Personal Finance & Money Stack Exchange
Personal Finance & Money Stack Exchange

Questions tagged [accounts]

A generic tag for questions on all manner of accounts. For specific questions use the "savings-account", "checking-account" or other specific tags. It is recommended that a specific country tag be used to indicate the geography of the question being asked

28 questions
30
votes
2 answers

"Savings" account vs. "current" account - what's the difference?

When I draw money from ATMs or open a new bank account, there's the choice of either "savings" or "current" account. What's the difference between these two account types?
Fitri
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15
votes
3 answers

How to account for human error?

Sometimes people make mistakes. The checkout process at stores often involves manual data entry which is error prone. For example, as a customer I could be charged $49.99 for a product priced $49.49. It's often not worth it to try to recover these…
Matheus Moreira
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11
votes
7 answers

How many credit cards is it reasonable to have?

Is there a right number of credit cards to hold? (Please don't say zero :) What would be the excessive number of credit cards, or how else would you judge enough is enough? If I have some cards I do not use just stuck in a drawer somewhere, is it a…
unknown
10
votes
2 answers

How are 401(k), 403(b), and 457(b) tax-advantaged retirement plans different? How are they alike?

How are 401(k), 403(b), and 457(b) tax-deferred retirement plans different? How are they alike?
user178
9
votes
4 answers

Should I keep most of my banking, credit, and investment accounts at the same bank?

I have two bank accounts (checking and saving), some credit cards (3), a mortgage, an investment account, and an individual retirement account. Right now all of those accounts except two of the credit cards are held at the same bank. I did that to…
unknown
8
votes
4 answers

Other than being able to borrow to invest, how is a margin trading account different from a cash account?

Other than being able to borrow against one's portfolio value to purchase additional investments, how is a typical brokerage margin trading account different from a typical cash trading account? Compared to a cash account, are there any additional…
Chris W. Rea
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5
votes
1 answer

Gnucash brokerage account with multiple stocks

GNUCash setup is driving me nuts. Most accounting software tools allow you to create a brokerage account that holds multiple securities. The account ledger can have transactions for all the different securities that are bought and sold. Is there…
Brian
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4
votes
1 answer

Money owed to credit cards called "positive balances" or "negative balances"?

Q1) If my Visa credit card has a zero balance and then I charge something on the Visa, do I now have a "positive balance" or a "negative balance"? Q2) Same question for a utility account like a power bill. What is my balance called when I owe…
CChriss
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4
votes
1 answer

What does it mean if my bank account has a credit?

I have been using one of my bank account on very occasional basis, so I never know how much money is in. Just checked my balance on the phone and it says £130 in credit. Does it mean I still have £130 or did I go into overdraft of £130? Very…
Jane
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4
votes
2 answers

How do I use a liability account (in ledger-cli)?

I don't think this is only applicable to the software, but it's the one that I'm using. In the documentation it talks about using charitable giving (e.g. tithing) as a Liability. An example for 10% tithing would look like this: = /^(?:Income)/ …
Wayne Werner
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3
votes
3 answers

Using multiple bank accounts

One thing I've always struggled with finance-wise is how to manage higher-level budget categories across a limited number of accounts. For instance, I currently maintain the following types of accounts: Checking account - bills and everyday…
jtlovetteiii
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3
votes
3 answers

Convention for adding ishares (ETFs) into personal accounts

I use GNUcash to manage my personal accounts. Please advise me on how I should enter ETFs, specifically ishares which are Blackrock's brand of ETF, into my personal accounts. The default set of accounts in GNUcash is investments:brokerage…
Sav-econ
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3
votes
1 answer

Is it possible to place money in an account where I can authorize people to view the balance?

I'm entering a software contest in which the winner will be awarded a sum of money. However, part of the qualifications for winning is that the winner can demonstrate the ability to be able to afford supporting their software independently for a…
mattgmg1990
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3
votes
1 answer

Margin calculation on short and long positions combined

Assume an investor goes long on X1 and simultaneously short on X2 both of which cost $1. With margin rate at 50% he is required to deposit 0.5 + 0.5 = $1 margin to make the transaction. My question how much he has to borrow for this transaction. The…
Ferydoun Taherkhani
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3
votes
1 answer

Can I open multiple Gnucash account tabs at once?

I have an investment parent account with more than a dozen subaccounts, one for each ticker symbol. When I go to reconcile a statement, I've been opening the subaccounts one at a time - i.e., I open ticker symbol ABC on the Accounts tab, and I'm…
Tony
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