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590079 | Agreed. Their prices are usually much much cheaper than your larger chains like Giant Eagle and Food Lion. I wish there was a Trader Joes near me right now, would save me a ton on my grocery bill. |
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590080 | The reason you would want to report to all three is because lenders don't usually query all three. Thus, it may be that your negative mark will be missed by a future lender because that lender didn't query the agency you chose to report to. Generally, it is cheaper to report to more agencies than to query more agencies, and since those reporting are also those querying, it is in their best interest to continue reporting to all agencies, and expecting others to do the same. Each agency calculates the score independently based on the information reported to that agency. Thus only reporting a negative item to Experian will mean that TransUnion and Equifax scores for the same person will be higher. |
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590082 | Ask the dealer to drive to the bank with you, if they really want cash. |
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590084 | We provides the service in the field of Architect & Interior in Mumbai. Real estate field is one of the fastest growing field in India, where architect and Interior is used as a core component. We are highly professional in this field. We provides this services to Homes, Offices and Building. Our aim is to provide the top quality of product to the customers without any compromises. The strength of Weaverbirds Archinterio is quality and delivery. We are new in market but still we delivered many project till now. We fulfil your dream to make your house or apartment and commercial places looks good. We can make you home beautiful whether it is new or old at less cost than others. For more details visit contact page. |
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590102 | When a business asks me to make out a cheque to a person rather than the business name, I take that as a red flag. Frankly it usually means that the person doesn't want the money going through their business account for some reason - probably tax evasion. I'm not saying you are doing that, but it is a frequent issue. If the company makes the cheque out to a person they may run the risk of being party to fraud. Worse still they only have your word for it that you actually own the company, and aren't ripping off your employer by pocketing their payment. Even worse, when the company is audited and finds that cheque, the person who wrote it will have to justify and document why they made it out to you or risk being charged with embezzlement. It's very much in their interests to make the cheque out to the company they did business with. Given that, you should really have an account in the name of your business. It's going to make your life much simpler in the long run. |
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590103 | You do realize that the stock market is at all time highs because of QE, right? And that the article isn't even disputing that, it is saying that a vast majority of people is not getting into a better standard of living, with the exception of the very rich, which also happen to be the ones that hold most of the stocks. Funny how that works, isn't it. |
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590109 | "I don't see why not. It *could* go over fantastically. Imagine Wal-Mart firing every single solitary employee who didn't come in. Then imagine them busing in thousands of employees from all over the country, providing lodging and transportation, to keep the stores open while they train new people. ""Wal-Mart: Going the Extra Mile"" The public would eat it up with a spoon! And it would send exactly the message they intend: No unions, no collective bargaining, no negotiation." |
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590126 | > Nonsense! Mugging .... is so rare Edited to reflect what I actually said, and to respond. Mugging is rare, but it's not non-existent. Being proactive about making yourself a poor choice of targets is important to staying safe. Your arguments have shown a pattern of this lack of fore-sight, so far. I'm not going to spend my life going in circles with you. > I am saying that cards that require you to enter a PIN cannot be used used when stolen or copied. Yes or no? > On the other hand, cards that require signature can be used when stolen or copied because signature is a worthless method to validate the charge. Yes or no? I think you've broken, and it is clear that you are the one trying to keep the argument going for the sake of it. So I'm done. > Do you see? There are so many ways to make this system so much more secure and fraud proof... but, ON PURPOSE, yep. but on purpose. |
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590142 | The idea of self-regulating free markets is every bit of a naive utopian idea as anything Karl Marx ever wrote. People who wish to limit the government have the best interests of corporations at heart. That is why there are vast sums of money behind libertarian groups like the Tea Party. There will always be corruption in government, just as there will never be truly free markets. That is why our founding fathers set up multiple branches of government with all the checks and balances. Things are broken right now because the American people have lost faith in our government. What we need is for a true patriotic spirit to return to the American people, not this unproductive, flag waving nationalism. |
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590145 | "Your main reason to not pay off your debts right now seems to be: Enjoy life while ""I am young"" and not miss opportunities to have fun? I think the good news is that having fun usually does not require spending a lot of money. I would propose that most of the times when we considered something fun it had more to do with who we were with than what we were actually doing. Of course there are many fun things that are expensive, but there are even more fun things that require little money at all. My suggestion to you would be to prioritize your debt in a responsible way such that you have a plan to pay it off quickly, but if something comes along that does require extra money, don't be afraid to make an adjustment. For example, you can try to put 2000€ towards your debt every month, but if some exciting adventure comes along that you really want to do and it costs 1000€ one month, you shouldn't feel like you absolutely must turn it down. That month you could put 1000€ towards debt and the other 1000€ towards the adventure. I wouldn't recommend taking an adventure every month, but I wouldn't always turn one down either. Besides, I think most of the time you can have lots of fun for free." |
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590151 | As long as tax cuts for the rich and increases in the military budget are considered sacrosanct; while universal education and healthcare are considered luxuries the deficit will increase. For their taxes Europeans get free education for life through graduate school, a healthcare system that American's would want if they were allowed to know it existed, child care, clean streets, a justice system that has the lowest recidivism rate in the world and a stable middle class. For our taxes, Americans get parasitic billionaires and fighter jets that can't fly in the rain. |
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590161 | That broad figure is rather useless on its own. People buy mostly things they need right away. A useful analysis would a multi-variable one, graphing 3-way correlations of: - price - profit margin - average half-life of the product Maybe across a few separated categories, online vs brick-and-mortar, normalised towards the median and 3 standard deviations on each variable. These would be some neat graphs if only the data was available. |
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590183 | Even without regulation wage floor is as close to zero as possible. If you want a truly free labor market, where employers actually have to compete for workers, something akin to a UBI would have to exist, or something that actually frees the labor market IMHO. |
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590188 | Sure. No-one promises that all the outstanding stocks are ever for sale, but if you get them all - you get them all, what marketplace you used for that doesn't really matter. |
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590209 | Why is OP still using BoA? I got a large check when my grandfather died, my credit union told me that there'd be a delay because it was so large. I said no problem. Then a lady called me later that day to make sure I didn't need some of the money immediately. I again demurred, but they really went the extra mile. Why? Because local credit unions actually give a shit about their customers. Anyone who uses BoA for banking gets what they deserve. How many more stories do you need to read? |
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590212 | "I think you'll find the vast majority of people don't like their first job and/or just see it as a stepping stone towards something better. With that said I highly recommend you stay for at least a year unless you're truly miserable. That year will let you learn not only more about your field but also office life in general and the politics/networking/traits it takes to be successful and move up the chain. Staying for less than a year can also be a red flag when you go to apply for your next job as companies can see you as ""shaky"" and not want to take the risk of hiring someone who will leave so soon." |
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590218 | Theoretically, it could be daily, but depending upon the number of companies in the index, it could be anywhere between daily or once a month or so. Apart from that, there is a periodic index review that happens once every quarter. The methodology for each index is also different, and you need to be aware of it (we had positions on literally hundreds of indices, and I knew the methodology of almost each of them). If you have say, 2 billion dollars tracking a certain index, even a miniscule change in the composition would be substantial for you. But for certain others, you may just need to buy and sell $10k worth of stocks, and we would not even bother. |
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590231 | I like to look at Alpha, Beta, St. Dev., Sharpe Ratio, and R-Squared. It's also good to know how they work together. i.e.: Say you're comparing a fund to an index and the fund has a low beta, but the r-squared is low (<70 is low for my usage). The beta loses some significance in that instance. You want to be able to look at these 5 metrics, know what they mean on their own, and what they say about each other. Sorry if that was poorly worded, Mondays... |
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590232 | To determine how much you can contribute to a regular and roth IRA you have to calculate your compensation: What Is Compensation? Generally, compensation is what you earn from working. For a summary of what compensation does and does not include, see Table 1-1. Compensation includes all of the items discussed next (even if you have more than one type).Wages, salaries, etc. Wages, salaries, tips, professional fees, bonuses, and other amounts you receive for provid-ing personal services are compensation. The IRS treats as compensation any amount properly shown in box 1 (Wages, tips, other compensation) of Form W-2, Wage and Tax Statement, provided that amount is reduced by any amount properly shown in box 11 (Nonqualified plans). Scholarship and fellowship payments are compen-sation for IRA purposes only if shown in box 1 of Form W-2. It a also includes commissions, self-employment income, and alimony an non-taxable combat pay. For most people it is what i in box 1 of the W-2. For the example in the question. If the sum of Box 1's equals $3,200 that is the maximum you can contribute to all your IRAs (regular and Roth). The funds can come from anywhere. It is not related to your net check. The money can be from savings, gifts, parents, grandparents... The IRS doesn't care about the source of the funds, only that you don't over contribute. Of course the calculation is more complex if the person is married, and if they have access to a retirement account. |
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590233 | Haven't there been examples of governments defaulting, delaying payment and imposing haircuts on investors? Greece and Argentina come to mind. Quite a few Govt have defaulted in the past or were very of default or crisis. Most 3rd world countries or developing countries have under gone stress at some point. Greece was amongst the first example of Developed country going bankrupt. am I not better off if the fund invests solely in AAA corporate bonds, avoiding government bonds? Well that depends. Corporate bonds are not safer than Government Bonds. There have been instances of Corporate bonds not giving the required returns. |
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590234 | In how much trouble can I get exactly if the IRS finds out? I understand that there's a 6 year statute of limitations on criminal charges and no limitation at all on fraud. Is this considered fraud? I'm assuming not. There's no statute of limitations for fraud (which is a criminal charge). The statute of limitations is for failure to report income which is not fraud. In your case, since you willingly decided to not report it knowingly that you should, it can most definitely account for fraud, so I wouldn't count on statute of limitations in this case. I should amend my taxes for those years That would be the easiest way to go. would the IRS go all the way and file criminal charges considering the amount of money I owe They have the legal right to, and if you do get caught - likely they will. Easy money for them, since you obviously have income and can pay all the fines and penalties. Practically speaking, what's the worst case scenario? Theoretically - can be jail as well. Being charged in a criminal court, even if the eventual punishment is just a penalty, is a punishment of its own. You'll have troubles finding jobs, passing security checks, getting loans approved, etc. For $3200, when you're in 25% bracket as an individual for years, I'd say not worth it. |
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590267 | Apparently it's based on either the address of the seller or vendor or your shipping address; from the AccurateTax.com blog post Destination and Origin Based Sales Tax: ... a few states have laws that are origin-based, where products that are shipped to the customer are taxed based on the location of the business itself. As of this writing, these states are Most states use destination-based sales tax, which defines the source of the transaction to be the destination at which the product will eventually be used, or the address to which the product is shipped. ... The following states [and districts] operate on a destination-based model at the time of this writing: The page Do I Charge Sales Tax or Not? from about.com seems to (somewhat) clarify that if the business is located in a state (or other jurisdiction) with an origin-based sales tax, then they will charge you the sales tax for their state and, presumably, not the sales tax for the state of the shipping address. |
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590276 | "Warren Buffett: 'Investing Advice For You--And My Wife' (And Other Quotes Of The Week): What I advise here is essentially identical to certain instructions I’ve laid out in my will. One bequest provides that cash will be delivered to a trustee for my wife’s benefit…My advice to the trustee could not be more simple: Put 10% of the cash in short-term government bonds and 90% in a very low-cost S&P 500 index fund. (I suggest Vanguard’s.) I believe the trust’s long-term results from this policy will be superior to those attained by most investors… Similarly from Will Warren Buffett's investment advice work for you?: Specifically, Buffett wants the trustee of his estate to put 10 percent of his wife's cash inheritance in short-term government bonds and 90 percent in a low-cost S&P index fund - and he tips his hat specifically to Bogle's Vanguard in doing so. Says Buffett: ""I believe the trust's long-term results from this policy will be superior to those attained by most investors - whether pension funds, institutions or individuals.""" |
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590277 | Fighting scammers to the point that you drive away a significant volume of customers is cutting off your nose to spite your face. Treating customers like they're acting in good faith and fighting scammers on the back end is the right way to do it. Ebay and Amazon need to step up those back end efforts, though. |
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590306 | It sounds extremely fishy to me. Who has $750 in cash in his pocket and uses it to pay rent?? I would ask the tenant to show a statement from her checking account which shows that she took out that much cash in the days before the 'payment', and if she cannot provide it (or another convincing explanation), I would consider it a lie and request payment. |
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590310 | Alright, team! I found answers to part 1) and part 2) that I've quote below, but still need help with 3). The facts in the article below seem to point to the ability for the LLC to contribute profit sharing of up to 25% of the wages it paid SE tax on. What part of the SE tax is that? I assume the spirit of the law is to only allow the 25% on the taxable portion of the income, but given that I would have crossed the SS portion of SE tax, I am not 100%. (From http://www.sensefinancial.com/services/solo401k/solo-401k-contribution/) Sole Proprietorship Employee Deferral The owner of a sole proprietorship who is under the age of 50 may make employee deferral contributions of as much as $17,500 to a Solo 401(k) plan for 2013 (Those 50 and older can tack on a $5,500 annual catch-up contribution, bringing their annual deferral contribution to as much as $23,000). Solo 401k contribution deadline rules dictate that plan participant must formally elect to make an employee deferral contribution by Dec. 31. However, the actual contribution can be made up until the tax-filing deadline. Pretax and/or after-tax (Roth) funds can be used to make employee deferral contributions. Profit Sharing Contribution A sole proprietorship may make annual profit-sharing contributions to a Solo 401(k) plan on behalf of the business owner and spouse. Internal Revenue Code Section 401(a)(3) states that employer contributions are limited to 25 percent of the business entity’s income subject to self-employment tax. Schedule C sole-proprietors must base their maximum contribution on earned income, an additional calculation that lowers their maximum contribution to 20 percent of earned income. IRS Publication 560 contains a step-by-step worksheet for this calculation. In general, compensation can be defined as your net earnings from self-employment activity. This definition takes into account the following eligible tax deductions: (1) the deduction for half of self-employment tax and (2) the deduction for contributions on your behalf to the Solo 401(k) plan. A business entity’s Solo 401(k) contributions for profit sharing component must be made by its tax-filing deadline. Single Member LLC Employee Deferral The owner of a single member LLC who is under the age of 50 may make employee deferral contributions of as much as $17,500 to a Solo 401(k) plan for 2013 (Those 50 and older can tack on a $5,500 annual catch-up contribution, bringing their annual deferral contribution to as much as $23,000). Solo 401k contribution deadline rules dictate that plan participant must formally elect to make an employee deferral contribution by Dec. 31. However, the actual contribution can be made up until the tax-filing deadline. Pretax and/or after-tax (Roth) funds can be used to make employee deferral contributions. Profit Sharing Contribution A single member LLC business may make annual profit-sharing contributions to a Solo 401(k) plan on behalf of the business owner and spouse. Internal Revenue Code Section 401(a)(3) states that employer contributions are limited to 25 percent of the business entity’s income subject to self-employment tax. Schedule C sole-proprietors must base their maximum contribution on earned income, an additional calculation that lowers their maximum contribution to 20 percent of earned income. IRS Publication 560 contains a step-by-step worksheet for this calculation. In general, compensation can be defined as your net earnings from self-employment activity. This definition takes into account the following eligible tax deductions: (i) the deduction for half of self-employment tax and (ii) the deduction for contributions on your behalf to the Solo 401(k). A single member LLC’s Solo 401(k) contributions for profit sharing component must be made by its tax-filing deadline. |
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590329 | If they specifically ask you this, don't try to make something up. If you know something about the company that actually interests you, you can start with that. You can ask questions on what kinds of benefits/incentives they receive, their culture, or how they do things differently at their company. IMO you can try to redirect this to how you think the fintech industry and position are right for you- that you want to do challenging work, solve difficult problems, work with incredibly smart people, and improve your skills and gain experience, and how you have read/heard that the company a big player in the industry, is well known for all of the above and is the right place for you to achieve your goals. (Why did you apply in the first place?) |
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590339 | Depends on the level of risk in the specific p2p provider. I've looked at lendinvest which secures loans against property. You can select loans based on loan-to-value ratio etc. Even if a recession happens, if the LTV is around 50% it would have to be a pretty awful recession for you to lose any money once they recover, although there will be a delay while you wait for the recovery to happen. I would thus consider this lower risk than other p2p options, so I'd be willing to put more money into it. At the end of the day as others have said there's no objective answer. This is just one factor to consider which I don't think has been pointed out yet on this discussion |
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590358 | 10% of 20,000 has a way bigger impact on someones quality of life than 10% of 10,000,000. There's a bare minimum you need to have an okay lifestyle, and it scales very quickly until you hit six figures-ish (or whatever the equivalent is for your area in purchasing power). |
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590362 | Cultural aspects aside, there are a lot of American universities throughout Europe. Reinsertion into the US market would be my #1 concern but besides that it beats the tons of debt you get in the US while being able to expand your horizons. I just find it very weird more people don't at least consider it and rather make the mistake of paying 60k a year. Or at least go to community College... |
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590364 | Bonds released at the same time have different interest rates because they have different levels of risks and liquidity associated. Risk will depend on the company / country / municipality that offers the bond: their financial position, and their resulting ability to make future payments & avoid default. Riskier organizations must offer higher interest rates to ensure that investors remain willing to loan them money. Liquidity depends on the terms of the loan - principal-only bonds give you minimal liquidity, as there are no ongoing interest payments, and nothing received until the bond's maturity date. All bonds provide lower liquidity if they have longer maturity dates. Bonds with lower liquidity must have higher returns to compensate for the fact that you will have to give up your cash for a longer period of time. Bonds released at different times will have different interest rates because of what the general 'market rate' for interest was in those periods. ie: if a bond is released in 2016 with interest rates approaching 0%, even a high risk bond would have a lower interest rate than a bond released in the 1980s, when market rates were approaching 20%. Some bonds offer variable interest tied to some market indicator - those will typically have higher interest at the time of issuance, because the bondholder bears some risk that the prevailing market rate will drop. Note regarding sale of bonds after market rates have changed: The value of your bonds will fluctuate with the market. If a bond was offered with 1% interest, and next year interest rates go up and a new identical bond is offered for 2% interest, when you sell your old bond you will take a loss, because the market won't want to pay full price for it anymore. Whether you should sell lower-interest rate bonds depends on how you feel about the factors above - do you want junk bonds that have stock-like levels of returns but high risks of default, maturing in 30 years? Or do you want AAA+ Bonds that have essentially 0% returns maturing in 30 days? If you are paying interest on debt, it is quite likely that you could achieve a net income benefit by selling the bonds, and paying off debt [assuming your debt has a higher interest rate than your low-rate bonds]. Paying off debt is sometimes referred to as a 'zero risk return', because essentially there is no real risk that your lender would otherwise go bankrupt. That is, you will owe your bank the car loan until you pay it, and paying it is the only thing you can do to reduce it. However, some schools of thought suggest that maintaining savings + liquid investments makes sense even if you have some debt, because cash + liquid investments can cover you in some emergencies that credit cards can't help you with. ie: if you lose your job, perhaps your credit could be pulled and you would have nothing except for your liquid savings to tide you over. How much you should save in this way is a matter of opinion, but often repeated numbers are either 3 months or 6 months worth [which is sometimes taken as x months of expenses, and sometimes as x months of after-tax income]. You should look into this issue further; there are many questions on this site that discuss it, I'm sure. |
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590370 | In six months, there is little you can do that will significantly affect your future credit rating other than trying to avoid paying for something by leaving the country. As we keep telling people, the best things you can do for your credit rating are to have a good income and Don't Be Stupid about misusing credit. |
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590375 | I suggest you to test AlauxSoft Accounts and Budget. This software is a money-like. There is a freeware and a shareware (24 EUR). You will find its at http://www.alauxsoft.com Best regards, Michel ALAUX. |
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590384 | "Short answer: No, not normally. Long Answer: It depends on the contract. If the 14% is some sort of special offer, with conditions, then if you violate those conditions, they can jack you up to whatever the 'normal' rate is. But outside of that condition, I can't see any reason why they would wish to penalize you for making a payment. You will note that there is no ""maximum"" payment on the bill. Secondly, even if they do jack up the rate to 28%, you're still better off paying $70 on 3000, than you are paying ~120 on 10k. Then tell them where to stick their card and get a new one." |
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590387 | If I had a time machine I'd love to take today's McDonald's cheeseburger to one if their original establishments and do a side by side taste test. Hell, I'd just love to know what a McDonald's burger from the 70s was like. The fucking thing HAD to be good. |
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590390 | "This change doesn't make a ton of sense to me. Interest is an expense. Expenses are deductible. Yes, there are loopholes, but no matter what happens there will be loopholes. Seems like any easy ""no"" vote. Sometimes it worries me that we have financially incompetent people in power." |
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590400 | The shop I interviewed (not really an interview, I just spoke to the guy) has a branch office near where I live and the guys who trade there are industry veterans (bond traders/daytraders/options traders at other firms/etc) and are willing to let me learn from them/guide me as I learn to trade. That's really why I'm doing it, trying to learn as much as I can about different styles of trading. I jsut graduated undergrad so I'm looking to break into prop and learn from the wise and battle tested. |
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590426 | Okay, since you work hourly there are two substantial changes you can make: 1) Move out of Astoria and closer to Jersey City, such as, to Jersey City. Move out of NYC into Jersey!? Heresy! But that ship sailed when you started working there. 2) Work more hours now that you aren't spending 2 hours and 30 minutes of your life commuting. You can make an extra $125 per day, in theory. Since this is $625 more a week, and $2500 a month, it is a substantial change you can make. Presupposing that your current contract has more hours to work. |
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590444 | Petro-autocrats have made a lot of promises about social support and economic growth based on high project ed oil prices. If those promises fall through because of price declines, there is going to be a lot of unrest. Just some figures, Saudi Arabia needs 80$ oil to balance its books but this cost rises to 98$ in 2015 because of promises made during the Arab spring. |
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590453 | If you're into math, do this thought experiment: Consider the outcome X of a random walk process (a stock doesn't behave this way, but for understanding the question you asked, this is useful): On the first day, X=some integer X1. On each subsequent day, X goes up or down by 1 with probability 1/2. Let's think of buying a call option on X. A European option with a strike price of S that expires on day N, if held until that day and then exercised if profitable, would yield a value Y = min(X[N]-S, 0). This has an expected value E[Y] that you could actually calculate. (should be related to the binomial distribution, but my probability & statistics hat isn't working too well today) The market value V[k] of that option on day #k, where 1 < k < N, should be V[k] = E[Y]|X[k], which you can also actually calculate. On day #N, V[N] = Y. (the value is known) An American option, if held until day #k and then exercised if profitable, would yield a value Y[k] = min(X[k]-S, 0). For the moment, forget about selling the option on the market. (so, the choices are either exercise it on some day #k, or letting it expire) Let's say it's day k=N-1. If X[N-1] >= S+1 (in the money), then you have two choices: exercise today, or exercise tomorrow if profitable. The expected value is the same. (Both are equal to X[N-1]-S). So you might as well exercise it and make use of your money elsewhere. If X[N-1] <= S-1 (out of the money), the expected value is 0, whether you exercise today, when you know it's worthless, or if you wait until tomorrow, when the best case is if X[N-1]=S-1 and X[N] goes up to S, so the option is still worthless. But if X[N-1] = S (at the money), here's where it gets interesting. If you exercise today, it's worth 0. If wait until tomorrow, there's a 1/2 chance it's worth 0 (X[N]=S-1), and a 1/2 chance it's worth 1 (X[N]=S+1). Aha! So the expected value is 1/2. Therefore you should wait until tomorrow. Now let's say it's day k=N-2. Similar situation, but more choices: If X[N-2] >= S+2, you can either sell it today, in which case you know the value = X[N-2]-S, or you can wait until tomorrow, when the expected value is also X[N-2]-S. Again, you might as well exercise it now. If X[N-2] <= S-2, you know the option is worthless. If X[N-2] = S-1, it's worth 0 today, whereas if you wait until tomorrow, it's either worth an expected value of 1/2 if it goes up (X[N-1]=S), or 0 if it goes down, for a net expected value of 1/4, so you should wait. If X[N-2] = S, it's worth 0 today, whereas tomorrow it's either worth an expected value of 1 if it goes up, or 0 if it goes down -> net expected value of 1/2, so you should wait. If X[N-2] = S+1, it's worth 1 today, whereas tomorrow it's either worth an expected value of 2 if it goes up, or 1/2 if it goes down (X[N-1]=S) -> net expected value of 1.25, so you should wait. If it's day k=N-3, and X[N-3] >= S+3 then E[Y] = X[N-3]-S and you should exercise it now; or if X[N-3] <= S-3 then E[Y]=0. But if X[N-3] = S+2 then there's an expected value E[Y] of (3+1.25)/2 = 2.125 if you wait until tomorrow, vs. exercising it now with a value of 2; if X[N-3] = S+1 then E[Y] = (2+0.5)/2 = 1.25, vs. exercise value of 1; if X[N-3] = S then E[Y] = (1+0.5)/2 = 0.75 vs. exercise value of 0; if X[N-3] = S-1 then E[Y] = (0.5 + 0)/2 = 0.25, vs. exercise value of 0; if X[N-3] = S-2 then E[Y] = (0.25 + 0)/2 = 0.125, vs. exercise value of 0. (In all 5 cases, wait until tomorrow.) You can keep this up; the recursion formula is E[Y]|X[k]=S+d = {(E[Y]|X[k+1]=S+d+1)/2 + (E[Y]|X[k+1]=S+d-1) for N-k > d > -(N-k), when you should wait and see} or {0 for d <= -(N-k), when it doesn't matter and the option is worthless} or {d for d >= N-k, when you should exercise the option now}. The market value of the option on day #k should be the same as the expected value to someone who can either exercise it or wait. It should be possible to show that the expected value of an American option on X is greater than the expected value of a European option on X. The intuitive reason is that if the option is in the money by a large enough amount that it is not possible to be out of the money, the option should be exercised early (or sold), something a European option doesn't allow, whereas if it is nearly at the money, the option should be held, whereas if it is out of the money by a large enough amount that it is not possible to be in the money, the option is definitely worthless. As far as real securities go, they're not random walks (or at least, the probabilities are time-varying and more complex), but there should be analogous situations. And if there's ever a high probability a stock will go down, it's time to exercise/sell an in-the-money American option, whereas you can't do that with a European option. edit: ...what do you know: the computation I gave above for the random walk isn't too different conceptually from the Binomial options pricing model. |
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590489 | If you're sinking 1k/year into it, and the value is rising by $100k in 15 years, or $6k/year, you have a fine investment. Ignore the wife, she just wants something even better. |
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590497 | "Somebody ELI5 why I should trust a ""currency"" whose value bounces around on the whims of [tulip-craze](http://www.investopedia.com/terms/d/dutch_tulip_bulb_market_bubble.asp) fanboys? Especially one that is second only to ""the dark web"" for rumors of: 1. Money laundering. 2. ""Hoarding"" of cash. 3. Tax avoidance." |
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590500 | "Since you mention bounced checks in the beginning of your piece, it's worth mentioning that bounced checks can land you in prison, depending on various circumstances. In this case, it's because you're committing a fraud, namely offering someone a piece of paper and claiming it's worth $500 or whatever when it's really worthless (because you don't have the funds). Simply owing a debt is not considered criminal, but proffering payment that is not actually valid is considered defrauding the person you are trying to pay. This check fraud information site discusses the different penalties in each state (as this is primarily covered by laws at the state level). It is never ""until you have repaid the check,"" of course; it is in most states a misdemeanor (<= 1 year in jail), though some states do make it a felony for larger amounts or repeat violations. These penalties are also typically at the judge's discretion, and in many cases you are only fined. Some states have a minimum dollar amount for it to be a criminal offense; most seem to be around $500 or so, though there is quite a lot of variability. Some real world examples of this include former NBA player Antoine Walker and former NFL player Joey Porter." |
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590517 | In such cases, it has a EIN, like any business would. Even absent the rent you suggest, the condo should have reserve funds, similar to an individual's emergency account, only more codified as to level and flows. These funds should be earning interest. |
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590520 | Buying votes is illegal. Resources require other resources to acquire. It helps if you properly incentivize people to get them for you, and pay fair market price for the resources upon reciept. The justice department and congress allow these frivolous lawsuits to take place. Targetted by anti-trust legistlation. Again, this has more to do with the willingness of the government to follow its own laws. 95% of these issues you've raised are directly related to government corruption and dysfunction. So why the hell do you want to give the government more power to be corrupt and dysfunctional? |
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590523 | Lets do the math (assuming a lot of stuff, like your interest rates and that you make the contribution at the beginning of the year, also your tax bracket at the withdrawal time frame.) 1.) Beginning of year 1 Roth Option $5k contribution Non Roth Option $5k contribution 2.) Beginning of year 2 Roth Option $5000 + $150 interest + 5K contribution = $10150 Non Roth Option $5000 + $75 interest + 5K contribution = $10075 3.) End of year 2 Buy a house! yay! Roth Option---before withdrawal account value = 10150+10150*.03=10454.5 after withdrawl (assuming 38% tax on earnings withdrawal (10%penalty + 28% income tax estimate.) = 10327.17 Non Roth Option = 10 226.125 So you are talking about a significant amount of paperwork to either 1.) Net yourself $100 toward the purchase 2.) Cost yourself $226 on the purchase but have $454.50 in your roth ira. I am not sure I would do that, but it might be worth it. |
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590535 | I just finished a high frequency trading project. Individuals can do it, but you need a lot of capital. You can get a managed server in Times Square for $1500/month, giving you access to 90% of the US exchanges that matter, their data farms are within 3 milliseconds of distance (latency). You can also get more servers in the same building as the exchanges, if you know where to look ;) thats all I can divulge good luck |
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590559 | "It's pretty easy for foreign scammers to get a US phone number or email. A domestic bank account is a little harder. Very likely the direct contact is a US citizen or a legal immigrant. The Nigerian may be completely made-up to throw you off the scent. And that person can be found, dunned, or deported, and there's even a small chance of reversing the bank transfers. It's also hard for foreign scammers to sound American on the phone, again suggesting a domestic scam or one with domestic agents. If you or your son is willing to do a serious amount of skill-building and legwork, you can uncover evidence by filing a lawsuit. Once you have done so, you can use the legal processes of discovery to force banks etc. to give you information they would never give willingly. There are countless details. Lawyers get paid to get the details right. Suing actual people can backfire, they can countersue. But since you do not know their real name, you would probably be filing a ""John Doe"" lawsuit. ""John Doe"" is a placeholder: the idea being that you will later, through discovery, uncover the defendants' real names. For a novice exploring the legal system for the first time, there's a big advantage - John Doe never countersues or quashes, he never gets in your way or wastes your time... heck, he never even shows up in court! And when you collect evidence via discovery, you can take that to law enforcement or immigration. It goes without sayi-- well, there's no need to go into that. Just realize you did goof, and make sure you learn the lessons." |
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590561 | 1 reason is Leverage.... If you are buying out of the money options you get much more bang for your buck if the stock moves in your favor. The flipside is it is much more likely that you would lose all of your investment. |
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590565 | Increasing demand, the price people are willing to pay, will also increase profits, leading to the virtuous cycle you describe. The government spending tax dollars, also leads to growth. The 2 sides balance out. The difference between CEO pay and employee pay is that employees spend their money, while CEOs save money. So by taxing profits, money is put back into the economy. |
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590578 | The cable companies are not monopolies. In the broadband market they compete with telcos and in the video market they compete with a telco and two satellite companies and sometimes an over builder. The caps instituted so far are 250mg, levels that only BitTorrent users break. This article is ridiculous hyperbole. |
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590594 | local by me is a market/store that is basically veggies and fruits. they have some meat, some fish, but people are there for the vegetables and ethnic fruits I rarely go because I can see from the main road all their parking spaces and hardly ever is there a spot available. when I do see a parking space, I wheel in and buy like $40 worth, mostly veggies. high quality, low prices, great variety point is, people want to pick out there own fresh stuff |
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590610 | No. Because the person deciding this was the way to do things failed to account for the counter pressures, and just forced it down peoples’ throats. Just like your economic views fail to account for the counter pressures. What would be counter pressures in these previous situations? Other economic systems in proximity, social values, economic bullies who have the financial clout to push their way harder, crime that now has an easier avenue of gain, and on and on. Edit: Let’s make a point to not forget about entrenched management. |
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590614 | There are two main factors at play to consider. Also, realize that no advice is universal. You need to evaluate your exact situation and do what is best for you. |
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590617 | Lol and a company spending more than they need to on labor is reality? Thanks for pointing me in the right direction. Ill be sure to run all future thoughts I have by you to ensure that fit into your 'reality'. |
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590623 | I think this varies considerably depending on your situation. I've heard people say 6 month's living expenses, and I know Suze Orman recommended bumping that to 8 months in our current economy. My husband and I have no children, lots of student loan debts, but we pay off our credit cards in full each month and are working to save up for a house. We've talked through a few different what-if scenarios. If one of us were to lose our job, we have savings to cover the difference between our reduced income and paying the bills for 6 or 8 months while the other person regained employment. If both of us were to lose our jobs simultaneously, our savings wouldn't hold us over for more than 3 or 4 months, but if that were to happen, we would likely take advantage of the opportunity to relocate closer to our families, and possibly even move in to my parent's house for a short time. With no children and no mortgage, our commitments are few, so I don't feel the need to have a very large emergency cash fund, especially with student loans to pay off. Think through a few scenarios for your life and see what you would need. Take into consideration expenses to break a rental lease, cell phone contract, or other commitments. Then, start saving toward your goal. Also see answers to a similar question here. |
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590632 | "So here's the sad truth. He might actually be making a return on his investment. Not because it's right or because the system works, but in all these schemes there are a range of people that actually do make money. In addition to that, there is that fact that he ""believes"" that he is doing a good thing, and is unwilling to discuss it. So, if he is making, even a tiny return, and really believes that he is making a large return, or that that large return is just around the bend, your never going to convince him otherwise. You have two real options; If he will listen, go though and look at money in v.s. money out. If money out is larger then money in, your screwed. Make sure to point out that he should look at real money in (left a bank account) and real money out (deposited to a bank account). Again be prepared for the fact that he is actually making money. Some people in the pyramid will make money, it's just never as much, or as many people as they make it out to be. Don't attack the system, attack other aspects. Try and argue liquidity, or FDIC insurance. Again not trying to show why the system is bad, but why a investment in foo instead may be better. If nothing else, go with diversify. Never put all your money in one spot, even if it's a really good spot. At least in that case he will have some money left over in the end. That said, your friend may not go for it. May just put on blinders, and may just stick finger in ears. Move to option two. Respect his wishes, and set boundaries. ""Ok, I hear you, you like system X, I won't bring it up again. Do me a favor, don't you bring it up again either. Let's just leave this with religion and politics."" If he continues to bring it up, then when he does, just point out you agreed not to discuss the issue, and if he continues to push it, rethink your friendship. If you both respect one another, you should be able to respect each others' decisions. If you can't then, sadly, you may need to stop spending time with one another." |
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590668 | In a system where electronic payment is well developed you can consider the following 2 scenarios: Now let us zoom in. Regardless of what costs are actually charged, it should not be hard to see which system is most (real cost) efficient once electronical payments are well developed. And so, the conclusion is not hard to reach: |
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590685 | The all time low on the Canadian dollar was 61.79 US cents on Jan 21, 2002. Yes, it will now cost you about US$1.01 to pay back a Canadian dollar, if when you borrowed you agreed to pay in their currency. |
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590690 | Well, no, they don't need email per se. But the fact that they don't understand how to use something so simple and so pervasive really might say something about their character and ability: whether they are willing and able to understand how technology effects the battle field. |
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590693 | The market is simply gapping at these times, some news may have come out that makes the market gap on the open from its previous close. Being FX, the market in one country might be trading and then at the start of the hour trading in a different country may commence, causing a small gap in price. Generally many things could cause the price to gap up or down, and these gaps sometime can occur at the start of a new hour or other timeframe you are using. They do tend to happen more often at the start of a new day's trading on a daily chart, especially with stocks. |
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590696 | "I made my statement in reference to another user saying ""there is no indication of [uber tracking you pre and post ride]"" I said that the uber app having your location when its opened pre-ride as evidence that uber tracks your location post ride and pre ride You said it's not. So unless you want me to open up uber to show that it knows my location upon opening without me ordering a ride I'm not sure what you are looking for. In other words I stated that the sky is blue, you asked me to state why I think the sky is blue. Your repeated attempts at drawing some grand pedantic argument are intriguing though" |
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590710 | A typical HELOC will have about $300 in fees to open it. From there, it's up to you how much or how long to use it. I'd shop around to find the bank that offers the right product for you. |
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590711 | "As Mhoran answered, typical match, but some have no match at all, so not bad. The loan provision means you can borrow up to $50k or 50% of your balance, whichever is less. 5 year payback for any loan, but a 10 year payback for a home purchase. I am on the side of ""don't do it"" but finance is personal, and in some situations it does make sense. The elephant in this room is the expenses within the 401(k). Simply put, a high enough expense will wipe out any benefit from tax deferral. If you are in this situation, I recommend depositing to the match, but not a cent more. Last, do they offer a Roth 401(k) option? There's a high probability you will never be in as low a tax bracket as the next few years, now's the time to focus on the Roth deposits, if not in the 401(k), then in an IRA." |
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590728 | "And here we find the antisemitic dickhead. New order directly from Tel Aviv: ""Stop posting your stupidity on the internet. The article was interesting but shut the hell up"" Also gender neutral uniforms are your biggest fear right now? The Jewish world conspiracy has the masterplan to give out these uniforms? I will never understand you guys." |
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590744 | "This is a classic correlation does not imply causation situation. There are (at least) three issues at play in this question: If you are swing- or day-trading then the first and second issues can definitely affect your trading. A higher-price, higher-volume stock will have smaller (percentage) volatility fluctuations within a very small period of time. However, in general, and especially when holding any position for any period of time during which unknowns can become known (such as Netflix's customer-loss announcement) it is a mistake to feel ""safe"" based on price alone. When considering longer-term investments (even weeks or months), and if you were to compare penny stocks with blue chip stocks, you still might find more ""stability"" in the higher value stocks. This is a correlation alone — in other words, a stable, reliable stock probably has a (relatively) high price but a high price does not mean it's reliable. As Joe said, the stock of any company that is exposed to significant risks can drop (or rise) by large amounts suddenly, and it is common for blue-chip stocks to move significantly in a period of months as changes in the market or the company itself manifest themselves. The last thing to remember when you are looking at raw dollar amounts is to remember to look at shares outstanding. Netflix has a price of $79 to Ford's $12; yet Ford has a larger market cap because there are nearly 4 billion shares compared to Netflix's 52m." |
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590755 | You can save a bit by getting an interior cabin, but it can be a bit weird to be in a room with NO window and NO natural daylight. It's strangely really easy to lose all track of time, especially if you don't set an alarm. We spent very little time in our stateroom outside of sleeping, or changing clothes etc. So IMHO there's no reason to overspend on the stateroom. OTOH, A room along the outside of the ship will cost more, but might be worth the cost difference. You don't need a full balcony or any of that, however a simple window even if partially occluded by something, really changes the feel of the room and makes it a lot less 'cave' like. JohnFx covered just about everything else I'd have had to say. |
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590775 | In Australia, any income you earn is taxable despite where it came from. Using your example your taxable income is $70,000. Keep in mind that with a business even as a sole trader any business expenses that contribute to the earning of your business income is deductible, reducing the final amount of tax you'll have to pay. The ATO website has lots of good information and examples to look at including tax rates. If your total income is pushing into a higher tax bracket over 30c tax per $1 earned, it may be worth looking at shifting your business to operate under a company structure that just has a fixed tax rate around 30c per $1. That said, for me, I don't want the paperwork overhead of a company yet so I'm running my side business as a sole trader too. I'd rather do that and keep it easy for now while my business gets profitable that waste time on admin structures for tax reasons even if in the shortterm it may mean slightly higher tax. In the end, you only pay tax on profit (income minus expenses) as opposed to raw/gross income. For more info there are good books in the bookshops or local library (to read free) on starting a business on the side while still working. They discuss these issues too. |
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590806 | I'd like to make two points: To focus on your test case of Japan. You point out that about a third of them believe they'll work until they die. That means more than a majority of them believe they'll retire. In a democracy where a majority of people make decisions it is completely expected that the majority will dictate the policy. Of course there is fuzziness around that last statement because people who believe they'll retire could very well be of the mindset that they'll handle their retirement savings themselves rather than rely on government. Similarly some people that expect to work until they die might realize that there's a risk that they won't be able to. To focus on the case of government run pensions. The pension program that a government runs isn't like a private savings plan where its purpose is to get you a good rate of return. At best it's an insurance policy; more accurately it's just a tax and you should think of it this way. The reason you should think of it that way is several fold. One, if the pension fund is ever short, the government will make up the difference from the general fund. Two, the government can spend the money from the pension fund on other programs if the law changes which, over the course of a lifetime, is entirely possible. Three, no one has a legal right to withdraw their contributions directly. Four, the point of the program is to take care of old people so they aren't starving in the street. To do this, they take the money of the young and give it to to old people. The money you pay in doesn't go to investments of any sort, it goes directly to the elderly. Ultimately this is why you can't opt-out and why you should think of those contributions as a tax and not as savings. |
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590811 | I'm not certain if you can get a debit card with it, but if you have a PNC in your area, they have a special kind of account designed around teaching financial literacy to children: https://www1.pnc.com/sisforsavings/tour.html . I'm not sure if you can get a debit card for the child or not, but the custodian gets one I believe, and the child gets a special online login to manage the money, so if you don't mind the name issue, it might be worth looking into. If you don't have PNC, maybe one of the banks in your area have a similar program? |
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590813 | As I see it, there are 2 potential solutions - Joining with another person or 2, and buying a house with multiple bedrooms. I am in the US, and I've seen immigrants living in tight accommodations that would seem unacceptable to most of us. But, with the combined incomes, they were able to buy the house and quickly pay for it, and then buy another. $800/mo is about $5/hr. Below US minimum wage. Use your skills to take on additional work on line. A virtual assistant position can increase your income quite a bit. Keep in mind, as someone on the other side of the world, my advice may not be practical for you, these are just my thoughts. |
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590831 | "One must point out: The Fed has never in their history, correctly ""expected"" any financial crises. They have been surprised 100% of the time. They weren't even aware of the biggest financial collapse in US history in 2007-8 before it happened -- when rhe blogosphere and so-called ""fringe economists"" were warning about it daily. The fact that Yellen doesn't ""expect it"" should be assumed at this point. As should its inevitability." |
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590833 | From what I understand (I never had an RESP but would consider one for a future child), with the right type of withdrawal, you can use the RESP money for anything education related. Basically, know that the RESP is considered to have three compartments within it: (1) your contributions, (2) contributions from the government through the Canada Education Savings Grant (CESG), and (3) the return on the investment, or accumulated earnings. The government contributes an extra 20% on top of your contributions annually by way of the CESG, up to a $500 max. Tuition As you noted, official tuition fees, reported on a fee slip, is where one large chunk of the RESP will go. This will be pulled out of your original contributions and is known as a Post-Secondary Education (PSE) Withdrawal. Different RESP administrators (bank, discount brokerage, etc) determine what sort of proof of enrolment would be required, but it ought to be similar between them and different educational institutions. This withdrawal is not taxable by either you or the student, since the contributions were made with after-tax dollars. Educational Assistance Payments (EAPs) EAPs are for other expenses that the student would incur by being at university. In the first 13 weeks of studies, you can request up to $5000 in EAP withdrawals (full-time studies, $2500 for par-time), after which there is no limit. Each EAP payment is made up of the CESG and accumulated earnings portions of the RESP, whose proportions are determined based on the EAP amount. This is considered taxable income for the student, or beneficiary, in the year the EAP withdrawal is made. It gets a bit fuzzy here, from my understanding. The student would ostensibly be able to purchase anything that they could rationalize as education-related, and I'm not sure what sort of proof different banks would need. Maybe just the confirmation of enrolment is enough. This is the part of my post that should directly answer your question which, using this terminology, boils down to what sorts of expenses can I use the EAP withdrawals for? To this, from what I've read out there, I would say that you could probably purchase anything. From the student's point of view, they are enrolled in a qualifying education institution, and if they don't spend the money on education-related purchases, money required for those purchases will have to come from somewhere else anyway. Other withdrawals Any other type of withdrawal is like walking through a minefield. You can withdraw the original contributions without paying tax on them, but you would need to pay back the corresponding CESG back to the government. Other types of withdrawals would be taxable and may incur a 20% penalty. I don't have any more details on that. As I mentioned, this is from what I've read and looked into for future RESP purposes. A new concept that has popped up is RESP vs TFSA. The TFSA provides the same tax shelter (after-tax dollar contributions, no tax on the gains), but also allows for no tax on the withdrawals. To add to that, the TFSA withdrawals are tax-free as well. The main benefit that the RESP offers that the TFSA doesn't is the CESG. My current opinion (and I could be wrong) is that you should contribute $2500 annually to the RESP in order to get the $500 max CESG, and anything else that you'd like to contribute should go in a TFSA. But I digress. Hopefully my long-winded response makes some sense. Enjoy. |
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590836 | Did a little bit of digging, and found this article, from Staples High School in Westport, Connecticut. Hopefully this will be a growing trend. They say: A personal financial management class will now be offered at the beginning of the upcoming school year (2011-2012). According to the course catalogue, the focus of this course will be using mathematics as a tool in developing financial literacy skills. Topics covered in the course will include: earnings, banking, credit cards, loans, taxes, insurance, investing, loans, budgeting, and buying personal property. “In a perfect world, everyone would be required to take a personal finance course,” Principal John Dodig said. |
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590837 | "It is not allowed to pay refunds to anyone other than the taxpayer. This is due to various tax return fraud schemes that were running around. Banks are required to enforce this. If the direct deposit is denied, a check will be issued. In her name, obviously. What she does with it when she gets it is her business - but I believe that tax refund checks may not be just ""endorsed"", the bank will likely want to see her when you deposit it to your account, even if it is endorsed. For the same reason." |
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590840 | It is absolutely feasible to move your savings into Canada. There are a few ways you can do it. However it is unlikely you will benefit or avoid risk by doing so. You could directly hold your savings in the CAD. Investing in Canadian bonds achieves a similar goal as holding your money in the CAD. By doing so you will be getting re-payed with CAD. Some Canadian companies also trade on US markets. In addition some brokerage firms allow you to trade on Canadian markets. The problem with any of the options is the assumption that Canadian banks will fare better then US banks. The entire globe is very dependent on each other, especially the more developed nations. If large US banks were to fail it would create a domino effect which would spiral into a global credit crunch. It wouldn't matter if your invested in Canadian companies or US companies they would all suffer as would the global economy. So it would probably be more valid to refer to your question - enter link description here If you are referring to weather the Canadian bonds would be a safer investment over US Treasuries it would all depend on the scenario at hand. Investors would probably flock to both treasuries. |
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590862 | You're hysterical and I find your mischaracterization of me insulting and intellectually lazy. I fundamentally disagree with your position that more government intervention will do anything but further harm the people you want to help so bad. I know you're not able to comprehend this, most people with 18+ years of public school education aren't, but there are other decentralized, community driven solutions to these problems. Outsourcing every fucking to the state has demonstrably failed and will continue to fail in spectacular fashion. The problem with people like you is that you believe that, through coercion of the state, you can equalize every outcome. Attempting that you justify ever increasing tyranny until liberty is all but dead. The long of the short if it is, you can not legislate equality of outcome, even at the margins. The road to hell is paved with socialist good intentions, which history demonstrates if you care to look. |
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590874 | "I think ""Rich Dad Poor Dad"" is a good read for understanding the basics of personal finance in a non-technical format before actually starting investing." |
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590879 | I would go even farther than Victor's answer. There is little evidence that candlestick patterns and technical analysis in general have any predictive power. Even if they did in the past, of which there is some evidence, in modern times they are so easy to do on computers that if they worked algorithmic traders would have scanned almost all traded stocks and bought/sold the stock before you even had a chance to look at the graph. While the best technical traders who are very good at quickly using pattern recognition across many indicators as Victor mentioned might be able to add some advantage. The odds that a pattern so simple to code such as Bullish Engulfing would have predictive power is tiny. |
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590902 | What you're describing is called timing the market. That is, if you correctly predict when the market will drop, you can sell before the drop, wait for the drop, then buy after the drop has occurred. Sell high, buy low. The fundamental problem with that, though, is: What ends up happening, on average, is you end up slightly behind. There's quite a lot of literature on this; see Betterment's explanation for example. Forbes (click through ad first) also has a detailed piece on the matter. Now, we're not really talking HFT issues here; and there are some structural things that some argue you can take advantage of (restrictions on some organizational investors, for example, similar to a blackjack dealer who has to hit on 16). However, everyone else knows about these too - so it's hard to gain much of an edge. Plenty of people say they can time the market right, and even yourself perhaps you timed a particular drop accurately. This tends to lead to false confidence though; how many drops that you timed badly do you remember? Ultimately, most investors end up slightly down when they attempt to time the market, because of the transaction costs (if you guess two drops, one 'right' and one 'wrong', and they have exactly opposite gains/losses before commissions, you will lose a bit on each due to commission), and because of the overall upward trend in the market (ie, if you picked at random one month a year to be out of the market, you'd lose around 10% annualized gains from doing that; same applies here). All of that aside, there is one major caveat: risk tolerance. If you are highly risk tolerant, say a 30 year old investing your 401(k), then you should stay in no matter what. If you're not - say you're 58 and retiring in a few years - then knowledge that there's a higher risk time period coming up might suggest moving to a less risky portfolio, even at the known cost of some gains. |
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590917 | Well, it's the same fundamental principals as all investing. Buy low, sell high. Buy things that will be scarce in the future while they're abundant. Buy up everything and create artificial scarcity. It's the same thing that's done with diamonds and was done with oil for quite some time. Small markets like tickets to a show are just much more vulnerable to being cornered. How do you legislate against ticket scalpers without turning yourself into a hypocrite? Obviously you're not going to pull the plug on Wall Street or angel investing or any other investing strategy, and you'd have a hell of a time shutting down DeBeers. Capitalism isn't perfect if your desire is fairness. |
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590929 | I have read this at least a dozen times, and watched several documentaries on it, but this is the clearest explanation yet. Thank you. I had not really considered the possibility that the fed is not the evil monster it's usually frame as before. Now I'm not sure how bad it is due to these conflicting viewpoints. The worst case I have heard against it (repeatedly) is that it's a privately owned corporation. And that it's for-profit. What is that about? |
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590932 | I would love a citation. I explicitly stated the one I used, which is the most common. I noticed you dodged the second portion though, and went from 50 chemicals to 30. I suspect a few more replies and it will be down to like 5, counting preservatives also in frozen burgers. |
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590937 | One of my first assignments in my new job was to prepare a presentation on the growing domestic oil and natural gas industry and I couldn't agree more with some of the assertions listed in FT's article. US production has slowed in the past few years, but seems to be poised for a very healthy comeback. Maugeri isn't alone in his predictions. In 2013 and beyond, opportunities in U.S. energy markets look plentiful; Citi and Goldman Sach’s research units are incredibly bullish for U.S. energy output, with Citi projecting the United States to pass Saudi Arabia and Russia in oil and natural gas production by the end of 2013, and Goldman anticipating the same transfer of dominance to occur in 2017. Beyond the United States, Canadian and Mexican output is also booming, leading Citi to call North America “The New Middle East”. |
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590968 | I funded about a half dozen loans. All were AA or A rated. All but one paid me. The one who stiffed me wiped out all my profit on the others. I ended up with a tiny negative return. |
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590973 | "Jesus Christ, these clowns really are the last to know. The Phillips curve was devoid of logic from the start given that ""employment"" is not, and has never been a measure of earnings. Maybe next they'll look at their ridiculous employment metrics, and ""discover"" what the rest of us unannointed ones have considered obvious for years." |
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590980 | "When presenting negative P/E values, most brokers and equity analysts show them as ""n.m."", which stands for not meaningful. I have never seen a P/E ratio of 0." |
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590988 | Republicans are of the idea that corporate profitability improves the lives of their constituency: If a company can spend less, they will produce a less expensive product, thereby improving consumers lives. They also believe that if a company improves profitability, this will result in higher workers incomes. *Don't laugh, now*. They actually believe this stuff. That it has been proven wrong over the last 5 decades is beside the point. Somehow the people who vote for Republican politicians have swallowed enough flavor-aid that they come back to the trough every two years and elect the same klepto's over and over. |
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590990 | Similar to @SoulsOpenSource's answer, I would suggest Venmo, which works like PayPal but is free for debit-card-to-debit-card transactions. More information here. |
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590994 | "First of all, insurance never covers the cost of the item, it is almost always a partial payout at best. For example, a typical house in the Northeast US where I live that costs $300,000 will have the actual house valued at maybe $100,00 and rest of the value will be in the land. Therefore, the insured value will typically be $100,000. The only problem is that to actually rebuild the house might easily cost $250,000. So, your idea that some kinds of insurance allows the beneficiary to recoup their loss is usually never true. As you say, from an actuarial point of view insurance is a sheer waste of money. For example, a typical house has maybe a 0.5% chance of burning down every year. In other words out of 2000 houses, maybe 1 will burn down every year. So, lets say you got $100,000 of insurance on your house. Then the value of that policy would be $100,000 / 2000 = $50 per year. An insurance company will charge around $700 per year for the policy. That means you are basically flushing $650 down the toilet every year to maintain that policy. The reason why they do this is what blankip says above, they are buying ""peace of mind"", a psychological product. In other they imagine they are somehow safe. So, even though they are losing money, paying it makes them feel as though they are not losing money. It's delusional, but then again most people have a lot of delusions of which insurance is just one of many." |
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590999 | > When that guy says you can go to 30A on a fuse, how do you feel about his opinion as an electrician? > Still say that non-electrician decisions have zero bearing on how you feel about his abilities as an electrician? Do you have a friend who's really good at math, but sucks in social situations? What about a cousin who's really good at interior design but is an awful driver? If your electrician friend has a long history of giving good electrical advice, both to me and others, then they have a long history of giving good electrical advice. I wouldn't expect that to change because they gave me bad dinner advice. Tiel has started multiple multi-billion dollar industries. He's served on countless boards, and taught business classes at Stanford. His skills in _business_ have been verified by other entrepreneurs, professors and personal history. I know people who'd give their left leg to get _business_ advice from him. He's also known to be a raging asshole. Not just in voting for Trump, but pretty much everything else. There's his personal vendetta against Gawker, and how he throws his money around to keep surfers from walking on his beach. I wouldn't want to grab a beer with the guy, but that doesn't affect his area of expertise. |
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591007 | The reason is governments print extra money to cause inflation (hopefully reasonable) so that people don't just sit comfortably but do something to make money work. Thus inflation is an artificial measure which leads to money value gradually decreasing and causing people invest money in one way or another to beat inflation or maybe even gain some more money. Printing money is super cheap unlike producing any kind of commodity and that makes money different from commodities - commodities have their inherent value, but money has only nominal value, it's an artificial government-controlled product. |
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591031 | "En Cornwall butikken har lagt en t franchise til sitt detaljhandel tilbud. Butikk Helston, drevet av Chris og Sue Sharrinton, har innført t for å utfylle sin eksisterende vellykkede mat på farten drift og tiltrekke seg en bredere kundebase. ""Vi har vært på utkikk etter en tid til noe nytt og annerledes å tilby våre mat på farten, og vi valgte t som partner fordi det er så sterkt merkenavn,"" sa Chris. ""T har en trendy appell og vil tiltrekke seg yngre kunder til butikken, i tillegg til å forbedre vår totale tilbudet. Vi har opprettet 300 sq ft plass til t-drift, og fortsatt skal selge vår egen populært utvalg av varm mat, pasties, pølse ruller og bacon baps, sammen med kassett smørbrød, sikrer at våre eksisterende ikke er drastisk redusert. Chris og Sue jobbet sammen **[Appleby vestover](http://www.swspar.com/) for installasjon av t tilbudet. Appleby vestover også jobbet med en annen av sine forhandlere, Julian Holliss når han installert franchise i hans bensin forecourt butikken i Dartmouth." |
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591068 | Oil itself is actually quite nice because you can store it in large quantities cheaply, but it costs a lot to move it and get it out of the ground. Another factor which you pointed out is how you can only get an engine 50% energy efficient, whereas electric motors are far more efficient. The main problem with renewables is that it is hard to store in large quantities, since our batteries aren't that efficient at storing a lot of energy for nighttime/calm days. Nuclear power and a really efficient battery would solve all of our problems, but people are deathly afraid of nuclear. The main point is that people have been predicting the end of oil for decades, just a matter of time until it's economically viable to stop using it. |
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591069 | Much of this is incorrect. Aetna owns Payflex for starters, and it's your EMPLOYER who decides which banks and brokers to offer, not Payflex. An HSA is a checking account with an investment account option after a minimum balance is met. A majority of U.S. employers only OFFER an HSA option but don't contribute a penny, so you're lucky you get anything. The easy solution is just keep the money that is sent to your HSA checking account in your checking account, and once a year roll it over into a different bank's HSA. The vast majority of banks offer HSAs that have no ties to a particular broker (i.e. Citibank, PNC, Chase). I have all my HSA funds in HSA Bank which is online but services lots of employers. Not true that most payroll deductions or employer contributions go to a single HSA custodian (bank). They might offer a single bank that either contracts with an investment provider or lets you invest anywhere. But most employers making contributions are large or mid-market employers offering multiple banks, and that trend is growing fast because of defined contribution, private exchanges and vendor product redesigns. Basically, nobody likes having a second bank account for their HSA when their home bank offers one. |
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591079 | Is it just -34*4.58= -$155.72 for CCC and -11*0.41= -$4.51 for DDD? Yes it needs to be recorded as negative because at some point in time, the investor will have to spend money to buy these shares [cover the short sell and return the borrowed shares]. Whether the investor made profit or loss will not be reflected as you are only reflecting the current share inventory. |
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591089 | .INX (the S&P 500 index itself) does not include reinvested dividens. You can figure total return by going to Yahoo finance, historical data. Choose the start year, and end year. You should find that data for SPY (going back to 1993) will show an adjusted close, and takes dividends into account. This isn't perfect as SPY has a .09% expense ratio, but it's better than just the S&P index. One of the more popular Dow ETF is DIA, this will let you similarly track the Dow while accounting for dividends. |
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591103 | "When using Time Value of Money equations, you need to know when the flow starts. A mortgage for example, has a first payment at the end of the first time period, usually 1 month. For savings, one can start the account with a deposit of course, or start by saying ""I will deposit $XXX at the end of each month. The answer really depends on the exact details of the situation. In your example, I'm inclined to suggest first flow is 1 year out." |
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591130 | MoneyDance Is the way to go. I've been using it for years and it works well. It keeps getting better, and best of all, it's completely cross platform! Mac, Windows and linux! |
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591133 | Personally, I'd like an comparison about the difference between the different 'houses' of Economic theory. Rothbardian Liberterianism, as argued by the Mises Inst, has some fantastic video-lectures, so I've been getting acquainted with them, but I'd like a good overview of the other side of that fence. |
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