"Basically, the money you pay in student loan interest is tax deductible, which means as far as the IRS is concerned, you didn't make that money. However, what that saves you on your taxes is a percentage of a percentage; you save the amount of your current marginal rate on the money you paid as interest. Simple example with made-up numbers: Let's say you had a student loan outstanding, and you were making payments of $150 monthly on it. Total payments to said loan in one tax year would be $1800. Of that amount, let's for the sake of argument say that half, $900, was interest. You get your 1098-E with that number on it, and reduce your taxable income by that amount. You're currently doing well, not outstanding but OK, so you're in the 25% tax bracket that most single middle-classers are in. So, your reduction in taxable income of $900 saves you the 25% that those 900 simoleons would have been taxed at, which is $225. So, all told, this loan is a net drain on your disposable income of $1,575, of which $675 is pure cost of capital; you never received a dollar in disbursements to match this amount you're paying, so it's money lost now in return for previous gains. 10 years later, you pay off the debt. Now that $1800 is yours to keep, and to pay full taxes on. You pay $225 more in taxes (actually, because of amortization, the amount of additional taxes has been steadily increasing as the interest portion of the loan payments has reduced) but have the remaining $1575 in your pocket to do something else. While there is good debt and bad debt, debt is debt; whether deductible or not, the IRS will never credit your tax bill in the amount of interest owed (AFAIK; if someone knows of a loan whose interest is a credit instead of a deduction I'm all ears). So, the deduction on this loan reduces your cost of capital to an effective APR of 4.5%, and because it's a student loan and not a mortgage, you don't have to itemize so this is in effect a ""free"" deduction (even with an FHA mortgage allowing me to deduct interest, property taxes and PMI, and the residual medical costs after insurance of having our new baby, the $11,900 standard deduction for my wife and I was still the better deal this year). But, you're still losing 4.5% per year to interest. That's your break-even; if the money you could use to pay your debt could earn a better return than 4.5%, then invest it, but if not, pay off the loan. Right now, investments that could make you 4.5% are at the bottom edge of a steep increase in risk and variance, so if your expected ROI is close, I'd lean toward paying off the debt."


Hah! I used to work at Ratzie's Pizza off of Route 1 and Knox. Is it still there do you know? I was only at U of M for 3 semesters. I lived in Easton Hall. I spent too much time going to raves in DC...hence, only staying at U of M for 3 semesters.


"One way to do these sorts of calculations is to use the spreadsheet version of IRS form 1040 available here. This is provided by a private individual and is not an official IRS tool, but in practice it is usually accurate enough for these purposes. You may have to spend some time figuring out where to enter the info. However, if you enter your self-employment income on Schedule C, this spreadsheet will calculate the self-employment tax as well as the income tax. An advantage is that it is the full 1040, so you can also select the standard deduction and the number of exemptions you are entitled to, enter ordinary W-2 income, even capital gains, etc. Of course you can also make use of other tax software to do this, but in my experience the ""Excel 1040"" is more convenient, as most websites and tax-prep software tend to be structured in a linear fashion and are more cumbersome to update in an ad-hoc way for purposes like tax estimation. You can do whatever works for you, but I would recommend taking a look at the Excel 1040. It is a surprisingly useful tool."


MICR fields are defined by their distance to the right edge of the check. The routing number is always the same distance from the right edge. Business checks are longer and have more room for auxiliary information on the left if the bank chooses to use it.


Has it happened that you bought tickets for a concert in three months and when the date comes a work trip prevents you or suddenly you did not find tickets at the box office, but would you be willing to pay a little more to get that longed ticket? Then comes here, a platform that is supposed to be a revolution in the way people bought and sold all kinds of Discount Online Tickets Houston, because beyond being another player in the field of exclusive events, it is a marketplace where everyone can offer and purchase the tickets you are looking for in any region of the world.


Not web-based, but both Moneydance and You Need A Budget allow this.


"I think that history shows that it's rarely necessary for violence to lead to social reform. There's always been a tug of war between the upper class and the middle/lower classes. The term ""working class"" was a way to unify middle and lower classes against the wealthy ""idle class."" Unfortunately the wealthy were able to convince many white collar middle class people that they were ""upper middle class"" and that the ""upper middle class"" shares values and goals with the elite. If you look at the numbers this couldn't be more wrong. By any standard, I am a very fortunate person. I have a six figure income and some assets. However, the truly elite in the US enjoy household wealth and income that DWARF what I make. I pay a much higher percentage of my income to taxes than a person with inherited wealth does. Why is the system this way? It's effectively a barrier - no matter how hard we work or how well we do - we can't break through to the upper class. Instead of a meritocracy we have an aristocracy. This is the great lie at the center of American politics today. The aristocrats have the many of the best and brightest convinced that we're part of the club when we're really not and never can be. They've turned us against the blue collar workers and the poor, when we should all be together. They've convinced many that people like the current administration trying to create more upward mobility are anti-american, when it's really the aristocracy that violates democratic values of equality and fraternity. However - we can vote for leaders who might do better. We can peacefully assemble (think OWS). We can go on reddit and share our political and economic opinions. Because of these freedoms, we can safely say violence is a remote last resort. Nothing is inevitable. Economic growth is really just people finding ways to interact and deliver value to one another. And - ""fortune favors the bold."" I'll stay optimistic and keep making money as well as trying to help my community. I'll bet dollars to donuts change can and will happen just because enough people will get sick of the Romneys of the world hogging all the wealth and we'll find a political solution. tl;dr Martin Luther King. Ghandi. Tunisia. We'll work it out like men- with our words."


"The bottom line is that you are kind of a terrible customer for them. Granted you are far better than one that does not pay his bills, but you are (probably) in the tier right above that. Rewards cards are used to lure the unorganized into out of control interest rates and late payments. These people are Capital One's, and others, best customers. They have traded hundreds of dollars in interest payments for a couple of dollars in rewards. The CC company says: ""YUMMY""! You, on the other hand, cut into their ""meager"" profits from fees collected from your transactions. Why should they help you make more money? Why should they further cut into your profits? Response to comment: Given your comment I think the bottom line is a matter of perspective. You seem like a logical, altruistic type person who probably seeks a win-win situation in business dealings. This differs from CC companies they operate to seek one thing: enslavement. BTW the ""terrible customer"" remark should be taken as a compliment. After you get past the marketing lies you begin to see what reward programs and zero percent financing is all about. How do most people end up with 21%+ interest rates? They started with a zero percent balance loan, and was late for a payment. Reward cards work a bit differently. Studies show that people tend to spend about 17% more when they use a reward card. I've caught myself ordering an extra appetizer or beer and have subsequently stopped using a reward card for things I can make a decision at the time of purchase. For people with tight budgets this leads to debt. My ""meager"" profits paragraph makes sense when you understand the onerous nature of CC companies. They are not interested in earning 2% on purchases (charge 3% and give back 1%) for basically free money. You rightly see this as what should be a win-win for all parties involved. Thus the meager in quotation marks. CC companies are willing to give back 1% and charge 3% if you then pay 15% or more on your balance. Some may disagree with me on the extracting nature of CC companies, but they are wrong. I like him as an actor, but I don't believe Samuel Jackson's lines."


Lol this is a troll account if I've ever seen one. But to answer your question it's for my website, e-mail, business card, etc. I'm a voice actor and my studio needs to have a brand for tax purposes and booking jobs.


"I'd also look into index funds (eg Vanguard) as they have low management fees. you can buy these as ETFs as well - so you can buy in at a very low starting amount. An index fund can also be a talking point for your kids about what an industry index is and how it relates to the companies that fall into it. Also about how mutual funds try to ""beat the market"" - and often fail."


Rather than screwing around with foreign currencies, hop over to Germany and open an account at the first branch of Deutsche or Commerzbank you see. If the euro really does disintegrate, you want to have your money in the strongest country of the lot. Edit: and what I meant to say is that if the euro implodes, you'll end up with deutschmarks, which, unlike the new IEP, will *not* need to devalue. (And in the meantime, you've still got euros, so you have no FX risk.)


I don't think that it's a good idea to have cash savings in different currencies, unless you know which will be the direction of the wind for that currency. You can suffer a lot of volatility and losses if you just convert your savings to another currency without knowing anything about which direction that pair will take. Today we can see Brexit, but this is a fact that has been discounted by the market, so the currencies are already adjusted to that fact, but we don't know what will happen in the future, maybe Trump will collapse the US economy, or some other economies in Asia will raise to gain more leadership. If you want to invest in an economy, I think that it's a best idea to invest on companies that are working in that country. This is a way of moving your money to other currencies, and at least you can see how is the company performing.


Therapists and counselors will last far, far longer than artists. Procedurally generated music and virtual designs are already becoming nearly as good as human created ones, and we’re barely scratching the surface of neural networked creativty. The bottom line is humans are not special, and creativity is not some trait that *only* humans can have. If an AI can replace a doctor, a judge, a computer programmer, and a civil engineer, then it damn well can (and will) replace the artist making the IKEA prints you’re going to be buying on the art market. Meanwhile, I’m pretty sure we can be in the year 3000, and people are still going to want to share their problems with someone, and rant to a fellow human being who will listen to their shit and nod thoughtfully and offer advice.


Your relative in the US could buy a pre-paid Visa (aka Visa gift card) and give you the numbers on that to pay. They're available for purchase at many grocery/convenience stores. In most (all??) cases there'll be a fee of a several dollars charged in addition to the face value of the card. The biggest headache I can think of would be that pre-paid cards are generally only available in $25/50/100 increments; unless the current SAT price matches one of the standard increments they'll have to buy the next card size up and then get the remaining money off it in a separate transaction. A grocery store would be one of the easier places for your relative to do this because cashiers there are used to splitting transactions across multiple payment sources (something not true at most other types of business) due to regularly processing transactions partially paid for via welfare benefits.


If you want to invest in the Windows Phone, then you go and find out who makes the Windows Phone i.e. Microsoft. Then you go and decide if Windows Phone is successful will the share price of Microsoft go up (own research/deduction) and if you think that the price of Microsoft has a positive correlation with the Windows Phone, then you could buy shares of Microsoft. There is no way to invest directly in individual products on stock exchanges, you are generally investing in the companies that produce them. You find the ticker of a company by googling. NASDAQ: MSFT


I see what your point is, but I would argue that the barriers to enter the web market are almost non-existent. It doesn't take huge capital to create a great product. Check out the author's product at http://letsfreckle.com/. It's a perfect example that it doesn't take VC's to make a good product and viable business. Everything that you mentioned can and is being done by entrepreneurs without the help of VC money. By the way just because you have investors involved doesn't mean you'll create a commercially viable product either. That being said some people will still opt for the VC route because you can't be the next groupon without VC money right? Without investors how would companies with no business model survive?


"I agree 100%. I am a search engine marketer with a large focus on adwords. I built my company which has $7mil of revenue a year in a little under 5 years using adwords as the backbone of my marketing. I have helped out lots of friends with small adwords campaigns. Here are a couple examples. My dad is a high end furniture maker. He sold to galleries for decades. They would mark his stuff up 100%. So a table that he sold to them for $2000 they would sell for $4000. I got him a basic website done and started an adwords campaign which costed me about $100 a month. After a year he was no longer selling to galleries. He was charging full retail for his work. That started 5 years ago. He was able to weather this financial crisis when other artists were closing up shop, all because of adwords. I have a friend who is a fisherman. He would sell most of his fish to a wholesale buyer for a low price then take what he thought he could sell retail down to the pier to sell to locals. I got him a website with a call to action which said ""sign up to receive alerts when the fresh fish is coming in"". I started an adwords campaign and ran it to only show ads to people near the pier. I spent about $10 a month. Over the course of two years he built a customer list of over 200 people who get an email every time he is coming in and they call and place orders. Now he knows how much he can sell retail (and that's a whole lot more than he did before). Both of these examples were game changers for these people and all done with minimal adwords expense. One thing you should do is do a google search from your house (should be in the area your dad wants to service) and search for ""plumber in [your location]"". Take a look at ads on the search engine results page. If you see lots of them for plumbers in your area then there will be competition and its a bit of a tougher road (but totally doable). If you don't see many ads then you are in luck and you will own it. I started with this book: http://www.amazon.com/Ultimate-Guide-Google-AdWords-Million/dp/1599180308 It changed my life. Once I because an adwords expert I felt I could do anything and I haven't been proven wrong. Good luck. If you need any help let me know."


Silver is a commodity. It's valuable for certain kinds of manufacturing, jewelry, and as a speculative financial instrument or hedge against the dollar. The S&P 500 includes companies which make money off of mining, manufacturing, medicine, media, technology, banking, dining, agriculture... There's a lot more variety there.


I mean I guess I don't really know since I never looked into it. Unless the primary language is English, I feel like it would be tough. The Asian students I knew in school that don't have great English often don't make it. Not even just the class, but not being able to integrate with anyone except other Asian students.


The liquidity is quite bad. I have seen open Intrest drop from thousands to zero. Theta and the lack of liquidity are strong reasons not to buy options. Instead, consider selling them. They say that most Option purchases expire worthless. Why is this so? Because hedge funds buy those out-of-the-money puts in case their position goes against them (like insurance). Make money selling insurance. No one makes money buying insurance.


We are very particular about time and care about yours as well. All you need to do is make an appointment with us and we will take care of everything else. Expect best quality and prompt service, only from us at Simply Spotless. http://www.simplyspotless.com.au/


I think you are asking a few questions here. Why is gold chosen as money? In a free market there are five characteristics of a good money: Gold and silver meet all five characteristics. Diamonds are not easily divisible which is why they are not normally used as money. Copper, Iron, and lead are not scarce enough - you would need a lot of these metals to make weekly or daily purchases. Paper is also way too plentiful to be used as money. By the way, historically silver has been used for money more than gold. How does international trade work with gold as money (is this what you are asking with your hypothetical example of 10 countries each with y amount of gold?) Typically a government will issue a currency that is backed by gold. This means you can redeem your currency for actual gold. Then when an American spends 5 US dollars (USD) to purchase a Chinese good the Chinese man now owns 5 USDs. The Chinese man can either redeem the 5 USD for gold or spend the 5 USD in the US. If a government issues more currency then they have gold for then the gold will start to flow from that country to other countries as the citizens of the other countries redeem the over-issued currency for gold. This outflow of gold restricts governments from over-issuing paper currency. Who creates the procedures and who supervises them in modern worldwide economy? The Federal Reserve, IMF, and Bank of International Settlements all are involved in the current system where the US dollar (see Bretton Woods agreement) is the reserve currency used by central banks throughout the world. Some think this system is coming to an end. I tend to agree.


How to send the full loan amount from Saudi Arabia (money exchange), because I have a money transfer limit? There is no limit for sending money into India. Just use the right banking channel and transfer the funds. If I sent to India, what about tax and all that in India? In a financial year if you are outside of India for more than 182 days, you are Non-Resident for tax purposes. Any money you earn outside of India is tax free in India. i.e. there is no tax for this funds in India. If it is possible to send the money, to whom do I have to send it (my account, or my parents account) Whatever is convenient, preferably to your own NRE/NRO account. Any documents I have to show for tax issues (in case tax) You have to establish that you are NRI and hence this funds are not taxable. Hence its best you transfer into NRE/NRO account. If you transfer to your parents account, you would need a gift deed to make this non-taxable to your parents. I have savings account my self in Axis Bank, for the past 3 years I am paying taxes, if I send to my Axis Bank account how can I withdraw the full amount (10 lakhs (1,000,000)) on single day Withdrawal is possible by cash or cheque You can write a check, do a NEFT/RTGS transfer to your loan account, you can withdraw cash by giving some notice time to the Branch Manager of your Branch.


I don't know if I would go so far as to hire an accountant. None of those things you listed really complicates your taxes all that much. If you were self-employed, started a business, got a big inheritance, or are claiming unusually large deductions, etc. then maybe. The only thing new from your post seems to be the house and a raise. The 3rd kid doesn't substantially change things on your taxes from the 2nd. I'd suggest just using tax preparation software, or if you are especially nervous a tax-preparation service. An accountant just seems like overkill for an individual.


If you're really price-sensitive, consider carrying cash in your wallet whenever your brother (or you) comes home to your own country. Besides saving money, this should teach your younger brother to plan well and manage his living costs or otherwise he'll starve. Let's say that a month's living cost is $1500 which includes housing, food, transportation, and the occasional splurging[1]. If your brother's school is in a per-semester basis, chances are he'll visit your home country at about twice a year. That will be $1500 * 6 months = $9000. You can still carry that amount of money in your wallet (that's 90 sheets in $100 bills, which should fit in larger wallets) provided that you're careful. If you or your brother don't go home regularly at least once a year, the 3% transfer fee isn't that big. Let's say that the total amount that you transfer is $18K (for a year's living cost, $1500 * 12 months), the fee for that will be $540 ($18000 * 0.03), which I'll bet is far less than a return airfare from the US to India/China/UAE. [1] I'm living on my own in Singapore right now, and my monthly expenses rarely exceeds S$1500/month, so I'm assuming that in the states that would be USD 1500. You can get a projection for that number yourself.


"Standard deviation from Wikipedia : In statistics and probability theory, the standard deviation (represented by the Greek letter sigma, σ) shows how much variation or dispersion from the average exists.1 A low standard deviation indicates that the data points tend to be very close to the mean (also called expected value); a high standard deviation indicates that the data points are spread out over a large range of values. In the case of stock returns, a lower value would indicate less volatility while a higher value would mean more volatility, which could be interpreted as high much change does the stock's price go through over time. Mean would be interpreted as if all the figures had to be the same, what would they be? So if a stock returns 10% each year for 3 years in a row, then 10% would be the mean or average return. Now, it is worth noting that there are more than a few calculations that may be done to derive a mean. First, there is the straight forward sum and division by the number of elements idea. For example, if the returns by year were 0%, 10%, and 20% then one may take the sum of 30% and divide by 3 to get a simple mean of 10%. However, some people would rather look at a Compound Annual Growth Rate which in this case would mean multiplying the returns together so 1*(1+.1)*(1+.2)=1.1*1.2=1.32 or 32% since there is some compounding here. Now, instead of dividing a cubic root is taken to get approximately 9.7% average annual return that is a bit lower yet if you compound it over 3 years it will get up to 32% as 10% compounded over 3 years would be 33.1% as (1.1)^3=1.331. Sharpe Ratio from Investopedia: A ratio developed by Nobel laureate William F. Sharpe to measure risk-adjusted performance. The Sharpe ratio is calculated by subtracting the risk-free rate - such as that of the 10-year U.S. Treasury bond - from the rate of return for a portfolio and dividing the result by the standard deviation of the portfolio returns. Thus, this is a way to think about given the volatility how much better did the portfolio do than the 10 year bond. R-squared, Alpha and Beta: These are all around the idea of ""linear regression"" modelling. The idea is to take some standard like say the ""S & P 500"" in the case of US stocks and see how well does the portfolio follow this and what if one were to use a linear model are the multipliers and addition components to it. R-squared can be thought of it as a measure as to how good is the fit on a scale of 0 to 1. An S & P 500 index fund may well have an R-squared of 1.00 or 0.99 to the index as it will track it extremely closely while other investments may not follow that well at all. Part of modern portfolio theory would be to have asset classes that move independently of each other and thus would have a lower R-squared so that the movement of the index doesn't indicate how an investment will do. Now, as for alpha and beta, do you remember the formula for a line in slope-intercept form, where y is the portfolio's return and x is the index's return: y=mx+b In this situation m is beta which is the multiple of the return, and b is the alpha or how much additional return one gets without the multiple. Going back to an index fund example, m will be near 1 and b will be near 0 and there isn't anything being done and so the portfolio's return computed based on the index's return is simply y=x. Other mutual funds may try to have a high alpha as this is seen as the risk-free return as there isn't the ups and downs of the market here. Other mutual funds may go for a high beta so that there is volatility for investors to handle."


Yeah any tax cut plan is going to help the rich. Derp. That's not a bad thing lol. Really the rich need to pay less, the middle class needs to pay less, and the poor need to pay in a little instead of none and or getting tax refunds yet paying no taxes (income tax I mean). I'm a flat tax guy myself, with no loopholes. But that's a pipe dream :(.


Real basic bond question: When a future on Gov bonds get tendered, a physical bond is delivered. Since 'bonds' are generally in denoms of $100, does the physical delivery always have to be in sets of 100, ie there can't be partial delivery of bonds?


(Six years later...) I've used CheckFree for over 20 years, and my uncle started using it back in the early 1980s through a 300 baud modem. It has e-bills, EDI bills that you schedule yourself, and will also mail checks to people and small businesses. You can make your payments from an unlimited number of banks, can schedule multiple recurring payments for the same bill (I find that useful for when buying large/expensive items by CC: I create a different payment schedule for each), plus ad hoc payments.


The IRS has a calculator for this purpose.


Leadership training can transform your personality, mindset and ability in a progressive manner. Training with Mitesh Khatri can surely help you display your leadership skill with flair and confidence. In short, the whole process can make you able enough to take the risky decisions with the positive attitude, thereby to help you deliver productivity. https://www.miteshkhatri.com/the-art-of-appreciation/


"Its is considered a ""hobby"" income, and you should be reporting it on the 1040 as taxable income. The expenses (what you pay) are hobby expenses, and you report them on Schedule A (if you itemize). You can only deduct the hobby expenses to the extent of your hobby income, and they're subject to the 2% AGI threshold."


"> the park is so much smaller than its competitors Out of curiosity, what are you referring to when you say ""its competitors""? I don't really see any direct competitors for SeaWorld. What I do see is a dying idea that no longer draws the amount of entertainment dollars it used to. Especially with the end of the Orca shows, there's little point."


> but most recognize that money can't buy happiness. The acquisition of money is quite exhilarating though. People don't easily part with it, so it feels like you're doing something pretty awesome every time new money flows your way. Money is like a drug. That feeling quickly fades, leaving you wanting more. I imagine that's why people who have all the money they could ever possibly spend still seek more.


With new cars it's usually the other way around: finance at a low APR or get cash back when you buy it outright. With used cars you usually don't know how much they have invested in the car, so it's more difficult to know how low they're willing to go. Regardless, I do think it's odd that they would knock 2K off the price if you finance with them, but not if you pay cash. The only reason they would do that is if they intend to make at least 2K in interest over the life of the loan, but they have no way of guaranteeing you won't refi. Therefore, I suspect they are bluffing and would probably close the deal if you wrote them a check (or put the cash on the table) for 2K less. However, if they won't budge and will only knock off 2K if you finance, you could finance and pay it off in full a week later. Just make sure they don't have any hidden origination fees or pay-off-early fees.


"**Corporatism** Corporatism, also known as corporativism, is the sociopolitical organization of a society by major interest groups, known as corporate groups, such as agricultural, business, ethnic, labour, military, patronage, or scientific affiliations, on the basis of their common interests. It is theoretically based on the interpretation of a community as an organic body. The term corporatism is based on the Latin root word corpus (plural corpora) meaning ""body"". In 1881, Pope Leo XIII commissioned theologians and social thinkers to study corporatism and provide a definition for it. *** ^[ [^PM](https://www.reddit.com/message/compose?to=kittens_from_space) ^| [^Exclude ^me](https://reddit.com/message/compose?to=WikiTextBot&message=Excludeme&subject=Excludeme) ^| [^Exclude ^from ^subreddit](https://np.reddit.com/r/economy/about/banned) ^| [^FAQ ^/ ^Information](https://np.reddit.com/r/WikiTextBot/wiki/index) ^| [^Source](https://github.com/kittenswolf/WikiTextBot) ^] ^Downvote ^to ^remove ^| ^v0.24"


"Way to dredge the [very bottom of the argument hierarchy man.](https://commons.m.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Graham%27s_Hierarchy_of_Disagreement.svg) You're not making a compelling case for your point. If you believe entrepreurship or freelancing is the only way to achieve ""the American Dream"" then it seems youre intentionally and internally (to yourself) changing the definition of ""the American Dream"" to suit you."


Your long-term saving targets will include retirement, kids' college, house, etc. Medium-term might be your college, or a car. Short-term might be a vacation somewhere or a new laptop. In all cases saving, then spending money you do have is better than spending money you don't have. I think that's the first takeaway of this truism. However, I also believe 10% is said as a retirement target. Retirement is very important and this advice is stressed by many financial planners because it's very easy to underestimate how expensive it is. By the same token, it's recommended that you spend 2 months' salary on an engagement ring, and that particular truism can be traced back to a DeBeers ad. I personally don't know whether 10% as a retirement target is sage - it sounds right but I haven't followed it for a variety of reasons. Please corroborate against multiple sources and apply to your own financial person.


"The way the post is worded, coca cola wouldn't count towards either, although it's not entirely clear. If the dividends are considered under capital gains (which isn't technically an appropriate term) he's earning only 500Million a year from his stake in coca cola. If he sold his shares, he'd receive capital gains of ~15Billion, which would probably outpace his operations business. The best graph would probably be something like ""net worth of operations vs net worth of equity in other companies"""


From India Tax point of view: Some one else may give the US tax treatment. Refer to this similar question what taxes I need to pay in India Capital Gains. My accountant never asked or reported the bought property in taxes- should he reported in taxes?Did he do wrong not reporting should I report the property in my next year taxes? If you mean in IT Returns, yes it should be declared. Can i bring the money back if needed? By Back if you mean repatriate to US, The capital portion would be Ease if the loan property was purchased or loan repaid from NRE. Else there is limit on the amount and paperwork. Consult a CA. If I rent the property instead of selling, do I have to report the income and what income? should I be filling taxes on the rental income in India or just in USA or both You are taxable for the rent and have to report it as income and pay taxes in India.


A 529 has a custodian and beneficiary. If, say, my Mom is custodian and my daughter the beneficiary, neither my daughter, my wife, nor I can access this account. In fact, if my daughter chooses not to attend college, Mom can change beneficiaries. So, a 529 is ideal for what you have described. By the way, your wife may have broken the law. Money in your child's name/SSN cannot simply be taken from the account at a parent's whim. You have every right to ask for an accounting of that money and insist she return it to your child's account. Edit - I was going to add that UTMA money may only be spent for the benefit of the child, and not for day to day items, food, clothing, etc. The article The proper use of UTMA funds provides a bit of support to my position on that.


As an investment, the trend doesn't really matter, what matters is the price which you buy the house, and the price at which you sell. Say you buy a house for $250k today. In general, it doesn't matter if the house is worth $200k or $300k tomorrow (neglecting things like refinancing and home equity loans). What matters is the price when you sell. The longer you plan to stay, the less the current market conditions mean. Of course there is a lot more that goes into the decision to buy a house, since you are going to live in it. You also need to take into account things like how long you plan on staying in the area, the stability of your job, and future family size.


Life Strategy funds are more appropriate if you want to maintain a specific allocation between stocks and bonds that doesn't automatically adjustment like the Target Retirement funds which have a specific date. Thus, it may make more sense to take whichever Life Strategy fund seems the most appropriate and ride with it for a while unless you know when you plan to retire and access those funds. In theory, you could use Vanguard's Total Market funds,i.e. Total Stock Market, Total International, and Total Bond, and have your own allocations between stocks and bonds be managed pretty easily and don't forget that the fees can come in a couple of flavors as betterment doesn't specify where the transaction fees for buying the ETFs are coming out just as something to consider.


Another option is to short whatever interest rate you think will go up. For example, if you think that interest on treasuries will go up, then short treasuries.


What about web-hosting fees? Cost of Internet service? Cost of computer equipment to do the work? Amortized cost of development? Time for support calls/email? Phone service used for sales? Advertising/marketing expenses? Look hard--I bet there are some costs.


I wasn't 100% on which columns of the scale you were referring to, but think I captured the correct ones in this comparison, using the scale for BA and MA (MA scale starting 2 years later, with decreased income reflected for first two years), applying a 1% cost of living increase each year to the scale or to prior year after the scale maxes out and assuming you borrow 40k and repay years 3-10, then the difference and cumulative difference between each scenario: So it would be about 16 years to start coming out ahead, but this doesn't account for the tax deduction of student loan interest. Some things in favor of borrowing for a MA, there are loan forgiveness programs for teachers, you might only make 5-years of minimum payments before having the remainder forgiven if you qualify for one of those programs. Not sure how retirement works for teachers in WA, but in some states you can get close to your maximum salary each year in retirement. Additionally, you can deduct student loan interest without itemizing your tax return, so that helps with the cost of the debt. Edit: I used a simple student loan calculator, if you financed the full 40k at 6% you'd be looking at $444 monthly payments for 10 years, or $5,328/year (not calculating the tax deduction for loan interest).


>The point is, the worker deserve a share of those profits. It is their work that has made them - in addition to the work of the CEO Uh, no. The main purpose of a corporation is to increase shareholders' wealth. Neither the workers, nor the CEO *deserve* anything from the profits, their pay has already been deducted as an expense. Profit is the residual income that is left to distribute to shareholders (you know, the guys who are risking everything. i.e. they are last to receive anything, if left, when a company goes bankrupt) as a dividend, or to reinvest in the company. If salaries are inadequately low, that is a whole different problem. Increase them, and have more adequate profit levels *next year*. But let's not get confused as to who deserves what. Personally, I find both Cat's remuneration's policy and the union's demands disgusting. So don't take this the wrong way. CEO is clearly overpaid already, but they did not just decide to give him a raise or something. Pay for performance measures are probably already in his contract. Maybe next time when that contract is renegotiated the remuneration board will propose more normal terms. The union on the other hand, with its unreasonable demands about seniority, and god knows what else, is likely to lead to many cut-backs (at the new terms), and unlikely, but possible, closure of the plant, leading to even more unemployment.


How do you manage things like right of way? Duplication of services etc? Are we to assume that all actors will build in good faith and allow all to access these pieces of infrastructure. What happens if we clog up all the first few meters of underground with network cable and the one water company needs to upgrade piping to meet population needs? Who co-ordinates all these kinds of things to ensure it works well? How are these people paid? Where do their interests lie? In the event of a big highway project tearing through a neighborhood who represents the people of the neighborhood and ensures their interests are heard as well? What about public services that are in no way profitable for a company to run or manage? I would love to just let the perfect free market reign however it completely ignores all kinds of physical and logistic realities.


Yep that wasn't a shot at you. I had to read the article to determine if it meant that: A.) A rule exists that makes it easier to sue banks, and republicans are killing it, OR B.) Republicans are killing a rule, creating a situation that makes it easier to sue banks


it seems you have 3 concerns:


"What would be the ""up front"" stuff? I make more than 40k, and have no debt. 0 debt. I don't own a house yet, so I pay rent and bills. No car loan, no school loans, etc. Don't run a balance on my credit card. Yet I still feel financially strained. I don't make 75k, although I do believe that would make me feel much *closer* to stable"


Apparently Amazon's legal team that is battling to prevent online retailers from getting taxed was not consulted as to whether an idea like this would look *really* bad for their case. It's brilliant, but a wee bit diabolical. Brick and mortar retailers really have no recourse against something like this.


"From Wikipedia - Stock: The stock (also capital stock) of a corporation constitutes the equity stake of its owners. It represents the residual assets of the company that would be due to stockholders after discharge of all senior claims such as secured and unsecured debt. Stockholders' equity cannot be withdrawn from the company in a way that is intended to be detrimental to the company's creditors Wikipedia - Dividend: A dividend is a payment made by a corporation to its shareholders, usually as a distribution of profits. When a corporation earns a profit or surplus, it can re-invest it in the business (called retained earnings), and pay a fraction of this reinvestment as a dividend to shareholders. Distribution to shareholders can be in cash (usually a deposit into a bank account) or, if the corporation has a dividend reinvestment plan, the amount can be paid by the issue of further shares or share repurchase. Wikipedia - Bond: In finance, a bond is an instrument of indebtedness of the bond issuer to the holders. It is a debt security, under which the issuer owes the holders a debt and, depending on the terms of the bond, is obliged to pay them interest (the coupon) and/or to repay the principal at a later date, termed the maturity date. Interest is usually payable at fixed intervals (semiannual, annual, sometimes monthly). Very often the bond is negotiable, i.e. the ownership of the instrument can be transferred in the secondary market. This means that once the transfer agents at the bank medallion stamp the bond, it is highly liquid on the second market. Thus, stock is about ownership in the company, dividends are the payments those owners receive, which may be additional shares or cash usually, and bonds are about lending money. Stocks are usually bought through brokers on various stock exchanges generally. An exception can be made under ""Employee Stock Purchase Plans"" and other special cases where an employee may be given stock or options that allow the purchase of shares in the company through various plans. This would apply for Canada and the US where I have experience just as a parting note. This is without getting into Convertible Bond that also exists: In finance, a convertible bond or convertible note or convertible debt (or a convertible debenture if it has a maturity of greater than 10 years) is a type of bond that the holder can convert into a specified number of shares of common stock in the issuing company or cash of equal value. It is a hybrid security with debt- and equity-like features. It originated in the mid-19th century, and was used by early speculators such as Jacob Little and Daniel Drew to counter market cornering. Convertible bonds are most often issued by companies with a low credit rating and high growth potential."


One way to think of net worth is to think if you sold everything you owned, how big of a pile of money would be standing next to you (assuming your net worth is positive). If you started with $100K and then bought a house worth $100K you would have $0 in the bank and a house. If you sold that house for $100K you would pay the realtor 6% (typically) or $6K leaving you with $94K. This means the act of buying your house has reduced your net worth by $6K. I asked a related question about how to value your home in your net worth.


"I don't want to sue them on my own. I don't want them sued in the first place. Anyone could see that this was a typical class-action suit with minimal merits that companies usually just pay off to make go away. Fucking ambulance chasing lawyers are fucking us all over, and those idiots like yourself who cover up for them. If only the judges would get some balls and say, ""Hey, this so called 'settlement' doesn't benefit the class at all and is basically a payoff for the scum sucking lawyers, so I'm going to deny it"". Good luck with that happening."


Without more information about what tax bracket you are in, I cannot make a recommendation about what your best option is, but here are a few things to consider:


More than likely you have signed an NDA with your employer with a non-compete clause within it. From what I have seen this clause would be in place for two years following the date you left your firm. So, leaving your firm and consulting as a 1099 for your current client is more than likely a violation of your NDA for 2 years or some period of time. With that being said, there is nothing keeping you from going off on your own as an independent and finding work, so long as that work isn't from one of the current clients of your firm. I am not a lawyer and everything above is what I have seen in my personal experience.


Please don't waste any more time feeling bad for merchants for the charges they incur. I don't know who supported the lobby for this rule, but issuers no longer can demand that merchants accept all transactions (even the unprofitable ones). I discussed this at length on my blog. Merchants accept credit cards for one reason, and one reason only: it brings them more business. More people will buy, and on average they'll buy more. They used to take the occasional hit for someone buying a pack of gum with a credit card, but they don't have to anymore. The new law restricts issuers from imposing minimum transactions that are less than $10. I use a rewards card wherever possible. I get a cheaper price. In most cases I don't care what the merchant has to pay. They've already factored it into their prices. But if you are concerned, then as fennec points out in his comment, cash is the way to go.


"The question ""do they?"" is a fair one, but the answer, ""we can only observe the past, and that's what they did,"" may not be so satisfying to you. It's safe to say that any longer term view of any market will show far less volatility than a short one. It only takes a glance at the return of the 2000's 2009 27.11 2008 -37.22 2007 5.46 2006 15.74 2005 4.79 2004 10.82 2003 28.72 2002 -22.27 2001 -11.98 2000 -9.11 (for the S&P) to see that in an awful decade containing -37% and -22% that the full decade was ""only"" down 9% in total or just less than 1% per year compounded. I'm not predicting any particular returns forward, just noting this is how the math works. DCA performs well through such a decade, better than in a rising one. You are offered the opportunity to buy into a market selling below the long term trend. Added note in response to Enno's answer below - On rereading the linked article, I see where the author cites Zvi Bodie who clearly made a logical error. He concludes that since a 20 month S&P put costs triple what a 2.3 mo put costs, that there's more risk the market falls over the longer period, not less. American options can be sold or exercised at any time. If a 2 year option were cheaper than a 2 month option, no one would buy the shorter term. It's pretty simple that the Options Pricing Models take time into account and their value, put or call, increases along with the time till expiration. On a lighter note, when I take the S&P data for 1871-2012 (I know, no S&P back then, but it's Schiller's data) I get average 40 year returns of 44X, similar to the author's conclusion, $1K growing to $44K. But, the Standard deviation is 28. So the high end of +1 STDEV is $72K, not the author's $166K. Although, the low end 44-28=16 comes close to his $14K figure. $16K is a 7.18% long term return which today doesn't look bad. When the article was written, the author was looking at a 6% short term risk free rate."


"I mean ""predestination"" in the context that some people ""have it"" to be entrepreneurs and some people don't. The requirements are for entrepreneurship are intangible - if we knew what they were then we'd be able to follow a checklist when starting a business, no business would ever fail and we'd all be multimillionaires. IMO some people have a ""natural aptitude"" for entrepreneurship - I don't know whether that's born or part of upbringing. But you can often see someone talking about their great idea or their plans for a fledging business and you think ""you don't have a chance, mate"" or ""that's just ridiculous - who'd pay for that?"" (or maybe just ""you've misjudged the market""). These people don't have that natural aptitude, as they prove when they fail. If you're a budding entrepreneur your parents, other members of your family and your friends are *not* qualified to assess your abilities - only other entrepreneurs are. Family and friends just have the wrong biases - if your family tell you that you'll never succeed then you can only prove them wrong by succeeding; if your friends tell you you have a great idea then fear that they may just be saying that to keep the peace and to avoid conflict. Chances are that neither of these two groups have entrepreneurship experience - the same applies to many people here on Reddit ascribing success to luck. If you approach an entrepreneur and tell them about your great idea then they'll be too polite to say ""you're an idiot"", so you have to ask them for their opinion, for mentoring (and then you'll probably have to read between the lines, because people are still too polite). What I'm not seeing is people with nous and who also work hard - I'm not seeing them failing. Not dramatically. The people I see failing there has always been a clue beforehand, I thought ""why the heck are you doing it that way, mate?"""


I was wondering why equity is reflecting ownership of the issuing entity? That is the definition of equity in this regard. My understanding is that for a stock/equity, its issuing entity is a company/firm that sells the stock/equity, while its receiving entity is an investor that buys the stock/equity Correct. equity reflects ownership of the receiving entity i.e. investor Incorrect. Equity reflects ownership by the receiving entity of the issuing entity. That is, when you buy stock in a company (taking an equity stake in the company) you buy a piece of the company. It would be rather odd for the company to own a piece of you when you buy their stock.


"You're potentially in very deep water here. You don't know who this person is that you're dealing with. Before you'd even met him, he just gave you his banking info, seemingly without a second thought. You have no idea what the sources of his money are, so what happens if the money is stolen or otherwise illegal? If it is determined that you used any of that money, you'll be on the hook to return it, at the very least. Who knows what the legal ramifications are either? So it sounds like you began spending his money before you had any kind of written agreement in place? Doesn't that seem odd to you to have someone just so trusting as to not even ask for that? Was the source of the email about the $2500 from PayPal, or from him or his advisor? PayPal always sends you a notice directly when funds are received into your account, and even if they were going to put a temporary hold on them for whatever reason (sometimes they do that), it would still show up in your account. I would HIGHLY (can I be more emphatic?) advise you not to go anywhere NEAR his bank account until or unless you can absolutely verify who he is, where his money comes from, and what the situation is. If you start dipping into his account, whether you think you're somehow entitled to the money or not, he could cry foul and have you arrested for theft. This is a very odd situation, and for someone who says he's normally cautious and skeptical, you sure let your guard down here when you started spending his money without making any serious effort to confirm his bona fides. Just because he passes himself off as smart and the ""doctor type"" doesn't mean squat. The very best scammers can do that (ever see the movie ""Catch Me If You Can"", based on a true story?), so you have no basis for knowing he's anything at all. I am thoroughly confused as to why you'd just willfully start using his money without knowing anything about him. That's deeply disconcerting, because you've opened yourself up to a world of potential criminal and civil liability if this situation goes south. If this guy was giving you money as an investment in your business and you instead used some of that money for your own personal expenses then you could land in very serious trouble for co-mingling of funds. Even if he told you it was okay, it doesn't sound like there's anything in writing, so he could just as easily deny giving you permission to use the money that way and have you charged with embezzlement. You need to step back, take a deep breath, stop using his money, and contact a lawyer for advice. Every attorney will give you a free consultation, and you need to protect yourself here. Be careful, my friend. If this makes you suspicious then you need to listen to that voice in your head and find a way to get out of this situation."


Think of Ether (the units of Ethereum) as the gas that's required to power applications and transactions on a decentralized version of AWS. If you foresee a future that involves an internet that runs applications without central ownership of the cloud servers, then investing in Ethereum is a good idea. Think of it as buying futures on computational power. Keep in mind, Ethereum (unlike Bitcoin) isn't designed to be a long-term store of value. ~95 million Ether exist today and ~10 million more are mined each year. That being said, demand still seems to be greater than existing + new supply. **Disclosure** - I hold a signifiant amount of my net worth in bitcoin with a much smaller position in Ethereum.


"Tivo and listerine strips in my humble opinion are examples of ""first movers""who stopped innovating after entering their product to the market. The competition simply developed better products or a new tech came along and they were unresponsive to those changes."


You missed the point of my post entirely. I don't have an issue with Walmarts tax rate, I'm stating that if all their employee's unionized and demanded livable wages that the corporation could pay them without even losing 20% of their net profits. At that point, perhaps the U.S. govt wouldn't have to pay the est 3 billion in assistance payments these employee's currently get. Comes down to making a company pay it's work force. Don't even imply that it would hurt their bottom line. It wouldn't.


It isn't illegal to hold money in overseas accounts. It is illegal if you don't report it. If the money is outside the US, it is hard for IRS to know about it. That's the reason people who have money to hide take their chances with overseas accounts. Hope this simple explanation helps.


Yeah 50 peaople in one slim industry that is mostly exempted. Thats a real study right? The reality is there is less jobs. You can't raise the price of labour and still be competitive with technology. Every extra dollar up just goes to taxes any way. All those people who used to get returns will now be getting a nice bill to welcome them to their new tax bracket. But keep lying to yourself as you edge towards the Venezuela model of starvation.


I think you need to go to a local bank and ask. The key thing is paper trail. For any mortgage I've gotten on a new purchase, the bank needs to see where the down payment came from and how it got to the seller. In this case, it can go either way. If the value is truly 100% to the 80% you are looking to finance, and the paper trail is legit, this may work just fine. The issue others seem to have is that simply buying at a 20% discount is not a legit way to finance the 80%. Here, it appears to me that the 20% came from you in installments, via the rent.


Read more closely: If you do not change your current withholding arrangement, you will have $7,817 withheld for 2014 resulting in an overpayment of $2,467. and later... Assuming this recommendation is in effect for the rest of 2014... If you do nothing you would get a refund of the full $2,467. If you follow the advice of whoever wrote that you wouldn't pay as much tax for the rest of the year and consequently will get back less when you file, because you are getting it back now.


You need a source of delisted historical data. Such data is typically only available from paid sources. According to my records, Lawson Software Inc listed on the NASDAQ on 7 Dec 2001 and delisted on 6 Jul 2011. Its final traded price was $11.23. It was taken over by Infor who bid $11.25 per share. Source: Symbol LWSN-201107 within Premium Data US delisted stocks historical data set available from http://www.premiumdata.net/products/premiumdata/ushistorical.php Disclosure: I am a co-owner of Norgate / Premium Data.


"This is the best tl;dr I could make, [original](http://www.seattletimes.com/seattle-news/transportation/100000-per-parking-space-costs-soar-for-sound-transits-kent-park-and-ride-garage/) reduced by 93%. (I'm a bot) ***** > The agency says cost estimates have soared to $65 million, compared to the previous $35 million, to add as many as 550 spaces by 2023 at the Sounder train station in Kent, which already has one big garage. > Staff will present options and answer questions from 4-7 p.m. Tuesday, Sept. 19, at the station, 23 A St. S.W. Sumner Station: Sound Transit will build a garage, sidewalks and lighting, adding a net 505 stalls by 2021, for $52 million. > Sound Transit says 51 percent of riders drive to Kent Station, but the 12 percent &quot;Walk&quot; share includes many who park off-site. ***** [**Extended Summary**](http://np.reddit.com/r/autotldr/comments/70d07p/100000_per_parking_space_costs_soar_for_sound/) | [FAQ](http://np.reddit.com/r/autotldr/comments/31b9fm/faq_autotldr_bot/ ""Version 1.65, ~210651 tl;drs so far."") | [Feedback](http://np.reddit.com/message/compose?to=%23autotldr ""PM's and comments are monitored, constructive feedback is welcome."") | *Top* *keywords*: **park**^#1 **station**^#2 **garage**^#3 **Sound**^#4 **Kent**^#5"


It pretty much comes down to where you interview and what you are trying to do. Finance is something that you learn. While yes, you can major in it (I did), it is really about how clever you are. You need to be creative in the way you perceive the problems that come at you. Since you seem to be quantitative in nature, you should be fine. When a hiring manager reads your resume he/she will see that. They are probably tired of hearing interviewees drone on about how they would buy this vanilla stock because of a PE ratio or a solid balance sheet. Everyone is the same. If you can stand out, you can probably get a job wherever you want to within the realm of finance (with some minor exceptions). Odds are if you work at BB I-bank you will be trained in any sort of finance they deem necessary for you to be aware of. Know some basic stuff. If you major in mathematics or stats or what-have you, you must be intelligent. Buy a few novels. The Quants, FIASCO, The Big Short, Liars Poker, Black Swan, Boomerang, A Random Walk Down Wall Street. These will expose you to the ethos of a typical wall streeter. You will also learn a few things about major events of the past and what is going on in the present. Over all: Math is key. Know some programming (R, python, maybe perl). VBA is whack. Know your Excel (no mouse!) Programming is a huge skill set that will set you apart from kids who were involved in random clubs. If you have a skill you are more valuable to a company compared to someone with a supposed knowledge of a subject matter. When I came out of school I knew my academics, but never had applied any of it to a real world problem. Your resume is not about what you have learned in the past, it is all about demonstrating what you are capable of learning. If you can show that you are intelligent and a go-getter from your resume, you will do fine no matter what you studied. Best of luck!


Have seen analysis that at least one state won't be able to repay their obligations using reasonable assumptions, I'm sure it applies to more. A lot of greed went into securitizing those payments the way they did.


No. $188.23 has $11.76 tax = $199.99 $188.24 has $11.77 tax - $200.01 So, unless the based price contained the half cent for $188.235, the register would never show $200.00 even. How does the receipt to customer look?


"A retail revolving account is essentially a credit card offered by a store (or chain of stores) and usable only at that store. In my area, the Sears department store's ""Sears card"" would be a good example. Stores offer these to capture a bit more profit from the transaction. They don't have to pay someone else's processing fees, and they get to keep any interest you pay. Of course they also accept the costs that go along with retail lending. It operates just like any other revolving-credit card. Read the fine print of the agreement to see what the grace period is, if any, and what APR they're charging after that. These cards also serve as a marketing tool. Some stores don't accept any other card. Some can do ""instant approvals"" to encourage you to make a large purchase now rather than continuing to shop around. Some may offer special deals only if you use their card -- I paid 0% interest for a year on my refrigerator, which was convenient for me. And so on. Gasoline stations also used to offer their own cards... though these days it's common for them to offer a branded version of one of the major credit cards instead."


"A major thing to consider when deciding whether to invest or pay off debt is cash flow. Specifically, how each choice affects your cash flow, and how your cash flow is affected by various events. Simply enough, your cash flow is the amount of money that passes through your finances during a given period (often a month or a year). Some of this is necessary payments, like staying current on loans, rent, etc., while other parts are not necessary, such as eating out. For example, you currently have $5,500 debt at 3% and another $2,500 at 5%. This means that every month, your cashflow effect of these loans is ($5,500 * 3% / 12) + ($2,500 * 5% / 12) = $24 interest (before any applicable tax effects), plus any required payments toward the principal which you don't state. To have the $8,000 paid off in 30 years, you'd be paying another $33 toward the principal, for a total of about $60 per month before tax effects in your case. If you take the full $7,000 you have available and use it to pay off the debt starting with the higher-interest loan, then your situation changes such that you now: Assuming that the repayment timeline remains the same, the cashflow effect of the above becomes $1,000 * 3% / 12 = $2.50/month interest plus $2.78/month toward the principal, again before tax effects. In one fell swoop, you just reduced your monthly payment from $60 to $5.25. Per year, this means $720 to $63, so on the $7,000 ""invested"" in repayment you get $657 in return every year for a 9.4% annual return on investment. It will take you about 11 years to use only this money to save another $7,000, as opposed to the 30 years original repayment schedule. If the extra payment goes toward knocking time off the existing repayment schedule but keeping the amount paid toward the principal per month the same, you are now paying $33 toward the principal plus $2.50 interest against the $1,000 loan, which means by paying $35.50/month you will be debt free in 30 months: two and a half years, instead of 30 years, an effective 92% reduction in repayment time. You immediately have another about $25/month in your budget, and in two and a half years you will have $60 per month that you wouldn't have if you stuck with the original repayment schedule. If instead the total amount paid remains the same, you are then paying about $57.50/month toward the principal and will be debt free in less than a year and a half. Not too shabby, if you ask me. Also, don't forget that this is a known, guaranteed return in that you know what you would be paying in interest if you didn't do this, and you know what you will be paying in interest if you do this. Even if the interest rate is variable, you can calculate this to a reasonable degree of certainty. The difference between those two is your return on investment. Compare this to the fact that while an investment in the S&P might have similar returns over long periods of time, the stock market is much more volatile in the shorter term (as the past two decades have so eloquently demonstrated). It doesn't do you much good if an investment returns 10% per year over 30 years, if when you need the money it's down 30% because you bought at a local peak and have held the investment for only a year. Also consider if you go back to school, are you going to feel better about a $5.25/month payment or a $60/month payment? (Even if the payments on old debt are deferred while you are studying, you will still have to pay the money, and it will likely be accruing interest in the meantime.) Now, I really don't advocate emptying your savings account entirely the way I did in the example above. Stuff happens all the time, and some stuff that happens costs money. Instead, you should be keeping some of that money easily available in a liquid, non-volatile form (which basically means a savings account without withdrawal penalties or a money market fund, not the stock market). How much depends on your necessary expenses; a buffer of three months' worth of expenses is an often recommended starting point for an emergency fund. The above should however help you evaluate how much to keep, how much to invest and how much to use to pay off loans early, respectively."


I think people are worried that this woman is going to become the sole scapegoat for the whole fiasco and the rest of the Equifax leadership is going to walk away scot-free. The CEO won't face any penalties for selling his shares after the incident, the board won't be held to task for waiting six weeks to reveal the hack, and any legislation that could prevent such incidents from occurring again will be nipped in the bud.


If you truly believe your idea is viable, I'd reccommend against going to kickstarter for funding. There are people who make a living by beating kickstarters to market (see the article I linked below). Think about it; you'll have to wait 30 days, employ a developer, then wait for your app to be developed. If you launch on kickstarter, more talented and organized competition will start making competitors once your project gains traction. I'm not entirely sure that a software patent can protect you from this. If you believe in your idea and can adequately explain your vision I'd suggest you pitch it to investors or people you know who may be willing to invest and develop it away from the public eye. Apps don't really have a great track record on kickstarter anyways, and you do need a working orototype IIRC


the difference is whose money is being invested. when you deposit money in a bank, it is FDIC insured and capital requirements are set to ensure the preservation of your deposits. if the bank wants to make huge derivative bets, with leverage inherent in the instrument or provided by another bank, deposits are involved in the equation.


Is my financial status OK? If not, how can I improve it? I'm going to concentrate on this question, particularly the first half. Net income $4500 per month (I'm taking this to be after taxes; correct me if wrong). Rent is $1600 and other expenses are up to $800. So let's call that $2500. That leaves you $2000 a month, which is $24,000 a year. You can contribute up to $18,000 a year to a 401k and if you want to maintain your income in retirement, you probably should. The average social security payment now is under $1200. You have an above average income but not a maximum income. So let's set that at $1500. You need an additional income stream of $900 a month in retirement plus enough to cover taxes. Another $5500 for an IRA (probably a Roth). That's $23,500. That leaves you $500 a year of reliable savings for other purposes. Another $5500 for an IRA (probably a Roth). That's $23,500. That leaves you $500 a year of reliable savings for other purposes. You are basically even. Your income is just about what you need to cover expenses and retirement. You could cover a monthly mortgage payment of $1600 and have a $100,000 down payment. That probably gets you around a $350,000 house, although check property taxes. They have to come out of the $1600 a month. That doesn't seem like a lot for a Bay area house even if it would buy a mansion in rural Mississippi. Perhaps think condo instead. Try to keep at least $15,000 to $27,000 as emergency savings. If you lose your job or get stuck with a required expense (e.g. a major house repair), you'll need that money. You don't have enough income to support a car unless it saves you money somewhere. $500 a year is probably not going to cover insurance, parking, gas, and maintenance. It's possible that you could tighten up your expenses, but in my experience, people are more likely to underestimate their expenses than overestimate. That's why I'm saying $2500 (a little above the high end) rather than $2000 (your low end estimate). If things are stable, wait a year and evaluate. Track your actual spending. Ask yourself if you made any large purchases. Your budget should include an appliance (TV, refrigerator, washer/dryer, etc.) a year. If you're not paying for that now (included in rent?), then you need to allow for it in your ownership budget. I do not consider an ESPP to be a reliable investment vehicle. Consider the Enron possibility. You wake up one day and find out that there is no actual money. Your stock is now worthless. A diversified portfolio can survive this. If you lose your job and your investment, you'll be stuck with just your savings. Hopefully you didn't just tie them up in a house that you might have to sell to take your next job in a different location. An ESPP might work as savings for the house. If something goes wrong, don't buy the house. But it's not retirement or emergency savings. I would say that you are OK but could be better. Get your retirement savings started. That does two things. One, it gives you money for retirement. Two, it keeps you from having extra money now when it is easy to develop expensive habits. An abrupt drop from $4500 in spending to $1200 will hurt. A smooth transition from $2500 to $2500 is what you would like to see. You are behind now, but you have the opportunity to catch up for a few years. Work out how much you'll get from Social Security and how much you need to cover your typical expenses with the occasional emergency. Expect high health care costs in retirement. Medicare covers a lot but not everything, and health care is only getting more expensive. Don't forget to assume higher taxes in the future to help cover that expense and the existing debt. After a few years of catch up contributions, work out your long term plan assuming a reasonable real (after inflation) rate of return. If you can reduce the $23,500 in retirement contributions then, that's OK. But be pessimistic. Most people overestimate good things and underestimate bad things. It's much better to have extra than not enough. A 401k comes with an administrator and your choice of mutual funds. Try for diversification. Some money in bonds (25% to 30%). The remainder in stocks. Look for index funds. Try for a mix of value and growth, as they'll do better at different times. As you approach retirement, you can convert some of that into shorter term, lower yield investments. The rough rule of thumb is to have two to five years of withdrawals in short term investments like money market funds. But that's more than twenty years off. You have more choices with an IRA. In particular, you can choose your own administrator. But I'd keep the same stock/bond mix and stick to index funds if you're not interested in researching the more complex options. You may want to invest your IRA in a growth fund and your 401k in value funds and bonds. Then balance the stock/bond mix across both. When you invest each year, look at the underrepresented funds and add the most to them. So if bonds had a bad year and didn't keep pace, invest in bonds. They're probably cheap. You don't want to rebalance frequently, but once a year might be a good pace. That's about how often you should invest in an IRA, so that can be a good time. I'll let the others answer on the financial advisor part.


Group home riches help to initiate a noble cause with a proper guidance as regards to How to start a Halfway home? It basically instills the knowledge of a social responsibility in a profit-making way. Group home riches teach the ways to acquire freedom emotionally, spiritually and last but not the least financially by helping others.


Years ago, I just stopped watching TV with all the bullshit. At best, I'll DVR something and just skip the bullshit. The household is much nicer without some braindead racket always spouting off. As far as I can tell, Television's tactics are just driving the tech savvy to get content via the internet in one fashion or another.


There is something special that binds workers together, and too few of us recognize it. We work. Every man for himself? If only that were true. Capital is very well-organized and working collectively for its best interests, and you can bet your ass they look out for each other. And it's better for them if they keep the rest of us divided and hating on the people slightly worse-off than we are.


The short Answer is NO, HMRC do not like disguised employment which is what this is as you fall under IR35 you can bill them via an umbrella company and you should be charging the contractor rate not a permie rate. http://www.contractoruk.com/


You don't get any tax benefit. When you are helping a relative or a friend in such situations the income is just gone. The only way to get around this is if you contribute to a charity, and they give it to your mom. You can then deduct the contributions to that charity. However, the IRS has cracked down on such situations and it probably is not worth pursuing. By the recent tax rules, that charity can use those contributions in which every way they choose, they cannot guarantee they go to your mom. Given that you are closed to your allowed exclusion (14K for 2017), I would work to keep your number under that. If you are married, you each get that exclusion so you can give up to 28K. I can't really speak to the reduction of benefits part as I am knowledgeable and more details on the type of transfer payments she receives would be germane to the discussion.


The simple answer is that whatever strategy is implemented with e-series, could be implemented at a lower cost with ETFs.


Having stock options means that you have worked for and rightfully earned a part of the company's capital appreciation. Takeover of the company would indicate someone is interested in the company (something should be valuable). It would be unwise to not strike before the period lapses since the strike price is always lower than market price and takeovers generally increases stock values ... it is capital gains all the way my friend. Good luck. *observations not in professional capacity. pls consult a professional for investment related advice.


I wonder if any successful artificial intelligence project will ultimately need to make shortcuts that lead to the same flaws as human intelligence? (If I might pretend greater knowledge of the human mind than I have - this means: tendency to be correct to a certain level of precision rather than completely correct, to fudge, to round edges, to go by guidelines rather than rules.)


Indeed, I've read that financial shenanigans account for over 40% of all wealth generated now, with the vast majority going to the already wealthy. So, basically, financial gaming of the system, which creates nothing except for massive wealth inequity, is on its way to becoming the top generator of wealth in out country.


It's not really like im am going to lose my money unless I was doing penny stocks. And throwing away that much for a vacation when student debt will probally exist in my life later on appears not wise.


Pear Plaza Building là Tòa nhà văn phòng cho thuê được thiết kế với diện tích sàn và bước cột lớn, không gian văn phòng tại Pearl Plaza có khả năng bố trí linh hoạt các mặt bằng làm việc và tận dụng tối đa các diện tích sử dụng đem lại hiệu quả kinh tế cao. Giải pháp thiết kế tiết kiệm năng lượng và hướng đến mục tiêu công trình xanh là định hướng thiết kế chủ đạo của khối văn phòng tại Pear Plaza Building, mặt tiền được tiết giảm các mặt kính nhằm giảm lượng bức xạ mặt trời nhưng vẫn duy trì sự cân bằng chiếu sáng và thông thoáng tự nhiên, đem lại không gian làm việc năng động và thịnh vượng.


One of these things is not like the other, one of these things just isn't the same... >We watch TV and movie content on 4 different screens, depending on which is convenient (***TV, laptops, phones, iPad***) Three of these are a class. One of these is an instance. We do not group classes with instances.


The idea here is to get an idea of how to value each business and thus normalize how highly prized is each dollar that a company makes. While some companies may make millions and others make billions, how does one put these in proper context? One way is to consider a dollar in earnings for the company. How does a dollar in earnings for Google compare to a dollar for Coca-cola for example? Some companies may be valued much higher than others and this is a way to see that as share price alone can be rather misleading since some companies can have millions of shares outstanding and split the shares to keep the share price in a certain range. Thus the idea isn't that an investor is paying for a dollar of earnings but rather how is that perceived as some companies may not have earnings and yet still be traded as start-ups and other companies may be running at a loss and thus the P/E isn't even meaningful in this case. Assuming everything but the P/E is the same, the lower P/E would represent a greater value in a sense, yes. However, earnings growth rate can account for higher P/Es for some companies as if a company is expected to grow at 40% for a few years it may have a higher P/E than a company growing earnings at 5% for example.


I can't immediately think of a reason to keep your paycheck and spending account separate, unless it be because you want to keep your savings in a money market or savings account and you deposit your paycheck into a checking account. However, I do have one reason from my experience to keep the bulk of your savings away from accounts that you transfer stuff out of. I used to keep all my cash savings in an account from which I transferred money into my brokerage account (my paycheck was also deposited there). A couple of years back a state that I haven't lived in since I was a child took $40,000 out of my account. The broker mistakenly told the state I lived there and the state made some mistakes about how much tax I would owe. Without either one telling me, the state helped themselves to my checking account to cover the bill. When I called, both acknowledged that they were wrong, but it still took a long time (many months) and lots of letters and threats (I was close to paying a lawyer) before they returned my money. It was worse because this was my savings for a down payment on a home and having it taken and not returned affected my ability to buy the house I wanted. If I hadn't had my money in that account, they would have tried to garnish my wages, and would have immediately stopped their attempt once they found out they were in the wrong. Now I keep cash savings in an account that I never pay taxes out of and do not use to transfer money directly to any broker or anyone who might give my account number to an inept government.


"> I'm not sure how to answer that. It's all just speculation. The competition is waiting for the first big mover to do just what TSLA is going.. being the first mover, then coming in and wiping the floor with them. It's very funny that you call an analysis of the *current* state of the industry speculation, and then go on to talk about something you think is going to happen...which, by the way, has had six years to happen and hasn't yet. Also, it's as if you don't think first mover advantage exists. Six years is a long time to build up a lead, especially in automotive, where product cycles and development times are so long. >If you want to argue that all of the last 30 years of free markets and the value of specialization is wrong, go ahead. Honestly, look up the words ""vertical integration"" before continuing the conversation. And the word ""Panasonic"" as well. >They are committing massive capital to old technology. That's a loser play, but it will help the industry as a whole and those that are going to come in with the next generation of batteries while TSLA is stuck with massive capital in lithium ion. But wait, I thought you said they were wrong because ""ACTUAL BATTERY COMPANIES"" aren't involved? And that ACTUAL BATTERY COMPANIES know better than them? But I guess the ACTUAL BATTERY COMPANIES don't actually know anything, and they should listen to an idiot on the internet who has so far proven himself to be wrong about everything he's said? >It seems Panasonic is not as optimistic about the plant as you are. Well, again, if you listened to the call, which is a pretty basic first step to talking about the quarterly results, which for some reason you insist on continuing to do despite being completely ignorant of them, then you might not be saying such stupid things. Panasonic, you see, is a rather conservative Japanese company. This is even mentioned in your article when they talk about plasma displays. This is why they are always measured in their public statements, because that's what Japanese companies do. But, as specified in the call, Panasonic's actions as a partner to Tesla have always been excellent. And if you actually bothered to read your own article, you would see that they've committed to 2 billion cells and 200-300 million for the factory. You know, an ACTUAL BATTERY COMPANY. And if you actually bothered to read any *other* article, you would see that that very same quote of yours was followed up with ""However, Tesla is a very important partner to us and discussions are continuing. We need to look very carefully at auto demand and respond appropriately so of course that means taking a step-by-step approach to investment."" Also, there have been rumors of talks with LG and Samsung should Panasonic not decide to partner. I'm not sure I believe the rumors, and also I think they're unnecessary, because Panasonic will be a full partner in the gigafactory. They know that Tesla has been a huge source of profit for them, and their automotive supply (i.e. Tesla) has been one of the best-performing parts of their company for some time now. Mark my words, Panasonic's investment will end up being approximately $1 billion, all told. You can come back in a few years and check, if you like. >To keep the sucks putting up money. You mean, like an ACTUAL BATTERY COMPANY? The ones putting up the money? So, since your point was so reliant on ACTUAL BATTERY COMPANIES having expertise and specialization and so on, does that mean you're now dropping that point, because you realized your bullshit wouldn't fly, and moving on to another sort of bullshit until one of them sticks? Because if you'd like to fix your ignorance, I can help you with that. But if you wouldn't, as seems to be the case, it seems somewhat like a waste of time to continue trying to explain basic concepts to you."


Did I ever say that? You are putting words in my mouth. There have been many cases of supposed contamination from fracking. None yet *confirmed*. That's all I'm saying, it's all I have ever said, and you posted a title that is *probably* not correct.


It may work with an individual selling things but not for a retailer. Imagine the price of an iPhone increasing week on week and then stabilising. Again, this won't work for luxury/veblen goods. How do we go about it? Focus groups, user surveys, test markets. Not second guessing the price. You will lose all customer loyalty, piss of the later buyers who paid more for it, you'll be seen as fickle and not trustworthy. One pricing, all people, all markets, all time.


Open an account with a US discount online broker, or with a European broker with access to the US market. I think ETRADE allow non-resident accounts, for instance, amongst others. The brokerage will be about $10, and there is no annual fee. (So you're ~1% down out of the gate, but that's not so much.) Brokers may have a minimum transaction value but very few exchanges care about the number of shares anymore, and there is no per-share fee. As lecrank notes, putting all your savings into a single company is not prudent, but having a flutter with fun money on Apple is harmless. Paul is correct that dividend cheques may be a slight problem for non-residents. Apple don't pay dividends so there's no problem in this specific case. More generally your broker will give you a cash account into which the dividends can go. You may have to deal with US tax which is more of an annoyance than a cost.


"i hate to say it, and i will probably be downvoted to oblivion, but i don't think you can do anything. i'm not an expert, so i might be wrong, but if greece (or any euro country, for that matters) decides to exit the euro, the currency will be dead within the week. that, from what i've read in various newspapers, will be an incredibly bad news for the european economy. which *will* collapse in a very short period of time. then the collapse would propagate (more or less slowly, more or less significantly) to other economies, especially china and US, possibly middle east, too. at that point, you (well, we) have a major economic cataclysm. would it really matter if you had a tiny bit more money than your neighbour, if production stops, goods don't move that much anymore, and your country is generally in such a deep shit that the potato famine will look like a day in eurodisney? i agree with what other people are saying: they will not allow the euro to fall. ""they"" sounds like hidden conspiracies, but even if european leaders have taught us that we can expect the worse from them (2 world wars in the last centuries are just the quicker reminder of their stupidity), there's the americans, the chineses, and so on. i think the worst thing you, or anyone else in europe, can do is panicking and moving their money around. if the exchange rate with the euro is not fixed (and nothing is) you still have a chance to lose a significant amount of money in the short-medium run, in a worst case scenario. chill. relax. if you're really desperate and think that things *will* go bad, try turning a hobby into another job, especially if you can do it online and can bring you a steady income eventually. **TL; DR: if the world economy collapse, you will still lose money. live happy. chill.**"


"Does your job give you access to ""confidential information"", such that you can only buy or sell shares in the company during certain windows? Employees with access to company financial data, resource planning databases, or customer databases are often only allowed to trade in company securities (or derivatives thereof) during certain ""windows"" a few days after the company releases its quarterly earnings reports. Even those windows can be cancelled if a major event is about to be announced. These windows are designed to prevent the appearance of insider trading, which is a serious crime in the United States. Is there a minimum time that you would need to hold the stock, before you are allowed to sell it? Do you have confidence that the stock would retain most of its value, long enough that your profits are long-term capital gains instead of short-term capital gains? What happens to your stock if you lose your job, retire, or go to another company? Does your company's stock price seem to be inflated by any of these factors: If any of these nine warning flags are the case, I would think carefully before investing. If I had a basic emergency fund set aside and none of the nine warning flags are present, or if I had a solid emergency fund and the company seemed likely to continue to justify its stock price for several years, I would seriously consider taking full advantage of the stock purchase plan. I would not invest more money than I could afford to lose. At first, I would cash out my profits quickly (either as quickly as allowed, or as quickly as lets me minimize my capital gains taxes). I would reinvest in more shares, until I could afford to buy as many shares as the company would allow me to buy at the discount. In the long-run, I would avoid having more than one-third of my net worth in any single investment. (E.g., company stock, home equity, bonds in general, et cetera.)"


It is crazy. The same guy (Madigan) has been in power since the EARLY 80's, and yet public opinion is split about 50/50 between whether he or governor Rauner who has been in power 2 years is to blame. Politicians paid off unions through unfunded pensions to members to ensure support. This has happened for decades, and has finally gotten to the point where the money ran out and the pensions are falling due. Illinois and Chicago also regularly borrow for day to day government expenses (as opposed to infrastructure). This means much of the debt being paid off today, paid for government expenditure decades ago in areas today's residents gain no benefit.


First, I would agree with you that the Stock market is too high and risky now. I became extremely conservative with my investments in the last 3 months. But that high stock market is an indicator about the expectations that the economy will do good (under Trump). If there was a projection that the economy is going to be harmed by Trump, there would be a big correction soon after the elections. Remember: one wrong statement of even action from Trump, and the stock market crashes. Whether Trump is responsible in the last 6 months to the improvement in the economy or not, do you see anything he does in regards to the economy (economy, not politics) that will hurt the economy?


It sounds like you're starting a fitness club. Consult your tax professional, but likely you will need to at a minimum report the $100 / year per member as income and pay taxes accordingly. Your friend is simply paying less per year if he introduces someone to your gym, so he should be fine since it is just an expense reimbursement. In addition, you should verify the laws in your area relating to fitness facilities, the required permits, etc.


Investing in mutual funds, ETF, etc. won't build a large pool of money. Be an active investor if your nature aligns. For e.g. Invest in buying out a commercial space (on bank finance) like a office space and then rent it out. That would give you better return than a savings account. In few years time, you may be able to pay back your financing and then the total return is your net return. Look for options like this for a multiple growth in your worth.


My former accountant, used to provide this service as part of him doing my taxes. During the off season, he would provide a planning session and he would review strategies that I might look into. Since he did not make any money off of providing investments, he was about as unbiased as one could be. However, something like that might not be enough for you guys. You could go with someone online, Scottrade is going into the business of providing advice, as well as Charles Schwab or Fidelity, but you might need someone more personal. In that case, I would use my network. Talk to people, ask who they use, like, and respect. I would say it is very easy to find mediocre investment advisers, the good ones are hard. I would look for one that teaches. It is very easy to tell someone what to do, much harder to teach them what is the right thing. One thing that is easy about your situation: Planning to buy a home. Put money for a down payment in a high interest savings account. What I mean by high interest, is they still pay almost nothing. You can't really make a mistake. If you find one with .5% instead of .85%, what is the real difference after 5 years? About $180?


You'd probably have to sue them to get the money. In most cases those statements have disclaimers all over them telling you about the vesting period and technically that extra money was probably never really in your account. Normally the statements also break out the actual contributions from the employer match part and have a footnote about the vesting policy. Unless the employer was completely incompetent in their management of this account, I am betting they will have documentation of the policy that you supposedly were given. You probably have very slim chances of prevailing on this unless they were very lax in their documentation. I'd say re-check the statements and your employee manually carefully for any mention of vesting. If you don't find it, ask the employer (nicely) where you were notified of this. If they still can't produce any documentation, then sue them.


"In the United States, copyrights are [automatic](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Copyright#Copyright_notices_in_the_United_States). If you are the first to publish your name and logo, they're yours. All done. If you want to be official you can use the little © and the year, but it is unnecessary. If you want better protection, you can register for a trademark with the [United States Patent and Trademark Office](http://www.uspto.gov/trademarks/basics/). There are probably ""sites"" that will help you do this, but I would get a real attorney if it's that important to you."


"The general answer is: ""it depends on how long you want to live there"". Here is a good calculator to figure it out: http://www.nytimes.com/interactive/business/buy-rent-calculator.html Basically, if you plan to move in a few years, then renting makes more sense. It is a lot easier to move from an apartment when your lease is up versus selling a house, which can be subject to fluctuations in the real-estate market. As an example, during the real estate bubble, a lot of ""young professional"" types bought condos and town homes instead of renting. Now these people are married with kids, need to move somewhere bigger, but they can't get rid of their old place because they can't sell it for what they still owe. If these people had rented for a few years, they would be in a better position financially. (Many people fell for the mantra ""If you are renting, you are throwing your money away"", without looking at the long-term implications.) However, your question is a little unique, because you mentioned renting for the rest of your life, and putting the savings into an investment, which is a cool idea. (Thinking outside the box, I like it.) I'm going to assume you mean ""rent the same place for many years"" versus ""moving around the country every few years"". If you are staying in one place for a long time, I am going to say that buying a house is probably a better option. Here's why: So what about investing? Let's look at some numbers: So, based on the above, I say that buying a house is the way to go (as long as you plan to live in the same place for several years). However, if you could find a better investment than the Dow, or if mortgage interest rates change drastically, things could tip in another direction. Addendum: CrimsonX brought up a good point about the costs of owning a house (upkeep and property taxes), which I didn't mention above. However, I don't think they change my answer. If you rent, you are still paying those costs. They are just hidden from you. Your landlord pays the contractor or the tax man, and then you pay the landlord as part of your rent."


"The spin off and IPO were not to avoid conflicts of interest. They were to make money for the Consulting and non-Consulting partners. A lot of spinoffs weren't friendly. For example, KPMG partners didn't want to break off into BearingPoint but were pushed out by more senior partners. But in all these cases, the sale/spinoff of consulting arms made a lot of money for the partners (usually more for the non-consulting partners). edit: also Accenture can't really be considered ""Big4"" anymore and doesn't really compete with the Big4 consulting groups as they are a different kind of consulting company. Accenture is more in the lines of IBM, Dell, etc since they don't have the whole ""get rich as a partner scheme"" going for them like all the private Big4s."


It says expense ratio of 0.14%. What does it mean? Essentially it means that they will take 0.14% of your money, regardless of the performance. This measures how much money the fund spends out of its assets on the regular management expenses. How much taxes will I be subject to This depends on your personal situation, not much to do with the fund (though investment/rebalancing policies may affect the taxable distributions). If you hold it in your IRA - there will be no taxes at all. However, some funds do have measures of non-taxable distributions vs dividends vs. capital gains. Not all the funds do that, and these are very rough estimates anyway. What is considered to be a reasonable expense ratio? That depends greatly on the investment policy. For passive index funds, 0.05-0.5% is a reasonable range, while for actively managed funds it can go up as much as 2% and higher. You need to compare to other funds with similar investment policies to see where your fund stands.