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Offer your insights or judgment on the input financial query or topic using your financial expertise. | How will a 1099 work with an existing W-2? | "You can do either a 1099 or a W-2. There is no limitations to the number of W-2s one can have in reporting taxes. Problems occur, with the IRS, when one ""forgets"" to report income. Even if one holds only one job at a time, people typically have more than one W-2 if they change jobs within the year. The W-2 is the... |
Utilize your financial knowledge, give your answer or opinion to the input question or subject. | Hedging against Exchange Rate Risk | How can I calculate my currency risk exposure? You own securities that are priced in dollars, so your currency risk is the amount (all else being equal) that your portfolio drops if the dollar depreciates relative to the Euro between now and the time that you plan to cash out your investments. Not all stocks, though, ... |
Offer your insights or judgment on the input financial query or topic using your financial expertise. | If someone gives me cash legally, can my deposit trigger an audit for them? | Am I right to worry about both of these? Of course. Who carries $75K in cash for no good reason? Your friend got the cash from somewhere, didn't he? If its legit - there's paper trail to show. Same for your parents. If you/they can show the legit paper trail - there's nothing to worry about, the hassle, at worse, is a ... |
Utilize your financial knowledge, give your answer or opinion to the input question or subject. | Why are estimated taxes due “early” for the 2nd and 3rd quarters only? | There are too many nuances to the question asked to explore fully but here are a few points to keep in mind. If you are a cash-basis taxpayer (most individuals are), then you are not required to pay taxes on the money that has been billed but not received as yet. If you operate on an accrual basis, then the income acc... |
Based on your financial expertise, provide your response or viewpoint on the given financial question or topic. | Is it a bad idea to buy a motorcycle with a lien on it? | In the case of a vehicle with a lien, there is a specific place on the title to have a lien holder listed, and the holder of the lien will also hold the title until the lien is cleared. Usually this means you have to pay off the loan when you purchase the vehicle. If that loan is held by a bank, meet the seller at the ... |
Based on your financial expertise, provide your response or viewpoint on the given financial question or topic. | How to manage household finances (income & expenses) [duplicate] | "My wife and I have close to equal incomes, and are not young. What we have is this: Some people would classify our system as a bit draconian as we each have ""allowance""; however, it makes sure spending does not get out of wack and we work together to meet our goals." |
Offer your thoughts or opinion on the input financial query or topic using your financial background. | Can signing up at optoutprescreen.com improve my credit score? | If I had a business and was able to claim a feature, I would. It's simple marketing. If in fact, opting out helped your score, the site would promote that feature. Soft pulls for prescreened offers are not counted. No more than my constant peek at my score through Credit Karma. Opt out, if you wish. The benefit of co... |
Share your insights or perspective on the financial matter presented in the input. | Buy home and leverage roommates, or split rent? | what I should think about. If you decide to do this - get everything in writing. Get lease agreements to enforce the business side of the relationship. If they are not comfortable with that much formality, it's probably best not to do it, I'm not saying that you should not do this - but that you need to think about t... |
Offer your thoughts or opinion on the input financial query or topic using your financial background. | Auto Insurance: Adding another car to the existing policy (GEICO) | They'll refund your money (though maybe with a small service charge). I'm sure they regularly deal with new car sales gone wrong. |
Share your insights or perspective on the financial matter presented in the input. | Why might a brokerage firm stop offering a particular ETF commission free? | "Forbes has an article investigating this. Here are the key parts: On line at the bottom of the list of funds there is an entire screen of grey-faded micro print which includes this telling disclosure: TD Ameritrade receives remuneration from certain ETFs (exchange-traded funds) that participate in the commission... |
Based on your financial expertise, provide your response or viewpoint on the given financial question or topic. | Can an S-Corp write off work and merchandise expenses donated to a non-profit organization? | An S-corp doesn't pay income tax -- taxation is pass-through. This being the case, there are no tax deductions it could take for charitable giving. The solution would be for you to make the contribution out of your own pocket and then personally claim the deduction on your own taxes. |
Utilize your financial knowledge, give your answer or opinion to the input question or subject. | What happens to my stocks when broker goes bankrupt? | Here is my perception of the situation, obtained from reading Degiro's Client Agreement. If Degiro shuts down, it will notify you about the fact at least one month in advance, and you will have enough time to order a transfer of your positions to a different broker. If Degiro shuts down unexpectedly, your assets will r... |
Offer your insights or judgment on the input financial query or topic using your financial expertise. | If a stock doesn't pay dividends, then why is the stock worth anything? | It's important to remember what a share is. It's a tiny portion of ownership of a company. Let's pretend we're talking about shares in a manufacturing company. The company has one million shares on its register. You own one thousand of them. That means that you own 1/1000th of the company. These shares are valued b... |
Based on your financial expertise, provide your response or viewpoint on the given financial question or topic. | What are the primary investment strategies people use and why do they use them? | "There are two umbrellas in investing: active management and passive management. Passive management is based on the idea ""you can't beat the market."" Passive investors believe in the efficient markets hypothesis: ""the market interprets all information about an asset, so price is equal to underlying value"". Another ... |
Based on your financial expertise, provide your response or viewpoint on the given financial question or topic. | Make punctual contributions to IRS based on earnings | I will answer this question broadly for various jurisdictions, and also specifically for the US, given the OP's tax home: Generally, for any tax jurisdiction If your tax system relies on periodic prepayments through the year, and a final top-up/refund at the end of the year (ie: basically every country), you have 3 the... |
Utilize your financial knowledge, give your answer or opinion to the input question or subject. | Pensions, why bother? | The stock market at large has about a 4.5% long-term real-real (inflation-fees-etc-adjusted) rate of return. Yes: even in light of the recent crashes. That means your money invested in stocks doubles every 16 years. So savings when you're 25 and right out of college are worth double what savings are worth when you're 4... |
Based on your financial expertise, provide your response or viewpoint on the given financial question or topic. | When is the right time to buy a new/emerging technology? | If you're looking for a purely financial answer (ignoring the social/environmental aspects) there are a few different ways you can look at it. For these types of improvements the simplest is a payback calculation. How long would it take you to recoup the initial costs? For example, if the entire installation cost $5... |
Based on your financial expertise, provide your response or viewpoint on the given financial question or topic. | Does payment in goods count as “income” for tax purposes? | The IRS defines income quite specifically. On the topic What is Taxable and Nontaxable Income, they note: You can receive income in the form of money, property, or services. This section discusses many kinds of income that are taxable or nontaxable. It includes discussions on employee wages and fringe benefits, and inc... |
Utilize your financial knowledge, give your answer or opinion to the input question or subject. | Is a “total stock market” index fund diverse enough alone? | You're missing the concept of systemic risk, which is the risk of the entire market or an entire asset class. Diversification is about achieving a balance between risk and return that's appropriate for you. Your investment in Vanguard's fund, although diversified between many public companies, is still restricted to on... |
Based on your financial expertise, provide your response or viewpoint on the given financial question or topic. | What is the difference between “good debt” vs. “bad debt”? | "The word ""good"" was used in contrast to ""bad"" but these words are misused here. There are three kinds of debt: Debt for spending. Never go into debt to buy consumables, go out for a good time, for vacations, or other purchases with no lasting financial value. Debt for depreciating assets, such as cars and sometim... |
Share your insights or perspective on the financial matter presented in the input. | What is the difference between a stock and a bond? | WilliamKF explained it pretty well, but I want to put it in a more simplistic form: |
Share your insights or perspective on the financial matter presented in the input. | Is the Net Profit the 'final word' on a company's health? | "To answer your question briefly: net income is affected by many things inside and outside of management control, and must be supplemented by other elements to gain a clear picture of a company's health. To answer your question in-depth, we must look at the history of financial reporting: Initially, accounting was prim... |
Share your insights or perspective on the financial matter presented in the input. | If a startup can always issue new shares, what value is there to stocks/options? | The short answer, probably not much. Unless you have a controlling interest in the company. If at least 50%+1 of the shareholder votes are in favor of the dilution then it can be done. There are some SEC rules that should protect against corporate looting and theft like what the Severin side is trying to make it app... |
Share your insights or perspective on the financial matter presented in the input. | If I own x% of company A, and A buys company B, do I own x% of B? | No, thanks to the principle of corporate personhood. The legal entity (company C) is the owner and parent of the private company (sub S). You and C are separate legal entities, as are C and S. This principle helps to legally insulate the parties for purposes such as liability, torts, taxes, and so forth. If company ... |
Based on your financial expertise, provide your response or viewpoint on the given financial question or topic. | Is it really possible to get rich in only a few years by investing? | Yes, it's possible. However, it's not likely, at least not for most people. Earning a million is not that difficult, but when you talk about billions that's an entirely different story. I think the key point that you're missing is leverage. It's common knowledge that Warren Buffett likes to have a huge cash warchest at... |
Offer your insights or judgment on the input financial query or topic using your financial expertise. | When paying estimated quarterly taxes, can I prorate the amount based on the irregular payment due dates? | Varying the amount to reflect income during the quarter is entirely legitimate -- consider someone like a salesman whose income is partly driven by commissions, and who therefore can't predict the total. The payments are quarterly precisely so you can base them on actual results. Having said that, I suspect that as lo... |
Share your insights or perspective on the financial matter presented in the input. | Can banks deny that you've paid your loan? | Maybe there's more to this story, because as written, your sister seems, well, a little irrational. Is it possible that the bank will try to cheat you and demand that you pay a loan again that you've already paid off? Or maybe not deliberately cheat you, but make a mistake and lose track of the fact that you paid? Sure... |
Share your insights or perspective on the financial matter presented in the input. | What's the folly with this stock selection strategy | "You are probably going to hate my answer, but... If there was an easy way to ID stocks like FB that were going to do what FB did, then those stocks wouldn't exist and do that because they would be priced higher at the IPO. The fact is there is always some doubt, no one knows the future, and sometimes value only become... |
Based on your financial expertise, provide your response or viewpoint on the given financial question or topic. | Paid cash for a car, but dealer wants to change price | Let me get this straight. I would stand my ground. Your son negotiated in good faith. Either they messed up, or they are dishonest. Either way your son wasn't the one supposed to know all the internal rules. I don't think it matters if they cashed the check or not. I would tell them if they have cashed it, that is even... |
Offer your thoughts or opinion on the input financial query or topic using your financial background. | What is a Student Loan and does it allow you to cover a wide range of expenses relating to school? | Student loan is a class of unsecured loan. The characteristics that define a student loan are, primarily, that it is a loan that is intended to be used by someone who is currently a student. Beyond that, though, there are many variations. The different kinds of requirements usually have to do with who is eligible for... |
Based on your financial expertise, provide your response or viewpoint on the given financial question or topic. | Owing state tax Interest and a result of living in Maryland and working in Virginia | Ultimately, you are the one that is responsible for your tax filings and your payments (It's all linked to your SSN, after all). If this fee/interest is the result of a filing error, and you went through a preparing company which assumes liability for their own errors, then you should speak to them. They will likely co... |
Utilize your financial knowledge, give your answer or opinion to the input question or subject. | Is it true that if I work 6 months per year, it is better than to work for 1 calendar year and take a break for 1 year? | In many cases spanning across years will indeed be beneficial. Deductions: You get to take twice as much in deductions (twice the standard deduction, or itemizing - if you can) when you span over two years than in one. IRA: You can only contribute in years when you have earned income. You have all the income in year 1... |
Share your insights or perspective on the financial matter presented in the input. | Understanding the Nasdaq insider trading information | "Usually insiders are in a better position than you to understand their business, but that doesn't mean they will know the future with perfect accuracy. Sometimes they are wrong, sometimes life events force them to liquidate an otherwise promising investment, sometimes their minds change. So while it is indeed valuable... |
Utilize your financial knowledge, give your answer or opinion to the input question or subject. | Withdrawing large sums of money | This is determined by each banking institution. In general, if making the withdrawal in person, the limit is based on what you have in your account, but many ask for advance notice when withdrawing more than $5000. They may still allow a larger withdrawal without notice, but usually have a policy in place and will te... |
Share your insights or perspective on the financial matter presented in the input. | Connection between gambling and trading on stock/options/Forex markets | For stocks, I would not see these as profiting at the expense of another individual. When you purchase/trade stocks, you are exchanging items of equal market value at the time of the trade. Both parties are getting a fair exchange when the transaction happens. If you buy a house, the seller has not profited at your ex... |
Offer your thoughts or opinion on the input financial query or topic using your financial background. | The cost of cleaning the house that we rented far exceeds the security deposit. Should we bother? | "I am surprised at the amount of work this contract wants done. I'd question if it's even legal given the high costs. I suspect it's only there to remind abusive tenants of responsibilities they already have in law for extraordinary abuse beyond ordinary wear-and-tear: they are already on the hook to repaint if they ... |
Offer your insights or judgment on the input financial query or topic using your financial expertise. | For how long is a draft check valid, and where do the funds sit? | "To answer length validity and security implications of draft checks issued and negotiated within the United States, I am heavily addressing the common erroneous assumptions of where the funds sit while they're ""in"" a draft check and how to get them out. Tl;Dr The existing answers are incomplete and in some ways dang... |
Offer your thoughts or opinion on the input financial query or topic using your financial background. | Where to start with personal finance? | "First thing I'd say is don't start with investing. The foundation of solid finances is cash flow. Making more than you spend, reliably; knowing where your money goes; having a system that works for you to make sure you make more than you spend. Until you have that, your focus may as well be on getting there, because y... |
Based on your financial expertise, provide your response or viewpoint on the given financial question or topic. | Making $100,000 USD per month, no idea what to do with it | "I know your ""pain"". But don't worry about investing the money right now -- leave it uninvested in the short term. You have other stuff you need to school up on. Investment will come, and it's not that hard. In the short term, focus on taxes. Do some ""mock"" run-throughs of your expected end-of-year taxes (use ... |
Based on your financial expertise, provide your response or viewpoint on the given financial question or topic. | Hiring a teenager as a household employee | First you need to ensure that you are not violating any Federal child labor laws. I would look at this: U.S. Dept of Labor, Wage & Hour Div., Standards for 14- and 15-Year Olds in Nonagricultural Employment. These were the items that pertained to Federal Law, for 14 year olds: 14 is the minimum age for employment in sp... |
Utilize your financial knowledge, give your answer or opinion to the input question or subject. | How can I escalate a credit dispute when the bureau “confirms” the item? | "I was I a similar position as you, and sometimes credit bureaus might be difficult to deal with, especially when high amounts of money are involved. To make the long story short, someone opened a store credit card under my name and made a charge of around 3k. After reporting this to the bureaus, they did not want to r... |
Utilize your financial knowledge, give your answer or opinion to the input question or subject. | Choosing the “right” NAPFA advisor, and whether fees are fair, etc.? | Some sample prices for straightforward pay-for-hours-or-deliverables planners: I think I've seen some similar rates elsewhere, too. I'd feel like you might get something perfunctory and boilerplate for too much less than $1000 - how could the person afford to spend much time? - and I'd feel like lots more than $1000 fo... |
Based on your financial expertise, provide your response or viewpoint on the given financial question or topic. | How do amortization schedules work and when are they used? | An amortization schedule is often used to produce identical payments for the term (repayment period) of a loan, resulting in the principal being paid off and the debt retired at the end of the loan. This is in contrast to an interest only, or balloon loan. These loans require little or no payment against the balance of... |
Based on your financial expertise, provide your response or viewpoint on the given financial question or topic. | Are bonds really a recession proof investment? | No, they are not recession proof. Assume several companies, that issued bonds in the fund, go bankrupt. Those bonds could be worthless, they could miss principle payments, or they could be restructured. All would mean a decline in value. When the economy shrinks (which is what a recession is) how does the Fed respo... |
Based on your financial expertise, provide your response or viewpoint on the given financial question or topic. | What happens after a counterparty defaults on a derivative trade? | "The answer is in your question: derivatives are contracts so are enforced in the same way as any other contract. If the counterparty refuses to pay immediately they will, in the first instance be billed by any intermediary (Prime Broker etc.) that facilitated the contract. If they still refuse to pay the contract may... |
Share your insights or perspective on the financial matter presented in the input. | What is the meaning of public stock price data from before the official first day of trading? [duplicate] | For the case of spinoffs it reflects the market as activities as the specific steps that have to be followed take place. For example the spinoff of Leidos from SAIC in 2013. (I picked this one becasue I knew some of the details) On September 9, 2013, the Board of Directors of SAIC, Inc.(Ticker Symbol (NYSE):SAI) appr... |
Offer your thoughts or opinion on the input financial query or topic using your financial background. | What if 40% of the remaining 60% Loan To Value (ratio) is not paid, or the borrower wants to take only 60% of the loan? | "The loan-to-value ratio (LTV Ratio) is a lending risk assessment ratio that financial institutions and others lenders examine before approving a mortgage. It sounds like your lender has a 60% requirement. Remember the home is the collateral for the loan. If you stop making payments, they can take the house back from ... |
Share your insights or perspective on the financial matter presented in the input. | What do people mean when they talk about the central bank providing “cheap money”? What are the implications for the stock market? | Companies with existing borrowings (where borrowings are on variable interest rates) or in the case with fixed interest rates - companies that get new borrowings - would pay less interest on these borrowings, so their cost will go down and profits up, making them more attractive to investors. So, in general lower inte... |
Offer your insights or judgment on the input financial query or topic using your financial expertise. | Free brokerage vs paid - pros and cons | "Emotion aside, you can calculate the cost of the funds you have tied up at the bank. If I can earn 5% in a CD, my ""free"" checking with minimum $5000 balance really costs me $250/yr. You have money tied up, I understand, but where would you place it otherwise, and at what return? The subject of frequent trading eve... |
Share your insights or perspective on the financial matter presented in the input. | How does a change in market cap affect a company's operational decisions? | It basically only affects the company's dealings with its own stock, not with operational concerns. If the company were to offer more stock for sale, it would get less cash. If it had a stock buy-back program, it could buy more shares for the same money. If it was to offer to acquire another company in exchange for ... |
Based on your financial expertise, provide your response or viewpoint on the given financial question or topic. | VAT in UK, case of cultural industry and overseas invoices | Your answer will need loads of information and clarification, so I will ask you to visit the VAT and have a peruse. 1) Obligation is for you to find out the correct rate of VAT, charge and pay tax accordingly. You can call up the HMRC VAT helpline for help, which they will be happy to oblige. Normally everybody pays VA... |
Share your insights or perspective on the financial matter presented in the input. | Buying a home without a Real Estate Agent - Who should I get to do the paperwork? | Generally, the paperwork realtors use is pre-written and pre-approved by the relevant State and real-estate organizations. The offers, contracts, etc etc a pretty straightforward and standard. You can ask a realtor for a small fee to arrange the documents for you (smaller than the usual 5% sellers' fee they charge, I w... |
Utilize your financial knowledge, give your answer or opinion to the input question or subject. | Questions about government bonds that have already matured | I am assuming that you are talking about US Savings Bonds: Here is a page that talks about maturity dates of US Savings bonds. If They aren'tSavings bonds but are another type ofUS Government Bond Assuming they are Savings bonds, here is information regarding redeeming of bonds. How do I redeem my EE/E Bonds? Electron... |
Based on your financial expertise, provide your response or viewpoint on the given financial question or topic. | What are the key facts to research before buying shares of a company? | "I have my ""safe"" money in index funds but like to dabble in individual stocks. My criteria and thought process are usually like this, let's use SBUX as an example: Understand what the company does. Also paraphrased as ""buy what you know"". A profitable/growing business doesn't need to be complicated. Open stores. S... |
Offer your thoughts or opinion on the input financial query or topic using your financial background. | Why do the 1 and 2 euro cent coins exist and why are they used? | While dealing with US pennies and not 1 and 2 cent euro pieces, you may find this Wikipedia article of interest and analogous: Penny debate in the United States This article briefly summarizes both the arguments for and against retaining the one cent piece. The arguments against include: Arguments for preservation inc... |
Share your insights or perspective on the financial matter presented in the input. | Is my mortgage more likely to be sold if I pre-pay principal? | "There are two ways that mortgages are sold: The loan is collateralized and sold to investors. This allows the bank to free up money for more loans. Of course sometime the loan may be treated like in the game of hot potato nobody want s to be holding a shaky loan when it goes into default. The second way that a loan is... |
Based on your financial expertise, provide your response or viewpoint on the given financial question or topic. | What should I do to pick the right consultant to open offshore bank account | "It is unusual to need a consultant to open a bank account for you, and I would also be concerned that perhaps the consultant could take the money and do nothing, or continue to demand various sums of money for ""expenses"" like permits, licenses, identity check, etc. until you give up. Some of the more accepted wa... |
Utilize your financial knowledge, give your answer or opinion to the input question or subject. | Importance of dividend yield when evaluating a stock? | But I wish to know why the parameter is dividend/market price rather than just 'dividend'? What 'extra' info you can uncover by looking at dividend/market price that you cannot get from 'dividend'? Consider two stocks A and B. A offers a dividend of $1 per year. B offers a dividend of $2 per year. Let's remove all comp... |
Utilize your financial knowledge, give your answer or opinion to the input question or subject. | Buying a car and learning to drive versus paying up study loans | Welcome to Money.SE. It appears there's public transportation to get you to work? And the area by your house is walkable? i.e. you and your wife can get groceries and other needs by walking. If it will take 5 years to pay the loans even without a car, how long if you get one? Will you even be able to afford the payment... |
Share your insights or perspective on the financial matter presented in the input. | Why is there two currencies in Venezuela's money? | Venezuela is a command economy, and one that isn't doing terribly well right now, with rampant inflation in the several hundred percent range. As such, they've tried to limit or eliminate exchanges between their currency and foreign currencies. Currently, they allow a limited amount of exchange at fixed rates (accordi... |
Based on your financial expertise, provide your response or viewpoint on the given financial question or topic. | Can an IRA be taxed? | The Motley Fool article is correct that if you earn UBTI over $1000, you will need to pay the tax, even if held in an IRA. C-corps won't generate UBTI, so you're fine with those. For non-C-corps, the most common are REITs, MLPs, and BDCs. REITs These typically invest in either real estate property or mortgages. ... |
Offer your thoughts or opinion on the input financial query or topic using your financial background. | Do people tend to spend less when using cash than credit cards? | "I found the study ""The irrationality of payment behaviour"" accidentally while searching on the term ""DNB Study"" instead of ""D&B Study"". This study, which, when I followed the link, went to the web site dnb.nl (Dutch National Bank), instead of dnb.com (Dun & Bradstreet). It mentions all the salient points that ... |
Offer your insights or judgment on the input financial query or topic using your financial expertise. | Can after-hours trading affect options pricing? | Typically the settlement price for a financial instrument (such as AAPL stock) underlying a derivative contract is determined from the average price of trading in that instrument during some short time window specified by the exchange offering the derivative. (Read the fine print on your contract to learn the exact da... |
Utilize your financial knowledge, give your answer or opinion to the input question or subject. | Purchasing a home using collateral | Since you only own half of the house, you would most likely need the cooperation of whoever owns the other half in order to use it as collateral for a loan, but if you can do that, there's no reason you couldn't do what you're talking about. The complication is that if you default on the loan, the bank isn't going to ... |
Offer your insights or judgment on the input financial query or topic using your financial expertise. | What do Earnings Per Share tell potential shareholders? | |
Offer your thoughts or opinion on the input financial query or topic using your financial background. | Is giving my girlfriend money for her mortgage closing costs and down payment considered fraud? | "With the standard ""I am not a lawyer"" disclaimer, consider this question: If you and your girlfriend split up sometime after purchasing the house but before getting married, would you expect her to repay you for the closing costs and downpayment? That is, if you write her a check for $5k, and 6 months after she sig... |
Share your insights or perspective on the financial matter presented in the input. | Freelancing and getting taxes taken out up front instead of end of year? | "It seems that you think you are freelancing, and they think you are an employee. What's bad for you, the tax office will also think you are an employee if they withhold tax for you. Alternatively, they think you are stupid, and they keep the money, but are actually not paying it to the tax office at all, in which case... |
Utilize your financial knowledge, give your answer or opinion to the input question or subject. | Is the very long-term growth of the stock market bound by aggregate net income? | I am a believer in that theory. My opinion is that over the long term, we can expect 25% of income to reflect the payment on one's mortgage, and if you drew a line over time reflecting the mortgage this represents plus the downpayment, you'd be very close to a median home price. The bubble that occurred was real, but n... |
Offer your insights or judgment on the input financial query or topic using your financial expertise. | Personal Loan issuer online service | http://www.calcamo.net/loancalculator/simulation/fixed-rate-loan.php5 This website is a calculator only and has some extra features that take into account late payments, paying extra to reduce principal, and has the ability to export amortization table to excel that you could use to keep track of the loan. If you are... |
Utilize your financial knowledge, give your answer or opinion to the input question or subject. | Account that is debited and account that is credited | Strictly speaking the terms arise from double entry book keeping terminology, and don't exactly relate to their common English usage, which is part of the confusion. All double entry book keeping operations consist of a (debit, credit) tuple performed on two different books (ledgers). The actual arithmetic operation p... |
Offer your insights or judgment on the input financial query or topic using your financial expertise. | How safe is a checking account? | While Rocky's answer is correct in the big picture there is another factor here to keep in mind: The disruption while you're waiting to resolve it. If a fraudster gets your card and drains your account you'll get your money back--but there will be a period while they are investigating that it won't be available. For th... |
Based on your financial expertise, provide your response or viewpoint on the given financial question or topic. | Will getting a new credit card and closing another affect my credit? | "Several events will always result in a reduction of your score, including: These will show up in the short term, but I don't think it's worth $40 per year in perpetuity to avoid this. These aren't serious ""black marks"" in the same category as missing payments, carrying too much debt, or foreclosures/evictions, etc. ... |
Based on your financial expertise, provide your response or viewpoint on the given financial question or topic. | Do I repay Social Security Disability Insurance (SSDI) if I suddenly have income and assets | "There are two types of insurance, which causes some confusion. Social Security Disability Insurance (which you indicate you have) is insurance you can receive benefit from if you earn enough ""work credits"" (payroll taxes) prior to your disability onset. It is not a needs-based program. Supplemental Security Income i... |
Share your insights or perspective on the financial matter presented in the input. | On claiming mileage and home office deductions | "Can she claim deductions for her driving to and from work? Considering most people use their cars mostly to commute to/from work, there must be limits to what you can consider ""claimable"" and what you can't, otherwise everyone would claim back 80% of their mileage. No, she can't. But if she's driving from one work s... |
Offer your thoughts or opinion on the input financial query or topic using your financial background. | what is the point of the part b late enrollment penalty? | "The point of the enrollment penalty is basically the same as the ACA penalty. Any sort of health insurance - or really, any insurance - is funded by creating a risk pool of high and low risk people and pricing it so that the overall payments cover the total risk. That means, however, that on average the low risk pe... |
Utilize your financial knowledge, give your answer or opinion to the input question or subject. | Dispute credit card transaction with merchant or credit card company? | "You should dispute the transaction with the credit card. Describe the story and attach the cash payment receipt, and dispute it as a duplicate charge. There will be no impact on your score, but if you don't have the cash receipt or any other proof of the alternative payment - it's your word against the merchant, and h... |
Offer your thoughts or opinion on the input financial query or topic using your financial background. | Is it a good practice to keep salary account and savings account separate? | "This seems like a risky setup. All it takes is one missed or delayed transfer for you to overdraw your ""savings"". There is a benefit to keeping your regular expenses and savings separate, and I can see some benefits in having multiple checking accounts depending on how you organize your finances, but I don't see a... |
Offer your insights or judgment on the input financial query or topic using your financial expertise. | Credit report - Not able to establish identity | 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 Experia... |
Share your insights or perspective on the financial matter presented in the input. | New company doesn't allow 401k deposits for 6 months, what to do with money I used to deposit? | $9000 over 6 months is great, I'd use it for long term savings regardless of the 401(k) situation. There's nothing wrong with a mix of pre and post tax money for retirement. In fact, it's a great way to avoid paying too much tax should your 401(k) withdrawals in retirement push you into a higher bracket. Just invest th... |
Based on your financial expertise, provide your response or viewpoint on the given financial question or topic. | Avoiding Double-Reporting Income (1099-MISC plus 1099-K) | Your clients should not send you 1099-MISC if they paid with a credit card. You can refer them to this text in the instructions for the form 1099-MISC: Payments made with a credit card or payment card and certain other types of payments, including third party network transactions, must be reported on Form 1099-K by... |
Based on your financial expertise, provide your response or viewpoint on the given financial question or topic. | What is a mutual fund? | Let's say that you want to invest in the stock market. Choosing and investing in only one stock is risky. You can lower your risk by diversifying, or investing in lots of different stocks. However, you have some problems with this: When you buy stocks directly, you have to buy whole shares, and you don't have enoug... |
Share your insights or perspective on the financial matter presented in the input. | Why do people take out life insurance on their children? Should I take out a policy on my child? | As you say life insurance is about covering the loss of income, so unless your child is an actor or musical prodigy or similar and already earning money, there is no income to cover, and in fact you would have less of a financial commitment without a child to provide for. The other angle is that child life insurance is... |
Utilize your financial knowledge, give your answer or opinion to the input question or subject. | Investing in a growth stock periodically | I would encourage you to read The Warren Buffett Way. Its a short read and available from most libraries as an audio book. It should address most of the ignorance that your post displays. Short term prices, offered in the market, do not necessarily reflect the future value of a company. In the short term the marke... |
Offer your thoughts or opinion on the input financial query or topic using your financial background. | Credit cards: How is a cash advance different from a purchase? Why are the fees so high? | Essentially speaking, when you purchase goods worth $100 using your card, the store has to pay about $2 for the transaction to the company that operates that stores' credit card terminal. If you withdraw cash from an ATM, you might be charged a fee for such a transaction. However, the ATM operator doesn't pay the cred... |
Offer your insights or judgment on the input financial query or topic using your financial expertise. | S&P is consistently beating inflation? | "TL;DR: Because stocks represent added value from corporate profits, and not the price the goods themselves are sold at. This is actually a very complicated subject. But here's the simplest answer I can come up with. Stocks are a commodity, just like milk, eggs, and bread. The government only tracks certain commodit... |
Offer your thoughts or opinion on the input financial query or topic using your financial background. | Is there a standard check format in the USA? | "Legally, a check just needs to have a certain list of things (be an instruction to one's bank to pay a specific amount of money to bearer or to a specific entity, have a date, have a signature, etc.) There are anecdotes around of a guy depositing a junk mail check and it accidentally qualifying as a real check (which ... |
Based on your financial expertise, provide your response or viewpoint on the given financial question or topic. | Why do stock prices change? [duplicate] | "None of that is filtered my way as a ""part owner"". Sure it is, it's just not always obvious. When a company makes money it either: Other then the fourth option, the first three all increase the total value of the company. If you owned 1% of a company that was worth X, and is now worth X+1, the value of that 1% owne... |
Share your insights or perspective on the financial matter presented in the input. | Was this bill forgotten by a medical provider, and do notices need to be sent before collections? | Seems like the straightforward answer is to call the provider and ask. They should be able to tell you if you owe them or not. Unfortunately, with small providers there is always a chance they won't get even that right; I would confirm exactly why they think you don't owe them anything if in fact you don't. Medical p... |
Based on your financial expertise, provide your response or viewpoint on the given financial question or topic. | What are the benefits to underwriters in a secondary offering? | Your impression about banks and bankers is very wrong. Wall street banks can and often do lose in transactions. In fact, banks go bankrupt and/or require massive bailouts to survive because they sometimes lose a ton of money. The business of investment banking often involves bearing risk for customers, which, by def... |
Based on your financial expertise, provide your response or viewpoint on the given financial question or topic. | Facebook buying WhatsApp for 19 Billion. How are existing shareholders affected? | "The answer to your question has to do with the an explanation of ""shares authorized, issued and outstanding."" Companies, in their Articles of Incorporation, specify a maximum number of shares they are authorized to issue. For example purposes let's assume Facebook is authorized to issue 100 shares. Let's pretend the... |
Offer your insights or judgment on the input financial query or topic using your financial expertise. | Remote jobs and incidental wage costs: What do I have to consider? | In the US we have social security taxes, where for a full time employee the company pays half and the employee pays half. When you work as a business, what we call 1099 for the form that the wages are reported on, then the contractor pays the full amount of social security tax. There are times when a contractor can ne... |
Utilize your financial knowledge, give your answer or opinion to the input question or subject. | When is an IPO considered failure? | Different stakeholders have different views of 'failure'. Maybe from Air Berlin's point of view it was a failure, but technically speaking it is not really possible to 'fail'. As long as all shares were purchased, which is a virtual guarantee since the investment banks who underwrite the IPO by and large must do to som... |
Utilize your financial knowledge, give your answer or opinion to the input question or subject. | What are the tax liabilities for an Indian citizen working in the US? | Tax liability in US: You would need to determine if you are a resident alien or non resident alien. Resident alien are taxed normally as per US citizens. For the annual remuneration you have quoted it would be in the range of 25%. Refer http://www.moneychimp.com/features/tax_brackets.htm To determine if you are reside... |
Offer your insights or judgment on the input financial query or topic using your financial expertise. | My bank refused to do a charge back | Call Comcast during a non-peak time (first thing in the morning?), wait on hold, and politely explain what happened and request a $50 credit. Also politely request that your premium support request be handled for free given how much hassle you've had getting disconnected. They'll be able to tell your premium request wa... |
Share your insights or perspective on the financial matter presented in the input. | Should I cancel an existing credit card so I can open another that has rewards? | Cancelled cards don't fall off the system for a long time, up to ten years. Card terms change, with notice of course, but it can happen at any time. I had a card with a crazy perk, 5% back in Apple Gift cards. This was pre-iPod days, but it was great to get a new computer every two years for free. But it was short liv... |
Offer your thoughts or opinion on the input financial query or topic using your financial background. | How to rebalance a portfolio without moving money into losing investments | You are very correct, rebalancing is basically selling off winners to buy losers. Of course the thinking is that selling a winner that has already increased 100% on the basis that it has doubled so it is likely to go down in the near future. However, just look at Apple as an example, if you bought Apple in June 2009 fo... |
Share your insights or perspective on the financial matter presented in the input. | Is it advisable to go for an auto loan if I can make the full payment for a new car? | Full payment is always better than auto-loan if you are prudent with finances. I.E if you take a loan, you are factoring the EMI hence your savings will remain as is. However if you manage well, you can buy the car with cash and at the same time put aside the notional EMI as savings and investments. The other factor to... |
Offer your thoughts or opinion on the input financial query or topic using your financial background. | US Bank placing a hold on funds from my paycheck deposit: Why does that make sense? | It is possible that they only do the hold on the first deposit from a given source. It is probably worth asking if they intend to do the hold on every paycheck or just the first one. |
Utilize your financial knowledge, give your answer or opinion to the input question or subject. | Determining current value for real estate for inheritance purposes | My question is... how is this new value determined? Does it go off of the tax appraised value? The tax assessors values are based on broad averages and are not very useful in determining actual home value. The most defensible valuation outside of a sale is a professional appraisal, real-estate agents may or may not ... |
Based on your financial expertise, provide your response or viewpoint on the given financial question or topic. | Could the loan officer deny me even if I have the money as a first time home buyer? | A financial institution is not obligated to offer you a loan. They will only offer you a loan if they believe that they will make money off you. They use all the info available in order to determine if offering you a loan is profitable. In short, whether they offer you a loan, and the interest rate they charge for tha... |
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