Question: My Co-Signer is the Primary Account Holder for my Car Loan - Does this affect my credit?

It sounds like your father got a loan and you are making the payments.  If your name and SSN are not on the loan then you are not getting credit for making the payments your father is.  So it will not affect your credit.  If you are on the loan as a secondary borrower it will affect your credit but not substantially on the positive but could affect it substantially on the negative side. Since your father is named as the primary borrower you will probably need to talk with him about it first.  If this is a mistake the 2 of you will need to work together with the bank to get it corrected.  Since your father is currently listed first the bank is probably going to be unable(even if they are willing) to make a change to the loan now with out his explicit permission. In addition if the loan is in your fathers name, if it is a vehicle loan, then the car is most likely in your fathers name as well.  Most states require that the primary signatory on a vehicle loan also be the primary owner on the title to the vehicle.  If your fathers name is the primary name on the title then you would have to retitle the car to refinance in your name.

The only purpose the ILS market fills is directly lining up capital to pay for potential cats. Unless you're doing directly that you don't really have a way to participate, long or short.  The cat bond market really isn't liquid or developed enough for derivatives to exist at this point.   Due to the losses this year the cat bond market could shrink significantly too because all the existing catastrophe models have seemed to be inadequate to model these occurrences and investors are losing their shirts. There are questions of the extent to which the alternative capital in the reinsurance market will reload in the wake of 2017.

I would personally look at consolidating your debt at a lower interest rate by refinancing your mortgage. I would leave any retirement funds alone unless it was absolutely necessary to touch it with no other avenues available. However, once you have consolidated your debt into the mortgage I would pay more than the minimum amount so that you don't take too long to pay it off. I would put about 50% of the freed-up cash flow back into the repayments, that way you will be paying more debt off quicker and you will have additional cash flow to help your monthly budget. Another good point would be to go through your monthly budget to see if there is any expenses you could reduce or eliminate.

Is there a point after which they legally unable to charge me? No. If you gave a check, then the bank may bounce it as stale after 6 months, but doesn't have to. With debit/credit transactions, they post as they're processed, and some merchants may not sync their terminals or deposit their manual slips often. As the world becomes more and more connected this becomes extremely rare, but still happens. Technically your promise to pay is a contract which never expires, and they can come after you years later to collect.

And if it costed 50% more they wouldn't either. I bet you a majority of these people just want to save money on gas. I even thought about it, but its too ugly (the back) and the model S is too big for me.

Car and health insurance, etc would be budgeted.  Most people know what their monthly nut is and how long they can spend on a job search.  If you really feel that your boss is treating you poorly, sometimes the best thing to do is to tighten your belt, start saving and look for new opportunities.   It is not easy.  Nothing worse doing is.     I know people generally have difficulty saving money, but like I said, ultimately, you are responsible for your own happiness.

"Real-time equity (or any other market) data is not available for free anywhere in the US.  It is always delayed by 10-15 minutes. On the other hand, online brokers who target the ""day trader"" (Interactive Brokers, TD Ameritrade, etc.) offer much closer to real-time data AND feature all the tools/alerts/charts/etc. you could ever possibly dream of.  I bet the type of alert you're asking for is available with just a couple of clicks on one of these brokers' platforms. Of course, accounts with these online brokers are not free; you must pay for these sophisticated tools and fast market access.  Another down side is that the data feeds sent to you by even the most sophisticated online broker are still delayed by tens of seconds compared to the data feeds used by big banks and professional investors.  Not to mention that the investment arm of the broker you use will be making its own trades based on the data feeds before relaying them on to you. So this begs the question: why do you need real-time information?  Are you trying to ""day trade"" -- i.e. profit from minute-to-minute fluctuations in the stock market?  (I can't in good conscience recommend that, but best of luck to you.)  If on the other hand you don't truly need ""real-time"" data for your application, then I support @ChrisDegnen's approach -- use public data feeds and write your own software.  You probably will not find any free tools for the sort of alerting you're looking for because most folks who want these types of alerts also need faster feeds and are therefore already using an online broker's tools."

"Read again what I said in my original post.  ""Enterprise Value is the sort of ""bare bones"" total firm value. It doesn't include any cash because you'd basically be paying cash for cash. Also, this makes analysis of transaction multiples more streamlined, as some firms may have a ton of excess cash on their balance sheet, skewing multiples.""  I said that that is WHY we use enterprise value. Because if you didn't it would skew multiples."


Question: irr calculation on stock with dividends

"Re. question 2 If I buy 20 shares every year, how do I get proper IRR? ... (I would   have multiple purchase dates) Use the money-weighted return calculation: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rate_of_return#Internal_rate_of_return  where t is the fraction of the time period and Ct is the cash flow at that time period. For the treatment of dividends, if they are reinvested then there should not be an external cash flow for the dividend.  They are included in the final value and the return is termed ""total return"".  If the dividends are taken in cash, the return based on the final value is ""net return"". The money-weighted return for question 2, with reinvested dividends, can be found by solving for r, the rate for the whole 431 day period, in the NPV summation. Now annualising And in Excel"

Is it what I want to eat when I want to eat good food? No, absolutely not. Do I occasionally eat it? Yes. It's a matter of price/time/convenience, which is basically the entire fast food industry. I absolutely believe pizza that isn't artisanal level can be automated and the product can still be damn good. The chief problem with frozen pizza isn't that it's made by a robot, it's that it is frozen.

"Accrued interest generally means ""interest that is earned but not received"" (http://www.businessdictionary.com/definition/accrued-interest.html).  This is the interest that is added on top of the amount that was originally agreed upon. Because your friend missed some months, she will have gained 3% interest on top of the original loan amount for every month that she didn't pay.  The interest even applies to the increased loan amount, so it will increase exponentially for every month that she does not make a payment.  For example, if the loan amount was for $1,000 and she missed the payment the first month, the 3% accrued interest will raise that loan amount to $1030.  If she misses the second month, then the loan amount will become $1060.90 and so on. This means that it will take her more months to pay the loan in its entirety. ""Arrears"" are the overdue payments that she had not made (http://www.investopedia.com/terms/a/arrears.asp). So the sentence ""with susbsequent payments paying the arrears before being applied to the current month's payment"" means that she must pay the overdue debt from the previous months first before she can even make the payment for the current month."

The main argument that comes in favor of the [Ranches for Sale in Texas](http://www.texashuntingland.com/)  and how they can support a person spends in his own long term is related towards the concept of producing a transform. Individuals are often frightened to make this kind of a stage as a result of the truth that this really is related to their comfort and ease zone.

"Talk to your bank first but shop around a bit as well with other reputable lenders in your area.  Another option, if you're willing to put down ~84% of the purchase price would be to talk to several dealerships BEFORE you set foot on a single lot. Tell them that you are interested in buying a Versa and that you are willing to pay cash but you are not willing to pay more than $10,200. They won't agree (trust me on that) but they will come down from $13,000. Say ""Thanks, I'll call you back."" and call one of the other dealerships on your list and tell them ""I just spoke with this dealership and they are willing to sell me the car for [whatever number they gave you]."" One of two things will happen, either the dealership will come back with a lower price or they will tell you to go buy the car there. Continue this process until you have one dealership left.  I did this with 3 dealerships in 2011 and bought a truck with a $27,000 sticker price for just over $19,000. It took about a week to make all of the calls and I ended up going to a dealership 3 hours away but it was worth it for $8,000."

A Solo 401k plan requires self-employment income; you cannot put wages into it.

Check with your bank, usually a statement is either at the same day of month (e.g.: every 15th of the month), or every 30 days (e.g: March 15th, April 14th, May 14th, so forth). From my experience, most credit cards use the same day of month strategy. Keep in mind that if the day is not a business day (e.g.: weekend), the statement is closed either the previous or the next business day.

I guess that is one example out of hundreds.  It does not exemplify the tribes here with huge casinos, hotels and shopping malls.  Maybe those tribes do not want to grow.  I am sick to death of growth.  It serves the few at the expense of the many.  Human sprawling is killing the region where I live in every way, and has killed many before.  If UBI money is helping the surrounding states, it works.  If the Native Americans don't grow their economy, that is their choice.  If they don't want to integrate in whities back stabbing dog eat dog economy.  I empathize fully.  Edit:  And the Navajo people's needs were met.  What is utterly ridiculous is that everyone in this country is given money from someone.  Some just get more than others.  Someone tell me why I am less deserving.


Question: How to learn about doing technical analysis?  Any suggested programs or tools that teach it?

"A lot of investors prefer to start jumping into tools and figuring out from there, but I've always said that you should learn the theory before you go around applying it, so you can understand its shortcomings.  A great starting point is Investopedia's Introduction to Technical Analysis. There you can read about the ""idea"" of technical analysis, how it compares to other strategies, what some of the big ideas are, and quite a bit about various chart patterns (cup and handle, flags, pennants, triangles, head & shoulders, etc). You'll also cover ideas like moving averages and trendlines. After that, Charting and Technical Analysis by Fred McAllen should be your next stop. The material in the book overlaps with what you've read on Investopedia, but McAllen's book is great for learning from examples and seeing the concepts applied in action. The book is for new comers and does a good job explaining how to utilize all these charts and patterns, and after finishing it, you should be ready to invest on your own.  If you make it this far, feel free to jump into Fidelity's tools now and start applying what you've learned. You always want to make the connection between theory and practice, so start  figuring out how you can use your new knowledge to generate good returns.  Eventually, you should read the excellent reference text Technical Analysis of the Financial Markets by John Murphy. This book is like a toolbox - Murphy covers almost all the major techniques of technical analysts and helps you intuitively understand the reasoning behind them. I'd like to quote a part of a review here to show my point:  What I   like about Mr. Murphy is his way of showing and proving a point. Let   me digress here to show you what I mean: Say you had a daughter and   wanted to show her how to figure out the area of an Isosceles   triangle. Well, you could tell her to memorize that it is   base*height/2. Or if you really wanted her to learn it thoroughly you   can show her how to draw a parallel line to the height, then join the   ends to make a nice rectangle. Then to compute the area of a rectangle   just multiply the two sides, one being the height, the other being   half the base. She will then ""derive"" this and   ""understand"" how they got the formula. You see, then she can   compute the area under a hexagon or a tetrahedron or any complex   object. Well, Mr. Murphy will show us the same way and   ""derive"" for us concepts such as how a resistance line later   becomes a support line! The reson for this is so amusing that after   one reads about it we just go ""wow..."""" Now I understand why   this occurs"". Murphy's book is not about strategy or which tools to use. He takes an objective approach to describing the basics about various tools and techniques, and leaves it up to the reader to decide which tools to apply and when. That's why it's 576 pages and a great reference whenever you're working.  If you make it through and understand Murphy, then you'll be golden. Again, understand the theory first, but make sure to see how it's applied as well - otherwise you're just reading without any practical knowledge. To quote Richard Feynman: It doesn't matter how beautiful your theory is, it doesn't matter how smart you are. If it doesn't agree with experiment, it's wrong.  Personally, I think technical analysis is all BS and a waste of time, and most of the top investors would agree, but at the end of the day, ignore everyone and stick to what works for you. Best of luck!"

Thanks for the answer/comments! The time-based method was something we mooted and something I almost went with. But just to wrap this up, the method we settled on was this: Every time there is an entry or exit into the fund, we divvy out any unrealised market profits/losses according to each person's profit share (based on % of the asset purchased at buy-in) JUST BEFORE the entry/exit. These realised profits are then locked in for those particpants, and then the unrealised profits/loss counter starts at zero, we do a fresh recalculation of shareholding after the entry/exit, and then we start again. Hope this helps anyone with the same issue!

This is like presuming that because the government laid some telephone lines that they'd somehow have backdoor access to listen to your phone calls.  If all they're doing is laying the generic fiber it's got nothing to do with intercepting your information. It's the equivalent to laying own a highway.

It looks like from their response, they would like you to send a copy of your social security card. Your drivers license or passport will not help verify your social security number. Another option you could try is to get your credit report from one of the other credit bureaus. You should be able to choose from Experian, Trans Union, and Equifax all on annualcreditreport.gov

Nope. Everyone has a price.      You'd probably spend 1-2 years in prison for the right amount of money and a guaranteed multi-year high-paying position waiting for you after you got out. The company's legal team could work to scrub your record.    Politicians practically do the same thing... enter office, take a $175K annual salary for a few years, act as a vote proxy for a major corp, and exit office to a cushy high-paid corporate job.

I fucking hate airbnb because they make the rent in In NYC fucking expensive  even with a 100k a year salary.  It's a good thing that NYC  is sending a fine of $1000 to whoever lists their whole apartment for rent on airbnb.

I see, thanks for the link. My initial impression is that there are probably more considerations than the theoretically optimal way to lever the company. The two tech companies I named have a fear of insolvency baked into their DNA. I would imagine their CFO's are aware of this theory and have either decided protecting against insolvency is more important -- or they've been unable to persuade the CEO/board to do the theoretically optimal thing and distribute that cash to shareholders and put the company into debt.  It's an appeal to authority but I'm still going to assume that if all the tech giants are doing it this way, it's probably the right decision for them. Even if it does conflict with this theory.

It is perfectly legitimate to adjust your 1099-B income by broker's fees.  Publication 17 (p 116) specifically instructs taxpayers to adjust their Schedule D reporting by broker's fees: Form 1099-B transactions.   If you sold property, such as stocks, bonds, or certain commodities, through a broker, you should receive Form 1099-B or substitute statement from the broker. Use the Form 1099-B or the substitute statement to complete Form 8949. If you sold a covered security in 2013, your broker should send you a Form 1099-B (or substitute statement) that shows your basis. This will help you complete Form 8949. Generally, a covered security is a security you acquired after 2010. Report the gross proceeds shown in box 2a of Form 1099-B as the sales price in column (d) of either Part I or Part II of Form 8949, whichever applies. However, if the broker advises you, in box 2a of Form 1099-B, that gross proceeds (sales price) less commissions and option premiums were reported to the IRS, enter that net sales price in column (d) of either Part I or Part II of Form 8949, whichever applies. Include in column (g) any expense of sale, such as broker's fees, commissions, state and local transfer taxes, and option premiums, unless you reported the net sales price in column (d). If you include an expense of sale in column (g), enter “E” in column (f). You can rely on your own records and judgment, if you feel comfortable doing so.  Brokers often make incomplete tax reporting.  This may have been simpler from their perspective if the broker fees were variable, or integrated, or unknown for a number of clients party to a transaction.  If a taxpayer has documentation of the expenses that justify an adjustment, then it's perfectly appropriate to include that in the calculations. It is not necessary to report the discrepancy, and it may increase scrutiny to include a written addendum.  The Schedule D, Form 8949, and Form 1099-B will probably together adequately explain the source of the deduction.


Question: How to refuse a Clearxchange payment?

"Your bank uses ClearXchange, not you. It is not a website where you open an account, like many others, but an inter-bank transfer system based on email addresses, kind of like free wire transfers between everyone. You don't have to set anything up, just accept the payment, and the money appears in your account (assuming the client used the email address your bank has on file for you). However, if you still don't want it, you can just ignore it. There is a timeout when his transaction gets auto-cancelled, and he gets his money back. Here is an example text from the 'fine print' (my highlighting): ""[...]We will continue our attempts by sending a second notice of a transfer to the recipient, and providing the recipient a period of nine (9) succeeding Business Days to register in the Service, or the person-to-person payment service of clearXchange, Zelle or a Network Bank. At the end of this period, if the recipient still has not registered, the transfer request will be Cancelled. The sender may cancel the transfer at any time during this ten (10) day period if the recipient is not registered at the time of cancellation.[...]"" (https://chaseonline.chase.com/Public/Misc/LAContent.aspx?agreementKey=chasenet_la)"

"Let's divide all bank accounts into savings and checking. The main difference is that checking is easy to get money from; savings is hard to get money from. Because of this, the federal Reserve requires that banks keep more money on hand to cover transactions in checking accounts. Here is a related question from a banking customer regarding a recent notice on their bank statement: Deposit Reclassification. It seems that the bank was moving the customer's money between hidden sub accounts to make it look like the checking account was really a savings account and thus ""reduce the amount of funds we are required to keep on deposit at the Federal Reserve Bank."" If they didn't have to transfer the money many times the bank could keep less cash on hand. But once they did 5 hidden transactions the rest of the money in the hidden savings account would be moved by the bank. The 6 transaction limit is done to not allow you to treat savings like checking. Here is a relevant quote from the Federal Reserve Savings Deposits  Savings deposits generally have no specified maturity   period. They may be interest-bearing, with interest computed or paid   daily, weekly, quarterly, or on any other basis. The two most   significant features of savings deposits are the ‘‘reservation of   right’’ requirement and the restrictions on the number of   ‘‘convenient’’ transfers or withdrawals that may be made per month (or   per statement cycle of at least four weeks) from the account. In order   to classify an account as a ‘‘savings deposit,’’ the institution must   in its account agreement with the customer reserve the right at any   time to require seven days’ advance written notice of an intended   withdrawal. In practice, this right is never exercised, but the   institution must nevertheless reserve that right in the account   agreement. In addition, for an account to be classified as a ‘‘savings   deposit,’’ the depositor may make no more than six ‘‘convenient’’   transfers or withdrawals per month from the account. ‘‘Convenient’’   transfers and withdrawals, for purposes of this limit, include   preauthorized, automatic transfers (including but not limited to   transfers from the savings deposit for overdraft protection or for   direct bill payments) and transfers and withdrawals initiated by   telephone, facsimile, or computer, and transfers made by check, debit    card, or other similar order made by the depositor and payable to   third parties. Other, less-convenient types of transfers, such as   withdrawals or transfers made in person at the bank, by mail, or by   using an ATM, do not count toward the six-per-month limit and do not   affect the account’s status as a savings account. Also, a withdrawal   request initiated by telephone does not count toward the transfer   limit when the withdrawal is disbursed via check mailed to the   depositor.  Examiners should be particularly wary of a bank’s practices   for handling telephone transfers. As noted, an unlimited number of   telephone-initiated withdrawals are allowed so long as a check for   the withdrawn funds is mailed to the depositor. Otherwise, the limit   is six telephone transfers per month. The limit applies to telephonic   transfers to move savings deposit funds to another type of deposit   account and to make payments to third parties."

Since you are paying taxes on the distributions from your mutual funds anyway, instead of reinvesting the distributions back into the mutual funds, you could receive them as cash, then contribute them to your Roth IRA once you are able to open one.

Sometimes what is holding us back are internalized barriers which don't really exist. Sometimes it is possible to pull yourself up by your bootstraps if only you try. But I think conservatives underestimate the difficulties of following a new paradigm.   I've become fascinated by this topic because it ties in with my thoughts on visionary thinking. What is it that allows some people to break out of rigid patterns of thought, i.e. routines? Researchers in artificial intelligence are developing interesting theories on how to train neural networks to find new possibilities quicker. Some of this research might apply to the human mind and how creativity works.  Anyway, I don't think people can see a way out of poverty when you only present them with hypothetical possibilities. I think we need mentoring programs and apprenticeships. People can only follow a new paradigm when they have an example before them. In other words, if they can do it, I can do it. But when nobody around you is doing it then you are not going to give the possibility much weight. No observations support that optimism.

At this company, you can get building site signs in an infinite range of colours to suit formal building requirements, evening venues, playgrounds and every other thing. They are made from high quality laminate, Perspex or aluminium.

> Taking rough rice as an example, there are millions (if not billions) of people who eat rice to survive. People will always need oil to fuel their cars. People will always need electricity.  Commodity values are unlikely to go to 0, I agree. The fact you think this is super-relevant suggests to me you have not fully grasped the nature of the commodities futures markets.  > I don't like to be too risky  You are looking at getting into extremely risky securities.  > I guess what I am trying to do is look into things that allow me to profit, regardless of where equities are going.  Many men have died searching for the holy grail. Speculating in these markets is not for the faint of hearts, let alone for the risk-averse.  > I have gone as far as to look through OTC ADRs to find some foreign value, and I found nothing.  There are plenty of funds offering lots of exposure to international equities, which seem well-geared toward the individual investor.

"Grad school applications typically have deadlines around December or January, so you're thinking about this at the right time.   First, obviously, you should get an idea of where you want to go, and what kind of program. There's plenty of ranking lists online that can help give you an idea. Grad school applications take a non-trivial amount of effort, so most people apply to only 5-10.  Next, you'll want to contact potential references. The grad school websites should inform you what type of reference they want, but in my experience these were mostly academic and usually 2-3 per application, finance programs may want more professional references as well. Try to choose the right references for the application, e.g. I applied to financial engineering programs, and would usually have one economics professor and then either a math professor or a statistics professor depending on the focus of the program.  Now, check to see if your programs require a GRE/GMAT score (they probably will), and start studying ASAP. There's tons of study materials available both in book form and online, and if you can put the time in you can probably get a decent score with just a few weeks (4-6) of studying. As far as I know, just about every program that accepts a GMAT score will also accept a GRE score, but not necessarily the other way around, so you may be better off studying for the GRE (verify this!).  And with all those components complete, you'll basically be done! Some applications will ask for various forms of cover letter, or have other essay questions, so set aside some time to write these as well.   Also, if you're looking at Finance Master's programs, I notice that they tend to come in a few varieties. Some set you up for PhDs and are naturally more academic focused, where as ""terminal"" Master's that resemble an MBA will focus on trying to get you a job. Reflect a bit on what you want to accomplish with your degree and figure out the program that's best for that. If you get in to a top school then it won't matter much regardless, but otherwise it is very likely that schools which produce good PhD candidates and research are not necessarily the same schools which place people on Wall Street.  Hope that helps :)"

"Instead of using the actual index, use a mutual fund as a proxy for the index. Mutual funds will include dividend income, and usually report data on the value of a ""hypothetical $10,000 investment"" over the life of the fund. If you take those dollar values and normalize them, you should get what you want. There are so many different factors that feed into general trends that it will be difficult to draw conclusions from this sort of data. Things like news flow, earnings reporting periods, business cycles, geopolitical activity, etc all affect the various sectors of the economy differently."


Question: Current accounts reward schemes and reciprocal standing orders?

"I don't think it would be counted as income, and if it's a short-term loan it doesn't really matter as the notional interest on the loan would be negligible. But you can avoid any possible complications by just having two accounts in the name of the person trying to get the account benefits, particularly if you're willing to just provide the ""seed"" money to get the loop started."

Why does total debt matter?  What really matters is debt service.  What is the percentage of GDP that is used for debt service?  If you borrow money at 2% versus 18% it makes a **HUGE** difference in how much you pay back.    In fact, Japan's debt goes down each year that inflation is greater than 2% (in purchasing power).

I am not an accountant, but I have a light accounting background, despite being primarily an engineer.  I also have a tiny schedule C business which has both better and worse years.  I am also in the United States and pay US taxes.  I assume you are referring to the US Form 1040 tax return, with the attached Schedule C.  However little I know about US taxes, I know nothing about foreign taxes. You are a cash-basis taxpayer, so the transactions that happen in each tax year are based on the cash paid and cash received in that year.  You were paid last year, you computed your schedule C based on last year's actual transactions, and you paid taxes on that income. You can not recompute last years schedule C based on the warranty claim. You might want to switch to an accrual accounting method, where you can book allowances for warranty claims.  It is more complex, and if your business is spotty and low volume, it may be more trouble than it is worth. At this point, you have two months to look for ways to shift expenses into next year or being income into this year, both of which help offset this loss. Perhaps a really aggressive accountant would advise otherwise (and remember, I am not an accountant), but I would take the lumps and move on. This article on LegalZoom (link here) discusses how to apply a significant net operating loss (NOL) in this year to the previous two years, and potentially carry it forward to the next two years.  This does involve filing amended returns for the prior two years, showing this year's NOL.  For this to be relevant, your schedule C loss this year must exceed your other W2 and self-employment income this year, with other tests also applied. Perhaps a really aggressive accountant would advise otherwise (and remember, I am not an accountant), but I would take the lumps and move on.

No it's really not, I have no illusions that private school is any better than the public schools around here.  The problems with them differ, but one is no better than the other.  Our education system in Florida is broken, the voucher system they instituted created broken schools and soon to be bankrupt private schools.  Every state that's done so has or soon will have the same problems.  Even states that aren't screwing their public schools with vouchers, are screwing them with poor funding at every level.  Shits broke, and getting more broke every year.  Eventually it might get fixed, but I'm not going to play 'maybe' games with my kids.  I'd rather move them to a country that isn't supporting the most expensive military on the planet.

I'm not in the business but I've always thought that Catalyst + industry context = market beating returns.  Meaning that if you know what an event means faster than everyone else you can make money.  Though I don't know how you'd express that in a report.  An example that comes to mind is when Japan announced they were forming a consortium, the largest in the world, to make LCD panel glass.  After that I got the heck of GLW though the stock price kept going up at the time.  It is like no one understood the implications.

I've heard many times that large corporations have their accounting departments do all sorts of crazy things to get their tax rate drastically lowered. I'm no accountant, and this is not something I have done a ton of research into, but I did find [this paper](http://www.ctj.org/corporatetaxdodgers/sorrystateofcorptaxes.php#Executive Summary) that states that between 2008 and 2012 the 288 Fortune 500 companies the study looked at only paid an effective tax rate of 19.4%.   Note that the 288 companies selected were selected because of their consistent profitability over that time period.  I am open to the possibility of this study being flawed, but I didn't see anything that jumped out at me.

Started as pt at a grocery store. Will never get used to throwing all that good meat out. Still has 2 days but there's fresher stock in back. It seems having bold and full shelves is the reason. They throw out food to have that clean magazine photo look of a store.

I absolutely LOVE Taco Bell's marketing department. Like they took the term polish a turd to the next level. I follow them on twitter, like them on Facebook, get their snapchats, shit I even won a taco shirt from them by doing some online scavenger hunt bullshit. I don't even love their food, in fact I think a Chick Fil A grilled chicken sandwich blows away anything on their menu. They've just found this way to come off as your bro by giving you this food thats cool and cheap and edible. And they're social media platforms are actually FUNNY. I don't know how they did it, but they're an incredible company and a totally different company since when I was a kid and they had those dog commercials.


Question: Who gets how many shares when an IPO is oversubscribed?

A broker will only get so many shares for any IPO. They will give their highest profit customers priority, but try to keep the smaller ones happy as well. So where my TWTR order today was for 1000 shares, I actually was granted 100.  In the dotcon* bubble of the late 90's, there were some stocks I saw as many as 1000 hit my account.  (*not a typo, this is the title of a book on that period, the making of a bubble and irrational doings on Wall Street.

"Lolol.   Is it ""survival of the fittest"" or ""arbitrary luck and randomness"" that fates today's worker? Make your mind up.   There isn't a political/social ideology ever that doesn't pair qualified people where they need to be. Really doesn't matter how passionate you are about being a doctor, if you are terrible at it, you can't be a doctor- this philosophy is not specific to ""evil, murdering capitalism"" it's consistent throughout. What you're talking about isn't a defined political or social ideology, it's Huggy-lovee-feefee Land."

Do you work with low-skilled employees? Specifically, do you ever have to manage them? I am going to make the assumption that you do not based on the comments you are making. It is impossible to say ALL of anything is a certain way. I'm not suggesting that at all. I'm going to specifically talk about averages. It seems like you've never been around the average.  The average minimum wage employee doesn't have a high school education. It is fairly safe to say that they continuously are not developing skills that provide value both to themselves and others. If a person refuses to provide more for society, should society fill the gap?  You suggest that people who are poor didn't get there because of their own right. Are people who are self-made millionaires (on average) good with finances? Why would that be? If yes, why do you assume those that are successful are so because of their own merit but cannot be blamed for failure?  Seattle is a nice place. My exterior painter is doing a job there right now. It's a 3 month job. He is painting 1,000 apartments. He took 7 guys with him that he pays around $1,750 a week plus room and board. He had to take 7 guys with him because he can't find workers up in Washington. Can you imagine that? People in Seattle have not developed the skill of exterior painting. That's the reality of your job market. Even further, companies do have massive incentives to move to cheaper locations. The starting salary of large corporations varies wildly based on cost of living. Goldman Sachs will offer nearly $100k a year starting to work in the NYC branch compared to $65-70k in Houston.

THIS. That's why I'm fortunate enough to work a remote job where I live 3 hours north of NYC and have traveled 30 years back in time when it comes to prices of homes. I feel like even with shit credit, the hope of a dream home is much more attainable now that the cost/income ratio is where it should be.

It's not an easy calculation so I made this demonstration that compares a fixed investment with a 100% mortgage, for a simple case.  (Obviously if you lessen the mortgage with a deposit it's somewhere between the extremes.)  The demonstrations shows some definite differences at higher interest rates.  You can probably decipher the calculations in the code if you're interested.  It's intended to be legible. http://demonstrations.wolfram.com/BuyOrRentInvestmentReturnCalculator/

"Following @Brick's advice, I am posting this as an answer so it ""stands apart from the question"", but all the credit goes to @TTT, whose instructions I followed. I was able to get this collection completely deleted/removed from the 2 bureaus that were reporting it, using only the online dispute process. Of course, your mileage may vary, but here's some more details, that may be helpful to others. Equifax: Success! 3 weeks after disputing the collection using the online dispute process, and uploading my (scanned) ""final account statement"" to show that I paid the apartment complex, I received an email confirmation that it is deleted. (I had to go to a webpage to get the actual result.) TransUnion: Success! Although I never heard back from TU, my CreditKarma account now shows that the collection is no longer on my TU report either. I am not sure if this is because Equifax deleted it and TU just followed suit, or if TU did their own investigation (ideas, comments? could help others). Their online dispute process bugged out and didn't accept my upload, so they would have had to contact the apartment complex, so I was supposed to receive something by mail. I still haven't, but it's definitely gone from my report. Experian: It didn't show up on this report, so I can't give any feedback. I suppose it's also worth noting that I did not ever have any contact with the Collections Agency. I did visit the apartment office, in person, in order to get a copy of my final statement. While there, I spoke with the (new) manager, who said she would try to reach up the chain of command to figure something out. I'm not sure how much difference, if any, this may have made, as the complex is now owned by an entirely different company. In fact, the new manager had no idea who the old management company was, much less which collections agency they used. Also worth noting: Removing the collection made my score rise from 623 to 701! I know because, after getting the collection removed from my report, I re-applied for the auto loan I had been denied 3 weeks prior, and they gave me my Equifax score both times."

The key point is from the penultimate sentence in your second paragraph: for which you have already paid taxes When you receive a dividend or realise a capital gain, you get taxed on that then, and you shouldn't have to pay taxes on it again in future. So the cost basis gets adjusted to reflect that.

Rather than screwing around with foreign currencies, hop over to Germany and open an account at the first branch of Deutsche or Commerzbank you see. If the euro really does disintegrate, you want to have your money in the strongest country of the lot.  Edit: and what I meant to say is that if the euro implodes, you'll end up with deutschmarks, which, unlike the new IEP, will *not* need to devalue. (And in the meantime, you've still got euros, so you have no FX risk.)


Question: What prevents investors from buying high yield stocks and selling them as soon as their dividend is paid out?

"You have to be the owner of record before the ex-dividend date, which is not the same day as the date the dividend is paid. This also implies that if you sell on or after the ex-dividend date, you'll still get the dividend, even if you no longer own the stock.  Keep in mind, also, that the quoted price of the stock (and on any open orders that are not specifically marked as ""do not reduce"") on its ex-dividend date is dropped by the amount of the dividend, first thing in the morning before trading starts. If you happen to be the first order of the day, before market forces cause the price to move, you'll end up with zero gain, since the dividend is built into the price, and you got the same value out of it -- the dividend in cash, and the remaining value in stock. As pointed out in the comments (Thanks @Brick), you'll still get a market price for your trade, but the price reduction will have had some impact on the first trade of the day. Source: NYSE Rule 118.30 Also, remember that the dividend yield is expressed in annualized terms. So a 3% yield can only be fully realized by receiving all of the dividend payments made by the company for the year. You can, of course, forget about individual companies and just look for dividends to create your own effective yield over time. But, see the final point... Finally, if you keep buying and selling just to play games with the dividends, you're going to pay far more in transaction fees than you will earn in dividends. And, depending on your individual circumstances, you may end up paying more in capital gains taxes."

I think the simple answer to your question is: Yes, when you sell, that drives down the price. But it's not like you sell, and THEN the price goes down. The price goes down when you sell. You get the lower price.  Others have discussed the mechanics of this, but I think the relevant point for your question is that when you offer shares for sale, buyers now have more choices of where to buy from. If without you, there were 10 people willing to sell for $100 and 10 people willing to buy for $100, then there will be 10 sales at $100. But if you now offer to sell, there are 11 people selling for $100 and 10 people buying for $100. The buyers have a choice, and for a seller to get them to pick him, he has to drop his price a little. In real life, the market is stable when one of those sellers drops his price enough that an 11th buyer decides that he now wants to buy at the lower price, or until one of the other 10 buyers decides that the price has gone too low and he's no longer interested in selling. If the next day you bought the stock back, you are now returning the market to where it was before you sold. Assuming that everything else in the market was unchanged, you would have to pay the same price to buy the stock back that you got when you sold it. Your net profit would be zero. Actually you'd have a loss because you'd have to pay the broker's commission on both transactions. Of course in real life the chances that everything else in the market is unchanged are very small. So if you're a typical small-fry kind of person like me, someone who might be buying and selling a few hundred or a few thousand dollars worth of a company that is worth hundreds of millions, other factors in the market will totally swamp the effect of your little transaction. So when you went to buy back the next day, you might find that the price had gone down, you can buy your shares back for less than you sold them, and pocket the difference. Or the price might have gone up and you take a loss.

An auto title loans are typically utilized by those that wish to obtain a funding with bad credit rating or no credit in any way. An auto-mobile title lending frequently called a vehicle title lending or merely title funding as well as pink slip funding’s. You merely should have a vehicle that is paid off or nearly paid off and also you could make use of the auto title as security to obtain the cash money you require, enabling you to continue driving your vehicle while paying your loan.   Get Auto Car Title Loans Torrance CA and nearby cities Provide Car Title Loans, Auto Title Loans, Mobile Home Title Loans, RV/Motor Home Title Loans, Big Rigs Truck Title Loans, Motor Cycle Title Loans, Online Title Loans Near me, Bad Credit Loans, Personal Loans, Quick cash Loans  Contact Us: Get Auto Car Title Loans Torrance CA 1148 W Clarion Dr, Torrance, CA 90502  Phone : 424-306-1531 Email : atltorrance@gmail.com http://getautotitleloans.com/car-and-auto-title-loans-torrance-ca

You get to put money away with special tax incentives (ie - no or less taxes to pay)  They are state sponsored and therefore pretty reliable, but some states are better than others. Like with many of these tax incentive type accounts (FSA, Dependent Care Spending Accounts) they are use it or lose it.  (In a 529, use it or transfer it).  So the money put away is a sunk cost towards education and cannot be repurposed for something else should your kid not want to attend school. http://money.howstuffworks.com/personal-finance/financial-planning/529.htm

"> Outside of money, the biggest thing I think we will leave to our kids is what we have learned...  I would argue even money is less important, but continue.  > ...you are acting like a totally responsible young adult according to societal norms and people who are supposed to give you advice, and you are totally fucking yourself.  Totally agree.  FYI, your example seems fitting for someone born into a middle class home and their choices are bad but not destructive.  If it were someone from a poor household then the 25 year old doesn't know about the American Heart Association, doesn't know about credit to get a card or house, invests nothing, often gets payday loans, gets a car from a used car auto-lender, drinks and watches a lot of TV, has probably been involved in a pregnancy, and plays the lottery in the hopes of a better life.    > Is that your fault?  I would say, ""no"".  Society has effectively set you up to fail.  > What if you've concluded generational wealth is simply luck...  > You may dismiss your opportunity as bullshit, and remained trapped in the standard American day to day wage/debt slavery.  You almost certainly will dismiss the opportunity.  Even if you can realize the AHA, financial advisor, or payday loan guy gave you bad advice, there are better looking opportunities.  Put away money for a rainy day?  Fuck that!  If I listen to the auto-loan guy I get a car *today*.  I'm not sure I understand where your contention was.  Are you thinking that people shouldn't be cynical  of the system and be able to recognize an opportunity to better their life?  I'm heading out for the evening.  I'll look for your replay later tonight and maybe respond.  Thanks for the thoughtful discussion."

I think there's no single one size fits all way to do hierarchies and flat structures.  One can have very insular divisions where everything goes in and out of the division via the supervisor in charge of them, but all of the divisional supervisors having a very flat structure working among each other, for example.  I think this resolves a lot of the noise issue from low-ranking employees talking to people that they really shouldn't be while still maintaining the efficiency benefits for low level management which presumably has enough seniority to understand how things work (or are new people in those positions who are important enough to handhold them through learning that quickly).

I definitely see the advantages of globalism. And from an economical point of view the takeovers make sense.  But from a political strategic point of view, I think we Europeans should be careful. They are state-owned, we'd literally be selling to the Chinese government.  I'm Belgian, and one of our distribution system operators almost got taken over by a Chinese state owned company. That's a bit too strategic to my liking.

"That's OK, there are new ""fronts"" in the war ... not just ""Print On Demand"" (aka POD) and Independent *publishing*, but the soon to be here *local* (in store) print on demand.  And of course e-books (especially independently published e-books) are s-l-o-w-l-y (but *steadily*) picking up steam as well."


Question: Calculate Finance Rate, Interest Amount when we have below line Fees

The equation for the payment is  This board does not support Latex (the number formatting code) so the above is an image, the code is M is the payment calculated, n is the number of months or periods to pay off, and i is the rate per period. You can see that with i appearing 3 times in this equation, it's not possible to isolate to the form i=....  so a calculator will 'guess,' and use, say, 10%. It then raises or lowers the rate until the result is within the calculator's tolerance. I've observed that unlike other calculations, when you hit the button to calculate, a noticeable time lag occurs. I hope I haven't read too much into your question, it seemed to me this was what you asked.

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It really depends on the amount of money - I currently have to pay my mortgage in the UK from the US until my house there is sold and my wife sends money from her (US) Paypal account to my UK Paypal account. As personal payments these don't attract the sort of fees you see for ebay payments et al. Compared to the fee-o-rama that a wire transfer turns into (I tried once from BofA to HSBC UK), it is noticeably cheaper for the amount of money we're sending. That said, a lot of the currency transfer services have support for monthly payments and you might get a decent exchange rate and fewer (or no) fees that way.

I like when I get told about something last minute, scamper like mad to get it done ASAP, and then get yelled at for holding things up.  I threaten to hold them to our review cycle process which calls for 4-7 business days.

You can open an HSA account with any financial institution that you like, and roll over the money from your current account into the new one.  Since you are no longer in a High Deductible Health Plan, you can't contribute any new money into an HSA, but you can still spend the money in your HSA on eligible medical expenses, until it is gone.  There are lots of things that you can spend HSA money on, so there is no need to cash out and take on taxes and penalties. Yes, there are HSA accounts that don't charge ongoing maintenance fees.  Check with a local credit union; they usually have no-fee HSA accounts.

Did she work at a staff level prior to this?  I don't know her experience, but if she worked as a staff level security analyst for 20 years, then I would call her qualified.  Your degree doesn't matter. They are very rarely relevant after a year or two of employment.

Thanks for the reply! I am considering all lines of work as the priority is the location, then the job. But if the work I can get is relevant and expands my network, that carries a lot of value.  The plan is to stay where I am for the next 2-3 years to gain the required work experience to become a charterholder and developing my skills/project portfolio to become a better candidate. I would still be young enough to move to Australia/UK on a working vacation/youth mobility and I want to be set up to have a good chance by then.

Very cool! good for you. We're a rare breed - actually doing something with our finance knowledge.  The rotten part I think is they've had enough success to be self employed. At that point, you start realizing the limitations of most people when you are successful, and so you become closed off. I'm as guilty of this as they were.  > conservative.... but it's not for me  You're right on that part. Definitely have to see what your sweet spot is and stick to that. Anything that requires me to constantly check up on the industry is out for me. But I follow tesla for many reasons and it's something I worked hard to get comfortable with (more than 1,000 hours). My comfort zone is owning 4 stocks after looking at 1,000+. And watching them closely, ignoring the rest. I also don't have time for much more. My other favorite, that might be more up your alley: Davita (DVA). I am a big fan and comfortable with the industry to know they're going to do well from here.


Question: What factors make someone buy or sell a stock?

"First, note that a share represents a % of ownership of a company. In addition to the right to vote in the management of the company [by voting on the board of directors, who hires the CEO, who hires the VPs, etc...], this gives you the right to all future value of the company after paying off expenses and debts. You will receive this money in two forms: dividends approved by the board of directors, and the final liquidation value if the company closes shop. There are many ways to attempt to determine the value of a company, but the basic theory is that the company is worth a cashflow stream equal to all future dividends + the liquidation value. So, the market's ""goal"" is to attempt to determine what that future cash flow stream is, and what the risk related to it is. Depending on who you talk to, a typical stock market has some degree of 'market efficiency'. Market efficiency is basically a comment about how quickly the market reacts to news. In a regulated marketplace with a high degree of information available, market efficiency should be quite high. This basically means that stock markets in developed countries have enough traders and enough news reporting that as soon as something public is known about a company, there are many, many people who take that information and attempt to predict the impact on future earnings of the company. For example, if Starbucks announces earnings that were 10% less than estimated previously, the market will quickly respond with people buying Starbucks shares lowering their price on the assumption that the total value of the Starbucks company has decreased. Most of this trading analysis is done by institutional investors. It isn't simply office workers selling shares on their break in the coffee room, it's mostly people in the finance industry who specialize in various areas for their firms, and work to quickly react to news like this. Is the market perfectly efficient? No. The psychology of trading [ie: people panicking, or reacting based on emotion instead of logic], as well as any inadequacy of information, means that not all news is perfectly acted upon immediately. However, my personal opinion is that for large markets, the market is roughly efficient enough that you can assume that you won't be able to read the newspaper and analyze stock news in a way better than the institutional investors. If a market is generally efficient, then it would be very difficult for a group of people to manipulate it, because someone else would quickly take advantage of that. For example, you suggest that some people might collectively 'short AMZN' [a company worth half a trillion dollars, so your nefarious group would need to have $5 Billion of capital just to trade 1% of the company]. If someone did that, the rest of the market would happily buy up AMZN at reduced prices, and the people who shorted it would be left holding the bag. However, when you deal with smaller items, some more likely market manipulation can occur. For example, when trading penny stocks, there are people who attempt to manipulate the stock price and then make a profitable trade afterwards. This takes advantage of the low amount of information available for tiny companies, as well as the limited number of institutional investors who pay attention to them. Effectively it attempts to manipulate people who are not very sophisticated. So, some manipulation can occur in markets with limited information, but for the most part prices are determined by the 'market consensus' on what the future profits of a company will be.  Additional example of what a share really is: Imagine your neighbor has a treasure chest on his driveway: He gathers the neighborhood together, and asks if anyone wants to buy a % of the value he will get from opening the treasure chest. Perhaps it's a glass treasure chest, and you can mostly see inside it. You see that it is mostly gold and silver, and you weigh the chest and can see that it's about 100 lbs all together. So in your head, you take the price of gold and silver, and estimate how much gold is in the chest, and how much silver is there. You estimate that the chest has roughly $1,000,000 of value inside. So, you offer to buy 10% of the chest, for $90k [you don't want to pay exactly 10% of the value of the company, because you aren't completely sure of the value; you are taking on some risk, so you want to be compensated for that risk].  Now assume all your neighbors value the chest themselves, and they come up with the same approximate value as you. So your neighbor hands out little certificates to 10 of you, and they each say ""this person has a right to 10% of the value of the treasure chest"". He then calls for a vote from all the new 'shareholders', and asks if you want to get the money back as soon as he sells the chest, or if you want him to buy a ship and try and find more chests. It seems you're all impatient, because you all vote to fully pay out the money as soon as he has it. So your neighbor collects his $900k [$90k for each 10% share, * 10], and heads to the goldsmith to sell the chest. But before he gets there, a news report comes out that the price of gold has gone up. Because you own a share of something based on the price of gold, you know that your 10% treasure chest investment has increased in value. You now believe that your 10% is worth $105k. You put a flyer up around the neighborhood, saying you will sell your share for $105k. Because other flyers are going up to sell for about $103-$106k, it seems your valuation was mostly consistent with the market.  Eventually someone driving by sees your flyer, and offers you $104k for your shares. You agree, because you want the cash now and don't want to wait for the treasure chest to be sold. Now, when the treasure chest gets sold to the goldsmith, assume it sells for $1,060,000 [turns out you underestimated the value of the company]. The person who bought your 10% share will get $106k [he gained $2k]. Your neighbor who found the chest got $900k [because he sold the shares earlier, when the value of the chest was less clear], and you got $104k, which for you was a gain of $14k above what you paid for it. This is basically what happens with shares. Buy owning a portion of the company, you have a right to get a dividend of future earnings. But, it could take a long time for you to get those earnings, and they might not be exactly what you expect. So some people do buy and sell shares to try and earn money, but the reason they are able to do that is because the shares are inherently worth something - they are worth a small % of the company and its earnings."

"The _only_ commercials that work on me are fast food ones.  And usually only when I'm sitting on the couch thinking, ""I'm hungry.  I don't want to make something."" and even then, it's a crap-shoot.    The idea fast-food commercial for me would be a side-scrolling list of menu items with names underneath the name of the place to eat.  So I could go ""Ooh!  Jack in the Box tacos!"" (not that I ever would..)  I don't give two shits about ""funny"" or ""edgy"" commercials, etc."

"An option is an instrument that gives you the ""right"" (but not the obligation) to do something (if you are long). An American option gives you more ""rights"" (to exercise on more days) than a European option. The more ""rights,"" the greater the (theoretical) value of the option, all other things being equal, of course. That's just how options work.  You could point to an ex post result, and and say that's not the case. But it is true ex ante."

I think it will be good for certain infrastructure sects to be privatized. Since when has the government ever completed anything on budget or on time? Let someone else put their dollar at risk, not ours. Just one less thing the government has control of. I'm open to some change. We'll see what happens.

> Prices can still be low and people can still make tons of money, just slightly less money for those at the top and slightly more for those at the bottom rungs.  You cannot simply *pay* people a wage different to market wage. Why would the executives take accept a salary at 80% of the market wage when they could just get a job at 100% of the market wage?  And at the other end, if you simply started paying the workers 20% more, suddenly all of the workers at that new price point want to get a job at Wal-Mart. They swiftly will replace all the current employees, who cannot perform at that level. If they *could*, why would they have been working at Wal-Mart?  You are railing against reality. Yes, it sucks that some people are only capable of labour at low productivity levels. Totally agree. Simply trying to *pretend* that they are *more* productive is just ridiculous, though.

"Mortgage agreements usually have a clause in which the mortgagor warrants that all the statements and information which they have provided to the mortgagee are correct. In your case, this probably included your credit score. Since your ""statement"" concerning your credit score is no longer accurate, they want you to update the agreement with the new information before the final version is prepared. Credit scores change for many random reasons. The agencies re-calibrate formulas constantly. It is unlikely that your mortgage negotiations affected your credit score. The bank will only start reporting the facts of mortgage to a credit agency when you start paying (or not paying) the loan. Credit agencies don't care whether you have a loan or not. They only care whether you have paid your debts, or not paid them."

It's just human nature. At least in cases where all options are equal people will probably choose the mine with less deaths. Also if there is some mine with 100x as many deaths as average it will raise awareness in the circles of power.

I am actually partial to the idea of negative taxation systems, here in Australia we have the 'work for the dole' program which is essentially what the author describes, but it is inefficient and demeaning. It would be far more efficient to dramatically reduce the minimum wage and introduce a negative tax rate, or rather bracket the tax rate such that it enters negative territory at some point. This way employers can afford to employ more staff and people would still be compensated through the tax system and end up reasonably well off. So long as the compensation is fair I don't see how this is not preferable to a tax-and-transfer system where the government taxes with one hand and gives with the other?


Question: Ethics and investment

"Are there businesses which professionally invest ethically? Yes.  The common term for this is ""socially responsible investing"".  Looking at that page and googling that term should provide you with plenty of pointers to funds to investigate. Of course, the definitions of ""ethical"" and ""socially responsible"" vary from person to person and fund to fund.  You'll have to take a look at each fund to see which ones match your principles."

When I was in grad school (at an engineering school) my apartment-mates and I came up with this formula: Worked marvelously.

">If there aren't enough seats in the classrooms, some people will be left without the college education they want, no matter how the financing is provided.  I'll grant you this, but we can always produce more classrooms.  Let's use your loan example. If I take out a college loan it represents the value of some other asset, and the lender's belief that I will later be able to compensate the lender for giving up that asset.  Just as we could price the value of the hunter's demise, we can price the value of a student's failure or success. If the student has delivered in the past (good grades, high productivity), then we can reliably price the cost of her college education.   In a very real way, she has ""created"" her own seat in the classroom right now by promising to pay for it in the future. And we can rely on this promise on the basis of her past performance. I won't get into whether this is reliable or even desirable.  Just as we priced the value of the hunter's non-performance/demise, we can price the student's non-performance/default. We can build this into the cost of the loan, or spread the cost out among all the other loans we give."

This depends on a lot actually - with the overall being your goals and how much you like risk.   Question: What are your fees/commissions for selling? $8.95/trade will wipe out some gains on those trades. (.69% if all are sold with $8.95 commission - not including the commission payed when purchased that should be factored into the cost basis) Also, I would recommend doing commission free ETFs.  You can get the same affect as a mutual fund without the fees associated with paying someone to invest in ETFs and stocks. On another note: Your portfolio looks rather risky.  Although everyone has their own risk preference so this might be yours but if you are thinking about a mutual fund instead of individual stocks you probably are risk averse. I would suggest consulting with an adviser on how to set up for the future.  Financial advice is free flowing from your local barber, dentist, and of course StackExchange but I would look towards a professional. Disclaimer: These are my thoughts and opinions only ;) Feel free to add comments below.

Have her pay something like a friendly monthly rent. This should be less than half of the monthly mortgage cost, since you are assuming the risk (and benefits) of a mortgage and closer to the rent of similar places near you. For when you get married and she is to have half the apartment, have a pre-agreed way to calculate a lump-sum that she needs to provide to match your own contributions up to that time, as if you two had equal contributions from the beginning. The financially precise way to do it would be to have her pay more than the mere sum of the amount (since she will be providing the amount at a later time than you), but I would be generous and skip this in your place if the difference is not too big. If you break up, she will have payed what would be a fair amount of rent, as if you two were renting, so, in this sense, it is fair that she would not have a claim on the apartment. In case that you two would like that she keeps the apartment, you can just sell it to her, having her pay this same amount as above and assume responsibility for the rest of the mortgage.

Dollar is the lingua franca of the financial industry and unluckily it is the US currency. It is till today considered the most safest investment bet, that is why you have China possesing $3 trillion of US debt, as an investment albiet a very safe one. Financial investors get in queue to by US bonds the moment they are put up for sale. Because of the AAA rating the investors consider it to be safe at a specific rate. Now when you lower the credit rating you are indirectly asking the US government that you want a higher return(yield) on your investments. When you ask for higher yields, it translates into higher interest rates (money US would get for bonds issued decreases and so more bonds are issued). So you basically start looking at a slowdown in consumer spendings households and businesses. With already defaults, repossesions and lesser spending, the slowdown would increase manifold.

Yes and no.  Courts do understand the idea of tyranny of the majority.  Specifically, actions that hurt the company for personal gain is still theft against the minority shareholders.  It's common misconception that this fiduciary duty means that a CEO's job is to raise the price of their stock.  The truth is, stock price is a number that has an extremely tenuous relation to actual company health.  So, it's entirely possible for a shareholder lawsuit to happen.  It's just typically cheaper and less hassle to sell the stocks for a loss and get out while they can.

"*Moving your text out of order for (I hope) clarity*  > Because... (it) is a violation of the social contract. I'm quite sure I explained this already multiple times.  You've not explained, you just keep repeating your assertion.  You say ""The social contract is X"" and I ask, ""Why must it be X"" and you respond, ""Because the social contract is X.""  Let me try a different approach.  > Because the only modern justification for the existence of a nation is the social contract.  I disagree.  I think a nation can exist for whatever reason it's populace decides and today, more often than not, it includes providing for the welfare of it's citizens.  What do you think prevents a social contract from being so?  > Exactly. That's why we have the social contract...  Great! It sounds like you now agree that a modern government is required for capitalism to exist.  > Please elaborate as to why that is a problem in the first place.  Because it makes for an unstable system which will hurt the welfare of the people which is opposed to my definition of the social contract."


Question: Is there a free, online stock screener for UK stocks?

Yes, http://shares.telegraph.co.uk/stockscreener/ has what you're looking for.

">"" I think we can all agree people are not a commodity that is valued in dollars.""  I don't agree with that statment. Ever read an economics textbook? There are three [factors of production](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Factors_of_production) Land, Labor, and Capital. Labor (ie. people) are a commodity that are valued in dollars. The United States governement [values a human life](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Value_of_life#United_States) at around +/- $10 million dollars. The claims that high minimum wages force people out  of the labor force is supported by many famous economists. Milton Friedman (a noble prize winning economist) stated in regards to the [minimum wage](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ca8Z__o52sk) that ""People whose skills are not sufficient to justify that kind of a wage will be unemployed."""

Great, that means less idiots clogging up the lines.  Why are your panties in a bunch? All american profits still get taxed like normal. Now tell me Lib, why does the US get to double dip on taxes for money created outside of the states?  Edit: That wasn't including the excess tax to repatriate that money.

A lot of articles about this kind of thing ask you to do the simple math: $5k < $15k.  If you've got a trustworthy mechanic, and you're looking to save money, it's simple, you're looking at $10k in savings, not even counting interest, higher insurance, etc. On the other hand, if you're just lusting after a new car, and don't mind spending the extra money, then why not? As you mentioned, however, if you think you'll get at least the value of your repair back, you might as well get the car repaired for $5k, so you'll be able to get around town.  If you still decide you want a new car, then you'll have a trade-in worth $6500 instead of $1500.

I agree with what you said regarding not wanting to put the work in to get it.  When I was coming out of school and deciding whether or not to pursue my CPA (I went into industry (Private Accounting), not Public Accounting) my manager told me this.  What would you think of someone who went to law school and didn't take the bar? Seems ridiculous doesn't it?  Well the same, kind of, can be applied to the CPA/CA - if you have a degree in accounting... why not take the CPA exam?

>Restaurants and hotels are posting new job openings faster than they can fill them. This is a promising sign for the economy. Many jobs in the hospitality industry have low pay but don't require specialized skills. So they often serve as a stopgap for people between jobs. In periods when the broader job market is bleak, jobs in this sector tend to get snapped up quickly.  What utter bullshit. We are progressively turning into a low wage country and NPR wants to trump this as good for the economy.

"I bet he didn't even get offered an IPO - he probably thought that if you buy it on the first day that's the ""ipo"" and you can make money on a bounce.  Honestly, I think this open access to the stock market whereby anyone can be a 'trader' is a terrible thing."

If this is something you plan to continue doing it would make sense to create it as it's own business entity and then to get non-profit status eg: 501c3.   Otherwise I'm pretty sure you have to think of it as YOU receiving the money as a sole proprietor - and file a couple more tax forms at the end of the year. I think it's a Schedule C.  So essentially if you bring in $10,000, then you spend that $10,000 as legit business expenses for your venture your schedule C would show no profit and wouldn't pay taxes on it. BUT, you do have to file that form. Operating this way could have legal implications should something happen and you get sued. Having the proper business entity setup could help in that situation.


Question: How is my employer affected if I have expensive claims on my group health insurance?

Your employers insurance premiums will definitely go up if there are a lot of claims when it is time for them to renew their policy. It is also possible that if this happens the employer will pass along some of the additional cost to employees. The insurance company will not try to have you removed, it doesn't work that way with group policies. They just jack up the price as mentioned previously.  If you take a new job your cancer will affect the future employer in the same way. As to whether you should keep it a secret, I don't think it is something you have to disclose unless it affects your ability to perform your job, even then it may be protected under the Americans with Disabilities Act. It is true that some employers could exhibit some bias because of this, especially a small company that is likely to have a small group that is more likely to see price hikes because of a single employee making expensive claims. Bottom line: I wouldn't lie about it to a future employer, but I wouldn't volunteer that information either unless it is material to your job performance.

"People like to call it ""Chinese State-Sponsored Capitalism,"" but it is absolutely not capitalism.  Capitalism doesn't allocate capital to build cities for which there are no residents.  It doesn't pick winners by deciding who is best at bribing government officials.    We may not always like what the invisible hand deals us, but the idea that central planners are better at allocating capital than an ecosystem of individuals acting in their own interests just doesn't make any sense.  The more I learn about the world, the more I realize how little I know.  Expecting humans to be smart enough to understand and manage something as complex as an economy is akin to expecting present-day doctors to design a human body that rivals a natural human body in form and function.  I understand the need to occasionally intervene and mitigate some of the harsher aspects of nature, but when you take the stance that central planning is superior to a free-market system (or as free as possible given our inclinations towards empathy), you are basically saying that humans are capable of beating nature at its own game.  That is an audacious presumption.  I have seen zero evidence of that being the case now or at any point in the past."

"Funny you mentioned ""the protestors are here already,"" since they're cause is already a lost one. As you mentioned, everything will be on sale; those that already have excess income will be able to gobble up discounted assets, while those that are already in financial trouble (a la OWS protestors) will be left in the dust asset-wise, and if/when they recover the discount period will long be over.   Hence, the wealth gap will continue to widen, despite the OWS movement's passionate--yet uninformed and fruitless cause.   Also, I liked your ideas on guns. Arms and ammunition are--and especially will be in case of a tumultuous future period--a precious commodity in themselves and prove to be a wise investment, even if they only end up being used as a hobby only."

That changes things. If they are provide the service for free why would anyone pay for the same services from you? What do you provide that they don't? What makes your tutoring better than theirs? Being 'professional' doesn't really help. There needs to be a reason that someone should pay you instead of the free tutoring.

> It's a huge joke. People are putting their stock in it, but there was a front page story just yesterday about another crypto currency that went from $300 to $0.10 with a single transaction.  Hi, long time crypto nerd here... Just wanted to say that transaction was on one exchange and the price pretty much went back to normal in a few seconds. Due to the lack of experience in trading some people just dump like that on a whim, its not the norm, but it does happen.    In any case, that was some +1,000 units worth which again is super rare. They likely bought a long time ago and forgot them... again, fairly uncommon.

"The answer to your question depends on what you mean when you say ""growth"".  If you mean a literal increase in the aggregate market capitalization of companies, across the entire market, then, no, this sort of growth is not possible without concomitant economic growth.  The reason why is that the market capitalization of each company is proportional to its gross revenue, and the sum of all revenue from selling ""final goods"" (i.e., things purchased and used by consumers) is, apart from a few technicalities, the definition of GDP.  The exact multiplier might fluctuate up or down depending on investors' expectations about how sales will grow or decline going forward, but in a zero-growth economy this multiplier should be stable over the long run.  It might, however, still fluctuate over the short term, but more about that in a minute.   Note that all of this applies to aggregate growth across all firms.  Individual firms can still grow, of course, but as they must do this by gaining market share from other companies such growth would be balanced by a decline for some other firm.  Also, I've assumed zero net exports (that's one of the ""technicalities"" I mentioned above) because obviously you could have export-driven growth even if the domestic economy were stationary. However, often when people talk about ""growth"" in the market, what they really mean is ""return"".  That is, how much does your investment earn for you.  This isn't really the same thing as growth, but people often think of it that way, particularly in the saving phase of their investing career, when they are reinvesting their returns, and therefore their account balances are growing.  It is possible to have a positive return, averaged across the market, even in a stationary economy.  The reason why is that there are really only two things a firm can do with its net profits.  One possibility is that it could invest it in growing the business.  However, there is not much point in doing that in a stationary economy because by assumption no increase in aggregate consumption (and therefore, in the long run, aggregate production) are possible.  Therefore, firms are left with only the second option, which is to pay them out to investors as dividends.  Those dividends provide a return that is independent of economic growth. Would the stock market still be a good investment in such an economy?  Yes.  Well, sort of.  The rate of return from firms' dividend payouts will depend on investors' demand (in aggregate) for returns on their investments.  Stock prices will rise or fall, causing returns to respectively fall or rise, to find that level.  If your personal desire for returns is lower than the average across the investing public, then the stock market would look like a good investment.  If your desired return is higher than the average, then it will look like a poor investment.  The marginal investor will, of course be indifferent.  The practical upshot of this is that the people who invest in the stock market in this scenario will be precisely the ones for whom the stock market is a good investment, given their personal propensity to save and desire for returns, and so forth. Finally, you mentioned that in your scenario the GDP stagnation is due to declining population.  I am less certain what this means for investment, but my first thought is that you would have a large retired population selling its investments to fund late-life consumption, and you would have a comparatively small (relative to history) working population buying those assets.  This would lead to low asset prices, and therefore high rates of return.  However, that's assuming that retirees need to sell assets to fund their retirement consumption.  If the absolute returns on retirees' assets are large enough to fund their retirement consumption then you would wind up with relatively few sellers, resulting in high prices and therefore relatively low rates of return.  It's not obvious to me which effect would dominate, and so it's hard to say whether or not the resulting returns would look attractive to the working-age population."

"Take your idiotic treating all crimes as eqivalent and cram it :) You seem to think everyone here must either 100% buy Taibbi style bulshit or they must think crimes are not crime. Your black and white view of the situation where you make strawmen of others nuanced views makes you look like a childish idiot, and I suspect you do not really want to look that way.  It is very important to accurately measure crimes, to avoid wasting scarce resources when fighting crime. Promoting poor reporting as ""it's all ok because it was similar to reality"" is intellectually dishonest and poor policy."

I did not vote for Trump but I can admit that he is getting the worse coverage. I have watched some of his press conferences and I have been astonished at how the media portrays and takes snippets to create an entirely different story. Yes, it is communication 101 but it is disturbing.


Question: Hearing much about Dave Ramsey. Which of his works is best in describing his “philosophy” about money?

Start with his website, specifically his seven steps. Most everything else is around motivating people to actually do the plan. As he often says personal finance is 80% personal and 20% finance, by which he means that things that make sense financially (paying off high interest debt first) don't necessarily motivate action (so instead pay off the smallest debt first to get motivation). Really the rest is details around those seven concepts. On his site there is a link to a free one-hour podcast for the iPod, and you can pay for the full three hours of his radio show on podcast. He started on radio, and it is probably his best format. The reason Dave Ramsey has limited appeal beyond the US is that he is explicitly evangelical. He views his system as an extension of his Christian beliefs. That sells very well in parts of the US, but doesn't port very well. There is actually nothing religious in his program, other than the occasional reference to biblical verses in an attempt to tie his program into his religion, but people who are really interested and want to teach his program, not just practice it, are going to find they need to be an Evangelical (or at least a Christian) to fit in. Addendum: I should mention that Dave Ramsey is changing the FPU program (and I expect it will trickle into other things) to be more explicitly (although apparently not overtly) religious and have a stronger emphasis on budgeting. See here.

"Calculating beta is finding the correlation between the dependent variable, MSCI world benchmark, and the independent variable, your companies. If you know how to run liner regression models, run each company as the independent variable with the dependent MSCI. You can use Excel to gather this result (Y = MSCI price change at closing hour while X = company stock price closing prince). Running the regression will give you the Beta (and alpha when doing portfolios); which (from linear algebra) is the ""m"" in y = mx + b"

You do not need to report gifts from US residents (US citizens/green card holders/tax residents due to length of stay) since filing gift tax return is their responsibility. In case of foreigners you need to report gifts in excess of $100K. In any case, transfers between spouses are exempt from gift tax.

Each country would have to go back to its own currency, or the rich countries would just kick the poor ones out of the EU.  It would be bad for the poor countries, and the global economy would suffer, but it really wouldn't be a big deal.

I think it's more good marketing/word of mouth and false hype more than anything. Everyone wants In 'n Out burger to be AMAZING HOLY SHIT BEST THING EVER, but really it's just a bit better than average. But fair enough.

">the attorneys behind the case plan to ask for ""an award of up to $16,500,000 in attorneys' fees and expenses.  Fucking lawyers.  They get crazy fees and we get worthless coupons.  Lawyers are the only thing *worse* than Ticketmaster.  Oh, and guess where that $16.5M will be coming from?  *Future* ticket prices.  i.e. WE FUCKING LOST, THE LAWYERS FUCKING WON, AND TICKETMASTER CAME OUT EVEN..."

A cooperative society means a general public enrolled or considered to be gotten under any law identifying with agreeable orders for the present in power in any State or under the Central demo. Useful societies could be enacted laws by the specific State cooperative Societies Act or by the Multi-State Cooperative Societies Act, 2002. The societies, whose primary destination is to serve the financial investment in a specific State, are enacted laws by the Cooperative Societies Act of that particular State. While a society whose principle targets are to serve the diversions of its members in even more than one State, are legislated by the Multi State Cooperative Societies Act, 2002.  Address : Crystal Consultancy, Office Number- 204, 45B, 1st Floor, Hasanpur Main Road, Patparganj, I.P. Extension, Delhi- 110092 phone no-011-22235922,9711105597

"If you're ready to start a 529 account, it makes a big difference which state you choose (some states have excessive fees).  It doesn't have to be your own state, but some states give you tax incentives to stay in-state.  What you need to do is check out Clark Howard's 529 Guide and check to see if your state is in the ""good"" list.  If not, then pick out a good state."


Question: How do cashier's checks work and why are they good for scams?

"There are two different issues at play here, and they are completely separate from each other: A bank or cashier's check is ""safer"" than a regular personal or business check because it avoids problem #1. Problem #2 exists with all kinds of paper checks. I assume the reason the warnings are about cashier's check moreso than personal checks, is simply because people already know to wait for personal checks to clear before handing over merchandise to the buyer. People are less likely to do that when receiving cashier's checks, but perhaps they still should if there is any doubt about the validity of the check. One could argue that a cashier's check actually provides a false sense of security due to this (to the receiver). On the flip side, if you are the payer, then a cashier's check could be thought of as more secure than a personal check because you don't have to reveal your bank account information to a stranger."

Inflation is a reflection on the expansion of the money supply, aka debt,  being created by a central bank. Fiat currencies usually inflate, because there is no limit to the amount of debt that can be created. The consequences of reckless money supply expansion can be seen throughout history, see Zimbabwe, though there have been many others...Brazil, Argentinia, etc...

This line of thinking assumes that eventually we reach a state where not one single person wants more or better stuff then they already have access to.  Even in the most advanced imaginable future, where machines make everything and robots provide every service, and all the machines and robots are made and maintained by other machines and robots, people will still have jobs. Even if there were infinite numbers of free robots, so that no task could ever be done cheaper by a human than it would cost to buy a robot, everyone's people's job will be to sit around and invent more and better stuff for robots to build.

Assuming you max-out your Roth IRA with $5000 in inflation-adjusted contributions every year from 25-65, your balance at age 65 will depend on the post-inflation return you get in the account.  Assuming you withdraw 4% per year after that, here is what your income will be: (All numbers are in inflation-adjusted 2011 dollars.)   If your post-inflation return is zero - if you buy treasury bonds, money-market accounts, or something like that - you'll have a simple $5000 * 40 = $200,000, which will give you an income of around $8000 per year. If you get a 3% post-inflation return - e.g. fairly safe Muni bonds, corporate bonds, and boring stocks - you'll approximately double your money to around $393,000, giving you an income of over $15,000 per year. If you get a 6% return - e.g. more aggressive stocks and more risk-taking - you'll approximately double your money again to over $825,000.  A 4% withdrawal rate will give you an income of around $33,000 per year. Stocks have historically returned around inflation + 8% - that will get you over $1.4 million - and an annual income of over $56,000 per year. So, yes, it is feasible to retire on nothing but a maxed-out Roth IRA.

I did a brief analysis during my undergrad on the sustainability of Subprime Auto-Loans ...there was definitely a lot more information that I could have included in my research. IMO it'd be a decent topic that would be perfect for a quantitative argument.

But.. what I really want to know.... is it illegal, particularly the   clause REQUIRING a trade in to qualify for the advertised price? The price is always net of all the parts of the deal. As an example they gave the price if you have $4000 trade in. If you have no trade in, or a trade in worth less than 4K, your final price for the new car will be more. Of course how do you know that the trade in value they are giving you is fair. It could be worth 6K but they are only giving you a credit of 4K. If you are going to trade in a vehicle while buying another vehicle the trade in should be a separate transaction. I always get a price quote for selling the old car before visiting the new car dealer. I do that to have a price point that I can judge while the pressure is on at the dealership.. Buying a car is a complex deal. The price, interest rate, length of loan, and the value of the trade in are all moving parts. It is even more complex if a lease is involved. They want to adjust the parts to be the highest profit that you are willing to agree to, while you think that you are getting a good deal. This is the fine print: All advertised amounts include all Hyundai incentives/rebates, dealer   discounts and $2500 additional down from your trade in value. +0% APR   for 72 months on select models subject to credit approval through HMF.   *No payments or 90 days subject to credit approval. Value will be added to end of loan balance. 15MY Sonata - Price excludes tax, title,   license, doc, and dealer fees. MSRP $22085- $2036 Dealer Discount -   $500 HMA Lease Cash - $500 HMA Value Owner Coupon - $1000 HMA Retail   Bonus Cash - $500 HMA Military Rebate - $500 HMA Competitive Owner   Coupon - $400 HMA College Grad Rebate - $500 HMA Boost Program - $4000   Trade Allowance = Net Price $12149. On approved credit. Certain   qualifications apply to each rebate. See dealer for details. Payment   is 36 month lease with $0 due at signing. No security deposit   required. All payment and prices include HMA College Grad Rebate, HMA   Military Rebate, HMA Competitive Owner Coupon and HMA Valued Owner   Coupon. Must be active military or spouse of same to qualify for HMA   Military Rebate. Must graduate college in the next 6 months or within   the last 2 years to qualify for HMA College Grad rebate. Must own   currently registered Hyundai to qualify for HMA Valued Owner Coupon.   Must own qualifying competitive vehicle to qualify for HMA Competitive   Owner Coupon.

To me the key is a budget.  Each month, before it begins, decide on what to spend on each dollar that you earn.  Money should be allotted for normal expenses such as housing, food, transportation, and utilities. If you have any consumer debt that should be a priority.  Extra money should go to eliminate that debt. There should be money allotted to savings goals (such as retirement, home down payment, or vacation home).  Also there should be money set aside for clothing and giving.  Giving is an important part and often overlooked part of wealth creation.   Somewhere in there you should also give yourself a bit of free money.  For example one of the things I spend my free money on is coffee.  I buy freshly ground coffee from a really good supplier.  It is a bit expensive, but that is okay as it does not preclude me from meeting other goals. If you still have money left after all of that increase your giving some, your savings some, and your free money some.  You can then spend that money without guilt. If your budget includes $100 of free money per month, and you want something that costs $1000, save up the $1,000 and then buy it.  Do not borrow to buy free money stuff!   Doing those sorts of things will make you weigh purchasing decisions very carefully. If you find that you cannot stick to a budget, you should enlist a friend to be your accountability partner.  They have to be very good with money.

A bid is an offer to buy something on an order book, so for example you may post an offer to buy one share, at $5. An ask is an offer to sell something on an order book, at a set price. For example you may post an offer to sell shares at $6. A trade happens when there are bids/asks that overlap each other, or are at the same price, so there is always a spread of at least one of the smallest currency unit the exchange allows. Betting that the price of an asset will go down, traditionally by borrowing some of that asset and then selling it, hoping to buy it back at a lower price and pocket the difference (minus interest). So, let's say as per your example you borrow 100 shares of company 'X', expecting the price of them to go down. You take your shares to the market and sell them - you make a market sell order (a market 'ask'). This matches against a bid and you receive a price of $5 per share. Now, let's pretend that you change your mind and you think the price is going to go up, you instantly regret your decision. In order to pay back the shares, you now need to buy back your shares as $6 - which is the price off the ask offers on the order book. Because of this spread, you have lost money. You sold at a low price and bought at a high price, meaning it costs you more money to repay your borrowed shares. So, when you are shorting you need the spread to be as tight as possible.