#####&#009;  ######&#009;  ####&#009;  [**Benford's law**](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Benford's%20law): [](#sfw)   ---  >  >__Benford's Law__, also called the __First-Digit Law__, refers to the frequency distribution of digits in many (but not all) real-life sources of [data](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Data). In this distribution, the number 1 occurs as the leading digit about 30% of the time, while larger numbers occur in that position less frequently: 9 as the first digit less than 5% of the time. Benford's Law also concerns the expected distribution for digits beyond the first, which approach a uniform distribution.  >This result has been found to apply to a wide variety of data sets, including electricity bills, street addresses, stock prices, population numbers, death rates, lengths of rivers, [physical](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Physical_constant) and [mathematical constants](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mathematical_constant), and processes described by [power laws](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Power_law) (which are very common in nature). It tends to be most accurate when values are distributed across multiple [orders of magnitude](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Order_of_magnitude).  >The graph here shows Benford's Law for [base 10](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Radix). There is a generalization of the law to numbers expressed in other bases (for example, [base 16](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hexadecimal)), and also a generalization from leading 1 digit to leading n digits.  >====  >[**Image**](https://i.imgur.com/Gx6oYsa.png) [^(i)](https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Rozklad_benforda.svg) - *The distribution of first digits, according to Benford's law. Each bar represents a digit, and the height of the bar is the percentage of numbers that start with that digit.*  ---  ^Interesting: [^Gregory ^Benford](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gregory_Benford) ^| [^Logarithm](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Logarithm) ^| [^Simon ^Newcomb](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Simon_Newcomb) ^| [^Frank ^Benford](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Frank_Benford)   ^Parent ^commenter ^can [^toggle ^NSFW](http://www.np.reddit.com/message/compose?to=autowikibot&subject=AutoWikibot NSFW toggle&message=%2Btoggle-nsfw+cjun56c) ^or[](#or) [^delete](http://www.np.reddit.com/message/compose?to=autowikibot&subject=AutoWikibot Deletion&message=%2Bdelete+cjun56c)^. ^Will ^also ^delete ^on ^comment ^score ^of ^-1 ^or ^less. ^| [^(FAQs)](http://www.np.reddit.com/r/autowikibot/wiki/index) ^| [^Mods](http://www.np.reddit.com/r/autowikibot/comments/1x013o/for_moderators_switches_commands_and_css/) ^| [^Magic ^Words](http://www.np.reddit.com/r/autowikibot/comments/1ux484/ask_wikibot/)


I recently decided to splash out on a music system for the house which included a turntable - I used to have a proper DJ setup but that's long been sold off and most of the records are of a genre I don't listen to now, but I wanted to enjoy the records I *do* listen to and also buy some more.  One thing that struck me when listening through albums is how much more closely I listen to each track. When it's not part of an endless Spotify playlist, when you physically have to get up and flip the disc over every 3 tracks or so, you pay so much more attention to it and it becomes a much more pleasurable experience, rather than just 'background'.  It's more labour-intensive but that's a good thing. Good music deserves your attention.  Edit: Also, for all the replies to this that sneer and make out it's just a fad... buying a vinyl offers so much more in terms of a physical product than CDs or downloads. I have a copy of Kanye's 'My Beautiful Dark Twisted Fantasy' and the actual design of the triple gatefold and all the included artwork is amazing.   Yes it's more convenient to just get Apple Music or whatever but that's not what we're talking about. It's the reason people go a decent steakhouse rather than McDonalds.


From Investopedia, A stock split is usually done by companies that have seen their share   price increase to levels that are either too high or are beyond the   price levels of similar companies in their sector. The primary motive   is to make shares seem more affordable to small investors even though   the underlying value of the company has not changed. From Wikipedia, It is often claimed that stock splits, in and of themselves, lead to   higher stock prices; research, however, does not bear this out. What   is true is that stock splits are usually initiated after a large run   up in share price...stock splits do increase the liquidity of a stock;   there are more buyers and sellers for 10 shares at $10 than 1 share at   $100. Some companies have the opposite strategy: by refusing to split   the stock and keeping the price high, they reduce trading volume.   Berkshire Hathaway is a notable example of this. Something more to munch on, Why Warren Buffett Is Against Stock Splits.


"I'm in total agreement on this. I get the sense that lyft is more of a social experience but sometimes I just want to get where I'm going and not be chatty.   Also I recall when lyft required you to signup with your Facebook account. Additionally they encouraged users to ride up front with the driver to encourage the social aspect. These things may have changed now, but it soured my initial experience. Also let's not forget the huge pink mustaches that used to be on the cars. Those were ridiculous.   It's not likely true; but Uber feels more ""professional"" and lyft is more a like a carpool service amongst colleagues."


The U.S. bankruptcy laws no longer make it simple to discharge credit card debt, so you can't simply run up a massive tab on credit cards and then just walk away from them anymore.  That used to be the case, but that particular loophole no longer exists the way it once did. Further, you could face fraud charges if it can be proven you acted deliberately with the intent to commit fraud.   Finally, you won't be able to rack up a ton of new cards as quickly as you might think, so your ability to amass enough to make your plan worth the risk is not as great as you seem to believe. As a closing note, don't do it.  All you do is make it more expensive for the rest of us to carry credit cards.  After all, the banks aren't going to eat the losses.  They'll just pass them along in the form of higher fees and rates to the rest of us.


It looks like your best option is to go with an online broker. There are many available. Some of them won't let you open an account online as a foreign national but will allow you to open one through the mail. See more about that http://finance.zacks.com/can-nonus-citizen-trade-us-stocks-9654.html Also keep in mind that you will need to pay taxes on any capital gains made through selling http://www.irs.gov/pub/irs-pdf/p519.pdf


Part of the value of bitcoin is indeed in speculation about its future. Will it be a store of value, like gold is? Will it be *the* medium of exchange for online and offline transactions? Will it be a representation and insurance for services (to be) rendered?   It currently most resembles the first, but don't forget that bitcoin is still in its infancy. There's a lot of room for it to grow, and the technology behind it *can* grow.


Any commercially distributed product needs to be taxed. Depending on country of residence and distribution, legislation varies widely, therefore the best place to ask would be your local small business counsel or even your local taxation office. Depending on the size of your business, you might need a license to sell them in the first place anyway and that comes with its own set of prerequisites.


"The ""ideal world"" index fund of any asset class is a perfect percentage holding of all underlying assets with immediate rebalancing that aligns to every change in the index weighting while trading in a fully liquid market with zero transaction costs. One finance text book that describes this is Introduction to Finance: Markets, Investments, and Financial Management, see chapter 11.  Practically, the transaction costs and liquidity make this unworkable. There are several deviations between what the ""ideal world algorithm"" (""the algorithm"") says you should do and what is actually done. Each of these items addresses a real-world solution to various costs of managing a passive index fund. (And they are good solutions.) However, any deviation from the ideal index fund will have a risk. An investor evaluating their choices is left to pick the lowest fees with the least deviation from the ideal index fund. (It is customary to ignore whether the results are in excess or deficit to the ideal). So your formula is: This is also described in the above book."


Trust me man, I've been cold e-mailing and calling any alumnus that will will let me, but most don't even throw me a bone. I am looking. Definitely not going to be another credit analyst at a shitty bank.


1) Have a discussion, including would they be willing to share their financials to help craft a proposal 2) Fire up Excel (or similar) and build a financial plan. What would 6 days a week potentially look like financially? Is there a snack bar or similar upside revenue op? Is there enough money to interest the owners and you? Run the plan by a disinterested third party (local banker or business manager might make sense) to challenge your assumptions. 3) Make a proposal only if the numbers make sense.


To one extreme, there's term. Aside from the commission, the premium is buying insurance and that's it. But when the tax and math wiz guys started to get together, they were able to use insurance as a wrapper to create products that might have some tax benefits. Whole life created a product that had an investment component which was able to pay the ever increasing premium costs. To the other extreme, there are variable annuities with a fixed $20/mo mortality fee which on a large valued account can be a tiny fraction of a percent of the funds invested. In effect, it's not an insurance product, but an investment, one that wrapped in a very thin insurance veil to keep it away from certain security regulations. This is likely the product you are being offered, or some variation of it.


">I expect it goes back long before Eisenhower.  I expect it goes back long before Washington.  I expect it goes back long before Julius Caesar.  >That shouldn't mean I can express my disgust at it.   K but that isnt what you said earlier, which is what got us here.  >I'm old enough to remember when normal companies didn't openly associate their brands with politics,   Normal companies have been openly associating their brands with politics since ""normal companies"" have existed. There just used to be more middle ground."


1a. It isn't. Compound interest is compound interest. It works no different within a 401(k). 1b. Yes. 401(k)'s are made up of the same underlying assets that you could invest in with a regular brokerage account.


In all honesty I put zero research in to this - pizza is still fucking italian though, bread base + tomato based sauce + any cheese + topping = pizza, however often America tries to claim they came up with it - you guys can have the burger


I have used TurboTax successfully for a couple of years. In addition to things already mentioned, it has some forums where you can get some simple questions answered (with complex ones it's always better to consult the professional) and it can import some data from your salary provider if you're lucky (some companies are supported, some aren't) - then you save time on filling out W2s, and can allow you to track your donations with sister site ItsDeductible.com, compare data with last year, etc. Not sure how desktop software compares. So far I didn't see any downsides except for, of course, the fact that your information is available online. But in our times most companies offer online access to earnings statements, etc., anyway, and so far the weakest link for the financial information has proven to be retailers, not tax preparers.


You should never roll a 401(k) to a Roth IRA. If the intention is to do so, you are better off rolling to a traditional IRA, and then converting. (Per the comment below, I should add - if the 401(k) contained post tax money, this portion rolls to a Roth, not a Tradition IRA. You then have the exercise of converting/recharacterizing just the TIRA money, as the Roth stands aside) This preserves the ability to recharacterize back to a traditional IRA. You might wish to do this if: The answers so far are great, but I'll add what I see missing -


[Amazon Balance Sheet](http://markets.ft.com/research/Markets/Tearsheets/Financials?s=AMZX:GER&subview=BalanceSheet)    [Best Buy Balance Sheet](http://markets.ft.com/research/Markets/Tearsheets/Financials?s=BBY:NYQ&subview=BalanceSheet)   Best Buy has one billion in cash.  Amazon has nine.  If Best Buy does lower its retail prices, a sector that demands higher margins to compensate for larger fixed expenses, it's over.  They don't have the cash to pursue that strategy if they wanted to, and it means that they've given up trying to figure out another way to differentiate themselves.    It already is pretty much over.  Amazon could open up pop-up stores around Christmas time with it's top 20 products by margin and volume in each category and effectively end Best Buy.  But they don't really care because Best Buy isn't a competitor to them.


"Don't worry about it.  The State doesn't care about rounding error.  All you need to do is say ""We charge our prices with tax included"" - you know, like carnivals and movie theaters.   Then follow the procedures your state specifies for computing reportable tax.  Quite likely it wants your pre-tax sales total for the reporting period. To get that, total up your gross sales that you collected, and divide by (1 + tax rate).  Just like DJClayworth says, except do it on total sales instead of per-item.  If you need to do the split per-transaction for Quickbooks or something, that's annoying.  What Quickbooks says will be pennies off the method I describe above.  The state don't care as long as it's just pennies, or in their favor."


The problem around here is while the crowd sourced nature of reddit can be great for discussions, when it comes to topics that require specialized analysis or understanding beyond headlines most of the participants are young and have very little direct experience or knowledge on what they're commenting on.  So as a business owner with actual experience that you live with and have dealt with for decades you might end up with negative comment votes, while a 15 year old who plays call of duty all day says something popular with the hivemind has hundreds of positive upvotes.   At least r/business has more people willing to consider both sides of the argument.... whereas r/politics is pretty much a lost cause. Nevermind I have a top 20 university degree in political science. For even suggesting people consider alternatives or that Obama is anything but a saint I often receive negative comment votes. I don't support Romney OR Obama, but thats as good as evil for most of these people.


Lots of business do work and buy products for their customers then invoice them later think of landscapers or IT professionals. They keep track of the work and products on post-its they stick on their desks. Need further help, contact QuickBooks Support team by visit our site - https://www.wizxpert.com/quickbooks-support-help-phone-number/


Many brokers offer a selection of ETFs with no transaction costs. TD Ameritrade and Schwab both have good offerings. Going this route will maximize diversification while minimizing friction.


Get a lawyer.  If you're having legal issues - get a lawyer. If you're having contract issues - get a lawyer.


The only resources or references you need are a chart showing you what happened in those months. The exuberance for US treasuries comes from the fact that there are no better options than them for putting cash. There are better sovereign debt instruments around the world depending on your goals, but they do not offer the same liquidity. US dollars and US Treasuries are equivalents in this context, so no matter if the wealthy speculator removed their cash from the stock market and put it in a bank or directly bought US treasuries (or their futures), this would increase the demand for treasuries. S&P Downgraded US treasures due to political instability in the United States, since inefficiencies in the country's political structure can prevent the Treasury from paying treasury holders (aka a default). Speculators know that this doesn't effect the United States resources and revenue collection schemes, as there is ample wealth public and private available to back the treasury bonds.


It is a fantastic site.  I am a little disappointed they aren't staying private, building up their client base, and then make an attempt to take over the MLS/Realtor mafia.       They have an opportunity to Uber the real estate market.


"If you are a telecommuter and in good terms with your employer, then all you need is contact your employer and explain your situation. Ask them for a short letter that indicates: ""1. they require you to work from a privately rented office (or from a home office for those who prefer working from home), 2. this is one of the terms of your employment, and, 3. they will not reimburse you for this expense."" With this letter in your hand, you satisify both the ""convenience of employer"" test AND the deduction of the rent for your private office as a unreimbursed employee expense.  The IRS cannot expect your employer to open an office branch in your city just for your sake, nor can they expect you to commute to your employer's city for work, which is an impossiblity considering the distance. Additionally, the IRS cannot ""force"" telecommuters to work from home. The key is to get a letter from your employer. You'd be surprised how easily they are willing to write such letter for you."


"This comment is too long to put in comments. Sorry. I suggest you also do a dry run of your taxes with the rental as part of it. When you rent a house, you take depreciation each year. This means that even if you are breaking even, the rent paying the mortgage, property tax, etc, you may still show a ""tax loss."" In which case, planning and knowing this, might suggest you adjust your withholding so instead of a large refund, you get better cash flow each month.  Also, pull a copy of Schedule E and the Instructions. You'll be wiser for having read them.  Last. If you have decent equity in the existing house, it may pay to refinance to save a bit there, or even pull some cash out. When you buy the new one, you want to be in the best position you can be, and not risk cutting it too close."


I've put 75K miles on my 2013 Volt and it's holding up great.  Solid car.  I've got a pre-reveal Model 3 reservation, and I'm reluctant to trade the Volt in.  Looks like I'll have to make that decision pretty soon.


"We just got in an argument in another thread, and I don't necessarily want to continue it, but was browsing your comments and saw this. I can say from personal experience (I have several high net worth clients) that this isn't true. The rich do the opposite of leave their money laying around. They invest it to make more money. They buy office buildings, fund new companies, buy up stocks, and drive investment in general. Someone has to do these things. Office buildings can't just be owned by ""the people"". Someone with a ton of money has to come along and fund them.   For example, one of my friends knows Elon Musk (founder of Pay-Pal, Tesla Motors, Solar City, and Space X). He is *worth* $2 billion, but was living on other people's couches (including my friend's) after he sold Pay-Pal because he had just poured all of his cash into starting Tesla Motors. He was a billionaire without a penny to his name (well I'm sure he had a little cash lying around, but was essentially asset rich, cash broke).   THAT is what most ultra rich people are like. They invest their money, they don't just horde it away in a savings account. The things people like Musk do create jobs and sometimes entire industries (or three entire industries in his case). I'm by no means arguing that this is right or wrong, but to say rich people just have money lying around is absurd. You don't get rich by saving money in the bank, you get rich by spending it.  I'm in my early 20's, but already own multiple apartment buildings. I'm not rich yet and am in the same boat as Musk was. I have tons of assets, but almost no cash I can spend. However, you bet my efforts are creating jobs. I'm employing people to renovate and people to repair and maintain these buildings. I'm helping stop the bleeding in the real estate market, but, according to the narrative, I'm evil because my ""income"" is six figures."


You have to look at the real price of the share to calculate the value of the spread. 42$ at the start, 46$ at the end.  Think of it this way: When price was 42$ the call 45$ was out of the money, worth 100$ of time value only=100 the call 40$ was in the money and worth 200$ of intrinsic + 100 time value=300 the difference was 200$ Now that price is 46$ the call 45$ is worth 100$ in the money, real or intrinsic value the call 40$ is worth 600$ in the money, real or intrinsic value the difference is 500$ NOTE: 1. Commission fees are not included. 2. Time value of 100$ on both calls when price is 42$ is incorrect and for teaching purpose only.


Is it liable for taxation in India? Taxation does not depend on whether to transfer money to India or keep it in GCC. It depends on your tax status. In a given Financial year; 1st April to 31st March, if you are outside of India for more than 182 days, your are Non-Resident Indian, NRI for tax purposes.  If you are NRI, income earned outside of India is not taxable in India [even if you transfer the funds to India]. If you are not an NRI, you income in GCC will be taxable in India [Even if you keep the money in GCC]. We both send our salary into a friends account in India and then transfer an amount to our own accounts This is an incorrect practise, If you are NRI, you should not be holding a Savings account, it should be converted into NRO and you can if you want open an NRE account. For your friend where you are transferring money, if there is an income tax audit, there would be quite a few questions asked and your friend has to establish and keep records that this is not GIFT, but more of a convenience agreement.


No. Few reasons.   1) You'll pay a penalty (tax) if you liquidate your 401k. 2) Instead of using your 401k, adjust your monthly budget and live frugal for some time. 3) Look for 0% balance transfer offers and transfer debt to that so you'll be able to reduce interest accumulation.  4) 401k is your savings, one of many I hope, keep that as is and don't touch it. 5) Sell things that you don't need and pay it towards the credit card  6) Do an analysis of your spending and figure out how you got to 21k.


I wasn't clear, I meant misleading the public in the goal of supporting their own ends which will then work to the benefit of the politicians.   Frankly, I know politicians are lying crooks. I don't respect what they do or the reasons they do it.


Some items are VAT Exempt or Reduced, but in short you will pay it on almost any all consumer goods. Assuming you are a visitor to the UK from a non-EU nation then Her Majesty will refund you with the appropriate paperwork


Isn't 'net' implying that job losses are already accounted for?  edit:  Now I'm thinking you're saying that the jobs Amazon destroyed need to be subtracted from their net.  Hmm.. Mathematically sound.  Practically next to impossible to determine an accurate number, I expect.


Yes, they have tried with Google Shopping but nothing came out of it. I really feel they are these big dinosaurs corporations who can't adapt to new business model. Outside of their web apps they have not done much really. Gmail hasn't improved for years. The so called gmap improvement are bs, it's just some improved stuff.


"If I understand, you're saying that the cause of the slow recovery is structural. That is, that our economic problems are due to to being unproductive. That's simply wrong. [There is no evidence of that.](http://krugman.blogs.nytimes.com/2012/06/08/the-structural-obsession/)  Moreover, there is not ""plenty of demand"" as you claim. Expected aggregate demand growth isn't what it used to be."


"Why thank you for this unbiassed information, trust deed salesperson.  Basically, trust deeds are a pawn shop for your house, except they aren't well regulated like a pawn shop.  ""Banks are too trustworthy.  I'm going to give my house to Joe, because he'll give me one third of one more percent, and it seems smart to me to gamble my home on a couple hundred bucks and some social network advice."""


In my graduate thesis I explored the liquidity changes in the bond markets. Part of my research led me to also identifying an opportunity for blockchain to play a role in measuring it, something mathematically impossible but increasingly necessary in fixed Income.  Definitely interested


"This was an article meant for mass consumption, written by a Yale law professor and an individual who has a PhD in economics (in addition to his practical, on the job experience managing the Yale endowment).  I'm having a hard time believing that it was ""poorly argued.""  As for proof, that's the sort of thing you find in financial and economic journals (for example, [The Effect of Maker-Taker Fees on Investor Order Choice and Execution Quality in U.S. Stock Markets](http://people.stern.nyu.edu/jhasbrou/SternMicroMtg/SternMicroMtg2015/Papers/MakerTakerODonoghue.pdf)).    One of the direct takeaways from the above paper states:  *""I find that total trading cost to investors increases, when the taker fee and maker rebate increase, even if the net fee is held fixed. The total trading cost represents the net-of-fees bid-ask spread and the brokerage commission to an investor wanting to buy and then sell the same stock.""*  I'm not here to argue for the paper.  I'm really here to tell you that these guys have far more of a clue than you realize.  ~~A dash of humility on your part may be in order, given the fact that you've already admitted to the reality that you aren't sure of any of this yourself.~~  *Edit*:  Thought I was responding to a different thread."


seriously?  local papers are the worst for advertising now. it is a buyers market, i expect many local papers to disappear in years to come.  at least with nationals they can get a wider circulation and reasonable ad rates from national retailers, auto groups etc  IIRC the NYT did have a local paper group (which was grouped with their boston globe assets?) and sold it off - probably for a big loss.


"I think it would take a societal introspection in regards to wealth. ""How much is enough"".  In the US (and in parts of Canada) we have, today, rampant poverty. The middle class is in debt because of wage stagnation and the inflated cost of living.  Who is going to buy goods and services when few have disposable income? I don't care how rich you are, you only buy so many cars, jeans, houses. ~~You're~~ Your money just sits there making more money.  So at some point many companies WON'T be able to pay current compensation packages. When that happens ""talent"" has no choice. They take a reasonable and realistic compensation package (still orders of magnitude larger than the average employee) but not 10's and 100's of millions of dollars, unless that compensation is actually tied to something more than short term shareholder value creation. Which is exactly the problem today. HP anyone?"


Would say it depends on the weight of the camper really.  As a top of the line Tacoma is around 41k MSRP, which is a mid tier Tundra (both having full cab).  I don't know the max tow weight for the tacoma, but depending on the weight it may be doable.  As the tacoma comes with a v6 with AWD.


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I'm not sure about reimbursement, you'll have to talk to a tax adviser (CPA/EA licensed in your State). From what I know, if you pay your own insurance premiums - they're not deductible, and I don't think reimbursements change that. But again - not sure, verify. However, since you're a salaried employee, even if your own, you can have your employer cover you by a group plan. Even if the group consists of only you. Then, you'll pay your portion as part of the pre-tax salary deduction, and it will be deductible. The employer's portion is a legitimate business expense. Thus, since both the employee and the employer portions are pre-tax - the whole cost of the insurance will be pre-tax. The catch is this: this option has to be available to all of your employees. So if you're hiring an employee a year from now to help you - that employee will be eligible to exactly the same options you have. You cannot only cover owner-employees. If you don't plan on hiring employees any time soon, this point is moot for you, but it is something to keep in mind down the road as you're building and growing your business.


Seconded, just passed my 7 with a 91 and never scored better than the mid 80s on the practice tests.  Also don't bother with reading the book much.  Just use the practice tests and answers for most of your study.  Do consult the book to see what chapters are weighted heavily on the exam to know where to focus.


does it still count as a capital gain or loss? Yes. Is it essentially treated like you sold the stock at the price of the buy-out?  Yes. Do you still get a 1099-B from your broker? Yes.


The following are my opinion based upon research/analysis. Since this involves Taxation rules, suggest you consult a Tax attorney for their views.  a. Yes. You can transfer any any amount of dollars to your NRE account without paying any additional taxes.  b. Since you have passed Substantial Presence test, you will be categorized Resident Alien. You need to disclose the interest earned on your NRE account. This amount will be clubbed with your total income in US. You would have to add this interest income in your total income and calculate tax thereon. C. Transferring money to Parents? Answer is Yes /No. You need to elaborate on this further. Advantage of parking money in NRE account is that you can repatriate money in dollars any time you want. Assuming you need to buy a house or further education , this would be useful. Incase you don't have any of those goals, Yes you can transfer money to your Parent if they are in need of funds.  d. Any transfer above $14000 will attract gift taxes. This $14000 is the overall limit for a Tax payee. Incase you transfer $14000 for each parent, then it comes to $28000. There are chances that IRS may raise a Redflag that you are circumventing the limit by splitting the recipients.  e. Only when you transfer more than $14000, you need to report and pay the gift tax.


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Thats not even close to true. My dad was a roofing contractor who regularly employed felons. It doesn't take a rocket scientist to clean a dish or swing a hammer, both of which are jobs that need to get done.  Well would you look at that? Turns out you're the daft one.


I have been using bearsofts money app, both in mac and iOS. I think only down side with this apps is you need to buy them separately. http://ibearmoney.com/money-mac.html


"When you buy a put on a stock, you buy the right to sell the stock at fixed price, F, that his usually different from the market price, M. You paid a price, P, for the put.  Your potential profit, going forward, is represented by the DIFFERENCE you get to collect between your fixed price F, and that market price M, plus the price you paid for the put, or F-(M+P). (This assumes that F>(M+P). P is fixed, but the smaller M gets, the larger the term F-(M+P), and therefore the higher your potential profit from owning the put. So when M ""tanks,"" the put goes higher.  The $395 put is already in the money. If it were settled today, the value would be $395-$376 or $19. This, minus the cost of the put itself, represents your profit. The $365 put is ""out of the money."" The stock has to fall $11 more before the put is exercised. But if the stock went down 8 points today, that is less than the $19 difference at the start of the day. Because there is time between now and October, there is a chance for the stock to go down further, thereby going into the money. The current value of the put is represented by this ""chance."" Obviously, the chances of the stock going down $11 more (from today) is greater than the chance of it going down $19 more. On the other hand, the closer it gets to the expiration date, the less an out of the money put is worth. It's a race between the stock's fall, and the time to expiration."


"The responses here are excellent. I'd add just a couple points. Debt is not generic. It ranges from low (my HELOC is 2.5%) to insane (24% credit card, anyone?).  When I read about the obsession to be completely debt free, I ask questions. Are you saving in your 401(k) at least up to the match? I disagree with the ""debt is evil"" people who advise to ignore retirement savings while paying off every last debt. My company offers a dollar for dollar match on the first 5% of income deposited. So a $60K earner will see a $3000 deposit doubled. 5 years of this, and he has 1/2 a year's income in his retirement account, more with positive returns. (note - for those so fearful of losses, all 401(k) accounts have to offer a fixed income, low risk choice. currently 1% or less, but the opposite of ""I can lose it all"".) After that, paying off the higher debt is great. When it's time to hack away at student debt and mortgage, I am concerned that if it's at the risk of having no savings, I'd hold off. Consider - Two people in homes worth $250K. One has a mortgage of $250K and $100K in the bank. The other has his mortgage paid down to $150K.  When they lose their jobs, the guy with the $100K in the bank has the funds to float himself through a period of unemployment as well as a house the bank is less likely to foreclose on. The guy with no money is in deep trouble, and the bank can sell his house for $150K and run away (after proper foreclosure proceedings of course.) My mortgage is one bill, like any other, and only a bit more than my property tax. I don't lose sleep over it. It will be paid before I retire, and before my 11yr old is off to college. I don't think you stupid for paying your low interest debt at your own pace."


Always the same bank.   Started in a technology/IT related role on the trading floor.  It was a long time ago.  That part was luck.  I didn't actually look to work on a trading floor specifically.  I was interviewed, they hired me.  After that, it was a lot of hard work and I basically changed industries while staying on the same floor.


I have never had a lender ask my budget, only my income, savings, credit rating and value of the collateral. That's considered adequate info to estimate risk for most ordinary loans. Yes, they may want the income proven by evidence from your employer or via a copy of your tax returns. They don't care what you buy as long as there's evidence you'll make loan payments on time for the life of the loan.


This question came up again (Living in Florida working remotely - NY employer withholds NYS taxes - Correct or Incorrect?) and the poster on the new version didn't find the existing answers to be adequate, so I'm adding a new answer.   NYS will tax this income if the arrangement is for the convenience of the employee. If the arrangement is necessary to complete the work, then you should have no NYS tax. New York state taxes all New York-source salary and wage income of nonresident employees when the arrangement is for convenience rather than by necessity (Laws of New York, § 601(e), 20 NYCRR 132.18). Source: http://www.journalofaccountancy.com/issues/2009/jun/20091371.html Similar text can also be found here: http://www.koscpa.com/newsletter-article/state-tax-consequences-telecommuting/ The NYS tax document governing this situation seems to be TSB-M-06(5)I. I looked at this page from NYS that was mentioned in the answer by @littleadv. That language does at first glance seem to lead to a different answer, but the ruling in the tax memo seems to say that if you're out of state only for your convenience then the services were performed in NYS for NYS tax purpose. From the memo: However, any allowance claimed for days worked outside New York State must be based upon the performance of services which of necessity, as distinguished from convenience, obligate the employee to out-of- state duties in the service of his employer.


There are some that are already under similar restrictions.  Highly comp-ed employees can only put a small portion of the traditional limit in their qualified plans.  Some may have very high incomes, that if limited to 18K, would be saving inadequately.   Others may have high incomes and not have a 401K.  What do they do? I see only two options: The reduction in the contribution limit would certainly improve the attractiveness of real estate as an investment.


Some personal finance packages can track basis cost of individual purchase lots or fractions thereof. I believe Quicken does, for example. And the mutual funds I'm invested in tell me this when I redeem shares. I can't vouch for who/what would make this visible at times other than sale; I've never had that need. For that matter I'm not sure what value the info would have unless you're going to try to explicitly sell specific lots rather than doing FIFO or Average accounting.


I'm quite aware of your point and it doesn't hold water for me, for the reasons I already explained.   If someone came in saying Amazon is a company that sells dogs, and I say no they don't, I don't feel the need to cite a source, even if one is available, because it's a known truth and if they want to argue, they can look it up and find out they're wrong.  It's not incumbent upon me to hold your hand.


"you have 2 concerns: the lender and the irs. either way you should be fine the lender just wants to know that you have no legal claim to the property or other compensation. simply signing a gift declaration should clear that up, making this a ""gift"" from their perspective.  they probably have some standard form you can sign. otherwise, just a simple note that says ""i, so-and-so, gave whats-er-name x$ on the y of june, 20## as a gift, with no expectation of repayment"".  then, only way you could get charged with ""fraud"" is if you seek compensation for this ""gift"" in the future.  even then, the bank would probably have to find out about the compensation and complain pretty strongly to get a prosecutor interested in a small dollar misrepresentation case with little or no provable intent. a bigger concern is the bank being uncomfortable with the future renter also giving a gift. that just ""smells weird"". and bankers hate anything weird. it probably won't prevent the mortgage from getting approved, but it might delay the underwriters a few days while the wring their hands about it. the irs is a bit more complicated. they tend to be the ""heads we win, tails you lose"" types.  assuming they consider this a gift, then you are fine, since it is under the annual gift exclusion (~14k$ these days); you don't even have to tell them about it.  however, if she gives you a large financial gift in the near future, they may decide to interpret those two events as a single transaction turning this into a no interest loan. even then, you should be fine since the irs generally doesn't care about loans under 100k$ with ""missing"" interest under 1k$/yr. since this is a small loan and interest rates are so low, you have no worries. further irs reading on gift loans: https://www.law.cornell.edu/uscode/text/26/7872"


If your sister paid rent, she was a tenant. There are laws to protect tenants, but those depend on what country, state, and city you live in. In most places in the US (maybe all), she was owed more than 2 days notice. Normally, the local housing authority could help her figure out what her rights are, but since this already happened, they may not be able to do much (depends on the local laws). It's worth asking them anyway. I don't know how partial ownership of the property would affect things if your sister was a partial owner. If the 30 year old will was the most recent document, then that's how the estate will be distributed. There are no laws in the US requiring a will to be fair. An executor's role is to carry out the will. Being an executor does not mean one can choose to unilaterally sell the property in the estate without permission of other heirs. You'll need to speak with a lawyer if you think they're breaking the will by selling property that you have partial ownership of. But since the sale is already done, reversing it would be slow and probably very expensive in legal fees. If it's a small estate, you'll have to judge whether a lawyer is worth the money and the family's animosity. Also, if the estate had debt, debt must be paid before property is distributed to the heirs, so that could also change what your sisters had to do.  I'd suggest first asking your sisters to tell  you about what they've done to execute the will, and what they do in the future.


A chunk of Gen X graduated during the .COM bubble, so depending on what industry you were in, yes, it was pretty tough. Fortunately (depending on your perspective), the federal reserve found a way to sweep that bubble under the rug by inflating the housing bubble, so while Gen X might have been able to find jobs, it was largely at the cost of getting stuck in their first mortgage for the rest of their lives.


In a very large number of cases you are dead wrong. People will gladly pay a premium for products from someone that at least pretends to give a fuck. You can find similar products and services with a very large price difference but those charging more still get plenty of business and often more business.


The one that I used in a technical meeting with out-of-touch career bureaucrats last year of Technical Evangelists.    The bureaucrats where thoroughly confused (thinking I was talking about people of a particular religious faith) until one of them asked for a definition.  Context, people!


"Previous answers have done a great job with the ""Should I invest?"" question.   One thing you may be overlooking is the question ""Am I allowed to invest?"" For most offerings of stock in a startup, investors are required to be accredited by the SEC's definition.  See this helpful quora post for more information on requirements to invest in startups. To be honest, if a startup is looking for investors to put in ""a few thousand dollars"" each, this would raise my alarm bells.  The cost and hassle of the paperwork to (legitimately) issue shares in that small of number would lead me just to use a credit card to keep me going until I was able to raise a larger amount of capital."


There are several factors that can help you make a decision.  How friendly are the laws to tenants as opposed to landlords?  How easy will it be for you to collect rent?  How much management is needed?  Do you desire to own rental properties?  What does your schedule look like? Based upon pure numbers I would keep this property.  It looks like you can earn 3K per year, which you may have done some math wrong, on about a 15,000 per year investment.  About 20%, very good.  Even if you only collect half your profits due to maintenance or missed rent checks the numbers still look really good. If you don't need the extra funds, you can always pay more on the mortgage.  The other thing to consider is the rest of your fiances.  Can you cover a couple of months of missed rent?  Do you have an emergency fund?  Do you have other debts?


If you guys are so convinced this is only good for banks, why don't you just invest in banks?    Same thing with net neutrality. It screws the average guy but a smart investor can recoup money lost


I agree, but lets stat the obvious here: the average intelligence of his workforce is extraordinary high. This would not work at Walmart. The CTO would be getting what is my log in password questions from 10,000 front line employees.


"Yes, I completely agree with you there.  Interest rates and prices have an inverse relationship.  The point that I am trying to make is that when home prices are not manipulated by some stupid government program, they will ""seep to their level""."


"I grew up when eBay started long before Amazon. For the past 20 years, eBay has been a total ""no-option"" service. The amount of fraud has been out of control for two decades.    If you can't afford something, just don't buy that item. Buy something lesser. Going on eBay for something cheap will burn you every time. This has been common sense for twenty years. It's garbage and it profits off bad transactions. Just drop it altogether as a service and align your wants to your means."


Did he say why he wants double your asking price? Did you explain to him how you came up with the offer you made? Sometimes exploring interests (why people make their decisions) is more helpful than bargaining over positions. If you understand why he wants double your offer (and he understands why you're offering a lower price) you might get closer to an agreement. Another option is to defer to a disinterested third-party who will pick a valuation for the company, and you can agree to abide by their decision (and pick a payout schedule if necessary) Think about what you'll do if you can't come to an agreement: is walking away from the business an option and going out on your own? What would happen to him if you simply walk away? It might be in his best interest to negotiate. Or will you reluctantly pay his asking price? Or can you sell the business to him? One option when partners need to split up is to have one of them set a value for the company, and the other decides if he wants to be the buyer or seller. (It's like the trick with kids where one cuts the cake and the other selects which slice he wants.) Maybe you can come up with a fair way of valuing the company. A lawyer will be needed to draw it all up, but you can agree on the framework of the deal ahead of time and save some money and stress. Last thought: when a win-win agreement isn't possible, sometimes the next best compromise is where everyone feels like he got equally screwed. That's ok, too.


An expert event videographer ought to have the capacity to cover all minutes in the room, utilizing a zooming focal point and without lights. The reason and center of a wedding function ought to be you.  In Gainesville, we are the best videography office. In the event that you need to Videography Gainesville, FL, at that point, you can get in touch with us. We will give you an expert videographer.


It depends on what you're trying to measure, PPP is a far more accurate measurement of a nation's industrial and military power. If you want to measure the might of a country's financial industry then nominal GDP is more accurate.  China doesn't pay its soldiers or scientists in nominal currency, it doesn't pay for its tanks, ships, roads, bridges, high speed rail etc in nominal currency, it pays for it in local currency.  This is why the CIA uses PPP to measure a nation's real industrial power.  [Who Has the World's No. 1 Economy? - Bloomberg]( https://www.bloomberg.com/view/articles/2017-10-18/who-has-the-world-s-no-1-economy-not-the-u-s)


You don't need to file or do anything. The bank will report all transfers over 10 000, but chances are slim that it will even be looked at, if you don't do this every week. Worst case, someone will ask you about the source, and you tell them exactly what you wrote above (I had multiple international transfers over 60k and nobody ever asked). You said you paid his tuition, and he is now paying you back, so in case someone asks, you should be able to produce the documentation on the tuition payment - a bill, or your bank statement showing you paid it; and the amount should be matching, so you have proof. Note that if he pays you interest, it is taxable income. You are obligated to list it on your next tax filing.


AdvFN has one--click the Charts & Research pulldown and choose UK Screener. Free but requires login.


Votes.  Resources everyone requires.  The ability to sue people forever for the same or similar issue, until those people are financially unable to defend themselves. Control over a “corner” of the market.  The means of production from under their competition. And on and on.


"Your house doesn't need to multiply in order to earn a return. Your house can provide shelter. That is not money, but is an economic good and can also save you money (if you would otherwise pay rent). This is the primary form of return on the investment for many houses. It is similar for other large capital investments - like industrial robots, washing machines, or automobiles. The value of money depends on: As long as the size and velocity of the money supply changes about as much as the overall economic activity changes, everything is pretty much good. A little more and you will see the money lose value (inflation); a little less and the money will gain value (deflation).  As long as the value of inflation or deflation remains very low, the specifics matter relatively little. Prices (including wages, the price of work) do a good job of adjusting when there is inflation or deflation. The main problem is that people tend to use money as a unit of account, e.g. you owe $100,000 on your mortgage, I have $500 in the bank. Changing the value of those numbers makes it really hard to plan for the future! Imagine if prices and wages fell in half: it would be twice as hard to pay off your mortgage. Or if the bank expected massive inflation in the future: they would want to charge you a lot more interest! Presently, inflation is the norm because the government entities, who help adjust how much money there will be (through monetary policy - interest rates and the like - ask about it if you're interested), will generally gradually increase the supply of money a little bit more quickly than the economy in general. They may also be worried that outright deflation over the long term will lead to people postponing purchases (to get more for their money later), harming overall economic activity, so they tend to err on the slightly positive side. The value of money, however, has not really ""ordinarily decreased"" until the modern era (the 1930s or so). During much of history, a relatively low fixed amount of valuable commodities (gold) served as money. When the economy grew, and the same amount of money represented more economic activity, the money became more valuable, and deflation ensued. This could have the unfortunate effect of deterring investment, because rich jerks with lots of money could see their riches increase just by holding on to those riches instead of doing anything productive with them. And changes in the supply of gold wreaked havoc with the money supply whenever there was some event like a gold rush: Because precious metals were at the base of the monetary   system, rushes increased the money supply which resulted in inflation.   Soaring gold output from the California and Australia gold rushes is   linked with a thirty percent increase in wholesale prices between 1850   and 1855. Likewise, right at the end of the nineteenth century a surge   in gold production reversed a decades-long deflationary trend and is   often credited with aiding indebted farmers and helping to end the   Populist Party’s strength and its call for a bimetallic (gold and   silver) money standard. -- The California Gold Rush Today, there is way too little gold production to represent all the growth in world economic activity - but we don't have a gold standard anymore, so gold is valuable on its own merits, because people want to buy it using money, and its price is free to fluctuate. When it gets more valuable, and people pay more for it, mines will go through more effort to locate, extract and refine it because it will be more profitable. That's how most commodities work. For more information on these tidbits of history, some in-depth articles on:"


How are you treated there?   Horrendous pay certainly scares a lot of young people away from the profession in the first place, but many existing teachers quit because of the unreal workload, tons of mandatory unpaid after-hours time (duty, must sponsor after school clubs, after school meetings, etc.), tying student scores to your paycheck (or job security), etc.


The middle class was created by the minimum wage which is historic fact. It has not tracked with inflation nor production as it was originally intended to do. It being PR is your opinion. Other wages are what they are in relation to the minimum. So you fail to see it's purpose because propaganda has no depth.  Housing shortage? [BAHAHAHAHAHA!!!](https://trofire.com/2015/07/21/3-5-million-americans-are-homeless-18-6-million-homes-in-america-are-standing-empty-what-is-wrong-with-this-picture/)


You definitely want to get a patent. If the product you're developing is something that can be developed and used in more than one product, then I'd definitely get a patent.   Couldn't hurt to officially brand something you've created so if someone wants to piggy back off of what you've created you'll get the royalty money.


"In that case, would it then be assured that the entire classes scores are high if they are based on the weakest student as the bar?  *some of the implementations of ""No Child Left Behind"" encourage pacing to the slowest student rather than challenging all of them at the level they can be challenged. It's pretty broken.*"


Well it would appear that you had a wash sale that canceled out a loss position.  Without seeing the entire report, I couldn't tell you exactly what was happening or how you triggered § 1091.  But just from the excerpted images, it appears as though your purchase of stock was layered into multiple tranches - perhaps you acquired more of the stock in the 61-day period than you sold (possibly because of a prior holding).   If in the 61-day period around the sale of stock (30 days before and 30 days after), you also acquire the same stock (including by contract or option), then it washes out your loss.  If you held your stock for a while, then in a 61-day period bought more, and sold some, then any loss would be washed out by the acquisition.  Of course it is also a wash sale if your purchase of the stock follows your sale, rather than precedes it.  Your disallowed loss goes into the basis of your stock holding, so will be meaningful when you do have a true economic sale of that stock. From IRS Pub 550: A wash sale occurs when you sell or trade stock or securities at a loss and within 30 days before or after the sale you: Buy substantially identical stock or securities, Acquire substantially identical stock or securities in a fully taxable trade, Acquire a contract or option to buy substantially identical stock or securities, or Acquire substantially identical stock for your individual retirement account (IRA) or Roth IRA. If you sell stock and your spouse or a corporation you control buys substantially identical stock, you also have a wash sale. Looking at your excerpted account images, we can see a number of positions sold at a loss (sale proceeds less than basis) but each one is adjusted to a zero loss.  I suspect the fuller picture of your account history and portfolio will show a more complicated and longer history with this particular stock.  That is likely the source of the wash sale disallowed loss notations. You might be able to confirm that all the added numbers are appearing in your current basis in this stock (or were reflected upon your final exit from the stock).


"I agree that you should have received both a 1099 and a W2 from your employer. They may be reluctant to do that because some people believe that could trigger an IRS audit. The reason is that independent contractor vs employee is supposed to be defined by your job function, not by your choice. If you were a contractor and then switched to be an employee without changing your job description, then the IRS could claim that you should have always been an employee the entire time, and so should every one of the other contractors that work for that company with a similar job function. It's a hornet's nest that the employer may not want to poke. But that's not your problem; what should you do about it? When you say ""he added my Federal and FICA W/H together"", do you mean that total appears in box 4 of your 1099? If so, it sounds like the employer is expecting you to re-pay the employer portion of FICA. Can you ask them if they actually paid it? If they did, then I don't see them having a choice but to issue a W2, since the IRS would be expecting one. If they didn't pay your FICA, then the amount this will cost you is 7.65% of what would have been your W2 wages. IMHO it would be reasonable for you to request that they send you a check for that extra amount. Note: even though that amount will be less than $600 and you won't receive a 1099 in 2017 for it, legally you'll still have to pay tax on that amount so I think a good estimate would be to call it 10% instead. Depending on your personality and your relationship with the employer, if they choose not to ""make you whole"", you could threaten to fill out form SS-8. Additional Info: (Thank you Bobson for bringing this up.) The situation you find yourself in is similar to the concept of ""Contract-to-Hire"". You start off as a contractor, and later convert to an employee. In order to avoid issuing a 1099 and W2 to the same person in a single tax year, companies typically utilize one of the following strategies: Your particular situation is closest to situation 2, but the reverse. Instead of retroactively calling you a W2 employee the entire time, your employer is cheating and attempting to classify you as a 1099 contractor the entire time. This is frowned upon by the IRS, as well as the employee since as you discovered it costs you more money in the form of employer FICA. From your description it sounds like your employer was trying to do you a favor and didn't quite follow through with it. What they should have done was never switch you to W2 in the first place (if you really should have been a contractor), or they should have done the conversion properly without stringing you along."


"Zuckerberg has been known to do lots of underhanded things to get ahead, and say a lot of things that make him look like a jerk.  IE: screwing over a lot of people while first building the company, including friends and partners.  [Calling facebook users ""dumb fuckers,"" for trusting him with their information.](http://gawker.com/5636765/facebook-ceo-admits-to-calling-users-dumb-fucks)  He certainly doesn't come off as ""likeable.""  He generally comes off as a pompous ass that doesn't care about anyone but himself. If you are interested you can do some googling to see why a lot of people don't like or trust him.  However he probably isn't the worst billionaire on the planet, but regardless people are certainly not rooting for him personally if that makes any sense."


I agree with everything you said except that increasing employee wages will raise prices. It can lead to that, assuming upper management receives the same level of compensation. The fact that unrest within Walmart ranks is taking place, is a symptom of what we can all see when we look at the numbers. The upper management is being overly compensated at the cost of employees. Employee wages can be increased without the cost being shifted to the customers by decreasing upper management's take home. it's one part ethics, two parts good management, manage a company through equidible graduated work reimbursement.


"I would respond to your friend this way: ""Either you are planning to do something illegal, in which case I don't want to be involved, or you are planning to do something legal, in which case you don't need me."" Here's Why: What your friend proposes is completely pointless because if the money is legally his to give to you, then it's perfectly legal for your friend to withdraw the $40K from his own bank account and take it out of the country without your involvement at all. As long as he files the appropriate paperwork, he can take as much money out of the country as he pleases. He should be prepared to answer why he's travelling with that much money, but he would have to do that anyway even if you went through with his plan. Note that if you declare the money you are fine, but if you don't declare it and get caught, you will get in trouble, so always declare it! You are correct to say no to this. The fact that he wants to involve you (or anyone) makes it seem extremely shady."


Fuck that. Let the market do its work.  I'm telling you now, I simply refuse to eat manufactured meat in its entirety. I am a hunter I eat meat that I harvest in the wild it allows me to provide healthy, free range meat to my family and take part in not only nature but a cultural tradition that is older than humankind.   Sorry but whilst factory meat might make up some of my diet at some stage in the future it will not account for the majority of my meat consumption.


"Yes, you can use a post office box as a business address but not as an address for your registered agent.  Using your home address as the address of the business does not, to my knowledge, create a legal issue if you are sued.  Your home is a personal asset, not one that belongs to the LLC, so it would not be subject to seizure or forfeiture as part of any lawsuit against the business itself. Every state requires an LLC or corporation to have a ""registered agent"" which, according to Wikipedia is: In United States business law, a registered agent, also known as a resident agent or statutory agent, is a business or individual designated to receive service of process (SOP) when a business entity is a party in a legal action such as a lawsuit or summons. You can be your own registered agent if you like.  Companies that provide incorporation services will usually offer to act as a registered agent for your new business for a fee, but it's really no big deal. I would recommend that you go to the NoLo.com web site section about forming an LLC and take a look at their resources to help you through this.  You need to do it right, so understand what you need to do for the state you live in, and take your time.  If you rush it and screw it up then you might regret it later. I hope this helps Good luck!"


The IRS instructions do not specify how to connect the forms, just that you should not staple the check to the form (likely because it goes to a different location for processing). I have always either stapled or paper-clipped them together, however I would assume that the receiving department does not care, otherwise it would be explicit in the instructions.


Yes, because he told Morgan Stanley and a few others that quarterly earnings were going to be down - but no one else - and because  he is perceived as being an untrustworthy weasel.  I'm not saying Zuckerberg isn't a slimy weasel, but it was the underwriter's, in this case Morgan Stanley, job to let this be known, or not known, but certainly not known to only a few of their top investors and insider people.  When filing a lawsuit, you go where the money is.  In this case, Zuckerberg and his billions.


"> ""The problem is everybody else's fault but mine"" - CEO  He's not really saying that. CEO's do this all the time when addressing shareholders. You are legally required to be upfront and honest about your business challenges. This isn't the same as a PR Break."


Well, this took some interesting facts and made some raving assumptions.  Generally, I'd imagine it's more likely the Chinese capital controls and atrocious domestic savings opportunities have made any dollar denominated returns desirable and with us commercial real estate in cardiac arrest, places like toledo offer lots of great investment opportunities.  I think a Chinrse city outside of Milan would be fantastic.  Good knows the new money and population couldn't but help MI and fostering deeper cultural ties between one of the former great manufacturing regions and the worlds newest could benefit both.


"Firstly, you should familiarise yourself with your options for your pension fund. They changed as of 6th April 2015 so it's all quite new. The Government's guidance on it is here. If you haven't already taken a tax-free lump sum from your pension fund, you can take up to 25% totally tax free immediately. That makes getting a house for 40K very accessible. Beyond the 25%, you can take any of it out whenever you want (""flexi-access drawdown"" or ""lump sum payment"", depending on whether you take the 25% out up front or not). That'll be taxed, as if you earned it as income. So if you didn't have any other income, you can take another £10600 without tax this tax year, and then another £10600 or whatever the allowance goes up to next tax year, and so on. Above that you'd have to pay 20% tax until you reach the higher-rate tax threshold at about £40K/year. You say you do have other income so you'll have to take that into account as well when calculating what tax you'd have to pay. If you've reached state pension age that will add some more income, of course. Or, as you suggest, you can buy an annuity. You can do that with some or all of the money, and you can still take the 25% tax-free first. If you do buy an annuity the income from it will all be taxed, but again your personal allowance will apply. Essentially an annuity is the least risky option, particularly if you get one that is uprated with inflation. Uprating with inflation makes the initial income even lower but protects you against cost of living rises as you get older. In exchange for avoiding that risk, you probably lose out on average compared to some more risky options. You might choose to get an annuity large enough to cover your basic needs and take more chances with the rest."


Let's take a step back. My fictional company 'A' is a solid, old, established company. It's in consumer staples, so people buy the products in good times and bad. It has a dividend of $1/yr. Only knowing this, you have to decide how much you would be willing to pay for one share.  You might decide that $20 is fair. Why? Because that's a 5% return on your money, 1/20 = 5%, and given the current rates, you're happy for a 5% dividend. But this company doesn't give out all its earnings as a dividend. It really earns $1.50, so the P/E you are willing to pay is 20/1.5 or 13.3.  Many companies offer no dividend, but of course they still might have earnings, and the P/E is one metric that used to judge whether one wishes to buy a stock.  A high P/E implies the buyers think the stock will have future growth, and they are wiling to pay more today to hold it. A low P/E might be a sign the company is solid, but not growing, if such a thing is possible.


You need to talk to an accountant who practices tax accounting, preferaby someone who is an Enrolled Agent (EA) with the IRS, and possibly an attorney who specializes in tax law.  There are multiple issues here, and the executor of your father's estate might need to be involved here too.  Presumably you were a minor in 2007 since the transactions took place in a custodial account, and perhaps you were a dependent of your father in 2007.  So, were the transactions reported on your father's 2007 income tax return? or did he file a separate income tax return in your name? You say you have a W2 for 2007. So you were  earning some income in 2007? This complicates matters. It is necessary to determine who has the responsibility to file income tax returns for a minor with earned income. Above all, I urge you to not file income tax returns on your own or using a tax return preparation program, or after talking to a tax return preparation service (where you will likely get someone who works on a seasonal basis and is unlikely to be familiar with tax law as of 2007).


"Obligatory ""Don't do it"" remarks: If the guy isn't trusted enough to even show up to work, and can't get a personal loan directly from a bank (Home Equity Line of Credit would suffice), this is really setting things up for failure. What if he quits? What if you need to fire him (you know, for not showing up for weeks)? </rant> In order to be able to place a lien on his home should he default on the loan, you'll need to draft up a loan agreement or promissory note stating specifically that you have the right to do so. Get a lawyer involved.  Here's an article that talks about setting up a Private Home Loan, which is geared more at helping someone buy a home, but may prove useful in this case as well: https://www.nolo.com/legal-encyclopedia/borrowing-from-family-friends-buy-29649.html It's pretty lengthy, so I won't quote it out here, but the gist of it is: Get everything in writing in a legally binding contract."


Do you have a broker? Any online brokerage (TD Ameritrade, E*Trade, Scott Trade, etc) offer the functionality that you want. If you're not interested in opening a brokerage account, you can search for threads here related to stock market simulation, since most of those services also provide the features that you want.  If you do you have a physical broker at some firm, contact him/her and ask about the online tools that the brokerage offers. Almost all of them have portfolio management tools available to clients.


First, if your stock is trading at $1 and you transfer the 5000 shares in-kind to your TFSA on August 2, 2011, you are deemed to have disbursed that stock in your (assumed) non-registered account. This may have tax consequences depending on the ACB of the original purchase. As for your TFSA overcontribution, you will only have to pay the 1% monthly penalty on the value of the overcontribution, i.e. $5000. You will pay 1%/month for each month the overcontribution exists, regardless of what the value of the overcontributed assets end up being. Thus, you'll pay a $250 penalty for an overcontribution life of 5 months. The stock price could go to $2 or $0, but you'll pay a fixed tax of $250 for the value of the initial overcontribution. See these articles at the CRA website for more information:Tax payable on excess TFSA amount and Examples - Tax payable on excess TFSA amount.


This is old and incorrect already, walgreens has already said they will not be seeking a tax inversion.  I know because I was holding the stock on the day they issued this press release and the markets response was BRUTAL, 18% off the top overnight.


No. The intro rate is a gambit by the bank - they accept losing money in the short term but expect to gain money in the long term when your intro is over and you (hopefully) start paying interest. There's not much in it for them if you never get around to paying interest. Same can be said for people who close the card after their intro period, but that's different - the bank is correctly expecting that most people won't bother.


"One key point that other answers haven't covered is that many credit cards have a provision where if you pay it off every month, you get a grace period on the interest.  Interest doesn't accrue at all unless you rollover a non-zero balance.  But if you do, you pay interest on the average balance, not the rolled-over balance, for the entire month. You have to ask yourself what you are trying to accomplish with your credit history? Are you trying to maximize your ""buying power"" (really, leverage)?  Or are you trying to make sure that you get the best terms on a moderately sized loan (house mortgage, car note)? As JohnFx and losthorse already noted, it's in the banker's best interest to maximize the profit they make off of you.  Of course, that is not in your best interest. Keeping a credit card balance from month to month definitely feeds the greedy nature of the financing beast.  And makes them willing to take more risks, because the returns are also higher.  But those returns cost you. If you are planning to get sensible loans in the future, that you can comfortably afford, you won't need a maxed credit score.  You won't get the largest loan amounts, but because you are doing the sensible thing and making a large down payment, the risk is also very low and you'll find lenders willing to give you a low interest rate.  Because even though the reward is lower than the compulsive purchaser who pays an order of magnitude more in financing fees, the return/risk ratio is still very favorable to the bank. Don't play the game that maximizes their return.  That happens when you have a loan of maximum size, high interest rate, and struggle to make payments, end up missing a couple and paying late fees, or request forbearance which compounds the interest. Play to minimize risk."


"> So with all those ""maybe""(s), and since Trump did not Act on the subject, for God sake, why is that the FIRST thing you could say against Trump?  You interjected those ""maybe""(s), not me.  My issue on this topic has always been, and still is, that President Trump said he would do something that would really help America, then he said he would not do that thing, and he has not done it.  >> Global warming is a serious risk to this country.  > Absolutely not!  /shrug  I would usually suggest we agree to disagree but in this case you are simply wrong.  I have long studied arguments on both sides.  The science is solid and the result in unequivocal.  You are wrong.  I know you don't believe me.  I am sure you think I'm gullible, scared, and have been manipulated but you are mistaken.   I have dug through the studies and I have analyzed the data.  I can prove this is real but you have been conditioned for at least a decade to reject anything I might tell you.   So...  /shrug  > So, please, tell me one substantial reason why you are against Trump?  I have given you two and you have rejected them both.  The first you reject because you suggest President Trump is actually doing the opposite of what he appears to be doing.  The second you reject because you deny the existence a danger for which there is more evidence than tobacco causing cancer.  Your dismissals are literally denying reality.  What could possibly be accomplished by giving you a third thing?  > ...do you really think that if Hillary was in charge it would be better?  I'm not touching that one.  I can not imagine what you believe after the three-year smear campaign the Republicans have waged."


No way. The CFA is comprehensive, but finance as subject matter isn't very difficult. I am an econ/econometric major in the CFA program with zero finance/accounting background. I started the program without know assets = liabilities + equity. Takes more time, and is a larger commitment, but unless you are working 12 hours a day, if you are diligent, you should have no major issues.


>I nowhere mentioned equal amount of assets. The point of my argument was wealth disparity. And, unless the rich pay more in taxes; that disparity will grow.  Do you know what these words mean? The wealth disparity is literally the difference in amount of assets.  In fact, you literally need a 100% marginal tax rate to prevent a divergence in disparity using your models.


"You need to consult a lawyer in your area. Generally speaking though, if you breach the T&C, they don't have to follow them either, which means that whatever they were responsible for in those terms and conditions, they're no longer responsible.  So if you get hacked, and they can prove you breached T&C by sharing your credentials, they are absolutely off the hook for your financial losses. So if they detect you're in breach, they may record it and not pursue any other action unless/until you have an issue, in which case they say, ""they're in breach, see here, here and here.""  Or there may be regulations that require they notify you of their detection of the breach.  If this sort of regulation exists, I suspect that the notification would also include a termination of all accounts as well.  I can also picture situation where a company might have such a policy built into the T&C so that they can steer as clear as possible from any situations involving liability and cyber-crime in the same sentence. My suggestion would be to take the terms and conditions for your banks to some kind of legal clinic and get them to explain the parts that you do not understand."


"Iraq is a US vassal/puppet state. I'm not sure what 500 South Vietnamese Dong were worth in 1972, but today the paper currency is worth $10 in mint condition. I'd suggest blackjack or craps as an alternate ""investment""."


I operate machinery and drive for work but if I was drug tested I would fail... Yet I am not stoned at work. Am I more dangerous than my Co worker who comes in hung over everyday still smelling like booze. I get stoned at night, eat some Cheetos and go to bed. Why is what I do in my spare time a concern. Marijuana stays in your system for like 30 days, just because you test positive doesn't mean you are stoned.


So ummm did you know there's a film coming out? Something about some religious cult in the future and an insurgency or something, they all fight with laser swords. I wonder how they get the news out about that?  You are getting hit by ads, you just don't think they're ads. That's cool, I do too. Everyone does.   You're on reddit as well, there's a shitload of advertising content on here.


A long put - you have a small initial cost (the option premium) but profit as the stock goes down. You have no additional risk if the shock rises, even a lot. Short a stock - you gain if the stock drops, but have unlimited risk if it rises, the call mitigates this, by capping that rising stock risk. The profit/loss graph looks similar to the long put when you hold both the short position and the long call.  You might consider producing a graph or spreadsheet to compare positions. You can easily sketch put, call, long stock, short stock, and study how combinations of positions can synthetically look like other positions. Often, when a stock has no shares to short, the synthetic short can help you put your stock position in place.


In many cases spanning across years will indeed be beneficial. Deductions: You get to take twice as much in deductions (twice the standard deduction, or itemizing - if you can) when you span over two years than in one.  IRA: You can only contribute in years when you have earned income. You have all the income in year 1 and none in year 2 - you can only contribute in year 1. You have half of the income in year 1 and half of the income in year 2 - you can contribute in both years (up to the limit/earned income, whichever is less). Social Security: You get 4 credits for each year you earned ~16K in. You earned 32K in year 1, and nothing in year 2 - you get 4 credits. You split it in half for each year - you get 8 credits. The list can go on. If you can do the planning ahead of time and can chose the time periods of your work freely (which is not something most people can do), you can definitely plan ahead with taxes in mind. This is called Tax Planning.


Couple of factors here to consider: 1) The savings vehicle  2) The investments  Savings Vehicle: Roth IRAs allow you the flexibility to save for retirement and/or your house. Each person can save up to $5,500 in a Roth and you can withdraw your principal at anytime without penalty.  (There is a special clause for first time home buyers; however, it limits the amount to $10k per person.  Given your estimate of $750k and history of putting down 20%.  It would require a bit more.)  The only thing is that you can't touch the growth or interest. When you do max out your Roth IRA, it may make sense for you to open a brokerage account (401Ks often have multiple steps in order to convert or withdraw money for your down payment) Investments: Given your timeline (5-7 years) your investments would be more conservative. (More fixed income)  While you should stay diversified (both fixed income and equity), the conservative portfolio will allow less fluctuation in your portfolio value while allowing some growth potential.


"In the case of mutual funds, Net Asset Value (NAV) is the price used to buy and sell shares. NAV is just the value of the underlying assets (which are in turn valued by their underlying holdings and future earnings). So if a fund hands out a billion dollars, it stands to reason their NAV*shares (market cap?) is a billion dollars less. Shareholder's net worth is equal in either scenario, but after the dividend is paid they are more liquid. For people who need investment income to live on, dividends are a cheap way to hold stocks and get regular payments, versus having to sell part of your portfolio every month.  But for people who want to hold their investment in the market for a long long time, dividends only increase the rate at which you have to buy. For mutual funds this isn't a problem: you buy the funds and tell them to reinvest for free. So because of that, it's a prohibited practice to ""sell"" dividends to clients."


> They specifically say that is not true, there is no genetic explanation  You really can't read, huh... They specifically say that they haven't found the specific genetic explanation yet (because the genome is still too complex to link specific haploids to specific parts of nervous system development), that doesn't mean there isn't one. Differences in gene inheritance absolutely affect intelligence, the brain is part of biology. Just like how black people are genetically more prone to obesity after controlling for diet/metabolism, despite the fact that we don't understand the precise genetic mechanism yet. Even grade-school psych/bio101 nature vs. nurture, nobody argues for pure nurture. The IQ metric holds up fine, as it correlates with nearly every broad measure of socioeconomic success and many other lifestyle measures as shown above. It's your shitty reading comprehension and misconceptions about the scientific research process that is preventing you from understanding and accepting the basic concept that people of very different ancestry have a correspondingly different cognitive makeup.


It may be possible to get more cash than you currently have. For example, If you have $200,000, you could buy a distressed property for $150,000, spend $50,000 on renovations, get it appraised for $300,000 and then cash out refi $240,000 (keeping 20% equity to avoid MIPs) to invest. This would be analogous to flipping a house for yourself. Normally flippers buy a house for cheap, then sell it to someone else for way more than their total outlay in purchase + improvements. The only difference here is there's no 3rd party - you stay in the house and essentially buy it from yourself with the mortgage.


"In practice, most (maybe all) stock indices are constructed by taking a weighted average of stock prices denominated in a single currency, and so the index implicitly does have that currency - as you suggest, US dollars for the S&P 500. In principle you can buy one ""unit"" of the S&P 500 for $2,132.98 or whatever by buying an appropriate quantity of each of its constituent stocks. Also, in a more realistic scenario where you buy an index via a tracker fund, you would typically need to buy using the underlying currency of the index and your returns will be relative to that currency - if the index goes up by 10%, your original investment in dollars is up by 10%."


I'm a sucker for cool interiors and I don't really pay attention to safety (although I should). I have two friends, one who bought a '17 Civic and another who bought a '17 Corolla. Neither of them know anything about cars. The Honda was impressive with the exception of the stupid touch controls for volume. The Corolla, at a similar price, was not nearly as impressive. Until the '18 Camry was announced, Toyota's design language lagged behind basically every major car manufacturer.  My point is that Toyota makes some ugly cars, relative to their direct competition. However they ARE getting their shit together - just look at the Lexus LC500, which the CEO of Toyota worked on. The design language is changing but I'd rather wait and see what happens in the very near future.


If you know that your tax situation is not easily handled by the standard withholding table then you can use that line to ask for additional funds be withheld. You could also ask for less money to be withheld.   Why would somebody do this? They had a small side business that made them extra income, and wanted to withhold extra money from their full time job to cover the extra income. They might have been awarded a big bonus and it caused too much in taxes to be withheld so they wanted to not have as much taxes from their regular pay check. Given the fact that you are young, in your first real job, and almost the entire tax year ahead of you, it is likely that the standard tax tables will be close enough. So leave the line blank or put zero.


"This is the best tl;dr I could make, [original](http://www.barrons.com/amp/articles/the-job-the-federal-reserve-cant-get-done-1504321061) reduced by 93%. (I'm a bot) ***** > The year-over-year increase in average hourly earnings remains stuck at just 2.5%, which essentially means that workers are barely keeping ahead of inflation.  > To be sure, brilliant ideas would get funded even if interest rates were 10%. But how many more get financed when the Federal Reserve pegs the cost of overnight money at just over 1%? That&#039;s not to say that technology has magically solved inflation, especially from consumers&#039; standpoint.  > While holding down interest rates to try to boost inflation has had positive impacts, it has had side effects, as well.   ***** [**Extended Summary**](http://np.reddit.com/r/autotldr/comments/6xtrf3/the_job_the_federal_reserve_cant_get_done/) | [FAQ](http://np.reddit.com/r/autotldr/comments/31b9fm/faq_autotldr_bot/ ""Version 1.65, ~203517 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*: **rate**^#1 **inflation**^#2 **work**^#3 **month**^#4 **prices**^#5"


Am I alone in thinking that Mr. Lewis should spend the rest of his natural life turning large rocks into small ones with a hammer, at a federal penitentiary?  Changes of anyone doing prison time for this - in the Corrupted States of 'Merka? **ZERO POINT ZERO.**


"The only way to prevent it is to not use PayPal. The terms of usage are draconian, and by using the service you agree to them. I'm sure that when the case gets to a court of law, they will find where it is authorized. Paypal is not a bank, and the money there is basically ""entrusted"" with the company and is not insured by anyone. They don't need or have to be subject to the regulations on the banking industry, and they're no different than your neighbour carrying money for you to the grocery store when you're sick. Other options are wire transfer, services like Western Union or Moneygram, checks (better certified/cashier's checks), money orders or even cash. You can also charge via credit card, but you can get similar problems there (although it is still safer than PayPal because with credit card - the card owner must initiate the charge back, it doesn't appear on its own because they feel like it)."


> the new design ... looks similar to Facebook’s News Feed or Twitter’s Timeline: A never-ending feed of content broken up into “cards” with more visuals to lure people into the conversations hidden underneath.  > “We want Reddit to be more visually appealing,” he explained, “so when new users come to Reddit they have a better sense of what’s there, what it’s for.”  > **Raising $200 million in 2017 to help redesign a desktop webpage may strike some as odd.**  ##... especially by people who remember the Digg redesign that drove users away from that site to Reddit.  #Time to buy stock in Voat, boys!


The psychology around money is the subject of a lifetime of study.  Your observations are not uncommon.  The market daily fluctuation is out of our control. Hopefully, by the time the 1% volatility impacts you by say $1,000, you'll have grown accustomed to it, so when the 1% is then $10,000, you won't lose sleep. The difference between the $1000 up/down and the $3 sandwich is simple - one is in your control, the other isn't.  When you're out, you need to try to cut down on the math, it will only bring you unhappiness. You're paying for the socializing and can't let the individual items on the check bother you. I'm at the point in my life when I prefer a more expensive restaurant meal that I can't make at home to a moderate one that I'd make myself. For me, that logic works, and it's not keeping us home. Funny how my own sense of value for the dollar pushes me to a more expensive experience, but one that I'll enjoy.  By the way - eBay has done an amazing thing, it's created a market for you to sell your stuff, but it's also pulled everyone's collection of junk out for sale. Books I thought might be worth selling go for $1-$2 plus shipping. It's not worth my time or effort, and I need to just break the emotional ties to 'stuff.' I box them up and bring them to the library for their sale. If that picture frame isn't antique, throw it out or have a yard sale.  This may be right on track to your question or a complete tangent....


Thanks chrissundberg for providing the outline of the JOBS Act. Under the current rules, my understanding is that a non-public company can have up to 35 unaccredited investors, which doesn't really work within a crowdfunding environment. Am I correct in that?


> The older gen never adopted MySpace. That's why it died.  MySpace died because something new came along, and that new thing was Facebook.  The first thing with enough of an advantage to start drawing people away will win...and it'll start with the younger crowd, because that's always how it works. They're the ones most in-tune with the tech and with social networks that promote finding new things and spreading the word.


I just had this happen to me with Chase and speaking with my executive support contact, they will not return the funds unless you request them back.  Which I find appalling and just one more reason that I don't like working with Chase!


"Goodness, I wish I could put away half my paycheck. Not to rain on your parade, but a 6-month emergency fund is not quite ""very good.""  It is the typical starting time frame.  Personally, I would feel more comfortable with a 2+ year fund.  That is a bit extreme, but only because many of us can barely seem to make it around to a 6-month fund.  So, we focus on the more attainable goal. I say you do all three.  Make saving money your priority, but do enjoy some of it; in moderation.  Do not plan on making any big purchases with it, but know that you will eventually be able able to do so.  Money not spent is worthless Idle money is worthless.  Make some -- hopefully -- prudent investments with some of your money.   A small portion of that investment portfolio can/should be in speculative investments.  Maybe even as much as 20% of your investment portfolio, since you are young.  Consider that money gone and you will hopefully be surprised by one of those speculative investments.  That is the crucial point: earmark a small portion of your investment portfolio which you are willing to lose.  However, do not gamble with it.  Research the hot emerging technologies, for example, and find a way to make an investment. So, in summary: You may have more money that you know what do with, right now.  However, that does not mean you need to go out and spend it all.  Trust me, as you get older you will think of plenty of good uses for that money."


Thanks, that was super helpful. Here is what I took from that. Any criticizimes?  Money- sell to government (microgrid > traditional infastructure)  Safety- educate Nigerian citizens on the dangers of exposure to high voltage electricity (something us as Americans take for granted, but an un-educated Nigerian may not understand)  Jobs- use the opportunity to train Nigerian workers to work on and in the future set-up these microgrid systems (will help with sustainability and expansion in the future)  Sustainability- excess energy produced by microgrids could be sold to neighboring communities and other countries. This money can be reinvested into development of microgrids  Expansion- start small with a couple of community's as proof of concept and once those show benefits over community's with traditional infrastructure start expanding at exponential pace. (The more community's with microgrids the more successful the power grid)


Just like sports players... he may make that now, but where's he going to be in five years. Plus he has alimony, kids, rent, car payment, some going to an agent/publicist and investing in future ventures. This man is successful, but far from rich/greedy.


LOL!!!!   Israel as a country exists since 1200BC, before there were almost any countries in the whole world, huge contributions to the whole world ever since, and today it's a model for how to run a free, democratic, succesful country in the whole region. Huge loss to the world if anything happens to Israel.  North Korea... well, nobody will miss it if it is wiped off the face of the earth, including its own people who live in a hell called N Korea. Much better world without N Korea.


I assume you kept the receipt for your money order, in which case there's no reason you can't call the issuer and find out if the money order has been posted for payment. It does beg the question as to why you didn't send it registered mail or by some other means which would allow you to at least verify it was received by the IRS. As someone else mentioned, why can't you simply call the IRS and ask them if the money order was received and applied?