Gary, Indiana made a bid including buying ads in the Washington Post.  They’d do anything for it.  They’d demo half the city and give them the airport.    Not that I blame them.  It’s a city built for 200,000 steel workers and executives, occupied by 70,000 people with minimal skills and education.  The one time Murder Capital of the US still carries a stigma.  When you can buy houses for hundreds of dollars, the property tax rolls don’t look good.


It depends on your employer. They may not care to pursue matters if you don't give enough notice. They might be happy to see you go. Or they might be really sad to see you go, but not feel like they need to punish you. Or they might be really angry to see you go, and decide that they want to punish you to the full extent of the law just out of spite. Essentially, we can't tell you that, because different employers will behave differently. My advice? Be a mensch. Give the old employer as much notice as humanly possible so that they can find, hire, and train your replacement. Leave on as good terms as possible. Don't burn bridges. Chances are your new job can wait for another week or two.


A company's Return on Equity (ROE) is its net income divided by its shareholder's equity.  The shareholder's equity is the difference between total assets and total liabilities, and is not dependent on the stock price. What it takes to have a ROE over 100% is to have the income be greater than the equity.  This might happen for a variety of reasons, but one way a high ROE happens is if the shareholder's equity (the divisor) is small, which can occur if past losses have eroded the company's capital (the original invested cash and retained earnings).  If the equity has become a small value, the income for some period might exceed it, and so the ROE would be over 100%. Operating margin is not closely related to ROE.  Although operating income is related to net income, to calculate the margin you divide by sales, which is completely unrelated to shareholder's equity.  So there is no relationship with ROE to be expected.  Operating margin is primarily dependent on market conditions, and can be substantially different in different industries.


"If you read Joel Greenblatt's The Little Book That Beats the Market, he says: Owning two stocks eliminates 46% of the non market risk of owning just one stock.    This risk is reduced by 72% with 4 stocks, by 81% with 8 stocks, by 93% with 16 stocks, by 96% with 32 stocks, and by 99% with 500 stocks.  Conclusion: After purchasing 6-8 stocks, benefits of adding stocks to decrease risk are small.   Overall market risk won't be eliminated merely by adding more stocks.  And that's just specific stocks. So you're very right that allocating a 1% share to a specific type of fund is not going to offset your other funds by much. You are correct that you can emulate the lifecycle fund by simply buying all the underlying funds, but there are two caveats: Generally, these funds are supposed to be cheaper than buying the separate funds individually. Check over your math and make sure everything is in order. Call the fund manager and tell him about your findings and see what they have to say. If you are going to emulate the lifecycle fund, be sure to stay on top of rebalancing. One advantage of buying the actual fund is that the portfolio distributions are managed for you, so if you're going to buy separate ETFs, make sure you're rebalancing. As for whether you need all those funds, my answer is a definite no. Consider Mark Cuban's blog post Wall Street's new lie to Main Street - Asset Allocation. Although there are some highly questionable points in the article, one portion is indisputably clear:  Let me translate this all for you. “I want you to invest 5pct in cash and the rest in 10 different funds about which you know absolutely nothing. I want you to make this investment knowing that even if there were 128 hours in a day and you had a year long vacation, you could not possibly begin to understand all of these products. In fact, I don’t understand them either, but because I know it sounds good and everyone is making the same kind of recommendations, we all can pretend we are smart and going to make a lot of money. Until we don’t"" Standard theory says that you want to invest in low-cost funds (like those provided by Vanguard), and you want to have enough variety to protect against risk. Although I can't give a specific allocation recommendation because I don't know your personal circumstances, you should ideally have some in US Equities, US Fixed Income, International Equities, Commodities, of varying sizes to have adequate diversification ""as defined by theory."" You can either do your own research to establish a distribution, or speak to an investment advisor to get help on what your target allocation should be."


If a real estate property catches your eye, please don’t hesitate to request more information as these days, properties are snatched up quickly.  Just have questions? Give us a call or email us. We’re always happy to answer any questions you may have.  We look forward to the opportunity of helping you buy or sell your next Cabo home.


Your annual contributions are capped at the maximum of $5500 or your taxable income (wages, salary, tips, self employment income, alimony).  You pay taxes by the regular calculations on Form 1040 on your earned income.  In this scenario, you earn the income, pay taxes on the amount you earn, and put money in the Roth IRA.    The alternative, a Traditional IRA, up to certain income levels, allows you to put the amount you contribute on line 32 of Form 1040, which subtracts the Traditional IRA contribution amount from your Adjusted Gross Income (line 37) before tax is calculated on line 44.  In this scenario, you earn the income, put the money in the Traditional IRA, reduce your taxable income, and pay taxes on the reduced amount.


Executive Summary: your elevator speech Overview: What it is in detail Disclosure: what can go wrong, in detail subchapter one: internal threats/weakness subchapter two external subchapter three: risk management Proforma financials: heres how much money I need and here's what the books look like at the end of each of five years. Revenue Forecast: how the majic unfolds in units, price, geographically, and any other dimension Corporate/capital structure: how they can get in an out of this investment and other C-suite operating tidbits Execution plan: you receive the money, then what?


Did I have a reading comprehension fail?  What I got out of the article as the fact that they're shedding users, but nothing about *why*.    It is a fairly deep question, their games were incredibly popular, and addictive, a few months ago.  It could say something profound about the way people use casual games and social networks.  Or maybe it because Zynga's method of doing A/B testing on minor variations of the game, then choosing the version that captured more of the ~~victim~~ user's time and testing another minor variation the next day, doesn't make their games entertaining for long.  On the other hand, I'm pretty sure anyone who plays Farmville by choice is fundamentally immune to boredom.


For a business, it has absolutely nothing to do with what's in the bank. A business could be billions of dollars in the hole cash wise and still be required to pay taxes, and it can also be flush with billions of dollars in cash and get a refund.  It's all from differences between tax accounting and accrual ( standard business) accounting.


"Exposure is the amount of money that you are at risk of losing on a given position (i.e. on a UST 10 year bond), portfolio of positions, strategy (selling covered calls for example), or counterparty, usually represented as a percentage of your total assets. Interbank exposure is the exposure of banks to other banks either through owning debt or stock, or by having open positions with the other banks as counterparties. Leveraging occurs when the value of your position is more than the value of what you are trading in. One example of this is borrowing money (i.e. creating debt for yourself) to buy bonds. The amount of your own funds that you are using to pay for the position is ""leveraged"" by the debt so that you are risking more than 100% of your capital if, for example, the bond became worthless). Another example would be buying futures ""on margin"" where you only put up the margin value of the trade and not the full cost. The problem with these leveraged positions is what happens if a credit event (default etc.) happens. Since a large amount of the leverage is being ""passed on"" as banks are issuing debt to buy other banks' debt who are issuing debt to buy debt there is a risk that a single failure could cause an unravelling of these leveraged positions and, since the prices of the bonds will be falling resulting in these leveraged positions losing money, it will cause a cascade of losses and defaults. If a leveraged position becomes worth less than the amount of real (rather than borrowed or margined) money that was put up to take the position then it is almost inevitable that the firm in that position will default on the requirements for the leverage. When that firm defaults it sparks all of the firms who own that debt to go through the same problems that it did, hence the contagion."


For most people, you don't want individual bonds. Unless you are investing very significant amounts of money, you are best off with bond funds (or ETFs). Here in Canada, I chose TDB909, a mutual fund which seeks to roughly track the DEX Universe Bond index. See the Canadian Couch Potato's recommended funds. Now, you live in the U.S. so would most likely want to look at a similar bond fund tracking U.S. bonds. You won't care much about Canadian bonds. In fact, you probably don't want to consider foreign bonds at all, due to currency risk. Most recommendations say you want to stick to your home country for your bond investments. Some people suggest investing in junk bonds, as these are likely to pay a higher rate of return, though with an increased risk of default. You could also do fancy stuff with bond maturities, too. But in general, if you are just looking at an 80/20 split, if you are just looking for fairly simple investments, you really shouldn't. Go for a bond fund that just mirrors a big, low-risk bond index in your home country. I mean, that's the implication when someone recommends a 60/40 split or an 80/20 split. Should you go with a bond mutual fund or with a bond ETF? That's a separate question, and the answer will likely be the same as for stock mutual funds vs stock ETFs, so I'll mostly ignore the question and just say stick with mutual funds unless you are investing at least $50,000 in bonds.


The money you will be bringing to the US will be classified as your own money, and will not be taxable. The proceeds from the sale are taxable to you, probably as capital gains. The fact that you kept the proceeds out of the US is irrelevant for that purpose (it is relevant for FBAR/FATCA etc). Since you had no basis in the property, all the proceeds are taxable to you at the time of the sale and should be reported on your tax return.


Whenever I've tried to actually buy something at an Apple Store I've found it a frustrating experience.  With no line-ups or registers the process of actually buying something becomes a mess of finding an employee not helping someone else and hoping no-one else is quicker than you.  I've tried using the ipads to request help but it seems they prioritize the people grabbing at them rather than the queue.  Because of this I only go to apple stores to browse.


I would not advise this for two reasons: Your point that the investment could be lower at the end of the 3 years is a concern, although with a safe investment, it is less so, but this reduces the potential gain. While your interest is not gaining interest, your interest charged is based on the principal. If you pay off the loans, you reduce the principal and therefore you pay less interest in the long run, even if the interest isn't capitalized. All that this means is that you are basically being charged simple interest as opposed to compounding interest, but reducing the principal helps in either case. You are mistaken about the benefits of the tax deduction. You reduce your tax bill by the marginal rate times the student loan interest you paid for the year. So if you are in the 15% tax bracket and paid $100 in interest, you save $15. This is not a reason to keep the loans (because you have to pay $100 to get $15), but you are mistaken on the benefit, it has nothing to do with shifting the tax brackets. Also, speaking of taxes, don't forget that you pay taxes on investment gains.


The word 'hedge' emerges from early agriculture when farmers would ask the market for a minimum buy price for each crop they planted. They used this method to stop loss against any major losses.  Investors today use this strategy when they are unsure of what the market will do. A perfect hedge reduces your risk to nothing (except for the cost of the hedge).


"Despite promises of improved productivity, enhanced nutritional content, or extreme weather tolerance - none of which has ever come to market - Monsanto has only ever produced seeds with two genetically modified traits: either herbicide tolerance or pesticide production. And even those traits never lived up to the marketing hype.....""Scientists have warned that insects would become resistant from the overuse of Bt crops, but Monsanto poo-pooed it."""


The reinvestment of dividends and capital gains is a very significant portion of investment gains over the years. This creates a compounding effect on your gains. You should almost certainly reinvest to help the account grow, until you are retired and want to withdraw some cash. Placing them in a money market account just builds a pile of uninvested cash.


Did you ever wonder why LightSquared is forced to use the frequencies to begin with? If we did not have auctions that priced out all competitors except the largest incumbents, we might have real competition. Simple solution, make some of the incumbents give up their hoarded spectrum.  Build a single wholesale network (instead of 4+ separate networks that are all starved for spectrum).   Fix the problem, don't kill competition


I would be using stop limit orders for stocks that are not too volatile. If you look at the chart and there are not many gaps especially after peaks, then you have more chance of being filled at your specified stop loss level using a stop limit order. If the stock is very volatile and has a large or many gaps down after most peak, then I would consider using a stop market order to make sure you do get out even if it is somewhat past your desired stop level. One think to consider is to avoid trading very volatile stocks that gap often. This is what I do, and using stop limit orders my stop level is achieved more than 95% of the time.


"There is no magic formula to this, quite simply: earn, cut expenses, and pay.  It sounds like you can use a little bit of help in the earning area.  While it sounds like you are career focused (which is great) what else can you do to earn?   Can you start a low cost of entry side business?  Examples would include tutoring, consulting, or even baby sitting.  Can you work a part time job that is outside of your career field (waiter, gas station, etc...)? One thing that will help greatly is a written budget each and every month.  Have a plan on where to spend your money.   Then as you pay off a loan throw that money at the next one. No matter if you use the smallest loan first or highest interest rate first method if you do that your debt payments will ""snowball"", and you will gain momentum. I'd encourage you to keep good records and do projections.  Keeping good records will give you hope when you begin to feel discouraged (it happens to just about everyone).  Doing projections will give you goals to meet and then exceed.   The wife and I had a lot of success using the cash envelope system and found that we almost always had money left over at the end of the pay cycle.  For us that money went to pay off more debt.     Do you contribute to a 401K?  I'd cut that to at least the match, and if you want to get crazy cut it to zero.   The main thing to know is that you can do it. I'd encourage you to pay off all your loans not just the high interests ones."


My problem with your argument is the idea that we make a decision and reap the benefits sometime in the near and measurable future.  Where as the actual outcome of our decision may not be realized until many other decisions are made afterwards, thus making the number of permutations very high.  While I agree there tend to be people who can make better or more informed decisions given a situation, I think you give them entirely too much credit given the long run possibilities of outcomes.  My ultimate point being, no matter who you are, you are limited to being able to consider so many steps ahead or combinations at a single time.  And there are certainly people who make bad choices but get good outcomes, and vice versus.  Since we don't see one person, or a specific model for making decisions I have to believe that one simply does not exist.  So call it luck, kismet, or informed decisions, I think at a certain point people make decisions and reap the rewards of those decisions independently.  Maybe more often than not the informed win, but there have been plenty of smart people out there, with brilliant models and ideas, that go down in flames.  Likewise I've meet some pretty dumb people who happen to be at the right place at the right time and turn the right knob.  Not sure I was clear in explaining my point, its been a long day.


"As you alluded to in your question, there is not one answer that will be true for all mutual funds.  In fact, I would argue the question is not specific to mutual funds but can be applied to almost anyone who must make an investment decision: a mutual fund manager, hedge fund manager, or an individual investor. Even though money going into a company 401(k) retirement savings plan is typically automatically allocated to different funds as we have specified, this is generally not the case for other investment accounts. For example, I also have a Roth IRA in which I have some money from each paycheck direct deposited and it's up to me to decide whether to leave that money in cash or to invest it somewhere else.  Every time you invest more money into a mutual fund, the fund manager has the same decision to make. There are two commonly used mutual fund figures that relate to your question: turnover rate, and cash reserves. Turnover rate measures the percent of a fund's portfolio that changes every year.  For example, a turnover rate of 100% indicates that a fund replaces every asset it held at the beginning of the year with something else at the end of the year – funds with turnover rates greater than 100% average a holding period for a given asset of less than one year, and funds with turnover rates less than 100% average a holding period for a given asset of more than one year. Cash reserves simply measure the amount of money funds choose to keep as cash instead of investing in other assets. Another important distinction to make is between actively managed funds and passively managed funds. Passively managed funds are often referred to as ""index funds"" and have as their goal only to match the returns of a given index or some other benchmark.  Actively managed funds on the other hand try to beat the market by exploiting so-called market inefficiencies; e.g. buying undervalued assets, selling overvalued assets, ""timing"" the market, etc. To answer your question for a specific fund, I would encourage you to look at the fund's prospectus. I take as one example of a passively managed fund the Vanguard 500 Index Fund (VFINX), a mutual fund that was created to track the S&P 500.  In its prospectus, the fund states that, ""to track its target index as closely as possible, the Fund attempts to remain fully invested in stocks"". Furthermore, the prospectus states that ""the fund's daily cash balance may be invested in one or more Vanguard CMT Funds, which are very low-cost money market funds.""  Therefore, we would expect both this fund's turnover rate and cash reserves to be extremely low. When we look at its portfolio composition, we see this is true – it is currently at a 4.8% turnover rate and holds 0.0% in short term reserves.  Therefore, we can assume this fund is regularly purchasing shares (similar to a dollar cost averaging strategy) instead of holding on to cash and purchasing shares together at a specific time. For actively managed funds, the picture will tend to look a little different.  For example, if we look at the Magellan Fund's portfolio composition, we can see it has a turnover rate of 42%, and holds around .95% in cash/short term reserves.  In this case, we can safely guess that trading activity may not be as regular as a passively managed fund, as an active manager attempts to time the market.  You may find mutual funds that have much higher cash reserves – perhaps 10% or even more. Granted, it is impossible to know the exact trading strategy of a mutual fund, and for good reason – if we knew for example, that a fund purchases shares every day at 2:30PM in order to realign with the S&P 500, then sellers of S&P components could up the prices at that time to exploit the mutual fund's trade strategy.  Large traders are constantly trying to find ways to conceal their actual trading activity in order to avoid these exact problems. Finally, I feel obligated to note that it is important to keep in mind that trade frequency is linked to transactions costs – in general, the more frequently an investment manager (whether it be you or a mutual fund manager) executes trades, the more that manager will lose in transactions costs."


Check out CitiGold from Citibank. Not sure about incoming international wires but everything else seems to be covered.


First of all, my comment has nothing to do with Trump, yet you want to bash as if I am maligning Trump. Whether Trump is behind it or Obama is behind it or Bush is behind it, $12 billion is a minuscule fraction of the national debt. THAT is my point, which was clear from my original posting.  Secondly, unless we are running a positive balance, we are still increasing our national debt. It looks like we are [**still** running a deficit](http://federal-budget.insidegov.com/l/120/2017-Estimate), which means national debt is continuing to increase, at a rate of $443 billion, or about 37 times this quoted $12 billion.


"First and foremost - make sure where you are purchasing the product is a reputable organization.  Secondly (coming from a biased computer geek) - be aware that Apple is a content trap.  Now on to my answer to your question... How do ""Preferred Account"" programs work? They're ""Preferred"" because they tend to bring in more money to the lender.  It may say No payments for 6 months but the fine print may have you being charged interest during those 6 months, meaning your new shiny computer will be costing more than the sticker price.  The good side is that you don't have to send in any actual payments for 6 months, but be aware that you'll probably be paying more than advertised. What are the different ways I can do it? Your listed options 1 & 2 are both good ways to pay for your new computer.  Yes, option 1 will charge you sales tax, but are you sure paying online excludes sales tax?  Some states mandate it.   Option 2 is a viable option too - probably your best option. 1st - there is possibly no sales tax with purchases made online, although there may be a delivery charge.   2nd - you're not committing to an additional monthly bill, you are essentially paying with cash, just directly from your bank account.  No interest charge! 3rd - that little Visa logo is your friend.  Purchases made through Visa & MasterCard (whether it's a credit or debit card)  normally have an auto-extended warranty feature (you may want to verify with Visa before taking my word on it).  Typically they double any manufacture's warranty.   Lastly - you can always set up a PayPal account and link it to your bank account.  Assuming the site you plan on purchasing the computer from accepts PayPal."


"You can make a contingent offer: ""I will buy this house if I sell my own.""  In a highly competitive environment, contingent offers tend to be ignored. (Another commentator described such a contingency clause as synonymous with ""Please Reject Me"".) You can get a bridge loan: you borrow money for a short term, at punishingly high interest.  If your house doesn't sell, you're fscked. You pay for two mortgages (or even buy the other house for cash).  If you can afford this, congratulations on, you know, being super-rich. Or you can do what I am doing: selling one house and then living at my mom's until I buy another one.  (You will have to stay at your own mom's house; my mom's house will be full, of course.) Edit: A commentator with the disturbingly Kafkaesque name of ""R."" made the not-unreasonable suggestion that you buy both and rent out one or the other.  Consider this possibility, but remember: On the other hand, if the stars align, you might not want to extricate yourself.  If the tenant is paying the mortgage and a little more, you have an appreciating asset, and one you can borrow against.  With a little work and a little judicious use of leverage, doing this over and over, you can accumulate a string of income-producing rental properties."


Keep in mind that chasing after tax savings tends to not be a good way of saving money.  What is a good strategy? Making sure that you take all the deductions you are entitled to. What is a bad strategy: You asked for a book recommendation. The problem is that I don't know of any books that cover all these topics. Also keep in mind that all books, blogs, articles, and yes answers to questions have a bias. Sometimes the bias can be ignored, other times it can't. Just keep looking for information on this site, and ask good specific questions about these topics.


This answer will assume you know more math than most. An ideal case: For the point of argument, first consider the following admittedly incorrect assumptions: 1)  The prices of all assets in your investment universe are continuously differentiable functions of time. 2)  Investor R (for rebalance) continuously buys and sells in order to maintain a constant proportion of each of several investments in his portfolio. 3)  Investor P (for passive) starts with the same portfolio as R, but neither buys nor sells Then under the assumptions of no taxes or trading costs, it is a mathematical theorem that investor P's portfolio return fraction will be the weighted arithmetic mean of the return fractions of all the individual investments, whereas investor R will obtain the weighted geometric mean of the return fractions of the individual investments. It's also a theorem that the weighted arithmetic mean is ALWAYS greater than or equal to the weighted geometric mean, so regardless of what happens in the market (given the above assumptions) the passive investor P does at least as well as the rebalancing investor R.  P will do even better if taxes and trading costs are factored in. The real world:  Of course prices aren't continuously differentiable or even continuous, nor can you continuously trade.  (Indeed, under such assumptions the optimal investing strategy would be to sample the prices sufficiently rapidly to capture the derivatives and then to move all your assets to the stock increasing at the highest relative rate.  This crazy momentum trading would explosively destabilize the market and cause the assumptions to break.) The point of this is not to argue for or against rebalancing, but to point out that any argument for rebalancing which continues to hold under the above ideal assumptions is bogus.  (Many such arguments do.)  If a stockbroker standing to profit from commission pushes rebalancing on you with an argument that still holds under the above assumptions then he is profiting off of BS.


Wanneer uzelf houtstammen wilt kloven tot haardhout dan kunt de hakbijl gebruiken. Tegenwoordig zijn er ook machines die dit automatisch voor u kunnen doen. Deze machines heten : houtklover, kloofmachine, houtkloofmachine of houtkliever genoemd. Er zijn verschillende soorten machines die onderling verschillen in drukkracht leveren en ook is er een onderscheid in de staande en de liggende machines.


"The financial crisis really started in 2008 with Bear Stearns starting the downfall in March. So it wasn't the 2007 crisis like you posted in your first point. To learn about that, a quick read that explains a lot of it is ""The Big Short"" by Michael Lewis."


RMA Journal is good. You should search for more in depth articles if you really want a good handle on all of the recent regulations. Dodd-Frank, CFPB regs, Basel II and the new capital reserve requirements and how that's affecting the industry. The irony about much of the new regs is that they are driving smaller lenders into selling their company because it is simply too costly to carry the staff necessary to ensure compliance; thus making the too big to fails even bigger.


"First, there will always be people who think the market is about to crash. It doesn't really crash very often. When it does crash, they always say they predicted it. Well, even a blind squirrel finds a nut once in a while. You could go short (short selling stocks), which requires a margin account that you have to qualify for (typically you can only short up to half the value of your account, in the US). And if you've maxed out your margin limits and your account continues to drop in value, you risk a margin call, which would force you to cover your shorts, which you may not be able to afford. You could invest in a fund that does the shorting for you. You could also consider actually buying good investments while their prices are low. Since you cannot predict the start, or end, of a ""crash"" you should consider dollar-cost-averaging until your stocks hit a price you've pre-determined is your ""trigger"", then purchase larger quantities at the bargain prices. The equity markets have never failed to recover from crashes. Ever."


"The other half of the problem is the ""education bubble"", people getting degrees because they think they can't get any work without one.  To fix that we need to stop demonizing trade schools and skilled manual labor in general. We have far too many people wanting to run the business and not enough people who want to do the actual work."


Some additional links which explain their differences. But mostly as @bstpierre says, both are very similar and in some cases the terms may be used inter changeably


An accountant should be able to advise on the tax consequences of different classes of investments/assets/debts (e.g. RRSP, TFSA, mortgage). But I would not ask an accountant which specific securities to hold in these vehicles, or what asset allocation (in terms of geography, capitalization, or class (equity vs fixed income vs derivatives vs structured notes etc). An investment advisor would be better suited to matching your investments to your risk tolerance.


"How can someone use the account number to withdraw money without my   consent? They can use your account number to game your banks phone support and try to phish their way into your account. Banks have gotten very good at combating this, but theoretically with just the address he lives in, your name, and a bad bank phone rep, he could get into your business. The account number would just be one more piece of information to lead with. I have 1 savings and 3 checking accounts with the same bank. Would they be able to gain access to the other accounts? Dependent on how incompetent the bad bank rep I referenced above is, sure. But the odds are incredibly low, and if anything were to happen, the bank would be falling over itself to fix it and make reparations so that you don't sue for a whole crap ton more. Is there a more secure and still free option that I have overlooked? Opening up yet another checking account solely for accounts receivable and transfer to accounts payable would keep your financial records more transparent. Also, banks are doing ""money transfer by email"" now, so I don't know how great that is for business transactions, but in that instance you're just giving out an email linked to a money receiving account instead of an actual account number. Paypal is also a pretty good EFT middleman, but their business practices have become shady in the past 5 years."


Many brokers administer their own dividend reinvestment plans.  In this case, on dividend payment date, they automatically buy from the market on behalf of their reinvestment customers, and they administer all fractional shares across all customers.  All of your shares are in the broker's street name anyway, the fractional share is simply in their account system.   The process is well documented for several common online brokers; so any specific questions you may have about differences in policies or implementation should be directed to your broker:  https://us.etrade.com/e/t/estation/help?id=1301060000 https://www.tdameritrade.com/retail-en_us/resources/pdf/TDA208.pdf


You calculate the loss by adding back the interest that was made off the car loan. This is usually mitigated through down payments and longer loan terms (the 7 year auto loan is becoming popular). After a downpayment and a year's worth of payments (which are interest front loaded) I doubt that finance companies would have huge losses.


No, he's right. Not only about the need to raise cash or capital via the equity markets, but the solvency and regulatory burden banks face.  If there is a run on bank stocks, they will struggle to meet their reserve requirement ratios. This is what has been happening with the French banks over the past several months.


>exxon avoids paying taxes in the US on their profits  [Exxon paid 31 billion in US income taxes on 73 billion in profits in 2011](http://finance.yahoo.com/q/is?s=XOM+Income+Statement&annual). They also paid local taxes, state taxes, property taxes, their portion of SS taxes, among others. Other years are similar.  >like most multi national corps  Wrong. [Read the GAO report on that](http://www.gao.gov/new.items/d08957.pdf). From page 8 it shows that in fact most companies actually do pay tax, and not many companies pay no tax over a very long period. Only around 2.8% of companies had no liability over the period studied. What can you conclude? Most companies pay tax.  Do you have a source otherwise that is actually a study this comprehensive?  You're probably confused since most pop reporting on this report did not actually read it, and just reported on what they wanted it to say.  Don't let facts get in the way of your rants.


If you want to find deals online on your favorite products and discover the lowest prices, these daily deals sites are a great way to get started. They typically operate by bringing together hot products from various brands and manufacturers, and selling them at special promotional prices that are much lower than the suggested retail.


">There's tons of gas stations  There have to be, because you can't fuel your car at home like an EV driver can.  The only place fast-chargers are needed are along highways for people taking long trips.  And that's exactly where they are.    Tesla Superchargers are along all major highways, spaced so that drivers can get wherever they need to go.  Sure, it's more than 5 minutes to charge up a car.  But that's offset by spending NO time waiting for the other 90% of your daily driving.  Just plug in when you get home, and you've got a full ""tank"" of electricity every morning."


If you read r/business you see posts about market caps of companies, which is an equally nonsensical metric.   Yeah, there's a lot of fluff in r/bitcoin but you might learn a few things about cryptocurrencies, even if you don't think there's any value in it.


They're China. They won't help if it doesn't help them posture contrary to America. They will help, however, when they get to look like the benevolent and strong economic power that they want to be perceived as. Look for them to help in six months if help is still required.


Are your kids playing video games? Don’t worry, they aren’t wasting time and energy passively staring at the screen and pressing buttons if you convert this pass time into a creative outlet, fostering their imagination! Game design is what we are talking about and your child needs not be a skilled programmer or computer expert to start. Below you will find all game design information to give a creative and entertaining experience to your child. Checkout us online: http://stemandeducation.greatwebsitebuilder.com/blog/your-complete-guide-to-all-game-design-information


Nope.  If there is no prepayment penalty go for it.  Find another credit source to use (like a credit card you pay off every month) if you want to get a long history. Saving money on interest is more important to me than minutia in a credit score.


I agree with the others that pulling the money out of your 401(k) is not the best idea due to the taxes and penalties.  But I also think that a 401(k) loan is not a good option either.  Somehow life happens, and the time when you can least afford to repay the loan (just after losing your job) will be the time when you have to repay the loan or pay the taxes and penalties.  There's just too much risk there.  You also lose the compounding gains you'd get from the investment, and it's likely not worth sacrificing your future retirement for this. It's probably worth finding out how close you are to having your house appraise out for a successful re-fi.  Without that information, you're just guessing.  Depending on how close you are, you pile up as much cash as you can over the next few months to try to pay down the mortgage enough to qualify for the re-fi.  As you're doing this, if home values start coming up in your area, you'll have that going for you as well.  It might even be worth suspending your 401(k) contributions for a short while to give you more cash to put towards the re-fi goal.


"I'm genuinely curious... what colleges are ""lying to youth"". I went to a public university in Nebraska, all of the mean/median salaries and employment rate of recent graduates for each major were clearly posted online. They were not lying, just reporting the statistics for students to see and make informed decisions themselves. I think people generally love to have someone to blame, but I don't think universities should take that blame."


"Dividends are declared by the board of directors of a corporation on date A, to stock holders of record on date B (a later date). These stockholders then receive the declared dividend on date C, the so-called payment date. All of these dates are announced on the first (declaration) date. If there is no announcement, no dividend will be paid. The stock typically goes down in price by approximately the amount of the dividend on the  date it ""goes ex,""  but then moves in price to reflect other developments, including the possibility of another declaration/payment, three months hence. Dividends are important to some investors, especially those who live on the income. They are less important to investors who are out for capital gains (and who may prefer that the company reinvest its money to seek such gains instead of paying dividends). In actual fact, dividends are one component of ""total"" or overall return. The other component is capital gains, and the sum of the two represents your return."


Petrodollars are specifically dollars earned from oil revenue. They are not synonymous with the US dollar.  It should be clear that the US dollar is not backed by oil since we just recently witnessed the priced in US dollars drop precipitously while the US dollar gained against a basket of currencies.


IELTS British Council,  provides local and international documentation services and solutions from to more than 10 years in the world. IELTS stands for International English Language Testing System. If you want to Buy Canada ielts certificates online, then you can visit our website. We will provide you 100% original ielts certificate. It is jointly owned by the British Council. This ielts certificate used Canada and Commonwealth countries for students originating from non-English-speaking countries.


Losing the manufacturing jobs is a necessary evil of any developed nation. Yes Germany is an exception but that is only because they specialise in expensive high quality items. This transition has happened before in every developed nation when manufacturing replaced agriculture as the main sector of income and the same is happening again.  The key is that we have to adapt and accept that rather than fight it. Fighting this transition will simply slow progress. People simply have to retrain and adapt to a knew skill set. Yes it isn't easy but trying to artificially stop low paid jobs moving to places with a cheaper labour force is impossible. Companies have to remain globally competitive.   I appreciate if everyone globally gets paid a descent salary this wouldn't be an issue. However, this is not the case and will not be any time soon. The reality is manufacturing of non luxury goods will hardly exist in  developed nations and will be solely down by the likes of china and india. However give it another 20 years china will be in exactly the same boat losing their manufacturing jobs to a less developed nations or maybe robots by then.


I know of no generic formula for determining if an investment property is a good investment, besides the trivial formula. Make sure your income is greater than your expenses, and hope the value of the property doesn't drop. Some people will tell you to expect the monthly rent to be a fixed percentage of the purchase price, but that is a goal not a certainty. It is also impossible to estimate the difficulty renting the property, or how long the roof will last. Taxes can't be predicted, as the value of the house increase, so do the property taxes, but you might not be able to increase the rent.  You can't even predict the quality of the tenant. Will they damage the property? Or skip out early? You will need somebody who knows the local market to estimate the local conditions, and help you determine the estimated costs and income based on the actual property involved.


"> . A us ceo will pay more in income taxes than a 1000 factory workers.  From quick google searches, average auto worker make about $35-40 an hour,  meaning they pay about $20,000 a year in taxes.  $20,000 * 1,000 = $20million  Ford CEO reportedly gets about that in gross compensation, which he probably pays closer to the capital gains tax rate for (~20%).  Though I'm not sure why you are trying to start an argument here.  You said you were considering ""buying a car from a foreign manufacturer"" and I simply pointed out that the car in question was manufactured here in America."


"A ""junk bond"" is one that pays a high yield UP FRONT because there is a good chance that it could default. So the higher interest rate is necessary to try to compensate for the default Junk bonds are used in leveraged buyouts (LBOs) because such deals are INHERENTLY risky. ""Normal"" companies may have 20%-30% debt and the rest equity, so that the company will have to lose 70%-80% of its value before the debtholders start losing money on ""normal"" bonds. But in an LBO, the company may have only 10%-20% equity and the rest debt. Meaning that if it loses that small equity cushion, the value of the ""junk"" bonds will be impaired."


You don't have to register for corporation tax until you start doing business: After you’ve registered your company with Companies House, you’ll need to register it for Corporation Tax. You’ll need to do this within 3 months of starting to do business. Since you haven't needed to do that yet, there also shouldn't be any need to tell HMRC you've stopped trading. So it should just be a question of telling Companies House - I guess it's possible they'll first want you to provide the missing accounts.


Overall I think it sounds like it's worth it. It's hard to find that high of a rate on a checking account these days.  It looks like you're looking at this bank, and I can see they have a few more requirements that seem a little tedious: If you don't do these things every month, then you lose the great interest rate. If you can think of an easy way to jump through these hoops and not forget, then it's probably worth it. For example, if you routinely eat out for lunch or buy a morning coffee, you can use that card to pay for it. Set yourself a recurring reminder in your calendar or smartphone to remind you to login to the online banking site. Ultimately, since this is an emergency fund, it's a good idea to keep it nice and liquid in a checking account. You're not likely going to find many other options that will give you a better (and safe) return and still keep your funds available for when you need them. In summary, it sounds like a good idea to me so long as you think you can reliably jump through their hoops.


Why would a lender for a down payment want proof of income for a house when a credit card issuer gave me more and doesn't care? The risk profile and rate of interest are different.  Could I use this argument as a basis that they have no reasoning to request proof of income, if another lender (credit card company) would give me more without proof of repayment? You could argue anything, but it does not mean the other company will agree with your argument. Should I borrow a home loan from a credit card company then? Or what's the catch here? You can. Check the rate of interest and penal fees; you would realize how much you will end up paying. Depending on the country, the difference could be in the region of 10-15%.


Three ideas: PayPal is probably the best/cheapest way to transfer small/medium amounts of money overseas.


>World war 2 was what carried america out of the great depression.  Not really. The end *results* of world war II did (basically the destruction of ALL economic competition), along with the (fortunate) improvements in productivity (the advent of gasoline tractors in agriculture, etc) -- but the war years were ones of a combined voluntary/forced austerity & centralized planned production (the vast majority of what was produced being destroyed or squandered).  >Anything's possible, people do desperate things when they're hungry, most people will resort to cannibalism within 2 weeks without food.   No. Most people will resort to a lot of other things first. And then, those failing they die of starvation.  Cannibalism is (and always has been) a relatively rare thing.  >It's too unpredictable, but my bet is that the coming collapse will be multiple times worse than the great depression.  Yes and no.  Probably longer in duration (20 to 30 years rather than ~10) -- and no doubt some significant parts of the infrastructure will deteriorate to the point of collapse.  What (in political & economic terms) comes out the other side of that is what is REALLY unpredictable. There will almost undoubtedly be some type of dictatorship police-state in there (most likely DURING the depression, making it longer & worse, before it implodes & gets better), but whether it would survive & remain (or be replaced by yet another) in the aftermath is the big question.


That's just not how it works. I'm in Europe by the way, and am actually in the process of hiring someone for my company. We know how much we are willing to pay them (the pay is pretty good).     What we care about: the job being done quickly and well.     What we couldn't give less of shit about and what would get you laughed out of a conference call: the person's life circumstances, their heating bill, their three kids, or anything not strictly related to their role.    You put an inordinate amount of value on comfort for the employee, but none on the risk that the employer runs. Employers don't just drop out of the sky to gift people jobs and money. Particularly in the case of a franchise, which are typically run by small-scale businesspeople and whose risk rises as employees are paid more and are harder to fire, strong labor laws are a disincentive to hiring.


If it were possible for every person in the world to run their own business at the same time maybe you'd have a point, but that's not how things work. As it stands now there inherently must be more employees than business owners and the nature of that relationship inherently favours the owner. A few laws in place to somewhat balance the scales is not a bad thing. At the end of the day, the employer was breaking the law and now they have to suffer the consequences.


This is adequately covered by the differential between lending and receiving interest rates.  ...and technically, they pay the central bank an interest rate on the money lent as well, which means that they *are* paying back equity holders (all be it very slowly and very slightly).  The equity holders have the ability to will money into existence, so there's no artificial limitation they face with respect to the branch banking system.


"Wrong. Business lending has boomed under QE.. does the term ""cov-lite"" sound familiar? That's because there's so much liquidity, that they're willing to lend to companies with little to no restrictions. There is so much credit to go around, that a ""High Yield Bond"" can price at L+800 bps.   When you're taking all the risk of a HY issuer, and maxing your return at 8.5%-9%, it's not too appealing. Instead, you could take a bit more risk, but also get all of the potential upside of equities.   1.  Fed buys assets, injects money into banks.   2.  Banks, flush with liquidity, need to put their balance sheet to use and begin lending to everyone.   2.  Bond market flooded with supply, causes bond yields to drop to historic lows.     3.  Investors don't enjoy limiting upside for incredibly low returns, and begin flooding equity markets to get some sort of yield.    Business lending is booming, making equities the only place to get larger returns."


Funny.  I just made a comment about how I like that there is no commission.    There are 2 Best Buys near me that I shop at.  I always find the sales people to be helpful when I need their help.  Maybe some regions have better training methods?


If you don't know how to fix your own car or have time to take car parts off of a car at a junk yard, the average amount of money per month you spend on repairing an old car will be greater than the amount of money you spend per month on a new car payment. This is because car repair shops are charging $85 per hour for labor for car repairs. Many parts that wear out on a car are difficult to replace because of their location on the engine. The classic example is piston rings.


**Here's a sneak peek of /r/churning using the [top posts](https://np.reddit.com/r/churning/top/?sort=top&t=year) of the year!**  \#1: [The Economics of Churning: who pays for the rewards?](https://np.reddit.com/r/churning/comments/5oucdq/the_economics_of_churning_who_pays_for_the_rewards/)   \#2: [New all time high sign up bonus !!](https://i.redd.it/aeb0f742mpvy.jpg) | [145 comments](https://np.reddit.com/r/churning/comments/69frvw/new_all_time_high_sign_up_bonus/)   \#3: [Citi Costco Historical High Offer](https://i.redd.it/scowraajipey.png) | [166 comments](https://np.reddit.com/r/churning/comments/5svvxm/citi_costco_historical_high_offer/)  ---- ^^I'm ^^a ^^bot, ^^beep ^^boop ^^| ^^Downvote ^^to ^^remove ^^| [^^Contact ^^me](https://www.reddit.com/message/compose/?to=sneakpeekbot) ^^| [^^Info](https://np.reddit.com/r/sneakpeekbot/) ^^| [^^Opt-out](https://np.reddit.com/r/sneakpeekbot/comments/6l7i0m/blacklist/)


Invest in solid companies, not in esoteric products built on sand. The problem is with finance, not with real economy: oil companies make money, mobile phone companies make money, airlines make money...


This should be posted in /r/Personalfinance.  Also, do not do what /u/BlitheCalamity is suggesting.    1. If it is an IRA, simply do an ACAT transfer.  No taxes will be incurred if the paperwork is filed correctly.  Additionally, there is a 60 rollover provision for IRA accounts... another way to get out of a tax penalty for an IRA account.  2. Check the internal fees for your mutual funds.  You may have purchased A shares, which I am guessing is the case since your advisor was an Ed Jones advisor.  The ongoing internal expense ratio should be rather low so you might want to consider keeping these funds.  An ACAT will allow you to transfer your investments to your new account if you want to keep them.  (A shares have a onetime high upfront charge, but low ongoing fee.  If you've already paid for the fund, why ditch it for another fund that charges a higher ongoing fee but not an upfront fee? Evaluate your costs.)  3. If this is a non-IRA account, still file an ACAT.  It is the easiest way to transfer your account.    Edit:  Silly me, this is clearly a question regarding an IRA.  In that case, there is no tax penalty for selling anything and buying within your IRA as long as you do not take the money out.  Like I said, please file an ACAT with the new company otherwise you will have to prove to the IRS that you completed the rollover in 60 days.  If not, you will pay income tax and a 10% penalty.


Would it be a reasonable idea to open a savings account in an overseas bank? For the risks you mention, this may not be a good idea for individual. Note HNI / Companies routinely keep funds in various overseas account. For individual the amount of paperwork [reporting in US etc] and fees etc would be high. Plus in adverse conditions, access to this funds would still be stringent and restricted. Some of the other options you can try are  Generally for the risks you mention, there is very little an individual can do except to take it if & when it comes.


I just tried doing that on my PP which is in the Netherlands, I have added a USD bank account (from my dutch bank) and they sent the verification amount in Euros, I called the bank and wonder why they didn't let me choose account currency they said it's not possible and if I cashout Dollars that I have in my PP (cause we usually do international business so we set it to dollars) it will be changed to Euros, So we decided to keep the dollars in account to pay our bills instead of getting ripped off by PayPal in xchange rates.


"According to the following links, it is commonly pronounced ""Cecil"".   https://kaufmanrossin.com/blog/bank-ready-meet-cecil/ The proposed model introduces the concept of shifting from an incurred   loss model to the current expected credit loss model commonly referred   to as CECL (pronounced “Cecil”). http://www.gonzobanker.com/2016/02/cecl-the-blind-leading-the-blurry/ [...] and its name is CECL (Current Estimated Credit Losses, pronounced like   the name “Cecil”). The name Cecil means “blind,” which is ironic, because FASB’s upcoming   guidance will push FIs to clarify the future performance of their loan   portfolios by using models to predict CECL of all loan portfolios. https://www.linkedin.com/pulse/operational-financial-impact-cecl-banks-nikhil-deshmukh Termed as Current Expected Credit Loss (CECL, or Cecil, as some call   it), [...]"


That's how it's always been??  Oh wow you have to actually major in something useful to make a living?   There are a ton of things you can major in and make a great living. What's dumb is kids taking on 100k+ in loans to go to a private college when they could've gone to a state school or done 2 years at a community college.


Location, Location, Location. The closer to the highway, the more they can charge. People want to go less than a mile from the exit to get gas. Therefore  they save time, but spend more money. That is understandable, so the gas station takes advantage of the situation.


Read all the Terms and Conditions.  Make sure you have an answer for any question or reason at all that could disqualify you from collecting the jackpot.  Consider any ticky tack reason that could be used to prevent you from collecting and have a mitigation plan for it.


"Some basic thoughts, mostly on fairness. I guess the answer doesn't really fit this site, it's more about ethics, but this fits the question which isn't really just about money either. So when both work the same amount, it seems appropriate that both get the same mount of money, doesn't it? That is, the scheme of (as already contained in your question and in some other answers) is fair by this logic. Pay attention to hidden money: for example the one who works more for money might automatically get a pension funded this way. This is hidden money which already goes to only one partner, so when dividing equally, you'll need to take that into account (or just include ""equal pensions for both"" in the family's needs directly)."


"You are on the right track, for tax purposes its all ordinary income at the end of 2016. If the free lance ""employer"" will withhold fed,state and local tax, then that takes care of your estimated tax. If they can't or won't, you will need to make those estimates and make payments quarterly for the fed and state tax at your projected tax liability.  Or, you can bump up withholding by your day job employer and cover your expected tax liability at year end without making estimated tax payments."


Investopedia has a nice article on this here The Key benefit looks like better returns with lower capital. The disadvantage is few brokers offering that can be trusted. Potentially lower return due to margins / spreads. Higher leverage and can become an issue.


"This is Saudi =) IDK local laws for the bid - but we don't include an anti-trust rep & warranty in our boilerplate. However, my org is not purely public and our RFP's don't have economy wide implications (not even industry wide).   It would have been nice if the article provided a bit more detail on the ""not clear the bidder ... would actually make money"".  That's also the problem with reporting on a LCOE basis. Within a single market LCOE is the most important metric to compare apples to apples between energy sources.  It is pure speculation, but solar is more capex heavy than alternatives. Therefore the cost of finance becomes a major driver and an outfit like Masdar has access to cheap money"


If you could find a breakdown, I suspect that it would show not just that they are self employed but own their own company. There are many people that are self employed, many of them make a good living at it, but are not millionaires.  My neighbour the plumber is a perfect example of this sort of self-employed and comfortable but not rich person. The key to wealth growth is to own (a significant part of) a company.  It one way to leverage a smaller amount of money to something much larger.  Plough your profits back in to the company to grow it, pay yourself reasonably for some time as the company grows.  After it is some size, you can afford to pay yourself more of the profits, if not sell it as a going concern to someone else. One last thought - I am assuming that your book is claiming that they made their money through self-employment, instead of choosing to become self employed  after striking rich somewhere.  If I were to win the lottery, I might then become a self-employed something, but in that case it was not my self-employment that got me there.


">  Thirteen out of 41 republicans voted against Carswell, and 17 out of 43 for Haysworth.  And 6 out of 46 Republicans voted against Bork.  > It would only serve to fire up their worst partisans with the ""indignity"" of it all.  Several of the Republicans I have talked to about this don't realize what the Republicans did.  One even wondered why Obama never appointed anyone.  I guess I think the partisans are going to be fired up about something regardless. Might as well make it about a real topic.  > Fights to the death are zero sum games.  I agree.  I just think zero-sum is better than what the Democrats have been getting the past few decades.  > All this ignorance is perpetuated by the climate of us versus them that only gets worse every time you double down.   So the Trump campaign was the worst I have seen in terms of ignorance and an ""us versus them"" climate.  Two questions for you in regards to it.  1) Do you think the Democrats did any doubling down to warrant this campaign?  If so, what?  2) Trump won on balls and showmanship. He lied often but never backed down. He made tons of nebulous promises without giving specifics.  He stoked the ""us versus them"" climate and then he won.  Doesn't that suggest to you that modern American politics are not about issues or compromise but mostly about fanning flames?"


This is one of the simplest demonstrable examples of a non-intuitive result. (And has a ton of utility for corporate strategy, not just trade ... but many business managers do not understand it).  Statistics and exponential growth contain others simple-to-prove non-intuitive results. People need to study this type of stuff more ... brains are no good at understanding reality.  David Ricardo was *the* man.


We are one the best digital marketing company in the Dubai, UAE, we have an expert in digital marketing who have years of experience. Along with these things you can hire  experts from   our company to increase in your sales and products. Seo-daddy offers various types of packages and apart from this you can hire dubai seo expert from our company for your seo and smo activities. For instant reports and analysis you can talk to our professionals and our experts are waiting for your queries with instant solutions.


No but it's really not much of a war. The US builds it's own bases and conducts only limited strikes. It isn't like they're spread out over the whole country trying to occupy it. Thank god. If they were it would be Vietnam all over again.


Something needs to happen to make companies take cybersecurity seriously.     I'm not making excuses for the hackers, but we know they're out there.  If you can't dedicate the resources needed to keep personal data safe, then perhaps you shouldn't hoard personal data.


"Yeah, until people decide that drinkable water is important and ban fracking. It doesn't take a genius to realize that water > natural gas. I guess so long as it's ""someone else's water"" and that someone else is poor it'll continue..."


> hip and tech oriented. Sears is neither of those.  The best part is... they give lip service to BEING just that. Giving the .com team so much leeway, trying to get into video streaming, & SO MUCH MORE....   You probably have no idea how hilariously spot on I found that comment.


I know it is ran by humans, that is why we elect them, after a campaign where get to know them a little bit better.   You're focused on one aspect of a government's task and ignore the rest.   Removing the government altogether wouldn't not solve the problem, probably the govt would be replaced by something else, very likely even worse.


I mean even skimming through the article really quickly.... The fact that they're touting GS as Lloyd blankfeins personal hedge fund just makes anything they're saying laughable.     Edit: they're also specifically talking about GSAM.... I'm not sure they understand how the industry actually works at this point because if Blankfein were to be using GSAM as his personal hedge fund (and this is the only part of the bank that can be used as a hedge fund in anyway) then their clients would be pulling out money by the boat loads...


"I would create a ""Rollover IRA"".   These IRAs are designed to take funds from a 401k and allow you to invest them without incurring a cash out penalty nor a tax due.   You will have more choices than if you leave it at your old 401k. If you cash out the 401k, you'll have much less to invest ($1500 - penalty - taxes) vs. doing a rollover 401k where you'll still have $1500 to invest. Then, once the money is inside the new Rollover IRA you can invest in whatever you please.   If you want to invest in Vanguard funds, I recommend opening the Rollover IRA at Vanguard.  Here is Vanguard's information page about rollovers from 401ks: https://investor.vanguard.com/what-we-offer/401k-rollovers/401k-403b-to-ira-rollover-benefits When you next change jobs and have another 401k with funds in it, you can roll it into the same Rollover IRA."


What similar car as a Camry is RWD these days? FWD gives you better mpg, lower cost, and better winter traction; far more important for this class. There is the Subaru BRZ, or Lexus IS/GS, if you really want though.


Are you planning to have a ski family vacation this coming holiday? Here at France Skiing, we can help you have a fun and memorable ski trip. We make sure to provide you with comfortable and well-situated accommodation, ensuring you with the best family ski holidays. To know more about our offerings, log on to our website - france-skiing.net.


"Not sure where you got the idea you can only go file bankruptcy once. You can certainly file more than once, and get more than one discharge, but there are waiting periods between filing.   As for payroll. . . . for what it is worth wages actually are considered a priority debt, in short ""priority"" debts get paid from any fund available in the bankruptcy estate before non-priority debts.  So better than nothing."


"> ""vegetarian foods were added to the traditional mix two years ago to address the rise in youth obesity""  There's so much misinformation about vegetarian food.  Veggie burgers are often made with a lot of vegetable oil and can have the same number of calories as a burger.  And if they had fries, potato chips, potato salad, etc., any of those things would contribute more to the added (mostly empty) calories of the meal than the burger.  Too often people go vegetarian for ""health reasons"", and then fail to take any of the supplements they need to to make up for the nutrients they aren't getting naturally from meat.  And they end up eating a bunch of carbs and food high in vegetable oil.    A healthy diet, including moderate portions of meat, is more healthy than just no longer eating meat and thinking that will make you healthier."


Yes and no.  Courts do understand the idea of tyranny of the majority.  Specifically, actions that hurt the company for personal gain is still theft against the minority shareholders.  It's common misconception that this fiduciary duty means that a CEO's job is to raise the price of their stock.  The truth is, stock price is a number that has an extremely tenuous relation to actual company health.  So, it's entirely possible for a shareholder lawsuit to happen.  It's just typically cheaper and less hassle to sell the stocks for a loss and get out while they can.


No, it won't affect your score until your statement is posted. Paying your bill before your statement is posted is actually a good way to keep your credit utilization low. If you're worried about high credit utilization negatively affecting your credit score, consider paying your bill several times a month to ensure that when your final monthly statement is posted, your utilization is still low. When my credit limit was very low while I was in college, I did this almost every month, and I've seen other sites recommend this practice as well. From creditkarma.com: The easiest way [to lower credit utilization] is to make credit card payments more than once a month so that your balance never gets too high. and creditcards.com: Consider making payments to creditors more than once each month. Otherwise, if you put a major expense -- like a new appliance -- on a credit card, even if you plan to pay it off, your FICO score may take a hit. The reason is that credit scores are calculated as a snapshot in time, so if that happens to be right after you charged a new $700 washing machine, your utilization ratio will look worryingly high. Remember, though, that it's best to have some balance on your card when your statement is posted (assuming you pay it off in full each month), because as the chart shows, 0% utilization is about as bad as utilization > 31-40%:  Also, remember that credit utilization affects your credit score in real time, so if you have high utilization one month but a lower utilization the next month, the hit to your score will disappear once a statement with low utilization is posted.


It is in the bank's interest to sell the property for as much as they can (although it is doubtful they will put as much effort/time into selling it as the owner might). They will certainly not sell it for $1. The main reason for this is that the bank would prefer to own $100k, than a loan to them from a customer for $100k. Banks have to discount the value of loans to take into account the likelihood of the loan not being repaid. They classify certain loans as riskier than others, and these are discounted more heavily. An unsecured home loan to a customer that has already defaulted, has no collateral, and now needs to pay rent AND loan repayments would count as an extremely risky loan.


I think it will work out ok in seattle, but here's the thing... A policy that works ok in a quickly growing city won't necessarily work well in another economic environment. Think rural town or even a slowly growing city.  So really it doesnt tell us shit. Other than maybe the fact that we could use economic data to help us target better minimum wages at a local level. Thats too complicated though for anyone to care about imo.


Consider also setting up a CD ladder. CD rates are often better than savings account rates. You have a 12-month CD that you purchase in January with a twelfth of your money, then another small one in February, then another in March.... then, when January comes around again, you a little more money to the first CD, and the ladder is complete. The idea is that you have more access to your money than one big CD, since you'll always have a CD maturing next month that you can get to in case of an emergency, and you can get better rates on a 1-year CD than on something else (with less risk of being locked into a bad interest rate). And you'll be less tempted to tap it all at once to buy some fancy car or what-not because you can't get at it all at once (without a penalty). And in a major emergency, losing a few percent of your interest for early withdrawals is likely the least of your problems.


Network is communication of two or more devices it could be LAN (i.e. Local Area Network) or Wireless   connection.  LAN and wireless connection,   explain the size and infrastructure of the network. Before you use any sensitive information on any of your devices like Computer, Phone or Tablet it is always recommended to have a Secure Network.


I like Pocketsmith for simple cashflow forecasting. I use Moneycenter for more complex tracking.


No. Because, while it's not meat,  it's also not fake food. It's labelled Vegan and the people that buy it know what they are getting and, I believe, try it out of curiosity and because it's better for them and the environment (not sure about the last two, but curiosity for sure). It's offered as a tasty option to replace dead animal flesh.  Edit: I'm sure that their product is better for people than animal flesh and better for the environment, but I'm not sure if carnist are buying for those reasons. Hopefully, that's part of their decision process.


I download and use very few apps. But I did buy Swiftkey a while ago. For my phone and my wife's.  I was happy to pay the 3-4 bucks.  When I see an app that's free, I'm thinking :  1- It's going to be a buggy piece of crap  2- It's going to ad spam my eyese relentlessly.  Paying 3 bucks and having a quality add-free software is an excellent trade off.


The tried-and-true policy would be government spending (and not just any government spending, but one with positive feedback on the whole economy) such as specific subsidized industry or high-tech projects (most likely wind/solar, high-efficiency and hybrid cars, etc.).  And this includes something like addition education in fields that are needed.    Instead we give money to banks, tax breaks for the already wealthy, and then deregulate finance when the problem seemed to stem from deregulation and non-enforcement.  If we don't hit a bigger bottom in 1-5 years - I'd eat my shorts.


"Meh. Nice Feature article, but some things pop out.  1.  ""The guy doesn't understand his strategy""? uhhh   1.  10 million is small and I don't know how well that would scale up. 1.  Plus this guy works full time at a university. How many investor would give money to a guy not dedicated full time. Maybe he can raise small amounts from a large audience, but I don't think people would give him anything substantial. Perhaps a trial basis, but I think there's a ceiling 1. Is it really ""AI""? people forwarded me some of his notes and it looks more just like graph theory. (could be wrong on this)"


/runs back to his safe space, where it's all winning, all the time!  Where it's cool to unironically use ((())) and act like it's not repugnant as fuck.  Holy shit I just saw your last hour of comment history.  What a fucking winner!  Posting Ann Coulter shit and Hillary hatred.  HAHAHAHHAHA.  It's August of 2017, and you are cringe personified.


"Invest in productive assets and by that I mean companies.  Edit: I'll elaborate on ""productive assets"": any asset that produces something; whether it produces cash or a commodity, you'll automatically accumulate more of its byproduct in the future. The rest is self explanatory"


I can verify this as well, my password is on there and I use LinkedIn, though it does look like it is an older form of the password I used to use, meaning that this is at least a month old, I forgot exactly when I changed my password, but it was recent.


If you've got the money to pay the bill today, do it. They are giving you a 25% discount if you do. You won't find an investment that will beat that.  Let's look at the details of your scheme.  Instead of paying $1696 today, you decide that you will pay $2261 over 60 months, or $37.68 per month.  You also decide to invest $1696 today, and expect to get 6% return each year. Your investment gets you $102 each year, but you have to pay taxes on that.  If you are in the 25% tax bracket, you only keep $76 (ignoring state taxes).  In addition, the loan is costing you $452 in payments each year. At the end of the 5 years, you will have paid $2261 to the hospital, and your $1696 investment will be worth about $2123 after taxes. Instead, let's say that you paid the hospital $1696 today, and invested the $37.68 per month.  At the end of 5 years, assuming the same 6% growth and 25% tax bracket, your investment will be worth $2552. In order for you to come out ahead by investing today and paying off the hospital over time, you would need to get at least a 17% growth on your investment.  If you are ignoring taxes, then the number you need to hit is at least 13%. Conclusion: You will come out ahead by paying the hospital today, and investing the monthly payment plan that you avoided. (Note: Bankrate has a very handy investment calculator that makes it easy to calculate returns on a monthly investment.) Now, let's look at the ethics of the situation.  Assume that you were able somehow to find an investment with a guaranteed return high enough to come out ahead with your plan.  Should you do it? The hospital has provided you a service, and you owe the money.  As a public service to people that cannot pay the bill, they allow people to pay off the bill over time at no interest.  However, you are not one of these people.  You have the money to pay.  It is not ethical, in my opinion, to use the hospital's money to invest and try to profit.


And the Zombie rating agencies rise from the dead.  Its an old game plan . .when something really bad is about to happen in the US economy, the Rating agencies come out and start to downgrade sovereign ratings.  Nah . . .nothing is going to take away from the fun of the Fed unwinding its worthless crap.


"Small community banks are absolutely vital to our economy. Plenty of people these days talk about ""buying local,"" but you never hear them talking about banking local. My friends, for the most part, lean left of center politically, so they constantly complain about Wal-Mart and other large brick and mortar chains, but when I called them out on their banking by asking them to pull out their debit cards, they all banked with larger banks; Chase, PNC, Key; the only person (beside myself) who didn't bank with a large national/multi - national bank uses Huntington, which is still a very large regional bank with over $100 billion in assets. They said they didn't want to have to pay ATM fees, to which I responded that many community banks will reimburse the customer for those fees up to a certain amount (like my bank does.) They just shrugged and said they liked the convenience of it, so I asked them why do they think people shop at Wal-Mart? I didn't really get a good answer to that; they just said ""it's different.""  The best way to invest in your community is to bank with a local community bank. Those mom and pop shops you love so much; the plumber who lives down the street; the micro brewery that just opened up all do their banking with the local community bank."


"Your broker will charge you commissions and debit interest on your ""overdraft"" of $30,000. However it is very likely that your contract with the broker also contains a rehypothecation clause which allows your broker to use your assets. Typically, with a debt of $30,000, they would probably be entitled to use $45-60,000 of your stocks. In short, that means that they would be allowed to ""borrow"" the stocks you just bought from your account and either lend them to other clients or pledge them as collateral with a bank and receive interest. In both cases they will make money with your stocks. See for example clause #14 of this typical broker's client agreement. Applied to your example: In other words they will make $60 + $450 + $1,800 = $2,310 the first year. If the stock is expensive to borrow and they manage to lend it, they will make a lot more. There are by the way a few important consequences:"


This depends on a lot actually - with the overall being your goals and how much you like risk.   Question: What are your fees/commissions for selling? $8.95/trade will wipe out some gains on those trades. (.69% if all are sold with $8.95 commission - not including the commission payed when purchased that should be factored into the cost basis) Also, I would recommend doing commission free ETFs.  You can get the same affect as a mutual fund without the fees associated with paying someone to invest in ETFs and stocks. On another note: Your portfolio looks rather risky.  Although everyone has their own risk preference so this might be yours but if you are thinking about a mutual fund instead of individual stocks you probably are risk averse. I would suggest consulting with an adviser on how to set up for the future.  Financial advice is free flowing from your local barber, dentist, and of course StackExchange but I would look towards a professional. Disclaimer: These are my thoughts and opinions only ;) Feel free to add comments below.


> trump supporters went and decided they can now get a job now that obama isn't in office, that's exactly what I'm saying.   Huh? You have no idea what you are even trying to say.  > I'll put money on the fact more doctors and teachers being hired have nothing to do with trump taking office.  Don't bet on this!


"Yes you should worry and take care not to violate the law or provide any appearance of impropriety.   Every bank in the USA is required under the Bank Secrecy Act to report cash transactions over $10,000 the same day to the IRS -- and here's the fun secret part -- without notification to the depositor.   But splitting the deposits up into smaller amounts is also a crime, called ""structuring"".   On occasion there is a news story where a retail business that naturally must deposit cash from customers will be (falsely?) accused of structuring, e.g.:  Feds seize grocery store's entire bank account -- Institute for Justice defends grocer Under the legal doctrine of civil asset forfeiture, your money can be accused of a crime, seized, and tried separately from its owner.  The actual cases indicate the money as defendant, i.e. ""US v $124,700"" In this somewhat bizarre system of ""justice"", the owner need not be charged with a crime, and is not in immediate peril of going to prison (about the only upside in this, but might be temporary because the authorities haven't charged the owner yet).  When only the money is charged with a crime, there is no requirement for the government to supply a public defender for the owners who can not afford a lawyer.... can not afford a lawyer, because the government took all their money...."


Salaries and etc are a business expense and chargeable against revenue for tax purposes.  It is NOT tax deductible but it is an expense on an income statement in calculating net profit (after tax).  You could say salary & etc are tax effective but not tax deductible.


[Craig Morganson](http://www.craigmorgansonreports.com/) agrees that it might be beneficial to look around your property and do an evaluation. Do you drink a great deal of bottled water? Those plastic bottles are an environment killer. Contemplate instead putting in a purification unit on your own faucet – these are very inexpensive.


It really depends on the client though. A large listed company that suddenly changes from a Big 4 auditor to a much smaller one is quite suspect.  Sure some Big 4 partners can just sign off with their eyes closed but if something goes wrong, I can guarantee you that the other partners would be more than happy to kick them out.  Auditors generally aren't reluctant to give an unqualified opinion. It's just that when they do, it normally means that the client is so far gone it's not worth dealing with them anymore. If your client refuses to change his accounts and you worry he will drag you and your multi million dollar business down, thats when the unqualified opinion comes in.


"The thing about the Swiss banks is that the accounts there were ""anonymous"", that's why it's such a famous example. Until not so long ago, the access to the account was by a password, and no-one knew whose account it is and to whom the money belongs. That's perfect for money laundering and various illegal activities (like hiding bribe money, stolen money, evading taxes and what not). The US pressured Swiss to cancel that policy, and now the Swiss banks are basically the same as everywhere else (there are other off-shore places that still allow similar anonymous accounts, I think). Having an account abroad is usually legal (depends on the country of your citizenship of course, I think in Canada there's no law against that, certainly not in the US), as long as you declare everything and the owners of the accounts are not anonymous, and their ID's were verified by the bank. By the way, one of the former Israeli Prime Ministers, Itzhak Rabin, had to resign his post because journalists found out that his wife had a bank account in the US. In that time (late 1970's) it was illegal for Israeli citizens to have accounts in foreign banks. Similar laws were in the USSR, and most (if not all) of the Eastern block. All of these countries no longer forbid foreign bank accounts."


No, the expense ratio would be something you wouldn't be charged. If you bought shares of the ETF long, then the dividends are usually reduced by the expense ratio if you wanted to know where to find that charge in general. You would have to make up for any dividends the underlying stocks as part of general shorting since the idea is that once you buy to put back the shares, it has to appear as if they weren't missing in the first place. No, the authorized participant would handle changes to the underlying structure if needed.


"As I understand it, if the ""borrower"" puts a down payment of 20% and the bank puts down 80%, then the bank and the ""borrower"" own the home jointly as  tenants in common with a 20%-80% split of the asset amongst them. The  ""borrower"" moves into the home and pays the bank 80% of the fair rental  value of the home each month.  {Material added/changed in edit: For the purposes of illustration, suppose that the ""borrower"" and the bank agree that the fair rental per month is 0.5% of the purchase cost. The  ""borrower"" pays 80% of that amount i.e. 0.4% of the purchase cost  to the bank on a monthly basis.  The ""borrower"" is not required to do  so but may choose to pay more money than this 0.4% of the purchase cost each month, or pay some amount in a lump sum. If he does so, he will own a larger percentage of the house, and so future monthly payments will be a smaller fraction of the agreed-upon fair rental per month. So there is an incentive to pay off the bank.} If and when the house is sold, the sale price is divided between ""borrower"" and bank according to the percentage of ownership as of the date of sale. So the bank gets to share in the profits, if any. On the other hand, if the house is sold for less than the original purchase price, then the bank also suffers in the loss. It is not a case of a mortgage being paid off from the proceeds and the home-owner gets whatever is left, or even suffering a loss when the dust has settled; the bank gets only its percentage of the sale price even if this amount is less than what it put up in the first place minus any additional payments made by the ""borrower"". I have no idea how other costs of home ownership (property taxes, insurance, repair and maintenance) or improvements, additions, etc are handled. Ditto what happens on Schedule A if  such a ""loan"" is made to a US taxpayer."


This is an excellent question; kudos for asking it. How much a person pays over spot with gold can be negotiated in person at a coin shop or in an individual transaction, though many shops will refuse to negotiate.  You have to be a clever and tough negotiator to make this work and you won't have any success online. However, in researching your question, I dug for some information on one gold ETF OUNZ - which is physically backed by gold that you can redeem.  It appears that you only pay the spot price if you redeem your shares for physical gold: But aren't those fees exorbitant? After all, redeeming for 50 ounces   of Gold Eagles would result in a $3,000 fee on a $65,000 transaction.   That's 4.6 percent! Actually, the fee simply reflects the convenience premium that gold   coins command in the market. Here are the exchange fees compared with   the premiums over spot charged by two major online gold retailers: Investors do pay an annual expense ratio, but the trade-off is that as an investor, you don't have to worry about a thief breaking in and stealing your gold.


"So your argument is ""I don't have an argument, it's just the way it is, deal with it.""  That is equivalent to admitting that /u/tac1776 is correct. Because he's arguing over what ought, not over what is. Two different questions. ""What is moral?"" is a different question than ""What is the status quo presently/What is possible?"""


"Outstanding principal balance is the amount you owe at any given time, not including the amount of interest you need to pay as soon as possible. The ""capitalized interest"" shown is consistent with an average of 13.5 months between when each dollar is borrowed and when the repayment period begins. Suppose you borrow the first half of the money on September 1, 2017 and the second half of the money on February 1, 2017 (5 months later).  At that point, half the money has been accruing interest for 5 months.  On January 1, 2018, half the money accrued interest for 16 months, and half the money accrued interest for 11 months.  The lender now expects you to start repaying the loan, with the first payment due at the end of January 2018 or the beginning of February 2018.  If you make the minimum payments on time, the lender expects you to make 120 monthly payments.  The last monthly payment would be at the end of December 2027 or the beginning of January 2028. The lender (or the website) should provide details about the actual payment plan, grace periods, provisions for handling inability to pay due to unemployment, and other terms. In the United States, most installment loans pretend that (for purposes of calculating interest) every month has 30 days -- even February and July!  Each month, 1/12 of the ""annual percentage rate"" (APR) is charged as interest.  If you do the compounding, a 6.8 percent APR corresponds to (1 + 0.068 / 12)^12 - 1 = 7.016 percent ""annual percentage yield"" (APY). Also, the APR is understated.  The 6.8 percent applies to the full balance (including the loan fees), even though the borrower only gets the amount minus the loan fees.  The 6.8 percent rate is useful for doing calculations after the loan fees have been charged, though.  These calculations include the capitalized interest and the monthly payment amounts. A true calculation of the APR would take the loan fees into account, and give a higher number than 6.8 percent.  But the corrected APR would not be useful for calculating the capitalized interest, nor for calculating the monthly payment amounts."


No, if you are taking a loss solely and purely to reduce the tax you have to pay, then it is not a good strategy, in fact it is a very bad strategy, no matter what country you are in. No investment choice should be made solely due to your tax consequeses. If you are paying tax that means you made a profit, if you made a loss just to save some tax then you are loosing money. The whole point of investing is to make money not lose it.


Absolutely. It's the way credit is calculated. The most important things here are credit utilization (how much of your open credit you're using, the less the better for your score) and and length of open credit. The longer you've had a credit card, the more it helps your score. If you use your card and pay it off before the bill comes, the credit card company still knows you're using the card and won't close it. I recommend you download credit karma so you can track your score and learn more about how credit is calculated.


"Perhaps they all started betting on a downturn too early? Much of the whispers I've been hearing for the last year from ""smart money"" people have been about being at a peak. Peak of what, they can't tell you. But i dunno because negative 7 percent when your benchmark is up 10 must be not fun to report"


Yes, I think the undergrad books alone are sufficient to get a general understanding. On the other hand, I would never discourage someone from pushing themselves and you may find reading the grad level books to be quite stimulating. If you're considering grad school sometime in the future then it will also help you get oriented to the language used in those settings.  Hull's book is definitely on the less-dry side of material I've read too (well, at least no more dry than the subject matter itself lol), so that shouldn't be an issue.  Try the grad book!


Keeping a receipt does allow you to verify that the expected amount was charged/debited it also can help when you need to return an item.  Regarding double charging, the credit card companies look for that. If the same card is used at the same vendor for the same exact amount in a short period of time the credit card company will flag the transaction. They assume either a mistake was made, or fraud is being attempted. The most likely result is that the transaction is denied.  A dishonest vendor can write down the card number, expiration date and CVV number. Then after you leave make up a new transaction for any amount they want. You of course wouldn't have a paper receipt for this fraudulent transaction. The key is reviewing your transaction history every few days: looking for unexpected amounts, locations, or number of transactions.


Summarized article: Japan opened it's first cuddle cafe on September 25, 2012.  Soineya (in English, the 'sleep together shop') is located in Tokyo's electronics district, which is also the birthplace of the maid cafe.  The 'co-sleeping specialty shop' allows patrons to lay in bed with a girl from 20 minutes to up to 10 hours.  During a standard visit, the customer and girl simply nap in the same bed.  However, for an additional 1000 to 2000 yen the customer can request the following optional services from his companion:  - sleep in girl's arms - be patted on the back by girl - pet girl on the head - stare at her - have her change clothes - give customer a foot massage - receive a foot massage from customer - customer sleeps with head in girl's lap - girl sleeps with head in customer's lap  Admission fee to enter Soineya is 3000 yen (about $46 USD).  The Cuddle Cafe employs women ranging from high school age to their 30s.  * For more summarized news, subscribe to the [/r/SkimThat](http://www.reddit.com/r/SkimThat) subreddit


My understanding is that the CRSP database is used in conjunction with Capital IQ.  All the financial information you need will be in the Capital IQ database.  As far as filtering, all you need to do is set up a series of IF statements. I am not familiar with the database so I cant help you, but you should have ample resources at your university to help you as the filters you are trying to do are pretty straight forward.


That plan wouldn't save you any money because tax brackets don't work that way. All of your earnings up to each level are taxed at that rate. You aren't taxed at the highest rate on all of the money. In your example you pay... If you reduce your income to $37,4000 you pay...   In the end you'd be spending $100 to save $20. The only way you conceivably come out ahead by donating to charity (not counting the good karma for doing so) is if you own the charity and it is a way for you to funnel money to yourself and write it off.


"I figured as much! Couldn't help but chuckle as I'd never heard this interpretation of their name. Honestly, as a kid (and for reasons unknown), I thought it was Carson 'Pine' Scott... Not a fan of these particular department stores myself, but FWIW the chain is called ""Carson Pirie Scott & Co."""


The underlying condescension of this article is palpable. I would imagine that given any lack of compulsory regulation, that Americans are using whatever means of payment that suits them.  There's always this assumption that Americans are the most backwards people around. And Americans are always willing to just sit there and willingly and unquestionably imbibe the yokel-dom status ascribed to them by these elitists. I'm calling bullshit on this one.


"If you ""have no immediate plans for the money and will probably not return to Switzerland for a long time or at all"" then it might be best just to exchange the money so then you can use/invest it in the UK.   Maybe keep a bill or two for memory-sake - I do that whenever I travel to a foreign country."


"This is a technical term referring to the ""double entry""-styled book keeping of trades by brokers. Suppose a client executes a buy order with their broker.  The broker's accounting for this ""trade"" will be recorded as two different ""deals"" : One ""deal"" showing the client as buyer and the broker as seller, and a second ""deal"" showing the broker as buyer and the clearing house as seller.  The net result of these two deals is that the broker has no net position while the client has a net buy and the clearing house has a net sell with respect to this broker's account as accounted for internally by the broker. (And the same methods apply for a client sell order.) The client/broker ""deal"" record - i.e., the client side of the trade - is called the ""client side booking"", while the broker/clearing house ""deal"" record is called the ""street side booking""."


That is right, and instagram is okay with that.  They don't make anything on user advertisement.  Why would they want to host it?    Most instagram users consume content but don't post ads themselves.  That's the bulk of instagram's ad revenue.


I'm sorry for your struggle man, and sorry for being so biased in my view. I personally only see the bodies that come into the morgue at the ME's office and I feel so helpless with what I can do besides process them and take samples.  Good on you for keeping your regiment strict, and I wish you the best!


"In addition to the two options in your question - pay off the entire loan, depleting your emergency fund; or continue as you are today - there is a third, middle-ground option that might be worth considering. Since you currently have an emergency fund, zero credit card debt, and you stated ""we can afford these expenses"", I think I'd be correct to assume that you're currently making regular contributions to either the emergency fund itself, or to another savings account, etc. Temporarily stop making those contributions, and divert those funds to make larger payments towards the upside-down loan. The additional amount will all be applied to the loan principal, reducing the interest you'll have to pay, but you'll avoid the risk of depleting the emergency fund. Additionally, the insurance premium may possibly be avoided, as in many places in the world it's possible to de-register the car (for example, in California, USA, you can submit an affidavit of Non-Use) then terminate the insurance on it. However, the car will likely have to be parked off-street (or in a location such as a private road governed by rules that do not include legal registration requirements)."


The check is from your credit card company.  Whose ever the money is, it is certainly not the credit card company's, and they know that.  This is why they cut the check to you.  You should definitely cash the check (or deposit it into your bank account).   You've tried to contact the mattress store multiple times, and they aren't responding.  At some point, you've got to say that you've done everything that you could to do the right thing.   Now, keep in mind that at some point in the future, the mattress store may come back to you and ask for the money back.  If I were you, I would not spend this money for quite some time.  Put it away in a savings account (maybe add it to your emergency fund).  Then if they come back in the future looking for money, you can easily write them a check.  You probably also want to keep some documentation on what you've done already to try to give the money back to them, just in case for some reason they try to claim that you owe them some interest or something like that.