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

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1500 questions
165
votes
10 answers

My friend wants to put my name down for a house he's buying. What risks would I be taking?

My good friend, who I have known since we were kids, asked me for a favor today. He originally intended to get a house with his now ex-girlfriend so that he could invest in one and later on, sell it. The favor is the following: he wants to put my…
Selyuu
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162
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15 answers

For very high-net worth individuals, does it make sense to not have insurance?

Various types of insurance (health, car, life) protect you from relatively low probability but very expensive events in life (cancer, serious car accident, etc.) For the average person, it makes sense to have these kinds of insurance, because we…
minou
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148
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8 answers

Oversimplify it for me: the correct order of investing

I have been reading the top posts here, and the recommendations for what to invest in are often similar. What I'd like to know, in as simply of terms as possible, is what the consensus is on priority of these investments. I am new to this, but here…
user73263
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133
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13 answers

I'm 23 and was given $50k. What should I do?

Recently I was given 50k from my grandmother in her will. I am 23 years old and have no idea what to do with it. I make $33k a year. I have zero savings. I owe $35k in student loans over 6 years 0% APR I owe $5k in medical and credit cards. I have…
John Wall
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132
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13 answers

Why does gold have value?

I'm curious about why is there so much financial interest and news coverage about gold. It's hard to do things like buy food or pay the rent with gold, but I can do this with cash. Gold doesn't yield income like bonds. When I buy a corporate stock,…
Stefan Lasiewski
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130
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23 answers

Why buy insurance?

I don't understand why people buy insurance when they know the odds are not in their favor. Is staying uninsured and saving money not a better bet? I am not talking about house insurance. About things of which cost can be covered by one. Laptop,…
shravan
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129
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2 answers

Is it safe to give out one's bank account number?

I'm managing the utility of the house and I'm sharing with another person. He asks me to provide my bank account number, so that he can transfer his money to my account when paying the utility. I wonder if it is safe to give out my bank account…
Tim
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125
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19 answers

Should I buy my house in cash, or with a mortgage and invest the rest of my money?

I can afford to buy a house (to live in myself) in cash. Most of my investor friends tell me this would be a dumb idea, because I could earn more in interest by buying the house with a mortgage and investing the rest of my money. I get their…
painter48179
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122
votes
12 answers

Tenant claims they paid rent in cash and that it was stolen from a mailbox. What should I do?

I own a duplex, live in half, and rent out the other half to college students. I have just made a mistake that cost me $750. One of my tenants was late paying her rent. I'd thought it was still late, but she informed me that she put it (roughly $750…
Anonymous
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120
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7 answers

Why is stock dilution legal?

What I always heard, since I was a child, was that if you own a stock share, you actually own a small share of a company. That seems to be the general consensus of what a stock share is. Well, that said, let's assume I have 10 out of 100 shares of a…
lvella
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119
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14 answers

As a 16 year old, how can I keep my money safe from my mother?

I am 16 and still in HS and work 20+ hours a week. I live with my mother (my Dad left us when I was a kid and I don't see him anymore). My mother is an alcoholic and has trouble keeping a job. I don't want to give too many details here but in the…
Djune286
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117
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22 answers

My million-dollar brother wants to retire. Should he?

My brother is 37 years old and works in a very stable job earning $150,000 annually. He has his own house, a fianceé and a total of $950,000 in the bank (including stocks, real state and bonds). He also has a longtime desire to retire as soon as…
Chaotic
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114
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10 answers

Why should we expect stocks to go up in the long term?

I have read in many personal finance books that stocks are a great investment for the long term, because on average they go up 5-7% every year. This has been true for the last 100 years for the S&P500 index, but is there reason to believe this trend…
Bai Li
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114
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12 answers

In the stock market, why is the "open" price value never the same as previous day's "close"?

This is something that is mind-boggling to me, and it is particularly obvious in candlestick graphs: Why is the open value never the same as the previous day's close value? This is something I just don't get: on all the candlestick graphs, you can…
Stocknoob
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114
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10 answers

Someone wants me to use my credit card at a card-only gas/petrol pump in return for cash

I was at a petrol station in rural New Zealand at the weekend which only accepted payment via the automated card reader on the forecourt. After I had filled up, a young woman approached me and asked if I would use my card to pay for her petrol, and…
Rupert Morrish
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