"I recommend reading What's the catch in investing in real estate for rent? and making a list of expenses.  You have a known expense, the rent, and the assumption that it will rise a bit each year. If not each year, eventually the landlord will bump it, and on average, the rent should track inflation.  The buy side is the complete unknown, especially to us here. The mortgage and taxes are just the beginning. My ongoing issue in the buy/rent debate is that it's easy to buy ""too big"" or at least far bigger that what you are renting.  One extreme - a couple moves from their one bedroom apartment into their purchased 3BR home with far more space than they ever use. No need to paint the full picture of numbers, the house is a money pit, and they live for the house.  Other end - Couple already renting a nice sized home, and they buy a similar one. They rent out the two spare bedrooms for 5 years until they have kids and want their privacy back. They bought smart, for less than market price, and from day one, the mortgage was lower than the rent they paid. By year 5, having sent the extra income to pay down the mortgage, they've paid down half the loan. As the kids come along, they refi to a new 30 yr fixed at 3.5%, and the payment is tiny compared to the rest of their budget.  Simply put, the ratio of house price to rent for that same house is not a constant. When the ratio is high, it's time to rent. When it swings very low, it's worth considering a purchase. But the decision is never clear until every detail is known. The time may be perfect, and the day after you close, you lose your job, or in a good scenario, get a raise and are relocated. Just because you bought low yesterday, doesn't mean the market will pay you a good price today, it takes time for out-of-whack pricing to come back to normal.  A simple question? Maybe. But we first need a lot of details to help you understand what you are considering."


"> Well take one exception and make it the rule.  You are the one who answered with an absolute.  I didn't.  > ""Stable Environment"" can mean lots of things.  Yes, and we defined it 3 or 4 statements earlier.  Okay, I'm confident you are not putting much thought into our discussions so I shall bit you adieu.  Enjoy the rest of your day."


"I read this so often and it's such bullshit.  Do you know why robots won't replace fast food workers? Because the fast food workers are cheap. Dirt cheap.  Why don't people realize this? I guess because most people earn pretty shitty wages themselves, so they don't see how $7.50/hr. is next to nothing, especially when your average McDonald's store makes $7,100 in revenue per day. 3 shifts of 6 workers means your wage costs are $1,080 for workers, ex-managers. Wages are 15% cost of sales.  That's nothing.  Would robots cost less? Hmm...maybe. How much do they cost to buy? How often do you need to maintain them? How much do parts cost? IT staff to manage them? Do you still need a manager to take in deliveries, and is he going to stack and organize them now? (Robots can't do that--they lack the dexterity.) Also, are the managers going to start cleaning the toilets now? Doubtful--and robots can't do that either.  In other words, this ""robots are taking over"" is true but ""robots are going to crowd out minimum wage workers"" is complete and total horseshit. I think lower middle class and middle class office workers are being fed this line to oppose minimum wage increases--which of course boost corporate margins.  But they're the ones at risk.  You know who robots CAN replace more easily than minimum wage workers? Office workers. Secretaries, actuaries, bookkeepers, investment managers, marketing analysts, IT managers, accountants, journalists...  Don't worry, middle class America. The robots aren't coming for the people who clean your toilets, who cook your food, and who wash your dishes. No. They're coming for you."


if you put a mcdonald's job on your resume and you are over the age of 25 in a non-white collar position, i guarantee 95% of hiring managers will never call you back. well-paying jobs these days are mostly office based, and hiring managers have a hell of a bias against your non-middle income and above demographic


This is music to the waste disposal industries ears.    My wifes parents are like this.  Their house is filled, to the brim, with so much stuff.  They have a few storage units full of stuff.  It will be an interesting problem for my wife and her siblings when the inevitable occurs.


"Ugh, sorry. Drunkenness + finance geekery is pretty unconducive to actual information-sharing.  Taxi medallions/licenses are heavily financed using debt--principally in the form of commercial loans. The structure of these loans is usually interest-only, 3 year balloon, with borrowers qualified on a 40 year amortization period. Sound familiar? I'll give you a hint: rhymes with smeal shmestate shmubble. The loans then get chopped up and hawked to local community lenders, who are told that the prices never go down (because supply-side monopoly), and then they happily up the concentration of taxi financing in their lending portfolios.  Your observation is trenchant. Uber, Lyft, Sidecar, all that shit comes into the picture and there's no hail. So they're not really taxis, meaning they skirt regulation. And to make matters worse, they are also heavily financed through VC, PE, short-term bank debt. And they use that financing to do what? Not operations--instead, they just lower their prices, and usually below that of traditional cabs. It's an artificially deflated price designed to hook folks on the service, and then when they start not being able to subsidize their prices anymore, they'll raise em back up (but consumers don't care about that in the short run).  Why does any of this matter? Because when the e-collective cited above comes in and creates stiff competition, demand for medallion falls because cab drivers would rather go work for Uber (they don't need to license their right to drive from a cab fleet anymore), and also demand for cabs themselves falls because people would rather take the cheaper alternative. That causes the cost of medallions to fall, which = price correction. And that's bad because it's not the guys originating and hawking these loans who are on the hook--they've effectively sold off their share of the loan to other lenders (community banks) and cashed out. Instead, you're looking at mom and pop banks who are now on the hook for these loans where the value of the loan grossly exceeds the value of the collateral, the medallion, the thing they were supposed to partially finance.  This is the same phenomenon as what happened in 08. Real estate prices experience a substantial price correction because of, well, a bunch of shit, but let's just say that it had to do with the financing arrangements that made real estate safe in the first place + shitty loan underwriting standards. All of a sudden you had people with 500K houses that they took out a 1.2m mortgage for. Rational actors, true to their word, just walked away from the house--just packed up their shit and moved somewhere else, and just said to the bank ""here's the keys, I can't afford this shit"". And the bank can't take any of their stuff because the mortgage terms were essentially for the value of the collateral. So now you have all these banks that are short on liquid assets--they have residential properties, but nobody's buying, at least not at the prices that they need to get the return on their investment.  This is all a really long way of saying this: if there is a mass price correction caused by Uber, it's going to be mom and pop banks on the hook for the loans. Borrowers will flee en masse to Uber et al, while banks will experience serious liquidity issues. You're right that Uber is doing something great by forcing taxi cabs into a non-monopolistic situation, but the first step needs to be unwinding the debt on these loans. Otherwise, you're looking at a mini market crash that could be disastrous for grandma and grandpa in Mendocino County. They're not going and banking at Citi or JPMC; they're banking at shitty little mom and pop banks that have no idea what they're being sold."


This is pretty simple in theory, harder to do in practice. You will be surprised how quickly the debt will disappear.  Doing these things will work, I know from experience.


IRS Publication 969 gives all the details about HSA accounts and High Deductible plans: According to your question you are covered by a plan that can have an HSA.  There a few points of interest for you: Contributions to an HSA Any eligible individual can contribute to an HSA. For an employee's   HSA, the employee, the employee's employer, or both may contribute to   the employee's HSA in the same year. For an HSA established by a   self-employed (or unemployed) individual, the individual can   contribute. Family members or any other person may also make   contributions on behalf of an eligible individual. Contributions to an HSA must be made in cash. Contributions of stock   or property are not allowed. That means that yes you could make a contribution to the HSA. Or if in the future you were the provider of the insurance you could have a HSA. Limit on Contributions  For 2015, if you have self-only HDHP coverage, you can contribute up   to $3,350. If you have family HDHP coverage you can contribute up to   $6,650. It sounds like you have a family plan. Additional contribution.   If you are an eligible individual who is   age 55 or older at the end of your tax year, your contribution limit   is increased by $1,000. Rules for married people.   If either spouse has family HDHP coverage, both spouses are treated as having family HDHP coverage. If   each spouse has family coverage under a separate plan, the   contribution limit for 2014 is $6,550. You must reduce the limit on   contributions, before taking into account any additional   contributions, by the amount contributed to both spouses' Archer MSAs.   After that reduction, the contribution limit is split equally between   the spouses unless you agree on a different division. The rules for married people apply only if both spouses are eligible   individuals. If both spouses are 55 or older and not enrolled in Medicare, each   spouse's contribution limit is increased by the additional   contribution. If both spouses meet the age requirement, the total   contributions under family coverage cannot be more than $8,550. Each   spouse must make the additional contribution to his or her own HSA. Note: most of the document was written with 2014 numbers, but sometimes they mention 2015 numbers. If both are covered under a single plan it should be funded by the person that has the plan. They may get money from their employer. They may be able to have the employer cover the monthly fee that most HSA administrators charge. The non employee can make contributions to the account but care must be taken to make ure the annual limits aren't exceeded. HSA contributions from the employees paycheck may reduce the social security tax paid by the employee. If the non-employee is self employed you will have to see how the contribution impacts the social security situation for the couple. If the non-employee is 55 or older it can make sense to throw in that extra $1000. The employer may not allow it to come from the paycheck contributions because they wouldn't necessarily know the age of the spouse, they may put a maximum limit based on the age of the employee.


You must not be familiar with relative poverty. Just in case you want to actually read up on the issue. Read The Spirit Level: Why More Equal Socities Almost Always Do Better by Richard Wilkinson and Kate Pickett. Inequality doesnt just affect those who have a less than average income. The more unequal the society, the more health and social problems they tend to have. Those problems, such as depression, drug abuse and violence affect society and the economy as a whole.  So no relatively, the quality of life is not better in the US or across the globe.


Many people dream of having a home based business. A home based business gives you the freedom to be your own boss and set your own hours. However, most people have no idea what kind of business to start to make real money from home. Here are some home business ideas.


The federal reserve loans the US government dollars. The Federal reserve is NOT owned by the government, it is a private banking institution. So the US has to get capital from investor to borrow those dollars. Printing more dollars makes the dollars less valuable, and at the same time the investments less attractive unless there is a higher rate of interest attached to it.


Have you read is letter? He's saying thanks to the government for basically saving the economy. Warren Buffet was from day 1 a strong supporter of the bailout program.   I'm sorry for my ignorance but what ''output'' are you talking about? As I understand you don't just want to establish a basic income but want to change the whole monetary system? And you can't even explain it?


I don't know how long run but this last week people have been talking about McDonalds a lot.  I think the trick is to set a limit and have it auto sell when it is met. There is no need to hold forever and therefor what is 'long term' can be variable.


Absolutely nothing about it was stupid or for notoriety, it was simply a vote on the definition of celestial bodies in the galaxy being voted on by an international coalition of scientists (IAU).  Either Pluto was going to be downgraded to a dwarf planet, or Xena was going to be the 10th planet in the solar system after it was discovered (since it's larger than pluto).   I'm sure if that had happened you'd be claiming it was a stupid publicity stunt then too.


My grandpa was hired by DuPont out of HS.  Never went to college.  Started working as a custodian.  Worked his way up to lead fluid production engineer or something like that -- his position would require an advanced degree in chemistry today to even be considered for an interview


Kuala Lumpur, 2 July 2014. In line with Axiata Group Berhad’s (Axiata) strategy to focus on mobile communications, Axiata has entered into an agreement with Samart Corporation Public Company Limited (Samart) to dispose its entire shareholding of approximately 24% of the total issued and outstanding share capital in Samart i-Mobile Public Company Limited (Samart i-Mobile) for total gross consideration of approximately USD88.6 million. Samart is the current shareholder in Samart i-Mobile and currently holds around 52% of the total issued and outstanding share capital in Samart i-Mobile.   Samart i-Mobile is in the business of providing instant wireless information services and mobile content, along with the distribution of mobile phones and accessories. Dato’ Sri Jamaludin Ibrahim, President & Group Chief Executive Officer said “We would like to thank Samart i-Mobile for the support throughout our period of investment and we wish them every success for the future.   [http://www.academia.edu/7060492/The_Jakarta_Globe_Axis_Capital_Group_Telecom_Purchase_XL_Axiata](http://www.academia.edu/7060492/The_Jakarta_Globe_Axis_Capital_Group_Telecom_Purchase_XL_Axiata)


Ford paid off a tremendous amount of debt prior to reinstating the dividend. While they still have a sizable amount of debt on the balance sheet, they've been able to refinance this debt to a much more affordable point. Their free cash flow + cash on the balance could enable them to pay it off in the very near future (12 - 16 months). Most auto companies have debt on their balance sheet if they choose to offer financial services.  Their overall credit rating (if you really think such things are valid) has also improved. Generally speaking, I agree its a poor idea to give money back to shareholders if you have high-interest bearing debt.


The Indian imagination is getting the better of it, poor fellows are going to be quite heart broken when their economy get over heated and burned out. They think being the little wheel is fun and games, I don't think they know what we really do to little economies.


If you mostly do work for businesses/individuals who are VAT registered it's a no-brainer to become VAT registered yourself... Although you will have to charge your customers VAT (and pass this on to HMRC) because they are VAT-registered they will reclaim the amount so it won't actually 'cost' them anything. At the same time, you can reclaim all the VAT you're currently being charged on your business expenditure (business equipment, tickets to business events, business software, accountancy/other business services you pay for, web hosting etc etc etc) However, if most of your clients are not VAT-registered it's not worth you registering. You would have to charge your customers an extra 20% (and they wouldn't be able to claim it back!) and you would have to pass this on to HMRC. Although you could still claim for goods and services you purchase for business use, essentially you'd just be another tax collector for HMRC. That said, at the end of the day it's up to you! VAT returns are quarterly and dead simple. Just keep a spreadsheet with your invoices (output tax) and receipts (input tax) and then do some basic maths to submit the final numbers to HMRC. No accountant required!


"What about the escudo balance in my checking account in Cabo Verde?   Are the escudos that I held for months or years, before eventually   deciding to change to dollars, considered an investment? Don't know. You tell us. Investment defined as an activity taken to produce income. Did you put the money in the checking account with a full expectation of profits to be made from that? Or you only decided that it is an investment in retrospective, after the result is known, because it provides you more tax benefit? To me it sounds like you have two operating currencies and you're converting between them. Doesn't sound like an investment. Generally, from my experience, bank accounts are not considered investments (even savings accounts aren't). Once you deposit into a CD or bond or money market - you get a cash-equivalent which can be treated as an investment. But that's my personal understanding, if there are large amounts involved, I'd suggest talking to a US-licensed CPA/EA specializing on expats in your area. Pub 54 is really a reference for only the most trivial of the questions an expat may have. It doesn't even begin to describe the complexity of the monstrosity that is called ""The US Tax Code for Expats and Foreigners""."


"A quick Craigslist search in my area (New England) pops up a number of RVs in claimed good/running condition in the $2000 - $5000 range, so it's not ""too good to be true"" that a motivated seller would sell one slightly below market: selling things is a lot of work, and lowering prices is essentially paying the buyer to not make you do that work. Of course, you should still do you due diligence: If the seller objects to you doing this, then you should be suspicious (inexperienced sellers, e.g. a widow whose husband may have handled these things in the past, might get spooked by asking to take it to a mechanic, so be prepared to reassure on that front).  Otherwise it's no more risk than any used vehicle purchase."


Currency speculation is a very risky investment strategy. But when you are looking for which currency to denote your savings in, looking at the unit value is quite pointless. What is important is how stable the currency is in the long term. You certainly don't want a currency which is prone to inflation, because it means any savings denoted in that currency constantly lose purchasing power. Rather look for a currency which has a very low inflation rate or is even deflating. Another important consideration is how easy it is to exchange between your local currency and the currency you want to own. A fortune in some exotic currency is worth nothing when no local bank will exchange it into your local currency. The big reserve currencies like US Dollar, Euro, Pound Sterling and Japanes yen are usually safe bets, but there are regional differences which can be easily converted and which can't. When the political relations between your country and the countries which manage these currencies is unstable, this might change over night. To avoid these problems, rather invest into a diverse portfolio of commodities and/or stocks. The value of these kinds of investments will automatically adjust to inflation rate, so you won't need to worry about currency fluctuation.


So your argument for a national ID is that we're already fucked so might as well add another data point?  There's other ways to solve this problem that doesn't introduce more privacy concerns... advocating against a national ID is not the same as advocating for using an SSN as an ID.


Benjamin Grahams strategy was to invest in REALLY SAFE stocks. In his time lean businesses weren't as common as they are now and he found many companies with assets greater than the value of their shares. Putting a number figure on it isn't really necessary but the concept is useful. Its the idea that bigger companies are less turbulent (Which is something to avoid for an investor). Most companies in the top 500 or whatever will satisfy this.


I do a lot of work in Gsuite but is it really a good replacement for excel? I find the hotkeys limiting at best in comparison and I don't think there are good alternatives to powerpivot and powerquery in Gsuite. There are a handful of things Google sheets offers that excel doesn't but overall I find it fairly limiting.  If you're referring to just basic computing than yes Google sheets will get you there but I don't think they're comparable yet. I could be 100% wrong and just not know the Gsuite alternatives to these tho.


No, dividends are not included in earnings.  Companies with no earnings sometimes choose to pay dividends.  Paying the dividend does not decrease earnings.  It does of course decrease cash and shows up on the balance sheet.  Many companies choose to keep the dividend at a fixed rate even while the business goes through cycles of increased and decreased earnings.


Most of the commercials that I see online are for really expensive shit that I can't afford anyway (like luxury cars)... so it's kind of a moot point.   I wouldn't alter my behavior in any way (either positive or negative) due to a commercial.  Sure, they're a minor annoyance, but if I saw my favorite cereal in a commercial, I wouldn't boycott it.


After reading OP Mark's question and the various answers carefully and also looking over some old pay stubs of mine, I am beginning to wonder if he is mis-reading his pay stub or slip of paper attached to the reimbursement check for the item(s) he purchases.  Pay stubs (whether paper documents attached to checks or things received in one's company mailbox or available for downloading from a company web site while the money is deposited electronically into the employee's checking account) vary from company to company, but a reasonably well-designed stub would likely have categories such as Taxable gross income for the pay period: This is the amount from which payroll taxes (Federal and State income tax, Social Security and Medicare tax) are deducted as well as other post-tax deductions such as money going to purchase of US Savings Bonds, contributions to United Way via payroll  deduction, contribution to Roth 401k etc. Employer-paid group life  insurance premiums are taxable income too for any portion of the policy  that exceeds $50K. In some cases, these appear as a lump sum on the last pay stub for the year. Nontaxable gross income for the pay period: This would be sum total of the amounts contributed to nonRoth 401k plans, employee's share of group health-care insurance premiums for employee  and/or employee's family, money deposited into FSA accounts, etc. Net pay: This is the amount of the attached check or money sent via ACH to the employee's bank account. Year-to-date amounts: These just tell the employee what has been earned/paid/withheld to date in the various categories. Now, OP Mark said My company does not tax the reimbursement but they do add it to my running gross earnings total for the year. So, the question is whether the amount of the reimbursement is included in the Year-to-date amount of Taxable Income. If YTD Taxable Income does not include the reimbursement amount,  then the the OP's question and the answers and comments are moot; unless the company has really-messed-up (Pat. Pending) payroll software that does weird things, the amount  on the W2 form will be whatever is shown as YTD Taxable Income  on the last pay stub of the year, and, as @DJClayworth noted cogently, it is what will appear on the W2 form that really matters. In summary, it is good that OP Mark is taking the time to investigate the matter of the reimbursements appearing in Total Gross Income, but if the amounts are not appearing in the YTD Taxable Income, his Payroll Office may just reassure him that they have good software and that what the YTD Taxable Income says on the last pay stub is what will be appearing on his W2 form.  I am fairly confident that this is what will be the resolution of the matter because if the amount of the reimbursement was included in Taxable Income during that pay period and no tax was withheld, then the employer has a problem with  Social Security and Medicare tax underwithholding, and nonpayment of this tax plus the employer's share to the US Treasury in timely fashion. The IRS takes an extremely dim view of such shenanigans and most employers are unlikely to take the risk.


Then keep being fat, but it's still your own damned fault.  Sometimes making a choice requirea crazy things like hard work and discomfort, who would have thought.  Sick of entitled pieces of shit with attitudes like this.


"Credit is like dignity - it takes a long time to build but a short time to lose. Your credit history is mostly made up of your prior activity for several years. There's no ""quick fix"" to raise your credit score in a short period.  Paying your student loans on time will help, but it will take quite some time for that activity to make a big difference in your credit. If you can't get approved for a car loan of $15k, then perhaps it's time to either reset your expectations or save up enough to make a large down payment on a more expensive car.  Instead of prepaying your student loans that are not due, save up that money for a down payment. You can get an incredibly reliable car for much less than $15,000. Also, make sure that you will be able to afford the car payment when your student loans do become due (based on your current salary, not some hypothetical future salary)  Another plan: drive your car for another year, pay off your student loans in that time, and then you might have enough credit history to get a better loan."


Would you like to know your OWN buying strategy? What makes you tick when it comes to buying things? If you know how you run strategies of buying then you will know more about yourself and control your spending habits.http://joeldelacruz.net  What would it mean to you and your business if you can appreciate and respect the following:      How do customers want, research, seek and buy a particular product?     Did you know that each of these steps have micro strategies making up the customer’s overall buying strategy?     How can you know what triggered a customer into walking into your store or landing on your blog?     How can you build rapport with a customer so you lead them into a particular response?     When can you know it’s time to ask for the sale?     How can you handle objections?  All these questions can more will be asked and answer at the Buying Strategy Bootcamp. This is an interactive workshop where you will experience the learning and apply it right away and place into practice immediately.


I usually go at dinner time, 6:00pm-6:30pm, usually it's fresh but last week I went and the burger was just wet and gross and couldn't eat it all.  I agree lunch time is usually safe but I don't understand why it wouldn't be fresh at dinner time either.  It's like trying to get back that first high I just can't seem to get there anymore :(


"In answer to the ""how I can perform withdrawal with the lower rate (having GBP)?"" part of your question, as Joe stated you need to use another bank or currency exchange company to convert the GBP to PLN.  Most of the UK banks charge similar amounts, and it's usually not possible to transfer the GBP to a foreign bank unless you have a GBP account with them. Some currency exchange firms are Transferwise, FairFX, CaxtonFX, a web search will show a fuller range. You could also use Paypal to do the transfer (if you have a paypal account) by transferring the GBP from Barclays to your paypal account and then from there to your PLN account."


Is it true that you cannot amend a tax return to include both a   futures loss carry back and a Schedule C at the same time? No, it is not true. You can include all the changes necessary in a single amended return, attaching statement explaining each of the changes. However you're talking about two different kinds of changes. Futures loss carryback is a Sec. 1212 carryback and not a correction of an error. Adding Schedule C would be a correction of an error. I'm guessing your CPA wants to separate the two kinds to avoid the situation where the IRS refuses to accept your correction of an error and by the way also doesn't accept the Sec. 1212 carryback on the same return. Or the CPA just wants to charge you twice for amendments.


You can replace Ciscos products with those of any other networking company. There's plenty of multibillion players in the space and I'm sure there's lots of tiny ones most folks have never heard of.   Even if you copied FB verbatim, you'd have to convince a few hundred million (billion?) people to use it so you'd have that level of captive network effect.   Unless they do something dumb, they're the go-to for social networks for the foreseeable future, just like Google killed off Alta Vista, Ask and all the other search engines.


Living wage applies to the location that the job is in. Warehouse in Northern KY? Living wage for northern KY. Warehouse in NYC? Living wage for NYC. Those numbers will be very different.   As for a definition of a living wage, that varies. One definition is that it's the minimum income that allows a worker to meet their basic needs (food, housing, transportation, healthcare, etc), presumably without needing to rely on a social net. If you need for food stamps or housing assistance to meet your basic needs for food and shelter, you probably aren't making a living wage.


When the laws allow for bonds to be issued for anything other than infrastructure projects, you end up in financial ruin.   Politicians can't help themselves, and spend future money, today on day to day expenses.      Then future residents, are paying off bonds for items they see no current benefit on.  It makes taxes appear high.       Look at cities like Chicago as an example.


Thousands of people are going to suffer because of this.  It is inevitable, these inept companies must fail, but _all this suffering makes me sad._  I'm pretty astonished at the rage that this sentiment has excited.  Can you explain why this idea bothers you so much?


The rate of spending growth is relevant. The reason tax cuts are expected to pay for themselves is that they are expected to increase economic growth such that the absolute dollar amount of revenue is the same, though it makes up a smaller relative proportion of the total economic value created over a period.   This would be sufficient to pay for itself if spending growth were flat, but if it's growing, particularly if it's growing sharply, just maintaining the same absolute revenue level won't be enough to pay the government's bills.  Basically, whether or not tax cuts pay for themselves depends on where we are on the Laffer Curve AND on the level of spending growth, hence my previous comment.


Perhaps it was to close a short position.  Suppose the seller had written the calls at some time in the past and maybe made a buck or two off of them.  By buying the calls now they can close out the position and go away on vacation, or at least have one less thing they have to pay attention to.  If they were covered calls, perhaps the buyer wants to sell the underlying and in order to do so has to get out of the calls.


Over the long run, you can expect to do about as well as the market itself. Depending on what time period you view, the stock market has typically provided returns of approximately 10%. Some years it is up, some years it is down. You may think you can get better returns, but you are mistaken. You may be able to do better over a short time period if you take on vastly more risk, but you won't be able to do so long term. In order to make $2000/month, then, you will need approximately $240,000 to invest. And even then, you won't make that kind of return reliably. Some months, some years, you'll make more. Other times, you'll lose money. If anyone tells you they can double your money in a month (which is what you are hoping for), walk away. Because it is either illegal or a scam. The only way your plan can work is if you are reliably able to predict stocks which will go up by 10% in the next two days. You cannot do this. You can't even predict which stocks will go up by 10% in the next year.


People ITT struggling with the concept of a status symbol.  There's nobody more concerned with outward appearance than Hollywood celebs and a bunch of them drive the Prius.  Status symbol doesn't only mean how much you paid.  The environmental factor weighs in.  The coolness factor.  The fact that so many people are anticipating what Tesla will do next.  It's not just price tag.


"Teavana's product was always vastly overpriced and relatively poor quality.    We drink a lot of tea in our house, and occasionally some well-meaning person would give us a gift certificate for Teavana.  Invariably, it would cost $50 for what should be about $20 worth of tea, and even their basic blacks (which should taste like *tea*) tasted like a perfumey, herbal mess.  When our local Teavana opened, I worried about our local tea shop's business.  After I drank a cup of their tea, I stopped worrying.  Probably my biggest complaint about Teavana is that think that they've tried ""good"" tea and don't like it, but what they've had is Teavana, and it sours them on actually trying some nice teas."


While this question is old and I generally agree with the answers given I think there's another angle that needs a little illuminating: insurance. If you go with an 84 month loan your car will likely be worth less than the amount owed for substantially all of the entire 84 month loan period; this will be exacerbated if you put zero down and include the taxes and fees in the amount borrowed.  Your lender will require you to carry full comprehensive/collision/liability coverage likely with a low maximum deductible.  While the car is underwater it will probably also be a good idea to carry gap insurance because the last thing you want to do is write a check to your lender to shore up the loan to value deficit if the thing is totaled.  These long term car loans (I've seen as high as 96 months) are a bear when it comes to depreciation and related insurance costs. There is more to this decision than the interest calculation.   Obviously, if you had the cash at the front of this decision presumably you'll have the cash later to pay off the loan at your convenience.  But while the loan is outstanding there are costs beyond interest to consider.


Current and past FX rates are available on Visa's website. Note that it may vary by country, so use your local Visa website.


"i'm having a hard time understanding the argument you're making here. i think you're saying: ""if an employer is having a hard time filling positions, they don't have to raise wages because the government says the minimum wage is only 'this little.'""   if that's really what you're saying, it doesn't make any sense. what does a minimum wage have to do with not being able to fill positions because you don't pay enough?  if that's not what you're saying, could you please clarify?"


"If banks really controlled house prices, then why do banks now own a shitload of houses that are no longer being paid for?  So many that they can't sell them now because that would drive prices down even more, and they'd lose more.  Sigh... go ahead and continue to blame ""them"" for everything.  It's easier that way, because then you will never have to take responsibility for any of your mistakes."


There's no requirement of US citizenship to open a bank account in the US. Any person, citizen or not, can do that. I don't know where this assumption of yours come from, but it is false. So the easiest solution is to open a bank account for your nephew next time he visits the US and get him an ATM card from that account. You can then deposit money to that account as much as you want (beware of the gift tax consequences). If he doesn't want to travel to the US and cannot open a US bank account remotely from Russia (which is probably the case), then follow the @BrenBarn's suggestion: have him open a bank account in Russia and just wire money there. Having a foreigner tapping freely into your own personal bank account may cause legal issues both with regards to gift tax and money laundering provisions that require you to certify that the money on the account is yours only. Also, check if there's an issue for a Russian resident to have control over foreign accounts (there's definitely such an issue for a US resident, Russians are generally not far behind when it comes to government oppression).


It's working for Blue Apron and the other meal kit delivery services. Amazon has the supply chain knowledge, and capital, to make it happen.   They have access to resources and technology that no one else has, including automation. If anyone can make it work, it's Amazon.


"I mean, it's only a difference of an order of magnitude, really.  Until you consider the following:  1) Only a fraction of the $800B Muni bonds market is new issue.  2) True spreads on Muni bonds are hard enough to calculate as is because they're all OTC.   3)The author quotes that the particular bid was for an 87K/year return on a notional of $300M. That's a spread of a whopping 3 basis points that the bank took extra over ""true value"".  4) Intraday vol for almost any financial instrument is more than 3 basis points.  5) So that's what he's making this big deal over? THREE basis points? I don't even know the length of my penis to within three basis points, and I challenge you to find anyone who could name the yield on the 10Y Treasury within 3 basis points."


For mine, that info's in the quarterly reports... and in the prospectus, which you should be looking at before you put money into the fund.


Whats been interesting is for the past decade, Meijer, our big box store pushed to atleast 50/50 self check out.   The past year they have gotten rid of all but a few. The money they lost to petty theft using self check out more than pays for hiring more workers for the check out lanes.


Questions regarding the willingness of wine experts and lovers to travel and seek for the wines they love are rising. The wine lovers would usually pay extra for a good bottle of wine, but would they also be willing to travel halfway around the world? An answer from Huffington Post...


(/u/what_comes_after_q & /u/md___2020 - I thought you might appreciate this too).  While GE lost it's financial discipline in the 2000s, in the '90s and '80s GE was a supreme integrator of acquired businesses. [Here is a 1998 Harvard Business Review case study on GE.](https://hbr.org/1998/01/making-the-deal-real-how-ge-capital-integrates-acquisitions)  > Lesson 1: Acquisition integration is not a discrete phase of a deal and does not begin when the documents are signed. Rather, it is a process that begins with due diligence and runs through the ongoing management of the new enterprise.  > Lesson 2: Integration management is a full-time job and needs to be recognized as a distinct business function, just like operations, marketing, or finance.  > Lesson 3: Decisions about management structure, key roles, reporting relationships, layoffs, restructuring, and other career-affecting aspects of the integration should be made, announced, and implemented as soon as possible after the deal is signed—within days, if possible. Creeping changes, uncertainty, and anxiety that last for months are debilitating and immediately start to drain value from an acquisition.  > Lesson 4: A successful integration melds not only the various technical aspects of the businesses but also the different cultures. The best way to do so is to get people working together quickly to solve business problems and accomplish results that could not have been achieved before.


"By that vein, air is a product you consume on a daily basis. Should someone work to monetize oxygen now? There must be a rational limit on where you draw the line of short term profit versus long term social sustainability.  I'm all for seeking a profit, but any profit calculations should take into account the full cost to the society before declaring something ""profitable."" The cost of seeking these profits is higher prices for everyone, which in turn reduces the availability of the service. This takes money out of local economies, pools resources in the hands of a small group of corporations that exist solely to sit on large piles of money ""just in case,"" and potentially denies vital care to people who may have potentially netted a huge benefit for society. All this so that someone can see a few points improvement in their portfolio.  Note, this does not mean I'm against insurance as a whole. There are plenty of insurance products that I feel are perfectly valid and reasonable; car, home, corporate and so on are all valid examples of ""luxury"" products that you could technically live without. However the social cost of for profit health care and health insurance is such that I do not see how it can potentially justify the cost to society. So while sure, seeking profit on vital services may not be crazy within your limited view, it is certainly crazy to call something ""profit"" just because your analysis of the situation fails to take into account the huge net negatives of such a practice."


You should very much nail down your planned expenses and profit. However beyond that you may have some better options to avoid taxation assuming all your plans go well. You should take into account the ability to avoid taxes on the sale of a primary residence. You could build the spec house, then move into the spec house. You could then sell the primary (avoiding any profit less than $500k filing jointly, assuming you meet the Home Sale Tax Exclusion requirements).  You can then in another two years or so sell the spec house if you want and again avoid up to $500k in profit. http://www.nolo.com/legal-encyclopedia/the-250000500000-home-sale-tax-exclusion.html


It's a good thing for mid-level to senior bankers; the work that is being replaced is analyst work. This will mean a smaller intake, all other things being equal, and, if demand holds for the entry-level junior jobs, that suggests that salary at the bottom will stagnate.


"If this is in the United States, there are laws governing business behavior when they have recorded expenses (checks, bills, etc) which are never withdrawn or deposited.  A business is required to turn over these funds after a certain time frame to the state government as a part of their business tax cycle.  (One caveat- these laws vary in age by state, and 13 years is a long time.  You might still be out of luck for an amount so old..) There are even businesses which have cropped up to search for ""lost money"" (for a fee, of course) that your great uncle might have left behind and which now sits in a government holding account somewhere.  It's not necessary to go through the third parties though, because the United States posts this information for the world to see.  A good starting place is: USA.gov Unclaimed Money Tool Do as much legwork there as you can.  You could even attempt to contact the former employer (you said the business accounts still exist) and in a very friendly, non-confrontational manner ask them what their procedures are and would have happened to your paycheck funds.  As others have stated, they are under no legal obligation whatsoever to fix your problem for you, but who knows, you could get lucky and they might voluntarily help you out!  You're looking for information not cash, so politeness, patience and understanding are your tools. If all else fails, you could try one of these 3rd party services.  Here you run into diminishing returns as paying fees to search for money which might not exist just puts you further in the red."


This is unfortunately what happens when people just blindly post something to reddit without knowing what they are talking about. A post of this type is more along the lines of what you see typically posted in /r/occupywallstreet - not that I have anything against Occupy, but far too often you have neckbeards that post things there that are little better than left-wing tabloid journalism that is often no better than the likes of Fox News.


Not applicable.  Or, at least totally unrealistic.  Lots of assumptions about returns, no discussion of time frames, and no discussion of volatility.  If it's a personal choice you wouldn't do it this way, plus there are other factors to consider.  As far as the math of the question, you use a discount rate that allows you to account for alternatives, typically a RFR, but again, that doesn't apply to an individual quite in the same way since it's not a debt vs equity question.


Try to choose less perishable items.  Besides canned and bottled are adequate for some foods, and frozen foods for a wider range, such as vegetables and prepared foods.  Dairy has a limited life, but some types live longer, like yogurt.  Fruits like apples and oranges will last a good deal longer in the fridge (bananas too, but the peels discolor).  Bread items and leafy vegetables just won't keep long for fresh use; pick them up when you're actually about to use them.  (Keeping bread in the freezer for toasting works well, though.)


Get rid of the idea that monopolies are required. Arbiters and dispute resolution firms can replace courts, and actually already do for many large companies, since courts are absurdly slow and inconsistent. Police spend half of their money policing drug use and possession, despite the majority of people not wanting them even illegal. End the monopoly of police by government and we'll directly fund firms who enforce rules of each property. If your rules are absurd, nobody will go on your property. Businesses would have very reasonable rules and simple such as prohibition against violence and theft.  Your complaints against insurance are dwarfed by government's waste. They routinely fail their customers and then make us pay for the mistake. Consider the failure of 9/11. We pay $Trillions for a national defense more costly than the next 25+ countries combined, and then when they fail and allow hijackers to ruin several buildings, WE and our kids and grandkids pay for it in higher taxes. They double down. Insurance companies lose customers when they have bad policy and consumer advocacy groups draw attention to it. Government just says FUCK YOU and their bureaucracy and social momentum (govt schools ensure very high support for govt as an unquestioned monopoly) allow them to continue without much opposition.


">Fully half of the universe is making mediocre money, and no one talks about them. All anyone ever speaks of is CEO's and fund managers printing fucking billz.  No shit.   Just like most people with computer degrees, and in statistics, and engineering. But for some reason only finance has these problems?  >Literally anything else. Programming is better, statistics is better, engineering is better. Fuck - go learn a trade. Even ignoring the outsized pay they are receiving, you can typically work for yourself, and you actually create shit  The millions of consulting and banking employees are humored that you think it'd be better for them to plunge toilets. But at least you admit they're paid better and you just don't ""like"" the field.  >AND you dont have to spend 100K (SEC numbers) on a fucking degree.  100k? Mine was <10. Most people's are in the SEC outside of Vandy and the morons who are out of state. They're some of the the best value in the country, given you actually get good grades and get a real job.  To summarize, you've done nothing but rant about how much you don't like the field, admitted they make a lot more, provided no real rationale why someone should not pursue this degree/field, and your suggestion is to be a Carpenter instead.  Just for more background, I'm a math/statistics major, one of your preferred options.   Yea, get the fuck out of here."


"Correct me if I am wrong, but Germany has a very extremely diversified economy. It does not depend primarily upon oil exports like other countries, but rather on very complex machinery and other finished products. So being locked upon a system that ""puts exports ahead of anything else"" from my perspective is not bad for the German economy. If an industry collapses, the whole country does not go into panic straight away like oil rich exporting economies."


"People in this case, are large institutional investors. The ""bid ask"" spread is for ""small traders"" like yourself. It is put out by the so-called specialists (or ""market makers"") and is typically good for hundreds or thousands of shares at a time. Normally, 2 points on a 50 stock is a wide spread, and the market maker will make quite a bit of money on it trading with people like yourself. It's different if a large institution, say Fidelity, wants to sell, say 1 million shares of the stock. Depending on market conditions, it may have trouble finding buyers willing to buy in those amounts anywhere near 50. To ""move"" such a large block of stock, they may have to put the equivalent of K-Mart's old ""Blue Light Special"" on, several points below."


I do wonder if part of this is a phenomenon I've seen numerous times in the US:   Woman gets pregnant, barely shows up to work for the next 5 months until birth, camps out on FMLA for three months before simply ignoring any communications from the company for the next several months. Finally, a good 6-8 months after the birth she notifies the company she won't be working anymore. Meanwhile, she's been getting insurance benefits the entire time and HR is too afraid of a lawsuit to cut her loose.   Her position has either been unfilled the entire time (requiring her coworkers to cover her share of the work at expense of their own lives), or if the manager is more prescient than most, has already been backfilled, but is still in a blocking pattern preventing other hires but at least not making coworkers' lives miserable.


Two points.


Yeah, but i know guys who started off in the field doing hardcore manual construction and worked their asses off for years and finally got in the office. There are two of them in their younger thirties with no degree to speak of. They are both project managers who make over 100k a year. I am not saying everyone can do this, but sure is fucking possible to succeed without having to wait until you are fifty.


There would be no point to claim the gift exemption because a gift from a spouse that you file jointly with wouldn't be considered income. It would be the same as if you moved money from one bank account to another.


The general rule with stock options is that it's best to wait until expiration to exercise them.  The rationale depends on a few factors and there are exceptions. Reasons to wait: There would be cases to exercise early: Tax implications should be checked with a professional advisor specific to your situation. In the employee stock option plans that I have personally seen, you get regular income tax assessed between exercise price and current price at the time you exercise.  Your tax basis is then set to the current price.  You also pay capital gains tax when you eventually sell, which will be long or short term based on the time that you held the stock. (The time that you held the options does not count.)  I believe that other plans may be set up differently.


"The examples you provide in the question are completely irrelevant. It doesn't matter where the brokerage is or where is the company you own stocks in. For a fairly standard case of an non-resident alien international student living full time in the US - your capital gains are US sourced. Let me quote the following text a couple of paragraphs down the line you quoted on the same page: Gain or loss from the sale or exchange of personal property generally   has its source in the United States if the alien has a tax home in the   United States. The key factor in determining if an individual is a   U.S. resident for purposes of the sourcing of capital gains is whether   the alien's ""tax home"" has shifted to the United States. If an alien   does not have a tax home in the United States, then the alien’s U.S.   source capital gains would be treated as foreign-source and thus   nontaxable. In general, under the ""tax home"" rules, a person who is away (or who   intends to be away) from his tax home for longer than 1 year has   shifted tax homes to his new location upon his arrival in that new   location. See Chapter 1 of Publication 463, Travel, Entertainment,   Gift, and Car Expenses I'll assume you've read this and just want an explanation on what it means. What it means is that if you move to the US for a significant period of time (expected length of 1 year or more), your tax home is assumed to have shifted to the US and the capital gains are sourced to the US from the start of your move. For example: you are a foreign diplomat, and your 4-year assignment started in May. Year-end - you're not US tax resident (diplomats exempt), but you've stayed in the US for more than 183 days, and since your assignment is longer than 1 year - your tax home is now in the US. You'll pay the 30% flat tax. Another example: You're a foreign airline pilot, coming to the US every other day flying the airline aircraft. You end up staying in the US 184 days, but your tax home hasn't shifted, nor you're a US tax resident - you don't pay the flat tax. Keep in mind, that tax treaties may alter the situation since in many cases they also cover the capital gains situation for non-residents."


The issue I run into with that is that it does nothing to change the cash flows over the five years because it doesn't change any of the numbers across the board. This course has the worst worded assignments I have ever seen and I appreciate your assistance.


Simply static support or resistance levels are ones that do not change with time. Two examples include horizontal lines and trend lines. Dynamic support or resistance levels are ones that change with time. A common example of a dynamic support/resistance are Moving Averages.


"Soo... I guess you are out of arguments? FWIW, I would like to see the cost of medical services become so cheap that people don't need ""health care"".  I know Universal health care proponents hearts are in the right place, but the data is showing me a different story. I know I am a minority here and we will probably end up with universal health care, and that it won't work and we will see a bubble just like sub prime when they tried to provide greater access to housing, just like college tuition where we tried greater access to education. A lot of people will be hurt when this market crashes and I don't want that. Maybe then we will learn that market forces and competition aren't evil?  Or maybe It will just be blamed on rich people again. 'Till then I guess I'll just be your token heartless bad guy. But Really I am not. Good luck."


You should be aware of the implementation of daily fuel price policy on June 16th 2017. Nowadays, petrol and diesel price are reflecting on a daily basis according to the international market situations and the price fluctuation of USD to Indian National Rupee (INR). So, it would not be easy for customers to find the genuine real-time petrol price without an authentic tool or mobile app.


"I don't know. Chinese purchasing power has been steadily advancing. I think that it's a ""total cost of goods"" thing. The total cost to manufacture, package, ship, warehouse, pay import/export taxes, etc... all of that must be at a tipping point such that US is now the cheaper option.  Just because we can spend more wouldn't by itself force the relocation of a factory, the input costs would have to be reduced to make the economics work. It's the exact opposite wage-driven circumstance that resulted in factories being off-shored in the first place.   To repatriate manufacturing jobs, the only thing that would have changed in any dramatic way would be the direct manufacturing wages."


There are a number of factors here. 1) It's important that there is human oversight on the system. At one level someone needs to be monitoring the computers that manage the trading to be sure they are functioning. At another level someone needs to be making judgement calls on important but rare events: when you you suspend trading in a stock? When do you close the stock exchange entirely? It is alleged that unsupervised computer trades were at least partly responsible for the May 2010 selloff. Even if that's unproven, would you really want those unsupervised computers trading with each other for a couple of days? Or even for a couple of hours? 2) Providing 24/7 trading would increase the cost of running a stock exchange, but with only a tiny improvement in liquidity. 3) If the stock exchange ran 24/7 then traders would have to run 24/7. That would add hugely to the cost of trading. 4) The people who would really suffer would be day traders - because there would no longer be such a thing as a day trader. If you were a sole trader then you would need to monitor your investments 24/7, or risk waking up in the morning to find one of your stocks had plummeted overnight.


I would rate index futures, in particular the US index futures (e.g. the S&P 500 future) as the most liquid markets after the forex markets.


we have little money in cash for a down-payment This is a red flag to me. If you have little money in cash for a down-payment, how are you supposed to be a landlord too?  You could try is to do a lease to own from your Dad. Get a renter into the other home for at least a year or more and then close on the house once your financial situation improves. You still have the same problem of being a landlord. Another option is to receive a gift letter from your Dad since he is gifting the money on the home. It might extend your closing a little bit so you can get an appraisal done and loan application. This to me is the most sane option.


It's tough to justify downgrading any financial with such a strong balance sheet, and with rates going up.  They will literally just be printing money and their NIM is going to be consistently rising. Don't fight macroe-conomics, the sentiment is sentiment, but numbers don't lie.


Sherlock Holmes?!?  Shit has to go public domain sometime.  The saying is there's nothing new under the sun and that's true.  Everything is built on the work of others.  Music, literature, painting, sculpture, science, industry, everything.  By keeping works out of the public domain for so long, we stunt our culture.   Copyright terms need to be reigned back in and set at a reasonable amount of time.


If stopping the 401k contributions temporarily would get you out of debt faster and also stop you from having to take out more student loans, then stop the contributions right now. You can always put some money into regular savings for emergencies etc - in fact, you should - but given a choice between deferring further contributions to your retirement and deferring the (hopeful) increase in income you get when you graduate, definitely choose the former. That of course also means that you don't take off a few semesters from studying to make money to put into a 401(k).


We tell you how your body is evolving and how your baby develops in your belly; we give you healthy eating tips for future moms, you have to stopping pregnancy pills for your healthy baby. we explain all the disorders or small inconveniences that you can face, both physical and psychological, and we give you the keys to solve or reduce them.


Any actual evidence?  From what I've read, all the testimony has been roundly discredited.  You're very hip and edgy for calling me an Armstrong fanboy, but I'm just looking for actual evidence while you keep saying he needs to prove himself innocent instead of the accusers proving him guilty.  Morally bankrupt.  That's what your technique is.


Yes, it does. Housing will not satisfy the overburdening population in years to come. Housing, jobs, cost of living, and rising populations have been problematic for generations.  You could just blame your parents for having you.   Perhaps you are in denial. You certainly choose to spend more time feuding and arguing on reddit than any other attempt to contribute anything to society that benefits more than just yourselves.


The key is to shift the tax burden to the rich and the assets they own that earn money from your economy.  Once you do that, the debt is just a measure of how much of the money that was created so the rich could earn more of it and get richer do some rich have to pay to the other rich at some point in the future.  There isn't a reason to care about that.  Right now, because we haven't done that, we need to keep creating debt to keep pumping new money into our economies to keep them running.  The alternative is letting them stop running.  That's not a good option.


Get an education. A bachelor's degree preferably, but AA or even a certificate are fine too. It will increase your earning potential significantly and over your lifetime it will earn you a lot of money.  You make around $30,000 a year now, median salary for someone with a bachelors in the humanities is around $45,000. If you degree is in the STEM field, that goes up to $55,000 - $65,000 range. Second best option is to start a small business of some kind that does not require substantial investment. Handyman comes to mind as an example or some sort of billing service maybe? I would not recommend self directed investment in the stock market - most people lose money and since you don't have a lot of money to invest, commissions and fees will eat up a significant portion of it. I would usually recommend a CD but interest rates it's not really worth it.


"There are several types of financial advisors. Some are associated with brokerages and insurance companies and the like. Their services are often free. On the other hand, the advice they give you will generally be strongly biased toward their own company's products, and may be biased toward their own profits rather than your gains. (Remember, anything free is being paid for by someone, and if you don't know who it's generally going to be you.) There are some who are good, but I couldn't give you any advice on finding them. Others are not associated with any of the above, and serve entirely as experts who can suggest ways of distributing your money based on your own needs versus resources versus risk-tolerance, without any affiliation to any particular company.  Consulting these folks does cost you (or, if it's offered as a benefit, your employer) some money, but their fiduciary responsibility is clearly to you rather than to someone else. They aren't likely to suggest you try anything very sexy, but when it comes to your primary long-term savings ""exciting"" is usually not a good thing. The folks I spoke to were of the latter type. They looked at my savings and my plans, talked to me about my risk tolerance and my goals, picked a fairly ""standard"" strategy from their files, ran simulations against it to sanity-check it, and gave me a suggested mix of low-overhead index fund types that takes almost zero effort to maintain (rebalance occasionally between funds), has acceptable levels of risk, and (I admit I've been lucky) has been delivering more than acceptable returns. Nothing exciting, but even though I'm relatively risk-tolerant I'd say excitement is the last thing I need in my long-term savings. I should actually talk to them again some time soon to sanity-check a few things; they can also offer advice on other financial decisions (whether/when I might want to talk to charities about gift annuity plans, whether Roth versus traditional 401(k) makes any difference at all at this point in my career, and so on)."


Have you ever heard of leapfrogging? It is actually easier and more economical to install the latest green tech than to build the infrastructure needed to use fossil fuels. The poorest counties will adopt green tech FASTER than in the states where there is a vast petroleum infrastructure and lobbying machine.


I know this is rather late, but with your income it is almost certainly better for your mother to claim you as a dependent. I was in a similar situation this last year, I didn't get the full weight of the tax break because my taxes went down to zero with this exemption along with claiming myself as a dependent. I used Turbotax to run both our taxes both ways to verify, the difference was about 1000 dollars saved for my parents to claim me as a dependent vs claiming myself as a dependent.    If you are unsure it doesn't take long to run the numbers through Turbotax, TaxACT, or some similar software.


Some companies offer discounts for shareholders. I believe Disney used to do so, for example; if your family was doing the Disneyland-every-year routine that could be a significant benefit.


I took some time off actually... I was working a lot and pretty angry, and picked up some habits I wanted to wane myself off of. I basically took a mental health break. That was 4 months ago. I am moving next month and will start looking. Probably will also look bad not to be working, but I have some hobby projects that are public and active but probably would not change anything (I just finished reading the linked article).  I was planning on leaving a glass door review and reporting then after finding a new job. Actually still in touch with some old co workers from that job that also wanted to report them but apparently hadn't. The limitation on back pay is 7 years -- I wised up and did my best not to do OT, but there were others that worked 80 hour weeks and did not get paid for them and it made me livid.  That article had some practical points at the beginning but ultimately the negotiation tactics made me feel uncomfortable. I can understand that quality breeds quality but psychological tricks are dishonest... I suppose if I get jaded enough I might eventually change my tune. Also I do suffer from social anxiety, so saying I want to talk more instead of talk pay and escape is a peculiar type of torture...  But thankyou and I'll probably explore more of this guy's stuff and who he linked out of curiosity.


OANDA has a free online tool (a Java applet) that will do what you're asking.  Description: Currency Graph FXGraph:   Plot the   change between two currencies over any   time period Make a customized graph of historical   exchange rates for two of over 190   currencies, for any time period since   1990.   [...] Visit Currency Graph | OANDA.


If you have 100% of your money in one security that is inherently more risky than splitting your money 50/50 between two securities, regardless of the purported riskiness of the two securities. The calculations people use to justify their particular breed of diversification may carry some assumptions related risk/reward calculations.  But these particular justifications don't change the fact that spreading your money across different assets protects your money from value variances of the individual assets.  Splitting your $100 between Apple and Microsoft stock is probably less valuable (less well diversified) than splitting your money between Apple and Whole Foods stock but either way you're carrying less risk than putting all $100 in to Apple stock regardless of the assumed rates of return for any of these companies stock specifically. Edit: I'm sure the downvotes are because I didn't make a big deal about correlation and measuring correlation and standard deviations of returns and detailed portfolio theory.  Measuring efficacy and justifying your particular allocations (that generally uses data from the past to project the future) is all well and good.  Fact of the matter is, if you have 100% of your money in stock that's more stock risk than 25% in cash, 25% in bonds and 50% in stock would be because now you're in different asset classes.  You can measure to your hearts delight the effects of splitting your money between different specific companies, or different industries, or different market capitalizations, or different countries or different fund managers or different whatever-metrics and doing any of those things will reduce your exposure to those specific allocations.   It may be worth pointing out that currently the hot recommendation is a plain vanilla market tracking S&P 500 index fund (that just buys some of each of the 500 largest US companies without any consideration given to risk correlation) over standard deviation calculating actively managed funds.  If you ask me that speaks volumes of the true efficacy of hyper analyzing the purported correlations of various securities.


"Lol ok buddy. You googled some hysterical left wing editorials and I'm suppose to buy it as Trump being ""anti-science?"" They did that same shit with Bush and Reagan, and they'll do it to the next Republican president.   It's an obvious play right? Steve Bannon plays the role of Dick Chaney, the puppet master that allows you to believe that the president could be a fool. Then they start with the pissy pants blog posts about being ""anti-science."" Sorry dude not working this time. The daily show snark left is on the outs and everyone knows it.  > ""inversely proportional""  Wow pedantic, boy if nothing is evidence of having won an argument it's when dudes start griping over definitions. Inversely proportional works just fine here.  > ""won on income"" is just poor phraseology.  Nah, it was fine. You got it.   > Most of your sentences above had poor grammar and, at first, I suspected some advanced Russian bot. But this is atrocious. Try to express yourself in complete thoughts. Read what you wrote ... it's complete garbage. I almost didn't respond at all since it doesn't deserve a response.  Aww now you are just trying to hurt my feelings. It's almost as if ad hominem attack is the last recourse of a defeated liberal. I believe it's acceptable to take whatever grammatical liberties necessarily when writing mocking prose. It is intended to be read as it is spoken."


> However, the linked studies are essentially irrelevant to your bombastic claims; they still fail to backup your idea that literally everybody who consumes cannabis is a degenerate who lives with his/her parents and works a minimum wage job and is a danger to society. That remains an unproven (and unprovable) assertion  First of all, I never said all. But it seems to be a pattern among redditors. There is a correlation, just not proof.  You also can't prove its not true either.   >  My point was simply that your generalizations of marijuana consumers are spurious, close-minded and not based on any real research. You've yet to provide any counterfactual to that.  Do you think escaping reality by doing drugs all day everyday is a good way of dealing with your problems?


"No no no no and no. Headline accuracy is VERY important. People don't read articles. That was true two decades ago, let alone in the web age.  The title could have easily read ""Survey of 2,000 US CEO's finds pay jump minimum Of 27 percent last year."" Accurate, still gets point across.  Your explanation really concerns me because it excuses lazy and/or salacious journalism."


"We use Cater Allen for our business banking (recommended/introduced by our accountants so we've saved the standard ""minimum funds per month"" limit) which was set up all remotely - our accountants sent us the forms (which you can get from Cater Allen's site), we photocopied the identity documents (driving licence etc) and sent them off. Within a couple of weeks we had the account open. Cater Allen hasn't got any physical branches, so that's ""one way"" of working around the ""come into a branch"" solution - pick a bank without branches! Girobank (which became Alliance and Leicester Business Banking and then became part of Santander) used to allow all account creations remotely - but that was back in the 90s and I've got no idea if Santander still do. Since you've setup an Ltd company, you are probably looking for an accountant too (even if it just to do your year end or payroll) - ask them for their recommendations."


Kuala Lumpur 26 June 2014, Axiata Group Berhad (Axiata) continued to gain momentum in the industry, taking top honours again at the Frost & Sullivan’s 2014 Asia Pacific ICT Award.  Axiata won the Best Telecom Group of the Year, for the 6th consecutive year.  This prestigious award is granted to the operator with a presence in at least 4 Asia Pacific markets that has shown exemplary growth and performance in 2013 in Asia Pacific through its investments in the region. Axiata Group also took home three awards in total with XL Axiata winning the Most Innovative Telecom Service Provider of the Year and Dialog Axiata was voted Best Emerging Market Service Provider of the Year.      To qualify for the Telecom Group of the Year category companies were studied on their growth and performance in 2013 in Asia Pacific through its investments in the region. Companies were studied on their revenues, product/service innovation, capabilities, subscriber growth and strength of regional footprint as well as overall contribution to the industry. As the group transformed its business by aligning itself with changing consumer preferences and technological advancements, the panel of judges was convinced with Axiata’s all-round performance.     Dato’ Sri Jamaludin Ibrahim, President and Chief Executive Officer of Axiata said “We are greatly honoured by the awards especially given the caliber of other players in the category. I thank the judges and Frost & Sullivan for the recognition. The award reflects the great team that we have with us and is really a collective victory to be fully shared with all our employees across the group. It has been a tremendous five years for Axiata and this award is testament to that.”     Serene Chan, Senior Industry Analyst, Asia Pacific ICT Practice, Frost & Sullivan said, “During CY2013, Axiata Group successfully adapted to the changing needs of customers, and as a result observed the highest subscriber growth among all telecom groups in the Asia Pacific region. Group’s proportional subscribers grew by 22%, and proportional revenues grew by 5.6% at constant currency. It also showcased the highest operational profitability in the region by delivering EBITDA margin of 38.4%.     Most of its subsidiaries and associates improved their competitiveness and outshone their peers on most of the operational metrics. Robi, Dialog, Smart and Idea Cellular in particular showcased exemplary performance in their operating countries. The group continues to transform itself by aligning with changing consumer preferences and technological advancements, through several strategic initiatives and investments, and is continuously progressing towards its strategic vision to be the regional champion by 2015.”     “The awards are an acknowledgement of the continued success of our operating companies in the region as well as an acknowledgement of the Group’s progress towards its regional ambitions. I am very happy to see XL and Dialog being recognized and I would like to congratulate all XL and Dialog employees.  A special mention must be made in particular to Pak Hasnul Suhaimi and Dr Hans, for their very able leadership” Dato’ Sri Jamaludin Ibrahim concluded.     **ABOUT AXIATA**     Axiata is one of the largest Asian telecommunications companies. Axiata has controlling interests in mobile operators in Malaysia, Indonesia, Sri Lanka, Bangladesh and Cambodia with significant strategic stakes in India and Singapore. In addition, the Malaysian grown holding company has stakes in non-mobile telecommunication operations in Thailand and Pakistan.     The Group’s mobile subsidiaries and associates operate under the brand name ‘Celcom’ in Malaysia, ‘XL’ in Indonesia, ‘Dialog’ in Sri Lanka, ‘Robi’ in Bangladesh, ‘Smart’ in Cambodia, ‘Idea’ in India and ‘M1’ in Singapore.     The Group, including its subsidiaries and associates, has over 250 million mobile subscribers in Asia. The Group revenue for 2013 was USD5.8 billion. The Group provides employment to over 20,000 people across Asia. Axiata’s vision is to be a regional champion by 2015 by piecing together the best throughout the region in connectivity, technology and talent, uniting them towards a single goal: Advancing Asia.     Axiata was awarded the Frost & Sullivan 2009, 2010, 2011, 2012 and 2013 Asia Pacific ICT Award for Best Telecom Group and the Telecom Asia Best Regional Mobile Group 2010 and 2011 for its operations in multiple Asian markets.     **For further information on Axiata visit:**    [http://www.ranker.com/list/the-jakarta-globe-xl-axiata-axis-capital-group-merger-plans/abbyditter](http://www.ranker.com/list/the-jakarta-globe-xl-axiata-axis-capital-group-merger-plans/abbyditter)


I'm reminded of Say's Law (developed by Jean-Baptiste Say) which can best be reduced to: The market clears (i.e. there is always some price at which an item will sell in a market).  Full employment can always be obtained in any free market economy.  People may not be pleased, however, with their wage rate. There are, however, many deterrents to employment (at least in the US): These are just some I can think of off the top of my head.  I'm sure there are many others.


"Indeed. But it's worse than that. We now know that the brain continues to devolope well into the 20s and a college education might be less effective at age 18. Perhaps this is why businesses complain about not being able to find anyone with ""real world skills"". You think? They've been sitting in a class room for 16 years (or *more*). Other countries don't even start reading education until second or third grade!"


Giving a drug company a monopoly on a drug is essentially giving them the power to withhold the drug from people they don't want to have it, ie poor people.  When will this intellectual property charade end? Sharing and copying is distinctly human, to deny us the benefits of discovery is anti-human.


This probably isn't worthy of being more than a comment, is not specific to your needs (other answers cover that better), and I am a big advocate of NOT owning property but investing the money in the markets instead (potentially higher rates of return), however, if I were going to buy a property I would do so sooner rather than later as a rise in interest rates is not a matter of if but when. Borrow now when it is cheaper to do so and lock in the rate by taking out a fixed rate mortgage - the rate might be higher than variable rate mortgages but their rates will go up above your fixed rate very quickly.


>taxes are too high to justify paying them before reinvesting the money in the economy.    Doesn't Trump's Tax Plan help alleviate this issue, especially with the whole bracket change? What about the loop-holes, why can't the government simply patch up all the loop-holes before they try to introduce something revolutionary as this?    -Curious student


Non-addictictive in the physiological sense, as in you won't suffer withdrawal symptoms with cessation of cannabis use, but that doesn't mean you can't mentally be addicted to it and/or suffer consequences from its use e.g. your life becoming unmanageable  Use opioids long enough and you will become addicted to it physically, that is a medical fact.


@Victor above has provided a very good answer, I shall try and highlight some differences. The differences are specific to a country, however, it does offer some insight regarding the difference between investing in retirement fund vis-a-vis investing in stock directly: In many countries the retirement fund is mandated by the govt. and has to be invested in (in form of direct deduction from salary) ~ Investing in stock is up to the individual In many cases (if not most) capital gain/interest accrual in retirement funds are not taxable ~ Depending upon current laws capital gain (long term/short term) from stocks are taxable Retirement funds are managed and are (in general) more stable in their returns ~ Returns from direct stock investments are dependent on investment decisions of the investor Retirement funds tend to, (though this is very country specific) return somewhat less than market, as an example, in India Public Provident Fund (PPF)/Employee Provident Fund (EPF) return 8.68% tax free ~ As for direct investment on stocks, Nifty has returned approx. 17% CAGR over 15-20 years. Given the above, if you can invest in stock by taking informed calls and you have a good understanding of the financial markets and their underpinning and (probably) looking at long term investment, then investing directly in stock could fetch returns that might not be paralled by retirement funds. If on the other hand, if you feel investing in stock is not for you, then it probably is better to stick with retirement funds and other low risk investments. Either way, you probably have to (and may be you should) carry some portion of your portfolio as retirement funds.


That is surprising, I can't even get them to take a Lowe's coupon.   I shop there a lot because it is closest to me and sometimes they are the only ones that have a certain thing but I don't like shopping there.


I'm worried that as their production increases, the federal and state rebates will run out and add about $10k to the price of each car. The cap is 200,000 vehicles before the rebate phases out. At the current production rate(don't forget the Leafs, Volts and other offerings), all the Teslas, especially the entry level Model E, will get a substancial price hike.


This is only going to be worse than Enron if the hackers decide to use or distribute their stolen data.  I haven't heard of any indicators they are yet -- its too hot (all three letter agencies are after them).


Executive search helps a lot of companies with their search appropriate applicants to take up the CEO position. That is because they have the skills to do the job right and are able to devote the right period of your energy. The agency can rest understanding that the matter is in capable hands. While it pays to employ an executive coaching firm that does have some qualifications in your industry, it is not specifically necessary to do so.


"Sun Tzu and Carnegie are fine for thinking about interpersonal exchange. But they aren't business books: What do i measure, why, and what does it mean; what does it mean to run a business. I think those are critical, and list of books should the capabilities you need  Strategy: ""Good to Great"", ""Esential Drucker""   Planning: ""Pocket book MBA PM""   Operations: ""The Goal""   People management:...   Innovation:...   Finance:..."


People waive their constitutional rights all the time. As the other reply said, legally binding arbitration is a real thing. Ever get arrested?  You can waive your right to have an attorney present when talking to the police. You can waive your right to a trial of your peers and choose to have a bench trial instead. In PA the courts recognize your right to waive notice when signing a lease (so landlords can file for eviction immediately). Waiving your rights is very commonplace.


If they all own common stock, no, everyone has to be treated equally.  There are also lots of protections against, say, A and B finding one shareholder to vote with them and using their 50.1% to grant themselves special rights.  there are a million ways you could do that - issue preferred stock to A, issue options to B, buy a service from A for $10mm, rent a basement from B for $10mm, etc. etc.  This stuff has to be prevented otherwise nobody would be willing to be a minority investor.


This isn't good news. Unemployment rate went up and pay is still down. Projections were just overshot, that's all this is saying. You're literally thanking him for more people being unemployed/not working this month and for ensuring lower class workers aren't getting fair pay.


>If consumers don't abandon them after transgressions, then that is democracy.   And that would be bad, because democracy in and of itself isn't always an absolute good. If the majority of consumers don't abandon X store for bad policies against Y minority, *Y minority still gets screwed.*  That's why we have protected classes, a limited set of them based on biological factors and other criteria - so that businesses can't discriminate against people based on those factors.   The libertarian fantasy of a perfect free market only works in an ideal world with completely rational and good people. None of those things are actually the case.


Well, it certainly has the first-mover advantage. I imagine Tesla has become pretty efficient in its production of electric cars and they are continuously driving down costs. As production expands, Tesla is gaining economies of scale, allowing it to produce electric vehicles for much cheaper than any other company might do with its patents. I think it would be difficult for new entrants to achieve the same quality and cost that Tesla does, even if they are using Tesla's patents.   Furthermore, Tesla and electric vehicles have become synonymous. If someone is going to buy an electric car, the first thing they are going to think of is Tesla. Owning a Tesla has become (and will likely continue to be) a bit of a status symbol, and because of that, I think they will probably always have the dominant position in the electric vehicle industry, and will likely be able to charge premium prices that competitors might not be able to justify. Similar to the way that despite the ubiquity of smartphones, Apple has a dominant position and an ability to charge premium prices. (Largely because Apple kind of drove the smartphone revolution)   Tesla wants the electric car market to grow as quickly as possible. The more money automobile manufacturers pour into electric cars, the less they will spend on cheaper, fossil-fuel vehicles. Secondly, as more companies start producing electric vehicles, more people will end up owning one, hence more infrastructure will be built to support those people, making owning an electric car a lot easier, hence increasing the value of a Tesla. Making electric cars accessible to the mainstream public is Tesla's ultimate goal, because they know they will likely always have the lion's share of that industry.


More than you would think. I graduated with a MS in Finance last year, and it had a lot of what other people said - linear algebra, statistics...you need to know calculus 2 like the back of your hand, and a lot of cal 3 as well. The thing I found, even with a BS in finance, was that the amount of math in undergrad is FAR below the amount of math you need in even just the master's program.


. Our customized steel building kits provides quality, flexibility, cost effectiveness and various customizations to accommodate various designs needs. We only use high quality steel for metal building and our expert team of technicians, designers and engineers ensure quality control in every step of the production of the building kits.


">Thank you LW. Some of the crime is committed without violence, but if the sheep ever complain, then the violence is right there to put the boot on their necks.   I would venture to say that far from ""some"", in fact the lion's share of crime is committed without (any apparent) violence (it also goes unprosecuted).  Overt (obvious/apparent) violence is the hallmark of the ""petty thief"" and the ""petty criminal"" -- it is a path of desperation that normally only yields trivial sums.  Bernie Madoff was a far more successful criminal than Bonnie & Clyde; and the impact of his crimes was significantly higher and broader -- but he used ZERO violence, and naught but fraud.  And yet Bernie Madoff was a *piker* compared to the REAL criminal masterminds.  >Fraud that is backed up by violence is violence.  Yes, I wouldn't dispute that... but very often the ""violence"" (or even the threat thereof) is almost entirely non-obvious (again Cf Madoff, Enron, WorldCom, and a host of others... ).  And the of course there are the government-based scams/schemes (which are significantly MORE profitable, and generally ""stable"" and non-risky for the participants -- heck, fractional reserve banking is {and always was} nothing more than a fraud {ala ""stone soup""}, and yet the risk {especially of prosecution} is virtually zero.)"


Because Gary is basically a ghost town.  The crime rate is one of the highest in the country.  There are so many vacant buildings that the property tax incomes cannot begin to cover maintenance for the roads.  The schools are under control of the state because they are terrible.  There are almost no retail or restaurants left; except for a dollar store that gets robbed monthly and a few low-end fast food chains.


Welcome to Golden Graphic Designs! My name is Sally, and I created this site to share my experience about graphic designing, marketing, business or my thoughts in general. If you like to receive free tips, then you'll love my site. Hope you enjoy your stay here!


"Given that such activities are criminal and the people committing them have to hide them from the law, it's very unlikely that an investor could detect them, let alone one from a different country. The only things that can realistically help is to keep in mind the adage ""If something sounds too good to be true, it probably is"", and to stick to relatively large companies, since they have more auditing requirements and fraud is much harder to hide at scale (but not impossible, see Enron). Edit: and, of course, diversify. This kind of thing is rare, and not systematic, so diversification is a very good protection."


Basically you need to use a time-value-of-money equation to discount the cashflows back to today. The Wikipedia formula will likely work fine for you, then you just need to pick an effective interest rate to use in the calculation. Run each of your amounts and dates though the formula (there are various on-line calculators to pick from, and sum up the values. You did not mention your location or jurisdiction, but a useful proxy for the interest rate would be the average between the same duration mortgage rate and fixed-deposit rate at your bank; it should be close enough for your purposes - although if an actual lawsuit is involved and the sums high enough to have lawyers, it might be worth engaging an accountant as well to defend the veracity of both the calculation and the interest rates chosen.


"Why would you file four K-1s for each partner? You file one K-1 per partner, on which you report the total of income attributed to that partner. It shouldn't and cannot ""vary"". There's no variables here, the income you report is the income already earned and attributed to that partner. What's there to vary? How you decide the attribution of income is governed by your operating agreement, the IRS only needs the bottom line."


When all you have is a hammer...  It's not the marketers fault that the margins on their industry have been pushed to the point that cheesy planned obsolescence, 'value size' repackaging and other gimmicks are the go-to fads embraced by the product management teams.  They've no choice but to polish and rack the consumer-mindset-exploiting turds they're paid to shill.  What gets me is the generational divide in response to advertising.  The older generation can't help but trust it it seems.  Whereas, most younger folk I know simply cannot conceive why anyone would trust a product marketed to them- all the incentives seem fundamentally geared towards rip-off and exploitation.  Why play a rigged game if you can avoid it?


Have you considered a self-directed IRA to invest, rather than the stock market or publicly traded assets? Your IRA can actually own direct title to real estate, loan money via secured or unsecured promissory notes much like a hard money loan or invest into shares of an entity that invests in real estate. The only nuance is that the IRA holder is responsible for finding and deciding upon the investment vehicle.  Just an option outside of the normal parameters, if you have an existing IRA or old 401(k) or other qualified plan, this might be an option for you.


Emergency funds, by the name it implies that they should be available on hand at a very short notice if needed. Conservation of principal (not withstanding inflation, but rather in absolute terms) is also a very important criteria of any kind of account that you will use to save the emergency fund. I would suggest the following breakup. The number in brackets signifies the amount of per month expenses that you can keep in that account. = total 6 months living expenses


CD's are not compressed. Later specifications added surround sound encoding, higher sampling rates and bit depths. Compression, especially lossy compression, is a different animal and some later formats may use some form of compression but the CD version of PCM encoding is not considered compression.  The spec was designed to exceed the range of normal human hearing and if properly implemented it's suitable for that purpose. There are a lot variations in terms of recording, mastering and playback in terms of the quality of the gear involved and the techniques used which is probably what the sentence you quoted meant (I.e.  CD Recorded on a cheap setup using default settings and playing it back on a budget consumer player might not sound as good as a vinyl record mastered by a pro and played back on a high quality pickup connected to an audiophile grade amplifier and speakers; and vice versa)


Could you perhaps expand on your reasoning behind wanting to take a loan in the first place? Why would you even consider taking a loan for as much as £7,500 (or even much less) if you aren't planning on buying / investing in anything in particular, and you're not in a bad financial situation? If your account never drops below a hundred or two pounds, why would you need to loan money? Just get yourself a credit card, for those times when you might find yourself without money for a short while. But really, it sounds to me like you should be able to set aside a small sum of money every month and create your own savings buffer to cover these situations.


They lobbied to get a monopoly on direct to buyer cars (no dealership), they also receive subsidies on each car, as they aren't affordable for consumers. Their goal is more to take over the electric car market, not to put consumer desires first. I'm probably going to hell for pointing this out, but I thought you could know.


Most often, general dentists are referred to as family dentists but some believe there is considerable difference between the two. In Jamaica, a general dentist is the one that has enough training and skills for taking care of most fundamental requirements of people of all ages.


I think you need to have paypal for eBay selling, just for one reason: people will avoid buying from you if they can't pay by paypal. It decreases significantly your selling.


"JohnFX and TTT provide excellent answers. Researching prices others have paid, being up front that you'll go buy a junker car to hold you over if they won't meet your price, and playing a few dealerships off of each other are all great tactics. In addition, I've got a few points about timing your purchase. If you're not desperate for a car, these can really help give you the upper hand in negotiations: Wait until the end of the month. Dealerships and individual salespeople usually have quotas that they're trying to clear, and the month is usually the standard cutoff. The last time I bought a car, the salesman made the mistake of mentioning, ""I don't usually work Thursdays, but I'll be in this Thursday."" Thursday was the 31st - I inferred from this information that he hadn't made his quota for the month yet. So I came back on the 31st to negotiate, and managed to hammer out a pretty good deal. Wait until about an hour before the dealership closes to show up and shop. This gives you enough time to not be obvious about the tactic, but you'll definitely be holding them past their normal quitting time if you do much negotiating. The salesman will be  a little more inclined to make a deal so he can get home and have dinner. Bonus points if you can wait until a month that ends on a Friday!"