I'm going to go out on a limb and say the issue isn't so much construction productivity as it is financial security. It's not uncommon for large projects to start off the belief that the money will show up by the time the project is over, look at the US, major road projects are started off the assumption that tax receipts will pay for the roads if the receipts don't then everything gets back logged which just costs even more money as nothing is done.


"> I don't have a lot of time to keep going back and forth. It seems like we differ on a bunch of things.  Okay, I'll try to respect your time and just point out where I think we disagree factually and then end with a general question.  > That makes sense as the electric company does not own the utility poles...  The utility poles and municipal electrical delivery infrastructure is generally owned by the electric company. (Who do you see repairing it when it breaks?) [It was 1996 order by the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission that requires the electric companies to share it like a public resource](https://www.ferc.gov/legal/maj-ord-reg/land-docs/order888.asp).  > No one would by a coffee pot if there was a known fire-starting issue with those coffee pots.  I think this is a key difference of opinion between us.  I would be a lot more pro-free-market if I believed that the consumer could always make a complete, informed decision.  I am certain an individual cannot.  The manufacturer is certainly not going to tell potential customers that their product is dangerous and neither consumers nor stores have the tools to confirm a faulty product or the voice to inform the world.  Consider the quintessential example of the health effects of smoking.  [It was 1950 when there was strong evidence that smoking was correlated to lung cancer](https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC2038856/).  The tobacco companies when on a huge, successful, disinformation campaign that was so good [after almost twenty years only one-third of doctors believed cigarettes to be dangerous](http://tobaccocontrol.bmj.com/content/21/2/87).  [In 1965 the US Government added warning labels to cigarette packages but in 1981 the FTC found this was of poor effectiveness of informing consumers](https://www.cdc.gov/tobacco/data_statistics/sgr/2000/highlights/labels/index.htm).  It wasn't until [the US Government went on a media campaign of it's own that the message started to get out](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Public_Health_Cigarette_Smoking_Act).  ""Okay,"" you might say, ""but that was then and it's different now.  We have the Internet now and people are smarter.""  Nope.  Tobacco use is on the decline in the US but [it is booming globally and manufactures continue to use the exact same misinformation campaigns to sell its products](http://www.businessinsider.com/the-world-is-losing-the-war-on-the-tobacco-industry-2016-11).  These companies are exploiting people, selling them something they know to be addictive and toxic, and we know that here mainly thanks to the US government.  > Taxing people as a way to redistribute wealth is wrong. Imposing mandates so people buy a product/service is just straight up wrong.  Your principled stand here rings hollow to me.  I hear you making a moral stand on mandates and wealth redistribution taxes but in so much of our other discussion you have suggested the ends justify the means.  It is okay if a few coffee pots explode as long as everyone gets a free market.  Jobs fleeing the country is fine as long as we all get cheap iPhones.  On one hand you think it is a travesty that a health plan won't replace an 80-year-old knee but say almost nothing about leaving people with no health care at all.  You have demonstrated that you have no problem breaking a few eggs to make an omelette, so claiming that breaking these particular eggs is ""wrong"" just doesn't add up especially when you say you're good with it for ""true welfare"" cases.  That leaves me with two theories about your position:  1) You don't actually have a problem with taking wealth from the rich.  You have a problem with giving wealth to people who are poor by choice. 2) You don't actually have a problem making people pay for a service they won't use.  You have a problem with giving a service to non-hard-luck cases for free.  What do you think?  Do either of my theories hold water?  Have a great weekend!"


This wasn't a next gen or fast breeder plant that was going in. This was old tech, IIRC. Solar will be better. Rates are going down with this new plan and it's clean energy.  However, I don't trust Duke Energy at all. This is probably party of a shady scheme to screw their customers.


"My knowledge relates to ETFs only. By definition, an ETF's total assets can increase or decrease based upon how many shares are issued or redeemed.  If somebody sells shares back to the ETF provider (rather than somebody else on market) then the underlying assets need to be sold, and vice-versa for purchasing from the ETF provider.  ETFs also allow redemptions too in addition to this. For an ETF, to determine its total assets, you need to you need to analyze the Total Shares on Issue multipled by the Net Asset Value.  ETFs are required to report shares outstanding and NAV on a daily basis. ""Total assets"" is probably more a function of marketing rather than ""demand"" and this is why most funds report on a net-asset-value-per-share basis. Some sites report on ""Net Inflows"" is basically the net change in shares outstanding multiplied by the ETF price. If you want to see this plotted over time you can use a such as: http://www.etf.com/etfanalytics/etf-fund-flows-tool which allows you to see this as a ""net flows"" on a date range basis."


This question is about PROPERTY acquired before becoming a resident of the US. If you bought property before you were a resident, and sold it after you were a resident, then you pay capital gains tax on the whole thing. Just see if it qualifies for long term capital gains tax treatment, because it is a substantially lower tax rate. You either have a tax event or you don't, and there's nothing wrong with an audit to prove that, so don't worry too much about it (unless you have a legitimate reason to be worried). Simply having what YOU perceive as a lot of money, doesn't make the possible lack of taxes more or less serious. If he has things that have declined in value, he can sell them at a loss this year and buy identical assets immediately. This is called tax harvesting and creates a loss that can offset capital gains tax.


It depends on the exact level of risk that you want, but if you want to keep your risk close to zero you're pretty much stuck with the banks (and those rates don't look to be going up any time soon). If you're willing to accept a little more risk, you can invest in some index tracking ETFs instead, with the main providers in Australia being Vanguard, Street State and Betashares.  A useful tool for for an overview of the Australian ETF market is offered by StockSpot. The index funds reduce your level of risk by investing in an index of the market, e.g. the S&P 200 tracked by STW.  If the market as a whole rises, then your investment will too, even though within that index individual companies will rise and fall. This limits your potential rate of return as well, and is still significantly more risky than leaving your cash in an Aussie bank (after all, the whole market can fall), but it might strike the right balance for you. If you're getting started, HSBC, Nabtrade, Commsec and Westpac were all offering a couple of months of free trades up to a certain value.  Once the free trades are done, you'll do better to move to another broker (you can migrate your shares to the others to take advantage of their free trades too) or to a cheaper broker like CMC Markets.


Nazis weren't socialist but it's nice that you're parroting 4chan and Truth_Deniers talking points (it makes it easy who's opinions to ignore). Just because they had socialist in their name doesn't mean they were socialist.   Just like today's Chinese communist party isn't at all communist anymore.


"Maybe they were incapable of forming colonies in the first place?   Rhodesia was the ""bread basket of Africa"", until Mugabe took over, now they're literally printing trillion dollar bills. It was so bad under black rule that fellow blacks were fleeing to apartheid South Africa."


"> 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.  I freely admit that my opinion is just opinion/speculation.  Anyone who talks about the stock market with certainty is someone not to listen to.     > Honestly, look up the words ""vertical integration"" before continuing the conversation. And the word ""Panasonic"" as well.  I know all about them.     > 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?  Panasonic hasn't yet agreed to put up a penny.  They will build batteries they are confident TSLA can sell, that is all.    > 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.  Like what?  You are the one who insisted Panasonic was putting up a billion dollars, which is a lie.   > 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.  So tell me when they put up a dollar.   > 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.""  Yes, that is the polite thing anyone would say.   > 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.  We'll see.   > You mean, like an ACTUAL BATTERY COMPANY? The ones putting up the money?  They haven't put up any 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.  They haven't put up a penny.  Here is what people who know about batteries are saying:  http://www.thestreet.com/story/12781526/1/williams-shorting-teslas-batteries.html"


While, from a money-saving standpoint, the obviously-right course of action is to make only the minimum payment on the 0% loan, there are potentially legal reasons to try to pay off a car loan early. With a mortgage, you are the legal owner of the property and any action by the lender beyond imposing fees (e.g. foreclosure) requires going through the proper legal channels. On the other hand, in most jurisdictions, you are not the legal owner of a car purchased on a loan, and a missed or even lost payment can result in repossession without the lender even having to go to court. So from a risk-aversion standpoint, there's something to be said for getting rid of car loans as soon as you can.


I understand what you're saying and I don't disagree. It depends on the case I guess. I don't think it's so egregious in this case because CEOs in the plural usually refers to prominence rather than the majority, at least as the default definition people fall back on when one is not provided.  I just don't think people think of the average CEO of One Shop Mom & Pop corp or companies that aren't multimillion or multimillion dollar enterprises. But then again why are my assumptions any better than anyone else's? Maybe my perception of what a CEO is by default isn't as common as I think and by whose criteria is it right?


Excel Pros: Cons:


Yes, assuming that your cash flow is constantly of size 5 and initial investment is 100, the following applies: IRR of 5% over 3 years: Value of CashFlows: 4.7619 + 4.5351 + 4.3192 = 13.6162 NPV: 100 - 13.6162 = 86.3838 Continuous compounding: 86.3838 * (1.05^3) = 100


The profit maximising level of employment: Now we consider how many people a business might decide to employ. The profit maximising level of employment occurs when a firm hires workers up to the point where the marginal cost of employing an extra worker equals the marginal revenue product of labour. I.e. MCL = MRPL.  This is shown in the labour demand diagram shown below.  http://tutor2u.net/economics/revision-notes/a2-micro-demand-for-labour.html  So the cost of each additional unit of labor is 8 (MCL = 8) as the wage is 16/hour and Q = 2*L in the short run. Find the right quantity produced by taking dP/dQ of your original inverse demand curve, which will give you the marginal revenue of each product. Set it equal to 8 and solve for q.


I separate out the quarters and larger (I'm Canadian, so there are coins bigger than a quarter). Then I put the rest in charity boxes.


I think the issue is that you're looking for it to be a standalone platform.   SoundCloud for a long time has been unique in what it offers compared to other music streaming platforms. It's not primarily meant for the end user, but more so as a platform for artists to host their music. It's been the place to listen to new up and coming rappers, tons of producers and even band demos. Who knows how many artists have gotten their start from SoundCloud. Not as an end all music streaming library like Spotify.  I guess it comes down to the user. But for people who love to dig for new stuff, nothing compares to SoundCloud.


Agreed. I've always held Leaders and Managers as separate roles. I've seen a lot of Managers who can't Lead at all, but every Leader is able to Manage. From my experience (which is only about 10 years across financial industries), Managers have been senior team members with an HR function. Not really defining vision, motivating, and driving their talent. They just hire/fire, and write reviews.


You mention that you would quit right after getting approved. But in the United States there would be one last check as a part of closing. Therefore it would be best to wait until after closing to quit your job. Waiting until after closing would also protect you from some hiccup that causes a delay in closing, thus requiring the need to reapply for the loan.


Potentially they could setup a trust for themselves and their heirs, donate the land to the trust.  It might be able to go into the trust using the current 'on the books' value of the land (what the county/state are basing taxes on), then the trust can negotiate with the natural gas folks for the mineral rights An idea to bounce off your expert anyway.


"No, Trump did not say that because, simply, he's not under investigation. The Investigation is about ""Russia influencing the elections.""  **Use common sense: if Trump won the nomination of the GOP only in July 2016, against 13 other career GOP politicians that were predicted to win against him, how can it be possible that Russia colluded with Trump to get him win by November?**  Did Russia made Hillary, DNC and all the other corrupt, evil Democrats do what they did, so American will hate them?  Simple logical question, and please give me simple logical explanation.  Stop listening to fake news from CNN, ABC, CBS, NBC, NYT and other MSM ""news""."


"If I may play devil's advocate (and that is all I am doing), it is certainly possibly for money to get ""lost"" in the complexity of the instruments these people deal with.  Crazy derivatives, swaps, packages, etc. are not well understood and I can easily see how Frat Boy Finance Johnny can mis-price some column in a report somewhere and lose track of money.  Also, even though there may be records of the money, you might need 10 lawyers, a few physicists, 20 accountants, and a whole department of finance people to be able to trace/understand the flow of capital.  I'm not saying this complexity and lack of transparency is a good thing, but I don't think it is totally crazy to suggest that honest people could lose track of the numbers.  Of course, it's probably a healthy mix of corruption and naivete..."


Did you know that you can dress your porch up for quite a number of purposes as well? Turn it into an outdoor kitchen, put in a grill and a couple of countertops, set up a picnic table in the yard or even just a small, intimate table setup within the porch itself, and you’ve got yourself a pretty nice venue for barbecues and romantic al fresco dinner dates.


I think people are becoming more stupid and lazy so when you combine that with the, perhaps unanticipated, mind propaganda tricks of tens of thousands of Twitter and Facebook accounts and ads you have a perfect storm.  Hence, as you said, we have a disaster on our hands as our so-called president.


If you look at that study, those companies have in the hundreds or thousands of employees.  That's the exact point.  Hundreds of people working together can make a multi billion dollar business.  Hundreds of sole proprietors will never come close.  The power of the many is greater than the power of the individual.


"Buyouts are usually for more than the ORIGINAL value of a stock. That's because the price ""premium"" represents an incentive for holders to ""tender"" their shares to the would-be buyer. Sometimes in these situations, the stock price rises above the proposed buyout price, in anticipation of a higher takeover bid from a SECOND party (that may or may not materialize). To answer the other part of the question, does a bidder have a chance of taking over a dying company for less than the market price? That is a strategy sometimes referred to as a ""take under,"" and it has not been a notably successful strategy. That's because it goes against ""human nature"" (of the seller). ""Where there is life, there is hope."" They would seldom accept a lower price for ""sure"" survival, when the market is telling them that they are worth a higher price. Very few people realize that the market may disappear tomorrow. Think of all the homeowners who won't cut their price, but insist on bids that meet recent ""comps."" And if the company is really dying, the prospective buyer may be best served by waiting until it does, and then pick up the individual pieces at auction."


"Living in one unit of a multi-family while renting out the others, although not without its risks, can be a viable (if gradual) way to build wealth. It's been rebranded recently as ""house hacking"", but the underlying mechanics have been around for many years (many cities in the Northeast in particular remain chock full of neighborhoods of 3-family homes built and used for exactly that purpose for decades, though now frequently sub-divided into condos).  It's true you'd need to borrow money, but there are a number of reasons why it's certainly at least worth exploring (which is what you seem to be asking -- should you bother doing the homework -- tl;dr: yes): And yes, you would be relying on tenants to meet your monthly expenses, including a mortgage bill that will arrive whether the other units are vacant or not. But in most markets, rental prices are far less volatile than home prices (from the San Francisco Federal Reserve): The main result from this decomposition is that the behavior of the   price-rent ratio for housing mirrors that of the price-dividend ratio   for stocks. The majority of the movement of the price-rent ratio comes   from future returns, not rental growth rates. (Emphasis added) It's also important to remember that rental income must do more than just cover your mortgage -- there's lots of other expenses associated with a rental property, including insurance, taxes, maintenance, vacancy (an allowance for the periods when the property will be empty in between tenants), reserves for capital improvements, and more. As with any investment, it's all about whether the numbers work. (You mentioned not being interested in the ""upkeep work"", so that's another 8-10% off the top to pay for a property manager.) If you can find a property at an attractive price, secure financing on attractive terms, and can be reasonably confident that it will rent in the ballpark of 1.5-2% of the purchase price, then it might be a fine choice for you, assuming you are willing and able to handle the work of being a landlord -- something worth at least as much of your research time as the investment itself.  It sounds like you're still a ways away from having enough for even an FHA down payment, which gives you a great opportunity to find and talk with some local folks who already manage rental properties in your area (for example, you might look for a local chapter of the national Real Estate Investment Association), to get a sense of what's really involved."


he said the government is subsidizing the koch brothers, that suggests a flow of money from government to them.  i assure you the flow is the opposite.  the people being subsidized by government are the ones receiving transfer payments like welfare, which i would BET he receives truth be told.


I only have anecdotal evidence here as members of my family used to own a grocery store / gas station, but they were often time charged much more to have the gasoline delivered to than many gas stations which were just a mile or two away (up to 15% more).  Also depending upon the branding of the gas station, they are required to use certain distributors (i.e. if you are an Exxon gas station you can only use a few select vendors) which gave them less control of their final cost.  All in all the gasoline often had smaller margins than items in the grocery store, which are already extremely low.


"**Reposted so you don't have to look at silly GIFs for 50% of the article.**   Sophie is a physical penetration tester and information security consultant. She specializes in social engineering security assessments including physical, voice (vishing) and text (phishing). She consults in remediation and prevention of security incidents through creation of policy and procedures, as well as customized training for your individual office culture. Prior to working in infosec, Sophie was a journalist, photographer, and a mom.  Hello! My name is Sophie and I break into buildings. I get paid to think like a criminal.  Organizations hire me to evaluate their security, which I do by seeing if I can bypass it. During tests I get to do some lockpicking, climb over walls or hop barbed wire fences. I get to go dumpster diving and play with all sorts of cool gadgets that Q would be proud of.  But usually, I use what is called social engineering to convince the employees to let me in. Sometimes I use email or phone calls to pretend to be someone I am not. Most often I get to approach people in-person and give them the confidence to let me in.  My frequently asked questions include: What break-in are you most proud of?  What have you done for a test that you were the most ashamed of?  What follows is the answer to both of these questions.  A few months ago, a client had hired me to test two of their facilities. A manufacturing plant, plus data center and office building nearby.  First step: open source intelligence, or OSINT. I look at maps, satellite images, study what I can of their delivery and supply schedules, and so on.  The manufacturing facility looked like a prison. No windows, heavy iron gates, no landscaping. Generally a monstrosity of architecture.  This facility had armed guards, badge readers, biometric security controls and turnstiles at every entrance.  I remember thinking, ""It's got to be hell to work in there. I wonder if I can use that…""   One thing was for sure… The chances of tailgating (following behind an employee with valid credentials) into this building were next to non-existent.  I was going to have to get down and dirty with my social engineering.  First stop: LinkedIn. Your LinkedIn is my best friend. The more information you have on your LinkedIn, the more options I have.  I have several fake LinkedIn profiles that you are probably connected to.   I scour profiles of employees who work at these facilities, and cross-reference them to other social media sites. And I find a lovely young woman who I'm going to call Mary.  Mary was a brand-new hire working as an assistant at the manufacturing facility. Mary had a public Facebook account too.  On Mary's public Facebook account, she documented all of her family's adventures.  Side note: Now I know where Mary went to high school, her mother's maiden name, the names of her pets, etc.  Answers to those ""security questions"" you use to reset your passwords are very easy to find if you aren't careful with that information.   Not to mention that now I know where Mary works, where her kids go to school, where they vacation…I could go on. Scary stuff.  This is not an advanced investigation. I'm not a private investigator and I don't have the resources of the NSA. But I can do a lot of damage with simple methods.  Most notably to me, there were photos Mary posted of her time volunteering with a certain maternity support center.  Her passion for children and caring new moms was very plain. So of course, I took advantage of it.   For this assessment I played two roles. For the first, I spoofed my phone number to make it look like it was coming from the company's headquarters.  I called the front desk of the manufacturing facility and was transferred to Mary. ""Hi Mary!"" I said, ""My name is Barbara.""  ""I am a project coordinator with facilities management. We are renovating a few of our facilities. We are sending an interior designer out to you tomorrow so she can put together proposals to update your space!""   Mary replied, ""Well that's great! But why the short notice?"" I could feel her getting suspicious, so I pulled out my trump card…  *Sigh* ""Well Mary… You really should have heard from me sooner. I've just been so overloaded at work…I feel like I can't catch up, and to top it off the baby is due in 6 weeks. If my boss finds out I messed this up he's going to flip.""  I was really getting into this, voice shaking. (Yes, I know, I'm a terrible human being.)  She cut me off, ""Oh hunny, hunny it's ok. We will work this out! Tell me about the baby! Is it your first? Boy or girl?!""  Our Mary was committed at this point. Not because she is stupid, but because she is a good person. She wanted to help me.  We talked babies and birth plans for a while (never pick a pretext you can't speak about at length.)  Mary took down the name of the ""designer"" who was coming by the next day and we said our goodbyes. Mary could have saved her company a lot of heartache by simply verifying that I was who I claimed to be. (Just to be clear here, I would never give out Mary's real identity. I'm not totally heartless. This could have happened to anyone. She has not been fired.)  I showed up the next day as ""Claire"" with a fictional architecture firm that I had made business cards and a website for. My alter-ego Barb had done most of the leg work for me. When I arrived, Mary and her boss were waiting for me with smiles. I shook hands all around and handed them the business card I printed out the night before. I was given a visitor badge and the red carpet was rolled out.  I gained rapport with the staff there by asking them to tell me what they wanted in an office space. They were so excited. I might have claimed to be on the team that put together the Google offices…(Yes, I am HORRIBLE. This is my inner demon child.)  ""You want a standing desk? New chairs over here?! Ergonomic keyboards for everyone! Let's look at swatches!""  We became best buds. I was given complete and unaccompanied access to the facility where I stayed for several hours.  I gained network access and stole several thousands of dollars in physical primitives by picking my way through cheap locks (credit to Deviant Ollam for the rad lockpicking animations.)   This client had been pretty confident that I wouldn't get into either facility, much less be able to hit both in a short time span. So the timeline was left to my discretion, but it was assumed that I would need to fly to the area twice.  I didn't see the need in burdening them with two round-trip expenses.   I went back to Mary's office and said, ""Well I think I have what I need from here. How do I get to the office center?""  She looked at her watch and said, ""It's almost lunch time. I'll take you there!"" A whole group of us piled into the parking lot, and they took me to a nearby taco shop. That's right. My Marks took me to get tacos… I love my job.  After lunch they drove me to the offices and a few of them came in with me to show me around.  I took FOREVER looking around this office space, and eventually they said their goodbyes because they had to go back to work. They had a strict policy of escorting visitors. But I had been seen walking around with trusted insiders so no one questioned me.  I was free to take my time. I made myself at home. My main objective at this site was to weasel my way into private corner offices.  When I accomplished my goals, I tracked down my point of contact's office. This is the man who hired me in the first place. This is the best part of every job.   Steve was there, hard at work when I disturbed his groove by knocking on the door. He glanced up, ""Hi there, can I help you?""  I smiled. ""Hi Steve! I'm Sophie from Sincerely Security. It's nice to meet you in-person!""  I will never forget the look on his face… Pure gold. ""Who?.... Wait, what? How? How did you get in here?!""   We stayed in his office and talked for a long time. I went over exactly the steps that could have prevented my success. First of all, the desire to help others is human and natural. We don't want to discourage that.  Second, I'm sure they did have some sort of policy that required visitors to check in showing government issued identification, but they weren't following it.  We also need to post by every computer, phone and door: ""TRUST, BUT VERIFY.""  An employee who does their homework can ruin my day.  Third, if it seems too good to be true, it probably is.   Is your company going to hire the team who designed Google's offices? Magic 8 ball says no.  Lastly, the team who took me to the second location should have found someone else to escort me through the building.  I've been doing this job for a couple years now, and almost every job is a variant of this story. Very rarely do I go through an entire assessment without some sort of social engineering.  There are ways to protect yourself and your company from attacks like this. I think it starts by sharing stories like these, and educating and empowering each other to be vigilant."


"This is the best tl;dr I could make, [original](https://economics.stackexchange.com/questions/17298/can-the-stock-market-show-indefinite-exponential-growth) reduced by 91%. (I'm a bot) ***** > The economist&#039;s answer to this is &quot;Yes, of course economic growth can continue indefinitely.&quot; And so to answer also your narrower question, &quot;Yes, of course the stock market can show indefinite exponential growth.""  > Fallacy #1. &quot;Economic growth is about making ever more&quot;Stuff&quot;, digging ever more gold and other natural resources out of the ground, burning ever more energy, etc.  > Energy growth has far outstripped population growth, so that per-capita energy use has surged dramatically over time-our energy lives today are far richer than those of our great-great-grandparents a century ago.   ***** [**Extended Summary**](http://np.reddit.com/r/autotldr/comments/6k6nrv/is_indefinite_economic_growth_possible/) | [FAQ](http://np.reddit.com/r/autotldr/comments/31b9fm/faq_autotldr_bot/ ""Version 1.65, ~155081 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*: **growth**^#1 **energy**^#2 **ever**^#3 **economic**^#4 **well-being**^#5"


"Having worked in insurance, I can give you a few pointers. Firstly, state that you ""may have to complain"". Insurers hate complaints because they really complicate matters, are loads of work and must be tracked. I would advise not actually escalating it to a complaint until later as this may cause a delay as the actual process is quite convoluted. Mentioning the possibility of complaint sometimes makes people a bit more active. Try and resolve the issue, and if you aren't getting anywhere then make a complaint. Maintain a friendly, assertive, polite demeanor. If you get angry and aggressive you'll not likely get far. Remember that the people on the end of the phone are both human and more knowledgeable about insurance than you. You want them on your side, not against you. Make copious notes. If you can, record calls. If you are recording calls you will likely legally need to give them the option of not being recorded, so make sure you mention that you're recording each individual call as soon as you start speaking to the handler.  Refer to your notes and make sure you carry out actions you say you will. If you spend a few days sending something you said you'd email over that day, and you then chase them a few days after that they may not have had the document through their workflow yet. It also engenders urgency if you're acting promptly, and suggests that you don't really care if you're taking your time.  Get Names. This is an important step, as this gives the handler someone to talk to who may be familiar with your case. You may end up speaking to the same people more than once, so try and build a rapport if you do. ""I like this guy"" may lead to a bit more effort being put in, and a potentially better outcome. In my experience, GoSkippy can be a bit slow to respond to things, so you'll likely have to chase them up. If you chase them up and say ""I called on X date, discussing Y with Z and Z said they would do A, B and C. Has this been done yet?"" it looks better than saying ""I called about a week ago and spoke to one of your colleagues who said he'd do something for me. He's not done it, what's going on?"", As to a plan of action, I would split this into two points: Mis-sold policy and definition of commuting. Mis-sold policy - If they truly gave your wife two options, then they messed up. The standard 3 offered by goskippy are Social Domestic and Pleasure (SDP), SDP+Commuting, and SDP+C and Business use. Other companies sometimes roll commuting into SDP as standard. On the comparison sites however, there are usually the three separate options, and if you used one to set the policy up and clicked ""SDP Only"" then you may be in trouble.  Social domestic and pleasure only DOES NOT include commuting. Whilst it is your responsibility to thoroughly check any documentation that comes through, it could be argued that if given two options between Business Use and SDP, then a reasonable person could be considered to assume that Goskippies definition of SDP did include commuting. Therefore, they need to prove to you that there were three options offered and that your wife specifically excluded commuting. IF they can't, then you should be able to argue that only two were offered and that commuting could have reasonably been assumed to be included. Use that term ""reasonable person"" btw, it's used in a lot of internal literature - at least at the insurer, I worked at. not commuting - Firstly, clarify their definition of ""commuting"". If your wife was on her way to work afterwards, then they may well consider she was commuting. For instance, at present, I drive from my house to my son's childminders, then to my wife's work and finally to mine. My commute could be argued to be 1 minute (my workplace is probably a minutes drive from my wife's, but I can't park in her car-park), but if I were to have an accident between my house and my son's childminder (~15 mins drive) the insurers would probably consider that commuting.  If she was not on her way to work afterwards, and assuming your wife arranged her visit via text (or whatsapp, fb messenger or similar) you should easily be able to show that your wife had driven from a friends house to the childminder. If she was on a holiday day or was not working on that day, then that's also something you should be able to prove either with proof of her working pattern or proof of her holiday. If she doesn't have a job at all, then again, that's something that's provable. Proof reigns king in claims, so if you can prove certain key facts then you should be on to a winner."


Broadly, there's a bunch of stuff you need to be accounting for that's not reflected in the above, which will impact the A/D profile of an acquisition:  * Consideration paid (all cash on substantially the same terms is going to be more accretive than an all-stock transaction...because in the latter, your denominator is much bigger)  * Shares outstanding (including repurchases, in-kind dividends and option exercise)  * Financing / interest expense  * Upside / base / downside case for all of your assumptions - best to have a toggle based on a CHOOSE function that will allow the user to easily toggle between these  I'm not sure what EBITDA is getting you. EPS accretion/dilution typically looks at earnings, but you could also look at Cash EPS A/D which measures OCF/shares outstanding.  The point is, this really depends on how back of the envelope you want the A/D computation to be. At a minimum, you need an earnings schedule projected over the next 2-3 years, and you need a schedule reflecting outstanding shares over the same time period.  Your earnings buildout can have varying degrees of granularity. You can project cost synergies over the forecast period, which most obviously is going to affect your earnings, but you can also drill down further. Financing, transaction fees, etc. Your writeups and writedowns from your B/S combination may result in certain deferred tax items that will affect your bottom line over the forecast period.  Your share schedule can also have varying degrees of complexity. One way to do it is to just presume that the company will not issue any more shares, and will not repurchase any shares, and that there will be no options exercised, over the forecast period. This is a bad series of assumptions. It is likely that as options vest, if in the money, they will be exercised, resulting in dilution for existing shareholders. It is also likely that certain preferred shareholders and optionholders are going to experience adjustments to the conversion prices based on antidilution provisions in their securities. These may be but are not always disclosed in the 10K.  Last point - models are tools. What are you trying to build an accretion/dilution model for? This will affect and determine the degree of granularity you'll want to go into.


"> StockTwits Chairman Howard Lindzon, who is long Apple stock, dismissed the IDC report, arguing that what matters is that the company's ""products are great, the stores are great, and new products are coming.""  What the what. Samsung has now 25% of the market, Huawei may very well reach 10% in mid 2015, if not sooner, yet their shares are up 20% since the beginning of the year.  I'm fond of Apple products, but I just can't see them resisting against State-backed Samsung for one or two more years. And the $9bn market for the iWatch is pure speculation."


You can deduct this if the main purpose of the trip is to attend the seminar.  Travel expenses relating to the attendance at conferences, seminars and other work-related events are deductible to the extent that they relate to your income-producing activities. You will need to apportion your travel expenses where you undertake both work-related and private activities. Travel costs to and from the location of the work-related event will only be deductible where the primary purpose of the travel was to attend the event. Accommodation, food and other incidental costs must be apportioned between work-related and private activities taking into account the types of activities that you did on the day you incurred the cost. You might like to consider in advance what you would tell them if they questioned this - for instance you might say (if they are true):


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Once an animal is given antibiotics, for any reason, it will no longer qualify as organic under the USDA guidelines. So organic farmers may use antibiotics on an animal, but then they can't sell that meat to Chipotle, or label it as organic.


">    realism dictates that all creatures ARE naturally ""independent""  Correct. not all ""creatures"". I edited that to all ""humans"".  And in the case of humans (and similar creatures) yes, Nature does make us ""independent"".    Human beings ARE in fact independent in that they are entirely capable of leaving family/tribe, etc and moving a great distance and surviving on their own. (Say unlike Bees, which are -- by nature -- ""hive"" creatures; single bees cannot survive without the hive.)  We are talking NATURE here.  ---  Note: I expanded my previous post with some additional comments and edits (I wasn't aware you were online and would respond so quickly), please to review the changes... I think you will find the link to a recent post I made enlightening (or at least thought-provoking)."


At any instant, three currencies will have exchange rates so if I know the rate between A and B, and B to C, the A to C rate is easily calculated. You need X pounds, so at that moment, you are subject to the exchange rate right then. It's not a deal or bargain, although it may look better in hindsight if the currencies move after some time has passed. But if a currency is going to depreciate, and you have the foresight to know such things, you'd already be wealthy and not visiting here.


Merchants that accept American Express should have decided that the extra costs are worth the increased business (many business travelers only have an Amex Corporate Card).  To complain about people actually using it after they've explicitly decided to accept it is a sign that they made the wrong decision, or that they are very short-sighted.  No one is forcing them to take a particular card.


Search the website. There is generally a way to reverse the charge. I have seen these options exist on both Flexible spending accounts and Health Savings accounts. If the expense was for last year, and you had other expenses that you did not submit because you reached the limit, you will probably be OK. Send them both information on the wrong submission on the new submission. If you  left money on the table last year, they will want a check from you.   If the expense was for this year, you will not have a problem reversing the charge, because much of the year is left.  Of course due to the new rules regarding roll-over of lat years money into this year it could be more complex. You want to resolve it as soon a possible to minimize the complexity as deadlines for submission approach. If you don't report the mistake the extra income from the incorrect submission is considered taxable.


I have held an in the money long position on an option into expiration, on etrade, and nothing happened.   (Scalping expiring options - high risk) The option expired a penny or two ITM, and was not worth exercising, nor did I have the purchasing power to exercise it. (AAPL) From etrade's website: Here are a few things to keep in mind about exercises and assignments: Equity options $0.01 or more in the money will be automatically   exercised for you unless you instruct us not to exercise them. For   example, a September $25 call will be automatically exercised if the   underlying security's closing price is $25.01 or higher at expiration.   If the closing price is below $25.01, you would need to call an   E*TRADE Securities broker at 1-800-ETRADE-1 with specific instructions   for exercising the option. You would also need to call an E*TRADE   Securities broker if the closing price is higher than $25.01 at   expiration and you do not wish to exercise the call option. Index   options $0.01 or more in the money will be automatically exercised for   you unless you instruct us not to exercise them. Options that are out   of the money will expire worthless. You may request to exercise   American style options anytime prior to expiration. A request not to   exercise options may be made only on the last trading day prior to   expiration. If you'd like to exercise options or submit   do-not-exercise instructions, call an E*TRADE Securities broker at   1-800-ETRADE-1. You won't be charged our normal fee for   broker-assisted trades, but the regular options commission will apply.   Requests are processed on a best-efforts basis.  When equity options are exercised or assigned, you'll receive a Smart   Alert message letting you know. You can also check View Orders to see   which stock you bought or sold, the number of shares, and the strike   price.  Notes: If you do not have sufficient purchasing power in your account   to accept the assignment or exercise, your expiring options positions   may be closed, without notification, on the last trading day for the   specific options series. Additionally, if your expiring position is   not closed and you do not have sufficient purchasing power, E*TRADE   Securities may submit do-not-exercise instructions without   notification. Find out more about options expiration dates.


So I agree with some of your points, but title 2 puts us in a decent place until the ruling body starts to understand technology and starts passing laws to stop oligopoly tendencies we have in the market now.   Edit: deleted my other comment. Not sure why it doubled my comment.


"I should think the primary reason is due why those countries have a higher standard of salary - its not what you get, but what it buys you. In a high-salary, low-exchange-rate country like Sweden, you get a lot of services that your taxes buy you. Healthcare and quality of life in a stable country is something you want when you get old (note that your viewpoint might be very different when you're a kid). Moving to a country that has less impact on your finances is often because that country has significantly fewer services to offer. So a Swedish citizen might think about moving to a 3rd world country and find that their retirement income isn't sufficient to pay for the kind of lifestyle they actually want, such countries tend to be pleasant to live in only if you are exceptionally wealthy.  Now this kind of thing does happen, but only ""within reason"", there are a number of old people who retire to the coast (in the UK at least) and many people who used to work in London who retire to the south west. For them, the idea of moving doesn't seem so bad as they are moving to areas where many other people in their situation have also moved. See Florida for an example for US citizens too."


if more people wanted to short mortgages, the price of insurance on them would have gone up, and investors would have stopped wanting to buy them, which would cause interest rates on homes to go up, reducing the number of people who can buy homes out of their price range- which was a fundamental cause of the crisis


They actually mentioned tons of problems and one of them being reliability which is a big issue. I like something I pay big money to work and not be an issue.   It also has one of the ugliest back sides ever on a SUV


I didn't mean that money would just be given away. There are so many projects cities need that aren't done because of a lack of funding like public transportation or street maintenance. At least that's been the case in the cities I've lived in, I'm not sure if it's the same for yours.  Alternatively they can set up incentives to make it easier to start businesses too.


I don't understand why this article keeps speaking in absolute dollar terms. GE is a massive company, so of course all the numbers look big.  The 67% funded status is the key point. That number isn't great, but it isn't terrible. I bet most multi-industrial companies are in that ballpark.


All faux brick panels are crafted out of high-density polyurethane, which is treated to provide colors and textures to it as desired. Although the nature of application and size for the application of faux brick panel might vary, they are easy to install and lightweight. They have interlocking designs in them, allowing for easy installation.


It's not legal unless you have written permission to do so and have cleared it with the broker. You'll probably get away with it until one time when communicating with your broker, you'll mention you're not the account owner, in which case the account is frozen and closed immediately (money laundering regulations).


"Grad school applications typically have deadlines around December or January, so you're thinking about this at the right time.   First, obviously, you should get an idea of where you want to go, and what kind of program. There's plenty of ranking lists online that can help give you an idea. Grad school applications take a non-trivial amount of effort, so most people apply to only 5-10.  Next, you'll want to contact potential references. The grad school websites should inform you what type of reference they want, but in my experience these were mostly academic and usually 2-3 per application, finance programs may want more professional references as well. Try to choose the right references for the application, e.g. I applied to financial engineering programs, and would usually have one economics professor and then either a math professor or a statistics professor depending on the focus of the program.  Now, check to see if your programs require a GRE/GMAT score (they probably will), and start studying ASAP. There's tons of study materials available both in book form and online, and if you can put the time in you can probably get a decent score with just a few weeks (4-6) of studying. As far as I know, just about every program that accepts a GMAT score will also accept a GRE score, but not necessarily the other way around, so you may be better off studying for the GRE (verify this!).  And with all those components complete, you'll basically be done! Some applications will ask for various forms of cover letter, or have other essay questions, so set aside some time to write these as well.   Also, if you're looking at Finance Master's programs, I notice that they tend to come in a few varieties. Some set you up for PhDs and are naturally more academic focused, where as ""terminal"" Master's that resemble an MBA will focus on trying to get you a job. Reflect a bit on what you want to accomplish with your degree and figure out the program that's best for that. If you get in to a top school then it won't matter much regardless, but otherwise it is very likely that schools which produce good PhD candidates and research are not necessarily the same schools which place people on Wall Street.  Hope that helps :)"


"Making these difficult portfolio decisions for you is the point of Target-Date Retirement Funds.  You pick a date at which you're going to start needing to withdraw the money, and the company managing the fund slowly turns down the aggressiveness of the fund as the target date approaches.  Typically you would pick the target date to be around, say, your 65th birthday.  Many mutual fund companies offer a variety of funds to suit your needs. Your desire to never ""have to recover"" indicates that you have not yet done quite enough reading on the subject of investing.  (Or possibly that your sources have been misleading you.)  A basic understanding of investing includes the knowledge that markets go up and down, and that no portfolio will always go up.  Some ""recovery"" will always be necessary; having a less aggressive portfolio will never shield you completely from losing money, it just makes loss less likely. The important thing is to only invest money that you can afford to lose in the short-term (with the understanding that you'll make it back in the long term).  Money that you'll need in the short-term should be kept in the absolute safest investment vehicles, such as a savings account, a money market account, short-term certificates of deposit, or short-term US government bonds."


Trends in the upstream and the downstream areas of monoclonal antibody production are encouraging, and should provide help in holding down the costs of these very expensive biological molecules. As indicated in this report, the large expansion in the use of disposables in upstream and downstream unit operations of the production chain is underway.


Why can't you have both? If you do have both credit and an emergency fund, and an emergency occurs, you can draw from the line of credit first. Having debt + cash is a much more stable situation than having neither, because then you have the option to use the cash to pay off the debt, or use the cash to pay other expenses. If you just have cash, when you spend it it's gone and there's no guarantee anyone is going to lend you any money at that point.


As far as I understand, equifax collects data about individuals and scores their credit worthiness. The ceo did Jack shit about keeping all that private data safe, so they got hacked and all that data is now in someone else's hands. The possible implications? Large scale identify fraud of anyone whose details got stolen, since it encompasses everything  that is needed for that. And that is besides the privacy violation.


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"> It produces billions of deficit every single year and is responsible for unimaginable sums of money going down the drain somewhere in the administration  [At 17.1 percent of GDP, the U.S. devotes at least 50 percent more of its economy to health care than do other countries. Even public spending on health care, on a per capita basis, is higher in the U.S. than in most other countries with universal public coverage.](http://www.commonwealthfund.org/publications/issue-briefs/2015/oct/us-health-care-from-a-global-perspective)  Even with the ""unimaginable sums of money"" going down the drain as you claim - other countries with UH still manage to spend less of their national wealth on taking care of their citizens. Furthermore - any of those countries absolutely *smoke* the US in positive health outcomes with the US coming in [dead last](https://www.forbes.com/sites/danmunro/2014/06/16/u-s-healthcare-ranked-dead-last-compared-to-10-other-countries/#4cdb43f4576f) in terms of both quality and cost.   >pointing a gun at someone and forcing them to pay for your stuff   Welcome to society. I don't agree with my taxes paying for police to defend your home (not my stuff, right?) but I do it because collectively we're both better off."


One of the key things to look for is trading volume.  I think the price spread will be better on high volume ETFs, which means you'll be able to sell for more when the time comes.  Check Google or Yahoo finance for those stats.


As I replied to someone else who said that:  I'm often having to send stuff with the check. Paperwork, a bill etc. While that would work to a person who knows me, it's usually not going to work with a business or government who needs to know why I'm sending this check.


Yeah I have to agree. From watching a few hours of his content it's apparent that he's a reasonable individual that has a passion for research and medical science. Although he's not all perfect, and he definitely intentionally polarizes individuals with inflammatory, troll-like behavior.


My dad is the head of his department at a major hospital and I've listened to him bitch about hours for the last 15 years+.  The reality is that with meetings, administrative work, teaching/research responsibilities (when he was at a hospital at a university), etc., all of his work combined often adds up to 80ish a week. His actual shift work is significantly less than that.  As far as IB goes, I only know what I've seen. I don't live in NYC and I am not in IB, but I know people who are and the stories have been overwhelmingly in favor of the 80-100 hour weeks. My friend lives in Houston (Houston! Not even NYC!) and he comes home at like 2 am most nights (studying for mcat + stressful job). He often beats his roommate, an analyst at a 2nd tier bank, home.


"That's all you feel comfortable addressing? You didn't see that that question was part of a whole question about ""what exactly do you want?"".  You just answering what is **is**, is completely useless, irrelevant, and missing the point. So you add nothing to this conversation."


Do you agree that few incorrect words or actions from Trump, and the whole economy can get sour?  Do you agree that few correct words and actions from Trump, in his 6 month of presidency, and the business and people build confidence and hire more?  Why do you think the stock market reach new height so much under Trump?


In fact markets are not efficient and participants are not rational. That is why we have booms and busts in markets. Emotions and psychology play a role when investors and/or traders make decisions, sometimes causing them to behave in unpredictable or irrational ways. That is why stocks can be undervalued or overvalued compared to their true value.  Also, different market participants may put a different true value on a stock (depending on their methods of analysis and the information they use to base their analysis on). This is why there are always many opportunities to profit (or lose your money) in liquid markets. Doing your research, homework, or analysis can be related to fundamental analysis, technical analysis, or a combination of the two. For example, you could use fundamental analysis to determine what to buy and then use technical analysis to determine when to buy. To me, doing your homework means to get yourself educated, to have a plan, to do your analysis (both FA and TA), to invest or trade according to your plan and to have a risk management strategy in place. Most people are too lazy to do their homework so will pay someone else to do it for them or they will just speculate (on the latest hot tip) and lose most of their money.


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"Meanwhile, lets look at the people of India.  While this is broadly speaking, you can divide the population along the spectrum of wealth/income into two groups: those who have a middle class lifestyle (or better), and those who do not.  Among those who have ""made it"", a strange trend emerges - a Western-like 2.3 children-per-couple rate emerges. Those impoverished millions maintain their disturbingly rapid rate of reproduction.  This minimum income solution does not include the nasty problems where girls are hidden away until they turn 18, just to emerge without any education, still endangering their parents. China has a nasty problem of post-birth abortions for girls as well. And now, their entire country is on the verge of social collapse as reproductive rates have fallen from the sexual imbalance, much less from the inevitable population decline.  But unless we Create a global government, it becomes up to each country to implement a minimum income on their own terms. Or it could be enforced via trade negotiations."


"Because how you look at a billion or millions is important compared to how he looks at it.  The bottom line is incentive to continue. If he looks at how things used to be and how they are now and decides it's not worth it. It is his perogitive to close or sell the company.   Hopefully he sells to a Chinese company who will low ball profits down to 100 million net profit and cuts employee benefits!! Wouldn't that be a great success story of government ""incentivized"" capitalism?!  Yahooo America!"


A white paper is an educational paper that's about 5 to 10 pages long.  They are great tools for a decision maker to use.  Clear and concise.  May have some graphics as well.  Non- hype wording as well.  In consulting, we used them as leave behinds and they are invaluable.


When investigating transferring funds from the UK to Australia, I found the exchange rate offered by by banks for swift / Telegraphic transfers to be far below companies which specialise in international transfers.  Not applicable to you unfortunately, but I used http://www.ozforex.com.au/ and got a conversion rate which ended up netting me $100's of dollars compared with my banks, thanks to a better rate and no fee.


I had exactly the same need and I ended up using BillGuard and I like it.  At the end of the day, it sends an alert where I need to review all the transactions - takes hardly 5seconds and I am on top of all transactions.  From the last 1yr I have found 1 fraudulent and 2 duplicate charge using billguard. Didn't really save a ton of money but its useful to understand how you use your credit card. Don't work for or promoting the app, its just useful.


So what you're saying is that they will increase taxes and use your tax money to fund Hollywood? I can't seen that happening in the US where not even health care is funded with tax payer money.  Or how else are they gonna legislate to forcefully take your money??


"I'm no expert on this, but I would say that, if you own the business entirely yourself, there is nothing terribly wrong with using it for your own purposes as you would any other asset that you own.  What is wrong is not keeping accurate records that distinguish between your money and the business's.  As you say, this is wrong strategically, but it can also be dangerous legally, because if you mix your money and the business's money and don't keep track, you could find, for instance, that you've failed to pay the taxes you were supposed to. There is also a concern that might not fall under what people refer to as ""ethics"" but more ""good corporate citizenship"".  Basically, people tend not to like companies that just shovel all their gains into the owners' pockets.  This is especially true if there are ways the money could be used to improve the business.  In other words, if you're able to live high on the hog with the profits while paying all your employees a pittance, the public may not look favorably on your business."


The Intelligent Investor When Genius Failed The Ascent of Money Against the Gods: The Remarkable Story of Risk The Big Short Mr. Market Miscalculates  +finance blogs (zerohedge.com [every once in a while; very depressing!!], the big picture, abnormal returns, epicurean dealmaker etc)


The market cap always reflect the company's equity.  Except that you cannot fix a stock price in a free market.  A company with such profit pattern would have stock price behave like present value of a perpetuity (future income stream discounted by risk free rate) Since your assumption is unachievable, there is no point in determining the logic.


Pre-qualification is only a step above what you can do with a rate/payment calculator.  They don't check your credit history and credit score; they don't ask for verification of your income; or verify that you have reported your debts correctly. They also don't guarantee the interest rate. But if you answer truthfully, and completely, and nothing else changes you have an idea of how much you can afford factoring in the down payment, and estimates of other fees, taxes and insurance. You can get pre-quaified by multiple lenders; then base your decision on rates and fees.  You want to get pre-approved. They do everything to approve you. You can even lock in a rate. You want to finalize on one lender at that point because you will incur some fees getting to that point. Then knowing the maximum amount you can borrow including all the payments, taxes, insurance and fees; you can make an offer on a house. Once the contract is accepted you have a few days to get the appraisal and the final approval documents from the lender. They will only loan you the minimum of what you are pre-approved for and the appraisal minus down-payment. Also don't go with the lender recommended by the real estate agent or builder; they are probably getting a kick-back based on the amount of business they funnel to that company.


>However, you would have to pay income taxes on that wage and could end up with less money overall to spend on healthcare.   That's not truth tho. You can open IRA and 401k and now you have more money to put into them that won't get tax and it help you save for the retirement.


"A good reference to what encompasses ""securities"" are detailed in the Securities Act of 1933, which was enacted by the United States federal government. One main exception, which I would still consider securities for your purposes, would be ""commercial paper"". These are exempt from the securities act because they mature in 270 days of less, but they function much like bonds or promissory notes Therefore though, it would not encompass currencies and commodities. It really comes down to the structure of the agreement for transferring or holding the particular kind of underlying asset."


"I didn't bother looking for actual errors. Couldn't get through the distorted text. That guy could write a story about the ""bestest thing in the world"" and make it seem like the incarnation of evil.   It's just way too slanted to be taken at face value."


I kind of hate piling on with another opinion, but this is too long for a comment. I did what you are thinking of doing, I would at least try renting it for a couple years so long as: The primary risks of renting are mostly related to unexpected costs and bad tenants, you've got a very healthy income, so as long as you maintain a nice emergency fund it doesn't sound like keeping this property as a rental will be too much risk. If the rental market is strong where your house is, then you have a better chance of avoiding bad tenants. I like to keep my rent a little lower than the max I think it could go for, to attract more applications and hopefully find someone who will be a good longer term tenant. Tax-free gains So long as you lived in your house 2 of the last 5 years, you can sell without paying capital gains tax on your profit, so you could try renting it for 2 years and then sell. That was a key for me when I converted my first house to a rental. I liked that flexibility, there's still the typical renting risks associated, but it's not a lifelong commitment. You can get 2 years of increased equity/appreciation tax-free, or you could find you enjoy it and keep it for the long haul.


"This claims that ""once implemented, the liability will no longer fall on the consumer."" However, when this was introduced in the UK, a motivating factor for the banks was that liability was shifted away from them, and onto the consumer. Previously, if you had a forged signature, you were not liable. However, if somebody knew your PIN, the bank would say you have been negligent."


"Suppose that I work from home, but do not qualify for a business use   of home deduction. As I understand it, this means I cannot deduct   trips from home to another work location (e.g., going to a client's   home or office to do work there). I do not think this is true. You cannot deduct trips to your main business location, i.e.: you cannot deduct trips to your office or client's location if this is your main client and you routinely work on-site. However, if you only visit your clients on occasion for specific events while doing your routine work at home - you can definitely deduct those trips. The deduction of the home usage itself has nothing to do with it. However, there's a different reason they refer to pub 587. Your home must qualify as principal place of business (even if it doesn't qualify for deduction). The qualifications of ""principal place of business"" are described in pub 587. ""if for some personal reason you do not go directly from one location to the other, you cannot deduct more than the amount it would have cost you to go directly from the first location to the second."" What is not clear to me is what exactly is deductible if there are   significant time gaps (within a single day) between trips to different   clients. You got it right. What this quote means is that if you have client A and client B, and you drive from A to B - you can only deduct the travel between A and B, nothing else. I.e.: if you have 2 hours to kill and you take a trip to the mall - you cannot deduct the mileage attributable to that trip. You only deduct the actual distance between A and B as it would be had you driven from A to B directly. The example you cite re first client being considered as the place of business is for the case where your home doesn't qualify as principal place of business. In this case you start counting miles from your first client, and only for direct trips from client to client. If you only have 1 client in that day, tough luck, nothing to deduct. Also, it's not clear whether stopoffs between clients would really be   ""personal reasons"", since the appointment times are often set by the   client, so it's not as if the delay between A and B was just because I   felt like it; there was never the option of going directly from A to   B. That's what is called ""facts and circumstances"". You can argue that you had enough time between meetings to go back to your home office to continue working. The IRS agent auditing you (and you're likely to get audited) will consider that. Maybe will accept it. Maybe not. If I had a gap like that described above, I could save on my taxes by   going to the park or a hamburger stand instead of going home between A   and B But then you wouldn't be at home, so why would it be ""principal place of business"" if you're not there? Boom, lost deduction for the trip to the first client. I suggest you talk to a licensed tax adviser (EA/CPA licensed in your State). You're dealing with deductions that are considered ""red flags"" for the IRS. I.e.: many people believe that these deductions (business use of your home/car) trigger audits. To substantiate business use of your car you need to keep very good track of your travels (literally travel log, they sell them at Staples), and make sure to distinguish between personal travel and business travel, keep proofs that the meetings took place (although keeping a log is a requirement, it can be backdated/faked, so if audited - the IRS will want to see more than your own documentation). A good tax adviser will educate you on all these rules, and also clarify the complexities you were asking about here. I'm not a tax adviser, so don't rely on this answer when you're preparing your tax return or responding to the IRS audit. In your edit you ask this: Specifically, what I'm wondering is whether it is possible for a home   to qualify as a ""principal place of business"" for purposes of   deducting car expenses but not for the home office deduction. The answer is yes. Deductibility is determined by exclusivity of use, among other things. But the fact that you manage your business from your kitchen doesn't make your kitchen any less of a principal place of business. It is non-deductible because you also cook your dinners there, but it is still, nonetheless, your principal place of business. The Pub 587 which I linked to has these qualifications: Your home office will qualify as your principal place of business if   you meet the following requirements. You use it exclusively and regularly for administrative or management activities of your trade or business. You have no other fixed location where you conduct substantial administrative or management activities of your trade or business. As you see, exclusivity of the usage of your home area is not a requirement here. The ""exclusively and regularly"" in the quote refers to your business not using any other location, and managing it from home regularly. I.e.: if you manage your business a day in a year - that's not enough for it to be considered principal. If you manage your business from your office and your home - you cannot consider home as principal."


"Without knowing anything else about you, I'd say I need more information. If all of your investments are in stocks, then that's not really diversified, regardless of how many stocks you own.  There are other things to invest in besides stocks (and bonds, for that matter). What countries?  ""International"" is pretty broad, and some countries are better bets than others at the moment. If you're old, I'd say very little of your money should be in stocks anyway. I'd also seek financial advice that is tailored to your goals, sophistication, etc."


The average price would be $125 which would be used to compute your basis. You paid $12,500 for the stock that is now worth $4,500 which is a loss of $8,000 overall if you sell at this point.


Tax Deducted at source is applicable to Employee / Employer [contract employee] relations ... it was also made applicable for cases where an Indian company pays for software products [like MS Word etc] as the product is not sold, but is licensed and is treated as Royalty [unlike sale of a consumer product, that you have, say car] ... Hence it depends on how your contract is worded with your India clients, best is have it as a service agreement. Although services are also taxed, however your contract should clearly specify that any tax in India would be borne by your Indian Client ... Cross Country taxation is an advanced area, you will not find good advice free :)


"It's worth pointing out that most ""cash"" deals are actually debt financed, at least in part. A quick review of the 8K tells us they plan on debt financing the entire transaction with some senior notes and not use any of the 15B on their BS. This is fairly typical these days because debt is cheaper then the foregone interest on cash."


"Is it possible to profit from some of this money in the short term before I need to access it? Sure, it's possible.  But if the stock market decides to ""correct"" (or even crashes), you'll be in a world of hurt. Thus, since it's so important that you not lose this money, just stick it in an online bank earning 1.2%, and withdraw ""enough"" twice a month. EDIT: by ""withdraw"", I mean to transfer to your checking account."


You'll have much more flexibility and peace of mind if your expenses are based on your current income and that income increases in the future. It's great that you aren't comfortable with spending more, you don't want to end up in the position you just removed yourself from.  That said, you don't just ignore planned income altogether. Personally, my wife and I feel best knowing that I have the essentials covered with my income, and that her income primarily helps us put away more for retirement, home renovations, and vacations, because she likely won't work for a long while if we have kids. How you plan depends on your wife's career aspirations and prospects, if your wife has high income potential and you don't plan to buy until after she resumes work, then it may suit you to plan on her income too. You'll have to balance the certainty and amount of her income with your goals.  If you're trying to make up ground on savings/retirement, then a less expensive house seems wise anyway. It's a much easier problem to decide what to do with excess funds than feeling trapped/stressed by a high mortgage payment.


"Dear ""benevolent"" sister, The mortgage, utilities, and taxes for this home can no longer be paid and the bank will repossess it within the coming months. Thank you for your time"


"The actual increase in the cost of living for one month over the previous month cannot be calculated from the annualized increase in cost over the entire previous year. Consider the hypothetical case of a very stable economy, where prices stay constant for decades.  Nevertheless, the authorities issue monthly statements, reporting that the change in the cost of living, for the last month, year over year, is 0.00%.  Then they go back to sleep for another month. Then, something happens, say in August, 2001.  It causes a permanent large increase in the cost of many parts of the cost of living components. So, in September, the authorities announce that the cost of living for the end of August, 2001, compared to August a year ago, was up 10%. Great consternation results.  Politicians pontificate, unions agitate on behalf of their members, etc... The economy returns to its customary behavior, except for that one-time permanent increase from August, 2001.  So for the next eleven months, each month, the authorities compare the previous months prices to the prices from exactly a year ago, and announce that inflation, year over year, is still 10%.   Finally, we reach September, 2002.  The authorities look at prices for the end of August, 2002, and compare them to the prices from the end of August, 2001 (post ""event"").  Wonder of wonders, the inflation rate is back to 0.00%!!  Absolutely nothing happened in August 2002, yet the rate of inflation dropped from 10% to 0%."


He's not saying his business couldn't make it. He's saying the cut into his profits and diminishing returns on his efforts and stress would no longer be worth it and he would rather just retire.  He makes it clear at the end that he's going to be fine either way. He has plenty of money, but he's not going to put in his time, effort, and energy for less and less money.   If he closes up shop because it's not worth it to him, he'll be fine but his workers will be fucked. I hope they like their rules and regulations when it puts them out of a job.


There are specific cases where you are required to use ADS: Required use of ADS.   You must use ADS for the following property. Listed property used 50% or less in a qualified business use. See chapter 5 for information on listed property. Any tangible property used predominantly outside the United States during the year. Any tax-exempt use property. Any tax-exempt bond-financed property. All property used predominantly in a farming business and placed in service in any tax year during which an election not to apply the   uniform capitalization rules to certain farming costs is in effect. Any property imported from a foreign country for which an Executive Order is in effect because the country maintains trade   restrictions or engages in other discriminatory acts. See publication 946. If none of those apply to your property - you may elect ADS. Why would you elect ADS when you're not required to use it? If you can't think of a reason, then don't elect it. For most people the shorter the depreciation period - the more they can deduct (or accumulate in passive losses) each year, and that is usually the desirable case. If you plan on selling in 10 years, keep in mind the depreciation recapture and consider whether the passive losses (offsetting regular income) are worth the extra tax in this case.


Going out to eat became a luxury for some and let's not forget how much food related interests have skyrocketed into mainstream popularity.  Just look at how much learning how to cook has become much more easier and financially cheaper when people had to cut back from the recession.   Food knowledge has exploded over the past decade.


Political Psychology is a field that focuses on understanding politics and political behaviour.  An expert in this field is Dr Bart Rossi Ph.D. who offers his views about what politicians may be thinking, the motivation for their actions, and how people perceive it. He comments on the current politics and news on leading news channels, radio shows and in print media.


@Jeremy Using CVV doesn't decrease the transaction cost. I know this because I have quotes for CC transactions and the cost/transaction doesn't depend on using CVV. That said we don't plan to use CVV because we sell insurance and the likelihood that someone who steals CC will buy insurance is very low.


It depends entirely on what you're improving and what you're spending. Taking the kitchen for example, if you're replacing a tired 1960's kitchen with cheap but functional IKEA units and appliances, and you're doing as much of the work as possible yourself, you will definitely see a good return. However if you're spending $50,000 on a Poggenpohl kitchen to be fitted by professionals your ROI is going to be your enjoyment of the kitchen over the years and not financial.


There is no generic formula as such, but you can work it out using all known incomes and expenses and by making some educated assuption. You should generaly know your buying costs, which include the purchase price, legal fees, taxes (in Australia we have Stamp Duty, which is a large state based tax when you purchase a property). Other things to consider include estimates for any repairs and/or renovations. Also, you should look at the long term growth in your area and use this as an estimate of your potential growth over the period you wish to hold the property, and estimate the agent fees if you were to sell, and the depreciation on the building. These things, including the agent fees when selling and building depreciation, will all be added or deducted to your cost base to determine the amount of capital gain when and if you sell the property. You then need to multiply this gain by the capital gains tax rate to determine the capital gains tax you may have to pay. From all the items above you will be able to estimate the net capital gain (after all taxes) you could expect to make on the property over the period you are looking to hold it for. In regards to holding and renting the property, things you will need to consider include the rent, the long term growth of rent in your area, and all the expenses including, loan fees and interest, insurance, rates, land tax, and an estimate of the annual maintenance cost per year. Also, you would need to consider any depreciation deductions you can claim. Other things you will need to consider, is the change in these values as time goes by, and provide an estimate for these in your calculations. Any increase in the value of land will increase the amount of rates and the land tax you pay, and generally your insurance and maintenance costs will increase with time. However, your interest and mortgage repayments will reduce over time. Will your rent increases cover your increases in the expenses. From all the items above you should be able to work out an estimate of your net rental gain or loss for each year. Again do this for the number of years you are looking to hold the property for and then sum up the total to give a net profit or loss. If there is a net loss from the income, then you need to consider if the net capital gain will cover these losses and still give you a reasonable return over the period you will own the property. Below is a sample calculation showing most of the variables I have discussed.


"Secret formulas are legal, ""privileged information"" is not. And that may be the whole point. People are allowed to trade stocks profitably if doing so results only from their skill. A ""secret formula"" (for evaluating information) is part of that skill. But having ""privileged information"" is not considered skill. It is considered an unfair, illegal advantage. Because company officials (and others) with privileged information are 1) not permitted to trade stocks while that information is privileged and 2) are not allowed to share that information with others. Inevitably, some do one or the other, which is why they are prosecuted. ""Raj"" took the process to new highs (or lows). He not only ""dealt"" in privileged information, he PAID for it. Anything from a new car or house to $500,000 a year in cash. In essence, he had a bunch of strategically placed ""spies"" inside or close to corporations including one on the board of Goldman Sachs, ""selling out"" their companies, and thereby practicing a form of corporate ""treason."""


I would definitely recommend putting some of this in an IRA. You can't put all $30K in an IRA immediately though, as the contribution limit is $5500/year for 2014, but until April 15 you can still contribute $5500 for 2013 as well. At your income level I would absolutely recommend a Roth IRA, as your income will very likely be higher in retirement, given that your income will almost certainly rise after you get your Ph.D. Your suggested asset allocation (70% stocks, 30% bonds) sounds appropriate; if anything you might want to go even higher on stocks assuming you won't mind seeing the value drop significantly. If you don't want to put a lot of energy into investment choices, I suggest a target retirement date fund. As far as I am aware, Vanguard offers the lowest expenses for these types of funds, e.g. this 2050 fund.


This is so true. Get people talking about what they're interested in and it will transition from an interview to a normal conversation. In my experience this is the best possible outcome. Every interview where this has happened I've wound up getting the job.


In the UK you have an allowance of £40,000 per annum for tax relief into a pension. This amount includes both your and your employer's contributions. If you earn more than £150,000 per annum this allowance starts to reduce and if you earn less than the allowance, your allowance is limited to what you earn. You can also carry over unused allowance from up to 3 years previously. If you stick within this allowance you won't pay tax on your pension contributions, if you go over the excess will be subject to tax. Salary exchange normally lets you avoid the National Insurance value of your contribution being taxed. If you paid your own money into your pension (without going through salary exchange), your contributions would have the 20% basic rate of tax credited to them and if you're a higher rate taxpayer you could reclaim the difference between the basic rate of tax and the higher rate of tax you pay but the National Insurance you've paid on your own money would not be reclaimable. You can't get the money back you've paid into your pension till you are are 58 (given that you are 27 now), the minimum age has risen from its historic 55 for your age group.  That's the pension trade off, you forgo tax now in the expectation that, once retired, you will be paying tax at a lower rate (because your income will be lower and you are much less likely to be subject to higher rate taxation) in return for locking in your money till you're older. Your pension income will be subject to tax when you eventually take it. There are other options such as ISAs which have lower annual limits (£20,000 currently) and on which your contributions do not attract tax relief, but which are not taxed as income when you eventually spend them. ISAs and pensions are not mutually exclusive so if you have the money, you can do both. It's up to you to determine what mix of savings will be appropriate to generate income for your eventual retirement. If you are living in some other country when you retire your pension will be paid net of UK tax. You might then be able to claim (or pay) any difference between that and your local tax rate depending on what agreement exists between the UK government and the other country's government.


"Mortgage interest in Canada is not generally tax deductible for individuals. (Where did you read otherwise?) As an individual, the only mortgage interest you may be able to deduct is when you borrow the money to purchase an income-producing asset, e.g another property you can rent out, or investments producing dividends or other income.  In these cases, the interest you pay on the borrowed funds, i.e. the ""carrying costs"" for your investments, would be deductible against the income produced by the investments purchased."


"This is the best tl;dr I could make, [original](https://www.nytimes.com/2017/07/26/climate/california-climate-policy-cap-trade.html) reduced by 91%. (I'm a bot) ***** > Per capita, California has the third-lowest emissions in the nation, after New York and the District of Columbia, which means further cuts will come less easily than they would for a state like Texas.  > While no one is exactly sure how much California&#039;s climate policies will ultimately cost, this ceiling will set a limit on that price tag: If climate policy poses too severe a threat to economic growth, the state will prioritize growth.  > What the World Might LearnMr. Brown has promoted California&#039;s policies as a way of convincing the world that the United States won&#039;t abandon the fight against climate change, even after Mr. Trump announced a withdrawal from the Paris climate agreement.   ***** [**Extended Summary**](http://np.reddit.com/r/autotldr/comments/6pqq7x/california_is_going_far_beyond_other_states_on/) | [FAQ](http://np.reddit.com/r/autotldr/comments/31b9fm/faq_autotldr_bot/ ""Version 1.65, ~176290 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*: **state**^#1 **California**^#2 **emissions**^#3 **climate**^#4 **cap**^#5"


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Even though you are relocating and this is more open than a typical job move, the school's request is absurd. In most situations you expose yourself to a huge risk of being fired once you reveal you are looking to go elsewhere, since you are basically saying you are no longer committed to the job. They are asking you to take that risk with no guarantee they will hire you. This is the kind of thing that would make me question whether it is a good place to work.


You really don't know anything about China, do you.  China has a ruling class that makes the laws, and holds all the wealth. Every member of the communist party is a billionaire. Why do you suppose that it? The regular citizens are basically slaves who work crazy hours for close to no pay.


"I laugh and say ""wouldn't you like to know!"" And then say ""no really, I'm not at liberty to discuss that.""  I always go to chat up the competitors at their booths but ALWAYS keep it personal and neutral (like the weather or wow my feet hurt, etc.)  You never know, you may be applying for a job there some day!"


We can't know the future, of course, but we know that on average it's better to invest a lump sum. We can look at some periods of recent history to get a sense of the difference between a lump sum 450k investment and maybe say 5 years of 90k. Using S&P 500 return rates, let's say you started investing on Jan 1, 2008: Here, spreading your investing over 5 years earns you an extra $163k.  Starting a year later, the same strategy would earn you $327k less than a lump investment: I looked at some other periods, but the story doesn't change from what we already knew; you can reduce risk of losing a big chunk due to a bad year, but it comes at the cost of potential gains. Perhaps you could make a killing by waiting for the next down-turn and buying on the cheap, or maybe you'll just be wasting time and money as the market enjoys sustained growth. I'd go with a lump, trusting the averages; but you're right, another 2008 with no recovery would suck. As for holding $50k back it depends primarily on your monthly budget, many people suggest a 3-8 month liquid emergency fund, I like 6 months. Go with what you're comfortable with.


Books are a great place to start, Jason Kelly's The Neatest Little Guide to Stock Market Investing will give you a broad foundation of the stock & bond market.


Whole Foods has 431 current locations.  At $13.6B ... Amazon is paying $31M per location.   That means it's not about the brick and mortar.  Something bigger is coming.    This as Kroger keeps expanding stores and now using space to sell mom jeans and cheap socks.


"is it worth it? That is for you to judge. The risks are having it blowup in your face, and you having to pay a penalty, or go to jail. The issue is how you keep it secret, and who you keep it secret from. If you have money in a secret account and keep it hidden even though you: You are taking a big risk. If the knowledge of the contents of the secret stash would cause a judge or government agency to make a different decision, you could face penalties ranging from monetary to jail time. The government could also decide that they need to determine the source of the funds. They may want to know if the money was ""earned"" through illegal means. They will want to determine if the funds should haven taxed not just on the interest but if the original income tax was ever collected.  If the amounts are large enough the taxing authority  and police will have a lot of fun pulling apart your entire financial history. Oh and the lawyers you pay to keep you out of jail will also have their fun. why do some people do it? They are greedy; or paranoid; or they don't trust others; or they are criminals."


Instead of gnucash i suggest you to use kmymoney. It's easier


>Not everything is about marginal utility and trying to define people by their marginal utility is almost sociopathic.  This needs to be said more often.  Walmart earned $4B this quarter yet they pay their employees slave wages.  They could afford to pay every one of their employees an extra $3 per hour and still make huge profits.  That's a 25% raise.  Apple, to extend the comparison,  earned $8B yet pay their contractors slave wages.  Perhaps they should revise the ethics classes for business degrees and start teaching social responsibility as well.


">More wisdom from the armchair economist who can't answer a simple question.  Ok dude. You are a complete moron. The reason I didn't bother answering your question is because it has 0 relevance to your original post and my reply, and it's also something you can literally google. So let me do it for you.  >Citibank is the consumer division of financial services multinational Citigroup  This makes Citibank a commercial depository bank.  Now get to your point. And please include how   * Citibank is JP Morgan,   * JP Morgan needed to be bailed out,   * JP Morgan ""gambled""  * tax payers covered their losses  * the CEO of a financial institution that was partly responsible for keeping the US economy from the shithole is a ""fucker""  fucking retard."


Sure you can.  You can fill in whatever you want in the From section of a money order, so your business name and address would be fine. The price only includes the money order itself.  You can hand deliver it yourself if you want, but if you want to mail it, you'll have to provide an envelope and a stamp. Note that, since you won't have a bank record of this payment, you'll want to make sure you keep other records, such as the stub of the money order.  You should probably also ask the contractor to give you a receipt.


"First of all you do not ""co-sign a car"". I assume what you mean by this is that you co-signed a loan, and the money was used to buy a car. Once you signed that loan YOU OWED THE MONEY. Once a loan exists, it exists, and you will owe the money until the loan is paid. If you do not want to owe the money, then you need to pay back the money you borrowed. You may not think ""you"" borrowed the money because the car went to someone else. THE BANK AND THE COURTS DO NOT CARE. All they care about is that YOU signed the loan, so as far as they are concerned YOU owe the money and you owe ALL of the money to the bank, and the only way to change that is to pay the money back."