Thanks for explaining added value - I do not think professors are much, if any part of the problem, it really does come down to cost in my eyes. Year over year costs go up. As a country we are pricing ourselves out of education. It will continue to create disparity and eventually you will have a large segment of the population saying no way on college (I can get a lot of free courseware on edx.org and other sites).   As numbers drop colleges are going to be hard pressed to really make money.  I often ponder what that money is spent for. I know a chunk goes to sports and other not necessarily academic activities.  I have advocated for years to people who cannot afford to go to a 4yr college to attend community college, get an Associates and make their decision from there.   With exception of the Ivy league schools I do not think there is enough value in 4 yr degree's in the job market. I am in IT and the number of people I have worked with who have had degrees since the early days of my career has dropped greatly. Many of them had non-computer degrees and jumped job fields to fill gaps early on.  Just my two cents. I really believe that most professors are not the problem (unless they are paid huge sums and even that's dependent on a lot of things)


Paypal UK has a page here: https://www.paypal.com/uk/webapps/mpp/seller-protection Basically they don't just take the seller's word for it, there is a resolution process.  The biggest thing you can do is make sure that you deliver it in a way that requires signature.


"Yes. S&P/ Case-Shiller real-estate indices are available, as a single national index as well as multiple regional geographic indices. These indices are updated on the last Tuesday of every month. According to the Case-Shiller Index Methodology documentation: Their purpose is to measure the average change in home prices in 20 major metropolitan areas... and three price tiers– low, middle and high. The regional indices use 3-month moving averages, published with a two-month lag. This helps offset delays due to ""clumping"" in the flow of sales price data from county deed recorders. It also assures sufficient sample sizes.  Regional Case-Shiller real-estate indices  * Source: Case-Shiller Real-estate Index FAQ. The S&P Case-Shiller webpage has links to historical studies and commentary by Yale University Professor Shiller. Housing Views posts news and analysis for the regional indices. Yes. The CME Group in Chicago runs a real-estate futures market. Regional S&P/ Case-Schiller index futures and options are   the first [security type] for managing U.S. housing risk. They    provide protection, or profit, in up or down markets. They extend to the   housing industry the same tools, for risk management and investment,    available for agriculture and finance. But would you want to invest? Probably not. This market has minimal activity. For the three markets, San Diego, Boston and Los Angeles on 28 November 2011, there was zero trading volume (prices unchanged), no trades settled, no open interest, see  far right, partially cut off in image below.  * Source: Futures and options activity[PDF] for all 20 regional indices.  I don't know the reason for this situation. A few guesses: Additional reference: CME spec's for index futures and options contracts."


Interesting thing is, the refusal to engage in a raw deal has been observed down to the level of less developed primates between cucumbers and grapes.  This fact puts a lot of the political and economic narratives being shoved down our throats into perspective.


Fusion Grill Dine & Lounge is the Best Restaurant For Hangout In Navi Mumbai CBD Belapur which offers the cuisine from north India, South India, Chinese, Thai and other famous cuisine. We also offers the vallet parking and complete privacy in dining and eating. For more information, visit the website: http://fusiongrillcbdbelapur.co.in/


Take your business elsewhere, where the products and services are priced at a level you agree to pay.  This does two things.  First, you end a bad business relationship.  Why bad?  Because you're not happy with the deal.  Second, it sends an unambiguous signal to the losing bank that you were unhappy with their service.  If they offer an exit survey, complete it, and be sure to tell them what made you unhappy with their service. In a free market economy, if consumers all take their business where the terms are favorable, supply and demand would force the banks to compete for consumers' business.


"The reason for this is arbitrage. In an free and open market, investments that are certain to generate above-average profits would do so by being sold cheaply, while having a high return on investment after that. But in a free market, prices are set by supply and demand. There is a high demand and little supply for investments that would certainly outperform the market. The demand is in fact so high, that the purchase price rises to the point of eliminating that excess return. And with high-frequency automated trading, that price hike is instant. But who would even want to sell such guaranteed outperformers in the first place? Of course, there are uncertainties associated with stocks, and individual stocks therefore move independently. As ""the market"" is an average, some stocks will therefore beat the market over certain time periods. That's random statistical variation. The only realistic path to above-average returns is to accept higher risks. As discussed above, nobody wants to sell you safe bets. But risky bets are another matter. Different actors will price risk differently. If you aren't worried much about risk, you can pick up stocks that are cheap by your standards. That is possible only because such stocks aren't cheap by risk-averse standards.  Looking a bit deeper, we see that arbitrage works in a free market because there's essentially perfect information. But risk is precisely the absence of such information, and that can lead to price variations. Yet, as the lack of information means a lack of certainty, you can't use this to reliably beat the market."


The HST is a sales tax levied on most goods and services. It is important to realize that in both BC and Ontario, the new HST does not (in most cases) result in an increase in sales tax paid. For example, in Ontario the PST is 8% and when combined with the GST the sales tax is 13%. With the HST, the GST and PST are replaced by a single HST of 13% so the tax bill does not change. Some services that were previously not subject to PST (such as mutual fund service fees and labour) will now be subject to the HST. So some things will increase. Over time, this should not have a material impact on the consumer due to the way businesses remit GST/HST.


**Pearl River Delta**  The Pearl River Delta (PRD), also known as Zhujiang Delta or Zhusanjiao, officially known as the Yuegang'ao Greater Bay Area or Guangdong—Hong Kong—Macau Greater Bay Area, is the low-lying area surrounding the Pearl River estuary, where the Pearl River flows into the South China Sea. It is one of the most densely urbanized regions in the world and is an economic hub of China. This region is often considered an emerging megacity. The PRD is a megalopolis, with future development into a single mega metropolitan area, yet itself is at the southern end of a larger megalopolis running along the southern coast of China, which include metropolises such as Chaoshan, Zhangzhou-Xiamen, Quanzhou-Putian and Fuzhou.  ***  ^[ [^PM](https://www.reddit.com/message/compose?to=kittens_from_space) ^| [^Exclude ^me](https://reddit.com/message/compose?to=WikiTextBot&message=Excludeme&subject=Excludeme) ^| [^Exclude ^from ^subreddit](https://np.reddit.com/r/business/about/banned) ^| [^FAQ ^/ ^Information](https://np.reddit.com/r/WikiTextBot/wiki/index) ^| [^Source](https://github.com/kittenswolf/WikiTextBot)   ^] ^Downvote ^to ^remove ^| ^v0.24


"In most jurisdictions, both the goods (raw materials) and the service (class) are being ""sold"" to the customer, who is the end user and thus the sale is subject to sales tax. So, when your friend charges for the class, that $100 is subject to all applicable sales taxes for the jurisdiction and all parent jurisdictions (usually city, county and state). The teacher should not have to pay sales tax when they buy the flowers from the wholesaler; most jurisdictions charge sales tax on end-user purchases only. However, they are required to have some proof of sales tax exemption for the purchase, which normally comes part and parcel with the DBA or other business entity registration paperwork in most cities/states.  Wholesalers deal with non-end-user sales (exempt from sales tax) all the time, but your average Michael's or Hobby Lobby may not be able to deal with this and may have to charge your friend the sales tax at POS. Depending on the jurisdiction, if this happens, your friend may be able to reduce the amount the customer is paying that is subject to sales tax by the pre-tax value of the materials the customer has paid for, which your friend already paid the tax on."


There are people whose strategy revolves around putting orders at the bid and ask and making money off people who cross the spread.  If you put an order in between the current bid/ask, people running that type of strategy will usually pick it off, viewing it as a discount to the orders that they already have on the bid/ask.  Often these people are trading by computer, so your limit order may get hit so quickly that it appears instantaneous to you.  In reality, you were probably hit by a limit order placed specifically to fill against yours.


Why for years has every broadband provider and their lobbyists been against anything net neutrality. Verizon sued because of imposed net neutrality rules and won, leaving Title II the only way to enforce net neutrality.   Why believe they won't just bribe congress to allow paid-prioritization, throttling, zero-rating and blocking?  These broadband companies need to start putting their money where their mouth is and stop with the bullshit lobbying against anything and everything remotely pro-consumer.


I have USAA and the home loan process was a nightmare.  My account was also compromised but I caught it immediately because they sent me an alert of a large sum of money being transferred to my checking account, so there is that.  I just found out that Navy Federal finally accepts Army veterans (it hadn't up until a couple of years ago) so I have an account with them just so I can get different loan options and credit card rates.  Navy Federal has minimums for getting ATM refunds while USAA doesn't, so for now I just have a savings account with them.


I don't understand why it would be going (I mean I do, money) up. I would imagine that a large majority of the people who signed up, who did not previously have health insurance, were mostly healthy and not use the healthcare system that often. Shouldn't the new wave of healthy people help leverage the sick people in the system some? Shouldn't the extra inflow of money into the health care system, by people that aren't going to be using the health care system frequently, lower the costs for everyone. I thought that was the whole argument on why this was going to work in the first place...


Lets say the hurdle rate for this company is 10% and the current return on assets is 8%. A linear increase in revenue and earnings would actually destroy some value as projects that have a 9% return are accepted even though they destroy value for the shareholder.  hope this helps!


didn't pay the extra underpayment penalty on the grounds that it was   an honest mistake. You seem to think a penalty applies only when the IRS thinks you were trying to cheat the system.  That's not the case. A mistake (honest or otherwise) still can imply a penalty. While you can appeal just about anything, on any grounds you like, it's unlikely you will prevail.


"idea that somehow people will take a lower income job and automatically grow into a higher paying one.  It doesn't happen automatically. But it does happen all the time. It's climbing the corporate ladder if you will.   ""leads to trying to have a workforce that's minimum wage with little room for growth""  Simply untrue at most successful companies. If you provide value, they pay you what your worth or you jump (if you are smart enough). I see it all the time.   Minimum wage may or may not have kept up with inflation, by that's like saying working at McDonald's only affords me such and such lifestyle. Defined circumstances are required to solve the problem. Inflation isn't directly solved by upping the minimum wage so move on to a better solution.   ""Jobs a worthy cry but can't be only metric to ensure people have opportunity to live decently"".   Jobs are the opportunity. Where there is specific abuse in the workplace denying people equal job opportunity, we fight it. If you don't pay me enough, and I am forced to work for you... that's called indentured servitude which is an abuse and illegal as humans are property in such a case. But if you force me to pay you more than I want to, somehow that's okay? Goes both ways. Leave to a company that pays you what your worth if I don't pay you enough. This is how the most people grow over time to better salaries and more prestigious titles.  ""Lots of college grads with low paying jobs""  Define ""low paying"". I'm a college grad. Wife is too. Lots of people I know are. What $ we make varies greatly from person to person based largely upon the opportunities we created/took not because of a mandated min wage."


"To do all of those things we need people in office substantially different than them there now. At first I read that as"" decartesianization"" and was about to ask about your far out philosophy and/or new metalanguage for drafting the new world's blueprints, hah! Yes, I think I mostly agree with your list of good changes. Labor absolutely needs to be upheld. Less emphasis on money systems in general, and ensuring we use it benevolently. I think the r&d we need to be doing is more in line with nature and focused on preserving and using what the world can comfortably produce and maintain--forests have some pretty wild materials science going on already, do we really need to keep thinking in terms of plastics and electronics? Maybe, maybe not. I don't think the real answers are in technology the way we've used it so far. Maybe I am reading it incorrectly. If you're going to talk about arduino saving the world I guess I'd like to have that convo, but darpa and mit kinda freak me out with how amoral they seem sometimes.   Those changes and revivals you suggest require us thinking more from the heart, being fiercely compassionate and willing to risk much personally if they are to last or be meaningful. Who can do such a thing these days? Where do you suppose these things begin?   I have encountered the phrase you hyperlink before. It really struck me! I thought back to moments earlier in my life when I made a decision based on the thought of that million dollar inevitability. But to still cling to that in this day and age requires a courageous ignorance anymore. I almost admire the people who are still able to believe in it, I admire the power of their faith. Dick cheney is a hero for america whether america likes it or not because he does so much to keep the momentum of the machine going--if the reality of the world without those systems is too scary then dick cheney is a hero for that person, for that person's tacit participation in it or fear of figuring out what that means for them. It removes the experiencing of huge parts of life. Compounded with the quality of food, water, air required to keep everyone in an air conditioned office of amoral consumption industries, I think the back being sore from digging and herding is worth more than carpal tunnel syndrome and fucked feet/legs from the desk. And remember to roll a tennis ball under your feet for a few mins every day to stretch your fascia! It tickles! Thank you very much."


You're an idiot. Apple is another company on his list.  You're laughing now but in a few years no jobs will be in the U.S. You'll be shoving burgers down your throat and helping pay for foreign countries infrastructure and school systems.


"This is the best tl;dr I could make, [original](https://openknowledge.worldbank.org/handle/10986/27615) reduced by 75%. (I'm a bot) ***** > AbstractLatin America and the Caribbean does not have the infrastructure it needs, or deserves, given its income.  > Many argue that the solution is to spend more; by contrast, this report has one main message: Latin America can dramatically narrow its infrastructure service gap by spending efficiently on the right things.  > Unlike most infrastructure diagnostics, this report argues that much of what is needed lies outside the infrastructure sector - in the form of broader government issues-from competition policy, to budgeting rules that no longer solely focus on controlling cash expenditures.   ***** [**Extended Summary**](http://np.reddit.com/r/autotldr/comments/6o5c4m/rethinking_infrastructure_in_latin_america_and/) | [FAQ](http://np.reddit.com/r/autotldr/comments/31b9fm/faq_autotldr_bot/ ""Version 1.65, ~170098 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*: **infrastructure**^#1 **America**^#2 **spend**^#3 **report**^#4 **identifies**^#5"


because thats not how insurance works. Yes, they make a profit, but the only reason any single person can get a policy is because there is a pool of people large enough to spread the risk. That means there needs to be healthy people too. The bigger the pool, the lower the cost. If you're still pissy at that point that it's expensive it's not the insurance company at that point, its the actual costs of medical care that are expensive and require a policy as expensive as it is to cover those costs.


Hmm well the methods used differ depending on the asset class. I've worked with a REIT and PE on a few different types of commercial projects. For a general overview though I would say look up courses at a local community college and purchase the text books on the syllabus. Some asset classes also have free industry updates which can give you an broad overview. Feel free to PM me if you want to talk specifics.


I'm sore but the MAJORITY OF AMERICANS don't want to wash dishes as a career choice. My goodness even if you are the son or daughter of a well of family they don't actually expect their kiddo to work hard. This is HARD work we are taking about, laboring in sun, hot dishwashing, waking up at 4am to clean rooms. I have just never seen a well off family do work like this. It's really for poor Americans but let me tell a single mom can't survive on season work, temporary, no benefits all hours. It just isn't work for any American who wants to be successful. But no worries all hear jobs will go to AI in the future anyway!!! Then there will a crap ton more out of work👌


The government isn't shutting these people down, private corporations are. Also, just based on the demographics of this site, I'm assuming you're a straight white man. They're not targeting you, so you have the luxury of detaching yourself from the rhetoric they spout.


Is there anything here I should be deathly concerned about? A concern I see is the variable rate loans. Do you understand the maximum rate they can get to? At this time those rates are low, but if you are going to put funds against the highest rate loan, make sure the order doesn't change without you noticing it. What is a good mode of attack here?  The best mode of attack is to pay off the one with the highest rate first by paying more than the minimum. When that is done roll over the money you were paying for that loan to the next highest. Note if a loan balance get to be very low, you can put extra funds against this low balance loan to be done with it. Investigate loan forgiveness programs. The federal government has loan forgiveness programs for certain job positions, if you work for them for a number of years. Some employers also have these programs.  What are the payoff dates for the other loans? My inexact calculations put a bunch in about 2020 but some as late as 2030. You may need to talk to your lender. They might have a calculator on their website.  Why do my Citi loans have a higher balance than the original payoff amounts? Some loans are subsidized by the federal government. This covers the interest while the student is still in school. Non-subsidized federal loans and private loans don't have this feature, so their balance can grow while the student is in school.


"If you think your cash will buy fewer goods in the future due to inflation, are there goods you will want or need in the future that you can purchase now? I think the cost of storage would need to be less than the inflation in price for this to make sense. If you used commodity trading there may not actually be a storage cost but likely some fees involved that would need to be weighed against the expected inflation. Basically if ""things"" are going to cost more in the future, making your cash worth less, can you convert cash into ""things"" before prices escalate?"


"no way -- he suggests that if you don't have an edge, no one needs to play the game. He doesn't like the idea of a ""lesser bad"" way to invest (MPT).   If you do decide to get involved in investing, then it's about absolute performance, not relative. He believes that the whole relative performance thing -- beating some arbitrary benchmark -- is just an artificial construct."


Because what is going on now isn't harming the rest of them? It is certainly harming an unprecented number of individuals around the world.  Institutions choose which markets they operate in, and make decisions on how much risk they will be exposed to in these markets. If an institution makes poor decisions, they should wear the consequences, as it would be for any other individual/business in other situation.   'Too big to fail' is a cop-out.


"I'm not sure I understand your question, but I'll try to answer what I think you're asking. I think you're asking this: ""A US bank receives a wire transfer from a Chinese bank. How does the   US bank ensure there's any money in fact arriving before crediting the   destination account?"" Well, the way wire transfers work is that the US bank would debit the senders' account with that US bank. So the US bank in fact transfers the money between two internal accounts: debit to the Chinese bank's account with that US bank and credit the destination customer account. If the Chinese bank doesn't have an account with the destination US bank - a third party intermediary is used that both banks have accounts with. Such third party will charge an additional fee (hence sometimes the wire transfer fees are slightly higher than you initially know when sending the money, the third party would debit from the transfer amount). ""Regular"" IBAN/ACH transfers work through regulatory channels that ensure integrity and essentially use a regulatory bank as that third party. But because they're done in batches and not on-line, they're much cheaper, and the accounting is for the whole batch and not each transfer separately. But batch processing means it will take a day or two of processing, while wire transfer takes hours at most."


In my opinion, every person, regardless of his or her situation, should be keeping track of their personal finances.  In addition, I believe that everyone, regardless of their situation, should have some sort of budget/spending plan. For many people, it is tempting to ignore the details of their finances and not worry about it.  After all, the bank knows how much money I have, right?  I get a statement from them each month that shows what I have spent, and I can always go to the bank's website and find out how much money I have, right?  Unfortunately, this type of thinking can lead to several different problems. Overspending.  In olden days, it was difficult to spend more money than you had.  Most purchases were made in cash, so if your wallet had cash in it, you could spend it, and when your wallet was empty, you were required to stop spending.  In this age of credit and electronic transactions, this is no longer the case.  It is extremely easy to spend money that you don't yet have, and find yourself in debt.  Debt, of course, leads to interest charges and future burdens. Unpreparedness for the future.  Without a plan, it is difficult to know if you have saved up enough for large future expenses.  Will you have enough money to pay the water bill that only shows up once every three months or the property tax bill that only shows up once a year?  Will you have enough money to pay to fix your car when it breaks?  Will you have enough money to replace your car when it is time?  How about helping out your kids with college tuition, or funding your retirement?  Without a plan, all of these are very difficult to manage without proper accounting.   Anxiety.  Not having a clear picture of your finances can lead to anxiety.  This can happen whether or not you are actually overspending, and whether or not you have enough saved up to cover future expenses, because you simply don't know if you have adequately covered your situation or not.  Making a plan and doing the accounting necessary to ensure you are following your plan can take the worry out of your finances. Fear of spending.  There was an interesting question from a user last year who was not at all in trouble with his finances, yet was always afraid to spend any money, because he didn't have a budget/spending plan in place.  If you spend money on a vacation, are you putting your property tax bill in jeopardy?  With a good budget in place, you can know for sure whether or not you will have enough money to pay your future expenses and can spend on something else today. This can all be done with or without the aid of software, but like many things, a computer makes the job easier.  A good personal finance program will do two things: Keeps track of your spending and balances, apart from your bank.  The bank can only show you things that have cleared the bank.  If you set up future payments (outside of the bank), or you write a check that has not been cashed yet, or you spend money on a credit card and have not paid the bill yet, these will not be reflected in your bank balance online.  However, if you manually enter these things into your own personal finance program, you can see how much money you actually have available to spend. Lets you plan for future spending.  The spending plan, or budget, lets you assign a job to every dollar that you own.  By doing this, you won't spend rent money at the bar, and you won't spend the car insurance money on a vacation. I've written before about the details on how some of these software packages work.  To answer your question about double-entry accounting: Some software packages do use true double-entry accounting (GnuCash, Ledger) and some do not (YNAB, EveryDollar, Mvelopes).  In my opinion, double-entry accounting is an unnecessary complication for personal finances.  If you don't already know what double-entry accounting is, stick with one of the simpler solutions.


Ownership has everything to do with it. If I created a block-wide lawn mowing service and forced you to pay for it but I mowed your lawn, your objection to buying my service wouldn't make you the bad guy. You'd say that you don't want my lawn mowing service, and even if you did enjoy the lawn after I took your money and mowed it, you could still object to it and want a different method of taking care of your lawn. The same could be said for any other good/service out there.


Thanks for answering!  So given that the HR recruiters wouldn't know much about the role in-depth, what would be the best way to make some sort of impression on them, and what sorts of questions should I be asking if not technical ones?


I like the article concept, about seeking help where needed. This is something where an advisory board comes into play.   That said, it is super important that you seek advice specifically in areas you are lacking. You want fresh ideas and people that will challenge your ideas.


You didn't answer my questions above, but the biggest factor if the two interest rates are similar is what it will cost you for mortgage insurance if you do not include a 20% down-payment on your next house purchase. I would take the extra money from the proceeds of the other sale to get to a 15-year loan on your next house, then put all of your extra money into paying down the student loans ahead of the 7 year schedule.


i disagree. if a country has sovereign currency, then there is no squandering.  where does that money come from in the first place?  govt creates it, and spends it into the economy through deficit spending.  And govt gets a service or product in return from that spending. Govt deficit spending = private sector savings.


Politicizing the hospitality industry might send a few more customers your way but I'm sure that some sort of anti-PC Hollywood version of a roadhouse / biker bar / casino / hotel that was semi-tasteful enough to attract tourists would be a safe bet.


Of course there is. Plenty of people in finance with average degrees. Front office may be difficult but there are plenty of middle office and back office roles that don't care as much about pedigree. On top of that finance is becoming one of the more reliable industries that are always hiring (at least until the next market crash)


Finding that perfect assisted living facility may be difficult and confusing to choose. There are few factors one should look for before signing the dotted line. We asked summerfield.com owner, Rebecca Landau, to tell us, what makes her facility a sought after place for elderly looking for a Utah retirement.   What is assisted living? This is the most popular solution for elderly people who cannot live independently. It is place where residents will not have to cook their own meals or cut the grass. Our Summerfield Retirement facility offers less expensive residential care while providing a broad range of assistance.   What are the services you provide? Residents get assistance with their bathing, dressing, eating and any other needs. All three meals are cooked from freshly sourced ingredients taking into consideration the dietary needs of each resident. With 24 hour call-light assistance and customized care plan, residents remain socially active while maintaining their independence. Even though the Timpanogos Hospital is right across the street we have specialized doctors, dentists, and podiatrists making regular scheduled visits.  How is the quality of life at an assisted living community? The quality of life can well be seen on the faces of our residents. Every resident has made friends with each other and socially interacts with like-minded people. Daily exercise and a variety of different activities keep them active and happy. Scenic outings, bingo, musical performances, an onsite library, and gym ensure there is never a dull moment at Summerfield.   The best part about our UTAH retirement home is our ability to adapt to and provide support as needed by each resident. An elderly person with less mobility will require a different set of support than someone having trouble remembering details. So instead of losing all their independence and privacy, we provide and adaptable environment.   Information about our community Contact:  Phone: (801) 434 – 7581 Address: 911 North 800 West Orem, Utah 84057 Send questions and inquiries through our contact form:  http://summerfieldinfo.com/contact/


You are right: also Obama had GDP >3% is several quarters during his time.  Back to Trump, the excuse that it's Obama accomplishments is not a good one.   The stock market breaking records, and it's only because  because of faith in Trump.


An entrepreneur that makes their company massively overvalued with zero actual underlying ability to generate profit is way fucking worse than entrepreneur that never gets off the ground to begin with, because the latter doesn't lose investors tens of billions of dollars.   Travis losing a shit ton of money is not a positive sign for him as an individual.


On last nights episode of The Profit Marcus made an offer to the owner of a coffee company. The owner said up front he has 51% with the remaining 49% split between two early investors.  Marcus asked for 40%, said the owner will have 40% and the investors will be reduced to 20%.  Question is how can the owner agree to that deal and take equity away from the investors? It's not his percentage to sell.


I would apply extra cash left over at the end of the month as follows, in order of priority: Realize, though, that this is my take on priority. My experience has been that a liquidity crisis is much more stressful than having a mortgage or other debt -- illiquid wealth is almost useless when you need cash. So if you still have strong feelings about retiring that debt after considering the liquidity issue, go ahead and swap #3 and #4 above. Make plans to pay off the mortgage over the next 10 years. Find a mortgage payoff calculator and make extra monthly payments that keep you on a 10 year schedule. I'd strongly suggest making sure your retirement savings are on track, though. Time is on your side here, and your required monthly contribution will be low now while you're still in your 20s.


"Maybe in your echo chamber of idiocy.  Here in reality, we can [actually look at the historical results of these ""fake polls""](https://projects.fivethirtyeight.com/2016-election-forecast/national-polls/). 47-43. 38-36. 42-39. 45-41. 47-43. And the list goes on. All these polls show a slight but consistent edge for Clinton just on the edge of a typical margin of error."


"Two things.  1.  You can sue anyone for anything.  You may not win, but you can sue for any reason.  2.  You're confusing trademark and copyright.  Copyright inheres at the moment of creation.  You don't have to file a copyright to have it be enforceable.  Trademark is a little trickier, but is for the protection of the consumer and use of a mark is part of what creates its value and the ability to defend it.  However, you cannot copyright nor trademark ideas.  Copyrights must be ""reduced to practice.""  Broadly speaking, that means you have to have done something to create it, not just think about it.  And trademark doesn't apply here.    He could file for a patent, but that would need to have a specific filing and often takes a fairly significant amount of time in which case it's defensible even when some guy copies you.  In short, guy is a moron."


"You seem to be on the right track.  I feel, though, that it's worth addressing your maintenance budget.  Even if both cars described in your question are from the same model year, one has been in service 2x more; one car has been on the road, in weather, twice as much as the other.  I'm not sure what's being represented in the $6k of maintenance, but a whole host of systems can require maintenance or replacement at 200k+ miles.  A/C compressor, all sorts of rubber parts (seals, hoses, belts, bushings), computer systems, stereo, window regulators, the list goes on.  I don't know at what point the battery on a hybrid needs to be replaced, or what that replacement entails, but likely the battery or the hybrid recharge system will require something after 200k miles of service.  I would learn more about what actual maintenance a high mileage prius can experience. To answer your question though, at this level of ""used"" I don't think the dealership adds anything to the equation.  When you're buying certified pre-owned, the dealership/manufacturer relationship and warranty can be meaningful.  When you're buying a 100k+ miles car from a random small used car lot it might as well be a stranger on craigslist..."


If you haven't already, check out his earlier articles when he was at DealBreaker.com - GREAT stuff, my [favourite one](http://dealbreaker.com/2011/09/lets-just-go-ahead-and-assume-that-greek-letters-evil/) is when UBS had a delta one trader Kweku losing $2.1b from unauthorized/unreported trades in the midst of Dodd Frank/Volcker Rule was being discussed.   > A thing that you probably do is go borrow one million shares of UBS and sell them short. This is a sensible thing to do. Why is it sensible? Well, for one thing, your desk is called “delta one,” and you’ve written a derivative, and you want to delta hedge that derivative, and so you pull out a Black-Scholes calculator and plug in a lot of variables and get stuck but then you look at your business card and you’re like, oh, shit, the answer is “one,”


"You're making $100k together per year: you're not in the donut hole, you're in the top 25% of all households, and the top 10% of non-family households (as yours would be).  To be blunt, you're not in the ""rely on assistance"" area: you're in the ""save up for your downpayment"" sector. My suggestion would be to figure out a way to save more than $200-$400 a month for now.  $100k gross income means you have about $8k net income per month; $2k for rent and other necessities means you have $6k per month that you can potentially save.  Even half of that - $3k per month - means you have $24000 saved by the end of this year, and $36000 on an annual basis. As far as marriage or domestic partnership - I wouldn't get into one based on whether it helps you afford a home.  It might be a good idea because it helps you handle some of the details arising when you have joint property, perhaps, but not solely for the financial aspect. And as far as how much home is realistic?  $250k is certainly realistic if you can save up enough for a good down payment.  Try to get to the 20-25% range.  If you're already halfway there, another year of renting won't kill you, and it will mean no PMI and much better rates.   Also consider a 15 year mortgage; we're in the same general income category as you and manage a 15 year on a $250k range house quite nicely.  It doesn't add all that much to your monthly payment amount, compared to what you'd expect - particularly since the monthly payment includes property taxes which won't increase based on the length of the mortgage. Now that we have actual numbers from the OP: So, without cutting anything, you have $2k yourself you can be saving.  (This assumes your rent number of $1345 is your portion of rent, and not the 100% amount.)  That's $24000 per year, just by yourself.  On top of that, you've got another $40k or so coming from your partner, at least some of which should be available as well if he/she is going to be co-owning?  But if not, at least you have about $2000 a month you can be saving.  You could also downsize the car, cut cable TV, downsize the phone, and have another $500 or so available - but it doesn't really look like you need to do that, given how much you have available now. I'd look at what you're doing with that ~$2000 per month right now, and see how you can free most of it up.  You haven't mentioned a few things like utilities, not sure if that's just forgetfulness or if your partner is paying them; so perhaps not all of it is available.  But - even $1000 a month is $12000 to add to the $20000 you have now, which makes a big dent in that down payment."


Many times, specific CEOs are hired by the board in part because the board members will also at times in the future possibly be in the running to be the CEO of a company, and the previous CEO's they voted for in may wind up being on the board of the company they want to be CEO of. So one hand makes damn sure it's washing the other.  It's a very incestuous process and not uncommon for CEOs of one company to be sitting board members on another.


Today Richard Steggall runs Urban FT, Inc., that is acknowledged as the superior and one among the fastest developing providers of Digital Banking solutions to around 80 Community and Regional Banks as well as Credit Unions in the United States, and plenty of international brands. He is one of the members of the Young Entrepreneur Council.


Your idea is a good one, but, as usual, the devil is in the details, and implementation might not be as easy as you think.  The comments on the question have pointed out your Steps 2 and 4 are  not necessarily the best way of doing things, and that perhaps  keeping the principal  amount invested in the same fund instead of taking it all out and re-investing it in a similar, but different, fund might be better. The other points for you to consider are as follows. How do you identify which of the thousands of conventional mutual  funds and ETFs is the average-risk / high-gain mutual fund into which you will place your initial investment?  Broadly speaking, most actively managed mutual fund with average risk are likely to give you  less-than-average gains over long periods of time.  The  unfortunate truth, to which many pay only Lipper service, is that  X% of actively managed mutual funds  in a specific category failed  to beat the average gain of all funds in that category, or the  corresponding index, e.g. S&P 500 Index for large-stock mutual funds, over the past N years, where X is generally between 70 and  100, and N is 5, 10, 15 etc.  Indeed, one of the arguments in  favor of investing in a very low-cost index fund is that you are effectively guaranteed the average gain (or loss :-(, don't forget the possibility of loss). This, of course, is also the argument used against investing in index funds.  Why invest in boring index funds and settle for average gains (at essentially no risk of not getting the average performance: average performance is close to guaranteed) when you can  get much more out of your investments by investing in a fund that is among the (100-X)% funds that had better than average returns?  The difficulty is that which funds are X-rated and which non-X-rated (i.e. rated G = good or PG = pretty good), is known only in hindsight whereas what you need is foresight. As everyone will tell you, past performance does not guarantee future results.  As someone (John Bogle?) said,  when you invest in a mutual fund, you are in the position of a rower in rowboat: you can see where you have been but not where you are going.  In summary, implementation of your strategy needs a good crystal ball to look into the future. There is no such things as a guaranteed bond fund. They also have risks though not necessarily the same as in a stock mutual fund. You need to have a Plan B in mind in case your chosen mutual fund takes a longer time than expected to return the 10% gain that you want to use to trigger profit-taking and investment of the gain into a low-risk bond fund, and also maybe a Plan C in case the vagaries of the market cause your chosen mutual fund to have negative return for some time. What is the exit strategy?


Why is it so hard for people to shed their partisan blindfolds and embrace this simple fact: if you pay the middle class and the poor less, there will be less internal demand. It's basic economics, basic arithmetic really.   What happens when the rich gain an extra dollar? 90% of it goes into some investment, like shares or hedge funds, and so out of the real economy.   What happens when the middle class gains an extra dollar? $0.95 gets spent into the real economy, and only the rest goes into savings.   Is it really that hard to understand the mechanics of this, and do the impact of riding inequality?


I'm not sure why you're confusing the two unrelated things. 1040ES is your estimated tax payments. 941 is your corporation's payroll tax report. They have nothing to do with each other. You being the corporation's employee is accidental, and can only help you to avoid 1040ES and use the W2 withholding instead - like any other employee. From the IRS standpoint you're not running a LLC - you're running a corporation, and you're that corporation's employee. While technically you're self-employed, from tax perspective - you're not (to the extent of your corporate salary, at least).


The target date investment will automatically reduce equity exposure and increase bond exposure as it approaches retirement date.  If you are unlikely to make adjustments as you get older, you may be setting yourself up for more risk down the road.  Only you can decide what level of risk you can tolerate as you chase higher gains.


Phil Wombwell is an MBA graduate with work experience in World’s best finance industries. This man has all the abilities to crack any deal with best financial decision. Phil is also a CEO of Mercury Partnerships London. This company provides best opportunities to their clients for best investment plans for extra benefit.for more visit https://pro.whitepages.com/bc-contact-us/


You said all public employees should be required to fly coach. I never claimed more than that in my response. I simply pointed out why this was a silly thing to get worked up over.  You didn't explain what you did. Nor does it matter.  Again, tax dollars and union dues are two very different things. Just like private company profit is different.  You can have an opinion on tax dollars.  Union practices are none of your business unless you're paying dues.


This is an old question that has an accepted answer, but it has gotten bumped due to an edit and the answers given are incorrect. I am assuming this means that every other Friday, the company is going into the open public market, buying those shares and then giving it out to the employees. No. Companies will internally hold shares that it intends to offer employees as additional compensation. There are no open market transactions, so the market price of the stock does not change (at least not due to buying pressure).  The only net effect is an equivalent expense for the compensation, but that should already be accounted for in the share price as normal operating expenses. These share may come through an initial buyback from the market, but more common is that when companies issue new shares they keep some internally for exactly this situation.  If they issued new shares every pay period, it would dilute the existing shares several times a quarter which would be difficult to account for.


"There are likely to be two approaches: An autodialer of any description would be more than capable of sending an SMS or initiating a direct telephone call with any set of telephone numbers.  Such autodialiers can run off a personal computer via VoIP or some such third-party.  As to getting the numbers, it can be either from a purchased list (if they're serious about this and are obeying any call opt-out lists) or simply a number range dialed sequentially, whether they work or not. In a more serious operation, any returns are fed directly to a call centre where real human beings then initiate direct contact.  Otherwise it is simply a fishing expedition and any valid numbers can then be sold to other agencies as a screened list (and, therefore, more valuable). From an SMS perspective, anyone can purchase a vendor-level SMS Gateway subscription (of which there are loads of vendors - and note the number that allow ""web-to-SMS"") which permits you to receive and respond to any SMS received. This is always about the ""law of large numbers"".  If they can get in the hundreds of thousands of valid numbers and a small number respond then they can make money.  Like any spam, because a few are gullible, the rest of us are targets too. Update: A few searches for ""software auto sms"" and similar results in a fair number of prospects.  As I don't wish this to become too much of a ""how-to"" I'm not going to link."


"I know of one practical difference between business checks (8"" check) and personal checks (6"" check) dealing with the paper check conversion rule to electronic debit.   The National ACH Association, created a rule that allows receivers of checks without an ""Auxiliary On-Us"" field, to convert your check into an electronic debit via the ACH network.  By default, 6"" checks (personal checks) do NOT have the AUX ON-US field, and are eligible to be converted to ACH debit. If you do not want your paper checks converted to ACH debits, then start using business checks with the AUX ON-US field populated.  You can use business checks for business or personal checking accounts. More information can be found below: http://www.deluxe.com/miscfiles/pdf/AuxOnUsField.pdf http://www.achrulesonline.org/"


All unsubstantiated opinions.   >there is no such thing as a relation between any interest rates and the cost to service the loans  Really. No relation whatsoever? And your background in finance letting you understand this is what?  Are you telling me every bank of the [7,213](http://www2.fdic.gov/idasp/) independent banks are in cahoots and none of them compete based on prices and services?  Can you give me precise evidence that all those independent banks are not in competition? What should the price be for capital if the current prices are incorrect, and tell me why.


I would say your decision making is reasonable.  You are in the middle of Brexit and nobody knows what that means.  Civil society in the United States is very strained at the moment.  The one seeming source of stability in Europe, Germany, may end up with a very weakened government.  The only country that is probably stable is China and it has weak protections for foreign investors. Law precedes economics, even though economics often ends up dictating the law in the long run. The only thing that may come to mind is doing two things differently.  The first is mentally dropping the long-term versus short-term dichotomy and instead think in terms of the types of risks an investment is exposed to, such as currency risk, political risk, liquidity risk and so forth.  Maturity risk is just one type of risk. The second is to consider taking some types of risks that are hedged either by put contracts to limit the downside loss, or consider buying longer-dated call contracts using a small percentage of your money.  If the underlying price falls, then the call contracts will be a total loss, but if the price increases then you will receive most of the increase (minus the premium). If you are uncomfortable purchasing individual assets directly, then I would say you are probably doing everything that you reasonably can do.


That makes sense but, given that, should I - at least for now - abstain from putting money into a system that is being so abused? Any money I put into my current mutual funds is going to support banks and the energy sector.


Yeah having the government guarantee basically the entire housing finance industry has done the same thing as university eduction. In a larger sense those in their 20s did get screwed because the Baby Boomers mortgaged their future to keep prices artificially high for their assets.


"Perhaps they all started betting on a downturn too early? Much of the whispers I've been hearing for the last year from ""smart money"" people have been about being at a peak. Peak of what, they can't tell you. But i dunno because negative 7 percent when your benchmark is up 10 must be not fun to report"


>I believe that decisions should not be based on ideology but on their merits and results  This is the exact opposite of your argument.  Good luck with your future endeavors. I hope it's never a law firm.


Popular kids probably care more about status and material things than nerds. Consequently, they're motivated to work hard to achieve those things, ask for raises, etc.  As a nerd, I can't say I'm very motivated by money once my basic needs are met. I'd rather work with people I find interesting or pleasant, doing things I find interesting. Certainly I wouldn't turn down lots of money if someone threw it at me, but I wouldn't do something I didn't like or work with people I found disagreeable for more compensation.  Just my opinion.


Let's be real, at this point in time it was pretty well known that these 3 banks weren't going to be allowed to fail no matter what (Goldman Sachs failing lol) . And Buffet is privy to a lot more information than your average investor. Let's not act like he was some heroic figure. Good investment, sure.


I'd suggest looking at something like the Dummies series of books for this.   Something like: Sometimes the books are combined into one big book.  This would be the best bet.  It's were I started.  Every time I wondered something I just looked it up and learned. They are perfectly fine for the novice. Hope this helps.


Just tell the buyer that there is a lien and explain the situation. Give them the car with a bill of sale after they buy the car from you. They can get a temporary tag at least in the State of Florida during this period of time. Take the buyer's money and deposit the check. Pay off your loan. Ask your bank to expedite the electronic title by paying a fee. I did this in March 2012 with no hassle at all. I was the seller. Some buyers may balk at this idea so just keep this in mind.


Social Media Job for this Month:  Use the link below to generate traffic and earn money 5$-10$ for every unique visitor that clicks your link. Good places to start posting your link are social websites like Facebook, Twitter, Google+, Youtube, forums, chat rooms, blogs, etc.


It doesn't matter. A convert can be recreated by using other instruments, so it can never be removed from the market. Kind if like an Asian market which tried to remove options or futures or some exotic derivative. Investors just created synthetic positions with the same properties.


Hope you figure it out.  There wouldn't be a different RFR / discount rate because you're assuming a return on parked cash - that's what it's for.  Since both situations would theoretically happen simultaneously you use the same rate unless you would do something different with cash in each instance.


From Investopedia, A stock split is usually done by companies that have seen their share   price increase to levels that are either too high or are beyond the   price levels of similar companies in their sector. The primary motive   is to make shares seem more affordable to small investors even though   the underlying value of the company has not changed. From Wikipedia, It is often claimed that stock splits, in and of themselves, lead to   higher stock prices; research, however, does not bear this out. What   is true is that stock splits are usually initiated after a large run   up in share price...stock splits do increase the liquidity of a stock;   there are more buyers and sellers for 10 shares at $10 than 1 share at   $100. Some companies have the opposite strategy: by refusing to split   the stock and keeping the price high, they reduce trading volume.   Berkshire Hathaway is a notable example of this. Something more to munch on, Why Warren Buffett Is Against Stock Splits.


Lawyers who are paid quite well for it.   Who do you think mortgages the future of their firms in some case dedicating themselves to fighting those corporate lawyers for settlements when they've wronged consumers.   Unless you want to claim that having a codified legal system is bad I really don't see how thats relevant... It's like saying all people are bad because some were nazis


"You didn't have a situation of ""excess contribution"". If you have proof that someone in Fidelity actually told you what you said, you might try to recover some of your losses through a lawsuit. However, their first (and main) defense would be that they're not in the business of providing tax advice, and it is your problem that you asked random person a tax question, and then acted on an incorrect answer. By the way, that only goes to say that anything you might read here you should, as well, take with a grain of salt. The only one who can give you a tax advice is a licensed tax professional. I explained it in details in my blog post, but in short - it is either an EA (Enrolled Agent, with the IRS credentials), or a CPA (Certified Public Accountant) or Attorney licensed in your State. Back to your question - ""Excess Contribution"" to a IRA is when you contribute in excess to the limits imposed. For Traditional IRA in 2012 the limit was $5000. You contributed $4000 - this means that you were not in excess. There's nothing they can ""correct"", the 1099-R you got seems to be correct and in order. What you did have was a case of non-deductible contribution. Non-deductible contribution to your IRA should have been reported to the IRS on form 8606. Non-deductible contribution creates basis in your IRA. Withdrawals from your IRA are prorated to the relation of your basis to your total value, and the taxable amount is determined based on that rate. It is, also, calculated using form 8606. So in short - you should have filed a form 8606 with your 2012 tax return declaring non-deductible IRA and creating $4000 basis, and then form 8606 with your 2013 tax return calculating which portion of the $4000 you withdrew is non-taxable. If your total IRA (in all accounts) was that $4000 - then nothing would be taxable. Talk to a tax adviser, you might need to amend your 2012 return (or send the 2012 form separately, if possible), and then do some math on your 2013 return. If 60 days haven't passed, you might want to consider depositing the $4000 in a Roth IRA and perform what is called ""Conversion""."


Just for anyone who doesn’t read the link a few posts above, when OP says some people will do this and still be in poverty, he means 2% of people. 98% of people who do this get out of poverty, and 75% get into the middle class.


"Yeah, you're right.   Which is interesting in this case anyway, in that many analysts were highlighting the lack of fundamentals supporting the IPO price. To me, that speaks to the willingness of the underwriters to ignore that lack of fundamentals, and perhaps base the value on something else (e.g. ""Zuck's a wunderkind, he'll figure it out"").   I guess my point is that the lack of foundation (that the market has since priced into the share price) was not hidden from the underwriters."


"In short you have to wait till the hold expires. If its one week, its great. Few years back it was one Month. It is advisable you use a Credit Card for these type of transactions. With Credit Cards you are not out of funds like in Debit Cards. Plus the reversals are as much as I know automatic. In case of Debit Cards, the Holds are not automatically released on cancelled transactions but released only after expiry. Where as in Credit Cards, the holds are released immediately on cancelled transactions. ""Does the hold reserve it for them or for the original transaction?"" Yes hold is for that specific transaction from that specific merchant. i.e. if you try and book the same item from the same merchant, you will not be able to as you have money blocked. Although the merchant sends an unblock message when cancelling, on Debit cards these messages are not supported in India"


That's true about normalizing but that's not the problem with TV advertising; the problem is compressing.  If you've ever listened to talk radio, sometimes the host gets really quiet and almost whispers... and then he lights up and begins yelling and shouting.  Yet during this time, you don't need to adjust your radio's volume; the sound from the radio studio has been very heavily compressed so that the quiet and loud parts are all the same volume.  If you compress the crap out of your commercial's sound and then normalize it to 95% of the peak of the TV show's sound, which is typically not nearly as compressed, then your commercial is going to be perceived as *vastly* louder than the TV show, even though it never exceeds 95% of the TV show's peak volume.  Thus a law referencing the average volume is thought to be more effective than one that simply requires normalization.  It still seems easy to work around though; just have 29 seconds of silence and 1 second of horrendously loud, house-waking marketing slime.  What they need to do is require that neither the average *nor* the peak dB level of the commercial may exceed the average dB level of the show.  There might be cute little tricks that can get around that too, but at some point the ad agency has to actually talk and sell their product rather than performing mathematical backflips on the audio just to wake everyone up.


"So, I am one of these ""job creators"" right now.  I am doing software development and have hired 1 person from the U.S. and a team from Germany. So I will leave it to someone else to determine how changing my tax structure impacts job creation."


You're misunderstanding the concept of retirement savings. IRA distributions are taxed, in their entirety, as ordinary income. If you withdraw before the retirement age, additional 10% penalty is added. Investment income has preferential treatment - long term capital gains and qualified dividends are taxed at lower rates than ordinary income. However, IRA contributions are tax deductible. I.e.: you don't pay taxes on the amounts contributed to the IRA when you earned the money, only when you withdraw. In the mean time, the money is growing, tax free, based on your investments. Anything inside the IRA is tax free, including dividends, distributions (from funds to your IRA, not from IRA to you), capital gains, etc. This is very powerful, when taking into account the compounding effect of reinvesting your dividends/sale proceeds without taking a chunk out for taxes. Consider you make an investment in a fund that appreciated 100% in half a year. You cash out to reinvest in something less volatile to lock the gains. In a regular account - you pay taxes when you sell, based on your brackets. In the IRA you reinvest all of your sale proceeds. That would be ~25-35% more of the gains to reinvest and continue working for you! However, if you decide to withdraw - you pay ordinary rate taxes on the whole amount. If you would invest in a single fund for 30 years in a regular account - you'd pay 20% capital gains tax (on the appreciation, not the dividends). In the IRA, if you invest in the same fund for the same period - you'll pay your ordinary income rates. However, the benefit of reinvesting dividends tax-free softens the blow somewhat, but that's much harder to quantify. Bottom line: if you want to plan for retirement - plan for retirment. Otherwise - IRA is not an investment vehicle. Also consider Roth IRA/conversions. Roth IRA has the benefit of tax free distributions at retirement. If your current tax bracket is at 20%, for example, contributing $5K to Roth IRA instead of a traditional will cost you $1K of taxes now, but will save you all the taxes during the retirement (for the distributions from the Roth IRA). It may be very much worth your while, especially if you can contribute directly to Roth IRA (there are some income limitations and phaseouts). You can withdraw contributions (but not earnings) from Roth IRA - something you cannot do with a traditional IRA.


This.  Test waters first. As humans, we are affected by different biases and sometimes we just want to believe. I know a couple of dudes who invested shit ton of money in trying to launch a startup which they didn't vet properly beforehand. They ended up modifying their idea multiple times, but nothing clicked. They say they learnt a lot. But I think they just failed.


TdAmeritrade offers this service for free using 3rd party company markit. From markit's site, below is their guarantee.  http://www.markit.com/product/markit-on-demand Markit On Demand delivers an average of two million alerts per day   through various technology platforms and via multiple channels,   including email, instant messages, wireless, RSS and Facebook.   Investors can subscribe to their alerts of choice, and Markit On   Demand guarantees that they will receive an alert within five minutes   of the event trigger for all price and volume alerts


Not a financially sound decision in my humble opinion. Basically, you are prepaying your taxes and the only reason you want to do that is if you don't have the discipine to save that money for when it is time to pay next year (assuming you will have to).


"Ya, I mean if your really wanting to gain ppl's respect it might be a good idea. What you WANT to be is a leader, not just a manager. Ever wonder why most ppl hate their bosses?? It's bc they aren't leaders. Just from experience, since your young and wanting to gain the respect of the employees...you will gain it 100% more from your work ethic than any kind of job title. And if you do have eventually tell someone what to do, don't do it as a ""boss"" but a leader. Show them what you expect, show them you believe they can meet that expectation, then help them achieve it. Instead of yelling or fear mongoring."


"Mathematically, the wisest choice is to invest your extra money somewhere else and not pay off your 0% loan early. An extreme example highlights this. Suppose some colossal company offered to loan you a billion dollars at 0 % interest. Would you take it? Or would you say ""No thanks, I don't want that much debt."" You would be crazy not to accept. You could put that money in the safest investments available and still pocket millions while making the minimum payments back to them. Your choice here is essentially the same, but unfortunately, on much smaller scale. That said, math doesn't always trump other factors. You need to factor in your peace of mind, future purchases, the need for future borrowing, your short term income and job security, and whether you think you can reliably make payments on this loan without messing up and triggering fees that wipe out the mathematical advantage of slow paying the loan. You are fortunate because you really can't make a wrong choice here. Paying off debt is never a bad choice IMO. However, it may not always be the best choice."


YNAB runs on Mac, Win, and Linux.


Are you one who cannot invest high efforts and time to enhance the profit in trading? However, you have strong desire to gain profits in trading binary options. Then, binary today is just for you. It encompasses the features, which is highly applicable for novice and experience person.


"If the stock is below its purchase price, there is no way to exit the position immediately without taking losses. Since presumably you had Good Reasons for buying that stock that haven't changed overnight, what you should probably do is just hold it and wait for the stock to come back up. Otherwise you're putting yourself into an ongoing pattern of ""buy high, sell low"", which is precisely what you don't want to do. If you actually agree with the market that you made a mistake and believe that the stock will not recover any part of the loss quickly (and indeed will continue going down), you could sell immediately and take your losses rather than waiting and possibly taking more losses. Of course if the stock DOES recover you've made the wrong bet. There are conditions under which the pros will use futures to buffer a swing. But that's essentially a side bet, and what it saves you has to be balanced against what it costs you and how certain you are that you NOW can predict the stock's motion. This whole thing is one of many reasons individuals are encouraged to work with index funds, and to buy-and-hold, rather than playing with individual stocks. It is essentially impossible to reliably ""time the market"", so all you can do is research a stock to death before making a bet on it. Much easier, and safer, to have your money riding on the market as a whole so the behavior of any one stock doesn't throw you into a panic. If you can't deal with the fact that stocks go down as well as up, you probably shouldn't be in the market."


Definitely, check if they are regulated by the Finnish financial regulatory board. Google FIN-FSA regulation. It can also be that they are regulated off-shore, no matter just find it out. Besides try to find the terms of you're contract, if cant find ask the broker to point out. Wonder what will happen, following this thread


He alienated whole countries and races of people. He also alienated more than half of America and he's wondering why  no one wants to buy his tacky condos or stay in his sub standard hotels? Moron. His base can't afford to buy those condos or stay at his hotels not till he gets rid those damn immigrants stealing coal jobs.


"Organic pesticides, herbicides, and fertilizers are often just as dangerous as their inorganic counterparts.  Some organic farms operate with only safe practices, but unless you're buying directly from a farm you know, there is no way to be sure. Before you even get to the ""organic is better for you"" argument, you have to get past ""what kind of organic is this"". The label alone doesn't mean much as far as safety or being ""pasture raised""."


The real reason for America's success is mainly that the King of England actually gave people property rights in N. America to encourage people to settle here, which shockingly enough actually worked and encouraged people to move over here and invest in building a new life. It's not a coincidence that the people moving were religious minorities who had been persecuted. When we rebelled, preserving those property rights (along with establishing liberty/freedom) was of very high importance when the Constitution/Declaration of Independence was written. When people have legal recourse to protect their property they unsurprisingly try and produce more and better property.


@Michael Kjörling answered why platinum is in demand like it is.  But it missed some of the significant risks so I will address some of them.  Platinum is much more rare than gold.  But not because there is less platinum than gold just that the known existing platinum veins are smaller and more disbursed.  So if a large vein were found it could have a significant impact on the availability and thus reducing price of platinum.  New mining technologies are being developed every day.  One of these could make exacting platinum from existing not platinum mines easier and more cost effective again increasing the availability and reducing the price of platinum. The vast majority of platinum use today is for emissions controls.  There is a lot of money being thrown into research on green energy and technologies.  One of these technologies or a side effect of other research could result in much more cost effective ways to combat emissions.  Should that happen I would expect the price of platinum to fall through the floor and potentially never recover. I do not think any of these scenarios are imminent. But the risks that they present are so great it is important to consider them before investing.


"Yes, there is a very good Return vs Risk graph put out at riskgrades.com.  Look at it soon, because it will be unavailable after 6-30-11.  The RA (return analysis) graph is what I think you are looking for. The first graph shown is an ""Average Return"", which I was told was for a 3 year period.  Three period returns of 3, 6 and 12 months, are also available.  You can specify the ticker symbols of funds or stocks you want a display of.  For funds, the return includes price and distributions (total return), but only price movement for stocks - per site webmaster. I've used the graphs for a few years, since Forbes identified it as a ""Best of the Web"" site.  Initially, I found numerous problems with some of the data and was able to work with the webmaster to correct them.  Lately though, they have NOT been correcting problems that I bring to their attention.  For example, try the symbols MUTHX, EDITX, AWSHX and you'll see that the Risk Grades on the graphs are seriously in error, and compress the graph results and cause overwriting and poor readability. If anyone knows of a similar product, I'd like to know about it.  Thanks,  George"


Okay, [it's not perfectly steady, but the upward trend is clear](http://www.eia.gov/dnav/pet/hist/LeafHandler.ashx?n=PET&s=8_NA_8DO_NUS_4&f=A). I suspect the sharp drop at the start of 2006 was due to Hurricanes Katrina and Rita, and the drop in 2010 was the recession really kicking in for the broader economy.  >This seems contrary to price trends of gasoline. I'm trying to understand it without automatically jumping to speculators on the commodities market.  There's more to the price of gasoline than the amount of refinery capacity available. [Gasoline prices](http://www.eia.gov/dnav/pet/hist/LeafHandler.ashx?n=PET&s=EER_EPMRU_PF4_Y35NY_DPG&f=D) mostly track [crude oil prices](http://www.eia.gov/dnav/pet/hist/LeafHandler.ashx?n=PET&s=RBRTE&f=D). Crude oil is up because growth in demand is faster than growth in supply. No speculators needed.


Whether looking to launch a new campaign or welcome a new agency into the mix, knowing how to write an effective marketing brief is essential. Therefore, the team and I at Agency Scouts have put together a brilliant infographic outlining the 8 essential elements of a marketing brief.   Enjoy!


In the UK the official rule is that a cheque is valid for 3 years from the date it was wrote. However after 3 months some banks can choose to turn them down. I had a cheque once that was a year old which is when I looked it up to see whether it was stil valid, and I found the laws regarding it then.  I was actually quite surprised it was 3 years! Btw if it does bounce your quite entitled to ask your employer for a replacement cheque.  They owe it you and it's just sat in their account assigned to you anyway.


I read the article.  They've shut down foia requests with the recent updated foia legislation, the guy says that big business owners will slander them in the news if they publish anything on them,  try to sue them, insurance companies won't insure them, wealthy people won't donate.  Essentially is you go after big corporate power you get shut down.   Edit: I am for it.


I agree with the deposit part. But if you are buying a new car, the loan term should meet the warranty term. Assuming you know you won't exceed the mileage limits, it's a car with only maintainence costs and the repayment cost at that point.


If this chargeback failed then would it negatively affect my credit score? A credit score is a measure of how dependable of a borrower you are. Requesting a refund for not receiving goods not delivered as promised, whether it is successful or it fails, should not impact your credit score since it has no implications on the likelihood that you will pay back debts. The last time I used that gym was the 13th January 2017, and I rejoined on the 20th December, so I have used it for less than a month. Therefore I do not think I should have to pay for two months Keep in mind that you purchased a membership to the gym. Whether or not you actually use the gym you are liable to pay for every month that you retain the membership. Although it probably won't hurt to try to get a refund for the period where you didn't take advantage of your gym membership, you weren't actually charged for a service that you never received (like in the last case where they charged you after you cancelled your membership).


The amount covered by the insurance takes into account the amount of money healthcare providers charge, according to this Quora post by Amy Chai (MD). For example, Medicare pays about 20 cents on the dollar for what a health provider bills. As a result, health providers have to artificially increase the amount of money they charge. Health providers cannot charge uninsured patients differently from insured patients, otherwise health insurances may complain to the feds, which in turn may charge the health providers with fraud for artificially inflating the medical bills.


"You cannot recharacterize a distribution from an IRA the way you can recharacterize a contribution. It the latter case, you are in effect telling your IRA custodian to treat the contribution as having been made to a different kind of an IRA from the very first day that the contribution was originally made. As described in JoeTaxpayer's answer, you can put back the distribution into the same IRA account or establish a new IRA account (of the same type) and deposit the distribution into the new account. Note carefully you have 60 days (not two months) to complete this maneuver and that postmarks don't count: the money must be deposited into the account, not just received by the custodian. Also, the 60-day clock starts on the day that the distribution was made by the IRA custodian and not the day you received the money. If you choose to put back the money into the ""wrong"" kind of IRA as described above, you can take a distribution from the ""right"" kind of IRA, and effectively achieve a kind of ""recharacterization"" of the net distribution, but the mechanics are more complicated and the deadlines a lot tighter."


"The economy is going to stagnate into permanent recession a la Japanese model or it will collapse unless government spending is reduced to equal government revenue.   That means a 40% cut in the Federal budget. That means that we need to ""CUT EVERYTHING!"". To not do so is the decision to avoid substantial pain today and refuse to see the crushing pain that will come later. It is the decision of children"


I think you are aiming your crony capitalism shotgun in the wrong direction.  Oil industry subsidies dwarf those to the EV, and the bailouts to the US car manufacturers was the clearest example you could imagine of picking winners and losers.    Far worse, both the car manufacturers and oil industry represent the entrenched interests which are fighting the future changes in the industry as opposed to the other way around.  The money went directly to the companies involved, without a lick of good capitalist competition.  Now compare that to a personal EV tax credit.  1) you encourage the clearly visible future of cheap electrical power and driverless EVs, 2) you set up the subsidy as a personal tax break to the buyer, so any company is free to up their game and make better products to win part of it.  3) its a much smaller amount, and much more cost effective per tax dollar than giant checks to monster oil companies.  Once the government stops cramming enourmous amounts of money into oil and traditional car companies, then it might be time to relook at saving taxpayer money spent on EVs.


In many cases yes.  In the case of an employer handing employees a credit card to use, that is clearly income if the card is used for something other than a business expense. Generally speaking, if you're receiving something with a significant value without strings attached, it is likely taxable. Google no doubt has an army of tax attorneys, so perhaps they are able to exploit loopholes of some sort.


They could buy the domain a lot cheaper than the company.  They are probably trying to lock in the ability to have face.com technology always available to them as I'm assuming they have invested a fair bit on integration with them.  Saves someone like google snapping it up and shutting it down.


What would they be trying to predict?  The value YNAB and Mint provide is objective truth about what you've spent. They can force you to think about the tradeoffs inherent in budgeting by showing that you've overspent one category, and making you decide where to find the money to cover it. They can call your attention to a credit card swipe that's larger than you intended, to a subscription you didn't intend to keep, etc. by just generally getting you to read and think about your transaction history and the sums of transactions per category and overall. Prediction doesn't really enter into it. One way to understand Mint's business model is as a service that collects training data for machine learning models that do try to predict things, such as how stock prices will move or whether users will click on certain ads.


"Defining parity as ""parity is the amount by which an option is in the money"", I'd say there may be an arbitrage opportunity. If there's a $50 strike on a stock valued at $60 that I can buy for less than $10, there's an opportunity.  Keep in mind, options often show high spreads, my example above might show a bid/ask of $9.75/$10.25, in which case the last trade of $9.50 should be ignored in favor of the actual ask price you'd pay.  Mispricing can exist, but in this day and age, is far less likely."


My experience with owning a home is that its like putting down roots and can be like an anchor holding you to an area.  Before considering whether you can financially own a home consider some of the other implications. Once you own it you are stuck for awhile and cannot quickly move away like you can with renting.  So if a better job opportunity comes up or your employer moves you to another office across town that doubles your commute time, you'll be regretting the home purchase as it will be a barrier to moving to a more convenient location.   I, along with my fiancée and two children, are being forced to move out of my parents home ASAP.  Do not rush buying a home.  Take your time and find what you want.  I made the mistake once of buying a home thinking I could take on some DIY remodeling to correct some features I wasn't fond of.  Life intervenes and finding extra time for DIY house updates doesn't come easy, especially with children.   Speaking of children, consider the school district when buying a home too.  Often times homes in good school districts cost more.  If you don't consider the school district now, then you may be faced with a difficult decision when the kids start school.   IF you are confident you won't want to move anytime soon and can find a house you like and want to jump into home ownership there are some programs that can help first time buyers, but they can require some effort on your part.  FHA has a first time buyer program with a 3.5% down payment.  You will need to search for a lender that offers FHA loans and work with them.  FHA covers this program by charging mortgage insurance every month that's part of your house payment. Fannie Mae has the HomeReady program where first time home buyers can purchase a foreclosed home from their inventory for as little as 3% down and possibly get up to 3% from the seller to apply toward closing costs.  Private mortgage insurance (PMI) is required with this program too.  Their inventory of homes can be found on the https://www.homepath.com/ website. There is also NACA, which requires attending workshops and creating a detailed plan to prove you're ready for homeownership.  This might be a good option if they have workshops in your area and you want to talk with someone in person. https://www.naca.com/about/


Has anyone ever worked on a financial services sales desk i.e mutual fund, annuities etc? If so would you be able to give me like a day in life. I'm trying to get into wholesaling and i know sales desk is kind of where you start off.


I have had better experiences with accountants in smaller towns.  It seems they are used to working with small businesses and their reputation is very important to them.


When our 20yo Sony Trinitron died I researched all the Audio/Video forums and the consensus was that Panasonic Plasmas have the best picture. When I went into the department store to buy one they had a Panasonic and a Samsung LCD on display right next to each other and the difference in quality was noticeable (Samsung was noticeably better). At the time I had never really considered Samsung to be any good, but the quality and sharpness of the Samsung is undeniable. It actually took me two days to get over my cognitive dissonance and buy the Samsung because up until then I was 100% determined to buy the Panasonic. They are also the only brand that I have seen with little to no artifacts. Samsung is this generations Sony.


This is a good and bad thing. Former technology consultant here who dealt with a lot of healthcare orgs including pharmacies. The small mom and pop shops that are around, similar to CVS or Walgreens but MUCH smaller will hurt from this. For us consumers it will probably be good but one of the largest factors for consumers is the ability to go pick up your meds immediately. I have a feeling we might be seeing more Amazon micro types of stores for a miniature brick and mortar strategy where it makes sense to carry items that are often time sensitive.


Thanks for posting this.  Funny, but I find myself watching RT far more than CNN these days.  I am not a finance expert but as an econ major I can at least follow the argument.  Seems credible to me.  They are just saying that the resulting downgrade of bank bonds will affect them less than their competition. The second argument is that new (2008) accounting rules allow them to show a net gain on paper when their bonds get downgraded as a result of this loss.  It's a complicated argument but I can see how it make perfect sense.  I like how Bob English points out the fishy and probably strategic nature of the Thursday announcement.  Obviously there is a lot more to this story: http://www.zerohedge.com/contributed/2012-20-15/truth-about-jp-morgan%E2%80%99s-2-billion-loss


Shanghai can not be the international financial center of China, or China's inbound/outbound trade, as long as it does not have rule of law.  Even Chinese corporates go to Hong Kong to sign contracts because the commercial legal system is efficient, fair, and predictable.  Shanghai is a city (and a great one, no doubt!) doing business in a restricted, capital-controlled currency, under a legal system which is corrupt and arbitrary.  You wouldn't want to get into a dispute there with, say, Bank of China.  When there is a trusted legal system in China then finance will follow.  Meanwhile, show me anyone who wants to sign an ISDA agreement under Chinese law, subject an international bond indenture to Chinese law (rather than New York or English law), or do a securitization using Chinese law or counterparties.  HK's biggest problem may be that the Mainland is imperiling rule of law in the SAR.  If that is lost, the city has no reason to exist.


So far the answer is: observe the general direction of the market, using special tools if needed or you have them available (.e.g. Bollinger bands to help you understand the current trend) at the right time per above, do the roll with stop loss in place (meaning roll at a pre-determined max loss), and also a trailing stop loss if the roll works in your favor, to capture the profits on the roll. This trade was a learning experience.  I sold the option at $20 thinking I'd get back in later in the day with the further out option at a good price, as the market goes back and forth.  The underlying went up and never came back.  I finally gritted my teeth and bought the new option at 23.10 (when it would have cost me about 20.20 before), i.e. a miss/loss of $3 on $20. The underlying continued to rise, from that point (hasn't been back), and now the option price is $29. Of course one needs to make sure the Implied Volatility of the option being left and the option going to is good/fair, and if not, either roll further out in time, nearer in time, our up / down the strike prices, to find the right target option.  After doing that, one might do the strategy above, i.e. any good trade mgmt type strategy:  seek to make a good decision, acknowledge when you were wrong (with stop loss), and act. Or, if you're right, cash in smartly (i.e. trailing stops).


Googling vanguard target asset allocation led me to this page on the Bogleheads wiki which has detailed breakdowns of the Target Retirement funds; that page in turn has a link to this Vanguard PDF which goes into a good level of detail on the construction of these funds' portfolios. I excerpt: (To the question of why so much weight in equities:) In our view, two important considerations justify an expectation of an   equity risk premium. The first is the historical record: In the past,   and in many countries, stock market investors have been rewarded with   such a premium.  ... Historically, bond returns have lagged equity returns by about 5–6   percentage points, annualized—amounting to an enormous return   differential in most circumstances over longer time periods.   Consequently, retirement savers investing only in “safe” assets must   dramatically increase their savings rates to compensate for the lower   expected returns those investments offer. ... The second strategic principle underlying our glidepath   construction—that younger investors are better able to withstand   risk—recognizes that an individual’s total net worth consists of both   their current financial holdings and their future work earnings. For   younger individuals, the majority of their ultimate retirement wealth   is in the form of what they will earn in the future, or their “human   capital.” Therefore, a large commitment to stocks in a younger   person’s portfolio may be appropriate to balance and diversify risk   exposure to work-related earnings (To the question of how the exact allocations were decided:) As part of the process of evaluating and identifying an appropriate   glide path given this theoretical framework, we ran various   financial simulations using the Vanguard Capital Markets Model. We   examined different risk-reward scenarios and the potential   implications of different glide paths and TDF approaches. The PDF is highly readable, I would say, and includes references to quant articles, for those that like that sort of thing.


They're wrong, and it's easy to show that if you pay the same % in taxes then you end up the same either way. If you have an initial investment of 10k, an effective tax rate of 25%, and gains of 10% a year, here are the numbers: You invest 10k into a traditional. After 50 years, you have $1,173,908.  After paying taxes, you end up with $880,431. You invest 10k into a Roth. After paying the taxes, your initial investment is $7500. After 50 years, you have $880,431 - the same you have with the traditional. The advantage from the Roth comes from two things - the assumption that taxes are lower now for you than they will be in the future (a good bet, given that taxes are relatively low in the US) and the ability to have a mix of taxable and non-taxable income to draw from in retirement to lower your effective tax rate (draw down the taxable up to a certain tax bracket then use your non-taxable above that).


A 2.5% fee is standard, and you're not likely to avoid a transaction fee when withdrawing cash from an ATM.  You'd do better to get foreign currency before leaving the US, or to use a credit card abroad.  Capital One has a credit card with no fee on foreign-currency purchases, for example.  Another option is to open a bank account in the foreign currency, if you go to a particular country often enough to make it worthwhile.


I'm not business-savvy, but that seems like a very good idea. My wife works for a not-for-profit company, yet the CEO still makes $8,000,000 a year, *not* counting bonuses. I think in a for-profit, the CEO could easily afford to pay more employees to fill the gap made by decreasing the free labor he's used to.


>If a road is not profitable, it won't be built, right? So all of those roads in the country, that go up mountains, that I love to travel on won't exist?  If enough people want it and are willing to pay to use it, it will be built. If not, why should I subsidize your hobby with my tax dollars?  >These corporations have the right to decide who gets to use the roads, right? You're all about the free market, but what if the guy who owns the road to my house jacks up the price or does a crappy job maintaining it? I just have to move?  Yes, although I would argue that basic infrastructure such as roads should have some level of price control. Not a completely free market but still better than what we have now.  >It will also be for-profit, which means it will cost more. You're willing to pay more to use a road because it's your choice as opposed to less for that road because someone made you pay for it? (as in, it will have to continue to turn a profit, even after it's been paid for.)  Not necessarily true. If private corporations can be more efficient than government, it doesn't have to cost more.


As far as accounting  goes, if you speak with a CPA, you may be able to reduce the business tax liability.  So... the company buys the truck, deducts it, and the adjusted gross income drops, so he'd pay less tax.  Or something.  You said anything helps, hope you meant it!


Just pay it, its not alot and it will clear up your credit report.


An article has just popped up on the Young London PRSupdate blog and it is very much a topic close to the heart of those in company.  This week Michael takes a look at customer service and how it can affect professionals from doing business with others.


"You are overlooking the fact that it is not only supply & demand from investors that determines the share price:  The company itself can buy and sell its own shares. If company X is profitable over the long haul but pays 0 dividends then either Option (2) is pretty ridiculous, so (1) will hold except in an extreme ""man bites dog"" kind of fluke. This is connected with the well-known ""dividend paradox"", which I discussed already in another answer."


I'd say that because you are young, even the 'riskier' asset classes are not as risky as you think, for example, assuming conservatively that you only have 30 years to retirement, investing in stocks index might be a good option. In short term share prices are volatile and prone to bull and bear cycles but given enough time they have pretty much always outperformed any other asset classes. The key is not to be desperate to withdraw when an index is at the bottom. Some cycles can be 20 years, so when you need get nearer retirement you will need to diversify so that you can survive without selling low. Just make sure to pick an index tracker with low fees and you should be good to go. A word of warning is of course past performance is no indication of a future one, but if a diversified index tracker goes belly up for 20+ years, we are talking global calamity, in which case buy a shotgun and some canned food ;)


This really comes down to tax structuring (which I am not an expert on), for public companies the acquiror almost always pays for the cash to prevent any taxable drawdown of overseas accounts, dividend taxes suck, etc.  For a private company, first the debt gets swept, then special dividend out - dividends received by the selling corporate entity benefit from a tax credit plus it reduces the selling price of the equity, reducing capital gains taxes.


Seriously, you will buy a bicycle for your child on-line? And if the child said it's not what they wanted or does not fit, you will disassemble it and put in the box and return it to try another bicycle?  Same with ride-in electric car? Playground? Sand for the sandbox?  Base on what you are saying, you never ever go to a store to buy anything. You will even order milk on-line.