If you exceed the income limit for deducting a traditional IRA (which is very low if you are covered by a 401(k) ), then your IRA options are basically limited to a Roth IRA. The Cramer person probably meant to compare 401(k) and IRA from the same pre-/post-tax-ness, so i.e. Traditional 401(k) vs. Traditional IRA, or Roth 401(k) vs. Roth IRA. Comparing a Roth investment against a Traditional investment goes into a whole other topic that only confuses what is being discussed here. So if deducting a traditional IRA is ruled out, then I don't think Cramer's advice can be as simply applied regarding a Traditional 401(k). (However, by that logic, and since most people on 401(k) have Traditional 401(k), and if you are covered by a 401(k) then you cannot deduct a Traditional IRA unless you are super low income, that would mean Cramer's advice is not applicable in most situations. So I don't really know what to think here.)


You are correct about the first two questions.  At the time it was last measured those were the percent invested in the Basic Materials sector for the ETF and its benchmark.  Note, this ETF will be significantly different from its benchmark as it is an equal-weight index rather than the more common capitalization-weighted index.  Meaning that this ETF could have materially different performance from its benchmark. The third column is the average sector weights of all the ETFs in Morningstar's Large Blend category.  These are ETFs that generally invest in a broad collection of large U.S. stocks and (weighted?) average of all of them will be generally fairly close to the benchmark.


This is why beats headphones have failed so hard. No one actually wants to be seen wearing them, so in spite of them heing cheap and high quality people are turned off by the notion of having a bulky piece of branded hardware on their head. I can see why Apple decided not to buy the company.


">*""Notes: National Economics Editorial (NEE) is a news site that purports to support Economic Nationalism. While NEE does cover some economic issues it is, as the name implies, mainly an editorial site. The opinions expressed in the stories cover current affairs with a pronounced right wing bias. NEE is, on the whole, long on rhetoric and short on factual content and credible sourcing. Due to the overt bias and lack of factual information, NEE is rated Questionable. (D. Kelley 3/29/2017)""*   [Doesn't seem like a site that I'd trust for anything apart from predictable, far right, propaganda](https://mediabiasfactcheck.com/national-economics-editorial/)"


You're getting confused between several different things. 10K - cash transactions over $10,000 are reported to FinCEN under BSA. This is to prevent money laundering. IRS - IRS wants to see your tax return with all your income reported there. They don't see your bank deposits unless they audit you. 1 and 2 are not related at all.


"Using the Transfer category is the best place to put these categories, as that accurately reflects what the transaction is. If you have your credit card and bank account linked in Mint, the debit and credit to both accounts will net to $0 in the category.  I would not recommend using ""Hide from budget and trends"" as sometimes multiple (erroneous) transactions pop up and having a category that should but, in error, does not net to $0 will raise your attention to possibly duplicate transactions. You can ask Mint to always categorize certain transactions in certain ways. On any of your payments, if you click ""Edit Details"" and then select the Transfer category, you can ask Mint to always make that classification:"


"Here's some way of thinking about it, and I'm not really sure if it's completely correct, but sometimes we oversimplify when trying to tell a five year old :)  Say there are two people in the world. You and me. We both have $100. A total of $200 in the world.  Suddenly, a wild bank appears. I deposit my $100 in the bank. I still have $100 and you still have $100. Now you want to buy something from me that costs $150. You go to the bank to loan money. The bank has $100 available so gives you $50. You give me $150. Now I have $250 and you are $50 in debt. I deposit the $150 in the bank.  We do this again and again, until I have $1000 on my bank account, and you are $900 in debt. I want to buy a house of $500 and go to my bank, demanding to take out $500. But there is only $200 in the whole world so the bank can only give me $200.  ""Money"" has been created out of thin air, but it's actually you who are in debt. If you go bankrupt, the bank has a big debt it won't get back, and is in deep shit when I come around to demand my money back. At that point governments step in to loan the bank money for cheap, because if the bank fails, I will lose all my pension savings I put into that bank, as well as my companies and a lot of my employees.  And other banks loaned this bank money, so if this bank fails, the other banks will be in the exact same position and will also fail, because then they will also have debts that won't be paid back.  There are regulations minimizing this - i.e. a bank is required to keep a percentage of the amount of money on its accounts, so there's a maximum limit of ""money created""."


Actually making money as an uber driver is pretty difficult, doing it over the long term can cost more than you realize because of vehicle maintenance and gas. Very, very few uber or lyft drivers ive met have been doing it for 2+ years. Only one ive met has been doing it from the beginning.  In the beginning, it was a much better deal for drivers. Rates were much better. They have steadily declined to the point where it is noelw challenging to actually come out ahead in the long run.  I think thats what they were saying at least.


Darling, if you are not a fan of Hillary (and the current DNC?), than why are you against Trump, who is not even career GOP politician?  Ok!  Let's talk to the point: tell me about Trump actions that you think negatively impact the USA. Go ahead!


Possible? Sure. The question is where do you plan on going to get the money and how well can you shop around to find the best rate for the loan. Banks and credit unions would be one option but I'd be curious as to how well do you know the various routes you could take.


I manned the broil at an Applebees during my college years in a suburb city close to Charlotte NC. We would have 100 people eating at a time. We would cook so much cheap frozen steak it was incredible.   The food quality was atrocious. We were clean, it was just the corporate process around the stuff was nothing I would like to eat.  Microwaved Chicken Fettucini, boiled all you can eat ribs... just gross stuff.


Well yeah, because for right or wrong people age 16-19 are young, idealistic, getting fed propaganda about fossil fuels (note I'm not saying it's right or wrong propaganda), and attracted to the shiny tech stuff.  Millennials are now older, and they are in the position where many realize their best bet at a decent life is in the O&G industry or its support industries.  Things get different when you're an adult and have to make more and more real decisions for your life.


"Understood. But based on the OP, it's not categorically clear what they were refusing.   If they refused to quote the balance and/or refused to take a phone payment that was otherwise in keeping with the cardholder agreement (i.e., the cardmember called the correct number for phone payments and balance-checking, etc), then yeah, they were not only being unreasonable, but also violating the contract.   What I read as ambiguous is whether the cardholder was specifically asking for the *payoff* balance/amount, and whether they were following process for phone-payments and balance-checking, etc.   IOW, it's not necessarily ""illegal"" and might not even be unreasonable for the customer-service number to have different departments for balance-checking and phone-payments versus card-cancellation. It's not falsifiably clear from the OP that the cardholder was not asking the person on the other end of the phone for categorical statements of fact that they were obligated to make.   I'm not accusing anyone of lying or saying that the CC company was acting reasonably, I'm just saying that language such as **""They do not provide mid-cycle payoff quotes""** is not evidence that they were doing any kind of funny-business."


That's totally different.  Woods and Vick continue to play popular sports at a high level. Cycling just isn't that popular, and the only reason Armstrong got to be a superstar is because he dominated the sport and had the cancer story.   His dominance is tarnished and he's retired and banned from his sport. I don't see him making much of a comeback endorsing products.


"I disagree with @Sam's answers:  yes you will get that money back when your tax return is processed.  This is not true. You will receive funds that are in excess of your liability (contrary to popular belief, the government does not take more than what you are liable for).   ""is it possible to return the check and modify how it's calculated if I talk to payroll?""  No. When you sign your documents at the beginning of the year, that will dictate the amount of liability they take from each of your paychecks.  ""Will this difference be given back in my next tax return"" Because your company is withdrawing 25% on your paycheck you may/or may not need to pay more depending on the rest of your salary.  The IRS has set the system up as brackets. You pay your taxes based on the amount earned (voluntarily or involuntarily). So if you have income of $9,275 you would pay $923 in taxes at a marginal rate of 10% (and average rate of 10%). If you made $10,000, you would pay $923+$109=$1,032 with your marginal rate as 15% (while your average rate is 10.31%).  All in all, this is dependent on your salary, filing, and other deductions to raise or lower your tax liability.  Note: The $109 came from this: [(10,000-9,275)*.15]"


Moderation is key to everything, and I even mention it at the first part of my bit there (yes, excellent, productive pot smokers exist), but based off of the trends in the states that have legalized it, we are heading in for quite an interesting experience in terms of marijuana abuse. It's just like an 18-21yr old kid at college, away from their parents and has the first unrestrained access to alcohol. They usually overdo it.   And to second my original intent, it's up to the business/owner to determine if they want to discriminate or not against drug users. If you have a problem with that, seek employment elsewhere.


No, you can not cheat the IRS. This question is also based on the assumption that the stock will return to $1 which isn't always a safe assumption and that it will continue to cycle like that repeatedly which is also likely a false assumption.


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Capping the upside while playing with unlimited downside is a less disciplined investment strategy vis-a-vis a stop-loss driven strategy. Whether it is less risky or high risky also depends on the fluctuations of the stock and not just long-term movements. For example, your stop losses might get triggered because of a momentary sharp decline in stock price due to a large volume transaction (esp more so in small-cap stocks). Although, the stock price might recover from the sudden price drop pretty soon causing a seemingly preventable loss. That being said, playing with stop losses is always considered a safer strategy. It may not increase your profits but can certainly cap your losses.


I've recently started studying a bit of finance (I am a software developer) and have a question regarding the Bank of England (BoE) announcement.    The BoE agreed in maintaining its current interest rate (0.25% I think), although it announced it would be buying GILT (Government Bonds), wouldn't the purchase of bonds by a central bank make the interest rate move down?   Isn't the goal of a central bank purchasing bonds, to move the interest rate? Is there a difference between adding liquidity to the market (increasing money supply) and changing the interest rate? Can these two things be separated?  Thank you :)


My company did not have income of $1000 and have a $500 expense Why not? Your company received $1000 from you, and based on its agreement with the other company - transferred out half of it. How does it not translate to having $1000 income and $500 expense? When I run a report I want to see that my business has $500 of income not $1000 with a $500 expense You can write in your reports whatever you want, but if you want to see the real picture, then that is exactly what you should be expecting. That said, transferring money from yourself to your company is generally not considered income. You can have it booked as owner's equity, or a owner's loan if the company is required to repay. Unless you're paying to your company for some services provided or assets transferred, that is.


Yes, if you can split your income up over multiple years it will be to your advantage over earning it all in one year.  The reasons are as you mentioned, you get to apply multiple deductions/credits/exemptions to the same income. Rather than just 1 standard deduction, you get to deduct 2 standard deductions, you can double the max saved in an IRA, you benefit more from any non-refundable credits etc. This is partly due to the fact that when you are filing your taxes in Year 1, you can't include anything from Year 2 since it hasn't happened yet. It doesn't make sense for the Government to take into account actions that may or may not happen when calculating your tax bill. There are factors where other year profit/loss can affect your tax liability, however as far as I know these are limited to businesses. Look into Loss Carry Forwarded/Back if you want to know more. Regarding the '30% simple rate', I think you are confusing something that is simple to say with something that is simple to implement.  Are we going to go change the rules on people who expected their mortgage deduction to continue? There are few ways I can think of that are more sure to cause home prices to plummet than to eliminate the Mortgage Interest Deduction. What about removing Student Loan Interest? Under a 30% 'simple' rate, what tools would the government use to encourage trade in specific areas? Will state income tax deduction also be removed? This is going to punish those in a state with a high income tax more than those in states without income tax. Those are all just 'common' deductions that affect a lot of people, you could easily say 'no' to all of them and just piss off a bunch of people, but what about selling stock though? I paid $100 for the stock and I sold it for $120, do I need to pay $36 tax on that because it is a 'simple' 30% tax rate or are we allowing the cost of goods sold deduction (it's called something else I believe when talking about stocks but it's the same idea?) What about if I travel for work to tutor individuals, can I deduct my mileage expenses? Do I need to pay 30% income tax on my earnings and principal from a Roth IRA? A lot of people have contributed to a Roth with the understanding that withdrawals will be tax free, changing those rules are punishing people for using vehicles intentionally created by the government. Are we going to go around and dismantle all non-profits that subsist entirely on tax-deductible donations? Do I need to pay taxes on the employer's cost of my health insurance? What about 401k's and IRA's? Being true to a 'simple' 30% tax will eliminate all 'benefits' from every job as you would need to pay taxes on the value of the benefits. I should mention that this isn't exactly too crazy, there was a relatively recent IRS publication about businesses needing to withhold taxes from their employees for the cost of company supplied food but I don't know if it was ultimately accepted. At the end of the day, the concept of simplifying the tax law isn't without merit, but realize that the complexities of tax law are there due to the complexities of life. The vast majority of tax laws were written for a reason other than to benefit special interests, and for that reason they cannot easily be ignored.


Definitely more in the economics wheelhouse, but I thought it would be interesting to write a research paper on the black market premium. With marijuana becoming legalized in more and more districts it's interesting to see the effect on prices.  I live in Canada and many of my friends are very sure that prices will rise because of taxes. I am not so sure. I think economies of scale and getting rid of the black market premium will more than make up for the costs of regulation and taxation.


You might be confusing two different things. An advantage of investing over a long term is the compounding of returns.  Those returns can be interest, dividends, or capital gains.  The mix between them depends on what you invest it and how you invest in it.  This advantage applies whether your investment is in a taxable brokerage account or in a tax-advantaged 401K or IRA.  So, start investing early so that you have longer for this compounding of returns to happen. The second thing is the tax deferral you get from 401(k) or IRAs.  If you invest in a ordinary taxable account, then you have to pay taxes on your interest and dividends for the year in which they occur.  You also have to pay taxes on any capital gains which you realize during the year.  These yearly tax payments are then money that you don't get the benefit of compounding on.  With 401(k) and IRAs, you don't have to pay taxes during these intermediate years.


Ok so Arbitrage?  I was looking specifically at the people who took this deal to the extreme taking the $5k and using the $10 giftcards to buy prepaid credit cards.  Would the better term would be positive-feedback loop, since the only constraint would be time and energy to the people exploit this deal.  Is there a financial term that fits this better?


While there is no age limit, bear in mind that saving money makes sense only if it doesn't delay your paying off expensive debt. If you have credit cards or expensive loans you would be best placed to focus on paying them down before saving a lot. If you save and keep debt, you'll effectively lose money as the interest on your debt will usually be higher than you can earn on savings. Having said that, it's worth saving a small amount anyway to have as an emergency fund. As you pay off your debt, start saving the money you no longer have to pay out and it will soon pay dividends.


hey look I can spout random countries too. Spain!  Back it up, or shut up. The UK did NOT sell debt and simultaneously purchase its own debt in the past (until modern times).   And who said the reason soviet union collapsed was because of its banking policies? Putting words in peoples mouths aren't we.  I think you should move along before you get hurt. This is a grown up conversation little one.


Yup and it is a lot harder on 40k.  The real difference is at 40k your kids babysitter might be grandma and a TV.  At 100k+ you are looking at student/teacher ratios at the Montessori daycare.  Sometimes lifestyle inflation doesn't feel like inflation because it is for something basic like a nice safe place for your kids while you work or healthy food  and only when you literally can't afford it do you realize it isn't strictly speaking a necessity.


Actually I found companies hire based on experience, if you jump around you have more experience even if your work is average.  Companies pay what the job is worth now, i.e. market rate - why pay more.  Thus the real issue is many employees are not moving up with out moving out.  But you can look at it as people are mediocre (less than average) which would be true ~50% of the time.


Those are all predictions.  To the core. With anything, I'd consider the source carefully before taking any kind of advice.  If it's from a financial magazine, who advertises with them?  What are they selling?  How well do they recognize which side of the bread is buttered? That, and I'd get a lot of advice, see how it matches with your goals, and choose. All of that being said, you do have time to recover should you blow it.


"I don't think its a taxable event since no income has been constructively received (talking about the RSU shareholders here). I believe you're right with the IRC 1033, and the basis of the RSU is the basis of the original stock option (probably zero). Edit: see below. However, once the stock becomes vested - then it is a taxable event (not when the cash is received, but when the chance of forfeiture diminishes, even if the employee doesn't sell the stock), and is an ordinary income, not capital. That is my understanding of the situation, do not consider it as a tax advice in any way. I gave it a bit more though and I don't think IRC 1033 is relevant. You're not doing any exchange or conversion here, because you didn't have anything to convert to begin with, and don't have anything after the ""conversion"". Your ISO's are forfeited and no longer available, basically - you treat them as you've never had them. What happened is that you've received RSU's, and you treat them as a regular RSU grant, based on its vesting schedule. The tax consequences are exactly as I described in my original response: you recognize ordinary income on the vested stocks, as they vest. Your basis is zero (i.e.: the whole FMV of the stock at the time of vesting is your ordinary income). It should also be reflected in your W2 accordingly."


"Sorry for the late reply.  > Different ERP systems have different mappings, but there are no unlimited amount of ERP systems.  It's actually close to unlimited. Reasons:  1. Even if two customers use the same ERP system, each implement their ERP in a different way.  2. Even if they implement the ERP system exactly the same way, the EDI is done by an EDI subsystem and each customer will implement EDI in a different way.  3. Even if it's the same EDI system and map, each customer may have different meaning to the same data field. For example, one customer definition for Due Date is ""the date the Vendor needs to ship the goods to me"" while the other customer says ""it's the date I want the goods delivered to my warehouse.""  4. Even if all the fields have the exact same definition, the values may be different between the 2 customers. Classic example: while customer A use SKU# ""1234"" for a certain widget made by the vendor, the other customer may use SKU# ""9876"".  5. It's even worse than you think: if say a huge company like Wal-Mart implemented EDI orders in its specific way, Wal-Mart has 100,000 suppliers, so each of those suppliers have to implement the Wal-Mart way of EDI orders.  6. Even worse: when Wal-Mart make a change to their EDI orders (e.g. add a new type of data), 100,000 suppliers have to change their system support the new data requirements.  **Do me a favor? I only addresses one statement you made. Can you cut-and-paste your whole message and post it again in /r/edi?** This is the right subreddit for this discussion. You should join it and several people can reply to you...  Thanks!"


No, just as the profits from the bank do not go to their personal accounts and instead go to the banks coffers, where they are paid out as a dividend.   If your company makes a mistake and loses money, do they draw it from your account?


Hahaha, I appreciate the comparison, but that's bullshit.  Truthers are putting their own paranoid theories out there, you have no obligation to seek them out and respond to them.  Socialists on the other hand are offering reasoned critique of your ideas.  You can dismiss their arguments out of hand, but understand that it makes you look like an intellectual coward.  Cock-surety may fool weaker opponents, but even then, only in the service of your own ego.


To evaluate any advice, this lists some of the things to consider: There are good advisors out there. There are also Bernie Madoffs who give the entire industry a black eye. In the end, the best path is to educate yourself, read as much as you can before you invest. Better to lose a bit by staying out of the market than to lose it all by getting scammed.


It wouldnt matter how big the game is. The streaming would stream at the same bit rate as any HD video. About 5-7mbps. It worked very well for Onlive. Which was bought out by Sony and now Sony uses that technology for their PS Now subscription.  The crippling factor is most of North America is still capped by their ISP and most people wouldn't be able to stay under their cap streaming games all day.


i've lost 45lb since last year this time, and have kept it off for over 6 months now.  i have slacked a bit on my calorie counting, and intend to focus again in the new year, and drop another 25lb.


The key to understanding where your money is going is to budget.  Rather than tracking your spending after the fact, budgeting lets you decide up front what you want to spend your money on.  This can be done with cash envelopes, on paper, or on Excel spreadsheets; however, in my opinion, the best, most flexible, and easiest way to do this is with budgeting software designed for this purpose. As I explained in another answer, when it comes to personal budgeting software, there are two different approaches: those in which you decide what to spend your money on before it is spent, and those that simply show you how your money was spent after it is gone.  I recommend the first approach.  Software designed to do this include YNAB, Mvelopes, and EveryDollar. My personal favorite is YNAB.  You'll find lots of help, video tutorials, and even online classes with a live teacher on YNAB's website.   Using one of these packages will help you manage spending, whether it is done electronically or with cash.  When you pay for something with a credit card, you enter your purchase into the software, and the software adjusts your budget as if the money is already spent, even if you haven't technically paid for the purchase yet. As far as strategy goes, here is what I recommend:  Get started on one of these, and set up your budget right away.  Assign a category to every dollar in your account.  Don't worry if it is not perfect.  If you find later on that you don't have enough money in one of your categories, you can move money from another category if you need to.  As you work with it, you'll get better at knowing how much money you need in each category. My other recommendation is this: Don't wait until the end of the month to download your transactions from the bank and fit everything into categories.  Instead, enter your spending transactions into the software manually, every day, as you spend.  This will do two things: first, you'll have the latest, up-to-date picture of where your accounts are in your software without having to guess.  Second, it will help you stay on top of your spending.  You'll be able to see early on if you are overspending in a particular category.  YNAB has a mobile app that I use quite a bit, but if I don't get a chance to enter a purchase right when I spend it, I make sure to keep a receipt, and enter the transaction in that evening.  It only takes a couple of minutes a day, and I always know how I stand financially.


Yeah the Casinos in CT are nicer, and closer to NYC. If you want shitty slot casinos you can go to racinos that are closer (yonkers, rockaway, poconos).  There is just not much allure to AC beyond the clubbing aspect of it.


"In most countries, you are deemed to dispose of all your assets at the fair value at that time, at the moment you are considered no longer a resident. ie: on the day your friend leaves Brazil, Brazil will likely consider him to have sold his BTC for $1M.  The Brazilian government will then likely want him to calculate how much it cost him to mine/buy it, so that they can tax him on the gain. No argument about how BTC isn't ""Fiat money"" matters here; tax laws will typically apply to all investments in a way similar to stocks etc..  The US will likely be very suspicious of such a large amount of money without some level of traceability including that he paid taxes on any relevant gains in other countries. By showing the US that he paid appropriate 'expatriate taxes' in Brazil (if they exist; I am speaking generally and have no knowledge of Brazilian taxes), he is helping to prove that he does not need to pay any taxes on that money in the US. Typically the BTC then is valued for US tax purposes as the $1M it was worth when he entered the US becoming a resident there [This may require tax planning prior to entering the US] [see additional answer here: https://money.stackexchange.com/a/48031/44232]. Any attempt to bring the BTC into the US without paying appropriate Brazilian / US taxes [as applicable, I'm not 100% on either; check with a tax lawyer knowledgeable on both US & Brazilian tax law, because the amount of money is material] will likely be considered fraud. 'How to commit fraud' is not entertained as valid subject matter on this site."


Interesting. What is your view of this idea: institute a bonus program which allocates to each employee scrip proportionate to the number of dependents (plus 1 for themselves, of course); this scrip would be valid for one year and to earn it one needs meet some basic work requirements and can be used to purchase whatever goods and services the workers prefer. (This is only a rough description of what I have in mind. Feel free to ask questions for more details. I feel we have much to learn from each other on this topic.)


All the answers that show the equivalency of 401(k) pre-tax and Roth 401(k) post-tax using equivalent contributions are correct assuming equivalent tax rates upon withdrawal. There is some potential gain if your tax rate upon retirement is higher than your working tax rate, but often people calculate a smaller percentage of their working income for their retirement income, which may offset a higher tax-rate anyway. In my mind, the primary advantage of a Roth 401(k) is that it effectively allows you to contribute more for retirement if you are currently maxing out your contributions in a regular 401(k) and IRA and want to contribute more. Doing so can be a big advantage when you are young and can benefit from those additional dollars being put into your retirement account early. This is effectively what is illustrated by the Fidelity calculation, and is something to consider if you are of the mind to aggressively save early for retirement. The reason Roth allows you to contribute more is because traditional IRA contributions are capped. Suppose the cap is $5500. Suppose also you immediately rollover your traditional IRA to a Roth IRA. This is a post-tax contribution, and growth on that is tax-free. If you maxed out your employer pre-tax 401(k) to $17500 and maxed out your IRA, you have maxed out your retirement contributions to $23000. Suppose two doublings, then the 401(k) has grown to $70000, and the IRA has grown to $22000. However, the withdrawal from the 401(k) is taxed, so assuming 25%, the total is $74500 after tax. Now, suppose instead you maxed out your employer Roth 401(k) post-tax instead, so you have put in $17500 post tax. And now, also max out your IRA. Now, all of your $23000 grows tax-free. So upon two doublings, you walk away with $92000. This is because you maxed out your contribution post-tax, meaning it was as if you were allowed to contribute $23333 to your pre-tax 401(k). So if you intend to max out your retirement account contributions, and are looking to contribute even more to retirement accounts, one way is two change over to contributing into the employer Roth 401(k).


Link only answers aren't good, but the list is pretty long. It's a moving target, the requirement change based on a number of criteria. It usually jumps to force you to sell when you hold a losing position, or when your commodity is about to skyrocket.


The most relevant aspect of Islamic banking that distinguishes it from non-Islamic banking is the prohibition of charging interest. There is no prohibition on the utilization of technology.   Since banks that comply with Sharia make direct investments (sharing of profit/loss), and leasing, many banks that are sharia-compliant are very modern, sophisticated, and behave very much like private equity or even in some cases hedge funds. There is a prohibition in Sharia to avoid excessive risk, so many modern Islamic financial institutions deploy and trade financial derivatives to provide the means to risk management. This is done on a very technological level with expertise.  London has become a hub of Islamic banking and there have been efforts by the financial sector to push to make London the center of Islamic banking. These institutions are as advanced as any non-Islamic banks.   Here is a source to check out: http://www.telegraph.co.uk/finance/newsbysector/banksandfinance/11435465/Britain-to-lead-the-world-in-Islamic-finance.html  Here is an article discussing the streamlining of banking through technology: http://asianbankingandfinance.net/islamic-banking/exclusive/are-islamic-banks-ready-jump-digital-bandwagon


When 0.1% of the population has most of the money and half the population can't afford rent and healthcare because there's just not enough money to pay them then we have to steal it through taxes.  Better than it being stolen with pitchforks.  Someone finds a better way to get money out of the Cayman Islands and fueling the economy I'm all ears.


"if corporations can claim ""personhood"", could citizens claim they are corporations and evade taxes in this way, avoiding penalties as Burger King is doing, coming out far ahead financially?  whats good for the goose should be good for the gander"


Would I have to pay some kind of capital gains tax? And if so, when? Converting Tax paid USD into CAD is not a taxable event. A taxable even will occur if you convert back the CAD into USD. If you receive interest on the CAD then the interest is also a taxable event. Also, is there any reason this is a terrible idea? That will only be known in future. Its like predicting that in future this will turn out to be advantageous, however it may turn out the other way.


I had a plumber come over for a free estimate on my sink and wanted $110 an hour to remove a rusted bolt and install a new faucet (did it my self after asking him how he would do it). The AC guys seem to make a big profit on labor as well. Seems like learning these types of skills could have you earning a good living and could not be automated for a long time.


"In northwest Arkansas, most of the houses this company offers do cost about 90 - 110 dollars per square foot.  The exceptions use the Whitney plan, which has the following design features (and/or problems) which happen to save the builder a lot of money: One very nice feature is the U-shaped stairway in the center of the house.  It is easy to find, and has an angled landing.  It might be a bit narrow, though. Does the builder bother to put rebar in the brickwork?  Arkansas is in earthquake country. What are the floors like?  Is the first floor a slab concrete floor with vinyl flooring (and/or carpet on thin pad) immediately above the concrete?  Is the second floor bouncy, due to using long-span joists of code-minimum size? Does the builder bother to make the rear windows look as nice as the front windows?  As mentioned earlier, the builder only bothers to have one side window. Where to learn more: Fernando Pagés Ruiz is a Nebraska homebuilder who wrote a book on Building the Affordable House: Trade Secrets for High-Value, Low-Cost Construction (The Taunton Press, 2005).  He has also written many articles in Fine Homebuilding, including ""Building Affordable Houses"". True North Consulting specializes in helping builders eliminate waste and ""value-engineer"" their designs.  True North often works with Tim Garrison, the self-proclaimed ""builder's engineer""."


Safe deposit boxes are rented out to customers, and their content is not bank's property. Money deposits are not being taken by the creditors if a bank goes bankrupt, for the same reason - its not bank's money, it belongs to the depositors. However, frequently banks go bankrupt because they do not have enough cash at hand to pay back the depositors. In this case, unless insured (up to $250K in the US, EUR100K in EU), some or all of the deposits may not be immediately (or even at all) available. Depositors become creditors of the bank in the bankruptcy proceedings. Safe deposit box, however, is rented to the customer, and the content is not removed by the bank to be used elsewhere, as happens with monetary deposits. So even if the bank is bankrupt and doesn't have enough money to cover the monetary deposits, the content of the safe deposit boxes doesn't magically disappear, and the owner can get it back. The access to the deposit box itself may be limited due to the bankruptcy, but the content will remain there waiting for its owners. In the United States, when a bank goes bankrupt, FDIC takes over it and its assets. Safe deposit box rental contract is an asset. It is taken over by the FDIC and will be sold to a buyer (usually as a part of the whole branch where the box is located), who will continue operating/servicing it.


It will be interesting to see how gas station employment is affected by oil demand and EV sales.  Bloomberg thinks EV adoption will crash oil prices by 2023.  https://www.bloomberg.com/features/2016-ev-oil-crisis/  That won't create a huge change in station employment, but will affect oil company profitability.


"Many reasons, but let me pick my favourite:  The incentive to save isn't there.  Any government subject to elections has the incentive to spend as much as possible to remain in power.  What is worse, it has a DISINCENTIVE to save. Because the money it saves - and which it pays for with bad will from the electorate, who should really be smarter - is going to be spent by the OTHER guy who will then look incredibly good and be reassured of re-election.  ""But isn't it afraid of accumulating debt?"" you may ask, and its simple. Somebody else will be there when the debt is due.  The problem of incentives is a fundamental one."


Not surprising. People have less money nowadays.   There are two Silicon Valley malls that do well. 1 is Valley Fair in Santa Clara, maybe because there's enough people with money to shop there. I don't go there often though because of the traffic around that area. Yuck!   The other mall is the Great Mall in Milpitas. It's mostly outlet stores and if it's not an outlet store, it's often a store that's often in a strip mall  However, the mall in Cupertino is a ghost town and is looking to be redeveloped.   Come to think of it, you used to go to a mall for premium items. However, more stores outside malls have them like Bed, Bath, and Beyond. In fact, there's times where Bed, Bath, and Beyond has higher quality than what's at the mall.   Also, outdoor malls seem to be taking hold more than indoor malls


The FDIC is pretty confident about them being legit. http://www2.fdic.gov/idasp/main_bankfind.asp  (type in Bank Of The Sierra in the name field and search on that) You got to realize how much money they will make if you use them per the agreement.  Every credit card / debit transaction gets them some cash.  Businesses get between 1 and 5% of each transaction even on debit cards.  Then there is a flat fee the merchant pays for accepting the credit card between .25 and .50 per transaction.  Even at 12 transactions a month, the bank is looking at making around $6/month.  Probably more because who uses a debit card just 12 times a month.  It would be convenient for most people to juse use it all the time. Does 4.09% APY beat $6/month?  You would have to keep a balance of $2000 plus to cost more than you earn.  And if you keep more than $2k in the account, they have other ways to make money off of you. I would also assume they make money on the bill pay and direct deposit side of things, but I can't speak for certain about that. Bottom line is this seems like a good deal to attract customers, they would rather make a bit less profit then BofA to grow their business.  They are betting their offer restrictions will change your habits and make you more profitable to them.


"This is the best tl;dr I could make, [original](https://www.bloomberg.com/view/articles/2017-06-04/universal-basic-income-is-neither-universal-nor-basic) reduced by 95%. (I'm a bot) ***** > When people speak about universal basic income they usually mean national basic income.  > When Musk said that &quot;There&#039;s a pretty good chance we end up with a universal basic income due to automation,&quot; and when Obama said that &quot;Whether a universal income is the right model that&#039;s a debate that we&#039;ll be having over the next 10 or 20 years,&quot; it is unclear who &quot;We&quot; are.  > Even if universal basic income means that poor people in 2050 will enjoy much better medical care and education than today, they might still feel that the system is rigged against them, that the government serves only the super-rich, and that the future will be even worse for them and their children.   ***** [**Extended Summary**](http://np.reddit.com/r/autotldr/comments/6fdjpz/artificial_intelligence_is_going_to_put_many_out/) | [FAQ](http://np.reddit.com/r/autotldr/comments/31b9fm/faq_autotldr_bot/ ""Version 1.65, ~136767 tl;drs so far."") | [Theory](http://np.reddit.com/r/autotldr/comments/31bfht/theory_autotldr_concept/) | [Feedback](http://np.reddit.com/message/compose?to=%23autotldr ""PM's and comments are monitored, constructive feedback is welcome."") | *Top* *keywords*: **basic**^#1 **income**^#2 **human**^#3 **might**^#4 **job**^#5"


Who's to say this guy does not have the merits that got him placed into this job? He graduated from Princeton and worked for Goldman - he's obviously a bright guy. Why, then, do you assume he didn't earn the job on his merits?


That doesn't change anything. You're still judging an investment off a 5 year period which includes a massive event which destroyed oil stocks. My previous analogy still applies, if you held 2 portfolios, one with tech stocks and one without for the 5 year period that includes the tech crash in the early 2000s, of course the non tech one would outperform the tech one.  XLE, an energy etf, dropped 30% at the end of that period. That has an outsized influence on your article there.


">entitled  Your entire comment, dude.. what? It's getting what the market dictates you're worth, not ""entitlement."" An extremely talented developer who can find work for any firm on earth is going to have a lot of power in the employer-employee negotiations because of his or her extremely hard work and exemplary performance throughout life. What does being physically uncomfortable have to do with literally anything anyone is talking about? It's like you're trying to say twenty different things, and none of them make any sense or are related to the discussion at all."


I'm surprised no one has picked up on this, but the student loan is an exception to the rule. It's inflation bound (for now), you only have to pay it back as a percentage of your salary if you earn over £15k (11% on any amount over that I believe), you don't have to pay it if you lose your job, and it doesn't affect your ability to get credit (except that your repayments will be taken into account).   My advice, which is slightly different to the above, is: if you have any shares that have lost more than 10% since you bought them and aren't currently recovering, sell them and pay off your debts with those. The rest is down to you - are they making more than 10% a year? If they are, don't sell them. If your dividends are covering your payments, carry on as you are. Otherwise it's down to you.


In general, the better advice I've heard is to spend only on things that matter to you and scrimp on the rest. It's an easy way to budget without having to stick to a strict set of rules. Otherwise keep 3-6 months of living expenses in liquid accounts (money market, savings) and invest the rest.


There are deals out there which allow refinancing up to 125% of appraised value so long as you have a solid payment history. You need to research banks in your area working with HARP funded mortgages.  An alternate method is to find a bank that will finance 80% of the current value at 4% and the rest as a HELOC. The rate will be higher on the equity line, but the average rate will be better and you can pay the line off faster.


I would just do a loan for a different number of years on your new mortgage. For example, if you just spent 10 years paying off your first house, then for your second, close the first mortgage upon selling, and then open a 20 or 25 year mortgage and the loan end date as well as the payment should remain similar. This would be more do-able if you paid ahead a little to compensate all the early on interest you have to eat. So if you want to finish around the same time, you could look into doing that since you'll have more equity to make a stronger down payment.


I don't really like to refer to being an expert cause it is all relative really.  I know Excel better than anyone in my office but I don't consider myself an expert because my skills don't touch many of the people on Excel-related forums.  Anyway, the initiative you are showing wanting to learn this on your own is great.   So if you told me that you were in expert in Excel but it is clear you know less than me I'd peg you as someone with overconfidence bias.  What I would want to see is that you are familiar with functions common with finance-related Excel work, that you understand under which situations certain functions are more efficient for completing a task.  Like math, there are many ways to solve a problem but some are more efficient than others (in Excel the most efficient is not always the most elegant, we are talking about using the least amount of processing power and memory).  That if you don't know how to do something in Excel you'll be able to figure it out without help.  There are so many resources on the web and you should know how to be able to look at other examples and apply it to your situation.  You should be familiar with VBA, not just using the macro recorder.  Know what situations when it is better to use VBA than excel functions (in most situations you want to avoid VBA because 1. It makes it difficult for other users to follow your spreadsheet and 2. Excel functions are much more optimized and generally perform tasks much faster).  Know how to build spreadsheets that are easy for others to follow you work; write comments etc....  Nothing is worse than trying to figure out a cluster fuck of a spreadsheet.  I would not expect you to be an expert in VBA and to be able to write something in depth from scratch but rather be able to figure it out using outside resources.  Since I am not writing in VBA on daily basis I forget shit all the time but if there is something that needs to be done I can guarantee you I will figure out how.  Knowledge of how to integrate Excel with a database via VBA is good (for both pulling in data and updating a database).  Tl;dr  1. Don't downplay your Excel knowledge but don't make yourself out to be an Excel God, you never know how much knowledge the other person has 2. Demonstrate that you have experience with commonly used Excel-related functions; efficient construction of workbooks 3. Demonstrate that if you don't know how to do something in Excel you will be able to figure it out; provide an example 4. Knowledge of VBA is good, especially integrating with outside databases.  Provide example of a time you used VBA and why you did.  Best way to learn this stuff is through experience; If you want me to critique your Excel work I would happy to.  The following project would give you good experience:  Download data for 20 countries (just choose at random, make sure you include U.S. though) on GDP in US dollar current prices and PPP basis for all years.  from IMF http://www.imf.org/external/pubs/ft/weo/2012/01/weodata/index.aspx  1. Build a dash board that calculates the year-over-year growth of both GDP $, and GDP PPP 2. Set it so you can dynamically select which country to display 3. Set it up so you dynamically change start and end date 3. The chart should automatically adjust its range based on the date selected 4. Create three aggregates, developing countries, developed countries and world EX US 5. With these aggregates have an option to show the y/y growth using either the average (mean) or on a GDP weighted basis.   This is just an idea that would give you some good experience.  It is not anything I need so only do it if you want to build your skills.


"What our friend ""otherwiseyep"" is describing in his first posts is *credit*, not money.  Money and credit are two very different things.  Economies function on capital, which is existing savings and supply of goods/services.  They cannot function on promises alone (credit).  So from the perspective of Austrian economists, his OP's were misleading."


"You are correct.  Military spending is an incredibly inefficient form of stimulus, but it has the benefit of allowing a country to be more of an international bully as well as enriching politically useful cronies.  We wouldn't want to spend a $1 trillion without ensuring sitting politicians could get reelected, would we?  They might have to stoop to lobbying then!  An additional bonus is that country will have excess weaponry to use in policing domestic dissidents, affectionately called ""The Poor.""  Aren't the police part of our infrastructure?  Isn't crime reduction of value to society?  And, yes...this is sarcasm.  I dislike talking about the MIC so much that it's difficult to do so without a lot of snark."


"How do I get my money from India to UAE account – what are the options, can I do bank transfer from my mom SB account to my international account. As you have transferred money directly to your Mothers account, getting the money back would need some paper work. Consult a CA and Bank in India, they should be able to help you. There are various limits under FEMA that would be applicable. As the amount is small a self declaration would also suffice. If yes how much do I loose in case of 20 lac due to currency conversion and commission (approximate) Not sure I understand this question, are you asking if you had converted X AED into Rs 20 lacs and now you have 20 lacs will you get back ""x"" AED or how much less? If you Buy and Sell on the same day, typically there is a spread of 3-5% depending on the currency pair. However rates would have move up or down since then and hence this cannot be answered. You would have to see what the rates are. b. can exchange with Friends in UAE and deposit the same in INR to their SB account in india. Stick to Banks or authorized remittance services [like Western Union / Money Gram / etc]. Any other method you are circumventing law. One is not authorized to convert currency outside the normal Banking Channel."


you are exactly right.  people keep going on about how facebook and their ipo is a failure etc, they are totally wrong. all of this was done for one reason only - the insiders who had all these crazy valuations and forecasts etc on paper that were not actually worth anything IRL, could cash out and get some money off the back of fools.  the fb ipo was a huge success for mark zuckerburg and others - not so much a success in the real world though.  sadly, this whole model and 'social networking' bubble should have 'popped' long before it got to this stage, myspace should have signaled that.


Typically, you can chose in the transfer if you want to transfer in target currency or in source currency. If you chose source currency, the receiving bank (for you, in India) does the conversion, and charges the fees. If you chose target currency, the sending bank does the conversion and charges the fees. The advantage is that they offer to generate a defined amount in the target currency, so you can pay a bill exactly. Either way, one of the two banks is going to charge you. It absolutely depends on the banks which fee is higher. From personal experience, between Europe and the US, either direction mostly the receiving bank is cheaper ('incoming fees' are set lower than 'outgoing'). I can't say for India; you need to check with your bank.


Fuckwad and his cronies from old lane hedge fund should be in jail next to Madoff for ripping off citi for nearly a billion (the money coming from taxpayers) selling them a bankrupt fund. Instead they name that crook CEO. Unfucking real


">Those ""resources"" are often employees  Yes labor is also a scarce resource. But just like other resources it needs to be used in a way that is most productive. If the govt spends $100k hiring two people to dig holes and then refill them, those two people are employed, but there is no production there. That $100k contributed to no productive growth and created no wealth for anyone. The two businessmen who did not get loans for their business would have to seek employment with another entrepreneur who could put their labor to more productive use.   >No, only the base rate is set centrally.  Exactly, but the bank's rates are reliant on the federal funds rate"


I don't know, maybe saving for 30+ years you'd want to see how your investments are doing to plan for retirement? Or should I just use an interest calc on google and expect that average market return on my deposits will be there in 2045. Looking at the statements builds trust with the advisor. What makes them trusted?


The company may have put a trading halt due to many reasons, most of the time it is because the company is about to release some news to the market. To stop speculation driving the price up or down, it puts a halt on trading until it can get all the information together and release it to the market. This could be news about an earnings update, a purchase of other businesses, a merger with another business, or a takeover bid, just to name a few.


"There are plenty of examples of ""indigenous"" colonization, though strictly *African* examples are hard to come by because people people have just always been there, and there isn't much in the way of geographic barriers in sub-Saharan Africa to cause a sharp delineation between one group of people and another.  Still, they had no [shortage of kingdoms and empires](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_kingdoms_in_pre-colonial_Africa), of which [Ethiopia](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ethiopian_Empire) was the most powerful and longest-lived, even successfully fighting off European colonists for most of a century before falling to Italy in the run-up to WWII.   But elsewhere, Madagascar was colonized by several different waves of people over about a thousand years.  Similarly, Japan seems to have been colonized in several waves.  Taiwan was first inhabited by humans about 5,000 years ago, but the Han Chinese didn't show up until the 17th century or so.  The colonization of the United States is rather unique in that it's one of a few very rare cases where the occupiers were actually determined to exterminate the native population.  While the Spanish and French settlers certainly had plenty of conflicts with the natives, they were still able to work out a social structure where both were included, even if the natives were on the bottom."


The study of technical analysis is generally used (sometimes successfully) to time the markets. There are many aspects to technical analysis, but the simplest form is to look for uptrends and downtrends in the charts.  Generally higher highs and higher lows is considered an uptrend.  And lower lows and lower highs is considered a downtrend.  A trend follower would go with the trend, for example see a dip to the trend-line and buy on the rebound. A simple strategy for this is shown in the chart below:  I would be buying this stock when the price hits or gets very close to the trendline and then it bounces back above it. I would then have sold this stock once it has broken through below the trendline. This may also be an appropriate time if you were looking to short this stock. Other indicators could also be used in combination for additional confirmation of what is happening to the price. Another type of trader is called a bottom fisher. A bottom fisher would wait until a break above the downtrend line (second chart) and buy after confirmation of a higher high and possibly a higher low (as this could be the start of a new uptrend). There are many more strategies dealing with the study of technical analysis, and if you are interested you would need to find and learn about ones that suit your investment styles, whether you prefer short term trading or longer term investing, and your appetite for risk. You can develop strategies using various indicators and then paper trade or backtest these strategies. You can also manually backtest a strategy in most charting packages. You can go back in time on the chart so that the right side of the chart shows a date in the past (say one year ago or 10 years ago), then you can click forward one day at a time (or one week at a time if using weekly charts). With your indicators on the chart you can do virtual trades to buy or sell whenever a signal is given as you move forward in time. This way you may be able to check years of data in a day to see if your strategy works. Whatever you do, you need to document your strategies in writing in a written trading or investment plan together with a risk management strategy. You should always follow the rules in your written plan to avoid you making decisions based on emotions. By backtesting or paper trading your strategies it will give you confidence that they will work over the long term.  There is a lot of work involved at the start, but once you have developed a documented strategy that has been thoroughly backtested, it will take you minimal time to successfully manage your investments. In my shorter term trading (positions held from a couple of days to a few weeks) I spend about half an hour per night to manage my trades and am up about 50% over the last 7 months. For my longer term investing (positions held from months to years) I spend about an hour per week and have been averaging over 25% over the last 4 years. Technical Analysis does work for those who have a documented plan, have approached it in a systematic way and use risk management to protect their existing and future capital. Most people who say that is doesn't work either have not used it themselves or have used it ad-hock without putting in the initial time and work to develop a documented and systematic approach to their trading or investing.


"I've said it before here on Reddit, and I'll say it again: How does HFT affect an investor looking to buy XYZ at $10 and hold for six months to sell at $12? The answer: It doesn't.  HFT is just the new exchange ""floor."" There have always been professionals on the floors of the exchanges who could compete with one another for single ticks. And then, just as now, they had little to no impact on long-term investors.  Reading through the comments of the article makes it abundantly clear that there is a shocking lack of knowledge of HFT practices and impact on the markets."


>If everyone in auto manufacturing labor was replaced by a cheap robot tomorrow, then cars would be cheaper.  Why?  *All* the auto manufacturers installed robots, so they've *all* got the same incentive to keep prices the same and pocket the additional productivity as profits.  Auto manufacturers *have* switched largely to robotic labor.  Prices have stayed mostly the same, adjusted for inflation.  Quality has increased, which is good, but fewer and fewer people can afford the higher-quality vehicles due to lack of jobs and other factors in the cost of living rising (housing, health-care, education, energy).  >video game and plastic surgery business, robot manufacturing, and robot programming  Actually, programmers work *more* than auto workers.  Auto workers were unionized and thus had a 40-hour work-week, sometimes even with lunch breaks out of work hours instead of leisure hours!


Puerto Rico isn't Algeria. Lending to Algeria is relatively simple as they live and die on the price of oil. Puerto Rico is far more complex and doesn't have a basic resource export economy. Lending to Algeria is a pure oil play and is far less dependent on credit ratings. If Puerto Rico's debt investors take the hit, there isn't a line of lenders throwing money at them.


Tax obligation for your parents: NIL The transfer would come under the Gift Tax act. There is no limit on the amount for near relatives. So you can send unlimited amount to your parents and this would not be taxable. However if you parents invest this in FD, Interest on savings, etc ... this income would be taxable.   Nope there is no tax exemption for you on this amount.


Most credit cards will allow you to pick the closing date. In fact almost every bill with the exception of utilities that collected usage by reading a meter at the house will either let you pick the closing date each month, or at least have several to pick from. They won't let you pick the length, but they will let you pick the day of the month. When I worked a job that paid once a month. I wanted all my bills due early in the month: get paid, pay bill, know how much I have left. When I went back to every other week spreading them out made more sense. No credit card had a problem with this. The transitional cycle was not the correct length, but after that it was fine. As Dheer pointed out extending the cycle to 90 days would involve them extending credit for much longer than they would be comfortable. Also the goal of keeping utilization under 30% would be very difficult, you would have to keep your spending per month to less than 10% of your credit limit. Some people have trouble not falling behind on credit card bills, having to set aside the money to pay the bill every 90 day may be way to tough for many people.


"Now, my own answer:  If you join and receive equity, do the 1/3 split as a max. Truthfully, if it were my company, I would try to negotiate with you to only give you 15%--20% because as an advisor you're not going to be involved in executing the idea to turn it into a business.  If you contribute capital, do it as a loan. End of story.  You don't own more because you financed growth... you shouldn't. The growth will have come because of the collective performance of the whole team. You should get paid back at a ""fair"" rate for your investment... if the company can handle it, I would argue something like 10% interest is reflective of the risk you're taking with your money.  If the finances are so tight that the interest repayment isn't an option, do the math behind what you should be paid for the loan in interest, and convert that to shares or equity somehow, and get paid back for the invested capital.  If the company can't repay your loan, the business model may not be sound enough, or developed enough, to be investing in to begin with."


Just earning the money would trigger a 1099 (assuming other requirements are met).  It doesn't matter where the money is.


> Wu no longer competes actively. Instead, he has found his niche educating others on how to play and being a web personality at tournaments.  I actually think it's a sensible move for someone to get out of finance if they hate it and pursue a passion while they're in their early 20s. Chances are you won't strike it rich, but maybe it leads to something else, as it has for Wu. In the worst case he can go back to an office job with some good stories.


I own a gold mine and my cost of producing an ounce of gold is $600. Less than that, I lose money, anything over is profit. Today, at $1500, I sell futures to match my production for the next 2 years. I'm happy to lock in the profit. If gold goes to $3000, well, too bad, but if it drops to $500, I can still sell it for the $1500 as I mine it. I suppose I could also close out the contracts at a profit and still shut the mines down, but the point is illustrated.


> someone can explain why that is the case  Can you explain your case?  What is your point?  >There isn't a first world nation anywhere in which there is a black majority. From Madagascar to Jamaica. And for whites? From new Zealand to America, the exact opposite.  These are supporting statements for what, exactly?  Are you here to make the argument that white people are better than black people at nation building?


I have ScottradeElite on my desktop. I have played around with it but no longer use it. The transactions that I make through Scottrade are more dependent on my goals for the securities than what the market is doing at the moment.  Keep in mind that there will always be others out there with better access to price changes than you. They also will have better hardware. We cannot beat them at their game.


>What's unfair about it?   It's not fair to exclude job candidates because they choose to engage in a harmless recreational activity in their personal time. If there were some reason to think that they were likely to imbibe at work or that their marijuana use would otherwise impair their ability to perform their job effectivity, that would be another story. But there's no way to tell that from urinalysis and hair tests.  >A weed smoker is lying if they tell you they only smoke weekends.   That's just not true. I smoke *maybe* once a month, and know lots of other people who smoke only on rare occasions.  >Most smoke fault and they aren't fit for the job.   That's not a sentence, but if you're trying to communicate a theory that pot smokers are mostly incompetent, you are mistaken. There are many successful, intelligent, effective people who use marijuana.


me personally, i couldnt care less about what people do, but when you see reports where drug rehab, for a family member that is not hired by the company, cost a company 1/4 mil, thats something to consider as a business owner. so yeah, the employee may not have a problem, but if its permissible in their lifestyle, and your company covers other people not hired by the company, theres a huge loss potential that the company can do nothing about, other than utterly ban such culture from the work place.


I see this as less conspiratorial than the housing market shenanigans because auto manufacturers really have no other choice but to make financing easier because if they didn't, they wouldn't be selling many cars and trucks.   The 2008 financial meltdown happened mainly because of derivatives. I don't know of any packaged bonds or CDOs made up of auto loans with credit default swaps riding on their backs.  So, a wave of defaulted auto loans just means that it will become a buyers market for used cars - if not another signpost of general American economic collapse.


"Paypal linked with my bank account. 1.Can I use my Saving bank account to receive payments from my clients? Or is it necessary to open a current account? Yes you can get funds into your savings account. However it is advisable to keep a seperate account as it would help with your IT Returns. 2.I will be paying a certain % as commission on every sales to a couple of sales guys (who are not my employees but only working on   commission). Can I show this as an expense in my IT returns? As you are earning as freelancer, you are eligible for certain deductions like Phone calls, Laptop, other hardware, payments to partners. It is important that you maintain a book of records. An accountant for a small fee of Rs 5 K should be able to help you. In the Returns you have to show Net income after all these deductions, there is no place to enter expenses.   3.Since I will be receiving all the payments in Euros so am I falling under a category of ""Exporter of services""? The work you are doing can be Free Lancing.    4.Do I need an Import Export Code (IEC) for smoothly running this small business? You can run this without one as Free lancing. IEC would be when you grow big and are looking for various benefits under tax and pay different taxes and are incorporated as a company."


Where do you live that an apartment costs $1000 but the minimum wage is still the federal minimum? For example NYC is expensive, but they have a $11.50 minimum wage to compensate. San Francisco's minimum wage is $10.24. You'd have to be living in a big city for that kind of rent, but big cities have higher minimum wages.  As for childcare, $1000 also seems very high. A reasonable childcare center in most parts of the country should cost arond $400 or so.   http://childcare.about.com/od/costofchildcare/qt/daycarecost.htm


In your journal entry, debit the appropriate expense account (office supplies, etc) and credit your equity account.  The equity account should be called something like Partner Investments or something like that. You can choose to enter these all separately, on the specific dates listed, or as one entry.  Some people choose to summarize the expenses they've paid personally and only enter one entry per month or so, to minimize data entry time and also because the end effect is the same. Of course, the above is assuming you are considering these purchases to be investments in the company, and not expecting the company to repay you.  If you are expecting repayment, you could enter a bill instead, or credit an account like 'Loan from Shareholder' rather than the equity account.


It was $13,000 in 1996 and it's $12,800 now, just to save people a click.  Edit: and that's only a straight average of accounts and only from Bank of America. It could just be that people have chosen to save with another bank or to keep more money in stocks or retirement accounts rather than savings accounts.  This article is pretty much garbage.


If you're getting 0% on the financing, it's not costing you anything to borrow that money. So its basically free money. If you are comfortable with the monthly payments, consider going with no downpayment at all. Keep that money aside for a rainy day, or invest it somewhere so that you get some return on it. If you need to lower the payments later you can always use that money to pay down part of the loan later (check with the dealer that it is an open loan). If you're not comfortable with the payments at 0 down, put enough down to bring the monthly payment to a level where you are comfortable.


To make the buying process less complicated and to ensure you end up with the energy savings roof fan that is going to work best for your needs, we wanted to provide some helpful tips on what to look for when searching for an attic fan for the home.


> Why is this not a monopoly?   Because as big a retailer as Amazon is, it's still smaller than CVS as of 2016 in terms of retail sales (the latest year for which data is available): https://nrf.com/resources/annual-retailer-lists/top-100-retailers/stores-top-retailers-2016  It's not even close to Wal-Mart.


If you have kids, there are also 529 funds to consider. They aren't pre-tax, but do have tax advantages. If your employer doesn't have a 401k, chances are they don't offer Health Savings Accounts, but that is another thing to look at.


It depends on the sequence in which the order [bid and ask] were placed. Please read the below question to understand how the order are matched. How do exchanges match limit orders?


One possible downside is contribution limit.  The 401K contribution limit is $18,000 for 2016, which is more than three times the limit for IRA contributions ($5,500).


"A ""true"" 0% loan is a losing proposition for the bank, that's true.  However when you look at actual ""0%"" loans they usually have some catches: There might also be late payment fees, prepayment penalties, and other clauses that make it a good deal on average to the bank.  Individual borrowers might be able to get away with ""free money"", but the bank does not look to make money on each loan, they look to make money on thousands of loans overall. For a retailer (including new car sellers). the actual financing costs will be baked into the sales price.  They will add, say, 10% to the sales price in exchange for an interest-free loan. They can also sell these loans to an investment bank or other entity, but they would be sold at a deep discount, so the difference will be made up in the sales price or other ""fees"". It's possible that they would just chalk it up to promotional discounts or customer acquisition costs, but it would not be a good practice on a large scale."


"IT actually doesn't have the issue with the charg enumber thing because the Manhour allocation charge covers IT support so we don't bill our time out.  It is mostly just people who work direct for projects that pull the ""give me a charge number"" business. Also, it isn't everyone either. Mostly just the douchebags.  Additionally, a department policy like you suggest actually sounds like a great Idea. I think I like you. However, in a company our size, it would get abused more than it would be respected. Great programs and policies like that always get bombed in my company because of a a 20% group of dickbags."


"Welcome to Money.SE. Your question is similar to a number of others. The ""How do I pay my debt down?"" and ""How do I invest extra money?"" is a bit of a continuum since there's no consensus than one should pay off the last cent of debt before investing.  Oversimplify it for me: the correct order of investing offers a good look at this. You see, Pete's answer on your question is perfectly fine, but, since you make no mention of, say, a matched 401(k), I'd suggest that any answer to a question like yours should first take a step back and evaluate the bigger picture. A dollar for dollar matched 401(k) beats paying off even an 18% credit card.  Absent any tangents, any thought of investing, saving for anything else, etc, my answer is simple, line up the debt, highest interest rate to lowest. Keep in mind the post-tax rate, i.e. a 6% student loan you can deduct, is an effective 4.5% if you are in the 25% bracket."


I was waffling on whether this article was interesting or just painfully obvious to anyone who knows a goddamn thing about marketing, until...  > ...the ShamWow! guy’s success (if any), came from his comical arrest when he beat up a prostitute.


The biggest problem Chinese car companies will face abroad is making a car that isn't a piece of shit.  Other brands would happily allow them to sell with their badge to help them get into the market if they produced something viable.


I would say you are typical.  The way people are able to build their available credit, then subsequently build their average balances is buy building their credit score.  According to FICO your credit score is made up as follows: Given that you had no history, and only new credit you are pretty much lacking in all areas.  What the typical person does, is get a card, pay on it for 6 months and assuming good history will either get an automatic bump; or, they can request a credit limit increase. Credit score has nothing to do with wealth or income.  So even if you had 100K in the bank you would likely still be facing the same issue.  The bank that holds the money might make an exception. It is very easy to see how a college student can build to 2000 or more.  They start out with a $200 balance to a department store and in about 6 months they get a real CC with a 500 balance and one to a second department store.  Given at least a decent payment history, that limit could easily increase above 2500 and there could be more then one card open.   Along the lines of what littleadv says, the companies even welcome some late payments.  The fees are more lucrative and they can bump the interest rate.  All is good as long as the payments are made. Getting students and children involved with credit cards is a goal of the industry.  They can obtain an emotional attachment that goes beyond good business reasoning.


"I'd like to see the network return to at least the ""quality"" it was six-to-eight months ago and then I have to wait and see if they roll out LTE in my market.      Essentially, my service is worse than it has ever been and it has kinda sat at that barely usable state for a few months.  Luckily, I can get a wifi signal most places so I can survive until December when I'll get a better idea if they are going to ignore my market."


Well guess all good things come to an end. Sears has been around since 1886! Funny enough, my local sears is actually remodeling. I assume Macy's retailer is one of the very few old American store's still successful 100+ years later.


Insurance is not health care.  Insurance is a financial instrument designed to protect the insured from short term shocks caused by some calamity by spreading out the cost over time.    Not covering someone with a pre-existing condition is similar to an car-insurance company refusing to pay for repairing a damaged car, where the damage was caused prior to obtaining insurance.  Not to be rude but failure to understand that utterly simple basic financial concept is exactly the sort of willful ignorance I'm talking about.  What you are interested in is 'justice'.  Someone was harmed by a desease which is tragic for the individual, and in some sense 'cosmically unfair'.   It isn't however the fault of the insurance company that the person didn't purchase a policy beforehand.  It would in fact be unfair to existing policy holders if the insurance company pays such claims, as it would raise their rates to cover those who will now rationally choose not to get insurance until after they have a claim.


Basically, no. You have retirement plan options and can either go with a Roth option, which won't change your current tax burden, or go with a traditional plan, which is tax deductible  but won't change your business deductions or self-employment taxes. This article has an explanation of options for setting up SEP or Solo 401k plans. Key quote for all the pre-tax retirement plans: Because pre-tax employer and employee contributions are deducted in   the same way, neither one is more tax-efficient than the other. The article goes on to say that if you were an S Corp or LLC that elected to be taxed as an S Corp, a Solo 401(k) plan would allow the business to make an employer contribution to your 401(k) and even then there's no tax advantage to the employer contribution. Conclusion for S-corps: [Employer contributions] would reduce the amount of income from the S-corporation that   would be passed through to you as the owner, thereby reducing your   income tax. But, because this income is not subject to payroll taxes   in the first place, these contributions will not reduce your payroll   taxes.


Wait... You mean that the government interfering with the market was a net negative?!  It's almost as if the government is full of humans, who, by nature, are short sighted and only concerned with being re-elected.  What could possibly go wrong by allowing them to meddle in the markets?


The problem is very fundamental. Equity is traded on limit order books while fixed income is not. Meaning counterparty to counterparty, if you buy a bond off say barclays, chances are if you hit them for a price to sell it will be somewhat higher than the market as they do not want you to just take their money.  Putting fixed income on a limit order book could help however there may be fundamental liquidity problems on some smaller issues.


"Getting a specific service recommendation is off-topic, but the question of what type of professional you need seems on-topic to me.  You may be looking for more than one professional in this case, but you could try these to start your search: Different people do things differently, but I think it would be pretty common to have a relationship (i.e. contract, retainer agreement, at least have met the person in case you have an ""emergency"") with a business law attorney and either a CPA or tax attorney.  You may try not to use them too much to keep costs down, but you don't want to be searching for one after you have an issue. You want to know who you're going to call and may establish at least a basis working relationship."


The Greek Piraeus Bank offers such services for trading stocks in Athens Stock Exchange (ASE) and in addition 26 other markets including NASDAQ, NYSE and largest European ones (full list, in Greek). Same goes for Eurobank with a list of 17 international markets and the ability to trade bonds. BETA Securities has also an online platform, but I think it's only for ASE. Some other banks (like National Bank of Greece) do have similar online services, but are usually restricted to ASE.


I agree. Money has been funnelled to the top and debt on the those at the bottom for so long people just can't afford to buy a house. Student loans are as expensive as a house. Who can afford two payments like that?


If it's a small one person business he will have to sign a personal guarantee no matter what he does with respect to incorporating. Not saying your idea isn't worth looking into but no bank will lend him money without a personal guarantee.


"Do you know who this guy is? He's the one who bankrupted himself building a replica of Versailles in Florida, then had the audacity to say  >""people like me who made all the right decisions and invested in themselves are being forced to bail out all the people who didn't. The people that overspent their paychecks suddenly feel entitled to the same luxuries that I earned and sacrificed 42 years of my life for.""  Bullshit! He didn't invest in himself, he spent money he didn't have on the most expensive house in America so he could live in a place that's entire history epitomizes decadence and luxory at the expense of everyone else. And how in the fuck does his personal tax rate affect his ability to run a business? He straight up says  >""I have enough money for the rest of my life and enough to leave a good inheritance for our kids.""   He admits that every paycheck from here on out is superfluous, so in what reality does an extra 5% in taxes so badly inconvenience him that he would be forced shut down his entire company? He's a scumbag. He doesn't care about his employees at all, he's a greedy douchebag who is trying to bully people into voting in his best interests, and his best interests absolutely *do not* line up with his employees'."


> Right to all of that but don't they still need US Treasuries to keep their currency competitive? Even   The Fed is not the only one who can do QE song and dance. Everybody can print money, its not a terribly hard concept.


California and New York are very aggressive when it comes to revenue and taxes. As such, mere having an employee in these States creates a nexus and tax/filing liability for the company. @Adam Wood mentioned sales tax - that is correct. Having an employee in the State of California will require collecting sales tax for CA, and if until now your employer didn't have to - that would be a good enough reason to refuse your request. In addition to sales taxes, there's also the issue of corporate filings (they will now have to file paperwork in CA and pay CA franchise taxes just because of you) and payroll taxes (which are pretty high in CA and NY). It will also subject the to CA/NY/WA labor laws, which are more liberal than in most of the other States. Washington doesn't have personal income tax, but does have corporate income tax and sales tax, so I'm guessing the reasons to exclude this State are the same.


Is the pay cycle every 2 weeks? So 30% each two week period is 1.3^26 = 917.33 or an APR of 91633%.  Loansharks charge less, I believe standard vig was 2%/week for good customers. Only 180% per year.


(xposted comment from a discussion in /r/economics)  I work for (and am a cooperative owner of) [Equal Exchange](http://www.equalexchange.coop). We are a food and beverage company.  We have a pretty conventional management structure and division of labor. We all get regular paychecks (and awesome benefits). The  company did over $55 million in sales last year and has been profitable for 23 of the last 24 years (don't ask us about 1997. We lost $7,000).  What's different? Well, last year, every single worker/owner got the same share of the profits: about $6,500. Didn't matter what your job was.  Also, the board its entirely elected by the workers: one worker, one vote. Only the workers can nominate and vote for the board. Six if the nine members of the board are workers. They can fire the CEO (and we did once). The workers as a whole have to approve major (really major) decisions, and also any changes to the company bylaws.  It's a crazy company that most textbooks would say is impossible, yet here we are.  [Here](http://equalexchange.coop/about/annual-reports) are our annual reports. In 2013 we had $56 million in sales and $2.65 million in pre-tax profits. We buy almost all our products from small-farmer co-operatives, and we sell our products to virtually every consumer grocery co-operative in the US (among many other places).  Edit: fixed typos


Wow, that is filled with misinformation. What are you trying to achieve here? L1 has a 5yr limit, and requires a ton of evidence to support the fact that you were previously working in a managerial/executive function with the same parent company. In order to prove that, you need to be making a reasonably large salary too. It has to be applied for by the employing company, through a lawyer. What a load of hogwash, don't write about topics you have no knowledge of.


What I'm asking is, what's bitcoins cup of coffee? I understand it works now, it's value makes sense and nothing your saying is wrong but that's not what I'm saying. Pork bellies will still make bacon even if no single person in the world wants to buy a pork belly. This isn't the case for bitcoin, or any fiat currency for that matter. BUT other fiat currencies have a much more established place in the market when compared to bitcoin. That's all I'm saying. It's a volatile value and the price fluctuation alone proves that.


To be confident in your solution, and get the best solution for you, consult a local accountant, preferably one who is specialized in taxes for businesses.  Or muddle through the code and figure it out for yourself.  The primary advantage in consulting with an accountant is that you can ask them to point out ways you can restructure your expenses, debts and income in order to minimize your tax burden.  They can help you run the numbers for the various options and choose the one that is right, numerically.


The put will expire and you will need to purchase a new one. My advise will be that the best thing is to sell more calls so your delta from the short call will be similr to the delta from the equity holding.


See if the bank has other credit cards they offer. Many banks have multiple ones: some cards have great benefits, others do not; some cards have high rates, some do not; some cards are secured, some do not.  If they have a card that you like ask them to switch you to the card you want. They should be able to do so very easily. Your card number will change, but they will treat it is a replacement so that your credit score will not take a hit during the switch. It may be possible to get them to waive the annual fee, but most won't because each card type they offer are separate products so they only allow you to pick one of their options. If they don't have a card to your liking apply for a card from anther bank that has the benefits and annual fees (zero) that you are looking for. It may be that the new card will start with a lower limit, but it will increase over time, especially as you shift more of your business to the new card. When you cancel the old card before the next year rolls around you will take a small short hit to your credit score, but that is ok.


"Usually not the total interest, but all interest accrued and unpaid to date. This is called the ""Loan Payoff Amount"", and repays the bank their principal plus the ""true"" cost of capital on that principal since your last amortized payment (which is probably never, since you just signed the loan papers). There may also be a ""prepayment penalty"". This is something that should have been disclosed to you if it exists, but it's fairly rare in U.S. mortgages anymore.  The theory is, the bank got the money they paid you at the start of the loan by selling a bond package backed by your mortgage and others of similar credit history and/or about the same time (a ""mortgage-backed security""). By turning around and paying early, you meet your obligation, but the bank is now stuck with at least 10 years of quarterly coupon payments on that bond, which they were expecting to pay using your mortgage interest. For their trouble, you would pay an additional amount that either covers their ""call price"" on the portion of the bonds used for your principal, or simply buys them the time to re-issue a new mortgage using your repaid principal to back the bond again. In the modern housing market, such a prepayment penalty is very rare, because so many lenders are willing to give you a mortgage without one, and so many buyers balk at the thought of having to pay more if they pay early; the whole point is to pay less by paying early. Just something to look up in your mortgage documentation."


HAHA you think they care about quality of life?  they care about who they can recruit and how easy that will be.  Your quality of life will be shit while you work for them and that's not their concern.  Their concern is extracting value from human capital.


Dem robots took muh jerb! Technology scares me! You can't fight progression dude. Imagine if we decided to throw away innovation to keep jobs from being lost. I for one miss the days of actual operators sitting at a switch board moving my calls around.


On 2012/05/18 at 15:34:00 UTC (11:34:00 EDT) FB was in chaos mode.  The most recent public US trade at that moment was at $40.94, but in the next one second (i.e. before the clock hit 15:34:01) there were several dozen trades as low as $40.76 and as high as $41.00. On 2012/05/30 at 17:21:00 UTC (13:21:00 EDT) the most recent public US trade for FB was at $28.28.


Annnnd...now the same nationalists who cry about immigration, will be crying about the cost of the goods at the store going up. I am sure they will try to blame people who have nothing to do with it, and ignore the policies and the party and people who enacted them.


In addition to stoj's two good points I'll add a couple more reasons: 3)  In some situations there are secondary factors involved that can make it a good deal.  These normally amount to cases where you can buy the insurance with pre-tax dollars but would have to pay the bills with post-tax dollars. 4)  Insurance companies know much better what things should cost and often have negotiated rates.  A rich person would generally be well-served to have health insurance for this very reason.


Then you sir are one of the lucky few. I had a friend graduate with an English Literature degree and remain unemployed for 3 years because he didn't want to teach high school. He ended up back in college getting a Comp. Sci. degree.  BTW, what do you do and I'm assuming you were employed already while in night school?


Companies in Korea are unlike companies in the West. While he was CEO by title the person who actually wielded top power was the son of the Chairman who was set to “inherit” the company due to...being the son of the chairman.  In Korea, people liken CEOs as essentially a royal-family system. It’s not merit based, and you often see incredibly hands off, young, and/or irresponsible CEOs while the working class within the company actually maintains its success.  It’s weird for us to think about as Westerners because we see the CEO being a merit and experienced based position optimized for shareholder earnings.


I've gone as far as to BLOCK the games and other apps that show up on my wall. Keeps my facebook feed interesting, but everyone I tell thinks I'm crazy for not being interested in what crappy games they play.


When you get up from the bed, there are few things you would expect like taking outfit for jogging and later for office.Once you keep all your clothes in wardrobe, it is easy for anybody to use them in proper.But what could be the right one for your goods like clothes, shoes and other paper items.


Typically in a developed / developing economy if there is high overall inflation, then it means everything will rise including property/real estate. The cost of funds is low [too much money chasing too few goods causes inflation] which means more companies borrow money cheaply and more business florish and hence the stock market should also go up.   So if you are looking at a situation where industry is doing badly and the inflation is high, then it means there are larger issues. The best bet would be Gold and parking the funds into other currency.


In GA, LLC fees are $50 a year. Incorporating is a one time $100 fee. This information is current as of September 2013.


As a dutch guy having lived in Canada for some time, and went down the the states a lot; I was extremely surprised how outdated your banking technology is.  A lot of mutations require me to physically visit a bank (often my specific branch), and I couldn't believe it when I saw that people still use cheques. Before I moved, I just remembered them from my very early childhood.  Get your shit together North America :)


"Probably not what you want to hear, but: Open a savings account. Deposit a pre-determined amount every month. Write down what you are saving for in specific detail. Emergencies are injury, sickness, auto breakdowns, bail money, eviction, nasty stuff like that. If you are saving up for something fun, trip to Europe, car, etc. write that down. Do not take from the account for any other purpose. Avoid taking it out even in lesser emergencies if you can do so without incurring debt. Don't daydream about what you could do with it. It is not for that. It's purpose should be singular. Keep an extra, smaller amount for frivolous stuff in your main checking or a different savings. Use that for impulse buys, and if the impusle can't be afforded by that amount, train yourself to know ""can't"". I can't buy that, it's not in the budget. Not I shouldn't. I can't. Good luck!"


"To summarize, there are three basic ways: (3) is the truly dangerous one. If there is a lot of short interest in a stock, but for some reason the stock goes up, suddenly a lot of people will be scrambling to buy that stock to cover their short position -- which will drive the price up even further, making the problem worse.  Pretty soon, a bunch of smart rich guys will be poor guys who are suddenly very aware that they aren't as smart as they thought they were.  Eight years ago, such a ""short squeeze"", as it's called, made the price of VW quadruple in two days.  You could hear the Heinies howl from Hamburg to Haldenwanger. There are ways to protect yourself, of course.  You can go short but also buy a call at a much higher price, thereby limiting your exposure, a strategy called a ""straddle"", but you also reduce your profit if you guessed right. It comes down to, as it always does, do you want to eat well, or to sleep well?"


In the current economy there is no upside to working for yourself.  Get in a salaried position as soon as you can, and sacrifice to whatever gods you worship that you don't get made redundant. If you're already working for yourself, and wouldn't give it up for anything, hire someone, and get them off the street.


The typical structure of an HFT group is very small and flat. A few dozen people (maybe). The firm's capital is at risk, so the principals are usually very involved in what everyone is doing. I haven't seen any of these guys take up the title CEO.


So, my question is what is the limit below which I don't have to pay taxes while trading. I just invested $10. Do I have to pay taxes for this too? what are the slabs? Any income is subject to tax. That said, investing $10 will probably not generate much of income, even at the discount brokers most of it will be wasted on commissions... I am also having an assistantship. So is holding two sources of income legitimate? Thanks You can have as many sources of income as you want. Working is what is restricted when you're on a student visa. As long as you don't open a business as a day trader or start working for someone trading stocks - you're fine.


">5.) Target allowed the use of the coupons for gift certificates, negating the profit they would have made themselves. The customers did not create this situation.  So you're stating that everyone who has ever taken advantage of a poorly programmed system to do something they shouldn't have in no way broke any laws? I believe there are many people currently in prison who may have a different perspective on that one. Ask the guy who guessed Sarah Palin's email password how that theory worked out.  >Target also renewed the coupon system with full knowledge of the circumstances.  The article is very unclear if Target was aware of the first thread (for the initial promotion) or the second thread (the second promotion). In fact, based on the narration of the article, Target's ""full knowledge"" doesn't come into play until it's discussing the second promotion (but I admit it is very unclear). It would be incredibly difficult to update a corporate system or put safeguards in place *at every register* over the course of a weekend if it was indeed the second thread that Target noticed. Their only option would be to either invalidate all coupons (and piss off *a lot* of honest people) or to take the beating."