"I believe you are missing a complete aspect of figuring out price points. You completely disregarded how price affects ""perceived quality"". People generally assume that higher price means higher quality. Pricing too low will give many people the impression that at that price it couldn't be very good, and don't buy the product as a result.  Crown Royal became Crown Royal after being a mediocre brand. They didn't change the way they made whiskey, instead they raised the price by 400%. Now it was viewed as a premium product, simply because of it's price.  While I don't want to knock your view of Tycoon games, but it's just a game with one point of view. It's not the real world. It's just what a programmer thought would make the game interesting. I sure wouldn't consider it to be some source of great business wisdom.  Look at what really happens taking video game consoles and games as an example. They start at a high price point. This makes it prestigious to own. When that price point becomes saturated, meaning everyone that is going to buy at the price already has, they lower the price a little and do the same. Then when everyone that can afford that price has bought one they lower it again. Eventually it gets to a point where almost anyone can afford.  This style taps the market for every price point and is much better model than the one you suggest. There are many things that use this model, like car sales. The end of a model year is the time to buy because everyone that was willing to pay the full price already had and they need to move them off the lot to make room for new cars that will have a higher price point.  So I don't buy into your theory at all.  EDIT: Grammatical error."


"Thirty thousand in credit card debt is a ""big elephant to eat"" so to speak.  But you do it by taking a bite at a time.  One positive is that you do not want to borrow from your 401K.  Doing so is a horrible idea. The first question you have to ask yourself and understand, is how you accumulated 30K in credit card debt in the first place?  Most people get there by running up a relatively small amount, say 5K, and playing the zero transfer game a few times.  Then add in a late payment, and a negative event or two (like the car breaking down or a trip to the emergency room) and poof a large amount of credit card debt.   Obviously, I have no idea if this is how you got there, and providing some insight might help.   Also, your age, approximate income, and other debts might also help provide more insight.  I assume you are still working and under age 59.5 as you are talking about borrowing from your 401K. Where I come from is that my wife (then girlfriend) found ourselves under stifling debt a few years ago.  When we married, we became very intentional and focused on ridding ourselves of debt and now sit completely debt free (including the house).  During our debt payoff time, we lived off of less than 25% of our salary.  We both took extra jobs when we were able.  Intensity was our key.     If I were you, I would not refi the house.  There are costs associated with this and why would you put more debt on your home? I might cash out the annuity provided that there are no negative tax consequences and depending on how much you can get for it.  Numbers are the key here.  However, I feel like doing so will not retire this debt. The first thing you need to do is get on a written budget.  A game plan for spending and stick to it.  If you are married, your spouse has to be part of this process.  The budget has to be fresh each month, and each month you and your wife should meet.  To deviate from the budget, you will also need to have a meeting.  My wife and I still do this despite being debt free and enjoying very healthy incomes. Secondly, it is about cutting expenses.  Cable: off.  No eating out or vacations.  Cut back on cell phone plans, only basic clothing.  Gift giving is of the $5 variety and only for those very close to you.  Forget lattes, etc.  Depending on your income I would cut 401K contributions to zero or only up to the company match (if your household income is above 150K/year). Third, it is about earning more.  Ebay, deliver pizzas, cut grass, overtime, whatever.   All extra dollars go to credit card balance reduction.  At a minimum, you should find an extra $1000/month; however, I would shoot for 2K.  If you can find 2K, you will be done with this in 13 months.  I know the math doesn't work out for that, but once you get momentum, you find more. How good will it feel to be out from under this oppression next March?  I know you can do this without cashing in the annuity or refinancing.  Do you believe it?"


"There is a lot of interesting information that can be found in a fund's prospectus. I have found it very helpful to read books on the issue, one I just finished was ""The Boglehead's Guide to Investing"" which speaks mostly on mutual and index funds. Actively managed funds mean that someone is choosing which stocks to buy and which to sell. If they think a stock will be ""hot"" then they buy it. Research has shown that people cannot predict the stock market, which is why many people suggest index based funds. An index fund generally tracks a group of companies. Example: an index fund of the S&P 500 will try to mimic the returns that the S&P 500 has. Overall, managed funds are more expensive than index funds because the fund manager must be paid to manage it. Also, there is generally more buying and selling so that also increases the tax amount you would owe. What I am planning on doing is opening a Roth IRA with Vanguard, as their funds have incredibly low fees (0.2% on many). One of the most important things you do before you buy is to figure out your target allocation (% of stocks vs % of bonds). Once you figure that out then you can start narrowing down the funds that you wish to invest in."


Some already mentioned that you could pay with your savings and use the credit card as an emergency buffer. However, if you think there is a reasonable chance that your creditcard gets revoked and that you need cash quickly, here is a simple alternative:


So in a ten year history the company makes one misstep (one which makes perfect sense; it was just an error in timing) and we want to throw out all the leadership and take control?   Where is this kind of uproar at investment banks that leveraged themselves out on a limb in stormy waters? Or at Microsoft that routinely pours money down product holes without marketing and advertising support? Or any of a dozen other companies that make stupid decisions driven by the ego or short-sightedness of the CEO?   No, let's beat on one of the best executives on Wall Street because we're whiny about short-term losses in pursuit of long-term gains.   We need more honeypots for stupid investors like Facebook - maybe if enough idiots get burned they'll just get out.


I was referring to insider information as a seperate means of profiting. So I assumed:  1. Fundamental analysis/picking the direction 2. Insider information 3. Gaming the market (illiquid markets)  If this is true. What makes a good market maker? Stoploss/takeprofit management and hope there are enough players in it *not* to win it (i.e. hedge positions) to take profit from?  Sounds very luck base or is there something im missing?  Thanks


Your company wants to raise $25,000,000 for a new project, but flotation costs are incurred by issuing securities (underwriting, legal fees, etc) First you must determine how much of the $25,000,000 is going to be debt and equity. The company's target D/E ratio is 50% (or .50). For every $0.50 of debt raised they want to raise $1.00 in equity. $1.00 + $0.50 = $1.50 $0.50/$1.50 = 1/3 debt, that leaves the equity portion being 2/3. $25,000,000 * (1/3) = $8,333,333.33 (DEBT)  and $25,000,000 * (2/3) = $16,666,666.67 (EQUITY) Using the Weighted Average Cost then you would do something like this: = (1/3) * .04 + 2/3 * .12 = .09333333 =$25,000,000/(1-.093333) = $27,573,529.40


"Why not start a third account, the ""house"" account? However you decide to fund it, equally or in proportion to income, you both chip in, and the payments for all joint expenses come from there. Rent, utilities, food, phone, cable."


Did you buy near the bottom? Suppose you did then the price is still 16% below. 50% fall and then 40% increase leaves a 16% gap. So there could still be upside. However, it appears that you are talking about a small-cap that is volatile. I wouldn't hold it. I would take the money and invest elsewhere. If you have a lot of shares and brokerage is less then sell 60% now and the remaining 40% on either 10-15% jump in price or if it falls by 5% from now. Too risky to hold longer-term.


* stop buying smarthphones * buy dry food in 'bulk', larger packs * Don't go to restaurants, cafés * Don't travel * Don't live in a city where the average rent = $1200  * Don't follow hypes  There are many poor people who are poor because of their poor decision making skills.


If you have an account with a major bank they may trade an over the counter option with you. Just depends how much work you need to go through and how much you are planning on buying.


First, determine the workload he will expect.  Will you have to quit your other work, either for time or for competition?  How much of your current business will be subsumed into his business, if any?  Make sure to understand what he wants from you.  If you make an agreement, set it in writing and set some clear expectations about what will happen to your business (e.g. it continues and is not part of your association with the client).  Because he was a client for your current business, it can blur the lines. Second, if you join him, make sure there is a business entity.  By working together for profit, you will have already formed a partnership for tax purposes.  Best to get an entity, both for the legal protection and also for the clarity of law and accounting.  LLCs are simplest for small ventures; C corps are useful if you have lots of early losses and owners that can't use them personally, or if you want to be properly formed for easy consumption by a strategic.  Most VCs and super-angels prefer everybody be a straight C.  Again, remember to define, as necessary, what you are contributing to be an owner and what you are retaining (your original business, which for simplicity may already be in an entity).  As part of this process, make sure he defines the cap table and any outstanding loans.  Auntie June and Cousin Steve might think their gifts to him were loans or equity purchases; best to clear this issue up early before there's any more money in it. Third, with regard to price, that is an intensely variable question.  It matters what the cap table looks like, how early you are, how much work he's already done, how much work remains to be done, and how much it will pay off.  Also, if you do it, expect to be diluted by other employees, angels, VCs, other investors, strategics, and so on.  Luckily, more investors usually indicates a growing pie, so the dilution may not be at all painful.  But it should still be on your horizon.  You also need to consider your faith in your prospective partner's ability to run the business and to be a trustworthy partner (so you don't get Zuckerberg'd), and to market the business and the product to customers and investors. If you don't like the prospects, then opt for cash.  If you like the business but want to hedge, ask for compensation plus equity.  There are other tricks you could use to get out early, like forced redemption, but they probably wouldn't help either because it'd sour your relationship or the first VC or knowledgeable angel to come along will want you to relinquish that sort of right. It probably comes down to a basic question of your need for cash, his willingness to let you pursue outside work (hopefully high) and your appraisal of the business' prospects.


There can also be too little liquidity to actually make it worthwhile. That's probably the most important difference.  Also, it's easy to get banned if they realise your are doing it on a significant scale (at least that's how it is in the UK).


Chris Rea's comment captures it -- most people don't have working crystal balls. Unless you are a trader, you address risk with diversification. There are several questions on this site discussing strategies to diversify your portfolio. In many ways, the markets offer investors false choices. We have an emotional desire to react to stimuli -- but that often leads to lousy outcomes. For example, selling your NASDAQ 100 fund after its value falls is usually a bad idea.


I know you can't buy in your sector. My point was merely that if you believed you were so good at your job you would quit and trade on your own analyses.  I genuinely believe most analysts try their best and put forth legitimate analyses. The problem is that most believe they're smarter than they are :)


"Is there any way for me to get my money bank? It would be a long drawn process. You would have to file a fraud complaint, they should be able to catch the imposter and / or get a freeze on the account you did wire transfer on [even courts would be involved in process] ... could take lot of time and money. Depending on the amount it may or may not be worth it. If so, should I talk to my bank Your Bank will not take any liability. From their point of view, you deposited a check, they sent it get cleared and reversed the transaction moment they realized it was fraud. the ""vendor's"" bank You could talk to Vendor Bank. However as you have no relationship with them, they may or may not co-operate. If its a large institution they may do their own internal investigations. If you act sooner, they maybe able to place a hold on the account. Often this is a parking account and the funds are moved elsewhere. They will not be able to refund the funds unless the legal system / process is involved. bank that the fraudulent check came from Depending on how the check was made ... the Bank can easily claim that someone printed something with their Bank's name on it and they are not responsible for it. If there are large cases, the Bank may to contain reputational damage may lodge a complaint with Police and put out some advertisement."


Most corporate policies strictly prohibit the card's use for personal use, even if the intent is to re-pay in full, on or before the due date.  I'm certain it has something to do with limitation of liability, i.e. the monetary risk the company is willing to put itself at, in order to offer a corporate card program. In my experience, AMEX Corporate Card Services is the most widely-used card, and in my experience, it is your employer that determines and administers the policy that outlines the card's appropriate use, not the credit card provider, so you're best to check with your employer for a definitive answer to this.


If you put $500 into BTC at $5 you either would have A) Sold at the then ATH $20 or B) Lost faith when it tanked down to $0.50 a month later and been done with it.   Everybody would be rich looking in the past.   I held 300 Eth that I bought (75) at $4 and mined (225). I sold at $20 before the skyrocket to $400. Shit happens.


Price hiking is more of an industry epidemic than something that can be attributed to one person. Not to defend it, but I feel like shkreli has been the scapegoat for big Pharma, everyone does it and they are happy he gets all the public heat.


Most reflationary policies are talking about stopping, so hopefully in 2018 the CBs will stopping buying so much. BOJ is rethinking their policy of buying treasuries when our US yields start to rise (to shrink them and protect their currency).  So hopefully once we get past global QE, things can get back to a more “normal” status.  As far as advice on finding value...err...good luck?  [Growth of Monetary Base and M2 chart in article](https://www.google.com/amp/s/seekingalpha.com/amp/article/4113280-federal-reserve-never-printed-money-part)   Also look at how the money multiplier is shrinking.


**Economy of the Bahamas**  The Bahamas is a stable, developing nation with an economy heavily dependent on tourism and offshore banking. Steady growth in tourism receipts and a boom in construction of new hotels, resorts, and residences had led to solid GDP growth for many years, but the slowdown in the US economy and the attacks of September 11, 2001 held back growth in these sectors in 2001-03. Financial services constitute the second-most important sector of the Bahamian economy, accounting for about 15% of GDP. However, since December 2000, when the government enacted new regulations on the financial sector, many international businesses have left The Bahamas. Manufacturing and agriculture together contribute approximately a tenth of GDP and show little growth, despite government incentives aimed at those sectors. Overall growth prospects in the short run rest heavily on the fortunes of the tourism sector, which depends on growth in the US, the source of more than 80% of the visitors.  ***  ^[ [^PM](https://www.reddit.com/message/compose?to=kittens_from_space) ^| [^Exclude ^me](https://reddit.com/message/compose?to=WikiTextBot&message=Excludeme&subject=Excludeme) ^| [^Exclude ^from ^subreddit](https://np.reddit.com/r/economy/about/banned) ^| [^FAQ ^/ ^Information](https://np.reddit.com/r/WikiTextBot/wiki/index)   ^] ^Downvote ^to ^remove ^| ^v0.21


>Many studies have shown that index funds and passive investing are the most successful strategies for users. This is the opposite of what Robinhood encourages.  I've been with Robinhood awhile now... and I have only used it to purchase shares of index ETFs.  I have never felt encouraged by them to day trade or actively manage investments.


I mean, they're actually pretty successful in their niche.  And Apple creates a huge positive externality.  When someone starts to argue that competition must inevitably lead to a downward spiral of reducing costs, quality, and customer satisfaction, corporations like Apple provide a lovely counterexample.  It's especially good because Apple is so well-liked in general.


If you are regularly taking payments of $10,000 I'm very surprised you aren't already set up to accept credit card payments. If you are going to be doing this much in the future it would be a good thing to investigate. Some other options might be:


Have you purchased a Netgear Wi-Fi Extender and now worried about how to set it up? Do not worry when we are here to provide you some easy steps. Access mywifiext.net, the web based interface of the router and login by using the default credentials of the Netgear Wi-Fi Extender.


Ev_Ehrlich > Dr. Everett M. Ehrlich is one of the nation's leading business economists. His firm, ESC Company, combines economic analysis, business development, and communications skills to solve a wide range of business problems. ESC's diverse clientele have included leading firms in the financial, accounting, pharmaceutical, automotive, and other industries, and such diverse organizations as the Pew Center for Global Climate Change and the Major League Baseball Players Association. He also recently served as Executive Director of the CSIS Commission on Public Infrastructure under co-chairmen Felix Rohatyn and Warren Rudman; a bipartisan bill to enact their recommendations was introduced in the 110th Congress.  >Dr. Ehrlich served in the Clinton Administration as Under Secretary of Commerce for Economic Affairs, the principal economic policy official for Commerce Secretaries Brown and Kantor and chief executive of the nation's statistical system. As such, he led the first comprehensive strategic review of the nation's economic statistics in four decades, leading to a major modernization of featured measures of the economy. He supervised the redesign of the 2000 decennial census. He co-chaired the White House working group on the restructuring of the U.S. economy in the face of information technology, was a leader in the U.S.'s planning effort of the two G-7 AJobs Summits, and oversaw the Administration's economic analysis of global climate change.  >Prior to his service as Under Secretary, Dr. Ehrlich was Vice-President for Economic and Financial Planning, and for Strategic Planning, of Unisys Corporation, from 1988 to 1993. As such, he had responsibilities concerning corporate development and finance, formulating business strategy, and economic forecasting. He reported directly to two chairmen of the company. He has also been the Senior Vice-President and research director of the business-based think tank, the Committee for Economic Development.  >Dr. Ehrlich earlier served as Assistant Director of the Congressional Budget Office, where he directed the CBO program in trade and technology, infrastructure and space transportation, energy and the environment, and agriculture. He joined CBO in 1977, after having served as a Legislative Aide to Congressman John Conyers, Jr., and having briefly taught economics at the university level.  >Dr. Ehrlich is the author of two critically-acclaimed novels: Big Government (1998), and Grant Speaks (2000), both by Warner Books. He was, for eight years, a regular economics commentator on National Public Radio's Morning Edition, and his writings have appeared in The Financial Times, Investors Business Daily, The Christian Science Monitor, The Washington Post, The International Economy, and other publications.  >Dr. Ehrlich was born in New York City in 1950 and is a product of its public schools. He received a B.A. in 1971 from S.U.N.Y. Stony Brook and a Ph.D. in economics in 1975 from the University of Michigan. He lives with his family in Bethesda, Maryland, where he has coached little league, acted in children's theater, been wardrobe master for the high school chorus, and waits for the Washington Nationals to win the World Series.  Bio from [website](http://www.evehrlich.net/about-ev-ehrlich/)


There are three basic concepts finance (as far as I'm concerned). Liquidity is basically an asset's spendability.  Assets range in liquidity from cash (very liquid) to real estate (not very liquid).  You can spend cash immediately, while real estate must first be converted to cash.   Another important concept is your time horizon.  When do you need your money.  Money you need in the near term should be kept in very liquid assets, while money you won't need for a significantly long time can be tied in to something much less liquid. Volatility is the degree to which an assets value is predictable from day to day.  Cash and guaranteed savings accounts have very low volatility, while a stock portfolio will fluctuate in value from day to day, sometimes a lot and sometimes you can lose your initial investment. So really, you need to determine what you need or want this money for, and depending on when you'll need it you can make decisions about whether or not to invest it, or keep it in a savings account, or keep it in literal actual cash. Your TFSA is maxed for the year, so that's out.  Do you have an emergency fund?  Do you want to travel or have other more near term desires that cost money?  If you have a solid financial foundation and already have an emergency fund, you may want to set up a brokerage account and invest in an index fund.  You should not invest money in the stock market unless you are ready to leave it there for at least a few years.  Stocks are volatile but over a long enough period the market generally goes up. In your search for the right index fund, watch out for fees.  Most big brokers will have a list of funds you can invest in with no up front fees and no commission.  The fund itself will charge an expense ratio, look for an index fund with an expense ratio around 0.10%.  This means you'll pay 0.10% of your holdings each year to the fund manager.   No matter how much money we're talking about, I wouldn't put more than half in the market.  Dip your toe in, get used to the value fluctuating.  Don't start reading about technical analysis and derivative trading.  Just put your money in a very low fee big market index and let it ride.


Not doing this would defeat the entire purpose of a VAT. The reason for a VAT rather than a simple sales tax is that it's harder to evade. Having a simple sales tax with the type of rates that VAT taxes typically are is unworkable because evasion is too easy. Imagine I'm a retailer. I buy products from a wholesaler and sell them to consumers. With a sales tax, if I don't charge the customer sales tax, the customer is happy and I don't care (assuming I don't get caught). And if I keep the sales tax but don't report the sale, I make a lot of money. Now, imagine a VAT. If I don't charge the customer the VAT, I lose money since I paid the VAT on the wholesale products. And if I don't report the sale, how do I claim my VAT refund?


You need a mixture of real estate, funds, and cash in the bank. Putting all your eggs in one basket is never wise.  I would also stay away from land-banking period... Like you had mentioned, scam after scam after scam... Here in Tokyo, Royal Siam Trust (White Sands Beach?) is the token land-banking scam... funny enough it was hosted by the OP...


"Yes, very prohibitive. A common thing I was doing over 8 years ago was SHA1(MD5(""username"")+""password"")), in fact.   The problem with this method is that later one we wanted the users to be able to change their username, so instead we started doing something like this:  SHA256(MD5(""timestamp of account creation"")+SHA-1(""password"")+CustomSieve(""password""+""password""))  CustomSieve was a script that used every even character's ASCII binary representation to modify the string itself. Like my own hashing function that was not good enough for professional use, but unique enough that it drastically changed the final SHA-256 hash. Most people would probably say this was overkill, but I didn't want to just be sending two hex hashes into a SHA256 in case some day someone created a rainbow table specifically designed to crack hashes of hashes.  The timestamp of account creation was stored with the username in it's own table and accessing that table was logged differently and audited separately, so a hacker would have to be doing some really weird things in order to get that info."


Ditto Rocky. Also: Break the sale up over several tax years so that you don't have a spike in your income pushing you into a higher tax bracket. Don't sell it until you retire, when you're probably in a lower tax bracket. (If you're 20, this may be impractical.) Get some other deductions, like medical expenses, charity, etc. Failing that, maybe a couple of other ideas that neither of us thought of, I think the real answer is: suck it up and pay the taxes. If there was a way to reduce your taxes just by checking the right box on a tax form or some such, everybody would do it and the government wouldn't collect any taxes.


What about the debt attached to more recently purchased properties, purchased at the price before the market gets flooded with baby-boomer homes? I'm not an expert in real estate finance, but it sounds like if that downward pressure on prices isn't slight, financial institutions will be taking that risk for anyone who defaults on a mortgage after their property loses a substantial amount of its value.  It seems like immigration could play an important role in offsetting this and keeping the prices stable, but that's a politically unpredictable issue to say the least.


"No, it is not true. That is one of the many ""conspiracy theorists'"" claims to not pay taxes, and is considered as frivolous (i.e.: punishable by very harsh penalties and criminal prosecution). Specifically to your question, the current Federal income tax framework was laid down in 1986, with the Tax Reform Act of 1986. It is codified under the title 26 of the US Code. It is usually referred to as the ""Internal Revenue Code"", or IRC."


Value is one area where economic theories tend to diverge and the (very) basic schools of thought both have excellent points in their favor. You've identified both here; one being that economic value can always be determined by net labor* or at least cost of inputs and the other being that economic value does not exist in and of itself and that only a market can determine value. In some ways it is just a question of world-view as much as anything but the concepts of natural prices or innate worth are difficult to argue against. At the same time, without exchange the concept of value has little meaning. So, as usual, it is some sophistry mixed with some sense.  Both have elements of truth and both are considerably more complex than they seem at first. Interestingly though, neither seems to work very well as predictive models despite providing the basis for some incredibly complex and interesting mathematical workups.       * Note that net labor is the sum of ALL labor involved and is incredibly difficult to quantify accurately.


"**[Risikostyring](http://dymanassociates.blogspot.nl/)** skal håndtere usikkerhet og omfatter tiltak å identifisere, vurdere,overvåke og redusere virkningen av risikoene for bedriften.   En god risikostyringsplan med aktuelle risk management strategier kan minimerekostbar og stressende problemer, og kan også redusere forsikringskrav og bonuser.Det er fem trinn til å utvikle din risikostyringsplan.   **TRINN 1: DEFINERE RISIKO SAMMENHENG**   Identifisere hvor eller under hvilke omstendigheter risikoen inntreffer. For eksempel, enbestemt arbeidsstedet, avdeling, fungerer delen, detaljhandel butikk gren, eller etteruvær.   **TRINN 2: RISIKOIDENTIFIKASJON**   Identifisere risikoer som kan påvirke oppnåelse av virksomhetens mål.   Beskrive risiko. Hva kan skje? Vurdere hvordan og hvorfor det kan skje. Beskriverkonsekvensene av risiko-hva skjer hvis risikoen oppstår?   -Systematisk arbeid gjennom hver funksjon eller en scene av driften og identifisere hvasom kan skje for hver funksjon.  -Foreta en gjennomgang av poster og rapporter for å finne ting som har gått galt isiste.  -Analysere dine systemer og prosesser for å identifisere kritiske punkter.  -Brainstorm med ansatte eller kollegaer.   **TRINN 3: RISIKOVURDERING**   Dette trinnet omfatter analyse av sannsynlighet og konsekvenser identifiserte risikoerbruker til beskyttelsestiltak.   -Se på de eksisterende kontrollene for hver risiko. Identifisere hva din bedrift gjør for åkontrollere denne risikoen.  -Sats effektiviteten av eksisterende kontroller i å forebygge risikoen fra ender ellerredusere virkningen skal det skje. Angi om eksisterende kontroller er adekvat, moderateller mangelfulle.   Sannsynligheten er en kvalitativ beskrivelse av sannsynlighet og frekvens. Hva ersannsynligheten for at risikoen oppstår? Velg beskrivelsen som best beskriversannsynligheten av risikoen oppstår (med eksisterende kontrolltiltak sted) risiko analyseMatrix.   Konsekvensen er resultatet av en hendelse eller situasjon, blir et tap, skade, ulempeeller gevinst. Hva er konsekvensen av hendelsen risiko? Velg beskrivelsen som bestbeskriver konsekvensene av risiko (med eksisterende kontrolltiltak sted) risiko analyseMatrix.   Risiko vurdering = konsekvens vurdering x sannsynligheten vurdering. På risiko analyseMatrix finne krysset av sannsynlighet og konsekvens rangeringer valgt for risikoen.   Risiko prioritet gir en indikasjon på hvor raskt du trenger å implementere en strategifor å behandle risikoen. Gå til legenden på risiko analyse matrisen og finne risikoprioriteten tilsvarende risiko vurdering fastslått ovenfor.   **[TRINN 4: RISIKO STRATEGIER](https://www.facebook.com/dyamanassociatesproject)**   Målet med denne fasen er å utvikle kostnadseffektive alternativer for behandling avhver risiko. Bestemme den beste behandling valget fra fem metodene nedenfor.   1) Eliminer risikoen ved avvikling aktiviteten eller fjerne hinderet dvs ikke gjennomføreaktiviteten som sannsynligvis vil utløse risikoen.   Vurder følgende faktorer når fastsettelse av gyldigheten av dette alternativet for åunngå:  -Hva vil skje hvis aktiviteten ikke er gjennomført?  -Er risikonivået for høy å fortsette eller fortsette med aktiviteten?  -Er kostnaden for nødvendig kontrollene høyere enn fordelen med aktiviteten?  -Må svikt i aktiviteten kritisk konsekvenser for andre deler av virksomheten din?  -Vurdere årsakene for å unngå risikoen. Er din bedrift unødvendig risiko uvillig?  -Vil uttalelsen øke betydningen av andre risikoer eller føre til tap av muligheter forgevinst?   2) godta risikoen bare ta sjansen til å pådra de negative konsekvensene. Du kanallerede gjøre alt rimelig å redusere risikoen, men det kan ikke være helt eliminert.   3) Reduser sannsynligheten for at risikoen inntreffer for å redusere de negativeresultatene. Sannsynligheten for at risikoen reduseres? Forebyggende vedlikehold, ellerkvalitetssikring og styring, endre i systemer og prosesser.   4) redusere konsekvensene at risikoen inntreffer. Kan virkningen av konsekvensenekontrollert eller redusert hvis risikoen oppstår? Gjennom beredskap planlegging,redusere eksponering for kilder til Risiko eller separasjon eller flytting av en virksomhetog ressurser.   5) overføre risikoen kan helt eller delvis oppnås gjennom flytte ansvaret til en annenpart eller dele risikoen gjennom en kontrakt, forsikringsordninger, eller partnerskap/sog joint ventures.   **TRINN 5: OVERVÅKING OG GJENNOMGANG**   Risikostyring er en pågående prosess. Selv om de eksisterende kontrolltiltak ertilstrekkelig trenger du regulært å overprøve om noe har endret seg som kan hainnvirkning på risikoen spørsmål du har identifisert.   Når foreslått kontrollene er fullført revurdere risikoen ved å foreta vanlige risikovurderinger og vurdere framdriften for og effekten av valgte risiko strategier.   Når foreslått kontrollene er fullført revurdere risikoen ved å foreta vanlige risikovurderinger og vurdere framdriften for og effekten av valgte risiko strategier.   **[RISIKO ANALYSE MATRISE](http://media-cache-ec0.pinimg.com/originals/41/97/49/41974968fb8080c6a21e9347a80bdfd1.jpg)**   **[RISIKO TYPER](http://www.smallbusiness.wa.gov.au/insurance-risk-management-plan/)**   Nivå og typen risiko som du må vurdere varierer avhengig av typen virksomhet duopererer. Det er imidlertid vanlige kategorier som du kan bruke til å veilede dintenkning og utvikling av din risikostyring plan. De vanligste virksomhet risikokategoriene er som følger:   **Kommersielle:** inkluderer risikoen forbundet med Markedsplassering, vekst,diversifisering og kommersiell suksess. Dette gjelder den kommersielle levedyktighetenav et produkt eller tjeneste, og strekker seg gjennom for oppbevaring og deretter vekstav en kundebase.   **Samsvar / juridiske:** inkluderer juridiske krav som lover, forskrifter, standarder,forskrifter og kontraktskravene. Denne kategorien strekker seg også til samsvar medflere ""regler"" som retningslinjer, prosedyrer eller forventninger som kan angis avkontrakter, kunder eller det sosiale miljøet.   **Økonomisk:** inkluderer kontantstrøm, budsjettmessige krav, skatteforpliktelser, kreditorog debitor, godtgjørelse og andre generelle ledelse bekymringer.   **Helse & sikkerhet:** omfatter sikkerhet for alle knyttet til virksomheten. Dette utvider frapersonlige sikkerhet, arbeidsplass sikkerhet, offentlig sikkerhet og sikkerhet oghensiktsmessigheten av produkter eller tjenester levert av virksomheten.   **Driftsmiljø:** inkluderer tap eller skade på ulykker eller naturkatastrofer som brann, flom,hagl eller stormer. Kan utvide til eiendommen skader forårsaket av burst vannrør ellerstrømbrudd.   **Rykte:** innebærer trusselen mot omdømmet til virksomheten på grunn av utførelsen avforetaket som helhet, levedyktigheten til produktet eller tjenesten ellergjennomføringen av ansatte eller andre personer knyttet til virksomheten.   **Strategisk:** inkluderer planlegging, områdemaskinen og ressurser kravene foretablering, opprettholde og/eller vekst i virksomheten.   **Operative:** dekker planlegging, operative aktiviteter, ressurser (inkludert mennesker) ogkreves i driften av en virksomhet som resulterer i den vellykkede utviklingen oglevering av et produkt eller tjeneste.   **Tjenesten levering:** gjelder levering av tjenester, inkludert kvaliteten oghensiktsmessigheten av tjenesten, eller måten som et produkt leveres, inkludertkundeservice samhandling og ettermarked.   **Prosjekt:** inkluderer håndtering av utstyr, økonomi, ressurser, teknologi, tidsrammer ogpersoner knyttet til forvaltningen av prosjekter. Det utvider interne operativeprosjekter, prosjekter knyttet til forretningsutvikling og eksterne prosjekter som degjennomført for klienter.   **Sikkerhet:** omfatter total sikkerhet i forretningslokaler, eiendeler og mennesker, ogstrekker seg til sikkerheten for informasjon, immaterielle og teknologi.   **Utstyr:** utvider til utstyret som brukes for drift og gjennomføring av virksomheten. Detinkluderer den generelle driften av utstyr, vedlikehold, hensiktsmessighet, avskrivning,sikkerhet og oppgradering.   **Teknologi:** inkluderer implementering, administrasjon, vedlikehold og oppgraderingertilknyttet teknologi. Dette gjelder også anerkjenner behovet for og kost-nytteforbundet med teknologi som en del av en utvikling forretningsstrategi.   **Interessenthåndtering:** gjelder styring av interessenter, og inkluderer identifisere,etablere og opprettholde en passende forhold. Dette inkluderer både interne ogeksterne interessenter.   **Få Mer Informasjon @ [http://dymanassociatesprojects.com/](http://dymanassociatesprojects.com/)**"


I would say you can ignore calls but not a summons.  You can send a drop dead letter at anytime too if they keep calling. Here is an example one.  http://www.fdcpaclaims.com/gathering-evidence-to-win-my-fdcpa-claim/what-constitutes-abuse-of-the-fdcpa/sample-drop-dead-letter/ John Oliver, on a show not too long ago, illustrated very plainly that this can be passed around from 3rd party to 3rd party with no evidence that you even owe money.  And every time a new third party gets word that you might owe money a whole new round of calling could begin. So off topic but... If they decide to take it to court and you do not show, the court rules against you and you will owe the money even if you didn't.  It's absolutely crazy. Never ignore a court summons.


Its a toss up. $15k is obviously huge for a startup, but depending on what they do, with google being the first way so many people look for something, a great website with wonderful SEO might mean so many more people will find you. Compare it to buying a half page ad in the yellow pages 15 years ago. It might have a very quick ROI


Shifting money from one person to another does not increase overall spending, and it definitely does not increase the amount of productive work done.  New or expanding businesses create new jobs, and increase overall wealth.  If rich people really sit on vaults full of cash, as you imply, it would have a deflationary effect, increasing the real wages of the poor. This does not happen, however. Rich peoples' wealth will either be spent, invested, or given away, the same as the poor do with their money.


Going into a business with the potential to grow is the high risk/high reward option. If it pans out, you could do brilliantly, but there's a very real chance you'll work like a dog for years and have nothing to show for it at the end other than debt. Even if the business is successful, if you aren't careful with the structure, you might not benefit.  Do all the research you can, so you can understand the risks and opportunities as much as possible. Then you can evaluate whether it's worth it.  Welding is something you can always go back to if the business doesn't pan out. If you go with the business plan, have some criteria for success or failure. Don't end up caught in the sunk costs fallacy. If the business isn't going to provide a better life than working, pull the plug early.


If you'll actually read the quote, they've invested substantial amounts of money in modernization, including route optimization, machine automation, and facility consolidation. The only thing antiquated about their approach is that they remain attached to an arbitrary mandate that forces them to be inefficient because congress knows nothing about logistics and operates purely on the grounds of sentimentality, not the best interest of their constituents.  Well, uniform pricing is part of their mandate. Price, wage, and quality uniformity are staples of marxist dogma.  https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/United_States_Postal_Service  https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/United_States_Postal_Service#cite_note-3  > The USPS is legally obligated to serve all Americans, regardless of geography, at uniform price and quality.  There is no compelling reason why they should pay the same and charge the same across the US. The labor market varies accross the US, as do conditions that affect timely delivery. Pretending that this is not a fact is the exact reason why the postal service is repelling customers and posting multibillion dollar deficiets every year, at our expense.


"Leverage means you can make more investments with the same amount of money.  In the case of rental properties, it means you can own more properties and generate more rents.  You exchange a higher cost of doing business (higher interest fees) and a higher risk of total failure, for a larger number of rents and thus higher potential earnings. As with any investment advice, whenever someone tells you ""Do X and you are guaranteed to make more money"", unless you are a printer of money that is not entirely true. In this case, taking more leverage exposes you to more risk, while giving you more potential gain.  That risk is not only on the selling front; in fact, for most small property owners, the risk is primarily that you will have periods of time of higher expense or lower income.  These can come in several ways: If you weather these and similar problems, then you will stand to make more money using higher leverage, assuming you make more money from each property than your additional interest costs.  As long as you're making any money on your properties this is likely (as interest rates are very low right now), but making any money at all (above and beyond the sale value) may be challenging early on.   These sorts of risks are magnified for your first few years, until you've built up a significant reserve to keep your business afloat in downturns.  And of course, any money in a reserve is money you're not leveraging for new property acquisition - the very same trade-off.  And while you may be able to sell one or more properties if you did end up in a temporarily bad situation, you also may run into 2008 again and be unable to do so."


People typically present themselves to be as wealthy as possible to banks and as poor as possible to the government at tax time.  Gross income is really the most reliable number for most folks. Your and your employer are required by law to report an accurate gross income figure annually. Anything else is totally situational.  All they are doing anyway is computing your total debt-to-income ratio and mortgage-to-income ratio. The government agencies that buy mortgages, the big bank that buys the mortgage or the self-underwriting bank has differing standards for different products.


"No, it doesn't really matter at all.  This guy can spend $5 million a year for the rest of his life and still die being worth nine figures.  I guarantee you that tiny things like ""losing out on a couple of months interest"" will _never_ be a problem for him."


How do I account for this in the bookkeeping? Here is an example below:  This is how you would accurately depict contributions made by an owner for a business. If you would want to remove money from your company, or pay yourself back, this would be called withdrawals. It would be the inverse of the first journal entry with cash on the credit side and withdrawals on the debited side (as it is an expense).  You and your business are not the same thing. You are two different entities. This is why you are taxed as two different entities. When you (the owner) make contributions, it is considered to be the cash of the business. From here you will make these expenses against the business and not yourself.  Good luck,


Real estate. The value of the house where I live going up 15% per year! From 2004-2009. Sold for $92k in 1980 now valued at $524k. Twice the rate of inflation in that timeframe.   None of it makes sense nor is it sustainable = asset bubble. In my zip code the median income is $162k and median house value $808k (Source: US Census Bureau, American Community Survey 2012). That averages out 5x annual income.   In LA and Las Vegas that ratio is even worse, where most of these HELs and HELOCs are going to blow up. This article is accurate. People use these loans to replace their stagnating or falling wages. And its a lot of people.


>Says who?  Says the business that created the position.  Are they looking for someone to work all day, every day, and therefore require a full salary that supports adult life? Or are they looking for someone to cover a 4 hour shift a few nights a week in their spare time?  >Companies could easily cut a third of their workers and increase hours...  Why would they do that? That's a horrible business move.  If the job you need done is unskilled and no-responsibility, it just makes sense to hire teenagers and students to do it. They want beer money, and you want a simple job done cheap. Everyone wins.  Aldis, Costco, etc have different business models. They pay more to attract better employees, but not every business follows their model - nor could they.   As I said before, the problem is that we have a lack of actual full time jobs available. Not that fast food places pay beer money or refuse to turn register positions into career opportunities.  You can't empathize your way out of reality.


Used in our daily activities goes out the house and acquire different things which our family wants. But since the economy isn't doing well these days, thinking about the High dividend stocks is important. One factor that must be taken into account could be the expense.   If you're accustomed with buying what you see without even looking at the package price, you better customize the way you live your life. Perseverance is incredibly essential for you to be able to find the high dividend stocks. If possible, you need to seek a cheaper alternative on the pricey items you used to purchase. Be patient and save cash!


I just wanted to add one factor to the other answers. The cost of maintenance etc. is not a fraction of the cost of financing - it is more likely a fraction of the value of the house, and a function of its age. If you say you need to replace a roof every 25 years, and that costs $10,000 (depends on the size of the house, obviously), then you need to set aside $400 a year for roof repair. Other costs (painting, flooring, kitchen, bathrooms, water heaters, heating, AC, yard upkeep etc) can be roughly estimated in the same way. A rule of thumb is 1% of the value of the house per year to cover all big-ticket maintenance. If you pay 4% mortgage, that would increase the reserve by 25%; but if interest rates rise, the fraction may be smaller (I remember paying over 10% mortgage...). In general, whether keeping a property for long term rental income (with the potential for appreciation - but prices can go up and down) is a good idea will largely depend on your ability to predict future costs and value. If you have a variable mortgage, that will be harder to do.


If you were married the 250K protection can be expanded by the use of joint and individual accounts. A separate limit also exists for IRA accounts.  With out those options you will have to put some additional money into another banking institution. This could be a bank or credit union. You have to be careful to make sure that any additional accounts have FDIC or NCUA (for Credit Unions) coverage. Some banking institutions try and turn customers to non-covered accounts that are either investment accounts or use a 3rd party to protect them. You could also use it to invest in US government bonds through Treasury direct. Though for just the few months that you will be in the excess position it probably isn't worth the hassle of treasury direct.


"It's not hard, but it requires effort, and understanding what one is looking at. The social networks aimed at geeks failed or are not exposed to failure (Google+ would be the poster boy) so I assume this network would appeal at general users.    The assumption that the general user  1. detects what's happening 2. understands "" "" 3. cares about "" ""  doesn't hold water. The pool of users with the three characteristics is small, and their attention span is also limited because it's not their own work and they want to be users."


As someone who plans on going into academia to research neural networks and machine learning, people sometimes comment about how I'll be a poor post-doc into my 30s. Though true, somehow, I'm pretty sure I'll be the one getting the last laugh.


"Employers generally prefer to hire someone already working in the same position because they don't want to invest in training (and because they don't know what else they should be looking for when they hire instead).   While this might make sense on the surface, it fails to take into account that they are in fact paying for this prior training (i.e., experience) through higher starting salaries as well as productivity losses through [imperfect portability of prior work experience](http://sloanreview.mit.edu/article/when-stars-migrate-do-they-still-perform-like-stars/).   This game of hiring musical chairs punishes both new graduates and job seekers who by default lack the ""right"" work experience because they're working in jobs for which they are [considered overqualified](http://www.businessinsider.com/millennials-overqualified-for-their-jobs-2014-7).   Sure, you can blame them for not getting the right internships, but this ignores how competitive getting an internship is and how [companies are disincentivized to hire interns](http://www.entrepreneur.com/article/234439) in the first place."


I think you just pulled that from your backside. I can assure you, a large amount of tax leaves the countryside and gets sucked into the cities. Besides that, most rural roads are in bad shape, as is the power infrastructure so tell me where is the subsidy? I also pay a fortune for internet, no subsidy there either. So your gloss over, cover all, statement is false.


You should check several things: How your business can deduct your child care expenses is beyond me. If your mother-in-law starts a business as a neighborhood babysitter, she might get some deductions for her related expenses though.


Sears Holdings (parent company of Sears, Kmart & part owner of lands end) is NOT a retail company. They do not care about your shopping experience.  It's a hedge fund trying to bleed the most 'shareholder value' from a stone.  (The stories I could tell about that POS system... where I allowed)


"Someone posted a very insightful article on reddit a while back that basically explained the whole cable pricing model and why ""a la carte"" wouldn't work (or would be so prohibitively expensive that nobody would go for it).   IIRC, the breakdown was that basically a few super popular channels and live sports in the standard $100/mo package helped ""subsidize"" the rest of the less popular channels.      Most of the niche channels probably couldn't exist in an ""a la carte"" environment unless they were ridiculously cheap... and if they were ridiculously cheap, they wouldn't be able to generate enough revenue to stay afloat.   Also - how would the pricing work?  Could I ""subscribe"" to AMC for 1 hour a week to watch Mad Men?  Or would I be locked into subscribing for a minimum of a day / week / month?      IMHO, what makes more sense is to allow people to subscribe to individual shows like RSS feeds."


"Some benefits of having a business checking account (versus a personal checking account) are: The first 3 should be pretty easy to determine if they are important to you. #4 is a little more abstract, though I see you have an LLC taxed as a sole proprietorship, and so I'm guessing protecting your personal assets may have been one of the driving reasons you formed the LLC in the first place. If so, ""following through"" with the business account is advised."


To piggyback on a comment that @enderland posted, if you have some extra cash saved, something worth considering is to evaluate your current retirement accounts to determine future tax liability. In Canada, there exist Roth IRA-like Tax Free Savings Accounts (TFSA) which are pre-taxed (meaning that you pay all taxes up front when you deposit monies to this account rather than when you withdraw them during retirement after they have grown in interest). Depending on the type of account your retirement funds are currently held in, it might be financially advantageous of you to save your extra money in a short term savings account, transfer your current retirement savings from a post-tax account to a TFSA and use that extra money to pay off any immediate tax liability incurred as a result of the transfer.  You will have to run the numbers yourself to determine if your retirement account setup, balance and interest justifies this route but given your age there is a fairly high chance that you can end up saving many tens of thousands of dollars in taxes that might be otherwise be due when you retire.


"> I'm not aware of anyone making a screening tool that can integrate all of these things simultaneously. What is the best environment to create a tool like this?  Everyone has one but they're all proprietary. Most common new stuff I've seen in the HF space are C# or Python. R is growing significantly in the space, but it lends itself to one-off data analysis better than writing large applications that have to do a lot of other ""stuff"", where Python's module universe is more exhaustive.  Everyone is going to recommend whatever languages *they* are comfortable with, but the correct answer is probably whatever *you* are most comfortable with."


I don't know anything about Australian tax law, the Australian real estate market, or your parents' ability to repay the loan. However, no matter what the answers to those questions are, I do not recommend that you go through with this.  The reason is the risk. Usually, with an investment, you are risking the money that you invest. However, with this investment, you are not only risking the money; you are also risking both you and your fiancé's relationship with your parents.  If your parents have trouble paying back this money in a few years when you need it for your house, how will that affect how you feel about your parents? How will that affect how your fiancé feels about them? It will make family gatherings very awkward for everyone at least. Don't put family harmony at risk for the sake of an extra 2.8% return. There are other ways to invest that risk only money.


"Why is it that people who know nothing about games constantly attempt to write about them? Games as a subscription service is a stupid idea for oh so many reasons.  As an aside  >""Pay $10 per month month, and immediately gain the ability to download over 100 games. Unlike Netflix, you're not streaming games — you outright download them."".  No shit, because streaming something the size of GTA V would be a phenomenally stupid idea."


"VAT = Value Added Tax (as an Aussie think ""GST"") This is applicable in Britain. Basically, if you were in Britain, and if you could claim VAT as a deduction, that invoice is not sufficient proof to make the claim. But you're in Oz so it doesn't apply to you in any case. For work-related deductions like book purchases, see http://www.ato.gov.au/individuals/content.asp?doc=/content/00216829.htm&pc=001/002/068/001/002&mnu=&mfp=&st=&cy=1  Issues such as the books being second hand or purchased online are not cited in the instructions as relevant/limiting factors. In fact, if you really want to get into the nitty gritty, you could claim the work-related proportion of your internet access fees as a deduction (question D5 instructions, above, cover that as well)."


"I work for a health billing company. It is completely the provider's responsibility to bill your health insurance in a timely manner if they have your health insurance information on file (it sounds like they did). If you can gather a copy of your EOB (Explanation of Benefits) from your health insurance, it will likely say something to the extent of: ""claim was submitted after the timely filing limit, therefore no payment was made. The patient is not liable for the remaining balance."" Don't let the hospital/physician bully you into paying for something they should have submitted to the insurance in the first place."


Business is a really broad category of disciplines that no one book could ever possibly cover.   Given your background in psychology though, you might be into marketing or behavioral economics. Try out **Switch: How to Change Hard Things When Change is Hard** by  Chip and Dan Heath.   Also, try out Planet Money episodes.


I liked some of the video and I think you could do a lot worse.  But I also thought at times he made statements seem like they were agreed on outcomes/a known certainty , when they were really his opinion.


You should also mention that the maidan was very unpopular in east ukraine and seen as encouraged by the west, as a possible expansion of NATO into the neutral zone. The situation is not easily distilled into pure Russian aggression. Many of them actually prefer authoritarian govt.


##Glass–Steagall legislation The Glass–Steagall legislation describes four provisions of the U.S. Banking Act of 1933 separating commercial and investment banking.  The article 1933 Banking Act describes the entire law, including the legislative history of the provisions covered here.  (The common name comes from the names of the Congressional sponsors, Senator Carter Glass and Representative Henry B. Steagall. A separate 1932 law described in the article Glass–Steagall Act of 1932, had the same sponsors, and is also referred to as the Glass–Steagall Act.)  The separation of commercial and investment banking prevented securities firms and investment banks from taking deposits, and commercial Federal Reserve member banks from:  dealing in non-governmental securities for customers  investing in non-investment grade securities for themselves  underwriting or distributing non-governmental securities  affiliating (or sharing employees) with companies involved in such activities  Starting in the early 1960s, federal banking regulators interpretations of the Act permitted commercial banks, and especially commercial bank affiliates, to engage in an expanding list and volume of securities activities.  ***  ^[ [^PM](https://www.reddit.com/message/compose?to=kittens_from_space) ^| [^Exclude ^me](https://reddit.com/message/compose?to=WikiTextBot&message=Excludeme&subject=Excludeme) ^| [^Exclude ^from ^subreddit](https://np.reddit.com/r/business/about/banned) ^| [^FAQ ^/ ^Information](https://np.reddit.com/r/WikiTextBot/wiki/index)   ^] ^Downvote ^to ^remove


Does the thought of finding Auckland parking get your stress levels peaking? If you’re nodding in agreement, say farewell to parking anxiety with Inugo. Not only can this parking app help you find a carpark in the City of Sails, but it also saves you time and extra cash. Simply type in the location you want to find parking in and Inugo will display a single-view map of available parking locations and prices.


"I 100% agree with you.  I didn't want to steer the conversation down that path.  I am in no way disregarding your comment here, but in the spirit of keeping this conversation on a linear track...  What I am trying to get across is ""in many cases, Corp BK laws are being used in a way that was not the original intent of the laws"".  Now I agree that Copr and Personal BK laws have been legislated and morphed in part due to lobbyist and corporate interest - but I wasn't even going to even open that can of exploding worms."


The big problem with your argument is the 10% per year figure, because in the long term (especially if adjusted for inflation) the prices have not been going up nearly that fast. Here is a site with some nice graphs for prices over the last 40 years, and it's pretty clear to see that pretty much just what you were talking about happened, prices outpaced the ability of people to pay, which progressively locked out more and more first time buyers, and eventually that breaks the cycle, pops the bubble, and the prices adjust. There is always of course the choice to NOT buy a house, and just rent, or if you had the feeling that you are near the top of a bubble, SELL and go back to renting.  It's interesting to note that in general, rental rates did not increase at nearly the same pace as the prices in the recent bubble. (which of course made it harder for anyone who bought 'investment' properties in the recent 8 years or so to cover their payments via rental revenue.)


Thank you! I wish I had some friends here to celebrate but I moved here for a relationship and a job. I had to pass to keep my job so I have been studying since I got here. The guy broke up with me three weeks ago so here I am.


i suppose you have two choices then: vote for him, and prove him wrong, or vote for the other guy(s) and prove him right.   he's the only one talking about *cutting* government spending. everyone else seems content to tinker about the edges, or is proposing spending increases.


I started a group last year called The Creative Coalition of Southern Illinois, our aim is to help artists network and collaborate with other artists. We also provide classes and set up local events. Something like that would be of interest to me as my group is still quite unorganized and would love to learn how to organize things better. I'm also interested in setting up systems/networks to help artists find jobs.  I'm open to many different types of art start ups, I love art and would enjoy being involved in most projects. What do you know of?


"These sort of issues in structuring your personal finances relative to expenses can get complicated quickly, as your example demonstrates.  I would recommend a solution that reduces duplication as much as possible- and depending on what information you're interested in tracking you could set it up in very different ways. One solution would be to create virtual sub accounts of your assets, and to record the source of money rather than the destination.  Thus, when you do an expense report, you can limit on the ""his"" or ""hers"" asset accounts, and see only the expenses which pertain to those accounts (likewise for liabilities/credit cards). If, on the other hand, you're more interested in a running sum of expenses- rather than create ""Me"" and ""Spouse"" accounts at every leaf of the expense tree, it would make much more sense to create top level accounts for Expenses:His:etc and Expenses:Hers:etc.  Using this model, you could create only the sub expense accounts that apply for each of your spending (with matching account structures for common accounts)."


"What interests me in the article is the way California seems to be quite happy to be losing people who pay taxes because the state can so easily attract new warm bodies. What happens to a state when there is no incentive to retain its people?   It struck a cord with me because I've been reading about the history of mining. If an industry can always bring in newer, poorer people, conditions for those working in that industry will never rise. In mining, conditions can be so bad that you can almost think of it as if the workers are expendable. Working conditions can be so bad that many die each year and nobody seems to care because if one group of workers gets a little uppity, management simply starts importing them from another country.   You can disagree but I see a parallel with California.Sure one is an industry and one is a country but this is a state that seems more than the rest of the country to depend on cheap Mexican labor. As Mexico stopped breeding people for export, California begin to simply import new slave labor from Honduras or any other place that still exports people as though they were only cattle. Of course this makes it difficult for those who came in an earlier wave to improve quality of life. In fact, life gets harder and grittier. Just look at what happened to the world class famous free public education in California. Yeah, distant memory now.   I also wonder if allowing California to ignore national immigration law, is good for the rest of the nation. What about this quote:  ""Also, more than 30% of the nation’s welfare recipients are Californians – even though California has just 12% of the nation’s population.  It is not surprising, therefore, that California is ranked number one in poverty.""  California has so many electoral votes that I don't expect to see them prosecuted by the federal government (like AZ) no matter what they do. The state is too big to piss off. But it is becoming a cancer to the rest of the nation?"


"If you have maxed out your IRA contribution for 2017 already (and it all went into your Roth IRA), then, until the 2017 Tax Day in April 2018, you can remove any part of this contribution (and the earnings therefrom) from your Roth IRA without any tax consequences or penalties. If you discover in early 2018 that you are not eligible (or only partially eligible) to contribute to a Roth IRA, then of course you must remove all (or part) of your 2017 contributions (and the earnings therefrom) from your Roth IRA by the 2017 Tax Day in April 2018. Indeed, if you have filed for an extension of time to submit your 2017 tax return, then you have until the extended due date to make the withdrawal. As NathanL's answer points out, for 2017, you and withdraw and re-contribute ""as many times as you like"" though if you push this idea to excess with the same IRA custodian, the custodian may start charging fees.  Note that IRS Publication 590b says in the Roth IRA section, Withdrawals of contributions by due date.   If you withdraw contributions (including any net earnings on the contributions) by the due date of your return for the year in which you made the contribution, the contributions are treated as if you never made them. If you have an extension of time to file your return, you can withdraw the contributions and earnings by the extended due date. The withdrawal of contributions is tax free, but you must include the earnings on the contributions in income for the year in which you made the contributions. Now, if in the middle of all these transactions, you need to take a distribution from your Roth IRA during 2017 (say because you have a cash flow problem), then it makes a lot of sense to first withdraw all your 2017 contributions and the earnings therefrom. If more money is needed, than you can take a distribution from your Roth IRA. What the distribution consists of is described in great detail in Publication 590b and you might have to pay a tax penalty for a  premature distribution depending on how much the distribution is. (The first dollars coming are assumed to be previous contributions in the order in which you made them and these are tax-free and penalty-free; after that the rollover and conversion amounts start to come out and are penalized if they have not spent 5 years in the IRA etc) But you can put the money back into your Roth IRA within 60 days and avoid penalties.  Important Notes regarding rollover transactions:"


More simply - Bezos isn't saying you shouldn't get a patent, and use it. He's saying you shouldn't be able to get certain types of patents. He's not calling his competitors unethical for using patents against him. He's saying the game is at fault, not the players.


Neal Neilinger is registered with the SEC as an Investment Consultant, which is defined as someone who is paid out to offer advice about securities. Investment consultants can also be paid to manage expense portfolios or offer economic planning expert services. Other terms commonly used for investment consultants include Investment Advisor Associate (IAR) and Authorized Investment Advisor (RIA).


The thing is though is even if Floyd goes broke, he can just come out of retirement and make another $100 mil on another fight. Tons of people would pay to see it. He will always be able to get money if he wants.


Every attractive piece of children’s furniture isn’t expensive. If you are looking to strain the best in the market, try SGA Furniture’s cheap kid’s beds section. Increase sales at your store the SGA way. Visit us at www.sgaust.com.au or Email us today at info@sgaust.com.au for more info.


I used to be both a customer of theirs, and of NetBank.  When ING bought NetBank, I felt like they handled the transition very poorly from a customer-service standpoint.  I felt like they didn't really value me as a customer, and they didn't do anything to make the transition easy for me. For that reason, I decided to pull my money out from all of my accounts I had with them, and I have never looked back. I now get considerably better rates with a high-yield rewards checking account at my local brick & mortar bank.  I am still able to pay bills online, or mail checks into my local bank if I don't want to physically go to a branch or ATM.


To a certain extent, this is fallout from international companies cutting orders for hardware due to NSA concerns. Cisco orders have been cut in England, Most of continental Europe, China, etc. IBM is also having lots of orders cut and MS is feeling the pressure too. There have been numerous articles on this in the last year, and here is one of those.  http://www.zdnet.com/ciscos-nsa-problem-is-going-to-whack-all-of-us-techs-growth-plans-7000029495/  NSA spying has real World consequences in business. Another: http://www.nytimes.com/2014/03/22/business/fallout-from-snowden-hurting-bottom-line-of-tech-companies.html?_r=0


It's easier to get approval for a smaller loan, and more down means less borrowed.  Also, more down means more they can recover if they have to foreclose.


Has the monitoring stopped now that you are at a new bank?   Presumably it has. If it has stopped, then let it go.  Its your mom and while the relationship might be somewhat dysfunctional, it is the only mother relationship you have.  Do you really want her criminally prosecuted?  She may have done you a favor by pointing out the security loop holes present in your old bank.  Thanks mom!


"Maybe just put all his correspondence back in the Post Box and mark it   ""Wrong address""? Precisely. Without opening. Just tell the postman that that person doesn't live there and have it returned to sender. The Revenue will figure it out. Most definitely do not accept any certified or registered mail not addressed to you personally."


First, what is waste?  Is waste defined purely as financial waste?  If we were to choose this definition, running electricity to houses is ridiculously wasteful.  Same with running water.  It’d be easier to setup hubs for every resource and ship them to the hubs.  People can either pay more for personal delivery, or can come to the hub to get their resources.  That would be financially efficient.


Using the following values: The formula for the future value of an annuity due is d*(((1 + i)^t - 1)/i)*(1 + i) See Calculating The Present And Future Value Of Annuities In an annuity due, a deposit is made at the beginning of a period and the interest is received at the end of the period.  This is in contrast to an ordinary  annuity, where a payment is made at the end of a period. The formula is derived, by induction , from the summation of the future values of every deposit.  The initial value, with interest accumulated for all periods, can simply be added. So the overall formula is


In case you feel be driven around, make sure to opt for good and quick Heathrow airport taxi services. Enjoy the services and professionalism standards and go for a risk free, safe and comforting ride and relish the beauty and splendour of the destination to the core. @ https://medium.com/@jatransfer/hire-an-airport-taxi-for-convenient-travelling-a0649a119ef1


When you short a stock and the stock goes ex-div. you have to pay out an amount equal to the dividend. So in your example, GG would short the stock at $10.00, buy back at $9.00 and be charged $1.00 for the dividend. Net effect $0.00.


Use the chrome extension called Xray - the complete article is below  Why Goldman Sachs Seized a Client’s 217-Foot Yacht Wall Street banks’ latest gold rush is making loans to wealthy clients; collateral includes Warhol and rare wine collection The yacht ‘Natita’ is listed for $39.9 million. The yacht ‘Natita’ is listed for $39.9 million. PHOTO: DUTCHMEGAYACHTS By Liz Hoffman Aug. 10, 2017 5:30 a.m. ET 158 COMMENTS Goldman Sachs Group Inc. GS 0.33% owns hundreds of billions of dollars of stocks, bonds and commodities. Add to its portfolio: a 217-foot luxury yacht called Natita.  The story behind the boat begins with a 2014 loan to a prized Goldman client, billionaire Texas oilman William Kallop. It ends with Goldman suing its own client and the U.S. Marshals last month swooping down on a West Palm Beach marina to impound the yacht—which boasts a movie theater, Jacuzzi and helipad.  Goldman’s nautical trophy is a strange but inevitable outcome of Wall Street’s latest gold rush: lending to wealthy clients, the loans backed by everything from Warhols to wine.  These loans, which are growing quickly at firms such as Goldman, Morgan Stanley and UBS Group AG, are an exotic spin on the most basic thing banks do: lending money to people. They have the added benefit of building loyalty among prized, ultrawealthy clientele.  RELATED  Wall Street Needs You to Borrow Against Your Stock (July 27) Like any loans, though, they can go bad and leave banks holding assets that aren’t easy to value or sell. Goldman will likely auction Natita, which already has been on the market for almost two years with no takers.  A Goldman spokesman declined to comment on the case. Mr. Kallop didn’t respond to requests for comment. A lawyer for Mr. Kallop declined to comment.  “If you do it right, it’s a great business and clients will absolutely love you for it,” said Bruce Holley, a partner at the Boston Consulting Group who advises private banks on wealth-management strategy. “But there are a lot of ways to mess up.”  Banks pushed wealth lending in recent years against a backdrop of increasing deposits and tepid demand for traditional loans. Goldman’s private bank has quadrupled its overall lending balances since 2012 to $29 billion. Morgan Stanley wealth-loan balances are up 420% since 2012 to $74 billion.  The largest chunk of wealth loans are mortgages and loans backed by stock portfolios. A smaller but growing segment is secured by valuables such as classic cars, hedge-fund stakes, and even rare violins.  Wealth loans are especially profitable for banks because the revenue they generate is shared less generously with brokers than trading commissions and other fees.  Banks say these loans are safe because they already know the borrowers, their assets, and their ability to repay. And unlike, say, credit cards, these loans have collateral and often a personal guarantee as well. Goldman said in a February filing that the value of collateral in its wealth loans “generally exceed[s]” the loan amount.  Morgan Stanley and Deutsche Bank AG have lent against the art collection of hedge-fund billionaire Steven A. Cohen, who owns works by Andy Warhol and Pablo Picasso, according to Connecticut state filings. Top Blackstone Group LP executives including founder Stephen Schwarzman have borrowed from UBS against their stakes in the private-equity firms’ funds, New York filings show.  Goldman lent to natural-gas wildcatter Aubrey McClendon against his wine collection, according to an Oklahoma filing. Executives joked the collateral was “particularly liquid.” After Mr. McClendon’s death in 2015, the collection—heavy on rare Bordeaux—was auctioned for $8.4 million. Goldman made its money back.  Although not as well-known as those borrowers, Mr. Kallop was the kind of client whom private banks court.  In the 1970s, he joined a family-owned marine-services company called McAllister Towing & Transportation. A legal dispute in 1993 resulted in a split of the company. The tugboat and ferry operations stayed with the family. Mr. Kallop took the offshore oil business, which he built over the next two decades into a portfolio of drilling rights, rig operators and construction arms.  He sold the business for nearly $1 billion in 2009 to a consortium of Colombian and Korean investors. Mr. Kallop then dabbled in investing, taking a 7% stake in energy company Quicksilver Resources and buying a 300-year-old liquor distillery in Peru.  He spent lavishly, acquiring three Gulfstream jets and at least eight residences, including a Peruvian mansion, two homes in the Dominican Republic and a working cattle ranch in Texas, according to property record, lawsuits and people who have worked for him.  And he bought yachts—at least seven of them over the past eight years.  In addition to Natita, which he bought in 2010 and named for his mother-in-law, Mr. Kallop’s fleet includes Bad Girl, moored in the Dominican Republic, and Honey Fitz, a 93-footer used by President John F. Kennedy that he bought at Sotheby’s Camelot auction in 1998 and restored.  Another yacht, La Diva, which was once owned by Ivana Trump, was destroyed in a fire.  A few years ago, Goldman came calling. The Wall Street firm’s private bank manages some $450 billion in assets for 11,500 ultrarich clients, and was developed in the 1980s to help business owners like Mr. Kallop manage their windfall after a sale.  Mr. Kallop became a client. In 2014, he borrowed $21.2 million from the bank to buy a 12,000-square-foot Tahitian-inspired oceanfront mansion just down the beach from Mar-a-Lago, President Donald Trump’s private club in Palm Beach, Fla., county records show.  In 2014, Mr. Kallop borrowed $32 million from Goldman against the Natita and Bad Girl, court records show. The loan, the maritime equivalent of a home-equity loan, carried an interest rate of three percentage points above the London interbank offered rate.  But then Mr. Kallop hit money troubles, according to former employees and acquaintances. He put off upgrades to the boats, which were showing signs of wear—bad enough for a March 2016 charter group to walk off Natita in Nassau, a former crew member said.  Goldman ordered periodic valuations of the yacht after making the loan, according to the crew member.  Mr. Kallop laid off crew members and put Natita up for sale in 2015 for €59.5 million ($67 million at that time), then dropped the price to $57.5 million last year, according to court documents. He sold a second Palm Beach house in April 2015 for $19 million. Goldman alleges he stopped paying back on the loan last November.  Three crew members, including the captain, were recently awarded roughly $90,000 in back pay by a Florida court. A Texas judge last month awarded his former bodyguard more than $500,000 for unpaid services. Mr. Kallop also owes the Florida marina where Natita is docked hundreds of thousands of dollars in fees, employees said.  Eventually, Goldman filed suit in a Miami federal court to seize the boat in a maritime version of a foreclosure. Acting on a judge’s orders, U.S. Marshals impounded Natita at a West Palm Beach marina, where it remains.  Goldman’s first move as owner-in-waiting: buying $67,000 worth of fuel to keep the yacht’s generator running, according to court filings.  Today, the yacht is listed for $39.9 million, according to brokerWorth Avenue Yachts. The outstanding balance of the loan owed to Goldman is roughly $28 million.  Write to Liz Hoffman at liz.hoffman@wsj.com


Oh I don't think I have the right to the person's stolen money, I've had this happen before and the CC owner wasn't charged anything and the CC company reimbursed us and we made a report about the thefts. I'm just asking why the situation changed this time around.


"This is the best tl;dr I could make, [original](https://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers.cfm?abstract_id=2933177) reduced by 84%. (I'm a bot) ***** > No one can demonstrate a clear link between specific Uber product features and its meteoric growth, explain why no one else had ever recognized these opportunities, or document how they are powerful enough to allow Uber to rapidly drive all incumbent taxi and limo companies out of business.  > The growth of Uber is entirely explained by massive predatory subsidies that have totally undermined the normal workings of both capital and labor markets.  > Absolutely nothing in the &quot;Narrative&quot; Uber has used to explain its growth is supported by objective, verifiable evidence of its actual competitive economics.   ***** [**Extended Summary**](http://np.reddit.com/r/autotldr/comments/72jwh9/will_the_growth_of_uber_increase_economic_welfare/) | [FAQ](http://np.reddit.com/r/autotldr/comments/31b9fm/faq_autotldr_bot/ ""Version 1.65, ~216749 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*: **Uber**^#1 **industry**^#2 **explain**^#3 **billion**^#4 **urban**^#5"


"One topic that I've been trying to learn more about is the affects of the low interest rates on businesses and the economy from quantitative easing. Due to the amount of ""free money"" corporations have received over the last 5 years there has been a few interesting consequences. There are several corporations that have borrowed money at little to no interest with the feds intentions of seeing it go back into the economy however instead corporations have used it to buy back stock which was not necessarily the plan in the first place. You could definitely have a unique thesis written about something within that flow of funds. If that makes no sense apologies stupid undergrad here."


"Index funds may invest either in index components directly or in other instruments (like ETFs, index options, futures, etc.) which are highly correlated with the index. The specific fund prospectus or description on any decent financial site should contain these details.  Index funds are not actively managed, but that does not mean they aren't managed at all - if index changes and the fund includes specific stock, they would adjust the fund content. Of course, the downside of it is that selling off large amounts of certain stock (on its low point, since it's being excluded presumably because of its decline) and buying large amount of different stock (on its raising point) may have certain costs, which would cause the fund lag behind the index. Usually the difference is not overly large, but it exists.  Investing in the index contents directly involves more transactions - which the fund distributes between members, so it doesn't usually buy individually for each member but manages the portfolio in big chunks, which saves costs. Of course, the downside is that it can lag behind the index if it's volatile. Also, in order to buy specific shares, you will have to shell out for a number of whole share prices - which for a big index may be a substantial sum and won't allow you much flexibility (like ""I want to withdraw half of my investment in S&P 500"") since you can't usually own 1/10 of a share. With index funds, the entry price is usually quite low and increments in which you can add or withdraw funds are low too."


Ownership of the debt is irrelevant if Puerto Rico tells the investors to kick rocks. Which it already has.   Puerto Rico created the debt by accepting the loans it couldn't pay and under terms that caused full repayment in the event of one default. Which, spoiler alert, happens when you accrue $70bn in debt, with $50bn in unsecured pension liabilities created by bloated government pensions.   They also gave the middle finger to the investors whose money they happily took when things were good, only to flush it down the toilet and cry foul after they ran out of free money. The teacher's union and police officers unions opted out of SS so that they could reap these pension benefits.   The reality is that Puerto Rico buried itself in social programs that never really got an economy, that never had much going on, to experience any growth. It doesn't matter who owns the debt, this guy (from the article) sees a potential payday if the US swoops in and saves them from their crisis.   https://mobile.nytimes.com/2017/03/08/business/dealbook/puerto-rico-teacher-pensions.html


It is absolutely a scam.  Anyone who tells you they can give you a large amount of money for free is trying to scam you.  Additional warning signs include:


i've been waiting for the MOVE to get off its butt for a while now but as long as we stay goldilocks and yellen vacillates between hawkish and dovish its hard for it to climb meaningfully.   The MOVE is at 52 now - for some context, the traditional view was that below 70 was complacent, above 100 was panic but since the era of unprecedented central bank intervention that hardly holds.


Just to clarify I know weed isn't the healthiest way to relax or unwind, but there are much worse ways. And just out of curiosity what do you do to unwind? You don't drink or use tobacco or anything of the like? If so I'm very happy for you, that's a great way to live. But judging other people for wanting a beer or a cigarette or a joint is no way to go through life


"This is called ""Net Operating Loss"", and it is in fact applicable for individuals as well. You can, under certain circumstances, have NOL even as an individual. But it is far more common in the corporate world. What happens is that you can carry it back or forward, and get refund on taxes paid or adjust income for taxes to pay. In your example, you could carry the $75 NOL back and deduct it from the prior year earnings, reducing the taxable income from $100 to $25, getting $18.75 of the $25 paid as taxes - back. The link is for individual NOL, corporate rules are different, but the principle is the same."


it's gonna be really funny when all the trillions that was created out of thin air and ''lend'' on the world market start to want to buy PM, actual PM , not paper PM, and it skyrockets to like $15000 a ounce for actual physical gold :P I mean, who's gonna want a 10 year negative yield on a bond lol


Exxon Mobil is one of the most profitable corporations in the world.  Their annual earnings are typically in the $10s of billions of dollars.  They have revenues in the hundreds of billions of dollars per year.  They also return $10+ billion dollars to their stockholders each year in dividends and stock purchases.  That's with $300bn market capitalization - meaning they return 3% of their total market cap each year to their shareholders, aside from any movement in the stock itself. On the other hand, their total current liabilities are around $175bn.  That's what, six months' revenue?  Who'd you rather lend to, Exxon, or ... anyone else?  AAPL and GOOG maybe better risks, but not by much.  Almost every other company on the planet is a more dangerous risk. Judging them solely by Assets is silly - they don't exactly sit on the oil they extract.  They take it out of the ground and sell it to people.


"robinhood is a member of finra, just like any other broker.  as such, they can't legally ""lose"" your assets. even if they file bankruptcy, you will get your money back. obviously, any broker can steal your assets, but i doubt robinhood is any more likely to steal from you, even if you are rich. here is a quote from an article on thestreet.com: So, despite the name, the Robinhood philosophy isn't about stealing   from rich, but rather taking perks often reserved for top-tier   investors and giving them to the everyman trader"


$3,679,163.80  I made these assumptions that you did not state:  Then using Excel, we find that with a starting point of $3,679,163.80, we can achieve your goal. The formula for Yearly Budget is =G$1*((1.035)^(A3-2012)) and the formula for Money left at year end is =(D4/1.05)+C4  For 2067, enter $0 leftover, and for 2066, enter $397,988.47 leftover. G$1 is $60,000 G$2 is 0.05


"Yes, old people shop there, but K-mart is much older and has established stores in very rural areas that other retailers are slow to move into.  I was driving through nowhere West Virginia, about 60 miles from the nearest interstate on a two lane ""highway"", when I come around a corner and there's a K-mart sitting there."


Yeah. It's already crazy here. All summer we've had massive road projects, both on highways and locally. Since the end of last week the traffic has also increased noticeably--and we're two weeks away from the event. The news and town meetings have been about traffic safety, food preparation (buy early and for two weeks), plus we've had a rash of fires in the area we are trying to get under control (51k acres burning less than 50 miles south of here--in Pocatello).   It's going to be crazy; it's going to be awesome.


You mean that period of time when government spending has grown consistently regardless of which party is in office?   No, the historical data over that period is insufficient to disprove free market theories due to the fact that Republicans are fiscally conservative in rhetoric only.   They spend just as much as Democrats do.


I've heard success stories but personally, I was considering it and I'm so glad I didn't. I ended up hating the atmosphere; left after one semester. To take care of that house I rent out, I'd need to hire someone, or drive 2.5h each way for anything that needed my attention. If you plan to stay in the area, I'd consider the housing prices, the rental market, considering the responsibility of maintenance, your expected margin (trust me, it will be lower. I've never heard a landlord say he didn't encounter significant unintended expenses.) It's such a unique situation, it really requires more detail. After all, you'd be saving rent, have control over the house and who lives there, but you have a whole hell of a lot of responsibility. I met one guy who had basically became the house's mom because he had a vested interest and was always cleaning up spills, preventing staining or damage to the paint, facing awkward social situations as they tried to chase down rent. With the right people I've seen it go very well. Oh, one more caveat. With a live-in super', they can provide notice of any necessary repairs instantly and from there, the clock starts. They can legally withhold rent until the repairs are completed and if you're not too liquid after that down payment and the mortgage payments, plus school, etc.. this could put you between a rock and some hard ass creditors.


I dont see anything dystopian about this? Half the article is about new millionaires being created by 2021. That is a good thing isnt it? I know reddit is all about forcing millionaires to sell their stocks and real estate so Starbucks baristas and people folding shirts at the mall can make $50/hr and drive Mercedes though. How dare rich people own stock when the stock market doubles!!! The audacity of them to manage their money wisely and work hard to build their wealth.


"I note that each response to me includes a personal insult.  You might want to ask yourself why you feel the need to be rude?  If you're sure you're right, why not simply explain yourself to me?  > You're advocating an incompetent business with an inefficient model to continue running just to keep people employed.   I said nothing of the sort.  In fact, I pointed out that these businesses must die.  _I am simply deeply sad that these thousands of people must suffer_.  Any compassionate person would feel the same way;  the fact that I'm being downvoted at a huge rate indicates how few such people are.   > You're further assuming that they'll stay unemployed and no other, more efficient firm will capitalize on the niche that opened up with sears' passing.  Assume?  Current labor statistics tell us that these people should be expecting at least a year of unemployment;  and things are particularly bad in the retail sector.  And it's not like there's any mystery on who the ""more efficient firm"" is - it's Amazon (and to a lesser extent, other online retailers).  But ""more efficient"" actually means ""employs only a fraction of the number of workers of standard retailers"".  Be honest - do you expect most of these people to get a new job as ""good"" as their old mediocre job within a year?"


"I don't know what country you live in or what the laws and practical circumstances of owning rental property there are. But I own a rental property in the U.S., and I can tell you that there are a lot of headaches that go with it. One: Maintenance. You say you have to pay an annual fee of 2,400 for ""building maintenance"". Does that cover all maintenance to the unit or only the exterior? I mean, here in the U.S. if you own a condo (we call a unit like you describe a ""condo"" -- if you rent it, it's an apartment; if you own it, it's a condo) you typically pay an annual fee that cover maintenance ""from the walls out"", that is, it covers maintenance to the exterior of the building, the parking lot, any common recreational areas like a swimming pool, etc. But it doesn't cover interior maintenance. If there's a problem with interior wiring or plumbing or the carpet needs to be replaced or the place needs painting, that's up to you.  With a rental unit, those expenses can be substantial. On my rental property, sure, most months the maintenance is zero: things don't break every month. But if the furnace needs to be replaced or there's a major plumbing problem, it can cost thousands. And you can get hit with lots of nitnoid expenses. While my place was vacant I turned the water heater down to save on utility expenses. Then a tenant moved in and complained that the water heater didn't work. We sent a plumber out who quickly figured out that she didn't realize she had to turn the knob up. Then of course he had to hang around while the water heated up to make sure that was all it was. It cost me, umm, I think $170 to have someone turn that knob. (But I probably saved over $15 on the gas bill by turning it down for the couple of months the place was empty!) Two: What happens when you get a bad tenant? Here in the U.S., theoretically you only have to give 3 days notice to evict a tenant who damages the property or fails to pay the rent. But in practice, they don't leave. Then you have to go to court to get the police to throw them out. When you contact the court, they will schedule a hearing in a month or two. If your case is clear cut -- like the tenant hasn't paid the rent for two months or more -- you will win easily. Both times I've had to do this the tenant didn't even bother to show up so I won by default. So then you have a piece of paper saying the court orders them to leave. You have to wait another month or two for the police to get around to actually going to the unit and ordering them out. So say a tenant fails to pay the rent. In real life you're probably not going to evict someone for being a day or two late, but let's say you're pretty hard-nosed about it and start eviction proceedings when they're a month late. There's at least another two or three months before they're actually going to be out of the place. Of course once you send them an eviction notice they're not going to pay the rent any more. So you have to go four, five months with these people living in your property but not paying any rent. On top of that, some tenants do serious damage to the property. It's not theirs: they don't have much incentive to take care of it. If you evict someone, they may deliberately trash the place out of spite. One tenant I had to evict did over $13,000 in damage. So I'm not saying, don't rent the place out. What I am saying is, be sure to include all your real costs in your calculation. Think of all the things that could go wrong as well as all the things that could go right."


"Assuming that no one else has hit the ask, and the asks are still there, yes, you will fill $54.55 as long as you didn't exhaust that ask. Actually, there is no ""current price at which the stock is exchanging hands""; in reality, it is ""the last price traded"". The somebody who negotiated prices between buyers & sellers is the exchange through their handling of bids & asks.  The real negotiation comes between bids & asks, and if they meet or cross, a trade occurs. It's not that both bid & ask should be $54.55, it's that they were. To answer the title, the reasons why the bid and ask (even their midpoint) move away from the last price are largely unknown, but at least for the market makers, if their sell inventory is going away (people are buying heavily and they're running out of inventory) they will start to hike up their asks a lot and their bids a little because market makers try to stay market neutral, having no opinion on whether an asset will rise or fall, so with stocks, that means having a balanced inventory of longs & shorts.  They want to (sometimes have to depending on the exchange) accommodate the buying pressure, but they don't want to lose money, so they simply raise the ask and then raise the bid as people hit their asks since their average cost basis has risen. In fact (yahoo finance is great about showing this), there's rarely 1 bid and 1 ask.  Take a look at BAC's limit book: http://finance.yahoo.com/q/ecn?s=BAC+Order+Book You can see that there are many bids and many asks.  If one ask is exhausted, the next in line is now the highest.  The market maker who just sold at X will certainly step over the highest bid to bid at X*0.9 to get an 11% return on investment."


The better question is, since MS is on the way out, who will take their place?  <crickets>   Apple doesn't have an exceptional server platform, and Linux (as much as I love it) isn't going to take the world by storm on the desktop.  I think that you are right though.   Until there is a replacement, they will continue to be the go to.


Answering this question is a great way to gauge how you're doing towards saving for retirement now. But of course what matters more than this snapshot in time is how much you contribute down the line.  It may be wise to try to estimate how much you will want saved by the time you retire. Then try to calculate how much you would need to save in order to hit that mark.