vania-janet/multiturn-rag-retrieval-data huggingface dataset:
Depending on your local laws, such a layoff may be an unlawful act. If the whole purpose of the lay-off is to strip the employees of their RSU's, the employer may be liable and get sued. However, you have to check that with a lawyer licensed in your jurisdiction. In many places there are no laws against this. In any case, you may claim that there was no good faith/just cause in the action and still sue the employer. Mere threat of a lawsuit may thwart the whole deal, so I suggest the employees to lawyer up and talk to the employer. That, by the way, will require to create a union - a representative body for the employees. In some places that by itself may be a just cause for termination (in some extremely anti-union jurisdictions, I would guess if there were some they would be in the US). Bottom line - talk to a lawyer.
Whether you want to pay more than that out of your savings depends on how low an interest rate you can get (this is a good time in that regard) versus how much return you are getting on your investments, combined with how long you want the mortgage to run and how large a mortgage payment you're comfortable committing to. If you've got a good investment plan in progress and can get a mortgage which charges a lower interest rate than your investments can reasonably be expected to pay you, putting less down and taking a larger mortgage is one of the safer forms of leveraged investing... IF you're comfortable with that. If the larger mortgage hanging over you is going to make you uncomfortable, this might not be a good answer for you. It's a judgement call. I waited until i'd been in out of school about 25 years before I was ready to buy a house. Since i'd been careful with my money over that time, I had enough in investments that I could have bought the house for cash. Or I could have gone the other way and financed 80% of it for maximum leverage. I decided that what I was comfortable with was financing 50%. You'll have to work thru the numbers and decide what you are comfortable with. But I say again, if buying shared property you need a lawyer involved. It may be absolutely the right thing to do ... but you want to make sure everything is fully spelled out... and you'll also want appropriate terms written into your wills. (Being married would carry some automatic assumptions about joint ownership and survivor rights... but even then it's safer to make it all explicit.) Edit: Yes, making a larger down payment may let you negotiate a lower interest rate on the loan. You'll have to find out what each bank is willing to offer you, or work with a mortgage broker who can explore those options for you.
The two are closely related. A budget is a detailed plan for how to spend. Expense tracking is a tool to analyze your previous spending performance. Creating a plan for how to spend your money without any record of your previous spending--is an empty promise to yourself that you will never follow up on. Did I stay within my budget? Doesn't matter, I didn't track the spending anyway. Even if you do plan to track your performance, if you have not previously done so, you won't have a good basis for how much to expect in each category.  Most people have a general idea of how much they have spent and many budgets are formed based on that general intuition, but they are often surprised when they track how every penny is spent and look at the totals from month to month and over years. By actually seeing how much has been spent it's easier to pick the big financial drains and target them for reduction, if your desire is more savings, for example. I know people who keep a close eye on what they spend each month, but they don't allocate money in categories for the next month. They don't perform as well on reducing spending, but they often don't care. They feel like they make enough and they save enough, so why worry? I also know people who create an unrealistic budget each month because they haven't done a good job tracking their previous spending. They know what the monthly bills are, but they don't account well for variable or cyclical expenses  like repairs, Christmas, etc. Both tools are essential for maximizing your own personal finance.
Is it a safety thing?  If the heat pump goes out you replace it immediately, if your floor looks bad but you aren't tripping, I would suggest saving.  Use the extra time to find a great deal and educate yourself on your options.  Maybe even take a class and learn to do it yourself. In these rough times, anything I can save for and pay cash I would.  The exception is if you can finance with 0% interest for a period of time and you have enough money to pay that off. The last consideration I can think of is if you plan to sell the home soon?  For that you might be getting more value than the loan and a real estate agent would be probably know best.
"I work for an international real estate consulting firm in Shanghai. After graduation I worked in their Research Department for two years before switching to Commercial Brokerage 3 months ago. Since my background was in Economics, I had to learn a lot about how the industry worked. I found this book to be very helpful: ""Commercial Real Estate Analysis &amp; Investments"" by David Geltner. I will admit that it's probably more than what you want to know, but it seriously gives an in depth breakdown of the entire industry. About one year into starting, a major Real Estate iBank commissioned our company to due diligence on an office building acquisition in Shanghai. I was the only person capable of doing it as everyone else was either busy or couldn't speak English properly. With 1 year under my belt in Research and that book, I took the entire thing on. Had to walk into that meeting by myself with all the big wigs from New York, London, Hong Kong and Shanghai questioning every single number and assumption. I fucking nailed it. While credit towards understanding the market through work is deserved, a lot of the development of that report came from constantly consulting that book. It's worth every penny if your interested in commercial real estate investment. That being said, if you want to track deals, the best place is called Real Estate Capital Analytics. Unfortunately you have to fork over a decent amount of cash to get access. For your situation I would recommend the following: - ""The Urban Land Institute &amp; PwC Emerging Trends in Real Estate"": I believe you need to be a member but I can always find it online for free. - Brokerage firms: I work in one and we cover residential, commercial and retail reports on cities throughout the world (I actually wrote the ones for China for two years). You can find a wealth of information in them. If you are seriously looking at buying with capital, call up the research department and ask if they have some time to discuss the market face to face; if you don't have capital, they won't talk to you.
It may clarify your thinking if you look at this as two transactions: I am an Australian so I cannot comment on US tax laws but this is how the Australian Tax Office would view the transaction. By thinking this way you can allocate the risks correctly, Partnership Tenancy Two things should be clear - you will need a good accountant and a good lawyer. I do not agree that there is a conflict of interest in the lawyer acting for both parties - his role should only be for advice and to document what the two of you agree to. If you end up in dispute, then you need two lawyers.
I found [this.](http://homeguides.sfgate.com/terminate-apartment-rental-lease-due-medical-condition-8142.html)  It looks like you will need to go over the lease and look for any stipulations that allow your brother (or your parents if they cosigned) to break lease. You might want to talk to an attorney. Most leases stipulate a penalty to break lease, such as a month of rent. It seems unusual that they can charge rent until they find a new tenant, but I'm not a lawyer. Leases are an adhesion contract, meaning they are drafted by the landlord and they have most of the negotiating power. This is not inherantly bad, but it does mean that unusually harsh lease terms could be considered unconscionable, rendering the lease void.   I encourage you to reread the lease and contact a lawyer. I know everyone says that, but it's good advice here. It sounds like it would be cheaper than taking this lying down and I haven't heard of many people successfully winning contract law cases pro-say. It can't hurt to get a free consultation.
My equities portfolio breaks down like this: (I'm 26 years old, so it is quite aggressive) Additionally, I have a portfolio of direct real estate investments I have made over the past 4 years.  I invested very aggressively into real estate due to the financial crisis. As a result of my aggressive investing & strong growth in real estate, my overall asset breakdown is quite out of balance. (~80% Real Estate, ~20% Equities) I will be bringing this into a more sensible balance over the next few years as I unwind some of my real estate investments & reinvest the proceeds into other asset classes. As for the alternative asset groups you mentioned, I looked quite seriously at Peer to Peer lending a few years back. (Lending Club) However, interest rates were quite low & I felt that Real Estate was a better asset class to be in at the time.   Furthermore, I was borrowing heavily to fund real estate purchases at the time, and I felt it didn't make much sense to be lending cash & borrowing at the same time.  I needed every dime I could get a hold of.  :)  I will give it another look once rates come back up. I've shied away from investing in things like actively managed mutual funds, hedge funds, etc ... not because I don't think good managers can get superior returns ... rather, in my humble opinion, if they DO get above average returns then they simply charge higher management fees to reflect their good performance. Hope this helps!
"I have been trying to find information about how banks ""create"" money by giving out loans while only having a portion of the money to lend.  And any broader implications this may have (ie, all new money is debt?).  And the implications of the the government increasing or decreasing the required reserve amount.  I hope I explained that in a coherent way.  BTW, I love the investopedia videos.  If you can in any way emulate that technique, it should be a hit.  good luck."
No. I have partaken of but not lately. It's only become non-taboo here in the last 10 years and I was raised to think it was bad and people who do it are slackers or lazy and the like. I've thankfully grown out of that old way of thinking and now know how profitable it is and feel this is a good venture to begin building a nice portfolio. I'd also like to get into real estate and solar and wind as well
Of course you can find examples of CEOs who are assholes or ones like Schireson who have hit a point where they love their family more than their company and can't find balance. I took the last 8 years off of business building because I simply wasn't in love with any of my businesses. It wasn't until recently that I found that fire again (mainly from people in my own network wanting to find a new career path and having a surplus of talent I can leverage). If you want to be a CEO, it's going to come from PASSION. Good for Schireson. This probably wont be the last we hear of him or the last company he runs. It's a bug that bites you and a set of skills you develop. If you don't have those skills you might as well just be a lobbyist or a lawyer. I'm not tech though. I would love to say I can speak from experience there, but that's simply not my passion. Perhaps they are a different animal. You have a few former CEOs and owners here that occasionally chime in. The one takeaway from someone like Sheepman would boil down to this. Do you have the kind of passion to match someone like Richard Branson? Do you have business acumen to match? If not, no one is ""holding your spot"". If so, why do you want to follow someone's passion if it's not your own in an already crowded or well funded space? If you do, you are already planning your next company anyway. TL;DR Being a successful CEO is about passion and not money"
"You can move money from a 403b to a 401k plan, but the question you should ask yourself is whether it is a wise decision. Unless there are specific reasons for wanting to invest in your new employer's 401k (e.g. you can buy your employer's stock at discounted rates within the 401k, and this is a good investment according to your friends, neighbors, and brothers-in-law), you would be much better off moving the 403b money into an IRA, where you have many more choices for investment and usually can manage to find investments with lower investment costs (e.g. mutual fund fees) than in a typical employer's 401k plan. On the other hand, 401k assets are better protected than IRA assets in case you are sued and a court finds you to be liable for damages; the plaintiff cannot come after the 401k assets if you cannot pay.  To answer the question of ""how?"", you need to talk to the HR people at your current employer to make sure that they are willing to accept a roll-over from another tax-deferred plan (not all plans are agreeable to do this) and get any paperwork from them, especially making sure that you find out where the check is to be sent, and to whom it should be payable. Then, talk to your previous employer's HR people and tell them that you want to roll over your 403b money into the 401k plan of your new employer, fill out the paperwork, make sure they know to whom to cut the check to, and where it is to be sent etc. In my personal experience, I was sent the check payable to the custodian of my new (IRA) account, and I had to send it on to the custodian; my 403b people refused to send the check directly to the new custodian. The following January, you will receive a 1099-R form from your 403b plan showing the amount transferred to the new custodian, with hopefully the correct code letter indicating that the money was rolled over into another tax-deferred account."
Is my laptop that I use to work and create my income my possession, or my property? Under what circumstances is it a possession, and under what circumstances is it property? What circumstances do you find it just to remove my laptop from me, and use it for yourself?   Do you support black bloc tactics like window breaking and stealing food from grocers?
Those guys and ladies bust there asses 12 to 18 hours a day of never ending work from the time they were little kids you won't find to many people that work that hard . I should now I was one of them but never made it. All that work for nothing it's a big risk to dedicate all your time and effort. I should have became a doctor and a lawyer. It would have been easier and I would have something to show for it. The price of chasing your dreams.
If you have a relatively stable income and deductions you can get a fairly good estimate using last year's tax bill. Suppose you paid $12000 of actual taxes last year and you are paid once a month.   If you plan to make a similar amount of money with similar deductions, you need each monthly paycheck to have $1000 of federal income taxes withheld.   I go to a paycheck calculator and find the withholding required to make sure I have that amount withheld every paycheck.
Hate to link this trolls article, but seriously. I own that real estate, pay me not to recline. First off, that is what is wrong with people, when selfishness over a few inches trumps common courtesy. How about, I can see you're tall and are being cramped into a small space, I'm not going to be an asshole and crunch my seat on top of your knees. No, it's I paid for this seat and I will take every inch possible, regardless how many people it inconveniences, and if you have a problem why not pay me. Hell, do you fight with the person next to you over the armrest as well?
There are so many things wrong with this it's absurd. But I will point out the three that stick out to me:  * Licensing used to be about making sure someone knew what they were doing instead of letting just anyone perform a job. Now it's used as gatekeeping, a barrier to entry, and/or a revenue stream. * If your business model can't stand on its own and needs someone to ban another business model your business model is outdated or bad. * Using a license as a commodity to support a retirement plan is just a terrible idea. I have no better words for this. Why would anyone think this is a good idea?  Seriously, I'm not even an opponent to regulation. I know that, in many cases, regulation is a good thing. Licensing to drive a 3500 pound death machine is a good thing. I like the idea of people having to learn how to drive and prove they know how to drive before they are given a license to drive. Licensing to drive a car as a taxi, however, is not. How hard is it to drive to a point on a map, pick someone up, drive them to another point on a map, and drop them off? The answer is: not very. In this case, the licensing involved is simply to keep the market from flooding and provide a pension plan to those fortunate enough to get in the game.
My grace period is up in a few months, and I am not looking forward to it. I got the minimum federal aid possible for all 4 years, so I had to turn to private loans and whatever I could make over summers and what my parents could help me with. Ended up with $50k in debt, about 20k of it being with Sallie Mae. I can confirm they are bad on the collection side already. Just happened to miss a payment during school (paid off interest every month for the last 4 years), and they called me 3 times during class, sent an email, letter, and called my bilogical dad who cosigned for the loan. I can only imagine what they are like for people defaulting.   All comes down to it though, have a plan when borrowing money for school. I knew my parents would only be able to help me out a little bit, and  I got minimum federal aid (as in just loans) because my step father had assets that counted against me (and he told me I was on my own). So I had to figure out how to not be screwed from the beginning. I paid off my interest every month while working during school, and made sure to work hard to graduate with a good job. I can't imagine how some students feel when they graduate with nothing.
The important difference will come in an in-between year. You will reach the max quicker on an HDHP than you will on a standard plan. With a family, where all of these numbers are higher, and you have more people to be getting sick/injured this might make the standard plan a better benefit. However, since whatever you build up in an HSA account stays with you forever, while you're single and have only your own health to be concerned about, that is probably a good choice. When you have a family, things might change and you switch to a standard plan, but you still have that war-chest to offset copays and hospital visits in future years. I was forced onto an HSA for 2 years with a smaller company. They had a really good contribution, $2500 if I remember right, and we saved up big time. Later, when my wife was pregnant, we were on a low-deductible standard plan and paid all our fees out of the HSA. It worked out great. I say, as long as the averaged yearly expected costs make sense after doing calculations illustrated above, go for it!"
I started a copy shop in 1996 and found my notebook from that period just the other day. I was OBSESSED with copyright issues and how Kinko's had closed 25% of their stores -- mostly in college towns where they do course packs. Turns out, if you're NOT a multi-million dollar national chain, the book publishers DON'T want anything to do with persecuting you.   You're overthinking it IMHO. Talk to an insurance agent and a lawyer and you should be fine.
You are right to be skeptical of timeshare listing companies.  As you can imagine, it is very difficult to actually sell a timeshare.  You know firsthand how awful they are; it takes trickery to sell them. True story: In my office building years ago, the office across the hall was occupied by a timeshare listing service.  One day about a dozen FBI agents showed up and raided the office. As with any service company like this, you can sometimes find reviews on the Better Business Bureau. As an alternative, instead of trying to sell your timeshare, you may want to hire a lawyer to try to get out of it.  I have absolutely no experience with this, but I have heard advertisements on the radio for one such firm called Timeshare Exit Team.  There may be others that do the same thing. Good luck.
There are some good answers in general, and I have a slightly different solution, which won't fit as a comment to one of the other answers. I am of course not a lawyer and this is not legal advice.
"I wish I was in your shoes with the knowledge I have in my head. financial goal setting is a great plan at your age. In my humble opinion you don't want to save for anything... you want to invest as much as you can, create a corporation and have the corporation invest as much as possible. When there is enough monthly cash flow coming from your investments... have the corporation buy you a house, a car, take out an insurance policy on you as key employee... etc.  As for the $11,000 laying around in cash as an emergency fund, no way! With returns as high as 1-3% per month invested properly keep it invested. Getting to your emergency cash reserve you have in a trading account is only a couple key strokes away. As for the 401k... If it is not making at least 25% yearly for the last 10 years (excluding your Contributions) do it yourself in a self directed IRA.  Oh... I forgot to mention When your corporation buys your stuff... if set up correctly you can take them as a loss in the corporate ledger and you know any loss from one entity can offset profits from another, thus reducing any taxes you may have. My friend you are at the point of great beginnings, hard choices and an open door to what ever you want your future to look like. Decide what you want out of your money and don't take ""NO YOU CAN'T DO THAT"" as an answer. Find someone that will tell you these secrets, they are out there. Good luck."
"but there's that risk of me simply logging on to my online banking and transferring extra cash over if I cave in. Yep, there's no reasonable substitute for self-control. You could pay someone else to manage your money and dole out an allowance for your discretionary spending, but that's not reasonable for most people. Your money will be accessible to you, you don't need it inaccessible, you need to change the way you think about your available money. Many people struggle with turning a corner when it comes to saving, a tool that helps many is a proper budget. Plan ahead how all of your money will be used, including entertainment. If you want to spend £200/month on entertainment, then plan for it in a budget, and track your spending to help keep within that budget. It's a discipline thing, but a budget makes it easier to be disciplined, having a defined plan makes it easier to say ""I can't"" rather than ""I shouldn't, but... okay!"" There are many budgeting tools, just pick one that has you planning how all your money is spent, you want to be proactive and plan for saving, not hoping you have some leftover at the end of the month.  Here's a good article on How and Why to Use a Zero-Sum Budget. Some people have envelopes of cash for various budget items, and that can be helpful if you struggle to stick to your budget, once the entertainment envelope is empty, you can't spend on entertainment until next month, but it won't stop you from blowing the budget by just getting more cash, as you mentioned."