"Per capita joint-stock market capitalization is strongly correlated (Pearson's r = .51) with the transparency.org corruption perceptions index (higher index score is cleaner, more transparent government). So if by ""capitalism"" you mean joint-stock capitalism the data suggests you're wrong.  When I studied this about a year ago, China's per capita joint-stock market capitalization was a little over $2,000 while their corruption index was a miserable 3.5. On the other hand, the US had a per capita joint-stock market capitalization of about $38,000 and a pretty good corruption index score of 7.1.  If you graph this regression on a log scale Morocco and Colombia occupy similar positions as China. The nearest statistical ""neighbors"" to the US are France and Norway. Are China, Morocco and Colombia less corrupt than the US, France and Norway?"


"Well... to be fair... everyone can make a plan for their lives.  Of course, life happens and it can derail that plan.  With a plan, you can at least know you're making decisions that help propel you towards your goals.  Without a plan, you're just rudderless.    Planning doesn't cost anything.  Making goals doesn't cost anything.  With that being said, the less ""means"" that a person has, the harder it is to live below them.  It really comes down to individual circumstances."


"I used to work in finance for a number of years and I believe some of the use of these cliches are context-relevant (as others have said), but I also think they are often used as a placeholder for an actual thought or point, when one is lacking. It is also quite jarring to hear these phrases for the first time, as I had when I first started working at an investment bank. I thought they were sealing themselves within their culture. I found it limiting and really suffocating. My (least) favorite was ""it is what it is."" I always wanted to say: ""When isn't it?""  In any event, I have been collecting articles like this for a while. I have an idea to write a short story about a newly minted undergrad (or MBA) joining a company and all the other characters *only* speak in these phrases and sentences. And the main character is forced to deal with his/her initial confusion and then struggles to decide whether to assimilate (drink the kool-aid, if you will) and then realize his/her ability to think and identify as an individual is being challenged, so he/she ultimately abandons that company/job/industry."


I don't see how me pointing out how you're wrong even shows what my views are. You also won't sway anyone by being condescending when you're wrong. Notice this about the people who oppose these issues. Once you show them they're wrong they will just attack and insult instead of actually debating.


Which is actually not usually the case. The bonus is typically in shares which they can only cash in after so many years, to try and align the C-suite's interest with long term plans for the company.   What most screws things over is being in the share market, when management makes itself slave to the vagarities of the intraday price. There are a very few number if companies that have realized this and gone back to annual rather than quarterly reporting.


It's coming. All of his drama and crises are of his own doing. There going to be an real emergency and his administration or nation isn't prepared for it. He's alienated our allies and gutted the middle management of the State Department. THERE IS NO HEAD OF FEMA and Hurricane season is starting soon.


Here are the main ways of doing this that I've encountered. I've met advocates of each. You might be interested in this set of articles: http://www.slate.com/id/2281885/ which looks at some different ways of doing this and the financial - and other - effects.


"Not only does the interest get charged from Day 1 on new purchases as long as you have a revolving balance, but the credit card agreement often says something to the effect that any partial payment is applied first to the  interest to date, and then transfer balances on which no interest is being charged and so the bank is losing money on it, then to other transfer  balances and cash advances (and no refund of that 3% fee that was  collected up front on the cash advance) and finally to the purchases starting from the most recent back to the oldest one. Even the FAQ on my card site says in simple language  ""We apply payments and credits at our discretion, including in a manner most favorable or convenient for us."" (see mhoran_psprep's answer). The moral is indeed what Dheer has already told you: do not carry a revolving balance on a credit card and if you have a revolving balance, pay it off as soon as possible,  Do not wait for the end of the grace period; if possible, pay it off the day the statement is  issued, or if you can make only a partial payment, make it as soon as possible.  Make multiple partial payments each month if you have cash flow problems, or improve your cash flow by forgoing one or more of the many Grande Vente Mocharino Espresso Lattes you consume each day.  Credit card debt is close to the worst kind of debt that you can have, and it is best to get out from under as soon as possible. Remember, there is effectively no grace period as long as you have a revolving balance on your credit card.  You are paying interest for every one of those days."


True ... I left BofA about 2 years ago.  It wasn't easy but setting up new accounts at the credit union took an hour, then updating all my auto-payments took a few hours to change.  I left BofA up for a couple months just in case I missed something (I actually found I missed a CC auto-payment).  After those months, I called BofA and cancelled all my accounts.  Was it easy?  No, but you're right - it's work (and worth it!).


You raise several points. 1) Your citation on family income decline? 2) I'm not denying anything, I just think that if one was going to say 'toy sales are down because people have less money,' then that argument also should hold for other non-necessities, like apps. But that's seemingly not the case. IDC (December 2010): In 2010 these 300,000+ applications were downloaded 10.9 billion times. IDC predicts that global downloads will reach 76.9 billion in 2014 and will be worth US$35 billion. ABI Research (October 2011): Predicts that there will be 29 billion apps downloaded in 2011, up from 9 billion in 2010. In Q2 Android overtook Apple in terms of app downloads with 44 percent of downloads, compared to Apple’s 31 percent. Revenue from apps:  Canalys (June 2011): Predicts that direct revenue from the sale of apps, in-app purchases and subscriptions across smartphones and tablets will be $7.3 billion in 2011 rising to $36.7 billion by 2015. I could not specifically find data on game apps, but given the overall rising tide of app sales it seems to follow that game apps would benefit from that, too.


I have a PayPal account that I have linked to my bank account.  My PayPal balance is always $0.  When I make a purchase with PayPal, PayPal will automatically withdraw the funds from my bank account to make the purchase.   PayPal does not ask my permission for each purchase.  I probably gave them permission to do this when I linked my bank account.  Or perhaps the PayPal purchase process includes this permission.  I don't read the text closely.  Or I should add, that I probably read it at one point, but since I do it on a regular basis, I don't read it now, and I don't recall what is on the checkout page.


"the deadline for roth conversions is december 31st.  more precisely, roth conversions are considered to have happened in the tax year the distribution was taken. this creates a kind of loop hole for people who do an ira rollover (not a trustee-to-trustee transfer). technically, you can take money out of your traditional ira on december 31st and hold it for 60 days before deciding to roll it over into either another traditional ira or a roth ira. if you decide to put it in another traditional account, it is not a taxable event.  but if you decide to put it in a roth account, the ""conversion"" is considered to have happened in december. unfortunately non-trustee rollovers are tricky. for one, the source trustee will probably take withholding that you will have to make up with non-ira funds. and rollovers are limitted to a certain number per year. also, if you miss the 60-day deadline, you will have to pay an early-withdrawal penalty (with some exceptions). if you really want to push the envelope, you could try to do this with a 60-day-rule extension, but i wouldn't try it. source: https://www.irs.gov/publications/p590a/ch01.html oddly, recharacterizations (basically reverse roth conversions) have a deadline of october 15th of the year after the original roth conversion it is reversing. so, you could do the conversion in december, then you have up to 10 months to change your mind and ""undo"" the conversion with a ""recharacterization"". again, this is tricky business. at the very least, you should be aware that the tax calculations for recharacterization are different if you convert the funds into a new empty roth account vs an existing roth account with a previous balance. honestly, if you want to get into the recharacterization business, you can probably save more on taxes by converting in january before 20-month stock market climb rather than simply converting in the year your tax brackets are low. that is the typical recharacterization strategy. source: https://www.irs.gov/Retirement-Plans/Retirement-Plans-FAQs-regarding-IRAs-Recharacterization-of-Roth-Rollovers-and-Conversions"


Training minimum wage employees and making them fear getting fired is not a sound business model alone.     Minimum wages, minimum expectations.  If you expect quality from people but don't treat them with quality, well good luck.  In the real world, you get what you pay for.  There's only so many people willing to work at minimum wage.   Those people aren't going to care about your business.


There is more than one kind of tax. It is a little confusing because in reality the tax revenues collected by the Government aren't earmarked to a particular usage based on where they came from, usually. Well, the Gov't often CLAIMS they do, but for all practical matters it all goes in a big bucket. So just because a business or individual isn't paying income taxes doesn't mean they aren't paying anything for the use of Government furnished infrastructure/services. You are limiting the scope of your question to Income Taxes, which are taxes paid on profits to a business or individual. It makes perfect sense that you wouldn't pay a tax on something you didn't get. However, you aren't considering taxes that ARE being paid even by a company that isn't profitable. For example consumption taxes, employment taxes, and other fees. That same company paid sales tax on all the supplies it purchased, and probably collected/paid sales taxes on anything it sold. To take one of your examples, it paid for its share of using the roads through Government imposed taxes on fuel.  Don't worry about the Government. They know how to get theirs. They might not pull it from your right pocket, but they will make sure to get it from the left.


> I don't know how the middle class with survive without them.   They wouldn't. Which is why the unionization re-revolution won't happen here. It will start in China and move back to our shores. That, or we'll see the dirty commies unionizing and redouble our hatred for them, finally bringing serfdom-fiefdom back into fashion.


Question: are you saying that buying a call is better than buying a vertical spread regardless of fees, or only because of fees? If the former, you are saying that buying a call and selling a vertical spread will always be profitable, which effectively means you're going short an out-of-the-money call. While that's a good strategy, it doesn't guarantee profit, and will lose money exactly when the vertical spread is a better strategy than buying the call outright. The most direct answer to your question in comments: if the stock goes down, you lose less money with the vertical spread than you do with a simple call. In return for this lower risk, you give up gains if the stock goes above the higher calls strike price.


The two answers given previously provide excellent information. In relation to your statement: If I buy the above future contract, does that mean I pay $1581.90 on June 13th You cannot buy the futures contract at that price. The 'price' you are seeing quoted is not a dollar value, but rather a value in points. Each contract has a point value, and this varies from one contract to another according to the specifications set out by the exchange. The point value is in dollars, and it therefore acts as a multiplier for the 'price' that you've seen quoted. Let's look at an example for the E-Mini S&P futures. These trade electronically on the Globex exchange, the ECN order book of the CME, and carry the ticker symbol ES.  The ES contract has a point value of $50. If the quoted price for the ES is 1581.75, then its dollar value is 50 x 1581.75 = $79,087.50 So in order to buy this contract outright, with absolutely no use of leverage, then one theoretically requires $79,087 in one's account. In practice though, futures are traded on margin and so only a deposit amount is required at the time of purchase, as CQM has explained.


Yes, it's a term in economics. It is the economy that affects goods and services, and so the vast majority of the economy.   It contrasts with the paper economy, which is what goes on in the financial sector and speaks more about the virtual value in bonds, financial instruments, and shares.


"When one says that ""corporations are people"", in a legal sense, they are saying that they have the ability to enter into binding legal agreements in a manner similar to people. This allows corporations to do things like own a building or a car, or enter into a contract. This is so that an individual does not have to do so. This keeps individuals from being liable for the activities of the corporation (it also keeps the individual from running off the the corporation's car or selling the corporation's building).  If they are using it in any sense other than the legal sense, it's either hyperbole, ignorance, or pandering.  Now, if you set yourself up as LettersFromTheSky, Inc, then you would very well be able to get all the same tax deductions and benefits as a corporation. But you would also be liable for everything that a corporation is liable for (namely, a higher standard of reporting and different accounting methods)."


I would echo @Victor's comments. One book and 1000 web pages doesnt make you a good investor/trader. There are some basic things you should be aware of and read up on There are a few books that I would recommend I have been trading for over 10 years, my dad for over 30 years and we are both continually learning new things. Don't read one book and assume you know it all. Bear in mind that there are always new indicators being thought up and new ways of using and interpreting the same information, so keep reading and educating yourself.


Yea read a few books or watch some videos on YouTube on fundamental analysis and try it using excel. It's probably not what you'll be doing if you get a degree in finance, and you might even end up in accounting like I did, but its a good place to start to see if you like it or not.  It also exposes you to accounting, business, the politics of business, taxation, financial statements, EDGAR and all the other interesting and important stuff.  You might want to pick up a study guide for the CPA exam BEC. Lots of very interesting stuff in there about business in general including how the board of directors works, and taxation. It's an awesome read.


So you're 23 with no higher graduation, certificates etc which would allow you to study / training but with a high passion for logical thinking and math? Im 31 now, i was in a similar position back then when i was 23. The very best thoughts i want to throw you over: FORGET IT (AT LEAS THIS WAY) - You need cash equity (not borrowed) to even get a foot in the door (read on why) . The fact that you even consider to trade with a few hundred dollar shows how desperate you're, it would very likely result in loss, resignation and mental pain.  Let me get you a reality check: If you think you can quadruple your money within months with ease and no risk your wrong - this mindset is gambling - don't end up as gambler. To make 24K a year or 2K a month (taxes are not included) would mean 10% a month on a 20K account which would be almost impossible on a long run (show me a hedge-fund with that performance) - What do you do on draw down months - 3 months no profit would mean you're 8K behind - you wont make a living wit ha 20K account in a western civilization and normal lifestyle. Big question, how do you want to trade? Everything newsfeed / latency based is very hard to compete in. So called technical systems drawing lines, fancy indicators etc are bogus in my opinion (read taleb black swan). Trading/speculation based on fundamentals is a different animal - It to be able to do that you would need to understand the market you trade and what influences it, takes lot time, brainpower , tools ready (ugh, hard to write the picture on my mind). Im 31 years into trading now, seen so many faces come and most of them go in that time , to me it sounds like you quietly hope for a lotto ticket. To speak about hardware, ie the tools you need depends on your trading style (again a hint that a lot more study is needed. If you're really hooked, readreadread and get in touch with people - always question yourself.


"On the other side of the argument if you use your own capital you build a product that you own, not some random VC who doesn't care about anything but dollar signs.   Your chances of joining a successful startup are pretty slim. I would say the chances of you starting your own product/bootstrapping are also slim. The payoffs for owning what you create are priceless.  I think that for some people it's just easy to fall into the ""wage slave"" way of life, but that doesn't mean that ideals in the post are wrong."


Agree with mjvcaj, it is rare. Larger cap examples include Nokia and NII Holdings (Nextel).  If cash exceeds market cap, that means total debt is greater than EV, the value of the operating assets. If the debt is partially repaid / matures, the equity is ok. BUT if management is crap and the cash is spent at an ROIC below the interest rate on the debt, now you have a situation where the net debt exceeds the value of the operating assets, the credit quality suffers, debt trades down, you need to recapitalize in order to avoid bankruptcy.  The above assumes debt is greater than cash. Situations where cash exceeds market cap and debt is less than cash (i.e. a negative EV) are exceedingly rare in larger companies and are either a) a wonderfully attractive mispricing or b) market views management as so awful that the cash will get burnt up by the business and the value of that cash will be destroyed.


I suspect that the payments were originally due near the end of each quarter (March 15, June 15, September 15, and December 15) but then the December payment was extended to January 15 to allow for end-of-year totals to be calculated, and then the March payment was extended to April 15 to coincide with Income Tax Return filing.


"Hitting air-bridged systems has been done before. It requires copious resources, time and patience. [Stuxnet](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stuxnet#Operation) did it by infecting the windows system used to program the air bridged system, embedding itself on the code, which eventually got dumped onto a floppy, and finally crossed the ""air"" onto the issolated system.  But as I said, in this case the point is mute, cause once you gain physical access to the ATM, you gain access to the money."


They do state that but it may not mean much. I just read an article where the former NJ attorney general warns that a legal contract like this would trump a statement from the marketing department saying the clause does not apply.   The article was on Bloomberg, I'd cite it if I wasn't too lazy right now.


"> In a version of Romney's ""47 percent"" remarks, Siegel added that ""people like me who made all the right decisions and invested in themselves are being forced to bail out all the people who didn't. The people that overspent their paychecks suddenly feel entitled to the same luxuries that I earned and sacrificed 42 years of my life for.""   Yeah luxuries that he doesn't need like a military, police force, and fire department! Who needs education and health systems. Damn Poor people that overspent their paychecks thats who."


JAMCO (A Division of Yukta Group Inc) have been in business since 1986 and were one of the first used truck wholesalers in the country. All our used equipment is stored in our clean heated warehouse. We take pride in the used forklifts we supply to forklift dealers all over the world and firmly stand behind the quality of equipment like Used Forklifts,used Lift Trucks,Industrial Battery Chargers,Pallet Jacks.


"*Moving your text out of order for (I hope) clarity*  > Because... (it) is a violation of the social contract. I'm quite sure I explained this already multiple times.  You've not explained, you just keep repeating your assertion.  You say ""The social contract is X"" and I ask, ""Why must it be X"" and you respond, ""Because the social contract is X.""  Let me try a different approach.  > Because the only modern justification for the existence of a nation is the social contract.  I disagree.  I think a nation can exist for whatever reason it's populace decides and today, more often than not, it includes providing for the welfare of it's citizens.  What do you think prevents a social contract from being so?  > Exactly. That's why we have the social contract...  Great! It sounds like you now agree that a modern government is required for capitalism to exist.  > Please elaborate as to why that is a problem in the first place.  Because it makes for an unstable system which will hurt the welfare of the people which is opposed to my definition of the social contract."


So here's the thing that everyone seems to forget: I bought Netflix to watch MOVIES. Original content is great and all but they started off trying to provide a service and then just abandoned that service to essentially become their own TV network. If I'm bored at home and want to watch A Few Good Men, for example, I can't fire up my Netflix subscription so I'm off to the video store instead, which is exactly the thing I was trying to avoid by subscribing to Netflix.


Assuming you have registered your activities as partnership and receiving this money as Individual, you need to show this under Schedule OS, 1d [other income]. this will be under the ITR-2 [tab CG-OS] XLS tax preparation utility given by Tax Department. The XLS can be found at https://incometaxindiaefiling.gov.in/portal/individual_huf.do If the funds you are receiving are large [more than say Rs 500,000] then suggest you incorporate a partnership firm or company, there are quite a few exceptions you can claim lowering you tax outgo.  The fact that you are transferring funds to your partners can be an issue incase you get audited. You would need to have sufficient evidence to show that the money paid was for services rendered directly and not your income. It would be easier if you create a partnership or have the client directly pay to them. Again if the sum is small its fine, as the sum becomes large, it would get noticed by the tax authorities.


">It was a discussion about revenue recognition from the sales of iPhones, and whether it would be better for Apple if the regulation was changed to allow immediate recognition rather than deferring the income... My argument is that it didn't matter one bit, because nothing is changing about how the company is actually run. Cash flow in and out of the company doesn't change... The Accounting majors largely disagreed with me, while the Finance majors largely agreed.  There are too many ways to ""buy"" an iPhone. While some assumptions could be made to make revenue recognition more uniform, cash flow could be wildly different and isn't guaranteed based on the number of units sold. If everyone paid in full with cash, this wouldn't be the case. However, the large majority of iPhone owners acquire their phones via carrier subsidy with another major group buying them on payment plans either from their carrier or directly from Apple."


Do you need to put down 25% on a conventional loan? Conventional loans can be done with 5%, 10%, or 20% down (if you're willing to pay PMI for the <20% down scenario). If you don't like FHA's terms, don't do an FHA loan..


I'd say it's a limitation of your bank. Every bank I've ever used had instant transfers between accounts at the same bank.


Yes you can deposit money into your credit card. When you make a repayment of your credit card bill you are making a deposit into it and it will show up as a credit on your statement. If you get a refund for an item you returned this will also be listed as a credit on your statement.


>Everybody should have a second chance to try again.  This is such an important principle in the U.S. that it's engrained in the [U.S. Constitution, article I, section 8](http://www.usconstitution.net/xconst_A1Sec8.html) : *The Congress shall have power to. . . establish . . . uniform Laws on the subject of Bankruptcies throughout the United States*.


"Many thanks for thedetailed  response, appreciate it. But I am still not clear on the distinction between a public company and the equity holders. Isn't a public company = shareholders + equity holders? Or do you mean ""company"" = shareholders+equity holders + debt holders?"


This is called him trying to screw your friend.    50k isn't a lot either, I'd hit up friends, family, try to get a government grant or even a bank loan first.  Also hit up some more reputable VCs, or even just raise the money himself.


I understand what they are doing, and certainly don't disagree with your assessment.  HOWEVER, what I'm saying is that people are going to buy Birkenstock's on Amazon with or without the CEO's permission and thus with or without legit Birkenstocks (Read counterfeit).  My point is that they can either capture that distribution channels themselves or someone else will.  When American's buy shoes now, its turning more and more to online distribution.  Ignoring an online distribution channel is the same as ignoring cell phones if you're a pay phone provider.  All I'm saying is he can get on board or get out of the way.


If i look to the future ,i see the general retail revenue growing pretty slowly, but the online retailers growing fast. Why ?   First, they grew historically around 20% per year for the last few years.  Second there's a lot of big important innovation. Amazon prime, Tablets and phones as great sales tools and comparison tools(and they're becoming common), Ebay investing heavily in logistics to enable small non u.s. companies to sell onshore without big shipping costs, Online apparel shopping improving rapidly and maybe becoming competitive with offline shopping,using social networks for shopping, interesting new models to sell merchandise online like etsy, subscription shopping and the the general rate of internet innovations.   Third, people are improving in their e-commerce capability and trust.  On the other hand , i don't see any big growth opportunity for brick and mortar retailers.So it means they'll shrink.  The problem is that retail is a low margin business. That means that losing 5-15% percent of revenue  is enough to close you , because you have a lot of fixed costs(rent, employees, financing the goods).


The reason this sort of question gets asked over and over again is because it's initially difficult to comprehend how you can possibly be scammed if you have no money in your bank account. Perhaps this would make it easier to understand: Someone approaches you in the parking lot of a mall and says, Excuse me, complete stranger, please take this $100 bill and go buy me a pair of $50 shoes at the shoe store. Then go buy whatever you'd like with the rest of the money. Sounds like a good deal, right? The $100 bill is counterfeit. If it were not, the person would buy the shoes themselves. It doesn't get any simpler than that.


Interest rates do generally affect house prices but other factors do too, especially the unemployment rate. However, everything else being equal, when interest rates drop, it makes the borrowing of money cheaper so tends to stimulate the economy and the housing market, increasing the demand for houses and generally causes house prices to increase (especially if the supply of new housing doesn't increase with the demand). When interest rates go up the opposite happens. Usually interest rates go down in order to stimulate  a slowing economy and interest rates go up to slow down an overheated economy. Regarding your situation you are able to get a 30 year fixed rate at today’s interest rates (in Australia the longest fixed rate you can get is for 10 years and the rate is usually 1 or 2 percent higher than the standard variable rate. Most people here go for the variable rate or a fixed rate of between 1 to 3 years). This means that even if rates do go up in the future you won't be paying a higher rate, which is a positive for you. You are buying the house to live in so as long as you can keep making the repayments you should not be too worried if the price of the house drops sometime in the future, because if your house has dropped and you want to sell to buy another house to live in, then that house would have also dropped relative to yours (give or take). So your main worry is that rates will go up causing both house prices to fall and unemployment to rise, and you yourself losing your job and eventually your house. It is a risk, but what you need to consider is if you can manage that risk. Firstly, I believe rates won't be going up in the US for a number of years, and if and when they do start going up they will most probably start going up slowly. So you have some time on your side. Secondly, what can you do between now and when interest rates do start going up in a few years: Try to put more saving away to increase your safety net from 6 months to 12 months or more, or make extra repayments into your home loan so that you are ahead if things do go wrong. If you are worried that you could lose your job, what can you do to reduce your chances of losing your job or increasing your chances of getting a new job quickly if you do lose it? Improve your current skills, get new skills, become an invaluable employee, or look at possible opportunities to start your own business. Do your own research on the types of houses you are looking at buying, the more houses you look at the better prepared you will be when the right house at the right price comes along, and the less chance that you will be rushed into buying what might be an overpriced house. So to sum it up; do as much research as you can, have an understanding of what your risks are and how you are going to manage those risks.


Does the market automatically assume a rescheduled call means something major, like the auditors aren't signing the financials, is going on? Yes. (If so, why?) People - including investors - are emotional. And suspicious. And paranoid. Financial discussions tend to make everything sound like a cold, clinical science, and to some degree that is true. But you should never look past something much more simple - people are people. And of course, once all is said and done, acts like a reschedule often do mean something is up. So you've now got a nice mix of fact and emotion.   Does it mean that 95% of the shares' holders are insiders who all decided to sell when they learned about whatever is causing the delay in the con call? No. See Littleadv's answer.


"I agree with Joe Taxpayer that a lot of details are missing to really evaluate it as an investment... for context, I own a few investment properties including a 'small'  10+ unit apartment complex. My answer might be more than you really want/need, (it kind of turned into Real Estate Investing 101), but to be fair you're really asking 3 different questions here: your headline asks ""how effective are Condo/Hotel developments as investments?"" An answer to that is... sometimes, very. These are a way for you-the investor-to get higher rents per sq. ft. as an owner, and for the hotel to limit its risks and access additional development funding. By your description, it sounds like this particular company is taking a substantial cut of rents. I don't know this property segment specifically, but I can give you my insight for longer-term apartment rentals... the numbers are the same at heart. The other two questions you're implying are ""How effective is THIS condo/hotel development?"" and ""Should you buy into it?"" If you have the funds and the financial wherewithal to honestly consider this, then I am sure that you don't need your hand held for the investment pros/cons warnings of the last question.  But let me give you some of my insight as far as the way to evaluate an investment property, and a few other questions you might ask yourself before you make the decision to buy or perhaps to invest somewhere else.  The finance side of real estate can be simple, or complicated. It sounds like you have a good start evaluating it, but here's what I would do: Start with figuring out how much revenue you will actually 'see': Gross Potential Income: 365 days x Average Rent for the Room = GPI (minus) Vacancy... you'll have to figure this out... you'll actually do the math as (Vacancy Rate %) x GPI (equals) Effective Potential Income = EPI Then find out how much you will actually pocket at the end of the day as operating income: Take EPI (minus) Operating expenses ... Utilities ... Maintenace ... HOA ... Marketing if you do this yourself (minus) Management Expenses ... 40% of EPI ... any other 'fees' they may charge if you manage it yourself. ... Extra tax help? (minus) Debt Service ... Mortgage payment ... include Insurances (property, PMI, etc) == Net Operating Income (NOI) Now NOI (minus) Taxes == Net Income Net Income (add back) Depreciation (add back) sometimes Mortgage Interest == After-tax Cash Flows There are two ""quickie"" numbers real estate investors can spout off. One is the NOI, the other is the Cap Rate.  In order to answer ""How effective is THIS development?"" you'll have to run the numbers yourself and decide. The NOI will be based on any assumptions you choose to make for vacancy rates, actual revenue from hotel room bookings, etc. But it will show you how much you should bring in before taxes each year. If you divide the NOI by the asking price of your unit (and then multiply by 100), you'll get the ""Cap Rate"". This is a rough estimate of the rate of return you can expect for your unit... if you buy in.  If you come back and say ""well I found out it has a XX% cap rate"", we won't really be qualified to help you out. Well established mega investment properties (think shopping centers, office buildings, etc.) can be as low as 3-5 cap rates, and as high as 10-12. The more risky the property, the higher your return should be. But if it's something you like, and the chance to make a 6% return feels right, then that's your choice. Or if you have something like a 15% cap rate... that's not necessarily outstanding given the level of risk (uncertain vacancies) involved in a hotel.  Some other questions you should ask yourself include:  How much competition is there in the area for short-term lodging? This could drive vacancies up or down... and rents up or down as well How 'liquid' will the property (room) be as an asset? If you can just break even on operating expense, then it might still make sense as an investment if you think that it might appreciate in value AND you would be able to sell the unit to someone else.  How much experience does this property management company have... (a) in general, (b) running hotels, and (c) running these kinds of condo-hotel combination projects? I would be especially interested in what exactly you're getting in return for paying them 40% of every booking. Seasonality? This will play into Joe Taxpayer's question about Vacancy Rates. Your profile says you're from TX... which hints that you probably aren't looking at a condo on ski slopes or anything, but if you're looking at something that's a spring break-esque destination, then you might still have a great run of high o during March/April/May/June, but be nearly empty during October/November/December.  I hope that helps. There is plenty of room to make a more ""exact"" model of what your cash flows might look like, but that will be based on assumptions and research you're probably not making at this time."


But the source is important when you consider that it's strategic. As in, Amazon has profitted from the patent wars up until now, but now that they are planning to make a move into smart phones where they don't have as much ammunition, they want everyone to play nice.


First, the earnings are per year, not per quarter.  Why would you expect to get a 100% per year return on your money? The earnings can go one of two ways. They can be retained, reinvested in the company, or they can be distributed as a dividend. So, the 'return' on this share is just over 5%, which is competitive with the rate you'd get on fixed investments. It's higher, in fact, as there's the risk that comes with holding the stock.


No one takes Roubini seriously because he's always predicting failure. If I constantly predicted failure, it's kind of dump to trumpet it as a success when failure occurs once every 5-7 years.  Oh look, we're just about 5 years past the last failure, time to bring out the old corpse again.


"The answer to your question is Forex trading.  You can get to 250K quicker than any other ""investment"" scheme.  You'll just need to start with at least 500K."


Then why do countries with single payer health plans see the cost for medical services increase beyond the rate of inflation every year?   [Seriously, just look at these numbers.](http://www.towerswatson.com/assets/pdf/3585/Towers-Watson-Global-Medical-Trends-Svy-Rpt.pdf)  It doesn't matter that they spend less of apercent of GDP on health care than us, because the net effect of thier models cause cost inflation that increases that percentage, just like ours. You could transplant thier model to the US and still see the same upward momentum. It is mathematically unsustainable.


Option 2. Selling the car yourself will give you the best value, especially if you can get its full value. This will cost you time, but will return much better return for your money. Also, I would strongly recommend buying a used car from a private owner (not a dealer), rather than buying a new car. For $14,000 in cash you can probably get a car like a 2013 Ford Fusion that has excellent all-wheel drive and winter handling. A new Fusion, loaded, will cost at least $25,000 from a dealer. If you buy a 2013 car outright from a private owner, you will have NO PAYMENTS and can spend that money on investments and build your wealth.


Two choices:  1.  Sell everything you have and move to North Korea.  2.  Questions regarding loans, refinancing, mortgages, credit cards, investing and anything else that may be related to personal finance should be directed towards the subreddit /r/personalfinance. You will receive a probation (temporary ban) for disregarding this rule.


Unfortunately the answer is, almost none. Almost everything has a risk of decreasing; but given your short time horizon and presumably given that you want back your principal in full, plus a little bit, you have few choices. (Some of the following may be Canadian specific terms, but hopefully they are generic enough to apply) Savings accounts, money-market funds and the like should be available at any bank.  Interest won't pay you much right now, but the money should be safe (I presume Israel has some kind of deposit insurance for normal bank accounts?) Slightly more risky would be a short-to-maturity bond or stripped bond coupon.  The entry amount of money for one of these may be more than you have on hand, or the setup fee for an investment account might be more than you want to bother with for a one-off investment. Given that you seem to indicate that you might need access to the money during the time-frame in question, the bank-account option seems to be the only one really available.


"In the United States, yes it will generally cover suicide. However there is usually a ""suicide clause"":  Usually, this clause states that no death benefit will be paid if the   insured commits suicide within two years of taking out a policy. Whenever an insured person replaces an existing life insurance policy   with a new one, the time clock for the suicide clause is set back to   zero and starts over again. It also depends on the policy, state, etc."


You don't mention how much money you are talking about but one option is to use reward checking accounts that are FDIC/NCUA insured. They pay 3-4% interest but generally have a few requirements such as 10-12 debit card transactions and sometimes require direct deposit as well as a limit of 10-50k deposits earning the top rate.


Regardless of your thoughts on what was happening in late 2012, financial prices should not be used as the sole barometer of a recovery...this is why the Fed uses tons of macroeconomic data, not just that BAC has been up 20% in the last 6 months.   My point is if you are going to tout what seems to be a market timing model, where the authors are proud of the fact that the entire thing is data mined,  you need strong out of sample evidence (over a few business cycles) that it works.  Nothing here comes close


Can you afford to replace your home if it suffers major damage in a fire or earthquake?  Is your home at risk of flooding?  In the United States, one can purchase insurance for each of these risks, but the customer has to ask about each of them.  (Most default American homeowners policies cover fire and wind damage, but not earthquake or flooding.  I am not sure about hurricane or tornado damage.) Your most cost-effective insurance against fire, earthquake, or flood damage is to prevent or minimize such damage.  Practical measures cannot completely eliminate these risks, so homeowners' insurance is still a good idea (unless you are so rich you can easily afford to replace your home).  But you can do things like: Your most cost-effective health insurance is to have clean water, wash your hands before handling food, eat healthily (including enough protein, vitamins, and minerals), exercise regularly, and not smoke.  Your medical insurance can cover some of the inevitable large medical expenses, but cannot make you healthy.


Hardcore conservative libertarians are also called [Minarchists](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Minarchism). A lot of Ron Paul fans hold to this ideology.   *This idea that the government has services or goods that they can pass on is a complete farce. Governments have nothing. They can't create anything, they never have.* - Ron Paul.  Also this: http://politicaloutcast.com/2012/07/governments-dont-make-wealth-they-just-take-yours/  And further research shows that the Cato Institute has this position.   *increasing government spending will damage the economy.* - http://www.cato.org/publications/commentary/vote-higher-taxes-now-regret-it-later


you wouldn't have to pay income taxes on the portion for health insurance.  think of high deductible health plans - the employer puts the deductible into a healthcare savings account which is tax free as long as it's for medical care.  right now you can also deduct the portion of your overall expenses that are medical over a portion of your income.  2 issues with your idea, though -  1.  right now, there are people who can't get health insurance except through an employer.  send them out into the marketplace and they will get turned down.  obamacare is supposed to fix this, but if Romney is elected, it will continue. 2.  healthcare inflation rises much higher than regular inflation, so if your benefits were included as part of wages and you had to buy it on your own, you would face a continually decreasing amount of money over time to purchase healthcare - a spiral.  this is the issue that many have with the voucher system the republicans are proposing for medicare - the voucher will rise at inflation, while healthcare rises much higher than inflation - right now I think it's a difference of 1% versus 8-9% off the top of my head.  also, for many industries, it's in the best interest of the company to have a healthy workforce.


You only have to hold the shares at the opening of the ex-dividend date to get the dividends. So you can actually sell the shares on ex-dividend date and still get the dividends. Ex-dividend date occurs before the record date and payment date, so you will get the dividend even if you sold before the record date.


"If you don't have a margin account, then you will not have margin calls. You need a margin account if you wish to ""buy on margin"", to sell stocks ""short"", or to sell options, or maybe some other esoteric things I have not thought of.  If you don't do those things, then you do not need a margin account and will not get margin calls. In your example, it doesn't sound like margin has been used, If you deposit $20 and used it to buy $20 of stock and it then falls to $5, ""they"" did not lose the money, you did.  But if no margin was used, then no margin call would result."


"Câu chuyện về một người đàn ông 26 tuổi ở bang Arizona (USA) sau khi ra ngoài mà không đem theo chìa khóa, anh ta đã nảy sinh ra 1 quyết định vô cùng táo bạo đó là chui vào nhà qua đường ống khói như 1 ""ông già Noel "" Tuy nhiên sau khi anh ta leo lên mái nhà và chui vào trong ống khói thì anh ta đã không thể tụt được xuống và mặc kẹt ở trong đó 4 tiếng đồng hồ mới được phát hiện. Đội cứu hộ phải mất khoảng 30 phút mới đưa được anh ta ra ngoài. Câu chuyện cảnh tỉnh mọi người đừng hành động một cách nông nổi thiếu suy nghĩ sẽ có thể gặp trắc trở bất cứ lúc nào."


What is the definition of work here. With no running water you would ha e to fetch water multiple times a day,.  A cold night would Mean a sleepless night ensuring the fire continues to. Be lit.    And the list would go on. I think we are over estimating just how much leisure time ancient man had.  But at the same time no one is stopping you from living that lifestyle.


"We change it every so often to reduce fraud. If you're absolutely sure you didn't just send money to a scammer impersonating a landlord, this has nothing to do with fraud-- they're playing a game with you. By changing the account number frequently, it makes it more likely you make a mistake in entering the payment account. When they come back to you a few days past due saying ""we never received your rent,"" you'll eventually realize it got sent to the wrong account. Now you owe them late fees, and there's really nothing you can do about it-- you did not in fact pay them on time; you sent it to the wrong account! It's an easy way for them to collect an additional few thousand dollars a year. Anytime a small business or landlord says they have to do something ""weird"" to reduce fraud, chances are it's a pretense to you getting hosed in some way."


Unless you spend a lot of money on the TD Gold Elite Visa, and are interested in the Deluxe TD Auto Club, the $99 annual fee is probably not worth it. Instead, the Citi Enrich MasterCard provides the same 1% cash back on all purchases without an annual fee. There's also an unadvertised Platinum version of the card, which includes other perks like car rental insurance, etc. From what I calculated a while back, The PC Financial MasterCard PC Points system works out to a 1% return as well. Unless there are extra deals like 5x point sales that I'm not aware of, cold hard cash would be a better option. Also check out the RFD Credit Card Head to Head article for way more options.


"This is the best tl;dr I could make, [original](http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-4700008/City-London-accuses-France-plot-wreck-Britain.html) reduced by 94%. (I'm a bot) ***** > France has boasted to City of London chiefs that it will use Brexit to sabotage the British economy, according to a bombshell leaked memo.  > The memo was written after the City of London&#039;s Brexit envoy - former Home Office Minister Jeremy Browne - held talks in Paris earlier this month at the French finance ministry, state-owned Banque de France, the French Senate and the British Embassy.  > He became the City of London Corporation&#039;s Brexit envoy on a six-figure salary after losing his Commons seat in 2015.   ***** [**Extended Summary**](http://np.reddit.com/r/autotldr/comments/6nkhic/city_of_london_accuses_france_of_plot_to_wreck/) | [FAQ](http://np.reddit.com/r/autotldr/comments/31b9fm/faq_autotldr_bot/ ""Version 1.65, ~167837 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*: **Brexit**^#1 **French**^#2 **City**^#3 **France**^#4 **Britain**^#5"


"They licensed it from another business entity which, presumably, owns them.  I mean, if Starbucks UK could decide tomorrow, ""hey, Starbucks USA is charging us too much for this damn logo, we're gonna rename ourselves Benedicts"" and they were able to rebrand and put up new logos and signage at all their stores… well, then, if that allowed them to *stop* paying this licensing fee then I guess I'd be cool with them *choosing* to continue to pay it. But I suspect that's really not the case, is it?  So I appreciate this is a *hugely* complicated business, but I think there should be limitations on intellectual property licensing to wholly- or majority-owned subsidiaries. It allows companies to charge what they like and do what they like, with no reference to the market value of that intellectual property.   I don't get to vote for Romney, because I'm in the UK."


"De fleste yrkes [svindel](http://koyaltraininggroup.blogspot.nl/) blir oppdaget av et anonymt tips, sier ekspertene, og svindel rapporteringsmekanismer som krisetelefon oppfordres som effektivt middel for å avdekke og nedslående [ansatt svindel](http://www.insurancejournal.com/magazines/features/2014/01/13/316357.htm).   The Association of Certified [Fraud](http://www.scribd.com/koyaltraininggroup) Examiners (ACFE) anbefaler at krisetelefon skal kunne motta tips fra interne kilder så vel som fra de utenfor organisasjonen. Den som ringer må være trygg på at deres kommentarer er anonyme og konfidensielle, og vil bli lyttet til. Det er også nyttig hvis de blir overvåket av en tredjepart organisasjon.  ""Dette er svært viktig i en organisasjon, at hvis du prøver å forhindre svindel som du har en sterk hotline, spissen linje, og at det er svart på riktig måte,"" sier Mark Senker, president i Purcellville, Va.- baserte internasjonale risikostyring fast, senker & Associates.  ""Oftest den første samtalen som kommer inn et tips linje ... er en test,"" sa han. ""Du kommer ikke til å få god informasjon. Den som ringer er virkelig teste for å se om de kommer til å betale noen oppmerksomhet til dette. ... Det er ikke før i andre eller tredje anrop at du virkelig kommer til å få noe informasjon. ""  Organisasjoner som har anti-svindel opplæringsprogrammer på plass generelt opplever lavere tap og mindre langvarige svindel, ifølge ACFE. Foreningen anbefaler at ansatte, ledelse og ledere både trenes til å gjenkjenne falske handlinger og utdannet på hvordan å rapportere tvilsom aktivitet.  [The Koyal Group Private Training Services](http://koyaltraininggroup.org/) design sin online og opplæring på stedet til dine spesielle behov, gi informasjon kan du søke mens du er i trening for å styrke effektiviteten av denne informasjonen. Våre kurs kvalifiserer statlige standarder både for bedrageri og videreutdanning-utdanning oppgradering. Våre programmer er tilpasningsdyktig og kan presenteres i ulike formater for å møte industriens krav og standarder. Vennligst besøk og sjekk våre kurs oppføringer."


OK: here are some thoughts:


well it worked with food and cars and everything else, its all GMO poison and plastic dog shit made by china,of course the schools would adopt the same model, dog shit education and getting ready for a job that pays enough to lmove out of moms house by the time your 35 or 40, great system if your satan living it up, like these over paid communists are, cant wait til there all beheaded


For tax purposes you will need to file as an employee (T4 slips and tax withheld automatically), but also as an entrepreneur. I had the same situation myself last year. Employee and self-employed is a publication from Revenue Canada that will help you. You need to fill out the statement of business activity form and keep detailed records of all your deductible expenses. Make photocopies and keep them 7 years. May I suggest you take an accountant to file your income tax form. More expensive but makes you less susceptible to receive Revenue Canada inspectors for a check-in.  If you can read french, you can use this simple spreadsheet for your expenses. Your accountant will be happy.


1% is below interchange, so you either 1) take mostly debit, 2) have someone willing to literally lose money paying the banks for you, or 3) have hidden/padded fees somewhere else.  Edit: Or 4) Have customers pay the fees through surcharging.


There are a few flaws in your reasoning: I know my portfolio will always keep going up, No, it won't.  You'll have periods of losses.  You are starting your investing in a bull market.  Do NOT be fooled into believing that your successes now will continue indefinitely. The more risky your portfolio, the bigger the losses.  The upside of a risky portfolio is that the gains generally outweigh the losses, but there will be periods of losses. I honestly don't believe that it's possible for me to end up losing in the long term, regardless of risk. I think you vastly underestimate the risk of your strategy and/or the consequences of that risk.   There's nothing wrong with investing in risky assets, since over time you'll get higher-than-average returns, but unless you diversify you are exposing yourself to catastrophic losses as well.


If you expect a significant increase in future income, then you should wait until that future income is assured, and then buy based on that decision. Buying more house than you can afford is what caused you to have to sell; you don't want to do that again. Instead of buying more house now, buy the right house for what you have now.   Better yet, though, you might rent instead of buying until the future income comes onboard.  Then you can get the best of both worlds - you get to buy the house you can afford in a year or two, but also don't overspend your income.


You know what's funny about that is while your correct in that he can't influence directly the way he wants to he still influences it tremendously almost by mistake.  I remember when Mitt Romney lost the dow dropped tremendously as if we had just elected the head of a communist party.  God Damned speculators!


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I personally use mint.com and find the alerting feature to be handy.  The reports and ledger are nice for a web page and attractive, but I use Quicken for really keeping track of my money and budget.  Mint.com just doesn't offer the depth I want; but a lack of depth is a feature for some people. The one thing I do is to check my accounts online every couple of days (not just via mint's interface).  I am still protected from fraud if someone steals my money regardless of the vector of attack.  So mint's fault or not, I have to keep on top of my outgoing and incoming transactions with frequency so I can stop problems before they get too deep. summary:  the security is important, but being secure or not doesn't absolve me of being aware of all the transactions on my account.  I will still be protected by consumer laws (as much protection as that is) but I can't expect mint to fix any problems it might cause.


We aren't faking it. IT is an extremely complex job so we often have to learn or relearn a technology at the whim of some bean counter because they want to save a few bucks or a junior executive because they attended a seminar and want to try that cool new thing they heard about (cough, DevOps, cough...)


The Sharpe ratio is, perhaps, the method you are looking for.  That said, not really sure beta is a meaningful metric, as there are plenty of safe bets to be made on volatile stocks (and, conversely, unsafe bets to be made on non-volatile ones).


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Argentina's rampant inflation is due to the reckless fiscal and monetary policy that Christina Fernandez and her worthless socialist ilk enacted.  No surprise here.  They are literally running out of other people's money and can't run the printing presses fast enough.


Not saying it is bad, just saying they put a positive spin on it when in fact it just something that makes good business sense.   Both you and I know that Reddit is filled with people complaining about minimum raise and earning a living...etc. This article paints Costco as the good guy, but overall it means one guy gets a well paying job while another one gets no job at all.


Generally speaking, you don't get the sign-up bonus when you product change to another card. The right thing to do in your case is:


> But in a metro area that ranks in the bottom 10 for educational achievement, and where $10-12 an hour is considered good pay, that's not what they're going to get.  Sad, but true. Not sure why so many people don't want to educate themselves and to do better.


"I've found at various times we've spent a lot less when we've been absorbed by ""cheap pastimes"" or passions, such as: It's incredible how fast some things can burn through your money:"


"The Roth vs not debate is irrelevant to the question. It doesn't matter where your emergency fund is kept, as long as it is liquid and safe. I said it before in an answer to another question: your emergency fund is not an investment -- it's your safety net This answer also says it well: an ""emergency fund"" is just that... for emergencies... NOT investment. While it ""hurts"" not to have your emergency money making more money... its MORE IMPORTANT to have quick access to it. So at TD Ameritrade, just park it in their FDIC deposit account. It will not earn any meaningful interest (at least until rates rise), but you'll be able to have access to it when you need it. Note that I would caution against putting it in a money market mutual fund. They're safer than many other investments, but they're not FDIC insured against loss and there is a potential for temporary loss of liquidity. In late 2008 when the credit markets collapsed, a lot of people suddenly became unemployed -- and needed access to their emergency funds. When Lehman Brothers went bust in September, the Reserve Primary Fund (with billions of dollars in their fund) ""broke the buck"" -- they lowered the price of shares below $1, meaning investors lost principal. The worst part is that investors were not as liquid as they wanted to be: the fund froze and it was hard to get money out. The lesson to take away from this is that one of the times you're likely to need access to your emergency fund is during a macroeconomic crisis. This is also the time when any investment that isn't guaranteed safe may potentially be (at least temporarily) unavailable or decline in value. Emergency funds should be 100% government insured. When you have your Roth funded to the point where there's extra money beyond the emergency fund, you can start investing in higher-yielding vehicles: stock or bond index ETFs would be a good start. But then that part of your Roth starts to look like a retirement account and not an emergency fund. If it were me, I'd open a Roth at a stable local bank and just keep it in their FDIC insured money market deposit account. Then if I wanted a slight boost, I might put the ""upper half"" of my emergency fund into short term CDs, but even CDs aren't worth much at the moment."


Oh? Well you must have a mic problem too, because it sounds like you're starting to scream at me, but then the audio just cuts out. Just to test it, let's talk at a normal volume and see if I can't get that piece-a crap working for you. So it won't sync, ya say?


It's because a lot of the QE money is parked in excess reserves at the fed. They pay a high enough interest rate to prevent outflows into the rest of the market. We are seeing huge amounts of price inflation in certain asset classes. Things like cryptocurrency and the stock market.


"OK, it's a bit of a minefield but here goes! You only pay corporation tax in the UK on any profit made, so your ""salary"" would not be classed as part of the profit, so in the example you give you would only pay corporation tax on £4k less your ""salary"" ie £3,200 so profit on the £800 remaining gross profit. You don't say if your figures are monthly, annual etc, but you only pay income tax if you earn over £11.5k in any given tax year, the rates increase as your income does, check here:  https://www.gov.uk/income-tax-rates You may have a different tax code, you would need to check that with HMRC but the link gives the ""default"" position which is correct for most people. https://www.itcontracting.com/limited-company-dividends/ If the figures you give are monthly then I would consult an accountant as they are likely to save you more than they will charge for their services. You will probably find it is most tax efficient to pay yourself a dividend from the company's profits but check with an accountant. More info: https://www.gov.uk/running-a-limited-company/taking-money-out-of-a-limited-company"


"Excellent sagacious analysis, Whale. I agree with every single thing you have stated; however, I took great heed to one remark you made: Apple ""[is] a great company.""   Apple is NOT a great company. Apple may be worse than Amazon. The only difference between Apple and Amazon is that Apple knows its strength (technology) and does not veer away from it one iota.   Apple has been vying for a stronghold on the technology industry since its inception. Oh yea, another thing that makes Apple a shitty company--keep in mind, I am typing all of this on an Apple phone (the irony)--is the fact that they store a majority of their revenue offshore--in countries that practically have a ZERO tax on money--which has allowed Apple to dodge taxes in the U.S. for years. It's sad that a multi-billion dollar company that operates in the U.S., with $250 billion in cash, dodges paying their fair share of taxes to the U.S. Treasury just because they'll be taxed at 35%.   Could you imagine what would happen to average-Joe citizens like you or me if we avoided paying taxes? HINT: this isn't a trick question."


*ALL* phone calls are intrusive. When they are from someone I know, the intrusion is easily forgiven. When it is from a stranger, there is no reason to forgive the intrusion. When that stranger then tries to sell me something, anything, I am immediately cold to their entreaty.  As to alternatives, the [request for proposal](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Request_for_proposal) is worth considering. When I am in need of something, I invite marketers like yourself to submit proposals. In this case, your phone call is much more welcome because I implicitly asked for it.  > if I truly believe that the product I'm selling is going to improve your life, it would be incredibly fucking rude not to give you the opportunity to obtain it.  Incorrect. You are putting yourself in the position of the evangelist, so consider the perspective of [atheists on Christian evangelism](http://atheism.about.com/od/atheismatheiststheism/a/ObjectEvangeliz.htm).


It's true that the standard deduction makes the numbers less impressive. I ran your scenario through my favorite, most complete rent vs buy calculator, and your math isn't far off. However, there are a lot of deductions only available if you itemize. Medical expenses, moving expenses, job expenses, charitable contributions, local income/sales taxes, property tax, private mortgage insurance, etc. Property tax on that house alone is going to be nearly equal to the standard deduction, so the point is nearly moot. Anyways, the above linked calculator handles all of those, and more.


Track your spending and expected income -- on paper, or with a personal-finance program. If you know how much is committed, you know how much is available. Trivial with checks, requires a bit more discipline with credit cards.


You're situation is actually pretty solid except for the job part. I definitely understand the existential meltdown in your 30s. Luckily you're in web design and have an in-demand job. Maybe go to a code school/design immersive to add some new skills and reinvigorate yourself. If mental health needs to be addressed above all, then definitely make that a priority.  Avoid credit card debt like the plague. If you think you're stressed now, just wait.


"Right, as I stated I agree that it will cause greater variance from the true intrinsic value for individual equities. To take this example to an extreme, traders can throw darts at a board of ticker symbols, purchase them, and still diversify away most firm specific risk. You're correct in stating that such a strategy will eventually cause systematic market failures if everyone does it, but the herd goes where they can make the most profit, and right now that is with ETFs.   When fund managers prove they have foresight enough to exploit any systematic failures that this causes, or can start beating ETF returns, the herd will flock back to them. I only meant to point out the reasoning behind why this is happening, not advocating one over the other, and also to point out that Paul Singer shouldn't whine. To re-purpose an old saying, ""Don't get mad, get even (by making your investors rich)."""


Zacasa https://www.zacasa.be https://www.facebook.com/Zacasa-Invest-243214819390824/ info@zacasa.be 0472 07 00 00 Frederick van der Nootstraat 6a 9300 AALST Wie zijn woning snel en moeiteloos wil verkopen, vindt in Zacasa Invest de ideale partner. Hoe dat in zijn werk gaat? In 3 eenvoudige stappen. Wij kopen uw woning, en u krijgt in ruil meteen een correcte prijs.


There are indeed various strategies to make money from this. As Ben correctly said, the stock price drops correspondingly on the dividend date, so the straightforward way doesn't work. What does work are schemes that involve dividend taxation based on nationality, and schemes based on American Options where people can use market rules to their advantage if some options are not exercised.


Yes it can, assuming that the margins on what you sell can actually support paying for the support staff required to do this properly.  If you already sell cheap crap, having good support is pointless.  If you're selling quality stuff that people enjoy, then hell yes you need good support.


one of the major backbones of domestic transit in the US is the highway system. No businessman wanted to touch that until the government decided to pitch in and do most of the work.   Would businesses make infrastructure if they had to? Yes. Would it benefit all users equally and would they allow anyone (including competitors) to use the infrastructure they built? Not likely.   These are some reasons why some items like infrastructure do not work as well as fully private companies.


> If you bought a Barbi doll for a 6 year old boy who obviously doesn't want it and won't play with it, would you say the toy is bad?  Of course not and I also would not blame the boy for having no fun.  > School being paid for and given to kids that don't want it doesn't mean it's a bad system, just that some have no interest in using it.  Right, so do you give up on the kid or do you try to offer a different form of education that the kid finds compelling?  It sounds like you want to assume that if a boy doesn't like Barbie he must not like toys at all.


Every time I have loaned money to family members I have never gotten the money back. If they can't make the down payment, they should not be taking out the loan. It's a bad idea to loan money to friends, because when they can't pay you back (which might be forever) they avoid you. So, you lose both your money and your friends.


Every Military Home behind Texas including rent charges. It is an amazing place to live. In the Military man, all the day is busy at our own work. Military homes are known for their spacious rooms and garage areas. If you are looking for a starter house, this is certainly the best area for you to find more than a starter house at very affordable price.


"This is the best tl;dr I could make, [original](http://www.marketwatch.com/story/one-third-of-american-households-cant-afford-food-shelter-or-medical-care-2017-09-27) reduced by 63%. (I'm a bot) ***** > Nearly half of Americans have a tough time paying their bills, and over one-third have faced hardships such as running out of food, not being able to afford a place to live, or not having enough money to pay for medical treatment.  > The State of the American Wallet shows how Americans are saddled with mounting car loan and credit card debt and not saving enough money - even enough to cover emergency expenses.  > The survey included questions on whether respondents could &quot;Enjoy life&quot; because of the way they managed their money, and how often respondents had money left over at the end of the month.   ***** [**Extended Summary**](http://np.reddit.com/r/autotldr/comments/75tq9p/onethird_of_american_households_cant_afford_food/) | [FAQ](http://np.reddit.com/r/autotldr/comments/31b9fm/faq_autotldr_bot/ ""Version 1.65, ~226611 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*: **survey**^#1 **American**^#2 **respondent**^#3 **money**^#4 **how**^#5"


"Honestly, last night was the worst I've seen in terms of spam being submitted. Normally, the filter gets it. I've removed the majority of those articles reported as ""spam.""  As for the political tones of the submissions, I think we do a pretty good job in terms of keeping the article headlines neutral and to a certain extent, the content."


"As other people have posted starting with ""fictional money"" is the best way to test a strategy, learn about the platform you are using, etc. That being said I would about how Fundamental Analysis works . Fundamental Analysis is the very basis of learning about an assets true value is priced. However in my humble opinion, I personally just stick with Index funds. In layman's terms Index Funds are essentially computer programs that buy or sell the underlying assets based on the Index they are associated with in the portion of the underlying index. Therefore you will usually be doing as good or as bad as the market. I personally have the background, education, and skillsets to build very complex models to do fundamental analysis but even I invest primarily in index funds because a well made and well researched stock model could take 8 hours or more and Modern Portfolio Theory would suggest that most investors will inevitably have a regression to the mean and have gains equal to the market rate or return over time. Which is what an index fund already does but without the hours of work and transaction cost."


"Your question indicates that you might have a little confusion about put options and/or leveraging.  There's no sense I'm aware of in which purchasing a put levers a position.  Purchasing a put will cost you money up front.  Leveraging typically means entering a transaction that gives you extra money now that you can use to buy other things.  If you meant to sell a put, that will make money up front but there is no possibility of making money later.  Best case scenario the put is not exercised.  The other use of the term ""leverage"" refers to purchasing an asset that, proportionally, goes up faster than the value of the underlying.  For example, a call option. If you purchase a put, you are buying downside protection, which is kind of the opposite of leverage.  Notice that for an American put you will most likely be better off selling the put when the price of the underlying falls than exercising it.  That way you make the money you would have made by exercising plus whatever optional value the put still contains.  That is true unless the time value of money is greater than the optional (insurance) value.  Since the time value of money is currently exceptionally low, this is unlikely.  Anyway, if you sell the option instead of exercising, you don't need to own any shares at all.  Even if you do exercise, you can just buy them on the market and sell right away so I wouldn't worry about what you happen to be holding. The rules for what you can trade with a cash instead of a margin account vary by broker, I think.  You can usually buy puts and calls in a cash account, but more advanced strategies, such as writing options, are prohibited.  Ask your broker or check their help pages to see what you have available to you."


This is more of a legal question than a monetary one. You can try to negotiate with the debt owner as Pete B. suggests. Alternatively, you can ignore them and see what happens. They might sue you for the 400 plus costs, or maybe not. That is a pretty small amount for a lawyer to show up in a court of law. If you go to court, you can win by testifying that you returned the box and the charge is invalid. If you testify in court that you did not return the box, then you will lose. Sometimes a debt collector will just file a credit complaint against you and you would have to go to court to get that complaint removed from your record with the credit agency. The loan owner has no idea whether you returned the box at all. All they have is a debt security which simply says who owes the money and how much it is. In a court room they have zero evidence against you (unless you said something to them and they wrote it down or recorded it).


Our vikasmarg.com portal has several interesting classified sections to cater your needs. You can post free classified advertisements which will be looked by millions of people across the world. You can post ads for advertising services, health and beauty, electronics, fashion and clothing, real estate, music, business services, jobs, computers etc.


I don't know how to explain reading comprehension without coming off as condescending, which I hate.  Since that is the case, I'll simply suggest that the meaning of the above comment is much more evident than it may seem at first glance.  You can do it.


Absolutely!  Just because a spouse doesn't have a taxable income, doesn't mean they aren't providing real, tangible benefit to the family economy with an important job. As tragic as it is to consider losing your spouse, are you truly in a position to replace everything they do you for you?  Knowing what they do for you and appreciating the effort your spouse gives is important, but don't sell short the dollar amount of what they provide.  Your life insurance policy should be to keep you whole. Without your spouse, you will need childcare.  You might need domestic services to the home.  What about a nanny or similar service?  Would $50K cover that until your child is an adult?  There are a number of added expenses in the short and long term that would occur if a spouse died.  How much for a funeral? Obviously you know the amount and term depends on the age of your kid.  But I think you should really try to account for the number of daily hours you spouse puts in, and try to attach a cost to those hours.  Then buy insurance for them just as you would for a wage earning.   For example, buy a policy that is 10x the annual cost for services it would take to compensate for your spouse.  Your tolerance for risk and cost can adjust it up and down from there.


For point two.. The norm for buying stock is to just register online with a major broker: Fidelity, Schwab,TD Ameritrade...etc, send them money to fund your purchase, make the stock purchase in your account, and then have a little faith. You could probably get them to physically transfer the stock certificates from them to you, but it is not the norm at all. I would plan on a fee being involved also. The 10$ is for one trade... regardless of if you buy one share or many. So you wouldn't buy 1 share of a five dollar stock as your cost would be absurd. You might buy a hundred shares.


The number of government departments involved in anything the US (or any government) does is bewildering, but the invasion of Iraq was, by definition, a military venture intended to overthrow their leader and change the regime. The exit strategy was to attempt nation building to achieve stability. The US military acts for the US government, as do other departments and to muddle the question by listing departments is to miss the point – which is privatization of government functions, be they military or just involved in military ventures.  If the contractors weren’t really required but were hired anyway….I don’t know how that’s defended.   The fact remains: *security functions were outsourced*. That doing so is efficient or not is a good debate, but another debate.


One major concern with moving out on your own is can you afford rent each month, be it an apartment or a house payment. You'll hear people say that anywhere from 25% to 40% of your monthly after-tax income should go to housing. 40% seems very high to me and quite risky. I'd go for closer to 30% of your monthly after-tax income and not any higher, but that's just my opinion.  I had a friend that moved out of his parents house about the same time that I did. He bought himself a house, and then he immediately started looking for roommates to help pay for his house. It really was a good idea, and I wish that I'd been in a position to do the same, because I'm sure that it saved him a lot of money for the first couple of years. Apart from that, my only advise would be to get a house if you can afford it. 1) Interest rates are very low right now, and 2) if you're paying rent to someone (for an apartment or whatever) then you're just throwing your hard-earned money away. Good luck!


"Credit Unions turn a profit by lending money at a higher interest rate than their savings do, just like banks do. It is an amoral feat, completely parallel to any moral weights you have assigned to ""the system"". If the most favorable circumstance is you receiving access to capital, then you can easily achieve that with zero reservations about the system that granted it to you."


Your answer looks correct.  It's the buyer of the option that's long, not the seller (you). If you're doing a lot of trading, you might get hit with wash-sale rules and you could be taxed at the short-term capital gains rate, which is higher than for long-term gains.  But those aren't direct fees.


"If he's not used to cooking, recipes might not be enough. Maybe he needs cooking lessons. I used to think if you could read, you could cook -- but I grew up ""helping"" my mom in the kitchen and in the process learning what all the instructions in cookbooks meant. But it also might just be force of habit, in which case about all you could do would be to go over and cook for (or with) him. Maybe if you helped him get into a good habit, he would be more likely to continue with it. Otherwise, I don't see that there's much of anything you can do. If he isn't motivated to change his habits to save for his trip, you can't make him be."


Emergency Data Recovery by a SSAE 16 / Class 10 ISO 4 Cleanroom Certified Company in Indianapolis. Secure Data Recovery Services was the first data recovery company to earn an SSAE 16 certification and one of the only firms with an SAS 70 Type II certification. We use third-party consultants to audit and test our facilities several times per year in order to meet the requirements of these certifications.


In India there is a new trend is running  for Building a home or office by using new concepts or new design. But it's not possible for everyone because no one has that much of the time so that we contact to the Building Contractors in Delhi that will build all that on the basis of our demands


"Your credit-score is concerned with your current credit accounts (credit-cards, HELOC, loans, mortgage, et cetera) - your Current/Checking bank account is not a credit account so it is not reported to the credit agencies. Granted, being overdrawn is effectively the same as having a very expensive loan from the bank- however banks do not routinely report these to the credit-agencies - and of course, if you fail to pay overdraft fees in a timely manner then your bank will take it to collections or possibly even get a judgement against you, and that will be reported in your credit report (under the ""Derogatory remarks"" section). I cannot find any sources as to whether repeated but always-paid overdrafts will be reported - but certainly your bank isn't complaining because they'll be making lots of money from you. (Via https://www.thebalance.com/will-a-bank-overdraft-hurt-my-credit-score-960554)."


Wendy's, like In-n-Out and Five Guys does not freeze their burger meat or use reconstituted toppings that once resembled vegetables. Not quite as good as Five Guys and you can't get all the different stuff on them, but still pretty good.


"Rather than thinking of becoming a landlord as a passive ""investment"" (like a bank account or mutual fund), it may be useful to think of it as ""starting a small part-time business"". While certainly many people can and do start their own businesses, and there are many success stories, there are many cases where things don't work out quite as they hoped. I wouldn't call starting any new business ""low risk"", even one that isn't expected to be one's main full-time job, though some may be ""acceptable risk"" for your particular circumstances. But if you're going to start a part-time business, is there any particular reason you'd do so in real estate as opposed to some other activity? It sounds like you'd be completely new to real estate, so perhaps for your first business you're starting you'd want it to be something you're more familiar with. Or, if you do want to enter the real estate world (or any other new business), be sure to do a lot of research, come up with a business plan, and be prepared for the possibility of losing money as with any investment or new business."


"Yeah ok buddy, call me when every single country passes a law at the same time outlawing the same thing. Even if it was declared illegal in the US, its not going anywhere - it's far too useful.  https://www.forbes.com/sites/benzingainsights/2011/11/07/rise-of-the-shadow-economy-second-largest-economy-in-the-world/#1655a5354a0e  > Robert Neuwirth argues that ""the $10 trillion global black market is the world's fastest growing economy -- and its future""."


I see where your coming from. I was not arguing for punishing Verizon now. I was simply saying companies in general should stop trying to sell services they already provide for free, and this was a damn foolish idea on their part in the first place.   Honestly, I am not that sure of the specifics in this case. I would argue it would be fine for them to charge new and monthly customers this fee.   I do not think it would have been fair to try to increase prices on customers who have a contract with them.  Do you know who they planned to charge this fee on?  And thank you for not just down voting me because you disagree.


> Where are their multiple multi-million dollar sexual harassment lawsuits?  What makes FOX bad is not how they treat women, deplorable as those isolated cases are (it is not the American way to blame groups of people for the crimes of individuals). What makes FOX bad is how they participate in the larger narrative, which has effectively destroyed journalism and the culture of this country.  And in that way, FOX and MSNBC are opposing sides of the exact same coin. Their victim is you, and people like you.


Built to Sell: Creating a Business That Can Thrive Without You by John Warrillo. Even if you don't plan to sell, there are a lot of good lessons to learn about running a business. This book opened my eyes. I went from a 70h + work week, to what ever I want(usually around 50 with weekends off because I just enjoy working).


"If you are making that much, don't waste your time here. Pay a few hundred bucks for a consultation with a fee-only certified financial planner. (Not one of the ""free"" services, which make their money via commissions on sales and are thus motivated to direct you to whatever gets them the largest commission.) In fact, in your bracket you might want to consider hiring someone to manage your portfolio for you on an ongoing basis. A good one will start by asking what your goals are, over what timeframe, and will help you determine how you feel about risk and volatility. From that information they will be able to suggest a strategic mix of kinds of investments which is balanced for those constraints."


Your question is a complex one because knowledge of the investor's beliefs about the market is required.  For almost any quantitative portfolio, one must have a good estimate of the expected return vector and covariance matrix of the assets in question.  The expected return vector, in particular, is far from estimable.  No one agrees on it and there is no way to know who is right and who is wrong. In a world satisfying the conditions of the CAPM, you can bypass this problem because the main implication of the CAPM is that the market weights are optimal.  In that case the answer to your question is that you should determine the market weights of the various assets and use those along with saving in a risk-free account or borrowing, depending on your risk tolerance.  This portfolio has the added benefit that you don't need to rebalance much...the weights in your portfolio adjust at the same rate as the market weights. Any portfolio that has something besides this also includes some notion of expected return aside from CAPM fair pricing.  The question for you, then, is whether you have such a notion.  If you do, you can mix your information with the market weights to come up with a portfolio.  This is what the Black-Litterman method does, for example: get the expected return vector implied by market weights and the covariance matrix, mix with your expected return vector, then use mean-variance optimization to come up with your final weights.


> On the other hand, no tax right offs for charities does not seem like a good idea  it's all about subsidies  I **DO NOT** want to subsidize you with your charitable deductions by paying more taxes myself  charity is an absolute and needs no fucking government involved


JohnFx is more experienced than I am but I have paid off friends cards before. It was as simple as asking them the routing number of the bank that gave them the card and setting up an ACH with their card number. I guess this might be against some banks T&C but the CU I used to carry out the ACH gave me the go ahead as long as I did not dispute the payment later.


One of us is misreading the other's message. I think FDIC is great. If a Congolese citizen wants to buy the company I work at right now, great. I just make an exception for state owned enterprises, royal families, et cetera.


You will be categorized as self employed. Will I have to register myself as a company or can go on unregistered and work You can register a company or can use an umbrella company or work as a sole trader. Remember as a sole trader you are legally responsible for you company's activities, an if a company sues you for your work he can take compensation from your personal assets. As a company your liability ends with the company, if your company is sued. Your personal assets are outside the purview of the lawsuit, but the court can attach that also but those are rare. This doesn't matter if you use an umbrella company. If you intend to be doing this for a short time(maybe a year or so), go for an umbrella company. Else register a company. will take you 5 minutes to form one. Depending on your earning you might need to register for VAT too. A comprehensive guide for self employed on HMRC. what would i need to be sound in uk and to be fit to work online as a freelancer? The same as above. Will it include paying any tax or paying any insurance Yes you have register for National Insurance(NI), before you can pay yourself a salary. The benefit of a company is you pay yourself a minimum salary, below the limit above which you have to contribute for NI, and take the rest as dividends. And pay no tax on it, till you don't exceed the limits. When the money comes in my account, will i be accountable to government of uk, to tell the source of income? If you are operating through a company, yes you would need to show your income(including source) and expenditure when you do your annual returns. What should i be knowing, like health insurance and things that are necessities in uk for a freelancer ? No health insurance as NHS exists. You can take out health insurance if you don't want to get into queues in NHS.


The core competency of banks is to lend money from depositors and re-lend that money to borrowers.  They do not have the expertise to develop real estate.   They have trouble evening managing foreclosed real estate, such that they have to sell them at a discount.


Oh yeah.  I used to rent a room from my buddy for awhile.  He had an unused heated garage.  He decided to remodel it, ad a full bathroom and kitchenette.   This summer, he made $4500 per month on Airbnb rentals.  He no longer needs roommates.  This is only good for the few that have homes to rent out.  It is a good idea that has gotten out of control.  Airbnb has been and will continue to drive up rental prices.  The market can't handle these sort of price strains long term, it is simply not sustainable for the average Joe.


Really it's not just rich or poor and that is  the issue with this  health care.  There is middle Americans that everyone forgets about and those are the people that it's hurting. The poor will get health care but with Obamacare  the middle class can't afford to pay for the difference so the poor can have insurance that's inequality.


Not when they've gerrymandered all their districts and are supported by the campaign donations of large corporations that benefit from these tax plans, and most of our news outlets ARE those large corporations giving out campaign donations to both sides of the aisle so that our population is fed nothing but pro-war, pro-corporation, fuck-you-if-you're-poor-and-not-a-rich-old-white-guy-with-a-country-club-membership propaganda.


If I were you I would just save the money until I had at least 5000 pounds to keep as an emergency fund. There are various kinds of unexpected events and it is smart to have some cash in case a problem comes up. Next time I would recommend buying a car you can afford. Borrowing money to buy nice things is the enemy of wealth accumulation. Also, when you buy a car for cash you will get a much better deal than when you let a dealer put his foot on your neck.


There are several aspects to this but at a high level it boils down to A lot goes in to insurance rating and risk projecting.  You can't adjust a single variable and expect a proportional change in your premium, 7,000 miles per year just won't be 70% of the cost of 10,000 miles per year, because there are a lot of other things in play as well.  To further address premium adjustments.  Consider this: Even if your liability coverage did scale with perfect correlation to your mileage (using the same 70% from above, 7,000 miles per year versus 10,000 miles per year) then your premium composition is: $200 to $170 is 15%.  No change will have a direct linear correlation to your total premium because there are different component pieces of the total premium.  Fixed costs may be built in to the amounts for other component pieces of the premium, for example maybe no line of coverage ever has a cost below $X. Obviously these numbers are all made up Additionally, and also less considered is the fact that your liability also scales because of a lot of factors that have nothing to do with you.  It might be the other cars that are on the road, it might be that more densely populated areas have more fender benders.  For example if you live in Beverly Hills you have a much higher likelihood of accidentally bumping a $70-$80-$90-$100k+ car than you do in say, rural Wisconsin.  If your zip code is gentrifying and everyone starts buying Mercedes, your liability coverage increases.   You can not adjust one single variable and decide that you are lower risk than all insurers think you are.  If you shop this coverage and all insurers are within a nominal margin of pricing for the same coverage levels, there isn't much to argue with; you are simply riskier than you think you are and the variable you are focused on is not as meaningful as you think it is.


I think the biggest thing was countering the 75% with 20%. Brass balls. In the moment, you might think that a counter for 35% or 40% would be reasonable, but drawing that hard line allowed him more negotiating room with the last shark. Instead of meeting at 30% it might have been 50%.


"My guess was they're faster growing.  Wikipedia says ""[Atlantic salmon is, by far, the species most often chosen for farming. It is easy to handle, it grows well in sea cages, commands a high market value and it adapts well to being farmed away from its native habitats.](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Aquaculture_of_salmonids#Species)"""


Sure you can, esp if you are creating a special class of unsecured creditor. Its going to piss off businesses and add an additional factor when validating the credit-worthiness (thus credit does cost a bit more) of a company but that may not be a bad thing considering that screwing over your employees for some cash should be more of a black mark than it is.