lock up  Well we picked him


You can report the violation to the payment network (i.e., Mastercard or Visa).  For instance here is a report form for Visa and here is one for MasterCard.  I just found those by googling; there are no doubt other ways of contacting the companies. Needless to say, you shouldn't expect that this will result in an immediate hammer of justice being brought down on the merchant.  Given the presence of large-scale fraud schemes, it's unlikely Visa is going to come after every little corner store owner who charges a naughty 50-cent surcharge.  It is also unlikely that threatening to do this will scare the merchant enough to get them to drop the fee on your individual transaction.  (Many times the cashier will be someone who has no idea how the process actually works, and won't even understand the threat.)  However, this is the real solution in that it allows the payment networks to track these violations, and (at least in theory) they could come after the merchant if they notice a lot of violations.


"She's also emotionally manipulating you. You'll put her in a bad spot if you quit? Tough shit! She only wants you to stay because she is too lazy to find someone else. Trust me, she does NOT care about your future career goals.  Also, she said she would help you out ""if you do well"". What does that mean? Has she given you a benchmark for what ""well"" is? Two months is not very long. Keep looking for something else, and if you find something better, take it. If not, just suck it up and stay there."


Why would anyone listen to someone else's advice? Because they believe that the person advising them knows better than they do. It's as simple as that.  The fact that you're doing any research at all - indeed, the fact that you know about a site on the internet where personal finance questions get asked and answered - puts you way ahead of the average member of the population when it comes to pensions.  If you think you know better than the SJP adviser (and I don't mean that aggressively, just as a matter of fact), then by all means do your own thing. But remember about unknown unknowns - you don't know everything the adviser might say, depending on your circumstances and changes to them over time...


In general, to someone in a similar circumstance I might suggest that the lowest-risk option is to immediately convert your excess currency into the currency you will be spending. Note that 'risk' here refers only to the variance in possible outcomes. By converting to EUR now (assuming you are moving to an EU country using the EUR), you eliminate the chance that the GBP will weaken. But you also eliminate the chance that the GBP will strengthen. Thus, you have reduced the variance in possible outcomes so that you have a 'known' amount of EUR. To put money in a different currency than what you will be using is a form of investing, and it is one that can be considered high risk. Invest in a UK company while you plan on staying in the UK, and you take on the risk of stock ownership only. But invest in a German company while you plan on staying in the UK, you take on the risk of stock ownership + the risk of currency volatility. If you are prepared for this type of risk and understand it, you may want to take on this type of risk - but you really must understand what you're getting into before you do this. For most people, I think it's fair to say that fx investing is more accurately called gambling [See more comments on the risk of fx trading here: https://money.stackexchange.com/a/76482/44232]. However, this risk reduction only truly applies if you are certain that you will be moving to an EUR country. If you invest in EUR but then move to the US, you have not 'solved' your currency volatility problem, you have simply replaced your GBP risk with EUR risk. If you had your plane ticket in hand and nothing could stop you, then you know what your currency needs will be in 2 years. But if you have any doubt, then exchanging currency now may not be reducing your risk at all. What if you exchange for EUR today, and in a year you decide (for all the various reasons that circumstances in life may change) that you will stay in the UK after all. And during that time, what if the GBP strengthened again? You will have taken on risk unnecessarily.  So, if you lack full confidence in your move, you may want to avoid fully trading your GBP today. Perhaps you could put away some amount every month into EUR (if you plan on moving to an EUR country), and leave some/most in GBP. This would not fully eliminate your currency risk if you move, but it would also not fully expose yourself to risk if you end up not moving. Just remember that doing this is not a guarantee that the EUR will strengthen and the GBP will weaken.


Brokerages are supposed to keep your money separate from theirs. So, even if they fail as a company, your money and investments are still there, and can be transferred to another brokerage. It doesn't matter if it's an IRA or taxable account.  Of course, as is the case with MF Global, if illegally take their client's money (i.e., steal), it may be a different story. In such cases, SIPC covers up to $500K, of which $250K can be cash, as JoeTaxpayer said.  You may be interested in the following news item from the SEC. It's about some proposed changes, but to frame the proposal they lay out the way it is now: http://www.sec.gov/news/press/2011/2011-128.htm The most relevant quote:   The Customer Protection Rule (Rule 15c3-3).   This SEC rule requires a   broker-dealer to segregate customer securities and cash from the   firm’s proprietary business activities. If the broker-dealer fails,   these customer assets should be readily available to be returned to   customers.


> Cheaper energy is equivalent to a pay raise  No it isn't.  A pay raise can be distributed as the payee feels fit, cheaper energy only serves one area of expenditure, which as I stated, isn't the major area that somebody who is struggling financially needs help.  We don't need more competitive pricing in products, we need business in America to stop focusing on profits for their shareholders over providing decent wages to their employees.  America is one of the most  (if not the most) competitively priced marketplace in the world.  The average person doesn't give a shit that flowerpots cost $3.40 each instead of $3.60, they care that they have shitty healthcare, cannot afford to buy a house, cannot afford rent, cannot afford decent food, have no job security.    Corporate profits have skyrocketed, the super-rich keep getting richer, bankers make decisions based on their bonuses rather than the sustainability of their decisions.  Cheaper energy isn't going to solve one of those problems.  Corp. profits vs wages:  http://www.zerohedge.com/news/trade-record-corporate-profits-your-miserable-salary


The thing about this, is that it isn’t one or two big decisions. It’s the thousands of smaller decisions.  It’s the choice not to fund cost saving projects because spending cash looks bad this second. It’s not filling critical individual contributor roles and having too many levels of management.  I can give you plenty of examples that show death by 1000 cuts but I think the best example is this:  Internal projects (in general) need to be completed within the same calendar year. Any money that you do not spend in 2017 will not be there for you in 2018. So there is a mad rush in the beginning of the year to spend money and by September all the cash has been used up. Productivity takes a big hit and a significant amount of effort is spent jockeying for next years funding.   GE is a financial company that makes things. It’s run by accountants not by logic.


Don't forget taxes, Web site (even if it just has your business name, address and phone number its better than not having a site at all) social media for showing off the flower arrangements and getting more business...


"There are people (well, companies) who make money doing roughly what you describe, but not exactly. They're called ""market makers"". Their value for X% is somewhere on the scale of 1% (that is to say: a scale at which almost everything is ""volatile""), but they use leverage, shorting and hedging to complicate things to the point where it's nothing like a simple as making a 1% profit every time they trade. Their actions tend to reduce volatility and increase liquidity. The reason you can't do this is that you don't have enough capital to do what market makers do, and you don't receive any advantages that the exchange might offer to official market makers in return for them contracting to always make both buy bids and sell offers (at different prices, hence the ""bid-offer spread""). They have to be able to cover large short-term losses on individual stocks, but when the stock doesn't move too much they do make profits from the spread. The reason you can't just buy a lot of volatile stocks ""assuming I don't make too many poor choices"", is that the reason the stocks are volatile is that nobody knows which ones are the good choices and which ones are the poor choices. So if you buy volatile stocks then you will buy a bunch of losers, so what's your strategy for ensuring there aren't ""too many""? Supposing that you're going to hold 10 stocks, with 10% of your money in each, what do you do the first time all 10 of them fall the day after you bought them? Or maybe not all 10, but suppose 75% of your holdings give no impression that they're going to hit your target any time soon. Do you just sit tight and stop trading until one of them hits your X% target (in which case you start to look a little bit more like a long-term investor after all), or are you tempted to change your strategy as the months and years roll by? If you will eventually sell things at a loss to make cash available for new trades, then you cannot assess your strategy ""as if"" you always make an X% gain, since that isn't true. If you don't ever sell at a loss, then you'll inevitably sometimes have no cash to trade with through picking losers. The big practical question then is when that state of affairs persists, for how long, and whether it's in force when you want to spend the money on something other than investing. So sure, if you used a short-term time machine to know in advance which volatile stocks are the good ones today, then it would be more profitable to day-trade those than it would be to invest for the long term. Investing on the assumption that you'll only pick short-term winners is basically the same as assuming you have that time machine ;-) There are various strategies for analysing the market and trying to find ways to more modestly do what market makers do, which is to take profit from the inherent volatility of the market. The simple strategy you describe isn't complete and cannot be assessed since you don't say how to decide what to buy, but the selling strategy ""sell as soon as I've made X% but not otherwise"" can certainly be improved. If you're keen you can test a give strategy for yourself using historical share price data (or current share price data: run an imaginary account and see how you're doing in 12 months). When using historical data you have to be realistic about how you'd choose what stocks to buy each day, or else you're just cheating at solitaire. When using current data you have to beware that there might not be a major market slump in the next 12 months, in which case you won't know how your strategy performs under conditions that it inevitably will meet eventually if you run it for real. You also have to be sure in either case to factor in the transaction costs you'd be paying, and the fact that you're buying at the offer price and selling at the bid price, you can't trade at the headline mid-market price. Finally, you have to consider that to do pure technical analysis as an individual, you are in effect competing against a bank that's camped on top of the exchange to get fastest possible access to trade, it has a supercomputer and a team of whizz-kids, and it's trying to find and extract the same opportunities you are. This is not to say the plucky underdog can't do well, but there are systematic reasons not to just assume you will. So folks investing for their retirement generally prefer a low-risk strategy that plays the averages and settles for taking long-term trends."