"The problem is, who is going to be left holding the coins when the market is over?  That's one of the things that really turns me away from cryptocurrency. The idea of a decentralized currency, I really love. But I can't help but feel they are all basically Ponzi schemes.   People invent new types of cryptocurrency (like Ethereum) and the creators have the first chance to mine the coins with zero competition since no one else knows it's a currency yet. After they mine several million coins, they publicize the new currency and a bunch of short term investors buy into it and hoard up the coins because they are into it for short term gains. The price of this sexy new cryptocurrency spikes with all this interest, and then when the price is high the big early investors dump their coins on the ""casuals"" who frequent cryptocurrency forums. These users all proclaim how it's so much safer than the dollar and this particular cryptocurrency is better than the other cryptocurrencies so they buy into it... and meanwhile some hot new startup just spun up some even newer cryptocurrency and is mining it while investors hype it up...  There are over a dozen cryptocurrencies now, how many were hyped up as the next big thing with news headlines like this? How many tens of millions of dollars of hard earned savings were taken from cryptocurrency supporters who wanted a safe alternative to fiat currencies? It's just sad really, half these currencies are just exploiting people's fear of fiat currency and basically using that fear to scam them."


Apart from investing in their own infrastructure, profits can be spent purchasing other companies, (Mergers and Acquisitions) investing in other securities, and frankly whatever they please. The idea here is that publicly traded companies have a fiduciary duty to their shareholders to make as much money as they can with the resources (including cash, but including so much more than that) available to the company. It happens that the majority of huge companies eventually stopped growing and figured out that they weren't good at making money outside their core discipline and started giving the money back through dividends, but that norm has been eroded by tech companies that have figured out how to keep growing and driving up share prices even after they become giants. Shareholders will pressure management to issue dividends if share prices don't keep going up, but until the growth slows down, most investors hang on and don't rock the boat.


Aside from the fact that you could now get spam calls and mailings, nothing negative at all. With your account number, anyone can send you money (which you probably wouldn't mind), but otherwise, no access is possible. In Germany, every company and many people publish their account number, so they can receive payment. Every invoice contains address, phone number, and account numbers of the company that bills you, so you are able to send them money to pay the invoice. Nobody can access the money or details of your account with only the name and number; it needs your online login user id and password, or your (government issued) ID to do so. You don't need to worry at all.


As operations at a large bank I find I'm there longer than most of the BU. I certainly envy them. Your day is very compressed, but at the end of the day you can go workout/see your kids game/and get a good nights rest. Comparatively I know some people on equity research and they are on a 8am-8pm schedule.


Not really an answer, but too long for a comment: Since anyone can create their own cryptocurrency (see  http://www.bitclone.net/) the value of new cryptocurrencies is very  small. According to https://bleutrade.com/exchange/MINT/USD for  example, 100,000 mintcoins is worth less than $1. Even if they give  you 20% interest, that interest is on mintcoins, not dollars. If the  mintcoin rates falls by more than 20%, you would've been better off  withdrawing your mintcoins immediately. Check to see how much they pay  for various tasks and compare it to the current exchange rate. Realize  the exchange rate may go down as more mintcoins are created.


Yeah, fuck those hippies, making you shop at stores you don't want to and buy products you don't want to.  Tip 1: grab from the back for perishables. Tip 2: pretty sure they'll do a refund or exchange on about anything for about any reason.  Never tried it, though I have also been burned by early mold.


I see exponentially fewer ads than I did in the 80s and 90s.   I never watch tv, only streaming with no ads. I'm all over the internet but all my devices block ads.    I also now live in a place with no billboards, so all that crap is  gone from my life as well.


In Houston, Texas USA where I went to a private high school they had a half-semester class in personal finance, but it was optional and didn't give you any credits towards graduation. You are right though, it should be a standard class. After all, who doesn't need that information in their adult lives, and not everyone goes to college.


The only time the utilization percentage makes a difference is when the data is being pulled for a credit check. During the months leading up to the loan application through the settlement date of the loan keeping this percentage low makes sense. The number reported is the current value of the ratio not an average.  You can pre-fund the credit card but don't go overboard. If you keep a negative balance (lets say they owe you $100) for a few months they may decide to send you a check for the balance they owe you.


I have questions for you - As the others have stated, now really isn't the time to do anything to turn short term liquidity into long term investments. I'll contradict that only for matched 401(k) deposits. The answers to these questions will prompt more/better responses.


I asked a friend and he gave me a good explanation, so I'm just gonna paste it here for others: There is a simple and a complex answer depending on how much you want to understand the pricing dynamic of options.  LEAPs don't react 1:1 with a stock move because the probability of your option being in the money at expiry is still very much up in the air so you basically don't get full credit for a move in the stock this far out from expiry. The more complex answer involves a discussion of option 'greeks'.  Delta, Gamma, Theta, Vega, and Rho are variables that affect the pricing of all options.  The key greek in this case is Delta because it describes mathematically the expected move of an option as a ratio vs changes in stock price.  For put options the ratio is -1 to 0 where -1 is direct correlation between stock price and option price and 0 is no correlation.  The Delta increases as an option gets deeper in the money and also as it gets closer to expiry and reflects the probability of the option expiring in the money.  For your option contract the current Delta is -0.5673  so -3.38 * -0.5673 = 1.9 which is close.  Also keep in mind that that strike price had a last trade at 12:03 when the stock was at 13.3 and the current ask price is 22.30 so the last price isn't a true reflection of the market value.   As for the other greeks, Gamma is a reflection of volatility in the sense that it affects the rate of change of Delta as price and time changes.  Theta is the value of the time component of the option and is expressed as the expected time decay per day.  The problem is that the time premium is really some arbitrary number that the market maker seems to be able to change at will without justification and it can fluctuate wildly over short periods of time and I think this may explain some of the discrepancy.   If you bought the options when AAPL was $118.68 a couple weeks ago (option price of $18.85) and now AAPL is at $112.34 and the Delta over that time averaged at -0.55 then your expected option price would be $22.34 (($118.68 - $112.34) * 0.55 + 18.85 = $22.34) so you lost around $0.24 in time premium or 'Theta burn' over the last 2 weeks assuming it opens trading around 22.1 on Monday. Your broker should have information about the option contract greeks somewhere.  For my platform I have to put the cursor over top of the option contract for it to show me the greeks.  If your broker doesn't have this then you can get it from nasdaq.com. This is another reason that I only invest in deep in the money LEAPs because the time premium is much much lower than near the money and also because delta is much higher so if I want to trade out of it early I don't feel like I'm getting ripped off not getting paid for a stock price move.  For example look at the Jan 17 175 put.  The Delta is -0.9 and the time premium is only $0-1 depending if you are looking at the bid or ask.  The only downside is expected returns are lower for deep in the money contracts and they are expensive to buy.


Your Crochet is your one stop destination for finding free crochet patterns Amigurumi. It is easy and you can learn them with our free patterns. Amigurumi is a Japanese crocheting technique of creating fun and beautiful stuffed animals using yarns. You can also use this technique to create people and animated objects using yarn as well. If you have vivid imagination and creative inclination then Amigurumi crocheting is for you.


A quick search showed me that UEP merged into Ameren on Dec 31, 1997, and Ameren still exists today.  So I took a look at Ameren's Investor Relations website.   Unfortunately, they don't provide historical stock prices prior to Ameren forming, so starting with 1998.  However, I've had good luck in the past emailing a company's investor relations contact and asking for data like this that isn't on the website.  It's reasonably likely they'll have internal records they could look it up within.


"OHHHHH so you just lumped me into a category without knowing my history. You see. I voted and supported Obama his first term. I gave him benefit of the doubt on his second but half way in to the second term k started to lose my faith in him. You knew that though right? I was advocating for unity and getting money out of politics in 2008.  Where were You? ""When they go low we go.....low also?"" So your goal is to play the game the GOP played and you so vehemently hated?...."


When I traveled to Germany,  I found it was much better to get cash at ATMs and use credit cards.  The exchange rate was better than exchanging dollars for Euros at an exchange center.  Just make sure you have enough cash to get from the airport to whereever your are traveling.  The airport exchange rates were terrible.


Target, the 2nd largest discount chain announced that it will stop offering Amazon's e-reader Kindle because of a «conflict of interest» while Barnes & Noble and Apple devices will continue to be offered. According to Molly Snyder, Target spokesperson, the decision to drop Kindle e-readers starting this spring came after a review of the retailer's merchandise, which consisted of evaluations on prices and quality of their products. However, Norton Medical and Scientific Research & Biotechnology got a hold of an internal memo regarding the removal of Amazon hardware (Kindle) from Target stores starting this month and while some accessories are to remain in stock, shipments of the tablet will stop beginning on May 13. Before the Minneapolis-based retailer started offering Kindles in June 2010, Amazon only sold the tablet on its own website. But after recognizing the need of customers to see the products in person before buying, Amazon approached Target for some sort of partnership, followed by WalMart, Best Buy and Staples. Even though most of the Kindle items are being sold at Amazon, Target's 1,800 stores nationwide have made it one of the biggest Kindle retailers in the physical world. In fact, Target has announced after last year's Thanksgiving that the Kindle was the bestselling tablet in its stores. Target's move is perhaps due to the fact that Apple products are being promoted prominently in the store. But Snyder declined to say more but «We will continue to offer our guests a full assortment of e-readers and supporting accessories» regarding the apparent partnership with Apple. According to a statement from the retailer, the «very tight alignment» of Kindle with the online store Amazon, their direct competitor, explains the conflicting interest presented as the reason. Target's decision to drop Kindle might also be a boycott to manufacturers' using their brick and mortar stores to as a showroom of products. This often happens as customers go to retailers like Target in order to personally check out an item and then buy the item online for a cheaper price. In fact, Target has already appealed to vendors for aid in developing exclusive products and rivaling prices online. «What we aren't willing to do is let online-only retailers use our brick-and-mortar stores as a showroom for their products and undercut our prices,» said a Target in a statement. The absence of Kindle from Target stores is not likely to stop Amazon customers from visiting Target for other products but Norton Medical and Scientific Research & Biotechnology said the move will definitely send a message to Amazon.


Either approach will put a strain on your friendship, unless you are willing to treat it as a gift which may or may not be returned rather than a loan. I agree that paying it direct to the dealer (or giving her a check that is made out to the dealer) avoids the risk of the money getting sidetracked.


I recommend saving for retirement first to leverage compound interest over a long time horizon. The historical real return on the stock market has been about 7%.  Assuming returns stay at 7% in the future (big assumption, but don't have any better numbers to go off of), then $8,000 saved today will be worth $119,795 in 40 years (1.07^40*8000).  Having a sizable retirement portfolio will give you peace of mind as you progress through life and make other expenditures. If you buy assets that pay you money and appreciate, you will be in a better financial position than if you buy assets that require significant cash outflows (i.e. property taxes, interest you pay to the bank, etc.) or assets that ultimately depreciate to zero (a car).  As a young person, you are well positioned to pay yourself (not the bank or the car dealership) and leverage compound interest over a long time horizon.


"This is the best tl;dr I could make, [original](http://www.cbsnews.com/news/could-illinois-be-the-first-state-to-file-for-bankruptcy/) reduced by 90%. (I'm a bot) ***** > A financial crunch is spiraling into a serious problem for Illinois lawmakers, prompting some observers to wonder if the state might make history by becoming the first to go bankrupt.  > At the moment, it&#039;s impossible for a state to file for bankruptcy protection, which is only afforded to counties and municipalities like Detroit.  > As for Illinois, Rauner on Thursday called state legislators to a 10-day special session starting next week to hammer out a budget deal and end an unprecedented impasse that could soon enter a third year.   ***** [**Extended Summary**](http://np.reddit.com/r/autotldr/comments/6hq2wx/could_obamas_illinois_be_the_first_state_to_file/) | [FAQ](http://np.reddit.com/r/autotldr/comments/31b9fm/faq_autotldr_bot/ ""Version 1.65, ~146184 tl;drs so far."") | [Feedback](http://np.reddit.com/message/compose?to=%23autotldr ""PM's and comments are monitored, constructive feedback is welcome."") | *Top* *keywords*: **state**^#1 **pension**^#2 **Illinois**^#3 **year**^#4 **bankruptcy**^#5"


Among all other competitive courses, most of the aspiring students choose business administration courses to reach the pinnacle of success. It is a known fact that associate degree gives a strong foundation to get you started in various fields such as sales, human resources, retail and hospitality management, and marketing.


The only thing I noticed in the article was that he was complaining about the gridlock in DC.  It isn't helping that DC is consumed by the Russian scandal and the only major change the GOP is focused seems to be wiping out health care for the poor and middle class in exchange for a tax break for billionaires.  Of course that is getting stuck.   Plus the Muslim ban and EPA edicts are kind of one pager decisions that break existing laws.  They are clearly created by people who don't understand how laws and the government works.  The administration were to change laws they don't like rather than just vomit out random administrative orders.  Of course those get stuck in the court system.     Frankly, I don't want to see the GOP succeed with any of those initiatives as they are only deliberating between bad and terrible changes for the country.   When a government is fucked, gridlock is a good thing.


"As an American who just came back from spending two years in a developing country, uniformed statements like this really annoy me. Say what you will about the state of the American economy and political system, but the United States has one of the finest road systems the world. Our roads are wide, well-paved, and graced with lines that tell traffic exactly where it should be and what it should be doing at all times. When there are potholes, they are the exception, not the rule. I just spent the last two years in a poor country with narrow, horrible, and often unpaved roads. When a road was paved, it often was more pothole than pavement. Sometimes, you would come across a little island of asphalt in a sea of mud that would let you know that at some point in the past the road had been paved. Before somebody calls the American road system ""third world,"" perhaps they should spend a little time living in the actual third world."


These scenarios discuss the period to 2025. They assess the deep uncertainty that is paralysing decision-taking. They identify the roots of this as the failure of the social model on which the West has operated since the 1920s. Related and pending problems imply that this situation is not recoverable without major change: for example, pensions shortfalls are greater in real terms that entire expenditure on World War II, and health care and age support will treble that. Due to the prolonged recession, competition will impact complex industries earlier than expected.  Social responses which seek job protection, the maintenance of welfare and also support in old age will tear at the social fabric of the industrial world. There are ways to meet this, implying a major change in approach, and a characteristic way in which to fail to respond to it in time, creating a dangerous and unstable world. The need for such change will alter the social and commercial environment very considerably. The absence of such change will alter it even more.  The summary is available [here](http://www.chforum.org/scenario2012/paper-4-6.shtml) or at the foot of the link given in the header. The much richer paper is [here](http://www.chforum.org/scenario2012/paper-4-1.shtml).  These scenarios are the latest in a series in a project that dates back to 1995. Over a hundred people participated from every continent, over a six month period. The working documents are available on the web.


Thank you for pointing out one of the biggest flaws of that argument. To add to your points: Even if they used simple savings accounts for all their money (poor idea), the banks can still lend it as business/home loans... The money doesn't just site there.


Yes, and you get those benefits by having ECDSA end-entity (leaf) certs. The root and intermediate don't really matter; they (well, usually just the EE and intermediate) are simply sent along with the client certificate and the client does the calculations to verify the signature. Let's Encrypt has supported ECDSA leaf certs for some time.  ECDSA roots and intermediates are still nice, but they mostly decrease the size of the certificate chain and lower the initial connection time a little bit.


Sorry, but I am absolutely correct.  Fractional reserve lending (banking) is simply that when someone deposits money into a bank, the bank is allowed to loan that money out, so long as they keep a reserve.  If the reserve rate is 10% (it's much lower in reality), and someone deposits $100 into the bank, the bank can then loan out $90.  That is fractional reserve lending at its most basics.  Now fractional reserve lending does have a multiplier effect.  And this effect is exactly how I described it.  Let's go back to the example.  Person A deposits the $100, the bank then loans $90 to person B, person B spends it with person C, person C takes the money and deposits back to the bank.  Now the bank has the $100 cash back, $90 in loans and the $190 in deposits, so they need to hold onto $19 as a reserve and can loan out $81.  Assuming the money cycles with 100% efficiency, the bank can continue loaning out the same money until they are left with $1000 in deposits, $900 in loans, and the original $100 is the reserve.  This is the multiplier effect.


> I thought we could have a friendly conversation, but it seems like this went out the window;   Honestly, please stop crying.  If my original sin was not suffering fools well, then yours was wading into a conversation representing yourself as knowledgeable on the subject (and dismissive of the authors, who are demonstrably knowledgable).  >The author is just a sheltered university teacher that does not seem to know what reality looks like, and you seem to protect him which speaks volume about you as well.  Again, one of the authors is the long-time manager of the Yale endowment, possibly one of the most famous and best-performing in the world.  He has literally pioneered an entire approach to investment management.  *What have you done?*


I fell into a similar situation as you.  I spent a lot of time trying to understand this, and the instructions leave a lot to be desired.  What follows is my ultimate decisions, and my rationale.  My taxes have already been filed, so I will let you know if I get audited! 1.)  So in cases like this I try to understand the intent.  In this case section III is trying to understand if pre-tax money was added to your HSA that you were not entitled too.  As you describe, this does not apply to you.  I would think you should be ok not including section III (I didn't.) HOWEVER, I am not a tax-lawyer or even a lawyer!   2.) I do not believe these are medical distributions From the 8889 doc....   Qualified HSA distribution.   This is a distribution from a health flexible spending arrangement (FSA) or health reimbursement arrangement (HRA) that is contributed by your employer directly to your HSA. This is a one-time distribution from any of these arrangements. The distribution is treated as a rollover contribution to the HSA and is subject to the testing period rules shown below. See Pub. 969 for more information.   So I don't think you have anything to report here.   3.) As you have no excess this line can just be zero.   4.) From the 8889 doc This is a distribution from your traditional IRA or Roth IRA to your HSA in a direct trustee-to-trustee transfer.   Again, I don't think this applies to you so you can enter zero. 5.) This one is the easiest.  You can always get this money tax free if you use it for qualified medical expenses. From the 8889   Distributions from an HSA used exclusively to pay qualified medical expenses of the account beneficiary, spouse, or dependents are excludable from gross income. (See the line 15 instructions for information on medical expenses of dependents not claimed on your return.) You can receive distributions from an HSA even if you are not currently eligible to have contributions made to the HSA. However, any part of a distribution not used to pay qualified medical expenses is includible in gross income and is subject to an additional 20% tax unless an exception applies.   I hope this helps!


"This is the best tl;dr I could make, [original](http://www.reuters.com/article/us-global-markets/feds-great-unwinding-lifts-dollar-china-rating-gets-the-chop-idUSKCN1BW03Z?il=0) reduced by 83%. (I'm a bot) ***** > NEW YORK - The U.S. Treasury yield curve flattened to a two-and-a half month low and key world stock markets fell on Thursday, as investors assessed indications from the U.S. Federal Reserve that it may raise interest rates a third time this year.  > U.S. stocks pulled back from their all-time highs, though bank stocks cheered the prospect of higher interest rates which should help their profits.  > China&#039;s markets were already closed by the time it came but it kept the pressure on emerging markets stocks.   ***** [**Extended Summary**](http://np.reddit.com/r/autotldr/comments/71lga0/feds_great_unwinding_lifts_dollar_china_rating/) | [FAQ](http://np.reddit.com/r/autotldr/comments/31b9fm/faq_autotldr_bot/ ""Version 1.65, ~214093 tl;drs so far."") | [Feedback](http://np.reddit.com/message/compose?to=%23autotldr ""PM's and comments are monitored, constructive feedback is welcome."") | *Top* *keywords*: **percent**^#1 **market**^#2 **rate**^#3 **U.S.**^#4 **more**^#5"


You can’t say low buildings are popular if constructing tall ones is illegal, it doesn’t make sense.  Unless you’re a civil engineer, you’re not qualified to speak on whether or not it would be a good idea to build taller buildings in NZ.  If supply is artificially restricted, prices will rise. That’s econ 101. It’s the same reason prices are out of control in San Francisco.


"I'm not the OP, but I'm happy to give a brief overview.  Basically, pre-JOBS act there were a lot of limits on who could make an equity investment in a non-public company (i.e. a startup or even a hedge fund). There were some loopholes, but basically you had to be an 'accredited investor'. An accredited investor was someone who either has made $200,000+ ($300,000+ for married people) for the past two years and expects to make that much again in the current year. Alternately, they could have a net worth of $1 million, excluding the value of their primary residence. There was also a limit of 500 investors for a non-public company before the company had to become public (they didn't really have to IPO, but they did have to file their financials with the SEC, so the effect was basically the same). Finally, non-public companies were prohibited from seeking investment through advertising basically. They couldn't take out an ad in a paper or event send a mass email and say, ""Hey, we're looking to raise a $1 million funding round, contact us if you're interested!""  Okay, now after the JOBS Act.  The JOBS Act changed a) the number and type of investors who could make equity investments in a non-public company b) the regulation of advertising for investments.  Post-JOBS private companies could have 2,000 shareholders and 500 of those could be unaccredited (e.g. regular people like you and I). The change in the number of shareholders isn't really that important because it's just shareholders of record, but that's another post for another day. There are still some requirements for unaccredited shareholder, which I don't remember off the top of my head. I think you have to have income of at least $40k. They also changed the solicitation ban, so it's possible that you might see an ad in the WSJ someday for a startup company, venture capital fund, hedge fund, etc.  There are some other things it changed, but IMO those are the two most important."


Looking at the SPY option chain you posted, all of the call options with a strike price of 199.50 or higher have a bid of N/A.  That's because the ask price for all of those options is 0.01, and the bid price has to be less than the ask price, but buyers are not allowed to bid 0.00.  It's not accurate to say that no one wants to buy those calls - anyone who wanted to buy one of those calls would just buy it at the ask price of 0.01. So why are people selling those calls for just 0.01?  The further out of the money you go as you get closer to expiration, the less likely the underlying stock or ETF (SPY in this case) will go over the strike price, and the less you can sell it for.  SPY closed yesterday at about 195, and it would have to go up almost 2.5% today for the 199.50 calls to be in the money, and a 2.5% move in one day is extremely unlikely.


Here's the issue with LTC and, really, underwritten insurance in general; no one has a crystal ball.   Based on today's available rates where's the sweet spot to buy LTC? Probably right around the mid-60s, because you probably won't pay much in before you start gutting the carrier (assuming you can make it through underwriting in your mid-60s). The issue is, what happens when some life event changes your underwriting status?  Would you rather buy prematurely or be excluded entirely?  Those are generally your two options when it comes to individual LTC.  The underwriting eligibility window on LTC is very  narrow.  There's a very very small space between the best possible underwriting and being flatly declined.   Look for an LTC agent in your area.  Likely someone in your circle of friends and family will know a reputable/knowledgeable insurance agent who can run up some quotes at various underwriting classes.  Try to avoid looking at quotes for your age + 10 years to see what the quote will look like 10 years from now.  10 years from now the rate tables will be significantly different. Whether or not you should buy LTC now rather than waiting will depend on a whole host of other criteria.  Personally, if I was 50 and my biggest health concern was improving my run time and LTC is on my mind, I'd just pick up a policy now while I will likely be in a preferred underwriting class rather than waiting and hoping my health doesn't betray me. Obviously I'm a stranger on the internet and none of this is actual advice.  You should find an agent local to you and talk about your options and situation.


"I thought I'd see if the credit card companies had anything to say about this while trying to get merchants to sign up. I went to visa.com, clicked ""Run Your Business"" in the top nav, then ""Accept Visa Payments"". This page has a ""More benefits of accepting Visa"" link with an overlay (which I can't easily link directly to), which includes these lines: While the average cash transaction is $17, credit card purchases average $70 while debit card purchases average $36.² ² Visa Payment Panel Study (2Q11 to 1Q12 time period); Visa MARS Data: March 2015 – May 2015  That obviously doesn't tell the entire story (I suspect people are more likely to pull out cash when they're just buying a stick of gum, and more more likely to pull out a card when they're buying large electronics), but certainly there is some evidence from the credit card companies themselves that people spend more when using cards, which is one of the aspects they use to convince merchants to accept cards. I think the best evidence that people spend more is that more and more merchants accept cards. Accepting cards comes with some significant costs (though it's important to keep in mind that accepting cash can come with some significant costs as well). I suspect that merchants wouldn't do so unless the increased sales that they get for accepting cards makes up for the fees that they need to pay and the equipment they need to buy to accept them (not to mention the risks of chargebacks and the like)."


When you need cash fast, Denton Auto title loans can help you with a bad credit car loan that puts money in your pocket within a short period of time. The company offers easy basic steps for car title loan approval.


As a thought experiment I suppose we can ask where dividends came from and what would be different if they never existed. The VOC or Dutch East India Companywas the first to IPO, sell shares and also have a dividend.   There had been trade entrepot before the VOC, the bulk cog (type of sea-going ship) trade in the Hanseatic League, but the VOC innovation was to pool capital to build giant spice freighters - more expensive than a merchant partnership could likely finance (and stand to lose at sea) on their own but more efficient than the cogs and focused on a trade good with more value.  The Dutch Republic became rich by this capital formed to pursue high value trade. Without dividends this wouldn't have been an innovation in seventeenth century Europe and enterprises would be only as large as say the contemporary merchant family networks of Venice could finance.  So there could be large partnerships, family businesses and debt financed ventures but no corporations as such.


"Your lack of numbers makes the question a difficult read.  What I'm hearing is ""I want a house requiring a mortgage 8X my income.""  This alone is enough to suggest it's a bad deal. On a personal note, when my wife and I bought our house, it was 2.5X our income. 20% down, so the mortgage was exactly 2X income. And my wife was convinced we were in over our heads.  The use of a partner who will take a portion of the profit is interesting, but doesn't change the fact that you are proposing to live in a house that costs far too much for you. If you are determined to buy such a house, I'd suggest you do it with the plan to rent out a room or two to roommates. If you are living in an area where the cost of buying is so high, the demand for rentals is likely high as well.  Absent a plan to bring ion more income, I see no good coming from this. Heed the warnings posted in the other two answers as well."


With eSalesData working for you, your sales teams will be positioned to reach out to architects and architectural executives across the globe. Each of our lists passes through a rigid system of verification and cross-referencing immediately prior to delivery. As committed to client satisfaction as we are to data hygiene, we at eSalesData pledge to replace any and all purchased records that are found to be obsolete or inaccurate.


There's no point in posting something if no one can read it. I'm not paying for a subscription to something just because some guy posted it on reddit.  Mirror, copy-paste, or link to a free article. If you're going to post here under the pretense of delivering me information, then deliver me information.


Credit cards always charge for withdrawing cash, because if they didn't then you could have an indefinite loan and pay no interest simply by withdrawing enough cash each month to pay off the previous month's bill before the due date. It's nothing to do with using an ATM -- they'll charge you for getting a cash advance over the counter as well.


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Via twitter?  He'd have to have signed something and, based on the context of the discussion, it didn't appear they had any agreement whatsoever.  Yes, if a contract exists between them, NDA or otherwise, the circumstances can be altered by the contract, but that's not the context of OP.


">I was refreshing when he did it, so I saw him downvote me in real time.  So you are watching his computer screen?  As that is the only way you can see such a thing.  For all you know it could been someone else who saw your comment and downvoted it.  More so it could been very well reddit's spam filtering, as it will sometimes auto downvote comments as a counter measure on the up and down votes.  >Anyway, I suspect that FatStig is your alter account anyway, so you're essentially just a little contrarian who doesn't contribute to the discussion.  Do you like making up bullshit claims or something?  I only have this account and no I am not defending them.  I am more mocking you if you will over getting all upset over being downvoted.  >this is way harsher than I wanted to be with you  If you think how you being with me is harsh then you got to be the nice ""harshest"" person ever."


Congress sets the budget, not the President.  In 1981, the [97th Congress](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/97th_United_States_Congress) had a Democratic House and a Republican Senate.  In 1990, the [101st Congress](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/101st_United_States_Congress) had a Democratic majority in both the House and the Senate.  In 2001, the [107th Congress](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/107th_United_States_Congress) had a Republican majority in the House, and a Democratic majority in the Senate, albeit for a period where the Republicans had tie-breaking ability in the Senate.  Of these three, for only part of the 107th did the Republicans control Congress as a whole.  There may be criticism of the GOP on spending, but it's not based on the graph shown.


"Given the state of the economy, and the potential of a rough near future for us recent grads (i.e. on/off work), I would recommend holding off on large purchases while your life is in flux.  This includes both a NEW car and purchasing a house. My short answer is: you need a reliable vehicle, so purchase a used car, from a major dealer (yes this will add a fairly high premium, but easier financing), that is 4-5 years old, or more.  Barring the major dealer purchase, be sure to get a mechanic to check out a vehicle, many will offer this service for a reasonable payment.  As people point out, cars these days will run for another 100k miles.  You will NOT have to pay anywhere near $27,000 for this vehicle.  You may need to leverage your 10k for a loan if you choose to finance, but it should not be a problem, especially as you seem to imply an established credit history. In addition to this, start saving your money for the house you would like to eventually get.  We have no idea where you live, but, picking rough numbers, assuming a 2 year buy period, 20% down, and a $250,000 home, the down payment alone will require you to save ~$2,000/month starting now. Barring either of these options, max out your money to tax sheltered accounts (your Roth IRA, work 401k, or a regular IRA) asap.  Obviously, do not deplete your emergency fund, if anything, increase it.  10k can be burned through in a heartbeat. Long Answer:  I purchased a brand new car, right out of school, at a reasonable interest rate.  Like you, I can afford this vehicle, however, if someone were to come to me today (3.5 years later) and offer me the opportunity to take it back and purchase a 4-5 year used vehicle, at a 4-5 year used car price, albeit at a much higher interest rate (since I financed), it would be about a 0.02 second decision. I like my car, but, I'd like the differential cash savings between it and a reliable used car more.  $27,000 is also fairly expensive for a new vehicle, there are many, very nice vehicles, for 21-23k.  I still would not consider these priced appropriate to spend your money on them, but they exist.  However, you do very much need a reliable vehicle, and I think you should get one. On the home front, your $400 all inclusive rent is insanely cheap.  Many people spend more than that on property tax and PMI each year, so anyone who throws the ""You're throwing money away!"" line at you is blowing smoke to justify their own home purchase.  Take the money you would have spent on a mortgage, and squirrel it away.  Do your own due diligence and research the home market in your area and decide for yourself if you think home prices have bottomed and will stay there, have further to go, or are going to begin to rise.  That is a decision only you can make for yourself. I'd add a section about getting expenses under control, but you said you could save 50% of your takehome pay.  This is an order of magnitude above the average.  Good job.  Try doing 50% for 4 months, then calculate your actual amount.  Then try to beat it."


"Here's a number-crunching example of how the ""Zero interest rate"" offer is misleading. Suppose the offer is that a car ""costs $24,000.00 with zero percent financing over 24 months""  or as an alternative, ""$3,000.00 off for cash"". Ignore the hype:  the quoted prices and the quoted interest rates.  Look at what really happens to two people who take advantage of the two offers, One person hands over $21,000.00 cash, and leaves with the new car. The second promises to make 24 payments of $1000.00, one a month, starting in one month's time, and also leaves with the same make and model new car. The two people have received exactly the same benefit, so the two payment schemes must have the same value. A mortgage program will tell you that paying off a $21,000.00 loan by making 24 monthly payments of $1000.00 requires an interest rate of 1.10% a month, or an effective annual rate of 14.03%."


"The complacency, apathy, and ignorance of the majority of Americans is the only reason the economic inequality in America was ever able to reach such devastating proportions. The business culture in this country is ruining average quality of life, and I fundamentally do not believe that you are okay with that. And if you are, then you're just adding to the problem by either being sympathetic towards a delusion or an active apologist for greed, and thus put yourself in the category of people to be on the receiving end of that ""fuck you""."


"Before the IARC listed RoundUp as a probable carcinogen, all other agencies and research were unable to find a link between RoundUp and cancer.  Now we learn that the IARC ignored evidence that RoundUp doesn't cause cancer that was done by one of their own scientists.  I'm not a fan of Monsanto's business practices, but when you ignore scientific evidence because it doesn't match what you ""feel"" about the company and their products, then you are no different than a climate change denier.  http://www.motherjones.com/environment/2017/06/monsanto-roundup-glyphosate-cancer-who/"


"This is what is called ""weasel words"". They're trying to put some authority into their ad, but since they don't have any - they're putting meaningless words that sound important. Monetary policy is the state/central bank policy to control the supply of the available currency. Cannot think of a way to connect it to private investments."


.. No  If I can make a job offer for $7 per hour and people apply.. Why would I ever pay more? I'm not forcing people to apply. They want the job. If $7 an hour is good enough for the workers who apply, then it's good enough for me. Why pay more when I can pay less? I'll need to hire people soon for packing and shipping and you bet I'll be paying the state minimum wage because I know I'll have people applying to work.


I think the point is that there is something structurally wrong with a company if it has billable orders a year and a half out, for a super -premium priced product, and it still can't make money.  It's like, what is the turning point we are waiting for? I don't know that startup apologies are applicable when you have an 18-month lead time for six-figure cars. You can't claim that you're still trying to build a customer base with that kind of wait list.  You can't talk about economies of scale, not when you can't even service your existing customers, especially not with this kind of product.  If an 18-month waitlist of customers ready and eager to pay the super-premium asking price is not enough to break even, what would be?


I think if there were evidence that the company was overvalued there would be a rather large correction.  The muted response is nothing more than a sigh of relief from the market.  The task that Tesla has to complete to maintain its valuation is staggering.


"Sorry to say it this blunt, but you really have no idea about his true nature. You know what others wrote or said about him. Not him personally.  I think this whole debate is rather moronic. We have a lot of hearsay about all the ""bad"" things Jobs did. Think about your own life. Think about how people who don't like you could easily describe your actions as evil. Not even by lying, just by leaving out certain parts.  I don't know if Jobs was an asshole or a nice guy. And I don't give a shit. Why would I? I think this debate is mostly about linkbait and fanboys going at each other. (""My hero is the best!"", ""No, your hero is evil!"")  Please don't drag this idiotic debate here."


See, unlike you, I know the general ordinances regarding taxis in my area backwards and forwards because I worked in the industry for eight years. It is utterly clear that Uber/Lyft are taxis in that they transport people for payment. The only exceptions are hotel airport shuttles, and buses that fall under another classification.


"I have always found that the ""free"" planners are just salesmen pointing you in their best interests. Not that it won't get you a good deal in the processes, but, in my experience, they usually just recommend products that give them the best commission, finders fee, kickback, whatever.  Flat fee financial planners are not really to my liking either. This is a taste thing, but generally, I feel like now that they have my fee, what interest do they have in taking care of me. That doesn't mean that they don't give good advise however. They may be a good first step. Percentage based financial planners, those that charge a percentage of assets under management, are my recommendation. The more money they make me the more money they make. This seems to work out quite well.  Whatever you do, you need to be aware that financial planners are not just about recommending products, or saving money. That's part of it, but a good planner will also help you look at monthly budgets, current costs, liabilities, and investments. You want to look for someone that you can basically tell your goal to - ""I want to have x amount of money saved for y date,"" for example, or ""I want to reduce my bills by z amount in x months"".  Run from any planner that looks only at the large sum as the ""solution"" or only source of money. You want a planner that will look at your first house mortgage(s), care loans, income, other investments, etc. and come up with a full plan for everything.  If you're only trying to invest the new house money, and that's it, you're better off just sticking with Google and some research on your own."


It depends on the terms of the mortgage. Generally speaking, residential mortgages specifically prohibit letting out a property without the bank's express permission -- but as you say, that tends to assume that the whole property is being let, not just a part of it. Conversely, buy-to-let mortgages generally prohibit living in the property yourself! The final arbiter as to what is allowed under a mortgage is the mortgage provider; so the safest option is to speak to one or more banks, and see what they say. (Note that if you're changing the use of part of a property from business to residential, you may need to apply for permission; check with your local council.)


"The previous answers make valid points regarding the risks, and why you can't reasonably compare trading for profit/loss to a roll of the die. This answer looks at the math instead. Your assumption: I have an equal probability to make a profit or a loss. Is incorrect, for the reasons stated in other answers. However, the answer to your question: Can I also assume that probabilistically speaking, a trader cannot do worst than random? Is ""yes"". But only because the question is flawed. Consequently it's throwing people in all directions with their answers. But quite simply, in a truly random environment the worst case scenario, no matter how improbable, is that you lose over and over again until you have nothing left. This can happen in sequential rolls of the dice AND in trading securities/bonds/whatever. You could guess wrong for every roll of the die AND all of your stock picks could become worthless. Both outcomes result in $0 (assuming you do not gamble with credit). Tell me, which $0 is ""worse""? Given the infinite number of plays that ""random"" implies, the chance of losing your entire bankroll exists in both scenarios, and that is enough by itself to make neither option ""worse"" than the other. Of course, the opposite is also true. You could only pick winners, with an unlimited upside potential, but again that could happen with either dice rolls or stock picks. It's just highly improbable. my chances cannot be worse than random and if my trading system has an edge that is greater than the percentage of the transaction that is transaction cost, then I am probabilistically likely to make a profit? Nope. This is where it all falls apart. Just because your chances of losing it all are similarly improbable, does not make you more likely to win with one method or the other. Regression to the mean, when given infinite, truly random outcomes, makes it impossible to ""have an edge"". Also, ""probabilistically"" isn't a word, but ""probably"" is."


Putting Chris's comment as an answer: It's your income, not your spouse's income. You can give her the money, but you'll still be paying tax on it To elaborate more - the general principle of income taxation is that income is taxed when received, and specific expenditures can be deducted. If you giving the money to your spouse is not one of this specific deductibles - then it is not deductible. Your income, nevertheless, is still taxed to you - as you're the one to receive it.


"Not sure if romney's logic is,""Hey! I broke it, only I know how to fix it!"" or, ""Elect me so I can drag American pay down to third world status and get those jobs back!""  Either way, it sure takes a lot of balls to claim “If I’m president of the United States, [outsourcing jobs  overseas is] going to end,” when you were personally responsible for much of it."


>Better for you and for me, yes, but not for the disadvantaged without benefactors. That's the situation I was in.   That wasn't exactly my point. I'm all for helping people, and social security does help people, and I am very happy it helped you - I'm not disputing that.   What I'm saying is that what you got from social security is not as good as what you would have got from a $500,000 - $1,000,000 term life insurance policy. For people in there 20s, in good health, that kind of policy should be $20-$40/month, which could easily be bought with the money we otherwise spend on social security. (Now... whether parents would actually be responsible enough to buy term life insurance and put money towards retirement if we didn't have social security is a WHOOOOOOOOOLE nother discussion.)  That's all I'm saying - I'd rather buy term life and invest for my own retirement because me and my family will come out ahead of where social security will put us. I'm really not a financial wizard, and I have to believe that this type of plan would work well for everyone else, too.


There's nothing particularly special about a two million dollar cheque. While they aren't commonplace, the bank certainly has experience with them. Many ATMs won't allow a deposit of that size but the bank cashiers will certainly accept them. They will typically get a supervisor to sign off on the deposit and may ask about the source of the money, for fraud prevention reasons. They may be held for longer than a smaller cheque if the bank manager chooses to do so. If there's nothing remotely suspicious (for example, it is a cheque from an insurance company for an expected payout), you should expect it will clear in about a week. On the other hand, if it is a cheque from a bank in another country and the bank manager has any reason to suspect it may not be legitimate, they may hold it for a month or more. Even then, you are not guaranteed the cheque was legitimate. This is used in a common scam.


Found another one. Not sure if they ship to US  http://www.iceplc.com/


Although this scheme is likely to get shut down rather quickly by either your broker or credit card company some points you seem to have missed out on. Properly timed you should be able to get ~55 days of grace period (30 day billing cycle + 25 day grace period) assuming you pay everything off every month and charge immediately following the statement date.  You will need to avoid certain card issuers that code all transactions with financial institutions as cash advances (Citibank in paticular). If it is possible it would be in your best interest to lower cash advance limits to 0 to avoid any chance of cash advance fees. If your credit card attempts to process it as a cash advance the transaction will just be declined and you won't be out anything. Otherwise one cash advance fee will eat several months worth of profits. As far as investments with guaranteed principal goes the only thing you can realistically do is money market accounts and maybe treasury notes. Anything else and the short term price fluctuation may leave you high and dry. If this scheme were to work you would be much better off attempting to get rewards for the purchases than anything you could invest in. If you used a 2% card and churned it every month you would be looking at a 24% return on credit card rewards. Even 1% rewards gives you a 12% annual return which is going to beat anything you could invest the money in.


I would never trade after hours and I have 30 years of trading experience.  It is a very volatile emotion driven market without a lot of the big players that arbitrage wrong pricing.   If I were you I would simply use limit orders you input while the market is closed.   If you want to get kute you can put in low-ball offers (and vice versa) to see if they get filled in the volatility at market open.  Then check in (when?) when you wake up (or before you go to bed, etc) and revise the limit if not filled.   In other words don't 'trade'.  Know what your company is worth and put in orders that reflect that.


Was Denninger ever not fed up? Dude seems to be in a perpetual state of rage. Kind of amazing that he has time to run a business what with all the blogging, TV interviews, radio shows, book-writing, etc. Much of what he says makes sense but it's hard to take him seriously when his presentation is so juvenile.


On average, the market will be down 1 year out of 4. 26 of the last 100 years on the S&P were negative. The Roth conversion offers a unique opportunity to convert early in the year, and decide at tax time next year whether you are happy with the result. Of course, if your fund or stock is up, you are likely better off, paying the $1250 tax on the $5000 conversion that's now worth $6000 or more. If it's down, you can recharacterize. The volatility of the market helps makes this process more attractive. If my converted shares dropped quite a bit, the recharacterization is far more desirable than a small drop or no drop at all. Of course we don't wish for that drop, any more than we wish for our house to burn down to make our insurance pay off.  To be clear, you'll benefit from a conversion she the market goes up. The downturn only lets you reverse the bad move.


"To me it seems much easier to amazon yes, but much less beneficial to local economies. These new rules will have an effect similar to the way that Walmart contributed to the decline of ""mom n pop"" shops, taking money away from people in the communities and into the pockets of shareholders and executives."


"Thanks for bringing up gift economies. The ""barter-to-credit story"", as you call it, is a good just-so story for explaining our current monetary system, but it's not how it actually happened. It's important to emphasize that.  The gift economy is the original economy. It's used in small groups,bands or tribes of up to ~100 people, where you keep how much each person owes you in your head. These peoples don't have writing, remember.  The problem with the gift economy is that it doesn't scale. Once you've got more than a couple hundred people or so (basically, Dunbar's number), or too many tradable goods and services, it starts to break down. People can't keep track of their debts anymore, and it becomes harder to agree on prices.  Random aside: It's interesting to look at communism with this in mind, because essentially it's a return to something very much like a gift economy, but on a grand scale. But despite modern records-keeping and communication, it failed because we still can't coordinate such a large economy without some sort of market to set prices."


well Russia is the biggest importer of meat and fruits from the EU. so yeah, it kinda hurts... but I don't really think anything will change. once those sectors get hurt, subsidies will poor in so ppl won't lose jobs. sure it hurts, a bit, but on large scale it's rather a joke.  on the other hand, 12 years ago when the US renamed French fries to freedom fries, and german imports were rejects for over 3 month, that was more childish than trade sanctions.


"The translation scheme is detailed in IRS Publication 15, ""Employer's Tax Guide"". For the 2010 version, the information is in Section 16 on Page 37. There are two ways that employers can calculate the withheld tax amount: wage bracket and percentage. Alternatively, they can also use one of the methods defined in IRS Publication 15-A. I'll assume the person making $60k/yr with 10 allowances is paid monthly ($5000/period) and married. Using the wage bracket method, the amount withheld for federal taxes would be $83 per pay period. Using the percentage method, it would be $81.23 per pay period. I don't recommend that you use this information to determine how to fill out your W-4. The IRS provides a special online calculator for that purpose, which I have always found quite accurate. Note: ""allowances"" are not the same as ""dependents""; ""allowances"" are a more realistic estimation of your tax deductions, taking into consideration much more than just your dependents."


Email marketing has numerous advantages to the business.  It's is very growable for any business. You can send marketing messages at once to thousands of clients, which helps you to save time. If you want to Email marketing gainesville fl for your small business, then you can visit our website. We will provide you many internet marketing campaigns. Our service packeges are  less expensive compared to other marketing company.


You're reading what you want, not what I wrote. I didn't say we should send those 2,000,000 people home. I said there is no reason to **increase** spending on the military. For 2018, the proposal is to spend $10 billion on developing and building new planes, while only $300 million is for pay raises and new recruits. If you're telling me that $10 billion in building aircraft (high skilled labor jobs) will help the same number of people as putting $10 billion towards, say, building domestic *infrastructure* (low-skilled labor jobs), you're out of your mind.


I will respectfully disagree with you on the need for a social safety net and will cite the obvious example in Iceland.  Of course, self-interest (political, monetary) will not allow it to happen. The entire thing is beyond ridiculous at this stage. Then again, I am but a simple trader and have no desire to be an analyst, so what do I know. I just take the trades.


It has been so particularly open-handed with people like you to offer easily what exactly many of us would've supplied as an e-book to end up making some dough for themselves, primarily now that you might well have done it in the event you wanted.


It depends on why the stocks crashed. If this happened because interest rates shot up, bonds will suffer also. On the other hand, stocks could be crashing because economic growth (and hence earnings) are disappointing. This pulls down interest rates and lifts bonds.


Courts don't do justice - courts do law. Every rule has its own twists. While patenting is trying to protect real innovators from copycats it is also in a way covering patent trolls and allowing them to to do justice. Its just like rights - too little hurts people, too many makes the whole system look like everybody is on drugs. Be careful what you wish :-)


The Federal Reserve Bank publishes exchange rate data in their H.10 release. It is daily, not minute by minute. The Fed says this about their data: About the Release The H.10 weekly release contains daily rates of   exchange of major currencies against the U.S. dollar. The data are   noon buying rates in New York for cable transfers payable in the   listed currencies. The rates have been certified by the Federal   Reserve Bank of New York for customs purposes as required by section   522 of the amended Tariff Act of 1930. The historical EURUSD rates for the value of 1 EURO in US$ are at: http://www.federalreserve.gov/releases/h10/hist/dat00_eu.htm If you need to know USDEUR the value of 1 US$ in EUROS use division 1.0/EURUSD.


"As cars age, the amount of deprecation tends to decrease.  You have already lost between 19 and 17K on the car in the past 3.5 years.  You can't lose that much on that car ever again!  First because it is not worth that much.  Second, because even if the engine blows up, or it is totaled you can always get about $300-$400 for it. If you trade this car for a newer model the same exact scenario is likely to happen again.  In three years (or so) the car will lose half its value.  If you happen to stick the same price point, and are comfortable with $5000/year going ""out the window"", then it might be time to trade up. You can get a decent idea of what your car will be worth in the 2.5 years by seeing what a 2006 with 116K miles on it.  One option is to keep driving it after it is paid off.  With putting a little money into it, and having it detailed every once in a while it can feel like a pretty sweet ride for many years and miles to come.  Even if you have maintenance costs, you won't have a car payment.  How sweet would that be?"


Why are doctors so overworked? Maybe their AMA cartel restricting new entry is to blame. They also lobby to restrict the number of procedures that nurses can legally perform and limit the number of medical schools. This is a huge factor in the cost of health care in the United States.


From what I know it's not that simple for multitude of reasons.  1. Some don't want to make the transition because family/community reasons (e.g. My grandfather did it, my dad did it, so I gotta do it too)  2. Some people take pride in coal mining (e.g. Do hard labor and put the food on the table).  3. Lots of people in these mining/rural areas are afflicted with drug addiction (i.e. cocaine) and are basically unemployable.  4. As the article mentioned, few, if any, training programs.


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I have recently started using Transferwise to transfer money between the U.K. and The Netherlands. Transferwise has lower fees than other companies.  They use a pseudo-peer-to-peer money transfer system.  When person A transfers £ to €, and person B transfers € to £, they effectively cancel these two agains teach other, which significantly lowers exchange fees for both A and B. I am not affiliated with Transferwise other than as a customer.


Very true. Just open your eyes. We no longer have soup lines, they just pass out debit cards now. You want to see it first hand try a job as a grocery checker in middle america, that is if you can find one to begin with.


I work in marketing. Finance is probably the safest route with regards to opportunity and stability. Marketing can be expendable. Finance usually can't.   That being said, it really depends on your personality type. Marketing people and Finance people are two different breeds. If you're the type that likes a very linear, matter-of-fact field, stick to finance where numbers don't lie.   If your more of an extrovert who likes to think creatively in a field of a lot of unknowns, marketing may be the way to go.


"Monkey,  Big four accounting firms have FRM departments. Maybe you could apply to one of those.  FRM is mostly about Credit Risk (Loans, advances, receivables) and Market Risk (IR, FX).   I'm trying to ""break into"" credit risk myself, but materials are difficult to find. It's about modeling portfolio default probabilities and losses given default. You'll impress with basic programming and advanced prob&stats.  Can you ask your professor to recommend a book on Credit Risk?   For Market Risk, I know that a lot of the work guys do is pricing IR and FX swaps in Bloomberg. Take a class in derivatives, if you can."


Because this is Money.SE and you're connecting it to offspring, I'd think about a discussion with them to get their agreements. From my perspective, anything (my wife and) I have will go to offspring in the end. As such, everything borrowed and not repaid simply reduces the estate by that much. Among multiple offspring, such reductions should be against the borrower rather than spreading it out. That should be accounted for in whatever will is created. This would be the discussion point. It might also be discussed how or even if any interest should accrue for unpaid amounts. If, for example, a 1% APR is agreed upon for unpaid loans, then the final principle+interest amount is taken off of the borrower's inheritance. Existing outstanding loans might (or might not!) be useful examples for sample calculations if desired or needed. (If nothing else, they might serve as reminders that loans were not forgotten.) By having such a discussion, you can show that you are trying to plan for a fair distribution of your estate, perhaps thereby sidestepping any concern about charging interest to offspring for repaid loans. At the same time, you're handing over some financial responsibility, giving them a power of personal choice, which seems to be a part of what you're concerned about. Once such a discussion is started, it's possible that any question of interest will resolve itself naturally. The discussion almost necessarily must include all offspring at once. One will find it harder to negotiate from a standpoint of pure self-interest without objection from another. Think beforehand about what will be said and about what responses might come. Think things through as much as you can.


Some of the factors that will act on house prices are: There will likely be a recession in that country, which will lower incomes and probably lower housing prices. It will likely be harder to get credit in that country so that too will increase demand and depress demand for housing (cf the USA in 2010.) If Greece leaves the Euro, that will possibly depress future economic growth, through decreased trade and investment, and possibly decreased transfer payments. Eventually the budget will need to come back into balanced which also is likely to push down house prices. In some European countries (most famously Spain) there's been a lot of speculative building which is likely to hang over the market. Both countries have governance and mandate problems, and who knows how long or how much turmoil it will take to sort that out. Some of these factors may already be priced in, and perhaps prices are already near what will turn out to be the low. In the Euro zone you have the nearly unprecedented situation of the countries being very strongly tied into another currency, so the typical exchange-rate movements that played out in Argentina cannot act here.  A lot will depend on whether the countries are bailed out, or leave the Euro (and if so how), etc.  Typically inflation has been a knock-on effect of the exchange rate moves so it's hard to see if that will happen in Greece. Looking back from 2031, buying in southern Europe in 2011 may turn out to be a good investment.  But I don't think you could reasonably call it a safe defensive investment.


The 'standard' thing to do, after double checking your numbers to see if you can find or remember the actual reason for the discrepancy is to use an Income account for 'extra' money and an expense account for 'lost' money. The Imbalance account is meant as a temporary placeholder for monies not yet put into their right account. I personally use Income:Other Income for such found money, and Expenses:Adjustment for lost money.


"First they failed miserably to meet their Windows 10 adoption goals, and now they've fired a bunch of people to ""refocus"".  Microsoft should abandon the Windows Kernel. They should adopt a variety of *nix, the way Apple did, and then give Windows away as a free Desktop Environment like KDE and Gnome.   Then they can focus on their applications. Office, exchange, and so on, which is where their profits have been coming from for the last several years. They could market and sell those apps to people on all platforms, which would probably help their sales.  Microsoft is in a dangerous situation. They belong to an old model, before open source took off. Microsoft became huge when computers were out of reach from the general public. They had early access to the machines which gave them an edge. Now everyone is on equal footing and the philosophy of freely sharing software tools to enrich everyone's lives is becoming more popular than the idea of making money from software.  If Microsoft can't do something to keep their products ""worth buying"" in the face of completely capable and free competition, they're going to shrink a lot.   For many of us Microsoft's products stop being worthwhile several years ago. They don't currently offer anything that can't be had elsewhere for free, and their products are not really any easier or more stable or reliable than the competition, despite their marketing efforts to convince you otherwise."


I think even the kids are experiencing franchise fatigue.  Lego has been pretty tied to the big franchises with DC/Marvel/Star Wars taking up a huge percentage of their products.  My son is getting burnt out on all those and really seems to be yearning for something new.  We already have like 20 Lego batmen floating around the house, what's so exciting about picking up another?


According to the 401K information from the IRS' website, it seems that you could seemingly get away with a salary as low as $53,000. It's tough, and I'd suggest speaking with an Accounting professional to get the clear answers, because as Brick's answer suggests, the IRS isn't super clear about it.  An excerpt from a separate page regarding 401K contributions: The annual additions paid to a participant’s account cannot exceed the   lesser of: There are separate, smaller limits for SIMPLE 401(k) plans. Example 1: Greg, 46, is employed by an employer with a 401(k) plan and   he also works as an independent contractor for an unrelated business.   Greg sets up a solo 401(k) plan for his independent contracting   business. Greg contributes the maximum amount to his employer’s 401(k)   plan for 2015, $18,000. Greg would also like to contribute the maximum   amount to his solo 401(k) plan. He is not able to make further   elective deferrals to his solo 401(k) plan because he has already   contributed his personal maximum, $18,000. He has enough earned income   from his business to contribute the overall maximum for the year,   $53,000. Greg can make a nonelective contribution of $53,000 to his   solo 401(k) plan. This limit is not reduced by the elective deferrals   under his employer’s plan because the limit on annual additions   applies to each plan separately. https://www.irs.gov/retirement-plans/plan-participant-employee/retirement-topics-401k-and-profit-sharing-plan-contribution-limits


And that's your choice man just because you don't like the deal doesn't make it a scam. Everyone knows what's going on going into the deal.   Also you should know I'm not the one downvoting you I just disagree with you.


"The American Express Centurion Card (the ""Black Card"") is for extremely wealthy people who like to show off how much they spend. There are no cash back benefits like you have with traditional rewards cards. The benefits are all geared toward spending more money, not saving money.   For example, the benefits include a personal travel agent, personal shoppers at high end stores, elite status with airlines and hotels, etc.  There are some benefits that you could put a dollar value on. For example, first class upgrades and complementary companion airline tickets. If you like to fly first class and you do a lot of flying, it is conceivable that you could come out ahead.  However, someone that does that much flying has probably already achieved elite frequent flyer status and enjoys regular upgrades without the Black card. In my opinion, it is pretty difficult to justify the initiation and annual fees of this card as anything but a luxury."


"When a question is phrased this way, i.e. ""for tax purposes"" I'm compelled to advise - Don't let the tax tail wag the investing dog.  In theory, one can create a loss, up to the $3K, and take it against ordinary income. When sold, the gains may be long term and be at a lower rate. In reality, if you are out of the stock for the required 30 days, it will shoot up in price. If you double up, as LittleAdv correctly offers, it will drop over the 30 days and negate any benefit. The investing dog's water bowl is half full."


Serious question - I don't work in finance, but I always hear how the big finance firms only hire the best and brightest and if they don't know anything, they'll pick it up quickly. How is it possible that those who work in derivatives find it that difficult to explain them. resistite's definition of derivatives is essentially what is taught to any beginner, so I don't quite understand how anyone with a finance background would find it difficult to explain (at least at a very general level).


It's very simple.  Use USDSGD.  Here's why: Presenting profits/losses in other currencies or denominations can be useful if you want to sketch out the profit/loss you made due to foreign currency exposure but depending on the audience of your app this may sometimes confuse people (like yourself).


">we do have a lot if people saying ""Muslims are bad and boooh Islam.""   Because it's considered ""hate speech"". Don't dance around the topic.  > To your WWII comment. This was the darkest time of German History ...  Which you need to avoid from ever happening again. By allowing free speech.  Yes, Germans (I have many relatives in Germany) are more open than ever, but if we continue with this ""hate speech"" nonsense, Germany will become like Sweden.  As you know, Sweden used to be the most open and free country the world. Now, a 78 years old Swedish lady is facing a lawsuit because she dared to say that Muslim urinate in the street.  **What makes you sure that Germany will not becomes today's Sweden?**"


See my comment for some discussion of why one might choose an identical fund over an ETF.  As to why someone would choose the higher cost fund in this instance ... The Admiral Shares version of the fund (VFIAX) has the same expense ratio as the ETF but has a minimum investment of $10K.  Some investors may want to eventually own the Admiral Shares fund but do not yet have $10K.  If they begin with the Investor Shares now and then convert to Admiral later, that conversion will be a non-taxable event.  If, however, they start with ETF shares now and then sell them later to buy the fund, that sale will be a taxable event. Vanguard ETFs are only commission-free to Vanguard clients using Vanguard Brokerage Services.  Some investors using other brokers may face all sorts of penalties for purchasing third-party ETFs.  Some retirement plan participants (either at Vanguard or another broker) may not even be allowed to purchase ETFs.


The answer seems to depend on where you live.  Perhaps you already found this, but the summary from the IRS is: The insurance laws in some states do not allow a corporation to purchase group health insurance when the corporation only has one employee. Therefore, if the shareholder was the sole corporate employee, the shareholder had to purchase his health insurance in his own name. The IRS issued Notice 2008-1, which ruled that under certain situations the shareholder would be allowed an above-the-line deduction even if the health insurance policy was purchased in the name of the shareholder. Notice 2008-1 provided four examples, including three examples in which the shareholder purchased the health insurance and one in which the S corporation purchased the health insurance. Notice 2008-1 states that if the shareholder purchased the health insurance in his own name and paid for it with his own funds, the shareholder would not be allowed an above-the-line deduction. On the other hand, if the shareholder purchased the health insurance in his own name but the S corporation either directly paid for the health insurance or reimbursed the shareholder for the health insurance and also included the premium payment in the shareholder’s W-2, the shareholder would be allowed an above-the-line deduction. The bottom line is that in order for a shareholder to claim an above-the-line deduction, the health insurance premiums must ultimately be paid by the S corporation and must be reported as taxable compensation in the shareholder’s W-2. https://www.irs.gov/Businesses/Small-Businesses-&-Self-Employed/S-Corporation-Compensation-and-Medical-Insurance-Issues I understand this to mean that you can only get the deduction in your case (having purchased it in your own name) if your state does not allow your S-Corp to purchase a group health plan because you only have one employee. (I don't know specifically if Illinois fits that description or not.)  In addition, there are rules about reporting health insurance premiums for taxes for S-Corp share members that you should also check.  Personally, I think that it's complicated enough that advice from a CPA or other tax advisor specific to your situation would be worth the cost.


Lifecycle costs, opportunity costs, rate of returns, net present value, internal rate of return, etc are all business terms taught to business professionals because those very ideas are a product of the business profession.   Saying all bean counters don't understand the very basic principles that their craft has been built upon because you work with people who think are sub-par is a little generalizing. Like me saying that all engineers are self important assholes because I read your comment.


A reason that the wealth has never, and will never, trickle down is because as society goes on, the wealth transfer only happens between upper tiers of society.  It USED to be that the rich would spend their money, and many people would benefit from it in a society. Small business owners were pretty much all their were, and the only people who had monopolies were the rail and oil lines.  As time went on, more major organizations sprang up, for news, food, computers, etc. Now wealth transfers only between the top tiers and the lower tiers only get the crumbs the higher tier chooses to pay them, which is significantly less than they used to. Whereas employees used to cost a reasonable value to a company, they are now almost entirely expendable assets (exceptions made for certain portions of history).  I am of the opinion that much like history, the cycle is going to repeat shortly, the Occupy Wall Street being a precursor to another wage fight between the rich and poor. With the dissemination of knowledge being much easier, more people are getting the general idea that they're getting shafted. They want to be rich, although not necessarily because the rich are wealthy, they simply want to be able to increase their class mobility. That's been dying a slow death for the past 20 years, and quite solidified by the bank bail out.  It's unfortunate a sizable portion of the population actually sides with the 1% of people actively preventing them from moving up, gaining more mobility and improving the quality of their life. I sincerely hope that at some point in the near future people realize this before the lower class goes apeshit and starts busting heads.


Well, the figures are from 2002-2003. 2015 alone there were from different sources 1.5-1.7 million illegals entering Europe. The number of people of immigrant origin is larger in the EU than in the US. I'll give you online sources once I am able to do it. Can't spend time on it now.  I'm not really in this to win a debate, rather really curious of the reason behind the phenomena.   I strongly suspect an ideological and political choice. Hence this becomes among other things a question of morality.


"This is a good question and my answer below, being the first rationale that crossed my mind, is far from fleshed-out. It's just a reply based on many books on the historical cycles of markets and it's something I've discussed at work (I work in finance).   Historically we can observe that periods of financial ""booms"" entailing high valuations of public equities tend to lead to lower returns. It's a fairly simplistic notion, but if you're paying more now for something - when it's potentially close to a high water mark - then you're returns in the short term are likely to be somewhat stunted. Returns from the underlying companies have a hard time keeping up with high valuations such that investors aren't likely to see a bountiful return in the short run."


This is often the case where traders are closing out short positions they don't want to hold overnight, for a variety of reasons that matter to them.  Most frequently, this is from day traders or high-frequency traders settling their accounts before the markets close.


"Yellow taxis and Ubers in NYC are TWO TOTALLY different tiers of cabs. I think you're confused with Uber vs Local Car Service companies: which BOTH are FHV vehicles (TLC).   Yellow taxis are the only cabs that can pick up street hails (which what the medallion is for.) Uber and all FHV vehicles (including local car service/limo companies) are strictly on a pre-arraigned booking contingent through the base. An Uber can never pick up a street hail. And, contrast, yellow cabs will never be ""phoned"" to pick up.   I think you need to research the amount of FHV vehicles there have been since the 60's. That number has always been higher than yellow taxis.   Get yer facts straight!!"


Definitely will be appealed several times throughout the litigation, but if it gets through a jury trial, the jury gets a lot of deference on what they determine damages are. As long as they aren't too ridiculous, higher courts will uphold big payouts.


Whether applying for a job or buying a house, Offer a more specific price like $72,500, which tells them you thought hard about the price. $70K is too 'round' of a number. Additionally, your financial ability/condition can be a factor too. If you have 20% down, and your Realtor assures the seller that your transaction will go down without a hitch, and you'll be approved for a mortgage, they may accept your offer of $72,500 over the other guys $78K offer if [s]he has less desirable finances. Good Luck!


"This is the best tl;dr I could make, [original](https://www.commondreams.org/news/2017/08/11/universal-basic-income-needed-break-addiction-economic-growth-killing-us) reduced by 70%. (I'm a bot) ***** > As some tech giants throw their weight behind the idea of a universal basic income, one anthropologist says it&#039;s a key component of a strategy to break the &quot;Addiction to economic growth [that] is killing us&quot; and the planet.  > The idea of a universal basic income is gaining attention in the U.S. thanks to a recent resolution put forth in Hawaii, and Philip Alston, U.N. Special Rapporteur on extreme poverty and human rights, said earlier this summer that a basic income is &quot;a bold and imaginative solution&quot; amidst growing economic insecurity.  > Laura Williams of the U.K.-based advocacy group Global Justice Now recently asked, &quot;Has the time for universal basic income come?&quot;.   ***** [**Extended Summary**](http://np.reddit.com/r/autotldr/comments/6tlybg/jason_hickel_ubi_needed_to_break_addiction_to/) | [FAQ](http://np.reddit.com/r/autotldr/comments/31b9fm/faq_autotldr_bot/ ""Version 1.65, ~190425 tl;drs so far."") | [Feedback](http://np.reddit.com/message/compose?to=%23autotldr ""PM's and comments are monitored, constructive feedback is welcome."") | *Top* *keywords*: **basic**^#1 **income**^#2 **Hickel**^#3 **economic**^#4 **planet**^#5"


I lost 5 years to my mental health, as well as many many people in my life (being bipolar has all sorts of nasty side effects, both on the up and down).  It can be beaten. I promise you, it can. I'm not here to promise you that you can be an astronaut or president, but then again, most people don't end up there. Even with that said, I'm not telling you it's impossible. Don't let anyone tell you that- because if you listen, then they're right.  My depression was beaten through forced activity. Sitting idle let the cobwebs thicken and the blood pump ever more slowly. By forced I mean one small productive task every 10 days- such as going to the grocery store. There were some days I ran out of food and couldn't bring myself to talk to a stranger on the phone to order delivery. Dark days.  Hang tough. Mental health is just below the surface of society, but I'm hoping the national conversation starts soon. So many of us hide this terrible burden and our healthcare system is failing everyone. Don't lose hope.


MoneyDashboard or XeroPersonal  are similar sites to Mint.com  MoneyDashboard is planning on releasing an Android App XeroPersonal is also in development of an Android App  For more details about the differences between the two apps, see this Web App question


> This is further supported by the fact that when I go into a Costco it's nearly impossible to find anyone to help me, and when I do, they are just about useless.  All part of the business model. They'd have to hire more people if you were expected to get easy help from employees.


"This is great. The ACA was objectively bad for healthcare/insurance companies. Now that it's a huge mess, people are looking to blame the GOP. ""It's republicans' fault Obamacare failed"" is ludicrous. It's more likely that the ACA was designed to fail.  But why would our lord and savior Barack Obama do something like that? No way would the Democrats ever do something malicious. They're the party of the People! The downtrodden! The little guy!  I'm willing to rail against the GOP just as much as the next guy, but this is next level mental gymnastics. Obamacare failed; it's the Dems fault. Own it."


Yeah I know, but it is only a local monopoly. It would be a silly reason to move, but you could conceivably move a town over and get a different provider. I just mean none of them have a majority share of the total market.


A simple rule of tax is , It doesn't matter where u live or your residence when it comes to income accruing in India .  As far as i know , You will need to find out the purchase prices of the inherited land and calculate the index value . Then pay tax on the capital profit (Not sure , I guess its 20%)  Example : Original value is 100,000 and the index value is 1,500,000 so the profit will be 650,000 . You pay 20% of the 650k only .  For paying minimum tax (Tax saving) There are few sections which gives exemption like purchase some bonds or purchase a house .  Its best if you ask a chartered accountant , For this simple case he shouldn't charge much. He should have updated knowledge of the situation and guide you better .


Crazy how AIM is now worthless but Whatsapp was worth $18 billion.  I wonder what AIM could have implemented that would have made it valuable back when it was at its height of popularity. An ad service? A mobile app?


Doesn't matter anyway.  We have at least 6 degree Celsius rise in temps assured by 2050-2060.  Very likely 10 degree  Celsius increase by 2100.  The ocean is warming faster than thought on the most dire predictions.  Food chain is going to collapse.


In regards to your 1st question, if you are a US resident (according to IRS rules) and you have any foreign bank accounts, then you need to file a FBAR form for every year in which any of these accounts has more than $10,000. This is the way that IRS keeps track of substantial amounts of money kept by US residents in foreign accounts.


> And to save ~800,000 good jobs in the Midwest   Those jobs would have just moved to stronger competitors like Toyota and Honda, both of which do plenty of manufacturing in the U.S. Not to mention Ford didn't need a bailout, so loss of our industry was just politicians fear mongering. Even if GM and Ford went out of business, there are still plenty of smaller manufacturers that would love to pick up the market share. People don't stop buying cars just because GM goes out of business.


While there probably is something around dropping out of college and starting your own business, there are a lot of things that you don't see. For example we don't know their family situation and what sort of fall back plan they had. A guy like this I see everywhere telling people this kind of stuff is Gary Vaynerchuck often times what's left out of his story is the fact that he got his start working for his dad's 4 mill a year wine business. That's a hell of a platform to have to build your own skills and convince other people to purchase your services. Now this isn't taking away from his accomplishments or even saying that his advice is bad but it's important at looking at the totality of someone elses circumstance before trying to emulate them.  I will say the number of billionaires that dropped out of college is strangely high but this seems like a case of survivorship bias.


Consider this, when we talk stimulus we usually talk in trillions.   Two trillion in the US could be used to create a guaranteed income for all citizens at around US$8000 per year. There would be zero overhead because there would be zero needs testing. Everyone with a social security number would get a plastic card with the money on it.   The large majority of that money could then be recovered by reducing the difference from Social Security payments, welfare payments, tax returns and other means tested forms of government payments.   The remaining monies would largely be spent, thus stimulating the economy immediately and benefiting those at the top most of all.  Win-win.   Compare that to QE1 and QE2.


Banks make far more money on bad ~~creditors~~ debtors.  The interest rates and penalties for getting behind on payments are pretty absurd.  There was a law passed in 2005 that made it extremely difficult for people to continue to file for personal bankruptcy, so the banks thought they were safe.  This could've been extremely lucrative for them had there not been an snowball effect of the rates doubling thus forcing many to search for last resorts plus the fact that so many houses were now underwater due to dropping housing prices at the same time.  If they default then the bank just keeps the house... win for the bank unless the housing market sucks so they can't unload it and they have to take a huge lose even if they could.


A couple of points to note  Illinois has not stopped collecting taxes and has survived with only emergency stop gap measures for the past 3 years.  According to the Zero Hedge article cited in the video, Illinois has a backlog of $3 Billion in bills yet the GDP of Illinois in 2015 was $772 billion which was 5^th in the nation.


"If the owner of the stock wants it back, they ""call"" it back. There are no guarantees of how long you can keep it for your short, or the cost involved to hold it.  Usually, everyone knows about a particular set-up (e.g. a warrant or convertible bond mispricing) that is attractive for arbitrage. This causes the associated stock to be in high demand thus expensive to borrow for shorting, or impossible to find for any price at all."


"MY recommendation is simple.  RENT The fact that you have to ask the question is a clear sign that you have no business buying a home. That's not to say that it's a bad question to ask though. Far more important then rather it's finically wise for you to buy a home, is the more important question of ""are you emotionally ready for the responsibility and permanence"" of a home.  At best, you are tying your self to the same number of rooms, same location, and same set of circumstances for the next 5-7 years. In that time it will be very unlikely that you will be able to sell the house for a profit, get your minor equity back, or even get a second loan for any reason.  You mentioned getting married soon, that means the possibility of more children, divorce, and who knows what else.  You are in an emotionally and financially turblunt time in your life. Now is not the right time to buy anything large. Instead rent, and focus on improving your credit rating. In 5 years time you will have a much better credit rating, get much better rates and fees, and have a much better handle on where you want to be with your home/family situation.  Buying a house is not something you do on a weekend. For most people it's the culmination of years of work, searching, researching, and preparation.  Often times people that buy before they are ready, will end up in foreclosure, and generally have a crappy next 15 years, as they try to work themselves out of the issue."


"**Noblesse oblige**  Noblesse oblige is a French phrase literally meaning ""nobility obligates"". It denotes the concept that nobility extends beyond mere entitlements and requires the person who holds such status to fulfill social responsibilities, particularly in leadership roles.  The Dictionnaire de l'Académie française defines it thus:    Whoever claims to be noble must conduct himself nobly.  (Figuratively) One must act in a fashion that conforms to one's position and with the reputation that one has earned.  ***  **Morning in America**  ""Prouder, Stronger, Better"", commonly referred to by the name ""Morning in America"", is a 1984 political campaign television commercial, known for its opening line, ""It's morning again in America."" The ad was part of the U.S. presidential campaign of Republican Party candidate Ronald Reagan. It featured a montage of images of Americans going to work, and a calm, optimistic narration that suggested that the improvements to the U.S. economy since the 1980 election were due to Reagan's policies. It asked voters why they would want to return to the pre-Reagan policies of Democrats like his opponent Walter Mondale, who had served as the Vice President under Reagan's immediate predecessor Jimmy Carter.  The phrase ""It's morning again in America"" is used both as a literal statement (people are shown going to work as they would in the morning), and as a metaphor for renewal.  ***  **French Revolution**  The French Revolution (French: Révolution française [ʁevɔlysjɔ̃ fʁɑ̃sɛːz]) was a period of far-reaching social and political upheaval in France that lasted from 1789 until 1799, and was partially carried forward by Napoleon during the later expansion of the French Empire. The Revolution overthrew the monarchy, established a republic, experienced violent periods of political turmoil, and finally culminated in a dictatorship under Napoleon that rapidly brought many of its principles to Western Europe and beyond. Inspired by liberal and radical ideas, the Revolution profoundly altered the course of modern history, triggering the global decline of absolute monarchies while replacing them with republics and liberal democracies. Through the Revolutionary Wars, it unleashed a wave of global conflicts that extended from the Caribbean to the Middle East.  ***  ^[ [^PM](https://www.reddit.com/message/compose?to=kittens_from_space) ^| [^Exclude ^me](https://reddit.com/message/compose?to=WikiTextBot&message=Excludeme&subject=Excludeme) ^| [^Exclude ^from ^subreddit](https://np.reddit.com/r/economy/about/banned) ^| [^FAQ ^/ ^Information](https://np.reddit.com/r/WikiTextBot/wiki/index) ^| [^Source](https://github.com/kittenswolf/WikiTextBot/)   ^] ^Downvote ^to ^remove ^| ^v0.22"


"Keep track of everything you buy.  Write it down and be accountable.  Try not to buy anything on credit cards, if the money is not in your account now then you can't afford it.  Ask yourself whether what you're buying is a ""need"" or a ""want"". If you find that you are buying things because you are bored and you like shopping then try taking up a (cheap) hobby that fills that void and is something you enjoy doing."


The value of a foreign stock is subject to fluctuations in the foreign currency value; this is not the case for domestic stocks.


"As the other commenter pointed out, the language the NRA is using is pretty specific in who they're implying is the ""enemy"".   Obama was AWESOME for gun companies. The NRA, which is a lobby started by gun companies, would say ""Quick! The boogyman is comin' fer yer Guns! Buy as much as you can NOW before it's too late!""   In business this is a scarcity tactic.   It would drum up demand as well the price of current supplies. Ammo ""shortages"" work in the same way. There'd be a rumor posted somewhere that some demon-crat did something to cause a shortage in ammo. People would rush out and buy whatever they could (even if they didn't have an immediate need) and the price on ammo would go up. All the while these Yahoo's would always say ""gosh them Democrats for causing this"" even though Democrats have nothing to gain by this.   All in all with Trump and the GOP at the helm, their boogyman has become more scarce and not as readily realized. So they're pushing the narrative that the existential ""liberal"" is out to get you!   Honestly, we're not. If anything we just want you have free healthcare and a better education without making you go bankrupt."


If you are doing this because you are interested... this is one thing. But a degree in economics is probably not going to help you find a job.   Before going into it, research available opportunities in the field first. Is it worth the cost of the degree to study it? Are you going into it because your employer wants you to have this knowledge?  The answer to the question about Math is yes. There is a lot of math in Economics.  A good idea is to get the course catalog for the degree at the university where you would be going and see which classes are required to get the degree. Wannabe2good is completely correct, Money and Banking (one of the classes required for an Eco degree) is something that helps you know why the president of the US is doing what he is doing, but really does not apply much to you personally, and employers will not care.  I urge you and ANYONE else who plans to go to school, please research if there are JOBS in the field of your study. I have seen so many people study things they were interested in and then later graduate and were not able to find jobs.  Good luck!