Typically a private company is hit by demand supply issues and cost of inputs. In effect at times the cost of input may go up, it cannot raise the prices, because this will reduce demand. However certain public sectors companies, typically in Oil & Engery segements the services are offered by Public sector companies, and the price they charge is governed by Regulatory authorities. In essence the PG&E, the agreement for price to customers would be calculated as cost of inputs to PG&E, Plus Expenses Plus 11.35% Profit. Thus the regulated price itself governs that the company makes atleast 11.35% profit year on year. Does this mean that the shares are good buy?  Just to give an example, say the price was $100 at face value, So essentially by year end logically you would have made 111.35/-. Assuming the company did not pay dividend ... Now lets say you began trading this share, there would be quite a few people who would say I am ready to pay $200 and even if I get 11.35 [on 200] it still means I have got ~6% return. Someone may be ready to pay $400, it still gives ~3% ... So in short the price of the stock would keep changing depending how the market percieves the value that a company would return. If the markets are down or the sentiments are down on energy sectors, the prices would go down.  So investing in PG&E is not a sure shot way of making money. For actual returns over the years see the graph at http://www.pgecorp.com/investors/financial_reports/annual_report_proxy_statement/ar_html/2011/index.htm#CS


"I have checked with Bank of America, and they say the ONLY way to cash (or deposit, or otherwise get access to the funds represented by a check made out to my business) is to open a business account. They tell me this is a Federal regulation, and every bank will say the same thing.  To do this, I need a state-issued ""dba"" certificate (from the county clerk's office) as well as an Employer ID Number (EIN) issued by the IRS. AND their CHEAPEST business banking account costs $15 / month. I think I can go to the bank that the check is drawn upon, and they will cash it, assuming I have documentation showing that I am the sole proprietor. But I'm not sure.... What a racket!!"


Mutual funds don't work like stocks in that way. The price of a mutual fund is set at the end of each day and doesn't fluctuate during the day. So no matter when you put in your order, it will be filled at the end of the day at whatever the closing price is for that day. Here is some good information on that There is no continuous pricing of fund shares throughout the trading   day. When an investor places an order to buy or sell a fund's shares,   the order is executed based on the NAV calculated at the end of that   trading day, regardless of what time during the day the order was   placed. On the other hand, if the investor were to check the price of   his or her fund shares halfway through the business day, the price   quoted would be the previous day's NAV because that was the last time   the fund calculated and reported the value. -http://www.finweb.com/investing/how-mutual-funds-are-priced.html


You can, and people do. More a Japanese thing than a US thing but I guess they've had super low interest rates for longer. Its called 'the carry trade' and is the reason the NZD is artificially high (which as an NZ exporter I find kinda annoying). Particularly popular with the so called 'japanese housewife' investor.  It also causes the NZD to plunge every time the US stock market dips - because the NZD is held mostly as a moderately risky investment, not for trade purposes. Presumably in a down market hedge funds need to cash in their carry trades to cover margins or something?   As another person said the primary risk is currency fluctuations. Unfortunately such currencies are highly volatile and tied to stock market volatility.  tl;dr It'd be nice if you all quit treating my national currency as an investment opportunity - then i could get on with my business as an New Zealand exporter ;-)


"I think you want to look at companies that buy annuities and give you a lump sum.   They exist to do this for lawsuit payments, lottery winnings, etc. I'm not sure what the fees would be on a relatively small payout of $6K but try searching for ""converting annuity to cash"" and the first several hits were all firms looking to buy structured payment settlements for a lump sum. They make their money by paying less than the present-day value of the annuity, so you will get less money this way than collecting your payments slowly."


There are lots of good answers on here already.  There are actually lots of answers for this question.  Lots.  I have years of experience on the exchange feed side and there are hundreds and thousands of variables.   All of these variables are funneled into systems owned by large financial institutions (I used to manage these - and only a few companies in the world do this so not hard to guess who I work for).  Their computers then make trades based on all of these variables and equations.  There are variables as whacky as how many times was a company mentioned in an aggregate news feed down to your basic company financials.  But if there is a way to measure a company (or to just guess) there is an equation for it plugged into a super computer at a big bank. Now there are two important factors on why you see this mad dash in the morning: Now most of the rest of the day is also automated trades but by the time you are an hour into market open the computers for the most part have fulfilled their calendar buys.  Everyone else's answer is right too.  There is futures contracts that change, global exchange info changes, options expiring, basic news, whatever but all of these are amplified by the calendar day changing.


Didn't they try to collect taxes and your fellow Californians screamed bloody murder? Ironically, most will also bitch about the recent gov't layoffs and lack of schools but will be damned if they'll pay one cent more in taxes... Yay for direct democracy in action.


> vast majority of Americans would see no impact to their lives.   This was true a few months after the Supreme Court handed the election to George W. Bush.  >What this proves is that the government isn't as essential as we think it is  It says nothing about how essential government is, it merely speaks to how quickly or slowly things change.  >those who demanded greater federal government control before Trump are backpedaling like mad.  When people are concerned about the direction, they are smart to slam the breaks. That's not backpeddling.


There was a huge amount of creativity in the 70's . This lasted well into the early 80's . There were many good dramas and series produced . Whilst there are a few produced these days there are not as many as then . There are some good British programmes , some German , the odd French programme . But there is , with a few exceptions , a huge amount of crap that comes out of the USA . There are a lot of repeats of good old programs - these are what I watch - not anything new . I usually watch programs that are 15 to 25 years old . Trouble is that I have often already seen them .


sweet, a Nazi analogy.  And here I thought I'd *never* see one of those on the internet!  A better example would be to arrest gun manufacturers because they created guns that were used in murders.  Chances are this program was created for legitimate reasons. There's nothing illegal about using software to buy stock. There is, however, rules against doing things like this to influence the market.   You're equating some software developers whose software was used illegally to a group of people who committed genocide.  Think about that.


People almost never die when an elevator malfunctions.  Trains can run automatically because there is a simple solution to almost any emergency: STOP. And the passenger's can press the emergency stop to activate this.   Can't do that with an airplane.  Edit: found this about elevators. There are more than I thought:  http://www.snopes.com/horrors/freakish/elevator.asp


"No, it means that is only the notional value of that underlying asset of that contract, generally. The contract specification itself is listed on the exchange's websites, and there are really no assumptions you can make about a particular contract. Where S&P futures have one set of specifications, such as what it actually represents, how many each contract holds, how to price profits and losses... a different contract, such as FTSE 100 stock futures have a completely different set of specifications. Anyway in this one example the s&p 500 futures contract has an ""initial margin"" of $19,250, meaning that is how much it would cost you to establish that contract. Futures generally require delivery of 1,000 units of the underlying asset. So you would take the underlying asset's price and multiple it by 1,000. (what price you use is also mentioned in the contract specification), The S&P 500 index  is $1588 you mentioned, so on Jun2013 you would have to delivery $1588 x 1000, or $1,588,000. GREAT NEWS, you only have to put up 1.2% in principal to control a 1.5 million dollar asset! Although, if even that amount is too great, you can look at the E-Mini S&P futures, which require about 1/10th the capital and delivery. This answer required that a lot of different subjects be mentioned, so feel free to ask a new question about the more specific topics."


Question:  So basically the money created in this globalized digital world where capital is free to roam,  it is referring to digital money and not actual physical cash.  So the goldbugs that talk about america becoming weimar republic is delusional, since there isn't enough physical cash in relations to how big the economy is.    And it is actually the debt lending that acts as a derivative of cash money that goes around posing as the money supply or the blood supply of an economy, and that feels like inflation, but when the debt is defaulted on or destroyed, underwritten or even paid back closing the circuit then it's deflationary?   But does defaulting on ones debt create inflation since that money is still in the system and not being paid off?  You know, when debts are paid off they are taken out of the system.


Yeah, I mean, what it really comes down to is the fact that life isn't fair.  I would think that if your company is squeezed enough that it's paying a lot more for new employees who do what you do already, then if you go to your boss and ask for a raise, he's not going to say no. It's way easier (and cheaper) to keep an employee, particularly a good one, than to find someone new. Just a thought.


The one thing that people really want to go see or try out before they buy are TVs and home audio. But those are very low volume sales that can't sustain a business. It's like how Radio Shack found their weird cell phone niche which quickly collapsed recently.   Traditional brick and mortar can't be sustained on niche items, while the rest of everything is sold on Amazon. They've got to come up with another business plan that has room for growth. They had over a decade to get into the online game but they're still miles behind.


Springhill Group Counselling believes it is significant that each of us needs to understand what counselling and psychotherapy is about and what they should anticipate from the procedure of therapy. Nurturing knowledge among community is a significant purpose for every organization. This website has been aims to help people find out more about counselling and [...]


Small cap companies are just smaller, so the risk for them to fail is higher but the potential for higher returns is also higher.


Rebates are offered on exchange to promote liquidity offers so that aggressive buy/sell can be done, otherwise a sizable sell/buy would crash the price of a stock with no liquidity, it is perfectly normal for a firm to attempt look for the rebate if the customer is willing to wait longer for the execution to happen. The Author clearly has no freaking idea what the hell he is talking about.


Countries like China hold onto our debt so we are obligated to keep importing for them, which their own economy depends on it.  If they call the debt, forcing us to default and essentially destroying our currency, it hurts them too.


U.S. citizens are allowed to own foreign bank and investment accounts. However, there are various financial and tax reporting requirements for owners of such accounts. Even when there is no foreign income involved. For example famous FBAR (Fincen Report Form 114), Form 8938, and even more forms if your assets/activities abroad become more complicated. Penalties, even for unintentional non-compliance can be Draconian. So just keep in mind, that once you start having foreign accounts, you will start having additional obligations and might spend more money and time on tax preparation. If you are ok with that, then its cool. But... assuming your gloomy predictions on Trump presidency come true. They might be accompanied by more strict capital control, reporting requirements, and may become even greater pain in the neck for people with foreign assets. Regarding recommendations, I am not sure about banks, but there are some foreign precious metal investing companies that are completely online based such as https://www.bullionvault.com/ and https://www.goldmoney.com/. These might also guard you from potential problems with US dollar.


Pretty much any financial transaction where they start by calling you on the phone is a scam. They aren't doing it for your benefit and the caller is on commission.


The real problem now, which we don't realize, but will come to in the years to come is:  #It is impossible to remove a corrupt democracy by democratic means  If you lets these parasites entrench and solidify, you will never get them out


As long as you're in a lower tax bracket - you would probably be better off paying the taxes now, and investing into the Roth IRA/401K. However, you should be investing for your retirement now, and not later, because of the compounding effect, and also you'll gain the employer matching (if available).


ASSUMING THIS IS A QUESTION OF U.S. SECURITIES LAWS You didn't explain whether you're related to the mother and son, but I'll assume you are.  If that's the case, this really wouldn't qualify as a solicited sale.  It wasn't advertised publicly for sale, and there is already (I assume) a long-standing relationship between the parties.  In such a case, this would be a perfectly legal and normal type of transaction, so I can't see any reason for concern.   That being said, you would be wise to contact the state securities regulation agency where you live to ensure you're on firm ground. The law pertaining to the solicited sale of securities normally targets instances where people are trying to do private stock offerings and are seeking investors, in which case there are a number of different state and federal agencies and regulations that come into play.  The situation you've described does not fall under these types of scenarios. Good luck!


The President of the Biggest Economy in the world, who is making a new Tax plan, replacing the Head of the Fed and over seeing a loosening of financial regulation, is in all intents and purposes a Fucking Moron, how do you think this relates to the economy?


Deals Woot i s a good place to find a lot of deals.


I am super sorry about your divorce and nod to you for taking care of your kids and spouse.  This may sound super snarky, although not my intention, but you have an income problem.  Despite making almost double the national average, you are supporting two households, and live in a high cost of living area.  (BTW been there, done that and also in IT.) The best way to avoid paying CC interest is to pay them off, and cut them up.  Some might poo-poo the idea as you can earn some $ by getting CC rebates, but you are not in that mode right now.  Consolidations, and balance transfers are a losing game as you can probably feel the November deadline looming.      If I was you, I would get a second job, even if it was something like pumping gas.  Making an extra $500/month increases your balance reduction by 650%.  Sell stuff.  Recently an older version of Visual Studio, that was sitting unused on my shelf, went for $400 on Ebay.   The best way to solve this problem is through sweat equity.  There are no easy answers.  It sucks, but putting your big boy pants on and being prepared to work 20 hours of the day is the easiest way out of this.   If you do this you will learn a lesson about CC utilization that most don't learn.


"Ditto @GradeEhBacon, but let me add a couple of comments: But more relevantly: GradeEhBacon mentioned transaction costs. Yes. Many tax shelters require setting up accounts, doing paperwork, etc. Often you have to get a lawyer or accountant to do this right. If the tax shelter could save you $1 million a year in taxes, it makes sense to pay a lawyer $10,000 to set it up right. If it could save you $100 a year in taxes, paying $10,000 to set it up would be foolish. In some cases the tax savings would be so small that it wouldn't be worth the investment of spending $20 on a FedEx package to ship the paperwork. Inconvenience. Arguably this is a special case of transaction costs: the cost of your time. Suppose I knew that a certain tax shelter would save me $100 a year in taxes, but it would take me 20 hours a year to do the paperwork or whatever to manage it. I probably wouldn't bother, because my free time is worth more than $5 an hour to me. If the payoff was bigger or if I was poorer, I might be willing. Complexity. Perhaps a special case of 3. If the rules to manage the tax shelter are complicated, it may not be worth the trouble. You have to spend a bunch of time, and if you do it wrong, you may get audited and slapped with fines and penalties. Even if you do it right, a shelter might increase your chance of being audited, and thus create uncertainty and anxiety. I've never intentionally cheated on my taxes, but every year when I do my taxes I worry, What if I make an honest mistake but the government decides that it's attempted fraud and nails me to the wall? Qualification. Again, as others have noted, tax shelters aren't generally, ""if you fill out this form and check box (d) you get 50% off on your taxes"". The shelters exist because the government decided that it would be unfair to impose taxes in this particular situation, or that giving a tax break encourages investment, or some other worthy goal. (Sometimes that worthy goal is ""pay off my campaign contributors"", but that's another subject.) The rules may have unintended loopholes, but any truly gaping ones tend to get plugged. So if, say, they say that you get a special tax break for investing in medical research, you can't just declare that your cigarette and whiskey purchases are medical research and claim the tax break. Or you talked about off-shore tax havens. The idea here is that the US government cannot tax income earned in another country and that has never even entered the US. If you make $10 in France and deposit it in a French bank account and spend it in France, the US can't tax that. So American companies sometimes set up bank accounts outside the US to hold income earned outside the US, so they don't have to bring it into the US and pay the high US tax rate. (US corporate taxes are now the highest of any industrialized country.) You could, I suppose, open an account in the Caymans and deposit the income you earned from your US job there. But if the money was earned in the US, working at a factory or office in the US,  by a person living in the US, the IRS is not going to accept that this is foreign income."


"I would contact the security/fraud departments at your bank and see if you can get in contact (via your bank) with the bank that the check is drawn on. By my reading of your question, it sounds like the person you are dealing with fraudulently endorsed a third party check, which you subsequently endorsed for deposit. Explain this situation to your bank. As far as the other person goes, tell her ""I'm in contact with the frauds department at my bank, as the validity of the check is in question, and I'm not giving you a cent until the matter is resolved."" Depositing a bad check is a misdemeanor in most jurisdictions, so it's essential to bring this to the attention of the bank and authorities asap."


> But overall we are living in one of the most stable-peaceful times in human history.  It's nice to see this stated, because it isn't said enough. We're so afraid of these constant political and social boogymen that we forget that that we live in a country free of civil war, where food is plentiful and clean water a given. Yeah, beyond the low level Maslow stuff we have problems, but damn, we have it good.


What I think or don't think makes no difference, what you are proposing would be a huge change for the world. It might have unforeseen negative effects because the way things often happens is that a new development makes it possible to do the job *completely* by machines, and here you are proposing to keep the remaining 10 people as virtual *prisoners* in a job where they would just sit there all day doing nothing, staring at the wall, but collecting a paycheck.  Wouldn't they be happier at another job doing some high level task for which there was no computer replacement, yet, some form of pure mathematics?


Well, if you worked in the United States you have social security, and medicare and medicaid in most cases as well.  So you have a small amount of income to spend every month to cover your most basic living expenses, as well as your basic medical expenses.  At least, that's the idea. In reality, it probably isn't anywhere near enough money for most to live comfortably.  Also, there is a real fear that the US will have to inflate itself out of its debt to some extent in the future.  This theory implies that the money retired individuals have saved or are receiving down the road could buy significantly less in the future than they expect. If you have the ability to put money away into an IRA or 401K early in your life, it will be greatly beneficial to do so.  However, that is another issue I won't begin to discuss fully here. Edit since your question was restated after I typed my initial response, the final answer is:  You will receive some assistance from Social Security, Medicare, and Medicaid.  You will most likely need to either continue working, draw on savings such as an IRA or 401k, or will need assistance from others.  If none of those are options, you would most likely end up living in poverty or worse.


"> But I've also gotten some cheap shit at Menards.  I'll second that. Their discount brands, like ""Master Force"" and ""Tool Shop"" are definitely lower in quality. I have a rotary tool that I got for like $20, and it's done the job that I need it to do, but if I were doing lots of detail work or crafts, I would have spent the money on a Dremel. I buy my tools at Lowe's, since I'm willing to spend more on quality items that I want to last (they have plenty of cheap crap, too), but things like wood, screws, and landscaping materials are cheaper at Menard's, especially when they have their 11% off the entire store sales, and they're not cheap alternatives."


oh you sad sad fool. you think hard work automatically means you'll succeed? suckers like you are who the republicans prey on. opportunity doesn't come just because you're a hard worker. without some degree of luck, you can work your ass off until the day you die and never get anywhere.


Are you trying to push an agenda here?  In reading all your comments, it's like you're trying to persuade us that US manufacturing is hollowing out.   It's not the case.    A contractor quits, another one has to be found, and there's a production delay in between.  What is so strange about that?


We were hungry and we didn't set out to wait two hours. You just keep thinking you'll be next seated. I was still in college. Today I'd leave even if it meant getting fast food. Back then I was far more tolerant of shit.


I would be very careful with annuity products. If you don't mind sharing, what are the terms for the annuity?  Usually I would recommend not to use retirement account to pay off debt, mainly because of the penalty that comes from withdrawing prematurely. But in this case, First of all, stop contributing to the annuity account if you're not contractually obligated. Second, try to convert your annuity assets to more common equity/debt products. Thirdly, try to cut back on spending to pay off debt, assuming you stopped paying 2X on housing, since 30k debt shouldn't be that hard to pay off with 100k income. Lastly, if all of the above are impossible, you can withdraw from that account to pay off your debt.


unless it is company wide slashes (which it isnt), its not gonna affect the markets for Walmart and Kroger.   those shoppers dont need Buddha finger lemons and other unique produce.  Whole foods needs to worry about Wegmans.  for each kroger they kill a Wegman's will rise.


I recommend you two things: I like these investments because they are not high risk. I hope this helps.


"Yup. It's totally legit and it is not a money market account. Though interest rates are so low across the board, this is about as high as savings accounts get and so it is called a ""high-yield savings account"". A number of banks offer these. There are different offerings nation-wide versus local/state. I would use this compare tool at DepositAccounts.com to find them and the blog is very good with updates and trends. Here are some well advertised accounts: If you don't already have a rewards checking account, get one of those first. DepositAccounts.com will direct you to these as well. A reasonable interest rate on rewards checking is 2.5% and up. So much better. The only catches are reasonable - online statements, direct deposit or autopay, and use your debit card 10 or 12 times a month for any transaction amount (groceries, coffee, gas - easy). The other major thing I would consider when opening any account is where you live and the current accounts you have. If you have an AMEX card already, just use their savings account. That way you have unified accounts, faster transfers, your personal information isn't spread thinly around all different banks, you have more leverage with the company as a ""long-standing customer"", etc. As far as using a bank in the state where you live, it simplifies taxes. Two more things: I would always choose a credit union over a bank (and many have excellent rewards checking accounts). If you use Mint, Yodlee, or other financial software, make sure the potential new bank integrates with that service."


I have a CapitalOne credit card, and every two or three weeks, CapitalOne Bank sends me checks that can be used almost anywhere (including a deposit into my own checking account if I wish, or to pay taxes or utility bills etc)). The amount thus borrowed is counted as a balance transfer (as if I  were paying off another credit-card balance) and it will be charged 0% interest for a year.  The catch is that unless I pay off the next monthly statement in full by the due date, I will be charged interest on all new purchases from the day that they post to the account till the day they are paid off. No more grace period etc.  All this will continue until that loan amount is paid off in full.  So, I either would have to (i) pay off all the purchases made this month plus the minimum monthly payment shown on the next monthly statement and give up use of the card till that 0% balance is all repaid, or (ii) pay interest on new purchases.   It might be worth checking on the CapitalOne Credit Card site if such an offer is available to you.  If so, get a check from them, pay off the invoice using that check (actually, I would strongly recommend depositing the money in your local bank and writing them your personal check for the amount to be paid), and then pay off next month's bill in full, etc.


Let's look at some numbers.  These are just example rates that I found online.  You can substitute your own quotes and compare yourself.  I'm not going to name the company, but these advertised rates are all from one nationally-known company for a 25-year old female. If you went with the whole life option, you would be paying $937.56 per year.  The policy builds a cash value; the amount this grows can vary greatly, and you'll need to look at the fine print to see how it will grow, but let's pretend that after 30 years, the cash value of the policy is $50,000 (a reasonable guess, in my opinion).  Let's look at what this means: You can cash out your policy, but at that point, you'll stop paying payments, and your heirs won't get your $100,000 death benefit.  You can borrow against it, but you'll have to pay it back.  You could use it to pay your premium, in which case you'll stop paying payments.  However, keep in mind that if you do pass away, you lose the cash value you've built up; your beneficiaries only get the $100,000 death benefit. Now let's look at the term insurance option.  We'll go with the 30-year term.  It will only cost you $242.76 per year, and the death benefit is more than double the whole life coverage.  If you were to take the difference between the two premiums ($58 per month) and invest it in a mutual fund growing at 8% per year, you would have $86,441 in your account after 30 years.  This money is yours (or your heirs), whether or not you pass away before your term is up.  After the 30 years is up, your insurance is over, but you are now almost all the way up to the death benefit of the whole life policy anyway. In my opinion, term life insurance is better than whole life for just about everybody. I don't want to be morbid here, but the earlier someone dies, the more benefit they get with term insurance vs whole life.  If someone does have reason to believe that his life expectancy is shorter than average, term insurance makes even more sense, as he is more likely to get the death benefit for much less money in premiums than he would in whole life.


looks like the US tax system needs an overhaul. You cant charge yourself arbitrary amounts to even out your bottom line.  Wel you and I cant, but apparently we just need to make more money to do so....thanks BK for showing me the way!!


I realize you're probably looking for methods on the large scale.  However, I sell a lot of homes to wealth advisers and was always curious about how they consistently pull in business.  The obvious answer is networking, then word of mouth.  Do right by your clients and they'll brag to their equally high networth friends.  One buddy of mine spends a lot of time taking his clients (and their friends) out to dinners, golfing, and mini-vacations.  Surprise, surprise, those friends become clients too.  Rinse and repeat.  Other than that, hang out at high end bars and other places higher networth people in their 30's and 40's would hang out.  Then ABC.


"This is the best tl;dr I could make, [original](https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2017-08-14/dudley-calls-cohn-reasonable-candidate-for-fed-chair-position) reduced by 75%. (I'm a bot) ***** > Federal Reserve Bank of New York President William Dudley took the unusual step of weighing in on who might be the next head of the U.S. central bank, saying that former Goldman Sachs Group Inc. executive Gary Cohn was a &quot;Reasonable candidate&quot; for the job of Fed chief.  > President Donald Trump has singled out Cohn as a leading candidate for the job of Fed chair.  > Unlike Yellen, Cohn does not have a Ph.D. in economics but Dudley said that didn&#039;t disqualify him from getting the Fed job.   ***** [**Extended Summary**](http://np.reddit.com/r/autotldr/comments/6u1ly6/dudley_calls_cohn_reasonable_candidate_for_fed/) | [FAQ](http://np.reddit.com/r/autotldr/comments/31b9fm/faq_autotldr_bot/ ""Version 1.65, ~192017 tl;drs so far."") | [Feedback](http://np.reddit.com/message/compose?to=%23autotldr ""PM's and comments are monitored, constructive feedback is welcome."") | *Top* *keywords*: **Fed**^#1 **Cohn**^#2 **Dudley**^#3 **Bank**^#4 **chair**^#5"


"One trick is to make all purchases end in a particular number of your choosing, say ""3"". From now on, all restaurant meals,gas purchases, and anything in your control, end them in 3. When you glance at the bill, you can skip these charges, and look carefully at the rest. It's not 100%, as you couldn't easily impact supermarket charges and many others, but it's half of my routine charges."


No there is no way to have untaxed earnings.  Single Member LLC are taxed on your personal taxes.  Partnership LLC is taxed on your and your partners personal taxes.  An C-Corp LLC has its own tax bracket.  An S-Corp is taxed on your personal taxes (but does not get taxed as self-employment taxes).   At $500,000, YOU SHOULD BE AN S-CORP or C-CORP to save on self-employment taxes.


Miscellaneous income -- same category used for hobbies.


Another consideration that is not in the hard numbers.  Many people, myself included, find it hard to have the discipline to save for something that is so far off. The 401K plan at work has the benefit of pulling the money out before you see it, so you learn to live on what is left more easily. Also, depending on the type of 401K it attaches penalties to using the money early disincentive you to pull it out for minor emergencies.


Forcing someone to pay for your personal bills is always immoral. If you need help then ask for it, but don't point a gun at someone and just take it.  It is first and foremost your responsibility if you can't afford private insurance.


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"You may have misunderstood some parts of the system. If you make a pension contribution in any given year, the tax relief is based on your income for that year - the gross pension contribution is subtracted from your gross income and you only end up paying tax based on the reduced gross income. So if the higher rate threshold is £40K, you have income for the year of £65K, and you make a gross contribution of £25K, then you'll get tax relief at 40% on the whole contribution, i.e. £10K. If your income for the year is less, e.g. £50K, then you'll get tax relief at 40% on £10K and at 20% on the other £15K, i.e. £7K. So if you're significantly into the higher-rate band, it's usually not worth making a contribution large enough to reduce you to basic-rate tax - better to wait till the next tax year for the rest. Overall, while you probably could do what you suggest subject to the caveats below, why not just spread the pension contribution over the three years, rather than making it all up front? If you are confident you can invest the money at better than the 3.4% interest on the loan, then it might make sense to borrow, but you should be pretty clear that you're deliberately borrowing to invest (otherwise known as investing with leverage). Or you might know that your income is going to drop next year. Another clarification, as your comment on another answer mentions: basic-rate tax relief is claimed directly by your pension provider (""relief at source""), whereas the higher-rate part of the relief comes straight to you via your tax return. So for the above £25K gross contribution example, you'd hand over £20K initially and then get £5K back at the end of the tax year, leaving you with £15K less in your pocket. If you did want to make a £20K net contribution and had enough higher-rate salary to cover it, the gross contribution you'd end up with would be £33,333, and you'd need to find £6,666 more temporarily. Note that there are also limits on the annual contribution you can make of £40K (the ""annual allowance""), but you can carry forward allowances from three previous years so it's very unlikely to be relevant."


"From some background reading I'm doing, it sounds like the union has people by the proverbial balls anyway. Even in an ""agency shop"", where union membership is optional, non members must pay for the collective bargaining done by the union, and ""union shop"" just means that the employer can hire anybody, but they must join the union in order to be employed. All of those seem to indicate that every worker in the represented class must accept the terms of the collective bargaining. [reference](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Communications_Workers_of_America_v._Beck#Background)  Part of the reason that I'm curious is that, once I've decided that I'm done being an engineer, I think it might be fun to teach, but every time I hear about union negotiations, it makes me think that operating in that system would be lame. Going from a world where merit is the primary differentiator to a world where years in the system count for more would kinda suck."


"There are five main drivers to real estate returns: Income (cash flow from rental payments); Depreciation (as an expense that can be used to reduce taxes); Equity (the gradual paydown of the mortgage the increases underlying equity in the property); Appreciation (any increase in the overall value of the property); Leverage (the impact of debt financing on the deal, increasing the effective ""cash-on-cash"" return). (Asset Rover has a detailed walk-through of the components, and a useful comparison to stocks) So interest rates are certainly a component (as they increase the expenses), but they are just one factor. Depending on a particular market's conditions, appreciation or rent increases could offset or (exceed) any increase in the interest expense. My own experience is mostly with non-listed REITs (including Reg A+ investments like the ones from Fundrise) and commercial syndicates, and for right now in both cases there's plenty of capital chasing yield to go around (and in fact competition among new funding sources like Reg D and Reg A+ platforms seems to be driving down borrowing rates as platforms compete both for borrowers and for investors). Personally I pay more attention to where each local market (and the broader national market) is along the ~18-year real estate cycle (spoiler: the last trough was 2008...). Dividend Capital puts out a quarterly report that's super useful."


"If it were a friend of mine, I'd do it without having any real qualms about it.  If it were simply ""someone I knew"", probably not.  Of course, if I trust them them enough to do that, I'd probably just give them the cash and let them pay me back in a day or two.   (I'm imagining a scenario where I'm out with a few friends, for example bar hopping or at an event where most vendors require cash and we're talking an amount less than say $50. Any more than that, and I almost certainly would not agree)."


"While COBRA premiums are not eligible to be a ""business"" expense they can be a medical expense for personal deduction purposes.  If you're itemizing your deductions you may be able to deduct that way.  However, you will only be able to deduct the portion of the premium that exceeds 10% of your AGI. Are you a full time employee now or are you a 1099 contractor?  Do you have access to your employers health plan?"


A lot of poor money management, lack of adaptation to changing times...It's kind of ironic; the boomers were the protesters in the 60's, calling for freedom from the man, an open society, and shaking down the pillars of society, and yet now are the ones who are clinging to the very fabric of society they sought to tear apart.  Stability was anathema to them when they were in their 20's, but now look at them...desperately attempting to get things back to 'the way they were'.


"My gut reaction is how legal is his statement?  *""So where am I going with all this? It's quite simple. If any new taxes are levied on me, or my company, as our current President plans, I will have no choice but to reduce the size of this company... So, when you make your decision to vote, ask yourself, which candidate understands the economics of business ownership and who doesn't? Whose policies will endanger your job? Answer those questions and you should know who might be the one capable of protecting and saving your job.""*  If an employer sent this to me I'd seriously consider that a threat in regards against how I practice my political beliefs.  It undermines my right to educate myself."


If Amazon perfects same day delivery you can bet your bottom dollar that many other businesses will do so shortly thereafter.  Amazon is obviously a very formidable operation, but right now the investment community is treating Bezos like his shit doesn't stink.  Retail has *always* been a brutal economic sector in which dominant players do not last long, so let's not treat the Amazon phenomenon as if it's sui generis.  It wasn't Amazon that cracked the A&P Company.  Incidentally I am growing increasingly impressed with Wal-Mart's online moves.  It's unusual for a dominant corporation to adjust like this to a new competitive threat in a non-traditional sector.


I'm not going to lie, I'm surprised Wal-Mart's online game hasn't evolved faster to put itself more in line with Amazon.. ..as well, pushed a few pf their own implementations Amazon hasn't been able to due tp their lack of a real nox store anchor point.  ...but, Whole Foods and even their own delivery service has a long way to go towards that end vs the quantity of locations, as well the expanse and refinement of Wal-Mart's distribution network.  Wal-Mart *may* die..anything's possible..but I imagine that they'll both end up owning so much of each other that they'll essentially function as a single entity vs disappear entirely.  Even Sears is still around..technically.


I just graduated from college and I am already planning my retirement.   ... in terms of money sitting in my bank account post retirement, assuming Ii have   $250,000 what is the highest interest that I can earn with it?  Assuming you are 22, and will retire in 45 years at age 67. There is no way to predict interest rates. When I was 22 and just out of college I started putting money into a bank account to save for a down payment. The rate for a savings account was 6%. That means that every month I made 1/2 of one percent. Today that same credit union offers a money maker account with a minimum balance of $100,000 that pays 0.25% for the year. What I made in a month would take two years to make today. Keep in mind we also can't estimate your pay in the last year before retirement, or the inflation rate for the next 45 years, or the mortgage rate, or the availability of Social Security, or the returns of the S&P for 45 years. It is great you are starting to think about this today. But you will have to keep adjusting parts of your plan as the years go by: You may have to factor in children, your medical situation...  Even if the interest rates recover you may not want to put all your post retirement money in the bank. Most people can't sustain the required flow of money for their 30 years of retirement from savings accounts.  As for today. FDIC (or similar accounts from credit unions) will not have rates approaching 3%. It can't even approach that 3% rate via multi-year CDs. My credit union has a 6 year CD for almost 2%. If the goal of the money is safety then don't expect to find those high rates now. Some institutions may offer high rates without that FDIC protection, but that is risky.


"Honestly it's hard to take anything you say seriously just based on the prejudice of it all. Experience is experience. You don't need to be a corporate suite to have valuable business experience and share that information. You also don't need to talk like you have a bored shoved up your ass to present a good argument. Sometimes entertainment value adds to the overall message. Honestly, I could careless what WSJ published. I know it's a ""respected business publication"".  Times have changed thanks to the internet. More and more developers are going to realize that they are being used as a tool to make their employers rich."


If real investors are leaving the marketplace, and only gamblers are left, then it is no longer an investment platform.  The market was designed, and allowed by our people & govt, to be an investment platform for effective resource allocation.  A Gambling engine is not an effective resource allocation mechanism.


As I understand it, it was a mark to market loss. Which means that JPM has booked an unrealized loss while some hedge funds have booked unrealized gains. Now over the next few months as JPM tries to unwind he trades, these losses will be realized.


Bankers, home builders, and real estate people made a lot of money selling more houses than they should have.  To sell that many houses, they had to lie and let people without good jobs buy houses that cost too much. Then the jobs went away and the people lost their way of paying for their house.  Now there are still all those houses and still no jobs.  It is called a bubble because it was planned.  It was no accident. Even the part about jobs going away.  The rich people knew what was happening, the jobs began to go away in the early 1970's.  The plan, in part, was to make as much money as they could before too many people lost their jobs.  No jobs means no customers and no more easy money.


I have owned Hondas and have no issues with the reliability, however, all Toyota now come with advanced safety features such as radar cruise control, autobrake, etc., which I believe remain an expensive option on Honda (though I might be mistaken).


Very little, as you expected. The CD locks the rate in, meaning you get the rate for sure. The savings account can change any day, so it could fall below the CD's rate. Chances are small, obviously, but it is theoretically possible. If you pay attention, if this happens, you could simply moving it to a CD then (if it is still offered). People with little understanding that want 'security' might be suckered into buying a CD; or there could be versions offered where all the interest comes on the last day (so you delay taxes).


You won't be able to avoid the $800 fee. CA FTB has a very specific example, which is identical to your situation (except that they use NV instead of AZ), to show that the LLC has liability in California. State of formation is of no matter, you'll just be liable for fees in that state in addition to the CA fees. This is in fact a very common situation (that's why they have this as an example to begin with). See CA FTB 568 booklet. The example is on page 14. I suggest forming the LLC in AZ/CA and registering it as a foreign entity in the other state (AZ if formed in CA, the better option IMHO, or CA if formed in AZ). You'll have tax liability in both the states, AZ taxes can be credited towards the CA taxes. Instead of forming LLC, you can cover your potential liability with sufficient insurance coverage.


Close in September... and reopen under new management, new investors, possibly a new name before the end of the year.  This doesn't mean that there is an unprofitable casino here, just that the initial investors chose a bad investment and are getting out.


What do you think of the argument that corporations shouldn't pay any tax, since investors pay tax on the dividends, and if the corporations paid too, that would be double taxation?  Of course, not all corporate income goes to pay dividends. Much of the rest is deducted as business expense.  Is there some corporate income which should properly be taxed?


This is an interesting read.  I'd be interested in hearing what percentage of people making the high cutoff before, and then going above that after was.  That is, how many low wage workers were converted to higher wage workers, and what affect that had on the resulting statistics.


You don't necessarily change your calculated profit margins and posted prices, but you advertise and offer price matching.  Two out of three consumers may still pay the posted Best Buy price, while the knowledgeable third consumer that did their research will receive the matched price.  Their profit on that third customer will be lower than it was for the other two, but currently they don't get anything from that third customer at all since they just order online.  Meanwhile, now that they're in the store, they may buy a few movies or a power strip.


I've turned down more than that for a job in new york city. I asked them if they were going to lay on a chaffeur or a helicopter for my exclusive use, and when the answer was no, I politely declined.


I started my business about 4 years ago.  I heard bad things about Quickbooks for Mac so I steered clear.  I used an open source program called GnuCash and it does a good job.  It's free and fairly easy to set up.


I have a cleaver plan.  Seriously though instead of U.B.I. pay people to go to school. It might up end the profiteering of the U.S. system but screw those guys .  You pay people to go to school , at least they're doing something and they could if they are motivated use what they are learning to get a job or start a business or become part of the creative life of there communities .


You're worried about your tenant. That just means you're a nice guy, and it's ok to be nice. At the same time, you can't be expected to lose money on the property or charge well below market on the rent. My suggestions: You know what? She'll totally understand. You've been super nice in keeping the rent low for so many years, and she's been a great tenant, too. At a certain point, inflation kicks in and you have to raise the rent. She'll get that. If she can find a cheaper place, that's a win for both of you. Help her move if you want to be extra nice. Then decide if you want to sell the place or raise the rent. Either option is fine. Listen to your wife. That's just general advice.


Starve the beast in practical terms means end government. That is really the goal of the right establishment. Without government, there will be no force to regulate or even prosecute the companies and individuals who fund republican elections. That is the endgame.


Even better, where does the money come from to pay the penalty? Increased prices for LCD screens. Fining a company just increases its cost of doing business, usually slightly. Send a few executives to jail, rescind the incorporation for even one major company, and this kind of stuff would stop. Fine them, and everyone will just keep doing it.


"Pump-and-Dump strategy is happening everywhere. Less so in developed market. I can tell an experience from Emerging Market perspective. Usually several securities brokers work together to pump several ""penny"" stocks (5 - 7 stocks). They conspire together and searching for several investors, who have money and willing to participate in this scheme. These investors will then agree to invest (usually with Margin from securities) to start pumping the stocks. The stocks will be pumped until several Research Analysts take interest in it. Once the news were spread out regarding these highly speculative stocks. The investors gradually dumps the stocks (with help of their brokers). The things that you need to keep an eye for: - Low trading volume in the previous 3 - 6 months (relative to their peers) - Low P/E ratio with unremarkable earning growth - No positive catalyst or material news regarding the company - Stocks have high momentum (observe on weekly rather daily returns) Pump-and-dump usually last between 3 months to 6 months."


"I really think the government should have a few 'elite' groups inside of each of their big divisions filled with mathematicians, statisticians, computer scientists, and experts in the fields.   I'm thinking a group pursuing medicare fraud, a group pursuing SEC violations, a group pursuing DOD embezzling, etc.  It's not like these criminals are especially competent, they just rely on staying under the radar.   Hiring a team of 50 or 100 or whatever top notch analysts and then giving them a cut of the fraud they've exposed would go a long way toward attracting top talent in a way that is politically defensible. The SEC doesn't work because being an SEC lawyer pays about a twentieth of what being a lawyer for a hedge fund does. Imagine that same SEC lawyer getting 1% or 5% of the settlements / penalties that are levied against fraudulent companies. You could still become ""fuck you"" rich while working for the government and the US would be a lot better off."


Stock is ownership. And whether the thing you own is a good or service irrelevant. The ownership itself is all that matters. Ownership = service ??? Ownership = good ??? Maybe the problem is your trying to fit a verb into a noun-based categories?


Absolutely, it can. Just look at Vancouver and how Chinese millionaires made the housing market virtually unaffordable to the average citizen. Vancouver passed a new taxation law and now these immigrants are migrating down to Washington doing the same thing: http://q13fox.com/2017/05/10/more-chinese-investors-buying-up-puget-sound-affecting-housing-market-as-a-whole/


What's wrong with WIX? I've heard some good and bad about it. I signed up for it because it's cheap concerning how I didn't know how well this would even do at all. I was going to move to Shopify if I got bigger and had more funds to start.  For the last response, how would I research how competitive the market is for organic search? Again, I'm such a noob and am starting from little knowledge, please bear with me here. Haha.


The NPS is launched by The Government of India with a lot of hope. But it has not been taken off as it was expected due to some reasons. Though PFRDA is working for the betterment of the product, still there are disadvantages of the product, which I feel are: 1. The liquidity is an issue for NPS. If you are 30 years age and started investing for NPS you need to wait for another 30 years for withdrawal of money. 2. Though there is option of partial withdrawal, it's not so easy during requirement. 3. You need to invest in a government approved annuity fund which is mandatory. 4. The 20% of the maturity amount is still taxable if you withdraw it lump sum. So, you should not invest in NPS only for the tax saving purpose.


> Article 1 Section 9 doesn't have a clause 8. Article 1 covers the legislative branch.  Not saying I think gindc is right here, seems to just be trolling around, but that is definitely a real thing.   https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Title_of_Nobility_Clause  Full text:  https://www.gpo.gov/fdsys/pkg/CDOC-110hdoc50/pdf/CDOC-110hdoc50.pdf


"—they will pull your credit report and perform a ""hard inquiry"" on your file. This means the inquiry will be noted in your credit report and count against you, slightly. This is perfectly normal. Just don't apply too many times too soon or it can begin to add up. They will want proof of your income by asking for recent pay stubs. With this information, your income and your credit profile, they will determine the maximum amount of credit they will lend you and at what interest rate. The better your credit profile, the more money they can lend and the lower the rate.  —that you want financed (the price of the car minus your down payment) that is the amount you can apply for and in that case the only factors they will determine are 1) whether or not you will be approved and 2) at what interest rate you will be approved. While interest rates generally follow the direction of the prime rate as dictated by the federal reserve, there are market fluctuations and variances from one lending institution to the next. Further, different institutions will have different criteria in terms of the amount of credit they deem you worthy of.  —you know the price of the car. Now determine how much you want to put down and take the difference to a bank or credit union. Or, work directly with the dealer. Dealers often give special deals if you finance through them. A common scenario is: 1) A person goes to the car dealer 2) test drives 3) negotiates the purchase price 4) the salesman works the numbers to determine your monthly payment through their own bank. Pay attention during that last process. This is also where they can gain leverage in the deal and make money through the interest rate by offering longer loan terms to maximize their returns on your loan. It's not necessarily a bad thing, it's just how they have to make their money in the deal. It's good to know so you can form your own analysis of the deal and make sure they don't completely bankrupt you.  —is that you can comfortable afford your monthly payment. The car dealers don't really know how much you can afford. They will try to determine to the best they can but only you really know. Don't take more than you can afford. be conservative about it. For example: Think you can only afford $300 a month? Budget it even lower and make yourself only afford $225 a month."


>Entrepreneurs that like to invent will simply do it elsewhere.  Bullshit. Entrepreneurs start businesses where it's easiest for start businesses, and if all of their networking contacts are here, the infrastructure they need to start their company is here, and the target market is here, they aren't going anywhere. Besides, the top marginal tax rate is the last thing on the minds of talented entrepreneurs. They are far too worried about the day-in day-out running of their business to spend their time day-dreaming of how to hide away all of their money once they become rich.   >Expecting people's behaviors to NOT change when diminishing their rewards is ignoring the facts.  That statement displays a tremendous ignorance of human psychology. If this statement were true, no one would ever stay in a shitty relationship, no one would be addicted to drugs, and no one would watch The Office anymore. Human beings are creatures of habit, and breaking those habits is exceptionally difficult, no matter how much the rewards may diminish.


You make some very valid points.  However, does the state spend the money because they are incompetent; or, because that is how the state is structured to be?  If the latter; then, by whom?    Why do you think we start wars that a five year old could even understand is a sham?  Why do we have overcrowded prisons?    Follow the money.... Remember, the rich stay rich not because of their morals, ethics, or good behavior.


It is worth noting first that Real Estate is by no means passive income.  The amount of effort and cost involved (maintenance, legal, advertising, insurance, finding the properties, ect.) can be staggering and require a good amount of specialized knowledge to do well. The amount you would have to pay a management company to do the work for you especially with only a few properties can wipe out much of the income while you keep the risk. However, keshlam's answer still applies pretty well in this case but with a lot more variability.  One million dollars worth of property should get you there on average less if you do much of the work yourself.  However, real estate because it is so local and done in ~100k chunks is a lot more variable than passive stocks and bonds, for instance, as you can get really lucky or really unlucky with location, the local economy, natural disasters, tenants... Taking out loans to get you to the million worth of property faster but can add a lot more risk to the process.   Including the risk you wouldn't have any money on retirement.  Investing in Real Estate can be a faster way to retirement than some, but it is more risky than many and definitely not passive.


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Thank you for stating this point.  Food prices in the U.S. are stable and reasonable.  The economic downfall was not tied to agriculture.  Why would we mess with something that is functional right as we are starting to show signs of a healthy economy again.  Now I am not supporting Monsanto but with the current state of the economy we shouldn't mess to much with things that are working.


Since your child is 2, he has a long time horizon for investment.  Assuming the savings will be used at age 19, that's 17 years.  So, I think your best bet is to invest primarily in equities (i.e. stock-based funds) and inside an RESP. Why equities?  Historically, equities have outperformed debt and cash over longer time periods.  But, equities can be volatile in the short term. So, do purchase some fixed-income investments (e.g. 30% government bonds and money market funds), and do also spread your equity money around as well -- e.g. buy some international funds in addition to Canadian funds.  Rebalance every year, and as your child gets closer to university age, start shifting some assets out of equities and into fixed-income, to reduce risk.  You don't want the portfolio torpedoed by an economic crisis the year before the money is required! Next, why inside an RESP? Finally... what if your kid doesn't attend post-secondary education?  First, you should probably get a Family RESP, not a Group RESP.  Group RESPs have strict rules and may forfeit contributions if your kid doesn't attend.  Have a look at Choosing the Right RESP and Canadian Capitalist's post The Pros and Cons of Group RESP Plans. In a Family plan, if none of your kids end up attending post-secondary education, then you forfeit the government match money -- the feds get it back through a 20% surtax on withdrawals.  But,  you'll have the option of rolling over remaining funds into your RRSP, if you have room.


Scanned or electronic copies of invoices should be sufficient as long as they are accurate and you can deliver them during an audit. Also, if you have an accountant prepare your taxes you would either need to provide them a copy of the invoices or a summary of them with the corresponding amounts to be claimed. Personally I prefer to print out a paper copy and file that away with that quarter's and year's other tax documents. I do my own taxes and find paper copies handy as I can go through each invoice/receipt and make sure I have entered its information by ticking it. I find that when handling a large number of documents that paper copies are more easy to handle than electronic ones. In the end you will need to use a system that you feel comfortable with and are able to use effectively.


First of all, you need to tell Paypal people that you've changed your country of residence & your tax residency no longer is India. Then they'll tell you to create a new paypal account & get it verified. And then you can transfer the older paypal account money to that new paypal account & tell them to close the older paypal account. Then use remittance services to transfer to NRE. That's the legal process as far as I know, because Paypal would want to keep its records updated, or else it'd be against its Anti Money Laundering policy.


Because they often say one thing with another in mind. For instance less people under the tax bracket is bad for the state. But making people think they are getting a raise while only putting more people in a taxable bracket and not actually putting anything in their pockets. It is a scam. But the poor eat it up and still end up being poor. But they think they got a raise so they vote for more policies that increase the states income and tithes.


"While I agree with Ben a lot I feel like his answer is really poor here. You do not call a number to give your credit card information out for a refund.  That is ridiculous.  Just from his answer - he has had 5 cases of fraud lately - you should know that you shouldn't follow this advice. I personally don't ever give my credit card number over the phone, unless it is the very very very last resort.  It is not just about money and safety but it is about time.  Every time that you give your number out over the phone there is a chance that the employee on the other end (by either scam or legitimate business) will use or sell your info.  So you need to determine if the time saved by doing a transaction over the phone is worth hours/days of your time if your card has a fraud issue.  And note that fraud sometimes is easily negated, but if done smartly can be hard to prove via a quick call or email to card company. What should you do? Tell company that you will simply get the refund through your credit card company. And if we go back to time element...  You fill out form on card website.  Card company goes back to vendor and says - ""Why are you asking for card numbers via email?""  Card company either cancels vendor contract or more likely helps them understand the technology available so they don't have to do this.  Therefore that quick form that you filled out will now keep this company from bugging you again.  By going through their archaic ""systems"" you are enabling their behavior."


i have experienced other countries, among them have been 20 plus countries in europe, 10 ish countries in asia and a few countries in middle east - and there were downsides to these especially kind of old world europe that was not built to be comfortable for moderm life the way us / new cities in asia like singapore are


As JB hints, it is likely due to superior or improving, fundamentals. If the fundamentals of a company improve then its ability to repay loans improves. If its ability to repay improves then more sources of cash become willing to lend to the company. Also if fundamentals are improving then more sources are willing to buy and/or hold the stock.


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@OP:  It's all about risk.  With a cash buyer the decision is left up to one person.  With a financed buyer it adds another approval process (the lender).  It's another opportunity for the deal to fall through.  If the bank is the lender then there's even more risk.  They've already taken back the property once and incurred cost and they're setting themselves up to do it all over again.  The discount price can depend on a lot of factors.  Maybe it's a bad area and they need to get rid of it.  Maybe the appraisals for the area are low because of foreclosures and they know it will be hard for a Buyer to get a loan.  Lots of reasons as to what price they'd take. @Shawn:  Every deal has contingencies unless it's a foreclosure bought at auction.  Even if you are getting a steal from the bank in terms of price you're always going to have an inspection period.  If a Buyer doesn't need an inspection then he will just go to an auction and buy a property for an even cheaper price.


Wow, 5 states let you replace university degrees with something even more impossible to get, that means  YOU DONT NEED A DEGREE ANYWHERE! Oh wait, most of the time you need a fucking degree, nationwide. 90% only accept a degree. Can you take the bar exam in 90% of the states with no degree?


You could get a prepaid Visa card. You don't need a bank account and at least here in Australia you just buy them over the counter at the post office. I believe the U.K. has a similar card: Travel Money Card Plus from the Post Office.  The card requires a UK passport or driving license. Other European countries may have similar prepaid cards but may also require resident status and electronic identity / credit inquiry.


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The company says it's out of their control - it isn't. All they have to do is to INSTRUCT HSBC to send a certain amount of GBP, and then HSBC MUST send GBP.  Obviously the bank doesn't like that because they make money through the conversion. That's not your problem. When told to send GBP, they must send GBP.  Depending on what your relationship with that company is, you lost money because they didn't send the GBP. At the very least, they sent you four percent less in Euros than they should have sent you. So send them a bill for the difference. It's unfortunate that your bank charged for the conversion Euro to GBP, but fact is that less than the agreed amount arrived at your bank, and that's the responsibility of the sender.


I came to US as an international student several years ago, and I have also experienced the same situation like most of the international students in finding ways to build credit history. Below I list out some possible approaches you may want to consider: I. Get a student job at campus (recommended) I think the best way is to get a student job in university, say a teaching assistant or student helper. In this case, you can be provided with a social security number and start to build your own credit history. II. Get credit card You can also consider to apply for a credit card. There are indeed some financial institutions that can provide credit cards for international students with no or limited credit scores requirement, say Discover and Bank of America. However, it is relatively hard to get approved, simply because hey may put more restriction in other aspects. For example, you may be required to keep sufficient bank balance above several thousand dollars during a period of time, or you should prove that you have relatives with citizenship in US who can provide your financial aid if needed. III. Apply for a loan (recommended) Getting a loan product is another alternative to get out of this difficult situation, but most of people don’t realize that. There are some FinTech start-ups in United States that specifically focus on international students’ loan financing. One representative example is Westbon (Westbon ), an online lending company that specializes in providing car loan for international students with no SSN or credit history. I once used their loan product to finance a Honda Accord, and Westbon reported my loan transaction records to US credit bureau during my repayment process. Later when I officially got my SSN number, I found my credit history has been automatically synchronized and I don’t have to start from all over again. It never be an easy journey for international students to build credit history in United States. What approach you should make really depends on you own situation. I hope the information above can be useful and good luck for your credit journey!


Make sure your English is as fluent as you can, and learn more about western cultures so you can talk about peoples home countries with them. You don't need to be an expert but just enough to get a conversation started and get people talking. A random discussion about an old American TV show called Stargate SG1 on a overnight train in Thailand resulted in the waitress selling me a lot more coffee than she would have done otherwise.


When you look at the charts in Google Finance, they put the news on the right hand side. The time stamp for each news item is indicated with a letter in the chart. This often shows what news the market is reacting to. In your example:  Clicking on the letter F leads to this Reuters story: http://www.reuters.com/article/2011/02/04/usa-housing-s-idUSWAT01486120110204


"Partly I suspect this is selection bias. You say you see so many luxury cars go by. But if you're looking for them, you're going to notice them. Have you calculated the actual percentage? Do they make up 50% of the cars that pass a specific point in a specific period of time? Or just 10% if you really counted? You say you live in Baltimore county, Maryland. That's a relatively wealthy area, so I'd expect the percentage of luxury cars to be higher than the national average. You'd likely see considerably fewer in the backwoods of Mississippi. That said, some people who own luxury cars can't really afford them. I'm reminded of a wonderful TV commercial I saw recently where a man is showing off all his material goods, he talks about his big house, and his swimming pool, and his fancy car, with a big smile on his face, standing tall, and generally looking proud and happy. And then he says, ""How do I do it?"" And suddenly his expression changes to complete despair, he slumps down, and says, ""I'm in debt up to my eyeballs."" It turns out to be a commercial for a debt-counseling service. Some people put very high value on owning a fancy car and are willing to sacrifice on other things. If having a big fancy car is more important to you then, say, having a nice house or the latest computer or a big screen TV or dining out more often or going on more expensive vacations or whatever you have to give up to get the car, well, that's your decision. Personally I don't care much about a fancy car, I just want something that gets me where I want to go. And I've always figured that with an expensive car, you have to constantly worry about getting in an accident and damaging or destroying it. If you put your money into a big fancy house, at least houses rarely collide with each other. Personally, I make a nice income too. And I have a $500/month mortgage and zero car payment because I drive a 2003 pickup that I bought with cash. But I have two kids in college and I'm trying to get them through with no debt, that's where all my money is going."


The reason your 401k match is always counted as pre-tax whether you are contributing to a traditional 401k or a Roth is that the money is contributed by the employer and is not counted as income, and that contribution is not taxed as income. Should you wish to pay taxes on it and convert it to a Roth, you can do that, though perhaps not until you change jobs.


If you are one of those who react to aging like this, you are lucky. Others who sigh heavily at the mention of aging can turn towards skin tightening procedure in Noida. The procedure uses laser technology that tightens the sagging skin and triggers the production of collagen in the skin.


Auto-correlation is a statistical concept for measuring repeating patterns in series.  In stocks it is of particular interest as if future prices can be reliably guessed from past prices a lot of money could be made.   Note, even in cases where auto-correlations are high and persistent (near 1) there is still some possibility that the next time period would be down even if the previous period was up.  Now the important part here is that high and persistent auto-correlation also means once the price falls the next period the price is also more likely to fall! Once one period was down the next period is more likely to be down so the price does not need to go to infinity.  Instead, it generally would display up and down trends. Now, the key word above for investing is persistence. For stocks, auto-correlations are, at best, weakly persistent at reasonable time scales.  So, even if a stock was highly auto-correlated during a previous period it is tough to make consistent money off of trading on these past trending patterns.  This does not mean some people don't try...


If you held the shares directly, the transfer agent, Computershare, should have had you registered and your address from some point on file.  I have some experience with Computershare, it turned out when Qwest restarted dividends and the checks mailed to the childhood home my parents no longer owned, they were able to reissue all to my new address with one telephone call.  I can't tell you what their international transfer policies or fees might be, but if they have your money, at least its found. Transfer Agent Computershare Investor Services serves as the stock transfer agent for Tellabs. If you need to transfer stock, change ownership, report lost or stolen certificates, or change your address, please contact Computershare Investor Services at +1.312.360.5389.


In your mind, what do you think the stimulus was? Obama throwing money out of a helicopter over an inner-city housing project? I'm tired of this stupid notion that those who were hurt the most by the recession somehow caused the recession.


Stating poor estimates in advance will lower your share price to compensate for thge extras boost it gets later ... And may run afoul of stock manipulation laws. More pain than gain likely.


To a point.  There is also increasing prices to make their toys a premium product.  Part of it is paying for many if not most of the sets to be tied to licenses, another part is more complicated sets as they became a premium brand.    But as they became a premium brand, they began losing the lower end of the market.  I buy lego, but at toys for tots time I donate megablocks.


I am a believer in stocks for the long term, I sat on the S&P right though the last crash, and am 15% below the high before the crash.  For individual stocks, you need to look more closely, and often ask yourself about its valuation. The trick is to buy right and not be afraid to sell when the stock appears to be too high for the underlying fundamentals. Before the dotcom bubble I bought Motorola at $40. Sold some at $80, $100, and out at $120. Coworkers who bought in were laughing as it went to $160. But soon after, the high tech bubble burst, and my sales at $100 looked good in hindsight. The stock you are looking at - would you buy more at today's price? If not, it may be time to sell at least some of that position.


Not sure how this is a clear case of Quid pro Qou. In the U.S., the majority of oil production actually benefits greatly from higher prices due to the fact that it uses fracturing technology which is higher cost. The fact that Qatar is increasing oil hurts the United States much more than it hurts the Saudi's. Their cost of production is significantly lower than ours.


That's cute. What's the gdp of those two regions? Exports is a subset of business, not the only measuring stick. Who are you, Donald Trump?  And why the fuck did you make this a racial thing? The mods should absolutely take this post down.


You need to look at all your investment as a whole. The 401K, IRA, and any taxable account need to be a part of the diversification and re-balancing. The fact you have regular deposits into the 401K needs to also be a part of your strategy.  Regardless of how much specific investments have gone up this year, you need to first determine how you want to be invested in large cap stock, small cap stock, bond, international, emerging markets... Then you need to see where you are today compared to those investment percentages. You then move the money in the retirement accounts to get to your desired percentage. And set the 401K deposits to be consistent with your goals. Many times the deposits are allocated the same way the balances are, but that is more complex if one of the sectors you are investing in exists completely outside the 401K.  When you re-balance in the future you will be selling sectors that grew the most and buying those that grew the least compared to their planned percentages. If all the moves are within the 401K and IRA then capital gains are not a concern. Don't think of the different accounts as separate baskets, but think of them as a whole investment strategy.


DRM is not to blame. The publishers should have come together and built their own store (with or without DRM). Hulu is a good example of content creators/publishers working together to publish their content online. I admit that the only shows I download now are House (since it is release a week later) and NCIS (because CBS' video player sucks). Everything else I watch on Hulu.  As a customer I applaud Amazon (and iTunes, in the case of music) for making the decision easier for me and others. Yes, I may be giving up the freedom to switch to another vendor; but, I have yet to find another vendor worth buying from so this really is a non-issue.  Amazon, Apple, and Hulu do one thing very well: focus on the customer experience. The print publishers would be wise to learn from them and build their own store if they are so worried about profits. However, they too will use DRM.


Ethically, you and your landlord should always report both income and expense as there technically exists a service and a rent. So it is subject to taxation. On the other hand, it can be considered an exchange of a simple favour and if it doesn't involve a money exchange or any profits (I am assuming that you are not selling what you or your landlord produce on the market) no value can be calculated thus no taxation can be applied. This changes though if a contract is involved, as a legal value can be estimated. Caution: These subjects can vary on an extreme level of specificity, of what can and cannot be claimed as income and expense, which can vary per country, state, province and even per judge, as well as the nature and sector of the work. Also, if you intend to formalize this relationship, the type of contract and reporting forms do vary per state as well. So it might be best to confirm it with a local legal advisor to avoid unfortunate surprises.


This has been a problem for sometime. The lobbies for the metals used in the minting process, specifically Zinc, have been successful time and time again in keeping it off the radar. And when law makers go to Washington, they're much more interested in something more high profile than a bill to discontinue the penny.  Also, the upside is only saving small amounts of money over time, which doesn't interest them either, versus a debate over nostalgia. And if you want evidence of how visceral the public can muster over something completely inconsequential go ask Neil DeGrasse Tyson how well downgrading Pluto went.


What do you offer?  PM me your resume.   Edit: Don't care about $500, I know places hiring in Minneapolis so happy to pass along info if you meet any qualifications for open roles. Need more info to go off though.


You should never invest in a stock just for the dividend. Dividends are not guaranteed. I have seen some companies that are paying close to 10% dividends but are losing money and have to borrow funds just to maintain the dividends. How long can these companies continue paying dividends at this rate or at all. Would you keep investing in a stock paying 10% dividends per year where the share price is falling 20% per year? I know I wouldn't. Some high dividend paying stocks also tend to grow a lot slower than lower or non dividend paying stocks. You should look at the total return - both dividend yield and capital return combined to make a better decision. You should also never stay in a stock which is falling drastically just because it pays a dividend. I would never stay in a stock that falls 20%, 30%, 50% or more just because I am getting a 5% dividend. Regarding taxation, some countries may have special taxation rules when it comes to dividends just like they may have special taxation rules for longer term capital gains compared to shorter term capital gains. Again no one should use taxation as the main purpose to make an investment decision. You should factor taxation into your decision but it should never be the determining factor of your decisions. No one has ever become poor in making a gain and paying some tax, but many people have lost a great portion of their capital by not selling a stock when it has lost 50% or more of its value.


It doesn't really make sense to cure indebtedness with more debt.  This is why your friend is having trouble finding someone to loan him money.  If he can't borrow at a lower rate then he should probably focus on paying down some of his debt.


This is really what excites me, how about we pick some one out of the rest of the 99% of America. . .we have had such a long line of 1% . . of course AIPAC will not be happy and your Master Nathanyahoo will be most disappointed.


To your secondary question: Appropriately consider all estimated numbers involved with keeping the house compared to your closest estimate of what the home could sell for. Weigh out the pros and cons yourself as a stranger will not be able to 100% appreciate what you value and dislike.  Remember to include insurances, taxes, HOA(s), and the actual mortgage payment. Depending on how you also plan to rent out the property, include whichever utilities you intend to cover (if any).  There will also be costs for property management and upkeep as things will break overtime and tenants will not hesitate to get you (or your management) to fix them, either way that means you are paying. I would also keep in mind while homes typically appreciate in value there is a higher risk with tenants for the value to depreciate to damages and poor upkeep.  There are increased legal risks to renting, so be sure you have properly vetted whichever management you are going with.  In extreme circumstances you also could be required to retain an attorney to defend yourself again litigation because whichever management team you hire will most likely defend themselves and not include you in that umbrella.  My family lives in the LA area as well and a judge refused to throw out an obvious frivolous suit when my parents attempted to rent out a house.  The possible renters after signing the main paperwork never showed to finish a second set of documents for renting.  Parents immediately declined to rent to these people as they missed something so important without any explanation and they sued claiming racism, emotional damages, and some other really crazy things despite my parents never having met them (first meeting was between property management and renters only). Personally and professionally, I would only suggest renting our the place and not selling if you can turn a profit after all the above mentioned costs. If renters are only paying to keep the property in the black you have yourself a non-earning asset which WILL be damaged over time and require repairs which will come out of your pocket.  Also, while the property is unoccupied you also must remember it is not earning at that time. Much of this may sound obvious, overcautious, etc... I simply wish to provide my family's experience to help you in making your decisions.   Best of luck with your endeavor. Edit:  Also, you will be required to report all earned rental income on your taxes. They will fall under the Schedule E and possibly K-1 area.  I would strongly recommend consulting with an actual accountant about the impacts to you.


Shareholder's Equity consists of two main things: The initial capitalization of the company (when the shares were first sold, plus extra share issues) and retained earnings, which is the amount of money the company has made over and above capitalization, which has not been re-distributed back to shareholders. So yes, it is the firm's total equity financing-- the initial capitalization is the equity that was put into the company when it was founded plus subsequent increases in equity due to share issues, and retained earnings is the increase in equity that has occurred since then which has not yet been re-distributed to shareholders (though it belongs to them, as the residual claimants). Both accounts are credited when they increase, because they represent an increase in cash, that is debited, so in order to make credits = debits they must be credits. (It doesn't mean that the company has that much cash on hand, as the cash will likely be re-invested). Shareholder's Equity is neither an asset nor a liability: it is used to purchase assets and to reduce liabilities, and is simply a measure of assets minus liabilities that is necessary to make the accounting equation balance: Since the book value of stocks doesn't change that often (because it represents the price the company sold it for, not the current value on the stock market, and would therefore only change when there were new share issues), almost all changes in total assets or in total liabilities are reflected in Retained Earnings.


Dealhoud, You are on the right path but this is actually an Equivalent annual cost problem. You have to take it a step further and divide the NPV by the Annuity factor.  You need to calculate the annuity factor and divide the investment by that amount.    Annuity Factor = (1-(1/(1+r)^n )) /r   We know the annual cost of the the current forklift = $5K. We need to figure out the Equivalent annual cost of the new forklift.  Investment / Annuity Factor + annual Cost = EAC.   Therefore $20K / (1 - (1/(1.04^10 )) / 0.04 = $2,465.82 + annual Maintenance = $4,465.82 therefore it makes sense to replace the old machine.


Industry’s best Conveyancing solicitors working at this company are known for offering a full range of property services. They will help you acquire off the plan purchases; strata title properties, house and land packages, community title, company title units, etc.


"Due to the issues in the Eurozone, many foreign investors were buying Swiss Francs as a hedge against a Euro devaluation. They were in effect treating the Franc like gold, silver or some other commodity with perceived intrinsic value. This causes huge problems from the Swiss, as the value of the Franc increased and their exports became more expensive for foreigners to purchase. Things were getting bad enough that the Swiss in some places were travelling to Germany to buy groceries! To enforce this ""fixing"" of the Franc, the Swiss Central Bank announced that they would buy foreign currency in unlimited quantities by printing Francs. In reality, just announcing that they were going to do this was sufficient to discourage foreign investors from loading up on Francs. NPR's Planet Money did a really good job covering this topic:"


I'm very familiar with it. Journalism is even worse than that. Infinitely worse. The reproducibility problem in academia is only known because publishing a scholarly article requires detailed description of methods. Lack of reproducibility is the reason for publishing methods, not a counter argument.


"Oh the classic ""much human nature"" argument which ignored capitalism had existed for less than tree centuries as and there are still several tribes where people hunt and share their hunt without even telling who hunted the animal or where.people eat whatever they hunted after everybody else has eaten first  But people are naturally selfish, surely it's not cultural or due to an economic system"


The problem with short options is they expire and have to be covered. An inverse ETF is the way to go in my opinion. Because the real issue isn't if the market is overvalued but when will it correct. That's the risk and no one knows that answer


"I'll repeat, do you have an actual argument to contribute or just going to keep derailing?   Putting the onus onto me to disprove my own argument, that's really reaching..the bigger question is why are you unable to disprove me yourself? It should be ""pretty easy"" for a true skeptic, but impossible for a believer. Which are you?   You're the one trying to invalidate my argument but you have yet to give a reason why.   So far none of your replies have even mentioned the website which makes me think you aren't even here to talk about it.   Either give me an actual argument against my claim, or expose yourself as having zero integrity when confronted with facts you don't like."


You could have googled this question.  I did so and found a link to this article. YMMV taking investment advice from thestreet.com is very likely to lose you money.  However, there do not seem to be any sector funds that specifically focus on the electric vehicle market. Along similar, but not exactly the same lines, there are sector funds that focus on renewable energy.  This article reviews some of them.


UtR had legal permits to have a rally. Antifa showed up with the intentions of causing a huge disruption. The police and mayor have a role in this fabricated counter rally also. There were no American flags, so I highly doubt the people there were the true representatives of the Trump movement. But the media will use it anyway to make us look bad, even when 99% of real supporters do not advocate hate, racism and bigotry.  Where is all the outrage when Antifa, BLM or islamic extremists harm people? Is it silenced by the media because it doesnt perfectly frame the lefts narrative, like what happened recently?   Trump disavowed all violence. It truly doesnt matter because whatever he said, it was going to be used against him. Obama never disavowed BLM for their henious actions. Its what politicians do, I guess.


"From what I understand, it involves a lot of screen capping facebook conversations and posting them to /r/atheism for a bountiful harvest of bitter karma points. :P  In reality, it would be more of the everyday things they *don't* do. No ""God bless you"" when someone sneezes. No ""I'll pray for you"" when a negative event happens. The occasional atheist may rant IRL about how ""God is a magic friend"" or however that goes.  Basically, acting from a belief that there is no god."


"Funny, all the stats say the opposite and that the majority of CEOs and the too earners are gaining more and more and the rest of people aren't making anymore or are actually making less. There is plenty of money to go around and this whole ""poor CEOs and small business owners"" bullshit is a dismissive argument by conservatives to distract from the falling wages and widening economic gap statistics. If a company is making little to no profit, how about they quit blaming their minimum wage workers and find a better business model."


Ah - sadly I have no money. Mostly just curious after watching The Big Short last week haha.   I find that line of insight interesting though.  I've been seeing a lot of mall closures in Canada as anchor tenants like sears leave though. Kind of makes me wonder whether franchisees will start closing stores like footlocker and food court restaurants since they operate on such small margins, and the leases usually seem to be written around the presence of foot traffic generating anchor tenants.


If the work is unnecessary, the jobs were made obsolete.  The only thing that's changed is we're paying less to create the same product.  The worker's former compensation doesn't disappear into the ether, it's re-allocated to the new players  (electric company, robotics manufacturer, mechanic, etc.); a person being fired is only half the story.  Blaming Amazon for becoming more efficient by being an early adopter of new technology and business practices seems like misplaced aggression


How am I changing the subject, I clearly stated it was hard to police and it is, again, Paris has 55,000 listings, it's also illegal there... Please show even a shred of evidence that cities code, laws, etc have stopped people from doing it.


"My broker (thinkorswim) offers this from the platform's trade tab.  I believe this feature isn't crippled in the PaperMoney version which is effectively a ""free online service."""


Depends on your credit score. If you came from foreign country, you might not be having enough Credit Score.  In that case, you have to go for Prepaid Credit Card offered by Banks. For prepaid credit card,you have to deposit certain amount of money which will act as your credit line.


I'm not going to speculate on the nature of your relationship with your wife, but the fact that you are worried about what would happen in the event of a divorce is a bit concerning.  Presumably you married her with the intent of staying together forever, so what's the big deal if you spend 50k upgrading the house you live in, assuming you won't get divorced? Now, if you really are worried about something happening in the future, you might want to seek legal advice about the content of the prenup.  I am guessing if the 400k were your assets before marriage, you have full claim to that amount in the event of a divorce*.  If you document the loan, or make some agreement, I would think you would have claim to at least some of the house's appreciation due to the renovations if they were made with your money*. *obligatgory IANAL


Where did you see both of these scores?  How far apart did you see both of these scores?  What has changed between this time?   How old are you? (an estimate is fine) ___  Go to Credit Karma and find out if something new is happening


"Fund a way to make mistakes with someone else's money.  It is the best business advice I got as a young person. You learn so much more by failure and f'up than you do by success and if you do it with others money then it doesn't really hurt you.   The other thing I wish I had understood earlier was basic book keeping and financial analysis. At 33 I'm just now figuring out basic thinga like how a P&L and Balance sheet work together and how to do a cash forecast.   As my mentor said: ""Double entry accounting has been used in business since Jesus.  There's a reason. """


> We have capable people here who get laid off because of this program.  That is just plain wrong. Do you work in staffing or HR or have actual knowledge of this? Have you ever asked managers why they hire H1B's?