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

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1500 questions
113
votes
13 answers

Should I take out a loan to pay off a relative's credit card debt?

Recently a close relative revealed to me that she has run up $40,000 in credit card debt over the last few years, which she can no longer manage because the interest payments are eating up all of her disposable income, making it impossible to pay…
Jeremy
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111
votes
7 answers

Why is the stock market closed on the weekend?

It's all digital and done with computers these days, so why bother? Doesn't that just make the system less liquid, which is the opposite to one aim of having the stock market? Plus can't you just play the futures market after hours anyway?
Joe.E
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111
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20 answers

Are lottery tickets ever a wise investment provided the jackpot is large enough?

If the odds of winning a lottery jackpot are one in 292 million, and the jackpot prize is expected to be greater than than $1 billion, does this make a lottery ticket a wise investment? I know there is a risk that I'll lose my investment, and also a…
Chris Payne
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108
votes
13 answers

Does it make sense to insure something when you could financially bear its loss?

I'm wondering whether it makes sense to insure something if its loss would not be life-changing. I want to buy a boat to live on while I attend university. It would cost about 10,000 dollars and my financial situation is good enough so that I would…
Pertinax
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108
votes
13 answers

Isn't "I bought [blank] as a tax writeoff" complete nonsense?

There's a trope in movies where people do something to keep from being bumped into a higher tax bracket (For example, in The Big Lebowski: "I'll have to check with my accountant, but it might bump me up to another tax bracket"). The thing is, that…
Lord Farquaad
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106
votes
8 answers

Scamming an investor by offering a quick sale of a property at her named price

My mother-in-law was approached by an old friend who she hadn't heard from in a couple of years with a "business proposition" which is almost certainly a scam. I don't really understand how the scam works, though. Here's the story: My mother-in-law…
Kryten
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106
votes
5 answers

What does it mean for the price of oil to be negative?

The New York Times website currently has this graph, showing that the price of "West Texas Intermediate, May contract" is $-13.10. Does it literally mean that someone's offering $13.10 to take a barrel of oil off their hands, or is it a quirk of…
Mark
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103
votes
11 answers

Debt collector has wrong person and is contacting my employer

A debtor with my same first and last name and middle initial owes a student loan debt for a college in another state I never attended. The debt collectors have my previous address listed on the notice, and have contacted my work to attempt to…
Jamie
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102
votes
6 answers

Can someone explain the GME short squeeze situation to a non-stock trader?

GameStop Corp. (GME) stock is over $300 at the time of this post. I understand the 10,000 foot view of the story only: That some Reddit folks are buying up shares to squeeze a short seller. But I don't understand how this works. Why buy shares?…
Paul
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101
votes
5 answers

Is this person doing illegal money transfers?

This girl that I'm friends with and have actually seen in person before, keeps posting [on social media] that she "loves when the transfer goes through" and gets $2000-$6000 for free quite often. She said you can make up to $6500 a day. She is not…
Autumn Thompson
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101
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10 answers

How is Bitcoin useful as a currency if so few services accept it?

I've done research on bitcoin and I know what it is and how it works, kinda. I've even built a small block chain app. What I don't understand, and I haven't been able to find the answer to, is if I own some bitcoin, how does that help me buy…
King Wilder
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100
votes
14 answers

Should I finance a new home theater at 0% even though I have the cash for it?

My wife and I are considering buying a home theater - plasma TV & new stereo - on Black Friday this year. We do have the cash for it, but Best Buy is offering 0% financing for up to 3 years on its store credit card. We both have excellent credit…
gabeanderson
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98
votes
11 answers

Why does the introduction of chip & pin appear to be so controversial in the United States?

The past few weeks there have been many news articles about the introduction of chip & pin in the United States; most of these articles are against it and citing such 'issues' as: "Some people are experiencing a 20 second wait times with these …
AStopher
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97
votes
9 answers

Do people tend to spend less when using cash than credit cards?

I know this is a popular theory on this site and finance blogs/media in general, but I'd like to know if there is any reliable research on the subject. I can share personal experience that makes me think it's true, and there is plenty of anecdotal…
D Stanley
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97
votes
10 answers

Scam or Real: A woman from Facebook apparently needs my bank account to send money

A woman on Facebook recently contacted my dad. She asked him to get a bank account so she could send him money, and he would send money to her employees (about 12 people), and she would pay him for doing so each time. She said the last person who…
Ivana
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