"This is an old post I feel requires some more love for completeness.  Though several responses have mentioned the inherent risks that currency speculation, leverage, and frequent trading of stocks or currencies bring about, more information, and possibly a combination of answers, is necessary to fully answer this question. My answer should probably not be the answer, just some additional information to help aid your (and others') decision(s). Firstly, as a retail investor, don't trade forex. Period. Major currency pairs arguably make up the most efficient market in the world, and as a layman, that puts you at a severe disadvantage. You mentioned you were a student—since you have something else to do other than trade currencies, implicitly you cannot spend all of your time researching, monitoring, and investigating the various (infinite) drivers of currency return. Since major financial institutions such as banks, broker-dealers, hedge-funds, brokerages, inter-dealer-brokers, mutual funds, ETF companies, etc..., do have highly intelligent people researching, monitoring, and investigating the various drivers of currency return at all times, you're unlikely to win against the opposing trader. Not impossible to win, just improbable; over time, that probability will rob you clean. Secondly, investing in individual businesses can be a worthwhile endeavor and, especially as a young student, one that could pay dividends (pun intended!) for a very long time. That being said, what I mentioned above also holds true for many large-capitalization equities—there are thousands, maybe millions, of very intelligent people who do nothing other than research a few individual stocks and are often paid quite handsomely to do so. As with forex, you will often be at a severe informational disadvantage when trading. So, view any purchase of a stock as a very long-term commitment—at least five years. And if you're going to invest in a stock, you must review the company's financial history—that means poring through 10-K/Q for several years (I typically examine a minimum ten years of financial statements) and reading the notes to the financial statements. Read the yearly MD&A (quarterly is usually too volatile to be useful for long term investors) – management discussion and analysis – but remember, management pays themselves with your money. I assure you: management will always place a cherry on top, even if that cherry does not exist. If you are a shareholder, any expense the company pays is partially an expense of yours—never forget that no matter how small a position, you have partial ownership of the business in which you're invested. Thirdly, I need to address the stark contrast and often (but not always!) deep conflict between the concepts of investment and speculation. According to Seth Klarman, written on page 21 in his famous Margin of Safety, ""both investments and speculations can be bought and sold. Both typically fluctuate in price and can thus appear to generate investment returns. But there is one critical difference: investments throw off cash flow for the benefit of the owners; speculations do not. The return to the owners of speculations depends exclusively on the vagaries of the resale market."" This seems simple and it is; but do not underestimate the profound distinction Mr. Klarman makes here. (and ask yourself—will forex pay you cash flows while you have a position on?) A simple litmus test prior to purchasing a stock might help to differentiate between investment and speculation: at what price are you willing to sell, and why? I typically require the answer to be at least 50% higher than the current salable price (so that I have a margin of safety) and that I will never sell unless there is a material operating change, accounting fraud, or more generally, regime change within the industry in which my company operates. Furthermore, I then research what types of operating changes will alter my opinion and how severe they need to be prior to a liquidation. I then write this in a journal to keep myself honest. This is the personal aspect to investing, the kind of thing you learn only by doing yourself—and it takes a lifetime to master. You can try various methodologies (there are tons of books) but overall just be cautious. Money lost does not return on its own. I've just scratched the surface of a 200,000 page investing book you need to read if you'd like to do this professionally or as a hobbyist. If this seems like too much or you want to wait until you've more time to research, consider index investing strategies (I won't delve into these here).  And because I'm an investment professional: please do not interpret anything you've read here as personal advice or as a solicitation to buy or sell any securities or types of securities, whatsoever. This has been provided for general informational purposes only. Contact a financial advisor to review your personal circumstances such as time horizon, risk tolerance, liquidity needs, and asset allocation strategies. Again, nothing written herein should be construed as individual advice."


In Memphis, Tn., rents were stabilized from falling in the recession because all the foreclosed on home owners added to the rental market, increasing demand and thus stabilizing pricing.


1. Rebate  2. Bid-Ask spread  3. Tactically increasing/decreasing inventory based on their view of the market  4. Picking off idiot traders (OTC markets, basically not passing orders on to the market when the counterparty has a low performance history).


You can buy a real tablet and a real laptop for the same price as a surface, and both will work better in their respective tasks.  The problem was price. They thought they could charge apple money, but the reality is you need that captive dumb audience to get away with those margins (and even apple is heading towards market irrelevance). Oh, and attempting to charge over $100 extra for the required keyboard was the final knife in the back.  If windows 9 isn't a rip roaring success, I think their fate will be sealed - you're almost just waiting for google or apple to finish them off in that circumstance with an attack on business space.


Some companies like Royal Dutch Shell have multiple share classes to suit the tax regimes in Holland and the UK the A shares have dutch withholding tax applied and the B shares dont.  Also some split capital investment trusts have multiple share classes http://www.trustnet.com/Education/Split.aspx?ms=1


Buy and hold doesn't have an exact definition, as far as I know.  In my opinion, it's offered as a contrast to those who trade too frequently, or panic every time the market drops 2%.  For the general market, e.g. your S&P index holdings. You sell to rebalance to your desired asset allocation. As a personal example, at 50, I was full up invested, 95%+ in stocks. When my wife and I were retired (i.e. let go from company, but with no need to go back to work) I started shifting to get to a more sane allocation, 80/20. The ideal mix may be closer to 60/40.  Also, there are times the market as a whole is overvalued as measure by P/E and/or CAPE, made popular by Nobel Prize winning Robert Shiller. During these times, an allocation shift might make sense.  For the individual stocks, you had best have a strategy when you buy. Why did you buy XYZ? Because they had promise, decent company with a good outlook for their product? Now that they are up 300%, can they keep gaining share or expand their market? Sometimes you can keep raising the bar, and keep a company long term, really long. Other times, the reason you bought no longer applies, they are at or above the valuation you hoped to achieve.  Note - I noticed from another question, the OP is in the UK. I answer this my from US centric view, but it should still apply to OP in general. The question was not tagged UK when I replied.


From your first link: IRS.gov: IRA One-Rollover-Per-Year-Rule IRA One-Rollover-Per-Year Rule Beginning in 2015, you can make only one rollover from an IRA to   another (or the same) IRA in any 12-month period, regardless of the   number of IRAs you own (Announcement  2014-15 and Announcement   2014-32). The limit will apply by aggregating all of an individual’s   IRAs, including SEP and SIMPLE IRAs as well as traditional and Roth   IRAs, effectively treating them as one IRA for purposes of the limit. They are limiting your ability to roll over money from an IRA to an IRA. You are looking to go from a 401K to an IRA. That is fine. The idea was that some people were taking all money from their IRA, using it for almost 60 days, then putting it back into an IRA. Thus getting a sort of short term loan. They could do this multiple times in a year. The direct trustee-to-trustee transfer are exempt from the once per year rule because the money is never in your possession.  Moving money from a 401K/403b/TSP plan from your former employer to an IRA or Roth IRA is fine, and isn't limited to once per year.


I don't know how other people regard ZH; but I read it along with many other financial blogs for my dose of news.            The magnitude of the loss shouldn't be surprising to people though. [As early as mid-May, JPMorgan Chase suspended a $15 billion stock repurchase plan that was only approved two months previously in March.](http://www.reuters.com/finance/stocks/JPM/key-developments/article/2544789). $15 billion is a big (much too big) reserve for a (claimed by the media at the time) supposedly $2 billion loss. It was only a matter of time before that loss was going to get much, much bigger.


"Nowadays, some banks in some countries offer things like temporary virtual cards for online payments. They are issued either free of charge or at a negligible charge, immediately, via bank's web interface (access to which might either be free or not, this varies). You get a separate account for the newly-issued ""card"" (the ""card"" being just a set of numbers), you transfer some money there (same web-interface), you use it to make payment(s), you leave $0 on that ""card"" and within a day or a month, it expires. Somewhat convenient and your possible loss is limited tightly. Check if your local banks offer this kind of service."


'So the free roaming tiger zoo turned out to have a bit of a cash flow issue once all the visitors kept getting eaten but the 'strippers in every shop of a mall' idea has been working out great. Lots more families coming in.'


As others have suggested, if you're considering taking a 50% discount on a revenue stream you feel is low risk because you're having cash flow issues paying those property taxes - I'd recommend you seriously separating these two unrelated concerns and deal with each in most financially astute manner individually. You'll keep more of your hard earned cash You don't have the hassle factor and uncertainty of trying to become proficient in an esoteric field of financial knowledge by Christmas!


I think you might be missing something important here. If you are running a business, then any expenses that your business incurs are deductible.  Yes, Kickstarter would report the full amount. The IRS requires them to report everything that you raised. However, the Kickstarter and Amazon fees would be a business expense. Your cost on the backer rewards are deductible business expenses as well. Legal fees, accounting fees: deductible.  Money that you spend on equipment may not be deductible all in one year; you may have to depreciate it over multiple years. This is where the accountant that you are paying accounting fees to will come in handy.  People who do an iOS app Kickstarter campaign for $5000 might have a few things going on that you don't:


Just tell the buyer that there is a lien and explain the situation. Give them the car with a bill of sale after they buy the car from you. They can get a temporary tag at least in the State of Florida during this period of time. Take the buyer's money and deposit the check. Pay off your loan. Ask your bank to expedite the electronic title by paying a fee. I did this in March 2012 with no hassle at all. I was the seller. Some buyers may balk at this idea so just keep this in mind.


I still remember the pictures from supermarkets in Texas and Florida during the huricanes: all food was bought, but the vegeterian section has plenty of merchandise.  Basically, almost all the customers for this Restaurant will be vegeterians ... which is very small portion of the population.


"My point was that they are still losing a SUBSTANTIAL amount of money even by offering tickets as ""low"" as 99$. My model assumes a short flight from NY to DC.. We could safely assume they are flying those planes Much further than that."


I am in complete agreement with you.  The place i have found with the sort of charts you are looking for is stockcharts.com.   To compare the percentage increase of several stocks over a period of 2 market-open days or more, which is quite useful to follow the changes in various stocks… etc., an example:  Here the tickers are AA to EEEEE (OTC) and $GOLD / $SILVER for the spot gold / silver price (that isn't really a ticker).  It is set to show the last 6 market days (one week+)...the '6' in '6&O'.  You can change it in the URL above or change it on the site for the stocks you want... up to 25 in one chart but it gets really hard to tell them apart!  By moving the slider just left of the ‘6’ at the bottom right corner of the chart, you can look at 2 days or more.  For a specific time period in days, highlight the ‘6’ and type any number of market-open days you want (21 days = about one month, etc.).  By setting a time period in days, and moving the entire slider, you can see how your stocks did in the last bull/bear run, as an example. The site has a full how-to, for this and the other types of charts they offer. The only problem is that many OTC stocks are not charted. Save the comparison charts you use regularly in a folder in your browser bookmarks.  Blessings.  I see the entire needed link isn't in blue... but you need it all.


In order to grow the way they do without recording profits, they need to find costs (or cut prices). The revenue is turning over because it's being paid out all over the place. Either those companies are running on razor thin margins, or they're paying taxes. There's also payroll taxes for the 270,000 workers.


Prakash Webtech Pvt. Ltd. is a leading Manufacturer, exporter and suppliers of offset printing machineryand other components such as Spare Parts, Rubber rollers, Copper Rollers etc. Our product portfolio includes newspaper printer, Semi-commercial printer, 4 color printing tower and fourcolor offset printing machine. For more details please visit: www.prakashoffset.com


Take a look at http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Comparison_of_accounting_software, in particular the rows with a market focus of 'personal'. This is probably one of the more complete lists available, and shows if they are web-based (like Mint) or standalone (like Quicken or Microsoft Money).


You can cut taxes and not impact the rich by playing with numbers, deductions that dont apply to them. From what I've read the newest proposal from GOP will only cut taxes for the rich by removing some taxes only they pay and actually increases taxes on middle class since it removes common deductions like property tax


"That's not what he meant to say.  He meant that beyond ""browsing internet"", you need to know math, how to write and compose long essays and reports, work ethics, business principles, and simple general knowledge... and many young millennials are terrible in math, can't write proper English, no work ethics, conviction, principal, or even aspiration to build career, let alone understand business and general knowledge. They can't even find Alaska in the map."


Or you know the US could spend less on Politicians, Wars and other useless crap and use the billions they would save to fund bridges/roads, schools and hospitals. Those departments you mentioned wouldn't even see a penny from that $29 billion.


I've been starting to invest in real estate myself, and [this site](http://www.biggerpockets.com/forums/categories) has been incredibly helpful. It was started by a professional real estate investor who wanted to create a community for helping investors of all types and experience levels. You can learn a lot just by reading the various posts, but I highly recommend creating an account and introducing yourself to the community. There are many members with a lot of experience who are happy to help newbies.


You don't understand how numbers work.   Just because this year might be highest since 2013, does not exclude last year from being the highest since 2013...at that time.  I love how self-righteous and quick to dogpile on opposing opinions the majority of Reddit is.  This place is such a shithole.


The legal department at the Bank left me a message telling me that the bank check was paid & the recipient got the funds. Call up the bank and find out who the recipient was. Generally it can only be cashed by the person whose name is on it - the original business partner to whom it was intended. It is unlikely to be cashed by the attorney, unless he misrepresented the facts to the bank and got the funds. My question is how could he have cashed it without the original bank check? The other possibility is your mom lost this check, went to the bank and requested them to cancel this and reissue a fresh banker's check and give it to the business partner - in which case the check you had was worthless. You would need to work with the bank and ask them for details. However without the details of the original bank check that you found, it would be difficult for the bank to help you.


>I say better to distribute cash to the shareholders who can then choose for themselves whether to reinvest it in the company or elsewhere.  Why shouldn't Apple (which I agree with you is butchering its shareholder's returns) reinvest the money in the company or in other ventures that produce returns for shareholders?  My argument was simply that dividends diminish the earnings potential of firms' future cash flows. Now, if they are unable to find or invest in positive NPV projects, then I would agree a dividend payment is the best route to go.  However, I find that highly suspect for firms like Apple, Microsoft and GE. They may not be able sustain double-digit growth rates, but given strong balance sheets and cost of capital, they surely should be able to find positive NPV projects that would contribute more gains for shareholders than stocks, which have been struggling for momentum.   The only reason to invest in a company like GE these days is for the dividend cash flow, rather than the company's earnings and future growth prospects. That seems sad to me. But, hey, what do I know?


There is Free employer money on both sides of the tax fence for some employees.   On the pretax side, your employer may provide you a match.  If so, invest the maximum to get 100% of the match.   On the after tax side, many companies offers a 15% discount on ESPP plans and a one year hold.  My wife has such an employer.  The one year hold is fine because it allows us to be taxed at Long Term Capital gains if the stock goes up which is lower than our current income bracket.  After creating a seasoned pool of stocks that we could sell after the one year hold, we are then able to sell the same number of stocks purchased each month.  This provides a 17.6% guaranteed gain on a monthly basis.  How much would you purchase if you had a guaranteed 17.6% return.  Our answer is 15% (our maximum allowed). The other trick is that while the employer is collecting the money, you will purchase the stock at the lowest day of the period.  You will usually sell for even more than the purchase price unless the day purchased was the lowest day of month.   The trick is to reinvest the money in tax free investments to balance out the pretax investing.  Never leave the money in the plan.  That is too much risk.


Yeah it just got bumped up to 11.25 and they're going to be increasing it over the next couple of years before capping at 15. Rent is already rising to adjust to this development. Doesn't help that income tax here is insane.


Everyone is worried about Google and Apple or Facebook. Amazon is just swooping in collecting all your personal info via Alexa and buying up businesses. I mean not that there's anything wrong with that. I am looking forward to the day, I go to work for Amazon, live in my Amazon house, drive an Amazon Basics car and wear my favorite Amazon clothes.


> Why should healthy people be required to subsidize the sick?  1) Everyone is going to get sick.  2) Most medical issues happen by chance.  3) We live in a society and we all live better when all of us are healthy.  4) It is morally the right thing to do.  > The death spiral started while Obama was in office.  There is no death spiral yet.  You're just buying the Republican talking points.


So thinking on this a little more, I guess it's not completely cut and dried. For example, if the sales position was commission only, a bonus might be a way to ensure the sales team earn a base minimum income. This would allow them to have some level of comfort that they would be able to meet financial obligations like mortgages, kids school etc.


"There's lies, damn lies, and statistics. Look around the world. A disproportionate amount of Muslims are not good people. 25% of Muslims think that suicide bombings are often and sometimes justified. 1 in fucking 4! 50% of Muslims marry and have children with their first cousin. If you don't believe me look it up. 100% of Muslims never smile. They will ALWAYS walk ahead of their women. They get women to sit in behind the men at the mosque. Then get shamed if you're ovulating even further back because you're ""dirty"".   Don't bring trump into this bullshit. He ain't santa clause he can't fix everything in a day. I kind of wish he was hitler in a weird kind of way. My feelings wouldn't be hurt if by some chance those inbred pricks were no longer here and then human kind could move on. To things like science, space, health, exploration of our current planet. US politicians and religion are slowing humans down."


An auto title loans are typically utilized by those that wish to obtain a funding with bad credit rating or no credit in any way. An auto-mobile title lending frequently called a vehicle title lending or merely title funding as well as pink slip funding’s. You merely should have a vehicle that is paid off or nearly paid off and also you could make use of the auto title as security to obtain the cash money you require, enabling you to continue driving your vehicle while paying your loan.   Get Auto Title Loans in Bakersfield CA and nearby cities Provide Car Title Loans, Auto Title Loans, Mobile Home Title Loans, RV/Motor Home Title Loans, Big Rigs Truck Title Loans, Motor Cycle Title Loans, Online Title Loans Near me, Bad Credit Loans, Personal Loans, Quick cash Loans   Contact Us: Get Auto Title Loans Diamond Bar CA 28356 Chinook Place, Diamond Bar, CA 91765 909-345-2309 autodiamond11@gmail.com http://getautotitleloans.com/car-and-auto-title-loans-diamond-bar-ca/


Also see who has the authority to delete bills or items on bills. This was a huge scam with some servers I've worked with. If you can delete an entire bill that was paid in cash then that's money in your pocket.


You can employ a hedging strategy using short selling, put options, or other methods that will partially neutralize your exposure to the overall market.   e.g. You could short sell a market-wide index such as the S&P500, while going long (buying) the company you are interested in. Investopedia has a nice primer on this: Also, see this related question here:


I would not hold any company stock for the company that provides your income.   This is a too many eggs in one basket kind of problem. With a discounted stock purchase plan, I would buy the shares at a 10% discount and immediately resell for a profit.   If the company prevents you from immediately reselling, I  don't know if I would invest. The risk is too great that you'll see your job lost and your 401k/investments emptied due to a single cause.


I still don't fully understand how gold is debt. I get that you made the connection that gold is money, and previously explained how money is debt. But that doesn't make gold debt.  Gold is a commodity just as oil, apples, deer, shoes, etc. It might not provide any utility, but is still something people have come to value in and of itself.


No, you cannot deduct it. There's no business substance in such a trip, it is your vacation, and as such cannot be claimed as an expense against the rental income. You may be able to deduct the coffee you buy for the meeting with the property manager while there, but there's no way you can justify a 7-10 days vacation with your whole family as an expense to maintain the rental property. Since you will only have less than 2 weeks personal use, you won't need to prorate expenses, so you have that at least.


I've had all my account with the same bank for all my life. Generally, the disadvantage is that if I want some kind of product like a credit extension or a mortgage, I have the one bank to go to and if they don't want to help me I'm out of luck. However, occasionally there are also perks like the bank spontaneously offering you increased credit or even a whole line of credit. They can do this because they have your whole history and trust you.


"I have always had great success sending boxes.  people always open boxes.  use a plain box (not Priority Mail box nor UPS nor FedX box)  the contents don't matter much, but should relate to your **very brief** enclosed intro letter and something amazing, e.g. a toy something  coordinate the shipping so you can call the day after arrival.  ""Hi this is Fred Stone.  I'm the one who sent you the XYZ (pause for the usually agreeable response)"


Air Condition is a very essential appliance during the summers. But when it doesn’t work properly it affects a lot. This leads us towards the repairing and for this we have to choose such professional who have well trained and experienced in AC repairs.


So, what they are saying is that the currently happy crop of employees will all be gone in less than a year, to be replaced by morons who live to work, rather than work to live, and who can be relied upon to be miserable and do bad work in perpetuity.


Here're some findings upon researches: Two main things to watch out for: Estate tax and the 30% tax withholding. These 2 could be get around by investing in Luxembourg or Ireland  domiciled ETF. For instance there's no tax withholding on Ireland domiciled ETF dividend, and the estate tax is not as high. (source: BogleHead forums)  Some Vanguard ETF offered in UK stock market: https://www.vanguard.co.uk/uk/mvc/investments/etf#docstab. Do note that the returns of S&P 500 ETF (VUSA) are adjusted after the 30% tax withholding! Due to VUSA's higher TER (0.09%), VOO should remain a superior choice. The FTSE Emerging Markets and All-World ETFs though, are better than their US-counterparts, for non-US residents. Non-US residents are able to claim back partials of the withhold tax, by filing the US tax form 1040NR. In 2013, non-US resident can claim back at least $3,900. Kindly correct me if anything is inaccurate.


They weren't a leader at the time.  Their office product was poor.  It was at best third best.  Wordperfect was the defacto choice.  Lotus was also popular and very robust.  They had no networking until Windows 3.11 so Netware was the defacto network operating system until Windows NT4 started to edge in.  They were at best 50% saturated for DOS as DR-DOS was more robust.  Microsoft copied all the functionality of DR-DOS into their MS-DOS platform but they were always behind.  That's when Windows 3.0 became popular.  And those offices that ran Wordperfect, they kept it until Windows 2000.


Interest earned over my saving only As you are Tax resident in UK, UK taxes Global income. So the interest earned in India is taxable. Further this is taxable when the interest was paid to you in India and it is not relevant whether you kept the funds in India or repatriated to UK.  It is not clear in your question as to when the interest was credited to your Indian account. If its been for few years, you are in breach of the UK tax regulation. Consult a tax advisor how this can be corrected. If it is for this year, pay taxes as per normal tax brackets.


Maybe thats how cryptocurrencies like Sia will work out. Not only can it handle digital file storage services (like amazon s3, dropbox etc) , but payment services too. Companies can build on top of it...or Amazon can just build their own.


If you want to buy physical gold, I would suggest pawn shops.  Just have an idea of the price of gold and how to calculate value from carat weight.  Also the type of gold affects resale value.  I would buy the darker colored Indian or Thai gold.  Thai Bot chains are probably the best.


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Keep in mind that unless you have a contract that says you get a certain amount of raise every year, the employer is not required to give you any raise. The quality of a raise is too subjective for anyone to tell you how to judge it.  You either get a raise you can live with, it makes you content/happy, and you continue working there, or you get a raise that does not satisfy you, and you jump ship to get more money. Some (most?) employers know that raises can be the tipping point for employees deciding to leave.  If you consistently receive raises greater than inflation rate, the message is that the employer values you.  If the opposite, they value you enough to continue your employment, but are willing to replace you if you decide to leave. Key thing here is there are three ways of getting increased pay with your current employer.  Cost of living or annual raise is the one that we are discussing.  Merit based raises are a second way.  If you think you deserve a raise, due to loyal consistent contribution, or contributing above your duty, or for whatever reason, then ask for a raise.  The third way is to be promoted or transferred to a higher paying position.  Often times, you should also make your case to your supervisor why you should have the new position, similar to asking for a merit raise.


Bullets, canned goods, and farm supplies that don't need gas (e.g. seed, feed, plows).


It doesn't matter which exchange a share was purchased through (or if it was even purchased on an exchange at all--physical share certificates can be bought and sold outside of any exchange). A share is a share, and any share available for purchase in New York is available to be purchased in London. Buying all of a company's stock is not something that can generally be done through the stock market. The practical way to accomplish buying a company out is to purchase a controlling interest, or enough shares to have enough votes to bind the board to a specific course of action. Then vote to sell all outstanding shares to another company at a particular fixed price per share. Market capitalization is an inaccurate measure of the size of a company in the first place, but if you want to quantify it, you can take the number of outstanding shares (anywhere and everywhere) and multiply them by the price on any of the exchanges that sell it. That will give you the market capitalization in the currency that is used by whatever exchange you chose.


You're on the hook for the nominal value of what you hold. A single ES S&P e-mini future contract is leveraged 50x, equivalent to $60,000 in stock, so it should be treated the same. The problem is that trading is done with only a fraction of the value as margin, so people can and do end up owing more than their account. Some markets are extremely illiquid and volatile as well. Similar to forex, the industry has made it easy for small traders to get in the game in an entirely overleveraged way, and the vast majority lose.


"> IT will never make Home Depot or Lowes profit because they don't sell IT. It is a cost center.  Really? If I buy from their on-line store, who should be credited for making the sale and profit? The Sales department? The Marketing Department? Or the IT department that provided the system, web-design and artwork to make the sale?   What's next? Research and Development is a cost center too? Maybe we should outsource them to cheaper researchers?  How about the Buyers and procurement department? Does any sales somehow connected to their effort?  **Top management wants you to believe that everyone is ""Cost Center"" except management. Ask them, and they will tell you that even the customer service and sale people on in the store are also ""cost center"".**  If anything, IT and only IT reduces costs, reduce the manpower, reduce the overhead and bring more sales opportunities with the new digital frontier for sales.   If you don't think so, then, fine! Hire the cheapest IT people, or, why even bother? Stop any new development in the IT department."


Adding to webdevduck's answer: Before you calculate your profits, you can pay money tax-free into a pension fund for the company director (that is you). Then if you pay yourself dividends, if you made lots of profit you don't have to pay it all as dividends. You can take some where the taxes are low, and then pay more money in later years.   What you must NOT do is just take the money. The company may be yours, but the money isn't. It has to be paid as salary or dividend. (You can give the company director a loan, but that loan has to be repaid. Especially if a limited company goes bankrupt, the creditors would insist that loans from the company are repaid).  After a bit more checking, here's the optimal approach, perfectly legal, expected and ethical:  You pay yourself a salary of £676 per month. That's the point where you get all the advantages of national insurance without having to pay; above that you would have to pay 13.8% employers NI contributions and 12% employee's NI contributions, so for £100 salary the company has to pay £113.80 and you receive £88.00. Below £676 you pay nothing.  You deduct the salary from your revenue, then you deduct all the deductible business costs (be wise in what you try to deduct), then you pay whatever you want into a pension fund. Well, up to I think £25,000 per year.  The rest is profit. The company pays 19% corporation tax on profits. Then you pay yourself dividends. Any dividends until your income is £11,500 per year are tax free. Then the next £5,000 per year are tax free. Then any dividends until income + dividends = £45,000 per year is taxed at 7.5%. It's illegal to pay so much in dividends that the company can't pay its bills.  Above £45,000 you decide if you want your money now and pay more tax, or wait and get it tax free. Every pound of dividend above £45,000 a year you pay 32.5% tax, but there is nobody forcing you to take the money. You can wait until business is bad, or you want a loooong holiday, or you retire. So at that time you will stay below £45,000 per year and pay only 7.5% tax.


I was at a restaurant in NYC, 1st Avenue and 63rd street. I don't recall how the conversation started, but the woman at the next table remarked how none of her friends from the West side, 9th avenue or thereabout, would visit her. Less than 2 miles away, yet in their minds, too far. Your question isn't likely to be answered with facts, but opinion. In this case an anecdote. Human nature is such that a good number of people have a small geographic circle of comfort. Of course some do exactly as you suggest. But not the majority.


"There's two scenarios: the loan accrues interest on the remaining balance, or the total interest was computed ahead of time and your payments were averaged over x years so your payments are always the same. The second scenarios is better for the bank, so guess what you probably have... In the first scenario, I would pay it off to avoid paying interest. (Unless there is a compelling reason to keep the cash available for something else, and you don't mind paying interest) In the second case, you're going to pay ""interest over x years"" as computed when you bought the car no matter how quickly you pay it off, so take your time. (If you pay it earlier, it's like paying interest that would not have actually accrued, since you're paying it off faster than necessary) If you pay it off, I'm not sure if it would ""close"" the account, your credit history might show the account as being paid, which is a good thing."


The United Nations is not infallible and they are no moral authority.  Access to food and water would be basic human Rights, but there is no right that forces farmers to work for free.  That would be called slavery, or an entitlement, depending on your political disposition.


From your own [post in this discussion thread](https://www.reddit.com/r/business/comments/6yfcxu/the_debt_trap_how_the_student_loan_industry/dmnfcfs/)  >In any case, an educated populace is crucial to avoid things like our current political climate, where people fall for propaganda and think satire websites are true news.


Every job that I've had, I have automated myself out of. I'm an engineer and have always designed the tools to create the final product rather than the final product itself. It's mostly an easy task and getting much easier.  Ever since college when I was interning, I've questioned the implications of this and don't have any answers. In many ways things simultaneously take longer and shorter to come to pass.


So the budget is just a guess and the IT manager can ultimately spend whatever he wants?   Are you really arguing that he should treat the spending constraints given to him by the heads of the company as mere suggestions?   Do you actually work in an accounting department? I have to ask because you seem to have a fundemental misunderstanding about their role in all this. They are just score keepers, they don't get to decide how much money is allocated to each department. So the way they track the money has no bearing on this issue.


The idea is you would also have a cash allowance in the portfolio originally - say 25%. So in this scenario, 375K in stock and 125k in cash. and assuming the goal is 1K increase in stock value you would buy 38.5K of stock at the now lower price.


Group Home Riches is making it easier for people to start a group home for foster children. In case anybody wants to make impact on others in the community by opening a group home for foster children and get paid for doing it, Group Home Riches has experts who can advise on this matter. Experts here are known to every condition that a person will face during the process of starting and running a group home, hence they can give advises on the same.


"Well, they don't have to enter a market order. I was just saying that for your benefit.   In practice what will really happen is they'll say to themselves   ""I want ABC for no more than 70.00""  The current bid is at 69.60 They'll use a limit order on 10,000 shares. If anyone offers them more than 70.00 the computer program they're using will not accept.  However, the shares won't be bought all at once. A limit order for 10,000 shares will be spit into 1,000 shares at 69.70 and 10,000 for 69.65  The HFT can then make a reasonable guess someone is buying in bulk. So then the HFT sends out a sell order saying ""10 shares at 70.10"". The guy doesn't want that so they do it over again at 70.09  Eventually they notice when the guy accepts at 70.00  So now they knew this guy is willing to pay that. Then HFT buys all the shares they can. ALL SHARES, not just the amount the guy wants. They buy it all at 69.95, which is higher than the 69.70 the guy just paid or whatever.  They then sell it all back to the guy at 70.00  The guy has no choice because all the shares are now gone. He has to pay his highest price.   Once the guy gets his order the HFT just dumps the rest of the shares back at the price they bought them at.  edit: Another way to pull this off is to just literally build your own exchange. Then you can do all of this without any clever tricks. You can just outright give yourself preference over everyone else because you can truly decide what order the trades are being executed."


"Given the exact formula that goes into the 'Fair Issac"" calculation is a closely guarded trade secret, AND that each agency has their own formula, I'm not sure there's really any 100% for sure authoritative answer to the question in terms of which option would be best.  There are a lot of balancing factors, like how long you've had accounts, payment history over time, etc.  Stuff that is known to HURT a score can include things like closing a longstanding account.   If you have a very low interest loan (like some car companies offer now and then) I'd just make the normal payments.  If you have something at a higher interest rate, especially above 6-7%, then I'd worry less about credit score and more about how much I'm going to pay in interest and pay it off as rapidly as I could. The big key is 'never pay late' more than anything else,  Followed by how much of your debt capacity is used (which paying down any account, loan or credit card, will help), and long standing relationships (length of history)  See this (approximate) chart and notice that any early payoff is basically going lower your 'capacity used', possibly reduce the types of credit used (if it's the last loan of that type), all of which should help your score."


Probably marketing if the degree is of high quality. Marketing is a the bottleneck  of many businesses.   But there are at least some things about entrepreneurship he should learn, like customer development by steve blank.  But i actually think instead of learning, trying hard to think of a good business , and succeeding in getting into a good accelerator, like y-combinator, is the best education for funding a growth startup.


"Even though this is really a psychology question, I'll try to give you an answer. You do nothing but stay away.  What's going on is too small to matter. Bernie Madoff took investor's money and scammed them for $15B. That's B, billion, 9 zeros (Yes, I realize the UK Billion has 12, these are US Billion). Harry Markopolos was on to him, and presented his evidence to the government, but ""No one would listen."" In quotes because that's the title of the book he published on his experience. Even Barron's had an article suggesting that Madoff's returns were impossible. Eventually, it came to light. In my own experience, there was a mortgage acceleration product called ""Money Merge Account."" It claimed to help you pay off your mortgage in a fraction of the time ""with no change to your budget."" For two years or so, I was obsessed with exposing this scam, and wrote articles, nearly every week discussing every aspect of this product. Funny how even though mortgages are math that's pretty easy to explain, few sellers wanted to talk about the math. Using the same logic that you don't need to understand how a car works as long as you know how to drive. There were some people that would write to tell me I saved them the $3500 cost of that product, but mostly I argued with sellers who dismissed every word I wrote as if the math were incomprehensible to anyone but the software guys who wrote it. In the end, I had compiled a PDF with over 60 pages of my writing on the topic, and decided to call it quits. The product was recycled and now is sold as ""Worth Unlimited,"" but the software is the same.  This is all a tangent to your problem. It simply offers the fact that the big scam, Bernie, continued for a long time, and people who were otherwise intelligent, fell for his promises, and didn't want to believe otherwise. The mortgage software had many bloggers writing. Searching on the web found a lot of discussion, very easy to find.  People will believe what they wish. Tell an Atheist that God exists, or a believer that He doesn't, and your words will fall on deaf ears. Unfortunately, this is no different."


"The basic optimization rule on distributing windfalls toward debt is to pay off the highest interest rate debt first putting any extra money into that debt while making minimum payments to the other creditors. If the 5k in ""other debt"" is credit card debt it is virtually certain to be the highest interest rate debt. Pay it off immediately. Don't wait for the next statement. Once you are paying on credit cards there is no grace period and the sooner you pay it the less interest you will accrue. Second, keep 10k for emergencies but pretend you don't have it. Keep your spending as close as possible to what it is now. Check the interest rate on the auto loan v student loans. If the auto loan is materially higher pay it off, then pay the remaining 20k toward the student loans. Added this comment about credit with a view towards the OP's future: Something to consider for the longer term is getting your credit situation set up so that should you want to buy a new car or a home a few years down the road you will be paying the lowest possible interest. You can jump start your credit by taking out one or two secured credit cards from one of the banks that will, in a few years, unsecure your account, return your deposit, and leave no trace you ever opened a secured account. That's the route I took with Citi and Wells Fargo. While over spending on credit cards can be tempting, they are, with a solid payment history, the single most important positive attribute on a credit report and impact FICO scores more than other type of credit or debt. So make an absolute practice of only using them for things you would buy anyway and always, always, pay each monthly bill in full. This one thing will make it far easier to find a good rental, buy a car on the best terms, or get a mortgage at good rates. And remember: Credit is not equal to debt. Maximize the former and minimize the latter."


"There's a lot wrong with your explanation and analogy.  I believe you are trying to refute otherwiseyep but you haven't really.  You have described the ""work"" or the ""step in the money-building process,"" that was happening *before* otherwiseyep's scenario.  otherwiseyep's scenario begins at ""the apple farmer wants to get some meat but the orchard hasn't matured yet,"" implying that apples have in fact been traded for meat in real time.  Secondly, I would much prefer a person build their own explanation and analogy than build onto someone else's while thinking it insightful in any way.  Lastly, you went all Paul Krugman on us and used the word ""costs of production"" which I *think* you mean to be ""work"" but you did not build that analogy.  When you went ""Paul Krugman,"" you jumped a HUGE boat.  Krugman talks about very advanced economics and some of his stuff is political in nature.  At no point did you build any specific analogies to Paul Krugman's many theories.  You so completely lost me with that, I almost went into negative integers.  Edit:  otherwiseyep had been misspelled as otherwiseyes.  Slightly laughable."


I thought the Finance Buff made a pretty solid argument for a financial advisor the other day: http://thefinancebuff.com/the-average-investor-should-use-an-investment-advisor-how-to-find-one.html But 1.5% is too expensive. The blog post at Finance Buff suggests several alternatives. He also has the great suggestion to use Vanguard's cheap financial planning service if you go with Vanguard. A lot of investing advice fails to consider the human factor. Sure it'd be great to rebalance exactly every 6 months and take precisely the amount of risk to theoretically maximize returns. But, yeah right. It's well-known that in the aggregate individual investors go to cash near market bottoms and then buy near market tops. It's not that they don't know the right thing to do necessarily, it's just that the emotional aspect is stronger than any of us expect. You shouldn't rely on sticking to your investments any more than you rely on sticking to your diet and exercise program ;-) the theoretically optimal solution is not the real-world-people-are-involved optimal solution. My own blog post on this suggests a balanced fund rather than a financial advisor, but I think the right financial advisor could well be a better approach: http://blog.ometer.com/2010/11/10/take-risks-in-life-for-savings-choose-a-balanced-fund/ Anyway, I think people are too quick to think of the main risk as volatility, and to think of investing as simple. Sure in theory it is simple. But the main risk is yourself. Fear at market bottoms, greed at market tops, laziness the rest of the time... so there's potential value in taking yourself out of the picture. The human part is the part that isn't simple. On whether to get a financial advisor in general (not just for investments), see also: What exactly can a financial advisor do for me, and is it worth the money?


Trump is having difficulty attracting talent!???  Lmfao.  He's got self made millionaires flocking to him and refusing to accept a salary, just like Trump himself.  The alternative facts is that Obama had too many people doing work that only a required a few.  Also Obamas cabinet was hand picked by Citigroup!!!  Talk about even more corruption.  Next.   :)


I started an Apparel company. They started out small in their garage. They moved to my converted garage and when I got pregnant I decided to just take the leap at 5 months pregnant. Quit my zoo keeping job making very good money to making practically nothing and started a company from scratch. I had no name or really idea. But as the weeks passed I figured it out. Last year the company made 100k now that's not profit but I'm proud of it. Since I quit my job in July 2015. If you love it make it more than just a hobby. You'll thank yourself later. Good luck


You would need additional information (login information [username and which service]) to fully make use of it though.  I'm not sure how you would collect that? You could use such a service to build a dictionary for a dictionary attack I guess. It's only after this sort of attack that people start explicitly checking their passwords though?   edit: From re-reading your comment I see you've already come up with the same limitations. To answer the question you actually asked, I would say you have no way of knowing these sha1 generators don't store the queries, just that it would be difficult to use the resulting dictionary. You would see which hashes are on your list versus the hashes on the leaked list. And then use those matches as a dictionary to attack someone's linkedin account.


That's a bullshit strawman.  Making unsafe products is never in the manufacturers interests.  In fact it lets manufacturers off the hook.  Because if a product does turn out to be unsafe you can't sue them because they followed the arbitrary guidelines set forth by a bunch of idiot politicians, so they can't be held at fault.


If 10K is all of your savings, I would reserve a portion for an emergency fund for your car and other life situations before spending it all on a car. Maybe this means you set 3k aside and buy a 7k car.


Given the way people act in reality, I think this would lead to people buying ponzi scheme currencies, or preferring the ones with the best advertising budgets or aesthetic look, or otherwise getting constantly scammed.  I certainly don't think people would usually save in the best reputation currencies, and if they did, I figure those currencies would get new management once they became successful, who would sell them out for short term gain and be just as prone to printing their buddies out of bankruptcy as the government.  If even nation states, who have a very strong long term interest in maintaining good currency, play all sorts of shenanigans with it, I see no reason to expect bodies with shorter term interests would do a better job.


It depends a large part on your broker's relationship with the issuing bank how early you can participate in the IPO round. But the nature of the stock market means the hotter the stock and the closer to the market (away from the issuing bank) you have to buy the higher the price you'll pay. The stock market is a secondary market, meaning the only things for sale are shares already owned by someone. As a result, for a hot stock the individual investor will have to wait for another investor (not the issuing bank) to trade (sell) the stock.


Yes and H1B is NOT CHEAPER for companies to employ.  Companies end up paying the H1B salary, the H1B holder, the lawyers, and so on.  H1B's have a skillset that the locals do not. If people do not like it then just get the skillset. This isn't that hard to understand...but the mainstream media just wont explain it.  Great post btw.


Online shopping grows exponentially every year, but Amazon still wanted physical stores, because people want products now, not a week from now. Once the initial loss occured, physical retail levelled out, and now retail has begun to grow again, utilizing new ideas (order online, pick up at the store, get it a little faster. The new scan and go systems that are being used, etc.)


"If you give a group of people the special ""right"" to steal and force people to do things you want then of course it will be corrupted. Did you know that a corporation is a government construct designed to remove personal responsibility from the ownership and management of companies often owned by your ""representative"". You like theft you just want things to be stolen for you. Just admit it you want people to steal and give that stolen money to you."


The typical case would be - as you expected - that the interest goes down equally dramatically, and you would pay much less interest. Note that that does not remove your obligation to pay the full 1000 every month - even though you could argue that you are 90 months ahead in paying, you still need to deliver 1000 a month, until it is fully paid. Some mortgages are made differently - they do not allow that. Basically, if you pay a large amount at once, it is considered a 'pre-payment' for the next x month. As a result, you are now x months ahead (and could stop paying for that much time), but your interest stays high. The latter type 'protects' the bank against 'losing' the interest income they already planned for. As a balance, those type of mortgages are typically slightly cheaper (because the bank is in a better position). You did not specify a country; in Germany, typically all mortgages are of the second type; but - you can get 1.35% mortgages... In the US, most are the first.  You need to check which type you have, best before you pay a large amount. In the latter case, it is better to invest that money and use it to pay off as soon as you reach the threshold; in the first case, any extra payoff is to your advantage.


Having functional storage spaces in your office, including lockers, are a must, especially when you are working with many employees. Here at Prodigy Office Furniture, we have the highest quality bookcases, filing cabinets, storage cupboards and lockers Melbourne has to offer.


"This forum is not intended to be a discussion group, but I would like to add a different perspective, especially for @MrChrister, on  @littleadv's rhetorical question  ""... estates are after-tax money, i.e.: income tax has been paid on them,    yet the government taxes them again. Why?"" For the cash in an estate, yes, that is after-tax money, but consider other assets such as stocks and real estate. Suppose a rich man bought stock in a small computer start-up company at $10 a share about 35 years ago, and that stock is now worth $500 a share. The man dies and his will bequeaths the shares to his son. According to US tax law, the son's basis in the shares is $500 per share, that is, if the son sells the shares, his capital gains are computed as if he had purchased the shares for $500 each. The son pays no taxes on the inheritance he receives. The deceased father's last income tax return (filed by the executor of the father's will) does not list the $490/share gain as a capital gain since the father did not sell the stock (the gain is what is called an unrealized gain), and so there is no income tax due from the father on the $490/share. Now, if there is no estate tax whatsoever, the father's estate  tax return pays no tax on that gain of $490 per share either. Would this be considered an equitable system? Should the government not tax the gain at all? It is worth noting that it would be possible for a government to eliminate estate taxes entirely, but instead have tax laws  that say that unrealized gains on the deceased's property would be taxed (as capital gains) on the deceased's final tax return."


As all said, the age limitation thing is nothing, and saving money not necessarily means to live poor nor Skimpy, spend your needs and try to get what you need instead of what you want, the 24 years old is a good start for saving money, the whole life still in front of you Good luck!


"I'm hazy on this part:  >  I say, ""Jeez, I'd love to, but I really need all the cash I can get for every deer right now: my kid is out-growing shoes like crazy.  Tell you what: if you can write me a promise to pay twelve Loddars in October, I can give that to the shoe-maker."" You groan about the ""interest rate"" but agree. > >Did a lightbulb just go off? **You and I have once again created *Money***. Twelve loddars now exist in the town economy that *have not been printed by the central bank*. Counting all the money trading hands in the village, there are now (a) all the loddars that have ever been printed, *plus* (b) *twelve more* that you have promised to produce.   If we switch out of story mode and into real world mode (I'm the apple guy equivalent), you are a bank that just made me a loan? You've given me $10 and charged me $2 interest? And you've gone and spent that promise of $12 on something? Why are you able to spend that promise? I would have thought you'd just not be able to buy anything for now because you're making a short term sacrifice of giving out your stuff and being without it in order to get more from me later than you could have right now. I'm guessing this is something to do with fractional reserve but I was never clear on that.  > ... Now, what happens if another wildfire hits your orchard? Those twelve loddars are destroyed, they are gone, the shoe-maker is twelve loddars poorer, without spending it and without anyone else getting twelve loddars richer.   Why do I not still owe you $12? My value engine is gone, but wouldn't you keep my debt on the books and still hold me to it? Wouldn't I have to pick myself up, work somewhere else for a wage or make and sell something else, and pay you money I made over time until the $12 (or more with more interest) was paid off? And has any new money really been created if I work for that money, get it from someone else, and then pay it to you? There's no new money there yet that I can see. Seems like you created new money when somebody else agreed to let you buy things with the promise I wrote you. That sounds like new money. But if my orchard is destroyed and for reasons I'm not clear on (see above), the $12 of value I could have gotten out of it is destroyed, but you already spent the new money, how are you out anything? Seems like you're still up $2. I feel like there is either one too many pieces on the board or one too few and I can't get my head around it. I feel like I have one foot still in the ELI5 example and not all the way out in the real world."


They will not send a bill, though there's a chance they will eventually send an accusatory letter.  You must proactively pay your taxes. The simplest route is to send a check to each taxing authority with the respective full amounts due.  I wouldn't bother calling them.  You could also file amended returns with each containing the correct information.  As a general rule, tax advisors tend to counsel against giving bank account information to the IRS for payment purposes (as opposed to refund purposes), both to protect the timing of payment and to make it slightly more difficult for them to seize or lien your account. If you choose to send a check, you can use Form 1040-V and NY Form IT-201-V.  Please triple check your Social Security Number matches your tax return SSN, so they correctly credit you for payment.  You may include an explanation of the closed account if you are feeling either fearful or contrite, but if the amount due is paid in full, then neither taxing authority should really care about your error.


Without using the cash advance feature of your credit card, I'm going to say no.  No mortgage lender would let you simply charge the down payment to your credit card. The reason is the merchant transaction fees.  Typical credit card transaction fees that the merchant pays are around 3%.  If the lender accepted credit cards on a $30K down payment, they would be giving up around $900. In addition to that, the whole reason for requiring a down payment is to ensure that the buyer has some equity in their own home.  Many lenders will want to know the source of the down payment and will not allow you to borrow this down payment, because they want to ensure that you are not too far into debt.  No-money-down home purchases are much more rare than they were 10 years ago.


(community wiki) Ontario special HST sales tax transition rebate cheques: When and how much? What will happen to quarterly GST cheques when HST starts in Ontario? Ontario HST rebate: When would I qualify? Ontario gas prices & HST: What will happen to prices at the pump on July 1, 2010? How will Ontario’s HST apply to books / textbooks, which were PST exempt before? How can I minimize the impact of the HST? How does the HST affect a condominium purchase? Will I need to pay HST on condo maintenance fees? My Ontario small business collects only PST (beneath GST threshold). How will HST affect me?


I think usually the difference is between two cars that one is more expensive than the others not if some large difference. In combustion engines three options maybe a more expensive V8 or V6. So that you could be 6 I know that I'm getting a smaller motor and certain things come with that that may not be as superior to the V8. In my head, and let me stress this is just my opinion and everything else anyone else thinks it's fine, you buy a Tesla in the exact same battery assist in the more expensive model but it's wall by software It just strikes me as strange. But once again I will never own a Tesla but I'm very happy for Tesla enthusiasts and I wish Elan all the best and success. I'm just stating my opinion that I want a substantial difference in the mechanics and quality of a vehicle intangible terms and not get the same equipment walled off for Less


"Judge Rakoff wrote: ""Finally, in any case like this that touches on the transparency of financial markets whose gyrations have so depressed our economy and debilitated our lives, there is an overriding public interest in knowing the truth. In much of the world, propaganda reigns, and truth is confined to secretive, fearful whispers. Even in our nation, apologists for suppressing or obscuring the truth may always be found. But the S.E.C., of all agencies, has a duty, inherent in its statutory mission, to see that the truth emerges; and if fails to do so, this Court must not, in the name of deference or convenience, grant judicial enforcement to the agency’s contrivances."""


This just isn't true.   I could very easily do 'mobile development' because I've learn to do pretty much every other kind of development.  But no company would ever hire me (or anyone like me) for mobile development because I don't have 'experience'.   The same shit happens with computer languages.  A Java programmer could easily learn C# but no company would ever hire them for it.   It's an absurd system.


"You probably entered it wrong in TurboTax. Distribution code ""2"" should have triggered some more questions in the TurboTax, but I don't know exactly how it works there. Bottom line is that you need to add form 8606 to your return. Here's something on Intuit forums that tells you how to get to it."


I agree with the deposit part. But if you are buying a new car, the loan term should meet the warranty term. Assuming you know you won't exceed the mileage limits, it's a car with only maintainence costs and the repayment cost at that point.


"Looking back, we used MS because that was the only viable option and it's complete dogshit. I think it's this legacy that's turning people away from Microsoft devices. Their OS, Mp3 players, Phones, and tablets...people don't want them anymore. We dealt wit their confusing garbage technology for so long that as soon as someone else showed us a new ""way"", everyone was on-board.    How many times did we wipe machines to make them faster? Field phone calls from relatives for help? Spend hours upon hours setting shit up for ourselves and others? That was all because of Microsoft design. My 65 year old parents do everything on their ipads. My dad just bought an iMac today. My 88 year old grandmother uses her ipad daily. They never ask me how to do anything, they figure it out on their own because it's well designed.  So I think Microsoft's past is their downfall. We didn't like having to deal with all that crap for decades. People who lived through MS tech don't want it anymore and they don't trust their new stuff. We've already broken up with MS and moved on."


"> no factory will let you operate machinery stoned.  Because if someone gets hurt they may require **medical care**.  Also, there is currently no hard definition of ""stoned"" and drug tests do not show if someone is ""stoned"" or not, just that they have used the drug at sometime in the past.    Yes there are non medical compensation costs to be considered as well, but all of it is really rooted around the insurance industry which in turn lobbies against drug legalization.    Its not just CEOs of course, but if there were more business leaders that would speak up about these things and not just play into the right wing anti-drug propaganda then maybe we could make some slow progress."


According to TurboTax, it is perfectly legal to final as an individual with zero income. But, alas, according to Entities, by the IRS, you must file as a partnership or a corporation even if you have zero income.  As for my two cents, I can only see it being advantageous for filing on expense purposes, but as you have no income, the point is mute. Hope it all goes over well as the forms are due March 15.


"I may be missing something here, but I don't think this is a disadvantage. The fact that the employer contribution will be taxed is the same as it would be if it were a match in a traditional account, so the amount you lose to taxes on it is a wash. The employer contribution is only smaller if you can't afford to contribute as much to the Roth because it's post-tax, and therefore your contribution is under the cap for the match. If you're contributing the maximum the employer will match or higher, then I don't think there's any disadvantage on the match portion. First, the 5% cap on employer contributions is calculated on the gross, even in a Roth account. Second, the taxing of the amount contributed to a Roth does not reduce the dollar amount that goes into the Roth account, it just reduces your net pay. So if your contribution is $100 to a Traditional account, your gross pay is reduced by $100 and your Traditional account gains $100. In the Roth, your gross pay is still taxed as though that $100 were included, but the $100 is put into the Roth. The tax portion of that ""after tax"" money does not reduce the amount of the contribution."


"To the same people commenting on the Laffer curve being not true on another post, here ya go.   This is how you don't collect taxes at exorbitant rates. Government is greedy and dumb, while private enterprise is greedy and smart. They will never get what they want because the people with the money are smarter than those writing the rules.   Go put Elon Musk alone in a room with Maxine Waters and he will own Inglewood, Hawthorne, Lawndale, and Lomita in an hour as she embezzles some off the books ""donation."" And, for the record, those communities would be a thousand times better for it.  George Steinbrenner DIED at the exact right time for his family to not have to pay 55% on the estate. They paid nothing. In New York State. The second bastion of high taxes, and they still got fleeced for 55% of one of the most valuable sports franchises in the world."


"Another option would be to not refinance but also not pay any extra each month but to continue as you are making the existing payments and just put the ""extra"" you would have paid aside in an investment of some type (something you are comfortable with)  This as the added benefit of not tying up this extra money in your house should you need it in the next few years for something else. You would then have the option in 2 or 3 years of continuing on this path or closing the investment and paying off the remaining principal in one lump sum.   If nothing else that big payment would be a really fun check to write."


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Yes. This income would be reported on schedule SE. Normally, you will not owe any tax if the amount is less than $400.  Practically, $100 in a garage sale is not why the IRS created the form SE. I wouldn't lose sleep over keeping track of small cash sales over the course of a year. However, if you have the information I'm not going to tell you not to report it.


> Amazon used steep discounts to turn its Echo speaker line into a best-seller. Even if Amazon loses money on the device sales, it gets a toehold for its Alexa digital voice-assistant platform to become more connected to shoppers who can use it to check the weather, stream music, hail an Uber, order pizza -- and of course buy more from Amazon -- by voice command.


"Dear Bot of Doom,   I appreciate your concern, and will consider your suggestions. However, you don't know anything about my level of knowledge or the training that I've had, what risks I'm taking and how I calculate them, or where my gambles will take me and my financial situation. A lot of people like to try to tell me that I'll fail.. Who knows what my future holds? All I can do is make my plan and stick to it, while educating myself along the way. And if I do in fact fail sometime in the future, walk into a buzzsaw, lose nearly everything, the blame will be solely on myself. Not on some ""professional"" who I've paid to manage my finances. I don't know.. Like I said, I appreciate your concern, I really do.. We shall see what happens in the future :)   Love,  Rachel"


"I'm talking about the origins in Greece. It was very simple: ""encouragement was held out to all who should discover any new refinement in luxury, the profits arising from which were secured to the inventor by patent for the space of a year."""


Probably more like ELI10.  Bob gets 10$ a week in lunch money from his parents.  Jim's dad works as a travelling salesman and makes a fixed salary plus a weekly commission, jim gets 5$ in allowance + whatever extra his dad makes, some weeks 20$ some 5$ some 7.  So Jim wants to make his allowance a bit more constant and bob wants a piece of the commission.  Mathematically: Bob's allowance = 10$/week  Jim's allowance = 5$ + C / week  C is unknown.   So they make a deal. Jim will receive 5$ from Bob every week. In return Jim will pay bob the  extra allowance every week.  The new deal is  Bob = 5$ + C  Jim = 10$   How they get to this arrangement is every week they sit at the lunch table. Bob takes out 5$, jim takes out his extra commission. They net the amount and pay whomever profits.


"The recommendations you read were, very probably, talking about US listed funds in US dollars. The mexican Bolsa de Valores says that they list over 600 mutual funds  so ""Yes"" you can invest in Mexico using Pesos if that is what you want.  You need a Corredor de Bolsa or mexico broker. Here they are.  Most international investors use exchange traded funds ETF because theirs fees are cheaper than mutual funds.  The ETF are mostly listed and traded in us stock exchange. Here they are. US mutual funds are in dollars and, because you are living in Mexico, you will have a currency risk and probably taxes.  Mexico mutual funds in Pesos do not carry any currency exposure unless the companies involved do business in the United States. You have to think about your currency exposure. B. Veo"


The most important lesson is never lend money to friends, unless you are willing to forget the lent amount, if the need arises to save your friendship. Money and relations/friendship is a dangerous cocktail. Your friend may assume, as you are his friend he may get lenient treatment while treating the money. And if you harangue about the money your friendship may suffer. So be careful while lending money to friends. If you make up a contract, your friend may ask why, if he isn't reasonable, as you are his friend. From personal experience, I forget about the lent money but jot it down somewhere. And when I am repaid I strike it off. I never discuss about the money or bring it up. People don't like to be reminded by a friend that they owe them money.  But refusing also isn't a viable option either. You probably have to take a middle path.


Carrying $5k debt would cost you $400 per year at an 8% interest rate. At 19%, that would be $950 per year. Pay off your cc debt, put the other 2k on your student loans, and the money you save in interest on your cc debt goes toward your student loans too. When all your debts are paid off, you have an emergency fund saved up (usually 3 months' living expenses), you've met all your other goals (car, house, college fund for the kids, retirement fund), and you still have some money to spend, then go to Vegas and enjoy yourself while probably losing it all.


It will usually take a week or two for changes to your withholding to take effect in payroll.  However 0 deductions will withhold more per check than 3.  So if at 0 deductions you are having to pay in April then I would suggest not changing your W2 to 3 deductions.  Instead in the section for extra with holding add $25 per week.  This should leave you with a more manageable return in April.


That's a double edged sword though. You can't just allow an economy to rely on that forever. At some point the U.S. has to stand on it's own feet. The fed can't support an entire economy indefinitely. They've already started taping, for good reason. Plus, you don't really know how bad inflation is when it's being masked by QE.


"As Michael McGowan says, just because gold has gone up lots recently does not mean it will continue to go up by the same amount. This plot:  shows that if your father had bought $20,000 in gold 30 years ago, then 10 years ago he would have slightly less than $20,000 to show for it. Compare that with the bubble in real estate in the US:  Update: I was curious about JoeTaxpayer's question: how do US house prices track against US taxpayer's ability to borrow?  To try to answer this, I used the house price data from here, the 30 year fixed mortgages here and the US salary information from here. To calculate the ""ability to borrow"" I took the US hourly salary information, multiplied by 2000/12 to get a monthly salary. I (completely arbitrarily) assumed that 25 per cent of the monthly salary would be used on mortgage payments.  I then used Excel's ""PV"" (Present Value) function to calculate the present value of the thirty year fixed rate mortgage. The resulting graph is below.  The correlation coefficient between the two plots is 0.93.  There are so many caveats on what I've done in ~15 minutes, I don't want to list them... but it certainly ""gives one furiously to think"" !! Update 2:  OK, so even just salary information correlates very well with the house price increases.  And looking at the differences, we can see that perhaps there was a spike or bubble in house prices over and above what might be expected from salary-only or ability-to-borrow."


There are short-term and long term aspects. In the long term, if you live and work in Australia and plan to continue doing both indefinitely, you might as well move all your cash investments there.  There would be no point bearing the exchange rate risks.  It may be worth keeping the account open with just enough credit to stop it being shut down.  There is no point needing to (think about) filing foreign tax returns just because you have an account earning a small amount of interest. In the short term, I think the more important question is practicality rather than exchange rate risk.  You want to have enough cash in both countries that if you suddenly have to pay say an apartment deposit or a bill, you won't be caught short.  So I would leave at least a few thousands dollars in a US bank account until at least a couple of months after the move, when I was sure everything was settled. Good luck.


There is no limit on how much money you can bring into the USA, in Cash or through electronic transfer. You only need to be able to proof or convincingly show that you earned it legally and paid all potential US taxes that you had to pay. If you chose to bring it in cash, you need to tell customs when arriving (and again, be prepared to proof the legal sources). Wire transfer, cash in the suitcase, whatever you like. There is no tax for bringing the money, and the tax for making that money supposedly is already paid. Once the money is in the US, and earns more money, you will owe taxes on the gain (not on the capital itself, just on the amounts it increases by) I hope you understand that if you live in the US, and you have money anywhere in the world, you might need to report it to the IRS; and if your money makes interest anywhere in the world (including of course in India), you might be are required to pay US taxes on the gains. That is independent of your question; but if you don't do it, you are cheating the IRS, and they will ask this when you bring the money back.


A person name Matthew Drury or a similar name owes money on their loan, and it has gone to collections. The collections company is trying to match the account to a real person with money. They sent a letter to somebody (your grandmother) with the same last name. The debtor may have even lived in that town at sometime.  The reason you received the letter is because your grandmother forward it on. Because the rest of your info (SSN and birth date) don't match the loan it is unlikely they can attach the debt to you. Unless you provided your address to the company you could in the future receive a letter from them. But I doubt they are going to send letters to everybody with the same name. I would not worry about it unless they actually send a letter or call you directly.


> It's often the minimum wage employees that I see abused the worst, they are easily replaceable by their employer and punishment for violating workers rights is a slap on the wrist.    Yeah, this is a good point.  I think the experience skews significantly as you go down the skill-level / prestige of the job.  An interesting observation (maybe) would be that this mostly applies to people who are *only just* above minimum wage, such as Walmart employees.  They get paid enough that it would be hard to find another retail job at the same pay level.  But certainly not enough to be considered well-off.  True minimum wage earners who I've known typically don't give even the smallest shit about their employer.  They switch employers in the blink of an eye, and at the slightest provocation.  Minimum wage jobs are as much a commodity for the employees, as minimum-wage employees are to the company.   > A lot of this was to get over a peak of work... However now I have been granted some flexibility   Well said.  My situation is very similar.  The company communicates their needs to me, and so I'm well aware of when peaks are likely to occur, and of the consequences of missing deadlines, etc.  It rarely comes as a surprise.


"The statement is (in laymans terms - if not in real terms) correct. Most credit cards (I know this to be true for VISA and Mastercard) have dispute processes and will do a chargeback on the merchant - ie take the money back from the supplier in cases where you don't receive the goods or other fraud - Particularly if they can't produce a signature and (for transactions which are not face-to-face) a tracking number. Your exact rights will vary by bank, but mostly they need to follow the guidelines set by the Credit Card company - and you do need to be a bit careful - if you received goods which were fake or a dispute arises you may be up for shipping the goods back to the merchant - and you have a limited - but reasonable time - in which to make the dispute. (The statement ""the money is the banks"" is not technically true, there is no money involved until you pay it, only credit [ they are very different, but almost no-one knows that, I communicated with a Minister of Finance on the topic], but this is quite technical and as a layman not something you need to worry about here)"


Buxfer is a personal-finance web app which you might like.  It's not open-source.  But at least none of your complaints about financeworks.intuit.com apply to Buxfer. Buxfer offers a piece of software you can download to your own PC, called Firebux.  This macro-recording software provides automation that helps you download statements and upload them to Buxfer.  So you never have to give Buxfer any of your bank or brokerage usernames or passwords. Buxfer and Firebux are both free of charge. Wesabe, another personal-finance web app, also used to offer data-uploader software, but Wesabe has now gone out of business.


"If you deposit the money in your account, it will count against the gift tax exclusion for you, not your daughter. As such, you should open a bank account for your daughter.  Assuming she already has a social security number, this will not be complicated.  Otherwise, apply for one, as mhoran notes before the end of the year. The kind of account you should open depends on the purpose of the money, but likely it should be opened as a Uniform Gift to Minors Act, or Uniform Transfer to Minors Act, account.  This means it is your daughter's account (not yours), but you designate one or more custodians who are the ones who can actually make withdrawals.  Any money in this account must be spent in your daughter's interest, but it's not required to be spent with her approval (even as an older child) nor on a specific thing (it's not just college money, like a 529 account is). Before you do so, you should consider how to set up custodianship.  Some parents simply make themselves custodians; some ask another relative to be custodian or joint custodian, or even someone like a godparent or close trusted friend.  Having a joint custodian is helpful if you feel like it may be challenging to not dip into the account if you had financial difficulties (as both custodians must sign off on withdrawals). Finally, you should consider whether you want this to be a simple bank account, or whether you might want to consider something like Vanguard or Fidelity investment account.  If it's likely to contain over $10,000 or whatever the reduced/no fee limit is at the investment firm you choose, it may well be worth your while to do this as you can earn significant returns fairly safely, assuming the money is intended for longer term use (for college or other later-in-life uses). Note that for tax purposes, this gift will count for 2016 taxes regardless of when you actually set up the account, as you have ""constructively received"" the gift when the check was given to you.  So there's no rush to work this out before the end of the year; you can still deposit it next year.  However, your daughter needs a SSN to be able to be claimed as a dependent on your taxes, so that at least needs doing before the end of the year."


If I can play the Devil's avocado, though, these foreign-owned entities will still be subject to the laws of the country they operate in. I mean, if they're State-owned, there's little accountability because the government is largely shielded from being called out if they screw up, whereas a privately owned enterprise is accountable if they make mistakes.


"This question is really general to answer. That's like asking ""Is it easier to be a dog or a cat?""   Your answer is going to be defined by your circumstances and approach, which are going to come somewhere from the following:  - How much capital do you have to start stuff?  - Can you get a loan? If so, how much is it? - Do you already have a business model? Is it going to effectively compete against existing, successful businesses? - Do you have a unique advertising gimmick?  - Is this a technical business? Does it require a patent? Is that patent already secured? - Do you already have a new idea or technology? - Where will you find talent? - Do you have any experience with investment? How aggressive are you going to be investing?  - Do you have any experience with business?  Just remember, the overwhelming majority of businesses fail. I know several business owners (some successful, some unsuccessful).   The list goes on, and honestly I don't think Reddit is a good place to start."


"You can think of the situation as a kind of Nash equilibrium.  If ""the market"" values stock based on the value of the company, then from an individual point of view it makes sense to value stock the same way. As an illustration, imagine that stock prices were associated with the amount of precipitation at the company's location, rather than the assets of the company.  In this imaginary stock market, it would not benefit you to buy and sell stock according to the company's value.  Instead, you would profit most from buying and selling according to the weather, like everyone else.  (Whether this system — or the current one — would be stable in the long-term is another matter entirely.)"


Everything here is yours and can be rolled into your new plan or IRA. You can generally move your 403(b) assets into your traditional IRA or into your new employer's plans, assuming your new employer's plan allowing incoming roll overs.  You can probably roll your pension out as well. Actually, the right person to ask about this is the company with whom you have your IRA.  The easiest and best way to get assets from one tax-sheltered account to another is by contacting the company you want to roll INTO and having them take care of everything for you.


I would sit down with the creditors and negotiate smallest amount you can get before agreeing with whatever you have to pay. Think that, for them, it's much more convenient to get way less than $36K than to see you in collections. Needless to say, don't tell them you have to money to cancel off :-)


You have two options for deducting childcare expenses in the US. Both are discussed in Publication 503.  You can claim the Childcare Tax Credit using Form 2441, which has instructions here. First, you can enroll in a dependent care FSA.  You enroll in this through your employer; either you or your spouse can.  $5000 can be deducted pre-tax from your paycheck to pay for childcare this way.  This does not have income limits. Second, you can claim a credit based on expenses up to $3000 per child, up to two children ($6000 total), for the Child Care Tax Credit.  This is combinable with the FSA, only for the last $1000 if you have 2+ children (so $6000 total between the two).  That has income limits to claim over 20% of the credit; so if you are in the 25% bracket, you will only get to claim 20% of the total, either $200 if you have an FSA or $1200 if you do not. Both spouses must work full time or have other qualifying details (such as being a full time student) in order to qualify for the credit; see publication 503 above for more information.


Who's to say it wasn't priced into the markets, at least to some degree? Without any information on the behaviour of holders pre-expiry, no one can know if they've been shorting the stock in advance of selling on expiry day. And with the float being such a small proportion of the total issuance, there's always the risk of sudden fluctuations picking up big momentum - which could easily explain the 7% drop on expiry day. Add into all this uncertainty, the usual risks of shorting (e.g. limited upside, unlimited downside), and the observed phenomena aren't by any means killer blows of the Efficient Market Hypothesis. That's not to say that such evidence doesn't necessarily exist - just that this isn't it.


"For those on a budget, check if your local library has access to / or a copy of the ""Standard & Poor's Daily Stock Price Record"". Access to that or a similar service may be available as part of your library patronage. If not available it may be available at your metropolitan central library.  Comprehensive stock pricing data which provides adjustments for splits, mergers, capital distributions and other relevant events is still a premium product. External link to New York Public Library blog post on subject: http://www.nypl.org/blog/2012/04/09/finding-historical-stock-prices"


It would be better to use a bank account and have the refund deposited directly to it. But you said you never had a bank account, so that may be a problem. Another option is to have the refund check mailed to you, and you deposit it in your local bank, converting to your home currency (or not, depending on local laws). Generally, for another person to cash a check made out to you - you need to endorse it first. Physically, on the back of the check. That means you have to see the check. Specifically with tax refund checks there's much more scrutiny since there's a lot of fraud going on with regards to tax refunds. Thus, I doubt a bank would allow a third party cash a check made out to you, without you actually being present there.


Going to the grocery store, while a pain, still seems less painful than trying to find and order stuff online, and then having to wait around for the delivery.  I can go to the grocery store and back in an hour and I'll know immediately if they didn't have something, I can make substitutions, I know different brands/names of things are okay, etc.  Fiddling around trying to make sure they get the right Thai chili paste or suitable kalamata olives seems like more trouble than it is worth.


Happened to my girlfriend at a non-profit that had really generous maternity leave. She had been in a manager-esque position there for something like 5 years at that point and had been far too generous with her commitment for being an hourly employee. She really wasn't a manager but she picked up the slack for other people and was generally considered second-in-command. Boss leaves for another opportunity, recommends her for his job - she thinks she is set. Instead, they hire someone outside on who only has slightly more experience.   The day the new girl starts, she tells them she is pregnant. She works for literally a week before going on maternity leave for six months. Meanwhile, my gf has already been taking over all management duties as an hourly employee with no pay improvement for the six months to fill the position and now has to do the same work for six more months, no increased compensation, no salary. I told her to straight up quit and leave them in a bind.


"I've traded covered calls now and then. This is a recent trade. Bought 1000 shares of RSH (Radio Shack) and sold 10 calls. So, I own the stock at a cost of $6.05, but have to let it go for $7.50. There's a 50c dividend in November, so the call buyer will call it away even if the stock trades below the strike. So, I'm expecting this is a 10 month trade for a 24% return.  This is one strategy where options clearly take down the risk (of course, I did not say 'remove', just lessens). The stock can be 10% lower a year out, and I'm still ahead by 8% plus the dividend if it's not canceled.  Note - it's a rare case for a one year trade to return 20% or more at a flat stock price. More common is 10-12%.  (I hope this example is acceptable as an example of this type of trade. If not, I can edit to ""XYZ corp"" to remove the stock name. (So if anyone comments, please do not repeat name in case I need to remove)"


"Your SSA payments are not IRA contributions, but they're actually a tax that is earmarked to the Social Security Trust Fund.  As such, no, you don't have any ""contributions"" that can be refunded: you paid a tax, and in exchange for having paid that tax you will possibly later have a benefit. However, some foreign nationals are able to convey that benefit into their national savings plan.  The Social Security Administration has a FAQ page on this particular subject.   Unfortunately for you, Pakistan does not have a bilateral agreement according to their list, so you may be out of luck."


The answer can depend greatly on whether the interest on a mortgage for the house you live in is tax deductible in the country you are in (I assume the mortgage is on the house you live in and not an investment property). It will also depend on the difference between the mortgage interest rate and the return of the unit trust, your income and your tax rates. In essence you would need to do a cost-benefit analysis to figure out which option would provide the bigest financial benefit, considering the different rates, your income and your tax rates. Basically, if you can get a better return from the unit trust than the mortgage interest rate and you can claim a tax deduction for the mortgage interest payments, then you may be better off investing in the unit trust rather than putting extra repayments into the mortgage.


"Black-Scholes is ""close enough"" for American options since there aren't usually reasons to exercise early, so the ability to do so doesn't matter. Which is good since it's tough to model mathematically, I've read. Early exercise would usually be caused by a weird mispricing for some technical / market-action reason where the theoretical option valuations are messed up. If you sell a call that's far in the money and don't get any time value (after the spread), for example, you probably sold the call to an arbitrageur who's just going to exercise it. But unusual stuff like this doesn't change the big picture much."


In my experience, even if you are invaluable to the company, you won't be dutifully compensated or recognized. It is very rare that a company has a good enough performance assessment system that actually measures this with any measure of accuracy. The end result is that the only people compensated are those that make themselves close to management, AKA Brown Noses...


As a buyer you must realize they are doing everything they can to get the best deal for their client (the seller). They have made the first offer (the listing price), you made a counter offer, now they are trying to get you to see that your offer is too low.  How can they do this: show you comps that they have found to show that either their listing price was where it should be, or even that it could have been higher. If there are fresh comps that are showing an upward trend, they will be sure to show you those. Another approach is to show you what is happening in the neighborhood today.  If those sales have settled, then they are public record. If they haven't settled they are not public record. Your agent should be reminding you that they are worthless as a comp until they are settled. The only ethics issue is did the agent, by disclosing the contract, commit a violation against the rights of buyer and the seller of the other house. You have not been harmed, and the seller of the house you are interested in most likely approved the maneuver.  I would look at the documents you signed to see who owns the info on the form. Because that will tell you if your offer on the house is being used by another agent, or even your agent, as leverage in another deal.


Make sure you have a smart phone w/ a good battery and decent internet plan. If your job is anything like ones I've had, you're going to need something to do when you're sitting around for hours at a time bored out of your mind.  Go slow at first.. small mistakes can have big consequences in finance, decimal over a point, formula wrong in excel by one cell, etc..