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Pompous Rhombus posted:Honestly, if you have the option to pay your rent with a credit card (and not pay additional fees) and you have access to a half-decent one, stay on that. You can rack up airline miles or just get cashback. This first month cash flow means having to suck up a $40 fee to pay with the credit card. It's a 1.5% cashback on everything card. Came recommended by NerdWallet and one of the other finance threads.
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Aug 2, 2015 04:36
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BloodBag posted:I have an insurance question. I live in a townhome and have a homeowners insurance policy that seems like it's like a single family home policy where it covers the structure and so on, as opposed to a renter's policy that just covers poo poo from the walls-in. I get a special assessment every year from the HOA that is for the 'blanket insurance'. I was looking through the policy they sent and it looks like it covers the structure and walls-out stuff and I am thinking I'm double-insuring my house. My bank asked me what type of roof I have and the roof age as part of determining the policy cost when it renewed, leading me to believe that I have a policy that covers the building, when the HOA is already responsible for that. It might be named different where you live, but you should have an option for "condo" insurance which covers your content like renters insurance but also home improvements (which likely aren't covered by your HOA's policy) and liability. Check the deductible on your HOA's policy as well as sometimes that can be really high (like 5k) and you should be able to get your insurance to pay that if needed.
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Aug 2, 2015 07:02
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its no big deal posted:This first month cash flow means having to suck up a $40 fee to pay with the credit card. It's a 1.5% cashback on everything card. Came recommended by NerdWallet and one of the other finance threads. Then do it for one month and shift away from the credit card. My parents both work for a real estate / property management company and they're shocked at how much tenants will pay for a few minutes' convenience. I think their third-party-CC-processor charges 3%.
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Aug 2, 2015 07:07
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tuyop posted:Here in Alberta there's a lot of interest in providing grants to companies that educate at-risk youth as well, which is where my real interests lie. Though my partners have a compelling argument for For the rich kids they do need to be taught those things. It's better to be able to relate to people and their situation than to react with fear to try to protect their wealth. Revolution is never good for the wealthy. Some of my clients are rich kids grown up and they can relate to people well. Their projects have a lot of potential due to being creative and business minded.
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Aug 2, 2015 23:47
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Are there any calculators online that tell me how much money to contribute to an account to rebalance? I want an allocation of, say: Fund A: 30% Fund B: 30% Fund C: 40% Because of market fluctuations, it's currently at something like: Fund A: 22% Fund B: 36% Fund C: 52% I don't want to sell anything because that's how Questrade collects fees, and I have some cash to invest so I want to know how much to transfer then invest to balance all that poo poo out. I'm tired of going through this manually.
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Aug 4, 2015 19:30
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I tested this calculator and it seems to do a decent job. http://optimalrebalancing.tk/ 
Devian666 fucked around with this message at 03:01 on Aug 5, 2015 |
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Aug 5, 2015 02:58
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edit
Vorenus fucked around with this message at 19:58 on Aug 6, 2015 |
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Aug 6, 2015 19:12
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I just wanted to say that I enjoy that every time I look at my bookmarks this thread shames me for going out to eat. I'm at home eating leftovers right now because I glanced at the forums while deciding whether or not to get a burrito. Thanks for saving me $8 at least once a week, BFC 
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Aug 8, 2015 21:49
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Has BFC had a discussion about the cost/benefits of solar panels anywhere? Looked through a few pages of the forum and nothing jumped out. Just doing some initial research and curious if there's a bunch of posts I missed.
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Aug 10, 2015 19:10
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Basically don't. I mean, you can. But all the leases can make selling your home a terrible pain in the rear end, purchasing your own equipment runs the danger of it being obsolete and overpriced in 5 years, and the return on investment is like 15-20 years for most houses. And that's IF your power company plays ball with you selling energy back to them. So, not great with money, but it gets better yearly.
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Aug 10, 2015 19:18
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Some market comparison has shown that solar panels can increase home value but is likely heavily dependent on region
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Aug 10, 2015 19:27
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I remember this as a kid; I wonder how efficient these were 30 years ago. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SZaJnonlRfU skip to 21:00
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Aug 10, 2015 20:09
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Solar panels are decreasing in cost each year (manufacturing efficiencies as well as material science gains) with lots of R&D interest on many angles of the technology. I'd wait 5 years (or until the technology starts to plateau) before getting into it as an investment... depending on where you live. It can be incredibly viable if you have the right location. If you're just slapping panels on a house in Seattle, tho, maybe wait a bit longer.
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Aug 10, 2015 20:19
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It depends heavily on your personal financial situation, energy prices, your energy consumption, ability to trade natural gas use for electricity use, government incentives and the amount of sunshine your local region gets. My old man got an installation a couple of years ago, which made good sense, because:
Look into it, and maybe it'll make sense for you. I agree with DNK though, the tech is likely still in it's infancy, so in five or ten years it'll probably be a better deal. Cheaper panels, longer life, better output.
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Aug 11, 2015 08:34
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In terms of adding value to your home, it is very hit or miss at this point. Generally speaking, if you are trying to refinance or sell your home, in order for something to add value to your home, there have to be other homes with the same amenity. Most appraisers across the country have very few data points in their specific market to slap much of a value on the home for having panels. You don't tend to see an adjustment of more than 5 or 10 thousand (if you get one, which is not common in 2015). On top of that, should you choose to lease your solar panels, the most common backer of conventional loans will not fund your loan. Thus you are forcing yourself (on a refi) or the new purchaser to take on slightly less than the best loan terms available. Again, this is only talking about the value aspect of your home, which should change at some point in the future, it just isn't widespread enough yet to benefit the consumer in the majority of cases.
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Aug 11, 2015 14:11
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ohhhh my god I want to scream. Monday I get an email form boss asking if anyone can go to a conference last minute on Tuesday-Thursday a four hour drive away . I have other stuff scheduled so I just let it slide. She comes into my office about 11AM, asks what I have going on and when I tell her she straight up goes "cancel, go to thing". So I rescheduled everything, a visit from a local group in particular. Today I get a pissed off email from my supervisor because they showed up anyway but it wasn't in my calendar. It wasn't in my calendar for today because it was in my calendar for the rescheduled date. Middle aged women with no ability to fact check before reacting is a nightmare. Why is it normalized to hate your job to the point of physical illness? 54 40 or fuck fucked around with this message at 01:59 on Aug 13, 2015 |
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Aug 13, 2015 01:56
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Toriori posted:ohhhh my god I want to scream. Monday I get an email form boss asking if anyone can go to a conference last minute on Tuesday-Thursday a four hour drive away . I have other stuff scheduled so I just let it slide. She comes into my office about 11AM, asks what I have going on and when I tell her she straight up goes "cancel, go to thing". So I rescheduled everything, a visit from a local group in particular. I... I don't think that is normalized  I hope you are job hunting. I work in what's considered a "stressful" job/field and some of the stress and anxiety can't be helped and it's what I signed up for, but being treated with respect and having decent supervision should not be some sort of rare bird. You can tolerate short periods of gruffness/poor oversight, but if this is your every day, 40 hours a week, you need to find a new place to appreciate your skills.
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Aug 13, 2015 17:01
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I am job hunting. Well my rationale that it's normal to hate your job a la office Space is gone then. It is semi-regular, if you check my last fiasco which I posted in the thread, that's a glimpse as well. I was pretty upset by my boss' lack of consideration for how such a sudden trip affected my personal life, there was no asking if I was able and there was pretty well no saying no if I didn't want to be in hot water. The women I work with are very toxic. It's unfortunate because my partner and I are planning on starting a family in the near future and this place pays 95% of your salary for four months of maternity leave which is pretty sweet but at this point I am so stressed all the time that I'm willing to take a pretty sizable pay cut to be more comfortable and happy. I'm 25 years old, I don't want to hate my day to day this much.
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Aug 14, 2015 02:08
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There's hope, man! I hope my work experience can help nudge your baseline toward less oppressive standards. I work in an environment where I have tons of freedom and support to run my day how I see fit. Everyone I work with is constantly reflective and supportive and passionate about the vision of our organization, including about our relations with each other. We consciously and explicitly work toward having the most positive experiences with each other and our clients possible. We collaborate meaningfully to maximize our outcomes and often stay late without any consideration of pay or whatever in order to make sure something will work out. As a consequence, I don't feel like I'm working at work, or at home when I prep and if I died tomorrow I could rest easy feeling like I've lived the best life possible. I feel like I've found my tribe and I love many of my coworkers, including and in particular my boss, like family.
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Aug 14, 2015 05:19
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Wondering if either of these are normal: 1) A monthly all-hands meeting that takes place after regular hours 2) A company overnight trip for purpose of "teambuilding" on a weekend (no additional pay)
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Aug 14, 2015 10:31
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More than you'd think. The response to these things should in most cases be a hearty gently caress you, but regrettably, not everyone is in a situation to do that. Not paying money for the privilege to go to work is a very GWM principle.
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Aug 14, 2015 10:44
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I'd get it if the overnight trip was to a seminar or event... but it's just to hang out with the company (~40 people). I see enough of them every drat day. I took it as enormously disrespectful.
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Aug 14, 2015 10:54
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Management loves that poo poo though, they must hate their family or something.
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Aug 14, 2015 11:57
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After I left my old job, I was talking to my coworker about what they were doing over the MLK holiday weekend. Instead of a 3 day weekend, they were doing a team building trip and most were arriving Saturday night or Sunday morning. Instead of a much needed long weekend they were doing this bullshit together, with most having to travel in from out of state. I was never so sure I made the right choice to leave.
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Aug 14, 2015 11:59
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Nocheez posted:After I left my old job, I was talking to my coworker about what they were doing over the MLK holiday weekend. Instead of a 3 day weekend, they were doing a team building trip and most were arriving Saturday night or Sunday morning. Instead of a much needed long weekend they were doing this bullshit together, with most having to travel in from out of state. I was never so sure I made the right choice to leave. Yeah, my employer (a school board overseas) used to schedule our annual overnight office trip on one of a very limited number of three days weekends, even though they only needed two days. You couldn't easily get out of it because it was prepaid out of an "office social fund' deducted from your paycheck, and worse it was ostensibly in our [the foreign teachers'] honour, so it looked really bad to not go. I probably could have done better things with my three day weekends, but I had some close friends who worked with me and we usually got up to enough mischief after the school board people went to sleep to make it worthwhile. Pompous Rhombus fucked around with this message at 12:19 on Aug 14, 2015 |
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Aug 14, 2015 12:06
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NeuroticErotica posted:Wondering if either of these are normal: Not after work, but at my last job we would have monthly company-wide employee meetings where I'd have to arrive an hour early to work but not actually be able to start working until an hour after my normal start time. On the bright side they gave us breakfast and I never got chastised for clocking in for that extra early hour, and halfway through my time there I started just showing up for the breakfast and then going back to my desk during the meeting to get ahead on my work. For content, my phone and email have been blowing up with recruiter messages over the last week or so. I've been at my current job for about six weeks now and have sent several messages to people saying "I just started here and am not interested in you", guess it's time to go through the dozen or so job boards I subscribed to and figure out which one has my unemployed resume on it... C-Euro fucked around with this message at 20:38 on Aug 14, 2015 |
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Aug 14, 2015 20:35
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Last night I got my car loan to within 3K or so of being paid off!  Then I had a nightmare anout going back to my old city and visiting the bank that my car loan is from, only to discover that they had been trying to collect $2K from me, but didn't have my new address, so I still owed them an additional 2K.  I also bicycled to work today, and am not going to eat out for lunch. 
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Aug 20, 2015 13:14
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Head honcho sent an email on Saturday asking if anyone could go to a really cool opportunity out of town early September. I have an obligation that day but I reply all'ed saying if someone could cover for me I'd be happy to attend. Now the other two coworkers I'm trying to figure out if we can make it happen are dragging their feet and boss wants an answer by noon. Christ, the amount of times I've made accommodations for the changes of others and this response is staggering, I try not to ask for anything. Such tremendous disrespect. Probably won't wind up going and if I do I'm sure my supervisor will be pissed but she can get hosed because it's really stupid to pass this up (it's a forum with some very influential people in the provincial government at the Capitol of our province)The hunt continues!
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Aug 24, 2015 15:23
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http://www.huffingtonpost.co.uk/2015/08/24/black-monday-great-fall-of-china-response-hysterical_n_8031374.htmlquote:Advice on the looming crash, No.1: get hard cash in a safe place now; don't assume banks & cashpoints will be open, or bank cards will work. 
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Aug 24, 2015 18:49
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Lol, the sky is falling. Things will be fine, the market could use some correction. All will be fine. I am off to buy all the water now though.
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Aug 24, 2015 19:23
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quote:and what's coming is on 20 times that scale.
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Aug 24, 2015 20:33
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So should I reallocate my retirement accounts into shorting SPX?!
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Aug 25, 2015 00:15
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I don't think the author of that advice realises how much meth he is going to have to stash so he doesn't run out. The advice itself makes sense for a natural disaster. When it's a market correction it mostly involves jumping out of windows rather than trying to survive.
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Aug 25, 2015 00:20
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Are there any good threads about forming LLC's and the pro's/con's of one? I'm going into an Independent Contractor role, and need to figure out how to best protect myself both legally and tax wise. Being a Sole Proprietor seems like a good way to lose a significant amount to taxes. If not, can someone tell me who I should be talking to? Lawyer? Accountant? Financial Advisor? All of the above? I'm not rolling in money, but would like to figure out the best way to do this.
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Aug 25, 2015 14:25
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At the very least do it for identity theft prevention. You use YOUR SSN as your provided W-9 when you perform professional services to companies who give a poo poo about accounting. They have to report this information to the IRS to ensure they aren't laundering money.
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Aug 25, 2015 17:14
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lord1234 posted:Are there any good threads about forming LLC's and the pro's/con's of one? I'm going into an Independent Contractor role, and need to figure out how to best protect myself both legally and tax wise. Being a Sole Proprietor seems like a good way to lose a significant amount to taxes. If not, can someone tell me who I should be talking to? Lawyer? Accountant? Financial Advisor? All of the above? I'm not rolling in money, but would like to figure out the best way to do this.
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Aug 25, 2015 18:38
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lord1234 posted:Are there any good threads about forming LLC's and the pro's/con's of one? I'm going into an Independent Contractor role, and need to figure out how to best protect myself both legally and tax wise. Being a Sole Proprietor seems like a good way to lose a significant amount to taxes. If not, can someone tell me who I should be talking to? Lawyer? Accountant? Financial Advisor? All of the above? I'm not rolling in money, but would like to figure out the best way to do this. I would also like more information specifically on forming an LLC and the benefits/downsides of doing so. I'm working for a friend who's a real estate agent and I'm being paid as an Independent Contractor (1099) and he suggested I form an LLC as it would allow me to write off a lot of my expenses and such and would make both paying me, and my tax situation simpler. Is this really the case?
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Aug 26, 2015 18:58
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False.
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Aug 26, 2015 18:59
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So to expand a little, as far as I know you can write off your expenses as a 1099 contractor exactly the same whether you incorporate or not. I think people generally incorporate to provide a legal shield in front of their personal assets, so a lawsuit against the "company" won't be able to take all their savings as well. In your role, you should be able to write off things like the extra 1/2 of self employment tax you get to pay, mileage to and from job locations (keep a detailed log), stuff you pay for yourself for the job, a "home office" if you can justify it using the IRS guidelines. Edit: As far as making it "easier to pay you"... that is stupid and makes no sense.
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Aug 26, 2015 19:16
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It's doubtful that an LLC would provide much liability help for an RE agent. Employees of the LLC are still liable for torts they personally cause
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Aug 26, 2015 19:23
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