vania-janet/multiturn-rag-retrieval-data huggingface dataset:
"First it is worth noting the two sided nature of the contracts (long one currency/short a second) make leverage in currencies over a diverse set of clients generally less of a problem.  In equities, since most margin investors are long ""equities"" making it more likely that large margin calls will all be made at the same time. Also, it's worth noting that high-frequency traders often highly levered make up a large portion of all volume in all liquid markets ~70% in equity markets for instance.  Would you call that grossly artificial?  What is that volume number really telling us anyway in that case? The major players holding long-term positions in the FX markets are large banks (non-investment arm), central banks and corporations and unlike equity markets which can nearly slow to a trickle currency markets need to keep trading just for many of those corporations/banks to do business.  This kind of depth allows these brokers to even consider offering 400-to-1 leverage.  I'm not suggesting that it is a good idea for these brokers, but the liquidity in currency markets is much deeper than their costumers."
One way is to wire transfer large amounts. If you transfer $5,000 at one go, that $50 fee works out to 1%, same as the $5 on a $500 ATM withdrawal (and ATM fees, hidden and explicit, tend to be higher than $5).  The downside is exchange rate risk (taking more money at one go exposes you to that day's rate, good or bad, vs taking it in multiple chunks). If you're American, you also have to report large transfers and foreign balances on your taxes. Shopping around for a good home bank (with low wire & foreign ATM fees), is quite important.
The best way to gauge the state of the economy is to look at a chart of the stock market indexes in that particular country. The second way to gauge the state of an economy is to look at a chart of existing and new home sales in that country. Asset inflation is the #1 indicators. Also, it doesn't matter if the markets are filled with useless junk. Facebook is the same Facebook as before and it has risen 10 fold. The only thing that matters is the price of the indexes, themselves. Also, the media and media, both say that the markets are in bad shape constantly because they are constantly negative. Things are so negative that the negativity has even spilled over to this post. But, during all this negativity, the prices of all assets have continued to multiply at exuberant proportions.
Student homes are not like home loans. The housing bubble happened in large part because people didn't care about the size of the loan. They intended to flip their house in a couple years and sell it for a profit. You can't resell an education.   &gt; Certainly it is better than the current system which guarantees student loans to benefit the bankers.  That doesn't exist any more. For the last couple of years only the government can offer government-backed student loans.
Just for another opinion, radio host Clark Howard would suggest killing the private student loans as quickly as possible.  The only reason is the industry around private student loans has fewer rules as to how they interact with you, and they have historically been very unpleasant if you have to deal with them in bad financial times. As a safety net, get rid of the private student loans as your main focus while you have the money and rates are low.  Not for financial reasons per se, but for peace of mind. The other advice in this question are great, but nobody mentioned the potential dark side of private student loans.
Can I wire transfer money from the my NRO account in India to my checking account in the USA?  Yes you can. However there is some paperwork you need to follow. As per FEMA [Foreign Exchange Management Act], any transfer by individuals outside of India need the 15CA & 15CB form. The 15CB is from a CA to state that taxes have been paid on the funds being transferred. The limit is 1 million USD per year. Read more at Liberalized Remittance Scheme and here. Any limit on the amount and do I have to report this to IRS or any other legal formality? Assuming you were already declaring the funds held in Banks outside of US in your regular IRS filings, there is no other formality.
"Okay - but that's about gold as an investment in today's world, and during  an extremely unstable financial situation.  Many other types of investments could be used similarly. Those who advocate gold as a hedge don't advocate buying it during a crisis, they advocate keeping some as part of an investment strategy... but again, that's gold as gold, not gold as currency.  Leveraging your investments based on current financial situations is what investing is about.   Gold as a medium for currency is a totally different thing.   What you just described would be called ""arbitrage"" - in moving markets (or other situations I guess) looking for no-lose situations where you can trade things around and increase your net value doing it.    it helps stabilize markets - as people take advantage of this situation it counters the effect and self-corrects... think about it ;)"
We don't have all the relevant numbers to give you the perfect answer. Knowing your income is pretty important for this question, but, since you have 200K in student loans, I'm going to guess (and hope) you probably make more than 80K/yr which is the cutoff for deducting student loan interest. (It starts phasing out once you make over 65K and fully phases out at 80K, or 160K if you're married.) Even if you make less than 65K, you can only deduct a max of 2500/yr in student loan interest and you'll be maxing that out for at least the next 4 years. So, my take is: Throw it at the student loan. Your mortgage interest is (probably) fully deductible, which means your mortgage interest rate is effectively reduced by your tax bracket. E.g. if you are in the 28% tax bracket a 4% mortgage rate would effectively become 2.88%. Outside of that, if you were to make minimum payments on your mortgage and student loans starting now, as soon as your student loan is paid off I would start making that same student loan payment amount towards your mortgage. This way you won't have any change in cash flow, but it will significantly lower the term of your mortgage. (Which is what would happen if you choose to pay down the mortgage now, but then you don't get the tax advantage on the difference.)
Not much past primary school, if I recall my last Googling of research.  You hear a lot about the virtues of small class sizes from teachers and their unions of course.  I know I'd rather have my kid in a 50 student class taught by a first rate lecturer than in a 10 student class taught by someone half as good.
Okay, I think I managed to find the precise answer to this problem! It involves solving a non-linear exponential equation, but I also found a good approximate solution using the truncated Taylor series. See below for a spreadsheet you can use. Let's start by defining the growth factors per period, for money in the bank and money invested: Now, let S be the amount ready to be invested after n+1 periods; so the first of that money has earned interest for n periods. That is, The key step to solve the problem was to fix the total number of periods considered. So let's introduce a new variable: t = the total number of time periods elapsed So if money is ready to invest every n+1 periods, there will be t/(n+1) separate investments, and the future value of the investments will be: This formula is exact in the case of integer t and n, and a good approximation when t and n are not integers. Substituting S, we get the version of the formula which explicitly depends on n: Fortunately, only a couple of terms in FV depend on n, so we can find the derivative after some effort: Equating the derivative to zero, we can remove the denominator, and assuming t is greater than zero, we can divide by the constant ( 1-G t ): To simplify the equation, we can define some extra constants: Then, we can define a function f(n) and write the equation as: Note that α, β, γ, G, and R are all constant. From here there are two options: Use Newton's method or another numerical method for finding the positive root of f(n). This can be done in a number of software packages like MATLAB, Octave, etc, or by using a graphics calculator. Solve approximately using a truncated Taylor series polynomial. I will use this method here. The Taylor series of f(n), centred around n=0, is: Truncating the series to the first three terms, we get a quadratic polynomial (with constant coefficients): Using R, G, α, β and γ defined above, let c0, c1 and c2 be the coefficients of the truncated Taylor series for f(n): Then, n should be rounded to the nearest whole number.
Those are valid, but I think you will see banks move into fintech, as they already have, and they are also moving into blockchain. One thing that banks have, is money, and that allows them to move into new spaces in the economy even if they are late to the party. When you have institutions that have been around for more than a century, they don’t just go away.   I think you start to see trading revenue comeback, eventually. The passive versus active investing is a cycle. As more and more people jump into passive investments, it will inevitably change the market because suddenly everything becomes more correlated. Once there is enough volatility to scare people out of their passive investments, then the indices are going to fall. Then you’ll start seeing how active investing is better and people start to move back. Passive investing is good when everything is up, but on the downside active investing (if you have the right managers) will outperform. Once this occurs, you will start to see more volatility in the markets again, and a return to active management, until inevitably people start to move back to passive again.
Don't do it!  The penalty and repayment requirements of the 401K will likely be more of a headache than the student loan payments.  Just pay off the student loans the normal way, or in larger chunks, if you can.  Student loans often have lower interest rates than other loans.   Think of your 401k as your long term savings.  Don't rob your long-term self to pay the student loans.
As these all seem to be US Equity, just getting one broad based US Equity index might offer similar diversification at lower cost. Over 5 years, 20 basis points in fees will only make about 1% difference. However, for longer periods (retirement saving), it is worth it to aim for the lowest fees. For further diversification, you might want to consider other asset classes, such as foreign equity, fixed income, etc.
I remember seeing a post forever ago about how millionaires arent investing and someone (a millionaire themselves) claimed it was because of the current economic/political climate made them unsure which then provoked this other person (assuming a millionaire) to come in and respond to them, talking about how Trump was going to cut taxes, concerns over student loan defaults were overblown, etc etc (basically saying to invest because it's going to be alright)  None the less that stuck with me for some reason so it's interesting to see how it's all going to turn out because it's clear the millionaires aren't unified on what the future has in store and I take that more as a sign for troubled waters ahead than anything else
It's incredibly foolish because it fails to use the investments as collateral to secure the loan. So instead of paying 5% or less for a loan secured by liquid assets, you'll be paying 10% or more for an unsecured loan. I do leveraged investments all the time and make a reasonable amount of money doing it (at high risk, I concede). I always use the investment to secure the loan and, as a result, pay a very low interest rate (since the lender can sell of my investments if I fail to repay the loan, reducing their risk dramatically). An unsecured loan would cost several times more.
For estimating your take home salary, I suggest using one of the many free salary calculators available over the Internet. I personally use PaycheckCity.com, but there are plenty of others available. To calculate your allowances for the US Federal tax, you can use the worksheet attached to the form W-4.  Similar form (with a similar worksheet) is available for state taxes, on the Illinois Department of Revenue web site.
Okay, I guess we can start there:  My argument that taxes are a civic duty and patriotic is because they pay for the stability, safety, and basic essential services that I require and expect from a modern, civilized nation. The services that they pay for extend well outside of my basic needs, and therefor are for a greater good. They also help to maintain the success and livelihood of the nation and its people - thus the patriotism that I associate with taxes.
You can't write exempt because according to the instructions on the W-4 I claim exemption from withholding for 2015, and I certify that I meet   both of the following conditions for exemption. You don't meet the second condition. But you can increase the number of allowance to reduce the amount of taxes. Just make sure you put enough money aside into a savings account so that you can pay the taxes in the spring.
I personally use mint.com and find the alerting feature to be handy.  The reports and ledger are nice for a web page and attractive, but I use Quicken for really keeping track of my money and budget.  Mint.com just doesn't offer the depth I want; but a lack of depth is a feature for some people. The one thing I do is to check my accounts online every couple of days (not just via mint's interface).  I am still protected from fraud if someone steals my money regardless of the vector of attack.  So mint's fault or not, I have to keep on top of my outgoing and incoming transactions with frequency so I can stop problems before they get too deep. summary:  the security is important, but being secure or not doesn't absolve me of being aware of all the transactions on my account.  I will still be protected by consumer laws (as much protection as that is) but I can't expect mint to fix any problems it might cause.
I'm not sure where you are from, but I'm American. I believe strongly that people should have the right to do whatever the hell they want with their body, money, etc. unless it infringes upon the rights of others. If people don't want to pay for roads because the use of the roads is not worth it to them, then they shouldn't have to because the government forces them through taxes.   Having the freedom to make a decision is always better in my mind.
"Wireless capabilities see Nikola tesla every type of communication outside of the walkie talkie really was created without the government. So the fact that i was born here against my own free will automatically gives the government the right to seize the fruits of my labor? This is where this bullshit statist logic falls apart because the only rebuttal you have is ""well just leave then!"" Which is fucking stupid and in pretty sure I already gave you 1 way but I'll say it again cuz it's clear you're incapable of following along, federal sales tax. With federal sales tax there are no deductions or coercion. Also the more money individuals have in their pocket  (disposable income) the more likely they are to spend and grow the economy. That's why you see countries like Sweden with insane tax rates seeing limited growth and in a lot of cases on the verge of an economic collapse. So if people have more disposable income causing them to have more purchasing power a federal sales tax would probably do better than an income tax and the people would receive something tangible instead of just losing 25% of their pay check. Btw don't ever say my income tax pays for roads because they don't that's what a gas tax is for. A majority of our infrastructure is paid for with revenue from other taxes not income. Income taxes pay mostly into military budget and social programs ie social security"
I am happiest on my bicycle, but money bought the sorta fancy bicycles I ride and the ipod that plays the music. It also buys the food along the way of my trip and the camera I use to take photos of the beauty I find. I am happy without the camera, but I need music for any trip longer than 50 miles.
&gt; Most businesses operate at a loss for the first year or two, and reinvest all the profits for expansion for a few years after that. So higher income taxes won't affect them one bit.  Yes, but tariffs, licenses, excise taxes, payroll taxes, and the like do. I say this as a business owner. I agree that the personal margin income tax brackets should go higher, I was just making a comment about how you form a healthy ecosystem for businesses. It takes tax friendly policies on the corporate level.  &gt; Half of all incomes goes to the top 10%. They have more than enough money...   Well, if we open it up to the top 10% now instead of only 1% (which is what I was referencing with the whole Occupy movement), we are starting to get somewhere. They already pay the largest proportion of taxes, obviously raising taxes would impact them the most no matter how you look at it. I have no disagreement with doing that, in fact I encourage it.  &gt; (Note: I intentionally ommitted health care because money alone won't fix that mess.)  I would say education fits within that category too. Per capita we spend more than any other country on our children already.  But yes, raising taxes will be necessary to fund what we need to fund, but I'd like to start with cutting government spending, reforming the fucked up programs, and creating a real economic / jobs plan for the next 50 years and then, at that point, we can determine who pays what taxes rather than asking the wealthy to pay more so we can fund useless wars.
"My wife and I have been car-free since 2011.  We spent about $3500 on car shares and rentals last year (I went through it recently to flag trips that were medical transportation and unreimbursed work related for taxes).  This compares favorably with the last year of car ownership.  I had reached a point I started needing $200+ repairs every couple of months and the straw that broke the camels back was a (dealer mechanic estimate but still) $3000 estimate to pass emissions inspection.   Over 11 years the value went from $24000 to $3600, so it depreciated about 2k per year.   I was easily spending $40 per week on gasoline on my last commute.   I now use transit with the IRS commuter benefit so I do have a base after tax transportation expense of 1200 per year.  We use weekend rentals about 2x per month (and do use a warehouse club)  She uses rentals for her job about 12 times per year, and the medical transportation came in an intense burst.   Access: Our nearest carshare pod is 0.22 miles (3 blocks); there are two hotels with full service rental car desks about half a mile from our house and every brand at the Amtrak station a mile away.  There are concrete benefits to density, take every advantage. Insurance: I always take the rental company SLI daily insurance for $15 per day.  Certain no annual fee credit cards automatically include CDW.  Every time an insurance agent cold calls me, I ask for a quote for a ""named non owner"" policy, I'd probably take it if the premium was  $300 or less per 6 months.   Tips and tricks: a carshare minivan or truck rate is probably higher than a carshare car, but compared to a full service rental, may be much lower . The best value I spend no time in my life looking for a parking spot, and spend ""this hour"" tapping away on SE on a train instead of driving."
I use over half my buying power of my portfolio for options, and I'm not a fan of any of the strategies listed above either (I stay away from negative theta trades for the most part), but I just listed them to point out that saying the reason someone wouldn't enter a short position is for fear of infinite losses is asinine. It's easy enough to make any trade risk defined if that is something the trader cares about.
I vote for Plan B: PLAN B: Put into 401 K whatever I have   in April (will be less than max) and   just pay the extra tax. This is path   of least resistance and easy but   expensive. This plan is the simplest and has the least moving parts.   It will be over in April, is easily understood, and does not add extra risk to your life. That being said, the real plan is for next year: save for taxes along the way instead of getting hit with a big bang.
Heh I'm more baffled by the sheer size of the collection I shared with my siblings. It must have seriously reached about 75k to 100k pieces. My parents were not well off at the time, but they never bought us cheap crap. Instead they just kept feeding more LEGO into the collection. I never fully appreciated them for it at the time. Looking back now I'm almost ashamed of how spoiled I was.
I have a loan that was picked up by BofA, too.  They required escrow, but there was a problem with one of their checks to my insurance company where it evidently got lost in the mail.  My insurance company contacted me, and I called BofA, who said it had been paid and may just be taking the insurance company a while to credit all the individual accounts (they send a check for a lot of customers at a time).  Well, since the check wasn't received, my insurance company contacted me again, and I finally straightened it out with everyone.  After that, I complained that it would have been much easier for me if I paid it myself instead of being a middle man, so they canceled my escrow, refunded the money to me, and now I pay the taxes and insurance myself.  I prefer it that way, as it simplifies things.  I've been a little surprised that BofA has been really nice whenever I contact them, and always seems willing to make me happy.  Maybe it's just because I pay on time and have paid a lot of extra on the principal so that there's no danger that I'll default.
Why use spreadsheets rather than writing your forms and formulas directly in a programming lanuage? Because you've got better things to do than reinvent the wheel, right? Same answer. ===== clarification, since the point apparently wasn't clear: Using a spreadsheet means you're writing and organizing and maintaining the formats and formulas yourself. Essentially, you are writing your own accounting program, using the spreadsheet program as your programming language. Nothing wrong with that, it just means you're doing work to produce something that you could have purchased instead. It's up to you to decide how the value of your time doing that work trades off against the cost of the commercial product.  For many people, especially as the bookkeeping becomes more complex, that isn't a good investment of their time. The otherwise billable time it would take them to maintain the spreadsheet is worth more than the cost of buying an off-the-shelf product, and the product offers features that they wouldn't get around to adding to their own solution. Add to that the question of whether people find creating and tweaking spreadsheets rewarding or annoying. The right tool is always the one that lets you focus on what you actually care about, unless the cost is too high to justify it.Most folks care about getting the accounting task done a least cost/least efprt. Buying a solution is least effort; if the real cost including time/effort is also lower, that's the direction they're going to go. I maintained my own accounts, and did my taxes, in spreadsheets for quite some time. These days the time to do so, multiplied by what my time is worth, would exceed the cost of buying tools, and the commercial tools are more pleasant to use, less prone to accidents, and offer featured that I don't need but appreciate. I still use a stylesheet for one small calculation (rebalancing my invedtments) but thst's because I havean odd corner case the built-in tool doesn't handle well...not that it makes any practival difference, but being slightly off annoyed me.  Your milage, obviously, will vary. Use the tool that suits your needs; others will do likewise.