"There are two places to start, the spending side and the income side. Many (in the personal finance blogosphere) have pointed out that frugal has its limits. You can only live so cheaply, eat so little, turn the heat down so much.  Your income and your wife's income has no limit. Not to put this all in her lap, but why isn't she working? Between the two of you, there are hundreds of things you can consider doing that will generate a few hundred dollars a week extra income.  You said ""we can live fairly comfortably paycheck-to-paycheck and routinely put some money into savings,"" but you are still paying off debt, and don't have the emergency fund to handle the routine things that come around on a regular basis. The difference between breaking even, and making extra money, is the ability to fund that account. It's important to have a defined plan to pay the remaining debt, and build your fund in as short a time period as you can.  As Bren stated, you need to plan for the unexpected. I don't know what appliance will go this year or what day it will break, I just know something will happen and I have the funds to pay for it. The extra income is vital to a workable plan."


Si vous prévoyez d'acheter un congélateur, il est absolument important de s'asseoir et d'élaborer un plan financier. Ce n'est pas génial mais le congélateur idéal, juste pour découvrir que vous ne pouvez pas gérer le coût de celui-ci. prenez place et réfléchissez si l'efficacité énergétique est vital pour vous. Pour certains individus, l'efficacité énergétique est l'une des plus importantes parmi les variables les plus impératives pour acheter n'importe quel type d'appareil, qu'il s'agisse d'un poêle, d'un micro-ondes ou d'un congélateur.


"Except the list of exceptions seems to be growing and growing.   You can only go bankrupt once, and certain loans are exempt from bankruptcy anyway.  Want to level the playing field?  Make CEO's responsible too for ""certain debts"" like payroll."


First decide if the best route is to distribute as a middle man (eg.land an Amazon or Walmart contract), or to distribute it through yourself (your own company).   Is it more profitable to form your own corporation or have the mother company establish a international entity in N.A? (fees apply but they could be minuscule to your projected margins(eg.$5000 fee to open up a market of $1,000,000+ GP))  If you decide you want to establish your own means of distribution, you will have to decide if your going to build physical locations or do online distribution.   Depending on what the product or service your providing, you generally have more possibilities and opportunities with online market.   You can run an online website, incorporate an online store that accept online payments, and shipping products for less than $5000 a year. (Monthly payments for the services provided, excluding any shipping/import costs)  This would be done with the means of website hosts such as GoDaddy, or retail hosts like Shopify.


"I tried to read a couple of articles, most are behind a paywall.  Hopefully you'll forgive me for thinking the whole page looked like a bunch of corporate propaganda- an entire page of ""here's why everyone is wrong about us"" with formatting from the early 2010s.   Maybe you can walk me through this.   You've got thousands of mathematicians and engineers who could be designing something useful instead spending time accomplishing nothing except for fractionally beating each other at trading ""paper"" assets.   Similarly you have construction crews that could be expanding internet capability, instead laying cable some guys can signal trades sooner than other guys.  The positions HFTs hold are so short, they can't possibly be benefiting from the actual overall change  in value of the underlying assets, which happens over the course of months, not microseconds.  So the only possible returns come from ""taking"" someone else's value.   I'm not making a moral judgement, here I'm pointing out that there's no net benefits to society."


"I would phrase it this way: if someone needs costly procedures, especially for conditions they caused themselves, then, yes, those procedures will not be covered, and they are not covered in all National Healthcare systems in the world.  It's immoral to cover a liver transplant for a drunk or extended hospitalization for an obese person while an old lady cannot get an aid to stay independent in her home because it's not covered in the medical insurance.  And I have no issue if the ACA will be repealed before a replacement is put in place. This will be the fastest way to get a replacement.  It seems to me that you are not familiar with how National Health Care systems work, and so I will give you personal example, of my aunt, covered by the excellent national healthcare in Israel. And I mean it: it's one of the best National Health Care systems in the world.  Her hips locked suddenly and she had to have a hip replacement. ""No problems!"" said the doctors: ""You will get hip replacement, totally covered by the insurance"". ""But, you have to wait 3 months for that."" So my aunt said ""But I got supplemental private medical insurance"" (every one smart in Israel who can afford it get that.) ""Why didn't you tell us?"" asked the doctors, ""you will have the hip replacement done next week, with better parts."" And so it happened.  My aunt thought that, at least, the recovery and rehab in the hospital will be covered by her standard insurance. So, in the morning after the surgery, the nurse comes and says ""please make a choice: either I come once in the morning to take you out of bed to the toilet and some rehab, or, once in the evening"".  My aunt chose none of the options, and paid out of her pocket (partially covered by her private insurance) to stay in a private hospital.  Do you get it?  But in Israel, an obese women will get her 3rd artificial insemination to have her 3rd baby + an aid to help her raise her kids because she's too fat to care of the her children. We have that nonsense in Israel."


"From the IRS page on Estimated Taxes (emphasis added): Taxes must be paid as you earn or receive income during the year, either through withholding or estimated tax payments. If the amount of income tax withheld from your salary or pension is not enough, or if you receive income such as interest, dividends, alimony, self-employment income, capital gains, prizes and awards, you may have to make estimated tax payments. If you are in business for yourself, you generally need to make estimated tax payments. Estimated tax is used to pay not only income tax, but other taxes such as self-employment tax and alternative minimum tax. I think that is crystal clear that you're paying income tax as well as self-employment tax. To expand a bit, you seem to be confusing self-employment tax and estimated tax, which are not only two different things, but two different kinds of things.  One is a tax, and the other is just a means of paying your taxes. ""Self-employment tax"" refers to the Social Security and Medicare taxes that you must pay on your self-employment income.  This is an actual tax that you owe.  If you receive a W-2, half of it is ""invisibly"" paid by your employer, and half of it is paid by you in the form of visible deductions on your pay stub.  If you're self-employed, you have to pay all of it explicitly. ""Estimated tax"" does not refer to any actual tax levied on anyone.  A more pedantically correct phrasing would be ""estimated tax payment"".  Estimated taxes are just payments that you make to the IRS to pay tax you expect to owe.  Whether you have to make such payments depends on how much tax you owe and whether you've paid it by other means.  You may need to pay estimated tax even if you're not self-employed, although this would be unusual.  (It could happen, for instance, if you realized large capital gains over the year.)  You also may be self-employed but not need to pay estimated tax (if, for instance, you also have a W-2 job and you reduce your withholding allowances to have extra tax withheld). That said, if you earn significant income from self-employment, you'll likely have to make estimated tax payments.  These are prepayments of the income tax and Social Security/Medicare taxes you accrue based on your self-employment income. As Pete B. mentioned in his answer, a possible reason that your estiamtes are low is because some taxes have already been withheld from the paychecks you received so far during the year (while you were an employee).  These represent tax payments you've already made; you don't need to pay that money a second time, but you may need to make estimated tax payments for your income going forward."


> Just go back to the old rule of patents being good for one year after issuance.  Or put a relatively low limit on the total # of valid patents, and have some sort of competitive process to play the relative merits of new patent claims off against each other (I envision a Thunderdome sort of scenario :-).


If you can deal with phone calls instead of a face to face meeting, for the average person with an average refinance online tools just offer another way to shop for deals. For new mortgages, I think having a person you can meet face to face will avoid problems, but for just a simple refi, online is one of the places you should check. Compete your current mortgage company, your bank (hopefully credit union), a local broker or two and the online places. The more competition you have, the more power you have in making a good choice.


I'm no pro with how all this stuff works, but you can make a company look more profitable. FedEx structure is pretty complex and I'm no MBA/Accountant. They have like 7 companies under the FedEx Corporation shell company and 100's of accountant and lawyers. I'm sure this is true of many fortune 500 companies.


"My best tip is to keep getting the interviewer to keep talking.  If you can't think of any questions,   build your questions off their answers,  show them you really want to know more,  it works well for you in the fact that it makes you look curious,  and it wastes time in interview before they get anymore difficult questions.   They expect any intern to be an idiot in the beginning,  it will take you quite some time to learn about the company,  but the team knows that already,  they're looking for ""value added"".  Talk about how you can add value,  how your experiences in the past can help with any work the company gives.    And make sure you learn how to tie a tie,  learn the Pratt knot,  make sure you're presentable,  and most Importantly,  be friendly and say good morning to everyone you pass,  everyone loves a friendly intern"


"What a great explanation! I was familiar with many of the concepts, but I've learnt quite a lot. Do you happen to know any sources for further reading that are just as understandable to a non-economist? And/Or would you mind continuing / expanding this into whichever direction you find worth exploring? I would love to see this explanation ""connected"" to the debt crisis and how/why the US and europe seem to be in different situations there. Maybe that would be too complex to explain in more detail using your model, but maybe it is possible..?"


Money you need in the next year should not be invested. It should be in a cash-equivalent account such as a savings or money market account. You might be able to construct a CD ladder but it probably won't be worth the effort. If, per the comments, you don't mind returning back to work sooner than a year, then you could invest the money. You could, for instance, invest in stocks, bonds, and mutual funds which are generally quite liquid and can be sold at a moment's notice. They could drop quite dramatically with little notice, but still should be quickly salable. However you should definitely still keep enough in liquid savings to cover the period before you started working again. This includes the time to find a new job, start, and receive your first paycheck. But it also includes whatever time would be needed to extricate yourself from your current activity, e.g. if you are traveling, enough time to conclude your travels and get back to your home country. You would have to regularly sell a portion of your investments in advance so that your liquid savings account always contains at least the minimum amount above.


"I assume you are filing US taxes because you are a US citizen, resident alien, or other ""US person"". If you have a total of $10,000 or more in assets in non-US accounts, you are required to file FinCEN Form 114, Report of Foreign Bank and Financial Accounts, also known as FBAR, to report those accounts.  See Comparison of Form 8938 and FBAR Requirements.  Note this refers to the total balance in the account (combined with any other accounts you may have); the amount you transferred this year is not relevant.  Also note that the FBAR is filed separately from your income tax return (it does not go to the IRS), though if you have over $50,000 in offshore assets you may also have to file IRS Form 8938. Simply reporting those accounts does not necessarily mean you will owe extra taxes.  Most US taxes are based on income, not assets. According to the page linked, the maximum penalty for a ""willful"" failure to report such accounts is a fine of $100,000 or 50% of the assets in question, whichever is greater, in addition to possible criminal sanctions. There may be other US filing requirements that I don't know about, so you may want to consult a tax professional.  I do not know anything about your filing requirements under Indian law."


"This is a ""stress"" period, much like the 1930s and 1970s. At a time like this, it is smart to be debt free, and to have money saved for the likely emergencies. There are growth periods like those of the 1980s and 1990s, probably returning in the 2020s and 2030s. At such times, it makes sense to play it a little ""looser"" and borrow money for investments. But the first order of business in answering this question is to look around you and figure out what is going on in the world (stress or growth)."


"The Craftsman brand is the only thing that Sears has that is worth anything.  Despite Sears' many woes, the Craftsman name is still about as close to ""golden"" as you can get in the tool world.   Sears still know knows how to source and purchase top-notch product.  Sears is one of the few companies out there that still has an in-house, staffed, top tier professional testing lab that doesn't just drop the tool on the floor to see if it breaks.    Alas, that isn't the whole story.  Everyone else is in the private labeling gig as well.  Home Depot has Husky.  Lowes has Kobalt.  Problem is that those ""other guys"" ARE sourcing mediocre warez from China at a much lower cost.  We all know how much Americans like cheap shit.    90% of the weekend warriors want to buy a ""pretty good"" tool.  They don't want to pay 2x or 3x the price for something of superior quality that will last a VERY long time (such as the Craftsman brand of yesteryear).  Even though that Craftsman tool was of superior quality, they were losing sales left and right to the ""pretty good"" stuff at other stores that cost half the price.  Sears had no chance but to cut costs and quality in order to stay competitive.  Having the best quality stuff on the market is no longer enough to stay in business.  The DIY hardware/tool market doesn't support that angle any more.    Walk inside of a Harbor Freight.  Some of that stuff is borderline junk.  However, it's good enough for many people that only need a tool or two to get them through a quick fix.  This is the new consumer market - ""Just good enough for today and maybe tomorrow""."


It's really not DRM, it was never intended to be. It was their one lowest price model, to offer something more affordable before the model 3 release. No other models are affected, and the expected market size was so small it was cheaper than designing one more lower capacity battery. Everyone knew what they were buying, and can upgrade to the next model up at any time. I don't see how this is possibly a bad thing, that model is already discontinued as well and this will never be a thing again. Remember the alternative is for those few owners to just have a 60kwh battery, and not be able to do this, this was not possible on any other models.


"What is a bond price?  A bond is an asset, and like any tradeable asset it has a price.  If I hold $10K face value of a certain GM bond, then I would be willing to sell it at some price, which may be more or less than $10K.  Whoever is willing to sell it for the lowest amount determines the price.  The price is determined by the market, just as all prices are.  It's what you can sell a bond for.  Bond prices may be quoted in various funny ways, like as a discount or premium relative to the face value or as a premium over a treasury, but at the end it all should be converted to how much you have to pay today.  In this case, it's how much you would pay today to get a set of future coupon and principal payments. What is Yield to Maturity?  A bond is a contract entitling you to a certain set of predefined cash flows.  If you take that set of cash flows and discount them using a single rate at all maturities such that the discounted value is equal to the price, the single rate you have identified is the YTM.  Mathematically, this is the same as finding the IRR (internal rate of return) of some set of cash flows.  In this case the cash flows are the coupons and principal repayment.  Other bond concepts.  Note that the other aspects of a bond, like maturity, coupon rate, and face value, are immutably written into the bond contract.  All they do is define what payments the bond entitles the owner to.  They don't say how much someone would pay today in order to be entitled to those payments.  One can't know how much a future payment is worth without discounting.  If you know the appropriate discount rate at every relevant maturity, you could calculate the fair price of a bond.  That's the other direction.  YTM looks at the market price and associated cash flows and imputes what single discount rate would make that price fair. What is YTM good for? Recall what I said about IRR above.  Why would anyone want to know what discount rate equates the cash flows of a project to its cost?  Because it's an easy way to summarize how profitable the project is expected to be. YTM is a quick way to summarize the yield one would get on a bond if they were to buy it today and hold to maturity.  If one bond has a higher YTM than another, than heuristically we believe it pays out more and should be associated with greater risk if the market is working properly.  It can be used to compare bonds or to look at how changes in bond prices are affecting expected yields.  Ask yourself, how would you compare two different bonds with different maturities and coupon rates?  Which one is riskier or more profitable?  The simplest way to summarize this information is with the yield to maturity.  YTM is used frequently enough that when you just say a bond's ""yield,"" people will assume you are talking about its yield to maturity. What is YTM not good for?  One thing to be wary of is using YTM as a discount rate.  It looks like a discount rate but it works for that bond and that bond only.  In reality each individual coupon payment has a true discount rate, and the discount rate at each horizon is different from each other horizon.  Those are true discount rates that can be applied to any cash flow of similar risk to get the right price.  We can think of YTM as some kind of average of those discount rates that produces the correct price for that bond only.  You should never use it for discounting something else."


"First off, high five on the paycheck.  There are a few retirement issues to deal with. 401k issues - At that income level, you will probably fall into the ""Highly Compensated Employee"" category, which means things get a little more complicated, both for you and your employer.  (Wikipedia link) IRA issues - As you already realized, you make too much to directly open and contribute to a Roth IRA.  You can open a Traditional IRA, however.  Your income is already over the limit for Traditional IRA deduction (bummer), so it would seem there is little point to opening an IRA at all. However, there is a way to take advantage of a Roth IRA, even at your income level.  It is possible to convert a Traditional IRA into a Roth IRA.  There used to be income limits on the ability to do the conversion, which would have normally made this off limits to you.  Starting in 2010, the income limit is removed, so you can do this. Basically, you open a Traditional IRA, max it out, then convert it to a Roth.  Since there was no income deduction, you shouldn't have to pay any more taxes.  (link) Disclaimer: I've never tried this, nor do I know anyone who has, so you might want to research it a bit more before you try it yourself."


"> ""With a well-established brand, differentiated from other casual dining restaurants by its Garden Bar, we see significant opportunities to drive value for Ruby Tuesday,"" Aziz Hashim, the founder of NRD, said in a statement.  This gives me hope that they aren't going to get rid of the salad bar (even if he did call it the wrong name...). That was the best part about Ruby Tuesdays. The burgers and other food may have been mediocre, but there was always something enjoyable about having a beer with a great salad bar."


Teachers are important people in your child’s life. A good fit versus a bad one can make all the difference in your child’s success during that school year. Someone else has an equally important role in your child’s education, and that’s you, the parent! Many teachers see the relationship with parents as a key partner, and they count on your support to make the learning work.


"Yes and No.  There's always a ""fee"".  The difference in credit vs debit usually determines how much that fee is and how it's paid.  Each vendor who accepts the major credit card is under contract to pay for equipment and meet certain standards.  The same is true for debt card transactions.  How much the ""fee"" is can vary based on the contract the vendor has with MasterCard/Visa/AMEX.  But in general most debt transactions go back to the bank who distributed the card."


I don't think all MBAs are useless, but this quality of an MBA is depends heavily on the institution that issued the qualification. I have seen many MBAs incapable of managing, disrupting existing well-functioning teams, who got their degree at an obscure institution. But I have also seen management geniuses with an MBA from a top shelf institution. An MBA is not a goal, but a small tool. That's key IMO.


Our AC uses some of the most advanced tech available. The warehouse i work in has problems with airflow in some areas because of how the conveyors are placed, but its also older than the company itself. And i dont know anything about the breaks issue. Ive never heard complaints.


I know that many HSBC ATMs at branches in the US and Canada offer this service (they actually scan and shred checks as you deposit them). Perhaps they do same in Germany... but not all ATMs offer this feature.


If I remember correctly my own experience : no you can't. Paypal will block the money even if it's only for online payement.


I'm not sure how much living expenses are there but half of $12,600 in the US would be a decent monthly income.   I agree that debt on debt would just add to his problems, sort of like quicksand, the interest will just makes a person sink deeper and deeper.  It seems like it might take some more radical options here to pay off the debt. Like, could he move into a much smaller home or get a roommate? How expensive was that vehicle? Could he sell it and pay cash for a much cheaper used one and use the difference toward his debt? How much does he work? Could he get a second job for just a few hours to help make extra money? Is he willing to speak with a debt counselor?


Anything with zero fee and rewards to get started. Discover is typically the easiest, but Chase Freedom is pretty good if you can get it (usually requires higher income and 700+ score though, but not always, check CK approval odds)


"Do you not understand my example at all?  You are better off having an $8M open position (by not selling) than $6.67M in cash (by selling).  It's literally as simple as 8M > 6.67M.  And before someone argues that ""you will eventually have to sell the 8M open position, at which point it'll be worth only ~5M after taxes"" - no, you don't necessarily ""have"" to sell it. You can keep it forever and live off the dividends, or by borrowing against it, or you can pass it onto heirs in a tax-free or at least more tax efficient way, etc."


Deciding to maintain an asphalt driveway is certainly a major one that the top prerequisite for this would be of a contractor. Hiring a contractor is not easy because several of them have mushroomed out of nowhere in the past one decade. Therefore, it becomes very important that you follow the guidelines mentioned below during selecting a contractor for sealing your driveway.


"Most of those countries had debt that was well beyond prudent levels (~70% of GDP) before the crisis, levels such that any crisis would put them over the safe limit and into trouble. The only exception was Spain whose debt levels were still marginally dangerous. Greece was off the charts, which is why they left off the graph for Greece.  Second problem. On top of the high or marginal levels of government debt, the governments implicitly or explicitly guaranteed the banks, without limiting in any effective way their levels of leverage and risk (inb4 Basel II - a lot of paper that made no difference). Protip: if someone guarantees your debt, they should be able to oversee your level of risk, but the governments didn't.  As a result these banks, and their CEOs in particular, have a bet that goes ""heads I win, tails I win (and you the taxpayer lose)"". If the loans are paid off the CEOs rake in millions. If the loans go bad the government bails them out and the CEOs and other top executives - you guessed it - rake in millions. Of course when faced with these incentives the banks will lend too much.  This is not free market capitalism, it is crony capitalism. **Bailouts of private companies are not part of unfettered free market capitalism.**  The third problem is that the same governments cannot print money like the US can because the Euro is not owned by the individual governments.   The answer to excessive levels of government debt is for governments not to borrow too much and not to take on excessive unfunded liabilities such as pensions. This probably needs to be enforced by a constitutional amendment, so it can't be easily overruled.  The answer to governments getting dragged into bailing out insolvent banks and then going under themselves, is to allow the banks to go under and to guarantee only small deposits. Let shareholders, bond holders and large (>$500k) lenders to the banks to lose their money. Second, hold bank executives and shareholders liable for the bank's debts. Eg executive salaries and other remuneration need to be clawed back up to a 5 year window. Shareholders should be liable (as they used to be) for debts up to an additional 100% of the par value of the shares. I can assure you this would concentrate minds wonderfully - as it did in the old days when Wall St investment banks were partnerships with each partner liable for all the debts of the firm.  Another alternative would be for governments to enforce limits on financial risk, but unfortunately they do not have the courage to do this, nor the morality to resist ""campaign contributions"" / bribes to look the other way.  If these steps were taken the issue of the Euro currency would not be a problem. However printing money (which requires having your own currency) is a solution if it comes to that although it comes at the expense of people who have saved and invested prudently. Printing money (keeping interest rates excessively low for years on end) subsidizes borrowers - the ones who created the problem - at the expense of savers. Clearly this creates terribly perverse incentives the next time around.  Anyone who thinks this problem is a result of unfettered free market capitalism is not paying attention."


"I think you are confusing ""understands technology"" with ""is technology guru"" or ""technology visionary"".  > As I noted the whole timeline simply DOESN'T match up with reality (at all, no matter HOW desperately one contorts the timeline into trying to make it ""plausible"").  Your timeline is flawed, as Sony's early work goes back well in to the 50's.  > his son by having a patent attorney look at it, and then came back and told junior some cock & bull story about having been ""beaten"" to the patent.  Maybe the whole thing is a lie. However, the story goes that the patent application was actually filed.  > LOL. Go to any sizeable bar and talk to a number of people; ask them if they ever had an ""idea"" that was later patented and became a ""big time"" thing -- you'll end up with HUNDREDS of similar ""well I had this idea once for _____"" stories, and a lot of them will come from when they were teens or twenty-somethings... very few of them have even a tiny kernel of ""truth"".  Agreed. That's exactly why I'm saying having the idea isn't important. Like you said, he might have just been working off of some designs he read in a magazine. I don't look at his work with the CRT as a demonstration of any particular brilliance, just an interest and enough competence to actually get the damn thing to work, which already separates him from pretty much all non-tech CEO's, and even puts him in a reasonably rarefied cloud amongst CEO's or large tech companies.  > As the Apple CEO, he was a ""fish out of water"" -- but, given that the advertising & PR people had already (once) done the ""let's dress up our CEO as a 'technical wunderkind visionary"" (with Jobs) -- they simply did their best to repeat the same thing (with even less basis in reality) with Sculley.  You should read Jobs' own accounts of meeting and recruiting Sculley. They had very extensive conversations about technology and while Jobs no doubt didn't see him as a visionary, the computer industry was new to Sculley so he had a lot to learn (particularly the first year), and Sculley clearly didn't get Jobs' design esthetic, but Jobs very much felt he could share his vision and Sculley would understand it and its implications. Similar comments from Markkula and others who worked with the guy then.  > And of course subsequently -- he's been coasting on (and trying to capitalize on) that bullshit ever since. > > He probably should have just gone back to the beverage & advertising world; but by then I think he had begun to believe his own PR myth, and his ego just wouldn't allow for admitting the truth.  Ironically, I think the post-Apple track record shows quite the opposite. Sculley definitely sees himself not as a technical visionary or even a technologist, but as a master marketer. Yet the evidence is he hasn't done terribly well marketing most of the fairly interesting tech that he's found out there. So I'm not sure what your basis is for this narrative you've constructed."


This is well-written and important. I worked at a newspaper (and helped launch a TV station) 1997-99 when the web was really taking off, and have watched the resultant waves of RIFs that even now continue to overtake my friends and teammates.  Music, movies, books, media...it's all up for grabs.


In addition to TransferWise that @miernik answered with and that I successfully used, I found CurrencyFair which looks to be along similar lines and also supports US$.


The monthly repayments of the initial $ 300,000 loan can be calculated using this formula:  source: Finance Formulas The monthly payment is It is not readily apparent how the formula works, but it is derived by induction from this summation, in which the sum of the discounted future payments are set equal to the present value of the loan:  For the second part of the question, reinvestments are stopped after 9 months, after four investments of $ 26,374.77 * 3 = $ 79,124.31.  And presumably each loan is repaid in 3 years, since 45 - 9 = 36 months. Calculating the repayments for these loans: The total returned for all four loans is:


> Allowing taxi licencing to become so expensive, than it places that level of debt on the owner is sheer madness - a recipe for a bubble.  Yeah. We're basically artificially sustaining a lending business because we've created the necessity to lend for something that shouldn't be expensive in the first place.  I think it's natural that in trying to clean up the bloat in the economy, there will undoubtedly be winners and losers.


"I've heard similar sentiments parroted. The one I hear the most from the older generation is ""they're not making more land, so property values are guaranteed to go up!"".  If there's one thing people need to understand, it's that before you start listening to expert advice, looking at rates, or building large abstract models or plans based on how you see the market, it's to know that fundamentally a market is a very simple thing: people are buying, and people are selling. If someone is selling for that price, it's because the cash is worth more than the property to them. You would have to be insane to sell if you genuinely believed it would double (or at least be guaranteed that it would appreciate faster than your mortgage rate)."


If you are still paying off debt, then you should have about $1000 in savings and put all you can towards non-mortgage debt. If you don't have any debt besides your mortgage, then add up all of your monthly expenses including food, gas, utilities and keep 3-6 months in liquid savings. Whether you keep 3 or 6 months depends on how safe your income is. If you have a steady safe job, you might be safe with 3 months. But, if your employer is cutting back or you are in a commission based job or self employed - then lean more towards 6 months expenses. Congrats on your new home!


"My education helped me getting a job that allows me to pay for my livelihood.  I thought I made that clear - but thanks for avoiding every meaningful discussion. You will just keep on asking meaningless questions until you find something where you can throw a chair at like ""ha you work, so you confess hating communism"".   I think I made my point clear. And I think that was the longest ""discussion"" I ever had or ever will have with a Trump supporter.  For everybody who wants to know more about redistribution or equality through working tax systems, that only favour the richest of the rich, watch ""Inequality for all"" with Robert Reich."


When your debt is forgiven, you have to consider the amount written off as an ordinary income item (with the exclusion of the debt originated from the purchase of primary home). If you're trying to write the debt off from your taxes - then it won't work. Even if you can expense the debt forgiveness, you will incur tax liability on your personal taxes side, and in addition you'll be out of cash in your business. So basically you'll end up paying it with after tax money, exactly the thing you're trying to avoid. In addition, you're dealing with related persons here, which means that the loss deduction might not be allowed (depends on the actual details of the transaction), so you might actually end up paying more taxes with this scheme that just paying off the loan directly (if your business pays taxes separately from your person). A loss on the sale or exchange of property between related persons is   not deductible. This applies to both direct and indirect transactions,   but not to distributions of property from a corporation in a complete   liquidation. For the list of related persons, see Related persons   next.


"I think it is the debate here.  The functional use case is that it takes seconds to plug in.  Even if you added all the time I've spent ""on-the-go"" charging, which is very little, then the amount of time I've spent charging has been less than the amount of time I would have spent filling up on gas over the course of several years.  Also, like I said in the comment, this is not just ""MY"" use case.  You can ask other drivers about it, the vast majority will say they prefer charging now that they have experienced it.  Look at Volts - most of their miles are done on electricity, and there are a lot of Volt drivers who use the term ""gas anxiety"" because they don't want to fill up with gas so they do everything they can not to let the engine turn on at all.  And for another car example, Tesla installed a battery swapper which made the filling-up experience more ""gas-like,"" in that it took <5 minutes and cost about $50.  Nobody used it.  They instead plugged in at the free supercharger nearby, got out to stretch their legs, went to eat lunch, and came back to their cars and drove off.  Heck, I've heard plenty of Tesla owners lament that their car charged *too quickly*, which meant they had to get up in the middle of lunch to go unplug it.  Very few people will regularly ""need"" to charge en-route in something like a Bolt, Model 3 or Model S.  Those very few people who routinely drive 300 miles in a day one-way, or roundtrip with very little stop at their destination with which they could charge, are a niche customer who does not need to be catered to at this moment in time.  However, and I get this all the time, everyone on reddit thinks they're part of that niche.  On a website full of people who talk about spending all their day on reddit, somehow these people get the time to spend driving 400 miles a day.  Not saying you're doing that right now, but lots of people do it here.  95%+ of charge events will be normal, day-to-day charges where it takes no time, the ""on-the-go"" cases are few and far between.  EV motorcycles are pretty reasonably priced, but it sounds like you've probably already done some research on them.  Check out Zero if you haven't heard of them.  Cool thing about them is the battery is small so you can charge it on 120v in a reasonable amount of time (overnight), and I've heard from motorcycle drivers that they even feel more safe on an EV because all those brain cycles you spend on shifting and clutching are freed up to spend on paying attention to the road which is full of cars that are trying to kill you.  Also the Bolt is a fantastic car.  Highly recommend it.  edit: oh, and with your name, you should check out the Lightning LS218's results at Pike's Peak a few years ago.  Beat the Ducati by 20 seconds ;-)  https://www.wired.com/2013/07/lightning-pikes-peak-2013/"


"Thank you for the great explanation, but there is an aspect of this that has eluded me the 10 times I've attempted to understand it over the years.  When you give the 12-Loddar IOU to the shoemaker, I have two problems of understanding: (a) In October, I am going to owe 12 apple-bushels to ""the economy"", so isn't the 12-Loddar IOU cancelled out?  Really, the 12-Loddar IOU is a pre-order.  (b) If we take your metaphor to the modern age, handwritten IOUs won't work anymore; they have to be central-bank-printed notes; so the central bank does have to expand the money supply, doesn't it?"


"America just needs to get the cash out. I believe in the power of government to better everyone's lives.  But I'm in NZ.  Low corruption here with a strong safety net.  Universal health care. I have a hospital appointment tomorrow.  They are going to fix my chest deformity for free even though technically it's ""cosmetic"".  I was earning $50 an hour mowing lawns for 6 years.  I did a double degree in the late 90s for about $7k a year.  My Asthma medicine costs $5.00.  My brother had cancer - treated free (he's fine now).  My Mum's heart attack - free (she's all good too).  If you start from such a depressed place (believe me I get why Americans feel the way they do) I think you run the risk of ending up in a rather cynical place - government can't help me.  You got republicans essentially running on a ticket of ""government doesn't work"" and ensuring it doesn't by their actions.   I dunno mate.  Keep your chin up.  I feel like America is getting close to a real jolt to get it back on track.  She's really out of step with other comparable countries.  America is still great despite itself.  But it'll get back on track.  The boomers will die off and progress will become possible again."


Is your argument that the US Government is here illegally?   Okay, so lets add that the drug dealer / gang banger is living in that house because he murdered the prior owner... does that make your living in the house more or less implicit approval of the drug dealers decisions and lifestyle?


So 2015 is still well before the Model 3 is coming out, so they will still be dealing solely in Model S and Model X, which both carry an average transaction price approaching six figures.  Mercedes and BMW both produce around 60,000 of their similarly priced level vehicles (S class and 7 series respectively) per year. Audi produces around 35,000 8 series vehicles.   The point here is that if Tesla is planning on selling 100,000 vehicles in a market that is around 200k cars per year, that would represent a HUGE chunk out of the near-six-figure luxury vehicle market, and would require a non-insubstantial percentage of people to switch away from long-entrenched marques. It will be highly impressive if they pull it off.


You can't directly contribute more. However, it seems that there is something you can do that can achieve a similar effect. You can withdraw your entire account (principal + earnings, though in your case that's less than the principal), and then contribute up to the $5500 contribution limit again. The end result is that you put in a net amount of $500, and the account ends up with $5500, which is what you want. The first step is a return of contributions made for the contribution year before the tax filing deadline for that year. This kind of withdrawal is not subject to tax, and counts as if you never made the contribution at all. Since you are considered to have never made a contribution, you still have $5500 that you can contribute before you hit the limit.


Crazy as it is, I've always thought Poland Spring was by far the best-tasting bottled water compared to Deer Park (also Nestlé, I believe, so it's weird that there's a difference in taste), Dasani, Aquafina, and the rest. I'm pretty confident that I could tell Poland Spring apart from those in a blind taste test.


The fees for the services are displayed on the PayPal website at https://www.paypal.com/cgi-bin/webscr?cmd=_display-fees-outside Is there anything else you were looking for.


Does this technically mean that she has to pay AMT on $400,000? Yes. Well, not exactly 400,000. She paid $1 per share, so 390,000. And if so, is %28 the AMT for this sum? (0.28 * $400,000 = $112,000)?   Or does she have to include her salary on top of that before   calculating AMT? (Suppose in the fake example that her salary is   $100,000 after 401k). All her income is included in calculating the AMT, minus the AMT exemption amount. The difference between the regular calculated tax and the calculated AMT is then added to the regular tax. Note that some deductions allowed for the regular calculation are not allowed for the AMT calculation. How does California state tax come into play for this? California has its own AMT rules, and in California any stock option exercise is subject to AMT, unless you sell the stock in the same year. Here's a nice and easy to understand write up on the issue from the FTB. When would she have to pay the taxes for this huge AMT? Tax is due when income is received (i.e.: when you exercise the options). However, most people don't actually pay the tax then, but rather discover the huge tax liability when they prepare to submit their tax return on April 15th. To avoid that, I'd suggest trying to estimate the tax and adjust your withholding using form W4 so that by the end of the year you have enough withheld. Suppose in the worst case, the company goes completely under. Does she   get her massive amounts of tax back? Or if it's tax credit, where can   I find more info on this? That would be capital loss, and only up to $3K a year of capital loss can be deducted from the general income. So it will continue offsetting other capital gains or being deducted $3K a year until it all clears out. Is there any way to avoid this tax? (Can she file an 83b election?) You asked and answered. Yes, filing 83(b) election is the way to go to avoid this situation. This should be done within 30 days of the grant, and submitted to the IRS, and a copy attached to the tax return of the grant year. However, if you're considering exercise - that ship has likely sailed a long time ago. Any advice for Little Susie on how she can even afford to pay that   much tax on something she can't even sell anytime soon? Don't exercise the options? Should she   take out a loan? (e.g. I've heard that in the extreme case, you can   find angel investors who are willing to pay all your taxes/strike   price, but want 50% of your equity? I've also heard that you can sell   your illiquid shares on SecondMarket?) Is she likely to get audited by IRS for pulling something like this? You can take a loan secured by shares you own, there's nothing illegal in it. If you transfer your shares - the IRS only cares about the taxes being paid, however that may be illegal depending on the terms and the conditions of the grant. You'll need to talk to a lawyer about your situation. I suggest talking to a licensed tax adviser (EA/CPA licensed in your State) about the specifics concerning your situation.


Algorithmic trading essentially banks on the fact that a price will fluctuate in tiny amounts over short periods of time, meaning the volatility is high in that given time frame. As the time frame increases the efficiency of algorithmic trading decreases and proper investment strategies such as due diligence, stock screening, and technical analysis become the more efficient methods.  Algorithms become less effective as the time frame increases due to the smoothing effect of volatility over time. Writing an algorithm that could predict future long-term prices would be an impossible feat because as the time frame is scaled up there are far less price fluctuations and trends (volatility smooths out) and so there is little to no benchmark for the formulas.  An algorithm simply wouldn't make sense for a long-term position. A computer can't predict, say, the next quarter, an ousted CEO, a buyout, or anything else that could effect the price of the security, never mind the psychology behind it all. Vice versa, researching a company's fundamentals just to bank on a 0.25% daily swing would not be efficient. Tax advantages or not, it is the most efficient methods that are preferred for a given time-scale of trading.


"It sounds good, but perhaps they've overlooked several things that would need to be addressed before anything like this could work well.  1) If there is a leak in the overall flow, such as a HFT hedge fund sucking money out of the markets at an enormous rate into a tax haven, such a system would just perpetuate the existing rise of the superwealthy entities. They still get richer without spending much in return.  2) As described they have only talked about one government, one nation, one monetary recycling system, as if nations are closed boxes. They are not. Money flows across borders with ease. Nations **compete** to maximise the amount of assets they hold within their borders at any given time. These can be fixed capital assets too. So nothing prevents the ""global equity investment"" they mention from starting to resemble all the powerful corporations concentrated in a single favoured nation over time. That would represent a lot of political power concentrated in ways that are not necessarily favourable to individual sovereign national legal systems elsewhere.  It is possible that this could mean that nations would compete to lower taxes to zero to attract corporations, thereby risking bankrupting governments unless the income from the global equity index compensated enough. At 6% it won't match current tax rates.  The second point also means that nations cannot unilaterally decide to implement this unless they have a guaranteed additional inflowing income from transnational activities that could compensate for excessive outflow."


Definitely don't borrow from your 401K.  If you quit or get laid off, you have to repay the whole amount back immediately, plus you are borrowing from your opportunity cost.  The stock market should be good at least through the end of this year.   As one of the commentators already stated, have you calculated your net savings by reducing the interest rate?  You will be paying closing costs and not all of these are deductible (only the points are).  When calculating the savings, you have to ask yourself how long you will be hanging on the property?  Are you likely to be long term landlords, or do you have any ideas on selling in the near future?   You can reduce the cost and principal by throwing the equivalent of one to two extra mortgage payments a year to get the repayment period down significantly (by years).  In this way, you are not married to a higher payment (as you would be if you refinanced to a 15 year term).   I would tend to go with a) eat the appraisal cost, not refinance, and b) throw extra money towards principal to get the term of the loan to be reduced.


I want to send some money to Indian in my saving account but I haven't any NRO/NRE account. It is advisable to Open an NRE account. As an NRI you cannot hold a savings account. Please have this converted into NRO account ASAP. Process or Transaction charges or Tax (levied by Indian bank) on money what I'll send to my saving account in India. I know the process or transaction charges (applied by UK banks) from UK to India. There will be a nominal charge levied by banks in India. If you use dedicated Remittance services [Most Leading Indian Banks offer this], these are mostly free. Is there any limit to get rid off tax? Nope there isn't any limit. This depends on service provider. What types of paper work I'll need to do for showing that income is sent from UK after paying tax. If you transfer to NRE account. There is no paperwork required. It is implicit. If not you have to establish that the funds are received from outside India, keep copies of the transfer request initiated, debits to the Bank Account in UK, your salary slips, Passport stamps etc.


I think I understand what I am doing wrong.  To provide some clarity, I am trying to determine what the value of a project is to a firm.  To do this I am taking FCF, not including interest or principal payments, and discounting back to get an NPV enterprise value.  I then back off net debt to get to equity value.  I believe what I am doing wrong is that I show that initial $50M as a cash outflow in period 0 and then back it off again when I go from enterprise value to equity value.  Does this make any sense?  Thanks for your help.


Mobile phones have emerged as the most imperative commodity in the life of most of the people. Belonging to any age group and coming from virtually any background, the cell phone that can help you stay connected with anyone and everyone you wish at almost any time in life is now a necessary part of life and not just a requirement. With new features and added facilities, the one most recent update done by the phone operators is the free prepaid recharge facility available online. Offering all the prepaid cell users an easy and almost instant recharge alternative, the free prepaid recharge facility is a god sent boon for all. Saving one from the hassle of travelling all the way to an ATM to withdraw money and then locate a mobile store, this is the new in thing now adding ease and convenience to the task of adding balance to your prepaid cell phones. The advantages a prepaid mobile owner enjoys are many but the most vital is the control over expenses which moreover one who owns a post-paid connection does not enjoy. With now an online free prepaid recharge added to the list of features, more and more people are now turning to this great facility. So, now enjoy an easy and convenient balance recharge on your prepaid cell phone with just a click. Offered by mobile operators of virtually all the brands functional in India, when accessing the prepaid recharge facility online, one can enjoy a top up recharge on balance of virtually any value. These deals offer you easy free recharge facility that supports your budget. These deals are different from other deals like contract phones, pay monthly phones, etc. in which you end up your month by paying huge mobile bills. Another benefit of this deal is that you are free to choose any network provider as per your wish. To control your bills, you can for sure use this kind of deal. Your usage of phone is completely dependent on the amount of money available in your phone. In other words we can say that it is a prepaid deal wherein you can make calls and send texts according to the balance and talk value available in your phone. Once you take this free online service, there is no need to pay any money in between the time period. This usage includes your calls, messages etc. It also allows you to make unlimited calls by paying their charges. A large number of offers also come associated with several kinds of plans. It may include free gifts such as laptops, ipods, free handsets and many more. It can also provide free talk time, free or low call rate, free text SMS and many others. Furthermore, this online websites are available for the users, which provide every detail about the latest Phones that are designed and launched by different brands. This websites elegantly facilitate the modern people to get free online recharge and the latest information about the offers and cheap mobile deals of different manufacturers quite easily.  Recharge your mobile in free of cost here: www.freephonerecharge.in


The interest payments received in an account depend both upon  on how interest is accrued,  as well as how it is paid. The annual interest statement indicates how often interest is paid. It does not, however, indicate how that interest is calculated or accrued. Commonly in this type of account in Canada, the interest is calculated monthly based on the lowest balance you had for that month. If you need specifics, you should check with your financial institution, or check the fine print of the account in question. Good Luck


Then you have two problems.  A better solution would be in invest in education and training so that you reduce the number of unskilled, low wage workers.  One way would be to get these people out of retail and back into manufacturing, but that is unlikely in the US.       Another proposal has been to get people working in coal mines, but I'm not sure if a nineteenth century solution fits a 21st century problem.


There are a few main economic reasons given why investors show a strong home bias: Interestingly, though if you ask investors about the future of their home country compared with other countries they will generally (though not always) significantly overestimate the future of their own country.  It is difficult to definitively say what drives investors but this psychological home bias could be one of the larger factors. Edit in response to the bounty: Maybe this Vanguard article on their recommended international exposure is what you are looking for though they only briefly speculate about why people so consistently show a home bias in investing.  The Wikipedia article mentioned above has some very good references and while there may be no complete answer with the certainty that you seek (as there are as many reasons as there are investors) a combination of the above list seems to capture much of what is going on across different countries.


"Actually the UK was doing that back in the 1600's to finance war with France. You might want to learn why the crown jewels were not actually owned by the state :)  ""I think you should move along before you get hurt. This is a grown up conversation little one."""


Yes. I'm not a coder by trade, but learned on my own as a hobby and then launched a barebones version in 2015 and then a full-fledged version just a few months ago. I'm a lawyer by training and I had been thinking for 12+ years that there needed to be a more efficient way for professionals to get clients and for clients to know the level of expertise of a professional through the power of the Internet. I had tried to hire outside web developers on my own about 10 years ago, but got burned but learned some valuable life lessons - if you are passionate about something, learn to do it yourself - you almost always will be better off. The result today is Hire.Bid and I'm happy to say we are kicking ass. If Reddit has taught me anything, it is to chase your dreams and make shit happen yourself. You'll regret not doing so. Make it happen. If it is a hobby and something you are passionate about first, you'll have a much better chance of success in the long run. Just my $0.02.


"If you can afford to replace your car, it is more cost effective, on average and over time, not to carry comprehensive and collision insurance. The insurance companies do make a profit, after all. However, you may be able to worry less (""What if someone steals my car if I park here?"") with the insurance, and you have the knowledge the you won't have to spend your own money on a new car if something happens to this one, which may help with financial planning."


This decision depends upon a few things. I will list a couple:- 1.) What is your perception about financial markets in your time span of investments? 2.) What kind of returns are you expecting? 3.) How much liquidity do you have to take care of your daily/monthly expenses? 1.)If your perception about financial markets is weak for the near future, do not invest all your money in a mutual fund at 1 time. Because, if the market falls drastically, chances are that your fund will also lose a lot of money and the NAV will go down. On the other hand, if you think it is strong, go ahead and invest all at one time. 2.) If you are expecting very high returns in a short time frame, then SIP might not be a very good option as you are only investing a portion of your money. So, if the market goes higher, then you will make money only on what you have invested till date and also buy into the fund in the upcoming month at a higher rate( So you will get less units).  3.) If you put all your money into a mutual fund, will you have enough money to take care of your daily needs and emergencies? The worst thing about an investment is putting in all what you have and then being forced to sell in a bear market at a lower rate because you really require the money. Other option is taking a personal loan(15-16%) and taking care of your daily needs, but that would not make sense either as the average return that you can expect from a mutual fund in India is 12-13%. To summarize:- 1.) If you have money to spare and think the market is going to go higher, a mutual fund is a better option. 2.) If you have the money to spare and think that the market is going to fall, DON'T DO ANYTHING!.(It is always better to be even than lose). 3.) If you don't have the money and don't know about markets, but want to be part of it, then you can invest in an SIP because the advantages of this are if the market goes high, you make money on what you've put it, and if the market falls, you get to buy more units of the fund for a cheaper price. Eventually, you can expect to make a return of 14-15% on these, but again, INVESTMENTS ARE SUBJECT TO MARKET RISK! Please watch the funds average return over the last 10 years and their portfolio holdings. All the best!:) PS:- I am assuming you are talking about equity funds.


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"You don't ""prove a model incorrect"". That's not how this type of statistical modeling works. This isn't cognitive dissonance, it's understanding what statistics tells us.   If I look at a model that takes a bunch of inputs from two football teams and the inputs tell me the expected numbers of yards, touchdowns, etc over 1000 different simulations, and gives me that over those 1000 different simulations that 750 of them is in favor of team A. When team B wins this doesn't prove a model wrong in a one shot game, it proves that one of those 750 times out of 1000 didn't occur.   In this case it's especially interesting because, continuing with the analogy, the yardage was almost near correct (popular vote) just the areas of the field that yardage came from differed slightly. This election was, essentially, when one team out gains the other, but loses due to the exact wrong play in the wrong area of the field.   Again, you clearly don't understand how this works, or the definition of cognitive dissonance, for that matter."


Does your current employer offer a 401(k)? Can you roll your IRA into that? You can borrow from a 401(k). If you leave your job, get fired etc., you have to pay back the loan but you can avoid the early withdrawal penalty at least; there may also be  less of a tax issue since it is a loan and may not be considered income unless you don't pay it back. The terms for  taking a loan are set by the 401(k) plan  documents. If you explore this route make sure you see the plan document itself. Don't rely on what someone tells you.


I still think it will be a wrist device (possibly neck).  Apple has some patents related to heartbeat identification (something that is pretty much impossible to imitate - but doesn't work for people with pumps replacing their heart).  Combined with the secure enclave I see this as the solution for a secure payment platform - fingerprint reader for authorization, and heartbeat for authentication.  If your heartbeat is elevated you won't be able to authorize payments (so won't go through if you're being held up, or just finished a cardio workout).


Assuming this'll be a taxable account and you're an above-average wage earner, the following seem to be biggest factors in your decision: tax-advantaged income w/o retirement account protection - so I'd pick a stock/stocks or fund that's designed to minimize earnings taxable at income and/or short-term gains rates (e.g. dividends) declining risk profile - make sure you periodically tweak your investment mix over the 2-3 year period  to reduce your risk exposure.   You want to be near savings account risk levels by the end of your timeline.  But make sure you keep #1 in mind - so probably don't adjust (by selling) anything until you've hit the 1-year holding mark to get the long-term capital gains rates. In addition to tax-sensitive stock & bond funds at the major brokerages like Fidelity, I'd specifically look at tax-free municipal bond funds (targeted for your state of residence) since those generally pay better than savings on after tax basis for little increase in risk (assuming you stick w/ higher-rated municipalities).


Publication 17 is a start. From that pub -   I don't know what the stipend was for or whether is was tax free. So I can't say for sure, myself.


That sucks.  If BofA is taking responsibility for the insurance payment, then they should..., well, take responsibilty - full responsibility.  I hope these people get reimbursed fairly.  Didn't their insurance company contact them about the policy?  If not, I'd certainly be shopping for a new insurance company, and possibly I'd include them in a lawsuit.  The insurance company should be contacting the bank **and** their customer.  Mine sent me a couple of letters, saying a copy was sent to the bank (although I think they still had the original bank, not BofA).  But BofA had recently paid the premium, so they ignored it - basically dropped the ball.  When I got the 2nd letter from the insurance company, I called again, and the guy at BofA got right on the ball, checked it out, and fixed it very quickly, then helped me cancel my escrow so I could handle it directly in the future.  Perhaps I was lucky to get someone who cared about their job enough to follow through.  But I also jumped in to make sure it got taken care of, so if he hadn't, I would have been bothering them until they did.


IBAN -> is International Bank Account Number. The number is constructed in such a way that it uniquely identifies your account in the world. I.e. it has a country in it, Bank (and branch) and the actual account number. This is an international standard adopted by the EU, Australia and NZ. Going forward it would be sufficient to just quote the IBAN for payment without any other details. BIC, SWIFT Code, SWIFT BIC, SWIFT ID [all mean the same] is a Bank Identifier Code [More correctly Business Identifier Code] that is again an International standard and used on all International payments. The SWIFT BIC is constructed as   Hence SWIFT BIC can be 8 Chars or 11 Chars. The additional 3 Chars help bank identify the Branch where the account is held and where the payment needs to be made. So LOYDGB2L is the main head office  If your branch is, say, in Canary Wharf, the SWIFT BIC would be LOYDGB21 [21-> Canary Wharf] with a 3 digit branch added.


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Cutting the size/inefficiency of government is generally an unpopular topic on r/economy.   However the question I always wish to ask these folk is : If the size and scope of government has generally historically increased since WWII, at what stage do we say enough? There has to be a point where the inefficiency and burden of the state overwhelms the tax base it operates off.


Reducing your income by 20k is guaranteed to lower your tax bill by less than 20k (because there are no tax rates greater than 100%).  Your goal shouldn't be to minimize taxes but to maximize total net income.


Well one of the main problems is the unsteady purchasing power of the money, and the unwillingness of the federal reserve to allow anything less than 2-3% inflation, when deleveraging requires deflation. A lot of problem is also regime uncertainty. Companies will keep large cash reserves on the sidelines if they are uncertain about the regulatory environment. A business man can't accurately plan his business if he does not know how much his productive output will be taxed 5 or 10 years down the road. For larger companies it may be the safer move to hold onto the cash and not put it to productive use.


Yes. If I own a call, an American call option can be exercised at my wish. A European call can only be exercised at expiration, by the way.  Your broker doesn't give you anything but a current quote for a given strike price. There are a number of good option related questions here. A bit of searching and reading will help you understand the process.


"This is the best tl;dr I could make, [original](http://mobile.reuters.com/article/amp/idUSKBN19I0G4) reduced by 92%. (I'm a bot) ***** > Seven years after its Deepwater Horizon explosion and oil spill, BP is betting tens of billions of dollars on the prospect that it can slash the costs of offshore drilling by half or more - just as shale oil producers have done onshore.  > While BP has some onshore U.S. developments, the firm is notably absent from the industry&#039;s rush into shale oil fields of the West Texas Permian Basin.  > Richard Sears - who served as chief scientist on the National Commission on the BP Deepwater Horizon Oil Spill and Offshore Drilling - said such projects can be managed safely at low oil prices.   ***** [**Extended Summary**](http://np.reddit.com/r/autotldr/comments/6jqx7e/seven_years_after_its_deepwater_horizon_explosion/) | [FAQ](http://np.reddit.com/r/autotldr/comments/31b9fm/faq_autotldr_bot/ ""Version 1.65, ~153572 tl;drs so far."") | [Feedback](http://np.reddit.com/message/compose?to=%23autotldr ""PM's and comments are monitored, constructive feedback is welcome."") | *Top* *keywords*: **oil**^#1 **Gulf**^#2 **platform**^#3 **drills**^#4 **new**^#5"


I understand that, but there are so many mitigating factors now that I don't feel safe. It's more like thinking that airplanes are safe, but if you're walking through the airport and you notice the pilot at the bar and them see him with his shirt untucked as he bumps his head getting into the airplane you might not get onto that airplane.   I wouldn't give this advice to someone in their 20s, but we are in our 50s. We have enough to live on comfortably with savings and my husband's pension and social security and passive income from the rental. It's just not worth the risk. As it is I am retired and can travel and eat whatever I want whenever I want. And the rental property is our hedge against inflation. I just see no reason to risk that.


Generally, unless you explicitly elect otherwise, LLCs are transparent when it comes to taxes. So the money in the LLC is your money for tax purposes, there's no need to pay yourself a salary. In fact, the concept of salary for LLC members doesn't exist at all. It is either distributions or guaranteed payments (and even that is mostly relevant to multi-member LLCs). The only concern is the separation of personal and LLC finances - avoiding commingling. Mixing your personal and business expenses by using the same accounts/cards for both business and personal spending may cause troubles when it comes to the liability protection in case of a lawsuit. I'd suggest discussing this with a FL-licensed attorney. Bottom line - technically the withdrawal is just writing yourself a check from the business account or moving money between your personal and business accounts. If you're a sole member - you need not more than that. Make sure the operating agreement explicitly empowers you to do that, of course. There are no tax consequences, but as I mentioned - there may be legal consequences.


How you use the metric is super important.   Because it subtracts cash, it does not represent 'value'.  It represents the ongoing financing that will be necessary if both the equity plus debt is bought by one person, who then pays himself a dividend with that free cash.   So if you are Private Equity, this measures your net investment at t=0.5, not the price you pay at t=0.  If you are a retail investor, who a) won't be buying the debt, b) won't have any control over things like tax jurisdictions, c) won't be receiving any cash dividend, etc etc .... the metric is pointless.


"They do not. M&A execution is housed within industry coverage groups; there's no separate group that executes. They have a group called ""M&A"" that advises on tax structuring, anti-raid, and other assorted issues (e.g. MASA) but they don't run the model and they're not really executing. Most of the people there are ex-lawyers or experienced bankers.  Trust me on this, if you tell someone at GS you're interested in working in the M&A group, you're not getting an offer."


This is one of the things that central banks do. For example, see here for a full description of how the Bank of England manages settlements of inter-bank transactions.


You pay it this tax year.  Whether that's now due to W-2 withholding, or later with your 1040 next year, or with your 1040-ES all depends on your particular situation.


Lawyers who are paid quite well for it.   Who do you think mortgages the future of their firms in some case dedicating themselves to fighting those corporate lawyers for settlements when they've wronged consumers.   Unless you want to claim that having a codified legal system is bad I really don't see how thats relevant... It's like saying all people are bad because some were nazis


Quite a few Banks/brokers offer direct terminals to NSE where you can see live prices.


Would opening a second credit card contribute in any meaningful way to my credit mix or no, since it's the same type of credit? Yes, multiple lines of credit help your credit score, even if they are all credit cards. There are experts on both sides of this argument though. For example, Fico says that you shouldn't open a new credit card just for the credit boost, while NerdWallet cautiously recommends it. My recommendation is that if you're disciplined with your credit spending, it will help a little. If yes, is it worth it to take the hit to my average account age sooner rather than later by opening a new credit card? If you want to build up your number of credit lines, do so well before you need to use your credit to take out a loan. Not only will your credit score take a hit from the average age dropping, but you'll also have a hard pull on your credit report. As Fixed Point points out, though, you will see a larger improvement to your credit score by adding another type of credit, such as a home loan, to your credit mix. If you are already limited your credit utilization to 10%-30% then you probably won't be able to reach your goal by just adding a credit card.


From Schwab -  What are the eligibility requirements for a business to establish a SEP-IRA? Almost any type of business is eligible to establish a SEP-IRA, from self-employed individuals to multi-person corporations (including sole proprietors, partnerships, S and C corporations, and limited liability companies [LLCs]), tax-exempt organizations, and government agencies. What are the contribution limits? You may contribute up to 25% of compensation (20% if you’re self-employed3) or $49,000 for 2011 and $50,000 for 2012, whichever is less. If we set the PC aside, you and the son have an LLC renting office space, this addresses the ability of the LLC to offer the retirement account.


I used to work for a online payment posting company. Anytime a payment is made via Credit Card to a company that does not have PCI DSS(aka the ability/certification to store credit card information) there is a MD5 checksum(of the confirmation code, not the Credit Card information) that get sent to the company from the processor(billing tree, paypal, etc). The company should be able to send this information back to the processor in order to refund the payment.  If the company isn't able to do this, to be honest they shouldn't be taking online credit card payments. And by all means do not send your credit card information in an email. As said above, call the company's customer service line and give them the info to credit your account.


Powers makes a good point: trading costs may eat up a significant portion of your ROI. A fee as little as 2% can consume more than 50% of your long-term ROI! A rule of thumb is keep your fees to less than 1%. One way to do that is to buy stock in companies that have a DRIP with a Share Purchase Plan (SPP). Often the SPP allows investors to purchase shares for low fees or free. Once you have the ability to purchase shares for (virtually) free, you can  use InvestMete. Roughly, you send more money to the companies whose share prices are near their 52-week low, and less money to those who are near their 52-week high. Getting back to your original question...


Government wasn't efficient during democrat presidencies either. Government has never been efficient. Both parties are responsible so blaming one or the other isn't going to prove or change anything. But that's not the problem here. I'm against both the parties and government in general. Long story short; the government is not, and has never been (Dems & Repbs both) efficient when it comes to infrastructure spending period. Government is slow and always over budget. Let's try something new.


"Most of the answers here reflect a misunderstanding of what gold actually is from a financial perspective.  I'll answer your question by asking two questions, and I do challenge you to stop and think about what we mean when we say ""cash"" or ""unit of exchange"" because without understanding those, you will completely miss this answer. In 1971, the DXY was 110.  For people who don't know, the DXY is the US Dollar Index - it weighs the strength of the US Dollar relative to other currencies.  Hey look, it's a pretty graph of the DXY's history. In 1971, gold was $35 an ounce. The DXY is 97 today. Gold is $1170 an ounce today. Now the questions: If shares of Company A in 1971 were $10 a share, but now are $100 a share and some of this is because the company has grown, but some of it is because of inflation and the DXY losing value, what would the value of the company be if it was held in grams of gold and not dollars? Benjamin Graham, who influenced Warren Buffett, is a ""supposed"" critic of gold, yet what percent of his life were we not on a gold standard?  In his day, the dollar was backed by gold - why would you buy gold if every dollar represented gold. Finally, consider how many US Dollars exist, and how few metric tonnes of gold exist (165,000).  Even Paul Volcker admitted that a new gold standard would be impossible because the value of gold, if we did it today, would put gold in the $5000-$10000 range - which is absurd: To get on a gold standard technically now, an old fashioned gold   standard, and you had to replace all the dollars out there in foreign   hands with gold, God the price, you buy gold, because the price of   gold would have to be enormous. So, you're all left hoping the Federal Reserve figures how to get us all out of this mess without causing trouble, otherwise, let me just kindly say, you WILL realize the value of gold then. As the old saying goes, ""A fool and his money are soon parted.""  I could be wrong, but I'd say that those who've been buying gold since 1971 for their ""cash holdings"" (not index funds) aren't the suckers."


The relevant IRS publication is pub 463. Note that there are various conditions and exceptions, but it all starts with business necessity. Is it necessary for you to work from the UK? If you're working from the UK because you wanted to take a vacation, but still have to work, and would do the same work without being in the UK - then you cannot deduct travel expenses. It sounds to me like this is the case here.


As far as I knew a similar law was already on the books, something about the commercial can be no louder than the volume of the show before it, so the show would run at say 75% of normal output volume (thus why your systems/dvd players always seem louder, they're just not cut) then they would run one loud explosion or word, scene, etc, but short enough that you wouldn't turn it down, then the commercials could be super loud.


If these are children that may be employed, in a few years, it may well be worth walking them through some basics of the deductions around employment, some basic taxes, uses of banks, and give them enough of a basis in how the economy of the world works.  For example, if you get a job and get paid $10/hour, that may sound good but how much do various things eat at that so your take-home pay may be much lower?  While this does presume that the kids will get jobs somewhere along the way and have to deal with this, it is worth making this part of the education system on some level rather than shocking them otherwise. Rather than focusing on calculations, I'd be more tempted to consider various scenarios like how do you use a bank, what makes insurance worth having(Life, health, car, and any others may be worth teaching on some level), and how does the government and taxes fit into things. While I may be swinging more for the practical, it is worth considering if these kids will be away in college or university in a few years, how will they handle being away from the parents that may supply the money to meet all the financial needs?


It isn't common to lose that much value in 3 years, but it is possible. If you don't take care of small dents, scratches, etc., you can quickly reduce the value far beyond what you might expect looking at graphs.  Another big factor is the trim level of the car that you purchase. If you spend $30,000 for the highest trim level of a car, instead of $22,000 for the lowest trim level, the higher trim car could lose 50% of it's value while the lower trim car loses only 35%. There's no way to know why the OP of your linked question had such a large loss, but again, that's not the usual experience. It is definitely a good idea to consider used though.


The app market in 2017:      1. Is saturated   2. Is fragmented by millions of suppliers due to low barriers of entry   3. Is rewarding free apps over paid apps.      So unless you have a solid amount of advertising budget Your choices are :    1.  Paid app -> Small downloads (if at all)   2.  Free app + Ads + inApp Purchases -> Shitty user experience   3.  Free app -> No to low income


"The problem above is actually a pretty good list of the concerns around life insurance.  While there is no correct answer to the question as posed, this will vary among different WSCs, there is a simpler way to think about insurance in general that may make finding what is right answer for you easier. Buying life insurance, like almost all insurance, is on average a money losing purchase.  This is simply because the companies selling wouldn't offer it if they couldn't expect to make money on it.  Think about buying insurance (a warranty) on a new cell phone, maybe if you are particularly prone to damaging cell phones it can be in your favor, but for most of the people that buy it will lose money on average. People, of course, still buy insurance anyway to protect themselves from unlikely but very bad consequences.  The big reason to make this trade off is if the loss will have big lasting consequences.  To stay with our cell phone example having to replace a cell phone, at least for me, would be annoying but not a catastrophic event.  For myself, the protection is not worth the warranty cost, but that is not true for everyone. Life insurance is a pretty extreme case of this, but I find the best question to ask is ""if you (you and your spouse) were to die will your dependents lives become so much worse that you really dislike the idea of not being insured?"" For some working seniors, they already have enough saved to bridge their kids/spouse to adulthood/old-age that insurance makes no sense.  For some, their children/husband/wife would be destitute and insurance is an obvious choice and an easy price to pay even if it is very high.  The example you suggest seems on the border and good questions to ask are: Thinking about those questions may help you understand if the protection offers is worth the cost."


#####&#009;  ######&#009;  ####&#009;  [**Superseded scientific theories**](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Superseded%20scientific%20theories): [](#sfw)   ---  >A __superseded__, or __obsolete, scientific theory__ is a [scientific theory](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Scientific_theory) that mainstream [scientific consensus](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Scientific_consensus) once commonly accepted but now no longer considers the most complete description of reality, or simply false. This label does not cover [protoscientific](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Protoscience) or [fringe science](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fringe_science) theories with limited support in the [scientific community](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Scientific_community). Also, it does not mean theories that were never widely accepted. Some theories that were only supported under specific political authorities, such as [Lysenkoism](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lysenkoism), may also be described as obsolete or superseded.  >====  >[**Image**](https://i.imgur.com/k5AlkZB.jpg) [^(i)](https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Cellarius_ptolemaic_system_c2.jpg) - *The obsolete Geocentric model of the universe places the Earth at the centre.*  ---  ^Interesting: [^Imponderable ^fluid](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Imponderable_fluid) ^| [^List ^of ^topics ^characterized ^as ^pseudoscience](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_topics_characterized_as_pseudoscience) ^| [^Falsifiability](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Falsifiability) ^| [^Caloric ^theory](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Caloric_theory)   ^Parent ^commenter ^can [^toggle ^NSFW](http://www.np.reddit.com/message/compose?to=autowikibot&subject=AutoWikibot NSFW toggle&message=%2Btoggle-nsfw+cjip1kq) ^or[](#or) [^delete](http://www.np.reddit.com/message/compose?to=autowikibot&subject=AutoWikibot Deletion&message=%2Bdelete+cjip1kq)^. ^Will ^also ^delete ^on ^comment ^score ^of ^-1 ^or ^less. ^| [^(FAQs)](http://www.np.reddit.com/r/autowikibot/wiki/index) ^| [^Mods](http://www.np.reddit.com/r/autowikibot/comments/1x013o/for_moderators_switches_commands_and_css/) ^| [^Magic ^Words](http://www.np.reddit.com/r/autowikibot/comments/1ux484/ask_wikibot/)


"You guys come out like mosquitos whenever there is a question against Monsanto shennanigans. Playing the ""oh but it's not factual proven and there is no scientific evidence"" card when a general look from the outside suggests there is in fact some possible correlation. It's like tobacco companies and cancer, deny even when suppressed internal studies suggest differently."


Im trying to figure out where the best place to open my pet shop would be around my city, most likely the place where people have the most dogs or spend the most money on dog supplies in my area. Essentially, I want to know if I should be looking for central property in town that is easy to get to from all around the city, or should would it be more beneficial to find a place closer to the rich suburb north of the actual city.


The one near me has two dollar a drafts monday through Friday from 5-7pm. There's never anyone there, there's a patio that is right downtown. It's great. Right off the bus stop on my way home. Five beers for $16 with tip is not bad.  The food still sucks though. Never order anything from them.


I took about about two weeks for the 7, but I was studying 8-12 hours a day 6 days a week. It was miserable and I would definitely recommend taking more time to spread it out. As for studying I used the Kaplan book and online tests, but in hindsight I think a class could have helped.   I didn't take the 65, but did pass the 66. Personally, I thought it was easier and took less study time than the 7, but others in my office have said the exact opposite.


I understand the resolving difference process. But these is supposed to be for minor tweeks and changes. With any luck the Senate version of this bill won't look anything like the House version. The House should at least make an ATTEMPT at passing legislation that could potentially function as it's final form.


Use resources like Consumer Reports and recommendations from like-minded friends to figure out brands which have a reputation for making quality clothes.  Then trust, but verify.   Ideally have a friend who sews a lot go with you on a clothing expedition if you don't know how to determine quality in clothing.  People who sew knew their fabrics, and this could be very helpful to you.  Start at places that are known for quality clothing, but make sure the reputation hasn't outlived reality.  I'd look for: Once you've identified places that you can trust, wait for sales at those stores.  I've found that shopping sales at department stores (or better, places like L. L. Bean) is cheaper than a discount retailer and much easier.  Even cheaper, go to a thrift store and look for those brands in timeless styles.  Your mileage will vary in terms of the what people throw out in your area.  Thrift stores work extremely well in high cost of living areas where people give away nearly new items.


I will not thank Amazon if they dry the lake, as you put it, I enjoy the Whole Foods experience of consistent quality and nice shopping environment, it is an unique kind of market. There are plenty of options for markets around here, from Costco to Wallmart, to Target to Aldi's to Publix to Win Dixie and plenty other smaller chains. So Amazon better don't ruin the only one where it is actually enjoyable to grocery shop.  p.s. you're high :D


If your business is sex trafficking then maybe you deserve to be prosecuted.  BTW, do you have this much problem reading in general. He did not say small businesses are outliers. He said there are outliers among small businesses.


In the United states the US government has the Small Business Administration. They also have Small Business Development Centers SMDC to help. These are also supported by state governments and colleges and universities.  SBDCs provide services through professional business advisors such as:   development of business plans; manufacturing assistance; financial   packaging and lending assistance; exporting and importing support;   disaster recovery assistance; procurement and contracting aid; market   research services; aid to 8(a) firms in all stages; and healthcare   information. SBDCs serve all populations, including: minorities;   women; veterans, including reservists, active duty, disabled   personnel, and those returning from deployment; personnel with   disabilities; youth and encore entrepreneurs; as well as individuals   in low and moderate income urban and rural areas. Based on client   needs, local business trends and individual business requirements,   SBDCs modify their services to meet the evolving needs of the hundreds   of small business community in which they are situated. SBDC assistance is available virtually anywhere with 63 Host networks   branching out with more than 900 service delivery points throughout   the U.S., the District of Columbia, Guam, Puerto Rico, American Samoa   and the U.S. Virgin Islands,. Your local SBDC should be able to help you identify local sources of funds, including government backed loans for small businesses.


"It's all on cable (AMC, Showtime, Starz, HBO, FX). Sure it's a limited number of channels but it's still more content than anyone can digest. Those five channels produce a ton of original content. Combined they produce almost as much as the networks.   If your argument is that most TV sucks, when has that not been true? Since TV was created there were only about 4-5 decent shows on at any time. And the good stuff is better than the old good stuff. Justified kicks the shit out of the Rifleman. Mad Men is another league than Dallas.   I watch a fuckton of TV and there is more than I can keep up with (things that are of decent quality or better).   Whining that TV sucks is class reddit ""I hate that things I don't like exist!"""


So i made a price comparison video about world ventures to prove that their deals are actually beneficial and that this company is not a scam... The general idea on reddit is that this company is a scam. What are your thoughts after watching this video?


Some people can't even see the pattern. It drives others completely nuts.  (For those that don't know what we're talking about: Every other pixel is Green/Red or Green/Blue on AMOLED -- not RGB. This causes a diagonal pattern to emerge. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/AMOLED )


See my answer here What is the dividend tax rate for UK stock The only tax from US stocks you'd need to worry about would be dividend withholding tax of 30%.  If you contact your ISA provider they should be able to provide you with a W8-BEN form so that you can have this rate reduced to 15%.  Just because there's a tax treaty does not mean you will automatically be charged 15% - you must provide a W8-BEN form and renew it when it expires. That last 15% is unfortunately unavoidable.  If you were paying any UK taxes you could claim that 15% as a discount against your UK dividend tax liability, but as your US stock would be wrapped in an ISA there's no UK tax to pay which means no tax to reclaim from the tax treaty. Other than DWT though, you will pay absolutely no tax on US stocks held in an ISA to either the US or UK government.


I'm on an M&A team for IT and you should temper your expectations. The due diligence teams (those guys that get a first look) usually don't know enough shit to understand the ramifications for their initial decisions and it just gets worse. The incentive is to underfund the M&A nearly every single time. Projects run long, some shit in IT never completes and dies on the vine after ten years. Management on the A side stops giving a shit, their good employees with the actual knowledge leave almost immediately... Documentation? None. Process adoption? None. Worthwhile employees? Already gone. M&As should just be renamed Murphys because they are all just real life examples of Murphy's law. How many M&As have I seen? 18. Across multiple  fortune 100s. How many were completed by the time the investors were told they would be done? 18. How many were actually done at that point? 2-3? It is literally herding cats.   M&As are a necessary evil for markets but they are almost always absolute shit.


Within some limitations, the dealer is allowed to approve or deny lending to anyone that it chooses.  Those constraints are the basics that you'd expect for any regulation in the US:  Race Religion Nationality Sex Marital Status Age  Source of income You can read more about them in this leaflet from the FDIC's Fair Lending Laws office. (Link is a pdf download.) As far as what to do in your mother's case, it sounds like it may be some slightly shady sales tactics, but it isn't entirely illegal... It's just annoying.  One thing you could do to try to head off some of the crazy bait-and-switch sales tactics is to communicate with a handful of dealerships in your area about the specifics of your mother's profile as a purchaser. It's much harder to give someone the run-around if you have already agreed to something in principle by email.


You don't say what country you live in. If it's the U.S., the IRS has very specific rules for business use of a car. See, for starters at least, http://www.irs.gov/publications/p463/ch04.html. The gist of it is: If you use the car 100% for business purposes, you NEVER use it to drive to the grocery store or to your friend's house, etc, then it is a deductible business expense. If you use a car party for business use and partly for personal use, than you can deduct the portion of the expense of the car that is for business use, but not the portion that is for personal use. So basically, if you use the car 75% for business purposes and 25% for personal use, you can deduct 75% of the cost and expenses. You can calculate the business use by, (a) Keeping careful records of how much you spent on gas, oil, repairs, etc, tracking the percentage of business use versus percentage of personal use, and then multiplying the cost by the percentage business use and that is the amount you can deduct; or (b) Use the standard mileage allowance, so many cents per mile, which changes every year. Note that the fact that you paid for the car from a business account has absolutely nothing to do with it. (If it did, then everyone could create a small business, open a business account, pay all their bills from there, and all their personal expenses would magically become business expenses.) Just by the way: If you are going to try to stretch the rules on your taxes, business use of a car or personal computer or expenses for a home office are the worst place to do it. The IRS knows that cars and computers are things that can easily be used for either personal or business purposes and so they keep a special eye out on these.


Without commenting on whether or not it's needed I don't think we are going to see a QE3 and all the political pressure is for some reason to start raising rates.  Regardless of how it plays out it's safe to say that the Fed Rate isn't going any lower.   You should also watch closely what happens to Fannie and Freddie.  If they are dismantled and government backed mortgages become a thing of the past then I think it'll become impossible for a consumer to find a 30 year fixed rate mortgage.  Even if they are kept alive, they will be put on a short leash and that will serve to further depress the mortgage market. Long story short, I'd lock your rate in.


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>  If you pick someone up and take them somewhere, you're a taxi. It's really as simple as that.  It's nowhere near as simple as that. If you pick up your friend, you're not a taxi. If you pick up a friend of a friend, you're not a taxi. If you're a livery car, you're not a taxi. Taxis are usually defined very specifically, requiring medallions, certain car models, certain behaviors (being able to pick up fares straight from the curb), etc.  And the donation thing has been gone for at least a year.  And these ridesharing companies tend to follow regulations where they exist, like in California's [Transportation Network Companies](http://www.cpuc.ca.gov/PUC/Enforcement/TNC/).  So, when you take the time to educate yourself about the issue, the issue tends to be less simple than you previously thought.