"It's definitely annoying, but it's not necessarily false advertising. There is no rule or law that says they have to fix a pricing error at all, let alone within a certain period of time. Unfortunately they have no obligation to do business with you unless they take (and keep) your money. If they canceled the order and returned your money you have no binding agreement with them.  On top of that, in the US... 'misleading advertising' usually refers to ""Any advertising or promotion that misrepresents the nature, characteristics, qualities or geographic origin of goods, services or commercial activities"" (Lanham Act, 15 U.S.C.A. § 1125(a)). The main criteria that they evaluate before taking legal action is whether or not someone has suffered harm or loss due to the reliance on the bad information. But you're in Europe. The EU ideas behind misleading advertising tend to focus a lot more on comparing one product to someone else's and making subjective claims or false promises. Pricing does come up, but still, you need to have an ability to prove that you suffered harm or a loss from the business' actions.  Even if you were able to prove that, to force the business to change its price catalog, you would need to go through legal proceedings, demonstrate the harm that you've sustained, and then have a judge decide in your favor and order the supplier to comply. My guess is that it's just not worth it for you, but you haven't specified if this is just an annoying shoe-shopping experience or if you are regularly experiencing bait-and-switch tactics from a supplier that is a crucial part of a business operation.  If it's the former, just like a physical shop reserves the right to kick you out if you're not behaving, (but usually doesn't because they'd like to keep you as a customer), an online shop can update its prices whenever they like. They can change their prices too, and cancel orders.  If it's the latter, then start putting together some documentation on how many times this has happened and how it has damaged your business. But before you get on the warpath I would recommend you look for another place to buy whatever you have in mind, or else try a pound of sugar in your approach to this supplier... My own business experience has shown that can go a lot way in figuring out a mutually beneficial resolution. If you want to see a bit more...  Here is the EU Justice Commission's website on false advertising, Here is a PDF leaflet from the UK Office of Fair Trading that spells out what is explicitly not allowed from a business by way of advertising & business practices."


I have recently been the lender to a couple people. It was substantially less money (~$3k), but I was trusting their good faith to pay me back. As a lender, I will never do it again. Reasons, Overall, not worth it.


"A good answer to the question really depends on where you want to live, ultimately. Where you want to live pretty much dictates your investment priorities. If you want to invest in ""terrain"" so you can build a house next to all the ""cool,"" people in Guayaquil that should be your first priority. Your new wife may have an opinion on that matter, you should consult her. In real life, most people are less concerned about their absolute level of wealth than with ""keeping up"" with their friends, or other reference group. If you don't buy the ""terrain,"" the danger is that in five years, it may go up three, four, five times and be out of your reach, even if your other investments do well on the absolute standard.  While it's fairly easy to invest the equivalent of $250K in Ecuadorian land, it's hard to invest that much in Ecuadorian stocks. If you want to buy stocks with that kind of money, it will be U.S., European, or maybe other Latin American, e.g., Brazilian stocks. That kind of asset allocation would tell me that you are thinking of leaving your country at some point. If you're ""undecided,"" a sensible allocation might be 50-50. But in any event, first decide how you want to live your life, then adopt the investment strategy that best supports that life."


"This was a huge question for me when I graduated high school, should I buy a new or a used car? I opted for buying used. I purchased three cars in the span of 5 years the first two were used. First one was $1500, Honda, reliable for one year than problem after problem made it not worth it to keep. Second car was $2800, Subaru, had no problems for 18 months, then problems started around 130k miles, Headgasket $1800 fix, Fixed it and it still burnt oil. I stopped buying old clunkers after that. Finally I bought a Nissan Sentra for $5500, 30,000 miles, private owner. Over 5 years I found that the difference between your ""typical"" car for $1500 and the ""typical"" car you can buy for $5500 is actually a pretty big difference.  Things to look for: Low mileage, one owner, recent repairs, search google known issues for the make and model based on the mileage of the car your reviewing, receipts, clean interior, buying from a private owner, getting a deal where they throw in winter tires for free so you already have a set are all things to look for. With that said, buying new is expensive for more than just the ticket price of the car. If you take a loan out you will also need to take out full insurance in order for the bank to loan you the car. This adds a LOT to the price of the car monthly. Depending on your views of insurance and how much you're willing to risk, buying your car outright should be a cheaper alternative over all than buying new. Save save save! Its very probably that the hassles of repair and surprise break downs will frustrate you enough to buy new or newer at some point. But like the previous response said, you worked hard to stay out of debt. I'd say save another grand, buy a decent car for $3000 and continue your wise spending habits! Try to sell your cars for more than you bought them for, look for good deals, buy and sell, work your way up to a newer more reliable car. Good luck."


The right answer to this question really depends on the size of the transfer.  For larger transfers ($10k and up) the exchange rate is the dominant factor, and you will get the best rates from Interactive Brokers (IB) as noted by Paul above, or OANDA (listed by user6714). Under $10k, CurrencyFair is probably your best bet; while the rates are not quite as good as IB or OANDA, they are much better than the banks, and the transaction fees are less.  If you don't need to exchange the currency immediately, you can put in your own bids and potentially get better rates from other CurrencyFair users. Below $1000, XE Trade (also listed by user6714) has exchange rates that are almost as good, but also offers EFT transfers in and out, which will save you wire transfer fees from your bank to send or receive money to/from your currency broker.  The bank wire transfer fees in the US can be $10-$30 (outgoing wires on the higher end) so for smaller transfers this is a significant consideration you need to look into; if you are receiving money in US, ING Direct and many brokerage accounts don't charge for incoming wires - but unless you have a commercial bank account with high balances, expect to spend $10-$20 minimum for outgoing.  European wire transfer fees are minimal or zero in most cases, making CurrencyFair more appealing if the money stays in Europe. Below $100, it's rarely worth the effort to use any of the above services; use PayPal or MoneyBookers, whatever is easiest. Update:  As of December 2013, CurrencyFair is temporarily suspending operations for US residents: Following our initial assessment of regulatory changes in the United States, including changes arising from the Dodd-Frank Act, CurrencyFair will temporarily withdraw services for US residents while we consider these requirements and how they impact our business model.  This was a difficult and very regretful decision but we are confident we will be able to resume services in the future. The exact date of re-activation has not yet been determined and may take some time. We appreciate your patience and will continue communicating our status and expected return.


"I primarily intend to add on to WBT's answer, which is good. It has been shown that ""momentum"" is a very real, tangible factor in stock returns. Stocks that have done well tend to keep doing well; stocks that are doing poorly tend to keep doing poorly. For a long-term value investor, of course fundamental valuation should be your first thing to look at - but as long as you're comfortable with the company's price as compared to its value, you should absolutely hang onto it if it's been going up. The old saying on Wall Street is ""Cut your losses, and let your winners ride."" As WBT said, there may be some tangible emotional benefit to marking your win while you're ahead and not risking that it tanks, but I'd say the odds are in your favor. If an undervalued company starts rising in stock price, maybe that means the market is starting to recognize it for the deal it is. Hang onto it and enjoy the fruits of your research."


Let's define better the situation and then analyze it: Start with: End with: Process: So B has the same amount of money, just in a different bank account, but A and C changed states. A now doesn't have money, and C does, as the result of the transaction between A, B and C. The gift tax issue I see is the transfer of money from A (you) to C (your brother). If you're a US tax resident then you have $14K exemption from gift tax per person per year. £20K is more than that, so it will be subject to the tax. The fact that a third person was involved as an intermediary is irrelevant - for the purpose of gift tax there's no distinction between using a bank for transfers or a private party. Keep in mind that paying tuition directly to the institution on behalf of your brother may help you mitigate your gift tax liability - tuition payment made on behalf of your brother is exempt from gift tax. But it has to be made directly to the institution, it cannot pass through your brother.


"Books would be considered Personal-Use Property according to Canada's income tax laws.  The most detailed IT I was able to find is IT-332R, which says: GAINS AND LOSSES 3. A gain on the disposition of personal-use property is normally a capital gain within the meaning of paragraph 39(1)(a). Where the property is a principal residence, the gain > is computed under paragraph 40(2)(b) or (c). 4. Under subparagraph 40(2)(g)(iii), a loss on a disposition of personal-use property, other than listed personal property, is deemed to be nil. [...] This part of the bulletin indicates that a gain might be considered a capital gain - not income.  However, you don't get to book a loss as a capital loss.  This is the first hint that your book sale - which is actually an exempt capital loss - shouldn't go on your tax return unless it's one of the ""listed"" items: LISTED PERSONAL PROPERTY 7. Listed personal property is defined in paragraph 54(e) to mean personal-use property that is all or any portion of, or any interest in or right to, any (a) print, etching, drawing, painting, sculpture, or other similar work of art, (b) jewellery, (c) rare folio, rare manuscript, or rare book, (d) stamp, or (e) coin. So unless you're selling rare books, the disposition (sale) of them is essentially exempt as income, regardless of whether you sold it at a profit or at a loss.  If it is rare, then you might be able to consider it a capital loss, which doesn't help you much unless you had other capital gains, but you can carry over capital losses to future years. There's also a newer IT related to hobbies and ""collecting"" items, IT-334R2.  This one says: 11. In order for any activity or pursuit to be regarded as a source of income, there must be a reasonable expectation of profit. Where such an expectation does not exist (as is the case with most hobbies), neither amounts received nor expenses incurred are included in the income computation for tax purposes and any excess of expenses over receipts is a personal or living expense, the deduction of which is denied by paragraph 18(1)(h). On the other hand, if the hobby or pastime results in receipts of revenue in excess of expenses, that fact is a strong indication that the hobby is a venture with an expectation of profit; if so, the net income may be taxable as income from a business. The current version of IT-504, Visual Artists and Writers, discusses the concept of ""a reasonable expectation of profit"" in greater detail. Where a hobby consists of collecting personal-use property or listed personal property, dispositions should be accounted for as described in the current version of IT-332, Personal-Use Property. (emphasis mine) In other words, if it's not the type of thing where you'd make a tax deduction when you bought it in the first place, then you clearly don't need to report it as income when you sell it. Just to be absolutely clear here: The fact that you are selling them at a loss is not actually what's important here. What's important is that, if the books aren't collectibles, then you would have had no expectation of profit.  If you did have that expectation then you could have made a tax deduction when you first purchased them. So in this case, it is probably not necessary for you to report the income; however, for the benefit of other readers, in some cases you might need to report it under ""other income"" or book it as a capital gain/loss, depending on what those personal items are and whether or not you made a net profit."


The purpose is to be a racket. Assuming you're in the same tax bracket, you pay exactly as much tax later as you would now. If you're in a higher bracket, you pay more! And even if you pay less (assuming they don't change tax law before you retire) you give up direct control of your assets in exchange for a promise which may not be honored.


If you take the statement you quote as stated, it is indeed absurd. Unless you have a really creative tax accountant or live in a country with very unusual tax laws, any tax deduction you get for mortgage interest is going to be less than the interest. You don't come out ahead by getting a $25 deduction if you had a $100 expense to get that deduction. Where there can be some sense behind such a statement is if you consider the alternative to paying cash for a house or making extra payments against a mortgage. If you had $100,000 in cash in a box under your bed, and the choice is between, (a) use that $100,000 to buy a house in cash, or (b) borrow $100,000 at 6% interest and leave that cash in the box under the bed, than clearly (a) is the better choice because it saves you the interest expense. But if the choice is between, (a) buy a house for $100,000 in cash and borrow $100,000 at 6% to buy a car; or (b) borrow $100,000 at 6% interest to buy a house and use the $100,000 cash to buy the car, (b) is the better choice. The home mortgage loan is tax deductible; the car loan is not. As others have pointed out, if instead of using some extra cash to pay down the principle on your mortgage you used that money to invest in the stock market, it is likely that you would get better returns on the investment than what you would have saved in interest on the mortgage -- depending, of course, on how the market is doing and how well you pick stocks. But the key issue there isn't the tax deduction, it's the comparison of the profits from the investment versus the opportunity cost of the money that could have been saved on the mortgage interest. The tax deduction affects that comparison by effectively reducing the interest rate on the mortgage -- your real interest expense is the nominal interest minus the deduction -- but that's not the key point, just another number to plug in to the formula. By the way, given the complexity of U.S. tax law, I would not rule out the possibility that there could be some scenario where you really would save money by having mortgage interest. There are lots of deductions and credits that are phased out or eliminated as your income goes up. Perhaps you could find some set of tax laws that apply to you such that having an additional $1000 in interest expense lets you take a $300 deduction here and a $500 credit there, etc, and they add up to more than $1000. I don't know if that could actually happen, but the rules are complicated enough that, maybe. Any tax accountants here who can come up with such a scenario?


I was responding to your assertion that there were not mass firings among the big banks. Since 2008, Wall Street has shrunken considerably, accounting for nearly 500,000 losses as of April (According to an analyst of the Labor Department data) and banks continue to shed its workforce in an effort to get lean.  I work for one of 'the big 4'b so I can attest that it is an unpleasant environment.  I can't compare it to the entire workforce, but I can tell you that you are absolutely wrong that there have not been mass firings.


Response from a good Tampa flooring company to a lot of these inquiries could usually help you come to conclusion. When you do this straightforward research, it can benefit you in the long term because you don't have to come across an awkward circumstance. For example, you could repent for having made a wrong option and this could have also resulted in the loss of massive part of your hard generated income. Nevertheless, flooring is considered to be an important component in home decoration. Factors such as the shade of your unique furniture, various kinds and construct from your home design products, products to be used in lots of home design products, etc. would certainly depend on to a terrific degree on the selection of a particular type of flooring.


McDonalds here in Norway is shitty and expensive. The food makes me feel sick; the burgers are like slime. The only thing I sometimes buy there is their cheap coffee when I'm on the run..  Small, unknown kiosks, cafes etc. selling burgers, pizza and/or Chinese/Asian type food are much better and cheaper.


"Not true.  Replace ""Ivy League"" with ""target school,"" and you'll be far more accurate.  When I started my BB front-office job, I had gone to a target school but not an Ivy League.  Two other classmates attended target schools in the south, but far from Ivy league.  One of those two is now one of Goldman's youngest partners.  PS Don't count on starting in the back office and moving up - it's about as common as a blue lobster."


"Okay. Let me elaborate. The statement from Uganda is perfectly sound because while they aspire to improve in certain areas that Spain has at this point an advantage, they are not ""Spanish"" qualities. One cannot define development indicators as Spanish qualities. You might as well bring up the football scores. Uganda has a unique cultural and ethnical identity and Ugandans can want to improve their quality of life and industrial potential without wanting to be in the slightest bit like Spain.  This is also discussing specific economic performance in recent years. Uganda is in the middle of a boom so if you take that to logical conclusion, the statement can be said to have additional meaning. Spain's principal problem was over-extention of sovereign debt. Uganda perhaps wants to avoid giving off the impression that they are at all like Spain given that there may already be rumors of similar scenarios in Uganda's future economy. Their exchange went up 5% in one day yesterday. 10x higher than any of their neighbors in East and South Africa. Who knows.... personally I think it was just a fucking joke and he put in a good counter-shot at what was a needless international stab at a country that's picking itself up by it's bootstraps slowly but surely."


There could also be some degree of dilution at play here. If they are rapidly expanding and hiring, or if they took on another round of funding each share may have a lower amount of value though the company might be worth more than they were previously. The newly issued options may also be of a different class.


Since you have presumably now been living here for six months you may already have discovered that Australian banks charge a transaction fee whether the funds are deposited from overseas by check/cheque or telegraphically. I have an account with Bank of America and used to be able to draw funds from Australian bank Westpac via their ATMs without incurring a fee, because BofA and Westpac are both members of a Global ATM Alliance that did not charge fees to each others customers. But now they have initiated a new policy, and take 3% of every sum withdrawn. Not quite usury, but in the same ballpark. I'm now investigating the possibility of opening a Schwab or a Capital One account in the US, and using one of their credit cards, which, I believe, would allow withdrawals at Australian ATMs for no fee. If you find or have found a good answer to your dilemma I hope you will share it.


My tuktuk driver in Siem Reap had a cooler full of iced water bottles and it was awesome after several hours of temple exploring. I noticed that most drivers didn’t have coolers. I made sure to tip mine extra.


“Virtual assistants”, the word which has brought a phenomenal change in the online business industry. Most of the industries are using them to outsource tasks to make their work easier and faster. With these employees, there is no headache of paying anything extra like insurance, vacations, sick days and more.


Decided to check out your trolling of the MRAs for a laugh, but that's probably not a very good example of trolling. Looks like they just started trolling you back. Your comments got deleted though, so I guess it's a semi-success?


"Being ""long"" - expecting the price to go up to make a profit - is a two step process:  1) buy 2) sell Being ""short"" - expecting the price to go down to make a profit - is a 5 step process:  1) borrow someone else's asset 2) sell their asset on the open market to somebody else a third party 3) pocket the proceeds of the sell for your own account 4) buy an identical asset for a cheaper price 5) return this identical asset to the person that let you borrow their asset if this is successful you keep the difference between 3) and 4)"


As the name says, its for income earned in a Foreign country. If you have been paying US income tax on this while living in the US, nothing is going to change here. You should be informing yourself on how to avoid double taxation in your new country of residence. Passive income earned abroad (dividends, interest) also do not fall under this exemption.  The purpose of the Foreign Earned Income Exclusion is to make it easy for expats who work abroad to avoid double income taxation without going through the complicated process of applying for tax credits. The US is the only industrial country that taxes its residents regardless of where they reside. That is also why it only goes to about $100,000 a year. If you are a high earner, they want to make it more difficult. Also as a side note, since you are going to be abroad for a year. I will point out that if you have more than $10,000 in foreign accounts at any point in the year you need to declare this in an FBAR form. This is not advertised as well as it should be and carries ridiculous penalties for non-compliance. I can't count the number of times I have heard a US expat say that they were unaware of this.


From an India gift-tax point of view, you can receive unlimited funds from close relatives. So if you are getting this from your Father's Brother or Mother's Brother; then it is not taxable. It is a good idea to document this if the amount is large. It serves as record for future. This can be a simple piece of paper or something that's type on Notarized document.


"You, Sir, have no idea what is going on here in Hong Kong. It is amusing to hear American Apple fans proclaim so confidently that ""Apple knows"". At least Asian Apple fans have the numbers against them so they shut the fuck up with the pronouncements about divine insight by the one true phone-maker."


It will depend on credit they are offering you during the period being covered. A gas station locks up what they expect is the maximum transaction for most people. When the prices of gas spikes some people have the pump turn off before the tank is filled, therefore they need to use a 2nd card to complete the purchase. Before you arrive at a hotel they lockup the cost of one night in the hotel, that way they still sell the room for one night if you never show. While you are there they lockup the cost of what you could owe them. This would include the cost of the room, and average room service or bar service.  For a car rental, it would be based on the risk they perceive. They don't want to try and collect against a card you gave them when you reserved the car, or when you picked up the car, only to find that you have gone over the limit.  Some online systems will let you see what is pending against your card. Others could provide that information to you over the phone.


My understanding of this would be that this is for the portion of the subsidiary which they do not own. In other words they record 100% of the subsidiary on their books and then make this entry to account for the % which another company has a minority interest in.


I would not recommend borrowing your 401(k) money to buy a house for two reasons: When you borrow money from your 401(k), it is no longer invested. Yes, you pay yourself interest, but you miss out on the investment gains for the life of the loan.  If you leave your job, the loan is due in full shortly thereafter. If you do not pay it back, you are hit with taxes and penalties.  If I were you, I would roll it over into an IRA for the reasons you mentioned.


Wow that's new and exciting. But I think that humans have that potential to bring out something that uniquely is their own in whatever they are making.   Yes armies of man and women working routine jobs will eventually be replaced by software or robots. I guess then those people will need to use creativity or learn new skills and adapt to what is needed. Probably new trends and new needs and new problems and opportunities will emerge. I doubt that automatic future is so very close. It's more like specific in some areas of business models, but not overall phenomenon that will change world to be unreconizable, at least not so soon.


"Automation is an admirable goal, but I don't think we're going to see a world where there's no menial labor for a very long time.  Coupled with that, there's pretty much no real way to look at a menial-style job and say, ""That deserves $15 an hour.""    The two reasons above combine and make a strong argument for something like a basic income or _drastically_ expanded welfare and safety net programs.    A further failing of the ""retrain everyone"" approach is assuming that everyone _can_ be retrained.  There are, simply put, people that exist -- and will always exist -- that cannot do non-menial work, for a myriad of reasons."


Yeah, I suppose I mean that a lot of people were pushed into going into college with no idea of what they actually want to study, and ended up with a bachelor's in English Lit and a minor in Theology. Lovely people to enjoy a conversation with, but there is no way in hell they'll be able to pay their tuition without inhuman hardship.


"Generally, it would be an accountant. Specifically in the case of very ""private"" (or unorganized, which is even worse) person - forensic accountant. Since there's no will - it will probably require a lawyer as well to gain access to all the accounts the accountant discovers. I would start with a good estate attorney, who in turn will hire a forensic accountant to trace the accounts."


Let me restate question for clarity. Facts: Question: Are there any taxes for this transaction? Answer: (Added improvements provided by Eric) Generally No. Generally, it is not considered income until you sell and the sale price is greater than the purchase price. But with currency differences, there is an additional complication, section 988 rules apply. It could result in ordinary income or loss.


I do NOT know the full answer but I know here are some important factors that you need to consider : Do you have a physical location in the United States? Are you working directly from Canada? With a office/business location in the United States your tax obligation to the US is much higher. Most likely you will owe some to the state in which your business is located in Payroll Tax : your employer will likely want to look into Payroll tax, because in most states the payroll tax threshold is very low, they will need to file payroll tax on their full-time, part-time employees, as well as contractor soon as the total amount in a fiscal year exceeds the threshold Related to No.1 do you have a social security number and are you legally entitled to working in the States as an individual. You will be receiving the appropriate forms and tax withholding info Related to No.3 if you don't have that already, you may want to look into how to obtain permissions to conduct business within the United States. Technically, you are a one person consulting service provider. You may need to register with a particular state to obtain the permit. The agency will also be able to provide you with ample tax documentations.  Chances are you will really need to piece together multiple information from various sources to resolve this one as the situation is specific. To start, look into consulting service / contractor work permit and tax info for the state your client is located in. Work from state level up to kick start your research then research federal level, which can be more complex as it is technically international business service for Canada-US


"How would having a 20% down payment change the conversation for you?  And who are you looking to get a mortgage from?  If you go to a local community bank or credit union, you might have a better chance explaining your situation and having them take that into account rather than going to one of the mega-banks (Bank of America, Chase, Wells Fargo, etc) who may only look at your FICO score when making a lending decision. The thing to keep in mind is ""how much of a risk are you to the lending institution?""  If you have a strong down payment 15% to 20%, you will be a much better candidate.  Bear in mind, anything less than 20% down will require PMI (Private Mortgage Insurance, which I think runs a certain dollar amount per $1k you have borrowed).  If you have a strong downpayment, and the only debts you have are your student loans (which will be paid off in five years anyway), then you are far less risky than someone in a similar situation with more debt."


Chase has a limit of $500,000 per day.  A banker should be able to help you determine any immediate tax liabilities that will arise as a direct result of the transaction.  You may wish to consult with a tax professional about any indirect implications the transfer may have.   This transaction will be reported to the government but assuming that you are not involved in any illegitimate activities the likelihood of the US government taking any action on the notice is incredibly low.  I have heard of 7 and 14 day holds being placed on out of character transfers but if you are buying property you should work with your bank to help facilitate.  Bankers understand the business and can help you avoid any appearances of impropriety that the government flags. Should your account be flagged, I would retain a lawyer immediately.  If you feel you have a reason to be concerned, then I would contact a lawyer in the US and Thailand before initiating the transfer.  As they say an ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure.


Getting home alterations Sydney is a serious thing and no matter how much we avoid, at some point of time, we’ll come across the necessity of the experts.You should always look to hire a home alterations Sydney company that accepts your plan and skimp upon imposing their plan.


In addition to the SELL rate on the statement transaction day, currency conversion fees of 0 - 3% is applied, depending on the card issuing bank.


Arguably the money made or lost on the particular stock in question wouldn't have happened without the story. The AIs are just taking advantage of market conditions caused by the story. The person who planted the story bought the stock prior to the story being dropped and sold before the stock dropped back down, which is illegal.


When shopping Adriana Fine Jewelry, you should consider important things of necklaces. The gold jewelry gives a natural beauty and excellent feel to both men and women. The jewelers are also available in the online to reduce the stress of the celebration. Jewelry is an amazing way to express your spirit and style in any occasion.  In the shop, you find different combinations of necklaces are there. Generally, many options which look you glamorous on the special event.  For baby earrings, you can see lots of items with exclusive designs. All materials are created with various ornaments to give stunning look to the person.


I've been using Tick at work now for several months and have really enjoyed it.  It's got a nice, simple interface with good time-budgeting and multi-user/project features.  It can be used on several platforms, too (website, desktop widgets, and phone apps).


"They are overpriced to begin with.  One reason is the fact that they are luxury cars.  A second, related reason, is that they tend to push the technology envelope.   All cars depreciate drastically the minute they are driven off the lot.  This a good argument for buying a car that is 1-2 years old.  The higher you are, the more you can fall.   Repairs and maintenance are typically still expensive on these cars, due to relative rarity and the lack of necessary expertise.  Here is where that advanced technology bites you.  This is a reason that a 5 year old Civic may be worth more than than a 10 year old Benz.  It may simply not be worth the hassle of maintaining/repairing a luxury car.  This is especially true for an aging luxury car.  There are some people that only buy domestic, precisely because of the maintenance costs.  Also, a 10 year old car is still a 10 year old car, regardless of the make.  (There are a few notable exceptions, like the NSX.) Hondas and Toyotas have a great reputation for reliability and (long-term) total cost of ownership. ""Better"" is a subjective issue, that depends on a variety of variables.  A Civic is certainly not better in terms of technology, comfort, etc.  But, it is likely better in terms of maintenance, reliability, etc.  Which ""better"" you focus on, is up to you."


We are still leading in things directly related to war technology like: nuclear, rockets, jet engines...  We also are leaders in advanced healthcare techniques.  Certainly not from a cost standpoint, but we set the bar for all treatment protocols except for stem cells.


"Open a personal account to link SQUARE with,  open a savings account with same bank.  Register as ""PERSONAL USE"",  make as many transactions you want for whatever you want $5.00 to $1,000.00 or more, you get paid, square collects a fee. Money is in your ""personal account"" in 24 hrs, transfer it to your savings acct.  2 years now no issue.   I've done the EIN, vendors license, registering business crap, if you work for yourself for private citizens it's none of anyone else's concern."


"It's no secret. Clinton absorbed that shit from Quigley, one of his profs;  ""The chief problem of American political life for a long time has been how to make the two Congressional parties more national and international. The argument that the two parties should represent opposed ideals and policies, one, perhaps, of the Right and the other of the Left, is a foolish idea acceptable only to doctrinaire and academic thinkers. Instead, the two parties should be almost identical, so that the American people can “throw the rascals out” at any election without leading to any profound or extensive shifts in policy … [E]ither party in office becomes in time corrupt, tired, unenterprising, and vigorless. Then it should be possible to replace it, every four years if necessary, by the other party, which will be none of those things but will still pursue, with new vigor, approximately the same basic policies."" - From [""Tragedy and Hope""](http://www.amazon.com/Tragedy-Hope-History-World-Time/dp/094500110X/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1406997077&sr=8-1&keywords=trajedy+and+hope)"


A loan is most generally a liability, a part of the balance sheet.  Expenses & income are part of the income statement.  Income is the net of revenues after expenses. The interest is an expense on the income statement, but the loan itself does not reside there unless if it is defaulted and forgiven.  Then it would become a revenue or contra-expense, depending on the methodology. The original purpose of the income statement is to show the net inflows of short term operational accruals which would exclude new borrowing and repaid loans. The cash flow statement will better show each cash event such as borrowing debt, repaying debt, or paying off a bill. To show how a loan may have funded a bill, which in theory it directly did not because an entity, be it a person or business, is like a single tank of water with multiple pipes filling and multiple pipes extracting, so it is impossible to know which exact inflow funded which exact outflow unless if there is only one inflow per period and one outflow per the same period. That being said, with a cash flow statement, the new loan will show a cash inflow when booked under the financing portion, and paying a bill will show a cash outflow when booked under the operating portion.  With only those two transactions booked and an empty balance sheet beforehand, it could be determined that a new loan funded a bill payment.


Income tax was seen as a way to exploit the revenues available from the rapidly expanding ranks of people with mid to high incomes. It was initially targeted at the very wealthy. Previously, most Federal revenues came from excise taxes and tariffs, both of which have many negative economic effects, leave the government with limited revenue generating ability and bring a host of international and domestic political problems.  Since the successful implementation of the income tax required a constitutional amendment, it is very unlikely that anyone at the time seriously considered the income tax a temporary measure.


Generally the fees are anywhere between 0.5 and 2%. Different banks have different fees. Generally these days competition ensures that the fees are nil. It is disappointing that you were misled. File a written/email complaint. Generally the response to such things is good. Home loan insurance is not mandatory by RBI. Quite a few banks ask for it as it's their policy. In the case of SBI it's more about cross selling their products.


"The problem with putting things back where you found them is that the things are a different shape now. You also have a responsibility to make sure you haven't made changes to the water table that would make putting things back a now larger, man-made problem (as opposed to a more minor natural issue).  The issue with PV is really more NIMBY related than anything else. The ""rare earth"" materials needed aren't really rare, but they are *extremely* dirty to process into a usable state, which is why most of the facilities are in China."


Compared to most other corporate jobs it would be considered harsh. It also depends what product you were trading. Some quant structured products trader could probably get away with being a little quiet but forget about it if you want to enter commodities.


I mean, I don't understand how anyone actually believed that. Firstly, he largely doesn't have that power as president, and secondly, the man is, and always has been, pro-business rather than pro-consumer. If you seriously thought that a billionaire genuinely cared about your middle-American plight, I really don't know what to tell you.


For some ideas on investing priority guidelines, see Oversimplify it for me: the correct order of investing. Congratulations on being debt free!  My advice to you is to do what you can to remain debt free. You could certainly invest the money; it will earn much more over the long-term in a stock mutual fund than it would left in a savings account.  However, if you need any of this money in the next few years, it would be a shame if it lost money in the short-term. How much do you need to finish grad school?  Don't invest that money in the stock market, because you will need it over the next few years. Likewise, think about other expenses that are coming up.  Will your car need to be replaced in the next couple of years?  Will you have enough income to meet your living expenses while you are in grad school, or will you need some of this to money to help with that?   Finally, it would be good to keep some extra as an emergency fund, so you can easily pay for any unexpected expenses that come up. If you can make it through grad school debt free, you will be much better off than if you invest all the money but take out student loans in the process. After you've accounted for all of that, whatever is left of the money could definitely be invested.  If your goal is to start a retirement fund, an index mutual fund invested inside a Roth IRA is a great place to start.


"This answer assumes (based partly on your commants and some simplifying assumptions) As I see it you have a few options. Get a mortgage to buy your sister out. This avoids any ongoing involvement of your sister which may or may not be a good thing. It means you will be paying interest to a bank (or similar financial institution). Make an arrangement to buy the house in installments, possiblly in combination with some kind of rent. Likely to be a complex option to set up. Buy the house using a loan from your sister. potentially agree a ""private mortgage"" to protect your sister in the event you fail to pay. If interest is paid then it is likely to attract tax. Simply pay your sister rent, let her keep ownership of her half of the house either forever or until you have saved up the cash to buy her out. Rent is likely to attract tax. Whatever option you go with I would reccomend you get proffesional advice on any local legal/tax issues and drawing up the contracts. If you do go into an arrangement that keeps your sister involved make sure you discuss the what-ifs upfront and build them into your agreement. If you can't/won't pay what happens? can she insist that the house is sold and the proceeds split in some way? can she rent our her half of the house to someone else?"


"It can mean either. When A owes B money, then A is in debit with B and B is in credit with A. What the (Credit) means in this case depends on whether it is meant from the perspective of the utilities company or meant from the perspective of the customer. When the UI is user-friendly, it should describe the situation from the customer perspective which would mean you have credit with the company, but in that case the button ""Pay now"" would be really confusing (should be something like ""Request refund now""). A case of bad UI design. You should use the provided ""contact us"" link to ask a customer representative for a clarification."


Wow that's awesome that you drive in such a luxurious model. I've got a 2002 Toyota Camry (albeit less miles). In all seriousness, everytime I think about getting a new car, there's just nothing really wrong with the Camry.


"The real betrayal is that the so-called education system can't be bothered to teach people anything useful.   I had a ""bank book"" (savings account) in *fifth grade*. We learned to operate checking accounts in sixth, and compound interest the next year.   What happened?"


The reason that you are advised to take more risk while you are young is because the risk is often correlated to a short investment horizon. Young people have 40-50 years to let their savings grow if they get started early enough.  If you need the money in 5-15 years (near the end of your earning years), there is much more risk of a dip that will not correct itself before you need the money than if you don't need the money for 25-40 years (someone whose career is on the rise). The main focus for the young should be growth. Hedging your investments with gold might be a good strategy for someone who is worried about the volatility of other investments, but I would imagine that gold will only reduce your returns compared to small-cap stocks, for example. If you are looking for more risk, you can leverage some of your money and buy call options to increase the gains with upward market moves.


A practical issue is that insider trading transfers wealth from most investors to the few insiders. If this were permitted, non-insiders would rarely make any money, and they'd stop investing. That would then defeat the purpose of the capital markets which is to attract capital. A moral issue is that managers and operators of a company should act in shareholders' interests. Insider trading directly takes money from other shareholders and transfers it to the insider. It's a nasty conflict of interest (and would allow any CEO of a public company to make ton of money quickly, regardless of their job performance). In short, shareholders and management should succeed or suffer together, so their interests are as aligned as possible and managers have the proper incentives.


"Trade was an indispensable factor in making the 20th century the American century. Trump is doing an amazing job making that obsolete with his trade agreements. Our economic growth may not be stifled in the next couple of years but we will see the repercussions of these ""deals"" later on."


"So, let's take a mortgage loan that allows prepayment without penalty. Say I have a 30 year mortgage and I have paid it for 15 years. By the 16th year almost all the interest on the 30 year loan has been paid to the bank This is incorrect thinking.  On a 30 year loan, at year 15 about 2/3's of the total interest to be paid has been paid, and the principal is about 1/3 lower than the original loan amount.  You may want to play with some amortization calculators that are freely available to see this in action.   If you were to pay off the balance, at that point, you would avoid paying the remaining 1/3 of interest.   Consider a 100K 30 year mortgage at 4.5% In month two the payment breaks down with $132 going to principal, and $374 going to interest.  If, in month one, you had an extra $132 and directed it to principal, you would save $374 in interest.  That is a great ROI and why it is wonderful to get out of debt as soon as possible.   The trouble with this is of course, is that most people can barely afford the mortgage payment when it is new so lets look at the same situation in year 15. Here, $271 would go to principal, and $235 to interest.  So you would have to come up with more money to save less interest.  It is still a great ROI, but less dramatic.   If you understand the ""magic"" of compounding interest, then you can understand loans.  It is just compounding interest in reverse.  It works against you."


Probably start by looking up other stores in your field nationwide and seeing how they did.  There were three Etsy sourced stores in SF.  They all closed faster than stores usually do here.  Not trying to be a dick, but if I can get it on Etsy, why would I pay the markup to cover your store's rent and salaries to get it from you?


That all makes sense, but all of those things are the responsibility of the cardholder.  If you want to pay off your balance, anything quoted would obviously not include any transaction yet to post.  The problem is a creditor refusing to give the balance AND refusing to take a payment for an amount over the previous statement balance. This is essentially forcing the customer to pay more interest after they declare their intent to pay the full amount.  Good points, but I don't believe those were factors in this case.


"Reads like another one of these ""studies"" where the conclusions were written before they started (selectively) gathering data.  As if you're going to get anything honest out of Swedish professors about their politically correct, gynocentric society. Anything other than praise and demands that things go even further down that road would mean academic death."


> You know what scares the shit out of giant militaries?  And again you avoid my question. Instead of giving a reason why your proposal won't devolve into anarchy you just claim my example of anarchy is a good thing. I'll bet in school when asked a math question about a guy buying a dozen cantaloupes at the store you just claimed that nobody needed that many cantaloupes and expected full credit.  I'm now convinced you haven't seriously considered the effects of what you propose.


"Hi I'm the writer thanks for the read and the comment. With the statement you quoted, I'm trying to dispute the claim that ""people these days can't afford a house because they would have to pay their entire salary just to afford the mortgage,"" which I think is quite common in some circles. The data makes no statement as to whether home ownership is more affordable or not, but simply shows that those buying property are using around the same percentage of their income to pay for it, which the data clearly shows to be true.   https://fred.stlouisfed.org/series/RHORUSQ156N  As it turns out, home ownership levels have remained within ~5% of their 1980 levels based on percentage of the total population. I think there is an major classification flaw when comparing only sales because a great deal of people inherit property with no sale ever being made."


In the UK is perfectly acceptable to use your personal bank account as a business account if your a sole trader, although it can be messy. Just record and keep all relevant transaction invoices etc documents for self assessment time. At self assessment time they will tell you the amount of tax you need to pay when you fill out the forms. Not sure how it is Canada.  If you get bigger get an accountant.


It only pushes up prices and rent if having the airbnb actually increases demand for the area. And if that's the case it's actually a good thing. People coming to these airbnbs will inject money into the local economy, eating at local restaurants and seeing local attractions.


You can do this if you merge Credit Cards with personal loans. You will have to pay 1 upfront fee but you can bounce a balance between 4 CCs almost indefinitely if you do it right. You have to have good credit though.


"The drone business is going to do away with most trucking firms anyhow for larger areas. For the more rural areas they're investing heavily in self-driving delivery vehicles taking the human factor out of it entirely.   Edit: Don't know why I'm being down voted but you might be clueless if you think self driving trucks aren't going to be ""the next big thing"" going into the 2020s. They're already here, they're already being proven, and they absolutely will be a job killer. Amazon is trying to do away with USPS, UPS, and FedEx, that is their objective, to inhouse all of it and save delivery $$$."


Many good answers here, especially that you have to consider that renting may be more expensive than you'd think. Also, keep in mind that rent is money that is completely lost. Even if the property has dropped in value, if you keep paying, you will be able to recuperate part of your mortgage payments when you sell the house. Normally this is about +-30%, but you need to calculate this yourself by dividing the expected sales price of the house by the total mortgage payments you have to make to pack back everything. So I'd say walking away only makes sense if the rents around where you want to live are much lower than (<+-30%) your mortgage payment, and stable. In stead of walking away immediately, perhaps you can refinance your mortgage with a new one? In 2008 the rates were around 5.8%, now they are around 3.6% or so. I don't know how it goes in the USA but in my country, if the rates drop, it is relatively to do this and it can save people who refinance thousands if not more.


We use the PC financial credit card.  We switched to PC banking about 8 years ago and have been extremely happy with them.  You get points for using their banking services and if you use their credit card you earn points.  You can use the points earned for free groceries or purchasing anything at No Frills, Independant and Loblawas Superstores.  With the points we've earned over the years through just our regular banking, we've purchased a 6 piece patio set, patio swing, tons of free groceries and currently have $500 worth of points that we're using to purchase food and gifts for the Christmas season.  You can find out the particulars on their points program throught their webiste at www.pcfinancial.ca


Caveat: I have never owned an Indian card but the items below are true for at least three different countries where I have lived in


Since you say the money was invested in a corporation that would lead me to believe you mean a stock purchase. Stock losses can be treated as a tax exemption filed as a capital loss.  http://moneycentral.msn.com/content/Taxes/Cutyourtaxes/P33438.asp http://www.usatoday.com/money/perfi/columnist/krantz/2006-03-10-capital-losses_x.htm Canada has slightly more restrictions on how this can be done.  http://www.taxtips.ca/filing/capitallosses.htm


Look up the pure-play beta method.  (It also can be called project beta. On mobile or else I would link.)  Essentially, you find a public company that business is the same (or as similar as possible) to the sub-unit business. You take this company's beta, unlever it from their capital structure, and relever it to the capital structure of the whole multinational company.  This new beta can be considered the beta of the sub-unit.


It's clearly a risk, but is it any different than investing in your own business? Yes, it is different.  If you own a business, you determine the path of the business.  You determine how much risk the business takes.  You can put in extra effort to try to make the business work.  You can choose to liquidate to preserve your capital.   If you invest without ownership, perhaps the founder retains a 50% plus one share stake, then whomever controls the business controls all those things.  So you have all the risks of owning the business (in terms of things going wrong) without the control to make things go right.  This makes investing in someone else's business inherently riskier.   Another problem that can occur is that you could find out that the business is fraudulent.  Or the business can become fraudulent.  Neither of those are risks if you are the business owner.  You won't defraud yourself.   Angel investing, that is to say investing in someone else's startup, is inherently risky.  This is why it is difficult to find investors, even though some startups go on to become fabulously wealthy (Google, YouTube, Facebook, Twitter, etc.).  Most startups fail.  They offer the possibility of great returns because it's really hard to determine which ones will fail and which will succeed.  Otherwise the business would just take out the same loan that Jane's getting, and leave Jane out of it.


Some innovations increase productivity quite a bit. So in the long run, innovations is a main driver or economical growth. And innovation is fueled by, indeed, debt.  The straight curve in the video, the economical growth, should not be a straight line, but a upwardly curved one. It cannot go down because innovations in productivity are not lost (I challenge you for an example contradicting this.  Normally, every upward cycle should create an extra increase in productivity. The government also plays a role in stimulating innovation.  I loved this video btw.


An expense is an expense.  You can deduct your lease payment subject to some limitations, but you don't make out by having more expenses.  Higher expenses mean lower profit. Is leasing better than owning?  It depends on the car you'd buy.  If your business doesn't benefit from flashiness of your car, then buying a quality used car (a few years old at most) would probably be a wiser decision financially. I'd think hard about whether you really need an up-to-date car.


"*(""Fee-only"" meaning the only money they make is the fee your folks pay directly; no kickbacks from financial products they're selling.) The answer to this is: for God's sake, leave it alone!  I commend you on wanting to help your family avoid more losses. You are right, that having most of one's retirement in one stock or sector is just silly. And again yes, if they're retired, they probably need some bonds.  But here's the thing, if they follow your advise and it doesn't work out, it will be a SERIOUS strain on your relationship. Of course you'll still be a family and they'll still love you, but emotionally, you are the reason they lost the money, and that will an elephant in between you. This is especially the case since we're talking about a lot of money here (presumably), and retirement money to boot.   You must understand the risk you're taking with your relationships. If you/they lose, at best it'll make things awkward, and you'll feel guilty about their impoverished retirement. At worst it can destroy your relationship with your folks.  What about if you win? Won't you be feted and appreciated by your folks for saving them from themselves? Yes, for a short while. Then life moves on. Everything returns to normal.  But here's the thing. You won't win. You can't. Because even if you're right here, and they win, that means both they and you will be eager for you to do it again. And at some point they'll take a hit based on your advise.    Can I be blunt here? You didn't even know that you can't avoid capital gains taxes by reinvesting stock gains. You don't know enough, and worse, you're not experienced enough. I deduce you're either a college student, or a recent grad. Which means you don't have experience investing your own money. You don't know how the market moves, you just know the theory.  You know who you are? You're me, 20 years ago. And thank God my grandparents ignored my advise. I was right about their utilities stocks back then, too. But I know from what I learned in the years afterwards, investing on my own account, that at some point I would have hurt them. And I would have had a very hard time living with that.  So, tell your folks to go visit a fee-only financial adviser to create a retirement plan.  Perhaps I'm reading into your post, but it seems like you're enthusiastic about investing; stocks, bonds, building wealth, etc. I love that. My advise -- go for it! Pull some money together, and open your own stock account. Do some trading! As much as people grouse about it, the market really is glorious. It's like playing Monopoly, but for keeps. I mean that in the best way possible. It's fun, you can build wealth doing it, and it provides a very useful social purpose.  In the spirit of that, check out these ideas (just for you, not for your folks!), based on ideas in your post:  Good luck."


All you have to do is ask Warren Buffet that question and you'll have your answer! (grin)  He is the very definition of someone who relies on the fundamentals as a major part of his investment decisions. Investors who rely on analysis of fundamentals tend to be more long-term strategic planners than most other investors, who seem more focused on momentum-based thinking. There are some industries which have historically low P/E ratios, such as utilities, but I don't think that implies poor growth prospects.  How often does a utility go out of business?   I think oftentimes if you really look into the numbers, there are companies reporting higher earnings and earnings growth, but is that top-line growth, or is it the result of cost-cutting and other measures which artificially imply a healthy and growing company?  A healthy company is one which shows year-over-year organic growth in revenues and earnings from sales, not one which has to continually make new acquisitions or use accounting tricks to dress up the bottom line. Is it possible to do well by investing in companies with solid fundamentals?  Absolutely.  You may not realize the same rate of short-term returns as others who use momentum-based trading strategies, but over the long haul I'm willing to bet you'll see a better overall average return than they do.


"Comparing index funds to long-term investments in individual companies? A counterintuitive study by Jeremy Siegel addressed a similar question: Would you be better off sticking with the original 500 stocks in the S&P 500, or like an index fund, changing your investments as the index is changed? The study: ""Long-Term Returns on the Original S&P 500 Companies"" Siegel found that the original 500 (including spinoffs, mergers, etc.) would do slightly better than a changing index. This is likely because the original 500 companies take on a value (rather than growth) aspect as the decades pass, and value stocks outperform growth stocks. Index funds' main strength may be in the behavior change they induce in some investors. To the extent that investors genuinely set-and-forget their index fund investments, they far outperform the average investor who mis-times the market. The average investor enters and leaves the market at the worst times, underperforming by a few percentage points each year on average. This buying-high and selling-low timing behavior damages long-term returns. Paying active management fees (e.g. 1% per year) makes returns worse. Returns compound on themselves, a great benefit to the investor. Fees also compound, to the benefit of someone other than the investor. Paying 1% annually to a financial advisor may further dent long-term returns. But Robert Shiller notes that advisors can dissuade investors from market timing. For clients who will always follow advice, the 1% advisory fee is worth it."


Dude honestly your comment is still pissing me off. Your comment history is literally just you going around berating and trying to shit on people with esoteric one or two sentence responses. Literally nothing you write up is ever technical, is focused on modelling, or any pitchdeck/CIM insight that bankers actually do. Like there's no way you're in banking.. you're just a sad kid going around on reddit trying to one up people (literally telling some nice dude they sounded deluded and just left it at that)


>  Besides just doing what pharma companies do normally, which is raising prices astronomically for drugs which have no generics available, was he really the bad guy in other terms or did he just come off as a massive dickhead?  He just comes off as a massive dickhead.  He did run his funds/businesses illegally paying off the fund with other money, but the drug price raising thing was totally blown out of proportion and taken out of context. People didn't lose access to their meds, the price was nothing for majority of people. It was only on paper that the price had risen astronomically.  That said, it's his personality that's the big problem. The guy just has a bad smirk constantly on his face that pisses people off.   He's arrogant, young, smarmy, and smug. He's also pretty knowledgable and semi-successful. He will also treat people like shit and not give it a second thought. All a bad combination if you're going to be a public figure.


The first rule of Reddit should be don't fuck with Reddit.   Trying to turn Reddit into Snapchat or Facebook is the best way to kill it.   So ... congrats on the funding, Reddit corporate, I hope your plans to spiffy things up in this stodgy, old site fail miserably.


Please elaborate, how is it illegal to sue some institution because you think they violate the applicable law or the original idea of the Congress had for the FCC? Or do you mean the part of grouping together and collecting money? In my eyes that would be a normal activity for an activist group.


That's actually pretty close to what the original goal for arbitration was. Arbitration was envisioned as a way to resolve disputes between two businesses in a niche industry by an expert in that industry, rather than by an inexpert court. The idea being that someone in the chicken processing industry, for example, would know more about a chicken processing-related dispute than a judge would.  But then somewhere along the way, the courts and Congress got a hard on for arbitration clauses and started allowing them everywhere. Somehow they continue to overlook the fact that letting an industry expert resolve a dispute between someone else in the industry and an unaffiliated customer is profoundly unfair.  And that's how arbitration became yet another good idea that got perverted.


"Which is the ""shouldn't ever expect to do better than their competitors employees"". The ""sit down and shut up"" is towards the bottom  >Second, everyone needs to understand that it’s management’s job to identify and weigh alternatives, and to recommend a course of action.  In the world as it is, management is getting lots of help – from the Board, the Court, and the Creditors. Since the decisions being made are very important, and will impact every employee, their opinions should be given careful consideration. There are many forums – including participation in the court process — in which employee views can and should be taken into account.  Management should listen carefully, but employees need to understand that it’s management’s job to decide and that acting in ways intended to undercut management’s role can only be counter-productive.  >While the decision process is underway, everyone at American should be doing everything possible to improve performance, so that the post-bankruptcy company – whether American as it is or American combined with other entities – will have the broadest possible base of customer support from which to launch the renaissance every employee should be hoping for.  His entire spiel is so heavily sided towards management it's almost farcical. He's doing exactly what the airline pilot was complaining AA management is doing (treating the workers like faceless, interchangeable, and disposable cogs in the assembly line) while saying they shouldn't try to flex any negotiating power that management doesn't see fit to give them. And god forbid they have the gall to question the wisdom of their benevolent leaders (management is the thinkers, workers should just be the mindless doers).  I'm not a ""rah rah unions"" or ""boo business/management"" type of person. I just hate blatant bullshit. AA's workers have a legitimate gripe, that AA the company would almost certainly be better off merging with another airline but AA's management is better off going it alone and is asking the rest of the company to sacrifice to make that happen. Until that fundamental disconnect is reconciled, patronizing paeans to the wisdom of the company's leadership and knowing your place aren't helpful."


> Can we agree that some of the people who do not like the current job market have the option of trying to start a new business?  Most certainly.  Would you agree that for most people in minimum wage jobs this is not a realistic option?


> make reddit more ~~accessible~~ profitable.  Seriously, come on.  Reddit is plenty accessible to the nerdy weirdo base that loves it, me included.  Making it more like Facebook and Twitter will only drive existing users (unprofitable users) away and bring in or try to bring in more profitable users.  It's like Kitchen Nightmares, we're the old-school customers, we love our microwaved lamb shank and stewed potatoes, but that isn't making money for the restaurant.  Now we only come here for those things, it's familiar, comforting we're not your typical customer.  BUT, for the restaurant to stay open they need to be more accessible to the average customer, have new and exciting things.  So the menu needs to be changed.  They'll get new customers, one's who like the new menu, but at the expense of loosing us.  Which is fine, because we don't pay the bills.  We don't matter.  That's what you don't get.  We're not paying for Reddit, and that IS a problem.  That's why there's been more rounds of funding, diluting the already existing shares, because without this influx Reddit would sink.  They're trying to stay open with the old menu, but at some point they need to make a buck and a new menu is what IS going to happen.  Being in denial isn't going to stop that.  >Do you think companies like Uber who absolutely haemorrhage money are thinking that profit is their top priority?  Uber is forcing traditional Taxi companies out of their own market.  They can ride on losses for a very long time because they are clearly the future, much like Amazon.  Reddit is not doing anything like that.    >No, it's about growing the user base. There's arguably more value in that these days for tech companies.  Reddit isn't a tech company, it's a social media company it's 'technology' is neat but doesn't produce a profit mostly because Reddit users are savvy enough to run Ad-Block and we don't buy Reddit Gold enough to care.  Notice the privacy policy changes and the Do Not Track abandonment?  Selling our data is the next attempt to make money, and better targeted marketing.  But for that to work we need Facebook and Twitter users, meaning we need to be dumbed down to be more like them.


I work in marketing - there's always spillover. We love hypertargeting people but it's still effective to target a broad audience so overall awareness of your brand is higher than your competitors.  Seems like a waste to serve a 20 year old a Rocket Mortage ad. But 20 year olds become 30 year olds eventually.


"Things like the air, fisheries, forests, oil fields, research science teams, etc. are ""commons goods"".  They're scarce, but you can't actually stop anyone from using them or benefiting from them.  They normally have no property rights and can't extract revenue for their own work or good.  So pollution permits, or fishing licenses, are charged as commons rents."


I have only been comfortable using my credit unions online bill payment system where the service they use already has the target in the database. When I enter the name of the company and the zip code from the bill, the system responds with the address that matches what is on the bill. In most cases the money is not sent via mail, but it is sent electronically. This eliminates the case of somebody finding the check. Though electronic delivery doesn't guarantee that I didn't type the wrong account number. When adding a new target, I like to pick those that also have an online system that I can check in a few days to make sure the money was received and properly credited. Recently a company failed to credit my account in a timely manner, my credit union actually noticed that the payment hadn't been cashed, and alerted me. I asked the credit union about mistakes, either by me or by them. They claimed that the payment is treated like any other check, and that if there was a problem the money could be pulled back, and my account credited with the funds. Your bank should have a disclosure document stating the risks and protections with the service.


"> The main reason you see so many people in first class is because they earn miles for themselves  Yup.  My private company allows us to use our own milage accounts when booking company travel, so we earn the miles.  I also make heavy use of my Chase sapphire card, that has a 1:1 transfer between card-miles and most airline programs' miles.    While I don't travel _often_ for my job, I'm usually on a plane every couple months, at least, and most of the time, I can upgrade to first/business, or at least the ""special cattle"" rows of coach on my own dime (or miles)."


Of course this an article from *The Onion*, but that doesn't mean it can't offer some value to its readers -- beyond the quick chuckle, of course.  The main thing that occurred to me, reading this article as if it were legitimate, was that the owner clearly didn't do any research to see if the neighborhood was capable of supporting this business.


"Have you ever tried adding up all your mortgage payments over the years? That sum, plus all the money that you put as a down payment (including various fees paid at closing) plus all the repair and maintenance work etc) is the amount that you have ""invested"" in your house. (Yes, you can account for mortgage interest deductions if you like to lower the total a bit).  Do you still feel that  you made a good ""investment""?"


That's why I said you can do a weighted average and take into account other factors. The initial average calculation is just a simple, high level average to compare betas across different listings. For a more precise calculation you would have to weigh different factors.


Leasing is never a good idea.  A car is a depreciating asset -- it loses money over time.  Pay cash for your car and buy used ones until your net worth reaches at least $1M.


"**[More Details](http://researchnews.osu.edu/archive/heavydebt.htm) . . .**  * http://researchnews.osu.edu/archive/heavydebt.htm  **Here Are The Studies . . .**  * ""[Were Consumer Mistakes Related to Changes in Financial Obligations Burdens?](http://www.consumerinterests.org/pdffiles/2012-conference/2012-55%20Were%20Consumer%20Mistakes%20Related%20to%20Changes%20in%20Financial%20Obligations%20Burdens.pdf)"" by Sherman D. Hanna, Yoonkyung Yuh, and Swarn Chatterjee: http://www.consumerinterests.org/pdffiles/2012-conference/2012-55%20Were%20Consumer%20Mistakes%20Related%20to%20Changes%20in%20Financial%20Obligations%20Burdens.pdf      Via: http://www.consumerinterests.org/2012-Conference-papers.html  * ""[Increasing financial obligations of US households: Who is affected?](http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/j.1470-6431.2012.01125.x/abstract)"" by Sherman D. Hanna, Yoonkyung Yuh, and Swarn Chatterjee: http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/j.1470-6431.2012.01125.x/abstract"


India does allow Resident Indians to open USD accounts. Most leading National and Private Banks offer this. You can receive funds and send funds subject to some norms.


I agree with @Turukawa that the x-axes need to be the same to make a direct comparison.  However, the graphs you linked make me think of introductory calculus:  If you time averaged plots, speculative investments (gold, housing) seem to have many large concave up time periods and the dow jones has many concave down sections.  Using the concavity test: If the first derivative tells you about the rate of change, the second derivative tells you about the rate of change of rate of change.  Remember back to Physics 101:  1st derivative is velocity & second derivative is acceleration.   It would be interesting to have the same time scales for your plots & compare these accelerations between the two.  I suspect the more volatile investments would have larger (in magnitude) accelerations during boom/bust cycles than less speculative investments.


"I agree that the figure seems low. I think that 2 things are going on. Firstly, this was clearly not a ""offer he could not refuse"". Second, Lucas is getting a bit older and he knows how much work it takes to create a SW film. I think Lucas saw what they have done for Marvel and Pixar, and said this is the best landing spot for the SW franchise. These are the only guys with the resources to pull this off. Remember, he is now disney's 2nd largest stock holder. He was not just cashing out, if disney shits the bed on this one he takes the lose as well."


It isn't just ETFs, you have normal mutual funds in India which invest internationally. This could be convenient if you don't already have a depository account and a stockbroker.  Here's a list of such funds, along with some performance data: Value Research - Equity: International: Long-term Performance. However, you should also be aware that in India, domestic equity and equity fund investing is tax-free in the long-term (longer than one year), but this exemption doesn't apply to international investments. Ref: Invest Around the World.


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>Honestly, how many tech savy people exist in Washington?  Plenty- they are the people who will actually seize your domain.    'How many people in Washington can operate an Abrams tank?' Not understanding a subject doesn't prevent legislators from issuing orders to people who do.


For us it's good. Long-only equity investing is mostly reading, thinking and modeling. Then there's the exciting 1% of communicating your work. Our office doesn't feel too DM like though. Gorgeous wood walls, plush rugs, artwork amazing NYC skyline view etc. We joke that you would think it was a law firm if not for the multiple monitors.


At this stage of the game your best investment is yourself. Rather than putting it in stocks, use any spare money you have to get yourself the best education you can. See if you can drop that part-time job and give yourself more time to study. Or maybe you can go to a better, more expensive college. Or maybe college will give you some opportunity to travel and learn more that way. You don't want to exclude yourself from those opportunities by not having enough spare cash. So in short, spend what you need to get yourself the best education you can, and keep any spare money you have somewhere you can use it to take advantage of any opportunities that come your way.


https://finviz.com/quote.ashx?t=EFX  Go to the bottom of the page.    The same 3 people that sold the stock in early August have been selling their stock options consistently all year, sometimes in packs.  The last time they packed up to sell shares, they sold them from feb 21st to feb 28th, and then EFX proceeded to jump up 5% and stay there.  https://finance.yahoo.com/chart/EFX#eyJjdXN0b21SYW5nZUVuZCI6MTQ5MTAxOTE5OSwiY3VzdG9tUmFuZ2VTdGFydCI6MTQ4NzY1MzIwMCwibXVsdGlDb2xvckxpbmUiOmZhbHNlLCJib2xsaW5nZXJVcHBlckNvbG9yIjoiI2UyMDA4MSIsImJvbGxpbmdlckxvd2VyQ29sb3IiOiIjOTU1MmZmIiwibWZpTGluZUNvbG9yIjoiIzQ1ZTNmZiIsIm1hY2REaXZlcmdlbmNlQ29sb3IiOiIjZmY3YjEyIiwibWFjZE1hY2RDb2xvciI6IiM3ODdkODIiLCJtYWNkU2lnbmFsQ29sb3IiOiIjMDAwMDAwIiwicnNpTGluZUNvbG9yIjoiI2ZmYjcwMCIsInN0b2NoS0xpbmVDb2xvciI6IiNmZmI3MDAiLCJzdG9jaERMaW5lQ29sb3IiOiIjNDVlM2ZmIiwicmFuZ2UiOiIxeSJ9  This doesn't prove their innocence but don't just randomly accuse people of breaking the law.  It's a terrible use of time.


"What if everyone decided to sell all the shares at a given moment, let's say when the stock is trading at $40? It would fall to the lowest bid price, which could be $0.01 if someone had that bid in place. Here is an example which I happened to find online:  Notice there are orders to buy at half the market price and lower... probably all the way down to pennies.  If there were enough selling activity to fill all of those bids you see, then the market price would be the lowest bid on the screen.  Alternatively, the bid orders could be pulled (cancelled), which would also let the price free-fall to the lowest bid even if there were few actual sellers. Bid-stuffing is what HFT (high frequency trading) algorithms sometimes do, which some say caused the Flash Crash of May 2010.  The computers ""stuff"" bids into the order book, making it look like there is demand in order to trigger a market reaction, then they pull the bids to make the market fall.  This sort of thing happens all the time and Nanex documents it http://www.nanex.net/FlashCrash/OngoingResearch.html Quote stuffing defined: http://www.investopedia.com/terms/q/quote-stuffing.asp I remember the day of the Flash Crash very well.  I found this video on youtube of CNBC at that time.  Watch from the 5:00 min mark on the video as Jim Crammer talks about PG easily not being worth the price of the market at that time.  He said ""Who cares?"", ""Its not a real price"", ""$49.25 bid for 50,000 shares if I were at my hedge fund.""  http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=86g4_w4j3jU You can value a stock how you want, but its only actually worth what someone will give you for it. More examples: Anadarko Petroleum, which as we noted in today's EOD post, lost $45 billion in market cap in 45 milliseconds (a collapse rate of $1 billion per millisecond), flash crashing from $90 all the way to an (allegedly illegal) stub quote of $0.01. http://www.zerohedge.com/news/2013-05-17/how-last-second-flash-crash-pushed-sp-500-1667-1666 How 10,000 Contracts Crashed The Market: A Visual Deconstruction Of Last Night's E-Mini Flash Crash http://www.zerohedge.com/news/2012-12-21/how-10000-contracts-crashed-market-visual-deconstruction-last-nights-e-mini-flash-cr Symantec Flash-Crash Destroys Over $1.5 Billion In Less Than A Second http://www.zerohedge.com/news/2013-04-30/symantec-flash-crash-destroys-over-15-billion-less-second This sort of thing happens so often, I don't pay much attention anymore."


I think the two have split in many ways. The majority of academic courses of course elevate competency levels, but they are only available either to those who can afford it, or those willing to suffer the debt. Competency in this context refers to direct training with companies in core skills needed directly on the job. Major organizations are now offering those from low-wage backgrounds a direct route to a career by developing their competencies. After a few years they might not have a credential (i.e. qualification such as  a masters degree) but they will have a resume that's skills-rich; and all of those skills will have been industry tested, not college tested. Hope that makes sense :)


"The problem there is that the argument immediately turns to ""why should Podunk Town have the same minimum wage as Major City"", even though the whole idea behind tailoring MW to local economies is that places that can't support the minimum wage of an economic engine don't have to.      That's the challenge we are facing in my state and why our legislature won't let areas with higher costs of living raise the minimum wage.  Which ends up hilariously bad because the urban poor become even more reliant on public assistance which in turn costs the state more money."


In general no, if you just have one employer and work there with the same salary for the whole year.  Typically an employer does tax withholding by extrapolating your monthly income to the entire year and withholding the right amount so that at the end, what is withheld is what you owe.  It's not a surprise to them when your income crosses a tax bracket threshold, because they knew how much they were paying you and knew when you would cross into another bracket, so they factored that in. If you have multiple jobs or only worked for part of the year, or if your income varied from month to month (e.g., you got a raise) there could be a discrepancy between what is withheld and what you owe, because each employer only knows about what it's paying you, not what money you may have earned from other sources.  (Even here, though, the discrepancy wouldn't be due to the tax brackets per se.)  You can adjust your withholdings on form W-4 if needed, to tell the employer to withhold more or less than they otherwise would.


>When I started dating my now wife I took her to a place with a 7PM reservation. We finally sat around 9PM after another couple told the owner we had been waiting longer than anyone else in the pile of people at the front of the restaurant.  Why the hell did you waited 2 hours?


how do they turn shares into cash that they can then use to grow their business? Once a Company issues an IPO or Follow-On Public Offer, the company gets the Money. Going over the list of question tagged IPO would help you with basics. Specifically the below questions; How does a company get money by going public in an IPO? Why would a company care about the price of its own shares in the stock market? Why would a stock opening price differ from the offering price?  From what I've read so far, it seems that pre-IPO an investment bank essentially buys the companies public shares, and that bank then sells them on the open market. Is the investment bank buying 100% of the newly issued public shares? And then depositing the cash equivalent into the companies bank account? Additionally, as the stock price rises and falls over the lifetime of the company how does that actually impact the companies bank balance? Quite a bit on above is incorrect. Please read the answers to the question tagged IPO. Once an IPO is over, the company does not gain anything directly from the change in shareprice. There is indirect gain / loss.


"I used to use etfconnect before they went paid and started concentrating on closed end funds. These days my source of information is spread out. The primary source about the instrument (ETF) itself is etfdb, backed by information from Morningstar and Yahoo Finance. For comparison charts Google Finance can't be beat. For actual solid details about a specific ETF, would check read the prospectus from the managing firm itself. One other comment, never trust a site that ""tells you"" which securities to buy. The idea is that you need sources of solid information about financial instruments to make a decision, not a site that makes the decision for you. This is due to the fact that everyone has different strategies and goals for their money and a single site saying buy X sell Y will probably lead you to lose your money."


Thank you for your service.  My first suggestion since your car is a planned for the near future is keep that amount in savings and just pay cash. There are plenty of attractive offers to entice you to finance your vehicle but there really is no compelling reason to do it considering the savings you have.  Second I would keep an additional portion of savings as a rainy day emergency fund. How much is based mostly on what you feel comfortable with. The number of possible emergencies that can come up is limited and your expenses are limited which is normal given your age. This fund might be for something such as emergency travel for a sick family member, cover a deductible for an auto accident, whatever unforseen event might occur (hence the name emergency fund). What investments you are comfortable with will be determined by risk tolerance. While in the military individual stocks that are aggressive risky investments may not be a good idea because of the extra attention they require and you can't really babysit a portfolio while deployed but there are many good low or no cost mutual funds or ETFs that you could get into.  I would look into setting up a recurring purchase with a set dollar amount monthly so you will continue to accumulate whatever option you are investing in regularly even if you are deployed. Which fund or ETF you pick will depend on your goals and risk tolerance but you could very easily pick several for diversity. Good luck and thank you again for your service.


This answer contains three assumptions: New Share Price: Old Share Price * 1.0125 Quarterly Dividend: (New Share Price*0.01) * # of Shares in Previous Quarter Number of Shares: Shares from Previous Quarter + Quarterly Dividend/New Share Price For example, starting from right after Quarter One: New share price: $20 * 1.0125 = 20.25  1000 shares @ $20.25 a share yields $20.25 * 0.01 * 1000 = $202.5 dividend New shares: $202.5/20.25 = 10 shares Quarter Two: New share price: $20.503 1010 shares @ 20.503 yields $20.503*0.01*1010 = $207.082 dividend New shares: $207.082/20.503 = 10.1 shares Repeat over many cycles: 8 Quarters (2 years): 1061.52 shares @ $21.548 a share 20 Quarters (5 years): 1196.15 shares @ $25.012 a share 40 Quarters (10 years): 1459.53 shares @ $32.066 a share Graphically this looks like this:  It's late enough someone may want to check my math ;). But I'd also assert that a 5% growth rate and a 4% dividend rate is pretty optimistic.


If the fees to keep the account open are reasonable then it's worth keeping it open for now.  It streamlines things if you need to visit or otherwise have business transactions (e.g. order things from online stores) with France or other EU countries.  If you are not yet even in university, I think it is far too early to predict where you will end up spending your time in life.


"Why bother any more?  Max penalty if these guys are even paying their much publicized ""government "" penalties is pennies on the dollar to what they got from the illegal activity. And the governmental workers will all go back to their cush bank job afterwards with a bonus."


Sounds like a terrible situation. The only thing I can think of (if you have the cash for it) is to pay down enough of the Mortgage and refinance to the point where the rent covers the mortgage plus expenses. On the one hand, this feels like literally burning money in the fireplace, as you will likely never see back the difference between the likely value when you sell and what you are putting in now. On the other hand, every time you make an interest payment, you are burning the (smaller amount of) money with no hope of seeing it back ever. If you don't have the cash, or you find that just throwing away money, then I would get out as fast as I can. Every month you hold you are paying a huge amount of interest. If you sold at $300,000, you would have only a $30,000 debt to manage. The total amount it would take to pay that off (at anything resembling normal interest rates) would probably be less than you have already sunk into this thing. Of course, if you are willing to bet that the market will come back and make you profitable on what you will have to put in from now on, then you might want to hold on. Personally, I would not make that bet. All around a terrible situation. I wish you lots of luck in resolving it.


PocketSmith is another tool you might like to consider. No personal banking details are required, but you can upload your transactions in a variety of formats. Pocketsmith is interesting because it really focus on your future cash flow, and the main feature of the interface is around having a calendar(s) where you easily enter one off or repetitive expenses/income. http://www.pocketsmith.com/


Who determines company value at IPO? The Owners based on the advice from Lead Bankers and other Independent auditors who would determine the value of the company at the time of listing. At times instead of determining a fixed price a range is given [lower side and higher side]. The Market participants [FI / Institutional Investor Segments] then decide the price by bidding at an amount. There are multiple aspects in play that help stabalize the IPO and roles of various parties. A quick read of question with IPO tag is recommended Edits: Generally at a very broad level, one of the key purpose of the IPO is to either encash Owner equity [Owner wants some profits immediately] or Raise additional Capital. More often it is a mix of both. If the price is too low, one loose out on getting the true value, this would go to someone else. If the price is too high, then it may not attract enough buyers or even there are buyers, there is substantial -ve sentiment. This is not good for the company. Read the question From Facebook's perspective, was the fall in price after IPO actually an indication that it went well?  This puts determining the price of IPO more in the realm of art than science. There are various mechanism [Lead bankers, Institutional Investors, Underwriters] the a company would put in place to ensure the IPO is success and that itself would moderate the price to realistic level. More often the price is kept slightly lower to create a positive buzz about the stock.


Nonsense; terrorists are always open and up-front in their methods and movements. How else are they going to spam clues everywhere for our protectors to miss or ignore?  Besides, why risk unwanted attention from disgruntled neighbors? Easier to hide in plain sight.


"**2009 Aftonbladet Israel controversy**  The Aftonbladet–Israel controversy refers to the controversy that followed the publication of a 17 August 2009 article in the Swedish tabloid Aftonbladet alleging that Israeli troops harvested organs from Palestinians that died in their custody. The article sparked a fierce debate in Sweden and abroad, and created a rift between the Swedish and Israeli governments. Israeli officials denounced the report at the time, labeling it anti-Semitic. The article was written by Swedish freelance photojournalist Donald Boström, and was entitled ""Våra söner plundras på sina organ"" (""Our sons are being plundered for their organs"").  ***  ^[ [^PM](https://www.reddit.com/message/compose?to=kittens_from_space) ^| [^Exclude ^me](https://reddit.com/message/compose?to=WikiTextBot&message=Excludeme&subject=Excludeme) ^| [^Exclude ^from ^subreddit](https://np.reddit.com/r/economy/about/banned) ^| [^FAQ ^/ ^Information](https://np.reddit.com/r/WikiTextBot/wiki/index) ^| [^Source](https://github.com/kittenswolf/WikiTextBot)   ^] ^Downvote ^to ^remove ^| ^v0.27"


Or how about Applebee's food sucks. Same as Olive Garden or Buffalo Wild Wings. I would rather spend the same at a mom and pop shop or maybe a little more for something not made out of a bag and microwaved.  If I was going to do that, why spend 12 for a meal? Just go to Taco Bell..  Perhaps failing restaurants and brands should stop blaming millennials and come to terms that they are simply out of touch.  Sorry Applebee's, your more expensive than panera and your food is shitty.


I keep waiting for the EU to disolve NATO and reform as a strictly European entity. For the last twenty years at least, it's been little more than a sales channel for US made military hardware. The EU should take on the primary responsibility for its defence and if called upon, the US should be able to choose to be involved.


The general discussion of inflation centers on money as a medium of exchange and a store of value. It is impossible to discuss inflation without considering time, since it is a comparison between the balance between money and goods at two points in time. The whole point of using money, rather than bartering goods, is to have a medium of exchange. Having money, you are interested in the buying power of the money in general more than the relative price of a specific commodity. If some supply distortion causes a shortage of tobacco, or gasoline, or rental properties, the price of each will go up. However, if the amount of circulating money is doubled, the price of everything will be bid up because there is more money chasing the same amount of wealth. The persons who get to introduce the additional circulating money will win at the expense of those who already hold cash. Most of the public measures that are used to describe the economy are highly suspect. For example, during the 90s, the federal government ceased using a constant market basket when computing CPI, allowing substitutions. With this, it was no longer possible to make consistent comparisons over time. The so-called Core CPI is even worse, as it excludes food and energy, which is fine provided you don't eat anything or use any energy. Therefore, when discussing CPI, it is important to understand what exactly is being measured and how. Most published statistics understate inflation.


$38 was the IPO price. This was price per share for those investors who bought directly from the underwriters (Morgan Stanley, etc.)  $42.06 was the first secondary market price, the price at which two private parties first exchanged the shares on an exchange, in this case NASDAQ.


"The word you are looking for is ""budget"" You can't pay off debt if you are spending more than you earn.  Therefore, start a budget that you both work on at the same time, and both agree 100% with.  Evaluate your progress on that budget on a regular basis. From your question, you understand what your obligations are and you seem to manage money pretty well. Therefore your key to retirement is just the ticket you need. As newlyweds, you both have to be VERY aware that the main reason a marriage fails in the US is money issues.  Starting out with a groundwork where you both agree to your budget and can keep it will help you a lot in your upcoming life. Then, for some details Sprinkle your charitable donations anywhere in the list where you feel it is important."


MSFT: Hey Nokia, pls be exclusive to us  NOK: OK we will build phones exclusively for you  MSFT: Hey everyone, look, shiny new Windows 8 for phones  NOK: Ooh nice, when can customers have update  MSFT: LOL no update  NOK: MSFT pls, now not a single person will buy one of our phones for months  MSFT: LOL


"First, I'd recommend that you separate ""short-term"" assets from ""long-term"" assets in your head.  Short-term assets are earmarked for spending on something specific in the near future or are part of your emergency fund.  These should be kept in cash or short bond funds.   Long-term assets are assets that you can take some risks with and aren't going to spend in the next few years.  Under normal circumstances, I'd recommend 80% stocks/20% bonds or even 70/30 for someone your age, assuming you're saving mainly for retirement and thus have a correspondingly long time horizon.  These portfolios historically are much less risky than 100% stock and only return slightly less.   Right now, though, I think that anyone who doesn't absolutely need safety keep 100% of their long-term assets in stocks.  I'm 26 and this is my asset allocation.  Bond yields are absolutely pathetic by historical standards.  Even ten year treasury yields are comparable to S&P 500 dividend yields and likely won't outperform inflation if held to maturity.  The stock market is modestly undervalued when measured by difference between current P/E ratio and the historical average and more severely undervalued when you account for the effects of reduced inflation, transaction costs and capital gains taxes on fair valuation.  Therefore, the potential reward for taking risk is much higher now than it usually is."