If you have money and may need to access it at any time, you should put it in a savings account.  It won't return much interest, but it will return some and it is easily accessible.   If you have all your emergency savings that you need (at least six months of income), buy index-based mutual funds.  These should invest in a broad range of securities including both stocks and bonds (three dollars in stocks for every dollar in bonds) so as to be robust in the face of market shifts.   You should not buy individual stocks unless you have enough money to buy a lot of them in different industries.  Thirty different stocks is a minimum for a diversified portfolio, and you really should be looking at more like a hundred.  There's also considerable research effort required to verify that the stocks are good buys.  For most people, this is too much work.  For most people, broad-based index funds are better purchases.  You don't have as much upside, but you also are much less likely to find yourself holding worthless paper.   If you do buy stocks, look for ones where you know something about them.  For example, if you've been to a restaurant chain with a recent IPO that really wowed you with their food and service, consider investing.  But do your research, so that you don't get caught buying after everyone else has already overbid the price.  The time to buy is right before everyone else notices how great they are, not after.   Some people benefit from joining investment clubs with others with similar incomes and goals.  That way you can share some of the research duties.  Also, you can get other opinions before buying, which can restrain risky impulse buys.   Just to reiterate, I would recommend sticking to mutual funds and saving accounts for most investors.  Only make the move into individual stocks if you're willing to be serious about it.  There's considerable work involved.  And don't forget diversification.  You want to have stocks that benefit regardless of what the overall economy does.  Some stocks should benefit from lower oil prices while others benefit from higher prices.  You want to have both types so as not to be caught flat-footed when prices move.   There are much more experienced people trying to guess market directions.  If your strategy relies on outperforming them, it has a high chance of failure.  Index-based mutual funds allow you to share the diversification burden with others.  Since the market almost always goes up in the long term, a fund that mimics the market is much safer than any individual security can be.  Maintaining a three to one balance in stocks to bonds also helps as they tend to move in opposite directions.  I.e. stocks tend to be good when bonds are weak and vice versa.


The expense ratio is stated as an annual figure but is often broken down to be taken out periodically of the fund's assets. In traditional mutual funds, there will be a percent of assets in cash that can be nibbled to cover the expenses of running the fund and most deposits into the fund are done in cash. In an exchange-traded fund, new shares are often created through creation/redemption units which are baskets of securities that make things a bit different. In the case of an ETF, the dividends may be reduced by the expense ratio as the trading price follows the index usually. Expense ratios can vary as in some cases there may be initial waivers on new funds for a time period to allow them to build an asset base. There is also something to be said for economies of scale that allow a fund to have its expense ratio go down over time as it builds a larger asset base. These would be noted in the prospectus and annual reports of the fund to some degree. SPDR Annual Report on page 312 for the Russell 3000 ETF notes its expense ratio over the past 5 years being the following: 0.20% 0.20% 0.22% 0.20% 0.21% Thus, there is an example of some fluctuation if you want a real world example.


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If you get a loan for 80% of the value of your house, that's equivalent to buying a house with a 20% down payment (assuming the appraised value is what you'd buy it for).  That's the minimum down payment for Fannie Mae backed loans without PMI (mortgage insurance).  See this table for more details. Freddie Mac (the other major mortgage backer) has a good fact sheet on cash out loans (which is what this is called) here.  It also specifies: Maximum LTV ratio of 80 percent for 1-unit primary residences  As noted in other answers, the 80% rule is to protect the bank (and ultimately, Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, who will eventually buy most of these loans) so it is more likely to recoup the total value of the mortgage if they must foreclose on the house.


Before starting with investing, you should make sure you are saving enough.  Living in a welfare country (France) does not exempt you from potentially needing to save large amounts of money. You state that you do not need much of an emergency day fund, but this is not true.  Being dismissed unjustly from your job is not the only way to become unemployed and not all roads lead to unemployment pay.  Being fired for cause or leaving your job voluntarily are two work related causes that will leave you without an income source.  Unexpected major expenses are another reason you might need to dip into your emergency fund. If your emergency fund is in order, the next thing to investigate is your pension and saving for retirement.  In a country with a strong pension system, you need to check how comfortable you are with its sustainability (Greece anyone?) and also whether it will adequately meet your needs.  If not, there are no 401ks or IRAs in France, but there is a relatively new personal supplementary pension plan (PERP) that you might investigate contributing to. If you're comfortable with your emergency fund and your retirement savings, then preparing for buying a house is likely your next savings goal.  A quick search shows that to get a mortgage to buy a house in France, banks will commonly require a downpayment of 20% plus various closing costs.  See for example here.  This is 40,000+ euro for a 200k euro house, which will take you several years at the rate of 500 euro / month.  France has special plans (Plan d’Epargne Logement) with tax-exempt interest for saving up for a house that you might want to investigate. In your other question, you also ask about buying a cheap car.  As you get older and possibly start a family, having a car will likely become more of a necessity.  This is another goal you can save for rather than having to take a loan out when you buy one.


"In many cases the expenses are not pulled out on a specific day, so this wouldn't work. On the other hand some funds do charge an annual or quarterly fee if your investment in the fund is larger than the minimum but lower than a ""small balance"" value. Many funds will reduce or eliminate this fee if you signup for electronic forms or other electronic services. Some will also eliminate the fee if the total investment in all your funds is above a certain level. For retirement funds what you suggest could be made more complex because of annual limits. Though if you were below the limits you could decide to add the extra funds to cover those expenses as the end of the year approached."


I was just thinking ahead, can I apply for Limited company now, while fully time employed, and not take any business until I get a contract. Yes. You can open as many companies you want(assuming you are sane). There is no legal provisions regarding who can open a company.   What happens if I create a company and it has no turnover at all? Does this complicate things later? After you open a company, you have to submit your yearly statements to Companies House, whether you have a billion pounds turnover or 0. If you claim VAT that has also to be paid after you register for VAT. VAT registration is another registration different from opening a limited company. Is it the same if I decided to take a 1,2 or x month holiday and the company again will not incur any turnover? Turnover is year end, so at the year end you have to submit your yearly results, whether you took a 12 month holiday or a week's holiday. Is it a OK to do this in foresight or should I wait weeks before actually deciding to search for contracts. No need to open a limited company now, if you are so paranoid. Opening a company in UK takes 5 minutes. So you can open a company after landing a contract.


Here's a little different perspective. I'm not going to talk about the quality of the investment, the expected return, or any of the other things you normally talk about when evaluating investments. This is about family, and the most important thing here is the relationships.  What you need to do here is look at the different possible scenarios and figure out how each of these would make you feel. Only you can evaluate this. For example, here are some questions to ask yourself: I know how I would answer these questions, but that wouldn't help you any. But the advice I would give you is, assuming you have this money to lose, and are also investing elsewhere, evaluate this solely on the basis of the effect on your family relationships.  The only other piece of advice I would give you is to knock out that student loan and car loan debt as fast as you possibly can. Minimize your investments until that debt is gone, so you can get rid of it even faster.


Yah, I think the weakness in the contract is that if the charge were disputed and it ended up in court, the hotel would be forced to show who placed the review and that it was from a particular wedding party.  It wouldn't have to be libel to be contractually binding behaviour.  For example you might sign a contract with a writer stating that they would be financially penalized if they wrote anything at all on Yelp (or any other site, fact or fiction).  This goes for other perfectly legal behaviours as well.  Actors have signed contracts that stipulate that they remain fat to keep their job, for example.  Its legal to lose weight, the actor is certainly 'free' do so, but they might also lose their job.


I don't feel bad about this at all. I am actually surprised that the Sears near me has remained open as long as it has, and the K-Mart in a nearby city when I tried to pick up something from online purchasing was one of the oldest, creepiest looking stores I have been in in a while and was the biggest hassle of all time. I wrote them an email about my experience and surprise - they never got back to me.


"Educating everyone is a cultural investment, but not necessarily a good fiscal investment. (for the govt.)  200 years ago, being able to read and perform arithmetic pretty much guaranteed you an ok job, because it was a rare skillset.  The government decided that everyone being able to read and do basic maths would be a good thing, so they force us all to pay for it and they force us all to attend school. So, most of the country has a basic education. That's obviously a good thing, but it doesn't guarantee everyone in the country a good job. If 1000's of people have the same skillset and are all applying for the same job, it's impossible to differentiate job candidates. In the job market, a skill that everyone has is effectively valueless.   The same thing is happening with college. We have tons of college graduates that are all applying for the exact same jobs, and we (as a society) have produced more people to do that small group of jobs and haven't produced any people to do other jobs. Somewhat ironically immigrant workers do a lot of the work we should be doing ourselves, but we all went to college and all want to do the same ""good/high paying/etc"" jobs. And there's too many of us and not very much demand for the skills we can deliver.  So, giving secondary educations to even more people, wouldn't be a bad thing in and of itself. But it wouldn't help anyone find work."


If you can make the trip to BC yourself, I'd recommend opening an account with TD Canada Trust.  They allow non-citizens to make accounts — apparently the only Canadian bank to do so.  The customer service is great and they have a good online banking site that will allow you to manage it from the US. If you have an account with TD Bank in the US, it's also very easy to set up a TD Canada account through them that will be linked on their online site (though you will still have separate logins for both and manage them separately).  I've done the reverse as a Canadian living in the US.  You can set it up over the phone; their Cross-Border Banking number is listed here.  They also offer better currency conversion rates than their standard ones when you do a cross-border transfer. You could also look into HSBC as well.  They operate in Washington as well as across the border in BC.  If you can't open a CAD account locally, they can help you open and manage one in Canada from the US.  It may or may not require having a small business account instead of a personal account.


interesting and good points BUT,   1- the S&P e-mini has plenty of liquidity for me and all of us here at reddit. idont think that we could move/influence its price with our trades.   2- i dont have the historical of bid-ask or tick by tick, it is backtested on 1min chart, entering the trade at a close of a 1min bar and subtracting a commission/slippage of a tick or two per trade. your thoughts ?


From what I’ve seen across a multitude of firms, the gaps start at recruiting (outsourced to a person with a BA from an unknown foreign school and no experience for $5000/yr) and propagate throughout an organization because accurate metrics for measuring IT talent are few and far between.   They don’t realize their ship is sinking until 90% of their costs are maintaining inflexible legacy applications that aren’t even remotely functioning in alignment with their digital strategy anymore, and then they hire Wipro or Infosys or whomever else to come fix it.. and then, when it becomes an unfixable clusterfuck of nonsense, they pay someone else for managed services until, like, I don’t know, the business goes under or the building explodes when the IBM 7070 mainframe they’re still using catches fire. It’s truly a fascinating cycle.


Inequality is good for everyone. It's extreme inequality and extreme equality that snuff mobility and growth. The sides are strong because they're the height of financial/democratic power. So to support either side means taking from the weaker center. And it's the center that holds the house together.


There are definitely ways to retroactively consolidate medical bills -- there's an entire industry of companies offering debt consolidation (many of which are scummy/predatory, be careful! See https://www.consumer.ftc.gov/articles/0150-coping-debt and some decent articles at http://blog.readyforzero.com/are-there-legitimate-debt-consolidation-loans and http://blog.readyforzero.com/how-to-find-a-reputable-debt-consolidation-company). In general, what you are looking to do is take out a loan, possibly at a better interest rate than whatever you are being charged currently, and pay off the medical bills. If you are not paying interest on the medical bills and are just being allowed to spread out the payments, you are already golden and should just put up with the ups and downs. If you have any equity in a home, take out a home equity loan or line of credit, pay off your medical bills. Rates are still great right now. Even if you have no home equity to tap, if you have a steady job you might be able to get a nice small loan from a local bank or peer-to-peer lending site. Do your homework and only work with reputable companies, especially if doing things online.


In your situation you will be using your normal savings to offset additional funding from student loans or similar financing. Also, sending your children to or moving to a jurisdiction that has lower education costs but ample opportunity should also be in your cards. That can be another state, or another country.


So far we have a case for yes and no.  I believe the correct answer is... maybe. You mention that most of your expenses are in dollars which is definitely correct, but there is an important complication that I will try to simplify greatly here.  Many of the goods you buy are priced on the international market (a good example is oil) or are made from combinations of these goods.  When the dollar is strong the price of oil is low but when the dollar is weak the price of oil is high. However, when you buy stuff like services (think a back massage) then you pay the person in dollars and the person you are paying just wants dollars so the strength of the dollar doesn't really matter. Most people's expenses are a mix of things that are priced internationally and locally with a bias toward local expenses.  If they also have a mix of investments some of which are international and depend on the strength of the dollar and some are domestic and do not, then they don't have to worry much about the strength/weakness of the dollar later when they sell their investments and buy what they want.  If the dollar is weak than the international goods will be more expensive, but at the same time international part of their portfolio will be worth more. If you plan on retiring in a different country or have 100% of your investments in emerging market stocks than it is worth thinking about either currency hedging or changing your investment mix.  However, for many people a good mix of domestic and international investments covers much of the risk that their currency will weaken while offering the benefits of diversification.  The best part is you don't need to guess if the dollar will get stronger or weaker. tl;dr: If you want your portfolio to not depend on currency moves then hedge.  If you want your retirement to not depend on currency moves then have a good mix of local and unhedged international investments.


"There was a ""Joint Select Committee on Deficit Reduction"" that sadly, was dissolved in 2012 when they determined that there work was done. With Trump postulating that a default might be a good idea, it seems like it's needed now more than ever."


Expectations and entitlement have changed.  Back in the eighties we called this shit jobs for shit pay forcing to roommate in a single bed loft.  Bunk beds, the horror, the horror ...  You were never meant to be on minimum wage forever doing unskilled labor while raising a family.  Not sure why this is difficult.


"Short answer: No. Being connected is very helpful and there is no consequence by securities regulators against the investor by figuring out how to acquire pre-IPO stock. Long answer: Yes, you generally have to be an ""Accredited Investor"" which basically means you EARN over $200,000/yr yourself (or $300,000 joint) and have been doing so for several years and expect to continue doing so  OR have at least 1 million dollars of net worth ( this is joint worth with you and spouse). The Securities Exchange Commission and FINRA have put a lot of effort into keeping most classes of people away from a long list of investments."


You may feel like your not learning anything but the amount of doors that remain closed to you without a degree is very large. You can go directly into the work force but your potential to grow in salary will be a lot less than with a degree in addition to starting at a lower wage. This also depends a bit on the field you go into.   I would recommend either staying in school or going to a trade school. Shorter amount of time, less money, and you'll be working quicker with room for growth.   If you want to stay in school take it upon yourself to learn more. Study up applicable things. Joint career focused organization. Your additional skills will show on your resume and soon after joining the workforce.


Well, the largest, in terms of both volume and unfortunately, contact size is the options on the S&P futures index. It's based on one contract which is $250 times the current S&P index, or just over $300K current value. This does not make for too cheap an option cost, but it's definitely the largest as you requested.  For the average Joe, or Ray, in this case, the most popular ETFs are SPY and DIA for the S&P and Dow Jones, respectively. These are reasonably sized so their options are within range of your goal. See the SPY options at Yahoo. Then flip over to the DIA options.  (SPY reflects 1/10 the S&P so an option contract, on 100 SPY shares is effectively on 10 times the S&P index or 1/25 the futures option pricing.)


>Subsiding green and taxing pollutants seems to be the only way to mitigate climate change.  Actually, Elon Musk has shown there are alternatives.  >Businesses are required by law to maximize profit  Actually, no they aren't. This myth survives for many reasons too numerous to explain, so here is a [link.](https://blogs.law.harvard.edu/corpgov/2012/06/26/the-shareholder-value-myth/)  >which means polluting if it makes you more money.  Not really how it works, as most pollution came from a lack of regulation, not purposeful intent. Avoiding costly regulation and/or cleanup after is both unethical and immoral, but perfectly legal.  >Or I guess the fundamental nature of businesses could change.  Good luck with that.


The market can only bear so many high-priced mini-mansions. It's like a car dealership trying to sell Lexus and BMWs in a neighborhood where everybody can only afford a base model Honda.  There is plenty of housing, but not enough housing that is affordable.


If I recall correctly off of their quarterly reporting, their major expense was Admin/Overhead.  I think it comprised of half of their expenses.  My disclaimer is that I just took a quick look at their financial report and might be remembering incorrectly.


"The pure numbers answer says you want the refund to be close to $0.  You can even argue, as some answers have, that you want to try to maximize the payment without receiving any sanctions for underpaying during the year. If you trace the money, it's easy to see why.  Let's say you get a paycheck.  Tag some of the dollars for Uncle Sam.  These are the dollars that, eventually, will be given to the IRS.  Now consider the following scenarios: From the raw numbers like this, its clear that you lose utility by setting yourself up for a large refund check.  The money was yours the entire time, but you chose to give it to Uncle Sam instead. However, the raw numbers are only part of the puzzle.  If you're a cold steely-gazed numbers person, they're the part that matters.  When the billionares are playing their tax evasion games, this is the only thing they are paying attention to.  However, real humans have a few psychological reasons they may choose to lose utility in terms of raw dollars in exchange for psychological assistance: These attitudes exist, and may be ideal for any one person.  Obviously the financially savvy answer of ""minimize your refund"" is the ideal answer from a dollars and cents perspective, but its up to you to see whether that attitude is right when you account for all of the non-measurable things, like stress.  In general, I would lead anyone to ""minimize your refund,"" but I would be remiss if I didn't include the very real psychological reasons people choose to deviate from it."


I'm 100% ok with that.  I'm 100% not ok with giving Walmart my tax dollars, if we are going to hand out tax dollars to someone, I'd rather give it to people who are out of work instead of being middleman'd and giving it to walmart who then gives a tiny piece of it to their workers.  Walmart can exist on it's own merits or not exist at all.  This is how the free market works.


"I started a business a few years ago.  At one point it wasn't going so well and my father ""loaned"" me an amount not too dissimilar to what you've done. From a personal perspective, the moment I took that loan there was a strain the relationship.  Especially when I was sometimes late on the interest payments...  Unfortunately thoughts like ""he doesn't need this right now, but if I don't pay the car loan then that is taken away"" came up a few times and paying the interest fell to the bottom of the monthly bill payment stack. At some point my wife and I finally took a hard look at my finances and goals.  We got rid of things that simply weren't necessary (car payment, cable tv, etc) and focused on the things we needed to.  Doing the same with the business helped out as well, as it helped focus me to to turn things around.  Things are now going great. That said, two of my siblings ran into their own financial trouble that our parents helped them on.  When this happened my father called us together and basically forgave everyone's debt by an equal amount which covered everything plus wrote a check to the one that was doing fine.  This ""cleared the air"" with regards to future inheritance, questions about how much one sibling was being helped vs another, etc.  Honestly, it made family gatherings more enjoyable as all that underlying tension was now gone. I've since helped one of my children.  Although I went about it an entirely different way.   Rather than loan them money, I gave it to them.  We also had a few discussions on how I think they ought to manage their finances and a set of goals to work towards which we co-developed.  Bearing in mind that they are an individual and sometimes you can lead a horse...  Given the current state of things I consider it money well ""spent""."


I'm not alarmed. I definitely have some sociopathic traits, but I doubt I'm really a sociopath, or if I am, I'm very bad at being one. I do not know how to con or manipulate people. In fact, I used to be quite vulnerable to being manipulated myself. I think I can be an ok liar, but since I don't lie often, I don't really know. In childhood I was known for being well-behaved, and I did very well academically. I have, in the past, felt bad about doing some immoral things, but I would never acknowledge remorse out of pride. (It's embarrassing to be remorseful and give in to society.) When I thought about it, it didn't make sense to feel bad about violating society's rules because I don't like society, except for the food and material goods. Beyond that, society is restrictive and weird.


Because idiots like you voted for Hillary, and Trump is much much better than Hillary. **Actually, Hillary and the Democrats (like you!) are so envious at how well Trump is doing.**  Anyway, to the point, Trump is reducing the debt like no other president, including Obama. Yes or no?


The closest thing to purchasing prospects we did was buy an email list that contained the names of several thousand people who fit our profile. Personally, I am not in favor of doing that. The companies you are buying from really don't understand what you want and you end up getting a hodge podge of information that never really gets you anywhere. Outside of that I am sure there are other services that provide prospecting, but the best lists are always developed internally.    Good luck!


In software sales. 90% of the time the purchaser bids out the sale to 4-8 vendors who then have to compete to win the business. One team eats, the rest go hungry. On large enterprise sales, the process can last over a year. It really hurts when you lose those.


"I agree.  Job offered benefits were implemented to entice people to work for their company when the demand for good workers was higher than the supply.   Now people expect benefits and the govt has also took it upon itself to mandate employers provide medical benefits.  One way around this is to higher part time workers to keep costs down.  So basically the governments ""good intentions"" of helping the masses will actually cause more harm directly to the people it was supposed to help."


"The mutual fund is legally its own company that you're investing in, with its own expenses. Mutual fund expense ratios are a calculated value, not a promise that you'll pay a certain percentage on a particular day. That is to say, at the end of their fiscal year, a fund will total up how much it spent on administration and divide it by the total assets under management to calculate what the expense ratio is for that year, and publish it in the annual report. But you can't just ""pay the fee"" for any given year. In a ""regular"" account, you certainly could look at what expenses were paid for each fund by multiplying the expense ratio by your investment, and use it in some way to figure out how much additional you want to contribute to ""make it whole"" again. But it makes about as much sense as trying to pay the commission for buying a single stock out of one checking account while paying for the share price out of another. It may help you in some sort of mental accounting of expenses, but since it's all your money, and the expenses are all part of what you're paying to be able to invest, it's not really doing much good since money is fungible. In a retirement account with contribution limits, it still doesn't really make sense, since any contribution from outside funds to try to pay for expense ratios would be counted as contributions like any other. Again, I guess it could somehow help you account for how much money you wanted to contribute in a year, but I'm not really sure it would help you much. Some funds or brokerages do have non-expense-ratio-based fees, and in some cases you can pay for those from outside the account. And there are a couple cases where for a retirement account this lets you keep your contributions invested while paying for fees from outside funds. This may be the kind of thing that your coworker was referring to, though it's hard to tell exactly from your description. Usually it's best just to have investments with as low fees as possible regardless, since they're one of the biggest drags on returns, and I'd be very wary of any brokerage-based fees when there are very cheap and free mutual fund brokerages out there."


The World Recovery Centers is the area where drug addiction treatment centers will be most different from each other. After completing  your initial Recuperation from addictions subsequent stage is typically a more extended inpatient treatment program, otherwise called a private treatment. Our experienced doctors and profession staff focuses they place on various aspects of addiction. If your addiction is spiraling out of control and you feel that you can’t manage your life.


How could the tiny amount of cobalt used in the development of a potential new type of solar cell, that isn't commercially available, be responsible for deaths attributed to existing solar installations?  Why do you think solar panels need lithium batteries to hold the charge?


Unsure on your message. I like advertising if it gives me free websites - couldn't imagine a world where I have to pay to use Google and any website I may potentially be interested in looking at.  If the alternative is to pay a subscription or not have the website, I'm simply not keen. I'll subscribe to some but I'm unable to subscribe to all. Internet is an education to me - if today I decide I'd wish to start a cinema and spend 6 hours researching how, it would be unrealistic to subscribe to each website I visited.  Ultimately though I don't quite understand your response, but appreciate it nonetheless.


"Specifically, if you are looking for a ""reasonable"" rate for a savings (especially in TFSA) account then Ally has a 2% guaranteed account and ING has a 3% one (but it is subject to change). Update (Dec 9, 2013) - unsurprisingly, the ING special has disappeared .. I blame ScotiaBank. The current best rates are 1.35 and 1.40%. For Ally, we can blame RBC - current rates are 1.1"


"As others have said, doing a monthly budget is a great idea.  I tried the tracking expenses method for years and it got me nowhere, I think for these reasons: If budgeting isn't your cup of tea, try the ""pay yourself first"" method.  Here, as soon as you get a paycheck take some substantial portion immediately and use it to pay down debt, or put it in savings (if you have no debt).   Doing this will force you to spend less money on impulse items, and force you to really watch your spending.  If you take this option, be absolutely sure you don't have any open credit accounts, or you'll just use them to make up the difference when you find yourself broke in the middle of the month. The overall key here is to get yourself into a long term mind set.  Always ask yourself things like ""Am I going to care that I didn't have this in 10 years? 5 years? 2 months? 2 days even?  And ask yourself things like ""Would I perfer this now, or this later plus being 100% debt free, and not having to worry if I have a steady paycheck"".   I think what finally kicked my butt and made me realize I needed a long term mind set was reading The Millionaire Next Door by Tom Stanley.  It made me realize that the rich get rich by constantly thinking in the long term, and therefore being more frugal, not by ""leveraging"" debt on real estate or something like 90% of the other books out there tell you."


"> I try not too pay too much attention to religious zealots selling theft as something to be proud of.  I'm consolidating all your ""taxation is theft"" claims [to here](https://www.reddit.com/r/economy/comments/6y4oum/a_new_study_shows_how_little_tax_the_superrich_pay/dmm5rcz/) in the hopes you might actually give me an answer this time."


No. The above calculation does not hold good. When financial statements are prepared they are prepared on a going concern basis, i.e. a business will run normally in the foreseeable future. Valuation of assets and liabilities is done according to this principle. When a bankruptcy takes places or a business closes down, immediately the valuation method will change. For assets, the realizable value will be more relevant. For example, if you hold 100 computers, in an normal situation, they will depreciated at the normal rate. Every year, some portion of the cost is written off as depreciation. When you actually go to sell these computers you are likely to realize much less than what is shown in the statement. Similarly, for a building, the actual realizable value may be more. For liabilities, they tend to increase in such situation. Hence just a plain computation can give you a very broad idea but the actual figure may be different.


">Nazis weren't socialist   The National Socialist Party - that's what Nazis is the shortened form of in German.  >Just because they had socialist in their name doesn't mean they were socialist.  So then the ""Democrats"" doesn't mean they're democratic, and we'll vote the same type of people in again then?  I mean, if we can't trust what the party name is, we might end up voting them in again under a different name."


In general, liquidity is a good thing, because it means it is easy for you to buy or sell a stock.   Since high liquidity stocks have a lot of trading, the bid-ask spreads tend to be pretty low.  That means you can go into the market and trade easily and cheaply at just about any time.  For low liquidity stocks, the bid-ask spreads can get pretty high, so it can make it hard or expensive to get into or out of your trades. On the flip side, everyone pays attention to high liquidity stocks, so it's harder to get an edge in your trading.  For a company like Microsoft there are 30-50 full time analysts that cover them, thousands of professional traders and millions of investors in general all reading the same new articles and looking through the same financials as you.  But in low liquidity stocks, there probably aren't any analysts, a few professional traders and maybe a few thousand total investors, so it can be easier to find a good buy (or sell). In general, high liquidity doesn't mean that everyone is selling or everyone is buy, it just means everyone is trading.


We can take is managing the garbage that we generate from our homes, offices, factories, manufacturing units, etc. and for this, we can hire a waste collection Sydney company but the problem is that hiring an appropriate company or service provider is not easy at all.


"I was on a form of a retainer for a little over a year.  My situation kind of sucked but there's ways in which it would be favourable. I was pretty green at the time and just agreed to what they wanted. I worked for them as an employee for over a year, but they didn't pay overtime so I asked to work part time for them instead. They bait and switched me to work contractor. I renegotiated pay to be higher to fit that. I was paid minimum 22.5 hours a week, on a monthly schedule, plus any extra hours I worked.  In reality a retainer would pay in advance and you wouldn't have to actually be present for the minimum hours like I was. Still was better than being an employee.  I worked as an ""application developer"". But this isn't an unheard of thing in the tech sector; former employees that built your systems to be contracted at a later date to provide their expertise at a higher rate because they are the most familiar with the system and/or have a track record of being very good at satisfying the business' specifications or needs."


In 2008, the S&P was down 37%.  I love charts that show sector performance by year, as it helps show that 2008 wasn't like the crash of 2000-01 which was more tech-centric. Funds that were more geared towards bonds would have been up as the 10 year Treasury was up 20%.  I understand you have a low risk tolerance. Over the long term, this will cost you. The CAGR for the S&P from 1928-2011 was 9.23%, for treasuries, 5.14%. This difference adds up dramatically over time. These rates double your stock investments every 8 years on average vs nearly 14 years for bonds.  See the MoneyChimp site to tinker with start/finish years to understand long term returns.


>I get the idea behind it but certainly you would agree that it can be seen as a selfish mindset.  Yes, but capitalism is selfish and wage-labor is exploitation in the first place.  If you want people caring for the group goals, getting absorbed, and giving their all to the team, you don't hire wage/salary workers, you inspire a band of brothers.


At 1.4 Million, you can definately afford a professional advisor who would give you the best advice taking into account all your goals and risk appetite.


Is that even legal to pull out of a deal like that? I'd assume they'd have made an agreement (between the underwriter and the buyer) during the roadshow.   This event I would think has large negative impacts on the firm. It delays their IPO, (provided that they try again) and it makes investors wary of reinvesting in their second IPO (oxymoron.. haha).  Furthermore, if the biotech firm decides to openly publish the details of this deal (which i assume they'd have to if they want to have a chance at having a successful IPO) someone is going to be labeled as having dealt in bad faith.  I understand that underwriters mostly operate on a best-efforts basis, but I don't think they can come out of this deal without facing some consequences.


Been through many accounts but for the past year or so I’ve been wondering where I can find a website similar to what Reddit once was? These days Twitter, Reddit, and the news all report the same things at the same times


Yes. Slavery. Perfect analogy. You're going to be fettered with chains, your children will be taken from you, and your wife repeatedly raped. When you misbehave, or when someone just feels like it, they will beat the shit out of you. If you try to leave the job, they will shoot you in the back of the head.


I don't get it either... you need to embrace the change and know that companies are basically amoral entities that will do whatever suits their shareholders currently. the impending automation boom will likely cause unemployment to reach peaks we can't conceive of. Basic income might be a way to counter it but I do worry about the type of unrest that being poor without options will cause if we don't have an answer when those jobs go away.


Well, if no one on reddit understands business, asking a question would be kind of futile. It would be guaranteed to be answered by someone that doesn't know business, which isn't exactly practical. (Not saying I agree with /u/illustrationism.)  On a more serious note, I think the biggest problem with asking questions on reddit is not that there's no one that can give a good answer, but that as someone who actually *needs* to ask questions (and therefore not an expert already), it's difficult to separate the wheat from the chaff when people respond. Good moderation or a userbase that is mostly experts can make it much easier.


> Indeed, the most popular of the funds, the Barclays iPath fund, known broadly by its ticker symbol VXX, has since its inception averaged a yearly return of negative 58 percent, according to FactSet.  > Or look at it this way: If an investor bought VXX when it came to market in 2009 and held onto it until now, that investor would have lost 99 percent of his investment.  perfect for /r/wallstreetbets !


> itizens we all have the right to shop in public shops and eat in public restaurants.  This is your imagination speaking.  You have no such right by any defintion of the word nor can you cite any philosophical foundation for such a right.  If we have this right, then I have the right to attend your dinner parties without an invitation for exactly the same foundational reasons.  > As a business owner I would happily choose a world in which I   And you should absolutely have that freedom, but not at the cost of denying others THEIR freedoms which is what you want.  You - like so many Saviors Of Mankind - have decided that you are so right, you get to use force to jam it down our collective throats.  > that ensures the poor remain poor and the rich remain rich.   I actually did grow up poor and have far more insight into this than you and your fellow Saviors.  Ongoing (inter-generational) poverty in the West is a matter of bad behavior, not oppression.  Go live with your beloved poor for a year and discover the lousy personal choices, the reproductive irresponsibility, the substance abuse, and the laziness that keeps them where they are.  Bluntly, anyone that stays poor -absent the profoundly handcapped - deserves it.  > I would argue that the centers of poverty you listed are much more a symptom of the systematic undercutting  Of course you would ... any actual assesment of Reality would eviscerate such an argument.  The essence of your worldview is to first deny Reality because it is only without reference to Reality that your ideas could possibly have any currency.  > I was a true believer. I did grow up.  You sold out and abdicated because you do not have the moral courage to speak the truth:  The rich are rich for a reason and the poor are poor for a reason.  That reason has nothing (or little) to do with circumstances, oppression, racism, The Man, or any of the other Fairy Tales you've concocted to justify your foolishness.   You've just capitulated to your guilt as a successful person.  Deep down inside you don't think you've earned it so you want to sacrifice all the rest of us on the altar of your limp wristed weakness.   No thanks ...


>Without this, no one could ever be entirely confident the other party was money-good.  This is because of the fractional reserve system, right?  It's because banks are not required to hold deposits.  Is fractional reserve banking any more sustainable than a general ponzi scheme?  Is there any way this is sustainable?  Were people duped with fraction reserve banking and central banking?  Not attacking you.  Just wondering.


I predict this will go over about as successfully as any strike by workers whose skill set involves sliding packages over an automated scanner. I know these are supply chain, but it's the same difference. Wal-Mart doesn't employ one person who isn't easily replaceable. Maybe, instead of bitching that you are paid shit wages, you should ask why you ever expected to earn more after failing to acquire any skill a teenager couldn't master in a week. If you actually had a skill worth more, you'd be able to find someone who'd pay you for it. This isn't the wage Wal-Mart assigned you. You can't find anyone else who would pay you more, or you would have left. That's a reflection of what you have to offer the world.


"Is there any particular area of business that you have interest?    What free resources do you currently use (general web browsing)?  Here are some magazines out there that I find interesting:  * **Fast Company** - $12.99 / Year / 10 Issues - Magazine focused on tech, innovation, leadership and design.  I don't subscribe, but I regularly purchase Fast Company, Entrepreneur,and Inc. when I am traveling.  They make for a perfect airplane read and I typically find great takeaways or clip articles from it.  * **Entrepreneur** - $11.97 / Year / 12 Issues - Obviously by the title this is catered to the entrepreneurial mindset.  It provides informational and inspirational stories from entrepreneurs and for entrepreneurs.  I enjoy reading this and probably read 3 or 4 issues per year.  I'm not a regular reader, but at times I have felt like content may run lean at times.    * **Inc** - $12.99 / Year / 10 Issues - Inc. feels like a blend of Fast Company and Entrepreneur.  The articles are aimed at the business owner for starting and running operations.  * **Businessweek** - $5 / Year / 12 Issues - I regularly read Businessweek, but primarily on their website.  I have picked up issues occasionally which are great, but their web provides a fair amount of access.  They seem to have a nice blend of news and unique stories about specific companies, products, and investment.  Recently they had interesting articles with fair depth on the CEO of Burger King, and the history of Sriracha.  * **Forbes** - $24.99 / Year / 26 Issues - I love the volume of content that Forbes provides and they seem to have a nice mix on a variety of subjects.  I use Forbes as my frontpage of the internet for business in conjunction with several others.  I actually feel like Forbes and Businessweek provide a perfect blend of business news with shocking little redundancy.  * **Harvard Business Review** - Wasn't able to quickly see a price.  I reference HBR a fair amount in regards to business discussions and think they provide excellent research material and information.  The writing style and layout isn't quite as captivating as some of the other magazines such as Fast Company, but the quality is excellent,  * **WSJ** - Obviously putting out a high volume of content, but you definitely pay for it.  I know a fair number of people who read it, but I actually have never known anyone to subscribe to it if that makes sense.  All the readers I know either receive a subscription through their work or university.  I think that shows the content is valuable and quality, but it might not justify the cost you have to pay for it as an individual reader.  I use a variety of websites to get business news, general education, and help me overall to understand the business world.  Specifically from the ones listed above I check Businessweek and Forbes daily for morning or lunch reading.  Forbes in particular does a solid job due to all of their external content contributors.  Seems like an interesting way to provide content if you can curate it correctly.    If you're more interested in the finance/investment world then I think Yahoo Finance and CNN Money are great.  Focusing specifically on investments then I really enjoy the content I get from Motley Fool and Seeking Alpha.  Some articles get pretty deep in regards to finance and investing, but overall I think they give great insight.  I read BusinessInsider, but I'll be honest I feel dirty.  Sometimes I find an interesting piece that leads me elsewhere to research more.  The content is primarily distributed in a ""Buzzfeed"" style format which has some questionable headlines and less professional content (""7 Crazy Facts That Sound Fake But Are Actually True"").  In Summary, I think you could learn a good amount on a variety of topics while staying plugged into news and developments in the business world for free.  I'm sure a few other people will chime in with other great sources that I didn't capture and some that I didn't even know existed.  I would start by reading a few of these sites I listed regularly and continue posting in this sub to help us keep the conversation going!"


The 1.140924% is calculated by taking 13.69%/12 = 1.140924%. Dividing this number by 100 gives you the answer 1.140924 / 100 = .01140924. When dealing with decimals it's important to remember the relationship between a decimal and a percent. 1% = .01 To return .01 to a percent you must multiple that number by 100.  So .01 x 100 = 1% In order to get a decimal from a percent, which is what is used in calculations, you must divide by 100. So, here if we are trying to calculate how much interest you are paying each month we can do this: 9800 * .1369 = $1341.62 (interest you will pay that year IF the principal balance never changed) 1341.62 / 12 = ~111.81 Now, month two 9578.34 * .1369 = 1311.274746 1311.274746 / 12 = 109.28 In order to get your monthly payments (which won't change) for the life of the loan, you can use this formula: Monthly payment = r(PV) / (1-(1+r)^-n) Where:  r= Interest Rate (remember if calculating monthly to do .1369/12) PV= Present Value of loan n=time of loan ( in your case 36 since we are talking monthly and 12*3 = 36) from here we get: [(.1369/12)*9800]/(1-(1+.1369/12)^-36) = $333.467 when rounding is $333.47 As far as actual applied interest rate, I'm not even sure what that number is, but I would like to know once you figure out, since the interest rate you're being charged is most definitely 13.69%.


A lot of these schemes fail to take into account the time/effort you have to spend in order to extract the small amount of profit you would get.  If there were easy money to be made, people would start making it and the company that was allowing themselves to be swindled would put an end to that deal.  So these things usually don't last. You used to be able to order dollar coins from the mint via credit card, with no shipping.  This was risk free and allowed you to earn credit card points.  But the mint has effectively plugged this hole.


A subsidy is a payment made by a group (usually the state) to individuals or corporations in order to shift the balance if the rational economic decision for the individual would be detrimental to the group as a whole otherwise. For example, if there are different quality kinds of crops that can be planted, for example a GM maize that brings in high yields but can only be processed to High Fructose Corn Syrup or a naturally bred corn that brings lower yields but tastes well enough for direct consumption, then if demand for both exceeds supply, the economic choice for the individual farmer is to plant the former. If the claims that HFCS contribute to obesity are founded, then it is in the public interest to produce less of it, and more alternative foods. Given that a market rather than a planned economy is desired, this cannot be achieved by decree, but rather money is used as an incentive. In the long term, this investment may very well pay off through reduced health care costs, so it is a rational economic decision from the state's point of view. In a world where all actors make decisions that are fully in their self interest, in principle subsidies would not be needed as consumers would demand healthy rather than cheap foods, and market mechanisms would provide these.


it Just blasts a hole through your network firewall and you can't separate anything into separate networks easily, so while amazon and Google may keep on top of vulnerabilities, third party devices may not, and they can spread malware to every device on your network. one of the biggest dns attacks happened recently and was revealed to be a native bot net of connected printers, security camera dvrs, and other connected devices. the other problem is physical security.


Yes, you still need to pay income tax on your capital gain regardless of whether you converted your USD proceeds back into CAD. When you calculate your gains for tax purposes, you'll need to convert all of your gains to Canadian dollars. Generally speaking, CRA will expect you to use a historical USD to CAD exchange rate published by the Bank of Canada. At that page, notice the remark at right: Are the Exchange Rates Shown Here Accepted by Canada Revenue Agency? Yes. The Agency accepts Bank of Canada exchange rates as the basis for   calculations involving income and expenses that are denominated in   foreign currencies.


That depends on the sort of trouble you are facing with regard to the model. If it is a vanilla problem around model flows or treatment of certain everyday line items, I find that [ASimpleModel](https://www.asimplemodel.com) helps quite well.  If it is vertical specific (tech in this case), I recommend that you post your question on the appropriate forum on WSO and a tech banker/investor might provide some insight.


"After more searching for how the US might treat such an attempt to ""rollover"" the funds, I found this:   https://www.irs.gov/pub/irs-utl/am2008009.pdf So, it seems it is impossible to do without US tax consequences."


"I'm not sure how you comment conflicts with what I said...  Me. >I just wanted to point out that guaranteed income is a tool but not a solution to this entire problem.  You. >I'm just saying, be careful what you wish for. And no, ""universal income"" would not be a solution to the problem, it would be a continuation of the problem that would create as many problems as it would solve."


Is the car worth $5K? If the car is not worth $5K, sell the car for scrap or parts or whatever and add that tiny amount to your purchase for a new car. If the car is worth more than the cost of repair ($5K), I'd fix it up.


"I spend hours researching two comparable products to try to save $3. Me too! I have also argued for hours with customer support to get $5/month off a bill (that's $60/year!), and I feel guilty every time I eat out or do something remotely luxurious, like getting fries with my $1 McChicken. Geez, even when I play video games, I hate spending the in-game currency. For me, it's obsessive-compulsive traits that cause it, but please note that I'm not claiming @Eddie has them. Just speaking for myself here, but I hope it helps. I still struggle with my miserliness, but I can share what works for me and what doesn't. I don't think I'm valuing my time nearly as much as I should. Me neither, but knowing that doesn't help; it makes it worse. For me, putting a dollar amount on how much I value my time does not work because that just complicates the problem and amplifies how much time I spend solving that multi-variable optimization problem. Consider trying to convince Monk not to avoid germs in order to build antibodies; it just makes him think more about germs, raising anxiety and making easy decisions (use a handkerchief to touch doorknobs) into a hard decision (should I touch it or should I not?). It also amplifies the regret whenever you finally make a certain choice (""what if I did the calculation wrong?"" or ""what if I'm going to get sick tomorrow because I touched that doorknob?""). Making the problem more complicated isn't the solution. So how to make it simpler? Make the decision ahead of time! For me, budgets are the key to reducing the anxiety associated with financial decision making. Every six months or so, my wife and I spend hours deciding how much to spend per month on things. We can really take our time analyzing it because we only have to do it occasionally. Once we set $50/month for restaurants, I no longer have to feel like a loser every time we eat out -- similarly for discretionary spending and everything else. TBH, I'm not sure exactly why it works -- why I don't regret the dollar amounts we put on every budget -- but it really does help. I join my coworkers for lunch on Fridays because I already decided that was okay. At that point, I can focus my OC-tendencies on eating every last gram of organic matter on my plate. Without directly touching the ketchup bottle, of course. :) Again, just speaking for myself, but having budgets has done wonders for my stress level with respect to finances. For me, budgets are less about restricting my spending and more about permitting me to spend! It's not perfect, but it helps. (Not that it's relevant, but I reworded this answer about 20 times and only hit 'Post' with great effort to suppress the need to keep editing it! I'll be refreshing every 30 seconds for updates.)"


You can't automate a Subway.  It's already 1 worker there. Making Sandwiches, running the cashier etc.   All it would do is eat into the franchisee's profit margin.  And if it can't compete paying high wages, who cares? That's what the market is all about.   We don't want industries that don't pay living wages. Let them expire. Just like we don't want industries that rely on filling our rivers with poison chemicals.   Let them expire so that new industries can take their place in the market.


The other person has to decide that they want to be wholly responsible for the loan, and they have to be able to qualify for the loan. They are in essence purchasing the car from you with the sale price being the remaining balance of the loan.  You will then use the processed from the new loan to pay the old loan off completely. They will then take the bill of sale to the state DMV/MVA to register the car in their name. You should have them start with their bank for a new car loan.


Nice work!  I would not propose anything related to revenue growth, as it will be difficult to tell where that growth came from.  If you want a performance aspect you could tie a bonus to particular KPI's that you both agree to.  It could be a website done by a certain time along with a certain amount of likes/shares on facebook and instagram followers.  Yelp and Google Reviews would probably also be a good place to add value.  I would think an insta account would be a no brainer with a tap house, so much easy stuff to photo.  Just my 2 cents, if I'm the owner I want this to be easy, so I'd go for base pay and a bonus.


"Let's illustrate how typical mortgage and its insurance works, from the very beginning. few years pass You're at the last point now. The whole point of the insurance was to preserve value of bank's collateral, at least from its point of view. By making a claim you have testified that a damage has occurred and some value of the property was lost. It's only reasonable for the bank that it wants the value of the asset to be restored to the value of the loan. Or the other way around. Bank doesn't really care if your deck is repaired, it only cares to have right side equal left side in the books. By taking the mortgage you've agreed to preserve the value of the property. There are many ways out of this situation, but pocketing the money isn't one of them.  There is no need to fight the mortgage company, because they're right. Talk with them in good faith and walk through available options. If you feel that you can live with the deck as it is, then paying back part of the loan might be a good idea. You don't ""lose"" the money this way, you're still 2k ahead - just not now, but in 20 years.  Afterthought: it's possible that it would be ""enough"" to re-evaluate the house to ensure it's still worth its original value even with damaged deck (eg due to other improvements you've made over the years or general property prices rising in the area). I put quotes, because you have to count costs of reevaluation which may be too big to make it worth. AND it might turn out it's worth even less, eg if the prices dropped. Or add another collateral, but that means signing another lien which also costs money."


Maybe it didn't gain critical mass but it still seems to me like a solid product to offer. It takes the variance out of a volatile currency for businesses who want to court that segment of the market without affecting those who would prefer to just keep assets in Bitcoin. Sounds like a way to lower the barrier the accepting bitcoin which is good for the ecosystem.


I used to own a few investment properties, so I'm pretty familiar with this.  As MrChrister mentions, lenders see investment mortgages as higher risk. People who fall into financial trouble are much more likely to let their investment properties go than their personal residence.  Consequently, the interest rates and downpayment requirements are generally higher. Typically a mortgage for an investment property will require 20% down, vs. as low as 3-5% down for a personal residence.  With excellent credit and some shopping around, you could probably do 10% down.  Interest rates are typically about a half-percent higher as well. You'll also find that the more investment properties you have, the harder it becomes to finance new ones.  Banks look at debt-to-income ratios to determine if you are over extended.  Typically banks like to see that your housing payments are less than 20% or so of your income.  However, with rental properties, housing payments generally account for far more than 20% of your rental income.  Other income you have can offset that, but after buying 2-3 houses or so, your DTI generally creeps into the range where lenders are uncomfortable lending to you anymore.  This is why you'll find that many rental properties are bought on land contracts with owner financing rather than with mortgages.


"I believe the banks are protecting themselves when they ""require"" your endorsement. Years ago. they used to ask for your endorsement, and not require it. If you endorse the check, it legally authorizes them to debit your account, if the check is later returned for non-sufficient funds (NSF). It mostly protects the bank, and not the customer."


It is becoming a big deal of mobile database and an emerging market of cloud database services and tools. I think, you should reach right place all customers across the UAE and increase effectiveness service and success of your target marketing campaign to sell your product & market your services to untouched UAE market. You can contact us to find alternate ways to generate leads & we are sure you will find better methods.  It is a believable UAE business directory, from where you can buy an online database service at the lowest price. Our team of database administrators services makes sure about software applications that run proficiently.


Very predicated? ENTIRELY predicated! Bentonville and Rogers would practically cease to exist.   Fayetteville would hang on only for the college. It was a great place to live, we can only hope that Walmart is too big to fail in our lifetime.


After some thought, I follow Dave Ramsey's advice because it's simple and I can do the math in my head - no online calculator needed. :) You need Life Insurance if someone depends on your income.   You can replace your income with a single lump sum of 8-10 times your current income where those who need your income, can get roughly your salary each year from the life insurance proceeds.


"There are a number of companies that will issue pre-paid chip and pin Mastercards this is probably the easiest way to deal with the issue. Most of them are limited to UK residents but with a very quick google I found this one http://public.neteller.com/content/en_US/cards_index.htm which seems to be open to US residents. I have no experience of using this company but when I googled ""chip and pin usa pre paid credit card"" they came up."


While I agree that luck has something to do with it, most of the successful business owners also put in crazy long hours and submitted themselves to huge financial risk in order to get their businesses started.  I do not say this to mean there is no luck; there is always an element of luck. But you cannot get lucky if you aren't at the right place at the right time, and sometimes arriving at that place and trying to get lucky takes much more than people realize.  Edit: some people are interpreting this to say that only successful business owners work hard. This is not what I am saying.


I think the answer you are looking for is:  You are not taxed on the original basis (purchase cost) of your investment.  If you pay $30 a share, and sell at $35, the $5 per share gain is taxable at time of sale.  But the $30 basis cost doesn't enter into tax calculations at all.  (So it's important to keep good records on your investments and how much you paid for them at purchase.)


well well, good question, worth a discussion, the more filters you add to your strategy (volatility in this case), the lower its predictive power. i mean, one could further filter it by day of the week, whether prices are above or below a 200 day moving average...etc.


> At our place, we have visual management things on TV screens so everyone knows what's going on, metrics etc. People are constantly trying to improve the performance of system without management pushing for it.   While I agree, that kind of system is not without pitfalls as it lends itself to metrics gaming unless you really know what you're doing and consider every aspect of your business in your metrics.


"As a great man once said, ""No risk it, no biscuit.""  Nothing can immunize you from catastrophe. But cash won't do well in a war, either, so you need to turn it into something else.  And timing is a crapshoot. When you enter, when you exit, total waste of your energy. Find something you want to own and watch, and get wet.  If you want to be diversified, get into index funds. You'll technically own a little of everything, and they do well if you just leave them be. For example, they're higher than they were at the start of every war in the past. If you don't need the money in the war, just leave it there and you'll come out later with more than you started with which is what you wanted.  Stay away from bonds, because the Fed is going to start unwinding QE soon and that's going to clobber bond values, taking bond funds with them.  If you feel totally convinced war is coming, then get something that exposes you to gold. Like gold, for instance."


Yes, sorry, I should have tried to be clearer. I mean the development appraisal related to construction. Such as residential developments, mixed-use developments etc - what makes these profitable, costs, residual valuation etc.. if this is in the right ballpark


Whether behaving illegally or not (and their behavior is sometimes illegal), Wal-mart can certainly not be trusted to do what's good for its workers (or those of its suppliers), communities, or the US economy.  Refer to [here](http://www.epi.org/publication/ib235/) for one example.    You're right that determining what policies will help can be tricky.  That doesn't mean we should just let the market do as it will.  If we've learning nothing from the recent bubbles, it's that this is clearly dangerous.  Moreover, it is citizens and our electeds that should have more say that a self-interested private business.


**Here's a sneak peek of /r/BasicIncome using the [top posts](https://np.reddit.com/r/BasicIncome/top/?sort=top&t=year) of the year!**  \#1: [When I created r/BasicIncome 4 years ago I never thought it would find so much support. Now I'm running for California Democratic Party delegate in Silicon Valley on January 7, on a pro-UBI platform -- AMA :)](https://np.reddit.com/r/BasicIncome/comments/5kedno/when_i_created_rbasicincome_4_years_ago_i_never/)   \#2: [Mark Zuckerberg just called for universal basic income](https://techcrunch.com/2017/05/25/watch-mark-zuckerberg-speech/) | [448 comments](https://np.reddit.com/r/BasicIncome/comments/6dcav5/mark_zuckerberg_just_called_for_universal_basic/)   \#3: [If this gets enough votes, Trump and Hillary can get asked about basic income during the Oct 9th debate](https://np.reddit.com/r/BasicIncome/comments/55aie5/if_this_gets_enough_votes_trump_and_hillary_can/)  ---- ^^I'm ^^a ^^bot, ^^beep ^^boop ^^| ^^Downvote ^^to ^^remove ^^| [^^Contact ^^me](https://www.reddit.com/message/compose/?to=sneakpeekbot) ^^| [^^Info](https://np.reddit.com/r/sneakpeekbot/) ^^| [^^Opt-out](https://np.reddit.com/r/sneakpeekbot/comments/6l7i0m/blacklist/)


"In real life, you'd see spreads like AMZN 04/13/2017 910.00 C 4.90 +1.67 Bid: 4.75 Ask: 5.20 (with AMZN @ $897 right now) and the fill you'd get on the buy side would be closer to the ask. i.e. I'd offer $5.00 and hope that it filled.  Filling a $4 bid when ask is $8 isn't likely unless the stock blipped down enough for your price to fill.  Options are a lot like day trading, in most cases. Most members here will agree that day trading isn't investing, it's gambling. Long term, the S&P has been up 10%/yr. But any given day, the noise of the market is a 50/50 zero sum game. Most long term stock 'investors' do well. Those who get in and out, not so much.  There are aspects to options that are appealing. As you've seen, the return can be high, even IRL, but your loss can be 100% as well. Let me share with you a blurred line - I wrote ""Betting on Apple at 9 to 2"" in which I described an option strategy that ran 2 years and would return $10,000 on a $2200 bet. A similar bet that ended a year ago yielded a 100% loss. I don't post there very often, as I keep that trading to a minimum.  There are warnings for those who want to start trading options -"


> if you went somewhat into debt, say $30k, for a major with good job prospects and a high salary, it will probably be a good decision. Which is exactly what I did, and it worked out very well for me.  There is still the opportunity cost I mentioned though. The average person makes $30K out of high school, so that is more than a million dollars in opportunity costs if you go to school for four years instead of going to work. Far more than that if you can earn more than $30K, which there is a good chance you can if you have the talent to get into college.  Additionally, if a career has good job prospects and high salaries, employers aren't really going to be concerned about your education save where the law mandates it (you cannot be a doctor without the education by law, for instance). It is the lack of capable workers that drives the salaries up and it is that same lack of capable workers that force employers to consider just about anyone.  There may be an argument to be made that an education can help as a signal in jobs where competition of fierce, but that same competition will drive the market rate of the job way down, which doesn't exactly seem like a win to me.  That's awesome that it worked out for you, I'm just not sure it should be considered a safe or even good investment. While the returns can be there in some cases, it seems like the stakes are pretty high.


I would strongly recommend investing in assets and commodities. I personally believe fiat money is losing its value because of a rising inflation and the price of oil. The collapse of the euro should considerably affect the US currency and shake up other regions of the world in forex markets. In my opinion, safest investment these days are hard assets and commodities. Real estate, land, gold, silver(my favorite) and food could provide some lucrative benefits. GL mate!


That would be my suggestion (and what I've personally done), but I can't tell you what's right for you.   As an aside, you don't usually need to manually fund an IRA (traditional *or* Roth) to open it for a rollover - Just tell them you're doing a rollover, and they'll set you up and tell you where to have the 401k checks sent (and sometimes even arrange it all *for* you).


Showz Store is also a new toys gallery that celebrates in the China. Once exclusively for kids, they have evolved into something suitable for everyone. Just look at the popularity of such shows Model Wizard and the Simpsons, which is definitely marketed for adults. Or consider the superhero toys. Big screen movies based off of various popular superheroes have built interest in these types of merchandise to the masses. There's no reason stuffed toys couldn't be enjoyed by adults as well as kids.


"This page lays down the requirements for an ""unincorporated association"" to pay tax (i.e. any group that's not a registered entity). You pay tax is you make money from: it looks like you don't do any of those, so you don't need to file for taxes. There is another exemption that you don't have to file if it is likely that you would owe less than a hundred pounds taxes, which would also probably apply to you. There are many thousands of clubs and societies in the UK that don't need to register for tax purposes, so you are far from alone. It is probably worth creating an actual club (""Captain Insanity Server Club"") and keeping records of donations and expenses for the server. There isn't any need to legally incorporate or anything like that, though you might try having a separate bank account for it if you can get a free one, so that if the tax authorities ever audit you personally you can show them that the donations you received weren't income to you."


In the 1950s there was no competition. China was starving, Russia had a huge portion of their males dead, Europe had been bombed to smithereens, and Japan had 2 atomic bombs dropped on them. But yeah, maybe it was the tax rate /s.


Can you provide me some evidence of all these $100k+/yr financial blogging jobs?  Because you in no way over simplified what it takes to get to that level of blogging...  If I'm wrong please show me how I can do that.  I'm sure a lot of people here would be interested in knowing as well.


"P/E is Price divided by Earnings Per Share (EPS). P/E TTM is Price divided by the actual EPS earned over the previous 12 months - hence ""Trailing Twelve Month"". In Forward P/E is the ""E"" is the average of analyst expectations for the next year in EPS. Now, as to what's being displayed. Yahoo shows EPS to be 1.34. 493.90/1.34 = P/E of 368.58 Google shows EPS to be 0.85. 493.40/0.85 = P/E of 580.47 (Prices as displayed, respectively) So, by the info that they are themselves displaying, it's Google, not Yahoo, that's displaying the wrong P/E. Note that the P/E it is showing is 5.80 -- a decimal misplacement from 580 Note that CNBC shows the Earnings as 0.85 as well, and correctly show the P/E as 580 http://data.cnbc.com/quotes/BP.L A quick use of a currency calculator reveals a possible reason why EPS is listed differently at yahoo. 0.85 pounds is 1.3318 dollars, currently. So, I think the Yahoo EPS listing is in dollars. A look at the last 4 quarters on CNBC makes that seem reasonable: http://data.cnbc.com/quotes/BP.L/tab/5 those add up to $1.40."


Initially, Each company has 10k shares. Company B has $500k money and possibly other assets. Every company has stated purpose. It can't randomly buy shares in some other firm.   Company A issued 5k new shares, which gives it $500k money. Listed companies can't make private placements without regulatory approvals. They have to put this in open market via Public issue or rights issue. Company B does the same thing, issuing 5k shares for $500k money. Company A bought those 5k shares using the $500k it just got There is no logical reason for shareholder of Company B to raise 5K from Company A for the said consideration. This would have to increase.


I'm from Canada, so your going to have to take that into account when reading this, as things are done a little differently here.    I wouldn't go the accounting route, as it's going to require more education on top of this. Id there is a program that focuses more on the management of finances that would be ideal. There are many mid to entry level positions that deal with the flow of cash throughout the company. From there you work your ass off and see where it can get you. Sometimes they go as far as hiring someone with no experience, but a certificate and a some educational knowledge will go a long ways in helping you.   You probably could, if you went to the right sources, gain similar knowledge by learning things yourself. But it won't look nearly as appealing to potential employers. Hope this helps.   Also, it blows my mind, the difference in cost of tuition. I spent 12k over 3 years(just finished). Those kids in Montreal have no idea how good they have it.


"A few years ago, there was a TV special with a celebrity chef (I think Tyler Florence) that was trying to get a small town to eat healthier. In one segment, he showed kids how processed chicken nuggets were made, which was some chicken trimmings and the leftover carcass (bones and all), mixed with bread crumbs and seasonings, pureed, strained and molded. This was supposedly supposed to be disgusting, especially to kids. Didn't work, they still wanted chicken nuggets.  In the end, there's nothing wrong with using the 'gross' parts of an animal, nor is there any thing wrong with some of the processing techniques. Mostly they're used to get the most out of the animal, which is what we should be doing. Americans especially are incredibly turned off by any meat that isn't pure white, which is ridiculous. Dark meat and offal are used around the world and are seen as delicacies. ""Chemicals"" are used to scare people, but there's nothing inherently wrong with them. Heck, modernist cooking developed as a way to find more interesting uses for chemicals and additives.  You'll find no bigger supporter of home-cooking and eating whole foods than I am, but there is way too much fear mongering and squeamishness that's based only on arbitrary perceptions of what's acceptable and what isn't. You could probable start a campaign of outrage against tortillas for using lime, or bacon for using nitrites, or fish for being frozen, all because people are gullible and ignorant on where their food comes from."


"Currency, like gold and other commodities, isn't really much of an investment at all. It doesn't actually generate any return. Its value might fluctuate at a different rate than that of the US dollar or Euro, but that's about it. It might have a place as a very small slice of a basket of global currencies, but most US / European households don't actually need that sort of basket; it's really more of a risk-management strategy than an investment strategy and it doesn't really reflect the risks faced by an ordinary family in the US (or Europe or similar). Investments shouldn't generally be particularly ""exciting"". Generally, ""exciting"" opportunities mean that you're speculating on the market, not really investing in it. If you have a few thousand dollars you don't need and don't mind losing, you can make some good money speculating some of the time, but you can also just lose it all too. (Maybe there's a little room for excitement if you find amazing deals on ordinary investments at the very bottom of a stock market crash when decent, solid companies are on sale much cheaper than they ordinarily are.)"


"Ahh okay thanks. The economic terms and lessons are coming back to me lol. I guess in the end it was a question on profit margins based on time. And god no the sandwiches are way better quality than Subway. Maybe I'll go get Subway to remind myself why I stopped eating it... Guess it's my fault for using small numbers. I was just thinking like gourmet PB&J deep-fried and coated in sugar for $3.00. Had one at some ""friend's"" bakery last week and can't stop thinking about how crunchy but gooey it was for $3.00... They weren't on the menu but my buddy gets bored working at his bakery and made me that glorified donut with PB&J filling. No regrets :) actually I guess I should've used donuts as the example and not sandwiches. Oh well too late."


"> You give this gray topic of affordable health care that Trump promised to act upon, but has yet do anything.  Sure Trump want to fix healthcare, and, yes, sure, nothing was done yet... not because of Trump, but because of traitors in the Republican party that joined corrupt democrats.  >>I am still waiting for the Wall with Mexico, but I am sure it will not be done.  > Are you serious? Illegal immigration from Mexico? It's Trump fault? Is Trump against the wall and limiting immigration?  I think you are now so desperate that you are getting REALLY weird with your responses.  Yes, there's illegal immigration coming from Mexico, not only of Mexicans and other south and central Americans.   No, nobody ever claimed it's Trump fault! Where on earth did you come up with this idea?   No, Trump is not against the wall. I have the gut feeling that he won't keep his promise to build the wall, despite really wanting it. Because is good friends in the Republican party will join forces with corrupt democrats to prevent it.   Now, again, for 10th time:  >> **give me a specific ""instability"" or ""expense"" that Global Warming may cause. Just try...**  >> **I asked you before, and I notice you did not reply: Is Trump a Nazi or alt-Right sympathizer? What ACTIONS by Trump you do not like?**"


The policies are dictated by those who hold the power. Watch out before the US's balls crush your whole paradigm of reality. It's hip to talk shit about the US, but who runs the game? Who has Google, Apple, and Microsoft? Disc golf, America. Mass production of automobiles, America. Ad infinitum. Please regale me with tales of New Zealand's amazing world leadership. Your country is a fucking set location for mine.


Even after the real estate crash, there are banks that lend money outside of the rules I'll share.  A fully qualified mortgage is typically run at debt to income ratios of 28/36, where 28% of your gross monthly income can apply to the mortgage, property tax, and insurance, and the 36% is the total monthly debt (including the mortgage, etc) plus car loan student loan, etc. It's less about the total loan on the potential than about these ratios. The bank may allow for 75% of monthly rent so until rentals are running at a profit, they may seem a loss, even while just breaking even.  This is just an overview, each bank may vary a bit.


> but since that's impossible (due to the bureaucracy) in most jobs  Huh? Dude, asking for a raise is never impossible. Go to your manager and make a well thought-out case. This is how it's done. It's not magic. Very rarely, in any professional environment, will anyone just hand you a raise because they think you're a nice guy. Keeping your head down and nose to the grindstone will not get you noticed.   Obviously, going elsewhere to get that higher salary should also be an option. I did it once too. But in the situation you describe, you'd be crazy not to go demand a bigger slice of the pie.


It depends whether you want to be technically compliant with the letter of the law or compliant with the underlying meaning. For instance, in some countries you can find shell companies that do nothing but deal in fixed income instruments (those that you want to avoid) and dividend stocks (those that you might or might not be allowed to use). You can buy stock of that shell company, which does not hand out dividends itself. Thereby, you transform interest and dividends into capital gains. These shell companies exist for fiscal reasons, the more risky capital gains are often less taxed than interest or dividends. This might technically solve your problem, but not really change anything in the underlying reality. P.S. Don't worry too much about missing compounding interest. The rates are incredibly low right now.


There's probably a risk committee and an investment committee where several high level executives analyze and discuss the investments they will do and which risk level to take.  Is all based on numbers and evidence, but in the end people decide how much risk to take.  Then there Risk Management I suppose supervises the risk and that they don't go over the threshold (measured by VAR or whatever)


Thanks. It's a continual work in progress but I suppose anything worth doing is. Good to be working on something you are passionate about, because you'll hit many, many, many roadblocks and hurdles along the way and if you aren't committed, the easy route is to fold. So I think starting from a passion and hobby is always good.


My guess is that it probably has more to do with the Husi food scandal in China. McDonald's restaurants in Beijing had so little inventory after removing their meat supply from Husi that they were only serving soda and french fries for about a week.


The fundamental problem with capitalism is that people assume that what makes money is worth doing, and that making money justifies it.  Money, wealth, jobs:  these are means, not ends.  Capitalist theory washes its hands of motivational concerns, correctly, but the guide to proper motivation, philosophy, must be developed concurrently.  It has not.  We have a modern economy wielded by barbarians and illiterate peasants, a gun handed to a chimpanzee, and we've shot our foot off for lack of learning proper self control.


What did you sign when the account was opened? What did you sign when you left the company, to transfer those responsibilities? Unless the bank has a record of someone else being responsible, they are correct in billing the one who signed their paperwork.  Of course this also probably means you still have access to the account, so your ex-partners should be Highly Motivated to help you fix this. If you want a legal opinion, try over in the Law area, or (better) ask a real lawyer in your jurisdiction. That's out of scope here.


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"Yes digital can definitely technically a higher quality.... but sometimes it's just not that pleasurable hearing a digital files pristine 19,000 Hz sounds right next to moments of perfect silence...   You rarely ever heard perfect silence in nature.... there is always some kind of background noise.... I think this is a big part of why people say ""vinyl is warmer"" .... because there is plenty of white noise... and all of the sounds aren't always perfectly crystal clear...  Of course it's a matter of taste, I'm just saying for certain recordings that crystal clear instruments at every frequency can be kinda jarring in the same way that being seated too close to the brass section of an orchestra could be unpleasant.    A lot of Music production software has low bit filters specifically because less perfect sounds can be more pleasing sometimes... distortion pedals and different acoustic treatments to ""muffle sounds"" would be other examples of when musicians purposely create ""lo-fi"" sound."


"I swear to fucking [Deer-Jesus](http://www.smbc-comics.com/?id=3281) that the government just makes up these ridiculous numbers to hide the cost of secret programs. There is no fucking way the government is sitting in a meeting and actually come to an agreement that ""Hey yea, 400 billion dollars *is* the right amount of money to spend on this one plane."" Unless that was followed up by ""...wait billion, I thought you said million... fuck it. too late now."""


"Home Improvements that improve the home's Energy Efficiency are currently eligible for federal tax credits. This includes renewable energy equipment (solar panels, etc.) and Nonbusiness Energy Property Tax Credit. The credit is 30% of the cost. From Intuit Turbo Tax: Energy Tax Credit: Equipment and materials can qualify for the Nonbusiness Energy   Property Credit only if they meet technical efficiency standards set   by the Department of Energy. The manufacturer can tell you whether a   particular item meets those standards. For this credit, the IRS   distinguishes between two kinds of upgrades. The first is ""qualified energy efficiency improvements,"" and it   includes the following:   •Home insulation   •Exterior doors   •Exterior windows and skylights   •Certain roofing materials The second category is ""residential energy property costs."" It   includes:   •Electric heat pumps   •Electric heat pump water heaters   •Central air conditioning systems   •Natural gas, propane or oil waterheaters   •Stoves that use biomass fuel   •Natural gas, propane or oil furnaces   •Natural gas, propane or oil hot water boilers   •Advanced circulating fans for natural gas, propane or oil furnaces"


It all looks good except for #7. A lot of businesses take that point too far. Having good backup hardware & services, security checks, and faculty in place may not show in the profits, but when every thing crashes, it'll make the difference between a hiccup and a 2 week system halt.


Ah, but it might be the regulators responsibility. Predatory pricing can be a monopolistic tactic, meaning that large corporations that can afford to lose money on some projects may be wise to do so to keep their smaller competitors out of the industry, and then being the only one (or several) left, can make those losses back on jacked up prices since there is little/no competition in their market.  Bidding at a loss is often [illegal or regulated](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Predatory_pricing#Legal_aspects).


I think it depends entirely on your risk tolerance. Putting money in individual stocks obviously increases your risk and potentially increases your reward. Personally (as a fairly conservative investor) I'd only invest in individual stocks if I could afford to lose the entire investment (maybe I'd end up buying Enron or Nortel). If you enjoy envesting and feel 10% is an acceptable loss I think you have your answer


I mainly use Ebates to get cash back when shopping online. I wrote a little review here: http://www.savewithdan.ca/websites-use-ebates-ca A super useful app is the one called Flipp (it's not a website, it's an app, but I think it counts as a valid answer, right?) You can compare prices from several stores and their fliers.


Read the Forbes article titled IRA Adventures. While it's not the detailed regulations you certainly need, the article gives some great detail and caution. You may be able to do what you wish, but it must be structured to adhere to specific rules to avoid self dealing. Those rules would be known by the custodians who would help you set up the right structure, it's well buried within IRS regs, I'm sure. Last, in general, using IRA funds to invest in the non-traditional assets adds that other layer of risk, that the investment will be deemed non-allowed and/or self-dealing. So, even if you have the best business idea going, be sure you get proper council on this.


Corperate Espionoge? Wow! Maybe it's some of the fast food giants, without naming names but the Golden Arches, Royalty, Redhead with pigtails or even the Tex-Mex Ring Ring. Chipotle has steadily taken up a lot of space and more people are choosing them as a healthy alternative.


I concur with pretty much what everyone else said. Let me break it down in a concrete plan of action.  First, though, note that at least the minimum payments for the credit cards needs to be on this list of fixed expenses. Also, you have $868 remaining in a normal month -- food could be $500 or more easily for a family, so find out how much!  Adding in just those 2 things, and you're already at your max. And there are other expenses in life.   Ok, cutting from the top: DirectTv -- gone. Pure luxury, and between netflix, hulu and your   internet connection (hook your computer to the tv), there's no need   for it. $80 savings.  Cell phones -- you're already moving in the right direction, but not   far enough. In a financial crunch why does your stay-at-home wife have   a cell? Especially when she could just as easily use Google Voice for   free? Both plans gone, replaced by one of the prepaids @$45. $105   savings, total $186 savings.  529 plans -- Of course you want to save for your kids college, but it   doesn't help them for you to drown financially. Gone until your credit   card debit is too. $50 savings, $236 total. Ok, we're already up to $236/month in savings just cutting items you don't need. That probably gets you back into the black, but why stop there?  Trimming expenses  Electric -- ok, I know it's summer, but can you cut this back? Is the   thermostat set as high as you can comfortably bear? Are you diligent   in turning of lights, especially incandescent? Do you turn off your   computer when you're not using it? See if you can get the Electric   down by 10%. That's $20/month savings. Doesn't seem like much, but it   adds up.  Gas -- same with gas. Do you have gas hot water? If so, cut shower   length. Saves on water too.  Food -- this one you didn't list. But as I said, you could be spending   $500 or $600 a month easily for a family. Do you guys plan meals, and   thus plan shopping trips? If not, do it. You'll be surprised how much   you can save. Either way, 10% reduction should be doable. That's   $50/month. If you don't plan now, 20% is within reach -- that's   $100/month. Ok, that may have added as much as $130 or so. If so, you're now up to $366/month savings. That's like a 15% raise.  Simply cutting, however, is only half the plan. You want to improve your situation, so you can get the Directtv back (assuming you'll even want it at that point), and the wife's cell phone, for starters.  To do that, you've got to nail down that debt. I figure you've got minimum $567.23/month in debt payments. That's not including your mortgage, and including an assumed $80/month minimum credit card payments. You pay over 21% of your take-home to short term and consumer debt!  Yea, that's why you're hurting. Here's what you do  In both cases, apply the extra payments entirely to one balance at a   time. Pick either the smallest balance (psychologically best because   you quickly see a loan & it's payment dissappear), or the highest   interest (mathematically the best). Roll each regular payment that's paid off into the extra debt payments. You didn't list total debt balances, but you did say you had $4000 in   credit card debt. Applying an extra $250/month to debt (out of that   $366 savings), plus two extra paychecks of $1300 each, is $5600/year   paid off. In under a year, you could have those credit cards paid off, and likely that window loan too. Start the 529s again, but keep going   paying down the rest. When you have the car paid off, bring back the   wife's cell (you and I both know that's going to be #1 on the list :)    ), then finish off those student loans.  Then bask in the extra $567/month - 21% of your income - you'll have in sweet, sweet green cash!


Purchase accounting requires that you mark assets, including PP&E to fair value.  So let's say you bought a machine 5 years ago for $1,000 - you might have depreciated it to $250 on your balance sheet but it might actually be worth $900.


There is a number of grocers doing this in the UK. Although the best you get is next-day delivery and you have to pay something for the privilege. However, if you're willing to wait a few days you can get free delivery for orders higher than £50.


There's a distinction between profits and cash flow, attributed to the recognition of non-cash items.  If you have a business where your customers pay you quickly, you manage your inventory well, and you’re able to take your time in paying your suppliers, your free cash flow can be consistently positive even when your net income is not.


Even if you can get a credit card with a $0 limit, that doesn't necessarily mean that the charges won't succeed. Some of my credit cards have gone over limit by a significant amount (e.g. 140% of limit) without any transactions being declined. The limit just means that the bank is allowed to decline the transaction, but they are also allowed to approve it anyway. So basically what you would have is a credit card where any transaction can always be declined or approved.