"I buy a lot of lumber in Japan. I grew up in the US, so I used feet and inches and Home Depot lumber for a long time. It is not illegal, it is just fucking stupid that we will buy wood when we are unsure of the dimensions, and Home Depot doesn't label what it *actually* is.   I really really like system here in Japan. They have a mix of traditional, metric, and imperial size lumber, but it is easy to use it all. The key is that everything is converted to millimeters and displayed on the signage in-store.   The other key point is that the wood actually matches that mm dimension. A pack of 30x40x3995mm wood is exactly those dimensions.    They have a lot of 2x4 lumber with imperial labels, (feet marked in ""f""), but it is also marked in millimeters - so a standard 2x4 6f plank is 41x92x1820mm. There is no question as to the exact dimensions of the boards.   I buy metric 90x90mm lumber, which is roughly the size of a 4x4 (92x92mm), and 6尺 roofing panels (1 *shaku* is 303mm and is very close to 1 foot), so since everything is reduced to millimeters, it is easy to buy and cut the lumber to exact dimensions without worrying about how they will actually fit together - something that is a horrible pain in the ass with US lumber."


I don't know if it's legal but your talking about arbitraging the rates between a personal savings account and a business account. I also don't know those rates but will venture to guess that they are not materially different, after taking into account the cost of setting up and registering an LLC, for it to be worth the time and effort.


Why should healthy people be required to subsidize the sick?  A single, healthy, working young man or woman needs catastrophic coverage only.  They don't need: pregnancy, mental health, substance abuse, child coverage, mammograms, and all the other bullshit that Obamacare policies mandate, which needlessly increase the cost.  >That's Republicans for you. They obstruct and sabotage the system and then blame everyone else when the system doesn't work.  Why are you pointing blame on Republicans?  The death spiral started while Obama was in office.


"I am not sure about transferwise and how they work, but generally when I had to transfer money across countries, I ended up using a foreign currency/transfer company who needed the destination account details i.e. a GBP account in the UK in your case, and money from the source account. Basically that means your father would need to open an EUR account, probably in an EU country (is this an option?) but may be in the UK is fine too depending on transfer fees. And a GBP account in the UK, perhaps see if there is a better business account than HSBC around, I have used them as well as Santander before. The only FX transaction done in this straightforward set up is the one performed by the specialised company (there are a few) - and their spread (difference between interbank i.e. ""official"" and your price) is likely to be around 1.0 - 1.5%. The other expenses are transfer fees to the FX company account, say a flat fee of $25 for the SWIFT payment. The full amount less the spread above then goes to your UK GBP account. There are still the running costs of both EUR and GBP accounts of course, but here the advice would be just to shop around for offers/free banking periods etc. Point being, given the saving in FX conversion, it might still be a better overall deal than just letting HSBC deal with it all."


As I posted above:   Assumes using an A380 with 154 seats, flying from NY to Washington DC    *All dollar amounts assume PER PERSON*    $2.50 - in fuel costs.   $1.50 - in crew costs.   $13.50 - in takeoff/landing fees in JKF and Dulles.   $6.00 - Domestic passenger tax.   $4.00 - Domestic Flight Segment Tax.   $5.50 - 9/11 Security Fee.   $11.50 - in Flight Cycle payment.   $14.00 - Airplane maintenance.   $10.00 - Overall operations overhead (conservative estimate)   $0.25 - Insurance.   **Our very rough grand total is!!**...   $68.75   Lets just round up to $70.. for other small things not covered..    Credit: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6Oe8T3AvydU


Yes, that's right, which is why you should get in on it quick, before it goes up even more.   Think about it, one Bitcoin now could buy you a house in about a decade. It'll be the only currency of value in just a few years.


Absolutely. An IRA works just like any other brokerage account except that there are constraints on contributions and withdrawals. You can invest in just about anything you'd like. Because the title of your question is slightly ambiguous I'll add this for clarity. You can't directly add stocks to an IRA account. You can only fund it with cash. However, you can buy any stock you want with the cash you transferred into the account. If you want to move a stock into an IRA account from another account you will need to cash it out first, transfer the cash, then re-buy the stock.


While theoretically it works it's not a realistic trade because of market efficiency. It's realistic for brokers to advertise trades like this so they can earn more customers and commission. These sorts of trades will be priced in to highly liquid big ticket names like KO and the vast majority of the market. The possibility exists with small names with less liquidity, less trading volume; however, the very execution of this trade will alter the behavior of impending traders thus minimizing any potential profits.


Most brokers have a margin maintenance requirement of 30%.  In your example, it would depend on how much money you're borrowing from your broker on margin. Consider this: You have $250, and short AAPL at $500 on margin. This would be a common scenario (federal law requires investors to have at least 50% of their margin equity when opening a transaction). If your broker had a requirement of 30%, they would require that for your $500 position, you have at least $500 * .3 = $150 equity. Since you are currently above that number at $250, you will not be hit with a margin call. Say the price of AAPL doubles, and now your position is worth $1000. $1000 * .3 = $300, which is $50 above your initial equity. Your broker will now consider you eligible for a margin call. Most will not execute the call right away, you will often have some time to either sell/cover stock or add funds to your account. But not all brokers will warn you if you are breaking margin requirements, and sometimes margin calls can take you by surprise if you are not paying attention. Also, many will charge interest on extra margin borrowed.


"In theory, investing is not gambling because the expected outcome is not random; people are expecting positive returns, on average, with some relationship to risk undertaken and economic reality. (More risk = more returns.) Historically this is true on average, that assets have positive returns, and riskier assets have higher returns. Also it's true that stock market gains roughly track economic growth. Valuation (current price level relative to ""fundamentals"") matters - reversion to the mean does exist over a long enough time. Given a 7-10 year horizon, a lot of the variance in ending price level can be explained by valuation at the start of the period. On average over time, business profits have to vary around a curve that's related to the overall economy, and equity prices should reflect business profits. The shorter the horizon, the more random noise. Even 1 year is pretty short in this respect. Bubbles do exist, as do irrational panics, and milder forms of each. Investing is not like a coin flip because the current total number of heads and tails (current valuation) does affect the probability of future outcomes. That said, it's pretty hard to predict the timing, or the specific stocks that will do well, etc. Rebalancing gives you an objective, automated, unemotional way to take advantage of all the noise around the long-term trend. Rather than trying to use judgment to identify when to get in and out, with rebalancing (and dollar cost averaging) you guarantee getting in a bit more when things are lower, and getting out a bit more when things are higher. You can make money from prices bouncing around even if they end up going nowhere and even if you can't predict the bouncing. Here are a couple old posts from my blog that talk about this a little more:"


I would not suggest closing out your Roth IRA -- Couple of reasons for that - 1) Since you've been contributing to it for 15 years, your investments have probably grown, seen dividends, etc.  If you close it out, you will owe taxes and be slapped with a 10% penalty on the growth (money you didn't contribute).  That's quite a waste of hard earned money.   2) While your income may exceed the contribution limit of a Roth, you could do what's called a 'backdoor' Roth - which is really just converting your after tax contributions into an IRA into a Roth IRA. 3) Given the length of your contributions your Roth IRA is seasoned (5 years) This allows you to use up to 10k for your house if you chose.  (Usually not an option people use) Other than that, consider paying off the student loans with the highest interest first.


"Some rich people want to make money without working. So they give their money to a company like Apollo Global Management, and then Apollo Global Management takes the money that they were given and decides how they will turn that money into more money, which they can give back to the person who gave it to them. That money they give back is called return, or ""return on investment."" That's how the person who gave the money, makes money -- from return on investment. The company's only real purpose is to make money with the money you give them. The company takes the money and sometimes they let other companies borrow that money, either for a long period of time or short period of time. They have different things called stocks, bonds, commodities and other things that they trade back and forth, and they only hope that they will make money doing it. It is sort of like they are going to work and playing the lottery every day, except, they do a lot of math to try and figure out how they can win the money from other companies as quick as possible. Instead of buying lotto tickets, they are buying those things I mentioned, stocks, bonds, commodities, and other things. By buying or selling these things, they are betting that a company will either make or lose money. It is basically like a game, with you and other people and companies, all as players. You are betting that the other players in the game will either make or lose money, based on what you see other players doing. As a player, you can win big or small, and you can lose big or small. There's a thing called the SEC. To play the game, you have to follow the rules that the SEC makes, or you will end up in jail! They are like the police, they are looking for people who do bad things. When you are older, you can make a lot of money if you work at a company like Apollo, but you can make more money than a lottery winner if you own a company yourself like Apollo."


"First, welcome to Money.SE.  The selected page is awful. I don't know the value in listing different expirations at the same strike. Usually, all the strikes are grouped by month, so I'd be looking at Jan '15 across all strikes.  ""In the money"" means the price of a stock is trading above the strike price, if a call, or below it, if a put.  On 10/20 of some year, Intel was trading at $23.34. The January $25 call strike was just $0.70, and April's was $1.82. These were out of the money. The $25 puts were ""in the money"" by $1.66 so you could have paid $1.90 for the Jan $25 put, with $.24 of time premium.  By November, the price rose and the put fell, to $.85, all time premium.  As with stocks, the key thing is to only buy calls of stock that are going to go up. If a stock will fall, buy puts. Curious, what was the class discussion just before the teacher gave you this image?"


I'll read between the lines: you're (justifiably) feeling smart about how you manage your money: debt-free, smart about your spending, saving for retirement, etc. But you're looking at all those fancy cars and feeling a little left out. And Americans especially have a love for automobiles -- it's not just transportation, a car is a status symbol. Yes, some of those people afford their cars just fine. But a lot of people out there are AWFUL about saving and spend recklessly. Americans are notoriously bad at saving for retirement, for example.  So if they aren't saving, where does that money go? They buy stuff they don't need. They live paycheck-to-paycheck. They run up debt. They buy cars. Overspending on cars is so easy to do: leases have low payments, or you can get a 6 year loan. There are many financial tricks for people that think only in terms of monthly payments. So instead of lamenting that the grass is greener as all those BMWs whiz by, smile deeply and enjoy that feeling of sleeping well at night instead of stressing out about the next credit card bill and car payment waiting for you in the mailbox. (And at the same time, if you really want a luxury car and want that to be a priority, you can make it happen and not go broke. Get a late model year certified pre-owned vehicle just out of lease, for example. Saves a ton of money, is still under warranty, and satisfies the lust for luxury.)


"I always liked the answer that in the short term, the market is a voting machine and in the long term the market is a weighing machine. People can ""vote"" a stock up or down in the short term.   In the long term, typically, the intrinsic value of a company will be reflected in the price. It's a rule of thumb, not perfect, but it is generally true. I think it's from an old investing book that talks about ""Mr. Market"".   Maybe it's from one of Warren Buffet's annual letters.    Anyone know? :)"


greenspans is arguing that the company isn't capable of negoiating away a promise, because if workers want to make this deal, they might be able to turn it into a good one.   It's like winning the lottery in a sense. I can either take payments of $20,000 for the rest of my life, or I can get $6 million now. Well the lottery doesn't continue payments after my death. So I need that money now, so I can turn it into real currency. Take out taxes and I actually have something that I can turn into a better asset.   Some of these folks will fuck up, mind you, but they should be given the opportunity to succeed. Maybe in their area there's some property they can invest in with their payment.  Obviously if the majority of the workers are underwater, giving them a short-term payout to clear their debts before they start begging the state for money probably won't work out well, but again, they should at least be allowed their own choice in the matter.


"If I read your figures correctly, then the cost difference is negligible. ($1.84 difference) The main determining factor, I'd think, would be the coverage.  Do you get more, or less, coverage now than you would if you went together on the same plan?  You'd both be covered, but what is the cap? Plans, and employer contributions, change all the time.  How is business in both of your companies?  Are you likely to get cut? Are you able to get back into a plan at each of your employers if you quit the plan for a while?  These rules may be unpleasant surprises if, say, your wife cancels her plan, goes on yours, and you lose your job.  She may not be able to get back into her insurance immediately, or possibly not at all.  A spouse losing a job isn't a ""qualifying life event"" the way marriage, birth of a child, divorce, etc., is."


"Its neither. Its a scam. there's no value underlying it, and it has proven to be the most speculative and untrustworthy investment there is. The scam works like a pyramid scam, so the more people come later on the more people who came in earlier on gain, so that is why you see so much hype around it encouraged and fueled by those early adopters who'll cash out at your expense. Imagine people who jumped on the bandwagon when each coin was worth a mere fraction of a dollar - they want you to ""invest"" at the current price of hundreds of dollars per unit so that they could cash out. You'd be better off with tulips, really. (And don't be discouraged by the downvotes on this answer, of course those scamers will try to shut me down. That will just prove the point.)"


"It's a tough thing to do.  You should look for a salaried position.  Your freelance skills will be much better received, if you've worked for a couple of companies doing programming full time.  Nothing beats working at it all day long for a few years. If you're set on being freelance, write some utility that will be popular, and submit it to Freshmeat.net.  Now that's asking a lot.  Those on the Web looking for programmers will most likely want you to work for 'sweat equity'.  That is, a share in the company for you labour.  In other words ""FREE"".  I've done my share of those, and if you're just getting into this, you should steer away from them.  You may hit the jackpot, but you won't sleep for the next few years ;-)"


I'm not sure you can sensibly separate the two: their decision was apparently to take on a market leader in a reasonably sophisticated area that they have no expertise in, within what appears to be a very tight time frame.


"A lot of your questions are probably best directed towards your payroll department, who have no doubt done this sort of thing before.  But I can answer about the cross-border banking question.  Of the ""Big Five"" Canadian banks, the one with the largest presence in the U.S. is almost certainly TD.  (""TD"" stands for ""Toronto Dominion"", after all.)  TD Canada Trust, the Canadian version of the bank, seems to offer a range of services for cross-border banking.  I would recommend calling the Canadian bank and asking what they can do for you.  Trying to get things set up from the U.S. side is likely to lead to frustration;  Canadians needing to do financial stuff in the U.S. is much, much more common than Americans needing to do financial stuff in Canada, and the bank staff on each side of the border will probably be proportionately helpful."


This is stupid.  Change the US tax law, that will fix it.    Apple is avoiding taxes by playing an overseas card, are you getting rid of your iPhone, too, if you are about to boycott Burger King?  Microsoft, is doing it, all the multinationals are playing games like this.  I am not blaming them, I am just saying.  More and more of the largest companies are leaving because of our excessive tax laws, we end up with lower net tax income as a result (fewer and fewer companies to pay the large taxes).  These taxes also make us less and less competitive.  Articles like this aren't going to cut it, waving a flag won't either.  Oh, and don't get me started on the total stupidity on taxing US citizens living overseas for overseas income, even if they haven't lived or worked in the US for years.   They have to pay whatever taxes of the country they are in, plus have to file and declare income to the US government, to also pay US taxes.  I think only USA is doing that, btw.  Look up how many people are force to give up their US citizenship because of these laws.  That, too, has to be changed.  The sooner the better.


The biggest part about Kenmore: Kenmore doesn't make appliances last I heard. They get other companies to and rebrand them. So, in the end, you are buying an appliance from Whirlpool, GE, or sometimes Haier.  Edit: Meant to say that it's a good option. I reread my post and it sounded negative


The biggest reason that they are a bad idea is just because every credit application hurts your credit score, as does having too many cards. In addition, every new card is a greater risk of identity theft.


This is actually good news.  Hospitality/Tourism is a weird industry, where specialized & local knowledge can become very valuable.  Sure, it's easy to just go be a waiter for a few months and then bail.  It's also possible to learn how to be a full-time restaurant manager, cook/chef, catering manager, etc.  There are lots of nooks and crannies, and since every city needs different things then the value of people with local market knowledge is higher than in other, more homogeneous industries.  Source: I work in Hospitality.


"In my experience working at a currency exchange money service business in the US: Flat fees are the ""because we can"" fee on average. These can be waived on certain dollar values at some banks or MSBs, and sometimes can even be haggled.  If you Google EURUSD, as an example, you also get something like $1.19 at 4pm, 9/18/2017. If you look at the actual conversion that you got, you may find your bank hit you with $1.30 or something close to convert from USD to Euro (in other words, you payed 10% more USD per Euro). And, if you sell your Euro directly back, you might find you only make $1.07. This spread is the real ""fee"" and covers a number of things including risk or liquidity. You'll see that currencies with more volatility or less liquidity have a much wider spread. Some businesses even go as far as to artificially widen the spread for speculators (see IQD, VND, INR, etc.). Typically if you see a 3% surcharge on international ATM or POS transactions, that's the carrier such as Visa or Mastercard taking their cut for processing. Interestingly enough, you also typically get the carrier-set exchange rate overseas when using your card. In other words, your bank has a cash EURUSD of $1.30 but the conversion you get at the ATM is Visa's rate, hence the Visa fee (but it's typically a nicer spread, or it's sometimes the international spot rate depending on the circumstances, due to the overhead of electronic transactions). You also have to consider the ATM charging you a separate fee for it's own operation. In essence, the fees exist to pad every player involved except you. Some cards do you a solid by advertising $0 foreign exchange fees. Unfortunately these cards only insulate you from the processing/flat fees and you may still fall prey to the fee ""hidden"" in the spread. In the grander scheme of things, currency exchange is a retail operation. They try to make money on every step that requires them to expend a resource. If you pay 10% on a money transaction, this differs actually very little from the mark-up you pay on your groceries, which varies from 3-5% on dry food, to 20% on alcohol such as wine."


You know there are things that are out of your hands right? Like the choices your parent's made, choices others make that have impacted you, etc. Can't control everything in life and your nativity to those complexities shows that you've never met or heard of people who are themselves left without many options in their life to just up themselves and find a job that actually pays a living wage.   FDR once said something along the lines of if a business cannot operate without paying their employees a living wage, then it shouldn't be operating at all in the US. We should be working at putting the pressure on those exploiting the labor of our people without options to pay living wages instead of blaming one another for their life circumstances.


If I remember correctly, once you're about to exceed the threshold you really don't have a choice and have to register for VAT. As DumbCoder mentions, the quarterly VAT returns isn't that much of a hassle, plus if you fall under a certain threshold, you can sign up for the annual accounting scheme for VAT, which means you'll have to only put in a single return, but HMRC takes more payments out over the course of the year. This is what I did when I ran my own limited company in the UK.


That's a great answer. Now here's how it really works.  You forgive student debts, the lenders take major losses. This creates a major credit crisis and the financial institutions need to be bailed out all over again. This means using taxpayer dollars and printing massive amounts of money. The value of student debt is over $1 trillion. That is about a third what the government pays in a typical year, so just imaging how that would effect the deficit when they have to foot the bill because there is no way in the hell the banks are paying it.


You said your mother-in-law lives with you. Does she pay rent, or are you splitting the cost of housing? That would also have to figured into the equation.  If you had a business you would now have to declare the expense on your business taxes. This would also then be income for her, which she would have to account for on her taxes. Remember there are both state and federal taxes involved. Regarding expenses like diapers. If the MIL had the business she could deduct them as a business expense. If you have the business it would greatly complicate the taxes. Your business would be essentially covering your personal expenses. If your MIL was not a business the cost of diapers would be paid by you regardless of the working situation of you and your spouse. To claim the tax credit: You must report the name, address, and taxpayer identification number   (either the social security number, or the employer identification   number) of the care provider on your return. If the care provider is a   tax-exempt organization, you need only report the name and address on   your return. You can use Form W-10 (PDF), Dependent Care Provider's   Identification and Certification, to request this information from the   care provider. If you do not provide information regarding the care   provider, you may still be eligible for the credit if you can show   that you exercised due diligence in attempting to provide the required   information. The IRS will be looking for an income tax form from your MIL that claims the income.  Getting too cute with the babysitting situation, by starting a business just for the purpose of saving money on taxes could invite an audit. Also it is not as if you just claim 3000 and you are good to go. You can only claim a percentage of the expenses based on the household AGI, the more the make the more you have to have in expenses to get the full 3000 credit, which mil cause more taxes for your MIL. Plus the whole issue with having to pay social security and other taxes on a household employee. It might be best to skip the risk of the audit. Claiming your MIL as a dependent might just be easier.


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"According to the FT article mentioned in the Reuters piece:  ""GSAM blamed the large outflows this year on investors pulling out of its money market funds, short-term investment vehicles that provide clients with a liquid alternative to cash. A spokesman added that the company’s mutual fund range, excluding money market funds, had inflows so far this year.""  also this...  ""Traditional asset managers such as Goldman, which has the majority of its assets in actively managed funds, have been hurt by investors dumping stockpickers for cheaper passive funds that track an index  (...)  Last year, bosses at the fund division told GSAM’s 2,000 employees that they must cut spending and banned all travel that was not associated with meeting clients and winning new business (...) Earlier this year, the company shut down the London operations of its internal hedge fund, which sits in investment banking, and told staff to move to the US or find a new job internally (...) The company has been affected by changes in the US money market sector, where new rules to strengthen investor protection and liquidity in the strategies were introduced last year. The prospect of rising interest rates and the potential for better returns are also making investors consider other investment funds.""   Source: That FT article"


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Except again you're wrong and retarded the comment I first made was in response to a ridiculous statement you mad to someone else who was referring to income tax because income tax is theft and I know this because I'm capable of critical thinking now even in my very first comment I mention income tax and nowhere in this entire conversation have I deviated from income taxes other than bringing up an alternative. I would like to ask you again, how hard is it going through life with 0 critical thinking and comprehension skills?


Don't know if anyone saw this, but AvE did a teardown of the thing, and it's so excessive in materials and ineffecient design it's sickening. Those machines could have been made for 1/4 the price easily, and the company might not have been in such hot water (although the idea overall is not well thought out)  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_Cp-BGQfpHQ


If your regular withholding is not enough to cover your tax due, then you can withhold extra  taxes to avoid owing anything the following April 15.  Alternatively, you may make estimated tax payments to avoid owing anything the following year.  Some taxpayers will be required to make estimated payments, typically when the tax due will be sufficiently larger than the amount of withholding. If your husband says that you owed $5,000 in April, then he wants you both to withhold $2,500 for the entire year.  If all your income is shared, then that makes sense.  But if your income is not entirely shared and your personal luxury expenses come from your income, then this sounds a little unfair (you are paying some of the tax on his income).  If you don't share 100% of your income, then he should withhold more extra than you do (something more like $2,700 for him and $2,300 for you, depending on the details).  If you share everything, then all the income and all the taxes are shared so the individual accounting matters little. Yes, if you overpay taxes, you may get a refund.  Do not do this, that's just an interest-free loan to the government.  Instead, put the extra money into a savings account of your choice and withdraw it whenever you want.


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"There's more info in [this linked article](http://www.businessinsider.com/burger-kings-young-ceo-2014-7)  > Having no experience in the industry, Schwartz spent his first couple of months training in Burger King restaurants — cleaning toilets, making burgers, and interacting with customers.    > His experience led him to believe that the complicated menu was slowing down orders. So he simplified the burger chain's offerings to include dishes that are easier to assemble.  >    > Under the direction of 3G, Schwartz has helped reduce Burger King's corporate headcount from 38,884 to 2,425 by refranchising restaurants, meaning those workers now report to franchise owners. He has implemented deep cost-cutting measures that axed many executive perks, including lavish offices that employees called ""Mahogany Row"" and a $1 million annual party at a chateau in Italy, Leonard writes. >  > Schwartz has also negotiated deals with restaurant operators in Brazil, China, and Russia, which have helped grow the number of Burger Kings worldwide by 12% to 13,667 over the past year. >  > In the first quarter of this year, the company's same-store sales increased 2% and net income nearly doubled to $60.4 million. >  > Read more: http://www.businessinsider.com/burger-kings-young-ceo-2014-7#ixzz3BVRxWKH9"


"How to spend the money is up to you. That includes spending money on your house. (This is a safer way to look at it than an ""investment"". Not that it can't ever be treated as such, but that doing so often makes it easy to justify bad decisions and overspending on the house.) So with regards to the mortgage: So if it's not a monstrously huge deal, you might prefer to avoid default. Now,  how to invest the rest while waiting to spend it, now..."


What is the rational argument to defend the position that American GDP growth is slower than historical yearly gains and this was a fault of Obama. There seems to be relative consensus among economists that  sustained growth rates in the 3%s is a thing of the past.   Genuinely interested in hearing a response.


When i looked it up on the BLS site, '68 and '69 were the only two years that MW was over $10 an hour (adjusted for inflation).  But, apparently that's not good enough.  They want vacations, cars, retirement at minimum wage this generation apparently


> Whatever the supply of labor and demand for labor set.  That's essentially a circular answer. The price of labour affects both the supply and demand. If the demand for a certain type of labour increases, the price will increase, and that causes the supply to rise, lowering the price back down.  For any given job, the price of labour will tend towards the marginal value.


On NPR this morning they stated the drop in productivity as a possible good. Being that if demand rose employers would look to hire. This is true since the slight drop is a sign of max employment relative to current demand, but opposite is also true(and currently more likely IMO) if demand drops, employers may look to downsize.


"This is a great question!  The IRS is not 100% clear on this. IRS publications do however very strongly suggest that assuming your wife has a plan providing family coverage, you can contribute up to your family maximum. If she does NOT have a family coverage plan then the answer is definitively no, you may only contribute the individual limit. Note if you have children covered by her plan then she is considered to have ""family coverage"" even if you are not covered by her plan (see here, question 12). From the 2012 IRS publication, bottom of Page 4. For 2012, if you have self-only HDHP coverage, you can contribute up to $3,100. If you have family HDHP coverage, you can contribute up to $6,250. This is presumably the referencing the definition which is introduced and discussed for married couples on Page 6: Rules for married people.   If either spouse has family HDHP coverage, both spouses are treated as having family HDHP coverage. If each spouse has family coverage under a separate plan, the contribution limit for 2012 is $6,250. You must reduce the limit on contributions, before taking into account any additional contributions, by the amount contributed to both spouse's Archer MSAs. After that reduction, the contribution limit is split equally between the spouses unless you agree on a different division. Example. For 2012, Mr. Auburn and his wife are both eligible individuals. They each have family coverage under separate HDHPs. Mr. Auburn is 58 years old and Mrs. Auburn is 53. Mr. and Mrs. Auburn can split the family contribution limit ($6,250) equally or they can agree on a different division. If they split it equally, Mr. Auburn can contribute $4,125 to an HSA (one-half the maximum contribution for family coverage ($3,125) + $1,000 additional contribution) and Mrs. Auburn can contribute $3,125 to an HSA. The last example is nearly the exact situation you are in assuming your wife's plan is family coverage. The only assumption beyond what is explicitly written you need to make is that you are considered to have family coverage in the example as per the ""Rules for married people"" section, even though your plan only is a single-coverage plan.  This conclusion seems to logically follow from information in the FAQs here (see Q32), as well as this document. Neither the above example nor any IRS documents referenced in this answer cover your situation completely."


Its based on demand and supply and what Bank think the future rates would be. Today Banks in India have a liquidity crunch as the Repo Rates by Reserve Bank of India [Central Bank] are high. Bank want to encourage more people to deposit money and hence are offering higher rates. Banks also believe that once the Inflation is under control, the Central Bank would ease the repo rates. This is likely to happen in a years time. Hence Banks one year down want to lower the Fixed Deposit rates. So essentially they would be at loss if they give higher rates for longer periods. So they are offering the highest rates for a period of year which motivates more people to invest for a year, even if they want to stay invested for long.


The article seems to indicate that executives are being forced by a younger work force to move their concentration of high end labor back towards cities. It's not exactly a concentration of wealth issue. It is if you want to buy a house.


I'm not an economIST, but it always seemed to me that if **more** people had **more** money, then **more** exchange AND savings would happen, and that in a market based economy that hinges on buying and selling things having more disposable income to dispose of in the marketplace was a good thing. Always seemed that socio-economic population curves should follow a bell curve that way.


"Gotta ask, before I log out for the day... what would constitute ""scientific methodology"" regarding political analysis?  Now that we are in tune with reality, these guys do a decent job. There are plenty of other bias checkers out there... try to use those. Whatever you do, avoid highly biased things like Breitbart or Drudge. there are left-leaning media which are also highly biased, but NYT is not one of those.  Have a good day."


> Its a no, there should be no taxes on anyone, only service providers and voluntary customers.  Last time you made this claim I pointed you to [a video on the US's Articles of Confederation](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=C6rHSiN0vKk) and you never responded.  Perhaps you'll muster up the courage this time.  The Articles of Confederation was set up very similar to what you are proposing.  Why do you think that government failed?


Apple closed Friday 9/23 at $403.40.   This is what the Puts look like, note the 2013 expiration.  (The rest is hypothetical, I am not advising this.) As a fan of Apple and feeling the stock may stay flat but won't tank, I sell you the $400 put for $64.65.  In effect I am saying that I am ready willing and able to buy aapl for $400 (well, $40,000 for 100 shares) and I have enough margin in my account to do so, $20,000. If Apple keeps going up, I made my $6465 (again it's 100 shares) but no more. If it drops below $400, I only begin to lose money if it goes below $335.35.  You, the put buyer are betting it will drop by this amount (more than 15% from today) and are willing to pay the price for this Put today.


"This is the best tl;dr I could make, [original](http://www.irwincollier.com/chicago-henry-simons-last-course-fiscal-policy-1946/) reduced by 74%. (I'm a bot) ***** > Henry Simons&#039; course &quot;Economics of Fiscal Policy&quot; was introduced into the Chicago public finance offerings in the Winter Quarter of 1934-35 and was taught by him in all but two years before his suicide that happened immediately after the Spring Quarter of 1946 had concluded.  > From Norman M. Kaplan&#039;s student notes for Simon&#039;s last course I have transcribed the list of course readings and the rough outline of the course discussed in the first two sessions.  > Read portions of Beveridge book which have to do with fiscal policy, part I, part IV, appendices B & C. esp.   ***** [**Extended Summary**](http://np.reddit.com/r/autotldr/comments/6h1vy3/chicago_henry_simons_last_course_fiscal_policy/) | [FAQ](http://np.reddit.com/r/autotldr/comments/31b9fm/faq_autotldr_bot/ ""Version 1.65, ~143289 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*: **course**^#1 **Part**^#2 **Fiscal**^#3 **income**^#4 **Policy**^#5"


Really? That's unfortunate.  I've read stories of guys that buy companies that are basically failing, restart them so to speak with a new vision, and make a kill doing it. That's something that sounds really awesome to do.  Otherwise, it's basically just like playing the stock market, but in a different version it seems like.


BRIGGS & STARTTON engine fuel pump is one of the best fuel pumps. It is preferred in different types of vehicle as it comes with latest engine features. There can be also issues with the fuel pump and users at times find difficult solving the issues. This article will help the cause.


Direct roll-overs / trustee to trustee transfers are typically initiated by the receiving institution. Therefore you need to work with Vanguard. They will have a form in which you provide them with your fidelity account info and they will then contact Fidelity and initiate the transfer.  Do not take the option of being sent a check made out to you by Fidelity (an indirect rollover). There are too many ways to muck up and get hit with penalties if you are the middleman in the process. I believe in most, if not all, cases the IRS now requires a 20% withholding on indirect 401k rollovers. This is because too many times people would initiate a roll over but not complete it either at all or within the allowed 60 day window and then come tax time be unable to pay the tax and penalty on the distribution. The tricky part of that withholding is that you still have to deposit that amount into the new account otherwise it becomes a distribution subject to tax and penalties (and that means coming up with the money from other accounts). So in summary talk to Vanguard and set up an institution to institution transfer. They souls make this very easy as they want your money. And do not do any kind of rollover where you come into personal possession of the money.  If the check is made out to Vanguard but sent to you to resend to Vanguard that should not be an issue as that is still a trustee to trustee transfer.  Fidelity may have a minor account closer fee that will be deducted from the value of the account before it is sent.


All things being equal, a $55,000/year job with 25% benefit load is about $68,750/year. That's a little more than $34/hr. Your rate really depends on the nature of the work. If it's strictly a part-time job where you are an employee, you're probably looking at a $28-38/hr range. If you're an independent contractor, the rate should be higher, as you're paying the taxes, doing other administrative stuff. How much higher depends on the industry... software/it rates are usually 1.5-2x, construction is driven by the union scale in many places, etc. Note that you need to meet criteria defined by the IRS to successfully maintain independent contractor status from a tax POV.


http://www.vistageconnect.com -- Who are you speaking to? Just who is your marketing message trying to reach? Marketing and branding expert David Avrin explains how taking a bit of time to get to better know your customers can help yield better results for your overall marketing efforts.


Here's my take: 1) Having a car loan and paying it on time helps build credit. Not as much as having credit cards (and keeping them paid or carrying balance just enough to be reported and then paying it), but it counts. 2) Can't you set in your bank, not the lender, something to pay the car automagically for you? Then you will be paying it on time without having to think on it. 3) As others said, do read the fine print.


>What SoftBank seemed to do was lower prices in Japan and offer better service.  While I admire your rose-tinted optimism, I really think you ought to ask someone actually living in Japan, and a former Softbank customer to boot, what the truth is.  *Former* in the sense that I quit their service around iPhone 3G time, and will never go back to them.  The only reason they're even a player in Japan is because they took the iPhone before the other two networks, and if you wanted Apple's beast, they were the only choice.  They are still the only provider with the iPad, and despite wanting one for a while, I refuse to buy one until it's available on another network.  A few choice items from their track record:  * Their network has consistently been the slowest of the 3 main Japanese networks with the worst coverage (this is partly not their fault because when they bought Vodafone, it was already a shitty service) but they've had a few years to sort things out now, and they're still behind the bigger networks in most areas.  * They ran Yahoo! BB (Japan's largest ISP) famous for outrageous hard selling, shitty customer service and just about the slowest broadband speeds in the country for a major provider due to massively overselling their capacity.  They also had a bizarre and stubborn preference for ADSL when everyone else was selling optical fiber.  * They also run Yahoo! Japan, which while pretty much the biggest website in the country (Yahoo! is still huge here) has ridiculously inflated fees for stuff like auctions and other services (we have no eBay).  So they're not averse to profiteering when the opportunity presents itself.  If Japan is anything to go by, I wouldn't hold your breath.  Combining a third-rate Japanese operator with a third-rate US one isn't the recipe for success.


I feel your pain. It probably depends on your state, but two things we've tried with some benefit:


I second the vote for GnuCash. It runs on Linux, Windows, and Mac. It is double-entry accounting, so there is a little bit of a learning curve, but it sounds like you should probably have something a little more powerful than Mint for your situation.


Hahahah, let the hate out. You're going to have a heart attack and die you old sack of bones if you keep going crazy like this. Just say it with me: Trump is my President.  See no one died, no one went to a concentration camp or caused nuclear war. Dr. President Trump will take good care of you.  You're so tolerant. Lumping all of one group together. Aren't you supposed to be the party of inclusiveness?


"Edited answer, given that I didn't address the emergency fund aspect originally: None. You've said you don't feel comfortable locking it away where you wouldn't be able to get to it in an emergency. If you don't like locking it away, the answer to ""How much money should I lock up in my savings account?"" is none. On a more personal note, the interest rates on bonds are just awful. Over five years, you can do better."


"This is the best tl;dr I could make, [original](https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2017-10-04/trump-aides-are-said-to-deliver-shortlist-of-fed-candidates) reduced by 81%. (I'm a bot) ***** > President Donald Trump&#039;s advisers have given him a final list of people they&#039;re recommending as candidates to lead the Federal Reserve and have ended the search, according to seven people familiar with the matter.  > Two of the people said Fed Chair Janet Yellen remains under consideration - even though few, if any, of Trump&#039;s inner circle are advocating for her re-appointment.  > Trump is known to have spoken to Yellen, Cohn, Warsh and Powell about the Fed post, several people told Bloomberg News last week.   ***** [**Extended Summary**](http://np.reddit.com/r/autotldr/comments/747243/trump_aides_deliver_shortlist_of_fed_candidates/) | [FAQ](http://np.reddit.com/r/autotldr/comments/31b9fm/faq_autotldr_bot/ ""Version 1.65, ~221689 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*: **people**^#1 **Trump**^#2 **Two**^#3 **Fed**^#4 **governor**^#5"


Taking into account your POV I would recommend mostly goods that will be harder to obtain, precious metals (not only gold) and forex (although the forex aproach depends on some other country not having troubles with it's own economy which in a world as interconnected as ours by internet and all the new technologies doesn't seem likely)  i highly recommend silver which is cheaper than gold and is stable enough in the long term


I have heard it recommended on the money radio shows to get a little walking around money in the local currency at your local bank, but look for a credit card that offers low or no fees for international usage.  The credit card company will do all the monetary conversions for you for a smaller fee.


Don't have the interview be the first time you wear the suit for an extended period. Days before the interview pick a fancy place to go out, and wear your suit. Then it will stop looking brand new (which you don't want) and you will become comfortable in it, and not present as a guy awkwardly wearing a suit for the first time.


The rent versus buy question is a deeply personal one in which your personal desires for a living space need to be carefully combined with what makes economic sense.  Do you want your own place with all the joys of having it be yours and all the pains of having to handle all the maintenance and be the one ultimately responsible?  Have you tried living for a few months putting aside the amount required for not only a mortgage payment but the taxes and insurance on a house/condo in your price range to see if you can really afford it?  You can use a real estate website such as trulia to see the assessments of some for sale homes and figure out tax values.  The average home insurance in the US is around $900/year if I remember right - more for homes that are more expensive and less for less expensive ones, with flooding and other hazards as a factor.  Make sure you can afford to pay for all these items. From a financial perspective realize that you'll always be spending money on your living space.  Even if you pay for a house with cash you will be paying property tax and maintenance and would be wise to continue paying for insurance.  The value of the house at that point is, as contributor fennec often says, the rent you aren't paying. I personally don't recommend trying to time the market.  You can't predict the future - will real estate in your area be a double dip or has it bottomed and is it going up?  What you can do is buy a home only when you are sure that you can deal with its relative lack of liquidity by staying there for a long time.  Five years is usually a reasonable minimum.   There is a way that I recommend figuring out if it is likely bad financial decision to buy, and that's by looking at a financial comparison of renting versus buying.  In some cases even with the bursting of the bubble it is still a bad deal to buy.  DC went from renting being more cost effective to buying, but San Francisco is one area where buying is still not necessarily the best choice.  To figure out what the case is for your area, look at the New York Times rent versus buy calculator.  Find a home for rent on craigslist similar to what you'd look to buy.  Find a home for sale on one of the MLS aggregator sites that represents something you think you'd like.  Plug in the numbers.  Figure out how many years you'd have to stay in your purchase for it to be a good deal. In the likely event that the calculator says buy, start saving if that's what you really want.  You're never going to be able to absolutely guarantee that you won't be upside down.  What you can control is getting as much principal in that house as you can.  The more you have, the less likely you will be upside down.  Build a down payment now, reap the rewards later.


That has nothing to do with what I said. Undoubtedly the USPS does many things that make them money. They also seem to do things that don't make them money, as evidenced by them cutting those non-money-making things to balance their budget.  And due to congressional interference, the USPS often does irrational things, unfortunately.


You are correct, our founding fathers were not stupid enough to 'claim how great the president is based off square miles under control of a party'...what kind of stupid fucking statement is that you just made? It's called a system of checks and balances dumbass. And it's not empty land...it's land worked by farmers and blue collar workers... yeah, that's right, work... something you know nothing about. Crawl back in your hole.


So, explain why the FDA now allows distinctions between sugar naturally occurring in a food (like in vegetables and such) and added sugar? That's very much not to the benefit of the sugar industry, yet it is a thing. Were your premise accurate this wouldn't be happening.


Hedge means protecting downside, and that generally comes at a cost that translates into less upside. Amount of downside you are protecting is directly co-related to the quality of your hedge. For your example to work, the market should invert while you are still solvent; remember Markets can remain irrational longer than you can remain solvent And yes, there is nothing guaranteed in life - except tax and death of-course!


>I gather it's been up until now cost prohibitive to build upward  No. It's been illegal.  >cities have a vested interest in maintaining their skyline.  What goals would they be furthering by locking their skyline in the 1990s?  >They'll probably need to adapt, but the idea that zoning is capricious is false.  Correct, it's very deliberate. Just ignorant.


It's difficult to provide an exact answer as this will very much depend on the bank & the local regulatory scheme.  However as a business owner you should be able to provide incorporation docs, some proof of ownership of the company and last years' financial statements or tax returns, many banks would accept this as a proof of income for the purposes of granting credit. In general in most jurisdictions I can think of, a high downpayment will not remove the need to verify income as the bank needs to feel comfortable that you have the ability to pay the remaining 25% (e.g. how do they know you're not a serially unemployed lottery winner) and if the downpayment is quite large they may want some assurance that you got the money legally (e.g. how do they make sure you're not a drug dealer). So probably regardless of how large a downpayment most banks would probably want some additional proofs of income however what proofs are needed may be more flexible than just a salary stub. I suggest taking a look at what sort of documents you may have on hand that can serve to validate your revenue in some way and contacting a few banks directly to see what options they can provide and whether some custom-tailored arrangement can be made.


Saw this coming. I supported Toys R Us in my job a couple of years ago and when it came to standing up a datacenter environment those guys were clueless and led by some of the most incompetent upper management I have ever experienced.   I had to spend 2 lunch meetings explaining why they would need DR sites.


"I use Old Spice body wash because of their commercials. It is the one time I did it. I watched their first couple commercials and said, ""That was awesome. I'm going to go out and buy their product because of these commercials.""  That's the only time, ever. And I'm glad I did, because it inspired them to make more. The Terry Crews ones are the best!"


>  The vast majority of companies in the US are small businesses  This is a fairly useless measure.  Example:  Imagine if there was one company that hired 1 billion people.  And 99 companies that hired 1 person each.  You can now say that 99% of companies are small businesses.  Which is true, but 99.9999999% of people don't work for a small business, they work for a large business.  The small businesses are inconsequential.


"This is the best tl;dr I could make, [original](https://www.wsj.com/articles/the-global-stock-markets-hidden-juice-1506249970) reduced by 71%. (I'm a bot) ***** > Investors should be worried then that stocks are being supported by record amounts of margin debt, according to research released last week from the Bank for International Settlements, the Switzerland-based central bank for central banks.  > In the U.S. at least, lending as a share of market capitalization has been relatively steady for the past four years, most recently at 2.12%. But that level is much higher than the period before 2007 and above even the dotcom-era peak of 2.05%. Swiss private banks, which have among the biggest and most international margin lending operations, have grown this business significantly.  > Lending against shares is seen as less risky than mortgages because stocks can be sold more quickly than a house, so banks can hold less capital against margin loans.   ***** [**Extended Summary**](http://np.reddit.com/r/autotldr/comments/72rzat/the_global_stock_markets_hidden_juice_wsj/) | [FAQ](http://np.reddit.com/r/autotldr/comments/31b9fm/faq_autotldr_bot/ ""Version 1.65, ~217432 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*: **Bank**^#1 **lending**^#2 **margin**^#3 **stock**^#4 **investor**^#5"


The working principle of the water conditioner is based on a theory. Which states that an electromagnetic or electric field causes little precious stones of calcium carbonate in the water to consolidate to frame bigger gems.  If you have hard water, an Electronic water conditioner is a solution to dry skin and limescale buildup in pipes and appliances. Here’s how just one system can technically improve your water.


Are you sure about this? I mean your premise. I thought tax was based on shipping address. I've made purchases, live, in NY, and had the choice to pay sales tax or to have the item shipped, in effect paying shipping, for real, instead of sales tax.  It appears that by buying a loaded cash card you'd accomplish your goal. I've seen such cards go fo $1.50, no fees other than that. To save the sales tax, or pay the tax of the state you're in, it may be worth it. But a NH billing address don't solve this, again, I believe tax is based on ship-to.


"The optimal down payment is 100%. The only way you would do anything else when you have the cash to buy it outright is to invest the remaining money to get a better return.  When you compare investments, you need to take risk into account as well.  When you make loan payments, you are getting a risk free return.  You can't find a risk-free investment that pays as much as your car loan will be.  If you think you can ""game the system"" by taking a 0% loan, then you will end up paying more for the car, since the financing is baked into the sales [price in those cases (there is no such thing as free money).  If you pay cash, you have much more bargaining power.   Buy the car outright (negotiating as hard as you can), start saving what you would have been making as a car payment as an emergency fund, and you'll be ahead of the game. For the inflation hedge - you need to find investments that act as an inflation hedge - taking a loan does not ""hedge"" against inflation since you'll still be paying interest regardless of the inflation rate.  The fact that you'll be paying slightly less interest (in ""real"" terms) does not make it a hedge. To answer the actual question, if your ""reinvestment rate"" (the return you can get from investing the ""borrowed"" cash) is less than the interest rate, then the more you put down, the greater your present value (PV). If your reinvestment rate is less than the interest rate, then the less you put down the better (not including risk).  When you incorporate risk, though, the additional return is probably not worth the risk. So there is no ""optimal"" down payment in between those mathematically - it will depend on how much liquid cash you need (knowing that every dollar that you borrow is costing you interest)."


I've found a much better time at the independent toy stores.   My daughter is into some unique things at her age.   Graphic novels and weird dolls.   At 11 toysrus doesn't cut it.  It's a shame though, babies r us was a great place for our baby needs when we had kids.  In the end it is sad to see a toy store chain go down.   Kids need the stuff that toy stores have to offer.   Kids are too engrossed in digital media.    They need the 3d world that toys give them, and it's really tragic to see where kids are going.


"Your logic breaks down because you assume that you are the only market participant on your side of the book and that the participant on the other side of the book has entered a market order. Here's what mostly happens: Large banks and brokerages trading with their own money (we call it proprietary or ""prop"" trading) will have a number of limit (and other, more exotic) orders sitting on both sides of the trading book waiting to buy or sell at a price that they feel is advantageous. Some of these orders will have sat on the book for many months if not years. These alone are likely to prevent your limit orders executing as they are older so will be hit first even if they aren't at a better price.  On more liquid stocks there will also be a number of participants entering market orders on both sides of the book whose orders are matched up before limit orders are matched with any market orders. This means that pairing of market orders, at a better price, will prevent your limit order executing. In many markets high frequency traders looking for arbitrage opportunities (for example) will enter a few thousand orders a minute, some of these will be limit orders just off touch, others will be market orders to be immediately executed. The likelihood that your limit order, being as it is posited way off touch, is hit with all those traders about is minimal. On less liquid stocks there are market makers (large institutional traders) who effectively set the bid and offer prices by being willing to provide liquidity and fill the market orders at a temporary loss to themselves and will, in most cases, have limit orders set to provide this liquidity that will be close to touch. They are paid to do this by the exchange and inter-dealer brokers through their fees structure. They will fill the market orders that would hit your limit if they think that it would provide more liquidity in such a way that it fulfils their obligations. Only if there are no other participants looking to trade on the instrument at a better price than your limit (which, of course they can see unless you enter it into a dark pool) AND there is a market order on the opposite side of the book will your limit order be instantaneously be hit, executed, and move the market price."


You understand it perfectly right. The thing with PMI is that when your home price rises (or your loan balance goes down) so that your loan balance is below the 80% of the current house price, the PMI goes away. The higher rate - does not. So, no-PMI option is much better. To the bank, as you suspected. Your calculations are correct. With the PMI you'll pay less interest, and more balance. As to the tax deductions, interest can be deducted, but the PMI - no (starting of 2012, to the best of my understanding, at least). See details here, consult a tax professional for more current information.


how much did you make? how much do you make now?  i think as long as people make about a certain amount (say $100k in Los ANgeles, NYC, San Francisco or London) then life is ok.  About that amount money is just useless.


There are at least a couple of ways you could view this to my mind: Make an Excel spreadsheet and use the IRR function to compute the rate of return you are having based on money being added. Re-invested distributions in a mutual fund aren't really an additional investment as the Net Asset Value of the fund will drop by the amount of the distribution aside from market fluctuation. This is presuming you want a raw percentage that could be tricky to compare to other funds without doing more than a bit of work in a way. Look at what is the fund's returns compared to both the category and the index it is tracking. The tracking error is likely worth noting as some index funds could lag the index by a sizable margin and thus may not be that great. At the same time there may exist cases where an index fund isn't quite measuring up that well. The Small-Growth Indexing Anomaly would be the William Bernstein article from 2001 that has some facts and figures for this that may be useful.


Edit: I a in the United States, seek advice from someone who is also in Australia.  I am getting about 5.5% per year by investing in a fund (ticker:PGF) that, in turn, buys preferred stock in banks. Preferred stock acts a bit like a bond and a bit like a stock.  The price is very stable. However, a bank account is FDIC insured (in the USA) and an investment is not. I use the Reinvestment program at Scottrade so that the monthly dividends are automatically reinvested with no commission. However I do not know if this is available outside of the United States.  Investing yealds greater returns but exposes you to greater risk. You have to know your risk tolerance.


I do not believe that this was a case of insider trading. As an example, one of the executives sold only 4% of his total. Now consider that between the 3 of them, the amount sold was only $1.8M. These amounts are minuscule and are in no way indicative of any misconduct. My opinion.


If the savings rate is the same as the loan rate, mathematically it doesn't make any difference whether you pay down the loan more and save less or vice versa. However, if the loan rate is higher than the savings rate it's better to pay it down as fast as possible. The chart below compares paying down the loan and saving equally (the gradual scenario), versus paying down the loan quickly at 2 x $193 and then saving 2 x $193.  The savings rate, for illustration, is 2%. Paying quickly pays down the loan completely by month 51.  On the other hand, in the gradual scheme the loan can't be paid down (with the savings) until month 54, which then leaves 3 months less for saving.  In conclusion, it's better to pay down the higher rate loan first.  Practically speaking, it may be useful to have some savings available.


"Let me start with a somewhat sarcastic statement: There are probably as many things done to analyze a stock as there are people doing the analysis! That said, at a general level an analyst researches the historical performance of the company at a fairly detailed level (operations within divisions of the company, product development cycles within divisions, expenses vs income trends for each division and product, marketing costs, customer acquisition costs, etc); gathers information about what the company is doing now AND planning to do in the future -- often by a discussion with principles at the company; establishes a view on related macro-economic trends, sector and industry trends, demographic trends, etc.; and combines it all to forecast a change in revenues, margins, free cash flow, dividends, etc. over a period of time.   They then apply statistics that relate those numbers to stock price in order to imply stock prices and price ranges over those same periods.  Finally, depending on how those stock prices compare to the current stock price, they'll classify the stock as Buy, Sell, Hold, etc. This sounds like alot of work.   And it generally is if you get detailed about it, which is what professionals or significant money managers are doing.   However, there are also lots of arm-chair analysts posting their output on any number of financial sites (Seeking Alpha, Motley Fool, etc.) if you'd like to really explore the range of detail some people consider as a ""stock analysis"".  That sounds more negative than I intended it to be, so let me clarify that I think some of these write-ups are really quite good IMO."


I vote for Plan B: PLAN B: Put into 401 K whatever I have   in April (will be less than max) and   just pay the extra tax. This is path   of least resistance and easy but   expensive. This plan is the simplest and has the least moving parts.   It will be over in April, is easily understood, and does not add extra risk to your life. That being said, the real plan is for next year: save for taxes along the way instead of getting hit with a big bang.


Yeah but now imagine you're a third worlder and earn the average national salary. Suddenly such private clinics are not as easily available anymore.  It's a decent option for westerners to go to let's say Eastern Europe to get lasik surgery. There it's pocket money compared to what the'd charge in Germany.  But the people in Eastern Europe don't have that option.  ninja edit: Not saying Eastern Europe is third world. It's a separate example.


"One approach is to invest in ""allocation"" mutual funds that use various methods to vary their asset allocation. Some examples (these are not recommendations; just to show you what I am talking about): A good way to identify a useful allocation fund is to look at the ""R-squared"" (correlation) with indexes on Morningstar. If the allocation fund has a 90-plus R-squared with any index, it probably isn't doing a lot. If it's relatively uncorrelated, then the manager is not index-hugging, but is making decisions to give you different risks from the index. If you put 10% of your portfolio in a fund that varies allocation to stocks from 25% to 75%, then your allocation to stocks created by that 10% would be between 2.5% to 7.5% depending on the views of the fund manager. You can use that type of calculation to invest enough in allocation funds to allow your overall allocation to vary within a desired range, and then you could put the rest of your money in index funds or whatever you normally use. You can think of this as diversifying across investment discipline in addition to across asset class. Another approach is to simply rely on your already balanced portfolio and enjoy any downturns in stocks as an opportunity to rebalance and buy some stocks at a lower price. Then enjoy any run-up as an opportunity to rebalance and sell some stocks at a high price.  The difficulty of course is going through with the rebalance. This is one advantage of all-in-one funds (target date, ""lifecycle,"" balanced, they have many names), they will always go through with the rebalance for you - and you can't ""see"" each bucket in order to get stressed about it. i.e. it's important to think of your portfolio as a whole, not look at the loss in the stocks portion. An all-in-one fund keeps you from seeing the stocks-by-themselves loss number, which is a good way to trick yourself into behaving sensibly. If you want to rebalance ""more aggressively"" then look at value averaging (search for ""value averaging"" on this site for example). A questionable approach is flat-out market-timing, where you try to get out and back in at the right times; a variation on this would be to buy put options at certain times; the problem is that it's just too hard. I think it makes more sense to buy an allocation fund that does this for you. If you do market time, you want to go in and out gradually, and value averaging is one way to do that."


A lot of people probably don't agree with him, but Warren Buffett has some great quotes on why he doesn't invest in gold: I will say this about gold. If you took all the gold in the world, it   would roughly make a cube 67 feet on a side…Now for that same cube of   gold, it would be worth at today’s market prices about $7 trillion   dollars – that’s probably about a third of the value of all the stocks   in the United States…For $7 trillion dollars…you could have all the   farmland in the United States, you could have about seven Exxon   Mobils, and you could have a trillion dollars of walking-around   money…And if you offered me the choice of looking at some 67 foot cube   of gold and looking at it all day, and you know me touching it and   fondling it occasionally…Call me crazy, but I’ll take the farmland and   the Exxon Mobils. And his classic quote: [Gold] gets dug out of the ground in Africa, or someplace. Then we   melt it down, dig another hole, bury it again and pay people to stand   around guarding it. It has no utility. Anyone watching from Mars would   be scratching their head.


Here are some really excellent video tutorials on these topics: Introduction to Compound Interest Introduction to Present Value


>When something is unable to adapt, it dies.  You're probably right, but if the music industry is any indication of what happens when an entertainment industry is faced with obsolescence, they won't go down without one hell of a nasty fight.


"If all the property is going up and down at the same rate, it's probably a bit of a wash. However, there are markets (e.g. the Front Range of Colorado, where I live), where property at different price levels and locations has performed very differently. For a place to live, I think it's most useful to look at housing as a consumption decision, like buying a car, rather than an investment decision, like buying art (since it is similarly illiquid). Consider what you need and want (features, location), how important the ""own vs rent"" tradeoffs are to you (including the risk of losing your equity), and what you can comfortably afford. Then don't worry so much about price trends. This, it seems to me, is the lesson of the recent housing bust."


:) Probably because I was born in a socialist country and did not know I was libertarian till very recently. Been thinking of myself as a fiscally conservative Democrat or independent and sometimes, even socially liberal Republican. Have been using the libertarian term only recently, when someone defined it for me.


The company match is not earnings. My company deposits 5% of my income into my 401(k) and it appears nowhere except on the paperwork for the 401(k).  To be clear, it doesn't appear on any paystub or W2.


Out of curiosity, where do you get your news? Had I been asked to explain the two crises, I have no doubt that I would fail horrifically. You seem to explain everything quite concisely. I assume part of it is innate intelligence, but it can't hurt to have a good news source either.


>I guess I know what I need to do  I already did and I have no idea why other people don't. Why sit around and complain about it when you can simply elevate yourself?  >your fantasy about providing your services to rich people  What qualifications do you have that make you think you would be hired by anyone for this type of situation?


You shouldn't be picking stocks in the first place. From New York Magazine, tweeted by Ezra Klein: New evidence for that reality comes from Goldman Sachs, via Bloomberg News. The investment bank analyzed the holdings of 854 funds with $2.1 trillion in equity positions. It found, first of all, that all those “sophisticated investors” would have been better off stashing their money in basic, hands-off index funds or mutual funds last year — both of them had higher average returns than hedge funds did. The average hedge fund returned 3 percent last year, versus 14 percent for the Standard & Poor’s 500.  Mutual funds do worse than index funds. Tangentially-related to the question of whether Wall Street types deserve their compensation packages is the yearly phenomenon in which actively managed mutual funds underperform the market. Between 2004 and 2008, 66.21% of domestic funds did worse than the S&P Composite 1500. In 2008, 64.23% underperformed. In other words, if you had a fund manager and his employees bringing their skill and knowledge to bear on your portfolio, you probably lost money as compared to the market as a whole. That's not to say you lost money in all cases. Just in most. The math is really simple on this one. Stock picking is fun, but undiversified and brings you competing with Wall Streeters with math Ph.Ds. and twenty-thousand-dollars-a-year Bloomberg terminals. What do you know about Apple's new iPhone that they don't? You should compare your emotional reaction to losing 40% in two days to your reaction to gaining 40% in two days...  then compare both of those to losing 6% and gaining 6%, respectively. Picking stocks is not financially wise. Period.


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So how is it that American citizens working overseas get taxed, but American companies holding profits overseas don't? Or foreign companies making profits within the US for that matter. I don't really think we should be protectionist, but I do think corporations should be paying a fair share of taxes needed to support infrastructure, social and legal framework.


Liberals would rather have a guaranteed income, for obvious reasons. I mean come on, they're **liberals**. Then again even libertarians would love the idea if they realized they could just smoke weed all day on someone else's dime.


Some people in the corporation set up a system that some other employees gamed, right? That's not exactly a middle finger to the country, that's an incentive system gone horrible wrong for the bank themselves. And for any consumers who were hit with fees from this, but from the class action settlement email I just got it looks like impacted consumers will be getting their money back and more.   That seems to be the gist of this scandal. It's a worrisome comment on WFC internal controls, but if you are worried about internal controls then the bank that just had a scandal is likely to have over-corrected for this issue relative to other options.


To clarify that legality of this (for those that question it), this is directly from IRS Publication 926 (2014) (for household employees): If you prefer to pay your employee's social security and Medicare taxes from your own funds, do not withhold them from your employee's wages. The social security and Medicare taxes you pay to cover your employee's share must be included in the employee's wages for income tax purposes. However, they are not counted as social security and Medicare wages or as federal unemployment (FUTA) wages. I am sorry this does not answer your question entirely, but it does verify that you can do this. UPDATE:  I have finally found a direct answer to your question!  I found it here: http://www.irs.gov/instructions/i1040sh/ar01.html Form W-2 and Form W-3 If you file one or more Forms W-2, you must also file Form W-3. You must report both cash and noncash wages in box 1, as well as tips and other compensation. The completed Forms W-2 and W-3 in the example (in these instructions) show how the entries are made. For detailed information on preparing these forms, see the General Instructions for Forms W-2 and W-3. Employee's portion of taxes paid by employer.    If you paid all of your employee's share of social security and Medicare taxes, without deducting the amounts from the employee's pay, the employee's wages are increased by the amount of that tax for income tax withholding purposes. Follow steps 1 through 3 below. (See the example in these instructions.) Enter the amounts you paid on your employee's behalf in boxes 4 and 6 (do not include your share of these taxes). Add the amounts in boxes 3, 4, and 6. (However, if box 5 is greater than box 3, then add the amounts in boxes 4, 5, and 6.) Enter the total in box 1.


I'd like to start my own RIA firm. Which licenses do I need to start to get AUM under my belt and charge a 1% fee? Right now I am studying for my Series 7 and after that will be my Series 66. Is this the best path for accomplishing what I want to do?


"There is no ""standard"" way for personal accounting.  However, GNUCash default accounts set includes ""Expense: Adjustment"".  It is usually used by the community for reconciliation of unknown small money lost."


I thought they did that a long time ago - are they just refreshing the rule or something?  Meanwhile, the way the law is written, seems like an advertiser could pick a program that has some overly loud parts at the beginning and middle, thereby having a louder average volume overall, so the commercial can be louder.


Inflation is being hidden in false government figures. They report inflation as 2% to 3%, but when look at my records for the last 5 years I see most of the things I am paying for are around 23% higher. It may even be higher as some things are hard to figure in. For example, many food items are being sold in smaller quantities for the same prices they sold for in larger packages. When was the last time you saw a 3 pound can of coffee in your local market, or a half gallon of ice cream?  Things like cable have gone up 50%. All my insurance policies are about 50% higher too. Meanwhile people's wages have gone up the 3% the government insists matching inflation.


">Most small business lawsuits are a result of either gross negligence on the business owners part (which would be justified) or terrible or misleading service (again justified). If you're going to do honest business, take responsibility for the work done, and do your due diligence to manage what goes on in your four walls, you'll be fine.   Either that or they are over very ""silly"" things that general liability insurance will handle -- stuff like slips/falls in front of your retail storefront, etc."


When it comes to Cold Spring Advisory, there are a number of red flags that people should read up on before working with this company. All information about this and how Louis Ottimo (its shadow president) was himself confronted is available online.


"The two are not incompatible. This is particularly true of Glaxo and Pfizer, two drug companies operating in roughly the same markets with similar products. Many ""good"" companies offer a combination of decent yields and growth. Glaxo and Pfizer are both among them. There is often (not always), a trade-off between high yield and high growth. All other things being equal, a company that pays out a larger percentage of its profits as dividends will exhibit lower growth. But a company may have a high yield because of a depressed price due to short term problems. When those problems are fixed, the company and stock grows again, giving you the best (or at least the better) of both worlds."


Seems pretty nice. My only real complaint with my current MacBook Pro is its heft. I opted for the solid state drive, and it has a thing or two that i'll never need (the CD drive) but, unfortunately, I've got to get my money's worth out of this one before I even consider an upgrade. I've also already got the developer preview of Yosemite and while I genuinely dislike the new iOS 7 look that they're trying to push on to all of their devices, the hardware itself is still top notch. With just a handful of tweaks (like restoring the icons from OS X 10.9) its regained a portion of the professionalism that I've come to expect. OS X is still an incredible OS; I just hope they keep it that way.


Sarasota Real Estate Lawyer of the firm have litigated real estate, construction and commercial disputes and transacted real estate When you need legal counsel, you deserve experienced attorneys who provide personal attention. The transactional department provides a full range of real estate legal and settlement services throughout Florida, including residential and commercial purchase and sale transactions.


The success of a free market economy requires constant growth in production of goods and services.   Doesn't this contradict the entire point of economics in that there are scarce resources to distribute?   How can you have never ending growth in production when there are limited physical resources?   Population growth is one of the major factors sustaining this continued growth but the planet can only sustain a certain amount of people, what happens when we hit that? We're already overpopulated and this only ends one way - famine and wars over resources where huge numbers of the population will die.   Maybe this is just our nature, maybe this IS nature;  destruction and then rebirth.   Does anyone think it's possible to develop a different type of free market economy that doesn't rely on constant growth in production ?


Since this post was migrated from Parenting, my reply was in the context where it appeared to be misrepresenting facts to make a point. I've edited it to be more concise to my main point. In my opinion, the best way to save for your childs future is to get rid of as much of your own debt as possible. Starting today. For the average American, a car is 6-10%. Most people have at least a couple credit cards, ranging from 10-25% (no crap). College loans can be all over the map (5-15%) as can be signature (8-15%) or secured bank loans (4-8%). Try to stop living within your credit and live within your means. Yeah it will suck to not go to movies or shop for cute things at Kohl's, but only today.  First, incur no more debt. Then, the easiest way I found to pay things off is to use your tax returns and reduce your cable service (both potentially $Ks per year) to pay off a big debt like a car or student loan. You just gave yourself an immediate raise of whatever your payment is. If you think long term (we're talking about long-term savings for a childs college) there are things you can do to pay off debt and save money without having to take up a 2nd job... but you have to think in terms of years, not months. Is this kind of thing pie in the sky? Yes and no, but it takes a plan and diligence. For example, we have no TV service (internet only service redirected an additional $100/mo to the wifes lone credit card) and we used '12 taxes to pay off the last 4k on the car. We did the same thing on our van last year. It takes willpower to not cheat, but that's only really necessary for the first year-ish... well before that point you'll be used to the Atkins Diet on your wallet and will have no desire to cheat. It doesn't really hurt your quality of life (do you really NEED 5 HBO channels?) and it sets everyone up for success down the line. The moral of the story is that by paying down your debt today, you're taking steps to reduce long haul expenditures. A stable household economy is a tremendous foundation for raising children and can set you up to be more able to deal with the costs of higher ed.


$220M which clears all your tax liability, nets you a couple hundred mil, and all just for punching a mouthy white guy in the face in front of the whole world? And you're pretty much guaranteed to win?   SIGN ME UP, FAM!


You're not too far off in your first example there. Though we've got separate departments for several of the things you've mentioned, which makes sense in the specialized industry that we are in, and makes me even more suspicious of our bloated HR group.


Thats easy.  People don't confess against gangs because its a completely different game. Instead of two prisoners you have one prisoner and an organization that can go after the prisoners family.  Oligopolistic competition differs from the prisoners delimma because a lack of communication or the presence of some form of uncertainty as to the other players motives is a necessary precondition. Its notable as well that cartel behavior almost always fails in the long run, due to the first movers advantage in breaking the agreement and stealing the competitors business.


I agree, but we should be careful about how we put a value to the digital sales channel. It doesn't logically follow that 100% of online sales are additional revenue that Domino's wouldn't have seen otherwise. Those same customers could have ordered by phone if the online option weren't available (although I'll bet the fraction of people who would do that is small).  Basically, it's dangerous to value mutually exclusive sales channels by the revenue they generate, because not all of that revenue would be lost if the sales channel was axed.


">Really? I kinda thought it had something to do with losing 2.6 million jobs in 2008. Now that's a lot of revenue gone! Oh also the bush tax cuts  All the more reason to keep increase spending by 5-10% a year, right? How about we create an envionment that yields more jobs rather than increasing the taxes of those left? Because that worked so well for social security originally supported by 5-10 employees per 1 receiving benefits, now it's only supported by 2 employees per 1 receiving benefits-- ultra sustainable!  >So almost 10% of our deficit? I'd say that's a good start.   10% of our deficit, so 1/4th the amount of DEBT INTEREST we'll pay this year? A drop in the bucket either way. Spending is the real culprit.  >I do agree we spend way too much on the pentagon, but pretty sure that went up a lot without our two unfunded republican wars.   And now we're in a half dozen active and secret conflicts; Afganistan, Pakistan, Syria, Libya, Eygpt. All the more reason for Obama to IMMEDIATELY remove us from those wars. But he hasn't he has expanded them. And our military costs keep going up. It's not about ""this isn't the right time to withdrawl"" it's about his corporate masters being the same as the Bush corporate masters telling him to continue. It's about oil/gas and the pipelines and projection of power that comes with it. Obama has continued and expanded the same policies as Bush, he cannot hide behind, ""Well Bush was worse"", he can't say that because it isnt true. Infact we're killing more peasants in other countries than ever before--- just with military industrial complex built drones.  >There's also the unfunded Bush Medicare prescription drug plan.   Yep, that prevents the government from negotiating prices on prescriptions for a token  $10 Billion rebate, but which will yield $10 Trillion in revenues over the next 15 years. Sounds like a great ROI while the costs of drugs is skyhigh in the US.  So what did Obama do? He fed that industry another 30 million new customers without so much as any discount. The government purposely stays out of the negotiation of price. Why? Because the bill was written by insurance industry and healthcare industry executives like most bills are. Healthcare is nice, but its the COST of healthcare that is the issue. If the cost was more reasonable, you wouldnt even need insurance, but because they can charge $70 for a single pair of rubber gloves, when the market price on a BOX is $5-10 we can plainly see the cost of medical care in the US is bloated and we get much less than comparative countries.   Obama is just like Bush, he has enriched the various industries. The only difference between bush and Obama are which industries are enriched. You'll notice I didn't mention enrichment of citizens because they are an afterthought. Obama only needs to SELL the program to citizens, he sold it we bought it.  >You can't seriously think putting those people back in charge will lead to good things.  No I don't think republicans or people like Bush or Romney are necessarily good for us either. The thing I have a problem with is that people like you think Obama is any different. He's not, new president, same as the old president. New speech writer, new cabinet (stuffed with corporate cronies and former lobbyists), but business as usual and marching orders from corporate and private masters."


"Market caps is just the share price, multiplied by the number of shares. It doesn't represent any value (if people decide to pay more or less for the shares, the market cap goes up or down). It does represent what people think the company is worth.  NAV sounds very much like book value. It basically says ""how much cash would we end up with if we sold everything the company owns, paid back all the debt, and closed down the business? "" Since closing down the business is rarely a good idea, this underestimates the value of the business enormously. Take a hairdresser who owns nothing but a pair of scissors, but has a huge number of repeat customers, charges $200 for a haircut, and makes tons of money every year. The business has a huge value, but NAV = price of one pair of used scissors."


"There are so many activities Uber has engaged in that are consistent with being a ""bag of dicks"" that have nothing to do with fighting for the right to operate in cities that I don't think that's a particularly relevant point.  I'd consider being on their side against the cities if they weren't fucking with the compensation for drivers, partnering with Banks to offer predatory vehicle leases to low-credit drivers and turn them essentially into an indentured workforce, or any of the other scummy things they've done over the years.  They're beyond a doubt a bag of dicks."


Usually backtests for (long-term) strategies are evaluated on a end-of-day basis where you only consider close prices. If your strategy performs well in these backtests, hopes are that if you use a market-on-close (MOC) order your performance will not diverge too much from the backtest. The fact that it won't diverge much is important if you keep backtesting the strategy along with the real trading to see regime changes or similar.  If you used end-of-day prices for the backtests but some arbitrary intraday market order, you'd have some difficulties to explain deviations between the two. What it is:  MOC orders can be submitted during the day, but they won't be executed until shortly before the market (or more precise the current session) closes.


An Indonesian company was in need of Letter of Credit to Import Iron Ore in bulk from an Indian Supplier after being rejected by their Bank. They contacted Bronze Wing Trading & obtained their required LC (MT700) and successfully completed their Iron Ore imports.


You can't have it both ways. Either in average blacks are stupider than whites or IQ is a poor measure of intelligence. There's no middle ground.  A standard deviation us enough to matter statistically. That's what a standard deviation means. If IQ measures intelligence, then blacks are statistically less intelligent than whites. Individual variation is accounted for within the model.  I don't believe blacks are stupider than whites, but that's because I believe that IQ is a shitty measure of intelligence and that it doesn't cross cultural barriers well.  You on the other hand think it's perfect so face up to your racism and own it.


"The ethnocentrism that drips off the piece can easily be defined as jingoism.  Is the ""all-American business model defined by offering products that people love at good prices, friendly staff... clean and bright stores?""    These are obviously things the author places highly as positive ideals.  Without historical context, comparative information or any real examination it's clear that the positive correlation relies upon  an excessive bias in judging one's own country as superior to others.   http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jingoism   I apologize for leaning upon the colloquial meaning.  If you were to visit the front page of the OP site you would see it's an easy mistake to make."


"This happened to my review, I had reviewed a new business, and created a yelp account for that reason.  I also reviewed maybe 10 other businesses in two days so I wasn't a one and done account.  My account was flagged, and my first review was put as filtered.  In retrospect, it makes sense.  They want to keep reviews up from consistent yelp users who review alot of businesses.  I think if yelp sees a new account, it flags the first business that person reviews, until its established that person is a regular yelp user.  I would guess this happens alot on yelp.  Someone says ""Review my business, but make sure you review a few others too, so you look like a real user""  The algorithms they have try to catch people like I was.  People who create an account to review one company, and then do 10 reviews in a one week span, only to never log in.  These aren't really good reviews in the grand scheme of things.  For me, I kept using Yelp, and consistently reviewing more businesses.  My review was unflagged a few weeks ago, now that I have 40 or so reviews and add a few each week."


Conversly, then you should not enjoy the benefits privided by being in a union then right?  That seems simple enough, but that's not how it works.   Unions by law have the duty of fair representaion, so even if you are not a member, you still are awarded all the benefits and protections of the contract.   So, it's not that simple, because how do you balance that if not for fair share?  The union still has to pay to protect you, but you don't have to pay for any of the work they do.  So then, if you can get all the benefits of being in the union and not pay a dime for it, why would you?  Seems logical right, it's a good deal, we all want to save money.   Well as everyone stops paying and the union can't afford to operate as it did, like any organization, it restructures and lays off staff.  Now the union no longer has the resources to offer you good representation, which causes the dues paying members to be frustrated and to drop out and or ditch the union entirely.  Now no one in your workplace has a voice, a contract, or any protections.   That may turn out to be great,  but you know, the company wants to save money too..   The company is also no longer obligated to offer you the same wages or benefits that your coworkers negotiated.  So now the company is free to cut wages, benefits and workforce to improve thier bottom line or executive bonuses.


If her job is to build culture and she built it one of the best apparently then get job is done? They don't need to keep paying her unless she's an expert in maintaing culture. You don't keep paying your contractor after your house is built. Seems straight forward.


Congrats on your first real job! Save as much as your can while keeping yourself (relatively) comfortable.  As to where to put your hard earned money, first establish why you want to save the money in the first place. Money is a mean to acquire the things we want or need in your life or the lives of others. Once your goals are set, then follow this order:


If your accounts have an overdraft facility, then every open account is classed as available credit which has a negative effect on your credit score.  It's not normally a major concern but it is a factor.   (nb. this definitely applies to the UK, maybe not where you are)