"By the sounds of things, you're not asking for a single formula but how to do the analysis... And for the record you're focusing on the wrong thing. You should be focusing on how much it costs to own your car during that time period, not your total equity.  Formulas:  I'm not sure how well you understand the nuts and bolts of the finance behind your question, (you may just be a pro and really want a consolidated equation to do this in one go.) So at the risk of over-specifying, I'll err on the side of starting at the very beginning. Any financial loan analysis is built on 5 items: (1) # of periods, (2) Present Value, (3) Future Value, (4) Payments, and (5) interest rate.  These are usually referred to in spreadsheet software as NPER, PV, FV, PMT, and Rate. Each one has its own Excel/google docs function where you can calculate one as a function of the other 4. I'll use those going forward and spare you the 'real math' equations.  Layout: If I were trying to solve your problem I would start by setting up the spreadsheet  up with column A as ""Period"". I would put this label in cell A2 and then starting from cell A3 as ""0"" and going to ""N"". 5 year loans will give you the highest purchase value w lowest payments, so n=60 months... but you also said 48 months so do whatever you want.  Then I would set up two tables side-by-side with 7 columns each. (Yes, seven.) Starting in C2, label the cells/columns as: ""Rate"", ""Car Value"", ""Loan Balance"", ""Payment"", ""Paid to Interest"", ""Principal"", and ""Accumulated Equity"". Then select and copy cells C2:I2 as the next set of column headers beginning in K2. (I usually skip a column to leave space because I'm OCD like that :) ) Numbers: Now you need to set up your initial set of numbers for each table. We'll do the older car in the left hand table and the newer one on the right. Let's say your rate is 5% APR. Put that in cell C1 (not C3). Then in cell C3 type =C$1/12. Car Value $12,000 in Cell D3. Then type ""Down Payment"" in cell E1 and put 10% in cell D1. And last, in cell E3 put the formula =D3*(1-D$1). This should leave you with a value for the first month in the Rate, Car Value, and Loan Balance columns. Now select C1:E3 and paste those to the right hand table. The only thing you will need to change is the ""Car Value"" to $20,000. As a check, you should have .0042 / 12,000 / 10,800 on the left and then .0042 / 20,000 / 18,000 on the right.  Formulas again: This is where spreadsheets become amazing. If we set up the right formulas, you can copy and paste them and do this very complicated analysis very quickly.  Payment The excel formula for Payment is =PMT(Rate, NPER, PV, FV). FV is usually zero. So in cell F3, type the formula =PMT(C3, 60, E3, 0). Obviously if you're really doing a 48 month (4 year) loan then you'll need to change the 60 to 48. You should be able to copy the result from cell F3 to N3 and the formula will update itself.  For the 60 months, I'm showing the 12K car/10.8K loan has a pmt of $203.81. The 20K/18K loan has a pmt of 339.68.  Interest The easiest way to calculate the interest is as =E3*C3. That's (Outstanding Loan Balance) x (Periodic Interest Rate). Put this in cell G4, since you don't actually owe any interest at Period 0.  Principal If you pay PMT each month and X goes to interest, then the amount to principal is ""PMT - X"". So in H4 type =-F3 - G3. The 'minus' in front of F3 is because excel's PMT function returns a negative amount. If you want to, feel free to type ""=-PMT(...)"" for the formula that's actually in F3. It's your call.  I get 159 for the amount to principal in period 1.  Accumulated Equity As I mentioned in the comment, your ""Equity"" comes from your initial Loan-to-Value and the accumulated principal payments. So the formula in this cell should reflect that. There are a variety of ways to do this... the easiest is just to compare your car's expected value to your loan balance every time. In cell I3, type =(D3-E3). That's your initial equity in the car before making any payments. Copy that cell and paste it to I4. You'll see it updates to =(D4-E3) automatically. (Right now that is zero... those cells are empty, but we're getting there) The important thing is that as JB King pointed out, your equity is a function of accumulated principal AND equity, which depreciates. This approach handles those both.  Finishing up the copy-and-paste formulas I know this is long, but we're almost done.  Rate // Period 1 In cell C4 type =C3.  Payment // Period 1 In cell F4 type =F3.  Loan Balance // Period 1 In cell E4 type =E3-H4. Your loan balance at the end of period is reduced by the principal you paid. I get 10,641.  Car Value // Period 1 This will vary depending on how you want to handle depreciation. If you ignore it, you're making a major error and it's not worth doing this entire analysis...  just buy the prettiest car and move on with life. But you also don't have to get it scientifically accurate. Go to someplace like edmunds.com and look up a ballpark. I'm using 4% depreciation per year for the old (12K) car and 7% for the newer car. However, I pulled those out of my ass so figure out what's a better ballpark.  In G1 type ""Depreciation"" and then put 4% in H1. In O1 type ""Depreciation"" and then 7% in P1. Now, in cell D4, put the formula =D3 * (1-(H$1/12)).  Paste formulas to flesh out table As a check, your row 4 should read 1 / .0042 / 11,960 / 10,641 / 203.81 / 45 / 159 / 1,319. If so, you're great. Copy cells C4:I4 and paste them into K4:Q4.  These will update to be .0042 / 19,883 / 17,735 / 339.68 / 75 / 265 / 2,148.  If you've got that, then copy C4:Q4 and paste it to C5:C63. You've built a full amortization table for your two hypothetical loans. Congratulations.  Making your decision I'm not going to tell you what to decide, but I'll give you a better idea of what to look at. I would personally make the decision based on total cost to own during that time period, plus a bit of ""x-factor"" for which car I really liked.  Look at Period 24, in columns I and Q. These are your 'equities' in each car. If you built the sheet using my made-up numbers, then you get ""Old Car Equity"" as 4,276. ""New Car Equity"" is 6,046. If you're only looking at most equity, you might make a poor financial decision.  The real value you should consider is the cost to own the car (not necessarily operate it) during that time... Total Cost = (Ending Equity) - (Payment x 24) - (Upfront Cash).  For your 'old' car, that's (4,276) - (203.81 * 24) - (1,200) = -1,815.75 For the 'new' car, that's (6,046) - (339.68 * 24) - (2,000) = -4,106.07.  Is one good or bad? Up to you to decide. There are excel formulas like ""CUMPRINC"" that can consolidate some of the table mechanics, but I assumed that if you're here asking you would have gotten stuck running some of those.  Here's the spreadsheet: https://docs.google.com/spreadsheet/ccc?key=0Ah0weE0QX65vdHpCNVpwUzlfYjlTY2VrNllXOS1CWUE#gid=1"


>He stole from other rich people.  That isn't true.  From the article: >Shkreli was convicted of three of eight charges, including securities fraud. He was acquitted of fraud charges related to allegations that he looted Retrophin to pay off his hedge-fund investors.   Based on the charges in which he was convicted, it sounds like he misled investors about the nature, type, and risk of their investments and lied about the state of the company and Funds.  The interesting part is that it sounds like there were no actual victims from this.  He did return the investments with significant returns.  His malfeasance appears to be purely a result of *lying* and not following the law regarding disclosures even when regularly warned by the CCO of his firm.


What did I miss? Seems like this suit has zero merit, even if the logos are nearly identical, which they're not as far as I can tell?  edit: Reminds me of [Lays knocking off the packaging for local Oregon produced Jaunitas](http://www.wweek.com/portland/blog-31530-frito-lays-fake-local-tortilla-chips-take-aim-at-oregons-juanitas.html) chips.  Nothing like trying to confuse your customers into buying your multinational brand instead of the local mom and pop joint.  Seriously fuck Lays.


Don't start by investing in a few individual companies. This is risky. Want an example? I'm thinking of a big company, say $120 billion or so, a household name, and good consistent dividends to boot. They were doing fairly well, and were generally busy trying to convince people that they were looking to the future with new environmentally friendly technologies. Then... they went and spilled a bunch of oil into the Gulf of Mexico. Yes, it wasn't a pretty picture if BP was one of five companies in your portfolio that day. Things would look a lot better if they were one of 500 or 5000 companies, though. So. First, aim for diversification via mutual funds or ETFs. (I personally think you should probably start with the mutual funds: you avoid trading fees, for one thing. It's also easier to fit medium-sized dollar amounts into funds than into ETFs, even if you do get fee-free ETF trading. ETFs can get you better expense ratios, but the less money you have invested the less important that is.) Once you have a decent-sized portfolio - tens of thousands of dollars or so - then you can begin to consider holding stocks of individual companies. Take note of fees, including trading fees / commissions. If you buy $2000 worth of stock and pay a $20 commission you're already down 1%. If you're holding a mutual fund or ETF, look at the expense ratio. The annualized real return on the stock market is about 4%. (A real return is after adjusting for inflation.) If your fee is 1%, that's about a quarter of your earnings, which is huge. And while it's easy for a mutual fund to outperform the market by 1% from time to time, it's really really hard to do it consistently. Once you're looking at individual companies, you should do a lot of obnoxious boring stupid research and don't just buy the stock on the strength of its brand name. You'll be interested in a couple of metrics. The main one is probably the P/E ratio (price/earnings). If you take the inverse of this, you'll get the rate at which your investment is making you money (e.g. a P/E of 20 is 5%, a P/E of 10 is 10%). All else being equal, a lower P/E is a good thing: it means that you're buying the company's income really cheap. However, all else is seldom equal: if a stock is going for really cheap, it's usually because investors don't think that it's got much of a future. Earnings are not always consistent. There are a lot of other measures, like beta (correlation to the market overall: riskier volatile stocks have higher numbers), gross margins, price to unleveraged free cash flow, and stuff like that. Again, do the boring research, otherwise you're just playing games with your money.


"First, on Applebees:  >Applebee’s is also assessing “whether the brand truly gets credit for hand-cutting steaks in the restaurant and whether we should continue with this approach,” Cywinski said.  No, you don't get credit for doing that. Because we don't believe you. Your steaks aren't hand cut... They are frozen, vacuum packed in plastic, hand opened, and hand microwaved. Just like everything else you serve. You are a liar, you don't employ chefs or even cooks, and in place of cooks, we believe that you have an army of high school sophomores in back furiously pushing buttons on the microwaves.   And even if your food isn't microwaved, it tastes like it is. If it really, truly isn't and that taste is the result of actual cooking, you've got an even bigger problem. Cause cooked food isn't supposed to taste like that.   You suck and your restaurant sucks. You think you deserve more affluent customers? One of the whole points of becoming more affluent is not having to eat at Applebees anymore!   On IHOP: IHOP got rid of their Chorizo omelet.   For that, fuck you IHOP.   FUCK YOU UP THE FUCKING ASS FOR GETTING RID OF LITERALLY THE ONLY REASON TO EAT AT IHOP!   I went there for breakfast just today, and they completely ruined it by not letting me have the Chorizo Omelet I went there for.   You know what they replaced it with?   Guess.   Just guess...   A mother fucking **cheeseburger omelet.**  **CHEESEBURGER. OMELET.**  **IT LITERALLY COMES WITH KETCHUP, MUSTARD AND PICKLES ON A FUCKING OMELET.**  ""Oh good morning! Welcome to IHOP! Would like some breakfast? Some coffee and pancakes? Yes?""  ""Would you also like if I went ahead and SQUIRTED SOME FUCKING MUSTARD ON THAT FOR YOU?!?!?! WOULD YOU LIKE SOME FUCKING PICKLES WITH YOUR COFFEE?!?!""  ""WELCOME TO BREAKFAST IN HELL MOTHERFUCKER!  WELCOME TO IHOP!""  Applebees and IHOP can both fuck off and die.   Bring back the Chorizo Omelet you fucking assholes!!!"


"Best strategy that has worked for me is to remember first of all that you hardly ever need anything ""right now"". Try this: if you see something you want to buy, leave it for at least two weeks, better yet a month. If after that time you have hardly thought about it, then you almost certainly don't need it. But if you've thought quite a lot about owning it and how it will be beneficial, then perhaps it's worth picking up. You will probably find that a small percentage of things you'd like to buy make it through that screening period."


You'll need to show the whole paper trail: show that the $2000 are the same $2000 (i.e.: show that you didn't get any new income that was not yet reported on your Elance balance), and show that it was in fact transfer from Elance (matching transactions on both accounts). Obviously, add a letter describing the whole process and pointing to the specific pages and lines in the statements and prior year tax returns. Follow the instructions on the notice about where to send your response, and make sure you send it certified USPS mail. Consider having a tax professional (EA/CPA licensed in your State) helping you with this. For the future - do not leave money on various private parties' accounts. It is uninsured, and if something happens to that company - you lose the money. That includes, in the US, also PayPal accounts.


I'd also like to know how many, non minimum wage jobs have been scraped, and replaced with lower skilled workers paid minimum wage.  Sure the low end of the work force has more money, the middle is getting pinched, by the rising cost of goods and no increase in income.


Security in the merchant services system is mainly handled in two ways: 1) Before transactions are done, the business itself must go through an application process similar (but not identical) to getting a loan.  Some high risk businesses must pay higher fees due to the increased likelihood of customer complaints. 2) When a customer disputes a transaction, that's a mark against the business.  Get too many of these disputes, and your priviledge of accepting credit cards will be revoked, meaning you won't be able to again. It's in the merchant's best interest to verify customer's identity, because disputes cost them money directly.  It's in the servicer's best interest to verify the businesses integrity, because fraud drives up the cost for everyone else. As a whole, it's quite a reactionary system, yet in practice it works remarkably well.


If you feel comfortable taking an 8% gain on your stocks, then yes, you should sell. It is generally a good idea to know when you want to sell (either a price or %) before you ever actually buy the stocks. That helps from getting emotional and making poor decisions.


You don't have an inherent right to spout hatred wherever you want, free of any consequences. You can, just like everyone else, apply for a permit and protest in a public square. But your rights aren't being infringed upon when private entities decide that your politics and rhetoric are distasteful and incompatible with them. Not all ideas are created equal, and white supremacy is incompatible with a civilized society. By all means, feel free to march down the street carrying racist signs and screaming about (((globalism))) and the deep state, but don't get pissy when polite society decides they want nothing to do with you.    Internet companies have been policing free speech since the Internet was invented btw. Google and Facebook work closely with oppressive regimes all around the world, most notably China. I find it interesting that most people on reddit didn't care about that until they started drawing lines on hate speech in the USA and Europe.


At your age, the only place you are going to get a loan is from relatives. If you can't... Go to next year's conference. Missing it this year might feel like a disaster, but it really, really isn't.


Series I Savings Bonds would be another option that have part of their return indexed to inflation though currently they are yielding 1.64% through April 30, 2016 though some may question how well is that 3% you quote as an inflation rate. From the first link: Series I savings bonds are a low-risk savings product. While you own   them they earn interest and protect you from inflation. You may   purchase electronic I bonds via TreasuryDirect or paper I bonds with   your IRS tax refund. As a TreasuryDirect account holder, you can   purchase, manage, and redeem I bonds directly from your web browser. TIPS vs I Bonds if you want to compare these products that are rather safe in terms of avoiding a nominal loss. This would be where a portion of the funds could go, not all of them at once.


I used to think that too.  Two electric cars for 3 years now and I've only used public charging <5 times.  It could make sense when everyone has them so you can get scale, but at that point you'll just charge faster (they are already talking about halving the speed to 80%)


My company has a dashboard that basically does this. We select industries / companies we want to be notified of and we get an email in outlook when a new analyst note, research report, or SEC filing is posted on that industry or company.


If you are putting down less than 20% expect to need to pay PMI.  When you first applied they should have described you a group of options ranging from minimal to 20% down. The monthly amounts would have varied based on PMI, down payment, and interest rate. The maximum monthly payment for principal, interest, taxes, and insurance will determine the maximum loan you can get. The down payment determines the price of the house above the mortgage amount.  During the most recent real estate bubble, lenders created exotic mortgage options to cover buyers who didn't have cash for a down-payment; or not enough income for the principal and interest, or ways to sidestep PMI. Many of these options have disappeared or are harder to get. You need to go back to the bank and get more information on your different options, or find a lender broker who will help you.


Different risks require different hedges.  You won't find a single hedge that will protect you against any risk.  The best way to think about this is who would benefit if those events occurred?  Those are the people you want to invest in.  So if a war broke out, who would benefit?  Defense contractors.  Security companies.  You get the idea. You also need to think about if you really need to hedge against those things now or not.  For example, I wouldn't bother to hedge against global warming or peak oil.  It's not like one morning you're going to wake up, turn on CNNfn and see that the stock market is down 500 points because global warming or peak oil just hit.  These are things that happen gradually and you can react to them gradually as they happen.


"Using your Uber vs. Medallion taxi driver as an example...  The problem in the sharing economy is an individual -- working as an independent contractor -- takes on all the risk and reaps diminishing rewards while the profit of the company to which the individual is contracted increases significantly.   Case in point with Uber: Let's say you decide you want to drive for UberX. You lease a Prius, and thus are on the hook financially for $350/month + $100/month insurance + $300/month gas and other car expenses, and you'll have that for three years. That's a $750 nut.   Your nut remains the same, but you have very little protection to ensure that your earnings are going to continue to come in, especially if you look at it long term. I am most familiar with the ridesharing market here in Seattle, and just in the last two years the number of ridesharing drivers (Uberx, Lyft, Sidecar) has exceeded an estimated 3,000. Sure, the customer base grows, but there is also a continuing influx of additional drivers competing for those ""fares."" With the medallion system, there is some level of protection to ensure that the industry remains viable for those who carry a medallion (I am not advocating completely for this system and realize that the complacency the government protection gave to the taxi industry led to customer service/quality issues.)   So back to Uber...As Uber fights for market share, both capturing from the taxi industry but also competing against Lyft and people driving their own cars, they lower prices. In some cases these lower prices have been in the form of discounts, in some cases, lower fares. In Seattle, currently, the minimum fare for an UberX ride is $4. It was $6 a year ago. Uber takes a 20 percent cut from drivers, and also charges drivers $10 a week to use their service. If a driver makes $1000 a week in fares, they pull down $800 of that, after taxes, let's call it $600, so over the course of a month, you're looking at $2400, minus your nut (including phone rental) let's call it $1600 take home pay.   These people aren't getting rich to begin with, and are at a huge risk for when Uber or Lyft or Task Rabbit or whoever decides to cut their prices again. These services are beyond great for the consumer, but are a temporary stopgap for anyone relying on them for work. The big problem here is that companies like Uber are advertising HEAVILY that you can make $30/hour on their service, enticing people to make investments in things like cars to drive with them, but at the end of the day, you're an independent contractor and Uber owes you nothing.   I believe Uber (I single them out because I think Lyft is a little better at this) preys on the ignorance of potential drivers to lure them into the system."


"To claim medical expenses on your taxes they need to exceed 7.5% of your AGI, and then only the amount over 7.5% is deductible.  That's not much.  There is no ""floor"" if you use an FSA as it's all pre-tax. If you're concerned about use or lose, then allot less next year.  It's all what you're comfortable with."


Basically the right idea is: 1) invest in something you understand 2) be creative 3) use your own idea, don't copy what other people are doing Your current plan seems pretty creative and you seem to understand it, so it fits the requirements.


> what an awfully-written, rambling article.   Why is this always the top voted kind of comment whenever a blog post is submitted on Reddit?  The entire point of blogging was to get viewpoints outside of professional journalism.  When that happens, when non-pro-writers write with no pro-editor, then (surprise) you get at-best a second draft.   If you want to only read polished, editor-reviewed works, then stick to the mainstream media.  Furthermore, your counter-point about trying to get the best contract doesn't really contradict what the blogger was writing about: being sold a false dream.  Reddit loves negative and dismissive comments though so enjoy your karma.


You can find all the essential amino acids in the plant kingdom. The only thing that isn't found in the plant kingdom is B12, which is a bacteria found in good quality dirt. So unless you eat high quality free range meat or kill your own meat you won't be getting any B12.


If financial modelling, projections and market research were effective enough that they could predict with certainty what the price would do tomorrow, then everyone would use those techniques, buy now and make relatively risk-free profit tomorrow though, right? The point of an efficient market is that the price at any particular point in time incorporates all of the information available to the market at that moment. Given that, the price should be just as likely to go up tomorrow as go down.   Whether it's reasonable to assume that the market is efficient is another question - at the very least though, I think it's reasonable to assume that people armchair investing at home don't have access to information that professional investors don't.


">There's also very little evidence that the Republican health care plan will work in the real world as described, and in fact not very much evidence that Republicans care. Their overwhelming goal, as far as anyone can tell, is to pass something that they can call ""repealing and replacing"" Obamacare; the goal of a smoothly-functioning health care system just doesn't seem to matter very much to them.  =:-("


"With the second example, if you continue to read on you will see that although directors must try and maximise shareholders wealth. That precedence doesn't change however the interpretation of the actions and whether they maximise shareholders wealth does. For example giving money to charity with regards to the Doge v. Ford case would probably have been blocked on the grounds that it decreases shareholder wealth, but later cases such as A. P. Smith Manufacturing Co. v. Barlow say that donations can increase shareholders wealth in the long run. So it gives a broader coverage of the actions deemed to increase shareholder wealth.  The second is related to short term vs long term wealth but part of the reason for it was due to the inability of Paramount to prove that the value increase for shareholders in the long run from selling to Viacom rather than QVC would be larger than the difference between the two offers, which was 1.3 billion. Then there is also the issue of shareholders rights and the companys ability to block shareholders from selling to whomever they want. So as I said it's related, but the issue isn't solely and simply about short term vs long term wealth.  Both examples are kind of weak as in the first, well the issue doesn't really exist in the present day as previous case law has broadened the definition of actions which increase shareholder wealth, and in the second, short term vs long term value is related, but mostly tagging along with a larger issue. Your original statement was ""in matters of cost vs. quality I'd expect publicly traded companies to prioritize short-term shareholder profit (or be sued by said shareholders.)""  Are there any examples where shareholders have sued simply because they wanted better short term performance over long term performance?"


First of all, realize that buying a home isn't really an investment.  It is cheaper to rent.  In recent years, people were able to sell their houses for astronomical profits, but that won't be happening much in the future.  Additionally, there are many hidden costs of owning a home. Regarding the mortgage interest tax deduction, don't buy a house just to get this.  It is like spending $1 to get back some amount of money less than $1.  So just keep that in mind. Are you debt free?  If not, pay off your other debts before buying a home.  I follow the advice of Dave Ramsey, so I'll echo it here.  Make sure you have an emergency fund and no debt. At this point I think you are ready to buy a house.  When you do, put down as much as you can; above 20% if possible.  Then get a 15 year fixed rate mortgage. At this point, start saving for your kid's college (if you believe in that) and paying down your home. Having no mortgage is a dream many people never have.  I cannot wait until I have no mortgage.  Don't get suckered into getting a high priced loan.  Pay down as much of the price of the house as possible up front.  This gives you flexibility too.  What if you need to sell quickly?  Well, you will have equity from the get-go, so this will be much easier. Good luck with your purchase!


This guy has no idea what he's talking about. Depaul is a great place with a ton of talent. I got multiple internships at big time companies such as Deloitte because of the depaul name and how reliable our students are. The city's businesses want to hire you.


Your line of reasoning is why you should have a timeline on a prediction.  It's been, what, 12 years now of near constant assertions that huge inflation is just right around the corner.  How long should we wait for it?  How many people's jobs, skills, health and education should we sacrifice right now to keep the inflation, which there is absolutely no sign of whatsoever, at bay?  Keep in mind that idling all this productivity assures more poverty, and more deflationary pressures as people can't pay their bills, take out debts, buy homes, or go to college, let alone make a better place for their kids to grow up in.


I'm in the US and I once transferred shares in a brokerage account from Schwab to Fidelity.  I received the shares from my employer as RSUs and the employer used Schwab.   After I quit and the shares vested, I wanted to move the shares to Fidelity because that is where all my other accounts are.  I called Fidelity and they were more than happy to help, and it was an easy process.  I believe Schwab charged about $50 for the transfer. The only tricky part is that you need to transfer the cost basis of the shares.  I was on a three-way phone call with Schwab and Fidelity for Schwab to tell Fidelity what the purchase price was.


This just goes to show you have no understanding of the subject. Rich people do not have 'trillions of dollars' sitting around in bank accounts. Most of their wealth is owning assets like means of production (factories) or real estate.


Options - yes we can :) Options tickers on Yahoo! Finance will be displayed as per new options   symbology announced by OCC. The basic parts of new option symbol are: Root symbol + Expiration   Year(yy)+ Expiration Month(mm)+ Expiration Day(dd) + Call/Put   Indicator (C or P) + Strike price Ex.: AAPL January 19 2013, Put 615 would be AAPL130119P00615000 http://finance.yahoo.com/q?s=AAPL130119P00615000&ql=1 Futures - yes as well (: Ex.: 6A.M12.E would be 6AM12.CME using Yahoo Finance symbology. (simple as that, try it out) Get your major futures symbols from here: http://quotes.ino.com/exchanges/exchange.html?e=CME


"After we fired a whole slew of higher paid employees with good benefits we waited. Then we re-hired a whole bunch more again at lower pay and bad benefits.   See! We made 800 jobs by ""restructuring"" and that's big news!  Seriously though, they've done this a few times over in Michigan already. Not sure why it's news now."


I'm a bot, *bleep*, *bloop*. Someone has linked to this thread from another place on reddit:  - [/r/metacanada] [\/r\/business not supportive of Roots going public](https://np.reddit.com/r/metacanada/comments/709pd4/rbusiness_not_supportive_of_roots_going_public/)  [](#footer)*^(If you follow any of the above links, please respect the rules of reddit and don't vote in the other threads.) ^\([Info](/r/TotesMessenger) ^/ ^[Contact](/message/compose?to=/r/TotesMessenger))*  [](#bot)


"This is the best tl;dr I could make, [original](http://www.pbs.org/newshour/making-sense/demand-nursing-isnt-going-away-will-men-join-ranks/) reduced by 95%. (I'm a bot) ***** > While the percentage of men in registered nursing has risen over the decades - a mere 3 percent were nurses in 1970, for instance - the numbers are still surprisingly low for a field that has seen immense growth.  > There were more than 9,000 registered nurse vacancies in the Sunshine State in 2015, according to the Florida Center for Nursing.  > Better pay could encourage more men to enter the health care field, Stevenson said, noting that in Cuba, a number of the jobs we think of as &quot;Women&#039;s work&quot; in the U.S. - like hotel maids - were done by men because tourism jobs pay well.   ***** [**Extended Summary**](http://np.reddit.com/r/autotldr/comments/6f52sm/the_demand_for_nursing_isnt_going_away_will_more/) | [FAQ](http://np.reddit.com/r/autotldr/comments/31b9fm/faq_autotldr_bot/ ""Version 1.65, ~135895 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*: **nurse**^#1 **job**^#2 **nursing**^#3 **men**^#4 **health**^#5"


>Stay in Portland, racist filth.   Standard right-wing MO, accuse your opponents of what you are most guilty of yourself.  You were complaining about people being illegal immigrants. I gave a simple solution, make them legal. The only reason you should have a problem with that solution is if your original complaint about illegalness isn't your real reason.


It is for the pain of being poor and useless. ;)  But seriously, the United States is not going to have a plan for what to do when many jobs can be done by AI. I guess the only plan is to provide plenty of opiods so discarded people can bow out gracefully.


> but the term means more than just any genetically modified organism  Except that's what it literally means.  While it doesn't typically include things that are specifically bred, it's as if folks are afraid of DNA in general.  There's no reputable research that in any way indicates that GMO materials pose any health threat to us.


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"With stocks, you can buy or sell. If you sell first, that's called 'shorting.' As in ""I think linkedin is too high, I'm going to short it."" With options, the terminology is different, the normal process is to buy to open/sell to close, but if you were shorting the option itself, you would first sell to open, i.e you are selling a position to start it, effectively selling it short. Eventually, you may close it out, by buying to close.  Options trading is not for the amateur. If you plan to trade, study first and be very cautious."


"For the first and last questions, I can do this multiple ways.  For the middle question, I'll just make up values.  If you want different ones, you will have to redo the math.   I am going to assume that you participate in the merger exchange, swapping your share for their offer.   If you own one share, it depends how they handle fractional shares.  Your original one share of ABC can be worth either one share of XYZ or 1.05 shares of XYZ.  If you get one share, you typically get an additional $.80 cash to make up for the fractional share.   You might ask why you don't just get $20 cash and one share of XYZ.  Consider the case where you own twenty shares of ABC.  Then you'd own twenty-one shares of XYZ and $384.  No need for fractional shares.   Beyond all this though, the share value of XYZ is not set autocratically.  The shares might be worth $16, $40, or $2 after the merger.  If both stocks are perfectly valued and the market is aware of that value, then it will depend partially on the number of shares of each.   For example, if we assume there are 10,000 shares of ABC and 50,000 shares of XYZ (including the shares paid for ABC), then their initial market values are $320,000 for ABC and $800,000 for XYZ.  XYZ is paying $360,000, so its value drops to $440,000.  But it is gaining ABC, which is worth $320,000.  Net value now is $760,000 or $15.20 per share.   This has assumed that the shares transferred from XYZ to the shareholders of ABC were already included in the market value.  This may mean that the stock price was previously $20 or so with almost 40,000 shares in circulation.  Then they issued new shares, diluting the value down to $16.  We could start at 50,000 shares at $16 and end up with 60,000 to 60,050 shares at $13.332 to $13.333 per share.  Then XYZ is really only paying $326,658.31 for ABC.  That's a premium of only $6,658.31 for ABC and gives a final stock value of $13.222 per share.   The problem though is that in reality, there is no equivalent of perfect value.  So I say again that the market value might be $15.20 (the theoretic answer that best fits the question given the example quantities of shares), $13, $20, or something else.  It will depend on how the market perceives the deal.  Is the combined company worth more or less than the sum of its parts?   And beyond this, you will have $19.20 to $20 in cash in addition to your XYZ share (or 1.05 shares).  Assuming 1.05 shares, that would be $15.96 plus the $19.20--that's $35.16 total in theory or anything from $19.20 up in practice.  With the givens, the only thing of which you can be sure is the $19.20 cash.  The value of the stock is up in the air.   If XYZ is only privately traded, this is still true.  The stock is worth the price that someone will pay for it.  The ""someone"" is just more limited with privately traded stocks."


A Mortgage Backed Security or MBS is the security.  It's not an entity, it's essentially a contract.  As an investment they function more or less the same way a bond does. There is nothing wrong with the concept behind a Mortgage Backed Security.  Functionally securities like these allows banks and other institutions to lend to high-risk borrowers.  You package small slices of a wide range of risk from a large number of mortgages and the investor sill receive something similar to the average of the rates being charged.  Essentially from a big pool of mortgages of varying risk you will create a different big pool of bonds that can be sold to investors based on some sort of expected return.  For a frame of reference on a much smaller scale look at peer to peer lending sites like LendingClub and Prosper.  The idea is lots of people of varying risk profiles make requests for loans of varying amounts.  You bring your $2,500 and invest $25 in to 100 different loans.  This way even if a few default you will still eek out a profit.  It also allows you to include riskier borrowers without materially impacting your expected return.


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"Because the USA is the world's biggest economy - everybody in the world works with the USA (even if the american companies are not direct suppliers, they are surely somewhere in the supply chain). If USA credit rating is lower, that means american companies will find it harder to get loans to finance their business (i.e. the price of capital will be higher), and this will consequently lead to higher prices for partners of american companies, etc. This will certainly lead to slowdown of global economy. Plus, the lower credit rating also means that the USA govt. is less likely to pay off the debts (Chinese already stated they will diversify their bonds portfolio -i.e. they will start selling out american govt. bonds). This will lead to cuts in public sector in USA, less spending by the consumers, also probably less import from abroad and less travel which will affect - you get it - the ""RoW"". It's not by chance we have a saying in Europe, when USA sneezes, the rest of the world catches a flu!"


At its best, a HOA provides the same benefits as a condo association -- shared investment in the shared neighborhood resources/environment.  At its worst, a HOA has the same problems as a condo association, potentially creating unreasonable constraints on what you can or can't do with your own property because your decisions might affect the value of someone else's property or demanding shared investment in something you don't consider worthwhile. Basically, if an HOA is active in your neighborhood, (A) make sure you know its history and biases before you buy, and (B) make sure you're active in it, or you may be unpleasantly surprised by its decisions.


"> ...if he lowers the prices of drugs, you will be against him.  You are right.  Now, if he makes progress on a good chunk of [the categories of issues I listed](https://www.reddit.com/r/economy/comments/6sb4qh/for_the_last_time_trump_hasnt_made_the_economy/dlm47rx/), my tune would change.  > Even after what Trump just said, ""time to LOWER RIPOFF DRUG PRICES!""...you still think that Trump does not want lower drug prices.  Of course President Trump wants lower drug prices.  He just wants someone else to make it happen and he is unwilling to sacrifice corporate profits to do it."


But Made in China has hastened the decline of U.S. manufacturing. Factory jobs have shrunk in number by 25 percent the past decade to 11.5 million today,   Incorrect. Manufacturing shrinks on it's own thanks to engineering advancements. [Also, China's impact on our economy is greatly exaggerated](http://www.fool.com/investing/general/2011/10/25/3-misconceptions-that-need-to-die.aspx)


I don't really understand the paper. To me, the top 1% do not make their income from salary, but rather from equity or various other asset-based income.   Mixing both in the paper to assume that if you don't make $100k/y on salary by 25 you're a loser (sorry, part of the 99%) is dishonest.


"Two things you should consider about paying off student loans ahead of the 10 year amortization schedule: What interest rate are you paying on your loans? What are you earning on your investments in a balanced mutual fund? When you pay off your student loans you are essentially guaranteed a return of the interest rate on your loan (future interest you would have had to pay). However if you are investing well and getting a good return on your investments you will get a greater return. Ex. Half of my student loans are at 6.8%, thr other half are at 2.5%. I make the minimum payments on the loans at 2.5% and invest my money in tax sheltered retirement accounts. The return on these funds has been 8% and that is on per-tax dollars so really closer to 11%. Now there is also downside risk when you invest in the market, but 2.5% guaranteed I will forgoe for 11% in low risk return. However my loans at 6.8% I repay in excess of the minimums because 6.8% guaranteed return is pretty good! So this decision is based on your confidence in your investments and your own risk tolerance. Once you pay your bank on your student loans that money is gone, out of your control. If you need it in the future you may need to pay higher interest on an unsecured loan, or you may not be able to borrow it. When you want to make large purchases (a car, house) that money you per-paid on your loans isn't available to you as a down payment. Banks should want you to have some of your own ""skin in the game"" on these purchases and the lending standards keep getting tougher. You are better off if you have money saved in your name rather than against the balance on your loan. Yes you can't bankrupt these loans, but the money you repay on them doesn't go toward housing you or paying your bills on a rainy day. I went through the same feeling when I completed my MBA with $50k in debt, you want to pay it off as soon as possible. But you need to step away and realize that it was an investment in your future and your future is long, you need time to make a financial foundation for it. And you will feel a lot more empowered when you have money saved and you can make the decision for how you want to deploy it to work for you. (Ex. I could pay down my student loans with the balance I have in the bank, but I am going to use it to invest in myself and open my own business)."


I wondered about this problem too, so I looked into the maths and made this app :- http://demonstrations.wolfram.com/BuyOrRentInvestmentReturnCalculator/ (It uses the free Wolfram computable-document format (CDF) Player.) If you try it out you can see what conditions favour renting vs buying.  My own conclusion was to aim to buy a property outright upon reaching retirement age, if not sooner. Example This example compares buying a £400,000 house with renting for £1,000 a month while depositing equivalent amounts (in savings) to total the same monthly outgoings as the buyer.  Mortgage rate, deposit rate, property appreciation and rent inflation can be variously specified.  The example mortgage term is 20 years.  As you can see the buyer and renter come out about even after the mortgage term, but the buyer comes off better after that, (having no more mortgage to pay).  Of course, the rent to live in a £400,000 house would probably be more than £1,000 but this case shows an equivalence point.


To be honest, if the world goes tits up, then bitcoin would be my first safe haven. No hassle getting it out the country, no heavy industry of war to maintain, no chance of governmental instability affecting my holdings.  Imagine being a Syrian right now. Would you not have been off far better if your life's savings were in bitcoin, and you didn't need to worry about your money when you wanted to seek refuge in Europe? Imagine being Ukranian, living in the Crimea and *not* being a Russian. That military support behind the Euro means absolutely nothing to you then.  bitcoin is enforced by the people using it. We all have skin in the game, and we all want to safeguard your holdings. Therefor, it is in our best interest to keep the protocol running. It is this very aspect of cryptocurrency that liberates us from third parties having to 'enforce' the value of the currency.


There are a couple reasons for having a Traditional or Roth IRA in addition to a 401(k) program in general, starting with the Traditional IRA: With regards to the Roth IRA: Also, both the Traditional and Roth IRA allow you to make a $10,000 withdraw as a first time home buyer for the purposes of buying a home. This is much more difficult with the 401(k) and generally you end up having to take a loan against the 401(k) instead. So even if you can't take advantage of the tax deductions from contributions to a Traditional IRA, there are still good reasons to have one around. Unless you plan on staying with the same company for your entire career (and even if you do, they may have other plans) the Traditional IRA tends to be a much better place to park the funds from the 401(k) than just rolling them over to a new employer.  Also, don't forget that just because you can't take deductions for the income doesn't mean that you might not need the income that savings now will bring you in retirement. If you use a retirement savings calculator is it saying that you need to be saving more than your current monthly 401(k) contributions? Then odds are pretty good that you also need to be adding additional savings and an IRA is a good location to put those assets because of the other benefits that they confer. Also, some people don't have the fiscal discipline to not use the money when it isn't hard to get to (i.e. regular savings or investment account) and as such it also helps to ensure you aren't going to go and spend the money unless you really need it.


"Is this sarcasm?   But remove the word ""all"" and ""only"" and there's some truth to your statement.   Also worth noting - I heard on the a16z podcast that when Henry Ford introduced the assembly line, he doubled the wages of his workers. This is often attributed to him being a super nice guy, or something like that, but apparently he was responding to very high attrition rates. His workers were less happy being slotted into specific tasks so he had to pay them more. Anyway, I think it should be acknowledged that technological advances can increase both financial and psychological inequality."


It is much more complicated than WW3 = Economic stimulus! If you check again, right after WW2 the U.S. fell back into a recession.  The U.S. come out ahead for the reasons of Europe being in shambles, Roosevelt ensuring the US dollar would become world reserve currency. The world saw a massive gain in productivity because so much infrastructure *NEEDED* to be built new and rebuilt from destroyed old, factories had been geared up to produce maximum amount of goods from the way, and with a huge chunk of working age population lost left many positions open for work.  Of course my two paragraph overview can't ever do justice to the ramifications to the world economy.


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"It's not ""the market"" deciding anything if you're forcing a business to pay someone an arbitrary amount that you declare to be a ""living wage"".  Why do you believe that you get to interfere in a mutual agreement between two people? One guy goes to another and says ""hey wanna do this job for me for X dollars"" and the other guy says ""ok cool sounds good"" and here you are jumping in and saying ""nope, can't allow that, I have to stop you"""


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> This is without a doubt the craziest and most despicable moment in American History.  Whoa there, calm down.   Not to diminish the reality of what's happening here but this is essentially an argument over paperwork and a little bit of money. A couple hundred years ago my great great great (x?) grandparents were abducted and dragged across the ocean at a poor survival rate to work for free and were summarily brutalized as property and forcibly impregnated, raped, and 'bred' like livestock.  If you're giving me a choice between 'President too close to his business' and 'kidnap and displace a million people to use them for labour and breeding stock', I'm not sure how that's even a choice.


> This isn't terrible practice. If it was, it wouldn't have been adopted by other firms.  Correction: this isn't a terrible practice for the CEO and the members of the board.  > ...there isn't really much secrecy about what happens in the CEO office.  Have you worked in a mid to large sized company close to the CEO?  Almost all business dealings is kept private.  > They have to make important decisions based on reports from many areas and many managers.  As does every other manager and vice-president.  > The ability to make the right ones isn't an easy task.  Question for you /u/Almost_Feeding: what percentage of a mid-to-large company's success do you think is due to the CEO and his/her decisions?


This is assuming your student loans are Federal Stafford Loans Don't pay off your student loans as soon as possible. They're very low interest and paying them monthly will help your credit. What you will want to do is as soon as the grace period expires, call up whoever is handling your account and ask them to reduce the monthly since you're not making much. Then just pay the minimum amount, pay your living expenses, bank some of it, and if you have a month where you came out ahead consider putting the difference towards the student loan. Can also drop any tax return you get into the student loan debt. The whole pay off your student loans fast is important. When you have the extra put it towards it, but the extra. Its also much, much more important if you made the mistake of taking out Private Loans or have 50k, 80k, 120k in student loan debt. Since you only have a ~14k I'm going with it being a Stafford Loan. Reduce the monthly, pay on time, live within/below your means... and you'll be just fine.


Their argument is that if prices start dropping, people won't buy stuff because they think the prices will keep going down? Aside from the fact that if prices go down, the cost to produce things also goes down, this is patently untrue. Look at gas. When prices are down, do people drive less because they think prices will keep going down?


Realistically, it is CDs with longer terms or are callable.  You pretty much have to accept more risk if you want higher returns. If you are willing to accept that risk by losing the FDIC protections the next level up is probably high rated Government bonds.


Does that justify the purpose? That is for individual Banks to decide. No bank would pay for daily expenditure if you are saying primary salary you are spending on eduction. So your declaration is right. You are looking at funding your eduction via loan and you are earning enough for living and paying of the loan. I noticed that a lot of lenders do not lend to applicants whose purpose is to finance the tuition for post-secondary education This could be because the lenders have seen larger percentage defaults when people opt for such loans. It could be due to mix of factors like the the drag this would cause to an individual who may not benefit enough in terms of higher salary to repay the loan, or moves out of country getting a better job. If it is education loan, have you looked at getting scholarships or student loans.


"For an RRSP, you do not have to pay taxes on money or investments until you withdraw the money. If you do not reinvest the dividends but instead, take them out as cash, that would be withdrawing the money. For mutual funds, you would normally reinvest the dividends if holding the investment inside an RRSP. For stocks, I believe the dividends would end up sitting in the cash part of your RRSP account (and you'd probably use the money to buy more stocks, though would not be required to do so). Either way, you do not pay tax on this investment income unless you withdraw it from your RRSP. For example, you invest $10,000 inside your RRSP. You get the tax benefit from doing so. You get dividends of $1,000 (hey, it was a good year), and use these to buy more stock. As the money never left your RRSP account, you are considered to have invested only your initial $10,000. If instead, you withdraw the $1,000 in dividends, you are taxed on $1000 income. TFSA are slightly more complicated. You don't get a tax benefit from your initial contribution, but then do not pay tax when you withdraw from the TFSA. Your investment income is still tax-free, and you are (generally) much more limited in how much you can contribute. For example, you invest $10,000 inside your TFSA. You get dividends of $1,000, and use these to buy more stock. Your total contributions to your TFSA remains at $10,000 as the money never left your account. You could instead withdraw the $1000 from your TFSA and would not pay tax on it. In the next calendar year (or later) after the withdrawal, you could ""repay"" the $1000 you took out without suffering an overcontribution penalty. This makes TFSA an excellent place to park emergency funds, as you can withdraw and subsequently replace the investment while continuing to get the tax benefits on your investment income. RRSPs are better for retirement or for the home buyers plan. In general, you should not be withdrawing money from either your TFSA or RRSP, except in emergencies, when retiring, or when purchasing a home. I prefer indexed mutual funds or money market accounts for both my RRSP and TFSA rather than individual stocks, but that's up to you."


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"I think a mention of the age-old adage ""correlation does not mean causation"" is in order here.   Keep in mind another possible explanation is when the issue is brought to light people are suddenly given a reason to call in, instead of shrugging it off as a temporary issue."


You have 2 out of 3 (income and good credit). That is usually a pass where I work. The job longevity may factor in if they are strict.   As for pay stubs, can you get a letter from your employer stating your start date and annual pay? Offer letters work just as well.


"A pyramid scheme is a form of fraud.  If someone came up to you and said:  ""If you give me $100 then get two of your friends to give you $100 each, you'll make $100."" it would not be fraudulent but it also wouldn't be very successful.  If that same person said ""I have a great investment that will return 100% but I need you to help by getting your friends to chip in."" they might be more successful but, given there's no actual investment, they would be lying.   Multi-level marketing is notionally selling products through a pyramid-type arrangement.  It is not hard to see that 1) if the product is good, this is typically a silly way to do business and 2) one could use such an arrangement as a thinly disguised ponzi scheme.  Hence, MLMs, while usually legal (unless the ""product"" is clearly misrepresented), are often a vehicle for bad actors to part fools from their money."


I'd pay cash.  Car loans are amortized, so sometimes you can get upside-down on the loan between 18-30 months because you are pre-paying interest. This can get you into trouble if you get into an accident. Given the low rate and the type of car you're buying, you're probably fine either way.


And no thanks to Trump.  That's 2016 Census data.  > This doesn’t mean poverty is anywhere near disappearing in America: There were still 40.6 million people in poverty last year, and the poverty rate was 12.7 percent, down from 13.5 percent in 2015.


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The banks use any loss as a tax right off which helps when you make billions..  So yeah a couple of grand is like me dropping a penny. Even if 1 million people did this and the average is 10k that's still less than 1% of the banking industries total revenue in a year. Hell bank of America alone is 100 billion a year and it could take a 10% all at once hit and still be fine.  And a car is easily resold and has less protection than a house.


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If you want direct access trading that is very hard to get. However an active trading broker like interactive brokers, Trade station, or Light speed trading may be what you are looking for. If you have serious cash though value or income investing is better than trading which is pure speculation. I know that active trading can be exciting but it's also basically gambling when compared to research based long term investment. You can't fight the market makers, the guys on the dealer desks have way too many advantages over you. Just give this all some thought and see what you want to do.


There is no right way but changing your methodology to suit your situation is   a problem. They were happy to use a 4 years period during the crazy times to lower the VAR and then switch to 1 year afterwards to do the same. It is picking and choosing your measures to suit the situation and that is statistical heresy. While there may not be a right way to measure VAR choosing the measure that is suits your situation is bad methodology.    And of course there is such a thing as bad statistical methodology, you see it everyday.   I also pointed out above that it vairies from bank to bank what confidence interval you use.


The Central Valley of California is a mountain range away from the ocean, although you can drive over the range in a few hours or so, depending on which part of the Central Valley you live in. Watch the *Sons of Anarchy* TV series to get a general idea of the kind of people who live there who *aren't* religious, then extrapolate from that what the religious folks there would be like.  It's a real nutfuck zone.


It's a game.  The Democrats take money from these companies and leave the loopholes in and then scream to high heaven about the evil corporations to energize liberal campaign outreach.  Its nothing but a scam.    And dont even get me started on the corpratist Republicans who are even worse.


It doesn't rely in the first item. A legal tender law certainly makes it easier for the banker to find goods with his dollars, but you can have the exact same scenario I described above in a competing currency system.  Typically the Cantillion Effect has bankers disadvantaged because they get their interest payment after the inflation effects prices. It is the primary loan receiver who gets the best value.


Which contractors? I'm only familiar with the yellow badges that office security and cleaning has. I'm not sure what we give to e.g. FC equipment vendors.  I suspect you're familiar with one of the many caveats I left out, though.


>I'm not sure I would want to listen to what Ballmer has to teach.  I would. I'd go to class every day. Take perfect notes. Study my ass off.  Guy knows how to fuck things up like a pro, just gotta listen to him and then do the opposite.


A bond fund like VBMFX or similar I think are a good choice. Bonds are far less volatile and less risky than stocks. With your 1-2 year time frame, I say definitely stay away from stocks.


Hi all  Started my MBA studies recently. We have a simulation project and I've taken the VP Finance Role as I didn't have much experience in this and wanted to learn more. Unfortunately I don't have accounting until next semester, so I'm trying to make up the cap with my career experience so far as an engineer + youtube tutorials.   I built a discounted cashflow model. I'm trying to now determine the amount of loan to take in my first year of business. Basically the equity financing doesn't cover our first year capital expenditure, let alone any other costs.  My question is how do I determine what an appropriate loan amount is to take. My first thoughts are enough to cover my capital expenses + 1st half of the year operating expenses before I start seeing a revenue.   Right now my balance sheet would lead me to believe I have a 0.52 Debt Ratio and 1.23 Debt-to-Equity ratio. Is that ok?


when you consider the cost of living and the restrictions on working it is nearly the same. I'm able to work part time in the US and go to a state school so my total debt is only around 40k. The biggest problem is that for the degree plans i looked at in public administration and education are not recognized. Of course, I will gladly read any sources you are willing to share that report otherwise.


"> My question then is why do you espouse such simplistic nonsense when you understand that the situation is much more complex? Is it because it is easier and more psychologically comfortable to ignore these injustices than to admit that your model does not have an effective way of dealing with them?  I reject your assessment so it's impossible to answer your questions that assume it.  The position that ""Jim selling to John has nothing to do with Bob"" and the position that ""a power plant pollutes collective air possibly entitling compensation"" are independent and have no conflict.  Simply because there are cases of market failures, I do not therefore conclude that the market system is itself a failure.  Baby with the bathwater, etc.  It's not because this way of thinking is easier but because it is most accurate.  I honestly don't know what you mean by   > than to admit that your model does not have an effective way of dealing with them?  so I don't know how to respond.  I stated in what I thought was plain language that my model has no effective means of dealing with them, only I insist that we must caveat that assessment with the admission that neither does a non-market model.  What you were supposed to take away was the realization that there are few market failures that could not more simply be described as systematic failures generally.  That is, a collectivist system is inherently illogical (if you want to argue this point, the discussion is over - I have no time for true socialists), yet we share a planet's resources and must decide how to best use them.  The free market's conclusion is that people will learn if their air is being abused by a power plant and they will take action to mend it.  This to a large extent has been proven in the transition from an early industrialized society to modern industry."


Yes, wait.  While the bank promises to process the deposit quickly, there is still a window of a number of days. Many people have found themselves with high overdraft fees when the withdraws came before the deposits.


There's no tax difference between using AirBnB or Craigslist or any other method to find tenants. The rules relating to occupancy and frequency may be different for some purposes if you go from yearly or monthly tenants to daily-rate tenants.  Your state and local authorities may in the future try to consider you a motel or Bed n Breakfast equivalent, and subject you to various regulations and business taxes.  But the method of finding customers itself is probably not meaningful for tax purposes.


Actually, I misspoke.  Arcade City doesn't use crypto.  It just connects riders and drivers and lets them work out the payment on their own.  There is an offshoot of Arcade City called Swarm City that does use crypto but it's only in the early development stages.  There is a ton happening in the cryptocurrency space right now.  Lots of really complex applications and development platforms - it's no longer just about funds transfer.  If you are interested, here's a list of 1100 active projects: https://coinmarketcap.com/  On each project's detail page you'll find a link to its web site for further info.


Generally the number of shares of a U.S. exchange-listed stock which have been shorted are tracked by the exchange and reported monthly.  This number is usually known as the open short interest.  You may also see a short interest ratio, which is the short interest divided by the average daily volume for the stock. The short interest is available on some general stock data sites, such as Yahoo Finance (under Key Statistics) and dailyfinance.com (also on a Key Statistics subpage for the stock).


"If that's the case, why not *lower* the minimum wage? That would instantly make US companies more profitable and make US a great target for foreign investment. Both labor costs are cut down, and as you say, rent and everything will immediately drop. Companies free up a lot of capital for expansion and we can quickly gain 100% employment, as anyone can have a job at say, $1/hour.   A lot of interesting innovation would have to happen to sell food affordable for a $1/hour work. I'm thinking artificially flavored cardboard burgers. Organic and eco friendly: imagine, the packaging IS the meal.  I call this the ""trickle up"" theory, or ""economic regurgitation""."


Also, when they mean SP500 fund - it means that fund which invests in the top 500 companies in the SP Index, is my understanding correct? Yes that is right. In reality they may not be able to invest in all 500 companies in same proportion, but is reflective of the composition. I wanted to know whether India also has a company similar to Vanguard which offers low cost index funds. Almost all mutual fund companies offer a NIFTY index fund, both as mutual fund as well as ETF. You can search for index fund and see the total assets to find out which is bigger compared to others.


I'm looking for something simple, legal, reasonably formal, easy to setup and tax efficient. You just described marriage. Get married.


Is it an unattractive offer many buyers would shy away from? Buyer who have specific plan may skip getting into such deals as this would be an hindrance to resell the business. Others who are not sure, may buy it for to make money in future. Does it seem like a justifiably fair way to sell a domain, while keeping a stake in it? This is preview of individual opinion. There is nothing fair or unfair in such deals. Is this even done, or has this ever been done before? Possibly. I don't know. Other Aspects: Although this may appear as a good way to cash in on upside, it is not always easy. If magic goes to court and establishes that you were a squatter just to make windfall without any plan, the contract becomes void. If the other party some how manages to make say 1 billion from this site, they would have enough lawyers and accountants to structure the business. So they way it would quickly get restructured is ABC Inc will buy Magic from you with the contract. ABC will give this on lease to XYZ for a consideration of $100 per year as usage. XYZ will make 1 billion. So your share is limited only on $100 royalty paid to ABC.


"I'd question whether a guaranteed savings instrument underperforming the stock market really is a risk, or not?  Rather, you reap what you sow. There's a trade-off, and one makes a choice.  If one chooses to invest in a highly conservative, low-risk asset class, then one should expect lower returns from it.  That doesn't necessarily mean the return will be lower — stock markets could tank and a CD could look brilliant in hindsight — but one should expect lower returns.  This is what we learn from the risk-return spectrum and Modern Portfolio Theory. You've mentioned and discounted inflation risk already, and that would've been one I'd mention with respect to guaranteed savings. Yet, one still accepts inflation risk in choosing the 3% CD, because inflation isn't known in advance.  If inflation happened to be 2% after the fact, that just means the risk didn't materialize.  But, inflation could have been, say, 4%. Nevertheless, I'll try and describe the phenomenon of significantly underperforming a portfolio with more higher-risk assets.  I'd suggest one of: Perhaps we can sum those up as: the risk of ""investing illiteracy""? Alternatively, if one were actually fully aware of the risk-reward spectrum and MPT and still chose an excessive amount of low-risk investments (such that one wouldn't be able to attain reasonable investing goals), then I'd probably file the risk under psychological risk, e.g. overly cautious / excessive risk aversion. Yet, the term ""psychological risk"", with respect to investing, encompasses other situations as well (e.g. chasing high returns.) FWIW, the risk of underperformance also came to mind, but I think that's mostly used to describe the risk of choosing, say, an actively-managed fund (or individual stocks) over a passive benchmark index investment more likely to match market returns."


Entitlement mentality. Agriculture payment is (generally) structured so that the harder you work, the more potential you have to make. It's generally a minimum wage job with a piece rate stacked on top of it.   You make minimum wage, but if you harvest like a boss, you'll have the potential to make upwards of $20 an hour.   Please research before you make assumptions


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Foreclosure is at a high level the bank declaring that the debtor cannot pay their promissory note (their debt).  This is shortly followed by default, which is the removal of debtors rights to the property.  After the debtor has defaulted, he either chooses to voluntarily remove himself and his belongings from the property, or is forcibly evicted.  In the US eviction is carried out by local law enforcement, such as the sheriff's office.   The bank is now the sole owner of the property, and proceeds to sell it, in an attempt to recoup their investment.  If the bank cannot recoup their investment by selling the house, the rest may be converted to unsecured debt against the debtor.  If the bank chooses to forgive the remaining debt, the debtor may have a tax liability for cancellation of debt.  Also the debtor may also be liable for any appreciation the house did before it was sold, but this likely to be nontaxable if the house in question is the debtor's primary residence.  They also send the credit bureaus the notice of foreclosure, which is how your credit score is hurt. Private Mortgage Insurance or Lenders Mortgage Insurance will pay the lender some amount back to cover their losses. See Also:


I disagree that it's double taxation because it's too different entities with different responsibilities and requirements from citizens. Even if you insist it's double taxation, the alternatives, such as the federal government relying on state governments for revenue or states manipulating taxes to coerce federal government, are much worse outcomes.


Below are some of the differences between FedWire credit transfers and ACH credit transfers in the US. FedWire Same day clearing, which means the sender's account is debited and your account is credited on the same day Irrevocable.  Once a FedWire is sent, the originator/sender cannot send a reversing transaction.  This is a huge advantage of using FedWires because it mitigates risk of reversals. Cost.  FedWire typically cost more to send and to receive ACH Credit (aka Direct Deposit) Allows for Reversals.  Sender/originator does have the ability to perform reversals or correcting entries. Batch Processing  ACH entries are group together into batches and processed by Financial Institutions and the ACH Operators in batch mode. You can find additional information regarding ACH at http://www.achrulesonline.org/ and FedWire at http://www.frbservices.org/serviceofferings/fedwire/fedwire_funds_service.html


I also use pidgin.  AIM should have had ads come in as instant messages, as one example.  Charging for premium services such as cloud logs is another.  I want to buy it but I dont have the team or the amount of money they would probably want.  They clearly think its less expensive to shut it down than to sell it.


Also, people who come for golf aren't going to want to go native. They can build a self-contained resort on the cheap and locals will work in support jobs just like when resorts are built in shithole countries.


"I don't see how I'm biased in favor of the banks. Make no mistake, the banks are to blame for the collapse, more so than the government.  However I'm acknowledging the timeline and all the major players in this game, and that includes the government.  I addressed the role of banks selling risky mortgages susceptible to default, which includes predatory lending rates, highly leveraged individuals who buy investment properties, and subprime ARM loans.  Thank you for providing more detail.  I also addressed the securitization of risky mortgages into investment-grade debt, which could be sold to satisfy the ""Giant Pool of Money"".  Plus, I addressed how the banks lowered their standards to continue the supply of mortgages.  Feel free to directly cite [Paul Krugman](http://krugman.blogs.nytimes.com/2010/01/07/cre-ative-destruction/) as the source of your argument regarding the simultaneous growth of the residential and commercial RE.   Commercial RE was pulled along by  residential RE and the broader market rally (commercial land is highly cyclical).  Commercial RE prices rose as the market showed lower interest rates and higher land prices.  So commercial RE slightly lagged the housing market."


> If your studies are, say, 150K  Why?  You could spend that much but you could spend a lot less. [Room and board plus tuition and fees averages 21.5K / year at a state university](http://youngadults.about.com/od/finances/qt/publicschcosts.htm)  So 90K would be a much better estimate.   > and you forego another 60K/y during 4 years of university,  Why that number?  [Median annual earnings for someone with a high school diploma was 25K.](http://money.cnn.com/2011/10/26/pf/college/college_tuition_cost/index.htm)  Your estimate is almost 2 1/2 times the median.  Also, many college students work while going to college, reducing that differential further.  But even if we take your numbers, they add up to a differential of 390K  (150 + 4 * 60), although 185 (85 + 4 * 25) would be closer to the median.  > you will need to make roughly 39K more per year until you retire than you otherwise would have,   39K * 40+ years is roughly 390K?  I don't know where the 39K per year comes from.


There are many options to send money internationally. You can send it through PayPal (assuming that both you and your friend have a PayPal account). You can also send it through money services such as Western Union (assuming you can both get to a WU location). Or, you can use popular apps such as Venmo for sending money.


That is a decision you need to make, but some of the pros and cons you could consider to help your decision making include: Pros: If bought at the right time in the property cycle and in a good growth area, it can help you grow your net worth much quicker than having money in the bank earning near zero interest. You would be replacing rent payments with mortgage payments and if your mortage payments are less than your current rent you will have additional money to pay for any expenses on the property and have a similar cashflow as you do now. You will be able to deduct your interest payments on the mortgage against your income if you are in the USA, thus reducing the tax you pay. You will have the security of your own house and not have to worry about moving if the landlord wants you out after your lease expires. Cons: If bought in a bad area and at the top of the property cycle you may never make any capital gains on the property and in fact may lose money on it long term. If the mortgage payments are more than your current rent you may be paying more especially at the start of your mortgage. If you buy a house you are generally stuck in one spot, it will be harder to move to different areas or states as it can cost a lot of money and time to sell and buy elsewhere, if renting you can generally just give notice and find a new place to rent. Property maintenance costs and taxes could be a drain on your finances, especially if the mortgage repayments are more than your current rent. If your mortgage payments and property expenses are way more than your current rent, it may reduce what you could be investing in other areas to help increase your net worth.


If you can afford to put $1,333 towards saving for a new car each month, then there is nothing wrong with your logic You should be aware that your car will probably cost around $110,000 in 6.5 years, but other than that the logic is fine. However...


"As anecdotal experience, we have a credit account in my name as offered by bank's marketing before I could qualify by common rules for newcomers (I have an account there for years so they knew my history and reliability dynamics I guess), and my wife is subscribed as a secondary user to the same credit account with a separate card. So we share the same limits (e.g. max month usage/overdraft) and benefits (bank's discounts and bonuses when usage passes certain thresholds - and it's easier to gain these points together than alone) so in the end maintenance of the card costs zero or close to that on most months, while the card is in a program to get discounts from hundreds of shops and even offers a free or discounted airport lounge access in some places :) But the bonus program is just that - benefits come and go as global economics changes; e.g. we had free car assistance available for a couple of years but it is gone since last tariff update. Generally it is beneficial for us to do all transactions including rent etc. via these two credit cards to the same account, and then recharge its overdraft as salaries come in - we have an ""up to 50 days"" cooloff period (till 20th of next calendar month) with no penalties on having taken the loans - but if we ever did overstretch that, then tens of yearly percents would kick in. Using the card(s) for daily ops, there is a play on building up the credit history as well: while we don't really need the loans to get from month to month, it helps build an image in the face of credit organizations, which can help secure e.g. favorable mortgage rates (and other contract conditions) which are out of pocket money range :) I'd say it is not only a ""we against the system"" sort of game though, as it sort of trains our own financial discipline - every month we have (a chance) to go over our spendings to see what we did, and so we more regularly think about it in the end - so the bank probably benefits from dealing with more-educated less-random customers when it comes to the bigger loans. Regarding internet, we tend to trust more to a debit card which we populate with pocket money sufficient for upcoming or already placed (blocked) transactions. After all, a malicious shop can not sip off thousands of credit money - but only as much as you've pre-allocated there on debit."


"In general, I agree with Alex' ""don't do it."" If I dig deep for any reasons to transfer from a Roth into a Roth 401(k) there might be 2:"


Depending on jurisdiction, the fact that you made some payments might give you an ownership share in the house in your own right. What share would be a complex question because you might need to consider both the mortgage payments made and maintenance. Your sister might also be able to argue that she was entitled to some recompense for the risk she describes of co-signing, and that's something that would be very hard to quantify, but clearly you would also be entitled to similar recompense in respect of that, as you also co-signed. For the share your mother owned, the normal rules of inheritance apply and by default that would be a 50-50 split as JoeTaxpayer said. You imply that the loan is still outstanding, so all of this only applies to the equity previously built up in the house prior to your mother's death. If you are the only one making the ongoing payments, I would expect any further equity built up to belong solely to you, but again the jurisdiction and the fact that your sister's name is on the deeds could affect this. If you can't resolve this amicably, you might need to get a court involved and it's possible that the cost of doing so would outweigh the eventual benefit to you.


">Paul calls it unanimous. The government site does not. What does a unanimous voice vote even mean? [1] Here is the govt site where the votes are viewable. Note at the bottom that the postal bills have the statement ""Outcome: Favorably reported to the House of Representatives by unanimous consent"". Note that bill 459 does not state that. Watch the video and you'll see that Ron Paul has a little bit of trouble with reality.    That site reports unanimous consent because it's an entirely different procedure from a voice vote.  You should read Roberts Rules of Order so you don't look so stupid.  Keep trying though... because we know your hatred of Ron Paul won't stop you from spewing lies.  For the rest of you...  if you want to see how much trouble crotchpoozie has with reality then [go to the link that he provided](http://oversight.house.gov/markup/full-committee-business-meeting-30/) and watch the video at 0:35:41 when the actual vote takes place and you'll see that it was indeed an unanimous voice vote."


VaR and Stressed VaR are kind of mandatory market risk measurement techniques for anyone with a banking licence in Europe. This doesn't stop you from doing other stuff as well, but you need to have the basics (Basel 2 accord) and you must backtest to check your model. The big problem is that doesn't really account for what happens during a liquidity squeeze.  Other measures may be used at portfolio level, but it is the basic VaR stuff that is churning away after hours.


Here are a few things I've already done, and others reading this for their own use may want to try.  It is very easy to find a pattern in any set of data. It is difficult to find a pattern that holds true in different data pulled from the same population.  Using similar logic, don't look for a pattern in the data from the entire population. If you do, you won't have anything to test it against. If you don't have anything to test it against, it is difficult to tell the difference between a pattern that has a cause (and will likely continue) and a pattern that comes from random noise (which has no reason to continue). If you lose money in bad years, that's okay. Just make sure that the gains in good years are collectively greater than the losses in bad years. If you put $10 in and lose 50%, you then need a 100% gain just to get back up to $10.  A Black Swan event (popularized by Nassim Taleb, if memory serves) is something that is unpredictable but will almost certainly happen at some point. For example, a significant natural disaster will almost certainly impact the United States (or any other large country) in the next year or two. However, at the moment we have very little idea what that disaster will be or where it will hit.  By the same token, there will be Black Swan events in the financial market. I do not know what they will be or when they will happen, but I do know that they will happen. When building a system, make sure that it can survive those Black Swan events (stay above the death line, for any fellow Jim Collins fans). Recreate your work from scratch. Going through your work again will make you reevaluate your initial assumptions in the context of the final system. If you can recreate it with a different medium (i.e. paper and pen instead of a computer), this will also help you catch mistakes.


Yes the stock market is 'rigged' to some extent but if you are good at game theory then you can predict the direction of bias and therefore take advantage of the 'rigged' nature of the market. Eventually enough people become aware of the bias and then the people who are manipulating the market have to change their strategy. This is just how the market works though its always worked this way it has just become more and more sophisticated.  look at it this way if you control billions of dollars in equities then you have to manipulate the market to give you a favorable price. If you dont manipulate then day traders and speculators will drive up the price of a security before you can even get your money in.  So the big players try to manipulate the market and the small fish try to predict the manipulation. Welcome to the jungle


This conclusion is highly misleading. Although they lead with the 90% figure,  I cannot for the life of me see it substantiated in the data.   According to their own information (which by the way surveyed preferences,  not actual purchases) the actual number is between 55% and 80%. Only by including every item that you saw first in store, tried out at a store, bought at a store, or returned to a store can you get to the 90% figure. They aren't talking purchases at all.  Personally I go out shopping all the time and see something cool - and put it back on the shelf because I know that it is cheaper on Amazon. Somehow this study uses that as proof that retail stores are winning.   He who converts sales wins. Not him who gives free advertising for the other guy.


"This is the best tl;dr I could make, [original](http://erikrood.com/Posts/college_roi_.html) reduced by 84%. (I'm a bot) ***** > The main financial benefit of attending college is the earnings differential received by a college graduate over a high school graduate; Payscale provides 20-year return on investment figures for exactly that.  > Below I&#039;ll compare the ROI of college to the return generated from simply joining the workforce after high school, but investing college tuition costs* into the stock market.  > As shown, on average, forgoing college costs, investing that money in equities, and beginning work would generate significantly higher returns than going to college.   ***** [**Extended Summary**](http://np.reddit.com/r/autotldr/comments/6ffhf6/youd_make_more_money_skipping_college_and/) | [FAQ](http://np.reddit.com/r/autotldr/comments/31b9fm/faq_autotldr_bot/ ""Version 1.65, ~136971 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*: **college**^#1 **high**^#2 **return**^#3 **ROI**^#4 **tuition**^#5"


Your mother can give you $14k and your wife $14k (every year) without creating a gift-tax filing requirement, anything in excess of that and she will have to file form 709 with her tax return, but she will not have gift tax liability on her end unless her lifetime gift tax exemption (currently $5.49M) has been exhausted. As the recipients of the gift, you have no tax liability or reporting requirement. So the easiest method would be for her to write you and your wife each checks for $14k. Since it's almost the end of the year, she could give you the extra $2k next year if needed, that smaller amount would not likely need to 'season' for loan approval. Since you mentioned only your mother, I assumed it's just her, but if your mother is married, both her and her spouse could each give you and your wife  $14k without creating a filing requirement, so up to $56k in gifts from one couple to another, or $28k from one party to a couple. It doesn't have to be a spouse, that's just the typical scenario.


Find a good financial advisor that is willing to teach you and not just interested in making a commission on your net worth. Talk to them and talk some more. Go slow and don't make impulsive buying decisions. If you don't understand it then don't buy it. Think long term - how do I turn this 250K into 2.5M? Congrats on the savings!


You have made a good start because you are looking at your options. Because you know that if you do nothing you will have a big tax bill in April 2017, you want to make sure that you avoid the underpayment penalty. One way to avoid it is to make estimated payments. But even if you do that you could still make a mistake and overpay or underpay. I think the easiest way to handle it is to reach the safe harbor. If your withholding from your regular jobs and any estimated taxes you pay in 2016 equal or exceed your total taxes for 2015, then even if you owe a lot in April 2017 you can avoid the underpayment penalty. If you AGI is over 150K you have to make sure your withholding is 110% of your 2015 taxes. Then set aside what you think you will owe in your bank account until you have to pay your taxes in April 2017. You only have to adjust your withholding to make the safe harbor. You can make sure easily enough once your file this years taxes. You only have to make sure that you reach the 100% or 110% threshold. From IRS PUB 17 Who Must Pay Estimated Tax If you owe additional tax for 2015, you may have to pay estimated tax   for 2016. You can use the following general rule as a guide during the year to   see if you will have enough withholding, or if you should increase   your withholding or make estimated tax payments.  General rule.    In   most cases, you must pay estimated tax for 2016 if both of the   following apply. You expect to owe at least $1,000 in tax for 2016, after subtracting your withholding and refundable credits. You expect your withholding plus your refundable credits to be less than the smaller of: a. 90% of the tax to be shown on your 2016 tax return, or b. 100% of the tax shown on your 2015 tax return (but see Special rules for farmers, fishermen, and higher income taxpayers , later).   Your 2015 tax return must cover all 12 months. Reminders Estimated tax safe harbor for higher income taxpayers. If your 2015   adjusted gross income was more than $150,000 ($75,000 if you are   married filing a separate return), you must pay the smaller of 90% of   your expected tax for 2016 or 110% of the tax shown on your 2015   return to avoid an estimated tax penalty.


That's right.  I wouldn't say that she directly caused Yahoo's downfall since that was put into motion long before she started.  However, she did nothing that succeeded in changing Yahoo's trajectory after she took over.  Yahoo could have done essentially nothing and it would have ended roughly the same.  People are just upset that she got compensated quite well without achieving anything of significance.


> see that's what I was thinking, but I'm at a loss as to why this change is necessary if everyone has to discount it anyway due to 'reality' bias  Consumer debt usually takes into consideration score in addition to income instead of thorough analysis of your history report.  Hence being able to apply online and automatically get approved for credit for certain things.  Even then 25 points increase isn't going to supercharge shit.  It's a fairly trivial change that only affects a small population and isn't going to radically alter the landscape.


"In some sense, I agree, but let's look at Apple who in 1997 when Steve came back as CEO and had to beg monies from Microsoft (which he received as a professional courtesy) to stay afloat swore he would never have to do again and literally deemed investors as a ""necessary evil"".   He presided over one of the most profound rainy day funds (which eclipsed the US Government for a few days in its depth) because he never wanted to be in that position again.   He died and Tim Cook initiated splits and buybacks.  I think Cook went too far in one direction and Jobs in the other.  Another stock to consider in a similar light is Starbucks.   But these stocks are performing, I'm an investor, and I'm not going to complain about management decisions when ROI is at are above 20/30ish percent.   Other companies like Thomson Reuters fail to achieve a cohesive diverse presence in multiple markets inexpensively sans their newsdesk operations.   I'm not saying your wrong, it's just a formula of trust and strategy."


"To trade stocks in India, you need a copy of your pan card, address proof(passport or driving license/electricity bill), income tax return (if you are trading futures & options and currencies), and a cancelled cheque from the bank. You will also need to sign across your recent photographs, and require various other forms from a brokerage house which need to be signed in the brokers presence. If your stock broker trusts you, and you have all these documents, then you CAN open a DEMAT account in India by signing and sending him all these documents. Otherwise you CANNOT, as every single form states that ""this particular document was signed in my presence"", and the stock broker needs to sign under that clause.  Chances are, if you live abroad, no broker will ever trust you with any kind of margin, and therefore cannot make profits from you, so they will not agree to open your account."


"Without knowing what the balances are, I associate ""uncomfortable"" with high, as in tens of thousands.   What I would do: is 1) cut up the cards and stop using them, and 2) have some balance transfer offers in hand the next time you call to negotiate with the companies.  Essentially, you will have to convince them that they will have to explain one of two things to their boss: why they lowered your rate or why you left. They can collect less interest from you or no interest from you.  It's up to them.  If they don't offer you something that's in the ballpark of your balance transfer offer, then bid them goodbye and complete the balance transfer. As far as paying them off, the top two modes of repayment are lowest balance first (aka snowball) or high interest rate first.  Both methods are similar in that you pay minimums on all but the method's focus point.  Whether it is lowest balance or highest interest rate, you pay ALL of your extra money on the lowest balance or the highest interest debt until it is gone and then you move onto the next one in the list. For what it's worth, I prefer the lowest balance method, you see progress faster."


Nice try at drumming up drama for your shitty blog article, cnn blogger. I see you managed to quote me out of context and without opportunity to rebuttal. Also, as usual with cnn, you're about a week late.    Yawn.


"The strategy is right. As pointed out by you, will the "" volatility cause the premium on the price of the options to be too high to make this worthwhile"" ... this is subjective and depends on how the markets feels about the volatility and the trend ... ie if the market believes that the stock will go up, the option at 45 would cost quite a bit less. However if the market believes the stock would go down, the option at 45 would be quite high [and may not even be available].   There is no generic right or wrong, the strategy is right [with out without putting dividend into equation] it depends what options are available at what prices."