It claims to own a large portion of your income and also claims the right to make it illegal for you to work without its permission. There for everything you have comes from the state first. It lays claim to all land and demands a tithe every year from the property that you think you own. Is there anything that you have the right to deny the state from seizing or taxing? And is that right able to be removed at any time just by changing the law? Every right you have as a built in exemption that allows the state to take it away.


I'm guessing you're asking about the US. Please add a location tag to your question.  Unfortunately you cannot claim expenses paid for someone other than yourself or your dependents. In IRS publication 970, that deals with education credits, they give the following guidance: Expenses paid by others.   Someone other than you, your spouse, or   your dependent (such as a relative or former spouse) may make a   payment directly to an eligible educational institution to pay for an   eligible student's qualified education expenses. In this case, the   student is treated as receiving the payment from the other person and,   in turn, paying the institution. If you claim an exemption on your tax   return for the student, you are considered to have paid the expenses. Also, you should keep the gift tax in mind: your help to your friend is only exempt from gift tax if you pay the tuition directly (i.e.: you write the check to the school cashier, not to your friend). If you give the money to your friend, it is subject to gift tax (which you have to pay). In some cases, someone who is not family may in fact qualify to become your dependent. For that he must live with you (in the same household), and be supported by you and not have any significant income. If that's the case with you and your friend, you might be able to claim him as a dependent and get some significant tax benefits, including the education credits. Consult your tax adviser if its relevant to your situation.


um, no.   In a lot of ways, apple is much worse than MS with its proprietary everything.   MS will run on anything as will Linux.   Apple is truly great if you want new shiny, but I am less than impressed with its actual functionality in some ways.  I would personally use Linux on the desktop if I were going away from MS.


"Of course it counts - it's privatization of work the military would otherwise have to do themselves. You're right that most of the contractors aren't pulling triggers but I don't think that's the right measure. Is 16% of contractors, >10 thousand people, working in ""security"" not privatization?     Type of Work Performed by Contractors  Contractors perform a wide range of services in Iraq. As of March 2011, approximately 39,000 personnel (61% of contractors) performed base support functions such as maintaining the grounds, running dining facilities, and performing laundry services (see Figure 8). Security was the second most common service provided, with approximately 10,500 personnel (16% of contractors). Combined, these two categories accounted for almost 80% of DOD contractors in Iraq.  Source: http://psm.du.edu/articles_reports_statistics/data_and_statistics.html"


We have unprecedented levels of income inequality in the US now, even surpassing the Gilded Age, so yeah ... it is a new thing to this degree.  This is only the beginning, too ... things are going to get real interesting here.


"The good news about maintenance is that there's much less scheduled maintenance because the cars are mechanically much simpler. See the official service schedule. Most of it is just ""rotate tires / replace cabin air filter"". The brake and suspension systems are very similar to those of a normal car and require comparable maintenance. The bad news is the battery will decay over time and is a major component of the cost of the car. From that link: In the UK, the LEAF’s standard battery capacity loss warranty is for   60,000 miles or five years So you should factor your warrantied battery lifetime into the depreciation calculation. I don't think there are going to be many ten- or twenty- year old electric cars from the current crop in 2030 or 2040 as they're still improving dramatically year-on-year. (Slightly too long for a comment, slightly too short for a proper answer)"


The indication is based on the average Buy-Hold-Sell rating of a group of fundamental analysts. The individual analysts provide a Buy, Hold or Sell recommendation based on where the current price of the stock is compared to the perceived value of the stock by the analyst.  Note that this perceived value is based on many assumptions by the analyst and their biased view of the stock. That is why different fundamental analysts provide different values and different recommendations on the same stock. So basically if the stock's price is below the analyst's perceived value it will be given a Buy recommendation, if the price is equal with the perceived value it will be given a Hold recommendation and if the price is more than the perceived value it will be given a Sell recommendation. As the others have said this information IMHO is useless.


Firstly a stock split is easy, for example each unit of stock is converted into 10 units.  So if you owned 1% of the company before the stock split, you will still own 1% after the stock split, but have 10 times the number of shares.   The company does not pay out any money when doing this and there is no effect on tax for the company or the share holder. Now onto stock dividend… When a company make a profit, the company gives some of the profit to the share holders as a dividend; this is normally paid in cash.  An investor may then wish to buy more shares in the company using the money from the dividend.      However buying shares used to have a large cost in broker charges etc. Therefore some companies allowed share holders to choose to have the dividend paid as shares.   The company buys enough of their own shares to cover the payout, only having one set of broker charges and then sends the correct number of shares to each share holder that has opted for a stock dividend.  (Along with any cash that was not enough to buy a complete share.) This made since when you had paper shares and admin costs where high for stock brokers.   It does not make sense these days. A stock dividend is taxed as if you had been paid the dividend in cash and then brought the stock yourself.


"We have what we call ""unallocated savings"" that go into a fund for this purpose. We'll also take advantage of ""6 months no interest"" or similar financing promotions, and direct this savings towards the payments."


> correction. walmart hires them because they have a low marginal utility undeserving of a higher wage.  Good point Schrute.  Except that we're talking about people, not animals.  Guess what, making money hand over fist and being a tightwad about wages isn't sticking to some principle, it's just you being a greedy, avaricious asshole.  There are plenty of success stories that don't involve squeezing everyone in your supply chain plus your American workers as hard as you can so as to maximize the profits of a very few at the top.  Does everyone in the Wal-Mart family, everyone with the last name Walton, really need to be a multi-billionaire 20x over? Do their CEO's and other execs really deserve 1000x more pay than their workers? Why is it that Costco, Starbucks, Microsoft, Trader Joes, Ben and Jerry's, etc, can all take good care of their workers, or at least better care, and still be considered successful?   There's this insane idea floating around Republican circles that the only way to really make it in business is to fuck everyone below you as hard and as fast as you can otherwise you aren't really as 'successful' as you could be.  It's just an infantile view of socio-economics and it deserves to be shamed.    Wal-Mart could very easily raise wages and offer healthcare and benefits and still be a very successful and powerful company.  No one is saying they need to pay crazy wages or lose money offering insane benefits or what have you.  Just that they should take a little bit better care of their workers, that's all.   They choose to act from the notion that the floor workers are dirt to be exploited, rather than an asset that helps the company succeed.  It's backwards, dickish thinking and it's finally becoming an issue for public debate, thank fuck.


but the flat would be occupied all the time. Famous last words. Are you prepared to have a tenant move in, and stop paying rent? In the US, it can take 6 months to get a tenant out of the apartment and little chance of collecting back rent. I don't know how your laws work, but here, they do not favor the landlord.  The tiny sub 1% profit you make while funding principal payments is a risky proposition. It seems to me that even normal repairs (heater, appliances, etc) will put you to the negative.  On the other hand, if this property has bottomed in terms of price and it rises in value, you may have a nice profit. But if you are just renting it out, it feels like it's too close to call.  By the way, if you can go with a 30yr fixed, I'd suggest that. This would get you to a better cash flow sooner. A shorter mortgage simply means more money to principal each month.  EDIT - as far as equity goes, at the beginning it seems the equity build up is really from your pocket, definitely so by switching from the 30 to the 15. What is your goal? The assumption I may have made is you wish to be a real estate investor with multiple properties. Doing so means saving up for the next down payment. Given the payoff time even if the property ran a high profit, I imagine you'd want to focus on cash flow, minimize the monthly expense, maximize what you can take each month to save for the next down payment. It's your choice, years from now to have one paid property, or 3 properties each with that 30% down payment, and let time be your friend.


Converting the comment from @MD-Tech into answer How or where could I find info about publicly traded companies about how stock owner friendly their compensation schemes are for their board and officers? This should be available in the annual report, probably in a directors' remunerations section for most companies


Yes. Of course, you still need to take into the account the trade costs (fees paid to the broker), these are not going anywhere. Basically what it means is that you don't have to worry about long/short holding period within the IRA, they're all the same. It doesn't mean that long term trading is better or worse to have outside the scope of IRA, it just means that the concept doesn't exist inside.


Are you writing code for any particular platform? Can you say more specifically what your software does?  I'm interested in software development myself, and do a little freelance PHP/MySQL development along with general web design (web design is putting me through college, but I don't want to do it forever.), and I'd be very interested in learning how I could tie that into a finance career.


"> Every company with a ""Strong Culture"" Ie Office bars and happy hours, nap rooms, pool tables, zen/mediating rooms, etc,etc seem to be the most successful. Its unfortunate that they people pay for no work/life balance... but at least they get to get drunk in the office...  I think most people (most serious folks at  least) realize that there's a number of elements to culture beyong a ping pong table. I've worked at a number of large and small tech companies, and there's zero doubt that a shitty company culture with pong and kegs is still a shitty company culture. It's a lazy shorthand for observes (and some management teams too).   When I was younger, and before I got into management,  I used to think that those things were what culture was primairly about. Not so much anymore."


The British didn't choose to stay away, they were forced out (as was Sweden) by their fucked up policies and being unable to defend their peg against the (trading only at the time) euro currency.    They lost a fuckload in the process and when it became apparent that those that understand market arbitrage wouldn't let up (what killed Mexico/Argentia Peso as well), they backed out.


Do you think we will go through a long period of closures due to Amazons growth and competition, followed by market demand for in store purchasing, and potentially dwindling Amazons success, causing struggle due to all of their invested overhead? This cycle would of course take years just as retail has been impacted.


One thing about Loaded Cafe is that you will receive 5 star service. Our family friendly waitstaff are proud of Loaded Cafe and trust the quality of the food. All this translates into a wonderful customer experience and it shows on Yelp!


Eric is right regarding the tax, i.e. ordinary income on discount, cap gain treatment on profit whether long term or short.  I would not let the tax tail wag the investing dog. If you would be a holder of the stock, hold on, if not, sell. You are considering a 10-15% delta on the profit to make the decision.  Now. I hear you say your wife hasn't worked which potentially puts you in a lower bracket this year. I wrote Topping off your bracket with a Roth Conversion which would help your tax situation long term. Simply put, you convert enough Traditional IRA (or 401(k) money) to use up some of the current bracket you are in, but not hit the next. This may not apply to you, depending on whether you have retirement funds to do this. Note - The cited article offers numbers for a single person, but illustrates the concept. See the tax table for the marginal rates that would apply to you.


Typically that applies if the broker Form 1099-B reports an incorrect basis to the IRS.  If the Form 1099-B shows incorrect basis relative to your records, then you can use 8949, column (g) to report the correct basis.  The 8949 Instructions provide a brief example. http://www.irs.gov/pub/irs-prior/i8949--2013.pdf Although you have an obligation to report all income, and hence to report the true basis, as a practical matter this information will usually be correct as presented by the broker.  If you have separate information or reports relating to your investments, and you are so inclined, then you can double-check the basis information in your 1099-B. If you aren't aware of basis discrepancies, then the adjustments probably don't apply to you and your investments can stick to Schedule D.


Prepaid Legal is a publicly traded company worth over $600M. They've been around for years. So it's not a fly-by-night operation. I don't know enough to comment on whether their kind of MLM is legal.


"One thing people are missing is that you may not be eligible to contribute to a Roth IRA based on your MAGI. There are income ""phaseout"" ranges which determine how much, if it all you can contribute."


Stop orders and stop limit orders typically do not execute during extended hours after the general market session has closed. Stop orders are market orders and market orders especially are not executed during extended hours. Although there are exceptions because a broker can say one thing and do another thing with the way order types are presented to customers vs what their programming actually does. The regulatory burden is a slap on the wrist, so you need to ask the broker what their practices are. Orders created during normal market hours do not execute in extended sessions, different orders would have to be made during the extended session. Your stop order should execute if the normal market hour price stays below your stop price. So a stop limit would actually be worse here, because a stop limit will create a limit order which may never get hit (since it is above the best bid best ask)


You need to understand that your decorative style will dictate your colour scheme and also the overall feel of your house no matter which style or design you choose, your idea should be to enhance the existing home designs Queensland given to you by new home builders NSW.


"A bond fund will typically own a range of bonds of various durations, in your specific fund: The fund holds high-quality long-term New York municipal bonds with an   average duration of approximately 6–10 years So through this fund you get to own a range of bonds and the fund price will behave similar to you owning the bonds directly.  The fund gives you a little diversification in terms of durations and typically a bit more liquidity.  It also may continuously buy bonds over time so you get some averaging vs. just buying a bond at a given time and holding it to maturity.  This last bit is important, over long durations the bond fund may perform quite differently than owning a bond to maturity due to this ongoing refresh.  Another thing to remember is that you're paying management fees for the fund's management. As with any bond investment, the longer the duration the more sensitive the price is to change in interest rates because when interest rates change the price will track it. (i.e. compare a change of 1% for a one year duration vs. 1% yearly over 10 years) If I'm correct, why would anyone in the U.S. buy a long-term bond fund   in a market like this one, where interest rates are practically   bottomed out? That is the multi-trillion dollar question.  Bond prices today reflect what ""people"" are willing to pay for them.  Those ""people"" include the Federal Reserve which through various programs (QE, Operate Twist etc.) has been forcing the interest rates to where they want to see them.  If no one believed the Fed would be able to keep interest rates where they want them then the prices would be different but given that investors know the Fed has access to an infinite supply of money it becomes a more difficult decision to bet against that.  (aka ""Don't fight the Fed"").  My personal belief is that rates will come up but I haven't been able to translate that belief into making money ;-)  This question is very complex and has to do not only with US policies and economy but with the status of the US currency in the world and the world economy in general.  The other saying that comes to mind in this context is that the market can remain irrational (and it certainly seems to be that) longer than you can remain solvent."


Nope, we don't have cable, and we are able to watch it on Xbox Live for no additional charge. But our internet provider is CenturyLink, so I think that has something to do with it. It took them a long time to get it though, so just keep calling Time Warner to complain!


define 'should be'? according to what? according to who?  Apple and Microsoft both have the strategy of enough money in the bank to fund their operations for a long time with no revenue or profit. As a safety net for the future of the company. I presume Facebook and Google are thinking something similar.


>While I agree that luck has something to do with it, most of the successful business owners also put in crazy long hours and submitted themselves to huge financial risk in order to get their businesses started.  People with failed businesses also often put in crazy long hours and submit themselves to huge financial risk. That's what you have to do just to start a business. It doesn't predict success.


There's an odd anomaly that often occurs with shares acquired through company plans via ESPP or option purchase. The general situation is that the share value above strike price or grant price may become ordinary income, but a sale below the price at day the shares are valued is a capital loss.  e.g. in an ESPP offering, I have a $10 purchase price, but at the end of the offering, the shares are valued at $100. Unless I hold the shares for an additional year, the sale price contains ordinary W2 income. So, if I see the shares falling and sell for $50, I have a tax bill for $90 of W2 income, but a $50 capital loss. Tax is due on $90 (and for 1K shares, $90,000 which can be a $30K hit) but that $50K loss can only be applied to cap gains, or $3K/yr of income.  In the dotcom bubble, there were many people who had million dollar tax bills and the value of the money netted from the sale couldn't even cover the taxes. And $1M in losses would take 300 years at $3K/yr.  The above is one reason the lockup date expiration is why shares get sold. And one can probably profit on the bigger companies stock.  Edit - see Yelp down 3% following expiration of 180 day IPO lock-up period, for similar situation.


">The problem the C suite is now realizing is this:   I don't think they fully realize it... not yet. They might be *beginning* to get the tiniest bit of a clue.  >Once the baby boomers leave, that ""shortage"" will drive up prices/wages for those with the necessary skills. It always happens when there is a labor shortage (revisit the .com boom of the late 90's).  The thing is, what will REALLY increase is the cost of labor ""serving"" the demographic bulge of retired/dying boomers.  Nursing Home Attendant: *""Oh, I'm sorry Mr. Baby Boomer, you want your bedpan cleaned TWICE a day? My, my you must be made of money, because that'll be an additional $100k a year -- 3 months in advance of course. And you say you want a sponge bath EVERY WEEK and not just once a month? Well, that'll be an extra $50k a year... again, paid in advance of course. (Oh, and as a hint -- if you want them to do a good job and be nice to you while they bather you -- well, it's always a good idea to slip your sponge bath nurse a $100 tip each time; otherwise, they can be a bit crude & rough you know; it's just so hard to find and keep good employees these days.)""*"


"This is the best tl;dr I could make, [original](https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2017-06-02/-i-had-to-choose-for-my-family-thousands-fleeing-puerto-rico) reduced by 89%. (I'm a bot) ***** > &quot;If people continue to leave the island at the pace that has been set in recent years, the economic potential of Puerto Rico will only continue to deteriorate,&#039;&#039; authors including Jaison Abel and Giacomo De Giorgi wrote for the New York Fed.&quot;.  > Puerto Rico has been a U.S. possession since American troops invaded in the Spanish-American War, and Puerto Ricans have been U.S. citizens since 1917.  > None of those examples are directly analogous to Puerto Rico, where residents carry U.S. passports but live in social and economic conditions in some ways more akin to those in Latin America.   ***** [**Extended Summary**](http://np.reddit.com/r/autotldr/comments/6ezckv/with_74_billion_dollars_in_debt_purto_rico_has/) | [FAQ](http://np.reddit.com/r/autotldr/comments/31b9fm/faq_autotldr_bot/ ""Version 1.65, ~135343 tl;drs so far."") | [Theory](http://np.reddit.com/r/autotldr/comments/31bfht/theory_autotldr_concept/) | [Feedback](http://np.reddit.com/message/compose?to=%23autotldr ""PM's and comments are monitored, constructive feedback is welcome."") | *Top* *keywords*: **Puerto**^#1 **island**^#2 **Rico**^#3 **leave**^#4 **population**^#5"


Somewhat bad example there, those monopolies have a high cost of entry. You can open an online store for next to nothing, if you need more eyeballs then pay for advertising or setup a store on an existing platform like Amazon/eBay/Facebook/Etsy.


The problem is in cities where there's already a housing shortage, AirBNB rentals raise rent, and therefore its pricing out locals from living here. I'm paying a 25% premium just living in my building because AirBNB hosts have rented 10% of the building. The entire neighborhood has this issue. Landlords know they can increase the rent dramatically since AirBNB renters are paying a premium. The end result is that people have to move much farther out of the city. As a result, artificially my sub district is now affordable only by much higher class, or they wipe out the savings of any locals that previously were able to live here.  AirBNB shows hundreds of listings in my area and rental prices have skyrocketed as a result.


New Zealand Bank cannot directly ask Singapore Bank. They can approach courts in Singapore and request for funds. Given that amount is small, the cost for pursuing a court case in Singapore would be much higher and the Bank in New Zealand may have already written this off.  They may still have reported you as a defaulter, depending on various things, you may not get a Visa to travel back into New Zealand, or get one and get arrested once you land in New Zealand even during transit.


"The  earnest money deposit generally is not delivered with the offer. This generally isn't done because you may find out that your offer is going to be rejected immediately. You may have decided to make an offer under their stated selling price, you may have added a condition they are unwilling to meet. There is also the situation where other parties have already made an offer and their offering price has exceed yours; so your offer is rejected or at least slowed down while the continue negotiations with the other potential buyer. In these cases getting a cashiers check before making the offer delays the offer, complicates the movement of money within your accounts, and delays your ability to make an offer on a another house. If the offer on the first house is rejected on Friday, and the bank is closed on Saturday, and you have to wait until Monday to redeposit the check; then you have to delay an offer on the perfect house you see on Sunday. Of the three options you present the second one, ""I can put a rider on the P&S which warrants that the check will be delivered in a set amount of time like three days."" You may also find similar language in the local version of the standard real estate contract. This delay in writing the check makes sense for another reason, the manner of the deposit and how it is to be made, how it is to be held, and under what terms it can be released  should also be a part of the negotiation. You want to make sure it is being kept by a third party, you both have to trust that 3rd party, you need to know what are the exact conditions regarding that money. The purpose of the deposit is to convince the seller that you are serious, and that the knowledge that you will lose the deposit makes you likely to go through your required parts of the transaction.  Also more and more of these deposits are being done electronically, there is no check involved."


Any person, organization, trust, or charity can be the beneficiary. But if the beneficiary is a minor, they won't be able to access the money immediately depending on state law. In most states, it requires that a guardian be appointed to administer the proceeds payable to the minor child. If a guardian is not already in place, your next of kin will have to undergo the time and expense of appointing a guardian. It is best to leave it to a trusted relative or family member that is the designated guardian. If that isn't a option. Consult a financial professional to see if a trust is a variable alternative. Trust is an entity that receives money and distributes money according to the rules set in the trust. Trust is a complicated matter and must be setup properly.


Personal finance is a fairly broad area.  Which part might you be starting with? From the very basics, make sure you understand your current cashflow: are you bank balances going up or down?  Next, make a budget.  There's plenty of information to get started here, and it doesn't require a fancy piece of software.  This will make sure you have a deeper understanding of where your money is going, and what is it being saved for.  Is it just piling up, or is it allocated for specific purchases (i.e. that new car, house, college tuition, retirement, or even a vacation or a rainy day)? As part of the budgeting/cashflow exercise, make sure you have any outstanding debts covered.  Are your credit card balances under control?  Do you have other outstanding loans (education, auto, mortgage, other)?  Normally, you'd address these in order from highest to lowest interest rate. Your budget should address any immediate mandatory expenses (rent, utilities, food) and long term existing debts.  Then comes discretionary spending and savings (especially until you have a decent emergency fund).  How much can you afford to spend on discretionary purchases?  How much do you want to be able to spend?  If the want is greater than the can, what steps can you take to rememdy that? With savings you can have a whole new set of planning to consider.  How much do you leave in the bank?  Do you keep some amount in a CD ladder?  How much goes into retirement savings accounts (401k, Roth vs. Traditional IRA), college savings accounts, or a plain brokerage account?  How do you balance your overall portfolio (there is a wealth of information on portfolio management)?  What level of risk are you comfortable with?  What level of risk should you consider, given your age and goals?  How involved do you want to be with your portfolio, or do you want someone else to manage it? Silver Dragon's answer contains some good starting points for portfolio management and investing.  Definitely spend some time learning the basics of investing and portfolio management even if you decide to solicit professional expertise; understanding what they're doing can help to determine earlier whether your interests are being treated as a priority.


One reason why you can get a better rate with a CD compared to a regular savings account is that they lock you into that account for the period of the CD. You can get out of the CD early, but you will forfeit some of the interest. You also generally can't move a portion of the money out of the CD, you have to pull it all out, and then start a new CD with the portion you don't spend. You have to check the terms and conditions for that particular CD.  Some people use them to hold their emergency fund. This is the 3-6 months of expenses you set aside in case of a major problem such as a medical emergency or a job loss. The rate is better than the regular savings account, so it can come closer to inflation. The goal is preservation of capital, not investing for the future. So if you understand the risks, and the CD is backed with the same guarantees as the savings account, then it is a viable way to store some or all of the emergency fund.


Do you get cash (or a deposit into your bank account) of your PhD stipend and then you immediately send the university a check to pay the tuition fee (which might be more than the cash you get from the University)? Or does the University simply keep the stipend money, transferring it from one pocket to another in essence, and say, OK, you have paid your tuition except for $X that you still owe us? Or does the university grant you a tuition waiver as part of your assistantship and reports this as income on Form 1099-MISC? In all of these cases, the money reported on Form 1099-MISC is not taxable income to you, and it is neither subject to Self-Employment tax (basically, Social Security and Medicare tax -- both the employee's share and the employer's share) nor to (Federal) income tax.


I have had pension programs with two companies.  The first told you what your benefit would be if you retired at age X with Y years of service. Each year of service got you a percentage of your final years salary. There was a different formula for early retirement, and there was an offset for social security. They were responsible for putting enough money away each year to meet their obligations. Just before I left they did add a new feature. You could get the funds in the account in a lump sum when you left. If you left early you got the money in the account. If you left at retirement age you got the money that was needed to produce the benefit you were promised. Which was based on current interest rates. The second company had a plan where they published the funding formula. You knew with every quarterly statement how much was in your account, and what interest it had earned, and what benefit they estimated you would receive if you stayed until retirement age. This fund felt almost like a defined contribution, because the formula was published. If most people took the lump sum that was the only part that mattered. Both pension plans had a different set of formulas based on marriage status and survivor rules. The interest rates are important because they are used to determine how much money is needed to produce the promised monthly benefit. They are also used to determine how much they need to allocate each year to cover their obligations.  If you can't make the math work you need to keep contacting HR. You need to understand how much should be flowing into the account each month.


My concern is if I need to report and pay extra taxes for the part of   the company that will be under my name Yes, d'uh. Of course. It's actually quite complicated when it comes to foreign companies owned by US people, and you'll need a good tax adviser (EA/CPA licensed in your State) who's fluent in that area. Citizenship has nothing to do with this, from tax perspective there's no difference between a green card holder and a citizen (except that green card holder cannot claim non-resident exemptions and certain tax treaties' exemptions).


"So this has been true... Forever. I mean can we agree that there is enough corruption to be the dividing line between the 1% and the rest of society? The system is built to protect the rich and grow the wealth of the already wealthy. The middle and lower class are being farmed like animals while food quality is disgusting due to FDA ""failure,"" medicine is becoming a periodical subscription because modern disease is trending towards ""lifelong"" sicknesses, health insurance is a for profit business that now has more investments than banks and while millions suffer and are bled dry of any savings. Keeping the middle east in turmoil is how we get cheap oil. Peace means they have the right to negotiate their exports. While desperate, we basically take it for free. EVERYTHING. IS. BASED. ON. MONEY.    Everytime I use quotes, just think: What if this is designed? I mean follow the MONEY. Medicine benefits if you're just sick enough to pay up every month and not die. The FDA approves all kinds of sickness inducing trash. Why? Isn't that their one job? To say oh this isn't healthy. It causes cancer. We will not allow it. Apparently not. What big pharma paid the FDA to allow crap food. The reason it's crap is because it's cheap. The food industry like McDonald's wants cheap food so they can become global billionaires... I mean c'mon."


Early stage investors by their nature prefer opportunities which are disruptive to existing technologies. They look for a ‘big idea’ in a relatively small but rapidly expanding market. They don’t tend to be attracted to marginal improvements which yield marginal returns. They’re in the business of betting on the nature of the next new world.


> I feel like Sprint charges a bit more, but they don't have a cap on their data plans, so if you do multiple GB per month they are the best choice.  I left AT&T and dropped $30 a month switching to sprint, and have unlimited everything. AT&T is a ripoff in my opinion and they charge so much for the bare minimum. I'm on the West Coast.


Programmer here. Getting into business is more than just tech knowledge. It's great that you were able to get some money for what you did. But setting up a business requiring figuring out a solution to a problem. When it's easy to identify a problem, it's not easy to come up with a viable solution (otherwise someone else would have already solved it). At other times, you figure out a very limited scoped problem and figure out a solution, but it's not very scalable.   My advice to you. Keep learning. You are very young and there is a lot of fun things you can do. If you think you are already standing out with your skills, get an online profile going. Get popular. Try all channels. Should be fun.


It doesn't go on Schedule E at all, it goes on form 4797. The fridge should have been depreciated, over 5 years. If you sold it after 5 years, all the proceeds are taxable income taxed as depreciation recapture (25% rate) up to the allowable depreciation (your original cost basis), above which it is taxable capital gain. Whether you actually have depreciated it or not, it is really your problem, IRS doesn't care. So if 5 years of ownership passed - just write it all as taxable income on the form 4797. Otherwise, allowable depreciation prorated (and you can still amend forms 3 years back to get at least part of it). The new fridge should also be depreciated over the 5 years of its expected useful life. See form 4562. Talk to a licensed tax professional (EA/CPA licensed in your state) for details.


Everybody knows that the Apple products are almost trouble-free. Moreover, their phones, watches, laptops and other gadgets usually do not demand some exclusive maintenance. If you choose Apple, chances are close to 100% that you’ll get high-quality merchandise. Nevertheless, like any system, sometimes even Mac can get “tired.” That’s why real pros recommend taking preventive measures to maximize Mac performance. Learn more details visit here: https://macgurupro.com/


"You can see all the (millions) of trades per day for a US stock only if you purchase that data from the individual exchanges (NYSE, NASDAQ, ARCA, ...), from a commercial market data aggregator (Bloomberg, Axioma, ...), or from the Consolidated Tape Association.  In none of that data will you ever find identifying information for the traders. What you are recalling regarding the names of ""people from the company"" trading company stock is related to SEC regulations stating that people with significant ownership of company stock and/or controlling positions on the company board of directors must publicize (most of) their trades in that stock.  That information can usually be found on the company's investor relations website, or through the SEC website."


> But the fact that they got hacked and she's a music major leads me to believe that she didn't know shit about security  Which just shows how little you know of the situation. Its irrelevant. Utterly and completely irrelevant. She could have no degree she could have 9 security degrees. She could know everything and warned them for years, and she could know nothing and have ignored the advice of her peers. Her college degree literally has no bearing on that.


It's a scam pushed through to benefit the banking system. Tax payments become income for the banks. Any alleged benefits for property holders are ultimately reduced by increased property prices, capital gains tax and estate taxes


">It is 500, 1,000, or 1,500 employees depending on the industry. Five-hundred employees is not exactly small.  73.2% of ""small businesses"" are sole proprietors.  > Hahaha. This has nothing to do with the discussion but whatever dude. If we were both to start our own companies, I'd actually value my workers and you would just complain about labor costs of the people that are needed to run your business.  I did start my own company six years ago.  So, you can talk about what you would hypothetically do and I can talk about what I actually did.  > and people like you don't see  I've got 40 employees and none make minimum wage.   I actually have employees to value (which I do).    People like you only see the top of the hill and not the climb to get there."


"I remember when they started the policy of ""will not accept ANY lifetime warranty claims for rust"". A reasonable enough claim, because there's no such thing as 100% stainless.  However, they started this stupid game where *any* tool with *any* amount of rust on it was automatically a ""rust claim"".  For example, if a socket for a ratchet was stripped, worn, or chipped to the point of being unusable, and also had a small rust spot, they wouldn't replace it.  Spend a dollar and piss off your customers to save a nickel... go figure."


If someone made their money honestly, who are you to say how they spend it?  Their contribution to society was providing exceptional value...they owe no one anything but that.   On the other hand, if they made their money like the tool who did the AMA last night, by manipulating government and using their guns to create a monopoly for themselves, fuck them...fuck them indeed.


In theory, when you obtained ownership of your USD cash as a Canadian resident [*resident for tax purposes, which is generally a quicker timeline than being resident for immigration purposes], it is considered to have been obtained by you for the CAD equivalent on that date.  For example if you immigrated on Dec 31, 2016 and carried $10k USD with you, when the rate was ~1.35, then Canada deems you to have arrived with $13.5k CAD. If you converted that CAD to USD when the rate was 1.39, you would have received 13.9k CAD, [a gain of $400 to show as income on your tax return].  Receiving the foreign inheritances is a little more complex; those items when received may or may not have been taxable on that day. However whether or not they were taxable, you would calculate a further gain as above, if the fx rate gave you more CAD when you ultimately converted it. If the rate went the other way and you lost CAD-value, you may or may not be able to claim a loss. If it was a small loss, I wouldn't bother trying to claim it due to hassle. If it's a large loss, I would be very sure to research thoroughly before claiming, because something like that probably has a high chance of being audited.


You don't specify where you live, so I'll explain the case if you lived in Canada. Other countries may have similar laws against criminal usury. In Canada, this would be a criminal offence. Canada Criminal Code 347 (1) means you are guilty of an indictable offence and liable to imprisonment for a term not exceeding five years, or guilty of an offence punishable on summary conviction and liable to a fine of up to $25,000 or to imprisonment for a term of up to six months, or both. Note that you don't have to actually collect on such a contract. The contract itself specifies an interest rate well in excess of 60%, so the contract itself would mean you have committed a criminal act.


Quick look through your post history definitely confirms that.  I still think you should delete the info that exposed her identity and seriously reconsider whether you can afford to make such a speculative and highly leveraged investment in a California weed shop.  In the end its up to you.


It would work if there was a facility in place that made penny payments possible, without getting eaten up in fees.  If a news website cost £10/month, I could only justify subscribing to a very small number of sites. Let me read a small introduction, and charge £0.03 for the rest of it and I'd impulse buy it every day of the week.  If one person can churn out content that gets 100,000 £0.03 views, that'd easily be a decent amount of money for a month's work.


For me, it is mostly for the fraud protection. If I have a debit card and someone makes a fraudulent charge the money is removed from my bank account.  From my understanding, I can then file a fraud complaint with the bank to recover my money.  However, for some period of time, the money is missing from my bank account.  I've heard conflicting stories of money being returned quickly while the complaint is undergoing investigation as well as money being tied up for several days/weeks.  It may depend on the bank. With a credit card, it is the banks money that is tied up.


Age old rules about money scams: If a person A wants to send money to person B, they do the following: Person A sends money to person B. Neither of them sends money to you, and you don't send money to either of them. It doesn't make sense! If you give someone money, be prepared that you might not receive that money back. If someone gives you money, be prepared that they can get that money back. Illegal money laundering can put you in jail, even if you pretend to be a blameless victim of a scammer.


"Its time for other sports to clean up their acts. The money in professional cycling is trivial compared to soccer, tennis or US sports - yet few are caught doping  The most interesting quote from one of the cycling Drs - Eufemiano Fuentes is -  ""If I would talk, the Spanish football team would be stripped of the 2010 World Cup"" (Soccer)"


Imagine the following scenario: You have a credit limit of $1000 and you want to by a tablet from a store. It costs $600. You then walk next door and buy a TV for $600. You would expect that you would go over your limit and the second transaction will be rejected. As long as that hold is in place, you don't have access to those blocked funds. That makes sure that you can't promise to pay more than you have funds on the card. Holds can get in the way if you are close to your credit limit. People run into this problem if they reserve a hotel room, rent a car, or purchase gasoline. The hold is set at a specific level to make sure you have enough funds for the typical transaction. This distance between vendors is not relevant. The bank is blocking funds based on a request from a vendor. They have to block the funds because you might use the multiple times in the same store. It is possible that the card company might release the hold based on the request by the vendor, but they generally don't.  If this is a debit card linked to a bank account, the bank can have access to the overdraft system or a linked savings account. If is is a credit card they can decide to to increase your credit limit, and offer you what is essentially a loan. Plus they can hit you with fees. But if the card is a prepaid debit card or gift card they don't want to allow you to go beyond your limit.  If this is a card that you plan on recharging, you could put extra funds on the card to allow both the old hold and the new hold to co-exist.


Unless you have a law degree and a specific contract you can point to, you're just blowing shit out your ass.  I think it's a fair assumption that when those contracts in question were created, they walked the legal line and would hold up in the court room.  You know, 'cause if i had a few million on the line, I'd probably have a lawyer look at it and maybe even draft it...


"Here are my reasons as to why bonds are considered to be a reasonable investment. While it is true that, on average over a sufficiently long period of time, stocks do have a high expected return, it is important to realize that bonds are a different type of financial instrument that stocks, and have features that are attractive to certain types of investors. The purpose of buying bonds is to convert a lump sum of currency into a series of future cash flows. This is in and of itself valuable to the issuer because they would prefer to have the lump sum today, rather than at some point in the future. So we generally don't say that we've ""lost"" the money, we say that we are purchasing a series of future payments, and we would only do this if it were more valuable to us than having the money in hand. Unlike stocks, where you are compensated with dividends and equity to take on the risks and rewards of ownership, and unlike a savings account (which is much different that a bond), where you are only being paid interest for the time value of your money while the bank lends it out at their risk, when you buy a bond you are putting your money at risk in order to provide financing to the issuer. It is also important to realize that there is a much higher risk that stocks will lose value, and you have to compare the risk-adjusted return, and not the nominal return, for stocks to the risk-adjusted return for bonds, since with investment-grade bonds there is generally a very low risk of default. While the returns being offered may not seem attractive to you individually, it is not reasonable to say that the returns offered by the issuer are insufficient in general, because both when the bonds are issued and then subsequently traded on a secondary market (which is done fairly easily), they function as a market. That is to say that sellers always want a higher price (resulting in a lower return), and buyers always want to receive a higher return (requiring a lower price). So while some sellers and buyers will be able to agree on a mutually acceptable price (such that a transaction occurs), there will almost always be some buyers and sellers who also do not enter into transactions because they are demanding a lower/higher price. The fact that a market exists indicates that enough investors are willing to accept the returns that are being offered by sellers. Bonds can be helpful in that as a class of assets, they are less risky than stocks. Additionally, bonds are paid back to investors ahead of equity, so in the case of a failing company or public entity, bondholders may be paid even if stockholders lose all their money. As a result, bonds can be a preferred way to make money on a company or government entity that is able to pay its bills, but has trouble generating any profits.  Some investors have specific reasons why they may prefer a lower risk over time to maximizing their returns. For example, a government or pension fund or a university may be aware of financial payments that they will be required to make in a particular year in the future, and may purchase bonds that mature in that year. They may not be willing to take the risk that in that year, the stock market will fall, which could force them to reduce their principal to make the payments. Other individual investors may be close to a significant life event that can be predicted, such as college or retirement, and may not want to take on the risk of stocks. In the case of very large investors such as national governments, they are often looking for capital preservation to hedge against inflation and forex risk, rather than to ""make money"". Additionally, it is important to remember that until relatively recently in the developed world, and still to this day in many developing countries, people have been willing to pay banks and financial institutions to hold their money, and in the context of the global bond market, there are many people around the world who are willing to buy bonds and receive a very low rate of return on T-Bills, for example, because they are considered a very safe investment due to the creditworthiness of the USA, as well as the stability of the dollar, especially if inflation is very high in the investor's home country. For example, I once lived in an African country where inflation was 60-80% per year. This means if I had $100 today, I could buy $100 worth of goods, but by next year, I might need $160 to buy the same goods I could buy for $100 today. So you can see why simply being able to preserve the value of my money in a bond denominated in USA currency would be valuable in that case, because the alternative is so bad. So not all bondholders want to be owners or make as much money as possible, some just want a safe place to put their money. Also, it is true for both stocks and bonds that you are trading a lump sum of money today for payments over time, although for stocks this is a different kind of payment (dividends), and you only get paid if the company makes money. This is not specific to bonds. In most other cases when a stock price appreciates, this is to reflect new information not previously known, or earnings retained by the company rather than paid out as dividends. Most of the financial instruments where you can ""make"" money immediately are speculative, where two people are betting against each other, and one has to lose money for the other to make money. Again, it's not reasonable to say that any type of financial instrument is the ""worst"". They function differently, serve different purposes, and have different features that may or may not fit your needs and preferences. You seem to be saying that you simply don't find bond returns high enough to be attractive to you. That may be true, since different people have different investment objectives, risk tolerance, and preference for having money now versus more money later. However, some of your statements don't seem to be supported by facts. For example, retail banks are not highly profitable as an industry, so they are not making thousands of times what they are paying you. They also need to pay all of their operating expenses, as well as account for default risk and inflation, out of the different between what they lend and what they pay to savings account holders. Also, it's not reasonable to say that bonds are worthless, as I've explained. The world disagrees with you. If they agreed with you, they would stop buying bonds, and the people who need financing would have to lower bond prices until people became interested again. That is part of how markets work. In fact, much of the reason that bond yields are so low right now is that there has been such high global demand for safe investments like bonds, especially from other nations, such that bond issues (especially the US government) have not needed to pay high yields in order to raise money."


"Whoever is not ""anti trump"" is a either being conned, an idiot or someone very untrustworthy. Take it from an unbiased European.  However, we agree on one thing. This article is a bit to loosely related to economics to be in this sub, at least IMO."


"I remember in the 19th and early 20th century was the problem of Trusts set up by the wealthy to avoid taxes (hence the term ""Anti-Trust"") That's not what antitrust means.  The trusts in that case were monopolies that used their outsized influence to dominate customers and suppliers.  They weren't for tax evasion purposes.  Trusts were actually older than a permanent income tax.  Antitrust law was passed around the same time as a permanent income tax becoming legal.  Prior to that income taxes were temporary taxes imposed to pay for wars.   The primary ways to evade taxes was to move expenses out of the personal and into businesses or charities.  The business could pay for travel, hotels, meals, and expenses.  Or a charity could pay for a trip as a promotion activity (the infamous safari to Africa scheme).  Charities can pay salaries to employees, so someone could fund a charity (tax deductible) and then use that money to pay people rather than giving gifts.  If you declare your house as a historical landmark, a charity could maintain it.   Subscribe to magazines at the office and set them in the waiting room after you read them.  Use loyalty program rewards from business expenses for personal things.  Sign up for a benefit for all employees at a steep discount and pay everyone a little less as a result.  Barter.  You do something for someone else (e.g. give them a free car), and they return the favor.  Call it marketing or promotion (""Trump is carried away from his eponymous Tower in a sparkling new Mercedes Benz limousine."").   Another option is to move income and expenses to another tax jurisdiction that has even fewer laws about it.  Where the United States increasingly cracked down on personal expenses masquerading as business expenses, many jurisdictions would be happy just to see the money flow through and sit in their banks briefly.   Tax policy is different now than it was then.  Many things that would have worked then wouldn't work now.  The IRS is more aggressive about insisting that some payments be considered income even if the organization writes the check directly to someone else.  It's unclear what would happen if United States tax rates went back to the level they had in the fifties or even the seventies.  Would tax evasion become omnipresent again?  Or would it stay closer to current levels.   The rich actually pay a higher percentage of the overall income taxes now than they did in the forties and fifties.  And the rich in the United States pay a higher percentage of the taxes paid than the rich in other countries with higher marginal rates.  Some of this may be more rich people in the US than other countries, but tax policy is part of that too.  High income taxes make it hard to become rich."


Even if the EV were powered solely by coal (the dirtiest energy source), it would still be significantly cleaner than an ICE.  I read somewhere that it would emit 40% less carbon.  In addition, the carbon intensity of the grid has been falling as renewables are increasingly deployed.  Put solar on your roof and your drive on sunshine.


"My 401k allows cash holdings to 100% if desired. I'm not sure why some won't, they are making money on your money after all. If you are looking to the funds vehicles for investing suggestions however, they will never allow cash. I found you must go into ""Invest on my own"" vehicle to make that change.  I have beaten and timed this market several times by sitting with cash on the sidelines. The only time I missed it was when I talked to a fund administrator in 2008 dot com crash and stayed in at this suggestion. I told him I didn't see where the market could go much higher as I had made 12-28% on some funds. He was dead wrong of course and I lost 50% that year.  Now, trust me, in 2017, assets are grossly overvalued. If they won't let you deposit to cash, don't invest and just save your money until the next crash."


From your profile, I see you are in Israel. The process is probably different from in the US.  In the US, an agent is usually happy to work with a buyer. After all, When I list a house, there are potential buyers all over my state and elsewhere. The best thing you can do is first, have your financing in order. A bank will be able to tell you how much you can afford and how much they'll lend you. If you approach an agent and tell them the exact range of price, area you're interested in, and other specifics such as number of bedrooms, etc, that agent should be happy to find houses to fit your request.  Obviously, an agent listing million dollar homes, busy with those all day, is not going to want to handle a buyer looking for a $200K home. But in the end, the real estate agents aren't all listing high end, and someone is moving the smaller houses as well. Often, an office will have a call center where agents who are less busy will answer the phone hoping to get a client that will bring a sale. That's one way to go. The other is word of mouth. Just ask others who you work with or socialize with if they know a good agent. In my case, I'd be happy to get such a referral.


In simplest terms, when a company creates new shares and sells them, it's true that existing shareholders now own a smaller percentage of the company.  However, as the company is now more valuable (since it made money by selling the new shares), the real dollar value of the previous shares is unchanged. That said, the decision to issue new shares can be interpreted by investors as a signal of the company's strategy and thereby alter the market price;  this may well affect the real dollar value of the previous shares.  But the simple act of creating new shares does not alter the value in and of itself.


"I agree the numbers are bunk, however the 900k figure is the ""opportunity cost"" of a moderate income family 60k-100k and not the actual.  They are saying if you invested the money you would have spent on the kid and worked instead of staying home with kids you would be close to a million richer.    Still don't buy it however.  According to their graph it seems like they took the worse case scenario across the board and used that as their base.  For instance, the graph states you probably spent close to $85,000 on your kid for child care and education (pre-college).  Perhaps if you are a single mom living in new york without family nearby."


Yes, start from scratch there, and keep this link open:  https://docs.python.org/2/tutorial/controlflow.html  This is where codingbat starts you off at. As long as you keep that tutorial open, you can always jump back to simpler concepts if you get stuck.  The first codingbat problem, http://codingbat.com/prob/p173401, wants you to finish the function `sleep_in()`. It takes two parameters, and returns either `True` or `False`.  For starters, try writing:      def sleep_in(weekday, vacation):         return True  This is obviously not correct, but it'll show you the various inputs it used for `weekday` and `vacation`, and how your function definition either passed or failed the tests.  This is a surprisingly realistic way to learn programming, as far as how the professionals do it.


Well, the same stats would probably apply to any minority or racial group. Would it be safe to say that White Males are the best CEOs because 100% of top 10 companies in the world have white males as CEO?  Oh & yes - Tim Cook, Apple's CEO, is Gay. Can we then say Gays make for the best CEOs ?  Correlation does not imply causation. This is how ALL racial/sexist stereotypes and prejudices are perpetuated. This is wrong.


"I don't see how employing more middle class workers would accelerate, say, the microprocessor research leading to better phones.  I also don't see how we are at a point in resource distribution that only the rich can afford things. As far as I can tell, poor people have a tremendous amount of wealth compared to the poor of 500 years ago or even 100 years ago.  What would a ""stronger economy"" do? Use more fuel? Produce more knicknacks for consumers to waste money on?  You're missing the entire point."


I moved from contributing 10% to maxing as my salary rose over the course of three years after graduation.  Because of my raises, my monthly take home still increased, so it was a pretty painless way to increase my 401(k) contribution and also avoid lifestyle inflation. That said, I would not do it if you have any credit card debt, school loans, or an auto loan.  Pay that off first.  Then work on maxing the 401(k).  Personally I rate owning a home behind that, but that's partially because I'm in an area where the rent ratios are barely on the side of buying, so I don't find buying to be a pressing matter. One thing to investigate is if your company offers a Roth 401(k) option.  It's a nice option where you can go Roth without worrying about income limits.  My personal experience does not include a Roth IRA because when I still qualified for one I didn't know much about them, and now that I know about them I have the happy issue of not qualifying.


"Most businesses do not hire interns for most positions -- especially ones that require an advanced degree.  However, there is no harm in contacting HR and saying ""I love what I'm reading about your company, here are my qualifications, is it possible you might create an internship position to work with this group?"""


Even their breakfasts are, at best, sub-par. I used to visit McD's once or twice a year for a sausage egg McMuffin and hashbrown. The last three times I tried it, the McMuffin had a fraction of the flavor it should have, more grease than it needed, and the hashbrowns were...well...not the most bland potato product I've ever had, but they were trying hard to get the title.  Pretty sure I haven't been there for a few years, now. No real reason to.


"The Forbes article IRS Announces 2014 Retirement Plan Contribution Limits For 401(k)s And More spells this out pretty clearly.  For your wife - ""an IRA contributor who is not covered by a workplace retirement plan and is married to someone who is covered, the deduction is phased out if the couple’s income is between $181,000 and $191,000."" So, with your wife not covered by a 401(k), and your income below the stated limit, she can deduct the IRA contribution. When your income gets beyond that limit, she can make a non-deductible contribution and convert to Roth, if she wishes."


This strategy will have long lasting effects since negative items can persist for many years, making financing a home difficult, the primary source of household credit. It is also very risky.  You can play hard, but then the creditor may choose you to be the one that they make an example out of by suing you for a judgement that allows them to empty your accounts and garnish your wages. If you have no record of late payments, or they are old and/or few, your credit score will quickly shoot up if you pay down to 10% of the balance, keep the cards, and maintain that balance rate. This strategy will have them begging you to take on more credit with offers of lower interest rates.  The less credit you take on, the more they'll throw at you, and when it comes time to purchase a home, more home can be bought because your interest rates will be lower.


There is no bank that I know of offering such a feature and I'm not sure what the point of it would be (other than to annoy their customers). If you've been subjected to a fraudulent check your best bet is to either choose to write checks only to trusted parties and/or use your banks BillPay service (they usually issue checks on another account while transferring the money from your account). The drawbacks of your current plan, bounced legitimate checks and high maintenance nature, outweigh the potential benefits of catching a fraudulent check since you're not legally obligated to pay checks you haven't written.


I used to do this all the time but it's more difficult now.  Just a general warning that this probably isn't a good idea unless you're very responsible with your money because it's easy to get yourself in a bad position if you're not careful. You can get a new credit card that does balance transfers and request balance transfer checks from them.  Then just use one of those balance transfer checks to mail a payment to the loan you want to transfer.  Make sure your don't use the entire credit line as the credit card will have the balance transfer fee put on it as well.  You used to be able to find credit cards with 0% balance transfer fee but I haven't seen one of those in ages.  Chase Slate is the lowest I've seen recently at 2%.   Alternately, if you have a lot of expenses every month then it's easy to find a credit card where all purchases are 0% interest for a year or more and use that to pay every possible expense for a few months and use the money you'd normally use to pay for those expenses to pay off the original loan.  If you're regular monthly expenses are high enough you can pay off the original loan quickly and then pay on the credit card with no interest as normal. The banks are looking to hook you so make sure you pay them off before the zero percent runs out or make sure you know what happens after it does.  Normally the rate sky rockets.  Also, don't use that card for anything else.  Credit card companies always put payments towards the lowest interest rate first so if you charge something that doesn't qualify for 0% then it will collect interest until you've paid off the entire 0% balance which will likely take a while and cost you a lot of money.   If you have to pay a balance transfer fee then figure out if it's less then you would have paid if you continued paying interest on the original loan.   Good luck.  I hope it works out for you.


One could make the argument that hiring generally was something which companies should do as little of as possible. So, looking twenty years ahead, unless we as a nation and generally, it applies also to the whole human race, **unless we set our sights a great deal higher than they are today, businesses just won't need practically any employees.**   And if we do set our sights higher, the employees businesses *will* need will be much more skilled than most of them are today. There just wont be any need for a lot of people no matter how eager they are to work, they just wont have any skills that a computer can't do better.


Without knowing the terms of the company leased car, it's hard to know if that would be preferable to purchasing a car yourself. So I'll concentrate on the two purchase options - getting a loan or paying in full from savings. If the goal is simply to minimize the amount paid for this car, then paying the full cost up-front is best, because it avoids the financing and interest charges associated with a loan. However, the money you would pay for this car would come out of somewhere (your savings). If your savings were in an investment earning a risk-adjusted return rate of, say, 5% APY and the loan cost 1% APY, you'd have more money in the long run by keeping as much money in your savings as possible, and paying the loan as slowly as possible, because the return rate on your savings is higher. Those numbers are theoretical, of course. You have to make a decision based on your expectation of the performance of your investments, and on the cost of the loan. But depending on your risk tolerance and the loan terms available to you, a loan may well make sense. This is especially true when loans costs are subsidized by manufacturers, who often offer favorable financing on new cars to drive demand. But even bank loans on cars can be pretty inexpensive because the car is a form of collateral with predictable future value. And finally, you should consider tax treatment -- not usually a consideration in purchases of cars by consumers in the US, but can vary due to business use and certainly may be different in India. See also: How smart is it to really be 100% debt free?


According to https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Systematic_Investment_Plan it's nothing but a fancy term for plain old dollar cost averaging.


Frequently people saving money for a down payment, or for their emergency fund, feel that they need to find a way to speedup the process via methods that will generate more interest than a bank account or a CD. Once they have reached their goal they also feel that having the money sitting around not generating income is a missed opportunity. All investments that aren't 100% safe introduce risk. To entice you to invest they offer the opportunity make more money than a bank account or CD. But the downside is that the extra money isn't guaranteed. In fact the introduced risk also opens up the investment to the possibility of losses, including a total loss. You have identified risks with bank accounts and CDs. With the bank account you will generally lose money vs. inflation. With a CD the investment is less liquid if you sell early, or you want/need to sell 1/2 a CD, you will give up some of that extra income. Also if rates on a CD rise next month you are stilled locked into your current rate til the CD ends. Putting some or all of the money you are saving for the house into a risky investment means that you may shorten or extend the time period. Nobody knows.  by investing in real estate we can offset the risk of real estate   going up in the next couple years: if real estate goes up we will   still be able to use our down payment for a comparable house as of   now. Inversely, if real estate goes down we will lose on the down   payment but be able to get a house cheaper. Unless the REIT matches the market of residential real estate in your city/metropolitan region there is no guarantee that home prices in your city will move the same way the REIT does.  A recent listing of the 10 largest holdings of the index is: none of these tell me what home prices in my neighborhood will do next year.


Cheap labor and markets for the rich.  McJobs, debt, and slum life for the poor.  This guy completely glosses over many topics.  Things are different these days. There are not enough jobs for everyone in the world to come here.  The visa system is systematically abused as well.


Unemployment is meant for people who were laid off, not terminated.  Also, the employee who claimed unemployment did so even after they had worked for another company for several months between working for me and making the claim.  If I actually laid someone off I would be the first to personally help them fill out paperwork for unemployment benefits.  If those benefits go to those who shouldn't receive them it hurts everyone.  That 3% increase in unemployment insurance is 3% that isn't going into paying my actual employees.


"The best way I know of to get the interest rate lowered is to call the credit card company and simply ask. Typically if a credit card company thinks you will leave them for another company they will be willing to work with you.  There is also the option of transfering some of the higher interest debt to one of the lower interest credit cards. It sounds like you have your friend on the right track by focusing all extra money on the credit card with the highest interest rate. Then after that one is paid off send all extra to the next highest one and so on.  The classic ""snowball"" effect."


In 2015 there's a $5.43M (That's million, as in 6 zeros) estate exemption. Even though it's $14K per year with no paperwork required, if you go over this, a bit of paperwork will let you tap your lifetime exemption. There's no tax consequence from this.  The Applicable Federal Rate is the minimum rate that must be charged for this to be considered a loan and not a gift. DJ's answer is correct, otherwise, and is worth knowing as there are circumstances where the strategy is applicable. If the OP were a high net worth client trying to save his estate tax exemption, this (Dj's) strategy works just fine.


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They were killing it for a while. And I feel like using Estée Lauder's guidance as a metric was kinda shit since no one really buys their stuff anymore except old people. But it's really making a massive impact of people's perceptions. Been kinda stuck where it is now so I'm tempted to wait for the next earnings report. But that's either gonna make me look like a genius or a fool. So it's a tough call. I do know I'm down 20ish percent so it's a shit place to sell but hey it's better than 30-40%. *shrug*


What schools have undergrad theses? Or is that just something you try to get into? I've been wanting to get into research my senior year but I don't think we have anyone in the finance program that does any undergrad reasearch. So I don't know if the opportunity to even exists.


That seems a very bad offer, it borders on fraud. In the current US economy, you should be able to get between 3 and 4 % APR (and that number is what you should look at). That means that for $300,000 over 30 years, you'd pay $1,265 to $1,432 per month. If you are able to pay more than that monthly rate, you should go for less than 30 years - 20, 15, 10, whatever you can afford - but don't overextend yourself. Google 'mortgage calculator' to do your own calculations.


I have heard that people say the greater earning means greater   intrinsic value of the company. Then, the stock price is largely based   on the intrinsic value. So increasing intrinsic value due to   increasing earning will lead to increasing stock price. Does this make   sense ? Yes though it may be worth dissecting portions here. As a company generates earnings, it has various choices for what it can do with that money. It can distribute some to shareholders in the form of dividends or re-invest to generate more earnings. What you're discussing in the first part is those earnings that could be used to increase the perceived value of the company. However, there can be more than a few interpretations of how to compute a company's intrinsic value and this is how one can have opinions ranging from companies being overvalued to undervalued overall. Of Mines, Forests, and Impatience would be an article giving examples that make things a bit more complex. Consider how would you evaluate a mine, a forest or a farm where each gives a different structure to the cash flow? This could be useful in running the numbers here.


So if a country forces their savings onto another country, say the U.S., the U.S. would have to absorb those savings somehow. If there were enough productive investments available, then this would be a good thing. But if there aren't enough productive investments available but the savings are still forced upon the U.S. it would seem that it would inevitably lead to some kind of a debt bubble for the U.S.


http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Black%E2%80%93Scholes  Start there, the black scholes formula is used to calculate the value of a call or put option and it incorporates the risk free rate in the formula.  I am currently a bit busy but I will write up a better answer later if I get time.


I'd like to add that many companies offer Divident Re-Investment Plans or DRIPs, which is basically a regular automatic stock purchase program. More info here: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dividend_reinvestment_plan. While your stock broker may offer dividend reinvestment, this is not the same as a DRIP. DRIPs are offered directly by the company, rather than the stock broker. They have the added benefits that the stock purchases are almost always commission-free, and in some cases, the company even offers a discount on the stock price. It can take a little more effort to get enrolled in a DRIP, but if you are interested in holding the stock long-term, this is a good option to consider.


According to the article this is not actually a fine, they are just buying back the mortgages they sold in the first place. One has to wonder if they are buying them back at the same price that they sold them or if it's a discount. E.g. They sold you a lemon for $1000, offer to buy it back for $10? Other questions: If they are buying them back then are they now going to start foreclosing like criminals like BoA did?


"But your idea of ""freedom"" comes with a lack of freedom that I see as being even worse.  If a road is not profitable, it won't be built, right? So all of those roads in the country, that go up mountains, that I love to travel on won't exist?  These corporations have the right to decide who gets to use the roads, right? You're all about the free market, but what if the guy who owns the road to my house jacks up the price or does a crappy job maintaining it?  I just have to move?  It will also be for-profit, which means it will cost more.  You're willing to pay more to use a road because it's your choice as opposed to less for that road because someone made you pay for it?  So it sounds like you're willing to accept a much worse situation just because it's your choice, and not actually because it's better.  Are there any concrete advantages other than choice?"


A fourteen-year-old can invest a few thousand into commuting to a part-time job or an education. If you can wait five years for a couple hundred you can wait two to four years for a car (or gas money) or a class (or some textbooks.)


"did you pull that info from fox or something? please step out of your bubble, visit one of those countries and talk to people living there.  being a german myself, i can assure you our system isnt ""crumbling"" due to UHC, we had this for decades and as even you might have heard our economy is pretty fine besides the leiharbeit bullshit (the U.S. CEO repeatedly ranted about the german trade surplus on twitter).   granted, ours is one of the most expensive compared to other OECD countries and it could probably made more efficient, but shits made by humans, and those have flaws. its still only about 10% of GDP (pulled from german wiki).  how much did you spend on military again?   ^^^hint: ^^^never ^^^less ^^^than ^^^16%, ^^^usually ^^^around ^^^20%"


"Wouldn't be advisable, it's not a bank account. However, some plans have emergency ""hardship"" provisions. Some that I'm familiar with would  only be allowable if you are ineligible for a loan. Some of the reasons are purchase of a primary residence, college expenses, funeral costs, or to prevent eviction. Hope this helps."


"Also consider how cars fare under your ownership: Does your current car... If any of the answers to these questions are ""Yes"", you're probably going to get hosed with fees when you return the car."


"leverage amplifies gains and losses, when returns are positive leverage makes them more positive, but when returns are negative leverage makes them more negative. since most investments have a positive return in ""the long run"", leverage is generally considered a good idea for long term illiquid investments like real estate.  that said, to quote keynes: in the long run we are all dead. in the case of real estate specifically, negative returns generally happen when house prices drop. assuming you have no intention of ever selling the properties, you can still end up with negative returns if rents fall, mortgage rates increase or tax rates rise (all of which tend to correlate with falling property values). also, if cash flow becomes negative, you may be forced to sell during a down market, thereby amplifying the loss.  besides loss scenarios, leverage can turn a small gain into a loss because leverage has a price (interest) that is subtracted from any amplified gains (and added to any amplified losses). to give a specific example: if you realize a 0.1% gain on x$ when unleveraged, you could end up with a 17% loss if leveraged 90% at 2% interest. (gains-interest)/investment=(0.001*x-0.02*0.9*x)/(x/10)=-0.017*10=-0.17=17% loss one reason leveraged investments are popular (particularly with real estate), is that the investor can file bankruptcy to ""erase"" a large negative net worth.  this means the down side of a leveraged investment is limited for the highly leveraged investor. this leads to a ""get rich or start over"" mentality common among the self-made millionaire (and failed entrepreneurs).  unfortunately, this dynamic also leads to serious problems for the banking sector in the event of a large nation-wide devaluation of real estate prices."


Oh the company I work for now.  Victim of a poor CEO that has turned into poor leadership across the board. There are directors I'd love to meet, act very interested in why they do things the way they do. The interest wouldn't even be faked. I'm genuinely curious how someone could have so many stupid ideas. Then tell them they suck and they're fired.


"The principle to follow is called ""pay yourself first"". Have your savings deducted from your paycheck before it hits your checking account. You spending will change to accommodate the reduction. If you have a 401(k) available from your employer, start saving some money via that. If not, figure out a way to have something moved out of your checking account to a separate savings account when your paycheck hits. Then as you get raises, up the amount of automatic savings by half of the raise. You will find this hurts less than you think and it will let you build an emergency fund, which is the first thing you need. When the emergency fund is 6 months of normal spending, then you can start to invest."


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Are you kidding?  Electric cars can be faster than gasoline powered cars.   But do you know what the real advantage is?  Car design is limited by having a big, heavy engine and transmission.  Plus you have to put the gas tank somewhere safe.  Electric cars do away with all that.  It will *dramatically* change handling, braking and building a safety cage.  Electric cars will completely outperform gasoline cars.  No question.  Also, the electric cars should have many fewer parts and be more reliable.  The future is electric.  And you’ll love it.


If the rules are unfair,stupid and causing more harm than good.... I'd argue the opposite.  Taxi companies regulated themselves into a protected business with no competition and no chance of competition. This hinders customers and puts all the power into the hands of the cab companies.  I'm not saying Uber is in the right with everything, but your not gonna see an ounce of sympathy from Me towards the cab companies and the cities that let that shit happen.


"I don't think there's a rule -- (I can't comment) but Brick cited IRS rules...but IMO Brick missed one thing -- @ashur668 is not looking for a distribution, but is looking for a rollover. My best guess:  that this part of the ruleset is not well defined, and your (and my) employer have chosen to interpret any withdrawl as a ""distribution"", even if better characterized a rollover. A few months ago, I went so far as to explore if I could use a loophole -- my company had just gone through a merger; I was hoping I could rollover some or maybe all of my 401k to my IRA (I remember now, it would have been everything before starting roth 401k contributions).  My company asserted this was not permitted, and further asserted that the rumors I had heard were mistaken that when we went through a company spin-off a few years before, that nobody under 59 1/2 was permitted to roll over. I did a quick search and found IRS topic 413  As far as I can tell, this topic is silent on the matter at hand. Topic 413 referred me to IRS Publication 575, where I started looking at the section on rollovers.  I read some of it then got bored. Note that we're one step removed -- we are reading IRS publications and interpretations of IRS rules.  I don't know that anybody here has read the actual tax law.  There may be something in there that prevents companies from rolling over before 59 1/2 that is not well codified in IRS publications."


I found this article to clarify some of the issues. One point raised is that the concession can be thought of as getting tax exemption for the closing costs, which normally are not allow. I'm not sure I follow this logic, since you can only deduct the interest, not the principal. I asked a lender, and he verified you can only spend the concession money on closing costs. I think if your closing costs are less than 1% of the loan, its probably not worth it to go for a concession over the price reduction. With interest rates so low, its also not cost effective to buy down points on the loan. This should limit most of your closing costs.


*USPS is slashing first-class delivery, cutting billions of dollars, and looking to cut thousands of workers. How did it get this bad?*  Bad? All of these are good things; the internet is faster and more efficient (and way better for the environment)! End first-class mail and give the postal workers jobs that are more productive than burning tons of gasoline to stuff our mailboxes with new trash every day.


What you should do is re-characterize contributions from being a Traditional IRA contributions to Roth IRA contributions. Call your broker that holds the account and ask how to do that. Note: re-characterize means you don't move the money to Roth account, you retroactively say that it was a Roth account to begin with. By re-characterization you're saying that your contribution, and all the earnings on it, are Roth from the start. This is different from moving (rolling over), and moving is not advised if you have significant Rollover IRA sums. If your MAGI is over the limit for Roth IRA as well (see table 2-1 in pub 590) then you keep it as non-deductible IRA contribution and report it on form 8606. In this case your wife's Roth IRA contribution should be recharacterized as traditional and reported as non-deductible on form 8606 as well.


"What you have here is an interesting argument. Right now, this is totally complicated by the state of ""forced insurance"" that is currently in such hot debate right now.  As a general rule of thumb though, most Americans pay their medical bills in one way or another. Though It is also accurate to say that most Americans have avoided paying a medical bill at one point or another.  I will give an example that will help clarify. My wife gets a Iron infusion shot one every year or so. We choose not to have insurance. The cost to us is around $275. We know this upfront and have always paid it up front. Except for one year. One year we had insurance. The facility that does the infusions charged us $23,500 to do the infusion that year. The insurance paid $275 to them. We refused to pay the remaining  $23,225.  This is a real example using real numbers.  SO while we are more then able to pay the ""normal"" amount, and we could, in theory, pay the inflated amount, We out right refuse to.  The medical facility tried to negotiated the amount down to $11,000 but we refused. They then tried to talk us into a credit plan. We refused. Then they negotiated the entire thing down to $500. We refused. Finally, after 2 years of fighting they agreed that the service had been pair for by the insurance. And sent us a $0 bill.  The entire time, that facility was more then willing to keep doing this annual service for $275.At no time were we denied care. We did have a dent in our credit for a while, but honestly it didn't matter to us. Wrap Up It is fair to say that most Americans do pay their medical bills, but it is also fair to say that most Americans do not pay all their medical bills. The situation is complicated, and made more so by recent changes.  Heath insurance is the U.S. is nearly criminal and while some changes have been made in recent years the same overriding truth exists. Sometimes, a medical bill, when going through insurance, is just plain silly, and the only recourse you have as a customer is to not pay it, for a while, till you get it sorted out."


They have an excellent history and Sprint stands to gain quite a bit if they keep unlimited data as well as having high data speeds. The fact that they only have 56 million subs also gives them room to grow.  Both Verizon and AT&T have over 100 million subs and killed their unlimited data plans in the face of rising data usage. You're going to see those customers complain about data overage costs. If you give those customers a high-speed nationwide network with great coverage and unlimited data, what Sprint is aiming for (and they can accomplish it with the spectrum they have and the network overhaul project they're doing), customers will switch over.  Sprint's network can support at least 2x their current subscriber base before exhibiting any kind of slowdown.


Aristotle did recognize the problem of democracy if a society like ours is facing massive inequality. He thought that the majority (the poor) would vote in their own interest and take away from the minority (the rich). So he thought the solution is to decrease inequality and increase democracy.  Notice Madison recognized the same problem in formulating the American system but he came to the opposite conclusion. He thought democracy should be reduced and power be left in the hands of the more capable set of men, the wealthy elite.  Now the society you are describing would probably be self destructive. If people went around having a mob mentality as you describe, lynching, looting and committing violence, this would be more like a death cult. At some point you have to recognize that common people are usually the target of oppression not the cause of it. Ironically all the examples you mentioned were imposed by the powerful few on the commoners not the other way around.


I have many friends in the skilled trade fields that are not experiencing the shortage of workers.  They are experiencing a shortage of jobs.  I don't get where the idea of a shortage in manual labor is even coming from, because we really wish we were seeing that here.  I chose Computer Science because there was no shortage of need for CS majors, and when I graduated, my friends and I couldn't find CS jobs in our area for new graduates.  I moved onto IT purely through connections.  Some of my friends moved to other fields.  One became a stay at home dad because his wife was able to find better paying jobs in his area than he was.  We're sold these primrose path stories where you just need to fight for what others are offering, and you, too, can win!  But the reality just isn't fitting the narrative!  My friends fought and still fight!  To give up is to die!  But they are in no means doing well.  Maybe you don't have to see that.  Maybe you just get to hear the stories of the liberal art degrees that want better jobs.  Good.  Then your area is doing better than mine, or is more shielded.  I am still in America.  I work hard and have hard working friends.  Some, like me, are doing well.  Some are struggling despite doing their best.  The primrose path is an unfortunate lie.


It depends on the structure of your business. Are you a sole proprietor filing Schedule C on your 1040, or an S-corp, or part of a partnership? The treatment of a home office will differ depending on business entity.


For computers it is just a matter of making it faster and generally simply increasing it's capacity.  For a 3D printer it is a matter of giving it the capacity to produce these things at all.  I'd be extremely impressed the moment a 3D printer could put out a forging let alone a multi-part functional assembly with various materials.  People back in the 50s were really damn sure we'd all be using flying cars and living on the moon by now.


Pharma distribution is very different and much more regulated than what Amazon does now. I don't think they know what they are getting into.  The standards and practices that apply to the manufacturing environment, the cleanliness, the record keeping, the temperature control, the strict procedures and the training and continuity of personnel required to maintain all that, the security and fire protection to maintain insanely high inventory values....   It ain't like shippin' t-shirts and TVs.


That only 35 years ago you could support your life with a one full-time job (incl vacations) and in addition get adult education to further your personal and career goals and today you can't.     However the sample seems small and anecdotal.


It looks like the rate on that first loan is 6-2/3%?  When I look at $72000 principal and a $500 payment, I'm seeing a long term, 24 years. Not 60, but not good either.  Yes, as you pay a bit of principal, the next payment has less interest and even more principal.  I hope your degree is in a field that's lucrative. Or that you're able to get a job that qualifies you for loan forgiveness over time. I'm sorry that advice might seem weak, but aside from that, the best I can offer is to live well beneath your means, i.e. continue to live like a student, and make additional payments.  As far as bi-weekly goes, the lender may not accept partial payments. Set aside the money every two weeks and when you have extra money just make an extra payment amount toward principal.  To pay this off as fast as possible, I'd make as high an extra payment as I could each month to the loan with the higher rate. If the rates are the same, pay it off to the one with the lower balance.  With respect to the debt snowballers, followers of The David, say the rates are simply close, say .25% apart, with the lower balance having the lower rate. If you were to pay this one first, it would occur sooner, of course, and free up that monthly payment, helping your cash flow. But, it comes at a cost.  Note - if, as Noah suggests, the rates are the same, I'd advise to make all extra payments toward the lower balance. That will get you to the point where you've freed up that cash flow for other purposes, whether it's to focus on the higher loan, or anything else you need this for.


"I say this with all due understanding: If they're only there for the money, if that's what motivates them, I don't want them in the government. We are better off without them. Really.  Maybe I confused things by saying bubble because it isn't just that, but I don't want the attitude that because one is educated or powerful one is deserving of better.  I understand that you might not be saying that, and you might be saying ""let's use them well"", but alas this is too subtle a line and too easy to slip.  If big dollars hinge on a particular situation being optimized, let a manager make a case-by-case exception, but the norm is not that.  And, by transitivity, the mindset leads to a creeping overall theory that government needs to insulate itself from its own effects.  It's presumably why Congress gets its own health care, because these people are too important to be sick. But then in having done that, we reduce the pressure to make it work for everyone. I'm sorry, I just don't agree. It's a legitimate position you stake out, clearly presented, I am just not buying it."


A minimum purchase quantity just means that you need to round your result up to the nearest 100. In your example it comes out evenly. If we look at an example where it doesn't come out even, you'd round up: And round that up to 700 due to purchase quantities. For a slightly more complex and accurate approach, you'd then evaluate how many of the extras you had to buy due to the minimum purchase quantity would need to be sold: So you'd have to sell 694 of the 700 purchased to break even.


So this is the noble savage take. You honestly think no war and violence was waged on African and Asian nations upon one another?  Superior weapons? Ok, so what allowed them to develop this superior technology? Was it education, superior engineering, and tactics? Was it luck? Seriously