>It's always been that way.  You are trying to bend the world around your own circumstances. That's not how it works.    Not my circumstances. The majority of people's circumstances. And that *is* how it works. At least that's the way it's supposed to in a democracy. But corporations like Goldman Sachs dedicate millions to lobbying every year, have 7 lobbyists for every 1 politician in Congress, and have people go on from their company to take government positions. Goldman is a parasite at its core: makes money on wall st to lobby Congress into making it more easy to make money on wall st and more effectively lobby to make it even easier to make money on wall st, rinse wash repeat ad infinitum. Goldman is a prime example as more Goldman former employees go on into government than any other financial instution, but they all play the same game and it's beyond naive to think that my 1 vote can ever compare to the influence that corporate motives have on my government. And you can tell by the political hierarchy that the more of your own constituents' interests you sacrifice in favor of corporate profit motives, the more successful you'll be. Compare the likes of Sanders, Warren, Ron & Rand Paul, to the likes of McCain & Kerry and my point becomes glaringly obvious: if you represent your contsituents' interests then you don't stand a chance of influencing the direction of the country, suck lobbyist dick and you'll become a central player in the federal government.  >Everything is consolidating to be more efficient. With digital, robots, and globalization, markets have reduced the need for U.S. manufacturing ...and that's what a lot of small towns had going for them.  It's gone. Sitting around and wishing for the past to come back with something like the government to legislate it is wishful thinking.  >I highlighted the solution: It's to move where the money is or is going.    I live in NYC, not some random farm town. However, even though it's home to a lot of rich people, most people are poor and have no social mobility. Social mobility cannot be the solution for lack of social mobility, you are clearly missing steps in your proposed solution. Like I said, it really highlights the severity of the issue much more than it offers any type of solution to it.  >People get cranky when they have to give up a skill or trade (or hometown) they've spent 10, 20, 30 years in. I get it. I'm looking for ways to diversify my experience, even having a job in tech, because someday maybe it won't be here... or it'll be in India, China, Russia, the Philippines, Latin America, Bulgaria or any of the numerous countries where the labor is cheaper and the supply is higher.   Yes this is an option. Americans have an option of ignoring reality, refusing to pursue redistribution of wealth, and allowing inequality to drive America to third-world standards. The day Americans have better job opportunities in India, China, and Russia than they do in America is the day I'll be proven 100% right for claiming that the economic system America has cannot last.  >It sucks, but it's also reality.  If your hope is in voting for some sort of legislative change, godspeed but it won't help.  Regulations will be issued and companies will push money to safe havens in Ireland, Liechtenstein, the Caymans, etc.. to avoid them.  They'll outsource more and layoff to compensate for the new expenses and generally find workarounds.  Nationalized businesses to compete with those corporations is clearly the only pragmatic solution. That's how Putin was able to restore sovereignty to Russia, and my suggestion to avoid dictatorial concentrations of power like has resulted there, is to make the companies owned by the people instead of by the government. The state is the people not the government, so true nationalization would give every citizen equity.  >Add that to the rise of countries already benefiting from outsourcing and globalization... maybe the US market isn't so important in 20-30 years.  Gives the government even less leverage on corporations.  All the mega-corporations that started in America are becoming so large and influential that they outmatch any government on earth in terms of influence on the direction of global development. They are becoming international entities with no loyalties to any country, and have the sole motivation of maximum profit. This a parasitic infestation that has no moral sense of acquiring that profit and thus will continue to do so in a way that drives increasing inequality. The only potential solution is to restore economic sovereignty.   For more info on what I'm getting at you can read this paper:   >[Abstract: In this paper we analyze one aspect of the standard thesis that **the globalization process leads towards desovereignization**. For the purposes of this paper we have adopted a narrow definition of globalization as a process of global expansion of capital, primarily financial. The classic design of sovereignty of a nation state is compromised due to the proliferation of capital, and **states are becoming less able to resist the power of multinational corporations, both in terms of taking over resources and imposing political decisions.** This fact raises the question of the subject of sovereignty: whether governments represent the interests of citizens (people) who, as the source of sovereignty, transfer the executive power to the government or governments must adjust to the interests of anonymous centres of economic power. If the latter is the case, then we obviously encounter a new kind of sovereignty: economic sovereignty.] (https://www.google.com/url?sa=t&source=web&rct=j&url=http://iises.net/proceedings/12th-international-academic-conference-prague/table-of-content/detail%3Fcid%3D7%26iid%3D121%26rid%3D1305&ved=0ahUKEwi7_dPu2sXVAhWf2YMKHZPhCdMQFgglMAE&usg=AFQjCNG2lHwzJt92HZascT-V7fovnXyWmQ)


"Curiosity:  Are ""heavy packages"" things I order from Amazon, or the sort of things like shrinkwrapped pallets that get delivered to Best Buy?  'Cause if it's the Amazon thing, USPS is almost always faster than the other guys (esp. Ontrac, who can't be bothered to deliver packages at all, let alone on time)."


"90% sounds like ""principal place of business"" but check these IRS resources to make sure."


I think the key here is 'at any age'. Yes it's not surprising that for demographics who have been in the workforce for a while, $100k won't get you near the top (i.e. Ages 30+).   However, what can be surprising is that even at age 25, $100k isn't enough to get you in the top 1%. So what more of the masses that don't earn anywhere near that number?


The short answer is that you can use student loans for living expenses.  Joe provides a nice taxonomy of loans.  I would just add that some loans are not only guaranteed, but also subsidized.  Essentially the Government buys down the rate of the loan. The mechanics are that a financial aid package might consist of grants, work study (job), subsidized, and guaranteed loans.  One can turn down one or more of the elements of the package.  All will be limited in some form. The work study will have a maximum number of hours and generally has low pay.  Many find better deals working in the businesses surrounding the college or starting their own services type business.  The grants rarely cover the full cost of tuition and books.  The loans will both be limited in amount.  It mainly depends on what you qualify for, and generally speaking the lower the income the more aid one qualifies for. Now some students use all their grant, all their loan money and buy things that are not necessary.  For example are you going to live in the $450/month dorm, or the new fancy apartments that are running $800/month?  Are you going to use the student loan money to buy a car?  Will it be a new BMW or a 8 year old Camary? I see this first hand as I live near a large university.  The pubs are filled with college students, not working, but drinking and eating every night.  Many of them drive very fancy cars. The most onerous example of this is students at the military academies.  Attendees have their books and tuition completely paid for.  They also receive a stipend, and more money can be earned over the summer.  They also all qualify for a 35K student loan in their junior year.  Just about every kid, takes this loan.  Most of those use the money to buy a car.  I know a young lady who did exactly that, and so did many of her friends. So kids with a starting pay of 45K also start life with a 35K.  Buying a nice car in the military is especially silly as they cannot drive it while deployed and they are very likely to be deployed.  At least, however, they are guaranteed a starting job with a nice starting pay, and upward potential. College kids who behave similarly might not have it as good.  Will they even find work?  Will the job have the ability to move up?  How much security is in the job?  One might say that this does not apply to engineers and such, but I am working with a fellow with a computer science degree who cannot find a job and has not worked in the past 6 months.  This even though the market is super hot right now for computer engineers. So, in a word, be very careful what you borrow.


"Lobbyists aren't the problem, the legislators are the problem.  ""I excluded all the special interests and lobbyists for a sound reason.   They have no legal authority. They have no ability to coerce a senator, a congressman, or a president to do one cotton-picking thing. I don't care if they offer a politician $1 million dollars in cash. The politician has the power to accept or reject it. No matter what the lobbyist promises, it is the legislator's responsibility to determine how he votes.""  [545 People](http://www.rense.com/general89/545.htm)"


"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 even at zero cost is worth addressing, but not the real subject of your question. So, I'll leave it for elsewhere."


As yet another explanation of why it does not really matter, you can look at this from the valuation point of view. Stock price is the present value of its future cash flows (be it free cash flow of the firm or dividends, depending on the model). Let's have a look at the dividends case. Imagine, the price of the stock is based on only three dividends streams $5 dollars each: dividend to be paid today, in year 1, and in year 2. Each should be discounted back to today (say, at 10%), except today's dividend, since today is now.  Once that dividend is paid, it is no longer in the stream of cash flows. So if we just delete that first $5 from the formula, the price will adjust itself down by the amount of the dividend to $8.68. NOTE that this is a very simple example, since in reality cash flows streams are arguably infinite and because there are many other factors affecting stock price. But simply for your understanding, this example should provide you with the reason simply from the valuation perspective.


If that means keeping your job a year or two more, I can see most truckers taking that bargain to side with Walmart so.  Amazon and their delivery drones certainly won't be loyal to truckers anyway.  You can trust incompetency (comparatively) won't change over night and backstab you at least


If that is actually true, that wasn't because of lack of technical know how. Amelio started out as a Bell Labs researcher and was more than a bit familiar with computers, having spent his whole career in the semiconductor business.


**Here's a sneak peek of /r/Kayaking using the [top posts](https://np.reddit.com/r/Kayaking/top/?sort=top&t=year) of the year!**  \#1: [I know it's a canoe, but come on. 14km ride down Maligne Lake, Jasper, Alberta.](https://i.redd.it/apssqt3hzjaz.jpg) | [24 comments](https://np.reddit.com/r/Kayaking/comments/6o8j8f/i_know_its_a_canoe_but_come_on_14km_ride_down/)   \#2: [Here's a photo of the last trip me and the misses went on](https://i.redd.it/nevqnbr00hwy.jpg) | [49 comments](https://np.reddit.com/r/Kayaking/comments/6a55i9/heres_a_photo_of_the_last_trip_me_and_the_misses/)   \#3: [Saw a pair of wolves from my boat today. North of Tofino, BC.](https://i.redd.it/v3w6ng3jjzoy.jpg) | [13 comments](https://np.reddit.com/r/Kayaking/comments/62ujcw/saw_a_pair_of_wolves_from_my_boat_today_north_of/)  ---- ^^I'm ^^a ^^bot, ^^beep ^^boop ^^| ^^Downvote ^^to ^^remove ^^| [^^Contact ^^me](https://www.reddit.com/message/compose/?to=sneakpeekbot) ^^| [^^Info](https://np.reddit.com/r/sneakpeekbot/) ^^| [^^Opt-out](https://np.reddit.com/r/sneakpeekbot/comments/6l7i0m/blacklist/)


Yeah, I don't really get the appeal. I've visited three different    locations a total of a dozen times and tried their chicken sandwiches and fries;  they don't seem to be particularly special.  What I did notice, though, was that their customer service was consistently more pleasant than at other fast food places.


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


The EITC is not binary - its not something you have or don't have. Thats like saying we *have* minimum wage so we don't *need* to raise it.  We have a limited version of the EITC. It could be vastly expanded and paid monthly for starters.


I'll be upfront with the fact that I don't personally like unions. That being said, I can see JaZepi's argument here, so I'll explain it with the usual caveat that I might be misunderstanding, and am not trying to assert that this is exactly what JaZepi meant.  Unions aren't only effective when a job can't be done elsewhere. Picket lines give a company a black eye. Unions get news time, and can join together to spend real money on advertising in some cases.


Closing a credit card decreases your total available balance, which can have a small negative effect if that credit card is a significant portion of your available credit.  If it is not, then it likely will have little impact on your credit in that department. However, the case you explained - get a card, use it for a short while, then dump it - won't have much long-term impact to your available credit, since you will end up with the same amount as you started. The second factor will be the average age of accounts.  This will affect you both in the short and long term, if you've had accounts open for a fairly long time, but won't impact you much if your credit history is fairly short.  Even closed accounts affect the Average Age of Accounts for FICO scores (but not for some other scoring methods such as VantageScore).  If you have only one other account, and it was 10 years old, then opening and closing this decreases your average age of accounts from 10 to 5 years - a significant hit which will not go away for years (10+ years in some cases, though usually 7 years).  This will lower your score some.  If you have had a lot of accounts, though (including things like mortgage, student loan, etc.), this won't have as significant of an impact, and if you had a short history in the first place, it won't hurt you much either. The third factor will be the hard credit pull.  That will have a small negative impact for around six months; so don't do this just before getting a mortgage, but mostly this won't be a significant impactor for you.


> The food isn't an afterthought, it's the main reason you're there. If it's terrible, there's no reason to go back  Clearly the food quality is not of the highest priority to people who dine at these places. Maybe they just need a place to hang out with friends and not drop a load of $?


And k cups brews fresh coffee. This would be like if k cups we full of pre brewed coffee and just dumbs it in the cup. How the hell did this get funding. It's like VC don't actually look at what they invest in


"It is called ""Opportunity Cost.""   Opportunity cost is the value you lose because of a decision you made.   This is the book definition from Investopedia. The difference in return between a chosen investment and one that is necessarily passed up. Say you invest in a stock and it returns a paltry 2% over the year. In placing your money in the stock, you gave up the opportunity of another investment - say, a risk-free government bond yielding 6%. In this situation, your opportunity costs are 4% (6% - 2%)."


Yeah, very true. The income and wealth inequality in the US really is something else... You know, some people sure do deserve compensation for all they do - but not to the point of crippling the rest of the population, in my honest opinion.


And it'll be a big issue again when our current housing bubble bursts. Housing is even more expensive now than it was in 2008 before the crash, that just means people have even more equity to borrow against and end up underwater.   Our next real estate crash is going to be much worse than 2008's.


Sacrifices the union made to keep a health plan for PART TIME EMPLOYEES. This author is a self righteous fucking blowhard. Try working for minimum wage, 40 hours a week with no benefits like millions of others you prick.


I'm 43 and I can say that Buffalo Wild Wings needs to die.  Seriously though. This is the younger generation simply refusing to be force-fed the bullshit that comprises 90% of our society.  I think it's a good thing.


> They think they know about things they have no idea about.  I know literally dozens of people who work at Boeing, as about a quarter of my friends from high school ended up being employed there. None of them spent any time in college or have any credentials beyond being a high school graduate.


Home Painters Vancouver: Noted painter Francis Davis Millet invented spray painting while working under tight deadlines to complete construction of the 1892 World's Columbian Exposition.  Our home painters in Vancouver may use this tactic if they’re painting with a certain product, or covering an uneven surface.


There are three common options for you:


You did something that you shouldn't have done; you bought a dividend.  Most mutual fund companies have educational materials on their sites that recommend against making new investments in mutual funds in the last two months of the year because most mutual funds distribute their earnings (dividends, capital gains etc) to their shareholders in December, and the share price of the funds goes down in the amount of the per share distribution. These distributions can be taken  in cash or can be re-invested in the fund; you most likely chose the latter  option (it is often the default choice if you ignored all this because you are a newbie). For those who choose to reinvest, the number of shares in the mutual fund increases, but since the price of the shares has decreased, the net amount remains the same. You own more shares at a lower price than the day before when the price was higher but the total value of your account is the same (ignoring normal market fluctuations in the price of the actual stocks held by the fund. Regardless of whether you take the distributions as cash or re-invest in the fund, that money is taxable income to you (unless the fund is owned inside a 401k or IRA or other tax-deferred investment program).  You bought 56 shares at a price of $17.857 per share (net cost $1000). The fund distributed its earnings shortly thereafter and gave you 71.333-56= 15.333 additional shares. The new share price is $14.11. So, the total value of your investment is $1012, but the amount that you have invested in the account is the original $1000 plus the amount of the distribution which is (roughly) $14.11 x 15.333 = $216.  Your total investment of $1216 is now worth $1012 only, and so you have actually lost money. Besides, you owe income tax on that $216 dividend that you received.  Do you see why the mutual fund companies recommend against making new investments late in the year?  If you had waited till after the mutual fund had made its distribution, you could have bought $1000/14.11 = 70.871 shares and wouldn't have owed tax on that distribution that you just bought by making the investment just before the distribution was made. See also my answer to this recent question about investing in mutual funds.


In a traditional IRA (or 401k or equivalent), income tax is not taken on the money when it is deposited or when dividends are reinvested, but money you take out (after you can do do without penalty) is taxed as if it were ordinary income. (I believe that's true; I don't think you get to take the long-term investment rate.) Note that Roth is the opposite: you pay income tax up front before putting money into the retirement account, but you will eventually withdraw without paying any additional  tax at that time. Unlike normal investments, neither of these requires tracking the details to know how much tax to pay. There are no taxes due on the reinvested dividends, and you don't need to track cost basis.


It is. The outstanding value is the net cash flow, but it will always be higher than cash outflow due to a constant growth rate/expected return. I was slightly confused when my manager told me to find the IRR before and after cash inflows (the whole life of the investment). Especially as IRR after cash inflows is higher than the former.


If the income is more than the value on the 1099-MISC - then yes. Depending on how long you've held the car, the difference would be short term/long term capital gain. You cannot deduct loss, though, since it is a personal property and not investment.


They also embraced y2k, acid rain, swine flu and many more. They will stay current with what ever the trend is to avoid the backlash. For example gay issues, 3% are gay but they embrace it, 3% of the population isn't going to make a huge difference but the press can and will make it one.


The fundamental underlying difference between a bank and a Ponzi scheme: When a bank lends money and charges interest, people can do things with that borrowed money which are worth it. (Building factories, starting businesses, or just enjoying the comfort and warmth of a single-family home instead of paying rent). This is why fractional-reserve banking is able to work. People may also do things which do not necessarily turn a financial profit (financing large purchases on a credit card) but are worth it in terms of an expenditure. They may also do stupid things (financing useless purchases on a credit card and wasting their money) or otherwise dispose of the money poorly (the new business fails, the home's value plummets, etc). A Ponzi scheme never really bothered to do useful things with the money. Social Security has been mentioned. Part of social security's setup involves the current population of workers paying the current population of retirees; their own retirements will have to be financed by the next generation. This design is not intrinsically a Ponzi scheme: both the population and the economy ought to remain growing for the intermediate future, so there will be at least as much money (and probably much more) for them to pay those bills. Unlike a Ponzi scheme, the idea that it will continue to attract new money to pay out existing claims is a realistic one. The real questions of its sustainability are a matter of specifics: is it collecting enough money to remain functional in the future, or is it outpacing the growth of the economy and the population?


"Gmiexpress adalah Prediksi Togel online yang sangat akurat dan tempat berbagi prediksi sesama prediktor, akan tetapi kami lebih menganjurkan menggunakan utama prediksi sendiri, jika tetap ingin menggunakan Prediksi Togel dari kami, kami tidak menjamin akan pasti menang"


It depends on what you paid for, but usually audit support is an unrelated engagement to the return preparation. If the accountant made a professional mistake, you can request correction and compensation from that accountant, other than that any accountant can help you with audit regardless of who prepared the return. The original accountant would probably be better informed about why you reported each number on the return and how it was calculated, but if you kept all the docs, it can be recalculated again. That's what happens in the audit anyway.


"I agree... sort of.  Invoking the Nazis is usually silly, and the comparison unfounded, adding nothing to the conversation.  Whereas determinism (with noise) is perfectly founded.  Unfortunately, it only ever adds one thing to the conversation.  ""Your ideas about blame, praise, and responsibility are based on feelings rather than physics.  They are subjective claims, which may be argued in exactly the same way people argue about musical preferences."""


@mbhunter and @JoeTaxpayer have given good advice. Were I in your situation, the only thing I might do differently is put whatever amount of cash not needed for emergencies in a money market fund with check-writing privileges and/or a debit card.  The rate on the account has at least some chance of preserving the value of your principal, and it will be easier to put your money into investments as soon as you're ready.  This sort of account is offered by any number of brokerages and financial companies, so pick one you trust and start there.


The way the world gained all its wealth is by innovation driven by the pursuit of profit/higher standard of living. If you remove that incentive then we will no longer keep progressing. That's why socialism always fails - you eventually run out of other people's money and innovation halts.


Jesus Christ, man. What is your obsession with the election? YOU are the one who brought Hillary up.   Since it's apparently relevant, I am not a fan of Hillary at all. Gun to my head, I would say that I believe she would have done a slightly less shitty job than Trump is. The fact that i don't like one candidate doesn't mean I particularly like the other. A person's opinion of both can be mutually exclusive.   I don't understand why you're so fixated on the fact that he won the election. Is it maybe because you can't think of a single specific thing that your boy has done that has actually had a quantifiable positive impact on anything, other than the vague buzz words that you Trump folk are famous for parroting?


Yeah sorry I didn't actually read the entirety of your text as carefully as I should have. I absolutely see where I jumped to the conclusion and obfuscated your point. Sorry bout that. I just saw you hadn't mentioned leveraging and all too quickly hit the reply button. Good day to you!


"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 he has proof that you actually used your card there. So worst case - you just paid twice. If you dispute the charge and it is accepted - the merchant will pay a penalty. If it is not accepted - you may pay the penalty (on top of the original charge, depending on your credit card issuer - some charge for ""frivolous"" charge backs). It will take several more years for either the European merchants to learn how to deal with the US half-baked chip cards, or the American banks to start issue proper chip-and-PIN card as everywhere else. Either way, until then - if the merchant doesn't know how to handle signatures with the American credit cards - just don't use them. Pay cash. Given the controversy in the comments - my intention was not to say ""no, don't talk to the merchant"". From the description of the situation it didn't strike me as the merchant would even bother to consider the situation. A less than honest merchant knows that you have no leverage, and since you're a tourist and will probably not be returning there anyway - what's the worst you can do to them? A bad yelp review? You can definitely get in touch with the merchant and ask for a refund, but I would not expect much to come out from that."


The problem, really, is Amazon generally delivers better pricing AND better service on top of a better experience.  No club cards, nothing clogging your mailbox, no chip and signature getting beeped at bullshit, no super narrow aisles full of double-wides asses you can't get around, no shopping car that rides like it's a modded impala on Hydros, no going to multiple stores to get a decent price on things.  Eff all that.


I think you hit it on the head.  Childhood perception does not mesh with adult reality.  A few years after I'd gotten back into Lego as an adult I was visiting my parents and dug out my childhood collection.  I was shocked how small it was.  I built *worlds* with that collection, but I doubt it was even 2000 pieces.  As an adult I bought more Lego in one purchase than I'd had my entire childhood.


Most of the gold prices at international markets are USD denominated. Hence the prices would be same in international markets where large players are buying and selling. However this does not mean that the prices to the individuals in local markets is same. The difference is due to multiple things like cost of physical delivery, warehousing, local taxation, conversion of Local currency to USD etc. So in essence the price of Gold is similar to price of Crude Oil. The price of Oil is more or less same on all the markets exchanges, though there is small difference this is because of the cost of delivery/shipment which is borne by the buyer. However the cost of Oil to retail individual varies from country to country.


Do you satisfy the necessary criteria listed there? Then why not?... It sounds like you do.


Didn't happen for compusa or circuit city. Online has the reviews and verified purchase reviews and YouTube videos of some shmuck unboxing and using items. There is just no need for knowledgeable sales people and physical locations. Typing a product into Google can give you more information than some guy working a sales gig.


A bank or credit card agency can deny your application for pretty much any reason. That said, it's extremely unlikely they'd do so for a secured credit card. This is because the credit is secured. If your sister is to get a card with, say, a $1000 limit, she will have to provide $1000 in security. This means the banks risk practically nothing. That said, I have found one reference that claims you need a score of above 600 to qualify for a secured credit card, though this is hard to believe. Secured credit cards are a reasonable way of building your credit back up. Just about the only other way for her credit rating to improve is for her history of bad debt to fall off the credit report, but that's going to take quite some time. She should be working hard to provide positive credit history to replace the old negative history, assuming her credit rating is important to her. It may not be; it's only important if she plans on taking on debt in the future. Honestly, a credit rating of around 500 is so bad that I wouldn't even worry much about lowering it. It's already low enough as to make it all but impossible to qualify for (unsecured) credit or loans. A single denial is unlikely to significantly affect the score, except in the very short term. With two bankruptcies, I encourage credit counselling for your sister. There are a number of good books available, too. Credit counselling should go into detail on credit scores, unsecured credit, proper budgeting, and all that sort of useful information.


I would assume that under a certain threshold, HMRC doesn't even want to hear from you, because extracting taxes from you costs them more money than you are going to pay. On the other hand, I cannot find anything written about that subject.  I'd suggest to call them at 0300 200 3300 and ask them. Have the annual cost of the server ready, and tell them that you will stop asking for donations if say 6 months of cost is covered. There may be an official threshold that I was unable to find.  Obviously if you receive £1000 in donations and spend £100 for the server, they will want tax payment. If its £110 in donations and £100 for the server, they will likely not care. If they tell you to register as self-employed, it's not difficult, just a bit of a pain. In that case you'd have to pay tax on your income (donations) minus cost (cost for the server and any other cost).


There's a lot of hype about HFT. It involves computers doing things that people don't really understand and making a bunch of rich guys a bunch of money, and there was a crisis and so we hate rich wall street guys this year, and so it's a hot-button issue. Meh. There's some reason for concern about the safety of the markets, but I think there's also a lot more of people trying to sell you a newspaper. Remember that while HFT may mean there are a lot of trades, the buying and the selling add up to the same thing. Meanwhile, people who buy stock to hold on to it for significant periods of time will still affect the quantity of stock out there on the market, applying pressure to the price, buying and selling at the prices that they think the security is worth.  As a result, it's unlikely that high-frequency trading moves the stock price very far from the price that the rest of the market would determine for very long; if it did, the lower-frequency traders could take advantage of it, buying if it's too low and selling if it's too high. How long do you plan to hold a stock? If you're trying to do day-trading, you might have some trouble; these people are competing with you to do the same thing, and have significant resources at their disposal. If you're holding onto your stock for years on end (like you probably should be doing with most stock) then a trivial premium or discount on the price probably isn't going to be a big deal for you.


Some part of the payment is probably also going for tax escrow, insurance payments, probably PMI if you aren't  putting at least 20% down. Get a complete breakdown of the costs. Remember to budget for upkeep. And please see past discussion of why buying a home at this point in your career/life may be very, very premature.


They have been changing over Immelts tenor. Didn't know he was stepping down though.       Share buybacks can be for a variety of reasons. They feel stock price is undervalued, they want to support their current shareholders, debt is cheap so they can change their wacc, they prefer to return capital in a way that does not increase expected dividends in the future (something about dividends being sticky, and the a cut in dividends Make it look like company is doing bad), etc.


Insiders are prevented from buying or selling shares except at certain periods right after information is disclosed publicly. But. People have bills to pay and kids to put through college and whatnot. So an insider can set up a plan where shares are sold on a specific schedule and they have no control over number of shares or timing. These plans (covered under rule 10b5-1) allow insiders to generate cash flow without immoderately benefiting from their inside information. Sales under these plans can mostly be ignored when trying to figure out the fortunes of a company from insider trades.


Remember when you ran your mouth off on the internet because there were no lasting repercussions, but were too much of a coward to carry that bravado over into the real world? Come body me man. I mean, I don't have a problem having a problem. You feel me?


If you're in the UK, there's a free service here that lets you trace lost bank accounts. If you're in a different country, try Googling to see if that country has a similar service.


From India Point of view; someone may put the US point of view ... As an NRI you are not supposed to hold an Ordinary Demat Account. Please have this converted to NRO NON-PINS ASAP. Related Question Indian Demat account If the shares were purchased before 1-Oct-2004, they are liable for Long Term Capital Gains tax in India.


Seems to have an economic miracle considering 10-20 years ago, China was really really poor and now we have tons of international students driving Lamborghinis coming from China. Not sure how much that is worth but that's my 2 cents.


The same can be done in the USA depending on what city and how richly someone wants to live.  I went to a fine public school in suburban US and I walked to school just a few blocks, free, as are all public schools.  As for medical bills and your best friends mother, it is also not expensive to die of cancer in the USA!  But, you did not tell me how big of an apartment can be had in Lisbon for a minimum wage worker spending less than 30% of his income, nor how big is a 2 bedroom apartment there.


In the UK (similar laws exist throughout Europe, see European Consumer Rights Directive), you have the right to return for a refund for any goods that are bought off-premises for 14 days after delivery. http://www.which.co.uk/consumer-rights/regulation/consumer-contracts-regulations I understand that consumer protections in the USA are not as strong though.


Please do give an example that offers 50% returns. If it is rigged and you are successful, then are you not suggesting that you are personally involved with the rigging?   I mean, I'd love to believe you, but your cringe worthy writing makes me doubt that you're such a high level player.


You are correct that the price fixed when the contract is made is set and maybe there are a few institutions that don't actually bother to track the future after they initiate the contract.  But most parties likely track the contracts fairly carefully for a number of reasons.  The big deal is that while the price the contract is set, and if you did a perfect hedge maybe the value of the contract and the thing you are hedging is then fixed, the value of that futures contract by itself changes and this is important. The biggest reason is as JB mentions above most futures contracts settle up on a daily basis as the price of the underlying changes.  This happens to limit the losses when for large price changes and one party owes a bunch of money on a futures contract and (for that reason or a different one) goes bankrupt.  If the other party is using the contract to hedge a sale or asset maybe this risk is minimal but maybe that expected sale doesn't happen or maybe the party is using futures for speculation.  There is no way to know built into the contract if a party is really hedging or not so people naturally want to limit this default risk. There are many other reasons to track profit and loss as well: There are likely even more reasons as well that I'm missing but hopefully that gives you an idea.


Yes. Private companies have shares, they're just not liquid and there may be restrictions around selling them; founders get shares when they found a company (not options), as do VCs that invest. An options pool is oftentimes created as a result of a VC financing (when the cap table is being carved up and the existing owners are being diluted, anyway) for the purposes of attracting future employees.


Conglomerates don't work. We've seem thay countless times in countless periods in countless places in history... A focused company will always outperform an unfocused company in the long run...     Grocery stores trade at tiny multiples. Tech firms at massive multiples. The instant you buy a 3x EBITDA when you're trading at 15x EBITDA, you've increased the market value of the acquired firm by 5x...


Do you live in an old building? We have painting contractors in Vancouver for whom no challenge is too big! If you wonder about the work that goes into their trade, check out this article on @The Guardian.


Is it really necessary? If $800 / year registration fee is too much to you, an LLC is apparently not something you need right now. Many people conduct web-based business online on personal terms. My suggestion is that you focus on your business first and try to grow it as much as you can before you get down to a company.


And here is the same question posed to the user interface design sub:  https://www.reddit.com/r/UserExperienceDesign/comments/6thoqv/if_you_could_change_the_navigationcategorization/?st=J6LFX0K1&amp;sh=492012b4  Will see what a I can find for regulatory sites for you.  p.s. Companies like Wayfair have been notorious for spamming job seekers, by adding them their email list involuntarily after submitting applications I was told.


Katherine from Betterment here.  I wanted to address your inquiry and another comment regarding our services.  I agree with JAGAnalyst - it's detrimental to your returns and potential for growth if you try to time the market.  That's why Betterment offers customized asset allocation for each portfolio based on the nature of your goal, time horizon, and how much you are able to put towards your investments.  We do this so regardless of what's happening in the markets, you can feel comfortable that your asset allocation plus other determining factors will get you where you need to go, without having to time your investing.  We also put out quite a bit of content regarding market timing and why we think it's an unwise practice.  We believe continuously depositing to your goal, especially through auto-deposits, compounding returns, tax-efficient auto-rebalancing, and reinvesting dividends are the best ways to grow your assets. Let me know if you would like additional information regarding Betterment accounts and our best practices.  I am available at buck@betterment.com and am always happy to speak about Betterment's services. Katherine Buck, Betterment Community Manager


Significantly less effort to buy into any of several international bond index funds. Off the top of my head, VTIBX.


A Budget is different for every person.  There are families making $40K/yr who will budget to spend it all. But a family making $100K of course will have a different set of spending limits for most items. My own approach is to start by tracking every cent. Keep a notebook for a time, 3 months minimum. Note, for homeowners, a full year is what it takes to capture the seasonal expenses.  This approach with help you see where the money is going, and adjust accordingly. The typical goal is to spend less than you make, saving X% for retirement, etc. The most important aspect is to analyze how much money is getting spent on wasteful items. The $5 coffee, the $10 lunch, the $5-$7 magazines, etc. One can decide the $5 coffee is a social event done with a friend, and that's fine, so long as it's a mindful decision. I've watched the person in front of me at the supermarket put 4 magazines down on the counter. If she has $20 to burn, that's her choice.  See Where can I find an example of a really basic family budget? for other responses.


There is another reason why an investor might buy negative yielding bonds: if the investor expects that bond yields will go even further negative, then they are also expecting the price of the bond to go up. They can resell the bond later at a profit. As an example, they may expect an increase in central bank bond purchases to drive yields lower and prices higher.


From Getting Rid of PMI: Per the federal Homeowners' Protection Act, you can ask that your PMI be canceled when you've paid down your mortgage to 80% of the loan, if you have a good record of payment and compliance with the terms of your mortgage, you make a written request, and you show that the value of the property hasn't gone down.  What's more, when you've paid down your mortgage to 78% of the original loan, the law says that the lender must automatically cancel your PMI. (So in this case to prove it hasn't gone down, an appraisal is in order) But all of this doesn't answer the question. The PMI is a separate line item, once it's removed, your total monthly payment drops. You are welcome to keep it in, and indicate it should be a prepayment of principal, if that's your wish, but that's up to you, it's not automatic.  In researching this the first time, I ran into an article How to Calculate PMI Costs in which an example is given where a 91% LTV $200K loan has a PMI cost of $1000/yr. So, the impact of not having that extra $20K or so is to pay what amount to an extra 5% on the last $20K of the loan. The PMI doesn't scale over time. When you are $10K away from 80% LTV, you still pay the $1K/yr. For this reason, if you absolutely must go over 80% LTV, I'd suggest shopping for a bank that will permit the excess to be a home equity loan.  At least the payoff of that 2nd loan in totally in your control.


But they aren't doing anything extra to sell them, but perhaps a commission on sales would be a fair reward for the best salespeople. However, the products sell themselves. They just happen to work at a place where the merchandise is expensive. I understand paying the genius bar folks more. Should people who work at Prada get paid $100,000 a year just for ringing up the items?


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"According to the article, I think the operative word is ""train,"" not ""push.""  Essentially companies are looking for ""unicorns"" that don't really exist. They expect the market to offer up people with an exact certain skillset, at a certain price, at a certain time. And *free* markets simply don't work in that manner.  Another thing that I did not see this article address is that there really is no loyalty within companies any more. Companies view people as a commodity (but yet don't believe in the free market principle surrounding a commodity), instead of treating people as a resource. Hence people are ready to walk away when they spot a better opportunity."


I don't see a tag for United States, so I'm having to assume this is US taxes.  It doesn't matter what app you use, IRS trades are all calculated the same. First, you have to report each trade on a 8949 and from that the totals go into a schedule D.  Short term trades are stocks that you've kept exactly one year or less, long term trades are for 1 year + 1 day or more.  Trades where you sold a stock for a loss, then bought that stock back again under 30 days don't get to count as a loss.  This only affects realized capital gains and losses, you don't count fees. First, take all of your short term gains then offset them by all of your short term losses.  Do the same for long term gains and losses.  Short and long term gains are taxed at different rates.  You can deduct losses from short term to your long term and vice versa.  Then you can deduct the total losses up to $3000 (household, $1500 married, filing separately) per year on your regular income taxes or other dividend taxes.  If you have over $3000 in losses, then you need to carry that over to subsequent years. Edited per Dave's comments: thanks Dave


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Good question - I know you can keep the ISA in the UK and it won't lose its tax free status but you're not able to contribute it while you're not a UK resident. Not that its tax free status buys you that much if you're a non-resident as you could apply to receive tax gross on pretty much any savings account anyway. Given that the idea of tax-free saving outside a retirement account doesn't really exist here in the US I would assume that you will have to declare the interest as income and, if you don't pay any other taxes in the UK that would cover the amount you'd have to pay on your ISA under the foreign tax credit, you'd end up giving the IRS their pound of flesh. As I mentioned in an answer to a previous question, you really need to talk to an US accountant/CPA, preferably one that is familiar with UK taxation law as well.


No no it's real good man, I mean there's a chance you'll die from heat stroke or get beaten to death for trying to escape since your employer took your passport, but it's great for the consumer who doesn't give a shit and just wants to watch the world cup.  Hope you end up in a service job with a boss that shits down your throat every time you take a piss break you entitled punk.


Two hours? Phew, that's long. A few things that come to mind: Read job interview articles before you go... They always helped get my mind thinking in that direction. There are plenty online.  A two hour interview is, my guess, an attempt to learn about your personality and whether you wi fit in. I wouldn't try to fake this, just be yourself. Expect them to ask about who you are outside a 3.9 gpa - and be ready to answer. What do you have an appetite for? Is it outdoors, sushi, sports? Doesn't really matter, just be passionate about something. Don't oversell yourself. It's okay to be nervous but don't turn that into being some kid that talks too much and is awkward. Managers interview all the time, they just want a normal human being to sit across the table.


It depends on how much you save, how much your savings earns each year.  You can model it with a very simple spreadsheet:  Formula view:  You can change this simple model with any other assumptions you wish to make and model. This spreadsheet presumes that you only make $50,000/year, never get a raise, that your savings earns 6% per year and that the market never has a crash like 2008. The article never states the assumptions that the author has made, and therefore we can't honestly determine how truthful the author is.  I recommend the book Engineering Your Retirement as it has more detailed models and goes into more details about what you should expect. I wrote a slightly more detailed post that showed a spreadsheet that is basically what I use at home to track my retirement savings.


Put simply:    Financial Services provides or facilitates access to capital in some capacity, and are companies unto themselves (TD Ameritrade, Goldman Sachs, Bank of America, etc), this also includes accounting companies which provide financial information, and insurance companies that deal with risk.  Corporate Finance is part of all businesses in any industry (So for example Starbucks has a finance department, and those employees are doing corporate finance), and plans how to use capital to fund a company's projects and make sure there is sufficient cash on hand as it's needed for daily operations.  Corporate Finance interacts with Financial Services to access the capital needed to fund the business's activities.


If I have a slave and I let him stop being a slave at any time as long as he pays me 500 dollars, is he a voluntary slave?  He's still here, right? He can leave at any time as long as he pays me. Oh, and I can change the conditions under which I *allow* him to leave at any time, unilaterally, without giving him any notice or allowing him to dissent. Totally voluntary, right?


It is just marketing and market segmentation.  We could all shop at WalMart, but some people prefer wider aisles and mood music so they shop at Macys.  Other people are fine shopping at Target or online. Women face no different challenges.  The challenges in investing depend on who you are, where you are in life and what your goals are.  I think it is fine to target a certain demographic over another, but they are just trying to make a niche. I prefer to not think about worst case scenarios, and I view all financial advisors with a healthy skepticism, regardless of gender.


Your thinking is a little extreme!  V could go under... but chances are very remote.  Similarly I can't answer if someone asks if the Feds can go under. Looking at our awesome debt levels and no way to dig out of it, that is definitely a possibility. But will it happen?  Probably no.


Wikipedia has a nice definition of financial literacy (emphasis below is mine): [...] refers to an   individual's ability to make informed   judgments and effective decisions   about the use and management of their   money. Raising interest in personal   finance is now a focus of state-run   programs in countries including   Australia, Japan, the United States   and the UK. [...]  As for how you can become financially literate, here are some suggestions: Learn about how basic financial products works: bank accounts, mortgages, credit cards, investment accounts, insurance (home, car, life, disability, medical.) Free printed & online materials should be available from your existing financial service providers to help you with your existing products.  In particular, learn about the fees, interest, or other charges you may incur with these products.  Becoming fee-aware is a step towards financial literacy, since financially literate people compare costs.  Seek out additional information on each type of product from unbiased sources (i.e. sources not trying to sell you something.) Get out of debt and stay out of debt. This may take a while. Focus on your highest-interest loans first. Learn the difference between good debt and bad debt.   Learn about compound interest.  Once you understand compound interest, you'll understand why being in debt is bad for your financial well-being. If you aren't already saving money for retirement, start now.  Investigate whether your employer offers an advantageous matched 401(k) plan (or group RRSP/DC plan for Canadians) or a pension plan.  If your employer offers a good plan, sign up.  If you get to choose your own investments, keep it simple and favor low-cost balanced index funds until you understand the different types of investments.  Read the material provided by the plan sponsor, try online tools provided, and seek out additional information from unbiased sources. If your employer doesn't offer an advantageous retirement plan, open an individual retirement account or IRA (or personal RRSP for Canadians.)  If your employer does offer a plan, you can set one of these up to save even more.  You could start with access to a family of low-cost mutual funds (examples: Vanguard for Americans, or TD eFunds for Canadians) or earn advanced credit by learning about discount brokers and self-directed accounts. Understand how income taxes and other taxes work.  If you have an accountant prepare your taxes, ask questions.  If you prepare your taxes yourself, understand what you're doing and don't file blind.  Seek help if necessary.  There are many good books on how income tax works.  Software packages that help you self-file often have online help worth reading – read it. Learn about life insurance, medical insurance, disability insurance, wills, living wills & powers of attorney, and estate planning.  Death and illness can derail your family's finances.  Learn how these things can help. Seek out and read key books on personal finance topics.  e.g. Your Money Or Your Life, Why Smart People Make Big Money Mistakes, The Four Pillars of Investing, The Random Walk Guide to Investing, and many more. Seek out and read good personal finance blogs.  There's a wealth of information available for free on the Internet, but do check facts and assumptions. Here are some suggested blogs for American readers and some suggested blogs for Canadian readers. Subscribe to a personal finance periodical and read it.  Good ones to start with are Kiplinger's Personal Finance Magazine in the U.S. and MoneySense Magazine in Canada.  The business section in your local newspaper may sometimes have personal finance articles worth reading, too. Shameless plug: Ask more questions on this site. The Personal Finance & Money Stack Exchange is here to help you learn about money & finance, so you can make better financial decisions.  We're all here to learn and help others learn about money. Keep learning!


The relation between inflation and stock (or economic) performance is not well-understood.  Decades ago, economists thought inflation corresponded with periods of high growth and good real returns, but since then we have had periods of low inflation and high growth and high inflation with low growth.  It is generally understood among current economists that inflation levels (especially expected inflation) are neither indicative nor causative of real stock returns. Many things can affect inflation, and economic performance is only a minor one.  Many things can cause economic performance, and inflation is only a minor one.  It's not clear whether the overall relation between inflation and real stock returns is positive or negative. Notice, however, that in principle stock returns are real.  That is, the money companies make is in inflated dollars so profit and dividends for a company whose prospects have not changed should go up and down at the same rate as inflation. This would mean if inflation goes up by 5% and nothing else changes, you would expect stock prices to go up by the same proportion so you wouldn't have strong feelings about inflation one way or the other.  In real life stock prices will go up by either more or less than 5% but I'm not comfortable saying which, on average. Bottom line: current levels of inflation can't really be used to predict real stock returns, so you shouldn't let current inflation guide your decision about whether to buy stock.


I have a bank account in the US from some time spent there a while back. When I wanted to move most of the money to the UK (in about 2006), I used XEtrade who withdrew the money from my US account and sent me a UK cheque. They might also offer direct deposit to the UK account now. It was a bit of hassle getting the account set up and linked to my US account, but the transaction itself was straightforward. I don't think there was a specific fee, just spread on the FX rate, but I can't remember for certain now - I was transfering a few thousand dollars, so a relatively small fixed fee would probably not have bothered me too much.


"The above answers are great. I would only add to the ""rainy day"" part, that even though the cash provides a good cushion, ""a stormy day"" could mean even losing those emergency savings to the unignorable randomness that governs the world economy. Though unlikely, what happened to the russian ruble and the latest decision of the swiss cental bank are just two recent reminders that uncertainty must be treated as a constant. I would therefore advise you to invest some of the money in land capable of agriculture. How expensive is land over there in the UK?"


It might seem like the PE ratio is very useful, but it's actually pretty useless as a measure used to make buy or sell decisions, and taken largely on its own, pretty useless becomes utterly and completely useless. Stocks trade at prices based on future expectations and speculation, so that means if traders expect a company to double its profits next year, the share price could easily double (there are reasons it might not increase so much, and there are reasons it could increase even more than that, but that's not the point). The Price is now double, but the Earnings is still the same, so the PE ratio is double, and this doubling is based on something some traders know, or think they know, but other traders might not know or not believe! Once you understand that, what use is a PE ratio really? The PE ratio of a company might be low because it is in a death spiral, with many traders believing it will report lower and lower profits in years to come, and the lower the PE ratio of a given company gets probably, relatively, the more likely it is to go bust! If you buy a stock with a low PE ratio you must do so because you feel you understand the company, understand why the market is viewing it negatively, believe that the negativity is wrong or over done, and believe that it will turn around. Equally a PE ratio might be high, but be an excellent buy still because it has excellent growth prospects and potential even beyond what is priced in already! Lets face it, SOMEONE has been buying at the price that's put that PE ratio where is is, right? They might be wrong of course, or not! Or they might be justified now but circumstances might change before earnings ever reach the current priced in expectation. You'll know next year probably! To answer your actual question... first you should now understand there is no such thing as a stock that is on sale, just stocks that are priced broadly according to the markets consensus on its value in years to come, the closest thing being a stock that is 'over sold' (but one man's 'over sold' is another man's train crash remember)... so what to actually look for? The only way to (on average) make good buy and sell decisions is to know about investing and trading (buy some books, I have 12), understand the businesses you propose to invest in and understand their market(s) (which may also mean understanding national and international economics somewhat).


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How exactly is this relevant to anything I wrote?   I can create /r/idioticteabaggerdiatribes if you really need to yap about topics that weren't brought up.   and, it's actually funny that you think most people don't get rich by rent seeking behaviors.


> At what point do people's bad decisions stop being society's burden to bear?  Never. It doesn't matter if it is education, food stamps, walls, police, or prisons but you will be paying for other human's mistakes your whole life.


I agree. There are numerous sources for homework help on the rest of the interwebs. BUT I do enjoy when people post their homework problems. They are fun to solve.  Keeps me on my toes. Albeit, this sub shouldn't be relied upon in this manner.   Perhaps we could get some sort of Financial Problem subreddit or something along those lines?


The state of California shouldn't be commended and given credit for removing shitty legislation that shouldn't have existed in the first place.  Also, to repeat myself because it cannot be stated enough, the government does not create businesses.  Hell, the state of California might be the most anti-business state in the union.  In no other state is it as expensive or as difficult to run a compliant business due to the mountains of unnecessary bullshit California makes businesses navigate through.


Its expected earnings are what people are valuing it at. They have built a huge demand by having superior previous models.  The true question is if they can replicate this on a large scale, and keep enough of the quality and perks of the previous models to maintain the demand.  If so you have the biggest shift in car manufacturing in the US market in a long long time. To be honest idk if they can remain at Tesla headquarters at the desired level of production but bringing production back to Detroit while cheap doesn't have the engineers and control that they have in California.


Seems like you should be aiming to beat the professionals, otherwise why not let them handle it? So 4.01% is a logical start. Perhaps round that up to 4.05%


I would suggest they are not wasted because your premiums fund unemployment insurance, which is a net to prevent people from going under if they lose their jobs. Unemployment insurance is in many ways an incubator for success because it allows an entrepreneur to take more risk in starting a business because failure won't mean devastation. Perhaps that person who took the risk because of the ability to fail started the business that you now work for. Society works better (in my opinion) by keeping the bottom closer to the top.  Paying into the unemployment insurance fund indirectly provides you opportunity.


For a $350 monthly payment, she is currently paying $200 monthly in interest. You say that no bank will refinance her, but that is not true, I'm sure many banks are happy to refinance her to the value of the car. She should start that process. You'll find that your suggestion to pay $5000 down on the current loan is pretty similar to what she would need to bring to a bank to refinance (maybe as much as $7000 to refinance). After that she would be paying a much lower amount in interest, and she could still retire the loan a year or two (but she would be paying even less in interest). The advantage to borrowing from her emergency fund is that she retires the loan 14 months earlier. The problem is that you are prioritizing the least amount paid, and she is prioritizing an emergency fund. Emergency funds are also very important. You might have better success if you prioritize paying back the emergency fund in your plan. If she puts $7000 down to refinance, assume a 3 year loan at 4.5% with a $150 monthly payment. Instead of paying down the remaining $5000 quickly what if she put the extra $200/month toward paying back her emergency fund? It would take the same 3 years to fully pay it back without impacting the rest of her budget at all. If she has extra room in her budget, she could pay back that emergency fund even faster. Many of us who prioritize minimizing interest paid and maximizing interest earned already have a robust emergency fund. Your girlfriend isn't wrong to value that. Unexpected emergencies can cause much more interest to be paid if there is no way to deal with them. (That's how paycheck and title lenders capture their customers.) Talk to her about what emergencies she might need the money for, and make a plan to replenish the fund, and you're much more likely to have her buy in.


In the US bank or credit union checking, savings, CD's are insured through FDIC or NCUA. The coverage is for $250,000. This limit can be increased by having multiple accounts. You, your spouse, and a Joint account with your spouse, are considered 3 different accounts, so you could have $750K coverage.  IRA funds are considered a separate pot of money for insurance coverage. Here is an explanation from NCUA and FDIC. There is no safety difference between savings and checking. There are differences regarding minimum balances, maximum number of transactions per month, and fees. But they are equally safe.


Software Contractors are not employees of the company that is procuring the software. Software Contractors necessarily work for another legal business entity. There is a business to business relationship between the procurer of the software and the entity producing the software. Therefore, the company procuring the software is not required to pay a minimum wage, or adhere to any other employment law. When any individual or company orders a software product and agrees to pay for it, that is a fixed priced contract. This happens millions of times a day. The amount of time taken to produce the software has no direct bearing on price. For instance, there is no minimum price for Microsoft Word based on the number of hours taken to produce it. Generally a Software Contractor will be a director and shareholder of a limited liability corporation. Directors are exempt from the standard protection offered under employment law. If the company producing the software was employing non-directors to produce the software, rather than sub-contracting to another business then employment law would apply.


Unless that 401K has very low expense ratios on its funds, you should roll it into an IRA and choose funds with low expense ratios. After rolling it over you should not take the 10% penalty and use it to purchase a home.  Unless you use that home as an income property, it is unlikely to provide you more than a 1% inflation-adjusted rate of return given historical data.  The S&P 500 is about 4% adjusted for inflation.  And that money currently in your 401(k) is for your retirement - your future.  Don't borrow against your future.  Let compound interest do its work on that money. The value of a house is in the rent you aren't paying to live somewhere and there are a lot of costs to consider.  That doesn't mean don't buy.  It just means buy wisely. If you are currently maxing out your 401(k), you may consider cutting back to save for your down payment.  Other than that I wouldn't touch retirement money unless it was a dire financial emergency.


> I agreed to eat the food with an implied contract that I will pay for it.   You stay in the state's territory voluntarily, you agree to benefit from the services they fund with an implied contract that you contribute to their funding one per year.  Trying to insist you never did consent, at this point, isn't an argument. You could say the same thing after you're done eating and your given a bill.


"While every successful forex trader has his or her own way of being consistently profitable, there are a few ""common denominators"" that all profitable traders follow without exception. This forex training article will walk through one of those critical keys to success."


"This is the best tl;dr I could make, [original](http://www.nber.org/papers/w23839) reduced by 55%. (I'm a bot) ***** > There is strong persistence over time in the bottom tail of the wealth distribution, but the probability of having low wealth increases slowly with age after age 65.  > Those with low lifetime earnings are much more likely to report low wealth at retirement, and to die with little wealth, than their higher-earning contemporaries.  > The onset of a major medical condition and the loss of a spouse increase in the probability of falling into the low wealth category at advanced ages, although these factors appear to contribute to wealth decline for only a small fraction of those who had modest wealth at age 65 but low wealth at the time of death.   ***** [**Extended Summary**](http://np.reddit.com/r/autotldr/comments/72efsa/this_is_why_people_make_fun_of_economists_those/) | [FAQ](http://np.reddit.com/r/autotldr/comments/31b9fm/faq_autotldr_bot/ ""Version 1.65, ~216369 tl;drs so far."") | [Feedback](http://np.reddit.com/message/compose?to=%23autotldr ""PM's and comments are monitored, constructive feedback is welcome."") | *Top* *keywords*: **wealth**^#1 **age**^#2 **low**^#3 **little**^#4 **Retirement**^#5"


"I took it a few months ago.  Overall - just doing the practice/sample questions is pretty sufficient. If you don't know much about IB, I doubt it's worth your time to go out and ""study"" it before the test.  The problem with the BAT is that you can't contact companies thru Bloomberg. You just make a profile, and if an employer is searching for someone that matches you (including your BAT score), then they contact you."


You know that [most authors have come out *against* Amazon in this dispute](http://www.authorsunited.net), right?   Even [Stephan Colbert has sided with hachette on this one.](http://thecolbertreport.cc.com/videos/ukf9gv/amazon-vs--hachette)  The authors that seem to side *with* Amazon are ones from Amazon's own self publishing platform, which ironically has some of the *worst* terms for authors when it comes to choices of how and where they can sell their books.  I'll give credit where credit is due though: Amazon *does* let self-published authors retain the intellectual property for their works, which doesn't always happen with traditional publishers. Granted, Amazon doesn't front any of the costs involved in creating a book like traditional publishers do, and Amazon can literally change it's terms of service at any time without notifying you (whereas contracts signed with traditional publishers are legally binding), it's still a pretty nice move that Amazon only views self-publishing *authors* as a source of revenue, and not their intellectual property.


What damage?  In the eyes of the left they did the right thing in not allowing the wrong ideology to exist.  Its only on the right where Google will get bad PR really and Google already has bad PR with them so it really doesn't matter.


"And if you subtract that 30% (the 19% Social Security and 11% Fed holdings) which are entirely bogus and moot...  Then that 32% (out of the remaining 70%) is pretty darned near half, and regardless of it being just shy of a majority, it is still the largest block.  Even then, since the dollar itself is backed by nothing, it isn't technically a problem -- the US can pay it off at any time (the only inherent cost being the debasement of the currency).  Where the problem with that comes in is that there are a LOT of US assets located on foreign soil (all of the ""joint-operation"" manufacturing plants in China, for instance); and foreign governments CAN hold them ""hostage"" (so to speak), or if they so choose, to literally confiscate (nationalize) them and yet legally ""compensate"" their US based paper-owners by paying them off with the debased dollars (and/or US treas bonds, same thing really)... basically just ""paying"" us with checks drawn on our own collective account."


You'll have to call your credit card issuer and ask them. Generally, credit cards don't do bank transfers, since its not a bank account per se. But it may be in some cases that there's an underlying bank account over which your credit card is managed, and then they might be able to do something like that. But we won't know, only your card issuer will.


Run a screen on CapIQ. Ask one of the analysts to walk you through the various inputs / filters you can use to run screens (business description, geography, company type, size, industry classification, etc). If you stay in M&A you'll be doing a lot of these. Better to learn best methods now rather than later.


Look at this question here. In my answer there, I put a link to an Investopedia article about the bond prices. Keep in mind that speculating over a short term period is pretty dangerous, even with the Treasury notes, and the prices may be affected temporary but greatly by the ordeals like the latest Republican shenanigans in Washington.


The growth of Panamanian economy and the fact that Panama has become an important regional investment center has required that Kraemer & Kraemer. As attorneys acquire considerable experience in multidisciplinary practices. We are the top most Law firm in Panama. You need to ensure that you pick top Panama law offices that comprehend the interchange between the laws of Panama and your nation of origin.


"The TSA has to stop terrorists 100% of the time (current record: 0%). Terrorists just have to get through once (current record: 100% through TSA, stopped by passengers).  I don't trust that the TSA would be able to secure the trusted traveler program any more than they secure people right now. The ""my metal detector wasn't plugged in"" thing just reinforces my idea of them.  But behavioral detection can work, Israel has shown that. Of course their agents are truly trained on it and do direct interviews as opposed to just scanning a crowd.  This would make that even less effective that it is now."


"On contrary of what Mike Scott suggested, I think in case of EURO DOOM it's a lot safer if your savings were changed into another currency in advance. Beware that bringing your money into an EURO CORE country (like Finland, Austria, Germany, Nethereland) it's useful if you think those banks are safer, but totally useless to avoid the conversion of your saving from Euro into your national currency. In case of EURO CRASH, only the Central Bank will decide what happens to ALL the Euro deposited wherever, single banks, even if they are Deutsche Bank or BNP or ING, can not decide what to do on their own. ECB (European Central Bank) might decide to convert EURO into local currencies based on the account's owner nationality. Therefor if you are Greek and you moved your saving in a German bank, the ECB might decide that your Euro are converted into New Dracma even if they sit in a German bank account. The funniest thing is that if you ask to a Finland bank: ""In case of Euro crash, would you convert my Euro into New Dracma?"", they sure would answer ""No, we can't!"", which is true, they can not because it's only the ECB (Europe Central Bank) the one that decides how an ordered Euro crash has to be manged, and the ECB might decide as I explained you above. Other Central Banks (Swiss, FED, etc.) would only follow the decisions of the ECB. Moreover in case of EURO DOOM, it's highly probable that the Euro currency looses a tremendous value compared to other currencies, the loss would be huge in case the Euro Crash happens in a disordered way (i.e. a strong country like Germany and their banks decides to get out and they start printing their own money w/o listening to the ECB anymore). So even if your saving are in Euro in Germany they would loose so much value (compared to other currencies) that you will regreat forever not to have converted them into another currency when you had the time to do it. Couple of advises: 1) If you want to change you savings into another currency you don't need to bring them into another bank/country (like US), you could simply buy US Shares/Bonds at your local bank. Shares/Bonds of a US company/US gov will always be worth their value in dollars no matter in what new pathetic currency your account will be converted. 2) But is there a drawback in converting my saving into another currency (i.e. buying dollars in the form of US treasury bonds)? Unfortunately yes, the drawback is that in case this Euro drama comes finally to an happy ending and Germans decide to open their wallets for the nth time to save the currency, the Euro might suddenly increase its value compared to other currencies, therefor if you changed your saving into another currency you might loose money (i.e. US dollars looses value against the Euro)."


I don't think you need to be an economist to answer the bell though. Gates is filling his role in that he's not letting the powers at be back down from pledges.   From there though, it tends to get overly political and messy. From Gates's perspective it is probably black and white. Financial traders aren't doing much to engineer a better future directly, so why not tax them and make them contribute more to the world that Gates would like to see. It's not as if these guys are spending their weekends finding ways to get millions of mosquito nets and vaccines to people across the globe so why listen to their political dribble as to why they can't lose a penny on the dollar to create a better world?


No, it won't go on the front page because it uses bullshit math and reveals a deep lack of understanding of how the numbers are calculated. The unemployment rate is calculated from the Current Population Survey as well as the participation rate. To add to the unemployment rate of one month/survey by calculating the participation rate from a different month/survey is very problematic.  If you are looking to include those who have stopped looking for a job because of poor job prospects, you could try using the U5 unemployment estimate. The U5 number includes those who have recently stopped looking for a job. It only goes back a year for the respondents, but at least it is comparable because it is in the same month/survey.  The author also states that the U6 unemployment estimate should be 20% without explaining why it can be calculated like that. I don't think the participation rate can be used to suggest that the U6 is higher than it is when the U6 already takes into account a large percent of those that have stopped looking for economic reasons.


A few points to consider - Welcome to Money.SE. This is not a discussion board, but rather, a site to ask and answer personal finance questions that are factual in nature. Your question is great, in my opinion, but it's a question that has no answer, it's opinion-based. So I'm slipping this in to help you, and suggest you visit the site to see the great Q&A we've accumulated over the years.


"Month to date For the month to date (MTD), the price on Feb 28th is $4.58 and the price on March 16th is $4.61 so the return is which can be written more simply as The position is 1000 shares valued at $4580 on Feb 28th, so the profit on the month to date is Calendar year to date For the calendar year to date (YTD), the price on Dec 31st is $4.60 and the price on Feb 28th is $4.58 so the return to Feb 28th is The return from Feb 28th to March 16th is 0.655022 % so the year to date return is or more directly So the 2011 YTD profit on 1000 shares valued at $4600 on Dec 31st is Year to date starting Dec 10th For the year to date starting Dec 10th, the starting value is and the value on Dec 31st is 1000 * $4.60 = $4600 so the return is $4600 / $4510 - 1 = 0.0199557 = 1.99557 % The year to date profit is therefore Note - YTD is often understood to mean calendar year to date.  To cover all the bases state both, ie ""calendar YTD (2011)"" and ""YTD starting Dec 10th 2010"". Edit further to comment For the calendar year to date, with 200 shares sold on Jan 10th with the share price at $4.58, the return from Dec 31st to Jan 10th is The return from Jan 10th to Feb 28th is The return from Feb 28th to March 16th is The profit on 1000 shares from Dec 31st to Jan 10th is $4600 * -0.00434783 = -$20 The profit on 800 shares from Jan 10th to Feb 28th is zero. The profit on 800 shares from Feb 28th to March 16th is So the year to date profit is $4."


There are a few considerations: Purely Financial: If you think you can make more than 6% (adjusted downward for the tax benefits of home interest deductions) on that $150K then no. Otherwise yes.  Update: A good point was made in another answer, if the 401K is not a ROTH, the tax consequences of withdrawing a lump sum like that will probably tip the balance in most situations towards not paying off the house. Risk: Paying off a mortgage reduces your liquidity. That is, it is much harder to pull your money out of a house note than to sell off some stocks/funds/cds. Put simply, if you run into trouble and need a lot of money quickly would you rather have a paid off house or $150K in the bank/near-cash investments?


"Ultimately you are as stuck as all other investors with low returns which get taxed. However there are a few possible mitigations. You can put up to 15k p.a. into a ""normal"" ISA (either cash or stocks & shares, or a combination) if your target is to generate the depost over 5 years you should maximise the amount you put in an ISA. Then when you come to buy, you cash in that part needed to top up your other savings for a deposit - i.e. keep the rest in for long term savings. The help to buy ISA might be helpful, but yes there is a limit on the purchase price which in London will restrict you. Several banks are offering good interest on limited sums in current accounts - Santander is probably the best you can get 3% (taxed) on up to 20K - this is a good ""safe"" return. Just open a 123 Account, arrange to pay out a couple of DDs and pay in £500 a month (you can take the £500 straight out again). I think Lloyds and TSB also offer similar but on much smaller ammounts. Be warned this strategy taken to the limit will involve some complexity checking your various accounts each month. After that you will end up trading better returns for greater risk by using more volatile stock market investments rather than cash deposits."


This isn't exactly an answer, but I can not comment at the moment.  I have bought a house in NZ in the last year, being my first. There are a couple of things that you might need to watch out for with the First Home Subsidy (the $5000), especially the one that says that you have to live in the house that you buy for a certain amount of time otherwise you have to pay it back.  I also assume that you have been in Kiwisaver (the superannuation) for at least 5 years? You can only take $1000 for each year you have been in there up to $5000. You can take all of the Kiwisaver funds except what the Government has put in, so if you have $4000 from your employer, then you would probably have more in your contributions that you could use as well.  You don't have to have the 20% deposit to be able to buy a house, I went through a broker, and was able to get in with less. Not sure on the exact percentage. The 20% does help to get the bank to put some extra funds in for legal fees etc. My house wasn't an investment property, but I hope this helps.


"Answering this question is weird, because it is not really precise in what you mean. Do you want all stocks in the US? Do you want a selection of stocks according to parameters?  Do you just want a cool looking graph? However, your possible misuse of the word derivative piqued my interest. Your reference to  gold and silver seems to indicate that you do not know what a derivative actually is. Or what it would do in a portfolio.  The straightforward way to ""see"" an efficient frontier is to do the following. For a set of stocks (in this case six ""randomly"" selected ones):      library(quantmod)  library(fPortfolio)  library(PerformanceAnalytics)     getSymbols(c(""STZ"", ""RAI"", ""AMZN"", ""MSFT"", ""TWX"", ""RHT""), from = ""2012-06-01"", to = ""2017-06-01"")     returns <- NULL  tickerlist <- c(""STZ"", ""RAI"", ""AMZN"", ""MSFT"", ""TWX"", ""RHT"")  for (ticker in tickerlist){   returns <- cbind(returns, monthlyReturn(Ad(eval(as.symbol(ticker)))))  }  colnames(returns) <- tickerlist  returns <- as.timeSeries(returns)    frontier <- portfolioFrontier(returns)  png(""frontier.png"", width = 800, height = 600)  plot(frontier, which = ""all"")  dev.off()    minvariancePortfolio(returns, constraints = ""LongOnly"")    Portfolio Weights:    STZ    RAI   AMZN   MSFT    TWX    RHT   0.1140 0.3912 0.0000 0.1421 0.1476 0.2051     Covariance Risk Budgets:    STZ    RAI   AMZN   MSFT    TWX    RHT   0.1140 0.3912 0.0000 0.1421 0.1476 0.2051     Target Returns and Risks:   mean    Cov   CVaR    VaR   0.0232 0.0354 0.0455 0.0360    https://imgur.com/QIxDdEI  The minimum variance portfolio of these six assets has a mean return is 0.0232 and variance is 0.0360. AMZN does not get any weight in the portfolio.  It kind of means that the other assets span it and it does not provide any additional diversification benefit.   Let us add two ETFs that track gold and silver to the mix, and see how little difference it makes:    getSymbols(c(""GLD"", ""SLV""), from = ""2012-06-01"", to = ""2017-06-01"")    returns <- NULL  tickerlist <- c(""STZ"", ""RAI"", ""AMZN"", ""MSFT"", ""TWX"", ""RHT"", ""GLD"", ""SLV"")  for (ticker in tickerlist){   returns <- cbind(returns, monthlyReturn(Ad(eval(as.symbol(ticker)))))  }  colnames(returns) <- tickerlist  returns <- as.timeSeries(returns)   frontier <- portfolioFrontier(returns)    png(""weights.png"", width = 800, height = 600)  weightsPlot(frontier)  dev.off()    # Optimal weights  out <- minvariancePortfolio(returns, constraints = ""LongOnly"")  wghts <- getWeights(out)  portret1 <- returns%*%wghts  portret1 <- cbind(monthprc, portret1)[,3]  colnames(portret1) <- ""Optimal portfolio""    # Equal weights  wghts <- rep(1/8, 8)  portret2 <- returns%*%wghts  portret2 <- cbind(monthprc, portret2)[,3]  colnames(portret2) <- ""Equal weights portfolio""   png(""performance_both.png"", width = 800, height = 600)  par(mfrow=c(2,2))  chart.CumReturns(portret1, ylim = c(0, 2))  chart.CumReturns(portret2, ylim = c(0, 2))  chart.Drawdown(portret1, main = ""Drawdown"", ylim = c(-0.06, 0))  chart.Drawdown(portret2, main = ""Drawdown"", ylim = c(-0.06, 0))  dev.off()   https://imgur.com/sBHGz7s   Adding gold changes the minimum variance mean return to 0.0116 and the variance stays about the same 0.0332. You can see how the weights change at different return and variance profiles in the picture.  The takeaway is that adding gold decreases the return but does not do a lot for the risk of the portfolio.  You also notice that silver does not get included in the minimum variance efficient portfolio (and neither does AMZN).  https://imgur.com/rXPbXau  We can also compare the optimal weights to an equally weighted portfolio and see that the latter would have performed better but had much  larger drawdowns. Which is because it has a higher volatility, which might be undesirable.  ---  Everything below here is false, but illustrative.  So what about the derivative part? Let us assume you bought an out of the money call option with a strike of 50 on MSFT at the beginning of the  time series and held it to the end.  We need to decide on the the annualized cost-of-carry rate, the annualized rate of interest, the time to maturity is measured in years, the annualized  volatility of the underlying security is proxied by the historical volatility.   library(fOptions)   monthprc <- Ad(MSFT)[endpoints(MSFT, ""months"")]  T <- length(monthprc) # 60 months, 5 years  vol <- sd(returns$MSFT)*sqrt(12) # annualized volatility    optprc <- matrix(NA, 60, 1)  for (t in 1:60) {   s <- as.numeric(monthprc[t])   optval <- GBSOption(TypeFlag = ""c"", S = s, X = 50, Time = (T - t) / 12, r = 0.001, b = 0.001, sigma = vol)   optprc[t] <- optval@price  }    monthprc <- cbind(monthprc, optprc)  colnames(monthprc) <- c(""MSFT"", ""MSFTCall50"")    MSFTCall50rets <- monthlyReturn(monthprc[,2])  colnames(MSFTCall50rets) <- ""MSFTCall50rets""    returns <- merge(returns, MSFTCall50rets)    wghts <- rep(1/9, 9)    portret3 <- returns%*%wghts  portret3 <- cbind(monthprc, portret3)[,3]  colnames(portret3) <- ""Equal weights derivative portfolio""    png(""performance_deriv.png"", width = 800, height = 600)  par(mfrow=c(2,2))  chart.CumReturns(portret2, ylim = c(0, 4.5))  chart.CumReturns(portret3, ylim = c(0, 4.5))  chart.Drawdown(portret2, main = ""Drawdown"", ylim = c(-0.09, 0))  chart.Drawdown(portret3, main = ""Drawdown"", ylim = c(-0.09, 0))  dev.off()  https://imgur.com/SZ1xrYx   Even though we have a massively profitable instrument in the derivative. The portfolio analysis does not include it  because of the high volatility. However, if we just use equal weighting and essentially take a massive position in  the out of the money call (which would not be possible in real life), we get huge drawdowns and volatility, but  the returns are almost two fold. But nobody will sell you a five year call.  Others can correct any mistakes or misunderstandings in the above. It hopefully gives a starting point.  Read more at:   https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Modern_portfolio_theory https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Option_(finance)  The imgur album:  https://imgur.com/a/LoBEY"


Assuming that the jobs where you've earned money from have sent you W-2s, 1099s, etc. Then yes, you can request a Wage and Income Transcript: Shows data from information returns we receive such as Forms W-2,   1099, 1098 and Form 5498, IRA Contribution Information. Current tax   year information may not be complete until July. This transcript is   available for up to 10 prior years using Get Transcript Online or Form   4506-T.


"You cannot ""claim back"" VAT. What happens is that if you sell goods with VAT and charge customers VAT, you would have to send that VAT straight to HMRC, but if your business itself paid VAT, then you already paid VAT, so you have to send less.  As an example, if you send an invoice for £10,000 plus £2,000 VAT, and you paid yourself £500 VAT on business related expenses, then you need to send £2,000 - £500 = £1,500 to HMRC.  But if you don't send invoices including VAT, then you owe HMRC £0. Any VAT you paid on business related expenses is lost; HMRC won't pay you money.  BTW. Only VAT on business related expenses can be deducted. So if you want to be ""smart"", register for VAT and get the VAT on your weekly shopping bill refunded, forget it."


What is shocking to me are statements like this:  >Basically, the MID encourages affluent homeowners to buy more extravagant homes than they otherwise would.   No shit sherlock. When anyone is buying a home and they have $X/mo to spend, they factor in the deduction and conclude they can spend 10-30% more on a house, so they buy bigger or more expensive houses. Its like the authors of the law thought people would spend the same amount on a house regardless of the deduction rather than factor in the deduction into what they can afford.


They help fund road projects that would otherwise require an increase in the fuel tax. A large enough project, like a new limited access freeway, will cost hundreds of millions to construct. So they float some bonds that will be paid off with toll revenue. Lots of times after the bonds have been paid off the state has the options to remove the toll and put the road back  in the pool with all the other roads. Of course, governments very rarely voluntarily relinquish a revenue stream.  For example, here in Georgia we only have one toll road ([GA400](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Georgia_State_Route_400) in Atlanta) despite having 10 million residents. How do you justify increasing fuel taxes on residents hundreds of miles away on the coast for a transportation project that only benefits Atlanta commuters? You cannot thus tolls.


I'm not really sure why people still read zero hedge, they've been calling for a massive correction for like 5 years now.  I mean even a broken clock is right twice a day, but they've been broken for 5 years. You would think that would be enough for more people to start checking a phone instead.


Their headquarters are just north of Sioux City, Iowa, across the river in South Dakota.  They located there for tax reasons, same as Gateway Computers back in the 1990s.   Much of the area's wealth is located just across the river in South Dakota and starves Sioux City of the taxes it needs to serve the overall population. It's one of the quirks of being in a three-state metro area (source: this is my hometown).  I could tell you more about Beef Processing Inc (BPI) around here.  They're one of the biggest sources of wealth in the area, the owners are heavily involved in the charitable scene here, too.


That’s fair. If I weren’t so bad at math I’d have considered German universities or something like that. Americans also don’t generally leave the country. I think most people get into expensive schools thinking they’ll be set only to enter a saturated job market. At this point I regret not being a plumber.


"Another thing people forget is that you can only under perform the average (aka the index) if you try. For most things in life, the harder you try, the better you do. In investing, that is not true. You can lock in ""average"" by simply buying the index fund. If you try, but you don't work as hard as everybody else who is trying or if you are not as smart as everybody else who is trying, then you will be below average. If you try, and you do better research, you are intelligent, and most importantly more disciplined, you can beat the average. That is an awful lot of work to be a few percent above average. It's like a 100 man marathon race where you can choose to come in 50th place if you don't run, it definitely beats running 26 miles only to come in 70th place. Also, note the people who know they are not very skilled will choose to be non-participants. If you are in the top 30% percentile in skill, you'll get killed if 80% of the participants choose to sit out and you are competing with the top 20%. It becomes one of these funny game theory experiments where even if you know what your rank is, do you choose to sit out or not? (Or perhaps you will choose to participate when the shoe shine boy is giving out stock advice, and take the opposite side of the bet).  For most people, it doesn't make sense to try. It makes the most sense to lock in the average by putting money into index funds (stocks and bonds) over time. It certainly beats doing several hours of work a week and then getting below average. It only makes sense to try to beat the average if you are really excited about stocks (it is your job or it is your primary hobby) and you have enough capital where getting that extra +3% return over the average is significant (otherwise, just work more on your day job and you'll make more money through wages). I really cannot stress the last point enough, I know some people who are very smart and they do a lot of research on the market, and they get pretty good percentage returns. So you have to be cheap as hell or rich as hell before it makes sense to invest your own money. Otherwise, you'll spend 20-30 hours a week researching to make a few thousand dollars more than the index over a year (which consequently gets spent on celebratory drinking or something, so it never compounds). Not a wise way to spend your time."


No reason why you can't keep that business there, and expand in arizona, You just need to find employees willing to do the work, get some insurance, business processes down on paper etc... Think of it like a franchisee... they down own mcdonalds (just as an example) but they have a stable income with their investment...


Surely because higher education participation has increased there are a larger number of students with debt which means less demand for absurdly priced homes which means prices will drop to affordable levels.  But we can't talk about markets working normally when it comes to home prices which always remain high! Right?