My ex job doesn't require 'skill' just because it requires a degree doesn't mean it takes 'skills'. She removed guts from bugs and puts them in tubes. She cuts leaves up and puts them in tubes. She's not doing brain surgery. And I'm not taking anything from her or her work because she works hard. But to argue cleaning kids vomit and shit off the bathroom floor takes less skill and should be paid less because he didn't have to spend 4 years taking math and reading more Shakespeare? Yeah no. Pretty sure a janitors job is more exhausting.


"> Employers love to use minimum wage disputes as a smokescreen for cutting labor  Exactly. This isn't about ""lazy"" McDonald's workers but capital vs labor.   If you're not capital, then you're labor and you should be rooting for your team not shitting on them because capital does not give a shit about you.   http://bigthink.com/ideafeed/automation-most-white-collar-jobs-arent-as-safe-as-you-think     https://qz.com/875491/japanese-white-collar-workers-are-already-being-replaced-by-artificial-intelligence/     https://www.theguardian.com/technology/2017/feb/09/robots-taking-white-collar-jobs"


If Walmart violated the law then bring the full force of it down on them.  On the other hand the usual reason the local businesses went bust is because they were less convenient and more expensive.  The people who shopped in that area decided to stop shopping at the local stores and shop at Walmart instead.  Unless you believe everyone is irrational, they would have changed their behaviour for good reasons.


"Think about moving the decimal point in a bunch of accounting software and price stickers. Think about getting confused, ""is that price in old yen or new yen?"" - not just immediately, but every time you hear a historical price figure. Think of the inconveniences. How many billions of yen would that cost the Japanese economy? It could be a lot. How many billions of yen would the Japanese economy save by enacting such a conversion? Because I doubt it's anywhere that much."


Generally, speaking the (Rm-Rf) is around around 7% and the Rf tends to be around 6-7%. 1.66% for Rf is wayyyyy too low.  If you used a beta of 0.5, an Rf of 6%, and an (Rm-Rf) of 7%, that would give you an Re (cost of equity) of 9.5%  The cost of equity should not be less than the cost of debt. If it is, you know you need to revisit your assumptions.


"The simplest, most convenient way I know of to ""move your savings to Canada"" is to purchase an exchange-traded fund like FXC, the CurrencyShares Canadian Dollar Trust, or a similar instrument. (I identify this fund because I know it exists, not because I particularly recommend it.) Your money will be in Canadian currency earning Canadian interest rates. You will pay a small portion of that interest in fees. Since US banks are already guaranteed by the FDIC up to $250,000 per account, I don't really think you avoid any risks associated with the failure of an individual bank, but you might fare better if the US currency is subject to inflation or unfavorable foreign-exchange movements - not that such a thing would be a direct risk of a bank failure, but it could happen as a result of actions taken by the Federal Reserve under the auspices of aiding the economy if the economy worsens in the wake of a financial crisis - or, for that matter, if it worsens as a result of something else, including legislative, regulatory, or executive policies. Read the prospectus to understand additional risks with this investment. One of them is foreign-exchange risk. If the US economy and currency strengthen relative to the Canadian economy and its currency, you may lose substantial amounts of purchasing power. Additionally, one of the possible results of a financial crisis is a ""flight to safety""; the global financial markets still seem to think the US dollar is pretty safe, and they may bid it up as they have done in the past, resulting in losses to your position (at least in the short term). I do not personally recommend moving all your savings to Canada, especially if it deprives you of income from more profitable investments over the long term, but moving some of your savings to Canada at least isn't a stupid idea, and it may turn out to be somewhat profitable. Having some Canadian currency is also a good idea if you plan to spend the money that you are saving on Canadian goods in the intermediate future."


Yeah, having a $1B profit is a necessity. If only we could increase company profit to $1.5B by lowering taxes, those $500M would trickle down for sure. Company execs and shareholders are just greedy enough to pocket all the profits for themselves at the current tax level, but with a lower tax level they would share the additional proceeds fairly with those on the bottom. Right now we have:  Profit - taxes = greed --> nothing left for increased wages  While we could have:  Profit - (taxes / 2) > greed --> money left for increasing wages


Edit: Let's forget about Wikipedia.  From the horse's mouth: The cafeteria plan rules require that a health FSA provide uniform coverage throughout the    coverage period (which is the period when the employee is covered by the plan).  See Proposed    Treasury Regulations Section 1.125-5(d).  Under the uniform coverage rules, the maximum amount    of reimbursement from a health FSA must be available at all times during the coverage period.  This    means that the employee’s entire health FSA election is available from the first day of the plan year    to reimburse qualified medical expenses incurred during the coverage period.  The cafeteria plan    may not, therefore, base its reimbursements to an employee on what that employee may have    contributed up to any particular date, such as the date the employee is laid-off or terminated.  Thus,    if an employee’s reimbursements from the health FSA exceed his contributions to the health FSA at    the time of lay-off or termination, the employer cannot recoup the difference from the employee. (emphasis added)  http://www.irs.gov/pub/irs-wd/1012060.pdf Uniform Coverage Rule The IRS has required that “health FSAS must qualify as accident or health plans. This means    that, in general, while the health coverage under the FSA need not be provided through a    commercial insurance contract, health FSAS must exhibit the risk-shifting and risk-distribution    characteristics of insurance.” This concept has led to the “uniform coverage” rule.  The uniformcoverage rule requires that the maximum amount of an employee’s projected    elective contributions to a health FSA must be available from the first day of the plan year to    reimburse the employee’s qualified medical expenses, regardless of the amount actually    contributed to the plan at the time that reimbursement is sought.  Citing proposed Treasury Regulations Section  the IRS General Counsel has    determined that:  “Under the uniform coverage rules, the maximum amount of reimbursement from    a health FSA must be available at all times during the coverage period. The    cafeteria plan may not, therefore, base its reimbursements to an employee on what    that employee may have contributed up to any particular date, such as the date the    employee is laid-off or terminated. Thus, if an employee’s reimbursements from    the health FSA exceed his contributions to the health FSA at the time of  or    termination, the employer cannot recoup the difference from the employee.”  This rule is unfair and also constitutes a disincentive to establishing FSAS because of the    exposure to out-of pocket expenditures arising from employees who leave the company.  NSBA believes that the uniform coverage rule should also be revised if the  or lose-   it rule is changed. Revising the use-it or lose-it rule while leaving the uniform coverage rule unchanged will introduce an inappropriate asymmetry to FSAS. An employer should    be allowed to deduct any negative amount arising from insuftîcient employee    contributions from a terminating partieipant’s last paycheck. http://www.ecfc.org/files/legislative-news/NSBA_(David_Burton).pdf (emphasis added)  Now, that's some fresh bitterness for you right there.  (Dated August 17, 2012)


"Yes - this is exactly what it means.  No losses (negative earnings).   With today's accounting methods, you might want to determine whether you view earnings including or excluding extraordinary items.   For example, a company might take a once-off charge to its earnings when revising the value of a major asset.  This would show in the ""including"" but not in the ""excluding"" figure.   The book actually has a nice discussion in Chapter 12 ""Things to Consider About Per-Share Earnings"" which considers several additional variables to consider here too. Note that this earnings metric is different from ""Stock Selection for the Defensive Investor"" which requires 10 years. PS - My edition (4th edition hardback) doesn't have 386 pages so your reference isn't correct for that edition.  I found it on page 209 in Chapter 15 ""Stock Selection for the Enterprising Investor""."


"You want culture shock, and can afford the week vacation or whatever - go from Detroit/Kzoo to Ashland, OR.  Literally scared the shit out of me.  People were nice, and I didn't have to worry about getting stomped by cops, and just...yeah.  Was baffled the whole time, asking myself:  ""There's really places like this in America? No wonder people say everything they do about Detroit.""  Felt almost ashamed to be me wandering around there, having grown up in the shithole area I did."


> Using debt to increase your intrinsic value is a wise investment.  Do you believe this kind of belief perpetuates the problem? If you look at the data, roughly 20% of college graduates will do *really well* for themselves, which is difficult to ignore. But when you look at the remaining 80% of graduates, the income distributions start to look a lot like those who have less education.  You being a financial advisor, I'm sure you are aware that the early years are the utmost important ones for saving. The prevailing idea has been that a degree will earn you more than the other opportunity costs over the remainder of your career, but that is based on the aforementioned top 20% who really serve to skew the data to the casual calculator.  With that, the typical highly education person ends up getting hit with no only massive debt, but loses a ton of early earning potential, and often cannot convert that education into a higher income than anyone else. It comes as no surprise to me that this group has the biggest debt problems.


Clutch Bags is a world-class handbags provider company in New York city. We are the best manufacturer, wholesaler and exporter of handbags in the world. A Hands free travel bags with wheels can be perfect when you need large luggage capacity, but there is not much space to store it between one trip and the next since many of these bags are reduced to half their normal size when folded.


The reality would be people dying in the road.  4,000lb vehicles don't just stop.   It takes a level of predictability in order for the roads to function safely.   Things like lanes of travel,  cross walks,  and sidewalks.   This is why there are no sidewalks on a highway.


The harvested losses are capital losses.  See this IRS page: Generally, realized capital losses are first offset against realized capital gains.  Any excess losses can be deducted against ordinary income up to $3,000 ($1,500 if married filing separately) on line 13 of Form 1040.  Losses in excess of this limit can be carried forward to later years to reduce capital gains or ordinary income until the balance of these losses is used up. This means that your harvested losses can be used to offset ordinary income --- up to $3000 in a single year, and with extra losses carried forward to future years.  It is pretty close to a free lunch, provided that you have some losses somewhere in your portfolio. This free lunch is available to anyone, but for a human, it can be quite a chore to decide when to sell what, keep track of the losses, and avoid the wash sale rules.  The advantage of robo-advisors is that they eat that kind of bookkeeping for breakfast, so they can take advantage of tax loss harvesting opportunities that would be too cumbersome for a human to bother with.


Singapore does well because?  Zurich does well because?  London is already a much larger and more versatile financial centre than anywhere you have cited (bar New York) or the above.  Not all financial services require passporting and, as I mentioned,'it remains to be seen whether some arrangement can be reached that allows firms UK firms similar passport privileges within the EU that they currently enjoy. Finance is very different from trade and the City is far less vulnerable to this political divorce than British importers and exporters.   Never mind that London is a much greater cultural hub than any would be pretenders. I work in finance, no one I know has the slightest inclination to move to Frankfurt.  It'll take a generation for any city to build up the institutional knowledge, infrastructure and talent pool that exists in Greater London.


The whole point of a credit report and, by extension, a credit score, is to demonstrate (and judge) your ability to repay borrowed funds.  Everything stems from that goal; available credit, payment history, collections, etc all serve to demonstrate whether or not you personally are a good investment for lenders to pursue. Revolving credit balances are tricky because they are more complicated than fixed loans (for the rest of this answer, I'll just talk about credit cards, though it also applies to lines of credit such as overdraft protection for checking accounts, HELOCs, and other such products). Having a large available balance relative to your income means that at any time you could suddenly drown yourself in debt.  Having no credit cards means you don't have experience managing them (and personal finances are governed largely by behavior, meaning experience is invaluable).  Having credit cards but carrying a high balance means you know how to borrow money, but not pay it back.  Having credit cards but carrying no balance means you don't know how to borrow money (or you don't trust yourself to pay it back). Ideally, lenders will see a pattern of you borrowing a portion of the available credit, and then paying it down.  Generally that means utilizing up to 30% of your available credit.  Even if you maintain the balance in that range without paying it off completely, it at least shows that you have restraint, and are able to stop spending at a limit you personally set, rather than the limit the bank sets for you. So, to answer your question, 0% balance on your credit cards is bad because you might as well not have them.  Use it, pay it off, rinse and repeat, and it will demonstrate your ability to exercise self control as well as your ability to repay your debts.


I found this interesting from the wikipedia page:  >2008 submarine cable disruption  See also: Communications in Iran It has been suggested that 2008 submarine cable disruption was connected with the launch of Iranian oil bourse and that the internet connection of Iran was being targeted to stop the launch of Iranian oil bourse.[36][37][38][39][40]


"Tricky question.  Many car leasing companies like to quote payments by the week or twice a month to make the car sound cheaper to carry.  If the lease or loan is calculated such that interest accrues monthly ""not in advance"" then any payments made prior to the date on which the interest is calculated will reduce the balance and therefore the interest. However, many loans and leases are calculated at the beginning for the whole life of the agreement.  In that case, splitting each payment in half doesn't do anything to reduce the interest built in to the payments because the interest is calculated ""in advance"""


"[4] Looks like a careless security breach and not intentional and [5] resulted in:  ""Microsoft says Windows Vista, Server 2008, 7, or Server 2008 R2, check Microsoft's online Certificate Trust List. The company has removed DigiNotar from this list, so Internet Explorer on those systems should already not trust the certificate. The company will issue a patch to remove it from Windows XP and Windows Server 2003."" - and that's death for the CA.  The whole CA system is problematic particularly with governments getting in bed with just about everything to do with communications. It's probably time to move to some kind of quorum based system where no single company is fully trusted to vouch for any entity to be what they claim to be."


I would be surprised if a bank cared about an undergraduate major. Usually, such things are only important if it is a professional degree, like a law degree or medical degree. The big issue is that if you are not a US citizen, a US bank would be unlikely to make an unsecured loan because you could just return to your country and renege on the loan and they would have no way to collect. Therefore, a bank in your own country might be more logical. If you get accepted by a top Ivy school, they all have financial policies that will allow you to attend regardless of how rich or poor you are, so if you are applying to a top school (Harvard, Princeton, MIT, Stanford, Yale) and get accepted, they will fully finance your attendance. The only exception is if (A) they find out you lied about something, or (B) your parents/family are wealthy and they refuse to pay anything. As long as neither of these two things is true, all of the schools listed GUARANTEE they will provide sufficient financial aid. Princeton even has a no-loan policy, which means not only will they fund your attendance, they will do so without you having to take on any loans.


why sell?  Because the stock no longer fits your strategy.  Or you've lost faith in the company. In our case, it's because we're taking our principal out and buying something else.  Our strategy is, basically, to sell (or offer to sell) after the we can sell and get our principal out, after taxes.  That includes dividends -- we reduce the sell price a little with every dividend collected.


Except I would never keep 10k in cash inside a Roth unless I was waiting for a buy opportunity.  Money in a Roth should be invested, not sitting in cash, you're not taking advantage of any of the features of a Roth by leaving it in cash.


Cash has zero value until it is transformed into something material.  Cash hoarders realize no improvement in their lifestyle by gaining more cash than they need.  If corporations are already so flush with cash they only inflate the stock market, why would further tax breaks improve anything?  An inflated stock market only improves income for very few.  People who need money will spend it and put it back into circulation.  People will not hoard cash if they know more will show up regardless of their ability to perform.  Less financial pressure and less resentment of the rich for their preferential treatment would create a more positive attitude among the population and improve productivity.  A happier work force is a more productive work force.  People should only work part time anyway so they can have a life outside of work to enjoy their lives while they have the health to do it.  Slaving your life away until you can't do the things you always wanted to do does not improve a person's outlook.  Life according to me.  Was a reduction in unemployment compensation, medicare, medicade and SNAP payments included in the study?  There may be a reduction in spending on crime and addiction as well.


"Those two hard inquiries will only count as one on your score because you applied for the two cards immediately one after the other. Credit bureaus see this as just credit card shopping, so will hit your score only once as a single hard inquiry. If you had applied for these two cards days apart, then your score would have been hit with two hard inquiries. Find more details here, specifically under the ""What to know about rate shopping"" section."


The problem is, I don't understand, how such sites work. Is that scam or not? Some of my friends told me that they've actually received the revenue after they deposited a bit of money to similar sites, and I don't have any evidence not to trust them. Yes there are scam. Stay away. Quite likely people got real money back into Bank Account. Or more likely it shows that there is more [notional] money in the sites account.  If such sites really 'work', then how and why? These sites work, because there are quite a few people who believe in free / easy money. The site could be classic pyramid / Ponzi scheme. They could also be involved in some kind of Money Laundering. Why would anyone trust them so much to give them money for absolutely no reason? Okay, I'm not so clever, but they can't make profit only because of stupid people, can they? The same way you did, at times just for fun to experiment. At times because they believe there is easy get rich way. There is a reward that works so that if you see 120 you start believing in it. If you try and withdraw, there will be quite a few obstacles; under the pretext of holding period, withdrawal fees etc... but mostly they will encourage you to keep depositing small amounts and see it grow. This of it this way; if one can make 20% day on day ... one does not need someone else's money. The power of compounding would mean very quickly $ 100 would become 88 BILLION in 120 days!


"This line of thinking is wrong.  You don't control time, you control place.  The secret to winning is to ALWAYS BE OUT THERE.  If you're constantly 24/7 selling your wares, you're going to get ""lucky"" and make a few great sales.  Being at the right place at the right time means ALWAYS BEING IN NEW AND DIFFERENT PLACES UNTIL YOU HIT THE RIGHT TIME.  This is why food trucks do so well.  You travel until you hit the ""right place at the right time"".  You can call this luck.  Sure to some degree it is.  But the real secret is just to work harder and longer than everyone else.  That's how you get ""lucky""."


No, you can get those aminos elsewhere. Meat in collon is bad, and its the main reason why we dont have 10-15 years more to live worldwide. 1 year ago, I'd tell you to shoot me if I ever said that  Edit: if you like fish, look up how much plastic the average fish contains, and your chance of eating microplastic. Just to scare some more


I think that kind of separates Amazon as a product though (at least during its growth, obviously many companies are trying to compete now). Even though it's still retail, I don't need to spend time, gas, etc to go to the store, and the upsell is worth it. I think a better analogy here is Lyft vs public transit. I can take the bus, it gets me home, but $4 gets me a lyft line there and the convenience is worth the price difference.


Adding assets (equity) and liabilities (debt) never gives you anything useful. The value of a company is its assets (including equity) minus its liabilities (including debt). However this is a purely theoretical calculation. In the real world things are much more complicated, and this isn't going to give you a good idea of much a company's shares are worth in the real world


"**Not even wrong**  The phrase ""not even wrong"" describes any argument that purports to be scientific but fails at some fundamental level, usually in that it contains a terminal logical fallacy or it cannot be falsified by experiment (i.e., tested with the possibility of being rejected), or cannot be used to make predictions about the natural world.  The phrase is generally attributed to theoretical physicist Wolfgang Pauli, who was known for his colorful objections to incorrect or sloppy thinking. Rudolf Peierls documents an instance in which ""a friend showed Pauli the paper of a young physicist which he suspected was not of great value but on which he wanted Pauli's views. Pauli remarked sadly, 'It is not even wrong'."" This is also often quoted as ""That is not only not right; it is not even wrong,"" or ""Das ist nicht nur nicht richtig; es ist nicht einmal falsch!"" in Pauli's native German.  ***  ^[ [^PM](https://www.reddit.com/message/compose?to=kittens_from_space) ^| [^Exclude ^me](https://reddit.com/message/compose?to=WikiTextBot&message=Excludeme&subject=Excludeme) ^| [^Exclude ^from ^subreddit](https://np.reddit.com/r/business/about/banned) ^| [^FAQ ^/ ^Information](https://np.reddit.com/r/WikiTextBot/wiki/index) ^| [^Source](https://github.com/kittenswolf/WikiTextBot)   ^] ^Downvote ^to ^remove ^| ^v0.24"


I totally support Detroit and this would be awesome for them - my family is from the rust belt and I would love to see anywhere in the region get this!  The question is whether or not it's good for Amazon though, and that's a hard sell IMO.


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Supplier of Quartz Grit in India Best Price http://quartzpowdermanufacturers.com/supplier-of-quartz-grit-in-india.php  Shri Vinayak Minerals has made a place amongst the most entrusted names in mineral business, and we are manufacturing offering an inclusive range of Quartz Grit. The whole range of Quartz Grits, provided by us is extensively appreciated all over the nation. We do supply our products in India and to other countries too. Vietnam, South Korea, UAE, Malaysia, Taiwan, Thailand, Saudi Arabia, and Indonesia are our prime international clients.


Sears is great for tools, but kind of useless for other stuff, and their cashiers are always giving you a sales pitch (Sears Card, etc.) and several miles of receipt paper. FOR THE LOVE OF GOD, I JUST WANT TO BUY A WRENCH! It kind of reminds me of Best Buy, who is actually even worse with this, but just happens to have more products that I'm interested in.


At the end of each period, add the interest, in this case an easy 1%, and then subtract the payment. With less than 4 months to payoff, the interest here is about $21.  Instead of trying to find credit card calculators, just use the more common mortgage calculator. The math is the same until the final month, when the credit card may handle accrued interest slightly differently.  Edit - A finance calculator indicates 3.407 payments, or total payment of $1022.12, $22.12 is interest.  (from my initial guess of $21 above)


A classic text on growth stock picking is Common Stock and Uncommon Profits By Philip Fisher, with a 15 point checklist.  Here is a summary of the list that you can check out.


Simply, yes.  I graduated in 2010 and started in insurance.  Then went to real estate accounting.  I absolutely hated both insurance and accounting, so I decided to study and sit for Level 1 in 2011.  I passed and received an entry level investment analysis job a few month later.  I could not be happier.  I would not have received the job without passing.  Not only did it give me something to brag about in the interview, but almost every young person in the investment industry is attempting to pass these exams.  The tests are only going to get harder and the pass rates are only going to get lower.  I would try to pass these as soon as possible.  At my firm, resumes that don't show CFA charterholder or candidate get left behind.  I would imagine other firms are doing the same.  Don't expect companies to pay for it, and don't let the price deter you.  It will be worth it in the end.


Yes, you can make a direct HSA contribution and deduct it on your 1040 to see an immediate tax benefit for the tax year. You can even make a contribution for the previous tax year all the way through tax day of the following year. If you opt to do this be sure to contact your financial institution before making the contribution to make sure they apply it to the appropriate tax year. Just be careful not to exceed the yearly caps. So long as you have had coverage all year, this is easy to do. If you've only had coverage for part of the year and it's not your first year with an HSA plan, you may need to do some math to make sure you aren't breaking the contribution rules.


"What EU wanted to force Cyprus to do is to break the insurance contract the government has with the bank depositors. The parliament rightfully refused, and it didn't pass. In the EU, and Cyprus as part of it, all bank deposits are insured up to 100,000EUR by the government. This is similar to the US FDIC insurance. Thus, requiring the ""small"" (up to 100K) depositors to participate in the bank reorganization means that the government breaks its word to people, and effectively defaults. That is exactly what the Cyprus government wanted to avoid, the default, so I can't understand why the idea even came up. Depositors of more than 100k are not guaranteed against bank failures, and indeed - in Cyprus these depositors will get ""haircuts"". But before them, first come shareholders and bondholders who would be completely wiped out. Thus, first and foremost, those who failed (the bank owners) will be the first to pay the price. However, governments can default. This happened in many places, for example in Russia in the 90's, in Argentina in 2000's (and in fact numerous times during the last century), the US in the 1930's, and many other examples - you can see a list in Wikipedia. When government defaults on its debts, it will not pay some or all of them, and its currency may also be devaluated. For example, in Russia in 1998 the currency lost 70% of its value against the USD within months, and much of the cash at hands of the public became worthless overnight. In the US in 1933 the President issued an executive order forbidding private citizens keeping gold and silver bullions and coins, which resulted in dollar devaluation by about 30% and investors in precious metals losing large amounts of money. The executive order requiring surrender of the Treasury gold certificates is in fact the government's failure to pay on these obligations. While the US or Russia control their own currency, European countries don't and cannot devaluate the currency as they wish in order to ease their debts. Thus in Euro-zone the devaluation solutions taken by Russia and the US are not possible. Cyprus cannot devaluate its currency, and even if it could - its external debt would not likely to be denominated in it (actually, Russian debt isn't denominated in Rubles, that's why they forced restructuring of their own debt, but devaluating the currency helped raising the money from the citizens similarly to the US seizing the gold in 1930's). Thus, in case of Cyprus or other Euro-zone countries, direct taxes is the only way to raise money from the citizens. So if you're in a country that controls its own currency (such as the US, Russia, Argentina, etc) and especially if the debt is denominated in that currency (mainly the US) - you should be worried more of inflation than taxes. But if you're in the Euro-zone and your country is in troubles (which is almost any country in the zone) - you can expect taxes. How to avoid that? Deal with your elected officials and have them fix your economy, but know that you can't just ""erase"" the debt through inflation as the Americans can (and will), someone will have to pay."


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"You don't offer any specifics, so I'm guessing a little about what you're talking about, but here's a few thoughts: Remember that all tax-related transactions are reconciled when you file. All of your activity for the year is totaled up and (for the most part) when during the year things happen is irrelevant.   Your gross taxable income is calculated (which will exclude any ""pre-tax"" activity, deduction applied (which will any include and ""post-tax"" deductions), tax liability calculated, and withholdings subtracted to get your net tax due.  Whether you have ""pre-tax"" activity and less tax withheld or ""after-tax"" activity with a deduction and reduce your net tax, the net effect should be the same."


Here's a link with comparison of various online and offline PF software: http://personalfinancesoftwarereviews.com/compare-personal-finance-software/


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In your specific case, I would leave them open unless you have a specific reason for wanting to close them - particularly, unless you feel closing them is necessary for you to not misuse them. The impact on the credit score is not why I say this, though.  Much more important are the two competing real factors: My suggestion would be to take the cards and put them in your file cabinet, or whatever would cause you to not use them.  In fact, you could even cut them up but not close the accounts - I had an account open that I didn't possess a physical card for several years for and didn't use at all, and it stayed open (though it's not guaranteed they'll keep it open for you if you never use it).   In an emergency you could then ask them to send you a new copy of the card very easily.  But, keep them, just in case you need them. Once you have paid off your balances on your balance-carrying cards, then you should consider closing some of them.  Keep enough to be able to live for ~4-6 months (a similar amount to the ideal rainy day fund in savings, basically) and then close others, particularly if you can do so in a way that keeps your average account age reasonably stable.


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Is that normal? Yes. It's in fact pretty low. Just the FICA taxes you pay are ~7.5%, so you're paying ~21% for State and Federal. Pretty reasonable, especially if you live in a high-tax state (which MA is ~5.3% on all income).


I've been to one of these seminars:  a) you can get a loan of up to $700,000 from the company and only have to pay a fixed amount for the use of money, but you have to pay the loan off in nine months.  Or b) you can just invest say $50,000 and you'll get a return of say 4%.  But what the company does is take all of the investor's money and use that to fund the loans (putting none of the company’s money at risk), and that fixed amout sounds reasonable until you realize that it's only for a part of the year so the real APY is actually much higher than the conventional lending rate; or the rate they are paying the investors.


Register for one the biggest IMG junior worlds World jr golf championships is organizing world junior golf Championships in the Arizona for all the players. For participating in this game you have to register yourself by logging into our which is worldjrgolfchampionships.com, there are several types of championships we are organizing for all players. Candidate and IMG junior worlds must have to pay $30 once per year and applies to all WJGC Tournaments, along with these things We also give you stay near the event, which cost will be minimum for participants.


"You can get a ""drive-by"" appraisal or an assessment from a local real estate agent. This obviously will give you a less precise and not as reliable information as a full appraisal, but will be significantly cheaper."


We were members at costco, but decided not to renew.  Meat was a definite cost savings, and laundry detergent as well.  Diapers used to be a huge savings, but loblaws seems to be pricing things better now.  We did by a bunch of Kirkland brand diapers and wipes before the membership ended. The problem we had was that you just get too much stuff - you save a bunch on that laundry detergent that you buy once every two years, or the chicken you have in your freezer forever. In Canada, the basic membership is $55 and we could not be certain we made that back, nor that we weren't over consuming as we walked the aisles.  I have heard that the more expensive membership ($100) which gives you 2% back on purchases is a good way to gauge your usage and determine if it is worth it. It also costs nothing to give it a try - their policy is a full refund at any time, so in theory you could go in on your 364th day and get a refund.


I am able to set this up for my tenants by providing them with a form to fill out so that they provide their name and bank account information, and then I gave that to my bank and they establish a recurring ACH transfer.  This way the tenant never gets my bank information. One note about this, I had a tenant break her lease and move out.  She notified me a couple of days before the first of the month, and by the time she had moved a few days later the rent had been automatically paid.  She called her bank and asked them to reverse the most recent transaction so she could have that month's rent refunded, and much to my surprise, they did.  So the financial transfer is not necessarily one-way. This is in the US.


Doesn't most of the time either in this job market. Losing a job over 40 is a pretty big deal.  Even bigger when there's a real danger of being out of work for an extended period. Honesty as a young person you have no idea how rough it is on older people to reboot a career....on top of losing more than half of your wealth and having way fewer years to recover.     There's a lot f kids right out of college that can't get jobs and that's true, but when the economy recovers there'll be a lot of you in the same boat, meaning the hiring pools won't be able to be as sticklers about no experience. Just like when the economy recovers and banks want to start lending to homebuyers in bulk again...so many people ha e bad credit from the collapse that they won't be able to set über high standards across the board in lending or the simply won't have a big pool of eligible applicants.     At some point millenials will be hired en masse as the economy recovers. The same is not nearly true for a forty something with a big unemployment gap. Over 50, forget about it almost entirely.


Funny how you keep dodging the question and yet try to pretend I'm the one whose outlook is dysfunctional. If you're so certain of yourself, why not answer the question?   Do you recognize and respect the right of others to have a difference of opinions, and your inability to force them to act how you choose?


You can designate one or more beneficiaries for your HSA account who will get the money when you die.  Some states require consent from your spouse (if you're married) if they are not the beneficiary. The funds maybe taxable to the beneficiary. If you don't designate any beneficiaries, by default the money will go into your estate and be handled the same as other assets.  The funds may be taxable by the estate. If you had any medical expenses before you died, it might be possible to pay them from the HSA. When looking around for information about this I would start with the IRS publications which are the authoritative source of this information.  Other articles you read are usually just summarizations of this information and can sometimes be incomplete or incorrect. http://www.irs.gov/publications/p969/ar02.html#en_US_2014_publink1000204096


This story will end up being a case study at business schools.  It isn't often that non-union workers, most of whom don't get paid much, bring a company to its knees over a change at the top like this.  This is a 71 store chain.  This CEO is a multi millionaire.  Customers and employees risked their jobs and paid more for groceries elsewhere just to get this guy back in charge.  That's a relationship between management, employees, and customers that is extremely rare.


Thanks. I see the term 'cofounder' used for those who were instrumental in the creation of businesses (such as Twitter) despite only being employees at the time. I think with Twitter there is an argument that employees were founders because they pivoted a failing business with employee ideas for products.   But in my case, I have a pretty good idea of what I want to do and if a founding-employee were to drastically change the idea for the better, I would probably allow the title 'co-founder', if they pivoted from a failing idea to a winning idea.   As for employee stock, it's pretty common these days to give away some capital (maybe 10%) to employees in order to spur them on. The idea that they could potentially all become millionaires if the product launches and is successful down the track is a good incentive to work hard. Of course it would have to vest over time.


>Does he manipulate the Corporate BK laws by playing a Corp shell game and filing for BK protection - Yes.  Is that like how I manipulate the laws of physics when I walk across the street? All parties are well aware of securities and bankruptcy law. It's not like he gets federal bankruptcy laws changed halfway through his business deals. Companies go bankrupt all the time, just because he lends his brand to a business doesn't mean that he should be personally responsible for anything. If Nike went bankrupt, should Lebron James NBA salary be taken from him?


Should you care? From Vanguard: The long-term impact of investment costs on portfolio balances   Assuming a starting balance of $100,000 and a yearly return of 6%, which is reinvested Check out this chart, reflecting the impact of relatively small expense ratios on your 30 year return:  All else being equal you should very much care about expense ratios. You end up with a significantly smaller amount if your pre-expense return is the same. A 0.75% difference in ER compounds to 20% over 30 years. If so, how should I take them into consideration when comparing funds? I'm in the U.S. if that matters. If they track the same index, cheaper is better. The cases where higher expense ratios might be better are if you believe that index will outperform the market by enough to recoup the cost of the ER.  There is significant research that most funds do not do this.


"I might as well add my 2 cents here.  Further to what robotik said, the intrinsic value is essentially the ""value contained within itself."" As an entity, an item, an object - anything for that matter, the intrinsic value is what someone can benefit from it.   In reference to the Water paradox asked by Yorn; my perspective is that water has an ""positive"" intrinsic value in either case because the intrinsic value of something is independent of who it affects and how it affects anyone. If humans were a species that was allergic to water and caught fire upon touching it - water would be considered to have a very ""negative"" intrinsic value.  It doesn't matter the second person is drowning in water, the fact that water is an essential part of life - the intrinsic value of it is positive and unchanged. Perhaps the ""situational value"" would be a more subjective measure?"


I'd go to specialist community web sites such as The Motley Fool and read their investing articles, and their forums, and everything. You cannot get enough information and advice to get going, as it is really easy to think investing is easy and returns are guaranteed. A lot of people found that out in 2008 and 2000! For example, they have a 'beginners portfolio' that will teach you the very basics of investing (though not necessarily what to invest in)


Terminology aside.  Your gains for this year in a mutual fund do seem low.  These are things that can be quickly, and precisely answered through a conversation with your broker. You can request info on the performance of the fund you are invested in from the broker.  They are required to disclose this information to you.   They can give you the performance of the fund overall, as well as break down for you the specific stocks and bonds that make up the fund, and how they are performing. Talk about what kind of fund it is.  If your projected retirement date is far in the future your fund should probably be on the aggressive side.  Ask what the historic average is for the fund you're in.  Ask about more aggressive funds, or less if you prefer a lower average but more stable performance.  Your broker should be able to adequately, and in most cases accurately, set your expectation. Also ask about fees.  Good brokerages charge reasonable fees, that are typically based on the gains the fund makes, not your total investment.  Make sure you understand what you are paying. Even without knowing the management fees, your growth this year should be of concern.  It is exceptionally low, in a year that showed good gains in many market sectors.  Speak with your broker and decide if you will stick with this fund or have your IRA invest in a different fund. Finally JW8 makes a great point, in that your fund may perform well or poorly over any given short term, but long term your average should fall within the expected range for the type of fund you're invested in (though, not guaranteed). MOST importantly, actually talk to your broker.  Get real answers, since they are as easy to come by as posting on stack.


A lot of people for some reason give hate to avenues of information gathering that aren't to their proper code of professionalism.   If a degenerate gives me great insight while a idiot dressed to the T gives me incorrect information then I'm going to go with the degenerate.   Good for you, good luck on your search.


You may withdraw your contributions to a Roth IRA at any time for any reason without penalty.   Any gains you withdraw may be subject to tax or penalties though, but there is a $10,000 exclusion (from the 10% penalty, not the taxes) for a first time home purchase.


"Many years ago you used to be able to purchase ""currency packs"" that were combined bundles of currencies from western Europe based on the number of days you would be spending in each country. The exchange rates on these were very favorable and they had minimal surcharges.   With the rise of the euro I doubt these bundles are still available as I haven't seen them myself in about 10 years."


Marijuana is completely illegal within National Parks under federal law. You can actually go to jail for possession of if it's your second offense. First offense is usually a several hundred dollar citation.   Edit: why am I getting down-voted for warning people?


Not arguing about ethics, but why is this a problem?  They didn't make anything worse/more difficult/more dangerous.  In fact, all this does is help anyone who has the discontinued 60.  They didn't pay for a 75, so it's not like they didn't get what they paid for.  Would it make you happier if the 60 came with a smaller battery and you had to buy a different one to upgrade?  Of course, then they have no way of assisting consumers trying to evacuate, but that's a fair price to pay for a less convenient way to upgrade your vehicle, right?


The company released its 2nd Quarter Revenue of $1,957,921 a couple days ago however the stock did not move up in any way. Why? If the company is making money shouldn't the stock go up. But that result doesn't indicate that the company is making money.  The word for making money is profit, not revenue.  Profit equals revenue minus costs.  An increasing revenue could mean decreasing profits.  For example, marketing expenses could eat up the entirety of the new revenue.   This is one of the most basic aspects of researching stocks.  If you are having trouble with this, you might find yourself better suited to invest in mutual funds, where they do this research for you.  In particular, the safest kind of mutual funds for an inexperienced investor are index funds that track a major index, like the S&P 500.   Another issue is that stock prices aren't based on historical results but on expected future results.  Many a company has reported smaller than expected profits and had their price fall even though profits increased from previous results.   Looking at it long term would it hurt me in anyway to buy ~100,000 shares which right now would run be about $24 (including to fee) and sit on it? It would cost you $24.  You might get a return some day.  Or you might waste your money.  Given the comparatively large upside, the consensus seems to be that you will probably waste your money.  That said, it's not a lot of money to waste.  So it won't hurt you that much.  The most likely result remains that the company will go bankrupt, leaving your stock worthless.


This is my personal opinion but im guessing your shitty coworkers would be shitty with or without pot.sounds like you company is just bad as evaluating people. I personally believe employers shouldn't have the right to discriminate against people for what substances they use in thier personal time.


Online you can find better than average free psychic chat room. Psychic readings exactness can change contingent on your association with a specific otherworldly peruser. It doesn't make a difference whether one is ensured or a world acclaimed psychic, nobody can offer flawlessness with regards to precise free psychic chat room expectations constantly. There are numerous approaches to look for direction yet a talk perusing can furnish you with and encounter that most nearly takes after an in person session since you can see one another up close and personal.


As a business analyst, you'll work within an organization, to manage change and plan for the future in line with company goals. This could be for one specific project, or as a permanent of the Business Analysis organization. You'll need to understand a current organizational situation, identify future needs and create solutions to help those needs, usually (but not always) in relation to info and software systems.


I thought this was because credit card companies charge the retailer a fee to accept credit card payments. If you spend $100, the retailer pays $1 (or whatever percentage they have negotiated) to the credit card provider.  Handing over $100 cash and paying $1 fee to Visa means a loss to the retailer. The same transaction on $100 worth of product means the loss is accepted out of the profit margin which the retailer accepts to attract custom.


For Euribor Nothing seems to exist for MIBOR, except maybe the Spanish stock exchange.


Get the latest information on Xbox One with Xbox One Tips and Tricks! This dedicated website is made for Xbox One fans to further improve their gameplay. Accessing this website is a breeze as it is very user-friendly. What are you waiting for? See it for yourself by visiting xboxonetipsandtricks.co.uk.


Thank you ! Yes that is the thing, thats is the way I want to go, I will not care playing nights working on a thing I love, but I just do not know what my real passion is. I will try to be a lot more self aware.


It's possible, but I doubt it. You have to consider federal income tax, state income tax, state sales tax, local sales tax, property tax, FICA, utility taxes, telecom taxes, and all the little government fees as well to figure the total tax burden.   It's really hard to calculate, but I doubt the total is below the peak for the middle class.


Home sellers, are you still trying to sell your house? Sell your property fast, even if you've tried almost everything…  Get an all cash offer on your house regardless of location, condition, size, and price. You can close quickly – often within the next 30-days and get rid of your problem property. If you need to sell fast, look no further.  Does this sound familiar? You've put the sign in the yard, placed ads in the paper, posted your house on craigslist, worked with agents, and maybe you've received some responses, but none of them have made the sale… we can help. Size, location, condition, it doesn't matter — we are looking for properties, can pay cash, and close quickly.  http://ibuyyourhousetoday.com/


"Economists actually hate the interest deduction, especially for mortgages. From The Economist:   ""Allowing interest payments, but not dividends, to be deducted from corporate profits before tax is paid is a huge distortion to the system. It is a perk worth around 11% of the value of corporate assets. It has tended to encourage companies to take on more debt. By doing so, it may make the economy more risky at the margin: in a recession, highly-indebted companies are likely to go bust more quickly, whereas companies with lots of equity capital can ride out the storm. As a result, this newspaper has favoured the abolition of the deductibility rule.""  http://www.economist.com/news/finance-and-economics/21716050-would-be-risky-time-fiddle-tax-code-what-if-interest-expenses  More from 538  https://fivethirtyeight.com/features/the-tax-deductions-economists-hate/"


"This may be closed as not quite PF, but really ""startup"" as it's a business question.  In general, you should talk to a professional if you have this type of question, specifics like this regarding your tax code. I would expect that as a business, you will use a proper paper trail to show that money, say 1000 units of currency, came in and 900 went out. This is a service, no goods involved. The transaction nets you 100, and you track all of this. In the end you have the gross profit, and then business expenses. The gross amount, 1000, should not be the amount taxed, only the final profit."


This site has the best information I could find, other than a Bloomberg terminal:    Quantumonline.com QUANTUMONLINE.COM SECURITY DESCRIPTION:  SCANA Corp., 2009 Series A, 7.70% Enhanced Junior Subordinated Notes, issued in $25 denominations, redeemable at the issuer's option on or after 1/30/2015 at $25 per share plus accrued and unpaid interest, and maturing 1/30/2065 which may be extended to 1/30/2080. Interest distributions of 7.70% ($1.925) per annum are paid quarterly on 1/30, 4/30, 7/30 & 10/30 to holders of record on the record date which is the business day prior to the payment date (NOTE: the ex-dividend date is at least 2 business days prior to the record date). Distributions paid by these debt securities are interest and as such are NOT eligible for the preferential 15% to 20% tax rate on dividends and are also NOT eligible for the dividend received deduction for corporate holders. Units are expected to trade flat, which means accrued interest will be reflected in the trading price and the purchasers will not pay and the sellers will not receive any accrued and unpaid interest. The Notes are unsecured and subordinated obligations of the company and will rank equally with all existing and future unsecured and subordinated indebtedness of the company. See the IPO prospectus for further information on the debt securities by clicking on the ‘Link to IPO Prospectus’ provided below.


I think Austin is the only city *in Texas* that has completely banned plastic bags. Regardless, I said in my original comment that not the ENTIRE STATES of Florida and Texas have gotten rid of plastic bags + charge you for them.  Are they shifting there? Sure.


Pretty simple: When is Cash Value Life Insurance a good or bad idea? It is never a good idea. How can life insurance possibly work as investment? It can't.  Just as car, home, or health insurance is not an investment.  Note for counter example providers:  intent to commit insurance fraud is not an investment. Why not live your life so in 15 or 20 years you are debt free, have a nice emergency fund built and have a few 100 thousand in investments?  Then you can self-insure.  If you die with a paid off home, no debt, 20K in a money market, and 550,000 in retirement accounts would your spouse and children be taken care of?


I'm not mad at anyone, I am aware of what a business large and small have always done and will always do.  This is why we need to make some changes to the law.  If your company turns a profit at some level, you must be required to spend X dollars on your peoples benefits be it through direct compensation or healthcare/whatever.  I don't see a problem with a private company picking up the tab for their employees if they have the means to do so.  Why should you and I pay for Walmarts employees?


I believe the answer is no, since your income from royalties and app sales would fall under FDAP income. (another conformation of this would be the fact that Apple and Google requested a W8-BEN form from you and not a W8-ECI form) Generally, All income EXCEPT FDAP income (fixed or determinable annual or periodical income) are ECI income.  FDAP income includes income from interest, rent, dividends etc. IRS link to a list of all Income classified under FDAP below:- https://www.irs.gov/individuals/international-taxpayers/fixed-determinable-annual-periodical-fdap-income https://www.irs.gov/pub/irs-pdf/iw8eci.pdf (page 3 - under effectively connected income)


It would be quite the trick for (a) the government to run all year and get all its revenue in April when taxes are due and (b) for people to actually save the right amount to be able to cut that check each year. W2 employers withhold the estimated federal and state taxes along with the payroll (social security) tax from each paycheck. Since the employer doesn't know how many kids you have, or how much mortgage interest, etc you will take deductions for, you can submit a W4 form to adjust withholdings.   The annual Form 1040 in April is to reconcile exact numbers, some people get a refund of some of what they paid in, others owe some money.  If one is self-employed, they are required to pay quarterly estimated taxes. And they, too, reconcile exact numbers in April.


Although not technically an answer to your question, I want to address why this is generally a bad idea.   People normally put money into a savings account so that they can have quick access to it if needed, and because it is safe.  You lose both of these advantages with a foreign account.  You are looking at extra time and fees to receive access to the money in those australian accounts.  And, more importantly, you are taking on substantial FX risk.  Since 2000 the AUD exchange rate has gone from a low of 0.4845 to a high of 1.0972.  Those swings are almost as large as the swings of the S&P.  But, you're only getting an average return of 3.5%, instead of the average return people expect with stocks of 10%. A better idea would be to talk to a financial adviser who can help you find an investment that meets your risk tolerance, but gives you a better return than your savings account. On a final thought, the exception to this would be if you plan on spending significant time in Australia.  Having money in a savings account there would actually allow you to mitigate some of your FX risk by allowing you to decide whether to convert USD when you are travelling, or using the money that you already have in your foreign account.


"> Let's just say the insurance industry knows a lot more about underwriting than you do.  I'm sorry, but that is a meaningless statement. I work in insurance (first as a consultant, before 'retiring' to work in insurance distribution a few years ago), and I know that our industry frequently uses flawed or outdated methodologies due to the simple fact that insurance companies are very conservative and *very* resistant to change when it comes to changes to their core business. Unless you can show a direct, negative impact on the bottom line caused by the currently used method, you are unlikely to make any changes at all. In this case, if the entire US car insurance industry is using the same flawed system, it won't affect a single company if they also stick to it.   Until 1996, before the current system was introduced, insurance companies in Germany used to rate liability insurance for cars (almost) exclusively by engine power output. The industry had known that this method was fundamentally flawed since at least the late 1980s (comprehensive and partial coverage had been rated by the 'new' system for a few years at this point, which had also taken years to work out), but it took additional years of planning, negotiations and cooperation by the entire industry to change to the new system for liability.   So please, do not ever assume that ""the insurance companies are the experts, they know what they are doing!"". It might very well be the case that they are stuck with flawed/outdated systems simply because there is no sufficiently strong impulse to change what they do.   The current Tesla rate adjustment situation is a wonderful example of this - it apparantly took AAA *5 years* since the Model S first came out to realise that their initial estimate was wrong (it seems unlikely that the accident rate or repair costs have suddenly changed over the last year) and take appropriate actions. By late 2013, there were easily enough Teslas on the road (about 20,000) to get realiable data, yet nothing happened for nearly another 4 years."


Exactly. that is paying double the money for no better coverage. It makes no sense. The paperwork when you file a claim will ask you if there is coverage from another policy. Making the same claim to two different policies, without telling them,  would be considered insurance fraud. For that kind of money the insurance company would be involved with paying the re-builder money periodically. Obviously only one re-builder is involved, and they would notice if they were getting paid more than was required. While you could decide to take the money and not rebuild, but that wouldn't work if you had a mortgage. The lender would want their money or force you to rebuild.


The problem with this is that the guys that actually use this shit for work (djs that actually still make music) can't get their shit pressed anymore because big guys (Sony etc) are completely maxing out the presses and there is simply not enough capacity anymore. All that to serve idiots that don't even have the right setup to ever tell me he diff between cd and vinyl but hey ... it's cool. At the same time it will kill why it became hip in the first place ... same old


The US has a tax treaty with Ukraine (unlike Singapore), so you should be in a similar situation to Canadians etc. who choose to use a foreign broker.  You'll have to file a W8BEN to reduce withholding taxes, and they'll want identification documentation and so on, and I imagine they'll want a wire transfer to fund the account.  In many places now they are requiring permission to share information with the tax authorities in your home country (you waive your privacy), but that may not be true with Ukraine, and should not be a problem in any case if you're being upfront.


"GreenLight offers a paid service for $5 per month that requires an adult primary account holder, and then unlimited accounts, including minors, as part of that service. I saw no minimum age requirement (see section ""Minors as Sub-Account Cardholders""). https://www.greenlightcard.com/index.html Disclaimer: I haven't tried this service"


"When a house is sold at a foreclosure auction, the selling bank usually does not provide the guarantees that a normal house seller provides.  Furthermore, the previous owner may have neglected the property, and/or spitefully damaged the property.  Bank-owned properties are often neglected and/or vandalized.  Banks are usually too short-sighted to properly market the real estate they own, and do a poor job of making it easy to buy the property. Thus, foreclosure sales usually happen at a price that is significantly below the ""fair market value"" of sales between competent households.  It is common for a house that is worth $ 125,000 (even in a depressed market) to sell for only $ 100,000 in a short sale or foreclosure. It is possible that this property sold for an even larger discount.  It is also possible that the tax assessor is (inadvertently) comparing a run-down property with well-maintained properties that have extra expensive features, without fully adjusting for the properties' conditions and features.  In the latter scenario, the property owner can ask the tax assessor to re-consider the assessment.  Usually this request is called an ""appeal""."


He may not be saying it (that woudld be stupid and get him into legal trouble),  but he certainly is *implying* to his employees that if they vote for Obama he will fire them (or that theres a good chance he will).


Taking every court to case isn't in the best interest of the public either (on a net basis). Often those settlements accept the fine, but dong admit guilt. This can be important in federally regulated industries where guilt would result in automatic suspension of licenses and practice. Those regulations were put in place knowing that most companies would settle.  Also, there's valid reason for deducting the settlement! In many businesses lawsuits are ordinary expenses (consumer facing ones with lots and lots of employees). People being up frivolous suits all the time and it's cheaper to settle for a small amount than pay expansive attorneys to go to court. Effectively, it's like an admin expense, we don't tax revenue, we tax profit.  Finally, this would seriously clog courts, and jury's can be crazy biased to emotional stories.   Yes, some parts could be changed, but it serves a valid purpose.


Basically the idea is you put the exact amount of cash into each envelope and set those aside for a specific purpose. Then when you go to accomplish that specific purpose such as grocery shopping or whatever, you take the corresponding envelope and use only the money that is inside. It is sort of a way to train yourself to follow budgets very strictly. Many people stand by this method and it really is as simple as the website you linked to. As far as tracking, this method really doesn't track anything aside from what you note down about where the money is going. Others have moved on to using ING sub accounts to do the same thing but in a digital form.


the data source is the same as the live market trading. pre and after market trading are active markets and there are actual buyers and sellers getting their orders matched.


SavingsMap is a web-based personal finance forecasting tool that requires no bank account or personal information other than an email address. As founder of SavingsMap, our goal is to forecast future cash flows based on your current budget, while using strategies to minimize US tax obligations and taking into account expected major life events.


RSU are taxed when vested, based on their value at that point, as salary. If you don't sell to cover, you need to pay the taxes, if you sell to cover - you sell the portion that is worth the taxes (brokers do that automatically, and remit the taxes on your behalf). Once paid your taxes, it becomes a regular stock position - short term gains if you sell within a year after vesting, long term if you wait for more than a year. The consideration whether to wait or sell is as with any other investment, them being previously restricted has no meaning. You calculate the gain for each position, so the fact that you have more than one position is not a problem. The RSU income and the taxes paid will appear on your W2, so when the broker reports proceeds, you can show the basis and thus calculate the gain. See this question for some useful answers on how to report the RSU sale on your taxes.


401(k) plans, 403(b) plans, IRAs etc all require more paperwork than a non-tax-advantaged investment. As a result, most such plans (with Vanguard as well as with other management companies) offer only a small set of investment options, and so it costs the plan sponsor (you wearing your Employer hat) money if you want to add more investment options for your Solo 401(k) plan).  Note that with employer-sponsored retirement plans, investments in each mutual fund might be coming in small amounts from various employees, much less than the usual minimum investment in each fund, and possibly less than the minimum per-investment transaction requirement (often $50) of the fund group. Taking care of all that is expensive, and it is reasonable that Vanguard wants to charge you (the Employer) a fee for the extra work it is doing for you. When I was young and IRAs had just been invented (and the annual contribution limit was $2000 for IRAs), I remember being charged a $20 annual fee per Vanguard fund that I wanted to invest in within my IRA but this fee was waived once my total IRA assets with Vanguard had increased above $10K.


Paying up in full before the statement is posted does not seem a good idea. I feel you should keep some small amount to be posted as a statement balance and pay that in full each month. If you keep your statements as always 0 will give creditors an impression that you have cards and you don't utilize them, so they cant really gauge how you preform being debt, whether you are able to manage your debt well etc. I always keep <100 dollar in every credit card I have to be posted a statement balance. I have >100k credit line over 3 cards. So if I take air ticket to SE Asia runs into 3000$ for my family, I pay 2900.00 a day before statement generates and keep 100 for statement to be posted. pay 100 the next day or as auto debit. This way you have some utilization + lower credit card outstanding at any point make your utilization right in single digits.


"It's not at all different from anything that happens in reality. Everybody deals with risk and uncertainty, everybody worries about the future, and everybody puts their best mind to bear on it. You gamble, you hedge your bets, you try to do your best with what you've got and what you're willing to give up. People who aren't in the financial industry can also think about their goals in a fine-tuned, strategic, mathematical way. Being able to accurately model reality is useful for pretty much everything.  The way in which it is actually totally different is not addressed. People who deal in derivatives can do a very precise job of predicting the future. So can astronomers, bullfighters, and migratory fish. The difference is that people who deal in derivatives have the ability to leverage reality to obtain a preferred future reality in a uniquely influential way. The guy is acting like investment banks live up on a mountain and look at tea leaves and send down memos about securities once a year.   >Changing the shape of the graph is in some loose sense the business of the financial system, particularly the big investment banks, which are sometimes thought of as ""dealers in risk.""   So are drug dealers. But the guesses investment banks make about the future affect the actual future of investment banks in a way that isn't available to, say, cobblers, so they are dealing with much less of their own risk than most people.   >Buying and selling derivatives means consciously trafficking in risk and uncertainty, in a relatively uncut form. This makes it interesting to people who don't buy or sell derivatives for a living, but who are curious about risk and uncertainty.  It also makes it interesting to people who are curious about why their lives are affected by the the risk and uncertainty of people who trade in derivatives."


It's also a pain in Alexa as the price they give is inclusive of any promo credits you may have. So it may say it costs $2 but in reality it cost you a $10 Amazon credit that you forgot you had and could have been used on almost anything else


The other example I'd offer is the case for diversification. If one buys 10 well chosen stocks, i.e. stocks spread across different industries so their correlation to one another is low, they will have lower risk than each of the 10 folk who own one of those stocks per person. Same stocks, but lower risk when combined.


"Most (if not all states) in the US are only interested in source income. If you worked in that state they want to tax it. Many states have reciprocity agreements with neighboring states to exempt income earned when a person works in lets say Virginia, but lives in a state that touches Virginia.  Most states don't consider interest and dividends for individuals as source income. They don't care where the bank or mutual fund branch is located, or headquartered.If it is interest from a business they will allocate it to the state where the business is located.  If you may ask you to allocate the funds between two states if you move during the year, but most people will just divide the interest and dividends based on the number of days in each state unless there is a way to directly allocate the funds to a particular state.  Consider this: Where is the money when it is in a bank with multiple branches? The money is only electronic, and your actual ""$'s"" may be in a federal reserve branch. Pension funds are invested in projects all over the US."


I was in a similar situation at age 18/19, but not making quite as much money. I maxed out an IRA and bought savings bonds, although rates were decent then. I did flitter away about half of what I earned, which in retrospect was probably dumb. But I had a good time!


It is a dangerous policy not to have a balance across the terms of assets. Short term reserves should remain in short term investments because they are most likely needed in the short term.  The amount can be shaved according to the probability of their respective needs, but long term asset variance usually exceed the probability of needing to use reserves. For example, replacing one month bonds paying essentially nothing with stocks that should be expected to return 9% will expose oneself to a possible sudden 50% loss.  If cash is indeed so abundant that reserves can be doubled, this policy can be expected to be stable; however, cash is normally scarce.  It is a risky policy to place reserves that have a 20% chance of being 100% liquidated into investments that have a 20% chance of declining by approximately 50% just for a chance of an extra 9% annual return. Financial stability should always be of primary concern with rate of return secondary only after stability has been reasonably assured.


> hard to avoid.  Unless, you know, you create a foreign corporation to do all your trading. Its not 'your' money to be taxed until someone can prove ownership. I honestly don't see how this is any different than the use of trusts to lower tax obligations in the middle ages.


It's easy to act like this was obvious now but back then people thought the financial system was going to collapse.  WB was willing to bet $5 billion on a bank that had lost 90% of its value in two years.  He is a shrewd and unemotional investor, most people would keel over from the stress of that decision.


Those fields are used in a bank-to-bank transfers that do not use SWIFT. SWIFT is a messaging system, however with the fields you have listed, banks can exchange messages directly without having to use SWIFT. Your bank may not support bank-to-bank transfers, in which you need to notify your client that it needs to be a SWIFT transfer.


>Warren Buffet (although his son seems to be very competent and grounded, to some degree).   Warren buffet is not being succeeded as CEO by his son. One son is a sheriff in Illinois and the other is an artist. Jain or Abel at Berkshire are most likely to take over when he passes the torch.


For a while I tried shopping multiple grocery stores, checking fliers each week from three different stores and then making the trip to all three stores to save ten cents on each item. After a couple months, I decided it just wasn't worth it.  So, I picked my favorite store.  I shop once a week, after reviewing the flier and making a list.  I clip coupons and try to only buy what's on my list.  (I confess that coupons sometimes get me to buy a brand or item I wouldn't have otherwise... it's my weakness!) The biggest place that we save money though, is by paying attention to meat prices.  I know that chicken and pork go on sale for $1.99/lb every 4 to 6 weeks at my grocery store.  When it does, I buy a enough to last until the next sale, and freeze it in single-meal portions.  Steak and fish are special treats, but on the rare occasion that they're less than $4/lb, I'll buy those.  We also try to limit our meat consumption to every-other-day. It's not worth it for me to obsess over the price of ketchup that I buy twice a year, but on expensive items like meat, and items we use daily, I become familiar with their regular prices and sale prices, and buy extra when it's on sale.  If, like me, you don't have room in your brain to keep track of the prices of everything, stick with the things you spend the most on, either because they're expensive, or you buy a lot.


First article says store closures are due to online shopping, then because people are spending less on clothes and more on restaurants and travel.   How about we are just spending less because we have been bled dry? You can only funnel money to the top for so long. At some point there is less to funnel.


Mint.com does a pretty good job at this, for a free service, but it's mostly for personal finance. It looks at all of your transactions and tries to categorize them, and also allows you to create your own categories and filters. For example, when I started using it, it imported the last three months of my transactions and detected all of my 'coffee house' transactions. This is how I learned that I was spending about $90 a month going to Starbucks, rather than the $30 I had estimated.  I know it's not a 'system' like an accounting outfit might use, but most accounting offices I've worked with have had their own home-brewed system.


"Both are saying essentially the same thing.  The Forbes articles says ""as much as 20% [...] up to a maximum of $50,000"".  This means the same as what the IRS page when it says the lesser of a percentage of your income or a total of $53,000.  In other words, the $53k is a cap: you can contribute a percentage of your earnings, but you can never contribute more than $53k, even if you make so much money that 20% of your earnings would be more than that. (The difference between 20% and 25% in the two sources appears to reflect a difference in contribution limits depending on whether you are making contributions for employees, or for yourself as a self-employed individual; see Publication 560.  The difference between $50k and $53k is due to the two pages being written in different years; the limits increase each year.)"


Preview of the research paper here:  [Long-Term Persistence of Hormonal Adaptations to Weight Loss](http://www.nejm.org/doi/full/10.1056/NEJMoa1105816)  These findings are very interesting especially considering the hormonal indicators used and the metabolic production and pathway diversity between each.   Basically looks (to me) like some kind of long term normalisation failure and considering the differences in the indicators involved would imply a large chunk of our knowledge regarding metabolic regulation in mammals is missing.


"* SEC.  So I guess you're in favor of the little guys getting screwed while Insiders trade tips on stocks? If you bothered to do any sort of research you'd realize that for the scope of its mission, the SEC is not allocated near enough to do its job.  The SEC is there to ensure that all play fair, but they are underfunded.  *Govt Titty.  I have no idea what you are going on about.  Try to stay on topic.  * Sales Tax.  Off-topic again, but please re-examine your exremely demented Libertarian ideals.  If you like roads, water, street lights, and not getting butt-raped b/c the police rescued you, then you like State Sales tax; you just don't know it yet.  And of course it's their right. WTF.  * Enron.  Bad example.  The SEC monitors trades, so they have the ability to know how many trades an Exchange has done.  Of course, they have been underfunded so they don't have enough money to monitor all of them reliably, but more funding will fix that.  * Market Death.  Are you drunk?  No, seriously.  I make posts like this when I'm drunk.  If not, then please explain how you relate a person dying to an Exchange being stable & trustworthy?  * Stability by Change.  OK, now I'm pretty sure you are drunk.  Geez, it's the middle of the day.  ""Stability by change""?  Stability requires stability, not change.   I'm embarrassed to even be responding to this right now."


I'll make sure to save this and we can come discuss it as things develop. I'm willing to bet my next paycheck on Trump resigning and being indicted while Hillary will not even being indicted. I'm not saying the email thing wouldn't have lost some people their jobs and brought on possible charges, but it's not a super serious crime and as she no longer and will not in the future need security clearance, there's not much point in going after her because it's over and so is her career. However, Trump & Cos alleged, collusion with Russia is an ongoing issue if true.


Prices quoted are primarily the offer prices quoted by the numerous market makers on the stock exchange(s) willing to sell you the stock. There is another price which generally isn't seen on these websites, the bid prices, which are lower prices quoted by buyers and market makers willing to buy your shares from you. You wouldn't see those prices, unless you login to your trade terminal. How meaningful are they to you depends on what you want to do buy or sell. If you want to buy then yes they are relevant. But if you want to sell, then no. And remember some websites delay market information by 15 minutes, in case of Google you might have seen that the volume is delayed by 15 minutes. So you need to consider that also while trading, but mayn't be a concern unless you are trying to buy out the company.


"Personally, I would: a) consider selling the car and replacing it with a 'cheaper' one.  If you only drive it once a month, you are probably not getting much 'value' from owning a nice car. b) move the car (either current or replacement) out to your parent's place.  The cost of a plane ticket is about the same as the cost of the garage, and your parents would likely hold on to it for free (assuming they live in the suburbs, and parking is not an issue) option b should lower your insurance costs (very low annual mileage) and at least you'll get some frequent flier miles out of your $350 a month. That being said: this is a ""quality of life"" issue, which means that there isn't going to be a firm answer.   If you are 25, have little debt, which you are paying off on time, have an emergency fund, and you are making regular contributions to your 401k, you are certainly NOT ""being seriously irresponsible"" by owning a nice car.  But you may decide that the $1000 a month could be better spent somewhere else."


"I have never had a credit card and have been able to function perfectly well without one for 30 years. I borrowed money twice, once for a school loan that was countersigned, and once for my mortgage. In both cases my application was accepted. You only need to have ""good credit"" if you want to borrow money. Credit scores are usually only relevant for people with irregular income or a past history of delinquency. Assuming the debtor has no history of delinquency, the only thing the bank really cares about is the income level of the applicant. In the old days it could be difficult to rent a car without a credit car and this was the only major problem for me before about 2010. Usually I would have to make a cash deposit of $400 or something like that before a rental agency would rent me a car. This is no longer a problem and I never get asked for a deposit anymore to rent cars. Other than car rentals, I never had a problem not having a credit card."


I believe moving reimbursement has to be counted as income no matter when you get it. I'd just put it under miscellaneous income with an explanation.


Yes, 6% is a waste of money, because some other brokers such as IB offer margin rates below 2%.   Also, to borrow money for even less than any broker's margin interest rate, one can do an EFP transaction.   This involves simultaneously shorting a stock and buying the SSF for the same stock.   When the futures contract expires, you take delivery of the underlying stock to automatically close out your short position.  Until then, you've effectively borrowed cash for the cost of borrowing the stock, which is typically less than 0.5% interest for widely traded ones.  You also pay for the slight difference in price between the stock and the future, which is typically equivalent to another 0.5% interest or less.  The total often comes to less than 1% interest. The only risk with this transaction is that the stock could become hard to borrow at some point, so then you would have to pay higher interest on it temporarily or maybe even have to close out your short early.  But it is extremely rare for large, high-volume stocks to become hard-to-borrow.  The borrowing cost of SPY has spiked above 5% on only a handful of days in the last decade.


"Here is, from Yahoo Finance, the S&P 500 over the last ~60 years (logarithmic scale):  The behavior since ~2000 has been weird, by historical standards. And it's very easy, looking at that graph, to say ""yes! I would have made so much money had I invested in March '09!"". Of course, back in March '09, it wasn't so clear that was the bottom. But, yes, over the last 10 years or so, you could have made more money by adopting a rule that you'll accumulate cash in a FDIC (or similar) insured savings account, and dump it into an S&P index fund/ETF when the index is n% off its high. Of course, if you look at the rest of the chart, that strategy looks a lot less promising. Start in the early 80's, and you'd have held cash until the crash in 2000. Except for the recent weirdness, the general trend in the S&P 500 (and stock markets in general) has been upward. In other words, to a first-order approximation, the S&P 500 is always at an all-time high. That's just the general trend."


Everyone wants good health in the immediate sense, of course. However, it certainly doesn't stop many from smoking or drinking.   Do people complain about firemen or police taxes like they do with the price of healthcare?   Just like the government insuring all of  college debt in guaranteed loans, it will only add fuel to the fire. It's the same story again and again   Medicare and medicaid is already an expense in the form of taxes that is beyond comprehension. Government needs to get out to improve the costs, both lobbying and legislation portions.


Regulated vs unregulated crypto makes sense - it seems like it's easier for government officials to simply enforce a blanket restriction on cryptocurrency transactions of all kinds than bother to make the distinctions between different types. I expect China's shutdown will be the first of many in terms of national governments on cryptocurrency.


How would they make money from it?   They sell you the software for $100 (US example; could as easily be 100 Euros or 10,000 Japanese Yen).  You use it to make recommendations on your blog.  Your blog becomes rich from advertising.  They sold $100 worth of software.  If they spent $1 million in labor developing it, they're way behind.   Another problem is that the software would stop working and need adjusted periodically.  This is easy to do on a server but annoying on a PC.  And who pays for the adjustments?   Put both those things together, and it's a lot easier to do on a server.  Another advantage is that a server can get a better data feed as well.  Pay a premium for the detailed information rather than relying on public sources.  And people are used to renting server access where they expect to buy software once.   Another issue is that they are unlikely to beat the market this way.  Yes, AIs have done so.  But that's the latest AI, constantly adjusted.  This is going to be a previous generation AI.  It's more likely to match the market.  And we already have a way to match the market:  an index fund.   If someone had a brilliant AI, the best use would probably be to sell it to a fund manager.  The fund manager could then use the AI to find opportunities for its existing investors.  Note that a $10 billion fund with a 10% return that gives a .1% commission would be paying $1 million.  And that has no marketing or packaging overhead.  Think $10 billion is a lot?  Fidelity has $2 trillion.


I have a couple of questions regarding Bank Loans.  1.) can they ever trade above par? From my understanding, most get called due to refinancing.  2.) if a bank loan has a floor attached to it that's tied to LIBOR, say 100bps, and that floor is pierced, does the floor automatically disappear, or does that specific loan need to be refinanced before the floor can be done away with? Additionally, should an investor be more cautious when investing in a bank loan without a floor? With regard to the second half of my question, I would think an investor would demand a higher yield without the assurance of a floor.


I'm going to echo Phil and say that you should add more information. That being said, I think it is possible for you to owe the government that much. If you received a federal health insurance subsidy and live in a state that didn't expand medicaid, you could have received a subsidy through out the year that you did not end up qualifying for. It appears you are outside the medicaid limit of 133% of the poverty level($11,670) or $15,521. If you received a subsidy of $275 a month from the marketplace, you would have received $3300 worth of aid from the government that you don't qualify for. Now they are expecting you to pay it back.


So Netflix loses either way under your great plan.  You can't watch Netflix with Comcast's shit quality so you cancel, you can now watch it but Netflix is paying for access and you say they should cancel out of principle.    Comcast doesn't care.  They compete against Netflix and are losing to them in subscribers. Comcast also has virtual monopoly powers in many market areas.  I'm not seeing how complaining to Comcast solves anything.


We're in the learning curve phase. Once people familiarize themselves with them, they will be a breeze.   Also, they still require employees but 1 employee usually watches over 4 kiosks.  These things will easily pay for themselves and then some eventually. They can work 24 hours a day and never get sick.


"You don't have to hire a tax consultant, there is a number of companies who sell software (installable or web-based) that helps you do it by asking for all relevant data interview-style. These typically cost between 15 and 25 EUR. I'm not sure whether any of them are available in English, but if you can read German well, you should be OK. taxback.com is in English, but to be honest it looks a bit dodgy to me. Now for your questions: are there some tricky fields (lines) that after filling in my taxes will be counted higher? This is rare, at least for employees you nearly always get something back. are there some tricky fields (lines) that after filling in my taxes could be counted lower? Not in general. Marriage is mentioned below, and otherwise it's all about individual deductibles. Ah, one important factor: if you have investment income and have not filed a Freistellungsauftrag with your bank, you can get some of the taxes by filling out the ""Anlage KAP"" form with data you got in the Jahressteuerbescheinigung from your bank. are there some flat-rates (Pauschals) that I could get advantage from? Absolutely. As an employee, the biggest factor is the Werbungskostenpauschale of (I think currently) 1000 EUR for general work-related expenses, which will be accepted without proof. If your expenses are higher than that and you file individual expenses, there are flat rates for work-related moving and for commuting distance. is it better to give a tax return together with my wife (who was only a girlfriend in 2013 living with me in one household) or to give it separately? It's not possible to do a joint tax filing for the time before your marriage. What you should consider is to apply for a different tax class from now on, if one of you earns significantly more than the other. when separately, do I have to fill her information in my tax return or can I just pretend there is nobody else in my apartment? As far as taxes are concerned, unmarried roommates are treated completely separately with one exception: only one of you can deduct service charges included in your rent. You have to get a Nebenkostenabrechnung from your landlord, and service charges, i.e. janitor, gardener, etc. should be marked separately. But this may not be worth bothering with, usually it results in a tax return of maybe 15 EUR. is there any guide in English that could be of help with filling in the tax return form? I couldn't find anything that looked really useful in a short search."


> Any ideas on how to execute this?  I don't have any licenses or degrees in business, but I think that there are government resources that can help you.  The best one I see, so far, is [information](http://www.irs.gov/businesses/small/article/0,,id=99336,00.html) from the IRS, about federal taxes and business. It is a good starting point.   And, I would recommend finding, and talking with businesspeople who have done things like this, before. It is apparent that you are doing that, and I wish you luck.   I do hope that you'll keep us in the loop about this, and ask any additional questions. :)


The cost of living is quite high in New York City.  It has the highest CPI (Consumer Price Index) of any city in the U.S.  Salaries also tend to be highest in NYC.  Just about any bicycle lock sold in the U.S. has an exception in its warranty for NYC.  It is the most populous American city. So, why do people deal with all the hassles of living here? Because, it is a hotbed of activity.   I venture that the advantages are basically the same in Zurich:


I see this same argument with Amazon who's P/E is also through the roof. Valuation is way more complicated than looking at income statement ratios. There are some pretty solid reasons for its valuation. I'm inclined to agree it is overvalued, but not as much as you think.


It is possible to not use checks in the US. I personally use a credit card for almost everything and often have no cash in my wallet at all. I never carry checks with me. If we wanted to, we could pay all of our monthly bills without checks as well, and many people do this. 30 years ago, grocery stores didn't generally accept credit cards, so it was cash or check, though most other kinds of stores and restaurants did. Now, the only stores that I have encountered in years that do not accept credit cards are a local chicken restaurant, and the warehouse-shopping store Costco. (Costco accepts its own credit card, but not Mastercard or Visa.) Still, we do pay the majority of our monthly bills via check, and it would not be shocking to see someone paying for groceries with a check. I can't name the last time I saw someone write a check at a store exactly, but I've never seen any cashier or other patrons wonder what a check-writer was trying to do. Large transactions, like buying a car or house, would still use checks -- probably cashier's or certified checks and not personal checks, though.


It is a decent time to purchase real estate despite dsquid's opinion.  I feel dsquid is falling for the old economic psychology of what ever direction its going it will continuing in that direction, which is a bad mentality for any investing (up or down).     This may not be the bottom, and there is some sign that another dip is coming with in a year or two.  But if you purchase now, and focus on a few key factors you may end up on the upside of the swing.  First and foremost location matters more then value of the property.  When the pent up demand is eventually released (after we get employment moving in the right direction) you will see a land grab.  The first and highest valued places are those with nice neighborhoods and good schools as the young families (economically unburdened) start making homes.    Second pay attention to valuation in so much as your burden.  This means consider taxes and mortgage and terms of mortgage (stay away from variable or balloon rates).  When thing go up the interest rates will lead the way.  In this time of uncertainty you should make sure you can cover your mortgage payment with ease.  Put plenty down (20% being the recommended to avoid mortgage insurance and long term costs) and shoot low on  price.  If you're handy you may even consider buying something that needs minor work (outdated kitchen or the like).   If you shoot lower then your limit, then you'll be comfortable even if things turn sour for you.  Ultimately all this hinges on what you want to do with the property.  Its a wise time to buy homes today where you will be able to rent them out tomorrow.  But the important thing is aim in the middle instead of at your limit (450 is definitely your limit).  Remember banks will always tell you that you're able to afford twice as much as you actually should.  And keep in mind, no matter how new or nice the home, it will need work at some point and that costs.  So you should have that in mind when you consider savings.  Based on your information I wouldnt shoot higher then 250-300k.  I have friends who make your salary in dividends plus two incomes and they are comfortable in their home at its 250 price.  They are able to afford repairs and upgrade regularly and arent threatened by potential tax hikes (though they gripe of course).   The one good piece of advice from dsquid IMHO is that you should be ready for the environment to change.  Higher interests rates will weigh on your comfort as much as CPI and increased taxes will so plan for them to be much higher and you'll be ahead of the game.