You’ve really got three or four questions going here… and it’s clear that a gap in understanding one component of how bonds work (pricing) is having a ripple effect across the other facets of your question. The reality is that everybody’s answers so far touch on various pieces of your general question, but maybe I can help by integrating. So, let’s start by nailing down what your actual questions are: 1. Why do mortgage rates (tend to) increase when the published treasury bond rate increases? I’m going to come back to this, because it requires a lot of building blocks. 2. What’s the math behind a bond yield increasing (price falling?) This gets complicated, fast. Especially when you start talking about selling the bond in the middle of its time period. Many people that trade in bonds use financial calculators, Excel, or pre-calculated tables to simplify or even just approximate the value of a bond. But here’s a simple example that shows the math. Let’s say we’ve got a bond that is issued by… Dell for $10,000. The company will pay it back in 5 years, and it is offering an 8% rate. Interest payments will only be paid annually. Remember that the amount Dell has promised to pay in interest is fixed for the life of the bond, and is called the ‘coupon’ rate. We can think about the way the payouts will be paid in the following table: As I’m sure you know, the value of a bond (its yield) comes from two sources: the interest payments, and the return of the principal. But, if you as an investor paid $14,000 for this bond, you would usually be wrong. You need to ‘discount’ those amounts to take into account the ‘time value of money’. This is why when you are dealing in bonds it is important to know the ‘coupon rate’ (what is Dell paying each period?). But it is also important to know your sellers’/buyers’ own personal discount rates. This will vary from person to person and institution to institution, but it is what actually sets the PRICE you would buy this bond for. There are three general cases for the discount rate (or the MARKET rate). First, where the market rate == the coupon rate. This is known as “par” in bond parlance. Second, where the market rate < the coupon rate. This is known as “premium” in bond parlance. Third, where the market rate > coupon rate. This is known as a ‘discount’ bond. But before we get into those in too much depth, how does discounting work? The idea behind discounting is that you need to account for the idea that a dollar today is not worth the same as a dollar tomorrow. (It’s usually worth ‘more’ tomorrow.) You discount a lump sum, like the return of the principal, differently than you do a series of equal cash flows, like the stream of $800 interest payments. The formula for discounting a lump sum is: Present Value=Future Value* (1/(1+interest rate))^((# of periods)) The formula for discounting a stream of equal payments is: Present Value=(Single Payment)* (〖1-(1+i)〗^((-n))/i) (i = interest rate and n = number of periods) **cite investopedia So let’s look at how this would look in pricing the pretend Dell bond as a par bond. First, we discount the return of the $10,000 principal as (10,000 * (1 / 1.08)^5). That equals $6,807.82. Next we discount the 5 equal payments of $800 as (800* (3.9902)). I just plugged and chugged but you can do that yourself. That equals $3,192.18. You may get slightly different numbers with rounding. So you add the two together, and it says that you would be willing to pay ($6,807.82 + $3,192.18) = $10,000. Surprise! When the bond is a par bond you’re basically being compensated for the time value of money with the interest payments. You purchase the bond at the ‘face value’, which is the principal that will be returned at the end. If you worked through the math for a 6% discount rate on an 8% coupon bond, you would see that it’s “premium”, because you would pay more than the principal that is returned to obtain the bond [10,842.87 vs 10,000]. Similarly, if you work through the math for a 10% discount rate on an 8% coupon bond, it’s a ‘discount’ bond because you will pay less than the principal that is returned for the bond [9,241.84 vs 10,000]. It’s easy to see how an investor could hold our imaginary Dell bond for one year, collect the first interest payment, and then sell the bond on to another investor. The mechanics of the calculations are the same, except that one less interest payment is available, and the principal will be returned one year sooner… so N=4 in both formulae. Still with me? Now that we’re on the same page about how a bond is priced, we can talk about “Yield To Maturity”, which is at the heart of your main question. Bond “yields” like the ones you can access on CNBC or Yahoo!Finance or wherever you may be looking are actually taking the reverse approach to this. In these cases the prices are ‘fixed’ in that the sellers have listed the bonds for sale, and specified the price. Since the coupon values are fixed already by whatever organization issued the bond, the rate of return can be imputed from those values. To do that, you just do a bit of algebra and swap “present value” and “future value” in our two equations. Let’s say that Dell has gone private, had an awesome year, and figured out how to make robot unicorns that do wonderful things for all mankind. You decide that now would be a great time to sell your bond after holding it for one year… and collecting that $800 interest payment. You think you’d like to sell it for $10,500. (Since the principal return is fixed (+10,000); the number of periods is fixed (4); and the interest payments are fixed ($800); but you’ve changed the price... something else has to adjust and that is the discount rate.) It’s kind of tricky to actually use those equations to solve for this by hand… you end up with two equations… one unknown, and set them equal. So, the easiest way to solve for this rate is actually in Excel, using the function =RATE(NPER, PMT, PV, FV). NPER = 4, PMT = 800, PV=-10500, and FV=10000. Hint to make sure that you catch the minus sign in front of the present value… buyer pays now for the positive return of 10,000 in the future. That shows 6.54% as the effective discount rate (or rate of return) for the investor. That is the same thing as the yield to maturity. It specifies the return that a bond investor would see if he or she purchased the bond today and held it to maturity. 3. What factors (in terms of supply and demand) drive changes in the bond market? I hope it’s clear now how the tradeoff works between yields going UP when prices go DOWN, and vice versa. It happens because the COUPON rate, the number of periods, and the return of principal for a bond are fixed. So when someone sells a bond in the middle of its term, the only things that can change are the price and corresponding yield/discount rate. Other commenters… including you… have touched on some of the reasons why the prices go up and down. Generally speaking, it’s because of the basics of supply and demand… higher level of bonds for sale to be purchased by same level of demand will mean prices go down. But it’s not ‘just because interest rates are going up and down’. It has a lot more to do with the expectations for 1) risk, 2) return and 3) future inflation. Sometimes it is action by the Fed, as Joe Taxpayer has pointed out. If they sell a lot of bonds, then the basics of higher supply for a set level of demand imply that the prices should go down. Prices going down on a bond imply that yields will go up. (I really hope that’s clear by now). This is a common monetary lever that the government uses to ‘remove money’ from the system, in that they receive payments from an investor up front when the investor buys the bond from the Fed, and then the Fed gradually return that cash back into the system over time. Sometimes it is due to uncertainty about the future. If investors at large believe that inflation is coming, then bonds become a less attractive investment, as the dollars received for future payments will be less valuable. This could lead to a sell-off in the bond markets, because investors want to cash out their bonds and transfer that capital to something that will preserve their value under inflation. Here again an increase in supply of bonds for sale will lead to decreased prices and higher yields. At the end of the day it is really hard to predict exactly which direction bond markets will be moving, and more importantly WHY. If you figure it out, move to New York or Chicago or London and work as a trader in the bond markets. You’ll make a killing, and if you’d like I will be glad to drive your cars for you. 4. How does the availability of money supply for banks drive changes in other lending rates? When any investment organization forms, it builds its portfolio to try to deliver a set return at the lowest risk possible. As a corollary to that, it tries to deliver the maximum return possible for a given level of risk. When we’re talking about a bank, DumbCoder’s answer is dead on. Banks have various options to choose from, and a 10-year T-bond is broadly seen as one of the least risky investments. Thus, it is a benchmark for other investments. 5. So… now, why do mortgage rates tend to increase when the published treasury bond yield rate increases? The traditional, residential 30-year mortgage is VERY similar to a bond investment. There is a long-term investment horizon, with fixed cash payments over the term of the note. But the principal is returned incrementally during the life of the loan. So, since mortgages are ‘more risky’ than the 10-year treasury bond, they will carry a certain premium that is tied to how much more risky an individual is as a borrower than the US government. And here it is… no one actually directly changes the interest rate on 10-year treasuries. Not even the Fed. The Fed sets a price constraint that it will sell bonds at during its periodic auctions. Buyers bid for those, and the resulting prices imply the yield rate. If the yield rate for current 10-year bonds increases, then banks take it as a sign that everyone in the investment community sees some sign of increased risk in the future. This might be from inflation. This might be from uncertain economic performance. But whatever it is, they operate with some rule of thumb that their 30-year mortgage rate for excellent credit borrowers will be the 10-year plus 1.5% or something. And they publish their rates.


"Why would there not be a bid and ask? Dealers make their money in the spread between what they buy it from one entity for and what they sell it to another entity for. This doesn't mean they have to do it auction-style, but they'll still have a different buy price from a sell price, hence ""bid"" and ""ask""."


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Capital circulation doesn't work in the model of everyone producing products they can all already produce independently, and the money going to raw material and 3D printer inputs are a fixed cost to all construction, which outside of asteroid mining has limitations. The Economy needs a stable cycle for capital, the challenge with this automation is that the requirement for capital circulation appears vulnerable to instability.


I walked away from a house last year and don't regret it a single bit. I owed $545,000 and the bank sold it a month after moving out for $328,900. So technically I guess I can be on the hook to someone for the missing $216,100 for many years to come. Oh well. They can come after me if they want and I'll declare bankruptcy then.


Speaking from personal experience, I have a real hard time dealing with nonlogical / emotional people in the work place. It's not that I lack the skills, its that it causes my head to hurt. I would never walk out of a meeting but I definitely ask for people to shield me / try to push for structured communication.


"And then for them not to have to disclose the ammonia as an ingredient because the addition of ammonia is considered a ""part of the process"", not an ingredient, and therefore they don't need to list it as an ingredient, even though some batches were returned to the vendor because of the strong ammonia smell left in those batches, which they can't always get completely rid off."


There is no difference between more shares of a relatively cheaper stock and less shares of a relatively more expensive stock. When you invest in a stock, the percentage increase (or decrease) in the share price results in gains (or losses). This is a fundamental concept of investing. Your question suggests that you would benefit from further research before investing your money. Trading real dollars can be difficult without a strong understanding of the principles involved. Investing your money without a good knowledge base will likely be stressful and could have a discouraging effect if it doesn't go well. Before you open an investment account, read up on investing fundamentals, particularly mutual funds as those can be a great place to start as a new investor. There are many sources of information including books, websites such as http://investor.gov/investing-basics and this website. Don't skip the sections on taxes, as those matter just as much and sometimes more than the simple buying and selling. You might look at tax advantaged accounts, such as 401k's, IRA's, etc. It shouldn't take long but it will be one of the most important things you do as a beginning investor. Everyone has to start here. Understanding the vocabulary and concepts will likely save you time and money throughout your investing life.


Some good answers already, but let me add a TL:DR version. Brokers work like a special type of bank account where you can deposit or withdraw money. The major difference is that they also give you the ability to buy/sell investments with the money in your account which you can do by either calling them or using their website. Important: Many investments you will make through a broker(e.g. stocks) are not insured against losing value like the money in your bank account.


"Why? Because they can get away with it, of course. In short - why not? You may want to read the answers to this similar question (my answer is the one accepted by the OP). Who has the money? The banks, who else. I have found that some banks are capable of sending/receiving ACH transfers faster than others. I have accounts in two banks, lets call them A and B. If I send money (push) from A to B, it may take several days. But if I decide to pull the money from A to B by originating the transaction through my account at B - the money arrives the next day! So the actual transfer only takes a night, one business day. Its just the direction that matters - if the bank has to give the money out, it will do all it can (including taking 2-3 days for ""processing"") to keep the money as long as possible. But when another bank charges them - they have no choice but to pay. By the way, bank B behaves better - when I send the money from my account at B, it arrives to A the next day as well. Try a similar experiment. Instead of originating the transaction at the sender bank - try to originate it at the receiver bank, see how long it takes then for the money to appear on your account after it disappeared from the other one."


Most important things can be accessed from steering wheel controls too, and I found the climate really easy to hit on the screen. Navigation not so much, but that is harder to do with knobs anyway. For music, it is all steering wheel knobs for me.


Probably the easiest way for individual investors is oil ETFs. In particular, USO seems to be fairly liquid and available. You should check carefully the bid/ask spreads in this volatile time. There are other oil ETFs and leveraged and inverse oil ETFs exist as well, but one should heed the warnings about leveraged ETFs. Oil futures are another possibility though they can be more complicated and tough to access for an individual investor. Note that futures have a drift associated with them as well. Be careful close or roll any positions before delivery, of course, unless you have a need for a bunch of actual barrels of oil. Finally, you can consider investing in commodities ETFs or Energy stocks or stock ETFs that are strongly related to the price of oil. As Keshlam mentions, care is advised in all these methods. Many people thought oil reached its bottom a few weeks back then OPEC decided to do nothing and the price dropped even further.


"I don't think it is irrelevant. If everyone is better off working together why not work together? I mean, how can you expect to say something like ""sure, you'll be paying more for YOUR roads, but at least you won't be paying for other people's roads."" If you can come up with even some rough estimates that show we'd be better off, but it sounds like you know we won't be better off, but want it anyway, just because you don't want other people to get a better deal than you. I mean, that *really* doesn't sound like a better society than what we have now."


">You also have to plan around finding chargers. How is that different from planning around gas stations? Tesla has the superchargers all along freeways for long trips. For everyday driving, you plug it in at home. So there's a lot less ""planning around"" anything."


Technically, of course. Almost any company can go bankrupt. One small note: a company goes bankrupt, not its stock. Its stock may become worthless in bankruptcy, but a stock disappearing or being delisted doesn't necessarily mean the company went bankrupt. Bankruptcy has implications for a company's debt as well, so it applies to more than just its stock. I don't know of any historical instances where this has happened, but presumably, the warning signs of bankruptcy would be evident enough that a few things could happen. Another company, e.g. another exchange, holding firm, etc. could buy out the exchange that's facing financial difficulty, and the companies traded on it would transfer to the new company that's formed. If another exchange bought out the struggling exchange, the shares of the latter could transfer to the former. This is an attractive option because exchanges possess a great deal of infrastructure already in place. Depending on the country, this could face regulatory scrutiny however. Other firms or governments could bail out the exchange if no one presented a buyout offer. The likelihood of this occurring depends on several factors, e.g. political will, the government(s) in question, etc. For a smaller exchange, the exchange could close all open positions at a set price. This is exactly what happened with the Hong Kong Mercantile Exchange (HKMex) that MSalters mentioned. When the exchange collapsed in May 2013, it closed all open positions for their price on the Thursday before the shutdown date. I don't know if a stock exchange would simply close all open positions at a set price, since equity technically exists in perpetuity regardless of the shutdown of an exchange, while many derivatives have an expiration date. Furthermore, this might not be a feasible option for a large exchange. For example, the Chicago Mercantile Exchange lists thousands of products and manages hundreds of millions of transactions, so closing all open positions could be a significant undertaking. If none of the above options were available, I presume companies listed on the exchange would actively move to other, more financially stable exchanges. These companies wouldn't simply go bankrupt. Contracts can always be listed on other exchanges as well. Considering the high level of mergers and acquisitions, both unsuccessful and successful, in the market for exchanges in recent years, I would assume that option 1 would be the most likely (see the NYSE Euronext/Deutsche Börse merger talks and the NYSE Euronext/ICE merger that's currently in progress), but for smaller exchanges, there is the recent historical precedent of the HKMex that speaks to #3. Also, the above answer really only applies to publicly traded stock exchanges, and not all stock exchanges are publicly-held entities. For example, the Shanghai Stock Exchange is a quasi-governmental organization, so I presume option 2 would apply because it already receives government backing. Its bankruptcy would mean something occurred for the government to withdraw its backing or that it became public, and a discussion of those events occurring in the future is pure speculation.


Yes you can. You should talk to your tax advisor re the specific expenditures that can be accounted as startup-costs (legal fees are a good candidate, for example). If they add up to significant amounts (>$5K), you'll have to capitalize them over a certain period of time, and deduct from your business' income. This is not a tax advice.:-)


"In India the Short is what is called in other markets call as ""Naked Short"" [I think I got the right term]. It means that you can only short sell intra day and by the end of the day you have to buy back the shares [at whatever price, if you don't; the exchange will do it by force the next day]. In other markets the Intra day shorts are not allowed and one can short for several days by borrowing shares from someone else [arranged by broker] India has a futures market, so you can sell/buy something today with the execution date of one month. This is typically a fixed day of the month [I think last Thursday]"


I don’t understand people’s obsession with inequality. As long as real wages are staying constant or rising then you are as good, or better off today than you were yesterday. This idea that “they” are getting “better” faster really doesn’t matter in the long run. It was only 60 years ago that multiple middle class houses shared a land line and you had to wait for your neighbor to finish before making a phone call. Today just about every individual in a low-income household has a cellphone. My point is, as long as things keep improving for everyone is it really that bad if it’s unequal improvement? [Freakonomics did an interesting podcast on the topic of spite a while back.](http://freakonomics.com/podcast/what-do-medieval-nuns-and-bo-jackson-have-in-common-a-new-freakonomics-radio-podcast/) The most interesting part to me is experiment where people were willing to accept less money just to ensure that the other person did not get more than them.


Peace of mind is the key to your question. Just before the US housing bust of 2007, I had someone try to convince me to take all the equity from my house which was overvalued in an overheated market. The idea was to put that money in the stock market for a bigger return than the interest on the house. Many people did that and found themselves out of jobs as the economy crashed. Unfortunately, they couldn't sell their homes because they owed more than they were worth. I never lost a night of sleep over the money I didn't make in the stock market. I did manage to trade up to a house twice the size by buying another when the housing market bottomed out, but waiting for a market recovery to sell the smaller house. The outcome of my good fortune is a very nice house with no mortgage worth about 1/3 of my total net worth. That's probably a larger percentage than most money managers would recommend, but it is steadily decreasing because now, all the money that would go to a mortgage payment instead gets deposited in retirement accounts, and it still has 30 years to grow before I start drawing it down. I almost don't remember the burden of a mortgage hanging over my head each month. Almost.


Yes, eligibility for contributing to a Roth IRA is determined by your Modified Adjusted Gross Income (MAGI) which is based on your Adjusted Gross Income (AGI). Now, AGI includes the net capital gains from your transactions and MAGI adds back in things that were subtracted off (e.g. tuition deductions, foreign earned income exclusion) in arriving at the AGI. There is a worksheet in Publication 590 that has the details. You are always entitled to contribute to a Traditional IRA. The MAGI affects how much of your contribution is tax-deductible on that year's tax return, but not your eligibility to contribute. Both the above paragraphs assume that you have enough compensation (wages, salary, self-employment income) to contribute to an IRA: the contribution limit is $5500 or total compensation, whichever is smaller. (If you earned only $2K as wages, you can contribute all of it; not just your take-home pay which is what is left after Social Security and Medicare taxes, Federal taxes etc have been withheld from that $2K). If your entire income is from capital gains and stock dividends, you cannot contribute to any kind of IRA at all.


"Your employment status is not 100% clear from the question. Normally, consultants are sole-proprietors or LLC's and are paid with 1099's. They take care of their own taxes, often with schedule C, and they sometimes can but generally do not use ""employer"" company 401(k). If this is your situation, you can contact any provider you want and set up your own solo 401(k), which will have great investment options and no fees. I do this, through Fidelity. If you are paid with a W2, you are not a consultant. You are an employee and must use your employer's 401(k). Figure out what you are. If you are a consultant, open a solo 401(k) at the provider of your choice. Make sure beforehand that they allow incoming rollovers. Roll all of your previous 401(k)s and IRA's into it. When you have moved your 401(k) to a better provider, you won't be paying any extra fees, but you will not recoup any fees your original provider charged. I'm not sure why you mention a Roth IRA. If you try to roll your 401(k) into a Roth instead of a traditional IRA or 401(k), be aware that you will be taxed on everything you roll. ---- Edit: a little info about IRA's in response to your comment ---- Tax advantaged retirement accounts come in two flavors: one is managed by your company and the money is taken out of your paycheck. This is usually a 401(k) or 403(b). You can contribute up to $18K per year and your company can also contribute to it. The other flavor is an IRA. You can contribute $5,500 per year to this for you and $5,500 for your spouse. These are outside of your company and you make the deposits yourself. You choose your own provider, so competition has driven prices way down. You can have both a 401(k) and an IRA and contribute the max to both (though at high incomes you lose the ability to deduct IRA contributions). These accounts are tax advantaged because you only pay taxes once. With a regular brokerage account, you pay income tax in the year in which you earn money, then you pay tax every year on dividends and any capital gains that have been realized by selling. There are two types of tax-advantaged accounts: Traditional IRA or Traditional 401(k). You do not pay income tax on this money in the year you earn it, nor do you pay capital gains tax. Instead you pay tax only in the year in which you take the money out (in retirement). Roth IRA or Roth 401(k). You do pay income tax on money on this money in the year in which you earn it. But then you don't pay tax on any gains or withdrawals ever again. When you leave your job (and sometimes at other times) you can move your money out of a 401(k) into your IRA, where you can do a better job managing it. You can also move money from your IRA into a 401(k) if your 401(k) provider will allow you to. Whether traditional or Roth is better depends on your tax rate now and your tax rate at retirement. However, if you choose to move money from a traditional account into a Roth account, you must pay tax on it in that year as if it was income because traditional and Roth accounts are taxed at different times. For that reason, if you are just trying to move money out of your 401(k) to save on fees, the logical place to put it is in a traditional IRA. Moving money from a traditional to a Roth may make sense, for example, if your tax rate is temporarily low this year, but that would be a separate decision from the one you are looking at. You can always roll your traditional IRA into a Roth later if that does become the case. Otherwise, there's no reason to think your traditional 401(k) should be rolled into a Roth IRA according to what you have described."


Is it really that good of an opportunity? I kind of just applied through linkedin, sent my resume and they emailed me back to schedule an interview. Also, I did do research. but I only found superficial information such as their linkedin & wiki page. I don't **really** know what this position entails or how the company functions.


I dont think they have much of a choice if they want to deleverage. If they do that, short and long term rates are going up whether the economy is ready for it or not. If they wait until the next recession, they'll have to buy even more bonds. They could just be moving the target up to accommodate for what they (a pro deleveraged fed) considers inevitable rate increases sure to come anyway.


"+1 for noting that you are in it for the long haul. I also think this is a great project and activity to do with friends. Setting up and start-up investment company could be done as a simple LLC. The decision making process can be decided among the members -- if you want to defer to the others then so be it. Make it flexible so that you can change your mind in the future. If this is not intended to be a source of revenue or income for you (note your ""in it for the long haul"") One way of sourcing the capital and managing the resulting taxes you might want to consider is setting up a self-directed retirement account and making the investment from there. proceeds as you and your friends choose to take them would flow back into the retirement account. As with most investment and tax related questions we should all take the little extra time and money to follow up on internet-based advice with your own lawyer, investment adviser and accountant. These licensed individuals when under contract assume a degree of responsibility for their answer which is not available online. :)"


"I think this is a good question with no single right answer. For a conservative investor, possible responses to low rates would be: Probably the best response is somewhere in the middle: consider riskier investments for a part of your portfolio, but still hold on to some cash, and in any case do not expect great results in a bad economy. For a more detailed analysis, let's consider the three main asset classes of cash, bonds, and stocks, and how they might preform in a low-interest-rate environment. (By ""stocks"" I really mean mutual funds that invest in a diversified mixture of stocks, rather than individual stocks, which would be even riskier. You can use mutual funds for bonds too, although diversification is not important for government bonds.) Cash. Advantages: Safe in the short term. Available on short notice for emergencies. Disadvantages: Low returns, and possibly inflation (although you retain the flexibility to move to other investments if inflation increases.) Bonds. Advantages: Somewhat higher returns than cash. Disadvantages: Returns are still rather low, and more vulnerable to inflation. Also the market price will drop temporarily if rates rise. Stocks. Advantages: Better at preserving your purchasing power against inflation in the long term (20 years or more, say.) Returns are likely to be higher than stocks or bonds on average. Disadvantages: Price can fluctuate a lot in the short-to-medium term. Also, expected returns are still less than they would be in better economic times. Although the low rates may change the question a little, the most important thing for an investor is still to be familiar with these basic asset classes. Note that the best risk-adjusted reward might be attained by some mixture of the three."


SMSFs are generally prohibited from acquiring assets from related parties (whether it is purchased by the SMSF or contributed into the fund). There are some exceptions to the above rule for acquiring related party assets, including: • Listed securities (ie shares, units or bonds listed on an approved stock exchange, such as the ASX) acquired at market value. • Business real property (ie freehold or leasehold interests in real property used exclusively in one or more businesses) acquired at market value. • An in-house asset where the acquisition would not result in the level of the fund’s in-house assets exceeding 5%. • Units in a widely held unit trust, such as a retail ,managed fund. In-house asset rules An ‘in-house asset’ is generally defined as: • An investment by an SMSF in a related company or trust (ie a fund owns shares in a related company or units in a related trust). • An asset of an SMSF that is leased to a related party. • A loan made by an SMSF to a related company or trust. An investment, lease or loan that is an in-house asset is not prohibited, but is limited to 5% of the market value of the fund’s assets. The Answer: If your pre-owned Western Australian Rock Lobster fishery quota units are not included in the exceptions then you cannot transfer them into your SMSF.


I don't think you are reading the stock chart right. ORCL has a beta of 1.12 which means it has more volatility than the market as a whole. See image below for a fairly wild stock chart for a year. I would not truly consider ESPP participation investing, unless you intend to buy and hold the stock. If you intend to sell the stock soon after you are able, it is more speculation. ESPP's are okay based upon the terms. If the stock was a constant price, and you could sell right away, then an ESPP plan would be easy money. Often, employees are often given a 15% discount to purchase the stock. If you can sell it before any price drop, then you are guaranteed to make 15% on the money invested minus any commissions. Some employers make ESPP participants hold the stock for a year. This makes such a plan less of a value. The reasons are the stock can drop in price during that time, you could need the money, or (in the best case) your money is tied up longer making the ROI less. The reasons people invest in stock are varied and is far to much to discuss in a single post. Some of your colleagues are using the ESPP solely to earn the discount in their money.


"Hans Rosling has pointed out that most people have worse ideas about large issues in the world (specifically development, trends, etc.) than would be developed from random (""I asked the chimps and they got it right 33% of the time""). Highly educated people world-wide are wrong on poverty in the world, mortality, wealth distribution, economic variations in regions, etc. in vastly higher numbers than can be accounted for by no knowledge, it's rather wrong knowledge (bad generalization rules). The generalization rules come from teachers, books, materials, etc. that have not incorporated the vast amounts of change (the emerging areas of stability and affluence in sub-Saharan Africa following the path of Korea for example) or the fact that world population will stabilize at 40% African, 40% Asian, etc at 11-12 billion people with zero growth as soon as those currently born are all reproducing and current generations reach death age as we are currently at zero population growth rates world-wide. The videos are quite entertaining and informative (there are a lot of them as Hans Rosling tried to spread the word about this from 2003 on) It's about making use of the data that we have (most of which is hidden in hard-to access charts, reports, data bases, etc -- Gapminder is devoted to summarizing and displaying this in easily understood forms"


And since it's impossible to know when the market cracks, and it often cracks quickly, your comment implies (a) you're confident you can get out quickly on your own and (b) likelier you're going to end up with a lot of false positives.


As many people here have pointed out, a CFD is a contract for difference. When you invest in stock at eToro, you buy a CFD reflecting a bid on the price movement of the underlying stock, however, you do not actually own the stock or hold any rights shareholders have. The counterparty to the CFD is eToro. When you close your position, eToro shall pay you the amount representing the difference between your buy and sell price for each stock. I suggest you read the following article about CFDs, it explains everything clearly and thoroughly: http://www.investopedia.com/articles/stocks/09/trade-a-cfd.asp#axzz2G9ZsmX3A As some of the responders have pointed out, and as is mentioned in the article, a broker can potentially misquote the prices of underlying assets in order to manipulate CFDs to their advantage. However, eToro is a highly reputable broker, with over 2 million active accounts, and we guarantee accurate stock quotes. Furthermore, eToro is regulated in Europe (Germany, UK, France, etc.) by institutions that exact strict regulations on the CFD trading sector, and we are obligated to comply with these regulations, which include accurate price quoting. And of course, CFD trading at eToro has tremendous benefits. Unlike a direct stock investment, eToro allows you to invest as much or as little as you like in your favorite stocks, even if the amount is less than the relevant stock price (i.e. fraction stocks). For example: if you invest $10 in Microsoft, and on the day of execution eToro’s average aggregated price was $30 after a spread of 0.1%, you will then have a CFD representing 0.33 stocks of Microsoft in your eToro account. In addition, with eToro you can invest in stock in the context of a social trading network, meaning that you can utilize the stock trading expertise of other trader to your advantage by following them, learning their strategies, and even copying their stock investments automatically. To put it briefly, you won’t be facing the stock market alone! Before you make a decision, I suggest that you try stock trading with an eToro demo account. A free demo account grants you access to all our instruments at real market rates, as well as access to our social network where you can view and participate in trader discussions about trading stocks with eToro, all without risking your hard earned money. Bottom line – it’s free, there are no strings attached, and you can get a much firmer idea of what trading stocks with eToro is like. If you have any further questions, please don’t hesitate to contact us through our site: www.etoro.com.


"I think this quote from the article sums things up really well: > ""No one who knows anything about budgeting would take a 30-day change to have any meaning at all. There is no credit to take, because it's like noticing that rainfall numbers from one month to the next are not exactly the same or that attendance at baseball games is not a constant number."" A claim by Trump is not the same as a claim about Trump. As a reminder, his claim was: > Trump tweeted, ""The National Debt in my first month went down by $12 billion."" And this is the claim that has been rated Mostly False. A claim **by** Trump."


I am an independent liberal. Therefore, Donald Trump would be the last person I would praise. However, working in tech; I now see companies offering U.S. employees substantially bigger paychecks. I don't know what the exact cause of this is; but, I can safely assume that this so called brain drain must be very limited.


The main Part of this strategy is to get as much money as possible into the policy and then take policy loans ever year. As long as you don't withdraw too much too fast you can take a loan each year that is tax free and then once you die your beneficiary still receives the face value of the policy less any outstanding loans tax free.


This is what I suspect. When you get close to a border, the signal will bounce back and forth between the two countries. But roaming in a country you are not in denotes something else is going on. I know towers can be spoofed, but I'm not sure how this would work.


"The point of the enrollment penalty is basically the same as the ACA penalty. Any sort of health insurance - or really, any insurance - is funded by creating a risk pool of high and low risk people and pricing it so that the overall payments cover the total risk. That means, however, that on average the low risk people end up paying more than their share - more than it would have cost them, without the insurance, excepting any provider agreements to charge less (which is significant in the health insurance business). (Of course some of them do end up using more than they pay - but not on average, assuming the risk was calculated accurately.) While there isn't really a completely low risk pool in Medicare, there is a significant difference in utilization (=cost) between younger (65-70) and older enrollees. As such, for many health 65 year olds, it would be beneficial to not enroll in Medicare right away - delay a few years, if they're fully healthy, and wait until they are less healthy. Since Medicare won't turn you away for pre-existing conditions, that's a risk some would take. In order to accommodate for that, Medicare effectively says, ""If you didn't help subsidize the costs of the high users when you were younger, you need to pay more to make up for that fact"" - hence the enrollment penalty. The New York Times explains this in part in a 2006 article discussing Part D (which was new that year, and has a similar penalty): The purpose of the late enrollment penalty is to encourage people to sign up as soon as possible, before they have significant drug costs."


"I would like to buy hubby a beer and talk some sense into him. Do you have 2 years gross income saved as your retirement balance? That's about where he should be at age 30. I wrote about this in an article Retirement Savings Ratio. Blowing the 401(k) for anything less than an extreme emergency is downright foolish. The decision whether to roll it to an IRA or the new account isn't so simple. If you roll it to new plan, yes you can borrow, up to 60 months at a low rate, 4% or so. Taking the cash and then making an IRA deposit just means paying the penalty for nothing, unless you manage it just right, depositing the amount within 60 day, etc. You don't mention what he wants to do with it. You need to sit down and have a long ""money talk."" Keep in mind, if you oversave, it's easy to retire early, or at 50 just stop saving, spend every new dime. But it's something else to turn 50 and realize you will have to work till you die. I've seen both situations. (I am 48, the Mrs, 54 our multiple is now 13. The target is 20 to retire. The house is not counted as it can't be spent. The mortgage IS counted as it must be paid) Edit - as I read this again, I see the OP asked about opening an IRA in the same year they withdraw the 401(k) and pay tax and penalty. Wow. I also see her user reverted to generic, which means, I think, she's never returned. I hope they made the right decision, to keep the money in retirement accounts. Hubby never even said what he wanted the money for."


If you buy a townhouse, you often are in a condominium arrangement in the US (when you're really in a rowhouse in particular). So that's a downside right away: you have to have a HOA, or at least some sort of common agreement, though it might not have formal meetings. Everyone who owns an interest in the entire group of townhouses gets some say in landscaping and such. Beyond that though, townhouses (and similarly, condominiums) are often easier to own (as they don't have as much maintenance that you have to do), but more expensive because you pay someone to do it (the landscaping, the external repairs, etc.). You likely don't have as much control over what the external looks like (because you have to be in agreement with the other owners), but you also don't have to do the work, unless your agreement is to collectively do the mowing/landscaping, which you should know in advance. I wouldn't underestimate the value of easier, by the way; it's very valuable to not have to deal with as many repairs and to be able to go a week without thinking about mowing or watering. In that sense it can be a nice transition into ownership, getting some-but-not-all of the obligations. But if that's something you really value, doing the landscaping and mowing and whatnot, that's relevant too. You can always tell your realtor to look for townhouses where the owners do some/all of the landscaping, though that opens up a different can of worms (where you rely on others to do work that they may not do, or do well). They're also somewhat noisier; you may be sharing a wall (but not necessarily, air-gap townhouses do exist) and either way will be closer to your neighbors. Does noise bother you? Conversely, are you noisy? In a college town this is probably something to pay attention to. Price wise, of course stay well within your means; if being close to the city center is important, that may lead you to buy a townhouse in that area. If being further out isn't a problem, you'll probably have similar choices in terms of price as long as you look in cheaper areas for single family homes.


"Coins are legal tender. They're authorized by governments and have a face value. Rounds are simply coined pieces of metal minted by private manufacturers. They do not have any face value and are not legal tender. Rounds are used to own metal, they have no value other than the value of the metal in them. Any premium you pay over the price of the metal is the mint's profit. Coins are also used as bulions (i.e.: to own metal and create profits for the government), but many times coins have limited issue and become valuable because of the rarity, specific issues with a specific coin (mistakes, impurities, exclusive designs), etc. So they also may have some numismatic value (depends on the specific coin). Coins also have the assurance of quality of the authorizing government (and fakes are dealt with by the law as forgery of coins is illegal and is a crime), rounds however do not enjoy such protection, and any one can mint them (only copyright/trademark protections apply, where the enforcement is by the owner and not the government). Re the advantages - coins (if you pick the right ones...) appreciate much more than the metal. However, this is mostly in hindsight, and most of the ""bulion"" coins do not appreciate significantly beyond the price of the metal unless there's something else significant about them (first year of issue, high quality certification, etc). Rounds on the other hand are cheaper (1 oz round will be significantly cheaper than 1 oz coin), and monitor more closely the price of the metal. It is unlikely for rounds to significantly deviate from the spot price (although this does happen occasionally, for specific designs or if a mint goes out of business)."


Saving for college you have a couple of options. 529 plans are probably the best bet for most people wanting to save for their kids college education. You can put a lot of money away ~$300k and you may get a state tax deduction. The downside is if you're kid doesn't go to college you may end up eating the 10% penalty. State specific prepaid tuition plans. The upside is you know roughly the return you are going to get on your money. The downside is your kid has to go to a state school in the state you prepaid or there are likely withdrawal penalties. For the most part these really aren't that great of a deal any more. ESAs are also an option but they only allow you to contribute $2k/year, but you have more investment options than with the 529 plans. Traditional and ROTH IRA accounts can also be used to pay for higher education. I wouldn't recommend this route in general but if you maxed out your 401k and weren't using your IRA contribution limits you could put extra money here and get more or really different flexibility than you can with a 529 account. I doubt IRA's will ever be asked for on a FAFSA which might be helpful. Another option is to save the money in a regular brokerage account. You would have more flexibility, but lower returns after taxes. One advantage to this route is if you think your kid might be borderline for financial aid a year or two before he starts college you could move this money into another investment that doesn't matter for financial aid purposes. A few words of caution, make sure you save for retirement before saving for your kids college. He can always get loans to pay for school but no one is going to give you a loan to pay for your retirement. Also be cautious with the amount of money you give your adult child, studies have shown that the more money that parents give their adult children the less successful they are compared to their peers.


Have you been to any cities recently? We're having a housing crisis in NYC because wealthy people are flocking here from all over the world driving up prices. Crime rates are hitting 50 year lows so often they don't even announce it anymore. You're describing the state of things 30 or more years ago.


>Don’t have anything to point out? Just say something like, “I’m not sure what these numbers mean,” and sit back. You’ve bought yourself almost an entire meeting of appearing smart. I just explained the numbers :( Please don't make me explain them again.


This is why minimum wage has not gone up. Its a fallacy way of thinking. - Your business will be required to do one of 4 things. Raise prices, fire employees, remove pointless expenses, or you take a hit. More than likely you will attempt to do situation 1 because you need all your employees you currently have. If you could work with less employees as a business owner you would of already had done that. The next part is you will find things that are pointless. Why are you paying for a certain type of yeast when you found out you can get the same type from someone else cheaper. Finally you may have to take the hit to yourself. The market will balance itself out. HOWEVER this is the big part people dont understand. The larger companies like to dick people over as much as possible. You think walmart which already uses illegal workers on their farms nad has everything made in china is going to raise prices the exact same amount? Of course not. They will raise prices but nothing like that, and the only people who will be hurt is the companies profit sheets, and the ceo pay. That is nothing that will ruin a company. Furthermore that person who was making around 7 dollars an hour will have a higher income to spend and instead of purchasing crap bread from walmart they will now splurge sometimes and purchase higher end bread from bakeries such as yourself. I think people dont understand that companies will do, and always hve done, everything they can to save money. Walmart will have no choice but to either raise prices or not make as large of a profit as they once made. The company wont fail, the economy will also continue, but the wealth is now going to spread out more. I wish i could make more people understand this, but alas they will believe that you cant raise prices because it will ruin the economy. Whats ruining the economy is actually letting the min wage stay so low. It basically turns most people into indentured servants because they can barely afford to live. Does that make sense?


What?! Did you read my comments about verifying information? You have turned it into vilifying sources. If we want to vilify sources, just take a look at the crap the news pulls every day. The other day I was watched big an interview on Fox News that asked,”How will the Republican Tax Break affect students?” The guy responded about how he wants to help students but never once mentioned how the Tax Breaks would affect them. The interviewer never called him on it, and moved on as if the guy had answered the question! At least comedy doesn’t pretend to care. I voted for who I wanted, and I didn’t vote for Hillary and Trump.


You're licensed to sell investments. You could get a job at a broker or RIA. You can sell stocks bonds funds annuities and work for a fee based ria in sales. You're technically licensed to give advice on investments but without at least some academic expertise in finance I would avoid it. Helpful? edit: you don't need securities licenses to work in a bank. you'll be selling loans which is regulated differently.


Disregarding leverage and things alike, I would like to know what's the difference between opening a position in Forex on a pair through a broker, for example, and effectively buy some currency in a traditional bank-to-bank transition The forex account may pay or charge you interest whereas converting your currency directly will not. Disregarding leverage, the difference would be interest.


Automation is different than mechanization. Before we replaced physical labor with machines, soon we will replace mental labor with algorithms. I do believe it will ultimately create a better society for everyone, I just see it being a bumpy road getting there. Right now humanity already has enough money and resources to feed everyone on the planet and give them all health care and education. Every single person. The problem is all those resources are locked away by the 0.01% of people who own all the wealth and isn't circulated in the economy. With automation, the problem will get even worse unless we do something about it. Imagine mega corporations that literally run themselves, only benefiting the owners. It doesn't look pretty


You must not be from around these parts. AT&T & Verizon have really done an excellent job at nothing. I mange 25 lines for the company I work at. having that many lines, I see some fun things. We have at times been with both AT&T, Verizon, and T-Mobile. Of the 3 only T-Mobile has the honor of more than 3 consecutive months without a billing error. Infact our 2 years with T-Mobile, there was only 3 billing errors. AT&T had errors monthly, Verizon was as bad. Signal, of course varies from one local to another, but here all 3 suck the hind tit. I have nothing from my experience with AT&T and Verizon that I could say positively about the quality of the service.


Policy aimed at promoting economic opportunity for poor children must be framed within three stark realities. **First, many poor children come from families that do not give them the kind of support that middle-class children get from their families.** **Second, as a result, these children enter kindergarten far behind their more advantaged peers and, on average, never catch up and even fall further behind.** **Third, in addition to the education deficit, poor children are more likely to make bad decisions that lead them to drop out of school, become teen parents, join gangs and break the law.** **Let politicians, schoolteachers and administrators, community leaders, ministers and parents drill into children the message that in a free society, they enter adulthood with three major responsibilities: at least finish high school, get a full-time job and wait until age 21 to get married and have children.** https://www.brookings.edu/opinions/three-simple-rules-poor-teens-should-follow-to-join-the-middle-class/


There is no issue - and no question - if you get married. The question is only relevant in the event that you go separate ways. Should that happen, you imply that you would want to refund whatever amount your girlfriend has paid toward the mortgage. The solution, then, would seem to be to exempt her from any payments, as you will either give that money back to her (if you break up) or make her a co-owner of the condo (if you get married). If you actually need her contributions to the monthly nut, you could give her a written agreement whereby you would refund her money (plus interest) at her discretion.


I think you are having trouble understanding what 'liquid' means. Liquidity refers to how easily an asset can be converted to cash. More liquid = more easily converted to cash, less liquid, less so. Any kind of exit load is going to make an asset less liquid due to the penalties associated with making the sale. So, the whole point of liquid funds is to give people the option of selling quickly if they need to. Since an exit load is meant to discourage this behavior, liquid funds tend not to have one. The point isn't what the financial institution 'gets', it's about offering a service to clients with a particular investment need.


Well, you should have something that you are passionate about, but you don't necessarily need to choose a coverage right away. Many enter as generalists for IB, buy side and sell side. However, if you are going to create a buy side report, you should tailor it to what sectors or criteria the firm selects from. If the firm you are talking to invests in consumer staples, energy and financials, a tech buy side report makes little sense. At the same time, if they are interested in tech, try and narrow it down. Are they interested in tech mfg such as chips or electronics? Or are they interested in internet companies, service firms, BPOs, etc?


Being paid for content is not the same as being paid for work though. Being paid for work is to be paid for the hours spent thinking about, experimenting, recording and producing the song as well as other costs attached to it. Being granted a monopoly over a specific combination of bits and bytes is something completely different.


There is a shortcut you can use when calculating federal estimated taxes. Some states may allow the same type of estimation, but I know at least one (my own--Illinois) that does not. The shortcut: you can completely base your estimated taxes for this year on last year's tax return and avoid any underpayment penalty. A quick summary can be found here (emphasis mine): If your prior year Adjusted Gross Income was $150,000 or less, then you can avoid a penalty if you pay either 90 percent of this year's income tax liability or 100 percent of your income tax liability from last year (dividing what you paid last year into four quarterly payments). This rule helps if you have a big spike in income one year, say, because you sell an investment for a huge gain or win the lottery. If wage withholding for the year equals the amount of tax you owed in the previous year, then you wouldn't need to pay estimated taxes, no matter how much extra tax you owe on your windfall. Note that this does not mean you will not owe money when you file your return next April; this shortcut ensures that you pay at least the minimum allowed to avoid penalty. You can see this for yourself by filling out the worksheet on form 1040ES. Line 14a is what your expected tax this year will be, based on your estimated income. Line 14b is your total tax from last year, possibly with some other modifications. Line 14c then asks you to take the lesser of the two numbers. So even if your expected tax this year is one million dollars, you can still base your estimated payments on last year's tax.


We have been offering Cisco Certified Internetwork Expert Routing and Switching training from the past few years. The course includes class room coaching as well as practical classes. The institute has well equipped labs and spacious class rooms to enable the students to learn peacefully. The training center is also well equipped with hundreds of books on Cisco certification exams. Students can make best use of these books and classes to prepare for the certification exams.


Market orders can be reasonably safe when dealing with stocks that are rather liquid and have quite low volatility. But it's important to note that you're trading a large degree of control over your buy / sell price for a small benefit in speed or complexity of entering an order. I always use limit orders as they help me guard against unexpected moves of the stock. Patience and attention to details are good qualities to have as an investor.


They pay nearly $900 million per year in income taxes. Their effective rate is low because they have deferred tax assets, which means they paid more in taxes years prior in order to get a lower effective rate now. Additionally, they have a net loss carryforward, which allows a business to reduce their tax burden two years prior or up to 20 years forward after losing money.


"When you invest in an S&P500 index fund that is priced in USD, the only major risk you bear is the risk associated with the equity that comprises the index, since both the equities and the index fund are priced in USD. The fund in your question, however, is priced in EUR. For a fund like this to match the performance of the S&P500, which is priced in USD, as closely as possible, it needs to hedge against fluctuations in the EUR/USD exchange rate. If the fund simply converted EUR to USD then invested in an S&P500 index fund priced in USD, the EUR-priced fund may fail to match the USD-priced fund because of exchange rate fluctuations. Here is a simple example demonstrating why hedging is necessary. I assumed the current value of the USD-priced S&P500 index fund is 1,600 USD/share. The exchange rate is 1.3 USD/EUR. If you purchase one share of this index using EUR, you would pay 1230.77 EUR/share: If the S&P500 increases 10% to 1760 USD/share and the exchange rate remains unchanged, the value of the your investment in the EUR fund also increases by 10% (both sides of the equation are multiplied by 1.1): However, the currency risk comes into play when the EUR/USD exchange rate changes. Take the 10% increase in the price of the USD index occurring in tandem with an appreciation of the EUR to 1.4 USD/EUR: Although the USD-priced index gained 10%, the appreciation of the EUR means that the EUR value of your investment is almost unchanged from the first equation. For investments priced in EUR that invest in securities priced in USD, the presence of this additional currency risk mandates the use of a hedge if the indexes are going to track. The fund you linked to uses swap contracts, which I discuss in detail below, to hedge against fluctuations in the EUR/USD exchange rate. Since these derivatives aren't free, the cost of the hedge is included in the expenses of the fund and may result in differences between the S&P500 Index and the S&P 500 Euro Hedged Index. Also, it's important to realize that any time you invest in securities that are priced in a different currency than your own, you take on currency risk whether or not the investments aim to track indexes. This holds true even for securities that trade on an exchange in your local currency, like ADR's or GDR's. I wrote an answer that goes through a simple example in a similar fashion to the one above in that context, so you can read that for more information on currency risk in that context. There are several ways to investors, be they institutional or individual, can hedge against currency risk. iShares offers an ETF that tracks the S&P500 Euro Hedged Index and uses a over-the-counter currency swap contract called a month forward FX contract to hedge against the associated currency risk. In these contracts, two parties agree to swap some amount of one currency for another amount of another currency, at some time in the future. This allows both parties to effectively lock in an exchange rate for a given time period (a month in the case of the iShares ETF) and therefore protect themselves against exchange rate fluctuations in that period. There are other forms of currency swaps, equity swaps, etc. that could be used to hedge against currency risk. In general, two parties agree to swap one quantity, like a EUR cash flow, payments of a fixed interest rate, etc. for another quantity, like a USD cash flow, payments based on a floating interest rate, etc. In many cases these are over-the-counter transactions, there isn't necessarily a standardized definition. For example, if the European manager of a fund that tracks the S&P500 Euro Hedged Index is holding euros and wants to lock in an effective exchange rate of 1.4 USD/EUR (above the current exchange rate), he may find another party that is holding USD and wants to lock in the respective exchange rate of 0.71 EUR/USD. The other party could be an American fund manager that manages a USD-price fund that tracks the FTSE. By swapping USD and EUR, both parties can, at a price, lock in their desired exchange rates. I want to clear up something else in your question too. It's not correct that the ""S&P 500 is completely unrelated to the Euro."" Far from it. There are many cases in which the EUR/USD exchange rate and the level of the S&P500 index could be related. For example: Troublesome economic news in Europe could cause the euro to depreciate against the dollar as European investors flee to safety, e.g. invest in Treasury bills. However, this economic news could also cause US investors to feel that the global economy won't recover as soon as hoped, which could affect the S&P500. If the euro appreciated against the dollar, for whatever reason, this could increase profits for US businesses that earn part of their profits in Europe. If a US company earns 1 million EUR and the exchange rate is 1.3 USD/EUR, the company earns 1.3 million USD. If the euro appreciates against the dollar to 1.4 USD/EUR in the next quarter and the company still earns 1 million EUR, they now earn 1.4 million USD. Even without additional sales, the US company earned a higher USD profit, which is reflected on their financial statements and could increase their share price (thus affecting the S&P500). Combining examples 1 and 2, if a US company earns some of its profits in Europe and a recession hits in the EU, two things could happen simultaneously. A) The company's sales decline as European consumers scale back their spending, and B) the euro depreciates against the dollar as European investors sell euros and invest in safer securities denominated in other currencies (USD or not). The company suffers a loss in profits both from decreased sales and the depreciation of the EUR. There are many more factors that could lead to correlation between the euro and the S&P500, or more generally, the European and American economies. The balance of trade, investor and consumer confidence, exposure of banks in one region to sovereign debt in another, the spread of asset/mortgage-backed securities from US financial firms to European banks, companies, municipalities, etc. all play a role. One example of this last point comes from this article, which includes an interesting line: Among the victims of America’s subprime crisis are eight municipalities in Norway, which lost a total of $125 million through subprime mortgage-related investments. Long story short, these municipalities had mortgage-backed securities in their investment portfolios that were derived from, far down the line, subprime mortgages on US homes. I don't know the specific cities, but it really demonstrates how interconnected the world's economies are when an American family's payment on their subprime mortgage in, say, Chicago, can end up backing a derivative investment in the investment portfolio of, say, Hammerfest, Norway."


"> And you get this Medicare ""issue"" from Vox whom you, yourself, say ""Vox does spin things left"". Allowing Medicare Part-D negotiate drug prices has long been my litmus test of swamp politics. It puts the free market and lower drug prices against corporate profits and it is disturbing how many politicians choose the latter. When President Trump brought up the issue I applauded and thought he could be serious about draining the swamp. When he reversed his position it showed me he embodied the swamp. I chose the Vox article when deciding how to present this issue to you because I thought it did a good job explaining how big of a backstab this reversal was to the American people. The articles of this meeting from conservative media ignored the flip-flop and painted more money going to the pharmaceutical companies as a win. I do not agree this is a very gray topic. I think this clearly shows President Trump will choose to help the rich despite claiming to do the opposite. > And Medicare Part-D issue was not dealt at all by Obama in 8 years, am I right? And there you go again thinking you can point to Obama and be proven right. I know you think Obama was terrible. Pointing out that President Trump is better than terrible isn't high praise. > Ok!!!! Please find me something significant that Trump did that you don't like. All right, another one of my pet issues is global warming. I worked for the National Center for Atmospheric Research for seven years and decided to use the time to research both sides of the issue. There was no comparison. What I found was the scientists had multiple studies using different approaches with solid science and similar conclusions backed by decades of data. The skeptics had cherry-picked data, specious reasoning, misrepresentation of the work of others, and often had direct financial ties to big oil. Today I know of no valid evidence that the planet is not warming or that humans are not responsible. This makes this issue into another litmus test for me. If you seek the truth then you will learn that global warming is a real and a serious threat. If someone claims its a hoax, unsettled science, not human caused, or not much danger then either that person misleading you to push an agenda or is listening to people who are. Citizen Trump called global warming a Chinese hoax several years ago but I was willing to give him a chance to surround himself with people who actually knew the science. Since becoming president he has appointed a climate change denier to head the EPA and much of his cabinet, doubled down on coal, oil, and gas mining and pipelines, pulled out of the Paris Accords, cut funding for climate studies, banned government scientists from speaking about the issue publicly, and rolled back regulations that would require or encourage reductions in greenhouse gas emissions. Once again this issue shows me that President Trump is ignoring what the scientists are saying and what is best for our country long term and embracing policies that will make more money for the wealthy."


>They compensate me fairly This may be why you bear no ill will as most here probably cannot say the same. I know I certainly cant, I am shorted almost 50% of the market rate for others in the same field. The bitch of it is if I left for a year and came back, they probably would pay me that difference, maybe even more. Makes no fucking sense.


"I know, that's why there is no such thing as a ""pure, unadulterated free market"". Information flows, and it is often in the interest of those who make the big bucks that can be interrupted long enough, so that more money can be made out of the asymmetry. As for finance, a lot of what was going on in unregulated markets in the 00's contributed to the spectacular crash later."


"GRAS is a lot different from ""determined to be safe for consumption"" The former is a specific category of food additives and ingredients, the latter is based out of your conjecture and paranoia, especially comparing it with trans fats. At worst, the soy leghemoglobin is a potential allergen. If the impossible burger weren't ""safe for consumption,"" you wouldn't be able to buy it."


"The question you should be asking yourself is this: ""Why am I putting money into a 401(k)?"" For many people, the answer is to grow a (large) nest egg and save for future retirement expenses. Investors are balancing risk and potential reward, so the asset categories you're putting your 401(k) contribution towards will be a reflection on how much risk you're willing to take. Per a US News & World Report article: Ultimately, investors would do well to remember one of the key tenants of investing: diversify. The narrower you are with your investments, the greater your risk, says Vanguard's Bruno: ""[Diversification] doesn't ensure against a loss, but it does help lessen a significant loss."" Generally, investing in your employer's stock in your 401(k) is considered very risk. In fact, one Forbes columnist recommends not putting any money into company stock. FINRA notes: Simply stated, if you put too many eggs in one basket, you can expose yourself to significant risk. In financial terms, you are under-diversified: you have too much of your holdings tied to a single investment—your company's stock. Investing heavily in company stock may seem like a good thing when your company and its stock are doing well. But many companies experience fluctuations in both operational performance and stock price. Not only do you expose yourself to the risk that the stock market as a whole could flounder, but you take on a lot of company risk, the risk that an individual firm—your company—will falter or fail. In simpler terms, if you invest a large portion of your 401(k) funds into company stock, if your company runs into trouble, you could lose both your job AND your retirement investments. For the other investment assets/vehicles, you should review a few things: Personally, I prefer to keep my portfolio simple and just pick just a few options based on my own risk tolerance. From your fund examples, without knowing specifics about your financial situation and risk tolerance, I would have created a portfolio that looks like this when I was in my 20's: I avoided the bond and income/money market funds because the growth potential is too low for my investing horizon. Like some of the other answers have noted, the Target Date funds invest in other funds and add some additional fee overhead, which I'm trying to avoid by investing primarily in index funds. Again, your risk tolerance and personal preference might result in a completely different portfolio mix."


As a developer in a former life, I would not even get out of bed for $50 an hour. My normal charge out rate for ANY computer work at all is $100/hour + 15% tax. Don't want to pay that much? Find someone else. I never ever had anyone ever try to negotiate a deal, and I only ever worked on an hourly basis. And only when it suited me. I struggle to understand how anyone could ever accept any kind of coding job for $15 an hour - *even if they lived in India*.


"**Lowes Foods** Lowes Foods is a grocery store chain based in Winston-Salem, North Carolina. The chain's initial growth was in the mountains of North Carolina and rural areas of Virginia, but, starting in the late 1990s, has geared expansion towards metropolitan areas in North and South Carolina. Until October 4, 2009, Lowes Foods used S&H Greenpoints on their store discount card; this was replaced with ""Fresh Rewards"" on October 5. Many of Lowes Foods stores also offer Lowes Foods to Go, where shoppers can order groceries online and drive to the store to pick them up. *** ^[ [^PM](https://www.reddit.com/message/compose?to=kittens_from_space) ^| [^Exclude ^me](https://reddit.com/message/compose?to=WikiTextBot&message=Excludeme&subject=Excludeme) ^| [^Exclude ^from ^subreddit](https://np.reddit.com/r/business/about/banned) ^| [^FAQ ^/ ^Information](https://np.reddit.com/r/WikiTextBot/wiki/index) ^| [^Source](https://github.com/kittenswolf/WikiTextBot/) ^] ^Downvote ^to ^remove ^| ^v0.22"


"You can (and definitely should) withdraw any part of the contribution that will put you over the contribution limit. You can (and should if you need to) withdraw to repay any medical payments you made from outside the account. You can (but should avoid at all costs) withdraw (distribute) from the HSA for non-medical reasons. Here's the IRS publication which covers this: https://www.irs.gov/publications/p969 Here's the bit about distributions that covers what you're trying to do: You can receive tax-free distributions from your HSA to pay or be reimbursed for qualified medical expenses you incur after you establish the HSA. If you receive distributions for other reasons, the amount you withdraw will be subject to income tax and may be subject to an additional 20% tax. You don’t have to make distributions from your HSA each year. It is better to pay from your checking and reimburse than to over-fund the HSA. Best route forward is to reduce your contributions for the rest of the year, especially if continuing them will cause excess contributions. Another nasty gotcha: Excess contributions. You will have excess contributions if the contributions to your HSA for the year are greater than the limits discussed earlier. Excess contributions aren’t deductible. Excess contributions made by your employer are included in your gross income. If the excess contribution isn’t included in box 1 of Form W-2, you must report the excess as ""Other income"" on your tax return. Generally, you must pay a 6% excise tax on excess contributions. See Form 5329, Additional Taxes on Qualified Plans (Including IRAs) and Other Tax-Favored Accounts, to figure the excise tax. The excise tax applies to each tax year the excess contribution remains in the account. You may withdraw some or all of the excess contributions and avoid paying the excise tax on the amount withdrawn if you meet the following conditions. •You withdraw the excess contributions by the due date, including extensions, of your tax return for the year the contributions were made. •You withdraw any income earned on the withdrawn contributions and include the earnings in ""Other income"" on your tax return for the year you withdraw the contributions and earnings. If you will not be over your maximum contribution, let the contribution ride. Make sure your HSA balance is divided between cash, stock fund, bond fund. Much like your 401k. Because the part that you don't spend on medical expenses this year can be spent in future years' medical expenses, and if you have anything left when you retire you can spend it on whatever you want. And the funds, including growth, are not taxed until you distribute them. Bottom line: if the funds will not cause excess contribution, leave them in. Otherwise, take them out as soon as possible."


Michael Bach Atlanta, who began his finance career nearly sixteen years ago as the CEO of a small-cap private equity firm, founded Scirage just ahead of the nations financial crisis,that there were virtually no African American asset managers at all. “I’ve always know that there were limited numbers of African American’s in the finance industry


"I'm a bot, *bleep*, *bloop*. Someone has linked to this thread from another place on reddit: - [/r/libertarian] [Senator Richard Blumenthal believes that american small business owners are ""outliers"" who should be ""prosecuted""](https://np.reddit.com/r/Libertarian/comments/72732b/senator_richard_blumenthal_believes_that_american/) [](#footer)*^(If you follow any of the above links, please respect the rules of reddit and don't vote in the other threads.) ^\([Info](/r/TotesMessenger) ^/ ^[Contact](/message/compose?to=/r/TotesMessenger))* [](#bot)"


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It's slightly more insidious than that. These days we're finding out how to make games in such a way as to maximise profit. Not by making the games more fun or entertaining but by abusing the flaws in human psychology. They are also designed in such a way as to incentivise these extra purchases. When it says in the article you can buy quicker progress through the game and a lot of people like it, it's because they've artificially slowed down the normal progress in the game. They've deliberately broken the product so you'll pay to fix it. From a business ethics point of view there's nothing wrong in this but it makes a lot of people in the industry uneasy.


Or it could be that Uber's model is not sustainable and preys on the ignorance and precarious situation of people. That the driver burn rate is a good indication of an unreasonable pay. And we're not even touching the fact that drivers are pretty uninsured (yes I know about the 1 million coverage Uber provides. It's a supplementary coverage, meaning you first have to submit claim through your own insurance first).


And that's what I'm getting at, it's like an 8th grader failing a class. It's not great but we don't write the kid off as a failure and kick him out of school. There is a lot of schooling left and chances are he will get his diploma. there is plenty of time for them to pass something. And chances are you will see something get passed when they start to run up against a sort of deadline that could prevent them from passing it at all. And that deadline is like what? Next November at the earliest?


Now, whilst you recognize how beneficial a power bank institution is, it is pertinent to figure out how to choose a strength bank that high-quality suits your device and requirements for the cell phone. The maximum important element is to test the battery size of your cellular cell phone or tablet and compare it with the potential of the power bank institution. The ability of a power bank has to be at least the same as the battery length. This selection basis will make sure which you pick out a strength bank, which gives you minimal 1-complete charge in your cellular telephone. Another vital thing that should be taken into consideration whilst buying energy bank online is its type. Each kind plays in another way and accordingly, you should pick out the one that high-quality fits your requirements.


Let's see... do you have other options? I have no idea since you didn't list those details. Doesn't sound like you've applied for anything. So, if you don't have other options, then yes, you should accept it. That's just common sense. If you don't have other options and you turn it down... well, you deserve whatever happens to you.


Canada, like other second-rate economies with weak currencies, provides USD accounts. It is not the same vice versa. It is rare to find a direct deposit foreign currency account in the US as it is the world-leading currency.


>the broad consensus is that there's an elasticity of somewhere between -0.05 and -0.2 I think an even broader consensus is that impact of minimum wage hikes is [highly non-linear](http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/coep.12175/pdf) as you increase the real wage cutoff. Going from $8 to $10 an hour might be a net positive for the low income group, but as you go from $10 to $12 or $12 to $14, the job loss effects will start to overpower the wage gain effects.


"The professional financial advisors do have tools which will take a general description of a portfolio and run monte-carlo simulations based on the stock market's historical behavior. After about 100 simulation passes they can give a statistical statement about the probable returns, the risk involved in that strategy, and their confidence in these numbers. Note that they do not just use the historical data or individual stocks. There's no way to guarantee that the same historical accidents would have occurred that made one company more successful than another, or that they will again. ""Past performance is no guarantee of future results""... but general trends and patterns can be roughly modelled. Which makes that a good fit for those of us buying index funds, less good for those who want to play at a greater level of detail in the hope of doing better. But that's sorta the point; to beat market rate of return with the same kind of statistical confidence takes a lot more work."


In addition to all the complete sample plans, Business plan includes example content for every text item in your business plan. Browse through a few examples to get an idea how others he worded their Executive Summary, for instance. Find an good that really works for you? One click adds it right into your plan. Then you can personalize it to fit your business and business management are best tips.


There was this /r/offmychest post yesterday from a person claiming to work for a large investment bank as part of their default risk modelling team. The poster claims that the commercial and real estate lending divisions have been fudging numbers regarding default risks due to a lack of oversight and a bunch of bad commercial loans are about to become due. They further claim that a rise in interest rates could prevent many commercial properties from being able to properly ~~finance~~ refinance their loan. Here is the post: https://www.reddit.com/r/offmychest/comments/77a1vw/i_work_in_bankingfinance_risk_management_i_am/. Any one have any thoughts? I also found this link on the Mises blog (though it is a year old) that discusses how delinquency rates on commercial and industry loans have been steadily rising since bottoming out in 2015: https://mises.org/blog/delinquency-rates-rising-new-crisis-approaching. Could be something to keep an eye on. I would love to see some more updated data on delinquency.


Now i want to get this money in my new UK bank account, does this mean that gov will take taxes from this money as well. Yes that is income and you have to pay tax on that. But it might be a bit complicated than that, so I would ask you to call up HMRC or visit an accountant or maybe ask the finance people of your employer. Also one of my family members send us money every few months and will send to this bank from now on, does taxes also apply on this? See the HMRC page about capital gains tax on gifts: You won't have to pay Capital Gains Tax when you give a gift to your husband, wife or civil partner - as long as both of the following apply: It's useful to keep a note of what the asset cost you. Your spouse or civil partner may need this to work out their Capital Gains Tax when they dispose of the asset. Example: Mr B lives with his wife and gives her an antique table that he bought for £12,000 in 2003. Mrs B spends £500 restoring the table, eventually selling it for £20,000. Her total costs are £12,500 (£500 plus Mr B's original cost £12,000). Mrs B's gain is £7,500 (£20,000 less £12,500). When you make a gift to a family member or other person you're connected with, you'll need to work out the gain or loss. This doesn't apply to gifts you make to your spouse or civil partner. This also applies if you dispose of an asset to them in any other way - for example, you sell it to them for a low price. A 'connected person' in this context is someone such as your brother, sister, child, parent, grandparent, mother-in-law or business partner. Follow the link below for more information about connected people and Capital Gains Tax. You must get a valuation of the asset at the time you made the gift. Use this value in place of any amount you received for the asset to work out your gain or loss. If you gave the asset away, then of course the amount you received for it will be nothing. If you make a loss you can only deduct the loss from gains you make on gifts or other disposals to the same person.


is that the touch one with the qwerty pad? I have a thing for blackberries....I recently bought a motorola that broke instantly after a bike ride and motorola refuses to abide by the warranty, they actually went so far to void it completely for my model. So, back in the market for another bb...i just wish they'd get their act together and throw together something sleek and with tons of support.


So this is actually why I never went back to my old job at a movie theater. No one could work more than 32 hours a week or they would have to offer us insurance. I needed the 40 hours a week to pay for rent and food so I never went back. This isn't something new but people might just be bringing it up to blame Obama before the election.


"I was thinking more of a limit on the TOTAL # of patents (something fairly small, like maybe 10,000 total patents are allowed to be valid at any given moment in time), so that patent applications from multiple sources have to be somehow compared with each other to decide which would provide more societal-benefit by being allowed patent status. If you want to take the government (mostly) out of the picture, then maybe use an auction format - when a valid patent ""slot"" becomes available (due to a previously-granted patent expiring, or being invalidated due to court challenge), then anyone who wants their idea to get patent rights submits their application to an ""auction"" for that slot. Then the people who want to OWN the patent rights to any of those submitted ideas will bid for them. Whoever pays the top bid will get the patent rights for the concepts in the specific application they were targeting. This will force the people who are doing the bidding to basically do the ""due diligence"" on each patent application (instead of depending on the patent examiners), since they will not want to pay a lot of money to get the patent rights for an idea, only to have that patent's value be destroyed by being declared invalid in court. If you want to encourage small inventors to throw their hat into the ring, then set things up so that the money from the winning bid goes to the inventor who submitted the original application. This way, you get the best of both worlds - the inventor gets compensated (handsomely in most cases) for their good idea, and the idea being patented gets into the hands of someone with enough resources to exploit the idea in a broad scale."


Ever been to a city council meeting? The craziest people are the loudest. On Reddit they get downvoted into oblivion (well, unless they're the *right* kind of crazy), but in other online fora there's nobody to say that they're stupid and wrong.


I don't think that you totally get it. From the article: >What if you created a website that printed out emails, texts or photos from your computer, Facebook or Instagram and mailed them for you in the plain white envelopes these institutions favored?


Echoing Justkt, different approaches will work for different couples. It also depends on your background, life experience, age, maturity.... Irrespective of the structure, any agreement must be based on a thorough understanding of the mechanism by which responsibility and accountability is apportioned. As in any financial relationship, when money is plentiful and covers all ends, then conflict hardly ever arises. Problems only turn up when money vanishes. Business contracts are written with a view to such conflicts and agreements within a marriage must be equatable and based on a shared understanding. So, don't worry too much about the structure. Think about thinkgs like the following: In other words, given that income between spouses is likely to be unbalanced, how do you manage this within a caring relationship so that neither feels like a charity case, a social worker, or dependent? There will not be one clear answer except that open and honest discussion on an ongoing bases can only serve to strengthen your relationship.


It is allowed to transfer money between ISAs however you like in one year. It does not count against the limit for how much you can pay into an ISA in a year, nor does it count as paying into two ISAs in the same year. But make sure you transfer the money. Don't withdraw it, then pay it into a new ISA. If your provider doesn't like you taking money out of one ISA while keeping another, then it's about time you found another provider.


Growth is how well the investment will grow on average. In the long term, this is a sure thing. Volatility is how much the value will jerk up and down in the short term. Do you want both... Or neither? When are you going to use the money? If it's IRA money you can't touch for 30 years, it really ought to be in the market, since growth is hugely important, and volatility is not a big concern. You're in it for the very long game, and volatility will average out, leaving pure growth. If the market drops 25% in 6 months, who cares? Stocks go up, stocks go down. It has 29 years to recover, and it will. If you are planning to buy a house in 6 months, you want that money in something like a CD, because volatility could be devastating: an untimely 25% drop in stock price could really, really suck.


The problem is, we already have an ID with a number attached to it. Except, even there getting a new ID number doesn't help much. Because, in many cases the business will happily take the old number as well. In other words, it's not a problem with the SSN so much as it is that institutions validation and the fact that proving fraud is left to the victim. If, instead, the financial institution had to prove everything, we would have multiple layers of security. Of course, at that point Equifax et al would not exist in its current form. Cryptographic tokens work reasonably well that it's something in someone's possession, and can be put into ID cards pretty easily. The problem is, you can't put them on forms.


But which effect is larger, short-term stupidity or long-term rationality? Investors may repeatedly make this mistake and forever affect FACE's price because of FB's actions. Maybe the fools who confused FB and FACE last month have learned their lessons, but the market provides an inexhaustible supply of fools.


This is the interesting part. If one reads between the lines it seems that they used bots to upvote posts. This violated their (reddit) TOS. Evidence dammit, we need proof. (We've got our pitchforks ready) I'm all for protecting the voting system. I think it would be interesting to see data that shows this seo/spamy behavior.


"One thing recessions do is sort out market inefficiencies. Often that means re-directing people who are in jobs they can't do properly into other career fields. During the dot-com boom, tons of people with liberal arts degrees and no experience wound up as ""software engineers"". Not all of them sucked, but many did, and the dot-com crash sorted that out. As an engineer, I saw this first hand, and it wasn't a bad thing -- I had a lot of co-workers in 2000 who weren't pulling their weight. This is going to sound heartless, and maybe it is, but if someone has been unemployed 3 years, maybe it is time for a career change. Your tax credit idea is only going to penalize businesses for operating efficiently, penalize the productively employeed, and cost the government in revenue. Also, tax incentives rarely have the impact they're designed to have and there are always unitended consequences. Large businesses exploit them, small businesse get abused by them. If we want to see job growth, tax codes need to get simpler, not more complex."