Personal Finance and Money Stack Exchange
Personal Finance and Money Stack Exchange

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1500 questions
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4 answers

Why would a trading platform only allow withdrawal to the source of payment?

I have noted that a few online trading platforms have the following policy for withdrawal: they will send money using the same channel which the user deposit in the past. For example, if I deposit using PayPal, they will send me money using PayPal.…
kevin
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4 answers

What prevents stock prices from being artificially increased?

Let's say company FOO is trying to increase their $20 stock price. They agree to sell a share for $100. Of course, nobody buys. Now their buddy buys the share for $100. And maybe sells it back for the same price. Suddenly the stock price, which is…
user541686
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11 answers

Why do people buy insurance even if they have the means to overcome the loss?

Insurance companies are businesses and their goal is to make money. It follows that if you are neither lucky nor unlucky, you will end up in the long run losing money by stipulating an insurance. I think this is a very simple concept that cannot be…
Andreas Bonini
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6 answers

Buy home and leverage roommates, or split rent?

Currently, I live in a 3 bedroom apartment with 4 other people (5 total), and we are looking to switch apartments because we don't like the place anymore. I started looking around for new places, and found a handful that could work out. However, I…
Andrew Diamond
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IRS sent me a letter...I messed up by unwittingly taking money out of a Roth IRA and reporting it incorrectly

I recently received a letter from the IRS based on my taxes for 2015. I believe I did not understand the proper workings of a Roth IRA. I was under the impression I could pull my money out and only report any distribution increases on my taxes. …
JonH
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9 answers

Is it common in the US not to pay medical bills?

Context: As a foreigner in the US for a few months, I'm wondering how to react regarding medical bills. Indeed, I had to go to hospital and received medical bills. Surprisingly, some of my colleagues told me in substance: Don't worry about these…
ebosi
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8 answers

How can I achieve a 13% U.S. Federal tax rate?

MSNBC just had a segment explaining how Bernie Sanders paid 13% in federal taxes. This year my income changed significantly, and I'm making a little less salary than Sanders's ~$200k. However, unlike him, I found that all the deductions I…
Pippy Longstockings
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Cash in retirement accounts to buy a house?

My husband and I are looking to buy our first home. He is 39 and I am 37. We live in a major city and house prices are terrible. We are probably looking at a 500K-600K home. We were late bloomers, so to speak, so took a while to graduate and…
thumbtackthief
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Why is my student loan balance not going down?

This will be basic for you pros, please forgive me. I have been paying the minimum balance on my student loan all year, but the balance shown on the site has barely gone down. I assumed that this was because they make you pay the interest first,…
Ken - Enough about Monica
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How does Fidelity make money off me?

I have an IRA account with Fidelity which I use to buy a handful of Fidelity mutual funds. Since they are Fidelity mutual funds, Fidelity does not charge commission on them. So how then does Fidelity make money off a customer like me?
David says Reinstate Monica
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Is there an advantage to keeping a liquid emergency fund if one also has an untapped line of credit?

I've seen several financial advice websites and books that recommend keeping some amount of money (usually a function of your monthly expenses) in cash as an emergency fund. See for example questions here, here, and here My question centers around…
John Doucette
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10 answers

Car buyer wants to pay by actual cash - what are the motivations and risks?

My partner was is listing her car for sale (about $9-10K CAD). She got contacted by someone who wanted to pay with cash bills. He was somewhat reassuring about the obvious risks of walking around with a lot of money, but it still felt offputting: …
Italian Philosophers 4 Monica
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11 answers

Should we keep some of our emergency fund in cash at home?

We live in the US and have worked very hard to set aside 12 months of regular living expenses in an emergency fund. It is primarily to cover us in the event of an unexpected job loss, but it has also come in handy for other unpleasant surprises…
nuggethead
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4 answers

If a debt collection company refuses full payment is the debt still valid?

I was charged on a closed account for a service I never received. It is only a couple hundred dollars. I never paid it because it was not a valid debt. I am trying to fix my credit. I called up the collection company ready to pay. They demanded…
RobC
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What does it mean for Bill Gates to have an income of $0 dollars? What word would have been more appropriate than "income" is?

What does it mean for Bill Gates to have an income of $0? I recently engaged in a friendly Twitter debate about limiting personal income. Someone told me that Bill Gates has an income of $0. You realize that most of the super-risk [sic] founders…
Shaun Luttin
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