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

Most Popular

more tags
1500 questions
35
votes
13 answers

Should I spend 3/4 of my savings to buy a new car that costs about a year of my annual salary?

Since I still live with my parents I've been saving money for a while. All these savings amount to around 15 months of my current salary. Now I need a car. Cars are pretty expensive. I don't want to buy a used car and be stuck with mechanical…
Jason Krs
  • 459
  • 1
  • 4
  • 8
35
votes
6 answers

"One should save about 15% of their income for retirement." What assumptions are implicit in that statement?

I read a lot of websites that say, "I've run the numbers, and you should be saving around X% of your income for retirement in order to be safe, and have fruitful golden years." With X% being a number at or around 15%. Getting to their assumptions…
Glorified Plumber
  • 1,573
  • 2
  • 13
  • 21
35
votes
9 answers

How to sell a car to a private party on payments

I am selling an old car for US$2500. A stranger offered to buy it at my asking price, but the stranger wanted to know if I would accept (installment) payments. This sounds like a very bad idea, so I declined. But I got to thinking — how would…
bigchief
  • 452
  • 1
  • 4
  • 6
35
votes
5 answers

Why don't you need to pay taxes on cash back bonuses?

I have a Discover credit card that pays 1% cash back on and 5% on select categories. My question is: why isn't that cash back "bonus" taxed when stuff like canceled debt (1099-C), interest (1099-INT), etc, is? I mean, I'm glad that it isn't taxed…
neubert
  • 3,872
  • 7
  • 29
  • 48
35
votes
7 answers

Sent money, bought and mailed phones. Am I getting scammed?

I follow big give aways on Twitter because I am currently in college debt and need money. This guy direct messaged me asking me a few questions. One thing led to another and next thing you know he tells me that he wants to send me money to help me…
Jacob Biel
  • 391
  • 1
  • 3
  • 3
35
votes
7 answers

How scammy are cashback sites?

These days cashback sites (e.g. iGraal) are getting promoted pretty heavily, at least in France (many advertisements, YouTube sponsoring, etc...). The concept is that you buy stuff online and they give you money back on that purchase, which you can…
Pierre Cathé
  • 469
  • 1
  • 4
  • 7
35
votes
12 answers

"Don't invest now because the market is high"

I have heard many people in my life say things like The market is low so it's a good time to invest or The market is high so don't invest It makes me wonder if mean-reversion is actually a thing for long-term passive investing. This…
Oliver Angelil
  • 488
  • 1
  • 5
  • 7
35
votes
5 answers

What are the advantages of a Swiss bank account?

I've heard about bank accounts in Zurich / Switzerland, but I don't fully understand the unique advantages of swiss bank accounts. What I do believe about these (but don't know for sure): They accept money from anywhere without questions, including…
user145
  • 523
  • 2
  • 5
  • 7
35
votes
8 answers

Realistically, how much do you need to start investing?

I don't have a lump sum but may be able to set aside £2k-3k per month. I am already paying into a pension fund but that seems unlikely to go far. Yet I think it's a good safeguard. Can I start investing with £2000 or should I get a bigger pot…
algiogia
  • 822
  • 1
  • 8
  • 16
35
votes
8 answers

High income, sudden windfall

I currently earn quite a good salary (around $250,000 Australian dollars per year). Due to a recent investment coming good I am expecting to be receiving a windfall of around $1.2 million Australian dollars (after tax). My wife and I are both under…
Throwaway
  • 401
  • 1
  • 4
  • 5
35
votes
7 answers

How hard is it to sell a home which is currently mortgaged?

I'm looking to buy a house for the first time. I've done some homework, and from what I can tell... Buying a house via mortgage in Kentucky is somewhat cheaper than renting an apartment. I need to bring my credit score to at least 630 before…
Jerry Dodge
  • 481
  • 2
  • 5
  • 10
35
votes
3 answers

Should I pay myself back for paying family's rent out of our pool of money?

A few months ago, I paid the $1,500 rent on the house where my family and I lived. My siblings and I are in college and we work part time jobs to get by. My father could not afford to pay the rent because he lost most of his money in bad…
user77796
34
votes
11 answers

I hate the high taxes in NYC. Should I incorporate in or move to another state?

I'm in NYC currently and make a good living doing remote web development work and I get a 1099 at end of year. My taxes take about 35% of my paycheck. I was thinking about incorporating in another state or moving to reduce this amount. I've read…
Patoshi パトシ
  • 2,035
  • 3
  • 18
  • 28
34
votes
2 answers

How is the taxable value of a goat determined?

I was reading an answer over on Law.SE, and it made me wonder about how the IRS calculates tax on barter transactions. Lets say that I do a job in January, and get paid for my work with 20 goats and when I received the payment, goats were worth…
JPhi1618
  • 1,222
  • 1
  • 10
  • 14
34
votes
3 answers

What is it called when you sell and reinvest to pay lower taxes?

Every year or so, I sell my investments and then immediately buy them again. I do this because I'm in a low enough tax bracket that I don't have to pay capital gains on my long term investments, so I'm trying to capture as many gains as I can before…
BlackThorn
  • 2,286
  • 14
  • 20
1 2 3
…
99 100