So you understand the system is broken. Why do you think more of the same will fix the problem? The government is corruptable and is widely believed to be corrupted by their allies in corporations that they protect by giving special powers that allow them to avoid responsibility. These powers are not available for the average citizen. But are available to various government organizations and can be bestowed on whim to anyone they deem worthy. How is this an improvement?   What do you in your own words think should be done to fix things? Are you a bot? Can you make words of your own or just links?


"I like these charts but I wish they went back further to show when Obama took office.  If you looked at the progression of these charts from when Obama came into office you would be forced to assume Obama was only just short of the messiah. That was a combination of luck and some decent policies and a *very* helpful Fed.  Trump actually has a somewhat ""steady state"" economy to work with. We've been muddling along in the current economic milieu since about 2012. Where we go from here can, i think, be safely attributed to policies Trump enacts. Obama faced gridlock for so long that nothing got done after Obamacare."


There's an interesting paper, Does Investor Attention Affect Stock Prices? (Sandhya et al), where researchers look at related stock tickers.  When a large cap, better-known stock jumps, smaller firms with similar symbols also rise.   Pretty nuts -- I interviewed the author of the paper [here](http://www.tradestreaming.com/?p=3745). There's also a transcript.


It is a question of how volatile the stock is perceived to be, its beta correlation to the S&P500 or other index. Margin requirements are derived from the Federal Reserve, Self Regulatory Organizations, the exchange itself, the broker you use, and which margining system you are using. So that makes this a loaded question. There are at least three margin systems, before you have your own risk officer in a glass room that doesn't care how leveraged up you get. Brokers primarily don't want to lose money.


I will be very interested in this subject as well in a few years. So far what I found is from an excellent article at the Motley Fool. Basically if you have between $200,000.00 and $1,500,000.00 in assets you should consider long term care insurance around age 55. Less than $200,000.00 and you will most likely qualify for some government hand out.  More than 1,500,000.00 and you can self insure.  Here is the article I found.  Fool article


Please note that if you are self employed, then the profit sharing limit for both the SEP and Solo 401(k) is 20% of compensation, not 25%. There is no need for a SEP-IRA in this case.  In addition to the 401(k) at work, you have a solo-401(k) for your consulting business.  You can contribute $18,000 on the employee side across the two 401(k) plans however you wish.  You can also contribute profit sharing up to 20% of compensation in your solo 401(k) plan.  However, the profit sharing limit aggregates across all plans for your consulting business.  If you max that out in your solo 401(k), then you cannot contribute to the SEP IRA. In other words, the solo 401(k) dominates the SEP IRA in terms of contributions and shares a limit on the profit-sharing contribution.  If you have a solo 401(k), there is never a reason to have a SEP for the same company. Example reference: Can I Contribute to a solo 401(k) and SEP for the same company?


I've done this in AZ. It's important to know which lender is foreclosing, because if it's not the most senior one, then your purchase can later be foreclosed. A foreclosure extinguishes all junior interests, but can itself be extinguished by a more senior interest. I may not have the correct terms here but you get the idea. You should also check to be sure property taxes are current. They are probably being paid by the original lender, but it wouldn't hurt to check. Make sure you understand the requirements for participation in the auction. In my case they required that I bring a $10K cashier's check made out to myself. On winning the auction I endorsed the check over to the auction company and had 24hours to come up with the remaining funds in cash. The property I bought had been previously sold at a Sheriff's sale to satisfy a judgment in favor of the Homeowner's Association for delinquent dues. The HOA bought the property at the auction and received a Sheriff's deed. At this point the original owner's possessory interest in the property was extinguished. Nevertheless, the original mortgage and deed of trust were still in place, being senior to the HOA's interest. About a year later the lender foreclosed on the property and I bought it at auction at the courthouse. This had the effect of extinguishing the HOA's interest, a fact that took some explaining to the water utility to get the account in my name :-)


#####&#009;  ######&#009;  ####&#009;  [**Double Irish Arrangement**](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Double%20Irish%20Arrangement): [](#sfw)   ---  >The __double Irish arrangement__ is a [tax avoidance](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tax_avoidance) strategy that [multinational corporations](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Multinational_corporation) use to lower their [corporate tax](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Corporate_tax) liability. The strategy uses payments between related entities in a corporate structure to shift income from a higher-tax country to a lower-tax country. It relies on the fact that [Irish tax law](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Taxation_in_the_Republic_of_Ireland) does not include US [transfer pricing](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Transfer_pricing) rules.  Specifically, Ireland uses [territorial taxation](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/International_Taxation), and hence does not levy taxes on income booked at subsidiaries of Irish companies that are outside of the state. In the late 1980s, [Apple Inc.](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Criticism_of_Apple_Inc.#Tax_practices) was among the pioneers in creating this tax structure.   >  ---  ^Interesting: [^Double ^Irish ^arrangement](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Double_Irish_arrangement) ^| [^Criticism ^of ^Facebook](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Criticism_of_Facebook) ^| [^Corporation ^tax ^in ^the ^Republic ^of ^Ireland](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Corporation_tax_in_the_Republic_of_Ireland) ^| [^Abbott ^Laboratories](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Abbott_Laboratories) ^| [^Facebook](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Facebook)   ^Parent ^commenter ^can [^toggle ^NSFW](http://www.np.reddit.com/message/compose?to=autowikibot&subject=AutoWikibot NSFW toggle&message=%2Btoggle-nsfw+cjzsh40) ^or[](#or) [^delete](http://www.np.reddit.com/message/compose?to=autowikibot&subject=AutoWikibot Deletion&message=%2Bdelete+cjzsh40)^. ^Will ^also ^delete ^on ^comment ^score ^of ^-1 ^or ^less. ^| [^(FAQs)](http://www.np.reddit.com/r/autowikibot/wiki/index) ^| [^Mods](http://www.np.reddit.com/r/autowikibot/comments/1x013o/for_moderators_switches_commands_and_css/) ^| [^Magic ^Words](http://www.np.reddit.com/r/autowikibot/comments/1ux484/ask_wikibot/)


> EDIT: Why are my numbers messed up? They are fine on my screen till I post.   There needs to be a space after 2:      2.When someone thinks they  __^ add a space there  Also, this is a solid post. It's good to know that everyone has these problems.


"> those of us who showed the good judgement  If you call going $80,000 into debt for a ""professional certification"" (4-year degree) that verifies that you've read Kant or Marx from front to back ""good judgement"" then I guess so.  Lost in this whole thing is the fact that our college educated jobless want factory jobs in the first place. These guys are looking for veterains because they have been vetted by the military, they've proven some ability  adhere to a heirarchy/follow orders, and have shown an ability to work in a dangerous environment. If you can do that, I am sure they would love to hire you."


Yes, maybe for themselves, but for you that depends on quite a number of things. But not all advisors are scum, but accept the fact that you are their cash cow and you are there for their takings. Some advisors are true to their professions and advise ethically, trying to get the best for their clients. So search for a good advisor rather than a cheap one. And regarding the mortgage you are talking about, the mortgage provider and the mortgage taker don't deal directly, but use their solicitors. Every party wants the least of legal hassles for their transactions and get the best legal help. The financial advisor maybe both rolled into one or he has legal practitioners in his firm who would do the legal job after he takes care of the financial matters. Seems a cost effective workshop.


I agree with Chad, seek out a personal counselor before making any huge decisions.   I did want to add that if you still want to talk to people about this question try www.stuckinadoorway.org.  There you will get other OCD suffers take on this and all sorts of questions. My only advice directly to your question is to make saving as regular and automated as possible.  Contribute to any work based savings scheme or have a bank make a regular transfer into a savings account.


What is my best bet with the 401K? I know very little about retirement plans and don't plan to ever touch this money until I retire but could this money be of better use somewhere else?  You can roll over a 401k into an IRA. This lets you invest in other funds and stocks that were not available with your 401k plan. Fidelity and Vanguard are 2 huge companies that offer a number of investment opportunities. When I left an employer that had the 401k plan with Fidelity, I was able to rollover the investments and leave them in the existing mutual funds (several of the funds have been closed to new investors for years). Usually, when leaving an employer, I have the funds transferred directly to the place my IRA is at - this avoids tax penalties and potential pitfalls.   The student loans.... pay them off in one shot?  If the interest is higher than you could earn in a savings account, then it is smarter to pay them off at once. My student loans are 1.8%, so I can earn more money in my mutual funds. I'm suspicious and think something hinky is going to happen with the fiscal cliff negotiations, so I'm going to be paying off my student loans in early 2013.  Disclaimer: I have IRA accounts with both Fidelity and Vanguard. My current 401k plan is with Vanguard.


I don't understand why they don't just carry it (on a key chain or something). For example, the thing about car keys is that if someone else gets it, they have full access to your car. That is the downside. But the downside of implantables is lack of privacy when you want it (everyone wants it at some time. Has nothing to do with criminality), the possibility of infection, you still have to have it taken out when you change jobs, and also the possibility of someone else impersonating you. The latter can be done by copying the chip data using a chip reader without your knowledge. Also, since it is embedded, it would be up to you to prove the impersonator wasn't you. If that person committed a crime using your chip data, you would be in big trouble. Also makes stalking you easier. This is a really bad idea.  Edit: typo. Changed wearables to implantables.


It is perfectly legitimate to adjust your 1099-B income by broker's fees.  Publication 17 (p 116) specifically instructs taxpayers to adjust their Schedule D reporting by broker's fees: Form 1099-B transactions.   If you sold property, such as stocks, bonds, or certain commodities, through a broker, you should receive Form 1099-B or substitute statement from the broker. Use the Form 1099-B or the substitute statement to complete Form 8949. If you sold a covered security in 2013, your broker should send you a Form 1099-B (or substitute statement) that shows your basis. This will help you complete Form 8949. Generally, a covered security is a security you acquired after 2010. Report the gross proceeds shown in box 2a of Form 1099-B as the sales price in column (d) of either Part I or Part II of Form 8949, whichever applies. However, if the broker advises you, in box 2a of Form 1099-B, that gross proceeds (sales price) less commissions and option premiums were reported to the IRS, enter that net sales price in column (d) of either Part I or Part II of Form 8949, whichever applies. Include in column (g) any expense of sale, such as broker's fees, commissions, state and local transfer taxes, and option premiums, unless you reported the net sales price in column (d). If you include an expense of sale in column (g), enter “E” in column (f). You can rely on your own records and judgment, if you feel comfortable doing so.  Brokers often make incomplete tax reporting.  This may have been simpler from their perspective if the broker fees were variable, or integrated, or unknown for a number of clients party to a transaction.  If a taxpayer has documentation of the expenses that justify an adjustment, then it's perfectly appropriate to include that in the calculations. It is not necessary to report the discrepancy, and it may increase scrutiny to include a written addendum.  The Schedule D, Form 8949, and Form 1099-B will probably together adequately explain the source of the deduction.


A series of negative experiences across multiple stores and levels of employees/management, ending with getting the BBB involved.  They were still shady/poor even after the BBB case.  (In short, they lost my laptop I'd sent in for repair, didn't tell me and sent me something similar with my data on it, and when I sent it back, they continued not to tell me much of anything.  Lies and rude people all around.)  I refuse to use them even for showrooming, I stay outside when my friends go in.  I couldn't tell you the last time I went in, and it was by force.


You certainly don't write like someone who is well educated. Plus you literally say your feelings are more important than a government statistic which is bonkers.   I'm sorry your state sucks. You should try moving. Almost everywhere else has an abundance of job openings right now.


"I'd interpret it as ""Net Worth"" reached 1M where ""net worth"" = assets - liabilities."


These things will be more fuel efficient, eco friendly than current diesel transportation. Although I feel for the people caught in the transition, like old buggy whip manufacturers, they'll have to adapt. Nothing says that the health of the bottom line of the few must be given favor when weighed against the global benefit.


netflix should quietly open a bunch of small, free vpn providers that aren't visibly attached to them but are marketed as a way to get better netflix streams. they could sell it even harder by having illusory competition between them.  the most effective way to push back isn't to try to beat them in their own territory, it's to make them ineffective in yours.


"The reason to go public is to get money. Not to be snarky, but your question is like asking, ""Why should a company try to sell its products, when if they just piled them up in a warehouse they wouldn't have to worry about shipping and customer complaints and collecting sales tax?"" The answer, of course, is because they want the money. Sure, there are disadvantages to going public, like more regulation, required financial disclosures, and having to answer to stockholders. That's the price you pay for accepting money from people. They're not going to give you money for nothing."


"Definitely. The husband and I were talking about this very recently. Our food budget when we moved in together 4 years ago was about $175 every other week, and that was buying good stuff often - steaks, boneless chicken breasts, non-generic brands, etc. Here we are, four years later, and our food budget is $225. That doesn't buy ""good stuff"" anymore. That buys our meat (just ground beef nowadays) in big packs from Sams so we save a buck a pound, a lot of our dry goods and non-perishables from the discount store (and by that I mean ""salvage"" grocery stores), and our basics which are mostly store brands.  So on average, we are spending $100 a month more on poorer quality groceries than we were 4 years ago."


By law, your wife can get her full Equifax credit report (sans-FICO score) instantly (once every 12 months) via https://www.annualcreditreport.com She can even get her FICO score with a 7-day free trial of Equifax Complete Premier.


At Affordable RV storage customer get more saving then just money. They save time when they use the amenities at the vehicle storage facility. Even when using this boat storage you getting the best rates anywhere. RV parking is easy and user freindly for all customers. This RV storage is far more superior then all other competitors.


"No no no no!!!!  Do not spend 25k on a damn slab of concrete when you don't even own the land! You are not ""truly"" the owner unless you legally own the land. I don't care what country your talking about. If you like I'll come over to your place, mix and pour some concrete on the floor, and you can pay me 5 euro. Deal? Buy the smallest parcel of land you can find. Own the land. Pour some concrete on it and viola!!!"


Sure! Nazis are any one you don't agree with, even Jews (Breitbart) and even Trump who's daughter converted to Judaism, married a Jew and Trump visited Israel and wore a yarmulke and prayed in the wailing wall in Jerusalem.  Sure!  You are an expert in identifying Nazis. Am I a Nazi too?


"Does location of EA or CPA matter?  Not in particular. The FTB has field offices all over the State, so if a meeting needs to be arranged - it will be in the nearest office. When you interview the potential candidates, you can ask them how they would deal the case if there's a need of an in-person visit to the FTB, and if it is even an option you should be worrying about. Likely not, since as you mentioned before you're in a mail audit process. Are there websites that rate EAs or CPAs, for example, on how many audits they have won? Or should I simply rely on yelp.com ratings. There's no ""winning"" in audits. Ideally, given the same data, any EA or CPA would reach the same result in the discussion re audits with the FTB. Obviously, some are more experienced and some are less, and some are specializing on specific types of audits/entities, etc. Yelp is a place to start, but take the reviews there with a grain of salt since most reviewers are probably there to rant. If you see a repetitive pattern in the reviews - take that into consideration. For example, you probably don't want to hire someone who's been repeatedly unresponsive to their clients, not returning calls, not answering questions, being late, etc. Are all EAs and CPAs equal  No. Some are generalists, some specialize in a specific area. Some build practice elusively on representation (IRS or FTB, or both), some provide a wide range of services from bookkeeping to Tax Court representation. I suggest looking for those who prominently advertise themselves as specializing in your area (whatever your type of business is), and representation in front of the FTB. Specialists, especially experienced, cost much more. Keep in mind - you'll be getting what you paid for. Also, when you hire a ""big shot"" EA/CPA - check who's actually going to do the work, and how much oversight the ""big shot"" is going to provide. Anything else that I potentially missed? Any specific questions that I should ask EA or CPA on initial interview? For example, if my EA/CPA could also talk with auditor in case FTB would want to talk directly with taxpayer, if possible? Well, that's the point of representation - to represent. They should be talking to the FTB in your name. You should verify credentials (IRS for EAs, CA CBA for CPAs), make sure their license is current. You can ask them about their continued education and how much of it is dedicated to the CA State law and FTB regulations. Ask them about their experience with similar cases. Overall, a decently qualified tax professional should be able to handle a mail audit without an issue, in-person representation may be harder since it does not only require being competent in the tax law, but also have some people skills."


"Excellent question, though any why question can be challenging to answer because it depends on the financial products in question.  At least, I haven't seen many target date retirement funds that include a high percent of foreign stocks, so below explains the ones I've seen which are primarily US stocks. The United States (before the last twenty years) has been seen as a country of stability.  This is not true anymore, and it's difficult for my generation to understand because we grew up in the U.S.A being challenged (and tend to think that China and India have always been powers), but when we read investors, like Benjamin Graham (who had significant influence with Warren Buffett), we can see this bias - the U.S.A to them is stable, and other countries are ""risky.""  Again, with the national debt and the political game in our current time, it does not feel this way.  But that bias is often reflect in financial instruments. The US Dollar is still the reserve currency, though it's influence is declining and I would expect it to decline.  Contrary to my view (because I could be wrong here) is Mish, who argues that no one wants to have the reserve currency because having a reserve currency brings disadvantages (see here: Bogus Threats to US Reserve Currency Status: No Country Really Wants It!; I present this to show that my view could be wrong). Finally, there tends to be the ""go with what you know.""  Many of these funds are managed by U.S. citizens, so they tend to have a U.S. bias and feel more comfortable investing their money ""at home"" (in fact a famous mutual fund manager, Peter Lynch, had a similar mentality - buy the company behind the stock and what company do we tend to know best?  The ones around us.). One final note, I'm not saying this mentality is correct, just what the attitude is like.  I think you may find that younger mutual fund managers tend to include more foreign stocks, as they've seen that different world."


> 90% CO2 emitted 100 years has already sunk, absorbed by biota and oceans.  I understand your point.  You believe the US is less responsible for temperature increases than the proportion of its total emissions since most of those emissions are no longer in the air.  So, does that mean you also believe China is less responsible for ocean acidification than the proportion of its total emissions since most of those emissions have not been absorbed by the oceans?


This would be 48x wrong, no need to sensationalize it any more than it already has been. Their 10 year estimate of actual solar production (an emerging market) was off by a factor of 4, which is pretty good.


I suggest you begin by double checking what kinds of credit products you have and to which credit bureaus your bank reports. Not all financial institutions report to all bureaus. For example, if your bank only reports your one and only line of credit to Experian, TransUnion still won't have a file on you. Also, some lines of credit such as being an authorized user on a credit card aren't tracked by all of the bureaus. The other thing to consider is the amount of time that your lines of credit have been open. You said it's been less than one year but if it's been less than six months you might try waiting six months to try requesting your reports. If none of the above solves your problem, I would respond to their letter exactly as they instruct you to. Send everything certified with return receipt, and get into the habit of saving all of these records. When you send your reply be sure to include all of the requested information, a brief summary of your issue, and a reference to their previous letter to you. If they don't respond to your letter or they aren't able to help you, try calling the credit bureaus directly to inquire about the problem. Usually the consumer phone lines are automated, so try the corporate or business contacts they list on their website. On a final note, never submit your information on any of the bureaus websites. By doing so you agree to binding arbitration agreements which limit your right to sue. Only communicate with the bureaus by mail or on rare occasions phone.


Networking encompasses many types of devices and there are now better or cheaper competitors to Cisco in each category. Off the top of my head there's Juniper and Huawei for routers and switches, Palo Alto Networks for firewalls, and F5 and Citrix Netscalers for load balancing. Physical gear aside, more and more networking functionality can be handled through software instead of dedicated hardware as well. Companies like Facebook and Google design their own networking equipment and have it contract-built as well.  There's also a war going on between the old guard enterprise tech companies where they're poaching each others territory in search of growth. Cisco makes (good but pricey) blade servers while HP makes networking equipment, etc.  Cisco's far from dead but they're no longer a growth company and need to stay nimble if they want to survive. Fortunately they do seem to understand the current environment and announcements like this should ensure their future.


"I'm sorry if you took what I said to mean ""it was literally abolished arbitrarily because of the prevailing academic thought."" Obviously it was because of the situation but the people in charge of developing the final decisions regarding monetary policy are largely economists and research professionals. They were the ones that decided it no longer made sense to back currency with physical assets"


"My experiences in WNY as a manufacturing engineer getting laid off 3 times due to outsourcing to china and mexico has shown me that there is an issue, that is not addressed by the MF article's bent on spending.   My argument is outsourced jobs, not spending.   I agree with the kodak culture.  Having gone to RIT with alot of Kodakers that lost jobs because of EK's shift to china and I'd say its more than just ignoring digital.  It is the continued investment in china in film processing and ignoring digital.  there is a huge film processing plant in china sitting idle.  Beyond that, Kodak was more than just film.  Medical imagining company and the spun off chemical division they sold are both doing well.  By the time they did digital, it was too late.  Sad thing is I saw kodak employees buying fuji film because the hated the company so much.  I was laid off from Perkin Elmer, now Eaton, building valves for aerospace.  It went to Tijuana.  I was laid off from Getinge USA building sterilizers, it opened a plant in china, I got laid off with others.  Its completion, steris opened a plant in mexico and moved alot of manufacturing there.    getinge used to buy copper and stainless plumbing fittings in the usa, now they are only available from china.    I worked at liberty pumps, they used to get casting for pumps from usa, it all comes from china along w/ several plastic pumps entirely made in china.  http://thedailynewsonline.com/news/article_60eaa658-9226-598b-883f-ae4eadf032c7.html  Xerox has outsourced manufacturing and machining to china; I know the engineers who had to do it.  IT services are going to http://www.nytimes.com/2009/04/06/technology/companies/06xerox.html  search more on xerox and hcl tech.    Engineers I know that work at Delphi developing automated manufacturing cells that are then packed up and moved to Juarez to run parts for auto industry.  http://www.businessweek.com/magazine/content/10_25/b4183009392434.htm many others are moving there as well.  Southco fasteners does the same a Delphi, except they outsource the manufacturing cell to china and run all production there.  Closing usa plants for opening chinese ones.  http://www.designnews.com/document.asp?doc_id=227116  ""One example of the shifting tide of American fastener production is Southco, which first began manufacturing specialty fastener devices in Essington, PA in 1945. Last year Southco announced plans to close its Brandywine Manufacturing facility in Concordville, PA. Products and technologies are being transferred to Honeoye Falls, NY, Rockledge, FL, Chihuahua, Mexico and Fu Wang and Shanghai, China. Output from Southco’s four Chinese plants rose 40 percent last year. An assembly center is now operating in the Czech Republic.""  http://www.massdevice.com/news/covidien-shutters-upstate-ny-plant ""After a round of layoffs last year and a manufacturing move to China, Covidien closes its Watertown, N.Y., plant, leaving nearly 250 out of work.""  I must say it wasn't a good move for me to get a engineering degree, should have been in something else.  My wife has just stated that I am ""winning friends and influencing people on the the internet now""  /Sarcasm runs deep in this house."


The important thing to realize is, what would you do, if you didn't have the call? If you didn't have call options, but you wanted to have a position in that particular stock, you would have to actually purchase it. But, having purchased the shares, you are at risk to lose up to the entire value of them-- if the company folded or something like that.  A call option reduces the potential loss, since you are at worst only out the cost of the call, and you also lose a little on the upside, since you had to pay for the call, which will certainly have some premium over buying the underlying share directly. Risk can be defined as reducing the variability of outcomes, so since calls/shorts etc. reduce potential losses and also slightly reduce potential gains, they pretty much by definition reduce risk. It's also worth noting, that when you buy a call, the seller could also be seen as hedging the risk of price decreases while also guaranteeing that they have a buyer at a certain price. So, they may be more concerned about having cash flow at the right time, while at the same time reducing the cost of the share losing in value than they are losing the potential upside if you do exercise the option. Shorts work in the same way but opposite direction to calls, and forwards and futures contracts are more about cash flow management: making sure you have the right amount of money in the right currency at the right time regardless of changes in the costs of raw materials or currencies. While either party may lose on the transaction due to price fluctuations, both parties stand to gain by being able to know exactly what they will get, and exactly what they will have to pay for it, so that certainty is worth something, and certainly better for some firms than leaving positions exposed. Of course you can use them for speculative purposes, and a good number of firms/people do but that's not really why they were invented.


In the style of the Bank of England's Inflation Calculator, you can do the calculation like so. The third column is an index made from the inflation figures and the forth column shows the inflation-adjusted values.  Using the index to calculate the difference in costs, for example: The formulas used to produce the table above are shown below.


> According to pretty well accepted corporate finance principles.  What are the names of those principles and where can I read more about them and how they apply to huge tech companies?  I'd like more than your word on something as huge as you are claiming. That all my stocks are holding way too much cash and are run by finance morons.


"For what it's worth, several of the big ones don't charge for reservations (although they may offer a ""pay in advance"" option with a discount). This gives you the benefit of canceling for free, but unfortunately it also gives them the benefit of cancelling for free."


The VP came into the restaurant I work at and I served him and a client. At the end he tipped me $10 on a $30 bill and left his card saying to call him if I'm interested in being his assistant. I don't think I did anything different than I would a normal table, but I guess he was impressed with my work ethic. the idea of working for someone who can appreciate my serving  and see more potential is exactly the kind of person I'd like to work for.


You need to think bigger. It's perfectly possible for a couple people to create a search product that could rival Google/Bing. DuckDuckGo was created by one person, and it's quite good at finding things!   People said the same thing about Paypal. Look how that turned out! Stripe signed a deal with Starbucks to handle their payments. I believe that also started as two people...  Maybe Simple will take on this problem one day... https://www.simple.com/


"Actually, the other answer isn't strictly correct.  It's an estimate, giving a lower bound that gets less accurate as income increases.  Consider: U.S. income tax is based on a progressive tax system where there are income bracket levels with increasing tax rates. Example: Given U.S. 2009 federal tax rates for an individual filing as ""single"": Imagine somebody making $100000.  Assuming no other credits, deductions, or taxes, then income tax based on the above brackets & rates would be calculated as follows: Meaning the average tax rate for the single individual earning $100,000 is 21.72%. However, a pre-tax deduction from that income actually comes off at the top marginal tax rate.  Consider the same calculation but with taxable income reduced to $99,000 instead (i.e. simulating a pre-tax $1000 deduction): That's a difference of $280, which is more than the $217.20 savings that would have been estimated if just using the average tax rate method. Consequently, when trying to determine how much money would be saved by a tax deduction, it makes better sense to estimate using the marginal tax rate, which in this case was 28%.  It gets a little trickier if the deduction crosses a bracket boundary.  (Left as an exercise to the reader :-) Finally, in the case of the deduction being discussed, it also looks like payroll FICA taxes paid by the employee (Social Security's 6.2%, and Medicare's 1.45%) would be avoided as well; so add that to the marginal tax rate savings. The surest way to know how much would be saved, though, would be to do one's income tax return calculation without the deduction, and then with, and compare the numbers.  Tax software can make this very easy to do."


I have a company in China, so I have to regularly come back for work. If the Chinese were to revolt, there would be thousands on the streets causing chaos. That was why instagram was banned, there was a revolt in Hong Kong or shanghai and people used insta to spread the news.


There's this widespread assumption that Apple intends to release a smartwatch yet no clues whatsoever have come out of Apple suggesting that's what Apple's wearable is going to be. Nobody in the tech press is considering that it might not be a watch, and I don't think it will be. I'll bet Apple is tickled to see LG, Samsung, and Motorola all scrambling to get their latest wrist devices to market ahead of Apple's phantom phonewatch.


"I somehow doubt there's any ""cast-iron"" reservation. Like airline carriage contracts, I bet in those multi page, tiny font legalese that actually is the rental car contract that everyone agreed to when they book (but few will read in its entirety I imagine)...there are clauses in there that probably say your reservation is not guaranteed and the rental company reserves the right to cancel cars for any reason.   Obviously if you're one of those frequent rental program person/top tier member you will likely be not nearly as likely to be cancelled on as opposed to some rando guy renting..."


"So it's added somewhere between $2.4-and-$5.2 trillion, according to the article. Also according to the article, Trump got the figure from Commerce Secretary Wilbur Ross. He didn't make it up.  [The article with the Wilbur Ross quote](http://www.cnbc.com/2017/06/19/wilbur-ross-trump-has-driven-the-stock-market-to-4-trillion-in-gains.html) has these stats:  Since the election, the Dow Jones industrial average has surged more than 16 percent, the S&P 500 has gained more than 13 percent, and the Nasdaq composite has risen 18 percent as of Friday's close.  So this is kind of a non-story with a disingenuously hard-hitting title. A beautiful stucco home of an article, if you will.  edit: I know this is an economics forum and I understand we don't want to get political, but let me just say: I am very far left. Extremely, incredibly far left. But I despise so-called ""news"" outlets and ""economics"" rags pushing such blatant bullshit. I feel that this sort of garbage fuels and even somewhat justifies all of the ""fake news"" accusations. These idiot economics bloggers are doing no favor to the left by engaging in anti-scientific demagoguery."


"The value will certainly fluctuate up and down (but on average gain more than a savings account), but so long as you have enough liquid assets for emergencies, then yes, it's a perfectly good alternative to savings accounts. how risky, in general, are Index Income Funds. How are you defining ""risk""? If you mean ""probability that I'll lose it all"" then it's virtually zero.  If you mean ""how much the value can fluctuate"" then it's certainly not risk-free, but it has less volatility that individual stocks.  If you take the S&P 500 as a proxy, you might expect the change in value over any given year to fluctuate between -30% (like 2008) and +40%, with an average change of around 8%. There will be funds that have less volatility, but produce less return, and funds that have more volatility but higher average returns."


"This is the best tl;dr I could make, [original](https://qz.com/1029925/if-youre-renting-a-city-apartment-without-a-car-16-of-your-rent-pays-for-parking-you-dont-need/) reduced by 76%. (I'm a bot) ***** > Since the 1940s, many US cities introduced minimum parking rules: for every new unit of housing, developers must also build a certain number of parking spaces.  > Parking should be thought of as an equity issue, argues researchers Gregory Pierce and C.J. Gabbe in the journal Housing Policy Debate, Why? The average price of building a garage parking space is passed on to people whether they own a car or not, and distort the true demand for urban parking.  > &quot;The lack of rental housing without bundled parking imposes a steep cost on carless renters-commonly the lowest income households-who may be paying for parking that they do not need or want,&quot; write the authors.   ***** [**Extended Summary**](http://np.reddit.com/r/autotldr/comments/6o5ro3/if_youre_renting_a_city_apartment_without_a_car/) | [FAQ](http://np.reddit.com/r/autotldr/comments/31b9fm/faq_autotldr_bot/ ""Version 1.65, ~170156 tl;drs so far."") | [Feedback](http://np.reddit.com/message/compose?to=%23autotldr ""PM's and comments are monitored, constructive feedback is welcome."") | *Top* *keywords*: **Parking**^#1 **housing**^#2 **price**^#3 **car**^#4 **new**^#5"


"This is a complicated subject, because professional traders don't rely on brokers for stock quotes.  They have access to market data using Level II terminals, which show them all of the prices (buy and sell) for a given stock.   Every publicly traded stock (at least in the U.S.) relies on firms called ""market makers"".  Market makers are the ones who ultimately actually buy and sell the shares of companies, making their money on the difference between what they bought the stock at and what they can sell it for.  Sometimes those margins can be in hundreds of a cent per share, but if you trade enough shares...well, it adds up. The most widely traded stocks (Apple, Microsoft, BP, etc) may have hundreds of market makers who are willing to handle share trades.  Each market maker sets their own price on what they'll pay (the ""bid"") to buy someone's stock who wants to sell and what they'll sell (the ""ask"") that share for to someone who wants to buy it.   When a market maker wants to be competitive, he may price his bid/ask pretty aggressively, because automated trading systems are designed to seek out the best bid/ask prices for their trade executions.  As such, you might get a huge chunk of market makers in a popular stock to all set their prices almost identically to one another.  Other market makers who aren't as enthusiastic will set less competitive prices, so they don't get much (maybe no) business.  In any case, what you see when you pull up a stock quote is called the ""best bid/ask"" price.  In other words, you're seeing the highest price a market maker will pay to buy that stock, and the lowest price that a market maker will sell that stock.  You may get a best bid from one market maker and a best ask from a different one.  In any case, consumers must be given best bid/ask prices. Market makers actually control the prices of shares.  They can see what's out there in terms of what people want to buy or sell, and they modify their prices accordingly.  If they see a bunch of sell orders coming into the system, they'll start dropping prices, and if people are in a buying mood then they'll raise prices. Market makers can actually ignore requests for trades (whether buy or sell) if they choose to, and sometimes they do, which is why a limit order (a request to buy/sell a stock at a specific price, regardless of its current actual price) that someone places may go unfilled and die at the end of the trading session.  No market maker is willing to fill the order. Nowadays, these systems are largely automated, so they operate according to complex rules defined by their owners.  Very few trades actually involve human intervention, because people can't digest the information at a fast enough pace to keep up with automated platforms. So that's the basics of how share prices work.  I hope this answered your question without being too confusing! Good luck!"


An amortization schedule is often used to produce identical payments for the term (repayment period) of a loan, resulting in the principal being paid off and the debt retired at the end of the loan. This is in contrast to an interest only, or balloon loan. These loans require little or no payment against the balance of the loan, requiring the loan to be paid indefinitely if there is no term, or requiring the loan to be entirely paid off from cash or a new loan at the end of the term. A basic amortization formula can be derived from the compound interest formula:   This formula comes from the Wikipedia article on amortization. The basics of the formula are the periodic payment amount, A (your monthly payment), can be determined by the principal loan, P, the rate, r, and the number of payments, n.  Lenders lend money to make a profit on the interest. They'd like to get back all the money they lent out. Amortization schedules are popular because the fixed low payments make it easier for borrowers to pay the loan off eventually. They also tend to be very profitable for lenders, especially at the start of the term, because they make a lot of profit on interest, just like the start of your mortgage. The principal of a mortgage has more meaning than the principal of a revolving debt credit card. The mortgage principal is fixed at the start, and represents the value of the collateral property that is your home. You could consider the amount of principal paid to be the percentage of your home that you actually own (as part of your net worth calculation).  A credit card has a new balance each month depending on how much you charge and how much you pay off. Principal has less meaning in this case, because there is no collateral to compare against, and the balance will change monthly. In this case, the meaning of the amortization schedule on your credit card is how long it will take you to pay off the balance if you stop charging and pay at the proscribed payment level over the term described. Given the high interest rate on credit cards, you may end up paying twice as much for goods in the long run if you follow your lenders schedule. Amortizing loans are common for consumer loans, unless a borrower is seeking out the lowest possible monthly payment. Lenders recognize that people will eventually die, and want to be paid off before that happens. Balloon and interest only bonds and loans are more commonly issued by businesses and governments who are (hopefully) investing in capital improvements that will pay off in the long run. Thousands of people and businesses have gone bankrupt in this financial crisis because their interest only loans reached term, and no one was willing to lend them money anymore to replace their existing loan.


It's unclear what you're asking. When I originally read your question, it seemed that you had closed out one options position and opened another. When I read your question the second time, it seemed that you were writing a second option while the first was still open. In the second case, you have one covered and one naked position. The covered call will expire worthless, the naked call will expire in the money. How your broker will resolve that is a question best left for them, but my expectation is that they will assign the non-worthless calls. Whereas, if both options expired in the money, you would be assigned and you would have to come up with the additional shares (and again, that depends on how your broker works). In general, for both cases, your net is the premiums you received, plus the difference between strike price and the price that you paid for the stock, minus any cost to close out the position. So whether you make a profit is very much dependent on how much you received for your premiums. Scenario #1: close first call, write second: Scenario #2: write covered + naked, one expires worthless Scenario #3: write covered + naked, both expire in the money Disclaimer: the SEC does not consider me a financial/investment advisor, so this is not financial/investment advice


He passed the aca with only democrat votes. Republicans weren't going to vote for anything no matter what. So why did he make such a centrist plan trying to court republican votes when none of them voted for it anyway.


MoneyChimp is great for this. It only offers full year returns, but it compounds the results correctly, including dividends.  For mid year results, just adjust a bit based on the data you can find from Google or Yahoo to add some return (or loss) for the months.


"When structures recur at different scales, they're called ""fractals"", and there is something called the ""fractal markets hypothesis"" which attempts to analyse stock market movements as fractals and in terms of (related) chaos theory. Whether you can profit from it I have no idea.  If it was easy, everyone would be doing it.  Many of the non-academic pages linked in the search results (previous link) remind me of technical analysis/chartist stuff (which - to me - always seems to be a lot better at explaining things after the event than actually predicting things)."


i dont think hes as invested in the business as he wants to be. i think he wants someone else to help him with the work and overall load. He is also not very organized and i think he needs someone whom he can trust to manage alot of the menial paperwork.


Not sure how Technology Mgmt differs from IS but I would limit your options to be Finance, Accounting, TM/IS.   Technology is only going up and people are always going to have problems with it so no problems. Every larger company has an IT department that handles issues from looking for new technology or an IT Service Desk where you answer calls from someone having an issue with their computer. From what I hear from colleagues is experience is huge here. From an IT perspective I think this major would have the highest probability of landing a job.   Accounting and Finance is different. If you go down one of those paths, to be the most successful you'll have to take supplement courses to get either a CPA or CFA. Also working in the big accounting firms from what I've seen is super stressful based on when their clients close their books each quarter but is very rewarding. To move up in Accounting you'd want to get the CPA. If you don't have it, you'll plateau at some point and won't get any higher without it really.  I chose finance, but did not want to be a financial advisor. I did not like the idea of retaining clients by refers or cold calling. Essentially if you remember the scene on Wolf of Wall Street where Leo gets the little job and makes a huge sale off a cold call, that's what it is like when you first start out. You are pressured to sell insurance and stocks to your friends and family in hope that they refer you to their friends and family...it works for some people and it doesn't for others. Down this path you'd also possibly take the CFA tests and for sure series 6, 66, 7. Currently I'm not doing anything finance related but it is a great background for your personal finances and what not.  I would say you want to choose soon though so you can work on getting internships. Internships are huge as it will be a professional reference and if you do well in the position that company could hire you on once you graduate.  Hope this helped.  TLDR: Get an internship and experience the job.


Sometimes it's not entirely about take-home pay.  A pay raise can affect other things like: These things need to be considered since they also affect quality of life.


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"One reason is that you can trade in the IRA without incurring incremental taxes along the way.  This may be especially important if you intend to shift your portfolio allocation as you approach retirement.  For instance, gradually selling stocks and buying bonds can incur taxes if you do it in a taxable account (if you do it while you have other income and thus may face capital gains taxes).  Also, if you have mutual funds in a taxable account, they may distribute capital gains to you that you'll owe taxes on, but holding the funds in an IRA will shield you from that. There are also some other side benefits to IRAs because they are considered to ""not count"" for certain purposes when determining what you're worth.  For instance, if you go bankrupt, you could be forced to sell assets in taxable accounts to pay your creditors, whereas IRAs are protected in many cases.  Likewise, if you try to get financial aid to pay for college for your kids, money in an IRA won't be counted among your assets in determining your aid eligibility, potentially giving your kids access to more aid money. Finally, an especially prominent benefit is, paradoxically, the early withdrawal penalty.  For many people, part of the purpose of an IRA is to ""lock away"" their money and prevent themselves from accessing it until retirement.  Early withdrawal penalties provide a concrete consequence that psychologically deters them from raiding their retirement savings willy-nilly."


Especially on the bear side. Who wants to short Amazon or Netflix right now? Sure, they may be overvalued companies with disappointing earnings, propped up by non GAAP metrics like subscriber growth, but they have a cult-like following. And as the saying goes: The market can stay inefficient longer than you can stay solvent.


In general you must charge HST on and after July 1, 2010. However, in the case of delivered sales, you must charge HST if the transfer of goods will happen on or after July 1,2010. Example:  A person comes into my hypothetical store on June 29, 2010 and buys a couch.  They opt to have it delivered by my truck on July 2, 2010.  I should charge HST on this purchase, not GST/PST. References:


Now you can get a variety of musical instrument for sale by reaching out to an experienced music store. Such shops offer everything from guitars to resonators, dulcimers, ukuleles and mandolin for people who are into acoustic music.


"Note that these used to be a single ""common"" share that has ""split"" (actually a ""special dividend"" but effectively a split). If you owned one share of Google before the split, you had one share giving you X worth of equity in the company and 1 vote. After the split you have two shares giving you the same X worth of equity and 1 vote. In other words, zero change. Buy or sell either depending on how much you value the vote and how much you think others will pay (or not) for that vote in the future.  As Google issues new shares, it'll likely issue more of the new non-voting shares meaning dilution of equity but not dilution of voting power. For most of us, our few votes count for nothing so evaluate this as you will.  Google's founders believe they can do a better job running the company long-term when there are fewer pressures from outside holders who may have only short-term interests in mind. If you disagree, or if you are only interested in the short-term, you probably shouldn't be an owner of Google. As always, evaluate the facts for yourself, your situation, and your beliefs."


So long as you don't hate what you are doing, I'd say the price is somewhere in the neighborhood of $100-200 year of income to be worth the bookkeeping. I'd only say more than that if you have a ridiculously complex tax situation, you have an irrational hatred of filling out a few forms once a year, or if you just have such a stupidly large amount of money that even having a few hundred dollars a year to donate to people in desperate need just doesn't mean anything to you. Or if you are under special income limits and just a few dollars of income would put you in a bad situation (like a loss of medical benefits, etc). The reason is actually quite simple: the taxes aren't really that hard or time consuming. I've handled three self-employment businesses in my life, and unless you are trying to itemize every last dollar of business deductions and expenses, or you really want to scrape out every last cent from minor deductions that require considerable extra paperwork, it's a few extra forms on your taxes. Most of the extra taxes are as a percentage, so it reduces the benefits, but really not by much. You don't have to make it extra complicated if the extra complexity doesn't give you a big payoff in benefit. I would suggest you pick the simplest imaginable possible system for accounting for this, so that you might only spend an extra few hours per year on the books and taxes. Don't keep $10 sheet music receipts if you feel it's a burden to try to itemize expenses, etc. Instead, the decision should be if you (or in this case your wife) would enjoy doing it, and bringing in money can just be nice in it's own way. I'd suggest she keep some out for little extra niceties, earmark some for feel-good charitable giving, and then of course sock away the rest. Don't let extra income be an unnecessary burden that prevents you from getting it in the first place.


Great questions -- the fact that you're thinking about it is what's most important. I think a priority should be maximizing any employer match in your 401(k) because it's free money. Second would be paying off high interest debt because it's a big expense. Everything else is a matter of setting good financial habits so I think the order of importance will vary from person to person. (That's why I ordered the priorities the way I did: employer matching is the easiest way to get more income with no additional work, and paying down high-interest debt is the best way to lower your long-term expenses.) After that, continue to maximize your income and savings, and be frugal with your expenses. Avoid debt. Take a vacation once in a while, too!


The absolute best advice I ever received was this:  You will need three categories of savings in your life: 1) Retirement Savings  This is money you put away (in 401-Ks and IRAs) for the time in your life when you can no longer earn enough income to support yourself. You do not borrow against it nor do you withdraw from it in emergencies or to buy a house.  2) Catestrophic savings  This is money you put back in case of serious events. Events like: prolonged job loss, hospitalization, extended illness, loss of home, severe and significant loss of transportation, very large aplliance loss or damage. You do not take trips to the Bahamas or buy diamond rings with this money.  3) Urgent, relatively small,  need savings. This is the savings you can use from time to time. Use it for bills that arise unexpectedly, unforseen shortfalls in your budget, needed repairs such as car repairs and small appliance repairs, surprising fines, fees, and bills.  Put 10% of your income into each category of savings. 10% intro retirement savings, another, separate, 10% intro Catestrophic savings, and yet another 10% intro urgent, small need, savings.  So, as you can see, already 30% of your income is already spoken for. Divide up the remaining 70% intro fixed (I recommend 50% toward fixed expenses) and variable expenses. Fixed includes those things that you pay once every month such as housing, utilities, car payment, debt repayment, etc. Variable includes discretionary things like eating out, gifts, and  splurges.  Most importantly, partner with someone who is your opposite. If you are a saver at heart partner with a spender. If you are a spender partner with a saver.  There are three rules to live by regarding the budget: A) no one spends any money unless it is in the budget B) the budget only includes those things to which both the saver and the spender agree C) the budget can, and will, be modified as the pay period unfolds.  A budget is a plan not a means to beat the other person up. Plans change as new information arises. A budget must be flexible. The urgent use savings will help to make  the budget flexible.  Edit due to comments: @enderland Perhaps you do not have children living with you. I am a saver, my wife is a spender. When it came time to do the budget I would forget things like the birthdays of my children, school fees due next pay period, shopping for Christmas gifts, needed new clothes and shoes for the children, broken small appliances that needed to be fixed or replaced, special (non reoccurring) house maintenence (like steam cleaning the carpet), gifts to relatives and friends, exceptional assistance to relatives, etc.  As my wife was the spender she would remind me of these things. Perhaps  you do not have these events in your life. I am glad to have these events in my life as that means that I have people in my life that I care about.  What good is a fat savings account if I have no loved ones that benefit from it?


Require it to survive?  hat has that got to do with anything?  That is absolutely not the point at all.  It is a bridge to the next job.  People should not have to sell their homes and move on, especially in this environment, simply because they went without a job for several months more than they expected.  If you don't want to collect what is owed to you, then that is fine.  Do not assume that counts for others.  I know people who live in rich households who pay rent and do not eat at the table with others.  They show up in these statistics and could use the help even though it may not seem like it.  That isn't the point.  And it really isn't clear what the point is when the proposal appears to be causing people to mix their lives up in order to save the government a couple of million over the course of a year.  What is disingenuous is to set up an unemployment insurance system and then expect it to be conditional based on all kinds of criteria.  One thing you might not be keeping in mind is that the existing system has a error rate of around 20% varying a bit between states.  That means around 1 in 5 that are owed insurance payments and sign up never get anything, and around 1 in 5 that are owed nothing for whatever reason end up getting full payments anyway.  The more criteria you add to the mechanism the higher that error rate goes.  You are quibbling over details that the existing system lacks the capacity to handle.


There will ever be 21 million bitcoins. 1 whole bitcoin breaks down to 100 million units called satoshis. I highly recommend to look into it. It is not a scam, it is not a ponzi. It is revolutionary and the sooner you realise it, the earlier you will be retiring :D


Without knowing the WSC's objectives, priorities of those objectives and affordability we cannot determine which type of insurance is best. Life insurance for seniors is very expensive if you examine the per unit cost (e.g. cost per $1000 of death benefit). Therefore affordability is a critical deciding factor for WSC.  Let's assume that we know the WSC's affordability and therefore the monthly premium is a fixed determined number, then there is a inverse relationship between the length of coverage and the amount of coverage. We have to achieve a balance between these two factors to best meet the WSC's objective. If the proposed plan is not affordable then the WSC must leave out his/her objectives with lesser priorities out of the total coverage amount.


For implied volatility it is okey to use Black and scholes but what to do with the historical volatility which carry the effect of past prices as a predictor of future prices.And then precisely the conditional historical volatility.i suggest that you must go with the process like, for stock returns  1) first download stock prices into excel sheet 2) take the natural log of (P1/po) 3) calculate average of the sample  4) calculate square of (X-Xbar) 5) take square root of this and you will get the standard deviation of your required data.


"You may think it sucks to have learned a crap ton of category theory, which is seemingly useless outside of academia, but have you considered picking up a ""functional"" programming language, e.g. Haskell?  How about Java or, more recently, Scala? I would bet that you would love Haskell.  And then you can make a fortune working at Jane Street Capital, which uses OCaml, another functional programming language. Time to get your hands dirty with some programming experience.  Minimal social skills required, as you had wished for, plus maximal compensation, plus you get to keep using math that was sort of close to your research area. Good luck."


"And every one of those thousand person companies started with one guy.  And that one guy delegated to hundreds or thousands of other guys and is now sitting on the yacht that his ""cut"" made him.  Do you honestly think that businesses just because thousand person operations over night?  So yeah, that's exactly the point."


Risk.  That's it.  No guarantees on the fund performance, while the mortgage has a guaranteed return of -3%.  I'm doing this very thing.  Money is cheap, I think it's wise to take advantage of it, assuming your exercise proper risk management.


I don't want to deal with Walmart shoppers which is why I pay a premium to buy shit at Wholefoods.  If I have to deal with weird yoga ladies with hairy armpits *and* an entire obese family in scooters, I'm gonna end up going somewhere else.


"First, congratulations on choosing to invest in low cost passively managed plans. If you choose any one of these options and stick with it, you will already be well ahead of most individual investors. Almost all plans will allow you to re-balance between asset classes. With some companies, sales agents will encourage you to sell your overweighted assets and buy underweighted assets as this generates brokerage commissions for them, but when you only need to make minor adjustments, you can simply change the allocation of the new money going into your account until you are back to your target weights. Most plans will let you do this for free, and in general, you will only need to do this every few years at most. I don't see much reason for you to be in the Target funds. The main feature of these plans is that they gradually shift you to a more conservative asset allocation over time, and are designed to prevent people who are close to retirement from being too aggressive and risking a major loss just before retirement. It's very likely that at your age, most plans will have very similar recommendations for your allocation, with equities at 80% or more, and this is unlikely to change for the next few decades. The main benefits of betterment seems to be simplicity and ease of use, but there is one concern I would have for you with betterment. Precisely because it is so easy to tweak your allocation, I'm concerned that you might hurt your long-term results by reacting to short-term market conditions: I know I said I wanted a hands off account, but what if the stock market crashes and I want to allocate more to bonds??? One of the biggest reasons that stock returns are better than bond returns on average is that you are being paid to accept additional risk, and living with significant ups and downs is part of what it means to be in the stock market. If you are tempted to take money out of an asset class when it has been ""losing/feels dangerous"" and put more in when it is ""winning/feels safe"", my concerns is that you will end up buying high and selling low. I'd recommend taking a look at this article on the emotional cycle of investing. My point is simply that it's very likely that if you are moving money in and out of stocks based on volatility, you're much less likely to get the full market return over the long term, and might be better off putting more weight in asset classes with lower volatility. Either way, I'd recommend taking one or more risk tolerance assessments online and making sure you're committed to sticking with a long-term plan that doesn't involve more risk than you can really live with. I tend to lean toward Vanguard Life Strategy simply because Vanguard as a company has been around longer, but betterment does seem very accessible to a new investor. Best of luck with your decision!"


>Africa has great potential, but until it's stable, safe, and not so corrupt no westerners or corporations will risk it.  Shell(oil company) made their billions on dealing with african shitholes. As long as the rewards are great enough westerners will have no problem taking on the risk.


Why don't you just put your down payment on one of your credit cards? (Note: I'm not actually suggesting that you do this. Please read on.) There are a few reasons why you wouldn't (or couldn't) do this: The interest rates on the cards you have is very high.  You don't have enough of a credit limit on any one of your cards for the down payment.  These two reasons highlight the answer to your question.  Credit card companies charge very high interest rates. These high rates allow them to make money even when some of their customers default. They know that not everyone will pay them back, so they make sure to make a hefty profit on those who do.  Secondly, credit card limits are often much lower than the amounts of car and home loans. This limits the risk to the credit card company. Sure, you have $100,000 in total credit limit, but this is split among nine different companies.  When a bank offers a traditional loan for a large sum of money at relatively low interest, they need to be able to limit their risk somehow. They do this by ensuring that their customers actually have the ability to pay them back.


To add to what others have said, INSTALLMENT CREDIT is a stronger factor when building credit. An installment credit is essentially a loan with a fixed repay amount such as a student loan and a car loan. Banks (when it comes to buying your first home) want to see that you are financially able to repay a big debt (car loan). But be careful, if you cannot pay cash, you cannot afford it. My rule of thumb is that when I'm charging something to my CC, I MUST pay it off when it posts to my account. I just became debt free (paid off about 15k in CC and student loan debt in 18 months) and I love it.


"I often say ""don't let the tax tail wag the investing dog."" I need to change that phrase a bit to ""don't let the tax tail wag the mortgage dog."" Getting a tax deduction on a 4% mortgage basically results (assuming you already itemize) in an effective 3% rate mortgage. The best way to avoid tax is save pretax in a 401(k), IRA, or both.  You are 57, and been through a tough time. You're helping your daughter through college, which is an expense, and admirable kindness to her. But all this means you won't start saving $10K/yr until age 59. The last thing I'd do is buy a bigger home and take on a mortgage. Unless you told me the house you want has an in-law apartment that will bring in a high rent, or can be used to rent rooms and be a money maker, I'd not do this.  No matter how small the mortgage, your property tax bill will go up, and there would be a mortgage to pay. Even a tiny mortgage payment, $400, is nearly half that $10K potential annual savings plan.  Your income is now excellent. Can your wife do anything to get hers to a higher level? In your situation, I'd save every cent I can."


A lot of questions, but all it boils down to is: . Banks usually perform T+1 net settlements, also called Global Netting, as opposed to real-time gross settlements.  That means they promise the counterparty the money at some point in the future (within the next few business days, see delivery versus payment) and collect all transactions of that kind. For this example say, they will have a net outflow of 10M USD.  The next day they will purchase 10M USD on the FX market and hand it over to the global netter.  Note that this might be more than one transaction, especially because the sums are usually larger. Another Indian bank might have a 10M USD inflow, they too will use the FX market, selling 10M USD for INR, probably picking a different time to the first bank.  So the rates will most likely differ (apart from the obvious bid/ask difference). The dollar rate they charge you is an average of their rate achieved when buying the USD, plus some commission for their forex brokerage, plus probably some fee for the service (accessing the global netting system isn't free). The fees should be clearly (and separately) stated on your bank statement, and so should be the FX rate. Back to the second example: Obviously since it's a different bank handing over INRs or USDs (or if it was your own bank, they would have internally netted the incoming USDs with the outgoing USDs) the rate will be different, but it's still a once a day transaction.  From the INRs you get they will subtract the average FX achieved rate, the FX commissions and again the service fee for the global netting.  The fees alone mean that the USD/INR sell rate is different from the buy rate.


Yes, http://shares.telegraph.co.uk/stockscreener/ has what you're looking for.


The backlog is more like 650,000. 450,000 was for the first week after the reveal. It's been climbing since.   Source: Musk has disclosed the size of the reservation list and the number of cancellations (over 8,000!) on the record at quarterly earnings conference calls to guide analysts and inform investors. While I did not listen to those calls, I read articles from BGR.com covering those calls and reporting on how they are openly saying they are sold out for 2018 at this point.


You can't know. It's not like every stock has options traded on it, so until you either see the options listed or a company announcement that option will trade on a certain date, there's no way to be sure.


"A dividend is a cash disbursement from the company.  The value of the company goes down the same amount of the dividend, so it is analogous to having money in a savings account and taking a withdrawal every month.  Obviously you are going to have less in the end than if you just kept the money in the account. suppose that I own 10 different stocks, and don't reinvest dividends, but keep them on account, and each month or two, as I add more money to invest, either in one of my existing stocks, or perhaps something new, I add whichever dividend amount is currently available in cash to my new purchase, would this strategy provide the same results? Roughly, yes.  Reinvesting dividends is essentially buying more stock at the lower price, which is a net zero effect in total balance.  So if you invested in the same stocks, yes you'd be in the same place.  If you invested in different stocks, then you would have a performance difference depending on what you invested in. The risk is the temptation to take the cash dividend and not reinvest it, but take it in cash, thereby reducing your earning power. That is, is there some particular reason that the brokers are recommending automatically reinvesting dividends as opposed to reinvesting them manually, perhaps not always in the same item? I'd like to think that they're looking after your best interest (and they might be), but the cynical part of me thinks that they're either trying to keep your business by increasing your returns, or there's some UK regulation I'm not aware of that requires them to disclose the effect of reinvesting dividends.    £100 invested in the UK stock market since 1899 would have grown into just £177 after adjusting for inflation. This figure seems ludicrous to me.  I haven't actually measured what the historical returns on the ""UK market"" are, but that would mean an annualized return (adjusted for inflation) of just 0.5%.  Either UK stocks pay a ridiculous amount of dividends or there's something wrong with the math. EDIT I still have not found a definitive source for the real UK market return, but according to this inflation calculator, £100 in 1899 would equate to almost £12,000 today, for an average inflation rate of 4.14 percent, which would put the CAGR of the UK market at about 4.9%, which seems reasonable.  The CAGR with dividend reinvestment would then be about 9.1%, making dividend reinvestment a no-brainer in the UK market at least."


"It's not a scam. They just want you to be an Amazon customer for many years and you'll be advertising Amazon to anyone who sees your credit card. $50 is known as the cost of ""customer acquisition"" and it is a very good deal for someone who may become a Prime member and spend $1000s a year on Amazon."


Investing in commodities is iffy in the best of times. Potash already has expectations priced in, so I prefer to play CNI, the railroad doing most of the hauling.  Uranium? No. Uranium has been touted for a decade or more without results. Thorium is the preferable future nuclear fuel, and there is lots of it.


There are some high-yield savings accounts out there that might get you close to 1 percent. Shorter term CDs might also serve you well here- rates are above 1 percent, even with 1-2 year terms: http://www.nerdwallet.com/rates/cds/best-cd-rates/


No problem, i am unemployed right now but have been applying to a lot of firms. Im trying to do wholesaling and man o man all people want is experience. i worked at my uncles deli all throughout college to help pay for college and finally my last year i got a job as a teller at a bank. That isn't good enough for people to look at me and i have a lot of good connections.


"This is the best tl;dr I could make, [original](http://www.france24.com/en/20170603-billions-spent-settlers-israel-captured-west-bank) reduced by 81%. (I'm a bot) ***** > Successive Israeli governments have invested billions of dollars over the past 50 years on settlements in the occupied West Bank, making any withdrawal from the Palestinian territory a costly proposition.  > The total surface area of settlements construction in the West Bank has doubled in 18 years, according to the non-governmental organisation.  > Sher, a founder of Blue-White Future which advocates &quot;The Jewish and democratic future of Israel&quot;, was referring to the number of residents of isolated West Bank settlements which are considered the most likely to be evacuated under any two-state peace settlement with the Palestinians.   ***** [**Extended Summary**](http://np.reddit.com/r/autotldr/comments/6f1zbb/the_israeli_government_has_spent_billions_of/) | [FAQ](http://np.reddit.com/r/autotldr/comments/31b9fm/faq_autotldr_bot/ ""Version 1.65, ~135654 tl;drs so far."") | [Theory](http://np.reddit.com/r/autotldr/comments/31bfht/theory_autotldr_concept/) | [Feedback](http://np.reddit.com/message/compose?to=%23autotldr ""PM's and comments are monitored, constructive feedback is welcome."") | *Top* *keywords*: **settlement**^#1 **Israel**^#2 **settler**^#3 **billion**^#4 **Palestinian**^#5"


The bank is expected to issue you a check for the balance of your account, make sure your name and address on file is correct as that is who they will make the check to and send it. Have the credit union also contact Chase, or get a statement from the credit union, about their customer. If the check does bounce back to the credit union and the account was under his name, then you will have to deal with the state and his estate and you will have to find a different solution for the bills.


I don't really see it that way. Both kinds of companies are trying to maximize return on investment. Both play a vital role in the economy. And private equity companies like Bain that do a little of both blur the line even further.


As a parent of under 13 year old kids, I think it could possibly be a great idea.  As long as there are appropriate parental controls (the article mentions allowing parents to control who their kids can friend), it could be a great way to introduce kids to online interaction in a slow, safe way.   I think it'd be cool to allow kids to have a limited facebook accounts that lets them exchange messages, pictures, etc. with their grandparent, cousins, etc.


"The trade-off seems to be quite simple: ""How much are you going to get if you sell it"" against ""How much are you going to get if you rent it out"". Several people already hinted that the rental revenue may be optimistic, I don't have anything to add to this, but keep in mind that if someone pays 45k for your apartment, the net gains for you will likely be lower as well. Another consideration would be that the value of your apartment can change, if you expect it to rise steadily you may want to think twice before selling. Now, assuming you have calculated your numbers properly, and a near 0% opportunity cost: 45,000 right now 3,200 per year The given numbers imply a return on investment of 14 years, or 7.1%. Personal conclusion: I would be surprised if you can actually get a 3.2k expected net profit for an apartment that rents out at 6k per year, but if you are confident the reward seems to be quite nice."


Maybe if the employers gave their employees a living wage, health benefits, educational opportunities, retirement opportunities, etc. the employees wouldn't be so jaded about their jobs.  Their attitudes stem in large part from the fact that they make so little money for the work they do that is valuable to the company.


"PMI IS Mortgage insurance. It stands for ""Private Mortgage Insurance"". This guy is just trying to get you to buy it from him instead of whoever you have it with now.  Your lender would always be on the policy since it is an insurance policy they hold (and you pay for) that protects them from you defaulting on the loan. Don't think of it as insurance for you in case you can't pay. If that should happen, your credit would still be trashed, the bank just wouldn't be out the money. You don't really get any benefit at all from it. It is just the way a bank can mitigate the risk of giving out large loans. This is why people are keen to drop it as soon as possible.  The whole thing about keeping the house in your estate after you die makes me think he is trying to sell you a different type of insurance called Mortgage Life Insurance. PMI isn't typically about that type of situation. Your estate will go into probate to work out your debts if you die and my understanding is that PMI doesn't usually pay out in that situation.  If this is what he is selling, buying such a policy would be on top of your PMI insurance payment, not instead of it. Be forewarned, personal finance experts usually consider mortgage life insurance to be a ripoff. If you want to protect against the risk of your heirs losing the house because they can't make the payments, you are better off with Term Life Insurance.  However, don't worry that they will inherit your debt on the house unless they are on the loan. If they don't want the house, they won't be obliged to make payments on it (unless they want to keep it). It won't affect their credit if they just walk away and let the bank have the house after you die unless they are on the note. Here is an article (in two parts) with a pretty good treatment of the issue of choosing your own PMI policy: ""Give Buyers Freedom to Choose Mortgage Insurance"" Part 1 Part 2"


Shifting with all home's luggage/Goods is a very tough work. Its more tough when anybody shifts for long distance, because now a days person have a lot of goods for daily use. We, at Shivam Packers and movers in Rajkot offers best services for our customer. Here we have a well managed team for safe delivery of your goods from one place to another place. They are very expert in packing and moving services.


In spite of purchasing the digital marketing Dubai services, it is wise to opt for the website traffic tips available online at premium website. Unlike other service providers, Seo-daddy is a comprehensive source from where you can get the best and result oriented digital marketing Dubai. Users can explore our wide range of useful yet effective tips on website traffic. These tips will help you to improve the web traffic of your website, effectively. Additionally, these tips are also best for the beginners and advanced users. By using such easy and result oriented tips, one can easily increase website traffic without doing huge investment and be putting immense efforts.


A movie theater is just a money-making popcorn/candy/drinks stand that happens to be right next to a money-neutral room that people watch films in.  A bowling alley isn't much different.  Unless your ideas involve trivia night, karaoke, 80s music night, local brewery tap takeovers, guest chefs, or other things that drive bar/food traffic, it's going to be hard to increase profits enough to turn things around.


"Oh, I understand now -- we're having an absurd, meaningless conversation about an obscure theoretical point.  When you can tell me how you can determine a ""minimum cash"" level from a public company's filings, we can continue the discussion.  Otherwise, make a simplifying assumption and move on.  I misunderstood -- I thought we were actually trying to understand the difference between enterprise value and equity value / understand the implication of an enterprise value multiple."


"I would personally beware of the Motley Fool. Their success is based largely on their original investment strategy book. It had a lot of good advice in it, but it pushed a strategy called ""The Foolish Four"" which was an investing strategy. Since it was based on a buy-and-hold method with 18-month evaluation intervals, it was not a get-rich-quick scheme. However, its methods were validated through data mining and subsequently turned out to be not so good. At least they admit this: http://www.fool.com/ddow/2000/ddow001214.htm"


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SC TOP DINARIS SRL-D executa servicii de cadastru - intabulare si topografie, la preturi avantajoase, in Bucuresti, Ilfov, Buzau, Dambovita.  A. Cadastru - cadastru si intabulare pentru apartamente si terenuri intravilan si extravilan; parcelari, dezmembrari si/sau lotizari de terenuri intravilane si extravilane; comasari, alipiri de terenuri sau parcele B. Topografie - planuri topografice de situatie (format digital si analogic); ridicari topografice in scopul executarii de proiecte; trasari de constructii, cote si limite de proprietate In sprijinul Dvs. oferim consultanta in ceea ce priveste actele necesare pentru cadastru si intabulare cat si pentru realizarea documentatiei lucrarilor topografice. Experienta si echipamentele topografice moderne si performante va garanteaza calitatea lucrarilor. Lucrarile cadastrale sau de topografie sunt executate conform legislatiei in vigoare si respectand normele emise de Agentia ANCPI.


Qbank is superb for level 1 but for Levels 2 and 3 you really gotta do the hardest ones, aka the item sets.  I would suggest doing 3 full practice exams and recognizing where you need work with 1-2 weeks to spare before exam day


From what I can understand you will be paying money to buy a business with more problems than assets. If it's all about the reviews then register an LLC yourself and do some marketing work, it will cost much less. If this business had clients and constant recurring revenue then that would be a different story.


> Their trading Bitcoins doesn't validate its utility and guarantee its survival  Yeah definitely. Their trading of Bitcoin basically violates the blockchain system which backs and creates their value. The whole purpose was to create a pier-to-pier system which didn't need to involve banks.


Replace your own brake pads Disc brake pads are usually snap-in replacement parts. YouTube has tons of videos showing how to do it. Find one with a car similar to your own. And it cannot be over-emphasized... Keep up on the routine maintenance. You can look up the schedule on your car manufacturer's website.


My bank claims they cannot trace since the money never reached them. Your bank is right. They can't generally trace this. I asked the sender to initiate a trace with Natwest, but no results for 3 days now. Natwest should be able to trace and confirm it. This usually takes anywhere from 7 to 10 days.


As the funds are Gift received from your parents, and your tax residency is US, as per US gift tax, there is no tax due from you for these funds.


am I comparing apples and oranges? Yes - different purposes, different laws, different regulations.  One rationale could be that HSA benefits are immediate while retirement benefits are deferred, so the benefit of employer contributions are not felt until retirement and thus do not need as stringent a limit, but that's a complete guess.


No, in my opinion, a company exists to accomplish the goals of it's owner(s). If the owners want to be willing to give up some of the bottom line to help people in their community then that is fine.  If however the owners are primarily concerned with maximizing profit, then they should do whatever is necessary to maximize profit. In the case of a publicly traded company like Wal-Mart, I would assume that the shareholders are primarily concerned with the company profits and as such, management should take whatever steps necessary to maximize those profits.  Additionally, don't forget that for that American that lost his/her job,  a person from China gained a job. Are Chinese people less important than American people?


"Equity is the term to make things balance. In a simple transaction, you get $100 paid to you. Income goes up by $100 and the asset of whatever bank account or petty cash drawer you put it into also goes up by $100. Equity is unchanged. If for some reason you had to take some income into your books, but no asset increased, no debt decreased, and you had no way to take an offsetting expense into your books, then this would lower your equity. How else to explain having ""earned"" $100 but having nothing to show for it?"


The interest in your account is usually calculated based on the average monthly balance. What the bank will do is try to figure out how much money did you have on average over the month and give you interest on that amount. For example, if you had 10k on deposit and took it out half way through the month, you will still receive interest on about 5k, based on a monthly rate. What I would do is read in detail your agreement with the bank to figure out if your interest is based on an average annual balance and is paid at the end of the year or if it is based on a different measurement. Also, I would be very careful if this is a CD account, since they will have early withdrawal fees. Hope this helps.


Yes, you can be on a different plan from your dependents.   The only real benefit to having everyone on the sale plan is the Family Deductible and Family Out of Pocket Maximum; which are both generally two times the Individual amounts for the same plan.  When you have just two people on the plan, this combination doesn't do anything.  When you have three or more people on the same plan you can realize the benefit of combining everyone under one plan.  Once one person in the family meets their deductible, any combination of the other family members can meet the rest up to the Family deductible; same goes for the out of pocket max.


The S&P 500 is an index, you can't buy shares of an index, but you can find index funds to invest in. Each company in that fund that pays dividends will do so on their own schedule, and the fund you've invested in will either distribute dividends or accumulate them (re-invest), this is pre-defined, not something they'd decide quarter to quarter. If the fund distributes dividends, they will likely combine the dividends they receive and distribute to you quarterly.  The value you've referenced represents the total annual dividend across the index, dividend yield for S&P500 is currently ~1.9%, so if you invested $10,000 a year ago in a fund that matched the S&P 500, you'd have ~$190 in dividend yield.


"If you sold the stock for a profit, you will owe tax on that profit. Whether it is taxed as short-term or long-term capital gains depends on how long you held the stock before selling it. Presumably you're going to invest this money into mutual funds or something of that sort. Those may pay dividends which can be reinvested, and will grow in value (you hope) just as the individual stock shares would (you hope). Assuming the advice you've been given is at all reasonable, there's no need for buyer's remorse here; you're just changing your investing style to a different point on the risk-versus-return curve. (If you have to ask this question, I tend to agree that you should do more homework before playing with shares in individual companieS ... unless you're getting thess shares at employee discount, in which case you should still seriously consider selling them fairly quickly and reinvesting the money in a more structured manner. In a very real sense your job is itself an ""investment"" in your employer; if they ever get into trouble you don't want that to hit both your income and investments.)"


"You keep saying you want to do big things, you want to have an adventure, you want to be the mayor.    I think you are misguided if you think becoming an actuary is even close to the correct path.  I can tell you that this line of work does not itself lead to any of your goals (except making money). Nothing *prevents* an actuary from becoming a mayor, being respected in the community, or being known as ""doing something big"" but the JOB/line of work will not get you there.  All of those goals would have to be accomplished outside of normal work. Also keep in mind the studying and examinations will limit your time outside work to do those things.  Based on the description of what you want in life I think actuary work is about the worst idea unless you want to put off your ""real"" goals until you are in your 40's or 50's.  TL;DR - Actuary work is not ""glorious"" in everyone's eyes.  You will not be as respected (outside of work) as you think. Maybe reconsider."


"You have a good thing going. One of the luxuries of being invested in an index fund for the long term is that you don't have to sweat the inevitable short term dips in the market. Instead, look at the opportunity that presents itself on market dips: now your monthly investment is getting in at a lower price. ""Buy low, sell high."" ""Don't lose money."" These are common mantras for long term investment mentality. 5-8 years is plenty of time -- I'd call it ""medium-term"". As you get closer to your goals (~2-3 years out) you should start slowly moving money out of your index fund and start dollar cost averaging out into cash or short-term bonds (but that's another question). Keep putting money in, wait, and sell high. If it's not high, wait another year or two to buy the house. A lot of people do the opposite for their entire lives: buying high, panic selling on the dips, then buying again when it goes up. That's bad! I recommend a search on ""dollar cost averaging"", which is exactly what you are doing right now with your monthly investments."


If you're looking for some formula, I don't think one exists. People talk about this all the time and give conflicting advice. If there was a proven-accurate formula, they wouldn't be debating it. There are basically 3 reasons to do a home improvement project: (a) Correct a problem so that you prevent on-going damage to your home. For example, have a leaking roof patched or replaced, or exterminate termites. Such a job is worthwhile if the cost of fixing the problem is less than the cost of future damage. In the case of my termite and leaking roof examples, this is almost always worth doing. Lesser maintenance problems might be more debatable. Similarly, some improvements may reduce expenses. Like replacing an old furnace with a newer model may cut your heating bills. Here the question is: how long does it take to repay the investment, compared to other things you might invest your money in. Just to make up numbers: Suppose you find that a new furnace will save you $500 per year. If the new furnace costs $2000, then it will take 4 years to pay for itself. I'd consider that a good investment. If that same $2000 furnace will only cut your heating bills by $100 per year, then it will take 20 years to pay for itself. You'd probably be better off putting the $2000 into the stock market and using the gains to help pay your heating bill. (b) Increase the resale value of your home. If you are paying someone else to do the work, the harsh reality here is: Almost no job will increase the resale value by more than the cost of getting the job done. I've seen many articles over the years citing studies on this. I think most conclude that kitchen remodeling comes closet to paying for itself, and bathrooms come next. New windows are also up there. I don't have studies to prove this, but my guesses would be: Replacing something that is basically nice with a different style will rarely pay for itself. Like, replacing oak cabinets with cherry cabinets. Replacing something that is in terrible shape with something decent is more likely to pay back than replacing something decent with something beautiful. Like if you have an old iron bathtub that's rusting and falling apart, replacing it may pay off. If you have a 5-year-old bathtub that's in good shape but is not premium, top of the line, replacing it with a premium bathtub will probably do very little for resale value. If you can do a lot of the work yourself, the story changes. Many home improvement jobs don't require a lot of materials, but do require a lot of work. If you do the labor, you can often get the job done very cheaply, and it's likely that the increase in resale value will be more than what you spend. For example, most of my house has hardwood floors. Lots of people like pretty hardwood floors. I just restained the floors in two rooms. It cost me, I don't know, maybe $20 or $30 for stain and some brushes. I'm sure if I tried to sell the house tomorrow I'd get my twenty bucks back in higher sale value. Realtors often advise sellers to paint. Again, if you do it yourself, the cost of paint may be a hundred dollars, and it can increase the sale price of the house by thousands. Of course if you do the work yourself, you have to consider the value of your time. (c) To make your home more pleasant to live in. This is totally subjective. You have to make the decision on the same basis that you decide whether anything that is not essential to survival is worth buying. To some people, a bottle of fancy imported wine is worth thousands, even millions, of dollars. Others can't tell the difference between a $10,000 wine and a $15 wine.  The thing to ask yourself is, How important is this home improvement to me, compared to other things I could do with the money? Like, suppose you're considering spending $20,000 remodeling your kitchen. What else could you do with $20,000? You could buy a car, go on an elaborate vacation, eat out several times a week for years, retire a little earlier, etc. No one can tell you how much something is worth to you. Any given home improvement may involve a combination of these factors. Like say you're considering that $20,000 kitchen remodeling. Say you somehow find out that this will increase the resale value by $15,000. If the only reason you were considering it was to increase resale value, then it's not worth it -- you'd lose $5,000. But if you also want the nicer kitchen, then it is fair to say, Okay, it will cost me $20,000, but ultimately I'll get $15,000 of that back. So in the long run it will only cost me $5,000. Is having a nicer kitchen worth $5,000 to me? Note, by the way, that resale value only matters if and when you sell the house. If you expect to stay in this house for 20 years, any improvements done are VERY long-term investments. If you live in it until you die, the resale value may matter to your heirs.


"You're essentially asking the very common ""Do I Need to File a Tax Return?"" question.  It's common enough that the IRS answers it right at the beginning of the Form 1040 Instructions, and it's answered fairly thoroughly here: http://www.irs.gov/individuals/article/0,,id=96623,00.html There's about 20 questions in that checklist which are mostly pretty specialized, but assuming you didn't have taxes withheld that you'd like to get back, and didn't have any retirement income/disbursements this year, the only interesting question is this: ""Were you self-employed with earnings of more than $400.00?"" Sounds like your losses outweighed your profits, and assuming you had no other income, I'd say you're fine not filing. Can't really speak to state law since that can vary so much, but your state's laws are likely similar to federal, and you can probably find a very similar answer near the beginning of the instructions of your state's income tax form."