Alot of older NCR and Diebold ATMs also don't encrypt data in transit. You can see all the packets over the network with Wireshark. PINS, ACKS. (Using this you could theoretically have the ATM eject money if you could access the network and fake those acknowledgements) I've also seen an ATM connected to a hub, which would just broadcast those packets to whatever else is connected to the hub. Also the local data closet at your typical brick and mortar bank is a wild nest of cables and wires.


Cosigning a loan for someone else will make net worth decrease, whether backed by security or not.


"Both names are on the deed, so the property is jointly owned. You're going to need the second person's signature to be able to sell the property. Ideally the way to know ""what happens now"" is to consult the written agreement you made before you purchased the house together. The formula for dividing up assets when dissolving your partnership is whatever you agreed to up front. (Your up-front agreement could have said ""if you move out, you forfeit any claim to the property"".) It sounds like you don't have that, so you'll have to come to some (written) agreement with your partner before you proceed. If you can't come to an agreement, then you'll end up in court, a judge will split up the assets, and the only winners there are the lawyers..."


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It's very, very unlikely that you received a phone call at work with an incorrect birth date from an actual lending company that thinks it loaned you any money.  It's much more likely that you received a phone call at work from a collections agency that would have bought some loan from the aforementioned agency for pennies on the dollar.  They would have been hunting around trying to find someone with your name who was born thirteen years earlier.  It's even more likely that this is some sort of phishing scam.  If you're worried, you can check your credit rating, but it is likely that you can safely ignore the situation.  If they call back, ask for thorough details about the credit card.  If they're a real collections agency and for some reason they won't leave you alone, IIRC the most surefire course of action is to hire a lawyer to send them a cease-and-desist letter.


I would say yes. There are a lot of rich assholes in China with too much money to spend. You'll need to market those products not as natural products you'll need to market them as **expensive** natural products.    Keeping your product expensive will be the key to success.  Those rich assholes aren't interested in cheap stuffs.   Do not under any circumstances have any made in China products.  Everything must be made outside of China.


"I think you missed the first two paragraphs of the article. It's raising the prices in some countries in Europe due to local tax increases, and in addition to that it's changing the currencies used in the countries you listed.  The only thing about the title that may be considered ""misleading"" is the use of ""across the word"" instead of ""across Europe""."


We will ignore the fact that insurance companies are making record profits since the ACA, are not allowed over 10% profit, which they don't hit, and are only pulling out of markets because they want MORE money in the coffers at the end of the year, not because it will bankrupt them to stay in. You're right, lowering investments from not dumping as much dividend gains back into it, and taxing them in them will make them not lower premiums, you know, seeing as they reach that 10% anyway.


"I'd imagine they would find something wrong like ""too many choices are confusing to the consumer"".  Last year at&t along with Verizon spent $20.2 million and & $15.7 million respectively on lobbying and are very aggressive in creating an unfair market place in which only they can afford to play in.   As one of the examples is http://www.dslreports.com/shownews/Verizon-ATT-Lobby-to-Weaken-FCC-Spectrum-Authority-118302.  I was pleasantly surprised however when the tmobil at&t merger was blocked."


"Based on your information...  The house is $130,000 all in (this might not be the case)  Your payment term is 30 years.  Your interest rate is about 7.35%.  Your payments are about $895.66  Your total payments will total $322,438.95  That's not a very good interest rate for a mortgage, but this might be due to poor credit or limited credit history, too low income, or too much home value being financed (or a combination of the above and other factors).  Northern Alabama may not specifically be higher interest rate: it might, honestly, just be you.  The reason that you're paying $320,000 is that you're taking $130,000 from a bank and promising to pay it back with interest. Keep in mind, that's over *thirty years.* That's a LONG time. And the bank needs to earn enough interest to combat inflation (roughly 2% annually, generally). During that time, the bank *can't* invest that money elsewhere, return it to depositors, etc.  A good rule to keep in mind is the ""rule of 72."" It's a simple trick to determine, based on an interest rate, how quickly the value of something will double (in this case, the value of your loan payments). If your interest rate was exactly 7.2%, this method would calculate 10 years until doubling.   In your case, 72 / 7.35 = 9.7959 years.   Now, you're paying off your loan simultaneously, which lowers your interest over time, so your payments total 2.48x of loan value at origination. That still sucks, but remember, it's over a loooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooong time."


"American Express was originally a mail business that moved into money-orders. Traditionally their cards have been charge cards instead of a credit card (though they have credit products now as well). They've been marketed specifically as a ""premium"" product for people who have a significant amount of money (and are willing to pay a significant fee for premium services such as AmEx's good airline miles). As such, Visa and MasterCard are more widespread. Additionally, the fees that Visa and MasterCard charge merchants are typically lower (Wikipedia says 2%, as compared to AmEx's 2.5%, at least in the US). So: American Express gets less business as a company, but they charge higher fees to make up for it. Merchants will only accept the higher fees when they want to serve people who have a lot of money to spend (or if they can negotiate a discount)."


"You're getting paid by the job, not by the hour, so I don't see why you think the employer is obligated to pay you for the drive time.  The only way that might be true, as far as I can see, is if he were avoiding paying you minimum wage by structuring your employment this way.  It looks like to me you're over the minimum wage based on what you wrote.  At maximum ""unpaid"" drive time (59 min each way) and maximum length of job (4 hours as you stated it), gives your minimum hourly rate of $8.83/hr. The federal minimum wage is currently $7.25/hr, so you're over that.  A quick search online suggests that NV does have a higher minimum at $8.25/hr under some conditions, but you're still over that too. The fact that you're required to pick-up the helpers and that you have a company car at home probably does mean that you're ""on the clock"" from the moment that you leave your house, but, again, you're not actually being paid by the clock.  As long as no other law is being broken (and it appears from your telling that there isn't), then the employer can set any policy for how to compute the compensation that he wants. Regarding taxes, the employer probably has no discretion there.  You're making what you're making, and the employer needs to tax it in total.  Since you're driving a company vehicle from home, I don't think that you're entitled to any reimbursement (vs. wages) that would not be taxed unless maybe you pay for gas yourself.  The gas money, if applicable, should be reimbursable as a business expense and that generally would not be taxed."


"Hello!  First of all, I think it's great you're asking the community for help.  Asking for help when you need it is a sign of strength and self-awareness of your own limitations (which we all have, even the smartest business people ask questions, in fact they ask the most questions).  I'm wrapping up year 2 of doing what you're trying to do and am finally seeing real traction. I am a bit older than you and started out on my own 7 years after grad school, but I have learned a lot and don't mind sharing.  Here's some things you might find useful.  * Never work for free (working for ""equity"" or working for ""exposure"" is working for free).  People who offer you this because you're just starting out are parasites looking to sell your talents but not pay for them.  The only thing you can take away from attempts to do this is that your talents are in demand, which is good!    * Never sell yourself short: would you rather do 10 websites for a $1000 each or do 1 website for $10000?  You'll be doing a lot of projects in the middle, but one very important thing to bear in mind is that one $10000 website is a lot less work and may make you the same amount of money (or more) overall.  * In the beginning, maybe you think you need to build a portfolio. But you'd be surprised how many prospects don't care what's in your portfolio and in fact never look at the portfolio, which leads me to the most important bit of advice:  * Learn to sell yourself.  YOU are your company's first and main product.  Learn to sell yourself (as the smart kid, future Fortune 500 CEO who stays up all night getting things done, etc)  * Always aim high in your proposals.  You'd be surprised how many people don't negotiate at all.  That being said, always put something in your proposal that is a good idea but it beyond what their asking for.  If they ask you to come down in price, remove this feature and come down a little bit.  * Develop an ability to read how interested a prospect is in your services before you spring the price on them.  At your age, I was waiting tables.  This helped me to be able to read a customer to determine which waiter they wanted me to be: the attentive one, the high class one, the friend, or the quiet servile.  Consider taking on a side job to help you develop this skill.  * As I said above, some prospects will sign on the line without negotiating.  You might even take two proposals with you into a meeting with a prospect, one priced high and one low, and present the version that matches their interests.  Go high if they need something ""right now"".  * Remember you are your company's first product.  This means also that your time is the company's first commodity.   Be open to other things.  I have a background in mathematics and am most capable as a software developer and a web developer.  But I also help other companies sell and support physical products not at all related to technology.  Because it's highly profitable, I do it.  * When you're a one person business selling your time at the highest price is the name of the game.  But growing your business will require the help of others.  I found it helpful to first network with other like minded people and split project money according to skill level and time commitment on a per project basis.  This will allow you to take on bigger projects.    * But growing the company will eventually require you to hire (or contract) someone at a far lower pay rate than what you're bringing in.  The laws of supply and demand require you to do this as a business person if you're to grow the business (so that the business has money beyond what you're being paid). This is where the extra money comes from: selling the time of others at a higher price than you're paying them.  Be conscious of this.  Everyone you work with is not going to be your friend.  * Make your website awesome.  It doesn't have to be a work of art, but let it reflect the seriousness with which you approach your customers' projects.  Make sure there are no grammatical errors.  Find a website of someone highly successful who's doing what you're doing and emulate it.  You don't have to have a portfolio starting out.  Your website is your first portfolio item, and if it's awesome, prospects will think you'll do the same for them.  Good luck!  I'm sure I'm not the only one here who thinks your early developed entrepreneurship is going to take you far."


"A Roth IRA is simply a tax-sheltered account that you deposit funds into, and then invest however you choose (within the limits of the firm you deposit the funds with). For example, you could open a Roth IRA account with Vanguard.  You could then invest the $3000 by purchasing shares of VOO, which tracks the S&P 500 index and has a very low expense ratio (0.04 as of last time I checked).  Fidelity has a similar option, or Schwab, or whatever brokerage firm you prefer. IRAs are basically just normal investment accounts, except they don't owe taxes until you withdraw them (and Roth don't even owe them then, though you paid taxes on the funds you deposit).  They have some limitations regarding options trading and such, but if you're a novice investor just looking to do basic investments, you'll not notice.   Then, your IRA would go up or down in value as the market went up or down in value. You do have some restrictions on when you can withdraw the funds; Roth IRA has fewer than a normal IRA, as you can withdraw the capital (the amount you deposited) without penalty, but the profits cannot be withdrawn until you're retirement age (I won't put an actual year, as I suspect that actual year will change by the time you're that old; but think 60s). The reason not to invest in an IRA is if you plan on using the money in the near future - even as an ""emergency fund"".  You should have some money that is not invested aggressively, that is in something very safe and very accessible, for your emergency fund; and if you plan to buy a house or whatever with the funds, don't start an IRA.  But if this is truly money you want to save for retirement, that's the best place to start. **Note, this is not investment advice, and you should do your own homework prior to making any investment.  You can lose some or all of the value of your account while investing."


Dit zijn slechts enkele van de voordelen die u kunt genieten na aankoop van een waterkoeler voor uw kantoor. Een koeler zorgt ervoor dat het welzijn van werknemers wordt gewaarborgd, dat is een van de essentiële punten om het gladde dagelijkse proces en de maximale productiviteit te waarborgen.


We put our fund in a local credit union that we only use for the emergency fund. We have a savings account that sweeps all funds into a 6 month CD that automatically renews upon maturity. We pretty much don't think about it, and make a deposit with our excess savings after we pay our property taxes in January and school taxes in September. Why? When my wife and I set it up the emergency fund, the purpose is to have a cushion against emergencies, not earning money or having convenient access. We wanted access to the money to be onerous enough that neither one of us could pull money out of without calling someone or driving over to the branch. We even opted not to take an ATM card. In the event that we need the money, we can terminate the CD early and pay a 3 month interest penalty. With $10k, that translates to about $25.


"It isn't an edge janitor.  As a whole, BART employees vastly better compensated than private industry.    http://blog.vctr.me/bart/  It's noble that you desire a ""fair wage"" for every worker but that's not how this works.  The role of the business is to earn profit and return money to the shareholder.  There is no corporate doctrine advocating that compensation must be equal or somehow divided.  The janitor doesn't need $100k/year -- he needs affordable housing.  But efforts like that are stymied by public unions sucking up undue compensation that would have been better invested in a public-private trust for affordable housing construction.  Even Zuckerberg, arguably the biggest liberal in town doesn't implement your ""fair wage"" system -- why?  Because he runs a private corporation and has to answer to share holders.  Watch a companies profits plunge and hard decisions be made -- if it's a bonus for your in-demand finance or engineers or a $100k salary for the janitor I think you know what will take precedence.  Companies make these decisions every day.    Back to the root issue.  My argument is that public transportation by rail can be a real money loser, even in a dense urban setting like SF Bay.  The only way to fix BART is to starve the beast but bay area voters see the system through rose-tinted glasses and fail to do.  Counties should privatize the system, disband the public union and cut labor costs by 50% so that taxpayer subsides aren't required to maintain a system that takes in $6B over 10 a ten year timespan."


Exactly, this doesn't really hurt big pharma, just gives them another wholesaler to sell to.  However, if Amazon can exert some sort of pressure on the manufacturers to lower their prices (in a Wal-Martesque manner) then perhaps Amazon can offer pharmaceutical products at a lower price than other wholesalers to pharmacies.


>The assumption that most of the jobs will be automated doesn't necessarily imply that automation leads to job loss.  That's the problem. Apparently, it does. Every job can be replaced with a new software. Again, short-term there it might not be noticable, but in few decades, there is a high possibility of most jobs being replaced. But this is not the question, the question is, how would businesses make money in case everyone was replaced with a software.


I was going to comment on the commission-free ETF answer, which I agree with, but I don't have enough reputation. TD Ameritrade has a list of commission-free ETFs and has no minimum deposit required to open an account. Another idea is to keep gifts in cash until a certain threshold is reached. For instance, $100 for birthday, $100 for Christmas, $100 for next birthday, $100 for next Christmas, now execute the trade. Sharebuilder has $4 scheduled trades, so you'd be at about 1% overhead for that. If other people give money, you'll reach the threshold faster of course. For what it's worth, I do something similar for my 2 nieces. I combined their account and prepay Christmas plus birthday, so I do 1 trade a year. I have my account at Sharebuilder because my idea predated the commission-free ETFs that are now pretty popular. I should really transfer the account... hm.


not a chance. imagine how this could be abused. US stock exchanges rarely ever do any reversing of transactions. theres a million different ways the market can take your money. a loss from a typo is nothing special. its a mismanagement just like any other loss or profit for others.


The benefits of more vegetation will be cancelled out by more superstorms, disappearance of islands & coastlines, the eventual submergence of large areas of land like India/China region, and likely shifts in ocean currents which may upend a significant portion of life in the seas.  So yes, change is coming, some positive, even more negative, but I just don't really see how you're defending the OP to this comment thread.


"I live near historic Concord, Massachusetts, and frequently drive past Walden Pond. I'm reminded of Henry David Thoreau's words,  ""Simplify, simplify, simplify."" In my opinion, fewer is better. 2 checkbooks? I don't see how that makes budgeting any easier. The normal set of expenses are easily kept as one bucket, one account.  The savings 2&3 accounts can also be combined and tracked if you really want to think of them as separate accounts.  Now, when you talk about 'Retirement' that can be in tax-wise retirement accounts, e.g. 401(k), IRA, etc. or post tax regular brokerage accounts. In our situation, the Schwab non-retirement account was able to handle emergency (as money market funds) along with vacation/rainy day, etc, in CDs of different maturities. As an old person, I remember CDs at 10% or higher, so leaving money in lower interest accounts wasn't good. Cash would go to CDs at 1-5 year maturities to maximize interest, but keep money maturing every 6-9 months.  Even with the goal of simplifying, my wife and I each have a 401(k), an IRA, and a Roth IRA, I also have an inherited Roth, and I manage my teen's Roth and brokerage accounts. That's 9 accounts right there. No way to reduce it.  To wrap it up, I'd go back to the first 4 you listed, and use the #4 checking attached to the broker account to be the emergency fund. Now you're at 3. Any higher granularity can be done with a spreadsheet.  Think of it this way - the day you see the house you love, will you not be so willing to give up that year's vacation?"


I believe it is because you can withstand a loss in your early life better than you can in your retirement. If you lose 25% in your 20s it is a lot less than 25% in your 60s. You, hopefully earn more in your 60s and you have a lot more already in the bank in your 60s.


I was saved when I prevented myself from being brainwashed from a pack of people who seem to think conditional ideals, based on mans logic, are truly of of God.  The only person who can save would be God himself for if we take it upon ourselves to declare that we are safe and demean others who we pass judgement on, then consider them dammed, we will become our own false god.  Express lane to hell on that.


NO. All the leveraged ETFs are designed to multiply the performance of the underlying asset FOR THAT DAY, read the prospectus. Their price is adjusted at the end of the day to reflect what is called a NAV unit. Basically, they know that their price is subject to fluctuations due to supply and demand throughout the day - simply because they trade in a quote driven system. But the price is automatically corrected at the end of the day regardless. In practice though, all sorts of crazy things happen with leveraged ETFs that will simply make them more and more unfavorable to hold long term, the longer you look at it.


I'm not sure, but I think the monetary system of Second Life or World of Warcraft would correspond to what you are looking for. I don't think they are independent of the dollar though, since acquiring liquidity in those games can be done through exchange for real dollars. But there can be more closed systems, maybe Sim type games where this is not the case. I hope this helps.


>but it sounds like you know we won't be better off, but want it anyway, just because you don't want other people to get a better deal than you.  Most people drive less than me. I wouldn't be getting a better deal than most other people. Most other people would actually get a better deal than me in a private road system. Right now, I'm one of the one's benefiting from the system we have.  >I don't think it is irrelevant. If everyone is better off working together why not work together?  It's irrelevant to me because I don't think the Federal government should do anything beyond protect your basic rights. I'd gladly pay more because I'm choosing to pay more than be forced to pay simply because the government taxes me.


Here is one the links for Goldmansachs. Not to state the obvious, but most of their research is only available to their clients. http://www.goldmansachs.com/research/equity_ratings.html


I apologize to you too :) the first comment I made I thought was pretty funny so I felt a little surprised when I saw it the next day.   Yeah, China has improved and most people who have office jobs or are small business owners play. Apple actually tried to use the hunger tactic of selling iPhones, they would release them in every country then finally starve china so when it's released everyone flocks. Then Chinese people mini revolted and apple lost like 2 billion or smt, and had to apologize. Mob rule is pretty powerful sometimes ;)  Where in Australia did you live? I was in the Gold Coast before also moving to the states.


Doesn't mean this user isn't right. My experiences in all stores lead me to believe that everyone in the business is freaking out. They are all trying to use data science to generate reliable sales. Costco is determined to fuck you over with their science. They have algo that says if you buy LMN there is a 90% probability you will by P and therefore we can rip you off on P. Don't forget most retailers know who you are know and they know when you visit and what you bought and for how much. I predict within 5 years the only thing sold on stores will be stuff with a very inelastic demand curve that you need right now. And can't wait a day for it to come in the mail.


I'm honestly not well versed on healthcare ETFs. I have seen a few mentioned here and there on various threads around /r/investing and /r/wallstreetbets. My pro-Vanguard bias would lead me to looking most closely at VHT, but there seem to be [many other great looking picks](http://etfdb.com/type/sector/healthcare/) out there such as IBB, XLV, and IHI, among others. Right now I am generally concerned about valuations in technology and perhaps simply in general, but we'll see what happens.  As I craft my goals for the near and long term, I would favor the defense industry ($ITA), technology (broad definition -- $VGT, $V, $AAPL, $BABA, various video games companies short term), healthcare (above), some specific international exposure (such as $EWGS), and boring stuff ($VOO, $VTI).


[Here's](http://www.macrotrends.net/1369/crude-oil-price-history-chart) what I found. I think the gist of it is that because we've invested so heavily in pumping domestic oil in North America, it's lowering worldwide demand. Countries that rely really heavily on oil revenues, like Russia, Venezuela, Libya, Saudi etc., suffer when oil prices drop.


>There are a lot of repeats of good old programs - these are what I watch - not anything new . I usually watch programs that are 15 to 25 years old . Trouble is that I have often already seen them .  the trick is to go farther back. Well things might be different in the UK. The US is a TV waist land. I've gotten hooked on the old Perry Mason shows recently. Black and white. Always did like Raymond Burr.   http://xfinitytv.comcast.net/tv/Perry-Mason/97361/full-episodes#episode=Video-1463632165


Here is a quote from the IRS website on this topic: You may be able to deduct premiums paid for medical and dental   insurance and qualified long-term care insurance for yourself, your   spouse, and your dependents. The insurance can also cover your child   who was under age 27 at the end of 2011, even if the child was not   your dependent. A child includes your son, daughter, stepchild,   adopted child, or foster child. A foster child is any child placed   with you by an authorized placement agency or by judgment, decree, or   other order of any court of competent jurisdiction. One of the following statements must be true. You were self-employed and had a net profit for the year reported on   Schedule C (Form 1040), Profit or Loss From Business; Schedule C-EZ   (Form 1040), Net Profit From Business; or Schedule F (Form 1040),   Profit or Loss From Farming. You were a partner with net earnings from self-employment for the year   reported on Schedule K-1 (Form 1065), Partner's Share of Income,   Deductions, Credits, etc., box 14, code A. You used one of the optional methods to figure your net earnings from   self-employment on Schedule SE. You received wages in 2011 from an S corporation in which you were a   more-than-2% shareholder. Health insurance premiums paid or reimbursed   by the S corporation are shown as wages on Form W-2, Wage and Tax   Statement. The insurance plan must be established, or considered to be   established as discussed in the following bullets, under your   business. For self-employed individuals filing a Schedule C, C-EZ, or F, a   policy can be either in the name of the business or in the name of the   individual. For partners, a policy can be either in the name of the partnership or   in the name of the partner. You can either pay the premiums yourself   or your partnership can pay them and report the premium amounts on   Schedule K-1 (Form 1065) as guaranteed payments to be included in your   gross income. However, if the policy is in your name and you pay the   premiums yourself, the partnership must reimburse you and report the   premium amounts on Schedule K-1 (Form 1065) as guaranteed payments to   be included in your gross income. Otherwise, the insurance plan will   not be considered to be established under your business. For more-than-2% shareholders, a policy can be either in the name of   the S corporation or in the name of the shareholder. You can either   pay the premiums yourself or your S corporation can pay them and   report the premium amounts on Form W-2 as wages to be included in your   gross income. However, if the policy is in your name and you pay the   premiums yourself, the S corporation must reimburse you and report the   premium amounts on Form W-2 as wages to be included in your gross   income. Otherwise, the insurance plan will not be considered to be   established under your business. Medicare premiums you voluntarily pay to obtain insurance in your name   that is similar to qualifying private health insurance can be used to   figure the deduction. If you previously filed returns without using   Medicare premiums to figure the deduction, you can file timely amended   returns to refigure the deduction. For more information, see Form   1040X, Amended U.S. Individual Income Tax Return. Amounts paid for health insurance coverage from retirement plan   distributions that were nontaxable because you are a retired public   safety officer cannot be used to figure the deduction. Take the deduction on Form 1040, line 29.


Give it time. Soon, other countries won't be able to have flights to the US unless people are pre-screened by the TSA agents in the departing country just past customs.  Considering all the other expansions the TSA is doing, I have no doubt they'll try.  And I have no doubt more than a few countries will go along.  It wouldn't surprise me if the TSA screened people from the other countries after they got off the plane. You know, so they can figure out if you *were* going to blow up the plane.


How about stopping the board of directors and CEO's from doing billions of dollars worth of share buybacks so that employees can be lifted out of poverty by paying them literally $10,000+ more!    ex 1)  Amazon: $5 billion in share buybacks, 340,000 employees = ~$14,000 per employee  ex 2) Wal-Mart: $20 billion in share buybacks, 2.2 million employees =~$9,000 per employee  ex 3)  Mdconalds:  20 billion in share buybacks, 1.5 million employees = ~$13,000 per employee  So tell me again how much these companies cannot afford to pay their employees.


Need an ambience where you can meet your team mates and have some brainstorming sessions but cafes don’t fit your bill? Or perhaps looking for a professional meeting room where you can network and collaborate with your prospective clients but can’t afford to enter into contractual leasing obligations?


R = I ^ P R = return (2 means double)  I = (Intrest rate / 100) + 1 [1.104 = 10.4%] P = number of periods (7 years)  2 = 1.104 ^ 7 (you double your money in seven years with a yearly Intrest rate of 10.4%) I = R^(1/P) 1.104 = 2^(1/7) P = log(R) / log(I)  7 = log(2) / log(1.104)


Fair enough, either way if your skills are at the minimum wage level you should NOT be supporting a kid and a women/man. How can you expect to provide a decent life if you are making that much? No the government shouldn't force businesses to pay more, you should be earning more if you want to raise a kid and a significant other. I'm not comparing it to basic needs, I'm saying you have a CHOICE, you can choose to bring a kid into your life or not, and if you are on minimum wage it does no good for anyone, not the person earning, not the kid, not the business, no one.   Is that so hard to understand? It's economics 101, increasing the minimum wage leads to only negative consequences, and in this digital age they will be coming sooner rather than later.


I'm not really sure about this site but readers should take time to look around a bit. It does seem like they are trying to telegraph some views here rather than being an unbiased economic journal.  Take it at face value if you want, just be aware of the motives of the messenger.


"Interesting question.   How is social security funded? The social security system works by using current payroll taxes as funding to pay benefits to retirees.  Historically there was always more money coming in then what was being paid out in benefits.  This changed at the beginning of March, 2010 when social security started paying out more than it was taking in (this article estimates the exact date to be around March 3 or March 4 - the chart below has the approximate date highlighted with the red circle).  Due to the baby boomer generation it is estimated that social security will now be perpetually in the red unless changes are made.  The recent reduction in payroll taxes will not help social security solvency.  What was done with all the extra money social security collected over the last three decades? The Social Security Trust Fund (SSTF) was required to purchase special-issue US government bonds with the excess funds.  The SSTF was essentially purchasing US government debt with the excess funds.  This allowed congress to spend the excess funds.  The special-issue funds are different then normal US treasuries in that the SSTF can redeem special-issue bonds at face value at any time (even before maturity).  The SSTF is currently holding $2.5 Trillion of these special-issue bonds as assets.  What next? Hell if I know.  The SSTF was a major purchaser of US debt over the last few decades (to the tune of $2.5 trillion).  That changed in 2010.  The SSTF is no longer purchasing US debt at the same time the US government is issuing record amounts of debt.  The SSTF could begin redeeming its bonds to meet payment obligations.  When it redeems the bonds the US treasury must cough up the funds.  Where is it the US government going to get the money especially when it is currently borrowing money at record levels? I read many articles that say that we don't have to count SSTF bond holdings as debt since we owe it to ourselves.  That always makes me chuckle.  The US government owes the SSTF $2.5 Trillion.  I'm not the US government so don't count me in the ""we"" part of ""we owe it to ourselves"".  I'm also fairly certain I will never see a dime of social security so don't count me in the ""ourselves"" portion either. Charts were obtained from here."


Never trust a single source to give you a fair price, especially if they are not in competition, moreso if they know that's the case.  I would want to get a quote from at least one other broker in terms of what they feel they can sell the bonds for.  (and let them know they are not the only one you are getting a quote from)  To start with you need information, such as when is the last time a bond like the ones you have traded and what did it sell for. Also sources for where you can sell the bonds and more info on the entire subject. SIFMA (The Securities Industry and Financial Markets Association) has a pretty helpful website called InvestingInBonds.com.  I find it has a wealth of information, and is relatively free of bias. On the Municipal Markets at a Glance page you can get history for various bonds if you have the CUSIP (pronounced 'que-sip') numbers for the bonds. If these bonds are as good as the advisor is telling you they are, then they should be selling for a premium, and the recent sales history would reflect that.  I'd find one or two other potential sellers, and get prices from each of them, compare that against recent history and go with whichever one seems to be offering you the best deal. In terms of choosing someone, and how to go about selling bonds, the same website has some excellent information and guidance on buying and selling bonds and How to Choose an Investment Professional which includes how to check up on them to see if they have ever faced disciplinary action, etc..  I would also consider any gains you might have to declare if you sell these for more than face value, and if that would be taxable etc. I would also question your 'too safe' judgement.  Just because something is 'safe' I would not necessarily throw it out.  You need to look at the return relative to the risk, and if you are not investing in a tax sheltered account, the affect of taxes on your net return.  If these are earning a really good return, for fairly low risk, they might be worth keeping, especially if in today's market you need to take substantially more risk to get a comparable return.  Taking more risk to get nearly the same return isn't very wise, since an aspect of the risk is perhaps not getting any return, or losing money.   In a volatile market there can be a substantial benefit to having a lower risk 'foundation' that you build upon with more risky investments, in order to provide some risk diversity in your portfolio. You might want to consider for example how these bonds have done over the last 13 years, compared to a similar investment in the type of 'less safe' vehicles you are considering.  Perhaps you'd be better off just holding these to maturity instead of gambling on something with a lot more risk that could go south on you.


My point is that the behavior described by eclipsethrow is both bad for the company and a loophole that many parents find too tempting not to abuse.  > Obviously the best possible solution is for the government to pay people to raise their kids at home  This isn't how it works in Europe - the parents share a number of days (about a year all together) that usually is devoted to infant care. If everyone agrees that child-rearing needs to be done, people are away from work an amount of time they declare several months in advance, and are in >90% of the cases very interested in going back to work and making themselves useful.


I am a huge fan of jim Cramer and while you may not get CNBC in Australia you can prolly catch jim cramers podcasts If you have an iPod or iPhone which really will help your financial literacy a bit.  Here's my advice . Set up a IRA or tax advantaged accounts if they exist in Australia (sorry I only know usa markets really well).  Then you can pick investments to go in there or in a different investment account. I am a huge fan of index funds in particular Etf index funds because they are still very liquid. I prefer the free or no commission funds by Charles scwabb but vanguard is also very good or maybe even better. A few great funds are the vanguard total stock market fund (it invests in every company in the world) and any fund that mirrors the s&p 500 or the Russell 2000 midcap.  Another good idea just to make room to save money is make a budget with your wife. I like the other post about planning in reverse . Setting up a budget to see your expenses and then make automatic pay dedications that go into savings or different accounts for savings.


It may be helpful to have a few pitches prepared just in case.This is helpful because you may be articulating your groups investment thesis or even originating ideas at some point.  * Company-Industry  * Elevator pitch... * Why it's the best in the Peer group. * Why this pitch is novel. * Why the financials make sense. * Entry/Exit. * +s/-s.


"> Couple things, I will admit I was wrong about the total graduates at each of those programs; however, numbers taper out the lower the program is down to about 250-300 a class. Also, cut each of those numbers down to about 1/2 - 1/3 and you get the group that's actually focused on finance. Many MBAs do consulting, marketing, product development, etc nowadays.  Agreed, you also have to remember many of those MBA's are the ones that move on to get CFA charterholder as an emphasis on quantitative.  > Also I'm a bit offended by you saying I don't understand the CFA. Couldn't be more mistaken boss, I'm siting for L3 in June like you.   Then you should clearly understand where L2 and L3 diverge from the ""memorize and regurgitate"" that you labelled it as.  > The requirement is only 2 years in an ""investment decision"" role, this also means A LOT of back office risk guys qualify. That's a pretty fungible qualification, you don't have to be a PM to qualify. I have a buddy who qualified having done 2 years in fund accounting, not exactly sell-side ER.   Um.... It's most certainly [4 years](http://www.cfainstitute.org/mycfa/candidate/membership/Pages/index.aspx) of qualified work exp.  > To become a regular member, you must have completed four years (48 months) of qualifying work experience in activities that consist to a majority extent of:   > At least 50 percent of your work experience must be:  Directly involved in the investment decision-making process  Engaged in responsibilities and/or producing a work product that informs or adds value to that process   We just had a middle office colleague pass his L3 and get denied his years as a qualifying role.  CFAI is moving towards a more strict criteria for qualified roles.    > I'm also going to guess you're a trader/brokerage/Cap Markets guy? If you wanna throw titles around I'm in a front office role at a BB, too, and worked at worked on buy-side research at a >$150bn value shop. CFA is definitely more desired in sell-side markets focused as opposed to IBD where an MBA is more useful (more strategy focused).  Not throwing titles around.  Simply informing you that my perspective (unlike 90% of the people in this subreddit) is from a real world environment.  CFA's are more desired and less common than MBA's in the capital markets roles and portfolio mgmt (BB's and the street based HF's).  Large part of this is due to the associate rotational programs that most IB's employ for newly grad MBA's.  This over saturates the job market for front office with MBA's (as opposed to BS w/ CFA's).  Might I also add, at this point you're clearly diverging from the original discrepancy we had... where I said MBA's are dime a dozen and CFA's are far less common.  > The CFA is vital for boning up on quantitative skills an MBA won't cover, I'll absolutely give you that. But a lot of people fall into the trap of assuming a CFA is their ticket to bigger and better things. If you're working in back office risk management, getting a CFA doesn't immediately qualify you to do ER (which is a VERY common pitfall I see). Like an MBA it teaches everyone how to do the same type of analysis, too (another reason the title means less and less).  Never argued that it wasn't.  Just like any education, it simply gives you the foundation of knowledge to be successful.  It doesn't teach you how to think.  Neither does a MBA.  It teaches you the nitty gritty details but you still have to hold the capacity for outside the box critical thinking as well.  I'd disagree in that it teaches you the same analysis as someone else.  It may teach the same formulas but I find it as emphasizing teaching what the indicators mean rather than how to use them in your analysis.  It leaves it up to you to use the calculations to form your own perspective.  PS... for the most part, MBA's in ER is becoming more and more uncommon.  Research roles (especially in the BB) are becoming more and more focused on people with hard science backgrounds (ms econometrics, comp sci, phd in theo phys, mathematics, etc).  > Last weekend I had a conversation with a friend of a friend about this very thing! He's sitting for L3 CFA, works back office at a very notable HF, and expects to be moved up (without any indication that he will) to research when he's done. I asked his opinions about things like the European situation, fiscal cliff, and a hard landing in china. Not only was he not familiar these concepts he didn't even know what HFT was. The CFA gives you the tools to analyze the impacts of pension liabilities on EPS, but it still takes a passion about the markets, as well as creative/analytical judgement, to make it to ER.  I agree.  Just like an MBA though, it's what you make of it.  If you don't invest your time in understanding and following the markets, you can graduate with a MBA or a CFA and you still won't be qualified.  Just a heads up... ER is not the holy grail of CFA candidates... I don't know what mislead you to that perception but ER is actually a dying market and certainly not one that the front office people I know want to move towards.  > My only point is an MBA and CFA are very similar in many ways.   Yep.  Both are certifications of certain skill sets.  > Both tend to hold their noses way to high, too.   Arrogance is a part of this industry.  It's a testosterone fueled, do or die, competitive market.  If you can't stand it, then bail out now...  > It's about what you chose to get out of it and too often people care more about the title than the process, which is why they are still stuck in mediocrity after completing the designations.  Which is true regardless the MBA or CFA.  People get both and are incompetent.  The title is a tool to open opportunities and educate you in a specialized manner (with the CFA being even more specialized than MBA's).  Once again... You have fully deviated from your original point of trying to say CFA charterholders are more common and less valuable than MBA's.  The bottom line is there are 100,000 total charterholders in the world (according to the CFAI).  Fewer than half of which are located in the US.  That is 10-20 years worth of MBA target school grads and doesn't take into consideration the number of MBA's that pursued CFA's nor the number of CFA Charter holders that have gone on into academia (a much larger number of CFA's move into academia than target school MBA's)... not to mention the total number of MBA's that have worked their way into roles over the years.  I can guarantee there are more MBA's than that in this industry.  The BB's alone employ upwards of 1.1 million.  To say that less than 5% of those employed at BB's hold a MBA is absurd... even for back office standards."


"It is likely a scam.  In fact the whole mystery shopping ""job"" may be a scam.  There is a Snopes page about cashier's check scams, as well as a US government page which specifically mentions mystery shopping as a scam angle. As for how the scam works, from the occ.gov site I just linked: However, cashier’s checks lately have become an attractive vehicle for fraud when used for payments to consumers. Although, the amount of a cashier’s check quickly becomes ""available"" for withdrawal by the consumer after the consumer deposits the check, these funds do not belong to the consumer if the check proves to be fraudulent. It may take weeks to discover that a cashier’s check is fraudulent. In the meantime, the consumer may have irrevocably wired the funds to a scam artist or otherwise used the funds—only to find out later, when the fraud is detected—that the consumer owes the bank the full amount of the cashier’s check that had been deposited. It is somewhat unusual in that, from what you say, there has been no attempt thus far to get money back.  However, your sister-in-law may have received that info separately, or received it as part of her mystery shopping job but didn't mention it to you with regard to this check.  Typically the scam involves telling the recipient to transfer money to a third party (e.g., by buying goods as a mystery shopper, or via wire transfer to ""reimburse"" someone associated with a sham operation).  By the time the cashier's check is revealed as fraudulent, the victim has already transferred away his/her own real money. It's probably worth taking the check to your or her bank and asking them about it.  They may have more info.  Also, banks usually want to know about scams like this because, in the long run, they accumulate data on them and share that with law enforcement and can eventually catch some of the scammers. Edit: Just to help anyone who may be reading this later.  The letter you added confirms it is absolutely a scam.  My boss was once contacted via a scam operation very similar to this.  The huge red flag (in addition to others already mentioned) is that you are being ""given"" a check for over $2000, of which only $25 is purportedly for actual mystery shopping and $285 is payment for you, the mystery shopper.  The whole rest of the $2000+ amount is for you to wire to ""another Mystery/Secret Shopper in order for them to complete their assignment"".  They are giving you $2000 to give to someone else who is supposedly another one of their own employees/contractors.  Ask yourself what sane business would conduct their operations in this way.  If you work at a law office, or a hamburger stand, or a school, or anything you like, does your boss ever say ""Here is your paycheck for $5000.  I know you only earned $1000, but I'm just going to give you the whole $5000, and you're supposed to use $4000 of it to pay your coworker Joe his wages.""  No.  There is no reason to do that except that the ""other mystery shopper"" is actually the scammer."


Sure, its worth something.  For example, not being able to speak freely would appear to devalue the wedding package this hotel offers.  Another way being able to speak freely is worth something is when you get sued for libel.  You can speak your mind, then pay the price to the lawyers and the court if what you said construed libel.


"Because they track an index. Edited: The definition of the word in this case meaning ""something used or serving to point out; a sign, token, or indication"" from Meaning  #3 I presume therefore you are asking what an index is? There are many variations of what makes up an Index but in short it is a representation of some part of a market. An extremely simplistic calculation would be to take a basket of stocks, and sum their prices.  If one stock moves up a dollar, and one moves down a dollar, the index has effectively not changed, as it is presumed that the loss in one is offset by the gain in the other."


This thread has been linked to from elsewhere on reddit.    - [/r/SubredditDrama] [No soy here; 100% pure USDA drama in discussion of fast food burgers](http://np.reddit.com/r/SubredditDrama/comments/2cqjal/no_soy_here_100_pure_usda_drama_in_discussion_of/)   *^If ^you ^follow ^any ^of ^the ^above ^links, ^respect ^the ^rules ^of ^reddit ^and ^don't ^vote ^or ^comment. ^Questions? ^Abuse? [^Message ^me ^here.](http://www.reddit.com/message/compose?to=%2Fr%2Fmeta_bot_mailbag)*


Your role sounds like accounting/bookkeeping. I worked in fp&a for a REIT and my job was to forecast cash flows and support development managers who wanted to pitch projects to senior management. Occasionally, I helped analyze new acquisitions and every quarter we had to do valuations for covenant compliance on our loans.  Was a cool job but eventually left for capital markets role.


"Even though ""when the U.S. sneezes Canada catches a cold"", I would suggest considering a look at Canadian government bonds as both a currency hedge, and for the safety of principal — of course, in terms of CAD, not USD. We like to boast that Canada fared relatively better (PDF) during the economic crisis than many other advanced economies, and our government debt is often rated higher than U.S. government debt. That being said, as a Canadian, I am biased.  For what it's worth, here's the more general strategy: Recognize that you will be accepting some currency risk (in addition to the sovereign risks) in such an approach. Consistent with your ETF approach, there do exist a class of ""international treasury bond"" ETFs, holding short-term foreign government bonds, but their holdings won't necessarily match the criteria I laid out – although they'll have wider diversification than if you invested in specific countries separately."


"In futures, once you have established your position, you will earn or lose money depending on what the underlying does.  Theoretically, if you had no stop, you could lose far more than you invested.  An option will slowly lose all its value if the stock does not rise (assume it is out of the money when purchased).  Depending on the strike, it could rise substantially and you'd still lose all your money.  But you can't lose more than you put in.  So options have limited risk compared to futures, at the expense of a decaying ""time value"" that you will effectively be paying while holding the option."


Mervis Diamond is a family business specializing in diamond engagement rings and other fine diamond jewelry with a goal to augment life's special moments with high quality pieces that last a lifetime.Their diamonds come with a certificate of their value. Finding your perfect piece of diamond can be a blissful and hassle-free experience with them.


Thanks for the advice. I will look into index funds.   The only reason I was interested in this stock in particular is that I used to work for the company, and always kept an eye on the stock price. I saw that their stock prices recently went down by quite a bit but I feel like I've seen this happen to them a few times over the past few years and I think they have a strong catalogue of products coming out soon that will cause their stock to rise over the next few years.   After not being able to really understand the steps needed to purchase it though, I think I've learned that I really don't know enough about the stock system in general to make any kind of informed decisions about it and should probably stick to something lower-risk or at least do some research before making any ill-informed decisions.


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">  In no way did I attempt to explain your experience.    >  This means that cross walks are abundant, sidewalks are clean (on **the specific area I am talking about**), and it isn't littered with garbage or broken glass.  Recall my comments above ""They get used to walking in the street because of the poor conditions of the sidewalk. Debris, broken-glass, overgrown.""  I will not that you have now added the conditional ""the specific area"".  Previously it was "" our city is extremely clean, the sidewalks are perfect"".  The conditions in the area where you drive through may not reflect the neighborhoods.    If the residents are conditioned to not walk on the sidewalk in their own neighborhood, they probably won't walk on the sidewalk elsewhere.  And if your neighborhoods are also extremely clean with perfect sidewalk, I would contend that they're not part of America's Poorer Neighborhoods.  Relevant link: (The Detroit Geographic Expedition)[http://civic.mit.edu/blog/kanarinka/the-detroit-geographic-expedition-and-institute-a-case-study-in-civic-mapping].  Specifically the map [""Where Commuters Run Over Black Children on the Pointes-Downtown Track""](http://www.flickr.com/photos/50628274@N00/9451562183/)  My pictures are from Detroit.  One might drive down one street [and see this view](http://i.imgur.com/LojigNi.jpg) and believe the sidewalks are fine, not realizing that [this is the sidewalk on the crossing street](http://i.imgur.com/KH2GuoG.jpg).     Edit: I took the pictures above, those are my lawn mowers and that is my car.  Edit2: Coincidentally, the lawn mower in the nasty sidewalk photo has appeared in Governing [here](http://media.governing.com/images/870*580/03_+Detroit+198.jpg).  That's not me."


"As I have said before on this site, I personally use Moneydance. They have Mac, Linux and Windows support, and recently added an iOS mobile version that syncs with the desktop. I have only used the Mac ""desktop"" version, and it seems to function well, but have not tried the other platforms, nor the iOS version. I have no company affiliation, but am a (mostly) happy user.  :-)"


I agree with all those points, but add them as reasoning to why I'm against the program.  I'd rather invest the money into something worthwhile, and if I die have what's there be left to my family. My family and I would be better off.  I believe that this would be true for every other individual paying into social security as well, and the great union would be better off putting that money into proper investments rather than a twisted defined benefits program.


Wouldn't that cause more problems in hiring.  If small companies that can't afford a fine for not hiring the right race probably won't hire anyone at all.  Now we only have big companies that can afford a discrimination lawsuit will be able to grow.  If we want more jobs we need to make less law on hiring people not more.  Every time to add anther barrier between employers and employees we are going to get less of both.  Only the big companies that know how the systems works will win.


Yeah because we really needed to sign a deal that mostly cripples our industry while allowing India/China to do nothing until 2030. And if everything was so voluntary, and none binding then what's the point of the agreement in the first place?   Also like mentioned in the other thread. China is the world's biggest polluter. What exactly kind of leadership on climate do you expect from them?


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If you can make all the employees feel superior in some way on a regular basis, they may start to associate feeling good with being at work. Whether they see that as humor or as inspiration, it's probably good for business.


"I've seen many Redditors school you on this over the years, and I'm not the least bit surprised you're trying it with me.   There are several first world countries with suicide rates higher than the US that have much more strict gun control than the US.   I'll take you back to your false claim that started this latest bit of trolling from you: *""Gang violence makes up a relatively small portion of of gun violence""*  To make that lie even worse, you're only referring to deaths. Your lie gets much much worse when gang/gun stats include drive-by's, assaults, robberies, shootings, and rapes  that didn't just involve death.   I mean, I know you're rather slow, but do you honestly believe if it doesn't involve a death, it doesn't qualify as violence?"


If you're scientific, prove that you can overcome your own confirmation bias. What evidence have you seen that *supports* the view that this blog is reliable? Can you make a good case for it, even if on balance you feel the evidence points the other direction?  This is pretty easy for a true skeptic; nearly impossible for true believers. Which are you?


"From the IRS' website:  How many annual exclusions are available? The annual exclusion applies to gifts to each donee. In other words,   if you give each of your children $11,000 in 2002-2005, $12,000 in   2006-2008, $13,000 in 2009-2012 and $14,000 on or after January 1,   2013, the annual exclusion applies to each gift. The annual exclusion   for 2014, 2015, and 2016 is $14,000. What if my spouse and I want to give away property that we own together? You are each entitled to the annual exclusion amount on the gift.   Together, you can give $22,000 to each donee (2002-2005) or $24,000   (2006-2008), $26,000 (2009-2012) and $28,000 on or after January 1,   2013 (including 2014, 2015, and 2016). https://www.irs.gov/businesses/small-businesses-self-employed/frequently-asked-questions-on-gift-taxes Basically, this means that it doesn't matter which person it specifically comes from as it's a ""joint"" gift.  There is more complicated paperwork to fill out if the gift comes from a single check and needs to be ""split"" for taxes. Each parent would need to fill out a separate gift tax return form, essentially proving that both parents approve of the gift. It seems like it's easier if each parent writes a separate check, however it's not a requirement."


Gifts from your parents are not treated as income for tax purposes. You should not include that in your subsidy calculation. If you are here on a student-visa and have been in the US for less than 5 years, then you are considered a non-resident alien, and you are not required to buy a qualified plan through the insurance marketplace. You might be able to get a cheaper student plan through your school, but the subsidy might be enough that it's still worth it when calculated correctly. If you are a resident-alien or you are a citizen of the US, then you are required to get coverage, though you can choose not to purchase coverage and pay the tax for not having creditable coverage. That tax cannot be collected by the IRS unless you have already had federal tax withheld. They can only confiscate your tax return money to recoup that money. I don't have enough information to recommend one way or the other what you should do, but I would bet that if you recalculated your subsidy without including your parents income it would cover the majority of the cost. You should also consider applying for Medicaid if you meet the eligibility requirements in your state.


I want to eliminate government schools because it's not a proper function of government.  The government's role is to protect individual rights, not to provide crappy overpriced services that can't be opted out of.  Similarly, the government shouldn't be involved in healthcare for the same reasons. Remember, even before Obamacare, the government spent over half of all healthcare dollars, and tightly regulated the rest. What we are seeing now is government run medicine.


"I'll answer your question, but first a comment about your intended strategy.  Buying government bonds in a retirement account is probably not a good idea.  Government bonds (generally) are tax advantaged themselves, so they offer a lower interest rate than other types of bonds.  At no tax or reduced tax, many people will accept the lower interest rate because their effective return may be similar or better depending, for example, on their own marginal tax rate.  In a tax-advantaged retirement account, however, you'll be getting the lower interest without any additional benefit because that account itself is already tax-advantaged. (Buying bonds generally may be a good idea or not - I won't comment on that - but choose a different category of bonds.) For the general question about the relationship between the Fed rate and the bond rate, they are positively correlated.  There's not direct causal relationship in the sense that the Fed is not setting the bond rate directly, but other interest bearing investment options are tied to the Fed rate and many of those interest-bearing options compete for the same investor dollars as the bonds that you're reviewing.  That's at a whole market level.  Individual bonds, however, may not be so tightly coupled since the creditworthiness of the issuing entity matters a lot too, so it could be that ""bond rates"" generally are going up but some specific bonds are going down based on something happening with the issuer, just like the stock market might be generally going up even as specific stocks are dropping. Also keep in mind that many bonds trade as securities on a secondary market much like stocks.  So I've talked about the bond rate.  The price of the bonds themselves on the secondary market generally move opposite to the rate.  The reason is that, for example, if you buy a bond at less than face value, you're getting an effective interest rate that's higher because you get the same sized incremental payments of interest but put less money into the investment.  And vice versa."


While you would reduce risk by diversifying into other stock ETFs across the world, Developed Market returns (and Emerging Markets to a lesser extent) are generally highly correlated with another (correlation of ~0.85-0.90). This implies that they all go up in bull-markets and go down together in bear markets. You are better off diversifying into other asset-classes given your risk tolerance (such as government bonds, as you have mentioned). Alternatively, you can target a portfolio owning all of the assets in the universe (assuming you're trading in Frankfurt, a combination of something similar to H4ZJ and XBAG, but with higher volumes and/or lower fees)! A good starting resource would be the Bogleheads Wiki: https://www.bogleheads.org/wiki/Asset_allocation


"I see two important things missing from your ongoing costs: maintenance and equipment. I also don't see the one-time costs of buying and moving. Maintenance involves doing some boring math like ""roofs go every 20 years or so and a new roof would cost $20k, so I need $1000 a year in the roof fund. Furnaces go every 20 years and cost $5k, so I need $250 a year in the furnace fund."" etc etc. Use your own local numbers for both how long things last and how much they cost to replace. One rule of thumb is a percentage of the house (not house and land) price each year keeping in mind that while roof, furnace, carpet, stove, toilets etc all need to get replaced eventually, not everything does - the walls for example cost a lot to build but don't wear out - and not all at a 20 year pace. Some is more often, some is less often. I've heard 5% but think that's too high. Try 3% maybe? So if you paid $200,000 for a $100,000 house sitting on $100,000 of land, you put $3000 a year or about $250 a month into a repair fund. Then ignore it until something needs to be repaired. When that happens, fund the repair from the savings. If you're lucky, there will always be enough in there. If the house is kind of old and on its last legs, you might need to start with a 10 or 20k infusion into that repair fund. Equipment means a lawnmower and trimmer, a snow shovel, tools for fixing things (screwdriver, hammer, glue, pliers, that sort of thing.) Maybe tools for gardening or other hobbies that house-owners are likely to have. You might need to prune back some trees or bushes if nothing else. Eventually you get tools for your tools such as a doo-dad for sharpening your lawnmower. Well, lots of doo-dads for sharpening lots of things.  One time expenses include moving, new curtains, appliances if they don't come with the house, possibly new furniture if you would otherwise have a lot of empty rooms, paint and painting equipment, and your housewarming party. There are also closing costs associated with buying a house, and you might need to give deposits for some of your utilities, or pay to have something (eg internet) installed. Be sure to research these since you have to pay them right when you have the least money, as you move in."


You need to do the maths exactly. The cost of buying a car in cash and using a loan is not the same. The dealership will often get paid a significant amount of money if you get a loan through them. On the other hand, they may have a hold over you if you need their loan (no cash, and the bank won't give you money).  One strategy is that while you discuss the price with the dealer, you indicate that you are going to get a loan through them. And then when you've got the best price for the car, that's when you tell them it's cash. Remember that the car dealer will do what's best for their finances without any consideration of what's good for you, so you are perfectly in your rights to do the same to them.


Anything over a $10,000 deposit is reported to the IRS. I'm not sure if you need to fill out a form or if the bank does it automatically. As long as it's legit I don't see that there would be any issues. The worst that would happen is somebody would have to talk to the IRS and explain that it was their money and not a  gift of some sort. Edit it is reported to the FinCEN not the IRS https://www.ffiec.gov/bsa_aml_infobase/pages_manual/OLM_017.htm


Source on monetary contraction in the US over the past ten years?   CBs refer to more than just the fed. Buying means treasury yields go down which pushes investors into other asset classes. I am curious as to which asset classes would be least affected by excess liquidity in the system.   Also see the following link:  http://www.zerohedge.com/news/2017-08-09/mystery-central-bank-buyer-revealed-snb-now-owns-record-84-billion-us-stocks


> Taxi regulations exist to protect the public. It's not some racket to keep people out of the market.  What makes you think that? And even if that were the case (it's not), why is the government more qualified to determine whether riding in a car is safe than the people actually choosing to ride in the cars?  > Red-lining: Red-lining is where taxi companies will not server certain neighborhoods, meaning they will neither pick up nor drop off in the area.  Which is good. Externalities are widely recognized as bad, even by the most liberal and progressive economists, and this internalizes costs.  > Rates: Taxi rates are typically approved by the city so that companies can't constantly change them. This is a big one as far as Uber/Lyft goes.  Customers are free to prefer companies that offer more stable prices.  > Really what it comes down to is Uber/Lyft need to operate on a level playing field. They are a taxi service. There is absolutely no question about this and it isn't up for dispute.  It *is* up to dispute, and you are wrong. Read any local laws about taxis, and it will be extremely clear that Uber and Lyft are not taxis.


Like @littleadv, I don't consider a mortgage on a primary residence to be a low-risk investment.  It is an asset, but one that can be rather illiquid, depending on the nature of the real estate market in your area.  There are enough additional costs associated with home-ownership (down-payment, insurance, repairs) relative to more traditional investments to argue against a primary residence being an investment. Your question didn't indicate when and where you bought your home, the type of home (single-family, townhouse, or condo) the nature of your mortgage (fixed-rate or adjustable rate), or your interest rate, but since you're in your mid-20s, I'm guessing you bought after the crash.  If that's the case, your odds of making a profit if/when you sell your home are higher than they would be if you bought in the 2006/2007 time-frame.  This is no guarantee of course.  Given the amount of housing stock still available, housing prices could still fall further.  While it is possible to lose money in all sorts of investments, the illiquid nature of real estate makes it a lot more difficult to limit your losses by selling. If preserving principal is your objective, money market funds and treasury inflation protected securities are better choices than your home.  The diversification your financial advisor is suggesting is a way to manage risk.  Not all investments perform the same way in a given economic climate.  When stocks increase in value, bonds tend to decrease (and vice versa).  Too much money in a single investment means you could be wiped out in a downturn.


I am a big fan of what we call inheritance tax. I think it is by far the fairest way we have of redistributing wealth. I don't believe a kid should be entitled to the parents ability to earn and that they should have to achieve that themselves.  The relationship is clearly complicated between welfare and employment. I believe the US employment issues are far more to do with the overall economy and less to do with benefits. The nations that do have high welfare and good employment, such as the scandie nations, have not been as effected by the global downturn for numerous  other reasons (Norway is essentially one giant oil hedge fund) and so are hard to compare. Any southern European nation can be an example of the opposite.


LOL   1) chart is # of approved rules, not $  2) we're roughly 100 days into his administration in 2017 and so you're reporting a figure for a fraction of a year.   3) Which rules are which? Which are regulations? The Muslim ban counted here?   This is pure drivel.


Regular skin support frameworks are totally secure for your skin layer and to eat. Items made from natural or 100% common parts are likewise more proficient yet just on the off chance that they contain high phases of the fixing. Also of hazardous substances, characteristic things will never cause disturbance, dry skin, breakouts, and even improved assaults of time. In the event that an all-characteristic thing, for example, Instant Face Lift is truly normal, it will likewise be more sparing. This is on account of those 100 % normal parts are promptly accessible, and there is no assembling procedure locked in.


They do give tax breaks for efficient furnaces, tankless water heaters, even LED lights. Homeowners can use their interest deduction to buy such items. There have been huge tax breaks for electric cars too.  Are you serious right now?


This is wrong and [here's the data](http://imgur.com/a/Xvy33) to prove why its wrong. I compiled the daily closing values of the Dow Jones Industrial over the first 6 months of both president Trump's and Obama's tenure. Trump significantly out performs Obama, this article is fake news.


If they really want cash, you notify your bank in advance of the amount and have it put in your account, then you both sign the paperwork at the bank and after everything is signed you have the bank hand them the money. Guarding it after that is entirely their problem. Personally, I would consider this a stupid request and tell them to have their lawyer discuss it with my lawyer in the hope they can be talked out of it.  As far as where to get the money: Same as for any purchase, find a bank willing to write a mortgage for you on this new house. What you choose to do about the other two houses is an independent question. You can sell one or both, but that may take money so you probably won't finish doing so before needing to pay for the new house. Of course when they do sell you can use the money toward paying down/paying off the new mortgage.


I would wait, and invest that money in a Roth IRA. Because taxes are paid on the contributions to a Roth IRA, you can withdraw the contributions at any time, tax and penalty-free. In addition, you can withdraw contributions and earning to purchase your first home.


Better off making sure what ever degree you pursue has real life applications commensurate with what ever income level you hope to achieve.  Most of the tech giants got really lucky being young and innovative when tech really took off at the consumer level in the early 90's.  That ship has sailed for most of the lucky billionaires because now everyone with brain and commitment can write code if they want to. It's not nearly as valuable.  I'm not saying you can't get rich as a dropout if you're really lucky, but I can play those same odds with a lotto ticket.


"This is the best tl;dr I could make, [original](https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2017-06-16/the-forward-curve-for-oil-prices-suddenly-looks-awful-for-opec) reduced by 88%. (I'm a bot) ***** > As if a mini-collapse in oil prices wasn&#039;t bad enough for OPEC, the pattern in which futures contracts are trading years from now has flipped into the worst possible structure for the exporter group.  > Saudi Arabia is among nations that have been saying for months that a re-balancing is under way in the oil market after OPEC and other producing nations agreed late last year to cut production.  > Some of the world&#039;s biggest banks have also grown increasingly pessimistic about the prospects for crude prices into next year.   ***** [**Extended Summary**](http://np.reddit.com/r/autotldr/comments/6hpil4/the_forward_curve_for_oil_prices_suddenly_looks/) | [FAQ](http://np.reddit.com/r/autotldr/comments/31b9fm/faq_autotldr_bot/ ""Version 1.65, ~146133 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*: **year**^#1 **OPEC**^#2 **crude**^#3 **market**^#4 **price**^#5"


> The point was these places have entire under classes of their population that are allowed to literally die in the street.  the us gov't was >10x smaller before 1900. but the US had the richest poor, and a very low income disparity. how is that remotely possible given your beliefs? you assume that a gov't that doesn't take from the rich and give to the poor will result in a lower living std for the poor. you don't know economics. the soviet union had a system where the rich and poor were forced to be relatively equal, but everyone was poor as hell!


courthouse news simply summarizes the depositions and complaints issued by plaintiffs.  that's all.  everything they report can be found in the legal documents that they provide links to at the end of every article.  every quote they provide is taken from either plaintiff complaints, police reports, or the depositions of litigants.  its audience is not the general public; its audience comprises attorneys and other news media, as the website plainly states on its [about us page](http://www.courthousenews.com/aboutus.html).


The difference is whether or not you have a contract that stipulates the payment plan, interest, and late payment penalties. If you have one then the IRS treats the transaction as a load/loan servicing. If not the IRS sees the money transfer as a gift.


If you believe in the efficient market hypothesis then the stock price reflects the information known to market participants. Consequently, if the 'market' expected earnings to rise, and they did, then the price won't change. Clearly there are circumstances, especially in the short term and for illiquid stocks, where this isn't true, but a lot of work points to this being the case on average.


Unfortunately I haven't brought myself to make that leap yet.  That being said - i'm pretty happy where i'm at.  I get to work with a lot of talent here, and there's only three of us, so there is a huge ownership component of what we are doing.


">its that people with a libertarian mindset tend to have a zealous ideology that makes it impossible to talk to them  It's that people with a statist mindset tend to have a zealous ideology that makes it impossible to talk to them.   >I am aware of your set of beliefs and I don't agree with them  It's amazing that you can claim to be ""aware of [my] set of beliefs"" despite not asking nor being told. Are you a mind reader, or just an assumptive arrogant fool?"


Eh? Companies use the research from public institutions, this is commonish knowledge.         >I'm not disparaging public universities that do the research, but you do realize that they sell their patents to companies, right? That's how these big research schools get the big research budgets that they have. Without being able to monetize a new finding, research dollars would dry right up.         Yes that's what I'm talking about. Public institutions bare the full brunt of cutting edge research.


If it doesn't seem that important, why bother blacking the name out? For the effort, it might cost you less in your time to have the checks reprinted. There's no way to know what all banks would do with a check that has a name crossed out, but most would ignore it. Most checks are processed automatically. Signatures are not verified, post-dated checks can usually still be deposited. Occasionally you'll have a bank or merchant reject a check, but don't expect that to be the norm.


"Simply put, yes. I bought that call. I was betting the shares would rise in value by Jan 2018, and chose the $130 strike. With a strike nearly a year away, I paid a premium that was all time value as the shares traded at   Now the shares are replaced by $128. The time value has gone to zero, and there is no intrinsic ""in the money"" value. If the shares were bought at $140, the time value stills drops to zero, but the option is closed at $10 in the money.  My answer was for a cash deal. In a case where the old shares are replaced by new shares or a combination of shares and money, the options terms are changed to reflect the combination of new assets for old.  Update based on disclosure that it's Monsanto we are discussing.   Bayer and Monsanto have announced that they signed a definitive   agreement under which Bayer will acquire Monsanto for USD 128 per   share in an all-cash transaction. Based on Monsanto’s closing share   price on May 9, 2016, the day before Bayer’s first written proposal to   Monsanto, the offer represents a premium of 44 percent to that price.  You can see that the deal has been in the works for some time now. Further research shows they expect the deal to close by ""the end of 2017"". It's not a done deal. This is why the options are still trading.   Now the shares are replaced by $128. The time value has gone to zero, and there is no intrinsic ""in the money"" value. If the shares were bought at $140, the time value stills drops to zero, but the option is closed at $10 in the money.  My answer was for a cash deal. In a case where the old shares are replaced by new shares or a combination of shares and money, the options terms are changed to reflect the combination of new assets for old.  Update based on disclosure that it's Monsanto we are discussing.  Bayer and Monsanto have announced that they signed a definitive   agreement under which Bayer will acquire Monsanto for USD 128 per   share in an all-cash transaction. Based on Monsanto’s closing share   price on May 9, 2016, the day before Bayer’s first written proposal to   Monsanto, the offer represents a premium of 44 percent to that price. You can see that the deal has been in the works for some time now. Further research shows they expect the deal to close by ""the end of 2017"". It's not a done deal. This is why the options are still trading."


I, too, was not a fan of ARCH or some of the other statistical items. I went through to memorize some of the method names like Durbin-Watson and knew what they corrected or what they used for. I think I had 3 of them. That was the extent of my studying for that section.


I asked a followup question on the Islam site. The issue with Islam seems to be that exchanging money for other money is 'riba' (roughly speaking usury). There are different opinions, but it seems that in general exchanging money for 'something else' is fine, but exchanging money for other money is forbidden. The physicality of either the things or the money is not relevant (though again, opinions may differ). It's allowed to buy a piece of software for download, even though nothing physical is ever bought. Speculating on currency is therefore forbidden, and that's true whether or not a pile of banknotes gets moved around at any point. But that's my interpretation of what was said on the Islam site. I'm sure they would answer more detailed questions.


Maybe, maybe not. By and large my union rep and my governor (nevermind the secretary of state) are also likely to engage in high stakes--possibly higher-stakes--negotiation. So I'll ask again: what distinguishes public employees and union reps so that they should fly coach, but c-corp execs should get fancier tickets?


Vanguard has a lot of mutual fund offerings.  (I have an account there.)  Within the members' section they give indications of the level of risk/reward for each fund.


"The truth is anyone can sue anyone for anything.  So yes you could be sued, but the more important part to measure is the probability of success.   While this is probably more of a legal stack exchange question, in order for a successful suit there has to be proven at least some negligence on your part in the situation you cite.  The very fact that the landlord is not willing to turn on the heat is probably enough to absolve you from any liability.  Once you go down to a local store and purchase a UL certified heater then a suit would have a very low probability of success.   Perhaps a case could be made if you made your own heater and it burned down the house.  But that would require finding a jury that is sympathetic to landlords that will not provide heat for their tenants (highly unlikely). Could the landlord sue the heater company?  Yes and would likely receive an out of court settlement.   Even in the case that liability can be proven on your part, it is very unlikely you would be targeted.  These type of suits target ""deep pockets"" or those with wealth.  Unless something is specifically known about you having a high level of net worth a civil suit will not be brought against a ""room renter"" because of the lack of funds.  People in your demographic tend not to have a lot of money.  (No offense intended, I was there myself once.)  In the case that you do have a high net worth, then get renters insurance and possibly an umbrella policy.  It is a small price to pay to protect a significant amount of assets.   If I was in your shoes here is what I would do:"


Logically, that **should** be true and I'm certain that will be true eventually for the reasons you give. But since the engineers that designed Tesla have so little experience about the failure modes for electric vehicles, we can't really be too sure that will hold true for the electric vehicles being built today.


*The computer scrutinizes so many variables that even Lun doesn’t entirely understand how it makes calls.*  *“It’s not a black box. It’s not that you stick stuff in and have no idea what will come out, we do have parameters,”*  ..... ?


The simple answer is yes - put 20% (or more) down. In the past I have paid PMI and used a combination first and second mortgage to get around it. I recommend avoiding both of those situations. I am much more comfortable now with just a regular mortgage payment. The more equity you have in your home the more options you will have in the future.


"Bull means the investor is betting on a rising market. Puts are a type of stock option where the seller of a put option promises to buy 100 shares of stock from the buyer of the put option at a pre-agreed price called the strike price on any day before expiration day.  The buyer of the put option does not have to sell (it is optional, thats why it is called buying an option).  However, the seller of the put is required to make good on their promise to the buyer. The broker can require the seller of the put option to have a deposit, called margin, to help make sure that they can make good on the promise.   Profit... The buyer can profit from the put option if the stock price moves down substantially.   The buyer of the put option does not need to own the stock, he can sell the option to someone else.  If the buyer of the put option also owns the stock, the put option can be thought of like an insurance policy on the value of the stock.  The seller of the put option profits if the stock price stays the same or rises.  Basically, the seller comes out best if they can sell put options that no one ends up using by expiration day. A spread is an investment consisting of buying one option and selling another. Let's put bull and put and spread together with an example from Apple. So, if you believed Apple Inc. AAPL (currently 595.32) was going up or staying the same through JAN you could sell the 600 JAN put and buy the 550 put.  If the price rises beyond 600, your profit would be the difference in price of the puts.  Let's explore this a little deeper (prices from google finance 31 Oct 2012): Worst Case:  AAPL drops below 550.  The bull put spread investor owes (600-550)x100 shares = $5000 in JAN but received $2,035 for taking this risk. EDIT 2016: The ""worst case"" was the outcome in this example, the AAPL stock price on options expiry Jan 18, 2013 was about $500/share. Net profit = $2,035 - $5,000 = -$2965 = LOSS of $2965 Best Case:  AAPL stays above 600 on expiration day in JAN. Net Profit = $2,035 - 0 = $2035 Break Even:  If AAPL drops to 579.65, the value of the 600 JAN AAPL put sold will equal the $2,035 collected and the bull put spread investor will break even. Commissions have been ignored in this example."


You're trying to attribute the current economic climate and the decisions that stem from that with raising tax rates. And the US will continue to have tax loopholes (not that that is actually the reason that high tax rates didn't kill productivity).        Again, the real world examples don't agree with your bookworm ideas.


I visited annualcreditreport.com to get my annual credit report.  It is only the report, not the score or FICO score.  This is the only outlet I know of that allows you to get your report for free, without a bunch of strings attached or crap to sign up for and cancel later. It was very easy.  I was wary of putting in my private information, but how else can they possibly pull you up? Read the instructions carefully.  You go to each bureau to fetch your report, and they dutifully give you a free report, but they push hard to try and sell you a score or a report service.  It is easy to avoid these if you read carefully. Once you get a report,  you have print it out or you can't see it again for another year.  Each bureau has a different site, with different rules, and different identity checks to get in.  Again, read the instructions and it isn't hard. Instead of printing, I just saved the page as HTML.  You get one html file and a folder with all the images and other stuff.  This suits me but you might like to print. After you get each report, you have to click a link to back to the annualcreditreport.com site.  From there you go to the next bureau. Regarding a score.  Everybody does it differently.  Free Issac does FICO, but anybody who pulls your credit can generate a score however they like, so getting a score isn't anywhere near as important as making sure your report is accurate. You can use credit.com to simulate a score from one of the bureaus (I can't easily see which one at the moment).  It is as easy as annualcreditreport.com and I have no issue getting a simulated score and report card.


At a minimum, I would save 20-30k, because you need to have both a safety net and some money for home repairs.  Very few people move into a house and then do zero repairs - painting, usually, at a minimum, and there's almost always something that comes up pretty soon after.  Even if you're buying a condo, you'll want to be sure you can fix anything that needs fixing within that first year or two. Beyond that, you have to decide based on your risk tolerance and your other details, like your income.  Taking a smaller mortgage means a guaranteed 3% to 4% return, right now.  That's not quite what you'll probably get on the market over the long term, but how did your investments do last year?  My 401(k) was down slightly...  In order to do better than that 3-4%, you're going to have to invest in stocks (or ETFs or similar), meaning you could have 10+% swings potentially year over year, which if that's your only (extra) 50k might be more than you can tolerate. If you're very risk tolerant and mostly looking to make money over the long term, then it may be worth it to you.  But if a larger mortgage makes it harder to pay the monthly payments (a meaningfully smaller buffer), or if your job is such that you might end up having to sell those investments at a loss to cover your mortgage for a few months because you (didn't make enough|got laid off|etc.), then you may want the smaller mortgage to make that less of a risk (though still setting aside the safety net in something minimally risky).


I agree, sales will always win.  I just saw another study that showed social media engagement for companies and 99% were getting almost no engagement from organic social posts.  The 1% that were getting organic engagement were killing it though.  My point is that most companies still have no real grasp as to what the hell they are supposed to be doing in this space.


I have trouble correlating that with my experience in every permanent job I've ever had. There's one guy doing the work, another 4 talking about it so much it's slowing him down, and another 5 playing minesweeper all day.


First and foremost you should do more research on credit cards and what everything means.  As expressed by others the balance transfer fee is not what you think it is.  Credit cards can be great, they can also quickly erode your credit score and your standing.  So understanding the basics is VERY important.   The credit card that is right for you should have the following criteria.  The first two points should be straight forward, you should not have to pay a CC company for the privilege to use their card.  They should pay you through perks and rewards.  It should also be a CC that can be used for what you need it for.  If you travel internationally a lot and the CC you choose only works within the US then what good is it? The third point is where you need to ask yourself what you do a lot and if a CC can offer rewards through travel miles, or cash back or other bonuses based on your lifestyle.  The transfer fee is not what you think it is, people who already are carrying debt on another credit card and would like to transfer that debt to another credit card would be interested in finding a fee or a low %.  People do this to get a batter rate or to get away from a bad credit card.  If one charges 28% and another charges 13%, well it makes sense to transfer existing debt over to the 13% provided they don't crush you on fees.  Since you have no credit card debt (assumption based on the fact you want to build your credit), you should ask yourself for what purpose and how often do you plan to use the credit card.  Would this card be just for emergencies, and wont be used on daily purchases then a credit card that offers 3% cash back on gasoline purchases is not for you.  If you however love to travel and plan to use your credit card for a lot of purchases OR have a few large purchases (insurance, tuition etc.) then get a credit card that provides rewards like miles.  It really comes down to you and your situation. There are numerous websites dedicated to the best credit card for any situation.   The final thing I will say is what I mentioned at the beginning, its important, CC's can be a tool to establish and improve your credit worthiness, they can also be a tool to destroy your credit worthiness, so be careful and make smart choices on what you use your card for.  A credit score is like a mountain, it requires a slow and steady discipline to reach the top, but one misstep and that credit score can tumble quickly.


The Scale Manager electronic scale reducer utilizes a scope of electronic frequencies to evacuate and wipe out lime scale stores. In outrageous hard water establishment ranges, this will drag out water warmer life and continue plumbing lines/apparatuses clean with no support by any stretch of the imagination. electronic scale reducer treats hard water without the need of water conditioner framework, chemicals or salt added substances. This gives the water the capacity to both avoid scale develop and break up existing scale development it comes into contact with.


They shouldn't be bound to them in the first place because you can't delegate a right to someone else that you don't already have yourself. I can't tax you and you can't tax me. It's just theft. And you can't use taxation as justification for ownership of things if you're also using ownership of things as justification for taxation. That's circular logic.


"All of the other answers here are accurate, but (I think) are missing the point as to the question, which rests on how Bonds work in the first place. The bond specifies a payback AMOUNT and DATE. Let's say it is $10,000 and one year from today. If you buy that today for $9900, your yield will be 1%. If you buy it today for $11,000, your yield will be less than 0% (please don't make me do the math - it's just under negative 1%). You might be willing to pay that 1% (rather than receive 1%) for the certainty that you will definitely get your money back. The combined actions of all the people who may be willing to pay a little more or a little less for the safety of a US Treasury Bond is what people call ""the Market.""  Market forces (generally, investor confidence) will drive the price up and down, which affects the yield. All the other stuff - coupons and inflation and whatnot - all of that only makes sense if you understand that you aren't buying a rate of return, you are buying a payback amount and date."


"I am opposed to fracking it is a horrible idea. But as long as they only ruin thier piece of land I don't care. There are far better choices. But we subsidize and choose favorites with stolen ""tax"" money. If the govenment wasn't subsidizing it we would be leaving oil and gas behind to favor better products, like nuclear, solar and wind and whatever we havent thought of yet. But like I have been saying governments love to force people to do stupid shit. You like that about govenment though because you want them to force the stupid things you like instead of some other stupid idea."