"Disregarding the particular example and focusing on the actual questions: YES, definitely, the whole concept of ""pump and dump scheme"" refers to the many cases when this was intentionally done; Everything has a limit, but the limit can be quite high, especially if starting from a low value (a penny stock) and if the stock is low volume, then inflating ten or hundred times over a real value may be possible; and any value might be infinitely times overvalued for a company that turns out to have a value of zero. Yes, unless it's done very blatantly, you should expect that the ""inflator"" has much more experience in hiding the signs of inflation than the skill of average investor to notice them."


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My wife's uncle is a high quality Italian chef and constantly gets shat on for not having large enough portions.  His restaurant serves lamb and veal and generally good entrees.    People keep coming in expecting olive garden portions.   That's not the kind of place he tries to be.     He smokes his own duck for his pasta dish.    It's funny how people value a $2 bag of pasta for $17.


">""We are renting entire airplanes, Boeing 747s, to ship on time. Anything else, like shipping by sea, loses so much opportunity.""    It appears to be for freight. The premise of the article is that if they can get the hardware faster, thy can start mining faster, and the extra days are worth hiring an entire plane. I assume they are ordering a plane load worth of cargo to a time though."


"Time for a lawyer. Essentially, regardless of the situation ""it's not right"" for him to be paying the mortgage and only get half the value out of the equity in the house. All other things aside, no court I can think of would allow that. The ""could happens"" are many, but the most common include; Keep in mind that if he keeps paying the mortgage ling enough most courts will end up giving him ownership outright. Essentially, they will say he has already bought her out by paying her half of the debt.  Unfortunately, any way he goes he is going to need to take action. When there is a missed mortgage payment, a bad tax year, or some other legal issue (some one is injured on the property), the last thing he is going to want is for the courts to decide the issue for him. For example, John breaks an arm while climbing a tree on the property line. John takes the owners of the property to court. ""He"" says ""but my sister owns half"" and the courts decide then and there that because he's been paying the mortgage alone he owns the house alone. Seems like a win, except now he owns the liability alone, and owns John $1,000,000 for a silly lawsuit alone.  Point is this. Ownership of property comes with risks and responsibilities. ""He"" really needs to get those risks and responsibilities under control so he can mitigate them, or he could end up in a very nasty situation in the years to come."


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You are going off on some tangents here. Yes, I agree, doctors and economists have different jobs and those skills won't transfer over necessarily.   What I do disagree with is your claim economists simply can not grasp why American healthcare is so much more expensive. You gave a reason that has already been well studied and accounted for by economists. Having a patient die on a table I'm sure is very emotional. I don't believe it is necessary for someone to experience to properly research why American healthcare is so expensive.


"People often have the wrong idea about how taxes apply to their money.  There's not really any such thing as ""pre-tax"" or ""post-tax"" income, only pre-tax and post-tax **uses** of your income.  This is somewhat hidden by the fact that we pay income tax based on our income for the year; but if you look a bit closer, you'll notice that come April 15th, (almost) every dollar you get to *subtract* from your gross income isn't defined by where it comes from, but rather, where it *went* (there are a few special cases there, like qualified dividends, that that's an entirely different issue).  Perhaps the most clear example of this is a traditional IRA that you self-fund from your savings account on April 14th, for the prior tax year - You're putting dollars you've already taken home, into a pre-tax account, *after* the end of the calendar tax-year; and yet it all works out exactly the same (tax-liability wise - There's certainly an opportunity cost there) as if you had contributed those dollars via a weekly payroll deduction.  So when you manually fund a Roth IRA, it has *no* effect on your tax liability (except insofar as you *don't* get to deduct it from your taxable income, which you wouldn't if you had left it in a savings account, etiher).  In the year you earned that money, you paid taxes on it; when you take it out, you won't."


NL7 is right and his B-S reference, a good one.   Time decay happens to occur in a way that 2X the time gives an option 1.414X (the square root of 2) times the value, so half the time means about .707 of the value.  This valuation model should help the trader decide on exactly how far out to go for a given trade.


Bush tax cuts and similarly. We no longer believe that the wealthy have to play by the rules. We perpetuate this notion because too many believe they too will be captains of great wealth.   The wealthy in turn have invested in emerging markets like china or commodities like gold. Basically its being horded by the wealthy and banks.   In a fixed money system like monopoly what happens? Someone wins and gets all the money. With inflation at least they are making more money so that eventually a huge withdrawl of cash from the system is healed. Because Monopoly was meant to be a cautionary tale of oligarchy.


"You definitely do want to avoid losing money on repeated currency conversions.  Remember they are making a profit every time you change your currency. A money market fund is basically like a 'savings account' mutual fund.  They are open like mutual funds, in that you can buy or sell at any time.  There don't tend to be fees of any kind (directly) as all management is paid for out of the interest/returns that the fund generates. So using a money market fund to hold the ""cash"" portion of your TFSA or any other account for that matter would be a normal (and ""free"") thing to do. Good Luck"


> And a lot of them are similar bullshitters -- they wash each others backs basically.  So basically, you think they are all bullshiters and don't understand anything. So really, the idea of any of them understanding technology would be practically impossible.


On the Canadian side of it, there are a few people I've spoke to about this that are not happy about it either. Tim Horton's is a very Canadian brand, and some are upset about an American company moving in. This happened in the 90s with Wendy's and there was a big public backlash then, although there are still a few Tim Horton's/Wendy's combos to be found still.


"Feel free to educate man. Everything I can find says the same thing.  [Investopedia](http://www.investopedia.com/ask/answers/100314/what-are-key-factors-cause-market-go-and-down.asp)  >If there are a greater number of buyers than sellers (more demand), the buyers bid up the prices of the stocks to entice sellers to get rid of them. Conversely, a larger number of sellers bids down the price of stocks hoping to entice buyers to purchase.  Yes, if a company is performing well, you might find that more people want to buy then sale.  That would cause it to go up.  But if no one wants to buy, it doesn't matter how well the company is doing.  I mean really, how would that work?  Someone in the company notices they had more sales today then yesterday, email someone on wallstreet and they just mouse wheel the stock price up to something higher?  Say the stock is $1.00 right now.  But the lowest buy order is $.90.  and the highest sale order is $1.10.  (I guess there is some math there making is $1.)  As soon as someone says, yeah.  I'll sale at 90 cents, it'll go down.  If someone says yeah, I'll buy at $1.10 it'll go up.    I'm sure there is more to it than that.  But everything I can find.  It 100% has to have people more people wanting to buy then sale for it to go up.  If more want to sale then buy, it'll go down.   But hey, if this is way off base.  Go ahead and fill me in.  I'm open to CMV.  This was all found after a short amount of time researching [""What makes stock prices go up?""](https://www.google.com/search?q=What+makes+stock+prices+go+up%3F&oq=What+makes+stock+prices+go+up%3F&gs_l=psy-ab.3..0i71k1l4.43421.43421.0.43882.0.0.0.0.0.0.0.0..0.0....0...1.1.64.psy-ab..0.0.0....0.6Crfejzb3XY)"


In my experience earning interest is not enough to keep the account in a non-dormant state. If payment of interest was the trigger to reset the clock then no savings account would ever be considered dormant. In general as the account got close to the deadline we were notified that a single transaction moving money into or out of the account would reset the clock. I have had this happen in recent years with a bank account and a credit union account.  In researching for the exact definition of a dormant account I found this regarding interest on the FDIC website: That means that the state law may set the definition, it also means that you should look at the information regarding the bank policy. I did try and see if the rules for a credit union are the same. The added twist with a credit union is that if the account is closed, they are no longer a share holder and that brings into the discussion voting rights. So the policy/guidelines is even more complex. If the account does go inactive state law will define what happens to the account, and how you can get the funds back.


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I watched FRAN drop 50% when their CEO resigned a year or so ago. From 20 a share to 10. Took a year to fully recover and then slid to below 10. Of course they are getting slaughtered with the rest of retail.


"> The father-son team ultimately lost more than $140 million.  > If the plea agreements are accepted by a judge, the two could face between two and five years in prison.  If I punched a man in the face with brass knuckles and robbed him, I would surely get more then 2-5 years.  These assholes scammed folks out of 140M+ and they get 2-5 years.  As my ole law professor said ""how much justice can you afford?"""


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>As much as I think that shouldn't be necessary  Feel free to take that argument up with biochemistry.  >I also find it hard to consider the possibility a bad thing.  Disregarding potential negative side effects, how on earth would it be a bad thing?


"The point is that you need to figure out when a ""business expense"" is actually just a personal purchase. Otherwise you could very easily just start a business and mark all of your personal purchases as business expenses, so you never have to pay income taxes because you're handling all of your money through the untaxed corporation."


My attempt to convey the shorthand report notes on file:    >...bipartisan opposition at the capitol to the GOP health care bill. All three members of Vermont's congressional delegation joining the Republican Governor, and Republican and Democratic leaders of the state house and senate, all joining forces here to attack this new GOP bill...  It would send the budget into deficit or throw 51,000 Vermonters off health care completely.      >The proposed deductions in Medicaid would leave our state with a budget deficit because  [we can't] absorb without cutting health services for the people who deserve it the most or significantly raising taxes... If you have heart disease, or get cancer, and are suddenly thrown off of health insurance... it is immoral, it's not acceptable.    >Now it is rare to see leaders from all three parties speak out so forcefully here. Governor Scott, in particular, pleading with the Senate to slowdown, take a breath and draft something acceptable to both parties. He is back from a weekend in which he met with his fellow Republican governors, and said that many of the fellow GOP leaders feel as he does. Even conservative... minority leader Donald Turner, who supports health care reform said the Senate GOP repeal bill is not the answer. Some leaders saying the Medicaid cuts could force a number of our small rural hospitals to close.


"A company's valuation includes its assets, in addition to projected earnings. Aside from the obvious issue that ""projected earnings"" can be wildly inaccurate or speculative (as in the case of startups and fast-moving industries like technology), a company's assets are not necessarily tied to the market the company is in. For the sake of illustration, say the government were to ban fast food tomorrow, and the market for that were to go all the way to zero.  McDonald's would still have almost 30 billion dollars worth of real estate holdings that would surely make the company worth something, even though it would have to stop selling its products. Similarly, Apple is sitting on approximately $200 billion dollars in cash and securities in overseas subsidiaries.  Even if they never make another cent selling iPhones and such, the company is still worth a lot because of those holdings. ""Corporate raiders"" back in the 70's and 80's made massive personal fortunes exploiting this disconnect in undervalued companies that had more assets than their market cap, by getting enough ownership to liquidate the company's assets.  Oliver Stone even made a movie about the phenomenon. So yes, it's certainly possible for a company to be worth more than the size of the market for its products."


The key is measuring.  Like any project you need to evaluate a baseline, make a change, then re-evaluate.  Otherwise you are blindly spending money to save, or worse, being manipulated by advertising.   Like Chris W. Rea said before me, using a tool like a Kill-A-Watt to measure the effectiveness of what you are about to do is the most important step.  For example, if you have an incandescent light bulb in a back part of your basement that you never turn on, it doesn't make much sense to replace that bulb with a $9 LED to save money.  If you have an empty freezer in your basement, turn that thing off.  Measure your power usage, then you can know for sure what is the most effective action. If you have a family like mine, the best of intentions still leave lights on all day or tvs on a screensaver all night.  Invest in simple automation like motion sensing outlets or light switches to automatically turn off power.  (It is my full time job to go around a turn off lights, and I want to retire)  The biggest payback that I know of is insulation and caulking of your home to make the energy you do use more efficient.  If you don't have enough insulation, that is a great place to start.  Here is a calculator to estimate the payback of adding insulation. The US government has a cool website with a bunch of tips for saving energy.


That however does not change the fact that there are times and always will be where filtering on philosophy is in fact the right thing to do for the business and exactly what they'll do, whether they admit to it or not.


If you were looking to maximize your ability to save in a qualified plan, why not setup a 401K plan in Company A and keep the SEP in B? Setup the 401K in A such that any employee can contribute 100% of their salary.  Then take a salary for around 19K/year (assuming under age 50), so you can contribute and have enough to cover SS taxes.   Then continue to move dividends to Company A, and continue the SEP in B.  This way if you are below age 50, you can contribute 54K (SEP limit) + 18K (IRA limit) + 5500 (ROTH income dependent) to a qualified plan.


>Bush  It didn't come out the banks committed fraud under Bush tho.  Nor did it come out about the whole sub prime loan mess either.    >they were trying every trick in the book in order to try and reinstil confidence in the stock market and US financial system in order to convince people to start lending money again and break the country out of a deflationary liquidity cycle  I know, but that doesn't mean they couldn't have gone after the banks tho at the same time.  One could argue tho that going after the banks and throwing the crooks in jail would also help install public confidence in the economy as those guys where no longer running things.  >Today, even if Sears going boom tumbled a bunch of other commercial real estate firms and retail stores, it wouldn't suddenly make the banks insolvent in the short run.  Totally missed the point here.  Its much more has to do with who is president than anything else.  Trump is gutting the government as much has possible to make it as ineffective as possible.  He's going to give a pass on Eddie here.


Borrowing money from the Federal Reserve (or other central banks) requires full collateral, generally in terms of treasury bonds. In that sense it is only a source of liquidity - getting short term money by pledging guaranteed future cash flows, not random commercial loans. To get a dollar from FR today requires freezing a dollar that you already had. Private deposits, on the other hand, require only a keeping a fraction of them as reserves, so you can use the rest of the money for new loans.


Bingo. And remember, hedge funds are for a specific kind of investor (UHNW, institutional) as a *hedge* against when things go bad.   I won't argue against the fees being exorbitant. And I certainly think that the explosion of funds has led to a lot more people just trying to beat the market (instead of providing a differentiated strategy).   HFs will always get slammed in times like this because of what they charge. But any of the good ones (at least on the equities side) are always likely to struggle to beat the benchmark when the benchmark is a roaring bull. Some judgement really should be reserved for times of distress


You can actually hold cash in your account as long as the manager has reason to believe it is awaiting investment. As for your question, some near cash equivalents are: It's difficult to go into more detail about which investments are eligible due to the variety of risk characteristics, but you can certainly find investment opportunities in the assets mentioned above. A good money manager can advise you better since he'll have an idea of their risk characteristics as well as tax status.


You would need to setup a company (even if it's just a sole proprietorship, in the US) to be able to apply for a true merchant account.  And thus have a terminal; either real or virtual in your home or business. However, many services such as paypal allow you to accept credit cards (both online and with a card reader) and when the customer is billed it appears as paypal + your account name.  So you essentially have the benefits of a merchant account, without having to set one up.


**Democracy Index**  The Democracy Index is an index compiled by the UK-based Economist Intelligence Unit that measures the state of democracy in 167 countries, of which 166 are sovereign states and 165 are UN member states. The index was first produced in 2006, with updates for 2008, 2010 and the following years since then. The index is based on 60 indicators grouped in five different categories measuring pluralism, civil liberties, and political culture. In addition to a numeric score and a ranking, the index categorizes countries as one of four regime types: full democracies, flawed democracies, hybrid regimes and authoritarian regimes.  ***  ^[ [^PM](https://www.reddit.com/message/compose?to=kittens_from_space) ^| [^Exclude ^me](https://reddit.com/message/compose?to=WikiTextBot&message=Excludeme&subject=Excludeme) ^| [^Exclude ^from ^subreddit](https://np.reddit.com/r/economy/about/banned) ^| [^FAQ ^/ ^Information](https://np.reddit.com/r/WikiTextBot/wiki/index) ^| [^Source](https://github.com/kittenswolf/WikiTextBot/)   ^] ^Downvote ^to ^remove ^| ^v0.22


See I believe that it's pretty in the open. A shell company whose only purpose is to license out some intellectual property to an affiliate company should be easy to spot. A company with 5 employees and a tiny office should not be claiming millions of income that originated in an affiliate company. My point is that these things are not clearly defined in the code and should be, not that they are necessarily being hidden. I've seen at least 5 articles in the last year similar to this one about other large companies, so I wish congress and whoever else would do something about it.


Don't switch just because you hear people panicking on the talk shows. Banks are competitive business and won't start charging for using debit cards too fast. If and when they decide to do such a thing after all - then start shopping and see who doesn't catch up with the fees and still provides the services you want for the price you're willing to pay.


">We are talking about the SEC conference, right? A bachelor's degree, right? Four years of that is $25K-$50K (depending) just in tuition, and it completely ignores books, or inflated housing, or opportunity cost. So WTF are you on? Less than 10K? Do you mean annually??  50k? For fucking who? Vandy? Everyone else is <20 in state, max, before scholarships. They're cheap as hell, and COLA is cheap as hell in most of the college towns.  Keep saying finance ""pays worse than trades."" Fucking idiotic.  I graduated a while ago. Been in finance and consulting, know the market well. All of your ideas about the field are **embarassingly wrong.**"


130k in LA?  That's not life-changing or anything.  Do the usual: save money, buy used cars, cheapest rent you can live with, etc.  If it was me, I'd be researching the local housing market.  Save cash until you find a deal you like.  Work the numbers, do your homework.  You're the finance guy - you should know what a good deal looks like.


I think you got the message mixed up a little: Racking up big balances can hurt your scores, regardless of whether you pay your bills in full each month.   What's typically reported to the credit bureaus, and thus calculated into your scores, are the balances reported on your last statements. (That doesn't mean paying off your balances each month isn't financially smart -- it is -- just that the credit scores don't care.)   You typically can increase your scores by limiting your charges to 30% or less of a card's limit. -- from 7 Ways to Fix Your Credit Score In other words, ALWAYS pay off your balance if you can. But don't fill up your card to the max of your credit limit each month. i.e. if your credit limit is $5000, only spend $2000 each month.


Ok what part of this conversation would have you believe that I would be ok with any theft funded endeavor? Khan Academy is already a viable replacement that is not funded by theft. There are also many other's like it. The ends do not justify the means. Institutionalized theft is wrong no matter what the excuse you think justifies it.


"As ChrisInEdmonton describes, shorting has an asymmetric risk/reward ratio. And put options have a time cost, if you think the market is overvalued and buy lots of puts, but they expire before the market finally corrects, you can lose your entire investment.  Betting on market timing of any kind is extremely difficult to do, some would argue it's impossible. ""The market can remain irrational longer than you can remain solvent"" is a favorite wall street trader saying. Instead of playing a game that's difficult to win, the better option is to play one you can win. That's to learn how to value individual investments well and accumulate cash until you can find investments that are under-valued to invest in. The best way to learn to value investments is to read Graham and Buffett. ""The Intelligent Investor"" is a good starting point, and you can read all of Buffett's investor letters for the last 30 years + for free on the Berkshire Hathaway web site. Finally the textbook on valuing stocks and other investments is ""Securities Analysis"" the 6th edition is only version to get, it was updated with Buffett and other leading value investors oversight. A basic overview of valuing investments is that every investment has an ""intrinsic value"" consisting of it's future cash flows, discounted for the time it takes to receive them. The skill is being able to estimate how likely those cash flows are to happen. a) Is it a good business? Does it have a moat, i.e. barriers that make it hard for competitors to duplicate it? b) Will management invest or distribute those cash flows wisely? Then your strategy is to not even worry about the market, spend your time looking at individual stocks and investments and wait until some come along that's well undervalued. That may be during a market correction, or it may be tomorrow. And it's not just good enough to intelligently value your investments, you also have to have psychological fortitude to not panic and to think for yourself. Buffett describes it best. Ben Graham, my friend and teacher, long ago described the mental attitude toward market fluctuations that I believe to be most conducive to investment success. He said that you should imagine market quotations as coming from a remarkably accommodating fellow named Mr. Market who is your partner in a private business. Without fail, Mr. Market appears daily and names a price at which he will either buy your interest or sell you his. Even though the business that the two of you own may have economic characteristics that are stable, Mr. Market’s quotations will be anything but. For, sad to say, the poor fellow has incurable emotional problems. At times he feels euphoric and can see only the favorable factors affecting the business. When in that mood, he names a very high buy-sell price because he fears that you will snap up his interest and rob him of imminent gains. At other times he is depressed and can see nothing but trouble ahead for both the business and the world. On these occasions he will name a very low price, since he is terrified that you will unload your interest on him. Mr. Market has another endearing characteristic: He doesn’t mind being ignored. If his quotation is uninteresting to you today, he will be back with a new one tomorrow. Transactions are strictly at your option. Under these conditions, the more manic-depressive his behavior, the better for you. But, like Cinderella at the ball, you must heed one warning or everything will turn into pumpkins and mice: Mr. Market is there to serve you, not to guide you. It is his pocketbook, not his wisdom, that you will find useful. If he shows up some day in a particularly foolish mood, you are free to ignore him or to take advantage of him, but it will be disastrous if you fall under his influence. Indeed, if you aren’t certain that you understand and can value your business far better than Mr. Market, you don’t belong in the game. Lastly learning to value investments isn't just useful in the stock market, they are applicable to investing in any investment such as bonds, real estate, and even buying your home or running a business."


"Mint is one alternative. If you want the raw data in CSV format, you can use ""Export"" feature under"


"We need to fix this sub. Bots and spam are ruining it.  Why are there no mods doing anything?  Between /u/PostNationalism and /u/PhocionPubliusHam they have over half of all of the posts on the front page of this sub.  This is straight propaganda. /u/PhocionPubliusHam is a freaking bot that keeps posting anti-trump threads. Regardless of what you think about the president, this isn't what this sub is about.  Take a look, the ""user"" /u/PhocionPubliusHam (It) has over 7,000 karma and 0 comment karma. They don't even try to hide that is a bot just spamming!  It has posted over 500 different threads in the 2 months it has been active, without making a single comment. Take a look at what all the threads are about, I'm sure you will be shocked. its probably a bot for /u/postnationalism as he is another anti-trump spammer.  What are the other moderators going to do about this?  I'm getting really sick and tired of this and it is becoming more and more blatant every day by MANY USERS."


It is important to get the best compatible Vacuum Pump Oil, if use the vacuum pump. At VacOil, you can find a wide range of pump oils which can fulfill the vacuum cleaning needs with absolute ease and can maximize the durability of the vacuum pump. Available at varied price points, these are pretty affordable to have.


I wrote about this a while back: http://blog.investraction.com/2006/10/mutual-funds-dividend-option-or-growth.html In short: Growth options of a mutual fund scheme don't pay out any money, they reinvest the dividend they receive. Dividend options pay out some money, at different intervals, based on the surplus they accumulate. In India, the options have very similar underlying portfolios, so HDFC Equity Fund (Growth) and HDFC Equity Fund (dividend) will have the same percentage allocation to each stock. Update: I also have a video you might want to see on the subject: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Bx8QtnccfZk


The trickiest thing is the federal tax. It's typical to withhold 25% federal on this type of event. If your federal marginal rate was already towards the top of that bracket, you'll owe the missing 3% as you enter the 28% bracket. Nothing awful, just be aware.


Don't over think about your choices. The most important thing to start now and keep adjusting and tuning your portfolio as you move along in your life. Each individual's situation is unique. Start with something simple and straight forward, like 100 - your age, in Total Stock market Index fund and the remaining total bond market index fund. For your 401k, at least contribute so much as to get the maximum employer match. Its always good if you can contribute the yearly maximum in your 401k or IRA. Once you have built up a substantial amount of assets (~ $50k+) then its time to think more about asset allocation and start buying into more specific investments as needed. Remember to keep your investment expenses low by using index funds. Also remember to factor in tax implications on your investment decisions. eg. buying an REIT fund in a tax advantaged account like 40k is more tax efficient than buying it in a normal brokerage account.


Not necessarily. If you have a family you may be less likely to leave your job because you depend on the income a lot more than if you were single or without kids. When you are responsible for the well being of others you will think twice before quitting your job or slacking off.


Google already owns 8% of Uber and would make sense to cover basis.   Google is sitting on $90b with less than $4b debt.  Wanted to provide a source but this is old and indicates 7% but it is 8%.   Best I can do on MOBILE;).  https://www.quora.com/What-percentage-of-Uber-does-Google-own


Don't do business with someone who is screwing you, and if you do business with someone who is screwing you, don't try to force someone else to come in and make them stop screwing you. Just don't do business with them.   It's super simple, but people will make a trillion excuses about it.


So, you agree that there *is* a slope, already, and that as a society we're still capable of negotiating it?  Does this mean that you'd also agree that if there was sufficient evidence that hate mongering was resulting in demonstrable harm, you'd agree that it belongs in the same category?


"I don't understand why he couldn't just log onto his account online, see the ""current balance"" and pay that?   I've got 4-5 credit cards (2 of them are Chase) and they *ALL* have an online portal which will show you a daily-calculated ""current balance"" right on your screen... you can then enter in your checking account and transfer over that amount to pay the whole thing off virtually instantly.   Does Chase continue to charge interest even after the balance goes to $0?"


"If you're losing money or breaking even, you own a bad investment.  The problem you have is that you are emotionally invested in your tenant. That isn't a bad thing in general but it's costing you money and, unless interest rates fall enough to justify a refi or property taxes go down in your area, that's kind of unlikely to change.  Option #1 - Tell your wife that you are willing to accept a loss up to a certain level because of your long term relationship with your tenant. In a perfect world, the two of you would then discuss what the ""magic number"" would be where you got out and come to a compromise. For example, if you are comfortable losing up to $3,000 per year and she is unhappy with any loss, you may agree on selling the house when your losses climb to $1,500. In a less perfect world, it would cause an argument as she has already told you what she wants you to do.  Option #2 - Raise the rent to the break even point. From what you've said, this will likely result in the loss of your tenant but you could then rent to someone else for significantly more.  Option #3 - Sell the house. It's an investment property which means it's supposed to make money for you. It can do that very quickly by way of a sale and then it's no longer your problem. Option #4 - Sell the house to your tenant. You bought it for $50,000 and it's currently worth $150,000 (roughly). The problem you face is that property taxes have gone up and caused your mortgage to increase past your tenants ability to pay. My guess is, after 15 years, your payoff is somewhere in the high $20's to mid 30's assuming you got a 30 year loan and haven't refinanced. If you sell to her for say $75,000 (or even up to $90,000) you will still make a profit (wife is happy), she will get a mortgage she can afford and be able to stay in the house (you and the tenant are happy). Added bonus is that her property taxes would be lower (assuming a different rate for investment property in your area). I would discuss this at length with your wife as well before making such an offer.  Option #5 - Get a property management company. As mentioned above, they will keep a percentage but will remove your emotions from the equation altogether and turn the situation into a winner.  I don't know if your wife is right in saying you don't have the stomach for this, but I do think your heart is getting in the way in this particular situation. I get the feeling that if your tenant was 25 years old and had only been renting from you since last October, you would have no problem raising the rent to market levels at every renewal."


Interest rates can't remain this low. It's like having extremely low blood pressure. When you raise the rates, banks are incented to loan money and that movement of capital is good for the economy. It forces us to become savers instead of spenders, and our pensions, 401ks, social security are all getting killed by not being able to use debt to get safer stable returns.  Interest rates have to come back up.


Yes, and heres some pretty scary stats.  Global debt went from about 200% of GPD in 2007 to 325% of GDP today.  Global Debt is about 2.5x more than the value of global broad money (all the money in the world).  The value of the derivatives market has increased to 6x the value of all global debt.  Meaning a global market of packaging and trading debt exists that is 6x the value of the debt being traded, and 15x the value of all the money in the world.


big banks are not the only Big Money out there.  In fact, big banks have way more oversight than most other businesses.  Everyone uses banks for most things.  It's kind of hard NOT to these days.  But banks are built to handle money.  That's what they do!  Of COURSE banks are almost always involved in everything that requires money.  I don't understand why you brought this up at all.  It doesn't really support your point, and has little to do with my point.


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I will no longer buy phones. I will in future buy mobile computers that have the ability to make phone calls and send text messages.  My bet is that there are a lot of people who think like that. Any company that doesn't realize this will be in serious trouble.


">I have worked in civil engineering for 20 years  O shit, you must be an expert on all things that have anything to do with infrastructure. ""Civil engineering"" is so fucking broad that you having 20 years experience ""in"" it means pretty much nothing. Additionally, who knows what you actually do in civil engineering. You could be a fucking secretary for all we both know.  >what you describe would turn American sprawl into SE Asian slums over night.  What exactly is it that I described? I didn't really give many particulars about anything yet you jump to an over-exaggeration and a piss poor argument.  > India has more zoning laws than the US including a whole crap load of religious ones  Source? Additionally, not all laws are created equal, but you should know that.  Now, please kindly fuck off."


Not really.  Most people, when left to their own devices (and when they know they can get away with it), will not get very much work done.  This is why bosses and managers were a necessity in the first place.  It's also why 99% of the population can't handle running their own business: they have no self discipline.


The problem with commodities is that they don't produce income. With a stock or bond, even if you never sold it to anyone or it wasn't publicly traded, you know you can collect the money the company makes or collect interest. That's a quantifiable income from the security. By computing the present value of that income (cf. http://blog.ometer.com/2007/08/26/money-math/) you can have at least a rough sense of the value of the stock or bond investment. Commodities, on the other hand, eat income (insurance and storage). Their value comes from their practical uses e.g. in manufacturing (which eventually results in income for someone); and from psychological factors. The psychological factors are inherently unpredictable. Demand due to practical uses should keep up with inflation, since in principle the prices on whatever products you make from the commodity would keep up with inflation. But even here there's a danger, because it may be that over time some popular uses for a given commodity become obsolete. For example this commodity used to be a bigger deal than now, I guess: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Frankincense. The reverse is also possible, that new uses for a commodity drive up demand and prices.  To the extent that metals such as silver and gold bounce around wildly (much more so than inflation), I find it hard to believe the bouncing is mostly due to changes in uses of the metals. It seems far more likely that it's due to psychological factors and momentum traders. To me this makes metals a speculative investment, and identifying a bubble in metals is even harder than identifying one in income-producing assets that can more easily be valued. To identify a bubble you have to figure out what will go on in the minds of a horde of other people, and when. It seems safest for individual investors to just assume commodities are always in a bubble and stay away. The one arguable reason to own commodities is to treat them as a random bouncing number, which may enhance returns (as long as you rebalance) even if on average commodities don't make money over inflation. This is what people are saying when they suggest owning a small slice of commodities as part of an asset allocation. If you do this you have to be careful not to expect to make money on the commodities themselves, i.e. they are just something to sell some of (rebalance out of) whenever they've happened to go up a lot.


The College Board offers a calculator.  (Targeted to US residents; not sure how the figures will differ for Canada and other countries.)  Keep in mind that college costs typically increase faster than inflation.  When I attended in 2001-2005, my college's tuition costs increases ranged from 4 to 6%.


I buy or sell a few shares whenever I have a small amount of money to transfer into out of my mutual funds. Since I'm not paying transaction fees, there is no reason not to, when that is what makes sense. If you are paying a fee for each transaction, of course it makes sense to try to wait until you have a larger amount to move so the overhead per share is lower.


"I'd argue that a significant amount of young people, even the majority, are fiscally conservative.....however they align with Democrats because they don't want to associate themselves with the social bigotry and intolerance of the GOP (and Tea Party).  If only we could have a fiscally conservative party that just let people do what they wanted to do with their personal lives.....well, we do, but obviously libertarians aren't ""electable""  EDIT: I'm amazed that the fed spends 7 times more on people over 65 than children.  Wow."


Most of the time, your tax only reduces by the current marginal rate - meaning you would only reduce your tax by 28% to 25% depending on which part of the bracket you're in. However, in the area around 100k, there are cases where reductions will have more of a marginal effect than that.  You'll never reduce it more than 100%, but you can reduce it by 35-40% despite being in the 25% bracket. That is because of certain deductions and credits which phase out beginning around 80k-120k; things like the IRA deduction, the Child Tax Credit, Childcare Tax Credit, and similar.  Since many of them phase out in this range, additional dollars cost you your marginal rate (25%) plus the percentage of the credits or deductions which phase out here, which might bring you up another 10% or so.


For most business purposes, Gmail/ Outlook should suffice. Just make sure your username sounds professional enough.   Try and stick to FirstName+LastName @ Gmail/Outlook dot com, if that's available. You could also get yourself NameOfYourBusiness @ Gmail/ Outlook dot com  If you want to come across as a well established business, and only if you've some cash to spare every year, getting yourself a domain name would be a good idea. But, if your business/ services aren't too popular, yet; I'd suggest you defer that expense.


I disagree and thankfully so does basic economics. If a business that is not successful shutters, then the needs that that business was fulfilling will be provided by a new business. The market usually finds a way.  And no one is suggesting that random, arbitrary minimum wage increases are wise, simply that it makes no sense to have a minimum wage that doesn't mandate a livable salary.


"This is the best tl;dr I could make, [original](http://www.reuters.com/article/us-venezuela-politics-idUSKBN1A20BR) reduced by 79%. (I'm a bot) ***** > Now, opposition leaders are promising &quot;Zero Hour&quot; in Venezuela to demand a general election and stop the leftist Maduro&#039;s plan to create a controversial new legislative super-body called a Constituent Assembly in a July 30 vote.  > In three questions at Sunday&#039;s event, opposition supporters voted overwhelmingly - by 98 percent - to reject the proposed new assembly, urge the military to defend the existing constitution, and support elections before Maduro&#039;s term ends, according to academics monitoring the vote for the opposition.  > Sunday&#039;s nearly 7.2 million participation compared with 7.7 million opposition votes in the 2015 legislative elections that it won by a landslide and 7.3 million votes for the opposition in a 2013 presidential poll narrowly won by Maduro.   ***** [**Extended Summary**](http://np.reddit.com/r/autotldr/comments/6o5y1b/the_trump_administration_is_preparing_sanctions/) | [FAQ](http://np.reddit.com/r/autotldr/comments/31b9fm/faq_autotldr_bot/ ""Version 1.65, ~170171 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*: **opposition**^#1 **vote**^#2 **Maduro**^#3 **election**^#4 **Sunday**^#5"


You don't mention where you live, but in the US, zoning laws, building codes, and insurance rules, would make this difficult if not impossible. People do convert shipping containers into housing, but they have to be modified to conform with local rules for habitability. This makes them more expensive then say, a trailer or a mobile home.


"Last week someone actually did the ""You know the difference between involvement and commitment? It's like breakfast - the chicken is involved and the pig is committed.""  I said (yes, out loud) ""Who *really* wants to be the pig in this scenario?"""


Especially now nowadays. A solid 40% of my graduating class is either unemployed or underemployed. We're happy to get whatever we can that pays a half-decent wage and will work damned hard to keep it because we know there are literally thousands of other equally talented people willing to do our jobs.


And then, in a few years, Tim Hortons will buy out Burger King, just like it did when Wendy's owned it.  It's like that movie *Demolition Man* - only instead of all the restaurants being Taco Bell, they'll be Timmies.  I hope hat means they'll improve their coffee.


Yeah let's see how many stores they have open in 2020. $11-15 an hour retail jobs are only going to accelerate what online retailers are doing to their bottom line now. They can't afford to make lower profits AND sell less product.


The idea behind a Roth IRA is taxes will go up in the future so you are best off paying less in taxes now than in the future, which is why Roth IRAs are contributed to with post-tax dollars whereas traditional IRAs are contributed to with pre-tax dollars. The theoritical advantage comes when you want to withdrawal your money. With the traditional IRA, when you withdrawal money, you pay ordinary income tax on all withdrawals. With a Roth IRA, all withdrawals (after the age of 59 1/2) are tax free, including any gains you may have made. To illistrate, with a very simple example, assume you make $50,000 and your IRA grows at 5% for 40 years. Traditional IRA - $5,000 Roth IRA - $3,750 ($5,000 after taxes) Traditional IRA - $604,000 Roth IRA - $453,000 Traditional IRA - $604,000 / 15 = $40,266 * 75% (25% tax) = $30,200 / year Roth IRA - $453,000 / 15 = $30,200/ year First, this was not a contrived example and I was surprised the numbers worked out this way. Second, as you can see with this example there is really no advantage either way unless you by into the theory of higher taxes in the future.


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You linked to an article about 1 QUARTER in 2010 -  >If companies pay their employees more for the same amount of output it will just drive up the cost of goods leaving us with the same shitty demand.  >Also, how do you figure this?  I figure this because it is the simplest economics. The cost of goods sold is based on 3 things  1 - raw materials 2 Labor, including associated costs such as payroll taxes and benefits, and 3 - overhead  If #2 is increased with NO INCREASE IN OUTPUT the cost of those goods is going up.


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Certainly, paying off the mortgage is better than doing nothing with the money. But it gets interesting when you consider keeping the mortgage and investing the money. If the mortgage rate is 5% and you expect >5% returns from stocks or some other investment, then it might make sense to seek those higher returns. If you expect the same 5% return from stocks, keeping the mortgage and investing the money can still be more tax-efficient. Assuming a marginal tax rate of 30%, the real cost of mortgage interest (in terms of post-tax money) is 3.5%*. If your investment results in long-term capital gains taxed at 15%, the real rate of growth of your post-tax money would be 4.25%. So in post-tax terms, your rate of gain is greater than your rate of loss. On the other hand, paying off the mortgage is safer than investing borrowed money, so doing so might be more appropriate for the risk-averse. * I'm oversimplifying a bit by assuming the deduction doesn't change your marginal tax rate.


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As I stated in my comment on @JCotton's answer, the only way you benefit by putting your money in an IRA or other tax-deferred vehicle is if you expect to have a lower tax rate when you withdraw than when you put the money in.  If you look at @JCotton's numbers and remember to pay taxes when you withdraw the money in 30 years, you will see that both situations - paying taxes now or 30 years from now - give you the exact same dollar amount if the tax rates are the same at both points in time.  So if you put money in an IRA, you're betting on the fact that the government will not substantially raise interest rates by then, and/or that you will be in a lower tax bracket. To me, the only valid reasons to invest in an IRA or 401K are the following: However, you should also consider the major downside that the money is locked away and, at best, inconvenient to access when you need it.  At worst, you have to pay taxes and penalties if you ever withdraw that money.  If you are a financially responsible person, I think you're generally better off keeping your money outside of an IRA or 401K, with the exception of making sure to get all of your employer's matching contributions.


It's her car.  Unlike what Ross said in the comments she can't sign it over to you--she doesn't own it yet.  The best you'll be able to do is have her leave it to you in her will--but beware that you very well might need to refinance the loan at that point.


"You're probably best off going to a different store to fix the computer. Right now you don't have ""damages.""  You could sue him but, there's no thing to sue for.  If you sue for your original costs, you'd have to return the computer and probably only receive a portion of your original costs, less court filing fees. If you have someone else fix your computer you can sue him for the cost to fix your computer.  You'll take him to small claims court, win or lose you probably won't get anything from him.  If you win, you'll have a piece of paper (judgement) that says, ""Yep, that guy owes you money"" if you lose you won't even have that. You could report him to the BBB or some other business agency but that doesn't help you fix the computer."


"Eh, that doesn't really make for healthy negotiations. Consider the converse argument: ""a candidate should put their acceptable salary range on their resume."" Every hiring manager is going to offer you your lowest acceptable salary. You might have gotten more money had you not freely offered that information."


I thought windows 8 RT tablets were shifty too, especially when I was selling them, but then I got one. The Nokia 2520, and I couldn't be happier. Windows 8RT is for users who want a tablet to use as a tablet. Full Windows 8 tablets are tablets that replace laptops.


Looks like over 50% of the population owns stock that isn't uber rich. Having some money doesn't make you a bad guy or less deserving of earning money on stock. What exactly is the problem? It benefits the stock holders who are normal people  Broke people don't own stock.


> You can't be both down on patents and vigorously defending your own dubious patent.  I disagree.  You could argue that Bezos is lying about wanting to change the patent system, but I see no contradiction with his statement.  Besides, if Amazon stopped enforcing their patents, the system would be unaffected.  Their goal here is to change the system.


>Fed Up was pretty great. Also Sugar Coated is one of my favorite food docs ever.  Yeah, except while sugar is not great (particularly for teeth), it's alone isn't responsible for the health decline of the western population.  You can take out sample of body fat from people and through lab work tell where it came from, and it's overwhelmingly not through carbohydrates but from dietary fat (whethery animal or plant).


You report each position separately. You do this on form 8949. 7 positions is nothing, it will take you 5 minutes. There's a tip on form 8949 that says this, though: For Part I (short term transactions):  Note. You may aggregate all short-term transactions reported on   Form(s) 1099-B showing basis was reported to the IRS and for which no   adjustments or codes are required. Enter the total directly on   Schedule D, line 1a; you are not required to report these transactions   on Form 8949 (see instructions). For Part II (long term transactions): Note. You may aggregate all long-term transactions reported on Form(s)   1099-B showing basis was reported to the IRS and for which no   adjustments or codes are required. Enter the total directly on   Schedule D, line 8a; you are not required to report these transactions   on Form 8949 (see instructions). If the 1099B in your case shows basis for each transaction as reported to the IRS - you're in luck, and don't have to type them all in separately.


Tesla is valued like a company that has self-driving car hardware already in every car they're selling right now, that they can switch on overnight once the software is ready. They're valued as a company that will create a driverless transportation service that those cars will be able to work under so that they can take over all of the Uber business, without having to pay for drivers. After that's up and running, Tesla can make as many cars as they can crank out and just set them loose on the transportation service, allowing every car they build to work around the clock to provide rides, giving the company a much more substantial long term profit on each car than simply selling the cars to individuals.   That's the kind of company they're being valued like.


America and the rest of the West should stop looking backwards and forwards towards developing an advanced, service based economy. Really, if your job can be done by an immigrant with limited English skills or by an overseas worker in China, do you really deserve to have that job?


Hahahaha its not only the poor, the lower and lower-middle class represent millions of americans with an active role in the economy. Are you seriously gonna defend 50 Billonaires who have never struggled in life vs 50 million americans who struggle everyday? This kind of thinking is un-american no wonder you Trump supporters dont mind about Russia colluding with the current administration


I'm not gonna act like I invest in real estate, but I'm relatively well read on the subject and have family who invest as well.   I think of a house like a stock, sort of. Say you get a mortgage, fix up the place, and rent it out for 1500. These renters will be covering the mortgage payments each month, plus possibly a little bit more. You're not making bank on the $100 profit each month on the rent after you pay the mortgage payment, you're making it on appreciation.   Just like a stock, the appreciation isn't realized until you sell it. The fastest way to make money in real estate (depending on who you ask) is to buy a house below market value, fix it up a bit, rent it out while it appreciates, and hopefully sell high.   There's 100's of other ways to make money in real estate, but that's the gist of how a lot of people do it. Hope this helps!


Due to the nature of the content why wouldn't you post it if it may be true?!   We're talking about water here which unlike US dollars can not be created from nothing and is vital for life. If people get up and arms and it turns out to not be true, whats the harm?   Now consider the opposite, the only way thats a valid approach is if you are a lobbyist.


No idea how he gets Zimbabwe as a reference point.  But America certainly would look very different without Anglo-Saxon / European founding.  Anyone know a country or foreign land that was colonized by a predominantly African indigenous people?   EDIT:  I've no idea how the guy gets Zimbabwe.  It's in the SE of Africa and all the ports for slave trade were on the far West horn.  I guess a lot of the slaves came from the interior of Africa, but to pick off Zimbabwe as a reference instead of Nigeria, Senegal... seems really crazy.  Also apparently Brazil got 5 million slaves while North America got 500k slaves.  I guess that would be a reference point from an economic standpoint, maybe.  Impossible to say really because US has such different resources.  Certainly the anglo-saxon rule of law was probably beneficial to America's founding.  The whole issue seems to be speculative nonsense.  I'm kind of mad at myself for wasting more than 5 minutes thinking about this.  I just wondered where the hell Zimbabwe came about in all of this... what is this guy think...


Gartner, Forester, etc., data and analysis are not worth shit.   I learned that from 20+ years as a financial analyst: my wild ass guess was no worse than their wild ass guess on anything but my wild ass guess was a lot cheaper.  Its a pity so many investment decisions and strategic plans are based on the garbage cranked out by industry analysts.


I think you are running into multiple problems here: All these together look like a high risk to a bank, especially right now with companies being reluctant to hire full-time employees. Looking at it from their perspective, the last thing they need right now is another potential foreclosure on their books. BTW, if it is a consolation, I had to prove 2 years of continuous employment (used to be a freelancer) before the local credit union would consider giving me a mortgage. We missed out on a couple of good deals because of that, too.


"Others have already commented on the impact of anything which dissuades merchants from raising possible breaches, so I won't dwell on that. Maybe we need stronger legislation, maybe we don't, but it doesn't change today's answer. Often it works the other way around to what you might expect - rather than the merchant noticing and notifying Visa/MC/others, Visa/MC/others spot patterns of suspicious activity (example 1). I don't have any data on the relative numbers of who is being notified/notifying between merchants and payment processors, but at the point when your card is identified as compromised there's no reason to suppose that an individual merchant in the traditional sense has been compromised, let alone identified. In fact because there's a fast moving investigation it could even be a false alarm that led to your card getting cancelled. Conversely it could be a hugely complex multinational investigation which would be jeopardised. It's simply not safe to assume that simply ""brand X"" has been compromised, therefore everything ""brand X"" knows about you is also compromised: Furthermore there's no reason to assume the merchant has even admitted to, or discovered the root cause. MC/Visa/Banks, at the point at which they're cancelling cards simply can't say (at least not in a way that might expensively backfire involving lots of lawyers) because the standard of proof needed to go on record blaming someone is simply not yet met. So: yes it's common that you aren't told anything for all of the above reasons. And of course if you really want to find out more you may have some success with your local data protection legislation and formally make a subject access request (or local equivalent) to see what that brings back. Be sure to do it in writing, to the official address of both mastercard and your bank."


"I am admittedly not giving a scientific or mathematical analysis here, just giving my anecdotal take on what I've lived through. I don't know if my assessment of 'tripled' is even accurate, just that there's a palpable sense of things being a lot more expensive & it just seems to me that the cost of living has gone up quite a bit for average people from what it once was, especially considering most of us now have cable bills, internet costs and in my case several different cell phone bills for different members of the family. I realize these are not necessities but they are important things that most people are now expected to have. I didn't mean to imply that we've had ""insane"" inflation & I understand that these things are mathematically measured as both Core inflation and CPI and by these measures things have held pretty steady. It just seems to me that these sorts of indexes have not yet taken a lot of things into account regarding the realities of modern day living and their resultant expenses."


"Create a meaningful goal for yourself which would distract you from impulsively spending all your money and help you to direct it towards something more meaningful. Maybe you're curious about just how little money you can live off of in one year and you're up for a challenge. Maybe you want to take a whole year off from work. A trip around the world. Or create a financial independence account, the money that is put into this account should NEVER be touched, the idea is to live off of the interest that it throws off.  I strongly suggest that you listen to the audio book ""PROSPERITY CONSCIOUSNESS"" by Fredric Lehrman. You can probably find a copy at your local library, or buy if off of amazon."


So while these companies are not a scam, 30% feels pretty darn high.  How about you negotiate a much lower rate?  10% or 15%? Here is why: You will spend time and effort (which technically isn't free) to find the money.  I bet you can find it if you look hard enough.  But you could also just collect it and give this company a cut for their expertise. However if 30% bugs you (and it would bug me) then consider their reality.  They spent money to find the funds and contact you.  HOWEVER, that is a sunk cost.  It is already spent.  You can find it on your own and they get zip.  Or you negotiate a lower percentage, they get enough to cover their costs and make some profit and you save a ton of time. Since they took the time to explain themselves here, they are either scammers trying to bully you into compliance, or they are legit.  It is field that people might look down on, but it isn't criminal. I would look for the money if it were me, but I feel I have enough free time that it would be worth it.


"We played [baseball](http://hendrengroup.me) as kids when it was the most [popular game](http://hendrengroup.me/blog/baseball-the-small-and-big-kids-dream-game) in the world, way ahead of soccer, and basketball was still a poor third-placer. We played it in the school yard using a tennis ball and became the highlight of every school boy’s day.  We knew and followed the basic rules of the game although we did not use mittens or masks. We played barefoot because we went to school barefoot. We were children and we had the time of our life.  The rules of baseball are not really that complicated. Almost anyone who can run, swing a bat or throw a ball can join the fun. Later on, we kids found out that there was such a thing as softball, which was for girls but using a bigger ball that was thrown from the hip level instead of overhead.  Watching real baseball and softball games during athletic meets gave us a better understanding and appreciation of the game. How we would have wanted to have all the uniform, gears and field to play with; but all we could afford was an old, balding tennis ball and a homemade 2in x 3in lumber for a bat and bases made of stones or wood scraps.  Baseball, as officially required, has the following rules:  **1. Basic features of the baseball game and field dimensions**  Baseball is played on a diamond-shaped field with the base corner designated as the home base. A player with a bat, or a batter, tries to hit the ball as far away from any of the opposing fielding team in order to reach all three bases and finally make it back to the home base. If a player makes it to a base or two after he bats, he must wait for his own team-mates to hit the ball and give him the opening to move on around the bases.  Strategy and team play are important in maximizing the team’s chance to score. Sometimes, a team may sacrifice a batter just for a player to steal a base or score a run. One point can spell the difference between winning and losing; and such brilliant plays come in handy.  **2. Team composition**  Each team has 9 players to fill up the following positions in the field when the opposing team is on the bat: pitcher, catcher, first base, second base, third base, short stop, right fielder, left fielder and centerfielder. Substitute players may also be included.  **3. Batting regulations**  The team on the bat is given three attempts to hit the ball thrown by a pitcher within the boundaries of the baseball field, marked by the two lines made by the home- base/first-base and the home-base/third-base. A missed ball is called a strike and three strikes puts batter out of the field. A team that gets three outs gets to field next while the other team bats.  **4. Playing the ball**  A flying ball that falls outside of the field boundaries is called a foul ball and gives a batter another chance to hit. Fouls are unlimited. A ball that is hit and falls inside the two lines is either caught in the air to put the batter out or, if it rolls on the ground, must be retrieved and often thrown to the first-base player who will tag the batter with the ball to put him out. Failing to tag the batter who steps on or touches the base puts the batter ""safe"" on first base or wherever the batter may be as other hitters move on around the diamond.  A player who makes it safely back to home base scores a point. If it is a homerun, meaning the ball is hit out of the filed or steals straight home if the defending team fumbles the ball, two points are gained while a single point is given to a player who eventually goes round all the bases through one or more batters.  **5. Other game features**  When a batting team is struck out, it take the field and lets the other team bat and attempt to score. A foul ball which is caught will also count as an out. Multiple outs can be made, such as when bases are loaded (all three bases have batters) and the batter on the plate hits a good ball and makes it to first base and the ball is retrieved and thrown back before the player running to second base reaches it, then to home base before the player on third base scores a run and, finally, to third base to tag the player running to it. Three outs in one play!  It is during such fast plays when the ball changes hands so rapidly and players are scampering for bases that the excitement runs high. It is cause for celebration for the scoring team and a big letdown for the other who must probably feel like they were hit on the head with a bat several times for losing the big opportunity to score big and ending up with nothing.  **6. Who wins**  The team that makes the most runs after nine innings or rounds wins the game. Sometimes though, the game will stop at the ""top of the 9th inning"" or before the other team is supposed to go to final bat if that team is already ahead in points as the lagging team will not be able to catch up anyway.  Some of the most memorable games end at the ""bottom of the ninth"" when a team tries to catch up. We might have heard of the familiar radio voice saying, ""It’s the bottom of the ninth and bases are full and the New York Yankees are behind by four and Babe Ruth has the bat. The count is two strikes and three balls . . . the pitcher winds up and throws the ball. Ruth swings hard and the ball flies . . . out of the stadium for a homerun and a win!"" Or something to that effect.  That imagined scene a dream every child and adult lover of baseball hopes to accomplish once in a lifetime. You want to see and hear the whole stadium explode with people jumping and shouting as you take your sweet time running through the bases, smiling, waving your cap and finally kissing the home base.  When a great player makes a good play, everybody wins in baseball. You have to be the eternal child to enjoy it. And there are so many people out there who still enjoy it to this day."


So the same greedy Zillionaires who caused the majority of the problems are now telling us how we can pitch - work an extra 20 years - to ensure that their privileged positions will continue without too much disruption.


The largest problem and source of anxiety / ruin for homeowners during the housing market collapse was caused by the inability to refinance. Many people had bought homes which they were stretched to afford, by using variable-rate mortgages.  These would typically offer a very attractive initial rate, with an annual cap on the potential increase of rate.  Many of these people intended to refinance their variable-rate to a fixed rate once terms were more favorable.  If their house won't appraise for the value needed to obtain a new loan, they are stuck in their current contract with potentially unfavorable rates in the later years (9.9% above prime was not unheard of.) Also, many people, especially those in areas of high inflation in the housing market, used a financial device known as a Balloon Mortgage, which essentially forced you to get a new loan after some number of years (2, 5, 10) when the entire note became due.  Some of those loans offered payments less than Principal + Interest! So, say you move near Los Angeles and can't afford the $1.2M for the 3-bedroom ranch in which you wish to live.  You might work out a deal with your mortgage broker/banker in which you agree contractually to only pay $500/month, with a balloon payment of $1.4M due in 5 years, which seemed like a good deal since you (and everyone else,) actually expect the house to be 'worth' $1.5M in 5 years. This type of thing was done all the time back in the day.  Now, imagine the housing bubble bursts and your $1.2M home is suddenly only valued at, perhaps, $750k.  You still owe $1.4M sometime in the next several years (maybe very soon, depending on timing,) and can only get approved financing for the current $750k value -- so you're basically anticipating becoming homeless and bankrupt within the same year. That is a source of much anxiety about being upside-down on a loan. See this question for an unfortunate example.


It comes across as if you don't know much about what he or the firm does. Does he work in wealth management?      Someone looking for an assistant likely values organization and interpersonal skills over financial acumen.


If you want to work within that constraint, then I sincerely suggest you find a credit councilor.  It may take you a while to dig out of debt, but with a little help from someone that knows the ropes, you can do it!  Remember, even though you want to pay back those debts, many times the sky-rocketing interest rates work against you.  Most of the good councilors know how to work the system to get these rates reduced, and sometimes even get the interest you've already accumulated reduced.


The link, in case you’re interested, was in the CS Monitor piece:  http://www.csmonitor.com/Commentary/Opinion/2013/0319/A-lesson-from-Iraq-war-How-to-outsource-war-to-private-contractors  Report link:  http://psm.du.edu/articles_reports_statistics/data_and_statistics.html …which I provide just in case you want to read them, not to have the same conversation a second time.  Interesting that there aren’t more hard feelings between those getting paid lots versus those not. I mean yes, you’re all there together, but if you and I are doing ostensibly the same (and possibly dangerous) work, you’re getting rich and I’m not….then again, there’s no conscription, in both cases you volunteered to be there.  Strange also that taxpayers don’t care more about this, although….perhaps not. The amount of bullshit is just too overwhelming.   Sounds like you could tell lets of stories about the women, though I’m not sure I want to hear them after a good lunch, and I’m pretty sure you don’t want to remember.


There is another drawback, and this is why I keep a low-limit card for online purchases and another for carrying in risky/unfamiliar situations (e.g. travelling) a small limit acts as as damage limitation in the event of theft. In theory you may not be liable if your card is stolen and used.  In practice you may be out of pocket for a considerable amount of time, and trying to spend large sums on an overlimit card will soon trip it up (especially if those large sums are out of the ordinary)


>And how did this cause the MBS to get wiped out, was it a written clause or did they just collapse from the value dropping so hard?   It was written into the debt instruments.  MBS and CDOs are broken down into tranches with descending priority of claims to the collateral pool.  When it comes time for payment, the top tranche gets paid out 100% before the one below it is entitled to a single cent, and so on and so forth.  Here's an example of how one might be organized:    Foo | Bar | text ---|---|---- Tranche | Size | Credit Rating Class A | 750MM | AAA Class B | 100MM | AA Class C | 60MM | A Class D | 50MM | BBB Class E | 40MM | Not Rated  In this example, lets say that 5% of the loans defaulted, meaning that of the $1B, only $950MM was available to get paid out (assuming no over-collateralization, which most had, but that's besides the point here).  The Class A would get the full 750 they're due, the Class B would get the full 100, and the Class C would get the full 60.  At this point there is only 40MM left, so the Class D would get 40 of the 50 due (a 20% write-down), and Class E would get nothing, getting completely wiped out.  >I dont know what subordination level means Subordination level basically just means how much debt it below it on the capital structure--how much needs to get completely wiped out before any particular tranche starts sharing in the losses.  > Did defaults reaching 8% meaning that 8% of loan takers defaulted?   Yeah more or less.  Technically I think it's that 8% of the value of the mortgages defaulted, but I believe they were set up to be relatively the same size within each instrument, so there's not really much distinction between 8% of the loan takers and 8% of the aggregate value.


As an LLC you are required to have a separate bank account (so you can't have one account and mix personal and business finances together as you could if you were a sole trader) - but there's no requirement for it to be a business bank account.  However, the terms and conditions of most high street bank personal current accounts specifically exclude business banking, so unless you could find one that would allow it, you'd have to open a business bank account.


Yes, all of that is possible with google sheets...


Im not sure if its normal/sensical/healthy, and that is kind of opinion based. But there is a reason for it. Certain rules and regulations passed recently are causing companies or institutions to shift to bonds from cash. Fidelity, for example, is completely converting its $100 billion dollar cash fund to short term bills. Its estimated that over $2 trillion that is now in cash may be converted to bills, and that will obviously put upward preasure on the price of them. The treasury is trying to issue more short term debt to balance out the demand. read more here: http://www.wsj.com/articles/money-funds-clamor-for-short-term-treasurys-1445300813


Assuming you are saying that the company issues 20,000 additional shares of its own stock and sells them for $8 each: The money from the sale is not income and not part of earnings.  It is capital and appears on the balance sheet as part of shareholder's equity. With no other transactions, yes, the total of shares outstanding is increased by 20,000 to 100,000.


Roll it into another put with a lower strike and hope it keeps going down.  At the very least it will defray the cost of the long position.  Ps I think you're looking for the word hedge not lever.


"OK, fair enough, but you did say ""A large part of their barrier to entry is government."" in relation to general industry, in defense of your earlier statement that ""Monopolies can rarely exist without one or two things: Government support or limited geographic area."".  My contention is that regulation can present a barrier to entry, but this is not nearly as large a barrier as size, and barriers due to size is the primary reason for monopolies or oligopolies in recent times.  If you don't want to use the aircraft industry as an example, let's use Amazon itself. Amazon is cleaning everyone's clocks. Whatever you try and sell, if it is available on Amazon, a smaller player will not be able to compete with them except on the edges. Their market share continues to increase - they own 43% of all US online retail.  Why doesn't someone just start up and compete with them? Why aren't there 10-12 different competitors to Amazon?  Now clearly, Amazon got a head start - they were among the first to shift into the non-specialized internet retail market (Pets.com only sold pet food whereas Amazon now sells everything). There is no arguing that they do things very well, and have advanced the area of online sales.  But they are now without competition, and will not have significant competition unless they stumble badly. And even then, they may not have competition (see: eBay, which now sucks, but still has no real competition).  When I look at changing sectors in my general geographic area, I see massive up-sizing coupled with a lack of new entries into the sector. I'll give a few examples:  * Auto dealers. I had a relative who owned a Pontiac dealership in the 70s. Just one. He did OK from it. Now, most of the dealerships are owned by people who own somewhere between 5 and 15 different dealerships.   * Gas stations. I had a relative who owned a gas station. Again, just one. There were lots of these guys around. Now, most of the gas stations are owned by 2 or 3 conglomerates who own many dozens of stations.  * Banks. Yes, regulation is in play here, but there used to be dozens of different banks in my region. Now there are maybe 2 regional banks and 3 national banks. Gone are the days when there was one bank that had 2-3 branches. Even credit unions are consolidating.  * Hardware stores. We are down to Home Depot, Lowe's, and a regional chain that has 20-30 stores. No independent guys.  * Grocery stores. My region has exactly two full-service grocery store chains, plus maybe 2 discount chains. When I was a kid, there were 10 different regional chains in the area.   * Not the best example, but video stores. There used to be 10-12 different mom-and-pop stores, which consolidated into two (Blockbuster, Hollywood Video), which got crushed by Netflix. Smart TVs have allowed for there to be more players in the on-demand world, but the level of skill needed to enter this area cannot be more different between the initial mom-and-pop video store and the world of online content delivery.  The list goes on and on. Consolidation is the name of the game, and when a market consolidates, the *average* person can no longer enter it. As it consolidates further, the *above-average* person can no longer enter it, and when it gets to a certain point, no one can enter it. That has harmed the economy because people have stopped ""playing the game"" because they know they can't win. They can't compete with the big boys.  Now I don't know what to do about this, but my observation is that this has accelerated in the past 30 years. I think that technology has accelerated it, but I also think that tax code and lack of anti-trust enforcement has also accelerated it. I would put my bet on tax code as the #1 culprit - tax code has made it attractive for people to try and earn tens of millions of dollars per year - there is truth to the conservative claim that ""if the tax rates are too high, people will not work as hard"" - that's not necessarily a bad thing though. Markets are driven by demand, and at any point in time, they have a finite demand - a total size. If there is $15 million worth of demand for hardware in a region, that demand can either be satisfied by one massive global corporation, or by 15 $100k small businesses (or by 30 $50k small businesses).   There can be an advantage to one massive global corporation - cheaper prices, higher quality - but there can also be a downside, which is eventually higher prices, less innovation, and even lower quality - plus the downside of the elimination of opportunity for the 30 people who would serve that demand if the massive corporation did not exist, opportunities which turned over every so often due to businesses closing due to retirement or even incompetence.   I do not think that tax code stifles innovation though, because people innovate for passion, not for money. Steve Jobs and Steve Wozniak founded Apple when the top tax rate was 70%. They did it because they wanted to make computers, not because they wanted to make money. I think that a high tax rate would stifle the relentless pursuit of more dollars by using existing dollars to consolidate sectors."


Well, you certainly seem to have more sophisticated thoughts on this than I.  So, if we have a model in which we're confident, what would we learn and what would be done with such information?  Creative destruction is already a known thing.  Would this end up being a primarily academic pursuit?  I'd hate to think policy might be based on that.


I don't think that there is any good way a study can average this and bring a useful result: The core problem is that there are people that will spend more money than they should, if they become technically able to, and the credit card is just one of the tools they abuse for that (similar to re-financing with cash-outs, zero percent loans, etc.).  On the other side, there are people who control and understand their spending, and again, the mechanism of payment is irrelevant for them. Studies measure some mix between the groups, and come up with irrelevant correlations that have no causality. If you think any tool or mechanics got you in financial trouble, think again: your spending habits and lack of understanding or care get you in financial trouble - nothing else. In a world where it is considered cool to 'don't understand math', it is no surprise that so many people can't control their finances.


"1) Yes in theory that is right - minus any state taxes as well.       2) They could since there is an unknown amount outside of the US - and probably it will be a percentage and not all. Most of these companies that make a difference are already international companies.       3) They would most likely still do it for any money kept offshore, and it doesn't prevent them from continuing to do it. Again, I didn't say this was a good solution. They are just hoping to ward off economic collapse a little longer by doing this, or perhaps hire more accountants to be able to look at their books to figure out how much they are hiding to punish them. There could be many ""motivations"" for doing this tax. But I doubt any of the motivations intend to stop it from continuing to happen after the tax. The problem is any company that takes advantage of it basically says ""yes, i broke the law - in this amount."" Thus, it might be a good way to get a list of companies to audit more thoroughly."


"> “It’s hard to explain simply why and how it works"". If that's the case, why would I give you money?  There are plenty of forms of machine learning where the results can't be fully comprehended by humans - neural networks come to mind as a good popular example."


Sensible? China has a massive gender imbalance caused by families trying to ensure that their one child is a male to ensure the continuation of the family name as well as to take care of them when they are older. This is causing China's average age to rise incredibly fast as there are far fewer families than there would be without the policy.


"Glad my question got bumped. I took it as a sign to get a solid answer out of Schwab. First the rep gave me the same line that it was impossible to provide paperless statements for a 401(k) plan because of ""regulations"". I pressed the issue and got this from the rep: I just spoke with our dedicated small business plan team. They told me   that there are regulations that state that a Qualified Plan, such as   this, require to have a statement sent. It is a Schwab policy that we   have decided to only allow paper statements for this account type. So to clarify, it is a Schwab business decision to have the statements   available only by mail. Hope someone from Schwab with some authority sees this post and is pushed toward helping change their policy. I can't imagine what a colossal waste of paper, postage, and hassle it is for everyone involved."


There's actual value and value that comes from potential for growth. I would imagine that their fundamentals are stronger, they have more advertising revenue than 2 years ago but their vision for the future and potential value is lower. So it's up to you the investor in the market to decide where you value it and to either buy sell or sit out


our family of staff and guests have grown up together with the common goal of providing an environment that inspires trust and compassion for each other, as we take the time to focus on living a healthier life and finding inner peace.


What are you trying to learn? Is it not skills to set you up for a well paying career? You can spend 50k on a degree so you can teach for 35k/year vs 100k on a medical degree to work for 100k/year.  ROI is your income from the job the degree qualifies you for.


But a textbook liquidity trap means prices fluctuate.  We've seen nothing but steady increases in every single possible measurable standard.  Liquidity traps occur when there is fear of deflation.  There is no such fear.  Deflation would be a welcome remedy to today's currency crisis.  Your paycheck would be able to purchase more and we would see prices fall, making it easier for the average American to afford their food, gas and housing.  Plus, lending is down not because banks are hoarding cash.  If anything, banks are trying to lend out more than ever.  Standards for borrowing have plummited.  Anyone willing to sign a contract can get hundreds of thousands of dollars at the drop of a hat.  Lending is down because consumer and business demand for more debt is down.  I stopped reading Krugman years ago, but if he is seriously trying to sell a liquidity trap right now, he is horribly misleading people and his advocacy of the Fed's printing and lending policies as of late is just flat out dangerous to the global economy.


Good idea, but you can already imagine how that will turn out: Patents will be used in some pro-forma way, without intention of serious commercial use, to avoid using them.  For trademarks, this already happens. After a merger, companies continue to formally use a brand/trademark of an acquired company that they have effectively terminated, in order to avoid other companies using that trademark (or a very similar one).


It depends on if it is a non-refundable deposit, retainer, etc. The remaining $1,500 is not included in that quarter's sales, because you have not yet received it and it is not guaranteed. The question is really if you should count the $500 toward the quarter where it is received, or during the quarter where you invoice. This deposit might be categorized as a liability until you invoice, and there is no sales tax to be calculated until the invoice for the total. I say 'might' because this can vary by state and the type of transaction or business. For example, if someone makes a cash down payment on a lease for a car, some states will require that sales tax be charged on this.


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Computers and digital cameras are great candidates for handing down because they can still be useful long after they have started looking dated to the initial buyer. Buying DVDs is unfortunately more convenient than renting in my hometown, but we make up for this by a liberal borrowing policy. And, perhaps most unusually, coupons -- the special discounts that mail-order retailers like to send when it's convenient for them to make a sale (or just arbitrarily, really). Those often have complicated terms so that they are only really interesting if exactly two articles are ordered, or the amount of the order exactly 80 EUR. A couple of persons in the family are the specialists of these discounts, and others can just tell them to watch for an interesting item. They'll place the order at the best time.


Obviously the best way to consolidate the real-estate loans is with a real-estate loan. Mortgages, being secured loans, provide much better interest rates. Also, interest can be deducted to some extent (depending on how the proceeds are used, but up to $100K of the mortgage can have deductible interest just for using the primary residence as a collateral). Last but not least, in many states mortgages on primary residence are non-recourse (again, may depend on the money use). That may prove useful if in the future your mother runs into troubles repaying it. So yes, your instincts are correct. How to convince your mother - that's between you and her.


OK, my fault for not doing more research. Wikipedia explains this well: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Option_style#Difference_in_value Basically, there are some cases where it's advantageous to exercise an American option early.  For non-gold currency options, this is only when the carrying cost (interest rate differential aka swap rate or rollover rate) is high. The slight probability that this may occur makes an American option worth slightly more.


There's only one hard constraint in there:  >A population grown completely accustomed to a resource-intensive, globalized lifestyle relative to that enjoyed by almost any other country on Earth.  We do have to live within the limits of real resources. Labor, energy, commodities, clean air, water, etc.  Fortunately, we're not *at* the limits on those things right now and the rest of the problems are financial. Financial problems have financial solutions and those are always within our grasp *if* we [understand how the monetary system works](http://moslereconomics.com/mandatory-readings/soft-currency-economics/) and manage the poltiical coordination to get things done.


"Yes.  I heard back from a couple brokerages that gave detailed responses. Specifically: In a Margin account, there are no SEC trade settlement rules, which means there is no risk of any free ride violations. The SEC has a FAQ page on free-riding, which states that it applies specifically to cash accounts. This led me to dig up the text on Regulation T which gives the ""free-riding"" rule in §220.8(c), which is titled ""90 day freeze"". §220.8 is the section on cash accounts. Nothing in the sections on margin accounts mentions such a settlement restriction. From the Wikipedia page on Free Riding, the margin agreement implicitly covers settlement. ""Buying Power"" doesn't seem to be a Regulation T thing, but it's something that the brokerages that I've seen use to state how much purchasing power a client has. Given the response from the brokerage, above, and my reading of Regulation T and the relevant Wikipedia page, proceeds from the sale of any security in a margin account are available immediately for reinvestment. Settlement is covered implicitly by margin; i.e. it doesn't detract from buying power. Additionally, I have personally been making these types of trades over the last year. In a sub-$25K margin account, proceeds are immediately available. The only thing I still have to look out for is running into the day-trading rules."


If you think there is no complication in your application and you can easily satisfy all criteria you can do the process yourself without using any agent and save few thousand dollars. I have done myself. Another cost Chris forgot to mention is the medical examination cost which is mandatory. If your certificates and docs are non-English translation fees are quite high as well.  The immigration process is very bureaucratic and requires lot of supporting documents. As for living in Australia, Rent, Car and living expenses are high compared to US. But in Sydney and Melbourne you can rent near public transport, which isn't too bad (well not like Europe ). So having a car is not essential. Rent for a decent flat in these cities will be $300 - $350 p/w and you may have to pay 4-6 weeks as advance. You can get a lot of information from the dept. of immingration website.


"Didn't OP say that he meant 'credibility' as ""your past work that determines your status""? Which is the same as what you said.   Also, Yes, the farmer can promise a million bushels of apples for a million deer. This is what Industries do,don't they?"


For the record, I would never believe any major media outlet when it comes to a complex economic evaluation. I hope you wouldn't either.   The article mentions that people are sending less mail. Maybe you're not old enough to remember sending letters, but people used to do it a lot.


In day trading, you're trying to predict the immediate fluctuations of an essentially random system.  In long-term investing, you're trying to assess the strength of a company over a period of time. You also have frequent opportunities to assess your position and either add to it or get out.


Fund your retirement accounts first.  Even as an intern, it is still worthwhile to open a Roth IRA and start contributing to it. See my answer to a similar question: Best way to start investing, for a young person just starting their career?